Christopher

Well, after my last post about Choosing the right Sony HD Camcorder, I did purchase one - the HDR-SR10. Unfortunately, the SR11 was just a bit out of my financial reach, but I have been quite satisfied so far with the results of this camera. I will be using the HDR-SR10 to record high definition video at the Consumer Electronics Show and for various product reviews throughout the year. Like most consumers, I purchased a couple of accessories for the camcorder, including the mysterious ECM-HW1 bluetooth wireless microphone. Despite the steep price, the ECM-HW1 is totally worth it (Amazon sells it for $127USD). We admit there is a rather odd appearance found in the grey bluetooth receiver, however, this is a truly interesting marriage of camcorder and bluetooth technologies. The white microphone

Sony Japan and its professionally done flashy (no pun intended) web pages continue to tease public with the forthcoming notebook. I really doubt it will be a netbook type, as Sony is not interested in that type of market, and I am pretty sure it will be a subnotebook, sort of the come back of VAIO Picturebook - C1 series. Back to the story, check out the teaser preview and you will be able to catch some of the pictures of the keyboard and it looks like there is a tracking ball/nub. Not many VAIOs have those nubs and it will be definitely a nice addition to the notebook of this size. Well, just a few more days left before this baby gets unveiled, so hang in there we will bring you all the deets soon enough! View the full article

Japan’s industrial output dived at a record pace and core consumer inflation fell faster than forecast in November, putting the shrinking economy on course for a spell of deflation next year. With much of the developed world in recession and emerging economies quickly losing steam, many analysts think Japan’s export-oriented economy could go through one of its sharpest contractions ever this quarter and next. As exports crumble at an unprecedented pace, Japanese companies are not only halting factory lines but also scrambling to slash jobs, which in turn is hurting domestic consumption. “Production is falling like Niagara Falls. What’s going on now is beyond what Toyota and Sony had ever imagined.” - Mitsuru Saito, chief economist at Tokai Tokyo Securities. View the full article

No matter how you view it, Grundig Elektronik is one of Europe’s largest TV companies, making some 7 million units a year. In fact, they are the second largest TV manufacturer in Europe. On Friday, Grundig reported a deal with to produce Sony LCD TV’s, boosting their shares considerably. Grundig, which was formally known as Beko Eletronik, noted that they will produce two Sony Bravia models at the in-house plant in an exclusive deal with Sony United Kingdom Limited. Shares in Grundig jumped 18.4 percent to 0.45 lira, while the main Istanbul share index was up 0.98 percent, a considerable reaction considering slow Christmas trading. Photo courtesy juanxavier of flickr. View the full article

Wow, and just like that SonyStyle has accidentally released specifications and a picture of the new Sony Vaio netbook that has been a source of rumors and speculation for the last few weeks. Specifications include a 1.33ghz Intel processor, Windows Vista (Home Premium or Basic), a 8′ LED display (1600×768), up to a 60GB hard drive (128GB SSD available), unknown battery life and unknown price. This will be referred to as the P series, for Pocket. Awesome! It appears the P series will have the same aesthetics found in the TZ and TT series, and will be available in Crimson Red, Champange Gold and Black Silk. However, we cannot confirm or deny at this time if the picture included in the placeholder at SonyStyle is just a reused TT image or not. Pictures and information courtesy of SonyStyle. Happy Holidays! View the full article

Raphael Saadiq (born Charlie Ray Wiggins on May 14, 1966 in Oakland, California) is an American singer, songwriter and record producer associated with the soul music movement. In September of this year, he released The Way I See It, “a truly cohesive and thoroughly enjoyable body of work that pays tribute to the golden era of iconic soul labels like Motown, Stax, and Hot Wax.” Entertainment Weekly goes on to state that his sound “is a foot-tapping, finger-snapping delight.”

