Sony Corporation has developed "Hybrid FPA (field-induced photo-reactive alignment)", a new liquid crystal alignment technique which enables a significantly faster response time for liquid crystal displays. Fast responses of less than 3ms have been achieved in test cells through this technology. Aside from contributing to 'picture quality enhancement in 3D and high frame rate video', this technology will improve 'product stability' during the display panel manufacturing process as well as after long-term use. Additionally, this technology will achieve production efficiencies by reducing the manufacturing process and time.

Sony previously developed the "FPA *1" high-speed liquid crystal response alignment technique based on vertical alignment (VA) liquid crystal modes. One method for improving liquid crystal response time is to generate pre-tilt of the liquid crystal molecules. "FPA" technique uses the alignment layer developed by Sony and maintains pre-tilt of liquid crystal molecules by irradiating UV while applying voltage in manufacturing process. This facilitates the stable and even alignment of the liquid crystal molecules *2, thus achieving improvements in both liquid crystal response time and the contrast ratio. In addition, this has made it possible to eradicate the Mura (uniformity problem) in the display as well as to eliminate the 'sticking image' that can occur after long-term use.

Sony Optiarc America today announced its first slim, portable and external Blu-ray Disc (BD) rewritable drive to compliment notebooks, netbooks or desktop PCs. The new BDX-S500U model writes single BD-R media at up to 6X and dual layer BD-R media at up to 4X speeds, recording a full 25GB disc in about 20 minutes. The 6X recording speed is achieved using 6X compatible BD-R media, and one 25GB Sony BD-R blank disc comes included in the retail box. Also included with the drive is CyberLink's Media Suite 8 for capturing, authoring, editing, backing up, viewing high-definition personal content and playing back Blu-ray Disc movies including 3D Blu-ray movies.

When it first came out, Sony's PlayStation 3 game console was the easiest way to have a Blu-ray disc (BD) player, because the console uses BD as its primary media. With a new firmware update from Sony, users can add Blu-ray 3D support. It is especially interesting because not every older standalone Blu-ray player supports the latest 3D format. Firmware update 3.50 applies to all versions of the PlayStation 3 (that's Slim and the original design). The move to let the PS3 have Blu-ray 3D support was backed by an announcement that upcoming game titles on the PS3, such as Gran Turismo 5 and Killzone 3 will come in stereoscopic 3D.

Sony is launching two very special gaming headsets into the gaming sector. Each has been designed in response to extensive user research that shows what different gamers want from the ideal headset. The DR-GA500 combines a Dolby Pro Logic IIx decoder with unique Sony Virtual Phones Technology (VPT) to create convincing 7.1ch 3D surround effects. The signal processing hardware is contained in a compact external unit.

The result is a soundscape rich in precision spatial detail that pinpoints everything from a stealthy footstep to the position of an exploding grenade. This audio environment is perfect for first person shooter (FPS) games where what you can hear is often as important as what you can see. DR-GA500 brings out the highest gaming performance with its superb sound quality. It is something you can't forget, if you really want to win the game.

The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) today announced the finalization and release of the "Blu-ray 3D" specification. The specification, which represents the work of the leading Hollywood studios and consumer electronic and computer manufacturers, will enable the home entertainment industry to bring the 3D experience into consumers' living rooms on Blu-ray Disc, the most capable high definition home entertainment platform.

"Throughout this year, movie goers have shown an overwhelming preference for 3D when presented with the option to see a theatrical release in either 3D or 2D," said Victor Matsuda, chairman, BDA Global Promotions Committee. "We believe this demand for 3D content will carry over into the home now that we have, in Blu-ray Disc, a medium that can deliver a quality Full HD 3D experience to the living room."

