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New Sony Unveils Home Cinema Systems With 4K Upscaling And More
As well as unveiling their new Personal Content Station Sony has also introduced a new range of home cinema systems that are equipped with 4K upscaling features.
The new Blu-Ray Home Cinema and Sound Bar speaker systems unveiled by Sony include features that their products have never been fitted with before, with the highlight being the 4K N-series Blu-ray Home Cinema system.
“With four times the resolution of Full HD, you’ll be blown away by immersive, ultra-lifelike picture quality that makes a night in front of the TV feel like a trip to the movies. It’s a great way to future-proof your Blu-ray Disc™ collection, all ready for upgrading to your first 4K TV.”
Another new feature of the range is a Sony’s Football Mode, which uses “acoustic data” captured from a Brazilian football stadium, and makes it feel like you’re actually there in the stands, watching the game. The new Football feature also supports other sports such as rugby, tennis, and racing.
“Made for sports fans, new Football Mode brings the excitement of the big match right home. Touch a button and cut the commentator’s voice when you want to focus on the action with no distractions.”
Unfortunately no information on pricing or worldwide availability has been released as yet, but as soon as information comes to light we will keep you updated as always.
Source: Sony
Limited Edition White PS3 Launches In Canada January 27th 2013
A stylish Limited Edition White PS3 console has been spotted over on the Canadian Best Buy website, which is set to launch in the country on January 27th 2013 and sports the latest PS3 Slim chassis.
The Best Buy white PS3 bundle comes with a year’s subscription of PS Plus, together with a 500Gb version of the PS3 Slim all available to pre-order for $300.
The Best Buy listing for the Limited Edition White PS3 explains: “The 500GB PS3 PS+ Bundle gives you everything you want: access to exclusive games; a built-in Blu-ray player for your HD movie collection; pristine picture quality delivered at 1080p; 500GB of memory housed in an incredibly light and quiet console; and built-in Wi-Fi. You also get a 1-year sub to PS+ – your instant access to a library of hit games, exclusive content, discounts and much more.”
Grab your now white PS3 Slim over at the Best Buy website now.
PlayStation 3 Hackers Leak ‘Master Key’ Custom Firmware Online
The reports are circulating that critical security information for Sony’s PlayStation 3 gaming console has been leaked online, making it much easier for games to play pirated games on the console if desired.
The leaking of the crucial security information for the PS3 is being compared to the leak of the consoles ‘master key’ says the BBC website, after Sony’s PS3 console has been hacked using custom firmware.
Its not the first time the PS3 has been hacked in such a way, but in the past Sony has always been able to release and update to correct the issues. But the latest hack released is a custom firmware enabling hacked consoles to log into PSN, alongside LV0 decryption keys which enable it to bypass future security updates, Sony might release.
The hacker News website explains: “The hacker group ‘The Three Tuskateers’ claims that they already had the keys for a while but decided not to publish them. The information also came into the hands of another Chinese hacking group called BlueDiskCFW which was about to release the Iv0 keys for a fee.”
For more information on the hack jump over to the Hacker News website.
Source: BBC
Bring the noise! Sony confirms HD Voice support for Xperia T
In the fast moving world of smartphones, giant HD displays just aren’t enough anymore. The new hot commodity in the land of mobile is “HD Voice.” Sure, the technology isn’t exactly brand new, but using it over post-3G high speed networks is. The selling point here is high quality noise cancellation, which allows a phone’s user to be heard clearly in the noisiest of environments. The latest device to hop on the bandwagon is Sony’s Xperia T. When describing this feature, the herculean consumer electronics maker got downright emotional saying, “you feel closer to the person you are talking to.” While we’re not too sure about that, HD Voice did impress during our ears-on session. The major caveat here is that this feature requires that both parties have HD Voice capable handsets. So, until this concept becomes more mainstream, Xperia T owners’ phone calls are likely to be close, but no cigar.
