Posted 11/06/09 at 07:47:14 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Color us a little confused by this one. Sony has been showing off a surface computer of sorts. The system was constructed with Atracsys and utilizes a camera to track the locations of your fingers, meaning you don’t have to physically touch anything. For some reason, it’s being shown off on a table top… that you touch.

Sony/ Atracsys also showed how the camera system can track facial movements and even calculate mood. The point seems to be that you could interact with a computer without actually touching it. This would be invaluable in an operating room, for example, where sterility must be maintained. Sort of like Natal on the Xbox, apparently. Despite what they’re saying the camera tracking is capable of, Sony is making it look like a glorified Microsoft Surface. Check out the story link above to see the demo video.

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Posted 10/29/09 at 09:40:46 AM by Paul Lilly

Here's a recall you don't see very often. Sony, in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, announced a voluntary recall of some AC adapters in use on certain all-in-one Vaio desktops and Vaio docking stations.

According to the safety notice, faulty insulation inside the AC adapter can fail over time, which then poses an electrical shock hazard. So far there have been four reports of the affected adapters short circuiting, none of which occurred in the U.S., but no one has been injured.

The recall affects AC adapter model VGP-AC19V17. These were supplied with certain all-in-one Vaio desktops (VGC-LT series and VGC-JS2 series) and Vaio docking stations (VGP-PRBX1 and VGP-PRFE1) sold through various outlets between September 200 through October 2009.

If you have one of these adapters, Sony advises turning off the PC and unplugging it right away. You can contact Sony for a replacement either by calling 877-361-4481, or by visiting the firm's website at esupport.sony.com/ac19adapter.

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Posted 10/27/09 at 06:21:51 PM by Jason Barry

There aren’t tons of details about what Sony is alluding too, but they have outwardly admitted to U.S. antitrust investigations. Antitrust regulators are taking a closer look at Sony's optical disk drive operations.

Sony Optiarc America, in particular, produces the Sony line of optical disk drives for DVD, CD, and Blu-ray media formats and is the focus of the investigation. Sony didn’t hint to which products are of interest, but if you like to follow the gossip circles (or have a bit of common-sense) it is likely something to do with Blu-ray.

Blu-ray’s prices have yet to see the traditional price declination expected from a hot technology that has been released over three years ago. In fact, prices have remained steady over that time despite HD-DVD disappearing from the picture.
 
Further, the technology hasn’t skyrocketed in popularity the way Sony expected and antitrust investigations are not likely to help that process along.

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Posted 10/19/09 at 09:58:46 AM by Paul Lilly

Boy oh boy has 3D technology come a long way since the advent of those horrendous blue and red glasses that are still around today. Taking the technology to a new level, Sony says it has developed a 360-degree 3D display, which it plans to show off during Tokyo's Digital Content Expo 2009 this Thursday.

Sony says no goofy glasses are required to view the stereoscopic, 24-bit color image, which measures just 96 x 128 pixels. The image is viewable from all angles, but Sony didn't say if you'll be able to see the side of the image, depending on where you're oriented in relation to the display.

It's just a novelty at this point, but as research and development continues, Sony said it could see this technology being used as a 3D photo frame or in videophones.

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Posted 10/08/09 at 06:47:52 PM by Jason Barry

Sony is accepting pre-orders for its newest laptop, the Sony Vaio X Series. Though most would consider this a “netbook” solution due to its hardware, it might be one of the snazziest, albeit most expensive, looking netbooks on the market.

Sony managed to cram an 11.1” widescreen, up to 2GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD and a 2GHz Intel Atom processor into a half-inch body weighing 1.6 pounds. They piled up some extras too: internal Verizon Mobile Broadband, GPS, webcam, and memory card readers. Oh, did I forget to mention, you could get up to 14 hours of use out of the included, extended battery (up to 3.5 hours with the standard).

No doubt, the extended battery increases the size and weight of the book, but all-things-considered it may be worth it to be that long without a power cable.

The price tag is steep (starts at $1299) for netbook-grade performance. You can check out more pics and pre-order your own at the Sony Style site. Is the X Series too rich for your blood?

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Posted 10/03/09 at 06:04:20 PM by Justin Kerr

Countless standards exist for sending data over the air, but even devices that are designed to be 100 percent wireless end up needing to be plugged in eventually. Sure some gadgets like the Palm Pre allow for wireless charging via electromagnetic induction, but somehow the milliamps required to accomplish this just isn’t as impressive as Sony’s latest demonstration which showed a 22-inch LCD being powered wirelessly using a source that was almost 20 inches away.

Currently they are calling the technology “magnetic resonance”, and it works by transferring energy between two coils using a magnetic field. By tuning the coils to the same resonant frequency, energy can be moved safely, even when the two coils are not aligned. It also allows them to keep metal objects that get in the way from heating up.

Early tests show both the promise, and the limitations of this new technology. Currently the power transfer is only 80 percent efficient, and with a range of only 20 inches, they clearly still have some work to do before this goes mainstream. The announcement which was made on Friday was only to demonstrate their progress, and it will likely still be several years before anything like this starts appearing in commercial products.

Okay, so this isn’t a testla coil, but are you comfortable with the idea of electricity being wireless?

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Posted 10/01/09 at 12:18:54 AM by Pulkit Chandna

Sony will now bundle PSP-compatible Digital Copy movie files with select Blu-ray titles. Both the high definition version and the Digital Copy for the PSP will coexist on a single Blu-ray disc. Sony was shipping Digital Copy files on a separate DVD-ROM disk till now. This announcement may not transport everybody into a state of ecstasy because not everyone possesses the desiderata for making this news worthwhile.

To transfer the Digital Copy file from the Blu-ray disc to a PSP, it is necessary that you also own a PS3. Godzilla and The Ugly Truth have been announced as the first Blu-ray titles to have this feature. In related news, the PSP GO is just hours from its tepidly-to-much-awaited launch.

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Posted 09/21/09 at 07:40:52 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Although, earlier this year, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology mandated that the vaguely named “Green Dam Youth Escort” web filtering software be bundled with all new PCs, including the imported ones, it later postponed the July 1 deadline before eventually scrapping its edict last month.

Now all remaining major PC manufacturers have stopped bundling the software with their PCs, with the announcement that Sony, Lenovo and Acer will no longer be bundling the controversial software.

However, it is still mandatory for those administrating public use computers to have Green Dam Youth Escort installed on such machines. But one unnamed Chinese high school is said to have flouted the government’s order by deleting the software from its computers. It is not often that China offers obeisance to outside pressure.

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