Sony – Page 10 – Digital-Lifestyles

Sony Micro M2 Memory Stick For March Launch

Sony's Memory Stick Micro M2 To Launch In March If you’ve owned a few digital cameras or PDAs and switched brands a couple of times over the years, you’ll probably already have a formidable collection of non-compatible memory cards wasting away in your drawer.

Looking around our office, we’ve acquired a mighty pile of chunky compact flash memory cards, Sony memory sticks in various flavours, SD cards and the fairly obscure XD format that was forced on us when we fell in love with the Fuji F11 camera.

Lord knows how much that lot costs us, but it looks like we might have to be dipping into our pockets yet again after Sony have released yet another version of their Memory Stick.

Designed for use in cellphones, the new Memory Stick Micro M2 measures in at just 15 x 12.5 x 1.2mm (about 1/4 the size of the Memory Stick Duo) and is set to compete against similarly Lilliputian formats like the MicroSD, MiniSD and TransFlash memory cards (an ‘M2’ adaptor will let users fit the new cards into Memory Stick PRO slots).

Developed by Sony and SanDisk the new card will ship in March and initially come in storage capacities of 256MB, 512MB and 1GB. In theory, the new Micro M2 cards will eventually be able to offer up to 32GB capacity.

Sony's Memory Stick Micro M2 To Launch In March Much as we hate to give any kudos to yet another memory card format, that’s a mighty impressive capacity and offers enough storage space to turn mobile phones into fully fledged, iPod-worrying MP3 players.

As is often Sony’s way, we expect consumers are unlikely to be given much choice whether they want to use the format or not with forthcoming Sony Ericsson handsets already using the format.

With the exception of occasional appearances on third party cameras and laptops, none of the various Memory Stick formats have found much favour with other manufacturers, so anyone tempted by the Sony Ericsson’s new range will have to fork out for yet another memory card format.

Thanks Sony.

Sony

Sony Vaio F TV and SZ Duo Core Laptops Announced

Sony Vaio F TV and SZ Duo Core Laptops Announced Sony has announced the Japanese release of two new laptops featuring the Intel Duo Core processor.

SZ series

First up is the new ultraportable SZ series, an attractive looking fella which follows Sony’s tradition of stylish design and portability.

Throbbing inside the svelte casing is Intel’s new Duo Core CPU (1.66GHz – 2.16GHz), feeding a 13.3-inch widescreen display.

Sony Vaio F TV and SZ Duo Core Laptops Announced The new super-skinny SZ series (0.9″ wide) comes with either a 945GM Express or the GeForce Go 7400 graphics card which offers an unusual SPEED/STAMINA switch.

As the name suggests, frantic fraggers and heavy graphics users can go for the maximum pixel shifting power of the SPEED setting, while stately spreadsheet shufflers keen to maximise battery life will select the STAMINA option.

With high-quality aluminium and carbon fibre casing, the laptop should be able to take the daily knocks, with the “VAIO hard-disk protection” mechanism onboard to protect data from accidental bumps.

The fully-featured laptop also comes with suit-pleasing features like integrated EDGE radio, biometric fingerprint sensor and built in mic and camera for video-conferencing.

Sony Vaio F TV and SZ Duo Core Laptops Announced Sony F TV Series

Aimed at the home entertainment/multimedia market, the F TV series laptops ship with a built-in TV tuner, generous 15.4″ (WXGA 1280 x 800) screen and a capacious 160GB hard drive.

Sporting impressive minimum specs – 1.66GHz Intel Duo Core CPU, a dual-layer DVD burner, and MPEG card for recording TV to the hard drive – the F TV series runs on Windows XP Pro (and not, noticeably, Windows Media Centre).

Sony Vaio F TV and SZ Duo Core Laptops Announced According to Sony Japan’s website, the laptops will be available in a range of configurations and made available in Japan over the next few weeks.

There’s no news of a UK release yet. Now, there’s a surprise … and frankly a disapointment.

