Sony Corp.

Sony Drops eReader Price. Is It Enough?

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 16, 2010 | 11 comments

Hot on the heels of of the Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook, Sony has decided to drop the price of its eReaders to the following:

• Reader Pocket Edition is now $150 (from $170)

• Touch Edition Reader is now $170 (from $200)

• 3G Daily Edition Sony Reader is now $300 (from $350)

Of course, all 3 companies were comfortable with the prices they were offering prior to these last few weeks of price drops until Apple introduced the iPad. It does seem silly to buy a Kindle prior to these price drops for a little over $400 when the iPad is priced at $499 and can do everything the Kindle can do and more, and do them better. Of course, Sony has never positioned the eReader to compete with the iPad but I do wonder if these moves are enough. Currently, when I hear everyday people (and that’s really where the sales matter, not the techy online world) speak about readers, it’s either the Kindle or slowly the Nook. Not once do I hear people mention the eReader. A big part of this is of course presence. Amazon has a huge online store and the Kindle is always on page one, followed by the occasional TV commercial. Barnes and Noble of course was the young gun to challenge the Kindle so that made headlines and they of course have their bookstores to display the Nook.

This again leaves Sony in an awkward place. They were really the first to the eReader market and now seem the most dead in that market. The same thing happened to them with the MP3 market and the cellphone market. It also started to happen to the Playstation brand but Sony has been doing a fantastic job the last 1 1/2 years with bringing the brand back from 3rd place. The way I see it is that Sony needs to do two things. First, advertisement and partnerships. Content is key and Sony’s eReader has a great selection, but that’s pointless if nobody knows your product is out there. With that idea, Sony needs to be aggressive, drop the price of the basic eReader to the magical $99, talk it over with Wal-Mart and Target and make sure there is one at the end of their book or tech isle. This market is only going to heat up as Apple eats away into everybody else’s market share and somebody will get to that magical $99 price tag. Might as well be Sony and with that, they can start to take market shares while they come up with a better competitor to the Kindle and Nook.

Playstation Beats Everybody to Hulu

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 15, 2010 | 66 comments

The folks over at Sony have done it. The Playstation 3 tends to be the last one to the party with things like Netflix (and its still not built in, requires a disk) and a nice Store front (should have seen the PSN Store on launch). But Sony has finally one under its belt for firsts. Beating other platforms like the Xbox 360 which gets Hulu in 2011, Sony has launched Hulu Plus as of today.

Currently, Hulu Plus is only available to Playstation Plus members. Those who are members can log into the PSN Store and download the Hulu App (28mb). Once you’ve downloaded and installed the app, you can request to enter the trial period. If selected, you will be faced with the normal Hulu Plus membership of $9.99 a month and can have access to all of that content.

A few things to note on this. Currently, this is just for Playstation Plus members but once the feature fully rolls out and gets ironed out, all Playstation 3 users can download the app for free. With that, Hulu requires a $9.99 fee per month and not Sony. Also, some object that they can access Hulu from their computers for free. This is indeed true but consider a few things. First, chances are that your computer does not go up to a 60-inch, nor is it hooked up to surround sound as many PS3s are. Also, Hulu used to work on the Playstation 3, but the company blocked the PS3. So all platforms like the PS3, Xbox360, iPad and iPhone will have to be part of the Hulu Plus membership to have its service work.

[Via Playstation Blog]

Sony Adds 3D Firmware Update To NEX-3 and NEX-5

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 15, 2010 | 20 comments

I wont beat around the bush when I say that I think the NEX series from Sony is the greatest thing to happen to camera’s since they have gone digital. I’ve extensively used the Alpha 300 from Sony and fell in love with the quality of that unit (albeit, the first ones were kind of loud, something that has been addressed since). But the CyberShot is where it all began for me. I’ve had the CyberShot series since they first came out. I remembering shopping with my dad at Best Buy at the time and there were choices of 1, 2 and 3MP Cybershots. We of course decided to go with the 2MP because I didnt want the lower end of the series, but 3 just seemed like overkill. This was around 2000 or 2001. Since then, I’ve mainly stuck with the T series, T1, T3, T99, T500 and sorts, and have crossed to the W series a few times with the W330 and W230 to name a few. But ever since I used the Alpha 300 a good 3 years ago, I knew what I was missing out on. The great battle of DSRL verse Point and Shoot. Sure I want the quality of the DSRL, but I’m the person who takes my camera with me everywhere. Taking a DSRL is just not convenient and I don’t wanna be that guy. Having said that, there are times that I would love to take a DSRL and do a photo shoot (something that I have planned for the site).

