For those who havent seen the new Sony Taylor Swift ad, here it is. I can’t say I’ve seen it on TV yet so here is a little free press. Here is our original article on it.
Sony Corp.
Bad Boys 1 was a big hit for Sony, Michael Bay and Will Smith in 1995. It took 8 years for the follow up, but the 3 were back in 2003 for Bad Boys 2. Now, we’re nearing 8 years again and talks of Bad Boys 3 are beginning to surface. For a while it’s been public knowledge that Sony hired Peter Craig to write the 3rd script. Michael Bay himself has also been pushing for the movie, though he insists that both his and Will’s price tags are a tad high. This is because Will Smith is ensured $20 million each film he does after having box office earnings of $2,520,925,686 (and thats only US gross!). Michael Bay himself was already a big director with Bad Boys, but next he turned out Transformers and that made $709,709,780. He followed up with Transformers 2 which topped that with $836,297,228. This means that Bad Boys 3 will cost a lot of money to make.
But the hope is there, fellow Bad Boys fan. During an interview for Death at a Funeral, Martin Lawrence said that “It’s real realistic,” He went on to say:
Any time you can get Big Willie to come out and talk about doing a third installment of a hot movie like ‘Bad Boys,’ you have to take notice. I met with Michael Bay, and he said he’s onboard too — so it’s real…We’re just waiting on Jerry Bruckheimer to let us know when it’s really real.
As I mentioned in a previous post, Sony needs some more hits at the box office, and Will Smith can do it for Sony again. Now, lets hope they dont mess up Spider-man. I personally love Spider-man and the first three movies. If Sony ruins the new series, I’ll be one pissed Sony and Spidy fan. By the way, dont expect this to be in 3D. Michael Bay doesn’t believe 3D cameras can keep up with the pace of his style of shooting.
Industrial design student Ryan David Francis has created this Sony DSLR concept that is based around the idea of people who really prefer to use the view finder as oppose to the LCD. As you can see, the back curvature of the camera is designed to align with your face for a more comfortable sitting. I love it.
Hit the jump for more shots.
A lot of sites, including our own, have posted about how Sony has finally decided to kill off its floppy disk production. Of course, the more bizarre part of this story for many was that there was still a demand of 12 million units a year when the biggest file a floppy can hold is the 1.44mb standard. After a little research, I have found the reason. Many corporations, especially smaller and more international, still deploy Windows NT and XP (which is still greatly used in the states as well). For the IT departments, floppies are sometimes their best friend because when a computer goes down, older motherboards during the initial boot up will not access the USB drives to see if there anything to boot from. So if you have a corrupt bio and you need to boot up, forget Flash drives. That’s where the floppy comes in. They are still big enough to hold the bios so the computer can be booted from, and then work can begin on it. So there you have it folks. Mystery solved.
Hit the jump for an awesome picture of the Sony Floppy!
Today marks the day Sony has decided to stop producing their 3.5″ floppy disk. To all of you asking “People still use those?” the answer is yes, especially in Japan. Sony reports that they sold 12 million, (yes, million) floppy disks in Japan in 2009. They are still commonly used in Japan and India with Sony holding 70% of the market share. The decision to retire the floppy disk is the result of declining sales from 47 million in 2002 to 12 million last year.
Other storage media like USB drives, DVDs and Blu-ray discs offer more storage capacity than floppy disks that hold less than 2 MB of memory. Don’t worry to all you beloved fans of this storage disk, you’ll be able to buy them until March 2011.
I bid farewell to the floppy disk; you had a great 29-year run and were there for me many times as a kid.
Starting Monday (today), Sony is going to kick off a new year long ad campaign that includes many of its portfolio stars, starting off with Taylor Swift, showing off the Cyber-shot DSC-TX7. This will be a series of star-studded spots that Sony ( SNE – news – people ) plans to roll out this year, as a part of a $100-million-plus TV, print and digital ad campaign. Each ad will feature a Sony-affiliated celebrity to pitch its electronic products, such as its 3-D television and its e-reader. The idea of this new campaign is that instead of focusing in on the many products that Sony makes, it will aim for a particular market and let them know of the product. For example, in 2008 Sony spent nearly $5 billion on their global ad campaigns that ranged from laptops to DVD players.
First, I have to say that I’m floored by this. I’m wondering if of that $5 billion, $4.9 billion was spent outside of the states. Ask any Playstation owner and they will tell you that Sony has had no air presence whatsoever; Microsoft has dominated the airwaves with its Xbox ads. No matter what show or channel you watch, when they produced a big game (i.e. Halo or Gears of War), they had endless commercials running. Most of all, the sheer number of commercials and TV shows that the 360 is in as product placement is insane. This of course has been something that has hurt the PS3 and the PSP and thus, their software sales. I will give it to Sony though for their efforts with Kevin Butler in the past year. Those ads are fantastic and hilarious. My issue in this case is: where were they the other 3 years? I also mention this because the PlayStation brand is one important aspect of their business but Sony is fighting off too many players in too many markets. In the TV market you see Samsung commercials left and right. Computers and cell phones and it’s either iPhone/Droid or MacBook/HP. And for cameras, Canon and Nikon. Yet, we never see any form of Sony add showing us off their products.