Sony Japan updated their VAIO site today with a teaser flash introduction featuring the Vaio netbook that is set to debut on January 9th. Sony New Zealand had put up a countdown clock to the said date as well, which signals that employees in the marketing and Vaio divisions are really freaking excited about this product. It’s good to see Sony feeding into hype-driven marketing schemes that technically savvy Internet users love to eat up. Sony wouldn’t have done a marketing campaign like this five to ten years ago. If you click here, you can see a woman getting out a small UMPC-like object out of her hand bag. Clicking on the flash animation takes you to another page where you can sign up for an email newsletter (provided you can read Japanese and have a Sony Shop ID). View the full article

In response to press inquiries, Sony Corporation has confirmed that Sony Electronics Inc. received a letter from the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice stating that its investigation with respect to static random access memory (or SRAM) business is now closed. The DOJ had subpoenaed Sony - along with many other companies - back in 2006 for alleged price fixing in the static RAM (SRAM) market. View the full article

Sony Corporation announced today that it has determined the terms of three tranches of straight bonds in Japan in the total principal amount of 37.5 billion yen to be issued under its domestic bond shelf registration. The unused maximum aggregate principal amount under the shelf registration is 300 billion yen and the shelf registration’s period of effectiveness ends on June 27, 2010. Sony intends to use the proceeds of the issues for the redemption of corporate bonds. Read more about this at Sony Investor Relations. View the full article

Through December 27, Amazon is offering big discounts on select Sony Walkman MP3 players. The 8 GB and 4 GB players (NW-ZE438/6F) - available in four colors - let you listen to music, watch videos, and look at photos on the 2-inch color LCD. Amazon is selling the 8GB NW-ZE438 model for $99, while the NW-ZE436 is on sale for $69. Also on sale are the 2 GB and 1 GB players (NW-ZB135/3F) that feature a built-in USB plug for easy transferring of MP3 and WMA files. Don’t miss these great savings! View the full article

Sony New Zealand has launched a new Vaio teaser website that hints at an official Sony announcement on January 9th. This could be the announcement of the new Netbook Sony is reported to be developing that was spotted on the FCC website. However, we will find out in 17 days, eh? “On the 9th of January you will change the way you look at laptops. Forever.” That’s a pretty bold statement! View the full article

I can’t remember where I found this, but I thought it was a fun picture worth sharing.. View the full article

Here are some holiday pictures (click for larger version) of the Sony Center in Berlin, Germany. In the early 20th Century, the area was originally a bustling city center. After World War II, the area suffered a sharp decline and was eventually left abandoned. As part of a redevelopment effort for the area, the center was constructed. The center was designed by Helmut Jahn and construction was completed in 2000 at a total cost of US$800M. In February 2008 Sony sold Berlin’s Sony Center for less than US$880 to a group of German and US investment funds, including investment bank Morgan Stanley, Corpus Sireo and an affiliate of The John Buck Company. Sony Center contains a mix of shops, restaurants, a conference centre, hotel rooms, luxurious rented suites and condominiums, offices, art and film museums, cinemas, an IMAX theater, and a SonyStyle store. Free Wi-Fi connections are available for all visitors. The Sony Center is located near the Berlin Potsdamer Platz railway station for easy walking accessibility. A large shopping centre is nearby, as is a myriad of hotels, the Deutsche Bahn central offices, and an office building featuring the fastest lift in Europe. Pictures courtesy flickr, from user Frankinho. View the full article

Columbia Records GM Mark DiDia suddenly left the label yesterday, and insiders are questioning whether Rick Rubin’s role at the company is changing. Rick Rubin is an American record producer and is currently the co-head of Columbia Records. He is given credit for merging rap and heavy metal as well as producing the “American series” albums with Johnny Cash. MTV called him “the most important producer of the last 20 years. Since joining Columbia, Rubin has produced Neil Diamond’s “Home Before Dark,” which was his first No. 1 debut on The Billboard 200 this spring. Rubin also brought ZZ Top and Crosby, Stills & Nash into Columbia’s graces, but neither act has released music for the company yet. Rubin is also credited for producing Metallica’s “Death Magnetic,” which sold 1.44 million copies for Warner Bros. since its June release. Rubin will be shunted off to a side-label deal, presumably so Sony can distance themselves from him without breaking their contract. In 2007, Rick Rubin won multiple grammies for his contributions: * Record of the Year - Not Ready to Make Nice, Dixie Chicks * Album of the Year - Taking the Long Way, Dixie Chicks * Best Rock Album - Stadium Arcadium, Red Hot Chili Peppers * Best Country Album - Taking the Long Way, Dixie Chicks * Producer of the Year, Non-Classical View the full article