With this, Sony has really answered my prayers with the NEX series. Giving me the ability to be compact when I need to be and go full out by attaching additional lenses, this makes the NEX the only camera body I might ever need. Well for those of use who are on board with the 3D ride, Sony is now updating the NEX series to support 3D Sweep Panorama pictures. Sony has stated that the 3D mode is “activated simply by pressing the shutter button and sweeping the camera from one side to the other. The NEX-5 and NEX-3 shoot a high-speed burst of frames that are automatically combined inside the camera to create a seamless panoramic still image containing depth information.”

Other things this firmware update addresses is

Improved 2D Sweep Panorama mode
Better battery usage when the camera is turned off
Faster startup when under low-light conditions.

If you’re ready for the update, go ahead and visit the Sony Cybershot site to download the needed update. If you’re not sure which firmware your camera currently has, hit up “menu,” then “setup,” then “version” on your camera now.

Editorial: Sony Offers A Good Customer Support Experience

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 14, 2010 | 17 comments

I have to say that I don’t overall have much experience with Sony and their customer support staff. The reason for this is that I’ve never had any of their equipment break down on me. First, this is truly due to the quality of products they make and I have tons and tons of their equipment and second is the user I am. I don’t abuse my equipment in any shape or form. The one time I did use their support was almost 7 years ago when I bought one of the first Vaio Centrino units. These were hot items back then, sporting a nice 15″ screen with wireless card and fantastic battery life (back then, being 3 hours). But I didn’t get past an hour and half with my unit. Quickly, I called Sony to see what the issue was and we tried some things and it was a no go. The following day, I had a new battery behind my door and I just had to put my battery in the box and send it back. Later on, I came to realize that I just had to change some settings, hah!

But all of this brings me to a newer tale. I had purchased a Cybershot W330 for my sister some time last year for either Christmas or her birthday. I myself had no clue when I had gotten her the unit and neither did she. She just enjoyed her Cybershot. Yesterday, I get a call from her that the lens has stopped working. The W series have a physical lens that extends in and out of the camera and if the gears in there stop working, there goes your camera. First, I was disappointed that the unit had picked up an issue with a year of its life but more so, her wedding is approaching in just a little over a month. The budgeting for a new camera isn’t really in and more so, she wants to capture every minute that she can so down time is also not good. I advised her to call Sony anyways and see what solution if any they had for her. The following was the Facebook post I woke up to today:

I LOVE sony. They are going to repair my camera free of charge, even though I’m not sure when I got it and I don’t have a receipt to prove it! Woohoo for amazing costumer service. =D ♥

Short story, Sony is just having her ship the unit to them and they will fix it for her and have it back to her ASAP. In a time where a lot of companies want to just weasel out of providing you that extra service due to the costs, this insures that not only will she be happy, but for somebody who isn’t into brand names when it comes to equipment, Sony will now always stand out for her and be part of her next purchase. The only bummer is that it will take around 2 weeks for all of this to happen. Luckily, we have 3 other Cybershots around here so we are sending one to her in the mean time (She lives in Michigan and I’m in California).

Sony Continues To Do Well At The Box Office, "Salt" Around The Corner

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 14, 2010 | 5 comments

Although Sony released “The Karate Kid” just a little over a month ago and “Grown Ups” a little over two weeks ago, the company’s presence remains strong at the box office. The comedy “Grown Ups” has so far bagged in $123 million worldwide on a $80 million budget. This is the 11th Adam Sandler movie in the past 12 years to reach this level, and no other actor has had that many live-action $100 million movies in that timeframe. This is all the better for Sony as 90% of Sandler’s roles are with Sony Pictures. “The Karate Kid” proves that as a family picture, it continues to have long legs. Working with only a $40 million budget, this reboot has so far snagged $209 million at the worldwide box office. Both of these are fantastic for Sony, during a time where some big box office hits are barely pulling their expense like “The Last Airbender” and “Knight and Day.”