There’s good news for Sony on the film front. Director Barry Sonnenfeld has said in a recent interview that Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are set to return for a third Men in Black film that will be (of course!) in 3D. The news indicated that although only Will Smith has so far signed on, both actors will reprise their earlier roles. Other casting rumors suggest that Sasha Baron Cohen and Jemaine Clement will also be joining the cast.
I really hope that Sony pushes Barry Sonnefeld to, or that Barry will by choice film Men in Black 3 in 3D and stay away from post conversion and avert from the mess that was Clash of the Titans in 3D. Also, its nice for Sony to lock in Will Smith again. Will Smith and Sony have a long history of movies together (MIB, Bad Boys, Pursuit of Happyness, Hitch, Hancock). Now Will Smith is one of the last true big stars who has a sure audience. With Spider-man 4 soon to be released as a reboot of the series, Sony hasn’t recently had any big movies in the box office and Will Smith can help them to get back in the game.
Sony has gone green! Sony Electronics headquarters in San Diego received the U.S. Green Building Council Institude LEED-Gold certification, joining a family of over 18,000 member organizations and companies.
In the Sony Electronics official Press Release, Ed Cotter, Executive Vice President of Sony Electronics said, “When we began laying out initial plans for our headquarters, we knew we wanted ‘green’ to play a major role in its construction. As a major consumer electronics company, we take sustainability very seriously and seek out efforts to reduce our environmental footprint wherever possible.”
With so many companies globally trying to go green, I feel it’s very impressive when large electronic companies make decisions and changes to help the environment; yet another reason why I’m such a fan of Sony. Some of the building’s new green design elements include:
- Solar Panels over the parking garage
- Low-flow water fixtures
- Light sensors and 140 parking spaces reserved for carpools and fuel-efficient cars
- 80 bicycle racks
- The building was designed to use mostly natrual light and capture 90% of storm water runoff from the site.
Sony is also purchasing renewable energy credits (equivalent to 70 percent of total annual energy costs) to ensure that headquarters stays a carbon neutral site.
Get ready to boot up your PS3 for a firmware update! It’s been one that many people have been wanting for a while. Cross Voice Chat, Better trophy options! This is a fantastic option for those who live more on the competitive side of the gaming world and want to compare:
- Trophy enhancements –- Now you can more easily sort trophies in the [Trophy Collection] and [Comparing Trophy] sections. Sorting can be done with [Trophy Collection] in the [Game Category] and also when comparing trophies with your friends in the [Friend Category]
- Trophy Folder (Title List) can be sorted by game name/ by title according to the date in which you earned your last trophy (ascending/descending)
- Add-on list (Group list) can be sorted by original/the date in which you earned your last trophy (ascending/descending)
- Trophy list can be sorted by original/trophy name/grade/date of obtaining the trophy (ascending/descending)
This update is also designed to slowly get the PS3 ready for its July 3D firmware update, so go ahead and update away! For those who want to download to a flash drive or hard drive, hit up the PS3 Official site.
Update:
Either a lot of people are downloading this and it’s clogging up the pipes at Sony, or this is a fairly large update that does more then we have been told. I have a feeling that it’s both, especially since it’s getting the PS3 ready for 3D. It could be that Sony has to add a lot of changes to the OS and instead of one huge/slow update, they are slowly piecing it together.
Sony’s HT-CT 100 is a great sound bar home theater system and is one of the only affordable ones that offers extensive HDMI connectivity. I’m a fan of sound bars sine I can’t hang any speakers in my place. They are easy to set up, have great sound, and they’re small with a clean look. What else could you ask for?
But wait, don’t buy just yet! Now Sony has just announced two new successors to the HT-CT 100 that will be available in May. The HT-CT 150 and HT-CT 350 will now have an upgrade to the HDMI 1.4 that will allow for 3D pass-through. Via CNET News, here are the key features of the new sound bars mentioned in Sony’s press release.
