Sony Corp.

Sony to bring new Alpha DSRL on August 24th

For anybody who is looking to buy a new Alpha in the up coming week, I would recommend that you hold off on that purchase and for anybody who just bought one, I would check your return policy. As typical, Sony on August 24th will be unveiling its new Alpha lineup for the fall. As reported from the guys over at sonyalpharumors.com, the new DSRL will be getting 10fps shooting capabilites, as well as “transparent mirror (if you don’t want to have the little light loss when using the mirror).” During this event, Sony will also be updating or tweaking some of its Cybershots as well, most likely to add further 3D capabilities.

[Via SonyAlphaRumors]

Kevin Butlers E3 Speech, Dissected and Analyzed

Ok, not really. It’s slow news week and I’m sitting here importing videos on my PS3 so figured why not, post this video. For the record, the I have a 60″ Sony  in a 2! bedroom place. Yeesh.

Sony Adds More Functionality to Sony Dash via Update

In case you are still wondering about the Sony Dash and all that this device is capable of, I would recommend reading our initial review. For those who are already owners, Sony has released a new update that adds Shoutcast as a new internet radio option. For those who have a ton of apps, you can now add shortcuts on the screen and there is also a new and improved process for adding and deleting apps. To get all of this working for you, just unplug your Sony Dash and plug it back in. Once connected, the unit will notify you of the update.

[Via Engadget]

Can You Change Your PSN ID? Could Be Possible, Someday…

I’m sure there are many of you that would love to change or even tweak your current PSN ID name. I am one of them.  Right now I am Domino_237 (feel free to add me) and would love to just be Domino or lose the underscore. Anyway, this is a requested feature PS3 users have wanted for a while. Last week it was reported/rumored that hackers found this feature “hidden inside the Playstation Plus”. Although Sony has never announced this, Jeff Rubenstein, Social Media Manager for the US Playstation Blog said:

 It’s an idea that’s been brought up multiple times, and it’s something I’d like to see as well. I dont’ think there are any current plans to enact this, however, I’ll bring it up again. 

So we can only hope something will be implemented by Sony from our requests and desires. Even if this feature is just for Playstation Plus users, it’ll be great. For now, people who REALLY need their ID changed will have to start a new account, start from scratch regardless of how high their ranking is on Modern Warfare is, how many friends they have or how many trophies they’ve earned. I personally don’t see too many people willing to do that.

Crackle Giving Away Sony Products With the Click of a Button

If you haven’t heard or been to Crackle.com I suggest you check it out. It’s a site similar to Hulu where you can stream Sony movies, television shows and some original content. I think it’s great and it’s one of the first and only websites to stream free full-length movies (and legally!). Although their library of movies isn’t in the thousands, they are adding new titles weekly. You might not find A-list blockbuster movies like Casino Royale on Crackle.com but there’s still good movies to watch on here for free. Movie trailers and news are some other features that Crackle offers as well. Some of their most popular instant watch movies are: Snatch, Jerry Maguire, Godzilla, Starship Troopers, Sniper, Lords of Dogtown and The Cable Guy.

Crackle is now having a sweet promotion where they are giving out one Sony product per month to a lucky fan. “Fan” meaning: you have to be a fan of theirs on Facebook. That’s all it takes. So click on the link below and become a fan of Crackle for a chance to win great stuff. This month they are giving away a PS3, next month, a Sony Vaio. Good luck!

Crackle Giveaway.

Sony/BMG and American Idol Break Ties

For the past decade now, Sony/BMG (Sonys music division) had been the exclusive record company behind the hit show American Idol. Now like Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell and Ellen, Sony BMG and American Idol will be parting ways. For the past decade, Sony BMG was the record company behind all the season winners and finalists, putting out albums by the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Chris Daughtry. Of course, the show was not just about the winners as Sony BMG also handled the released music on iTunes, as well as the tour music provided by the contestants; once the season was over and they would head out for a nationwide tour.

 “With ‘Idol’ celebrating our 10th season I wanted to inject some new power and weight behind our brand,” “Idol” creator Simon Fuller told the Los Angeles Times. “We have been quietly delivering hits relentlessly for nine seasons and Lucian Grainge and Jimmy Iovine’s ambition, commitment and determination to push the boundaries and go even further with ‘Idol’ was very compelling.” 

With the new season of American Idol on the horizon, the show will now be dealing with Universal Music Group to help distribute the winner and finalist albums. The deal is expected to last for 3 seasons. Of course, if this does not work, American Idol has to either self publish or go back to Sony as the two are the only real music publishers left in town.