Consumer electronics rank high on holiday wish lists but who doesn’t enjoy a gift of chocolates on any occasion? So when creative collective Tronic Studio sculpted an animated array of the latest Sony products from digital chocolate in a whimsical holiday spot for the Sony Style stores, they demonstrated that life can be “Sweet” indeed. Conceived, directed and animated by Tronic Studio, the “Sweet” spot comes on the heels of a playful all CG Sony HDNA spot the studio created for the Sony Style stores earlier this year. Sony Style retail stores, designed to be especially technology-friendly, showcase Sony products and demonstrate how they can be integrated into consumers’ lifestyles. “Sony asked us to produce a new spot for their holiday campaign which associates chocolate, the holidays and Sony products,” notes Vivian Rosenthal, who founded Tronic with Jesse Seppi. “The Sony Style stores were planning product displays fabricated from chocolate-colored plastic so we had the idea to make larger-than-life Sony products come to life out of chocolate.” Chocolate Headphones, Camcorder, SLR With that in mind, Tronic Studio devised a storyline in which chocolate pours from the sky in different urban neighborhoods to create giant, Jeff Koons-like sculptures of a Sony digital SLR camera, a PSP, stereo headphones, a Handicam camcorder and a laptop computer. “We were interested in the exploring the shape shifting nature of chocolate, how it begins as a liquid and solidifies into a recognizable form,” explains Rosenthal. “It’s gift-giving in a most unexpected way,” says Seppi. “Actually, sculpting the products in chocolate speaks to the real-world manufacturing of the products: Plastic molding and shaping is not dissimilar from chocolate-making.” Click here for the SonyStyle Digital Chocolate Holiday Video The video opens with chocolate pouring from the sky, flooding a highway and forming a huge digital SLR camera and lens. More chocolate rains down on a tennis court to sculpt a PSP, on a bridge approach to form stereo headphones, and on a park tucked in a highway cloverleaf to make a Handicam camcorder. Finally, the ribbons of chocolate pour onto an expanse of lawn to sculpt a giant laptop whose wafer-thin screen is embossed with “Sweet.” Tronic directed live-action HD shoots across Manhattan to capture the background footage using dynamic tilts and pans and shooting from atop an apartment for an aerial view of the maze of highways. “We searched to find locations that weren’t too iconic,” notes Rosenthal. “We wanted an urban feel while that would appeal to customers in Sony Style stores anywhere.” 3Ds Max, Real Flow, Mental Ray, Final Render Using 3ds max for animation and Real Flow fluid dynamics software for the chocolate pour, Tronic crafted the Sony sculptures. Time remapping speeded the period between the liquid pour and the chocolate’s solid state while animated effects changed the chocolate’s look from glossy to matte as the liquid hardened. Mental Ray and Final Render were tapped for rendering. Tronic also added some holiday iconography, deploying peppermint-striped chocolate for the PSP sculpture and weaving red ribbons through the spot to tie up the fully-formed products like gifts. Camera matching and tracking software seamlessly connected the live-action camera moves and the CG products. Skies were replaced throughout to unify the time of day and the look of skies, which had been affected by wind and clouds during the shoot. The result is an attention-getting spot which is “believable yet absurd and surreal at the same time,” says Rosenthal. “It’s a pretty abstract idea,” Seppi notes. “Some of the Sony Style stores don’t have the chocolate plastic product displays so shoppers won’t necessarily see the connection between chocolate-like products in the store and the chocolate products in the video. So the video played in the stores has to stand on its own as a narrative.” Tronic’s whimsical visuals succeed in catching the eyes of the busiest holiday shoppers and passersby as the video is displayed in windows and throughout the retail stores. “It instantly connects with people’s emotions, uplifts their spirits and makes them smile,” says Rosenthal. View the full article

