Hasta La Gadget!

Sony must be smelling dolla dolla bills in the EV-charged streets because the company just announced its intentions to fab lithium-ion batteries for the cars mid-decade. The statement, made from its plant in Motomiya, hinges on a future market flush with consumer demand for the earth-friendly autos, and could see the construction of several dedicated factories. Given the Japanese company’s recent history eating bits of competitor dust (hello Wii and iPod), we understand its forward-facing desire to become king of this Li-ion hill. But the mega-electronics maker isn’t placing all of its batteries in one fuel-source just yet — it’s “also [considering] developing batteries for gasoline-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids” — should they win the green energy popularity contest. While we applaud the company for encouraging adoption of the environmentally-friendlier tech, we’d much rather see them make batteries for this bad boy from tomorrowland.

Sony eyes electric car future, wants to soon sell you Li-ion batteries originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 20:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |  Mainichi Shimbun  | Email this | Comments

Plug Sony’s new 180g portable drive into your PC and you’ll get decent USB 3.0 storage plus some preloaded software that claims to accelerate transfers over USB 2.0. Underwhelmed? Us too. But wait — hook this baby up to some of that other Sony bric-a-brac you’ve got lying around and it’ll unlock a bunch of extra features. It can record broadcasts straight off a Bravia TV, for example, so you can watch them back later on another device. It’ll also hoover up footage directly from a new HandyCam (such as the DCR-SX21E or DCR-SR21), removing the need for a PC. And, when you’re done, you can connect the HD-PG5U to your PS3 and watch all your AVCHD videos back via the Filmy app — again, no PC required. Now, if Sony had done something similar with the MemoryStick, we might have turned down the hate. Full details in the PR.

Continue reading Sony HD-PG5U USB 3.0 drive puts family first, works best with other Sonys

Sony HD-PG5U USB 3.0 drive puts family first, works best with other Sonys originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Trusted Reviews  |   | Email this | Comments

Normally, we don’t cover contests, but this Air App Challenge from Sony and Adobe does deserve some special attention. Why? Well, for one, Air hasn’t exactly taken off quite like the Flash makers had hoped — especially in the mobile space. And two, that new S2 tablet is going to need some apps that are designed to take advantage of its dual screens. The $200,000 in cash prizes will be awarded to developers who whip up the best creations specifically for the forthcoming Sony Honeycomb devices, using Adobe’s Flash-plus-browser environment. Challenges have proven successful in the past to spur interest in platforms from Android to New York City’s vast databases of information. If the contest is successful it could turn that little folding Sony from a novel design into a unique and compelling product. If you really need to know more, full PR is after the break.

Continue reading Adobe and Sony create contest to put Air apps on Android tablets

Adobe and Sony create contest to put Air apps on Android tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 13:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

HDTV manufacturers have used a variety of tactics to attract customers to the 3D segment, bundling free glasses, discounting Blu-ray players, and nearly eliminating unsightly bezels, but with content selection still incredibly limited, there’s been little incentive for consumers to shell out extra cash for a 3D set. Sony’s new 3D Experience sets out to expand those content offerings, streaming on-demand sports highlights and select movie trailers to Bravia LCD TVs, and eventually Blu-ray players and home theater systems. The Experience launches with just 30 clips in the US, Canada, France, Germany, and the UK today, but will eventually grow to include more movie, music, sports, and documentary titles. There’s no word on whether or not we can expect full-length films (or anything else we may actually be interested in watching) in the future, but with a commitment from Samsung to launch paid content later this year, we imagine Sony won’t follow too far behind.

Sony 3D Experience brings free on-demand movie trailers, sports clips to Bravia TVs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 11:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Pocket Lint  |  Sony Europe  | Email this | Comments

Well, looky here. AT&T has very quietly revealed it’s going to sell the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. No press release, no splashy press conference backed by a cheesy disco soundtrack. The thing just showed up at the carrier’s holiday preview event here in New York City. We’re told it runs Gingerbread, which would make it AT&T’s second Android 2.3 handset behind the newly launched HTC Status. Alas, AT&T won’t say just yet when the Play will be available or how much it will cost on contract, but we do know a couple things for sure. One, it’ll run on the carrier’s 21MBps-capable HSPA+ network. Two, it’ll be available in a “Stealth Blue” color option, in addition to the stock black model we’ve handled before. Other than that, the specs — namely, the 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon chip and 4-inch (854 x 480 display) — remain the same. Hands-on shots with the sparkling navy number below.

AT&T launches Sony Ericsson Xperia Play with Gingerbread, blue color option originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments