Sony held the "Dealer Convention 2006" on the 13th, and Impress Watch was of course on hand to see what they had available. The company demonstrated several of their Blu-ray products, including a hybrid recorder with both hard drive and Blu-ray drive, as well as new Sugo Roku recorders, new LocationFree products, and new cameras and projectors. (pictures in this article).

Also shown by the company were several new audio products including several new models of headphones. Perhaps more interesting was the "HWS-NEW" Bluetooth unit that can act as both a transmitter and a receiver. They also showed a few models of headphones that could be used wirelessly, an a transmitter called the "TMR-NEW." Finally, they showed the "SRS-NEW" 2ch Bluetooth speakers. Pictures of all the above products are available here.

We normally don't bother with telling you about what new laptops and such are released in Japan, unless they're truly exceptional, like Sony's update to the VAIO type U. The type U isn't available outside of Japan (perhaps for the better), but Sony today announced they would be throwing a One-Seg tuner to create the "VAIO type U VGN-UX70." Otherwise, it has the same WSVGA 4.5" screen, same CPU, same 512MB of memory, and same 30GB hard drive as before.



Inspired by:
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2006/0830/sony1.htm

Press Release:
http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Info/2006/products_0830.html

Yikes, Sony Ericsson's new "Z610" handset looks buttery. It is equipped with what the company calls a "Magic Mirror" subdisplay that can't be seen while it isn't in use. The Z610 sports a 2MP camera and "Picture Blog" software for photoblogging, as well as TV phone, push email, and RSS feeds. It's slated for release in some markets -- I don't know which -- 3rd quarter of this year. It supports UMTS 2100, and GPRS 900/1800/1900. I don't have any other details, but I don't think it matters. I don't even want to use this phone...I just want to have it in my hands. Anyway, this picture explains it much better than I can.



Inspired by:
http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/mobile/articles/0608/23/news075.html

Press Release:
http://www.sonyericsson.com/

Sony's new IC recorder offers MP3 playback and data storage, in addition to the standard range of features.

Not that we expect this one to make it outside of Japan, but Sony has announced a new standalone video recorder that puts PSP-compatible H.264 video on a Memory Stick Duo or PRO Duo.

The recorder is the "MSVR-A10," and it should cost around 25,000 yen (~$210 USD).

It has two video inputs, each with Composite, S-Video, and RCA audio jacks. The "Synchro Record" feature will automatically begin recording when a signal is detected from either input, and it will automatically stop recording when the signal is stopped.

It's also important to note that the recorder supports Japan's new "Copy Once" digital content protection scheme, meaning it can record video from digital sources such as digital TV broadcasts.

Recording is done at 320 x 240, at 384kbps or 768kbps. A 1GB Memory Stick PRO Duo should get around 4 hours and 10 minutes at 384kbps, or 2 hours and 20 minutes at 768kbps.

The official product page is here. The Impress Watch article, the source for some of the above information and the image below, is here.

Sony drops the Memory Stick and MiniDisc from their previous NetJuke minicomponent system and the result is the NAS-D5HD.

Sony Corporation and NEC Corporation announced o­n the 27th that they have concluded a formal contract to for the establishment of a joint venture in the optical disc drive industry, as was announced in November of last year.

The name of the new company is "Sony NEC Optiarc Corporation," and establishment is slated for April 3, 2006. The new company will concentrate o­n the development, design, manufacture, marketing, and selling of optical disc drive products.

Mr. Shinichi Yamamura, current Deputy President of Sony Corporation's Video Business Group, will assume the role of president of the company. The capital investment is 490 million yen, with Sony holding 55% of the stock, and NEC the remaining 45%. The company plans to have around 350 employees. In accordance with the establishment of the new company, Sony and NEC have set April 1st as the date by which they are to separate each of their existing optical disc drive product-related companies, which are to be inherited by the new corporation. 

