Technabob » sony

Sony Cybershot DSC-TX200V: 18.2 MP, 1080p/60 Video, and Covered in Glass

Range — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:00:13 +0000

You got to hand it to Sony, they do occasionally release some really cool products, like this new Sony Cybershot DSC-TX200V which was just announced. It’s a compact camera that sports the highest resolution for a point-and-shoot camera yet. It’s also sandwiched between glass plates, so it does look quite fetching.

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]

Steampunk Sony VAIO F Goes Back to the Victorian Era

Technabob — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:00:07 +0000

Is your laptop feeling too modern and shiny for you? Why not give it a retro redo? With the eCog Mercury mod, you can give your Sony VAIO a serious steampunk makeover, and send your 21st century gadget all the way back to the 19th century.

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.

Sony Dot Switch Looks Awesome, Even Though We Don’t Know What It Is

Shane McGlaun — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:57 +0000

Sony is teasing some mysterious new tech over on Youtube called “Dot Switch.” The tease video shows someone with a Sony Xperia smartphone in hand and a big round dot on the front of the touchscreen. That big dot on the smartphone allows the user in the video to turn on various things in the room.

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.

55-inch Sony Crystal LED Display Has 6 Million LEDs, Looks Spectacular

Shane McGlaun — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:13:47 +0000

I’m still rocking a several year-old plasma TV and thinking it might be time to step into a the normal LCD/LED backlit era. Now, Sony has already gone beyond that. The company has unveiled the next generation in LED TVs at CES and it is called the Crystal LED Display. The screen has the ultimate in display technology – an individual LED dot for each pixel and color.

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.

PSP Outsells PS Vita in Japan

Conner Flynn — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:00:27 +0000

Just the other day we told you how Sony’s PS Vita had been selling pretty well over in Japan, but it turns out, that’s not the whole story. The PS Vita has been available in Japan since December 17, but now after only its second week on sale, Sony’s last generation handheld, the PSP, is outselling it.

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 Sells 300,000 PS Vita Handhelds in Two Days in Japan

Conner Flynn — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:00:31 +0000

Sony’s PS Vita portable gaming system went on sale in Japan on Saturday, and as you might expect, it’s selling quite well. Sony says that it has already sold over 300,000 of the portable consoles in just the first two days after launch. Regardless, Sony had hoped the numbers would be better.

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 Offers North America Early Hands-On with PS Vita

Technabob — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:30:57 +0000

Want to check out the new Sony PS Vita, but don’t can’t stand to wait until February 2012? If you happen to live in the greater Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta or Washington DC areas, you’re in luck.

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.

PS Vita Multitasking Limitation: No Web Browsing During Games

Conner Flynn — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:00:54 +0000

We have some new PS Vita news for you today if you are among those who have been salivating over the portable console. When the new PS Vita launches, you will not be able to play games and browse the Internet at the same time. This is a bit strange since you can multitask with other services like music and Twitter.

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]

Sony Makes Their Own Holodeck (with Projection Mapping)

Technabob — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:38:09 +0000

Using a variety of visual tricks, including projection mapping, props, and motion-tracking, Sony managed to create some of the most mind-blowing visual illusions I’ve ever seen on video, bringing to life a sort of virtual “holodeck” for us to feast our eyes on.

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.

PS Vita Gets Coming Soon Trailer, Doesn’t Tell Us Anything

Conner Flynn — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 20:00:30 +0000

If you are still waiting for the PS Vita and drooling over it, Sony has released a new commercial for the impending launch of their portable gaming console. Amazingly, unlike others before it, this new spot actually shows more of the PS Vita, but is less informative. It’s not much, but it should help ease your wait a little.

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]

Sony Cuts Playstation Game Sharing

Conner Flynn — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 18:00:48 +0000

You know the old saying, “Sharing is caring”? Apparently, Sony doesn’t see it that way. Even though many of you like sharing your PlayStation games with friends. Sadly, those in the UK will now be limited to sharing games and content with no more than two PS3 consoles and two handheld consoles.