Sony has also been steadily been marketing “Salt,” starring Angelina Jolie, for a July 23rd release. From the obvious trailers before movies, Sony has also kept a nice commercial presence of the movie on air, during prime time. Also, Sony has a nice movie tie in with Royal Purple Oil for cars, featuring a sexy Aston Martin and Salt.

Playstation's 3D Blu-ray firmware upgrade coming September

by Jenni Petot | Jul 12, 2010 | 6 comments

Sony Playstation’s 3D upgrade for gaming was launched worldwide in June. This September, 3D Blu-rays will now be allowed to play on all PS3s. I was surprised both Blu-ray and gaming 3D firmware upgrades weren’t launched simultaneously but it’s something to look forward to. Of course, consumers have to purchase a 3D capable HDTV and 3D glasses, but not a new blu-ray player. This makes 3D gaming and blu-ray viewing a tad less expensive.

“In September this year, we’re launching another Firmware upgrade–and this one is going to upgrade the PS3 to support Blu-ray movies in 3D,” said Mick Hocking, senior director of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, at a press event in London late last week. He also mentioned future upgrades to support 3D photos and 3D YouTube videos. [Via CNET]

Other non-PS3 Blu-ray players are priced at around $400. My birthday is in September, anyone please feel free to buy me a 3D TV! I’ve got the firmware upgrade covered.

New PS3 Consoles Released in Japan

by Jenni Petot | Jul 7, 2010 | 2 comments

Color options are always fun for consumers and now two new models of the PS3 Slim have been released in Japan. These two new models are white which is a big change since all previous PS3’s have only been available in black. In addition to the cosmetic change, these two new models are complete with a 160GB hard drive or 320GB hard drive. All PS3s have user changeable hard drives for a low cost, so don’t frown at the bigger hard drive space. If you are drooling over the white model, I’m sure you can find them on eBay. I bought a white PS3 controller on eBay that I was dying to have on that was only available in Japan. A good year later other colored controllers (white, blue and red) became available in the US. There’s no indication yet of when other countries can expect to see these new PS3 models but they will be released in Japan on July 29th.

New Slim CD Player From Sony

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 7, 2010 | 19 comments

Oh yea, its the 90’s all over again, baby! Sony’s new ZS-E70 is a CD-player and Radio combo that sports a dual 1.7W speaker, a “slim” body of just 7cm and over the air functionality such as radio. This unit also comes with modern buttons such as Stop, Play, Pause, Next and Previous. The killer feature? It also does random, aka Shuffle mode. I’m pretty sure this unit will never make it stateside so look for it in Japan and other Asian countries. I’m sorry, it’s slow news week.

Sony Finally Releases 3D Glasses

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 5, 2010 | 6 comments

As Sony continues to gear up its 3D arsenal with 3D movies and its 3D TVs and players, it’s finally taken the final step to bring all of these equipment in harmony by releasing the 3D glasses required to make all of this work. Currently, the Sony LX900 series television is the only one of the series that comes with a 3D glasses and chances are, you will want more for around the house. Priced at $150, these units currently come in black for adult and blue and pink for children (also $150).

Hit the jump for a look at the children’s 3D glasses.

[Via Sony]

Sony Announces New Spider-Man Actor

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 2, 2010 | 4 comments

Well, there you have it folks. Sony has announced that 26-year-old British actor Andrew Garfield will be playing Peter Parker in the new Spider-Man trilogy that “peter-parker-told-differently”/” target=”_self”>Marc Web will be directing in 3D. Andrews credits include Boy A, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and The Social Network, and I’ve yet to see any of these movies (of course, “The Social Network” is not out yet). But I’m a little stumped by this. First, he doesn’t come off as “Spider-Man” to me but until I actually see him, I will give him the benefit of the doubt. No reason to blast the poor guy before I have something to judge him off of. But what really surprises me is how old he is. Marc Web and Sony wanted to gear this new Spider-Man trilogy when Peter was in High School. Andrew Garfield age-wise is way too old for that. Especially if you consider the fact that he is signed on for 3 films. Granted older actors play younger roles all the time, so again I’ll hold judgement on that but It just dosent seem to fit the idea they were going for.

