Sony has announced today that the 40GB Playstation 3 that was recently announced for Europe and Japan will indeed be coming to the US this fall as well. The new 40GB PS3 will retail for $399 and start selling on November 2. It looks like it has the same configuration as the other releases as well including the lack of backwards compatibility for PS2 games, no memory card reader and two USB ports short. No word on a white version of the console for the US, but the 40GB PS3 will also come bundled with Spider-Man 3 on Blu-ray disc.

Sony states in the press release that those wanting backwards compatibility should look to the 80GB model which is also receiving a price cut effective immediately. Sony has given the 80GB PS3 a $100 price drop from its original launch price of $599, pricing it a $499 today. We can never complain about price drops but even with the cut the PS3 is still the most expensive latest-generation console on the market compared to its rivals Wii and Xbox 360.

Sony unveiled today a second generation internal Blu-ray Disc drive which cuts down the amount of time it takes to burn a BD-R disc. The new BWU-200S, available as an aftermarket item for computer users, is priced at around $600.

The Sony BWU-200S is capable of 4X BD-R, which Sony says results in burning time to this Blu-Ray Disc format being cut by half. It also offers 16X DVD+R recording speeds. All in all, Sony has designed this drive to “record up to 50GB of data for random access storage and backup on BD-R (write once) or BD-RE (rewritable) discs, or up to 230 minutes of high-definition HDV 1080i video on a BD-R/RE 50GB disc. It also supports recording on standard single layer 4.7GB DVD+R/+RW/RAM discs, 8.5GB DVD+R double/dual layer discs, and CDs.”

Today Sony announced the BWU-200S, upgraded internal Blu-ray burner for PC’s with the ability to write a full Blu-ray disc in just 45 minutes. As with most media, I’m sure in the near future we’ll look back and scoff at having waited 45 minutes to burn a single disc, but for now this really isn’t too bad. We’re talking 50GB of data or 4 hours of high-def video in well under an hour, which is half the time it took Sony’s previous Blu-ray burner.

The same burner can also record standard DVD-R’s at 16x or a CD-R at 40x letting you have one drive to do it all. It rail-mounts inside your PC and connects via a Serial ATA interface compatible with Windows Vista/XP/2000. The BWU-200S comes packaged with CyberLink BD software letting users start burning movies straight from a …

Today Sony announced they will be launching a 40GB PS3 in Japan on November 11th, a year to the day after the console was initially launched in Japan. The new 40GB PS3 will have a few changes changes from the units currently available including no memory card reader or backwards compatibility and will be short two of the four USB ports, which sounds just like the model recently announced for the UK.

Just last week we found out that Sony had finally given a price cut for the PS3 in the UK, offering a Value Pack with the 60GB console and two games for £349 (down from the original 60GB PS3 price of £425). They also announced a new 40GB model that will go on sale in the UK in October (and hopefully to the US soon after) which lets gamers become PS3 owners at an even lower price of £299.

The new 40GB model lacks backwards compatibility, a couple USB ports and a card reader, but nevertheless allowed a larger audience the ability to get on board with the PS3. At this point folks in the UK had a couple options, they could get a better deal with the larger drive capacity and all the features or save a few more bucks and not be able to play their PS2 games on the PS3, but not for long.

Sony today released an announcement confirming rumors and FCC leaks of a less-expensive 40GB PS3 launching before the holidays. According the the announcement this model is currently only going to be available for Europe but it wouldn’t make sense for Sony to only release it in one area where PS3 sales are suffering. Hopefully it will be making its way to the US soon.

The new 40GB model will retail for €399 in the UK and aside from the drive size the new PS3’s will also lack 2 of the four USB ports and will have no memory card reader in order to cut some costs. It will also not be backwards compatible for PS2 games which isn’t too big of a deal for Europe models since software manages the backwards compatibility but for the U.S. it kinda’ stinks. We’ll have to watch this holiday season to see if this helps Sony take a bigger bite out of latest-generation game console sales and we’ll keep our eyes peeled for a U.S. targeted 40-giger.

The rumor mill is up and running right away this morning due to rumors that Sony will have a price cut coming soon for the Playstation 3 in the UK. Not only are there rumors on just a price cut but also a whole new 40GB PS3 model, both coming sometime in October.