Inspired by:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20060227/sonynec.htm

Sony Press Release (English):
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/200602/06-017E/index.html

NEC Press Release (English):
http://www.nec.co.jp/press/en/0602/2701.html

Sony's new "HDR-HC3" adds a few features to their previous "HDR-HC1" High Definition camcorder, yet also manages to decrease its size and weight.

Sony, JVC, and Panasonic all announced digital cameras in some fashion today. I unfortunately don't have time to translate the individual articles for each, but I will hit the highlights.

We'll start with Sony's Cybershot DSC-W30.

Finally, two products from Sony for their W41S. The "SRS-A201F" speakers and "DR-NX1SF" headphones will finish off our au coverage for the night.

On February 10th, Sony will begin selling a clear case for the Sony Walkman A-Series

Digital Audio Tape (DAT) is over in Japan. Sony has announced they're killing off the format. The last DAT product was released back in July of 1997 (I was 12), so I won't be shedding a tear.

The D-NE830 and D-NE730 are both CD Walkmans that can play ATRAC/MP3 files, but the D-EJ002 isn't. I'm still going to write about it.

Looks like I have a few more Sony products for you this evening. The first are the "MDR-Q37LW" earphones. They're the type that clip o­n the ear, and have a wind-up cord.

Finally, here are the "MZ-EH70" and "MZ-EH50" MD players from Sony.

There's a new aibo in town: the "ERS-7M3" is not o­nly a different color, but features improved software. Communication is the name of the game this round; the aibo's speech capabilities have been vastly improved, and it can even read news to you via RSS. Training your dog to fetch the paper for you never has been easy, so at least you now have an alternative.

The Sony product o­nslaught continues, and this time they're announcing a 40GB photo storage unit that features support for Memory Stick/Duo, CF, and Microdrive.

Sony has announced the successor to the DSC-M1, the DSC-M2. It's 5.1MP and has a load of movie-related features. More details inside.

Sony has announced a new hybrid recorder that can transfer H.264 files to the PSP using a USB cable. You'll need firmware version 2.0 to play the H.264 files on your actual PSP, but it's nice to see Sony finally making something happen from this "Memory Stick Standard" they've been talking about all this time. Details inside.

Earlier this year, we translated an article about Sony's LF-X5 "LocationFree TV."

What happens if you take the "TV" out of that? You end up with the LF-PK1 "LocationFree," a box that serves up TV broadcasts over LAN and the Internet. If you've been looking for a way to watch Japanese TV programs outside of Japan, this could be the product for you as it requires no subscription. All you need is a buddy in Japan who is willing to setup o­ne of these boxes in their "mansion" and you're good to go. This could end up being the TV service for Sony's PSP that the company has been hinting at for some time.

More details inside.

They actually aren't billing it as an "iPod case," but specifications don't lie.

Sony will be releasing a soft case with integrated earphones that accomodates players up to 105 x 63 x 20mm (H x W x T). The 60GB iPod measures 103.5 x 61.8 x 19.1mm (H x W x T). Coincidence? I hope you're kidding.

An interesting and potentially useful new product from Sony - a USB drive that allows you to use MD media as storage media. The "PIT-IN" drive is similar in size to an MD player and will be available from May in four colours for approximately 15,000 yen. If only it supported USB2.0...

Sony continues their battle with Apple's phenomenally successful iPod with the release of a new portable HDD audio player, the NW-HD5. Got to admire them for not giving up, I suppose. The new player sports a 20GB HDD, up to 40 hours of continuous playback thanks to a removable Li-Ion battery, an LCD screen with a display that can be rotated 90 degrees and an improved user interface. Available for approximately 35,000 yen from 21 April at a store near you.

Sony is gearing up to establish a new company for the production of small-form TFT LCDs, called "ST Mobile Display Corporation." A somewhat interesting move o­n their part, as I believe the production of small, color LCDs in most Sony products was outsourced to Sharp (?).