Often, the world takes small things for granted. There is no denying that we now live in an advanced and evolved technical age. Technology is getting smaller - phones, televisions, and even remote controls - wait, I think remote controls are actually getting bigger again. Nonetheless, the earphones that Sony bundles with their MP3 players are usually quite expectional considering they are stock offerings. Most headphones and earphones included with MP3 players sold by other companes aren’t very enjoyable. It’s part of the process to show the consumer that a Sony product represents a better experience that the rest. Earbuds and earphones are headphones of a smaller size that are placed directly outside of the ear canal, but without fully enveloping it. They are generally inexpensive and are favored for their portability and convenience. However, due to their inability to provide isolation, they are not capable of delivering the same dynamic range offered by many full-sized headphones and canalphones for a given volume level. As a result, they are often used at higher volumes in order to drown out noise from the user’s surroundings, which increases the risk of hearing-loss. Sony Insider always recommends that you listen to music at appropriate levels, especially when using earbuds. Here’s an internal diagram of the MDR-EX700LP: View the full article

Sony may make further restructuring moves, including adding more job cuts to its recent round of layoffs, according to a Kyodo news service interview with the company’s President Ryoji Chubachi published Thursday. The Japanese firm said last week it would cut 16,000 jobs, but Chubachi said more steps — including further lay-offs — may be needed. “With only these measures, we cannot fully survive the current economic situation,” he told Kyodo. Chubachi said business conditions are getting worse, with demand for its consumer appliances falling, especially since late November, a trend which he said “would not be a temporary but a long-lasting one.” He also said Sony would have to reassess its goal of expanding its personal computer, Blu-ray Disc and semiconductor operations into “trillion yen businesses” by March 2011. Information courtesy of MarketWatch. View the full article

Sony Brazil is promoting Cyber-shot Digital Cameras with a Smile Duel competition, a game where the person who stays serious wins. Whoever smiles first is captured by the Smile Detection features of the Cyber-shot camera while the two contestants stare at each other in a makeshift ring. Pictures were printed out and several items were given away to the lucky winners. The contests have been held in malls in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, and unfortunately we are getting to this story a little late. However, two more events are scheduled: S

It’s the Holiday season, and with that comes various contests and promotions. Sony is now running “The Optimum High-Definition Experience Sweepstakes” with some rather impressive prizes. The grand prize is a Sony BDP-S550 Blu-ray Player and 15 Blu-ray movies. First prize is a PS3 with LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2. Second Prize is an one-of-a-kind autographed Blu-ray disc mounted on a plaque, and third prize is a copy of Hancock on Blu-ray. To enter, all you need to do is visit the link in this story and fill out your personal information. The contest runs until January 19th, 2009. View the full article

When the Playstation 3 Video Delivery Service launched on July 15th, Sony broadened our content offering to include TV shows and movies to make the PS3 the total entertainment package. With nearly 1000 full-length movies and 2700 TV episodes for download onto the PS3 or PSP, the Video Delivery Service brings you digital entertainment right into your living room (popcorn not included). So check out great titles like The Dark Knight, Hancock, Iron Man, Family Guy, and much more. The TV spot uses humor to convey that the PS3 is not just a gaming machine but also a “movie downloading machine” when a guy tries to win over his skeptical girlfriend. You’ll have to watch the TV spot to find out how this classic guy vs. girl face-off plays out to see who wins in the end. Sony Insider applauds the Playstation marketing team for making a truly interesting commercial such as this. If this commercial plays often, it will reveal to the consumer the consumer that the Playstation 3 is just not a gaming machine, but a multimedia powerhouse. In these challenging economic times, the consumer needs to know the full value of the PS3 hardware and this commercial does just that. However, as we always say, they need to make this the Sony Video Store, accessible on all networked devices. View the full article