Key features of the Sony HT-CT150:
- 3.1-channel sound bar home theater system
- 340 watts of total system power
- 32 inches long
- Three HDMI inputs, all 3D-compatible
- HDMI pass-through in standby mode
- Two digital audio inputs (one optical, one coaxial)
- Price: $300
Key step-up features of the Sony HT-CT350:
- 400 watts of total system power
- 40 inches long
- Includes wall-mount bracket
- Price: $400
Photo credit: Sony (HT-CT 150)
Take this one with a grain of salt; there is still no legitimate proof one way or another and things could change at any time. Regardless, Techradar is reporting that the upcoming June firmware update to the PS3 will be indeed be giving the PS3 3D capabilities, but only on the gaming side. A separate firmware upgrade will be needed to enable its Blu-ray 3D capabilities. This seems like an odd move as June is also when Sony is planning on launching its 3D televisions and we would assume the more units out there that can deliver 3D to their televisions (and we assume nearly 35 Million PS3’s is a good count) but we’re no engineers or executives at Sony. This also seems odd because Sony will give the S570 and the S470 Blu-ray player a 3D firmware update this July. Remember that this early news may not be entirely accurate, or else we would have had Cross Game Voice Chat by now and that’s been rumored or accidently leaked near every firmware update. Keep your eyes and ears open for more!
The RED Camera is something that has won the hearts and minds of independent film makers and local TV stations alike. This is a professional grade, 24fps, full 1080p camera. Sure it might not give the quality and features that professional studio cameras that Sony itself makes, but for the market that it targets, it offers everything and more at a price that has been very affordable compared to the alternative.
Now enters Sony, who showed off a prototype “entry level 35mm” camcorder at this years NAB. Sony has promised that the camera will be for everybody and will indeed be ready by this time next year. The things we currently don’t know about the camera are resolution, codec support, dynamic range, etc but just the announcement alone is noteworthy because of the quality everybody has come to expect from Sony camcorders in the professional world. Plus, for the target audience we mentioned, this presents another choice and competition is always a good thing (for the consumer, anyway).
The Street is currently reporting that for the 2011 iPhone, Apple will be dumping its current partner, OmniVision. This company has provided all of the current iPhone cameras, including the current 3.2 megapixel for the iPhone 3GS and has a supposed order for a 5 megapixel for the upcoming iPhone.
Hello Sony(SNE), goodbye OmniVision(OVTI). Apple has picked Sony’s 8-megapixel camera chip for the 2011 iPhone, according to supply and manufacturing sources, said Rodman Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar.
I wont really get into what this entails for Apple and iPhone customers since we’re not an Apple site, but this has some serious positives for Sony. It’s no secret that in the last few years, Sony has lost ground both on consumer sales and component sales to Samsung. Samsung has done a great job of advertising their products while Sony has not and people have floated over to their brand. But that’s not all; in the component world, Samsung is supplying Flash chips which has been a huge and ever-growing segment of products. Portable devices such as the iPhone, the iPad, the Zune, and the PSPgo now use Flash memory. If Sony can land more manufacturing deals, especially with a high volume product like the iPhone, then this can significantly help the much needed cash flow of Sony. Heres to hoping it’s true; as of now, it’s just speculation.
PlayStation 3 exclusive title: Heavy Rain has hit the one million mark in worldwide sales. PSN blog said, “Praised by media for its gripping storyline, thought-provoking themes, innovation and engaging example of non-linear storytelling, it’s no surprise that more than a million gamers agree.”
From playing the downloadable demo on the PSN store, I could instantly tell that this was such a unique game. I purchased the game last month but embarrassed to say I have yet to play it. I plan to start it this week! Reviews say the game starts out slow but if I stick with it (which I will) it’s like nothing I’ve experienced before in a game. The demo alone has different outcomes. Every decision you make, big or small in the game, effects what happens to the characters and story. You swap gameplay between four characters in the game and if one dies, no game over; you just don’t see their side of the story. Also, there’s over 20 different endings in the game! Each character has their own set of endings depending on your decisions and who died. That’s pretty mind-boggling to me.
Has anyone played Heavy Rain yet? I can’t wait to see what path and ending awaits me; hopefully I can keep all of my characters alive.
The National Association of Broadcasters Trade Show started yesterday at the Las Vegas Convention Center. More than 85,000 audio, video and motion picture professionals from around the world have gathered to see the latest tech innovations. This year, Sony’s theme is “Solutions to Believe In.” Their main exhibit highlights include:
- 3D Production
- HD Live Production
- Professional Services
- Media Backbone
- Broadcast & Professional Displays
- HDCAM SR Productions
- Recording Media & Pro Audio
From Sony’s Electronic Blog:
Alec Shapiro, senior vice president, Broadcast and Production Systems Division: Sony’s theme this year is “Solutions to Believe In.” Half of our exhibit here at NAB is dedicated to presenting Sony as a total solutions provider, for a variety of production workflows. In other words, we don’t just sell cameras. We offer products and services for every step of the production process, from capturing video, to editing, to archiving and distributing. Another main focus for NAB this year is 3D. We have a 3D production truck from All Mobile Video on the exhibit floor – the first 3D production truck built from scratch. (See below)
Find all the latest Sony news an information from NAB at www.sony.com/nab.
You can view Sony’s press conferences shortly after they end on Sony’s Video site.
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