Sony Japan

JVC Everio GZ-MG77 Camcorder Unveiled

Everio GZ-MG77 Camcorder Unveiled By JVC JVC has unveiled the flagship model to its extensive range of Everio hard drive camcorders, the GZ-MG77.

Updating last year’s Everio GZ-MG70, the GZ-MG77 features a 10x optical zoom, fast F2.1 lens coupled with a flip-out 2.7-inch LCD viewfinder.

Going head to head with Sony’s recently unveiled Handycam DCR-S100 and Sanyo’s Xacti HD1, the GZ-MG77 serves up a hefty 30 GB of storage, with four different recording modes offering between 7 and 37 hours of video (approx).

Everio GZ-MG77 Camcorder Unveiled By JVC In the highest resolution mode, Ultra Fine, users can record 7 hours and 10 minutes of video at 9 Mbps.

This increases to 10 hours and 40 minutes at 6 Mbps (‘Fine’ mode), 14 hours and 10 minutes at 4.5 Mbps (‘Normal’) and a massive, holiday-spanning 37 hours and 30 minutes at 1.7 Mbps (‘Economy’).

The two high quality modes record at 720 x 480 pixels, with Normal and Economy being recorded at a lower 352 x 240 pixels resolution.

Everio GZ-MG77 Camcorder Unveiled By JVC Video can be recorded in both standard and widescreen aspect formats, with an option to record stills.

The GZ-MG77 sports a 1/3.9-inch CCD sensor and auto flash, and comes with JVC’s Low Light Plus and 3D Noise Reduction technologies, which claims to reduce video noise by approximately 30%.

There’s also support for PictBridge direct-to-printer output, USB 2.0 connectivity, SD Card slot and built-in DVD burner control for direct connection to an optional JVC DVD burner.

The camcorder is expected to hit the streets in March 2006, with pricing to be announced later.

Sony VN-CX1: Skype Mouse Phone

Sony's VN-CX1 Skype Mouse Phone No idea if we’re ever going to see it turning up in Blighty any time soon, but we love this crazy new Sony VN-CX1 USB optical mouse-phone.

The press release is only in Japanese, but we worked out that mouse-phone (‘phouse’?, moune?) is able to notify you of incoming calls via flashing LED and built-in speaker.

When closed, the mouse works like any other with the dial in the middle functioning as a scroll wheel.

Sony's VN-CX1 Skype Mouse Phone The clever stuff happens when a call comes in.

The user can then flip open the mouse to reveal a functional phone, with the mouse-wheel being used to adjust the volume. Pressing the scroll wheel mutes the call.

The built in echo cancellation feature should guarantee decent call sound quality, and finishing the call is as simple as flipping the mouse-phone shut.

Sony's VN-CX1 Skype Mouse Phone A potential problem might arise if you wanted to use the mouse when you’re on a call, but we think you can just switch to speakerphone mode. Or maybe not (the translated press announcement goes on about ‘knitting machines’ so it’s a bit vague).

Being a Sony product, the Sony VN-CX1 looks to please groovy feckers, offering the mouse in 5 trendy colours to match their shade of laptop/shirt/nail varnish.

Sony's VN-CX1 Skype Mouse Phone Although the VN-CX1 doesn’t look like the most comfortable mouse we’ve ever seen, it’s small and light enough (45.5 × 23.9 × 89.2 mm, 67gms) and certainly looks a fun product.

Pricing and availability is to be announced.

Translated Sony press release

Vodafone and Sony NetServices introduce “Vodafone Radio DJ” (News release)

Back in May 05 we did an interview with two senior Sony execs in Europe, Robert Ashcroft, Senior Vice-President of Network Services Europe and Gregory Kukolj, General Manager for Personal Audio Europe. We explored where Sony was, and where it was planning to go. With todays annoucment in mind, it’s probably worth a revisit – The Future of Sony Network Music and Players: Interview

Today, Vodafone and Sony NetServices are announcing a partnership for the global roll-out of the world’sfirst fully convergent music service – Vodafone Radio DJ – offering interactive, personalised radio channelsstreamed to both 3G mobile phones and personal computers.