Straight from the Wall Street Journal - “Even as the electronics industry wages a price war in the U.S. to drum up sales, Sony Corp. is heading in a different direction in Europe. In an industry where prices for televisions and digital cameras have consistently declined, Sony says it will next month start raising prices of a range of products sold in Europe. The reason: It needs to recoup some of its foreign-exchange losses after the yen has soared more than 25% against the euro since July. A stronger yen cuts into overseas revenue when brought back as yen. The price increase, likely to be followed by other Japanese makers, shows how vulnerable Japanese companies still are to sharp currency fluctuations. Making matters worse, some of their fiercest competitors, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Inc. and LG Electronics Inc., have seen the Korean won fall 30% in value against the dollar and 25% against the euro this year. The companies haven’t announced price changes in Europe. But at the very least, the weak won allows the Korean rivals to hold prices flat in Europe while absorbing some of the price cuts in North America. A price increase could also slow Europe’s emergence in recent years as a critical market for Japanese electronics makers, which already face stagnating sales at home and cutthroat pricing in North America. In the past few years, the euro’s strength against the yen and a surge in consumer spending from emerging markets in Eastern Europe helped spur revenue growth. European consumers, who tend to put an emphasis on design, have been more willing to pay a premium for high-end products compared with U.S. consumers. Last year, for the first time in the company’s 62-year history, Europe became the largest consumer of Sony products, surpassing the domestic market and even the U.S. It is now targeting European consumers by creating new products specifically for the region, such as the Bravia EX1 LCD television, which has a built-in high-speed wireless link to allow it to double as a large-screen digital picture frame. Earnings revisions from the biggest names in Japan’s electronics industry have been rolling in over the past few weeks, and all have placed some blame on the yen’s rise. Toshiba Corp. lowered its earnings forecast in September, followed by Canon Inc., Hitachi Corp. and Panasonic. Sony, which already issued a profit warning in October, said last week it would shutter as many as six factories and cut its electronics division work force by 16,000 workers. Even though most Japanese companies hedge a lot of their yen foreign-currency exposure and lock in an exchange rate at three-month intervals, a sudden move by the yen often wreaks havoc on an exporter’s earnings estimates. Sony has plants in Slovakia, Spain, Hungary and Wales to supply the European market, but many of its parts come from outside the euro zone, leaving the company’s production costs vulnerable to currency shifts. View the full article

