Sony Should Say Sayonara
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Reuters reported on Monday that Japanese electronics titan Sony (NYSE: SNE) may pull out of the market for plasma flat-panel television sets by as early as spring 2005.
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(InfoWorld) - Nothing's worse than delays when you're waiting for a hot new gadget. Just ask the tens of thousands of people who queued up all night for the PlayStation 3 when it made its global debut here in Japan Nov. 11. The console had originally been due out in the early part of the year but was held up by several problems. Judging by the lack of stock in stores, it's still difficult for people who want one to do so before the end of the year holidays. So it's nice to see Panasonic living up to the promise it made at this year's Ceatec show with the HDC-SD1 camcorder. This small-size high-definition video camera records straight to an SD card. If you hate dealing with tapes but want home movies in high-def glory this might be just the thing .... if you can afford it. By comparison, you could pick up three PlayStation 3 consoles for the price of this camcorder, assuming you can get your hands on them! Panasonic HD Camcorder The HDC-SD1 from Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.Â (Panasonic) records AVCHD-format video directly to a SD (Secure Digital) memory card. A 4GB memory card, which costs around $200, can accommodate about 90 minutes of video when recorded at 6Mbps. The video is 1080i (1,080 horizontal lines, interlaced scanning), which is just below the 1080p (progressive scanning) system judged to be the highest of several video quality levels that fall within the high-definition bracket. It also has a 3CCD (charge coupled device) sensor behind the lens. It goes on sale in Japan in December for Â¥180,000 ($1,527) with a bundled 4GB card. Overseas launch plans have not been announced. Kenwood Media Keg Kenwood Corp.'s Media Keg provides yet more evidence that music players will get smaller and smaller until we can't see them anymore. The device, which has the snappy HD10GB7 model name, contains a 10GB hard-disk drive, measures just 44mm by 62mm by 17mm, and weighs 78 grams. It has a 1.5-inch OLED (organic light emitting diode) display on its front with a small keypad positioned directly under the display. You can play MP3, WAV and Windows Media audio files including those with Windows Media DRM10 digital rights management. It will go on sale in Japan in early December for around Â¥40,000 ($344) and while no international launch plans have been announced, the on-screen menu supports Japanese, English, French, Italian, German, Dutch, and Spanish. TurboLinux Wizpy TurboLinux, perhaps best known for its Linux operating system, has a new MP3 player that is sure to interest geeks everywhere. The Wizpy does all the kinds of things you'd expect from a music player these days -- MP3, AAC, Ogg, JPEG images, and Divx videos -- and has a surprise: A partition with an install of the TurboLinux Fuji operating system. This means you can hook this up to a PC's USB port and boot into Linux and access installed applications. TurboLinux advertises it as your own OS in the palm of your hand and it certainly looks that way. The Wizpy will be out in Japan in February with no word yet on availability in other markets. There's no word yet on price. It weighs just 60 grams, which makes it lighter than most cell phones. Toshiba 8GB SD Card Hot on the heels of Panasonic's SD Card camcorder (see above) comes word from Toshiba that it will soon begin sellingÂ an 8GB high-speed SD (Secure Digital) memory card. The card will be available in January and supports the "class 4" high-speed data writing specification. Toshiba's new card should be able to hold about three hours of high-definition video from the Panasonic camcorder. The card will cost about Â¥40,000 ($340) in Japan. It will go on sale in Japan, North America, and Europe in early January. NEC Tough Laptop Drop it, freeze it, drench it -- do whatever you want to thisÂ new laptop from NEC. Well, almost anything. The "Shield Pro" FC-N21S laptop can withstand dust, extreme temperatures (between -20 and 50 degrees Celsius), water and drops of up to 90 centimeters -- just make sure that the machine is switched off and the lid is closed. The convertible-type PC has a 12.1-inch touch panel LED-backlit screen and runs on an Intel Core Solo processor at 1.2GHz. It will be available in January for between Â¥250,000 and Â¥300,000 ($2,165 and $2,600). A model with an 8GB solid state disk made up of flash memory chips will also be available. IOData Bath-proof HDD So, you're in the tub and have an urgent need to back-up data? Not to worry, IOData Device Inc.'s latest hard-disk drive is just the thing. There's a 1-inch hard-disk drive inside the case, which is waterproof and shockproof to one meter. Connection is via USB 2.0. There are two versions, one with 8GB of capacity and one with 12GB, and both will be available in Japan in mid-December for Â¥15,700 and Â¥21,000 respectively. IOData didn't announce international launch plans. R&D Corner: Samsung develops thinnest LCD Holding out the promise ofÂ even thinner cell phones, Samsung ElectronicsÂ said it has developed a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen that is no thicker than a credit card. The panel is 0.82mm thick and means, according to the company, that manufacturers will be able to trim up to 2.4mm from the thickness of a cell phone. That's good news for consumers looking for slimmer and sleeker handsets. The LCD panel should be in production in the second half of 2007 so will likely turn-up in cell phones late next year or in 2008. Â
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Someone at Sony has wisened up and decided to add MP3 support to their new NW-HD3 player slated for release in December. &quot;Sony is broadening support for the MP3 file format in its portable music player range.
