Sony Corp.

Sony Ericsson Candybar J132 and K330 Enter Entry Market

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 22, 2008 | 43 comments

In order to stay competitive in the global recession that seems to be happening, Sony Ericsson is starting to introduce a lower priced lineup to both expand the brand and influence of the Sony Ericsson brand but also help fuel further growth in a time where consumers are shying away from higher prices products. Enter the Sony J132. Nothing fancy beyond talking and texting but the budget friendly unit does boast an impressive 9 hours of talk time (450 standby), making it perfect for those who just want a nice enough phone. The K330 improves with Bluetooth, video capture/camera, 1.7-inch display and Health mate application.

Expect the J132 to hit in Q4 within “select markets” in Night Black and Heaven Blue. The K330 will be available in “Gold on Black / Green on Black” in Q3 of 2008. The J132a and K330a will both support GSM 850/1900 and will be headed State side.

Platinum Titles Coming To The PlayStation 3

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 20, 2008 | 7 comments

One of the industry changing ideas that Sony introduced way back with the PlayStation (original) was Platinum titles. The idea was to introduce gamers to titles that had crossed the 1 million mark but with a reduced price drop after they wore down their shine. But in order to grab the attention of the consumer and help shine on the product as well and help give the older titles a new boost, a new box art was introduced with them, letting them stand out from other budget games. The tradition sense then has followed to the PlayStation 2 and PSP and even competitors have taken to the idea, all be it with a different name. With that comes news that the tradition is indeed following on the PS3. The following is still unofficial but from the images, they look fairly legit and all these titles are older and have all indeed crossed the 1 million mark. Hopefully more follows and were assuming an official E3 announcement of the PS3 Platinum titles.

Hit the MagicGate for a few more shots.

MagicGate!

Sony Ericsson C905 8.1-Megapixel Cybershot Phone Gets Official Specs

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 18, 2008 | 13 comments

So the rumors have been indeed true, the new Sony Ericsson C905 will indeed boast an 8.1 Megapixel camera and were going to go ahead and say, thats an industry first. Top that iPhone with your 2 Mexapixels (although we will be the firs to admit that Pixel count dosent mean shit and lens and chip does but with that in mind, there is a huge diff. between a 8.1 and a 2 Megapixel count).

But if you thought that it ended with just a high pixel count, then you don’t know Sony as the phone also features Xenon flash, auto face detection and image stabilization and a nice zoom. (Ok, now we can look at the iPhone and say wtf). But Sony didn’t stop there either. The C905 also boasts:

Quad-band GSM (9-hours talk / 380 hours standby)
Tri-band UMTS/HSDPA 850/1900/2100
Auto-rotating, 2.4-inch scratch-resistant QVGA display
aGPS with Google Maps
A2DP stereo Bluetooth
TV-out
2GB of included Memory Stick Micro (M2)
WiFi with DLNA support

Look for a global launch of Q4

Hit the MagicGate for the official press release and another shot.

MagicGate!

Sony Continues To Be Extra Green with 32-inch Bravia

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 17, 2008 | 171 comments

Sony has already been named the greenest of the technology companies and it looks like as they plan on continuing that legacy with their new 32-inch BRAVIA KDL-32JE1. The industry standard that Japan has set is 164% efficiency rating a year but the new Bravia achieves a 232% efficiency rating with means just 86kWh/year. The unit also comes with a WXGA (1,366 x 768 ) LCD, 2,500:1 contrast, 178-degree viewing angle, and range of in/outs including 2x HDMI and 2x component. If your in Japan July 30^th, expect to pickup this puppy for ¥150,000 or about $1,387.

Sony Ericsson Brings Modem, GPS and Card Reader Together

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 17, 2008 | 1 comment

Sony Ericsson is introducing two new Mobile Internet dongles dubbed the MD400 and MD400g. Both units connect via USB with a folding antenna and offer HSPA connectivity with 7.2MB/s downloads and 2.0MB/s downloads. Integrated in both are also a MemoryStick Micro and MicroSD card reader. Those who opt for the MD400g, will also get built in GPS and NMEA 2.0 interface, meaning they can just connect to their Mac or PC and find themselves on Google Maps. No price yet but release is expected to be later this year. Its nice to see Sony continuing its love with Google.