The "Blu-ray 3D" specification fully leverages the technical advantages of the Blu-ray Disc format to deliver unmatched picture quality as well as uniformity and compatibility across the full range of Blu-ray 3D products, both hardware and software. Notably, the specification allows every Blu-ray 3D player and movie to deliver Full HD 1080p resolution to each eye, thereby maintaining the industry leading image quality to which Blu-ray Disc viewers are accustomed. Moreover, the specification is display agnostic, meaning that Blu-ray 3D products will deliver the 3D image to any compatible 3D display, regardless of whether that display uses LCD, Plasma or other technology and regardless of what 3D technology the display uses to deliver the image to the viewer's eyes.

Sony unveiled its newest Vaio X 11.1-inch ultraportable notebook at the IFA 2009 event in Berlin, that not only promises to "set the new standard for stamina" (battery life) in its category, but also promises to be visually appealing with its half inch-thick body made of carbon fiber. Thanks to its materials, it weighs just about a pound and a half (around 0.69 kg). The first in the series features an Intel Atom processor (model unknown), 2 GB of memory, and a 31 Wh battery. Sony says that use of the Atom processor isn't final and it's merely to run working prototypes, so it still leaves a window open for Core 2 CULV hardware. The hardware apparently lets the machine go on for a day without hitting the wall [socket]. Other features observed are two USB ports, SD/Memory Stick slot and gigabit Ethernet. The only video-out option looks to be D-Sub at the moment. The Vaio X ultraportable is slated for late October, its retail availability is expected about a week after Windows 7 launches. A lot more pictures of it can be viewed here.

Sony's Vaio P elite netbook claimed top notch hardware specs when it was first unveiled, but its price made it unattractive to buyers, so now it is time for it to step down in flavour of the new Vaio W netbook. The new VAIO W sports a useful 10.1-inch LED-backlit LCD display that offers a better-than-usual resolution of 1366x768 pixels. Available in berry pink, cocoa brown or sugar white it also brings with it a 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N280 processor, 1 GB of DDR2 RAM, integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics and a 160 GB hard disk drive. Like most netbooks, Sony VAIO W comes with Microsoft Windows XP OS installed, other trimmings include Bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n, VGA out, two USB ports, Ethernet, webcam, and a MemoryStick / SD card reader. The system should launch in Japan this August with an estimated retail price of ¥60,000 or around $500. Read the full press release below.

Rambus Inc., one of the world's premier technology licensing companies specializing in high-speed memory architectures, today showcased a silicon demonstration of a complete XDR memory system running at data rates up to 7.2Gbps with superior power efficiency. This silicon demonstration consists of Elpida's recently-announced 1Gb XDR DRAM device and an XIO memory controller transmitting realistic data patterns. The XIO memory controller is up to 3.5 times more power efficient than a GDDR5 controller, and the total memory system can provide up to two times more bandwidth than GDDR5 at equivalent power. In addition, the XIO memory controller demonstrated bi-modal operation with support for both XDR DRAM as well as next-generation XDR2 DRAM.

"Future graphics and multi-core processors require significantly higher memory performance under extremely challenging power and thermal constraints," said Martin Scott, senior vice president of Research and Technology Development at Rambus. "This technology demonstration highlights the outstanding power efficiency of the XDR and XDR2 memory architectures at performance levels from 3.2 to 7.2Gbps with scalability to well over 10Gbps."

DisplayLink Corp. today celebrated reaching sales of more than one million USB graphics semiconductors. Embedded in more than thirty consumer and business products, DisplayLink chips - the DL-120 and DL-160 - make it possible for people to connect various visual computing devices to displays with an easy USB connection.

"DisplayLink has completely reinvented the way computers talk to displays. Our IC's make it possible to use standard plug and play USB to connect a laptop to one or more displsys, bringing the world a major step closer to the ideal "single world connector" status. Achieving sales of one million chips clearly shows the mainstream reach of our technology with customers and end-users who readily appreciate the simplicity of our approach and the productivity benefits of using multiple displays" said Hamid Farzaneh, president and CEO of DisplayLink.