The change only applies to games and content bought on the PlayStation Store after November 18th and right now only affects gamers based in the UK, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and the Middle East. It’s a good bet that these limits will show up elsewhere very soon too.

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]

PlayStation Credit Card Awards 10x Points for PSN Purchases, No Word on Trophy Support

Lambert Varias — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:00:30 +0000

If you’re a frequent customer of Sony, especially the PlayStation Network, here’s a piece of plastic that will help your purchasing habits work in your favor. The electronics giant teamed up with Capital One to release an updated PlayStation credit card. Like other credit cards, you’ll earn points for every purchase, but if you use the card to buy from the PSN, you’ll earn 10 times more points, which you can redeem for Sony gadgets, PS games and accessories.

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]

Skyrim + PS3 Save Bug = Lots of Lag

Conner Flynn — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:00:55 +0000

If you just got Skyrim for the PS3, you might want to hold off on playing the game until Bethesda releases a patch. This is because players are reporting that not only are they losing saved games, but as you progress through the game, you get more and more lag.

It apparently lags so badly at times that you have to stop playing. One temporary fix is to restart your PS3. Once you do, it will give you about an hour of play before the lag returns. The culprit may be the size of the saved game on the PS3′s hard drive. When it gets bigger than 5MB, the lag kicks in.

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 PSN to Shutdown for Six Hours at Night in South Korea, for the Kids

Conner Flynn — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:00:39 +0000

Sony Computer Entertainment Korea has announced that they will be taking PSN offline for underage players in South Korea. This is due to a Shutdown Law in South Korea that prevents underage players from gaming for a six hour period at night. It’s news like this that makes me happy that I live in America, despite the fact that authorities occasionally like to beat those who exercise their First Amendment rights. Hey, at least we have PSN at night. Win?

This South Korean law was originally meant for online PC games, but it includes consoles as well. Who knows, maybe board games will be next. These poor kids might actually have to sleep. The idea is that it will help kids avoid getting addicted to gaming. From midnight until 6 in the morning there will be no gaming.

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]

Sony UMD Passport for PS Vita Lets You Play Your Old UMD Games (for a Price)

Conner Flynn — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:00:45 +0000

Are those old UMD discs sitting around collecting dust? Fear not, Sony has plans to launch a UMD Passport for the PS Vita handheld console once it launches. Basically gamers who have large libraries of UMD games from previous PSP models will need to sign up for access to the new UMD Passport. But it is still going to cost you something.

Once you have registered and Sony approves you, then you will need to download a free Registration UMD app that will allow you to insert the UMD and link to a PSN account to register that title. Next step is to re-purchase the title at a discounted price. Yep, you are going to get charged again for the same game.

This seems less about helping UMD owners and more about milking them. You may not be paying full price, but it’s still lame. You OWN the game after all. The discounted price is between £4 (~$6 USD) and £12 (~$19 USD) according to Sony Computer Entertainment Japan. Right now the UMD Passport supports about 200 games.

[via NeoGAF via Videogamer]

Sony Shows Off 720p HD OLED Microdisplay

Shane McGlaun — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 14:00:30 +0000

If you have ever owned a Sony NEX interchangeable lens camera or select Sony DSLR cameras, you have looked into the viewfinder and been staring at a tiny display rather than seeing what the lens actually sees. Sony has been using a tiny half inch ECX331A LCD that sports XGA (1024×768) resolution.

Sony has announced that it has a new screen that will find its way into future cameras that has much great resolution and is slightly larger than the old screen. The new screen is an OLED measuring 0.7-inches and called the ECX332A (Japanese PDF). The coolest part is that the screen has 720p (1280×720) resolution.

That means the tiny little OLED shows HD images giving you a lot more resolution to decide if what you are seeing in the photo you want. The new screen uses the same white OLED and color filters as the old one. Sony has offered no word on when the new screen will land inside a camera, but these appear to be the same displays found in their HMZ-T1 720p 3D head-mounted display.

