Sony seems to have had a change in their policies by producing a competitor product accessory. Calling Sony and Apple competitors might not be the best description of their relationship, but they do both produce portable audio players.

Sony has added to this definition when they started shipping the Sony iPod Audio Docking Station, which is the first accessory Sony has made for the Apple product and aptly named it the CPF-IP001.

The actual product from Sony appears to be a nice docking station stereo system. Designed specifically for the Apple iPod, the docking station is compatible with the nanos and minis as well as the full size iPods from the 4th generation on. The player works by simply docking the iPod and pressing play, and the song selection and volume can be controlled with an included remote control.

The iPod stereo system is a compact …

Yesterday Sony released a version 3.10 firmware upgrade to the Playstation Portable system with some increased security among other new features. By the end of the same day, hackers had already decrypted the 3.10 firmware to allow third party applications to run on the PSP.

The party claiming responsibility for the PSP hack, “C + D”, was boastful about the day 0 hack of the new firmware stating, “$ony has lost another batle and will loose the war…”. Obviously they are better at hacking than they are spelling.

The new firmware updates for Sony’s PSP include support for an expansion of Playstation titles, support of MPEG-4 AVC format video files, a Conserve Memory feature and a dynamic sound normalizer. In addition, and more interesting in this upgrade is the ability to download demos directly to the PSP or transfer …

Sporting a spherical form factor measuring 10.63″ in diameter and 3.58″ high, the Sony VAIO TP1 Living Room PC is a bold new approach to home PC design. Promoted as a “Living Room PC”, the TP1 was made to blend with your home decor and allow you to surf the web and watch live and pre-recorded TV shows from the comfort of your sofa.

The TP1 comes equipped with a matching wireless keyboard and remote control. The lightweight keyboard was designed to fit on your lap and has a built-in touchpad with hot buttons that launch your frequently used applications.

Frequently accessed features such as the optical drive, USB ports and multi-card reader are located on the front of the PC, hidden behind a curved slide-away panel, while constantly-connected terminals are hidden from sight on the back of the unit.

Specifications
The TP1 features Windows Vista …

So you’re a Japanese gadget guru, what do you have in your house? A 200-inch theater screen of course. Even wonder what a PlayStation 3 would look like on a giant screen TV? Well here are the amazing pictures.

From the English version it appears that the only down side was that the text in the game was hard to read. This is probably because even the game designers didn’t have a 200-inch monster TV. The PlayStation 3 was connected to the projector via a $1200 US HDMI cable. Oh and by the way, who says everything in Japan is smaller? Apparently the Japanese are sizable where it matters, in the Audio/Video realm of course. What do you think I meant?…

Sony has announced a March 23, 2007 launch date of the Playstation 3 game console to Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. This launch comes a little over two months after the PS3 release in Japan and in the US.

The release had been rumored for some time in March of this year, but until now an exact date for the release had not been set. The console will go on sale priced at €599, £425, AUD 999.95, NZ 1199.95. This price is for the 60GB model of the PS3 which is the only model that will be available initially, and that UK price equates to over $840 USD which is quite a bit more than the $600 consumers have been paying in the US. Sony plans to make around 1 million …

Sony just can’t catch a break. Recent Japanese sales data on the PlayStation 3 indicate that the expensive console has had its worst week since its launch in Japan. In the week ending January 14th, Sony sold a paltry 25,531 units.

Overall, the console market has slowed. The Wii turned in its second worst week with sales of 93,708. The Xbox 360 sold a meager 9,035 units. The source of the sales data is Media Create, Co., a Japanese console gaming research company.

The big news is that while Sony claims to have shipped a large amount of consoles the sales reported by retailers is fairly low, indicating that once well publicized shortage is being replaced apathy on the part of consumers.

PlayStation 3 games are slow to sell also. …

The PlayStation 2 and the Xbox 360 had a pretty good year with game sales. This news comes on the heals of PlayStation 2’s surprising sales showing.

Of course Madden topped the charts as usual. Of some surprise is the number of Super Mario Bros. games sold for the Nintendo DS. The Super Mario franchise continues to shine and Mario apparently ages very well. Another interesting sales figure is for the Brain Age title. Not a game so much as a series of brain teasers and mental exercises developed by Japanese neuro-scientist Ryuta Kawashima, the title’s strong showing gives us evidence that video games do make you smarter!

Platform
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The gaming industry did well in 2006, however the real king of the consoles may surprise you. You know that the Wii beat the PlayStation 3. You also know that the Xbox 360 beat the Wii. But who beat the Xbox 360? The PlayStation 2.

Yes, the best selling console of 2006 appears to be the six year old PlayStation 2. Why did a ancient (in gaming terms) console outsell all the brand new rigs? It’s probably the availability of excellent games and the often overlooked economics aspect.