PlayStation Store redesign goes live in Australia, Europe and New Zealand with a rocky start
Sony vowed a long (long, long) overdue PlayStation Store remake starting this week, and it delivered just that today with launches in Europe as well as Australia and New Zealand. As promised, the PS3 shop’s cleaner design scales more elegantly from standard to high definition, brings more intelligent searching and makes it easier to find everything related to a given game. We still wouldn’t be too eager to dive in just yet, as there’s been hiccups early on — the sheer amount of traffic has reportedly brought the new store to a crawl, on top of teething issues with adding funds and recognizing PlayStation Plus memberships. Sony has promised fixes, but we’re suddenly not feeling so bad about having to wait for that October 23rd North American launch.
Sony VAIO Tap 20 And Duo 11 Arriving This Month
This week Sony has announced more details about its new Sony VAIO Tap 20 and Sony Vaio Duo 11 Windows 8 systems, including launch dates and pricing.
The new Sony Vaio Duo 11 sliding tablet Windows 8 system will be arriving later this month in stores for around $1,100, together with the Sony VAIO Tap 20, massive 20 inch tablet that will be priced at around $880.
The massive 20 inch Sony Vaio Tap 20 tablet is equipped with a 1600 x 900 pixel display, and is powered by an Intel Oct Bridge processor supported by 8GB of RAM, and comes with a removable battery and stand that allows you to lay the 20 inch screen flat on a surface when required.
The Sony Vaio Duo 11 sliding tablet pictured above, is fitted with a 11.6 inch 1080p touchscreen display, powered by a choice of Intel Ivy Bridge processors ranging from the i3 up to the powerful i7, all supported by up to 4GB of memory, and a fast access solid state disk (SSD)with 128GB of storage.
Source: Liliputing
Sony intros 17-inch VAIO E17 multimedia laptop, will offer the current E14P with a touchscreen
If you cried when Sony discontinued its performance-heavy VAIO F Series, it looks like the company’s marketing team heard your complaints: Sony just announced the VAIO E17, the closet thing it’s had to a proper multimedia machine since discontinuing the F line. As the name suggests, the E17 (pictured) has a 17-inch panel, which is good news for anyone who’s gone shopping for an oversized notebook lately — there simply aren’t that many non-gaming-laptops this size. As befits a system in this class, it has a 1080p screen, and can be configured with a quad-core Core i7 processor and discrete AMD Radeon HD graphics. Meanwhile, Sony also announced that it’s going to offer the existing VAIO E14P with a touchscreen — a $100 upgrade. Look for both of these to land before the end of the month, with the E14P starting at $690 (sans touchscreen) and the E17 going for $730 and up.
Sony announces 14-inch VAIO T14 Ultrabook, says it will offer the T13 with an optional touchscreen
In case you haven’t noticed, Sony just announced pricing for all sorts of touch-friendly Windows 8 products — namely, the VAIO Duo 11, Tap 20 and the E14P multimedia laptop. But not everything in the company’s lineup needs to have a touchscreen. The outfit just announced the VAIO T14, a reasonably priced 14-inch Ultrabook that you’ll have to use the old-fashioned way: with a keyboard and trackpad. So far as we can tell, it’s the same metal-and-plastic industrial design as the existing T13, except now the speakers sit above the keyboard, instead of on the front edge.
As you can imagine, the 14-inch version (pictured above) is a bit thicker and heavier than the 13-inch model (3.77 pounds, up from 3.54), which means the chassis is now wide enough to accommodate an optical drive. What’s slightly disappointing, though, is that while the T14 has a larger footprint, it doesn’t add any additional ports. As with the T13, you get two USB ports (one 3.0, one 2.0), HDMI output, an Ethernet jack, audio-out and a VGA socket. Another USB connection or two would’ve been nice, is all.