With Vodafone Radio DJ, customers have access to hundreds of thousands of songs, both current popularhits and back catalogue, from the world’s largest record companies, and many smaller independent labels.Customers can access streamed radio channels, bespoke collections, and channels defined by customersthemselves.

The key feature of Vodafone Radio DJ is its easy-to-use personalization system, which enables customers to”train” the pre-programmed radio channels to their own personal tastes by simply pressing a button toindicate “like” or “dislike” while listening to a song. If a customer presses ‘dislike’, the music skips to the nextsong.

Through Sony NetServices’ detailed classification of each song in the catalogue – analysing beat andharmonies as well as genre and mood – the radio channels that individual customers receive will featuremore songs that have characteristics in common with songs that are liked, whilst avoiding songs withcharacteristics similar to those that the customer dislikes.

The Vodafone Radio DJ service consists of three elements:

Pre-defined channels. Customers can select a radio channel based on mood or genre. If the customerindicates that they don’t like the song, the channel skips to the next track within the channel. Customers can also buy any songs that they like and these will be automatically available for download to their phone andPC.
Personal Channels. By rating songs on the existing radio channels, the customer can create a number ofnew, personal channels corresponding to their desired genres, moods or specific themes.
Collections. Vodafone Radio DJ also presents programmed collections of songs to the customer on mobilephone or PC. These collections will be created by local music experts around a theme (eg Christmas Hits, orthe Best New Hip-Hop), be updated regularly, and will comprise about 15 songs.

Songs purchased on either mobile phone or PC will be available to download on both devices, with aseparate high quality stereo copy being delivered individually to each. Personal settings and personalchannels created on the mobile phone will also be accessible from the PC.

The Radio DJ service will be offered on the basis of a monthly subscription for unlimited listening to music onboth mobile phone and PC. There will be no extra charge to the consumer for the data traffic needed todeliver the music to the phone or PC.

Vodafone Radio DJ will be launched in six European countries in the coming months, namely UK, France,Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain. It will then be rolled out to more than 20 countries worldwide over thefollowing twelve months.

“This is the beginning of a new era in portable music. This partnership with Sony will drive Vodafone’sstrategy to become a leading global music provider. Vodafone Radio DJ is a revolutionary new way todiscover personal music, anytime and anywhere, and we anticipate it will have widespread consumer appealamongst our customers”, said Edward Kershaw, Vodafone’s Head of Music.

“Subscribers to Vodafone Radio DJ can listen to all the music they like, and discover new music to love.Vodafone Radio DJ opens a world of music discovery and listening pleasure on both the mobile phone andon the PC”>

TiVo: PSP/ iPod Downloads Planned

TiVo Enhanced For PSPs And ipods TiVo have announced the release of new software, slated for the first quarter of 2006 that will let owners watch recorded television shows on their Sony PSPs and video iPods.

It doesn’t stop does it? Boy, is this technology disruptive.

What’s that sound? The sound of TV legal types rubbing their hands together as TiVo’s press release hit the ‘wires’.

TiVo’s software will enable subscribers to easily transfer recorded television programming, in MPEG-4 format. Other capabilities include auto-sync, letting TiVo users choose if they want new recordings of their favorite programs transferred to their portable devices via their PC. Recharging content onto their devices overnight, ready for the next days commute. It is expected to be priced as a one off of around $30 (~£17, ~€25).

TiVo Enhanced For PSPs And ipods This development is a further blow to TV network schedulers and their much-relied on conventional prime time programmes. This theory is torn apart when mobile viewers are able to watch programmes recorded the previous night, on the go.

The US networks are unlikely to take this lying down. Companies like ABC (part of media giant Disney) have been keen to generate additional revenue from download deals of their premium shows like Desperate Housewives – as offered by Apple through their online store, to their video iPod.

