The Sony PS3 is one of the most popular game consoles on the market. One of the best things about the console for me is that I can use it as a Blu-ray player in addition to a gaming system. I also believe that it is one of the best Blu-ray players around thanks to the continual updates Sony adds to the Blu-ray player via downloads.

Another nice thing about the PS3 is the PlayStation Network and Sony says that the network has reached a significant milestone. After being available for two years and three months the network has exceeded 20 million registered accounts worldwide.

Back in January, Sony announced its VAIO P Lifestyle computer. I saw the device and played with it a bit at CES 2009 and all I can say is that the thing is tiny. I personally would much prefer a normal netbook form factor. If you think an MSI Wind or Eee is small, stay far away from the VAIO P.

Sony has added new technology to the VAIO P from Corel called InstantON. Using the new technology the computer can be started in seconds without having to boot into Windows. Obviously, you won’t have access to all of your programs when using InstantON, but if you are in a hurry it might be just the thing you need.

Sony has introduced the LocationPorter, a realtime video streamer that streams footage from a connected camcorder or camera across whatever connection you have available, to a second remote LocationPorter device. The device uses the internet via a LAN or 3G connection.

The streamer can combine both connections to support up to a 352 x 240 64fps video at 320kbps. A single 3G card can give you a video of the same resolution, at between 5 and 15fps with bitrates from 64 to 160kbps. When connected to a LAN, the video can be streamed up to 30fps at 1024kbps max. No word on pricing and availability yet.

There are many biometric devices on the market, but honestly we haven’t seen any of them really hit it big with the masses. Sony is probably hoping to change that with their just announced Mofiria, a high speed, compact biometric solution for mobile devices.

Just like Fujitsu’s PalmSecure, it uses near infrared LEDs and a CMOS sensor to take a picture of your veins. News to me, but apparently vein patterns vary enough from person to person and don’t change through life. So they are a perfect thing to use for authentication. And perfect for Sony to make an extra buck with.

It isn’t any secret that things are tough all over. Every company out there is hurting, but Sony’s 4th quarter numbers are really bad. We’re talking a 95% drop in profits.

They managed to pull in only 10.4 billion yen during the 4th quarter, having done 200.2 billion yen the previous year. The numbers tell you that the holiday season was a complete bust for Sony. TVs, PS3s and PSPs just weren’t on people’s lists. The fault lies with you and I, who did not buy/want Sony products.

Sony Japan just announced its VAIO G3 for the G Series, another ultra portable notebook aimed at business professionals. The body weighs just 898 grams and it has a surprisingly good battery life. The VAIO G3 boasts up to 13 hours according to Sony.

Some specs: Intel Core 2 Duo SU9300/SU9400 processor, 12.1″ XGA (1,024 × 768) widescreen LCD, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics, 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth connectivity, and Windows Vista Business.

I have a couple PSPs lying around my house and both of them are boring, shiny black devices. Sure, you can get silver PSP here in the states, but that’s not really any better than black. What I really want is a PSP with a bright color like Nintendo offers with its DS portable.

Sony is offering portable gamers in Japan the option of four new and very bright colors for their gaming enjoyment. The bright shades are called Carnival colors and the machines can be had in blue, red, green, and yellow.

If you’ve been drooling over the 1.5 pound, 8″ VAIO P and want it to be your next netbook, Sony has started taking pre-orders. Like Wimpy from Popeye, who will gladly pay you next week if you buy him a hamburger, Sony is ready to take your money in exchange for the laptop in February.

It starts at $899 and can cost up to $1,499 depending on what you want. You can choose from a color palette of five hues. Me? I’ll pass. Strikes me as kinda girlly and clutch purse like. Some like the long and thin form factor though and it does feature a crazy high resolution on it’s tiny screen. It also sports an instant-boot OS that gives you access to the Internet and your pictures, music and other stuff.