Sony has an incredible lead in game sales. Four of the top 10 games sold in December were for the PlayStation 2, including the number two game, Guitar Hero, which sold over 800,000 copies. The PlayStation 2 also had the number one …

Sony had some prototype super-skinny OLED TV’s display on CES this week. Consumers can’t get them yet, but they are certainly going to want to.

The new wafer-thin televisions come in sizes as large as 40″, and put out a full high-definition picture. The photo and video courtesy of T3 really says it all, showing the televisions on display with bright, high quality video that are still viewable from quite an angle. This will be a product that we will definitely be watching for from Sony this year as this promises to be the future of home entertainment.

Check out the video of these thin TV’s on display at CES 2007:

Fenner Investments is suing Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft over the design of their game console controllers. Fenner, located in Texas, is claiming they hold the patent entitled “Low-Voltage Joystick Port Interface.” The suit claims that Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are causing damage to Fenner by their infringement of the patent in their respective controllers.

It appears that Fenner is claiming to own the patent on joysticks or ports that connect joysticks to another device. If this is the case it may have a far reaching affect on game hardware manufacturers.

It should be noted that Fenner recently also tried to sue wireless makers such as Nokia and Cisco over another patent entitled “a method and apparatus for managing a communications network for mobile users.” That suit was dismissed.

Sony and Microsoft were also recently …

Some sites were reporting that Sony won an Emmy for its PlayStation 3 Sixaxis controller. The source of this information was Sony itself in a press release the company said, “Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) today announced that it has been recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award for the PlayStation computer entertainment system’s Sixaxis wireless controller.”

Turns out the company actually won the award for its PlayStation 2 DualShock controller. The controller is notable for its force feedback features and analogue thumb controllers.

Sony issued a retraction of the story today stating the DualShock controller had taken home the prize not the Sixaxis controller. The updated release read, “In a press release dated January 8, 2007, SCEA announced we had been recognized by the National Academy of …

Sony has another new Playstation Portable color coming out in conjunction with the new Monster Hunter Portable 2 game in a special limited edition package - champagne gold.

US customers will have to still put up with the black PSP, at least for now, but Japanese customers can add the champagne gold color to the list of white, blue, pink and silver that is already available. The gold colored PSP will come in a pack including a case, cleaner, the Monster Hunter game and some PSP skins in case you want to disguise your bling for some less formal occasions.

The limited edition pack will be available on Feb. 22nd of this year, and according to PSPFanboy, there will only be 22,222 of them available. Pre-ordering of the champagne gold Sony PSP is available at Play-Asia.com for the yen equivalent of about …

According to Japanese gamer magazine publisher Enterbrain, Nintendo’s Wii has outsold the PlayStation 3 in Japan. Some think that this could be an indication of the success or failure of each platform in the US. SlipperyBrick previously reported that Sony claimed it had shipped one million units in North America.

Wii’s stronger sales happened in spite of the fact that the unit went on sale three weeks after the rival PlayStation 3. Enterbrain says that the Wii sold 1.14 million units versus the paltry 311,000 units sold by Sony.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 is relatively expensive and the cheap model sells for 49,980 yen (about $425) while the Wii sells for 25,000 yen (about $210). The speculation is that the price of the Wii, couple with its unique motion-sensing …

At first glance you might think the new Sony VAIO VGX-TP1 is a new product from Apple with the white color and unusual shape, but Sony has taken a new direction in desktop design with this cylinder shaped design.

The Sony VAIO TP1 comes running Windows Vista and an HDMI port to run a display on your big flat-screen TV. It also ships with a wireless keyboard, memory card slot and a DVD burner built-in. Not to mention that this has all the amenities of a normal desktop PC, all packed into a space-conscious design.

We’re not sure if Sony is trying to take a bite out of Apple with the white hardware design and keyboard, but it gives a nice, different looking option to the mundane design of desktops. Sony will start shipping the VAIO VGX-TP1 in March of this year for …

Today Sony unveiled its new 70-inch flat panel LCD HDTV at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Sony stated that the Bravia KDL-70XBR3 HDTV is the world’s largest television compliant with x.v.Color.

The 70-inch Bravia features a 10-bit panel, which gives a finer gradient than most LCD’s with an 8-bit panel. Along with that, Sony incorporated a Motionflow technology at 120Hz. This doubles the number of frames per second that are displayed to practically eliminate blurring with fast motion scenes. The LCD panel also has a 178 degree viewing angle, so viewers can still see the picture at almost a perpendicular angle. The 70-inch Bravia from Sony also sports three HDMI inputs and a PC input to use this screen as a computer monitor, and has a shiny piano black finish distinctive of this model.

“The BRAVIA KDL-70XBR3 is the result …