Hasta La Gadget!

Sony’s hosting a press event in Tokyo today where it just made the first announcement: a pair of Android 3.0 tablets — yes, the very two Honeycomb slabs we told you about exclusively back in February. The first is the Qriocity-focused 9.4-inch S1 media tablet with both front- and rear-facing cameras and a curved wrap design that resembles a folded magazine. The S1 features a Tegra 2 SoC and customized “Quick and Smooth” touch panel UI with “Swift” web browser. It can also be used as a remote control for Sony gear thanks to integrated infrared.

The second tablet is the dual-screen S2 clamshell with its pair of 5.5-inch 1,024 x 480 pixel displays, Tegra 2 SoC, and camera. While it sounds bulky, Kunimasa Suzuki just pulled the hinged tablet from his jacket pocket on stage. Sony takes advantage of the two screens with a custom book-style UI layout for its e-reader app, split keyboard and messaging displays for email, and split display and game controllers for PS One gaming. Both the S1 and S2 are PlayStation Certified, support DLNA, and are WiFi and 3G/4G “compatible” according to Sony. See the Sony tablets codenamed “S1” and “S2” in action after the break on their way to a global release in the fall — possibly sooner in the US.

P.S. While the company isn’t ready to talk prices yet, our sources told us back in February that Sony was considering a $599 MSRP on the S1 while the S2 would likely come in at $699. Still no word on the Windows 7 slider but with the other two leaks official, it’s now only a matter of time.

Continue reading Sony S1 and S2 dual-screen Honeycomb tablets get official (video)

Sony S1 and S2 dual-screen Honeycomb tablets get official (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 00:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve been hit by a big batch of dismayed tips from PlayStation gamers this morning, who are finding themselves unable to log in to the PlayStation Network (again). Sony’s response has been to acknowledge there’s a problem in the vaguest of terms — “We’re aware certain functions of PlayStation Network are down” — and to promise an update on the situation as soon as it’s available. Alas, that statement was issued over nine hours ago and there’s still no word of either a rectification or an explanation for the outage. The error code provided by the console is, as you can see above, somewhat uninformative as well. So come on, Sony, what is going on with your Network?

Update: PSN is acknowledging on its EU blog that the network outage may be a result of “the possibility of targeted behaviour by an outside party.” Still no ETA for when services will be restored.

Update 2: PSN is now reporting that the network may be offline for “a full day or two.”

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

PlayStation Network down for a long count, what’s up Sony? (update: down for 24+ hours!) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Apr 2011 12:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cute, but doomed: The PSPgo will no longer be made by Sony. Photo Jim Merithew / Wired.com

Sony has announced that it will no longer make the little PSPgo portable games console. Speaking to Japanese site Impress, Sony confirmed rumors that the console, just over two years old, will be euthanized, and production will cease. Any units still in warehouses around the world will remain on sale until they’re gone.

The PSPgo is a cut-down version of the PSP. It launched in 2009 and managed to slim down to around half the size of the PSP by ejecting the UMD disk drive and hiding the controls on a slide-out panel.

Why has Sony killed the console so soon? We may never know, but we suspect that the PSPgo never really sold very well — the unit saw a hefty price cut in Japan last October, bringing it from ¥26,800 ($323) to ¥16,800 ($203). Add in competition from the cheaper Nintendo DS Lite and the do-anything iPod Touch and you can see that things may have been difficult.

Then again, the PSPgo may just have been axed to make way for the Sony Ericsson PSP phone, the Xperia Play, which is remarkably similar to the PSPgo, and includes a competent Android cellphone, too.

Either way, the little fella probably won’t be missed, and Sony has committed to continue soldiering on with the bigger PSP-3000. Good luck, Sony! Now, where’s my iPod? I feel like a game of Angry Birds.

SCE, PSP go to complete the shipment [AV Watch / Impress]

See Also:

• PSP Go
• PSPgo
• Sony Gambles on PSP Go, Exclusive Titles – Video – Wired
• PSPgo Porn: Sexy Pics of Sony's Tiny Gaming Console
• Video: Hands-On With PlayStation Phone

Well, after all the talk of TROs, tweets, and YouTube user info, it seems that the SCEA vs. Geohot litigation has come to a rather uneventful conclusion. According to Sony’s Playstation Blog, the case has been settled, and Hotz has agreed to a permanent injunction preventing him from distributing his PS3 jailbreak hack ever again. Of course, while this settlement has cowed the man who did the initial distribution deed, the jailbreak genie’s out of the bottle, and no court order can ever put it back.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

SCEA vs. Geohot: Sony wins a not-quite flawless victory originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony does what Nintendon’t? That’s the general sentiment from a brief interview that PlayStation chief Jack Tretton gave to Fortune this week, in which he talked up Sony’s strengths and played down (some may even say belittled) its competitors, and Nintendo in particular. That began with the relatively tame assertion that Sony’s decision to go high-end with PlayStation 3 is just now beginning to pay off while the other consoles are “starting to run out of steam,” before he took aim at Nintendo’s handheld business. According to Tretton, Nintendo’s handhelds all offer what he calls a “Game Boy experience,” something that’s great as a “babysitting tool,” but that “no self-respecting twenty-something is going to be sitting on an airplane with one of those.” Yow. Any self-respecting twenty-somethings beg to differ? Let us know in the comments below.

[Thanks, Robert C]

CE-Oh no he didn’t!: Sony’s Jack Tretton says Nintendo makes ‘babysitting tools’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Apr 2011 16:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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