Sony

On its company blog, Sony has announced a spring (or autumn if you’re south of the equator) refresh for of its VAIO line of laptops. While the Z series, S series and E series will all receive CPU upgrades along with various other component updates, the C series changes are limited to updates of the cosmetic variety. Read More

With the Xperia ion, Sony has joined the throng of phone-makers clamoring to announce LTE handsets at CES 2012. Sony's PlayStation certified Android device features a 4.6-inch 1280 x 720 HD display, with both front and rear cameras capable of shooting HD video, at 720p and 1080p respectively. The rear camera has a 12-megapixel sensor which, budding Cartier-Bressons take note, can take shots within 1.5 seconds of leaving standby mode. Read More

While OLED may have staked a claim as the next generation display technology to beat, Sony has chosen CES 2012 to unveil a new display technology called “Crystal LED.” Instead of an LED or CCFL backlight shining through an LCD layer to produce an image, the Crystal LED display technology is a true LED TV that uses a layer of tiny self-emitting LEDs to directly produce the image – think of it like a high resolution shrunk down JumboTron like those found at sporting stadiums. Read More

We've heard of gadgets being powered by some pretty crazy stuff, but how about paper? Sony recently showed off a new bio-cell battery that breaks down paper in order to create power. A paper battery sounds a little bit far-fetched, but the technology works, and could potentially change how we power devices in the future. So how does it work? The process starts with an enzyme suspended in water. When paper is dropped in, the enzyme starts to break it down and produce glucose that can then be harvested and used to power a battery. Sony described the break down process as similar to how a termite might eat and break down wood. Read More

Four days on from Saturday's PlayStation Vita launch, a murky picture is emerging in the press of an embattled Sony eager to make amends for technical difficulties with their next generation handheld games console, including inoperative touch-screens and system crashes. However, Sony today denies widespread technical issues. Read More

When Sony wanted to highlight the immersiveness of movies available on the Playstation Store, they turned to UK-based agencies Studio Output and Marshmallow Laser Feast to create a series of shorts around the theme "great films fill rooms." Using the Playstation Move, the production team shot a handful of scenes depicting an ordinary man going from his couch to flying above skyscrapers as a robot and fighting sea monsters. The best part: not a single aspect of these videos was added in the editing room. Read More

Sony has used this week's Tokyo Game Show 2011 exhibition to outline more details of its next handheld gaming console, the PS Vita. The announcement included a lineup of titles and accessories to be available at the launch date, which is set for December 17 in Japan. Read More

Sony has taken the wraps off its first Android-based Walkman media player - the Z-1000. Running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), Sony's would-be iPod touch rival comes well spec'd with its 4.3-inch WVGA (480x800) touchscreen, NVIDIA Tegra 2 1GHz dual-core CPU platform and 512MB of RAM. Read More

Among Sony's releases at IFA is one that could put a dent in Kindle's dominance of the eReader space - the 6-inch Sony Reader Wi-Fi. The new reader comes in at just 168 grams, two thirds of the weight of the Kindle 3 WiFi and with a host of advantages that include faster and smoother page turns (we tried it), and a dual-touch touchscreen for easy zooming. Unlike the Kindle, it won't lock you to Amazon as the sole provider of your reading material. It's also cheaper and lighter than the model it replaces, but still US$10 dearer than the Kindle at US$149. Read More