Sony Electronics is teaming with FOX Sports and an all-star roster of technology providers to deliver the first live 3D presentation of next month’s college football FedEx Bowl Championship Series (BCS) National Championship Game between the University of Florida and University of Oklahoma. The announcement was made here during the Sports Video Group annual League Technology Summit. The Jan. 8 game will be shot using 3ality Digital’s image-capture technology and transmitted live via Cinedigm’s CineLive™ satellite distribution network from Dolphin Stadium in Miami to an event sponsored by Sony in the Paris Hotel and Casino’s RealD-equipped Theatre des Arts in Las Vegas, where more than 1,200 invited guests will view the game live in 3D during the annual Consumer Electronics Show. Sony is providing its SXRD® 4K projection technology at the Paris Hotel and Casino for this special 3D presentation, which will be broadcast in conventional HD by FOX Sports. RealD is a co-sponsor of this theater presentation with Sony. RealD’s 3D system in the Theatre des Arts — including eyewear, screen and filtering technology — was specifically built and customized for the SXRD 4K projection system. “This event at the Paris Hotel is a perfect showcase for 4K technology,” said Alec Shapiro, senior vice president of Sony Electronics’ Broadcast and Production Systems. “4K technology was designed with enough flexibility to show superb-quality 2D or 3D content in the highest resolution available — for motion picture releases, live events or other forms of alternative content, delivering benefits to everyone, from the movie-going consumer to theater owners.” The Sony projectors’ 4K resolution is derived from a pixel matrix of more than 4,000 horizontal pixels, delivering more than four times the resolution of high-definition televisions used in home theater systems. The projectors have a strong track record of success in live 3D theater presentations, delivering similar simulcasts in 2007 for the NBA All-Star Game as well as an NBA regular season game. “The live broadcast to the Paris Hotel and to movie theaters across the nation is the latest example of how we can deliver our programming to audiences in new and exciting ways,” said Jerry Steinberg, senior vice president of field operations and engineering for FOX Sports. “3D technology holds unlimited potential for the future of both sports broadcasting and live event production.” For the broadcast, 3ality Digital will employ Sony HD cameras specially modified for stereoscopic production and transmission of the game. According to the company, the 3ality Digital technology allows a camera operator to shoot in a style similar to traditional 2D with pan-tilt-zoom control, and provides continuously self-correcting software to deliver high-quality stereoscopic imaging. 3ality Digital’s image capture systems integrate with existing broadcast equipment for pixel-perfect 3D imagery, and its image processing software enables accurate 3D image transmission through existing satellite systems, the company said. The feed is then transferred to the Cinedigm satellite network, which will broadcast the signal nationally to Cinedigm-enabled theaters. In the theater, RealD’s 3D stereoscopic Cinema System will enable the audience to view the game in 3D. “Sports broadcasts are ideal for 3D presentation, especially in a theater, where fans can gather and participate in the atmosphere of the event with the feeling of truly being there,” said Sandy Climan, CEO of 3ality Digital. “This game may end up being a landmark in college sports history.” According to Michael Lewis, chairman and CEO of RealD, “This event brings together all the necessary elements to create a truly immersive 3D broadcast. The success of recent box-office hits in 3D and the strong schedule of future releases highlight the fact that this is an experience that movie-goers crave. We look forward to continuing this evolution of the entertainment experience by delivering more live sports and other events to our theater partners.” In addition to the theater at the Paris hotel, Cinedigm will broadcast the game to its network of 80 additional digitally enabled theaters across the United States. Said Bud Mayo, chairman and CEO at Cinedigm, “Our 3D live distribution to theaters on Cinedigm’s nationwide network is now a reality that will greatly enhance the in-theater experience for consumers, while creating more opportunities for venue owners, broadcasters and the entire sports/entertainment industry.” Gamecreek Video will provide its high-definition mobile video production unit for the game, working with the 3ality Digital camera rigs and image processing systems on-site in Miami. View the full article

Not many people in the US and Europe are aware of this interesting and evolving technology called FeliCa and we wanted to share some deets with our readers and see if this is something they think would take off in your respected regions. FeliCa is a contactless IC card technology developed by Sony. As the name stemming from the word “felicity” suggests, the system was born to make daily living easier and more convenient. The card is difficult to forge/reconstruct, and allows to send/receive data at high speed and with high security. The system is also environment-friendly since the card can be used over-and-over virtually forever by rewriting the data. It also features ultimate user-ease, as would be expected from a contactless card, since there is no longer any need to retrieve and put away the card for every use. All-in-all, the system is rational throughout, since one card is enough to provide for various purposes.* Check out the following videos to see FeliCa in action: What is FeliCa? Ways to use FeliCa Felica has been widely adopted and is used in Japan’s transportation system and other areas of service. FeliCa chips are embedded in a number of cell phones and computers and used as methods of payment. It is very easy to use, all you do is just sort of wave the card and the information can be swapped between the devices. In the US this technology is just starting to evolve and in our recent phone conversation with Sony we have talked about it, so stay tuned. I was lucky to beta test Felica card myself with MySony program but unfortunately I never heard back about their findings. Sony Japan announced a new iteration of Felica: “FeliCa Plug”, and “FeliCa Lite” - both can be used in a number of devices from gaming to membership and point cards. So what is your take on FeliCa? Is it something you see yourself using as an all in one device for subway system, paying for drinks in vending machines, ID for your school or e-payments? Let us know! *Info adopted from Sony.net resource View the full article

As soon as the DSC-T500 was introduced I knew Sony had a winner. We feared the price might be a little on the high side, and while it is (around $350 - $400), the camera offers exceptional capabilities - especially in HD videos. This is a dream camera for consumers looking for

Sony is bringing some of the top music and movie titles in entertainment history to consumers in an easy-to-use, portable electronic format. The company is introducing a new series of its MicroVault