Finally, I have been able to personally verify that American PSP game software works on a Japanese PSP. I purchased Wipeout Pure today at EB, and it works without any issues whatsoever on my Japanese PSP. We were sort of caught up in this mess a couple months back. From this, we gather American PSPs will also be able to play Japanese software.

My apologies if I scared anyone.

Sony Marketing has announced 2 new PSX models. While the basic specifications of the 250GB DESR-7700 and 160GB DESR-5700 remain unchanged, new functionality allows recorded programs and "x-appli" video content to be converted to MPEG-4 format and copied to Memory Stick for viewing on portable devices such as the PSP. Unfortunately, the encoding process can take up to 5 hours for 1 hour of video. Good one, Sony! Sales begin 15 April.

After centuries on self-imposed isolation, even today almost 150 years after Matthew Perry and the US Navy opened Japan to the West, many Japanese think that they’re unique. Thus, they’re a little surprised to see things like a cell phone from a half Japanese company, Sony Ericsson, at a mobile phone fair.

Are the Premini and the J300i the same thing? Is that possible?

Sony Computer Entertainment has announced the group of 27 companies it has approved to produce UMD Video software for the Playstation Portable (PSP). I can't see how these companies expect to make any money off this myself. Why would anyone pay up to $40 for something they can get on DVD for the half the price?

Here's something we (well, me anyway) didn't see coming - a new Hi-MD Walkman from Sony with a built-in digital camera and support for a new "Hi-MD PHOTO" standard. The "MZ-DH10P" comes with a 1.3 megapixel CMOS digital camera, 1.5" LCD screen and, of course, support for MP3 playback. Shame about the price though.

Turns out that rumor of an MP3 playing Hi-MD Walkman was true! We reported o­n this about two weeks ago, but it's official now.

The "MZ-RH10" supports playback of MP3 files from Hi-MD (a new MiniDisc format with a 1GB capacity), and appears to be liquid awesome.

Sony Ericsson went ahead an announced the "W800" today, the first mobile phone to be sold under the "Walkman" brand. Here's the press release in English, and there are plenty of pictures available here.In other news, I've been working o­n a sort of side project that I'll be publicizing before the end of the week. That's why there hasn't been too much news since last week.

Update: Also forgot to mention that while Sony Ericsson announced a fleet of other new handsets today, we here at TechJapan officially don't care about any of them except the Walkman o­ne.

I don't know where this o­ne came from, but a number of news agencies (Joystiq, Eurogamer) are reporting that a German site claims the PSX homepage states that production of the units has stopped.

Well, we here at TechJapan have some insight into this matter. Here's the official PSX homepage right here, and it says NOTHING about PSX production being halted.

Following o­n from their withdrawal of overseas markets, Sony has announced that it will not release any new CLIE PDAs and will end production of all models in July. Looks like the booming popularity and expanding functionality of mobile phones was just too much for the CLIE to handle. Such is the cut-throat world of consumer electronics.

UPDATE: According to this article, though Sony is giving up o­n the Clie brand, they are not getting out of the PDA industry.

Sony has confirmed that the controller buttons on some Playstation Portable (PSP) units may become stuck and not return to their default position. A free repair program has been announced.

Holy crapola! Engadget dropped a link today to MiniDisc.org, which in turn links to this post o­n a Dutch MiniDisc message board, that describes three of Sony's next Hi-MD players as featuring MP3 playback.

If this turns out to be true, I'm in the market for a new MP3 player. Hi-MDs offer 1GB capacities, and cost about $5 USD. Given Hi-MD's compatibility with the USB Storage Class, all will be dandy.

We'll be covering this when an official announcement comes from Sony.

Most people ignored Sony's line of "Net Juke" network audio players, because of their inability to play MP3.

Well, stop ignoring them please. Announced by Sony today was the "NAS-A10," which has a bunch of interesting features...but the most important of which is support for the MP3 format. So how do you get MP3s to it? Memory Stick, Ethernet, or CD. It also has a 40GB hard drive, so you can easily rip songs to it from your library. It's even got a composite output for viewing stuff o­n your TV. MP3 support o­n the device could use some work -- there appears to be no MP3 support to/from the hard drive, and nothing with the USB 2.0 interface the unit is equipped with.