The Pirate Bay, one of the largest BitTorrent tracker websites, that allows peer-to-peer file sharing and is infamous to host torrent links to copyrighted content on users' computers, is in legal soup vide a verdict from a Swedish Court of law. The Court has convicted four men responsible for running the website after its founding anti-copyright group, Piratebyran gave up control. The four men, Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde were found guilty of multiple counts of copyright infringement, and sentenced to one year's imprisonment. A fine of around US $3.5 million was further issued, with each of the four having to pay around $905,000.

The verdict comes as a victory for record companies, that welcome it, despite the fine imposed not being anywhere close to the $17.5 million + damages, several groups of record companies were pushing for. Speaking in a video address hosted on the website, Peter Sunde described the verdict as "bizarre". "It's so bizarre that we were convicted at all and it's even more bizarre that we were [convicted] as a team. The court said we were organized. I can't get Gottfrid out of bed in the morning. If you're going to convict us, convict us of disorganized crime" he said. Speaking about the fine, he said "We can't pay and we wouldn't pay. Even if I had the money I would rather burn everything I owned, and I wouldn't even give them the ashes."

The official PLAYSTATION blog posted today that as of next month the second generation Sony PLAYSTATION game console will be sold for as low as $99 MSRP, down from $129. PLAYSTATION 2 recently sold 50 million units in North America, and now the console is cheaper than ever. First released almost nine years ago in year 2000, the PS2 is still loyal to its owners. To date the console offers over 1900 game titles as well as some of the latest games such as MLB '09, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, Guitar Hero Metallica and MotorStorm: Arctic Edge.
The new price sounds almost too good to be true, but let us remind you that tommorow is April fools' day.

Intel's Atom series of processors gets credit for reinvigorating the ULPC and SFF PC segments that had been niche markets run by smaller players such as VIA, Freescale, and ARM. The Atom Z500 series single-core chips operate at speeds ranging from 1.1 to 1.86 GHz, with phenomenally low energy footprints - under 2.2 Watts.

One of the company's newest additions to the range, the Z550, could hit the 2.00 GHz mark, while consuming less than 2.4 Watts. Another chip in the making, Z515, will have dynamic clock-speed between 800 MHz and 1.33 GHz depending on the processing load. The Z515 could end up being an MID maker's favourite, not that Z550 won't be used in devices that small. Sony just might pack the 2.00 GHz chip on an upcoming variant of the VAIO P.

NVIDIA Corporation today announced that it has signed a tools and middleware license agreement for PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3) with Sony Computer Entertainment Inc (SCEI). As a result, the binary version of the NVIDIA PhysX technology software development kit (SDK) is now available to registered PS3 developers for free download and use on the SCEI Developer Network.

The NVIDIA PhysX technology software development kit SDK consists of a full-featured API and robust physics engine, designed to give developers, animators, level designers, and artists unprecedented creative control over character and object physical interactions by allowing them to author and preview physics effects in real time. The continued adoption of NVIDIA PhysX technology by the world's leading content developers is resulting in games that not only look as realistic as possible, but also provides gaming experiences where the world's literally come to life: environments become highly interactive with effects such as persistent debris, including shattered glass and weapons ammunition, trees that bend in the wind, and water that flows with body and force.

Sony-Optiarc, a subsidiary of Sony, is preparing the new AD-7240S DVD-Writer drive that is built to write DVDs at 24X. The drive rivals Lite-On, which is already out with a drive that burns DVDs this fast. The drive has a standard-sized internal form factor, and uses the SATA interface. It features adaptive self-tuning and burns media at the following speeds: Up to 24X for single-layer DVD-R/+R; 12X for dual-layer DVD-R/+R, DVD-RAM, and DVD-R9; 48X and 32X for CD writing and re-writing respectively. The drive will reach retail by next month.