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The next game controller could be your gray matter. Also: Online bells and whistles for the PS3.
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Tycho: This thing is pretty huge. I don't mean in terms of kilobytes - I mean it's packed tight with powerful features. Upscaling of content has been in demand, and it's been delivered. Like the 360 Elite, you need to be hooked up via a managed connection (i.e., HDMI) to upscale a DVD. Past that, it will knock up your old PS/PS2 games to 1080p, but the results we've gotten here haven't been supernatural - still appreciated, though.The real flavor is elsewhere: specifically, the ability to stream video, pictures, and music from "a DLNA compliant device," which you'll find just about every computer already is. That's only half of it. The Remote Play option of the PSP (the one that lets you enjoy certain types of content stored on your PS3 via your PSP) is deeply enriched by this capacity. You can do this much already. But with the next update for the Playstation Portable - 3.50, to be released before the end of the month - you'll be able to access your PS3 remotely via any wireless connection. I must say, starting a download at home while I'm still at the office sounds pretty Goddamn good. Also, while we are loving the PSP, am I the only person enthralled by the idea of R-Type Tactics? (CW)TB
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It&#39;s no secret that rivalry in consumer electronics is heating up, and today the Associated Press reported that Japan&#39;s Sony (NYSE: SNE) is &quot;more aggressively&quot; pursuing
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Yes, say technologists there; they'll do it with a little help from Sony and a group of people called the Bro Dra.
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Sony announces new functionality for both its PS3 and PSP gaming hardware.
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The big news in digital audio recently was Sony&#39;s NW-HD3, the company&#39;s first hard-drive-based digital audio player to support the MP3 format right out of the box.
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Tycho:  Positive Sony news here, at Penny Arcade?  I know, right?  We shall redouble our efforts.  The story all this was based on has been changed to say that none of it is true, or that very little of it is true (depending on who you ask), but if you're asking me I think the original story hit pretty close to the mark.  The alternative - which is to say, that xFire technology would be used for a single game and no others - suggests that their service will be another briar patch of vendor "interpretations" of an online community, which can't possibly be true.  I refuse to believe that, in this generation, they would leave something like this to chance.
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A Japanese company creates a memory card which could change the method of spending money. Also: Google to set up digital book samples  & hellip;. Nintendo equips handheld console & hellip;. and more.
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Con molta probabilitÃ  il formato MP3 sarÃ  supportato dai player Sony. Ad anticipare la notizia Ã¨ stata la stessa Sony per mezzo di un proprio portavoce francese. Il colosso giapponese, pur ritenendo il
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Sony says it is considering the company a rumble-enabled PS3 controller.
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Sony of Japan said Tuesday it will begin selling a more compact version of its PlayStation 2, the Guardian reported. The company, at its London announcement, said the new model&#39;s noise level is about 75 percent
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If Sony is to make a comeback this year, it will need to make a huge splash at CES. That's exactly what it has in mind, and helping the company along is some positive news -- for a change -- about its star gaming platform.
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Sony to support MP3 tunes to silence iPod fans Indian Express
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Research In Motion RIM.TO said on   Monday it aims to offer a Japanese-language version of its   popular BlackBerry device between April and June 2007.