In the Sony Electronics pricing tradition, however, it's over $600 USD.

We reported o­n Sony's Vaio notebook under 100,000 yen not too long ago, and apparently, it has already sold out. Oops!

Sony has developed a hybrid lithium-ion rechargeable battery, the "Nexelion", which has a 30% higher capacity than the company's previous models. The new battery will be released as a Handycam battery pack in Spring 2005.

Press Releases: English | Japanese

Now here's an interesting development from Sony: the LF-X5 "LocationFree TV" not o­nly offers a wireless TV solution from within the home, but you can even access the same TV signals from anywhere in the world with an internet connection.

If, for example, you'd like to watch Japanese TV from the comfort of your American home, just buy o­ne of these TVs, get a buddy in Japan to setup the base station for you, and you're good to go.

I've got three Sony articles tonight, so I may as well put them in order.

Our second article is about the "VAIO type B," or "the first Vaio notebook under 100,000 yen." For us Americans, it's not a huge deal; I'm sure you could find o­ne for like $999 at Best Buy. Sony must have looked at their dwindling market share and decided to make a move.

Sony offers up an excuse for me to buy a new set of headphones: the "MDR-NQ1" will be released o­n February 10th. They're "neckstrap type," and available in four colors. More details inside.

One way or another (take a guess), I came across the following patent application:

"Methods and systems for remote execution of game content and presentation o­n a wireless portable device"

Filed by none other than Masayuki Chatani, Sony Computer Entertainment's CTO. The language o­n the document is somewhat vague, but o­ne thing is clear: Sony is planning o­n implementing some sort of "wireless game transmission system" for handheld gaming devices.

What I hope this means is a wireless link between the PS2 and PSP. In other words, o­ne person could use their PSP to play a game versus another person using their PS2 to play the same game (imagine racing Gran Turismo 4 against Gran Turismo 4: Mobile). Click "read more" for renderings from the patent application.

What first attracted me to this article was a new PSP case, perhaps o­ne that's actually worth a damn. If you read my PSP Audio/Video report, you probably recall that I'm not a huge fan of the "sleeve" that's included with the PSP Value Pack.

Anyway, the "PS Pictogram" brand remains somewhat mysterious, but what we do know is that the first round of products includes baggage and accessories developed in collaboration with "PORTER." Most of them seem to be overpriced brand items...but hey, it's Japan. Since when did overpricing keep products from being successful? Just take a look at the iPod.

Remember the new High Speed Memory Stick PROs? The o­nes that were supposed to come out in February?

They're delayed, again. Sony is now shooting for a "late April" release. They were originally planned for release o­n October 8th 2004, were delayed to February 10th 2005, and now are again delayed until April. Crap. Click the image below for Sony's press release.

We've covered a couple QUALIA products here o­n TechJapan in the past, and the general impression I get is that they're aimed at people with too much money who want a gadget or two sitting around so they can impress their other friends who also likely have too much money.

The QUALIA 001 is no exception. Called the "Creation Box," the QUALIA 001 is a video convertor, that will convert SD/HD video to higher quality signal. Whether or not this quality difference is worth 525,000 yen (about $5,100 USD), I'm quite suspicious.

DC Watch has gotten their hands o­n the brand spankin' new Cybershot DSC-T33, and they offer up some sample pictures. Take a look.

Sony announced the Cybershot DSC-T33 today, and it looks to be a kick in the pants. Billed as the successor to the DSC-T11, the T33 improves upon two areas: the LCD screen, and the exterior. Plenty more details inside.

Continuing with our English press release regurgitation, here's two from Sony:

The DSC-P200 looks to be pretty nice; it's got a 7.2MP sensor whilst still under 1" thick. It appears to have the same form factor as previous P series Cyber-Shots, though, meaning I'm (personally) not interested.

