Sony Japan quietly announced Life-X, a kind of meta-aggregator for all kinds of content. While overall not that ground-breaking, Sony has yet to demonstrate much internet-savvy and this appears to be a first step in marrying digital content with Sony brands and devices.
The fact that Sony plans to enable this site in PlayStations and TVs is an interesting twist, suggesting that they finally have something in mind to drive more internet traffic onto Sony devices.
The site will be accessible through a host of internet connected devices and aims to become a destination site in Japan.
The free site, which will begin a closed test in late September, lets PC and cellphone users pool photos, videos and blogs, either by direct uploads or by linking to their accounts on other Web sites such as flickr (YHOO), Picasa (GOOG) and Twitter. They can then invite friends and family who can view the site using a Net-connected PC (including Macs) or cellphone, or with Sony's flat-panel TVs and PlayStation gaming equipment.
It is a bit perplexing why Sony (and other consumer electronics giants) haven't already launched these kinds of sites. There is plenty of content out there and aggregation just isn't that difficult. It will be interesting to see if Sony's brand awareness in Japan can drive the site to success.
Via BusinessWeek