This TiVo development sees that particular rug being pulled from under them, and we suspect that they won’t be won over by TiVo’s promises to employ “watermark” technologies on programs transferred to a portable device.

TiVo’s share price has initially climbed, having faltered due to the perceived weakness in TiVo capabilities for both dual recording and HD use.

Some commentators are warning of the practical problems, expecting only the technically adept to be able to handle the transfers and pointing out that the enhancements will only be available to a subset of TiVo’s 3.8 million subscribers.

We think that while this could be the case for now, we don’t see this particular genie jumping back in the bottle.

TiVo

The Teen View On SonyBMG DRM Woes

We’re really pleased to have Lawrence Dudley writing for us.

Digital-Lifestyles thinks that all too often articles about teenagers are written by people old enough to be their parents. What teenagers are thinking isn’t represented.

Lawrence will give you a point of view that you won’t find in other publications. You see Lawrence _is_ a teenager.

Sony DRM rootkit Because Criminals Make the Best Police Officers
A while ago, another teen, Jon Lech Johansen, who was most likely one of those addicted to the Internet, did something that upset a lot of people: He cracked the encryption used to protect DVDs. His actions had a huge impact and a lot of the big movie companies were upset. So much so, that they filed a lawsuit against the then-19 year old.

Imagine then, after the scandal that was SonyBMG’s DRM software which was actually a rootkit, that SonyBMG actually incorporated some open source software (OSS) code in their CDs. And not just any OSS either: It was software written by Jon himself a few years ago.

This leaves SonyBMG in a tricky position: If proven to be correct, they have broken almost every rule in the LGPL, a license used for Open Source Software. This license states that a distributor may not distribute software containing LGPL code without revealing the code’s source. SonyBMG and the suppliers of the DRM software, First4Internet, appear to have failed in doing that, and could end up being penalised for it. My views? How about sending a cool million dollars over to our friend Jon Jen Johansen? I’m sure he could use it to research some new cracks.

Sony DRM rootkit The other law other are saying have been broken by SonyBMG, and this is one that could land them in BIG legal difficulties, is The Computer Misuse Act, which contains the following clauses, all of which have been broken by SonyBMG in their keenes for DRM:

3.(1) A person is guilty of an offence if
(a) he does any act which causes an unauthorised modification of the contents of any computer; and SonyBMG certainly caused an unauthorized modification of the computers on which its software was unknowingly installed on. It even installed a security risk.
(b) at the time when he does the act he has the requisite intent and the requisite knowledge. Well this obviously applies to a company like SonyBMG.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1)(b) above the requisite intent is an intent to cause a modification of the contents of any computer and by so doing
(a) to impair the operation of any computer; it would appear that making it impossible to make legitimate, fair-use copies of CDs an impairment
(b) to prevent or hinder access to any program or data held in any computer; or to me it looks like SonyBMG followed the rule, thinking their program had to break every single clause. Preventing access to data, namely $sys$ named folders, is exactly what SonyBMG did.
(c) to impair the operation of any such program or the reliability of any such data. Again an impairment in the operation of the computer. Again a clause which SonyBMG broke.

There is one interesting little caveat though: The software wasn’t developed by SonyBMG, but by First4Internet, and was only deployed by SonyBMG on their CDs. Whether it will be SonyBMG or First4Internet who will get into trouble over this one remains to be seen, but from my point of view, Sony as a whole has done themselves a lot of damage with this one.

Big Problems For Sony Continue, Now EULA

Big Problems For Sony Continue, Now EULA This weekend, there’s been lots of furious chat on blogs and Slashdot about the EULA that comes with SonyBMG’s audio CDs.

An EULA? What’s that? I hear you cry. An End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) is something that has been shipping with software packages for a very long time – the cold-hearted view of them is they impose restrictions on the purchaser while absolving its producers from any liability.