Perhaps to go with that announcement, Sony's also announced their own 4GB Memory Stick PRO. SanDisk beat the company to their own media by announcing a similar product months ago, but all's well that ends well. Frankly, I think Memory Stick Duo is where the party's at these days.

I don't know what iPodlounge is doing reporting o­n the PSP, but here's an interesting tidbit from this article:

"Reports out of Asia suggest that the company is planning to switch LCD screen suppliers from Sharp to Samsung, yielding screens with fewer pixel defects but less accurate color rendition."

I don't know where these "reports out of Asia" are coming from, but if this turns out true, then I will officially be entertained. My Sharp-screen PSP has nary a single dead pixel, meaning it could be worth a pretty penny o­ne day.

Sony will be releasing a new model of their RoomLink network media player in February, and as a Vaio owner, I'm ready to invest in o­ne.

But as with the previous RoomLink, non-Vaio owners are completely out of the picture.

Way to go Mac OS there, Sony.

My girlfriend and I have finally gotten around to taking some comprehensive pictures and movies of the PSP. This won't be your typical "ok, so here is the screen" type report -- we tried to photograph lesser-known parts of the unit, in an attempt to shed light o­n a few of its features that may not have surfaced yet. It has, after all, been out for more than 2 weeks.

Anyway, I've got 38 images (all available at 1600 x 1200 or above), and 6 videos: a total of about 22MB of PSP image/video content. So click inside for your fair share of highly compressed video and out-of-focus images. Also, for the sake of convenience, I've got a zip file of all media for you at the end of the report. A huge thanks goes to Scott for providing me with the unit in the first place.

Update: I've changed some settings so that people from other sites can't download the files directly. It's not like the images/videos make a whole lot of sense without the explanations anyway.

Relive the grand fighting-game days of yesteryear with the "Neo Geo Stick 2," a Neo Geo controller being introduced to the modern audience by Sega Logistics Service.

And by "modern audience" we mean compatibility with PS2.

Sony will be displaying some sort of the theater system at the 2005 World Exposition to take place in Aichi, Japan. It uses a newly developed technology called "GxL," based o­n "Grading Light Valve" technology. Whatever that means, I know not -- but hopefully after translating this article, I will.

However, the end result of the technology is quite astounding; the ability to project to a screen 10m high by 50m wide. That's meters, not centimeters. 32 feet high by 164 feet long.

It's back, in black! Sony Marketing has added the "MSX-1GS" to the Memory Stick PRO lineup, and will release it o­n January 21st. Estimated price? 24,000 yen.
Wait, didn't we already talk about this? We did, in fact. Sony pushed back the release of these until February, but I guess things are working out after all.
Click the image below for the Japanese press release.

PS2 quality games, MP3 and MPEG-4 playback, with this form factor? It's not about who would want a PSP, it's about who wouldn't want a PSP.

We're about 98% sure the PSP does indeed have support for region-locked games.

Sorry, everyone. Details inside.

It is now well into the 12th in Japan, and the PSP has launched.
Early reports from Impress Watch indicate that lines as long as 1300 people long formed in front of major Tokyo electronics vendors. Scott (sar7501) is in the Osaka area, and he'll be reporting in with his own pictures and media later in the day. Stay tuned!

Every article I've read about the PSP so far has indicated that the PSP will not have region-locked games. But what's this? Scott (sar7501) has taken a picture from the packaging of Namco's "Ridge Racers" software for the PSP, and it clearly depicts what I believe to be a "region" icon. So does the PSP have region-locked games? o­ne of the PSP's primary developers, Mr. Kawanishi, even indicated otherwise in an interview. 

I guess we won't really know until Sony makes an official statement, or the American version of the PSP is released. The icon appears just above the barcode, and has the number "2" in white lettering with an outline of a sphere. Note that Japan's DVD region code is also 2.

See inside for the picture taken by Scott.

Scott sends in this image from his phone. He's currently prowling the streets of Nihonbashi, in Osaka.

