sony

I rolled into the seaside city of Santa Monica, Calif., home of the E3 Media and Business Summit, this morning after a flight out of New York City that wasn't technically a red-eye, but might as well have been because it was pretty darn early (would you call that a pink-eye?). Let's just say it's a far cry from the conference's former home at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The above photograph shows something that I snapped with my camera while--no kidding--on the way to pick up my press wristband for Sony Computer Entertainment America's … Read more

Leading up to the Electronic Entertainment Expo, most companies try to release information that will either (1) become a springboard for the show or (2) become lost in the heavy news traffic -- by design. With Sony's announcement of a $100 price cut, it has effectively achieved the former. And while some brushed my opinion aside claiming I was biased or a Nintendo-hater when I told them Sony and Microsoft would take the day, it seems that opinion may not be so far off after all.

Although I still believe the Xbox 360 will take the lead in this … Read more

Last Friday, in Tokyo, Sony President Ryoji Chubachi gave an interview to Reuters and, in response to a question, said, "At present, we have no plans" to cut the price of the PlayStation 3.

It was a fair statement, despite rumors swirling around that there were indeed going to be price cuts for the PS3, something many saw as a necessary move to staunch ebbing consumer confidence in the company and in its flagship video game console.

But then, on Monday, lo and behold, the company announced to the world that it was slashing $100 off its 60GB … Read more

It's E3 week, folks, and the video game world is revved up for the latest news, and, it turns out, Sony may have something noteworthy to announce.

According to Newsweek, Sony, at its E3 press conference, may offer up some details on what would be a PlayStation 3 TV show and movie download service.

If it's true, Sony would be catching up to Microsoft, which has offered such downloads since last fall. And it seems to me it had better be true, because even though Sony has said it is dropping the price of the PS3, it needs … Read more

PSP speaker systems haven't exactly taken off like iPod speaker systems, but a few continue to trickle out onto the market, including a new one that carries the Tannoy brand name and features SRS TruSurround (Accessories 4 Technology Limited is manufacturing the thing).

According to the press release, SRS TruSurround "processes any multichannel audio source and delivers an immersive virtual 5.1 surround sound home theater experience over two speakers or headphones. With TruSurround, consumers will feel as if they're surrounded by 'phantom' speakers that appear to extend all around them, putting them in the center of … Read more

Google PSP redesign or PSP2, and you'll get tens of thousands of results (and even a few interesting homemade Photoshop jobs, such as the "PSP Mini" shown above)--a testament to the fact that many gamers, it seems, were never quite comfortable with the design of Sony's first handheld gaming system. To be sure, the PSP has its share of issues, not the least of which is the UMD format--the proprietary optical disc format is hobbled with slow load times, and the moving parts sap the PSP's battery life. Controls have always been suspect, too, … Read more

Sony launched a pre-emptive strike on the E3 grapevine with its announcement yesterday that it's cutting the price of the 60GB PlayStation 3 to $500, and offering a new 80GB model for $600 in August. But what else does the company have up its sleeve for the show? There are still at least a couple of unanswered questions offering grist for the rumor mill:

rumble-enabled Sixaxis controller: Sony has already shot down rumors that the 80GB PS3 will come bundled with a new rumble-ready Sixaxis controller. (Of course, the company was denying rumors of a PS3 price cut as … Read more

Last Friday, we reported a rumor about the PS3 getting a $100 price cut, based on a Circuit City flier that's been circulating the blogs. Well, it's not a rumor anymore. Sony just confirmed that the PlayStation 3 is indeed getting getting a fair bit cheaper.

Starting this week, the 60GB PS3 will retail for $500, the same price as the now-defunct 20GB PS3. If you had your heart set on spending $600 on a PlayStation 3, have no fear; the price drop makes room for the new 80GB PS3 bundle Sony also announced today. Taking the 60GB … Read more

Today I take my lead from a Reuters article that describes two alternative display technologies that may some day replace (or at least augment) LCDs in mainstream computer systems.

Both are on the market today. OLED (organic light-emitting display) technology, used on some cellphones, creates what amounts to an array of tiny LEDs. This approach is theoretically superior to the way LCDs work, which is to combine a white backlight with colored filters and tiny shutters (the liquid crystals) for each pixel. All the light generated by the OLED is visible to the user, but most of the light in … Read more