To have an agreement shipping with an _audio CD_ in itself is pretty strange. The EULA may well be related to the software that is shipped on the protected CDs, not the music – but this is now unimportant as the generally held view is that it is for the music.

It certainly has got the goal of a few – but it’s the terms of this 3,000 word EULA that has most up in arms. Some of the highlights/lowlights of it are

If you move out of the country, you have to delete all your music. The EULA specifically forbids “export” outside the country where you reside.
If you file for bankruptcy, you have to delete all the music on your computer. Seriously.
You can’t keep your music on any computers at work. The EULA only gives you the right to put copies on a “personal home computer system owned by you.”

The full list is detailed on the EFF site.

All of this builds up on the now huge story of SonyBMG’s choice of software on some of their US released audio CDs. Called XCP, originally designed to ‘assert’ SonyBMG’s rights over their music CD’s, it installs itself on any computer where the audio CD is played. The user of the disk isn’t asked if this is OK, or even told that the software is installing itself. The software then hides itself using something called “rootkit.”

The really big problem for SonyBMG is that virus writers are now using this rootkit exploit to deliverer their viruses.

Big Problems For Sony Continue, Now EULA Many have reacted to RootKit by saying that they feel it is ‘safer’ for them to download their music from unlicensed file sharing services, as they aren’t exposing themselves to unauthorised pieces of software installing on their machines.

SonyBMG have said they will stop selling music CD’s using XCP, but the damage to the Sony name has been done.

It’s all going wrong
A while back Sony, the parent company, had a revelation – that they needed to look outside their Sony Silo and start of embrace open formats. We saw MP3 being supported on their music players, where they’d always insisted on using their propriety content protections scheme ATRAC3. I even saw DivX supported on their DVD players, where DivX had previous been thought of as the content pirates tool.

Sony had (I stress had) started to claw back against Apple and the other companies that they’d been losing out to. As of now, it looks like they’ve slipped even further behind. For goodness sakes, they’ve even got groups of people suggesting Boycott Sony and 3488 have, so far, signed an anti-Sony petition.

Sadly for Sony, it doesn’t end there
In digging through SonyBMG’s code, Finn Matti Nikki has located references to LAME, an open source, MP3 encoder library, within the code used by SonyBMG’s version of the XCP software.

As Matti says, “I’d say this indicates that the executable has been compiled against static LAME library, which happens to be LGPL. I don’t have any further evidence about this, other than lots of data from libmp3lame being included and easy to find.” Let us translate – the LGPL (Lesser General Public License) provides certain freedoms and restrictions in the use of the software covered by it.

These include needing to make the source code to the open-source libraries available and the source code and executable code of their programs.

Without abiding by these rules, they are breaking the licensing terms of the content. Carrying out the exact act they the music companies are loudly decrying in their customer.

Where now for Sony?
SonyBMG have managed to completely undo the small, patient steps that Sony, the hardware business, has been taking to gathering favour with the equipment buying public.

The idea of Sony owning content and hardware businesses always appears to be a great idea – they’d win all around. The reality is turning out to be very different.

There is a tension between the content business, who want to restrict movement of content, and the hardware business that wants to set the purchaser free. Whether a comfortable balance between these can ever be struck is unclear.

What is clear is that it appears that this CD story is nearly out of control for Sony. Someone at the most senior level at Sony needs to grab hold of this and do something radical. Our suggestion for a surefire, credibiliy-straightening maneuver? Reject DRM.

LGLP
SonyBMG on XCP
Wikipedia on LAME
LAME
Slashdot – Sony’s EULA Worse Than Its Rootkit?

PSP Media Manager Launched By Sony

PSP Media Manager Launched By Sony Sony have launched the PSP Media Manager for the PlayStation Portable, an iTunes-like application designed to make it easy to shunt music, movies, photos and other content off a PC and onto PSPs and synchronise PC content with the PSP.