Panasonic, Philips and Sony are currently working with other Blu-ray Disc patent holders to establish a one-stop-shop license for Blu-ray Disc products. This license, which covers essential patents for Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD, will be introduced in the middle of this year. The license program will be offered by a new independent licensing company that will be based in the United States with branch offices in Asia, Europe and Latin America. The CEO of the new license company will be Mr. Gerald Rosenthal, former head of IP at IBM and more recently CEO of Open Invention Network. "By establishing a new licensing entity that offers a single license for Blu-ray Disc products at attractive rates, I am confident that it will foster the growth of the Blu-ray Disc market and serve the interest of all companies participating in this market, be it as licensee or licensor." said Mr. Rosenthal.

Sony has now made its PlayStation Portable console more colerfull than ever, by adding four new colors. The lovely PSP-3000 is now available in "carnival" Blue, Red, Yellow and Green colors. All models are expected to ship sometime in March and sell as starter kit for ¥19,800 (about $223), or with a 4GB Memory Stick and a 2200mAh battery for ¥24,800 (about $279). Sony is also going to release special PSP cases that match your PSP's desired color.

Playstation 3 Firmware 2.60 Released, Adds Photo Gallery and DivX 3.11 Support

News of the latest update to Sony's Playstation 3 console emerged yesterday on the official Playstation Blog and according to Engadget, the update is around 140MB. The update also adds guest store access, to allow users who do not have a Playstation Network account, to browse through the online store. A video walkthrough of the new features in the update can be found here. An extract from the blog follows:

The PS3 firmware update (v2.60) is designed primarily to enhance the system's media capabilities. The key feature is a new Photo Gallery application, which delivers a suite of tools for sorting through and displaying your digital photo collection. Digital pictures can be organized in groups according to various criteria, including the camera used to take the photos, the event date and time, colors in the photos, as well as the number, ages, or facial expressions of the people pictured. You can also create slideshows set to music and build photo playlists with an easy-to-use interface. The Photo Gallery application will need to be installed separately from the XMB after you update your PS3's firmware. To install the Photo Gallery application, go to the Photo section on the XMB, select Photo Gallery and press the X button.

Valve Corporation and Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) today announce the availability of many SOE Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) titles on Steam, a leading platform for the delivery and management of PC games and digital content with over 15 million accounts around the world.

The SOE developed and/or published titles now available include the complete EverQuest (EQ) and EverQuest II (EQII) collections, as well as Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and Pirates of the Burning Sea. To kick off this monumental event, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, EQ Secrets of Faydwer and EQII Rise of Kunark are being offered via Steam for a special introductory price during the first 10 days the games are available for purchase. New SOE game accounts for the game purchased will also receive 30 days of gameplay (this offer excludes existing game and Station Access accounts).

Announced nine years ago back in 2000, Sony's PlayStation 2 is without a doubt a major success for the company. The console is so good in fact, that today Sony said it has sold 50 million PlayStation 2 units in North America alone, a new milestone. Sales of the iconic console still remain strong, although now we have new consoles like PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. According to the most recently available figures from the NPD Group, which tracks U.S. sales only, in November Americans bought 206,000 units of the PlayStation 2. These are some remarkable numbers. In comparison, Microsoft's original Xbox console sold a total of 14.5 million units and is already long gone. Nintendo's GameCube, another PS2 competitor, sold 12 million units in North America, not even close to PS2 numbers. Today PlayStation 2 costs roughly $130, down from its original $300 price tag from nine years ago, and still offers the latest game titles, emulation of some PS1 titles, video and audio DVD playback, and a numerous hacks that allow installing desktop hard drives, playing of DivX movies, running spare copies of games and so on.

SanDisk Corporation and Sony Corporation today announced the joint development of two expanded formats that will shape the flash memory landscape for years to come. "Memory Stick format for Extended High Capacity (Tentative name)" expands the "Memory Stick PRO" format series to achieve a maximum storage capacity of 2-terabytes (TB), while the "Memory Stick HG Micro" format enables a maximum data-transfer speed of 60 megabytes per second (MB/s), making it one of the fastest-smallest memory card formats to date. Format licensing corresponding to the "Memory Stick format for Extended High Capacity" and the "Memory Stick HG Micro" is scheduled to start in 2009.

