So this is reasonably exciting. Some super secret source told PlayStation Insider that Sony has talked to Mozilla about porting Firefox to the PS3. Note the wording of that sentence: talks about porting Firefox. Needless to say, if this is even true, then we’re at a very early stage of development.
I’m in charge of writing the e-book gift guide, but it’s sorta hard to recommend items that haven’t been released yet. That IREX reader, the nook, and the Sony Daily Edition Reader are all missing in action. Thanks, guys. Today we take a minute to ask, “Where’s the Sony Daily?”
Globally speaking, there is one clear leader in the LCD TV business: Samsung. The company commands a 23.2% share in this segment, with Sony (13.7%) and Sharp (7%) almost hopelessly behind (according to DisplaySearch). So in June this year already, Sony and Sharp inked a joint venture deal to produce LCD TVs together. And today, the Nikkei (Japan’s biggest business publication), reports that the two former arch rivals decided to further expand their alliance.
Remember when the first VAIO P came out and everyone was like, “I can’t believe it has Vista! That angers me! I am currently outraged!” – something along those lines? Well now it has Windows 7 and comes in four different models ranging in price from $850 to $1900.
While the Nintendo Wii continues to have a stranglehold on console sales, both worldwide and in the United States, the Xbox 360 and PS3 are battling it out for the the second place position for year-to-date sales. Just a little over two months ago, Sony announced that they would be slashing the price of their game console, the PS3, to $299. Microsoft quickly followed suit, and in just ten days dropped the price of their most expensive console, the Xbox 360 Elite, to $299. Nintendo, who has sold nearly double the number of consoles worldwide as these two, decided to lower the price of the Wii on September 27th to $199: this was the first time since its inception that the Wii has had a price cut. All three console manufacturers hoped that the decrease in price would help them to increase sales and finish the year on a strong note. The results have been mixed: while all three consoles have seen an increase in sales, the PS3 has seen astonishing growth in the US and abroad, and has wrestled the second-place position in worldwide YTD sales from the 360. As for the Xbox, even in its upgraded Elite form it has seen only minimal gains since the price drop.
This is still a rumor at this point, but Phone Arena is reporting that Verizon may soon be offering Sony’s 8-inch “not-a-netbook” VAIO P for $300 with a two-year data contract.
It appears that reports of 360 exclusivity for Netflix have been greatly exaggerated. You could always hack it onto your console, but this is a little more official. The streaming-video service will arrive on PS3s next month, and current Netflix subscribers will be able to watch to their heart’s content at no extra charge. However, in a rather absurd turn, streaming will only be enabled when you have a special Netflix disc in your PS3. What the hell is that about?
Sony isn’t typically known for aggressive pricing, but the company will apparently be rolling out a value-priced line of 32- and 40-inch LCD TVs early next year.
It’s not every day that a strange, hirsute man rewrites a Sony jingle and then dances, poorly, on his deck.
This man is my friend Rick from grade school and he created this in an homage to some stupid tapes we did as kids in my basement. While it is clear that Rick has grown physically, I worry constantly about his mental capacity.
Regardless, it is catchy. Click through to see the original commercial. Read More
Sony will show off a crazy 360 stereoscopic display that essentially places a 3D figure inside a little tube and allows it to be viewed from all angles. The device, to be shown in Tokyo on October 22 (SER-KAAAAN! Go to this!) has a 96×128 resolution and 24-bit color palette. Read More
You may have seen a young man named Michael Arrington bemoaning the current state of touch technology on these very pages. While I tend to agree on the aggregate, I saw HP’s new touch line last week and came away impressed, at least in the quality of the interface HP built around the TouchSmart 300 and 600, 20 and 23-inch all-in-ones with touchscreens. Sony also dumped out some touchscreen Vaios in an event so-over-the-top that Mischa Barton was there (seriously!). OEMs are going touch-crazy.
This probably won’t come as a surprise to any of you, but September was a Very Big month in the life of the PS3. For the first time ever, since its launch in fall, 2006, the PS3 was the best-selling video game system. See what amazing things happen when you price a product at an affordable level?
Remember those Vaios we mentioned were coming? Well, here they are! You’ve got the L series (touchscreen all-in-one), X series (thin and surprisingly affordable), and the CW series (Blu-ray notebooks and apparently the home of Gossip Girl). Check out the specs below. Read More
John mentioned TransferJet briefly during the Toshiba press conference at IFA in September. It’s a wireless data transfer system. It’s different from Bluetooth in that there’s no pairing required. It’s also extremely limited in range — like, two inches or less — so there’s less need to worry about someone sending pr0n to your mom’s TransferJet-enabled television. Sony’s got a live demo of TransferJet at their CEATEC booth, and I’ve got to admit that it’s pretty cool — and fast!
Sony, and just about everyone else, has been fooling around with OLEDs for quite some time, and they’re starting to come up with some pretty clever applications of the technology. Flexible OLEDs have been in the news this year, and Sony’s getting into that game, too. In this short video we see a 0.2mm thin OLED display being gently bent back and forth, while actively showing content on its surface.
Sony would do well to hire the man who put this PSP mod together. It’s basically what the PSP should have been since Day One: a built-in camera, 32GB of flash memory, and a second analog stick. Well, you have to stretch the definition of analog stick here; it’s that nub thing.
Oh, dear. The first sales reports of the PSP Go started trickling out yesterday, and they were sorta so-so, let’s say. (It’s no PS3 Slim, that’s for sure!) More details have emerged today, and, again, the PSP Go isn’t exactly lighting the world on fire.