Here’s more good news for PlayStation 3 owners. You’ll soon be able to purchase PlayStation Plus membership cards at retail. Gift cards granting access to Sony’s premium PlayStation Network are now being shipped to stores all over North America.

The cards have already hit some Target stores and will cost you $17.99 for three months of PlayStation Plus access. Sony also offers a 12-month subscription for $49.99. The service grants users early access to some demos and beta tests, discounts on software and the occasional freebie.

Sony has just introduced the SMP-N100 network media player in the UK. It will allow you to access Bravia Internet video, using Wi-Fi and DLNA support. This makes it similar to Apple TV, allowing you to stream content via Wi-Fi throughout your home from the Sony SMP-N100 directly.

You can access YouTube, the BBC iPlayer and Demand Five, and films. Content Noise Reduction is built in to improve the quality of streamed video. It will hit the UK market next month for about £120.

Sony has upgraded PC lineup with some speed and option upgrades across some models. The VAIO E series gets most of the updates: options for the faster 2.66GHz Core i5 580M and 2.53GHz Core i5 460M, and a new 2GHz Pentium dual-core option for build-to-order models.

The EA and EB now have options for Mobility Radeon HD 5650 video and 1080p displays, while every E series gets purple as a color choice. The VAIO F gets a visual performance upgrade with the newer GeForce GT 425M and a single USB 3.0 port.

Japanese commuters have been able to get Sony Japan’s SRS-V500IP for awhile, but us yanks have had to do without. Not anymore. Audiocubes.com has brought it to the US. It’s an iPod friendly version of the RDP-NWV500 sound mug. It’s also available in black, orange, and pink, and has the same Circle Sound Stage speaker system for a full 360 degrees.

A 3.5mm audio jack is thrown in to connect to other devices as well. It’s priced at $240.

Sony says that counterfeit PlayStation 3 controllers can be unstable, as in they might blow up in your hands. Or wherever it may be. Sony made an announcement to consumers, telling them not to take the risk of buying counterfeit products as it could cause them serious injury.

According to the company, counterfeit PlayStation 3 controllers, “identical in appearance to genuine PlayStation 3 wireless controllers,” have started cropping up in the wild. The company said that the “quality, reliability, and safety of counterfeit products is uncertain.”

The PlayStation Move is hitting store shelves and so Sony has decided to offer up some deals. The company has added the PlayStation Move EyePet bundle to their list of launches.

With this kit you get the standard Move controller, a copy of the creature care game called EyePet and a PlayStation Eye camera. It’s only available through Toys R Us in North America and it will cost you $100. That’s not a bad price.

If the recent 3.50 firmware update for your PS3 left you feeling like you need more 3D in your life, Sony has an extra treat for you. The company has announced their PlayMemories app.

The app will be available for download from the PlayStation Store in late September, letting you view both 2D and 3D photos captured with a 3D-compatible camera. Select a picture and zoom in or out using your DUALSHOCK®3 or SIXAXIS™ wireless controller. The app itself wasn’t shown yet, but we expect to see it pretty soon and see if it’s worth it or not.

If that Buffalo external Blu-ray drive that I mentioned a while ago was too large for your tastes, the new Sony Optiarc slim Blu-ray drive might be perfect for your needs. The new optical drive is very thin and can write to BDR media at 6x.

The drive also plays Blu-ray films and can write to DVD and CD media as well. The drive can record a 25GB Blu-ray disc in about 25 minutes. It also supports the playback of 3D Blu-ray films. The external optical drive may be perfect for notebook or netbook users without an optical drive or for machines that don’t have Blu-ray.

The Sony Playstation 3 3.50 update is now live. The new update adds 3D support for Blu-ray movies, not just the earlier game support. If you want to take advantage of the update, you’ll need a 3D-capable TV however, as well as active shutter 3D glasses and an HDMI 1.4 cable. That’s one expensive update if you want 3-D movies.

There’s also Facebook integration, allowing developers to incorporate more social networking into games. Another key feature in the upgrades is a Grief Reporting Function that allows users to report harassment through the Friends link in the XMB interface.

You certainly have your choice of PSPs, but Sony keeps announcing more. Now they have announced a new special edition PSP-3000 at the Tokyo Game Show.

This time you will get Monster Hunter Portable 3 graphics, and this PSP also ships with a slightly enhanced analog stick and a better 2200mAh capacity battery.

As usual, Sony has been busy updating their walkman range.They have just unveiled a fresh batch of Walkman players in Japan. The flagship is the NW-A850 series, which incorporates Sony’s S-Master amp, while the mid-range is the NSW-S740 series, which has most of the features of the flagship model without the amp. The NW-A850’s include a 2.8-inch OLED 240×400 screen, a body that is just 0.3 inches thin and, earphones with digital noise cancellation.

The mid-range NW-S740 also gets Digital Sound Enhancement and also includes digital noise cancelling headphones. The most interesting feature is an additional 50 hours of battery life over the previous model.

Well, this is a bit odd. In an attempt to make you a fan of the PlayStation Move, Sony has introduced these two bubble headed dudes? They are called the MoveMen and they are stars of a new PlayStation Move ad push.

The campaign is directed by FilmFaktisk’s Lars Åndheim and looks like it is limited to Norway. They apparently fight crime with their glowing bubble heads, with PSmove controllers holstered at their side. It’s all rather silly.

Sony’s latest marketing campaign is aimed directly at Microsoft’s motion-sensing peripheral. If you go over to www.yaybuttons.com you can interact with a two-dimensional PlayStation Move, and see some quotes from Kevin Butler, explaining Sony’s various advantages over Microsoft’s Kinect.

Sony fans will love it. Microsoft fans will hate it. The rest of us just wish they would stfu and concentrate on making good games. If you want to sell consoles and peripherals, it’s all in the games.

The Sony Bravia EX710 is an update to the EX700 series. This new model features a smaller bezel for a more streamlined design and minimalist look. You get a 1920 x 1080p panel, edge-lit LED backlighting, and Motionflow 120Hz processing.

It also has a Presence Sensor that will automatically turn off the picture when you leave the room. That’s always good to save energy. Speaking of which, there’s also a zero-watt Energy Saving Switch and an Ambient Sensor that adjust the best brightness level for you.

If you happen to be living in Japan and need some new earbuds, Sony will be releasing the High-end MDR-EX1000 earphones there. If you are game, they will cost you 61,950 Yen (or $735 yankee dollars).

These earphones feature a sensitivity of 108dB/mW, a bandwidth reproduction of 3-30,000Hz, an impedance of 32 Ohms, and 16mm drivers. You can expect the Sony High-end MDR-EX1000 earphones to be released in Japan on October 23rd.