Crenk » sony

Sony Unveils Its Apple iTunes Competitor

Steven Finch — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:48:54 +0000

Sony has announced that they are planning on launching their own Apple iTunes competitor which will be an online store selling music, movies, and books as well as other downloadable applications for mobile products. This does sound very familiar, as Sony has already tried to compete with iTunes on the Sony Connect product which is no longer in existance. Sony’s top executives didn’t specify when the Internet store, tentatively called Sony Online Service, would go live or what it would look like. But the online storefront, announced at a management strategy meeting in Tokyo, is likely to bear some similarities to Apple’s iTunes store and would be Sony’s most ambitious attempt to link its products to its own vast library of digital content.

Current Chairman and CEO Howard Stringer has been set the mission to for a cohirant software strategy since taking over the top job in mid-2006.

The global recession has pummeled Sony’s businesses and left its earnings in a shambles. With consumers cutting back on electronics, Sony says it’s heading for its second straight loss. This fiscal year through March 2010, Sony predicts an operating loss of $674 million, from last year’s $2.6 billion loss. Sales are expected to slide 6%.

Sony executives refused to say how much it plans to invest in the new online service. Kazuo Hirai, executive vice-president for networked products and services, said the service would be based on Sony’s PlayStation Network. The Web-based gateway for PlayStation 3 video game consoles has been Sony’s most successful push into online commerce so far. Launched three years ago, the PSN has 33 million registered users and sells thousands of downloadable games, TV shows, and movies. This fiscal year, Sony expects the service to bring in $500 million in revenues, triple the previous year’s total. Last month, Sony signed a deal with Netflix that lets PS3 users stream movies and other content through the gaming console. “There’s some debate as to whether all PlayStation Network users would migrate to the new service,” Hirai said. “We would target quite a few of them.”

Will this new online store save Sony and get them back on track to the revenues of previous years? Will this also mean that Sony will remove their music from iTunes in the aim to get users to quickly adopt their new service?

PS3 Coffee Table Makes Gaming The Focalpoint Of Your Living Room

Steven Finch — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:15:15 +0000

I must admit that Im not much of a Playstation 3 person, more of a Wii person. However, this product is really making me want to buy a Playstation 3 and deck out my living room.

Stephane Perruchon is the designer of this glass topped table, with the base made up of two gigantic PS3 controllers. It’ll make your place look like the classiest dorm room ever! Which would be awesome if you actually still live in a dorm room, but otherwise, I’m not so sure.

Sony Launch Their First Touchscreen PC: VAIO L which has Windows 7 Multi-Touch Elements

Steven Finch — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:15:21 +0000

Sony launched a trio of new systems, which includes its first touchscreen PC. The new VAIO L supports Window 7’s own multi-touch elements for scrolling and zooming through content without needing special software.

VAIO L features include:

$1,300 price tag
24 inches 1080p display
2.7 GHz Pentium dual core processor
4GB of RAM
320 GB hard drive
DVD writer and more.

Higher-end models scale up to a 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad, 6GB of RAM, 1TB of disk space, a Blu-ray drive and a GeForce GT 240M to better decode HD video.

Pre-orders start today and will ship sometime in November.

Sony E Reader Pocket Edition and Reader Touch Are Official

Steven Finch — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:38:23 +0000

Sony has released two new eBook readers today which are the Reader Pocket Edition and the Reader Touch Edition. Priced at $199 and $299 respectively, Sony’s new eBook reader duo has been rumored for quite some time now and thanks to a J&R snafu, we even caught the full specs this past Monday.

Leading titles for these readers will be available for purchase on the Sony eBook store from $9.99 to $11.99. Sony has stated that Mac compatibility and wireless eBook downloading a la Kindle are on the horizon.

I still feel that these readers from Sony and others such as the Samsung Pocket eReaders are a long way behind Amazon’s Kindle. The sexiness of the products just arent there!

Sony’s Walkman 30 Years

Augusto Alvarez — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:47:25 +0000

Yes, I know, you probably didn’t even think about a walkman in a long time; and most likely it’s been a real while since you’ve seen one, but Sony’s is -NOT- celebrating the release of their first Walkman 30 years ago.

Sony is still trying to make a revolutionary product release that they didn’t have particulary since the first portable audio player hit the market. They are having a rough year (first annual loss balance in 14 years) and they don’t have so great expectations for next year either. Most of the hopes are placed in PlayStation 3 (mainly based on two things, the release of the slim version and waiting for the blu-ray to become a real home standard), and also the portable new console PSP Go!

Getting back to the walkman’s story, here’s a quick and funny image that a friend of mine sent me today:

The New PSP Phone from Sony

Steven Finch — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:55:52 +0000

Dean this morning wrote a very interesting article about Sony turning their PSP into a phone. However, we have now found some very interesting information that I just had to show all our readers. Its the drawing of the product itself.

Sony Ericsson Launches Satio, Aino and Yari

Steven Finch — Sun, 31 May 2009 15:27:01 +0000

Sony Ericsson has announced two new models Aino and Yari and also officially named the Idou which was launched in February as Satio.

1. Satio- More details

2. Aino- More details and Photos

3. Yari- More details and Photos

Satio and Aino are two models which will be top end phone bundled with features.

Source: Life Rocks 2.0!

We7 Launches Out of Beta with a Bang and a lot of New Features

Steven Finch — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:17:27 +0000

After spending months in public beta and lots of changes to the ad supports music service, We7 is about to launch out of beta with a bang.

We7 have launched with a “Big Listen” campaign. This new service has some great new features including Free on-demand, unlimited access to full tracks and albums, “Search, Click & Play”, A ‘Celestial Jukebox’ with several million track, ‘Play Anywhere’ – a link and play system for blogs and websites, Users can create playlists, share with friends and buy mp3’s, Payments to rights owners and artists.

The first thing you will notice with the new site is that they have a completely new design. Other new additions include a Magazine, Blog and a much improved list of advertisers. Im sure we will be hearing a lot more from We7 in 2009!