The Sony Cybershot G3 is a true first. It boasts direct web browsing from the camera via WiFi. The camera can upload photos and videos to Web sites through any public hotspot via its built-in Web browser. It comes with complimentary AT&T WiFi access to Sony’s Easy Upload Home Page all the way up until Jan. 31, 2012. It includes Wi-Fi access at thousands of AT&T hotspots across the United States, including participating coffee shops, some bookstores and quick-serve restaurant locations, plus hundreds of upscale hotels and airports. Some specs on the camera include a dedicated WLAN button, direct links to photo sharing sites like Shutterfly and Picasa Web Albums; video sharing sites like YouTube and Dailymotion.

The Sony Cybershot G3 also features a high-resolution 3.5-inch (921,600-dot) LCD screen, support for DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) guidelines, 10-megapixel sensor with 4x optical zoom Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens, 4GB of built-in storage (optional expansion is Memory Stick only), and Intelligent Scene Recognition feature with Face Detection technology. Sounds pretty sweet to me.

Looks like Sony has gotten all official on us, even though everyone already knew that this Netbook was real. Sony’s hyped-up Vaio P Netbook weighs under 1.4 pounds, is under an inch thick, and it packs in an 8-inch screen with a 2.08:1 aspect ratio (1600×768!).

The netbook also sports Verizon WWAN 3G mobile broadband, has a keyboard that’s 10% smaller than the Vaio TT and 802.11n wi-fi. It also comes with an instant start OS that lets you access music, internet and email without fully booting Windows Vista. As you might expect, the Sony Vaio P will be available in several colors. Five to be exact. Red, green, black, white and onyx.

Sony’s Walkman NWZ-X1000 is a real looker. It features an OLED touchscreen, Wi-Fi and built-in noise cancellation and once again make the brand the world’s music player of choice, assuming the price is right. Like the iPod Touch, it comes in 16GB and 32GB and can be used to surf the web. The OLED screen’s a half inch smaller, so the colors should be brighter with better contrast.

It also comes with digital noise canceling, which is interesting. The feature, allows your 13.5mm EX headphone to block out ambient noise. It’s got all the right specs, but the price may be it’s downfall. If typical Sony pricing applies, this won’t compete with the iPod Touch.

I talked a bit last week about the Sony P series page on the Sony site that leaked on Christmas Day. The page has since been pulled from the site. It appears that the P Series will be Sony’s first Netbook and it has some interesting specifications, if they prove to be accurate.

Sony has a new teaser page up on its Japanese site that is giving brief glimpses at the keyboard design of what the page calls the VAIO New mobile. The site has a woman walking towards a door carrying a tiny purse as the image of a keyboard with a Lenovo-like tracking nub in the center of the keyboard. The suggestion is that the P Series fits into her tiny bag.

One of the most common ways that new products and gadgets are leaked to the public and geeky writer types is by an overzealous website administrator. Product pages are readied ahead of time and sometimes the go button is hit a little too soon resulting in a glimpse of what’s to come.

Just such a glimpse happened on the Sony website Christmas Day while most of us were happily eating turkey and playing with our new toys. A placeholder page popped up on the Sony website showing a new P Series notebook. Before you get too excited, the specifications and the image of the new system were not very useful.

It’s no secret that the Sony PS3 is expensive to buy and expensive to build. When the console first launched in 2006 it was sold at a significant loss by Sony in order to get consumers to buy the system and then spend money on games.

Research firm iSuppli dismantled one of the PS3 consoles in 2006 that retailed for $599 at the time and found that it cost Sony $840 to build. The same firm has gone back now after the console has had several generations to mature to find out if Sony is still losing big on the PS3 console.

We’ve all had our encounters with clamshell packaging, so it’s nice to hear about manufacturers that abandon the practice. Sony did just that this week, even though this video is pretty lame. Sony is just one of several big name companies that have pledged an end to this wasteful, destructive packaging.

As we reported last month, Amazon took a stand of their own. Other companies are getting on board too, like Microsoft and Best Buy. Once they start saving money on packaging, maybe Sony can make a better video, or give their workers a raise, but in reality it will likely go straight into the hands of the guys at the top. Then they can feel all good about themselves when they too ask for a bailout. To help the little guy of course.