These ear plugs were made by deviantART member Marcus Hermansson. For those of you interested, unfortunately he’s not interested in selling them. Maybe you can one-up him and plug actual parts from consoles into your lobes. +1 if you can fit an entire console in there.

Head to Hermannson’s gallery at deviantART for high resolution images, including a picture of his LED plugs, which lets him see in the dark as long as he swings his head from side-to-side.

[via Sprite Stitch]

The game will have characters such as Sweet Tooth, Kratos, Parappa, Fat Princess, Colonel Radec, and Sly Cooper. The game will also feature characters from games published by third-party developers. Each of the characters will have special attacks and stages along with music smashed up from various game titles.

The game will feature four player head-to-head battles, and will have multiple game modes. Those game modes will include team battles, practice modes, and the ability to fight online against friends and other players. Online multiple player tournaments, special event battles, and custom matches are among the online features. Sony isn’t offering a launch date for the game at this time.

The SmartWatch is compatible with most Sony Xperia phones, as well as some Motorola, HTC and Samsung handsets. The full list of compatible phones is here. The watch connects via Bluetooth to your phone, allows you to accept and reject calls, mute the microphone, access social networking services, watch movies and play music stored on your phone.

The watch face is an 1.3-inch multitouch OLED screen with 128×128 resolution, capable of displaying 65,000 colors.The watch is a little bulkier than most, but not enough to really be a problem, and certainly no bigger than an iPod nano watch. You can also take the face off the strap and clip it almost anywhere.

The SmartWatch ships with a black wristband, but you can swap out colors to pink, mint, grey, white or blue as well. MSRP for the Sony SmartWatch is $149.99(USD), and you should be able to find one over on Amazon now.

[via TrendsNow]

The setup uses either NFC or RFID technology, along with chips embedded in devices; an ID embedded with the chip can be used to identify individuals. The connected devices can then be monitored and their access to electricity regulated remotely, as shown in the video below:

But what else will we be able to do in a world where sockets know who we are? An authenticated network of devices can make it easier to manage our power consumption. It can also lead to charging stations being more ubiquitous, whether for future electric cars on the road or just today’s mobile gadgets in public places like airports. Then again, it can also be used in nefarious ways, from gathering data on devices to denying access to a very fundamental commodity.

In any case, Sony knows that their concept needs industry-wide support in order to be implemented – it will take years and lots of resources to set up the smart outlets and convince manufacturers to install chips in their devices – so office slackers, grounded kids and conspiracy theorists don’t need to band together and rise up just yet.

[via Diginfo via Akihabara News]

The pins are all handmade and painted with enamel and gold finish. The featured controllers are from the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Dreamcast, Sega Genesis, SNES and of course the NES.

Supermandolini still sells these pins for €18 (~$24(USD)) each. Unfortunately, these pins are ultimately awarded to the quick shopper – they are limited edition products and as of this writing the NES, SNES and the PS3 pins are already out of stock, so claim your medal right away.

[via The Fancy]

Aside from the techie titillating pictures, iFixit’s teardown reveals that the Vita is a very repairable device. It’s mostly held together by common Philips #00 screws, although iFixit also used their plastic opening tool to pry open the case before they could access the battery (it’s the large silver slab that you see in both pictures). Still, it’s comforting to know that replacing the battery is a task that even newbies can do.

The PS Vita also has a modular design, so replacement parts should be cheaper. Except for the front plastic part, because it’s fused to the Vita’s OLED. iFixit even had to gently bake their Vita just to separate the front plastic from the rest of the frame. So when you get a Vita, be sure to take good care not just of the display but of the whole front cover as well.

Highlights include a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore CPU, a quad-core SGX543MP4+ GPU, 512MB RAM, 128MB VRAM, and of course that luscious 5-inch, 960 x 544 OLED touchscreen and rear capacitive grid.

Head to iFixit for the whole teardown and details of what they found inside.

But this camera doesn’t just look good, it’s actually got some impressive specs. The DSC-TX200V has an Exmor 18.2 megapixel CMOS sensor, and it can shoot 1080p video at 60 fps. It’s got a 3.3-inch 921k resolution touchscreen, a 5× optical zoom as well as a 10× digital zoom, and has a BIONZ processor to reduce noise. The camera is even waterproof up to 16 feet. It’s also dust resistant and you can use it in temperatures as low as 14°F.