In addition to announcing the T14, Sony also revealed that it will start offering the T13 with an optional touchscreen — a $100 upgrade you can add during the configuration process. (Sony’s Japanese and UK divisions already announced a touch-enabled version of the T13, but until now it was unclear whether it would ever go on sale in the US.) As you might have guessed, that touchscreen adds a few ounces to the weight. The upside, though (aside from having a touchscreen, if that’s what you’re into) is that it has a prettier, edge-to-edge glass display — a definite improvement over that standard wide bezel. (Check out the shot after the break to see what we mean.) The T13 will continue to sell for $670 and up, with the touch option becoming available this month. The T14 will also go on sale in the coming weeks starting at at $670.
Sony VAIO SVL24129CJB: PC All-In-One con supporto 3D
Per tutti gli amanti dei PC AlL-In-One, Sony ha inserito in catalogo il nuovo VAIO SVL24129CJB, un computer che stando alle caratteristiche tecniche riscuoterà a nostro avviso un certo successo (prezzo permettendo). Il nuovo PC di casa Sony si presenta con un ottimo biglietto da visita, un display Touch Full-HD 1920×0180 con supporto alla tecnologia 3D, gestito da una schesa video GeForce GT 640M con due Gigabyte di Memoria.
La configurazione hardware prevede poi un processore Intel Ivy Bridge Core i7-3630QM, 8 GB di memoria Video, Hard Disk da 3TB, unità Bluray e Sistema Operativo Windows 8. Attualmente non abbiamo informazioni sulla disponibilità, il prezzo però sarà di circa 3000 dollari.
Sony Playstation 3 Super Slim Console Launch Increases UK Sales By 138 Percent
Since the launch of Sony’s latest PlayStation 3 Super Slim console, which it first announced back in the middle of September this year, and first appeared in UK stores on October 12th 2012 retailing between £180 and £200.
New figures released by UKIE and GfK Chart-Track data in the UK have revealed that since the launch of the PS3 Super Slim, Sonys sale of the PS3 have increased by a massive 138 percent last week.
The new 500GB model also accounted for 37 percent of all PlayStation 3 sales last week, which is helping Sony close the gab on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 sales,, which are roughly around 1.9 million in front of Sony at the moment. Lets hope the increased sales are not just a spike and continue through to the holiday period for Sony.
If you are interested in seeing inside Sony’s new PS3 Super Slim console, you might be interested in the teardown of the console carried out by the iFixit team today.
Sony PSN Day 1 Releases PS3 Digital And Disc Versions Simultaneously
Sony has this week announced that a new service will release eight PS3 title in both digital download and on disc on release day. Enabling gamers worldwide to chose which format they would prefer to purchase.
Throughout October Sony will release eight AAA tiles via the Playstation Network via the new program that is called PSN Day 1 Digital, more details on hte exact games can be found after the break.
Sony explains : “To celebrate the launch of this new program, we’re giving you access to participate in “digital game launches,” so you can get your hands on great games releasing in October, without having to leave home. We’re also giving you the chance to pre-order select games ahead of their release date and offering 10% discounts on a number of titles for PlayStation Plus members.”
Resident Evil 6 (Available for download on October 2nd – $59.99)
NBA 2K13 (Available for download on October 2nd – $59.99/$53.99 for PS Plus members, with pre-order)*
Dishonored (Available for download on October 9th – $59.99/$53.99 for PS Plus members, with pre-order)*
DOOM 3: BFG Edition (Available for download on October 16th – $39.99/$35.99 for PS Plus members, with pre-order)*
007: Legends (Available for download on October 16th – $59.99)+
Medal Of Honor: Warfighter (Available for download on October 23rd – $59.99)
Need For Speed: Most Wanted (Available for download on October 30th – $59.99/$53.99 for PS Plus members, with pre-order)*
Assassin’s Creed III (Available for download on October 30th – $59.99)*
Source: Sony
Sony PS Vita Cosmic Red And Sapphire Blue Consoles Unveiled
Sony has today unveiled two new editions of its new PS Vita handheld gaming console finished in Cosmic Red and Sapphire Blue to add a little colour to the PS Vita range.