Hit the MagicButton for the full press release.

MagicGate!

PSP Firmware 4.0 Brings Google and More

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 16, 2008 | 13 comments

So this might not be all the facts and features of the PSP 4.0 update when it comes out and so far from Sony, its been dubbed under “Soon” but it looks like the PSP is taking one more step towards web efficiency as there will be a Google Search built directly into the PSP’s XMB, allowing you to just search for content while the Google algorithms take care of the keywords. Your search history will also be up to 20 previous sites to help speed up your access to older content. Of course a required Wi-Fi connection will be needed for all web related things. Also being introduced is the capability to slow down or speed up videos stored on your Memory Stick by just tapping up or down on the D-Pad. Built in Google search works for us as its the best out there anyways. But more so, this really shows the ever growing power of the PSP and flexible this platform has grown to be. Now if Sony would just market the damn thing more and better. Plus, this shouldn’t hopefully be too far off for the PS3 then right?

Edit: Ive read an interesting response to the fact the yes, currently the PSP does indeed have a web browser and all a user has to do is to prompt open the browser and hit their bookmarks to launch Google. So although this function isn’t new to the PSP (in terms of using Google), I believe it takes the systems capability one step further to the casual. With a built in Google Icon, it gives way to the user to skip out on a few steps and just get them to search and I believe this will gain both the attention of developers and the user community towards the web function capability of the PSP and help promote its web capabilities. Plus if nothing more, its just faster.

[Via PlayStation Blog]

Two Bravia TV Modules = Wireless HDMI

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 13, 2008 | 7 comments

The new Sony Bravia Internet Video Link offers the capabalities of the older generation like YouTube to your Bravia and Cross Media Bar (XMB) support. But what makes these new guys stand out is the ability for it to broadcast HDMI via wireless. This means that you can plug the unit into your DVD player and have it send its signal to your new XBR wireless.

[Via Gizmodo]

Home Getting User Generated Content

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 12, 2008 | 3 comments

Sony’s Ron Festejo is creative director for the PS3’s Home project and these are some exciting times for him. And thats not because Home might be nearing an Open Beta. Instead, its about the idea of turning over some of the tools over to the users and allowing for the creation of user generated content for Home.

Obviously the Holy Grail is to give people the tools to create their own things, but it’s a difficult path to tread I think.

Festejo says the problem with allowing users free reign over custom content is that Sony just don’t have an adequate means of policing and moderating the content. This really does bring up an over all interesting note, it was just a week or so ago that Microsoft went ban crazy on X-Box Live. Banning anybody with the word “Gay” in their tag name. Even if it was legit. So we can only imagine how some neo conservative parent is gonna react run to Fox News the minute she see’s some kid running around on Home with a T-Shirt that says Penis on it and rant about how Sony is destroying America. All we can say is Good Luck Sony!

[Kotaku]

Sony Getting Serious About Music Downloads. Buys Gracenote.

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 11, 2008 | 6 comments

What does iTunes, Yahoo! Music Jukebox and Winamp all have in common? Gracenote would seem to be the key. Gracenote is a company who provides MusicID, which detects songs being played by the application and loads the track information, ie; Artist and Album. Now Sony seems to be the new owner of this company for price of $260 Million. Gracenote will continue to operate separately from Sony after the deal is closed. Now is this a sign that Sony is getting serious about its music service download. After all, Connect failed to…Connect. This could also be a hint at what’s to come on the PlayStation Network as it already seems like Sony is going to be providing movie and tv shows through its service. But for now, don’t expect anything new.

Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot C905, 8.1 Megapixels and Alot More

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 11, 2008 | 2 comments

The Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot C905, codenamed “Shiho”, is rumored to be announced on the 17th of this month. Why should you care? Because this sucker boast a 8.1-megapixel camera with “auto focus, face recognition, a new feature called Smart Contrast, image stabilization, BestPic, red-eye reduction, xenon flash as well as photoflash for both photos and videos.” So you might already be impressed by that. But further rumors put the phone with a GPS, an accelerometer, 2.4-inch QVGA display, TV-out, Wi-Fi, DLNA support, Bluetooth and USB 2.0 transfers. If there is one company who knows how to keep products high tech, stylish and in size, it continues to be Apple Sony.