Sony has also included a dual-record function that lets you capture still images will videotaping. It’s also got a built-in GPS and compass which can record photo location data. The camera weighs a pocket-friendly 4.6 oz, and comes in silver, red and violet.

The only real problem I can see with this camera is its price – the DSC-TX200V will retail for a rather spendy $500(USD) when it hits stores this March. It’s available for pre-order now over at the Sony Store.

[via designboom]

Designer John “Wilhelm” Dunn of the Victorian Steam Calculation Engine Company originally created this steampunk mod on commission for Sony, but is now selling the same thing as a mod for your own laptop. The primary components of the eCog Mercury include beautifully-finished birch plywood trim, retro key caps, and a grid of copper and steel “pipes” (actually wires and drawer pulls) and (non-functional) gauges which protrude from the back of the laptop’s display, which John refers to as his “boilerplate” design (also available as an iPad 2 or Nook Color case.)

The keyboard keys are encircled by solid brass bezels, and have translucent off-white keycaps which allow the keyboard’s backlighting to show through in the dark. The larger keys also have birch ply veneers, and the trackpad is surrounded by red fabric wrist rests.

If you want one of these, you’ll first need to go pick up a Sony VAIO F series laptop of your own. That’ll set you back between $1000 and $2500 (USD). Then, you’ll need the eCog mod, which costs another $1250. So this clearly isn’t a project for cheapskates. On the other hand, the end result is pretty spectacular, and I’m pretty sure even your pals with the sleekest new MacBooks will be jealous of your laptop when it’s done.

John is quick to point out that the design could be customized to your liking if you’d like to commission him to make additions or modifications to the design. Down the road, he even plans on building a steampunk goggle mod for the 3D glasses which work with the top-of-the-line VAIO Fs and other Sony 3D displays. You can see way more of John’s original mod in this video clip from Sony’s SGNL:

If you’re interested in the eCog Mercury mod for your VAIO F, head on over to Etsy for more details.

The video starts with an old record player being turned on with a press of the dot on the smartphone screen, then a Sony TV, and then confetti shooters. The last scene of the video is a robot arm pulling the dome off a tray with what appears to be a square box with a dot on it sitting inside.

Each of the devices that the smartphone turns on has a blue, glowing dot on it as well. What do you think about the tease? What do you think it’s for? Some sort of remote control software and accessories for the Xperia, or something totally different? Guess we’ll have to wait until Sony will give up the official goods on February 21 on this website.

Sony is using a red, green, and blue LED for each of the corresponding pixels on the screen. That means that the 55-inch prototypes it’s showing off at CES each have about 6 million LEDs to generate a 1080p image. The tiny LEDs are mounted directly to the front of the display. The contrast is said to be so high that it can’t be measured.

The TV also promises some very intense colors and perhaps the most awesome image quality ever. The LED tech allows the set to have a 1.4 times wider color gamut than conventional backlit LCD screens. There is no word on when the tech will come to market or how much it will cost. You can count on it taking a long time and being expensive when it lands though.

That’s not the only bad news. The 3DS, Wii, and PS3 sold more units in the run up to Christmas. The launch weekend saw the PS Vita sell 324,859 units, then there was a surprising drop between December 19-25 where it only sold 72,479.

To give you an idea, the PSP sold 101,121 units for the same period. Some drop is typical after the initial offering, but not like this. The 3DS sold 482,200 units during the PS Vita launch week and then only dropped to 357,691 sales last week. Things are not looking great for Sony so far, but only time will tell if the PS Vita can compete, especially with the impact that smartphones and tablets are having on the handheld gaming market.

[Andriasang via Geek]

Sony made 700,000 devices initially to meet demand in Japan during launch. Selling 321,400 devices isn’t bad at all, but Sony was hoping for sell-outs that would exceed demand.

When you compare the numbers to the original PSP, which had two-day launch sales of 166,000 in 2004, it looks like they are doing just fine. Especially when you consider how the portable gaming market has changed with the ubiquity of smartphones and tablets. Anyway, sales are bound to explode when the portable arrives in the US and Europe in February 2012.