The new red and blue PS vita editions will first be launching in Japan on November 15th, but unfortunately no information on pricing or worldwide availability has been released as yet. However when more information comes to light we will keep you updated as always.
To re-cap the PS Vita in any colour is equipped with ARM Cortex- A9 core (4 core) processor, together with a SGX543MP4+ graphics chip, and fitted with a 5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, 16 million colours, OLED multitouch screen capacitive display. Together with both front and rear camera and a rear touchpad to name just a few of outs features.
For more information jump over to the Sony PlayStation Vita website.
Source: Joystiq
Sony announces a slimmer PlayStation 3, launching this fall in black and white
A few years ago, Sony pulled the curtain back on a slimmed-down version of its PlayStation 3, and yet another Japan-only version since then. Today at the company’s pre-Tokyo Game Show press event, the latest rumored redesign to the PS3 was announced. The new duo gets even smaller in stature and will arrive in stores with both black and white offerings, available in 250GB and 500GB models. The “charcoal black” one is given a September 25th launch date for the 250GB bundle (with Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception Game of the Year Edition) and a $269.99 price tag, while the “classic white” model arrives on November 22 (at least in Japan — this is a TGS presser after all). For those looking for more storage space, the 500GB, charcoal-only option will be available on October 30th in conjunction with the Assassin’s Creed III release — no word on pricing just yet, though. Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House introduced the new model, calling it 50 percent smaller than the original (rather large) PS3, and 25 percent smaller than the slimmed-down version.
Hasselblad Lunar mirrorless camera hands-on
The Lunar has landed — at Photokina, at least. Hasselblad was showing off a slew of different designs for the forthcoming camera — and while we were told that its still in prototype mode (both from company reps and signage on the device itself), the camera seemed to be in mostly working order. The first thing you’ll notice, once you get past the space-age design, is the fact that the camera really does feel like a rebranded Sony NEX device slipped into a new shell, and as such, it takes those Sony e-mount lenses. And on the back, you’ll find that similar collapsible display.
That said, it really does feel quite nice in the hand — the device we played with had a leathery grip — there are a number of carbon fiber and wood options available, as well. All of this is punctuated by a metal top with large metallic knobs, and inside you’ll find an APS-C 24.3 megapixel sensor. The Lunar will start at €5,000 when it launches in Q1 of next year. And in case that’s not rich enough for your blood, you can tack a “significant” amount onto that by getting the models decked out in pricier materials.
Sony Unveils New X Headphones Backed by Simon Cowell
Sony has pulled the wraps off the new set of headphones called the Sony X Headphones. Headphones are designed to take on the Beats line of headphones, and have similar style. The headphones are expected to ship later this month and will be promoted during the TV show The X Factor.
The headphones will sell for $299 and they are collaboration with Synco Entertainment. Synco Entertainment is a collaboration between Simon Cowell and Sony Music Entertainment. The headphones feature a folding design come with a carry case.
The headphones also have a removable cord and the unit ships with two cables. When the cables a standard straight cable for listening to audio and the other has an integrated three-button remote control it works with Apple products such as the iPhone.
via CNet
Sony RX1 camera leaks with full-frame sensor in compact body, laws of physics slightly bent
Here’s something you probably didn’t expect: a compact Sony camera with a full-frame sensor. While Photoprice.ca was uncovering a treasure trove of leaked press shots that include the Alpha A99 and NEX-6, it also came across images of the RX1, whose body looks borderline pocketable yet stuffs in the same kind of sensor (and likely image quality) you’d normally reserve for pro-grade models. Several extra details reveal themselves right from the start. The RX1 is carrying a 35mm, f/2.0 lens with no apparent button to detach the lens — the included glass is probably as good as it’ll get. However, the RX1 is most definitely tuned for experienced shooters, with a toggle for macro focusing as well as dedicated controls for aperture and exposure compensation. We’re also liking that there’s a pop-up flash, a standard hot shoe for accessories and three custom settings on the mode dial. The slip doesn’t include mention of a release date or a price, but talk during the A99 slip mentioned a September 12th unveiling that wouldn’t shock us if it included multiple cameras — and we would be equally unsurprised if the RX1 carried the same high price commonly associated with other full-frame bodies.