Although the PlayStation Portable was promoted as an all-in-one lifestyle gadget as well as a gaming system, getting content onto the thing wasn’t an easy task, with no USB cable or conversion software being supplied – although these were easily added by those inclined.

The PSP Media Manager aims to fix that, coming with the necessary USB to PSP cable and software supporting a load of multimedia formats including .mp4, .avi, .mpg, .mov, and .wmv for video files, and .mp3, .wav, and .wma for audio.

PSP Media Manager Launched By Sony Supported image formats include .bmp, .jpg, .gif, .png, and .tif, with a bundled utility to backing up game saves to the PC.

Like iTunes, PSP Media Manager can copy over music tracks via drag and drop from a PC or download from Sony’s Connect online music store.

Other Apple-like functionality includes the ability to search and subscribe to RSS feeds formatted for viewing on the PSP, including podcasts, video blogs, and magazines.

PSP Media Manager Launched By Sony The boxed version containing the USB lead and five free song downloads will be available form Sony’s Connect music from November 22 for $29.95 (~£17, ~e24), with the downloadable version already available (clearly without the USB lead – matter transfer via the Internet is being worked on) from the official Sony Media Software site for $19.95 (~£11, ~e16.5).

With the new software adding full iTunes-like music/video integration to the already-formidable feature list of the PlayStation Portable, we can hear the sound of Sony’s gauntlet slapping down outside Apple’s HQ.

Of course it may not be a long considered move, more a panic move from Sony, after having seen iTunes 6 and the ‘iPod with video’.

There’s two things that will decide – you the consumer and time.

PSP Media Manager

DSC-T9 Cyber-shot Announced By Sony

DSC-T9 Cyber-shot Announced By Sony Sony continues to build on the success of its ultra-slim DSC-T digital still camera range with the release of the six megapixel Cyber-shot DSC-T9 model.

Following in the footsteps of the T3, T5 and T7 models, Sony’s new mini-snapper manages to add optical image stabilisation and high light sensitivity, with the company claiming pictures with “significantly less blur and graininess than typical point-and-shoot cameras.”

The camera shoehorns a smarty-pants lens-shift optical image stabiliser that does it stuff courtesy of two gyro-sensors which detect hand movement and automatically calculate the necessary compensation for a crisp image.

The increased high light sensitivity (64 up to IS0 640) allows punters to grab flash-free, atmospheric shots in low light, although we’ve yet to see how effective Sony have been in keeping the inevitable noise down at high ISO ratings.

DSC-T9 Cyber-shot Announced By Sony “Our T Series set the standard for slim, stylish, point-and-shoot cameras with fine image quality,” said James Neal, director of digital imaging products at Sony Electronics.

“Now the use of this category of cameras is pervasive. With the DSC-T9, we are taking this category a step further by incorporating advanced imaging technologies that ensure that you get the shot, even in unfavourable light conditions, like nightclubs and restaurants,” he added.

As with previous DSC-T models, there’s a whopping great 2.5-inch 230k LCD dominating the rear of the camera, with four playback ‘themes’ letting users display their photos with dynamic transitions shuffling along to user-selected music clips.

The Lilliputian shooter comes with a 3x (38-114mm ) Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar folded-path optical zoom so there’s no whirring lens thrusting out of the camera on start up.

DSC-T9 Cyber-shot Announced By Sony The DSC-T9 offers shutter speeds from 30 to 1/1000 second, Multi-pattern, Centre-weighted, or Spot metering, five white balance presets and 10 scene modes.

There’s also VGA (30 fps) MPEG movie recording onboard, with 58 MB of internal memory and a slot for an optional Memory Stick Duo or Memory Stick PRO Duo media card.

Turning the camera on and off is a matter of sliding the camera lens cover, with Sony claiming a battery life of up to 240 shots per charge – an improvement on the fairly dire performance of its predecessor.

The Cyber-shot DSC-T9 camera will be available in January for about $450 (~£254~€374) online at SonyStyle.com

Sony T9