Technology Effect

Sony has remained coy on pricing for the Sony NGP, though it has dismissed concerns that the upcoming handheld will carry an extreme premium price tag. Speaking to GameInformer , SCEE president of worldwide studios Shu Yoshida confirmed that the NGP is “not going to be $599″ when reminded of the surprise many gamers experienced at the original launch of the PS3. “From the very beginning of the project — since 2008 — pricing was one of the considerations that we had” Yoshida explained. “Hopefully when we announce the price, people will see the proper value.” Currently Sony is refusing to discuss pricing in anything more than vague terms; even the name of the NGP is described as a temporary one, standing merely for next generation portable. News earlier that different SKUs of the NGP would offer 3G and WiFi-only variants also raises questions about ongoing subscription plans for the 3G-enabled models. Sony is yet to suggest whether it will be bundling some amount ...

The new PSP NGP will boast both 3G and WiFi connectivity, a five-inch multi-touch OLED display and run on an ARM Cortex-A9 core CPU. The new portable playstation system also incorporates a unique multi-touch pad on the rear, together with a front touch display panel.

Looks like Sony is preparing to freshen up the top end of its laptop range with a pair of new VAIO series, the SA and SB. An Intel Core i7-2620M is found populating a listing for an SA1X9E/XI model, alongside 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 128GB of SSD storage, AMD Radeon HD 6630M graphics, and a 1600 x 900 resolution squeezed into a 13.3-inch screen. All that for a measly £1,571 (nearly $2,500). What's intriguing about that 2.7GHz dual-core CPU is that Intel lists a February 20th launch date for it, potentially giving us a hint as to when Sony will put the trigger with its refresh. The VAIO SB laptops are set to be the tamer offering, being built around the latest Core i5 chips , though we've yet to know for certain what any of these new machines will actually look like. So, for your speculative pleasure, we've embedded a video after the break with some prototypes spotted at CES that could end up slapped with the SA / SB labels.

The Sony NGP isn’t the company’s only gaming announcement; there’s also the PlayStation Suite, a new download store and licensing program that promises to bring PlayStation gaming to Android devices. The PS Suite combines a new PlayStation Store for Android 2.3 devices and above – and which will be initially populated with PSOne classic titles – and a development program for coders to produce their own titles for inclusion in that store. The NGP will also be able to access the PS Store and use the same games as Android devices. While Sony isn’t announcing any specific titles or handsets that will use it, we’re assuming that the PlayStation Phone aka XPERIA Play will make its official debut at MWC 2011 next month, and be the first Android 2.3 device to get access once it launches. There’ll also be a PlayStation Certified licensing scheme for hardware manufacturers, which presumably will apply not only to smartphones themselves but to accessories; after all, not all devi...

With Nintendo crowing about its 30+ title expectations for the 3DS launch, you couldn’t expect Sony not to do some gloating of its own about the studios signed up to work on Sony NGP titles. Altogether there are 82 companies worldwide committed to the new quad-core console, including big names like Square Enix, Capcom, Ubisoft and Rockstar games. Japan, unsurprisingly, has the most participation, with a full 48 companies already onboard. North America and Europe/PAL bring 16 and 18 to the table respectively. There’s nothing like a full list of titles at the moment, but Sony did wheel out Little Big Planet, Killzone, Uncharted and Resistance at their NGP launch event. Of course, that’s just the list as of January 27 2011, and with the NGP not expected to reach the market until the end of the year we’re expecting to see more developers jump on board – not just with the NGP but with Sony’s new PlayStation Store for Android devices. Given that should allow a single title to...

  Universal and Sony Music, the big two recording labels in the entire music business world, are working together in the UK on a new way to combat music piracy with “Instant Pop” – and it doesn’t sound bad at all (and that’s a big stretch). The plan revolves around releasing its songs that debuts on radio stations on iTunes and other digital distribution outlets – a “on air, on sale” policy – allowing fans of the track to download the song right now, rather wait for six weeks before it is out on the same outlets. “Wait is not a word in the vocabulary of the current generation. It’s out of date to think that you can build up demand for a song by playing it for several weeks on radio in advance,” Chief Executive of Universal Music, David Joseph, told the Guardian newspaper. “What we were finding under the old system was the searches for songs on Google or iTunes were peaking two weeks before they actually became available to buy, meaning that the public was bored o...

PlayStation 3 hackers have been hit with a lawsuit from Sony for publishing details of how to bypass the security features on its game console. Sony claims that disclosing this information has caused "irreparable injury and damage" to the company because it now allows people to run pirated games on the PS3. The PS3 was once considered invulnerable and the most secure games console ever built. It was the only one to have consistently withstood hacking attempts. But in December 2010 at the Chaos Communication Conference in Berlin a group of European programmers calling themselves fail0verflow revealed they had finally broken specific lower levels of the PS3's encryption system that let them run their own programs on the console.Shortly after this, George Hotz, a US-based hacker known as geohot, who gained notoriety in 2007 for unlocking Apple's iPhone, built on fail0verflow's method to gain complete access to the PS3 by obtaining the master ...