[Via Se-Nse]

Sony Introduces Walkman NWD-E020F

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 10, 2008 | 81 comments

Hey USA fans of the Walkman, Sony has introduced their new Walkman NWD-E020F series and their sporting lots of colors! (Enough to go with all your different outfits actually). The new USB Stick Style units also play nice with a wide variety of formats, including

MP3
WMA
AAC
LPCM

Plus, these guys will get you a hefty 28 hours of music playback with only a 1 hour charge! (Take that iPod Shuffle!). So look for these guys to be hitting out in early summer for

$69 (1GB)
$79 (2GB).

Advertising Bliss: Sony Foam City

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 10, 2008 | 34 comments

This has to be by far one of the most amazing advertising campaigns ive seen. Both visually and inspirationally. Sony in Miami designed the worlds largest foam machine that custom build for the shoot, making a total of 120 million gallons of bubble. That’s 500,000 gallons per minute. The commercial premises was to give all the locals Sony Camera’s ranging from Alpha DSLRs, Cyber-Shots and Handycams and allow them to experience this event and produce their own footage. Now the armature footage itself was not used for the commercial, but it will be posted on Sony’s online gallery.

Hit the magic button to take a look at the behind the scenes for this amazing shoot.

MagicGate!

Snake Looking…Solid In Unreal Tournament 3

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 9, 2008 | 5 comments

This week will no doubted be filled with MGS4 news. Although were not a pure gaming site, this indeed is a big week for Sony as a Super Title like this bound to push alot of units but is also bound to gain the attention of those not aware/interested in the PlayStation 3. So with that comes news of a mod that has been long at work for Unreal Tournament 3. What makes UT3 so different besides its fantastic game play is the fact that the game is open to the public. No, its not free but the engine tools for it are. That means the community can create their own maps, guns and characters. Of course, we all want to play as a badass and who better then Old Snake.

Now, the PS3 version is still in Beta but it seems like the mod community is always doing some fantastic work on putting this together and hopefully, we can all soon enjoy running around as Snake with a Plasma Rifle.

[Via Epic UT3]

BBC’s iPlayer Coming To PS3: Soon

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 8, 2008 | 23 comments

God Damn. That seems to be the theme this week. First was the PSN Cards. Then it was the PSN weekly update. But it seems like PS3 users are used to waiting but hey, good things come to those who wait right? This comes after the fact though that BBC introduced its new iPlayer but not for the 360 (granted it lacks a web browser) but the Wii….Let that sink in. The most under powered system that has about negative net functionality and is not aimed as any form of media device got the BBC iPlayer first (btw, really? iPlayer? I think its pretty clear that the whole “i” thing only works for apple. You dont see Samsung making a 5.1 “Live” setup). But as all things go, pissing off the user community is a bad thing and so the PS3 community developed their own. Just open the PS3 web browser and type www.ps3iplayer.com and it will play streaming iPlayer programs.

With that in mind, BBC released the following:

So, while I’m impressed that someone has done this, this doesn’t mean that it’s the best possible iPlayer proposition for that console. We’re investigating the optimal video profile and browser proposition to enable us to officially make iPlayer available on PS3 in due course.

So see, its not that they dont love PS3 users, their just trying to come up with the BEST POSSIBLE 4D iPlayer for the PS3.

[Via CVG]

Sony Ericsson Paris Video Confirms Some Rumors

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 6, 2008 | 2 comments

I CALLED IT! WOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I must say. Nothing feels as good as calling out a few rumors and having them be true (and trust me, when I talked about the up coming Paris from Sony Ericsson, I mentioned everything possible from V8’s to Mini Fridge) so its no surprise to see a new promo video for the Sony Ericsson Paris and having it confirm to do a few of the things I had posted rumors about it doing. So remember, it worked for me and it going to work on firmware 2.4. So next time your clueless about something, just say anything and everything (and yes I love Carpet works) and its bound to come true. After all, it works for our government.