Sony Thinks Beyond Twitter and Facebook, Enters Lifelogging!

A camera is attached outside the glasses. The blue light indicates that the camera is shooting something.

It first really started as away messages on our IM client. You couldn’t easily take your curser, run it down your buddy list and see exactly what they were up to. But that of course was not enough, what if we were out, what if we wanted to communicate more and so Facebook was born. Everybody could see how you feel about the man in the corner and they could even comment on your duck-faced kiss photo. But why would that be enough? So Twitter was born and we all know about that. By the way, please “like” our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter. For some people, these methods are enough, but for others, they wish for you to know everything about their life.

Enter Lifeloggers. Via Wikipedia, Lifeloggers (also known as lifebloggers or lifegloggers) typically wear computers in order to capture their entire lives, or large portions of their lives. Sony Computer Science Laboratories (Sony CSL) Inc. and the University of Tokyo have created a camera that is small enough to attach to your glasses and record what you see. The key here of course isnt the small camera, because we all have them on our cellphones. Instead, what makes this unique is the camera’s ability to measures human eye movement and record that information.

 An infrared light is directed to the eyeball, and the photoreceivers detect the light reflected on the eyeball to locate the position of the black part of the eyeball so that the movement of the eye can be measured. By associating the eye movement with the image from the camera, the user’s objects of interest are determined. 

Next, Sony has been able to allow the camera to recognize English characters and collect and record data based on that. This information, in conjunction with the future update of GPS tagging will allow the unit to determine exactly where you are and what information you are looking at. So as an example, if I was wearing such an equipment tonight, my glasses would read Lady Gaga concert and my GPS would show the Staples Center. Putting the two information together would then have the system report that I was at a Lady Gaga concert at the Staples Center. And yes, I will actually be there tonight.

The device to track the movement of human eyes is attached to the glasses and connected to a notebook PC. An image taken by the camera embedded in the device is being shown on the PC screen. The white box on the screen indicates the part that is being gazed at by the user.

Of course, all of this is fun and silly talk, but one can only imagine what this technology can achieve once it is fully functional and much more robust. The military can get full data from the soldiers while they are on the battlefield. This can be very valuable as a soldier might not remember all the information or be able to take it all in. Instead with this equipped to them, the information would be sent back to command, while they analyze all the information and make the appropriate changes to the battlefield plan. Another measure can be for patients and having your information reported to your hospital with the appropriate alert and location being sent back to them in case something were to happen to you.

The device has a function to recognize English characters being read by the user. In this picture, it recognized the characters "Eye Tracking Methodology."

[Via Tech-On]

Sony brings Xperia X10 to AT&T, something Smarter is Sony

Sony over the weekend teased us that something smarter is coming. Our guess was the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 and that’s exactly what Sony is introducing to the United States. Details on the phone are a little slim in the sense that we know the entire hardware, but we don’t know which version of Android it will be shipping with and there is no mention of the specifics on Sony’s own site, other than OS Android. You might wonder why I mentioned in the title that the something smarter is Sony. The reason is simple, the phone is priced at $129 with a two year AT&T contract. That is a fantastic price for the phone, but more importantly, Sony knows that the $199 price range is currently way crowded by brands everybody knows. Palm tried the $199 with the Palm Pre and they got destroyed because of the iPhone and others. The same is true for Sony; at $199, there is a huge selection for customers. So instead of just being another $199 phone, they are aiming to offer a great phone for a lower price to set themselves apart. Also, currently on AT&T, there are not many Android-based phones so for those looking for something other than an iPhone or Blackberry, this puts Sony at a nice position. Well played Sony. More details on this as Sony makes them available.

Anatomy of a Playstation 3 Controller? Err?

You may or may not have seen this image of the Playstation 3 controller floating around the web. It’s called the anatomy of a Playstation 3 controller, but to be honest, I don’t get it. I mean, it looks cool, but err? It would have been a tad cooler if we saw the actual rumble gear and the gyro scopes, instead of a tongue and teeth.

Something smarter coming from Sony

So I’ve been digging through Sony’s site lately for a new TV and surround sound option to get for my sister’s upcoming wedding. Currently, I’m considering the Sony EX700 in the 52″ for their TV and the Sony E570 for their surround sound. But as I jumped on the Sony site today to take a look at the inputs of the E570, I was instead greeted to the above image. What could this mystery product be? The Playstation 4? *gasp* If I was a wagering man, I put my money on the Xperia X10 that we have been reporting about. Seems to fit the talked about time table as well.