[via OLED-Info]

Sony Grab the Ring Contest: Win $10,000, Lose All Feeling in Your Arm

Conner Flynn — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:15:47 +0000

Think you have what it takes to hold your arm up longer than everyone else? If so, you can win $10,000(USD). This is for real. Kevin Butler said so.

Sony has put up a website called Grab the Ring, which is part of a promotional contest for Uncharted 3.

Though it sounds like a website where gold-diggers can meet up and exchange stories about how they separated an old guy from his money, and got a pay-off when he took a dirt nap, that’s not it at all. Though I’m sure that also exists. On this website, you can activate your webcam and then hold up your arm as if holding the game’s thematic ring floating in the air. If you can outlast everyone else, you can get $10,000. If you don’t quite have what it takes to beat everyone else, you’ll still get some neat weapons and clothes for your in-game persona in multiplayer mode.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The first prize comes after just 15 seconds. After 4 minutes, players get the Treasure Hunter Starter’s Pack. If you are in it for hours, you can unlock some weapons. You’ll see trailers for the game in the background and Kevin Butler will occasionally taunt you too.

For the ten grand, 8:45 is the current time to beat. 8 long hours, 45 minutes. Seems crazy, but then again we are talking $10,000(USD) here. Too bad geeks have weak girl arms.

[via Geek]

PS3 Sales Could Overtake the Xbox 360 Soon

Conner Flynn — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:15:52 +0000

PS3 fans will be happy to know that PS3 sales are finally catching up to Microsoft’s XBox 360. Neither come close to Nintendo’s sales of 88.3 million Wiis, but hey, that console is for kids, so in my mind that doesn’t count.

Microsoft announced last month that it has sold 57.3 million Xbox 360s worldwide. While Sony just revealed that it’s sold 56 million PS3s, so just 1.3 million consoles separate them. And while that number by itself is pretty huge, keep in mind that last quarter, Sony sold slightly more consoles compared to the year before: 3.7 million compared to 3.5 million PS3s in the same quarter in 2010.

I can easily see Sony taking the lead thanks to strong titles like Uncharted 3, and free online play alone. They have some great momentum going. I think they have it made as long as they don’t do something to screw it up.

[MCV via Kotaku]

Limited Edition Playstation Vita Hard Case Announced

Conner Flynn — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:30:44 +0000

Sony has announced a new limited-edition PlayStation Vita case to be included in the First Edition PlayStation Vita bundle. This hard shell case will keep your PS Vita protected from falls, dust and moisture when you aren’t playing games.

It comes in the usual stylish black with PS Vita branding of course and if this sways you to buy right away, the First Edition PlayStation Vita bundle is now available to pre-order, and it will ship on February 15, 2012 – one week earlier than the general North American release. You’ll also get the Little Deviants game and a PSVita branded 4GB memory card for $349.99(USD), with a 3G /Wi-Fi console. The Canadian bundle offers just the Wi-Fi option but still includes the case and card for $300(USD).

Are you going to buy one of these bundles or just get the console by itself?

[via The Verge]

PS Vita May Launch Without Flash, Barry Allen Unavailable for Comment

Conner Flynn — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:00:35 +0000

There are a lot of good websites that still use Adobe Flash, but it looks like you may not be able to access them on your new PlayStation Vita. Not at launch anyway. Japanese magazine, Famitsu recently posted a FAQ for the PlayStation Vita, along with some browser specs and oddly enough, it doesn’t list Flash support.

It will run Javascript 1.7 and HTML5 though, and it is possible that we will see an update to enable Flash once it’s released. We hope so anyway. It also looks like “Game Archives” is absent, which means no PSOne classics or TurboGFX games for retro gamers. Sony has already contradicted this though, so I’m guessing that those features will arrive after launch in an update.

We will just have to wait and see, but I can’t imagine they would skip Flash altogether.

[via Siliconera via Thesixthaxis]