Early benchmark scores are in for the Sony Xperia T, TX and V
We’ve already benchmarked the Galaxy Note II and the ZTE Grand X IN at IFA, and as the week wraps up we’re circling back to test the mettle of other handsets announced here in Berlin. We ran mobile benchmarks on Sony’s new flagship Xperia T, the Xperia TX (the US version of the T) and the LTE-enabled Xperia V. All three devices pack dual-core Snapdragon S4 Krait processors clocked at 1.5GHz, and they’re currently running Ice Cream Sandwich — though a Jelly Bean update is reportedly on the way. Meet us past the break for a first look at how these smartphones stack up.
Sony launches STR-DA5800ES home cinema AV receiver: true 4K output, 9.2 surround sound
Sony’s just launched a high-end home cinema receiver that’s finally good enough to pair up with its IFA-fresh Bravia KD-84X9005 TV or existing VPL-VW1000ES 4K projector. On top of native 4K for supported displays, the receiver will upscale standard HD movies, promising greater color, contrast and detail. For audiophiles, the system has 9.2 channels of surround sound for so-called Front High and Surround Back speakers, on top of the standard 5.1 speaker setup. A feature called “Movie Height” enables the sound to be virtually adjusted up or down to better match the screen position, and acoustics can be selected to match famous concert halls like those in Vienna or Berlin. Finally, you can take advantage of all that Hi-Fi and display tech by streaming from your laptop, smartphone or tablet through a LAN hub on the receiver. There’s no availability or pricing yet, but if you’re not too concerned about that money stuff, check the PR for the rest of the story.
Sony Xperia Tablet S hands-on (video)
Sony officially launched its new tablet here at IFA — and it’s keeping that folded-over profile. Happily, it’s running Android ICS. We’ve just spent some time with the Xperia Tablet S here in Berlin and it’s looking like Sony wants this to be the center of your media-consuming world. The new tablet pals up with the company’s range of phones, bearing that familiar Xperia branding on a freshly hewn metal slab. Yes, the new tablet sidesteps the plastic build of Sony’s last two tablets going for a solid metal build. Fortunately, it feels just as light in the hand, while that folded design also remains well-balanced. We’re particularly pleased with the tactile finish on the folded-over surface of the tablet — it’s very grippable. Internally, we’re dealing with a quad-core Tegra 3 processor, while a 10-inch 1,280 x 800 IPS display will be showing off all that media and gaming content. Browse our gallery of images below and check out our hands-on video and first impressions after the break.
Sony’s 84-inch 4K Bravia KD-84X9005 hits the IFA show floor, we go eyes-on
As ever, Sony’s IFA press conference was a veritable storm of products, but CEO Kaz Hirai was clearly the most excited about the company’s new 84-inch 4K TV, the Bravia KD-84X9005, and after beholding the thing for a bit alongside a scrum of fellow tech journalists in Sony’s booth at IFA, it’s pretty clear why. The thing is beautiful — and yeah, we can confirm, as Kaz suggested, that you really do want to stick out your hand and touch the picture when you’re standing in front of it, particularly, when the video cycles through images of the ocean, with water droplets hitting the screen.
At 84 inches, this thing is a beast, with at least a dozen or so folks standing comfortably around it to catch a glimpse of the display. The Bravia is surprisingly thin for such a beast. There are speaker bars attached to either side of the display, with a control panel along the bottom. The stand consists of two metal bars holding up what’s surely a weighty set. Check out our eyes-on video after the break.