The PSP is scheduled for release o­n the 12th.

Here are the new "industry's highest capacity" storage cells from Sony.

There are appears to be about 6 or 9% capacity improvements, so this isn't exactly something to sneeze about.

Less than 10 days before its release, Sony Computer Entertainment has updated the PSP product information page, confirming that it will indeed playback video files stored o­n Memory Sticks.

What sort of video files, you ask? The same o­nes produced by Sony digital cameras -- MP4. There will of course be conversion software available o­n release day. More details inside.

Sony's other hard drive digital audio player, the "VAIO pocket," will be receiving MP3 playback capabilities as well.

But there's a twist -- while Sony did announce yesterday that Network Walkman users would need to pay a small fee and send their NW-HD1 or NW-HD2 in for the upgrade, the VAIO pocket will support MP3 through an end-user downloadable upgrade. Moreover, it's free.

We reported o­n the VAIO pocket back in May, when it was first announced.

Well, it looks like hell has finally frozen over - Sony has released a new 20GB HDD Network Walkman with support for MP3 playback, the NW-HD3. The new model will be available in four colours (silver, black, blue, red) and also adds support for USB charging. Existing owners of Sony's NW-HD1 and NW-HD2 will be able to upgrade their players to support MP3 for 2000 yen.

Sony has some pretty nice looking microcomponent units coming out in the near future, and they both support MP3 files recorded o­n CD-R or RW. Surely you remember the company's announcement to change their stance o­n MP3; I suspect this is the first of many moves by the company towards support for the format.

Still, when you think about it, these microcomponent units don't have a whole lot to offer besides good looks and MP3/ATRAC3plus CD playback. They're a tad steep for these features alone.

Those of you with a large number of components but not too many inputs o­n your home theater setup likely already have an AV selector.
Anyway, here's 4 new o­nes from Sony. Some are active, some passive, some feature optical digital audio, some don't. Also, they're splitters, so you can pipe your output to multiple devices at the same time.

Well, it looks like Sony has announced some new 2 and 4GB Microdrives. Click the image below for the English press release, because this is from Sony USA.

I had always wondered exactly how good conventional headphones were at taking advantage of what Super Audio CD had to offer. This announcement by Sony answers my questions.

Ahead of its impending release on December 12, Sony is displaying the Playstation Portable (PSP) at main railway stations in the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya areas. I headed down to JR Osaka station on Monday morning to see what all the fuss was about.

Update: Added a couple of short videos of the PSP game demo loop.

Sony has updated the flagship model in their "type U" mobile PC range. The new "VGN-U71P" has a faster 1.1GHz Pentium M CPU, a larger 30GB HDD and the maximum 512MB RAM. It can all be yours for just 199,800 yen from a Sony Style store or website near you - as long as it's in Japan.

We've got a couple car-related news items for you tonight.

To start things up, here's an in-dash model of Sony's "XYZ" navigation system with a hard drive. We previously covered the XYZ line when it was first announced, but these were "affixed to the dashboard of A/C vent panel." Not exactly the most convenient place for a navigation system.
I guess Sony realized this, because they've announced an in-dash version of the system. They've also added a couple features, such as MPEG-4 support, and simple operation of movies/audio with just a fingertip.

While not a piece of hardware you can purchase and hold in your hand, Gran Turismo 4 deserves coverage here at TechJapan. If you've been following the game, this post contains nothing but great news -- so please read.
If you're not interested in video games, don't worry about reading this article. Gran Turismo is o­ne of the o­nly pieces of game software we'll cover here at TechJapan, so please don't get the impression that this is something we normally do.
Or it could be, if you guys want it to. Is anyone out there interested in game news translations?
By the way, please see "Inspired by" for images. The press release unfortunately doesn't contain any.

You may remember Sony's announcement a while back where they said they'll be adding MP3 support to their flash-based players, most likely via a firmware update.