According to Pocket-lint, “multiple sources” at Sony have confirmed that Sony will be creating a 40GB version of the PS3 for the UK market and it will be retailing for £299, making more direct competition for the Xbox 360. According to the sources they will also be dropping the price of the 60GB model by £56 bringing it to £369. The new 40GB model would feature Blu-ray (making a very competitive Blu-ray player alone) along with Wi-Fi and a SIXAXIS controller, but will be slightly scaled down sans two of four USB ports and a memory card reader.

Sony has apparently made enough sales with its ebook Reader to justify creating a second generation version. The new Sony Reader PRS-505, priced at around $300, should be available this month.

Sony says the PRS-505 has a “svelte” body design and is available in silver or dark blue body colors. The controls have been reportedly re-styled to better copy page turns. Also apparently new to this model is a new electronic paper display for faster viewing time and better gray scale for enhanced viewing. It can mimic as well a USB mass storage device and offers space to store up to 160 typical ebooks.

It looks like Sony has come through on those OLED TV’s they’ve been touting since as far back as January. Today the company has finally unveiled information on the release of these super-slim televisions boasting 1,000,000:1 contrast.

That 3mm truly makes this new OLED from Sony the thinnest TV/monitor thing going (and probably the most fragile). Sony says the XEL-1 OLED TV with an 11-inch display will be available in Japan on December 1 going for about $1700. The new XEL-1 will have a built-in tuner, 960 x 450 resolution, HDMI input as well as USB and ethernet, two 1W built-in speakers and measures 287 × 140 × 253mm.

It’s no secret that Sony needs to pep up sales of the PlayStation 3. Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 continue to outsell the PS3 and as the holiday season starts to approach Sony needs to do something to get its console on the Christmas wish lists of kids. But what could they do? For starters how about introducing a cheaper PS3?

Sony has recently announced the release of a new Walkman for portable media loving folks in Japan which takes advantage of the area’s 1seg live television broadcast. The Walkman NW-A910 can not only pick up the 1seg signal but it can record video content directly to the player and you can schedule as many as 10 programs up to a month in advance for a total of 100 hours of recorded TV. Now that’s cool.

The new Walkman also sports an FM tuner, has the ability to record and encode your CD’s all inside the player and comes with some noise canceling headphones. All this in three different models with capacities of 4GB, 8GB or 16GB. It’s just hard not to like this little PMP.

Sony today introduced a new low-cost notebook line which keeps fashion in mind. The VAIO NR series has a starting price of around $750 and should be available starting next month.

The Sony VAIO NR series comes in three different colors, all sporting a 15.4-inch LCD display. Select models in this line have an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Other features which can be found on this laptops, depending upon the model, include 802.11 wireless technology, DVD/CD burner and four USB ports.

Sony today unveiled four new Xplod brand in-dash head units for cars. The most interesting of these is the top-line CD-GT520, priced at around $140 and available now.

The CDX-GT520 is designed to support an array of media available for drivers, including MP3, non-DRM WMA, AAC, iPod, satellite radio and HD Radio. A 13-segment LCD with blue LED display provides information on what’s playing. Other features include blue key illumination, preamp outputs and a flip-down, detachable faceplate.

The PlayStation 3 needs a killer game. Fighting with low sales (Nintendo’s Wii currently sells more units than the PS3) and increased competition from Microsoft (”Halo 3″ is easily the biggest game for the fall/holiday season) Sony had been hoping that its “Home” social gaming network would be ready for the fall and generate some needed excitement amongst gamers. Unfortunately for Sony “Home” isn’t ready for a Q3 launch and has been moved back now for a spring 2008 debut so that it can “improve product quality.” Citing the need to make environments that fulfill the needs of America, European and Asian gamers, Sony chief executive Kazuo Hirai said “We aim to launch this as something that can meet expectations of people all over the world.”

That Playstation Eye camera from Sony designed for use with the PS3 has finally gotten some release information and pricing. According to the Playstation Blog, the PS3 Eye camera will be available for purchase on October 23rd.

In what seems almost like an accidental side note in an announcement regarding the release of The Eye of Judgment game from Hasbro, the the Playstation Eye looks like it is going come bundled with the trading card game and together will retail for just $69.99 in the US.