[Via ComingSoon]

Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Teardown

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 2, 2010 | 7 comments

Until Sony becomes nice enough to give us units to review by hitting our Contact Us button, we’re going to have to rely on other sites. To the rescue comes the guys over at iFixit who got their hands on a Xperia X10 Mini and decided to take it apart. The inside of the unit reveals no real surprises but shows a very clean and compact interior. I would assume that the Sony Ericsson Yendo will be very similar on the inside.

[Via iFixit]

Sony Uses Li-Ion Energy For Its Storage Module

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 1, 2010 | 2 comments

I ran across this story and read over it twice and wasn’t sure what the hell was going on. This wasn’t a side of the industry that I knew Sony even participated in. Since then, I’ve gone on to do a little bit of research and I’m still confused by it (mostly since the 6 other sites reporting on it all have the same exact copy-paste info). Basically though, this type of energy module is what feeds UPS units (battery backups) as well as servers so when the power dies down, they continue to run until the power is restored. This unit differs from what’s currently out there because most of the currently used devices run on lead-acid and nickel-cadmium batteries. This works well but there is no way of recharging these units and they are not as efficient and Li-Ion cells/batteries. Because of this, these new units will also be much more environmentally friendly.

Sony’s World Cup Rating: C+

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 30, 2010 | 30 comments

As we finish week 3 of the World Cup, I thought that this would be the opportune moment to look back and see how Sony has done during these matches in regards to its advertising. Although the World Cup is still something strange to many in the US, make no mistake that football soccer is the world largest sport by a huge margin with over 93 million live views and nearly 6 billion views in total. Of course, all of these stats might seem worthless to Sony until you think of the audience they have access to. This also marks a shifting point for Sony. The Playstation 3 has had a year of momentum going for it. Sony and the entertainment industry are on the verge of bringing 3D to homes and it’s now been about 4 years since Blu-ray launched. So how has Sony done during this time? Hit the jump to read our take on it.

First, we have to note that Sony is the official sponsor of the World Cup 2010. That means that most of the time, their ads are on the walls surrounding the soccer fields, as well as on top of the screen next to the score board. Look at the following pictures to get a better sense:

Sony Not Recalling 535,000 Vaios

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 30, 2010 | 4 comments

What started off as a wrong report from the Wallstreet Journal has a ton of tech sites reporting that Sony is recalling over 500,000 Vaio units from the F and C series. The problem reported is a temperature-control defect that at worst would cause the units to overheat and/or cause some distortion to the laptop itself. Of course, as usual with major news groups these days, they like to just report stuff without doing this weird thing called fact checking. As Sony has said on the record, they are not recalling these laptops. Instead, they have issued a recommended BIOS update that will address this issue.

Sony Ericsson Brings First Full Touch Screen Walkman Phone

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 30, 2010 | 2 comments

Sony Ericsson is introducing its first full touch screen Walkman phone, the Yendo. Now remember, their Walkman phone lineup is different than the other Sony Ericsson lineups, so don’t mistake this for Sony Ericsson’s first touch screen phone. Those familiar with the Xperia 10 mini will note that the Yendo works with a similar design, but is being aimed for a Q3 release date with no pricing yet. The touch screen is 2.6 inch with 262k colors and 320×240 resolution. Other specs include:

200MHz of processor
3.5 mm audio jack
Bluetooth
Micro USB support
Pre-loaded apps: Facebook, Orkut, and Twitter, FM radio and Java support
Bluetooth stereo (A2DP)
MP3/AAC music tones
Walkman Player and TrackID
2.0 Mpixel only with 4x digital zoom.

Look for this phone to come in black, blue, green, orange, pink, purple, red, silver, white and yellow. I believe this is for Asia and Europe only but I can’t be sure of it. Sony Ericsson barely has a presence in the United States anyway.

Hit the jump for an amazingly lengthy (and official) press release.