Well guess what? According to a "news flash" over at ITmedia, Sony is "examining" adding native MP3 support to their hard-drive based players. We previously covered the NW-HD1, NW-HD2, and VAIO pocket here at TechJapan.

Not to be outdone by JVC, Sony has released a new series of retractable-cord, ear-clip headphones available in six colours. The headphones are designed to colour-coordinate with the MZ-E630 MD Walkman series.

Sony has released final details and pricing for the PSP. The PSP will go o­n sale from 12 December at a retail price of o­nly 20,790 yen (approx US$195). Other highlights include the ability to directly inter-link up to 16 PSPs for network play and a battery life of 4 - 6 hours. 21 game titles will be initially be available. All I can say: ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!

Sony will begin sales of three new CD Walkman models from mid November, including the world's smallest, thinnest and lightest, the "D-NE20".

Today, in the final instalment of our PSP developer interview series, the head of Sony's Network System Development Section, Mr Izumi Kawanishi, discusses the PSP's boot-up time, saved data management and network functionality.

The previous instalments in the interview can be found at: Part 1 and Part 2

In the second part of our PSP developer interview translation series, Mr Izumi Kawanishi, head of Sony's Network System Development Section, discusses the details of the PSP's gorgeous 4.3" widescreen LCD display and battery life.

For those who missed it, Part 1 of the interview can be found here.

WatchImpress has conducted a fantastic interview with Izumi Kawanishi, one of the lead developers of the Playstation Portable, covering everything from hardware specifications to the finer details of the PSP's design. We've got the trained monkeys in over-drive, furiously banging out an English edition of this latest news on the PSP. Stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3!

Sony announced at the "ISOM'04" convention that they've developed a "BD/CD Dual Format Disc," which is exactly what it sounds like. It is both CD and Blu-Ray layers o­n the same disc. This means two things. You can either have a disc with o­ne "Blu-Ray side" and o­ne "CD side," or a disc with o­ne "Blu-Ray layer" and o­ne "CD layer."Needless to say, this announcement is another nail in HD DVD's coffin.

The main drawcard of the next-generation PSX due to debut in December will be a group of entertainment applications called [x-appli]. In addition to program recording, [x-appli] will automatically arrange stored material such as music and photos, allowing the user to enjoy them relatively labour-free. IT Media asked Sony for more details.

I'm thinking there's at least a couple TechJapan users in the market for a new Japanese/English electronic dictionary, so here's two new o­nes from Sony. The two versions vary in functionality: while the "S8MS" serves as an 8-language dictionary, the "S7MS" serves as a Japanese/English dictionary.

Either way, I'm reporting o­n both, so read o­n :)

Sony will be opening this "Osaka Sony Store" in November in Osaka. Japan, that is.

Apple opened the Apple Store Osaka a little over a month ago, so is this Sony's response? I guess.

Every o­nce in a while Sony Electronics USA will come along and come up with a product or two in an attempt to prove that the American division is worth a damn.

Well I'd say this product proves they're worth a damn. It's a DVD burner, but not a normal DVD burner - you can of course use it as an external burner for your PC, but more importantly, it supports recording video from your camcorder/PS2/whatever directly to DVD discs.

Here's the announcement, in English...with pics:
http://news.sel.sony.com/pressrelease/5262

Sony's on a roll tonight! Sony Marketing has announced an update to their dog-like entertainment robot, AIBO. The new ERS-7M2 (what a cute name!) improves on the previous model - adding enhanced communication with PCs, the ability to use your AIBO as a video phone and a watchdog function. Best of all, AIBO now comes in black!

Yet another Sony product for you tonight - active desktop speakers which have an optical input.

They have an optical input, but don't expect to be able to connect these to your DVD player too easily; they don't have an integrated decoder.
One of the primary advantages of optical audio connections is being able to deliver encoded digital signals from o­ne device to another with no quality loss. So with these speakers, you get the "no quality loss" part, but you lose the "encoded" part. For you, this means things like Dolby Digital and DTS aren't supported. But still, I use an optical connection to get from my PC to my surround sound system, and though I can't do encoded signals, the quality gain alone is very worth it.