40 New Eco-Friendly Silicon TV Tuner from Sony

Sony is launching 40 new silicon TV Tuners. Holy shit, right? Who knew that there were that many different kinds of them and also that Sony made them. I mean, yes, I know they have them on their telvisions but you dont think of Sony and automatically think, TV tuner! Sony is achieving two goals with these new tuners. First, they will be 40% more efficient than the current TV tuners and they will also be 40% smaller (aka, will be cheaper to produce). These TV tuners will come as parts of three new series: SUT-Rx200 Series (silicon tuner), the SUT-Dx200 Series (silicon tuner with demodulator), and the SUT-Rx300 Series (slim silicon tuner).

Want to know more? Well I’m glad you do because we have one hell of a press release for you after the jump.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Coming to AT&T Soon?

As always when it comes to Sony Ericsson, there is good news mixed with bad news. The good news is that not only has Sony Ericsson been doing much better than years before, but that they may finally get a decent presence in the United States. If everything goes according to plan, in late August/early September, Sony and AT&T will be partnering to bring to the States the much raved Xperia X10. As Engadget reports: “It’ll cost independent dealers $345 per unit (retail pricing is anyone’s guess)” so there is no real price point out there. The other negative they seem to point out is that the Xperia X10 would be shipping with Android 1.6 which is just pure garbage compared to the now 2.2 Froyo.

I’m personally not sure if this is true or not, mostly because Sony has stated that it’s planning on bringing the newer Android build by Q4 at the exact time when the Xperia X10 would be launching in the States. But if we take the negative news for fact, this can be devastating for Sony from the reviewers’ stand point and Sony can’t use the bad press for their launch because of the fact that they don’t have any real following or fan base here in the phone market. The biggest reason is that Sony won’t simply be competing with the undisputed king, the iPhone, but it has to take on the everyday growing portfolio of Android phones and there are plenty of good phones for the consumer to pick through. With HTC and Motorola (and soon LG) beating each other over the head, the much anticipated Blackberry Torch with the new Blackberry software has basically been shrugged off by every review site and Blackberry is a brand with loyal users. Sony in the States would be starting off from scratch so a lackluster software offering would never make up for the phone, no matter how good the hardware and quality is that the device itself holds. So to Sony, please make sure that your software is up to snuff or hold off the release. Seriously.

Monster House 3D Blu-ray Announced

If you recently have purchased a 3D TV, you know that outside of the World Cup 2010, content has been scarce. Well Sony is looking to change that up with on September 14th with a 3D Blu-ray release of Monster House. Best of all (a fantastic decision on Sonys end), this edition holds both the 2D and 3D version of the film in full 1080p glory.

Special features include:

  • Filmmakers’ Commentary
  • Featurettes:
    • Imaginary Heroes
    • Beginner’s Luck
    • The Best of Friends
    • Lots of Dots
    • Black Box Theater
    • Making it Real
    • Did You Hear That
    • Evolution of a Scene: Eliza vs. Nebbercracker
  • Photo Gallery
  • 3D Sneak peeks:
    • Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
    • Open Season

[Via Blu-ray.com]

Sony Stole Playstation 3 Design From Japan!

lol. This has been posted I’m sure plenty of other places but this building in Japan does sure look familiar huh? (btw, I really don’t believe Sony actually stole the PS3 design).

Sony Profits Boost High Last Quarter

Sony profits are rising and came to $294 million net profit for the April-June quarter. Revenue for Sony grew 3.8%. This was mostly because of rising TV and Playstation sales internationally. In this last quarter alone, Sony sold 5.1 million LCD TVs which is 59% higher than last  year’s numbers.  PS3 sales more than doubled (yay) and sold 2.4 million units. Along with these rising sales, music sales also rose with music from the hit show “Glee” and “Iron Man 2” soundtrack.  At Sony’s briefing for analysis, Sony’s new Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato said:

 “We do have good products and good momentum, and we want to build on this so that our business keeps improving.” 

I’m glad to see a stronger demand for the PS3 because it really “does everything” and is a must own for optimal gaming and blu-ray viewing. With Sony releasing new products like their 3D TVs, Playstation Plus and pairing up with Google Inc. and Logitech International to offer internet on their TVs I think (and hope) sales continue to rise for Sony.