sony

At $1,600, Sony's new Vaio TP1 Living Room PC, announced today, might be a little pricey for some of you, especially considering that it doesn't have an HD optical drive. Still, we suspect that its Roomba-like design might be charming enough to help it find a way into many living rooms. It does include an HDMI-out, so you can at least hook it up to your HDTV. It will be powered by Windows Vista Home Premium and an Intel Core 2 Duo laptop chip (which model is unspecified). Other specs include built-in Wi-Fi networking, a standard-definition, … Read more

At a press event last summer, a Sony product manager told me that some consumers still find hard-drive camcorders confusing and prefer DVD camcorders instead. Of course, that didn't stop Sony from introducing five new hard-drive camcorders at CES this year: the DCR-SR200, DCR-SR300, DCR-SR42, DCR-SR62, DCR-SR82. Wasting no time, Sony will start accepting preorders for these models on its Web site starting Monday and expects them to start shipping in March.

Topping the line is the DCR-SR300, with its 40GB hard drive, 3-megapixel ClearVid CMOS sensor, 2.7-inch Clear Photo 16:9 touchscreen LCD, and 10x optical Carl … Read more

If you've got $33,000 earmarked for a new television, then Sony's main CES announcement might pique your interest. If you don't, you'll have to wait until the company's February show to hear anything official about the company's 2007 products. Eschewing CES for significant product news is nothing new for the company, but the price point of its new flagship HDTV still represents a certain kind of bravado. At least Sony knows how to capture headlines from the mainstream press.

The $33,000 KDL-70XBR3 (did I mention it costs $33,000?) happens to be … Read more

Despite the emergence of DVD, hard-drive, and flash-based camcorders, Mini DV models still sell like hotcakes. That probably has to do with the fact that they offer so much for the money. Sony announced three new Mini DV camcorders at CES this year: the DCR-HC28, DCR- HC38, and DCR- HC48.

The Handycam DCR-HC28 has a 680,000-pixel sensor, 20x optical zoom lens, 2.5-inch, 123,000-pixel touchscreen LCD, and a 123,000-pixel viewfinder. As the entry-level model in the line, it doesn't sport many of the fancy features it's pricier siblings offer, but it does include Sony's … Read more

Sony delivers its annual update for consumer DVD camcorders with four new models: the Handycam DCR-DVD108, DVD308, DVD408, and DVD508. These compact DVD camcorders replace the current generation and run the gamut from the inexpensive DVD108 to the full-featured DVD508. While most of these upgrades seem minor, the new DVD Handycams offer an important new feature: dual-layer support. These camcorders can now write to both dual layer DVD+-R/RW, offering twice as much recording time on a single disc.

The DVD108 and DVD308 also offer newer, more powerful lenses than their predecessors. Aside from the 40x optical zoom lens, … Read more

If you're not thrilled with the trend toward sandwich-board TV stands, you might want to consider something like this recent addition to Sony's Bravia line of LCD sets. The new Esprit TAV-L1 is built with a sliding decorative panel that hides a 32-inch TV behind it, in a variety of designs to suit your decor. Sony says the Esprit, which is available only in Europe at present, "fused cutting-edge European interior trends with the best of Sony's exclusive sound and vision technology." We like Chip Chick's description a lot better: "A force to … Read more

A patent filing shows Sony may have its eye on building the younger, hipper version of the Segway scooter.

In November the company filed a patent for a skateboard, "which can travel in the front and back direction and which can turn by right and left wheels rotated when a rider riding on a step-board moves the position of rider's balance from the center of a vehicle base."

Like the Segway, Sony's futuristic skateboard would be steered by riders shifting their weight. The patent also says the board's electric motors would turn off automatically when … Read more

Nothing compares with the iPhone in the rumor department, but on slow days Sony's PSP can easily take second place. So it's nice to actually pass along something concrete once in awhile, such as a real-live product (albeit outside the States).

A new Onkyo media recorder is a video device that will work with the PSP as well as mobile phones, according to Akihabara News. That's important if Sony is really trying to peddle the PSP as a video platform, as reported recently, but is still months away from launching its own service.

Most important to us, … Read more

Now that the Playstation madness has subsided, Sony may be turning its attention back to the PSP. But if a report in the Financial Times is correct, the competition for its next move could be just as hairy.

The newspaper says Sony plans to launch a video service for the handheld gaming device, a move that would put it in direct competition with the iPod. The service "will allow PSP owners to download a film from the Internet to a PC and then to transfer a single, legal version of the film to a Sony device," according to … Read more