Sony today unveils four new Cyber-shot™ digital still cameras incorporating new technologies that make these cameras capable of capturing spontaneous DSLR-like quality still images, stunning 3D photos and high-quality Full HD videos      Sony has designed four new innovative 16.2-megapixel Cyber-shot™ cameras (models DSC-TX10, DSC-HX7V, DSC-WX10 and DSC-WX7) that are the world’s first compact digital still cameras to include 3D Still Image™ mode, for taking 3D images using only one lens and imager. In addition the WX10 is one of the only digital still cameras to include a high speed linear focus feature that provides quicker, more precise focusing that’s comparable to the speed of a DSLR camera. Advanced Video Capture The DSC-TX10, DSC-HX7V, DSC-WX10 and DSC-WX7 cameras record crystal-clear movies at 50i in 1080 AVCHD. Separate buttons are provided for shooting video and stills, and ‘Dual Rec’ mode allows simultaneous capture of crisp still images...

  Sony announced at CES that it is putting 3-D on just about every visually related product it makes, with a full line of 3-D point-and-shoot cameras, 3-D camcorders, 3-D laptops and someday 3-D screens that sit inches away from your eyes. The electronics giant touted its product line for 2011, "a year in which 3-D becomes personal," with presentations by Sony executives, led by Chief Executive Howard Stringer at a news conference at the Las Vegas Convention Center as a part of the Consumer Electronics Show. And Sony isn't just hoping you'll buy its 3-D movies and watch its 3-D TV channel -- called 3Net and launching in three months with assistance from the Discovery Channel and Imax -- it's hoping you'll make some 3-D content of your own, with its products of course. Glasses will be required to see the 3-D images on Sony's Vaio F Series laptop, as well as the video and photos captured by its Cyber-Shot cameras.  However,...

London: Electronics giant Sony has launched what is being billed as the world''s first television with a screen which can be tilted backwards, which the company says is optimum for comfortable viewing. Apparently, a slight backwards lean of six degrees is now the best position for a TV set as many of us mount modern flat-screens on furniture a foot or two above the ground. The new range can be slotted into the tilting position to achieve what its makers say is the optimum picture, as we slump down on our plush, comfortable sofas. It comes as design experts say we are increasingly choosing glossy, shiny TV screens which complement our homes' style even when they are switched off, reports the Daily Mail. The 'Monolithic' TV screens, priced at 1,300 pounds for a 40-inch screen, are available in state-of-the art 3D models, and can either be set up vertically or slotted to a six-degree backwards lean. "Most people don't put their televisions at w...

Sony is aiming at a 40 per cent share of the camera market by 2010-11 against a 35 per cent slice of the market now, Sony India Senior General Manager Sunil Nayyar said. He was here to launch the NEX 5 and NEX 3 series, which he claimed to be the world's smallest and lightest interchangeable lens digital camera. “They narrow the gap between professional and consumer segments.” Mr. Nayyar also said that Sony's digital camera sale was poised to jump from Rs.600 crore now to Rs.900 crore in fiscal 2011, when the company plans to sell 40,000 units. Camera, LCDs and laptops constitute the three main segments of the company's business. He said that while the market share increased by about two per cent during last fiscal, a five per cent incremental share was achievable in the current fiscal. The Indian camera market is valued at Rs.1,750 crore and is expected to touch Rs.2,250 crore in 2011-12. While 2.5 million units were sold in 2009-10, the figure is projected t...

Sony to take on iTunes, launches Qriocity Bangalore: Sony is all set to come up with a video and music streaming service in five European countries including Britain this autumn. This step taken by Sony is a challenge to Apple iTunes store, reports Salil Goyal of WATBlog.com. Qriocity will deliver video, music, games and e-books for use on Sony devices including TVs, the PlayStation 3 and Vaio computers. The company announced at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin that the service will be available via Sony's Bravia TVs, the PlayStation 3 game console, Blu-ray DVD players and Vaio personal computers. Another area where Qriocity would compete with iTunes is that, it is based on cloud. "Services powered by Qriocity will revolutionize the way that users play, listen, watch, share, communicate, learn, discover and create their digital entertainment content," said Chairman and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Kaz Hirai. Qriocity will enable users to dow...

Sony launches VAIO E series notebooks Bangalore: Sony India has launched new VAIO E series notebooks with vibrant colors. The new E series comes in a number of screen sizes and configurations. These new VAIO E series notebooks would be available in 14-inch and 15.5-inch screen sizes. Major attraction of these new VAIO E series laptops would be gradient color pattern that looks attractive in Brown, Black, Pink, White, and Green. New Sony VAIO E series notebooks are bifurcated into EA series comprising of 14-inch models while EB series comprise of 15.5-inch models. These models claim to support full HD with 1366x768 pixel resolutions. The VAIO E series notebooks will come loaded with Intel Core i3 and Core i5 microprocessors - depending on the models that customers choose. Pre-loaded with Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium operating system these notebook models would hold up to 4GB RAM and up to 500GB HDD storage. For better graphics, Sony will offer choosing ATI's discrete Mobility...

535,000 Sony Vaio PCs may overheat Tokyo: Sony recently said that about 535,000 units of its "Vaio" brand personal computers globally may be in danger of overheating and that it has provided software on its website to eliminate the problem. The company said in a statement that there have been 39 overheating cases in total, all reported outside Japan. Some of these have resulted in damage to computer bodies, but no burn injuries have been reported. Some of Sony's F and C series Vaio PCs made in January this year and some custom-made models from the same series have been affected, the firm said. A Sony spokeswoman said the company has not estimated possible costs stemming from the problem.