If you've been following Gizmodo, you've seen these already. But this is the first time I'm covering this product here at TechJapan, so I'll go ahead and assume you haven't seen it before.

Basically, these are portable USB speakers that also draw power from the USB port. You need no other audio or power cables to operate these. I think we've seen similar offerings from other companies already, but as far as I know, this is Sony's first attempt.

Just a quick note -- if you're waiting o­n those new high speed Sony Memory Sticks we reported o­n about a month ago, it looks like you'll be waiting some more.

Though some of the sticks were set for release in this month and the rest in November, Sony has announced that due to operation confirmation testing, all of these products will be delayed to be released o­n February 10th, 2005.

I've updated the Product Release database accordingly, so you can go ahead and forget about these until the day actually comes around.

AsiaBizTech is reporting the Nihon Keizai Shimbum brings word Sony and Matsushita will be introducing camcorders that can record to 8cm Blu-Ray discs, as early as next year.

http://neasia.nikkeibp.com/wcs/leaf/CID/onair/asabt/news/336002

The Sony vaio Type X seems to have a web page now:

http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Products/VGX-X90P/

Note: I won't be covering the type X here o­n TechJapan tonight, mainly because I already covered it. In fact, it's the most read article I've ever posted at this site. Nonetheless, thanks to Conrad for the link. -zmcnulty

I don't know what Sony is doing making webcams, but these look pretty cool. You've of course got your typical wireless LAN functionality and 640 x 480 resolution, but Sony has added two-way voice communication and MPEG-4 to the mix. The camera can even be directly accessed from PCs outside of the network, which is nice.

You won't get any new features o­n these, and you lose your in-line remote control and USB cradle, but you'll find that there are new colors.

Also, the price has dropped nearly $100 USD.

Traditionally, button-type batteries have contained Mercury. I'm pretty sure Mercury is o­ne of the most harmful substances to life, so anything that DOESN'T contain it should be better than something that DOES.

By "button-type" I mean those small batteries...like the o­ne in your wristwatch.

It's interesting to know that the optical recording head of a Blu-Ray drive will cost 100,000 yen, just for a sample.
Or at least I thought it was interesting.

This page proves it: http://www.playstation.jp/tgs2004/psp_spec.html

Since the UMD drive inside the PSP is read-only, we can assume that you won't be able to burn your own UMD discs using the PSP itself. I'm sure Sony hasn't got plans for a UMD burner, so to me, this announcement means you'll be playing MP3s off your Memory Stick Duo. Duo goes up to 1GB for the time being.

One more thing I just noticed is "region" is listed under "access controls." Well shit, this means we won't be playing imported games, I think.

For those of you that don't know, contrast ratio describes the difference between the whitest whites and blackest blacks a screen can display.
The LCD I'm using right now has a contrast ratio of 250:1 - so 6000:1 is a shitload, needless to say.

Sony apparently developed this MPEG codec LSI which uses a 90nm production process...pretty nice. Somehow they fit a CPU and memory in there as well.
I remember when I got my ATI "All-in-Wonder" a few years ago, it required a Pentium II 450MHz or above in order to be able to encode MPEG-2 video realtime.

This single chip can not o­nly do that, but it can also decode at the same time. I'd like to see it do MPEG-4 or even H.264, but I guess that's still a bit too far off.

You'll never see this in America, since Sony has stopped releasing new Clies over here. But who cares, it's not like anyone (in this country) would be willing to drop $900 o­n a PDA.

There's plenty of information surfacing in other places about the new lineup of Vaio laptops and desktops announced today, so unless I have an enormous amount of time tonight because the sun doesn't go down or something, I won't be covering them.

But I wouldn't want to go without calling attention to them. So I instead will be offering up a boatload of images. Gotta use that 60GB of bandwith somehow, right?

56k users beware.

More new Memory Sticks from Sony.
Also, 2GB model is due out in November.