Remember how Sony launched a PS3 at a BRAVIA flat-panel TV pretty much just for the fun of it? Well, they seem to have triggered a new trend of firing gaming hardware at solid objects, as French gaming magazine Amusement have included a photo-shoot involving Nintendo’s DS and Sony’s PSP Go being fired through walls.
The Sony VAIO X super-slim ultraportable may be on sale in the US, but units actually reaching customers hands are still in short supply. That’s why we turn to Germany for our unboxing edification, with NewGadgets.de doing the honors in stripping the half-inch thick notebook from its bulky packaging.
Video unboxing after the cut
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The last few week shave seen several large product recalls with the most recent from Belkin due to a risk of electrical shock. Today Sony has announced a large product recall that will affect the owners of several VAIO computers. The recall has to do with the AC adapters the machines use rather than the batteries this time around.
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Sony Ericsson's Aino smartphone arrived in the UK earlier this month, but would-be buyers looking on enviously from the US are now able to sate their touchscreen desires. The 8.1-megapixel handset has gone on sale online and at Sony Style stores in the US today, priced at $599.99 unlocked, offering a 3-inch 432 x 240 touchscreen, WiFi, 3G (UMTS 850/1900/2100) and Bluetooth.
Antitrust investigations and allegations of price fixing are nothing new from Hitachi and Toshiba. Both firms were embroiled in the LCD price fixing scandal that resulted in some Japanese executives getting prison terms and the companies received massive fines. The US DOJ has now issued new subpoenas to Hitachi, Toshiba, and Sony in a new anti-trust investigation that centers on the optical drive units of each company.
Remember all the furore back in August, when Microsoft announced they’d locked up Netflix movie streaming for the Xbox 360 and basically told us it was an “exclusive” partnership? Well, that exclusivity seems to have been short-lived; Sony have announced that from November Netflix subscribers will be able to stream content on their PS3.
Remember the Sony S-Frame DPP-F700 combination digital photo frame and printer? Announced late last month over in Singapore, the 7-inch WVGA display has just seen its official US launch, and it’s expected to arrive in stores in January for around $200. As well as displaying images on-screen – loaded either via USB or on a memory card, but frustratingly not wirelessly – the DPP-F700 can spit out 4 x 6-inch glossy prints for your mother-in-law to take away.
Video demo after the cut
I’d love to have been a fly on the wall at Sony Australia when they came up with this one. ”Guys, it’s a worldwide recession, we need a promotion to keep people buying the PS3 and BRAVIA HDTVs. I know some of you want to run a competition and give the darned things away, but I think we’d be far better off firing one against the other and sticking it up on YouTube.” Hence how we end up with a video of a PS3 being launched at 22 meters per second toward a poor, defenceless flat-panel TV.
We’ve looked at other reviews of Sony’s VAIO X ultraportable, but while they’ve waxed lyrical over the notebook’s styling we’ve yet to see the hard performance stats that the X’s frequent-flyer target audience will demand. Thankfully LaptopMag’s review covers not just processor benchmarking but battery testing, pitting Sony’s claims of “a full day’s use” against a harsh, stopwatch-toting reality.
We have been enjoying the new cheaper PS3 Slim in the US and other countries for a while now. In fact we are already looking forward to the 250GB PS3 Slim coming stateside next month. In Malaysia, gamers have not been able to get their hands on the PS3 Slim yet. Sony announced today that the PS3 Slim would hit the Malaysian market on October 31.
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