[via Engadget]

Sony has arranged for you to be able to see the PlayStation Vita first-hand between now and December 30th, while you’re out doing your holiday shopping. Below is a list of locations where you can check out Sony’s next-gen handheld in person:

• Chicago: Gurnee Mills, 6170 West Grand Ave., Gurnee, IL
• Dallas: Grapevine Mills, 3000 Grapevine Mills Parkway, Grapevine, TX
• Los Angeles: PlayStation HQ, Third Street Promenade, 1228 3rd St., Santa Monica, CA
• Atlanta: Discover Mills, 5900 Sugarloaf Parkway, Lawrenceville, GA
• Washington, DC: Potomac Mills, 2700 Potomac Mills Circle, Prince William, VA

Games on hand for the demo tour should include Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Sound Shapes and Wipeout among others.

To refresh your memory, the PS Vita offers a large 5-inch OLED touchscreen with rear touch controls, front and rear cameras, dual analog sticks, Wi-Fi (and 3G options), as well as a blazing fast CPU/GPU which provides console-quality graphics in a handheld. Early reports are that the screen on these things are really a beautiful sight. We’re all so used to the smaller 2.5 to 4 inch screens on our smartphones and earlier handhelds, so a 5-inch OLED screen sounds pretty spectacular.

The PS Vita hits stores in Japan later this week, and should be landing at U.S. retailers on February 22, 2012, priced at $249.99 (USD) for the Wi-Fi version and $299 for the Wi-Fi/3G version.

You might remember that the PSP was the same way. You will have to exit your game and then start up your browser to see what’s on the web. Sony hasn’t confirmed this yet and it is speculated that support for the gaming/surfing multitasking will be released in an update at some point, but when it ships, it will lack this support.

I suppose it’s no big deal really. You usually don’t play games and surf the web at the same time. However, this feature would come in handy if you need to look up a cheat or a walkthrough when you’re stuck.

[via Andriasang via PlaystationLifestyle]

The series of three spots was produced on behalf of Sony Europe by Studio Output and Marshmallow Laser Feast to promote the immersiveness of movies rented or purchased from the PlayStation Store, and they definitely get the point across with these spectacular short clips. Incredibly, all three clips were shot in real-time, with zero edits or post-production. Everything you see was an optical effect seen through the lens of the camera. Michel Gondry would be proud. Watch, and see what I mean:

The scenes were created by projecting images onto various 3-dimensional surfaces, and then syncronized a variety of real-world props, booby traps, and triggers in the enviroment to move along with the scene changes. As you saw in the clips, live actors also helped move around various props and contrivances to help with the immersion. They shot the entire thing with a Steadicam, with several of PlayStation Move controllers strapped to it, as well as EyeToy cameras around the room in order automatically track motion and adjust the scene accordingly.

Now if only Sony could make a real holodeck, I’d buy one.

To refresh your memory, the new Sony PS Vita features a 5 inch, 16 million color 960 x 544 OLED multi-touchscreen, an ARM Cortex A9 processor, 512MB of RAM and 128MB of VRAM, and it also has two cameras.

The PS Vita will launch on February 22nd, 2012 with 11 new games available at launch. Do you still want one, or are you getting tired of waiting?

[via Kotaku]

Under these limits, a single PSN account will be able to support two consoles and two handhelds. Prior to this change, up to five different PlayStation consoles could be connected to a PSN account and used to play the same games.

[via BBC]

Owners of the now older version of the PlayStation credit card shouldn’t panic, as the new scheme is backwards-compatible – your accounts should automatically be upgraded to this new one. You can find out more info and apply for the card here. And someone tell Mr. Lee M. Cardholder that his account is not secure.

I wonder what will happen if you use it to buy an Xbox 360 game.

[via PlayStation Blog via Gearfuse]

Hopefully Bethesda will be able to fix this and still have peoples saved games be just fine. Still, it may be better to wait for a fix before playing, just in case.

[via Geek]

Sony and Microsoft have both said that it will be difficult to put the system in place in a short period of time, but as of the 18th of November, we know that Sony will be blocking access to PSN for those under 16, and will not allow new accounts to be made for underaged players.

Microsoft is a different story. They don’t collect age data for all of their players, so will have a hard time sorting out the underaged from the rest of their players. Microsoft may just completely shut down Xbox Live in South Korea during the shutdown time frame, in order to comply.

[via Kotaku via Ubergizmo]