Sony today took the wraps off of the world's lightest 8-inch notebook- the new VAIO P Series Lifestyle PC. About the size of a business envelope and roughly as thin as a cell phone, the VAIO Lifestyle PC weighs just 1.4 pounds and is small enough to slip into a jacket pocket or handbag while integrating full-PC features. We already know a little something for VAIO P, but let's do the specs again. It's little, but has a high-resolution, 1600x768, LED backlit 8-inch ultra-wide display with Sony's XBRITE-ECO LCD technology. The foundation of VAIO P is its Intel Atom 1.33GHz processor, 2x1GB DDR2 memory, and a 60GB HDD or up to 128GB worth of SSD storage. The VAIO P also has built-in WAN 3G, Atheros 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, webcam, two USB 2.0 ports, one SD slot, one Memory Stick Duo media slot and a lot more. It includes a real-time GPS, and comes standard with Microsoft Windows Vista Home 32-bit pre-installed. The VAIO P Series Lifestyle PC will retail for about $900. It will be available for pre-order in four different colors tomorrow online at Sony, and later next month at all major Sony retailers. The full fact sheet can be viewed here.

The Sony Playstation 2 is the most played game console in the US, according to a study of trends among Americans by Nielsen in its news release whitepaper (PDF). The Nielsen study gave out results in the form of top-10 rankings for several products and the consumers' usage patterns. Nielsen calculated the usage minutes of all consoles found in the home as a percentage. The Playstation 2 ranked top with a usage percentage of 31.7%, trailed by Microsoft Xbox 360 at 17.2%, Nintendo Wii at 13.4%, Microsoft Xbox at 9.7% and Sony Playstation 3 at 7.3%.

Please note that these figures are those of the usage minutes of these consoles and aren't exactly indicative of their market shares. Also taken into account should be the fact that the Playstation 2 is a much older console launched in 1999 while its competitive 6th generation console, the Xbox was launched two years later in 2001. The data was measured from January to October 2008. According to Nielsen "other" includes "any other console found in the home" and it appears portable hardware like the Nintendo DS or the Sony PSP were not included in the research. In related news, the same study suggests the most played PC game title. No guesses here: Blizzard's World of Warcraft. Refer to the whitepaper for more details.

Sony New Zealand has put up a teaser site called, "The Wait Is Over", stating, "On the 9th of January you will change the way you look at laptops. Forever". Other than a glossy Vaio logo and a link to enter a competition, for a chance to, "Win the revolutionary new VAIO", no other information is available. Could it be the world's thinnest laptop? The smallest? Or even the longest battery life? Who knows, all we can do now is speculate and wait for more information to emerge. If you want to see it for yourself, the website can be found here.
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The link is down at the moment, probably due to maintenance or update

PlayStation.BLOG reminds today that PlayStation Home will enter into open beta, and will be available to everyone tomorrow. PlayStation Home is a 3D social gaming community available on PS3 that allows users to interact, communicate and share gaming experiences. Within PlayStation Home, users can create and customize their own unique avatars and explore virtual community in real time where they can communicate freely through text or voice chat. PlayStation Home users will not only be able to enjoy variety of entertainment content such as mini-games, videos and special events along with their friends, but will also be able to create their own community by starting clubs with other PlayStation Home users who share the same interests. Even purchasing customizable furniture and designer clothes will be possible with PlayStation Home. That's only a fraction of the features that will be available initially, not to mention that this is not a final version and there're still many updates to come. PlayStation Home, available as a free download starting December 11th, will launch directly from the PlayStation Home icon on the PlayStation Network column of XMB (XrossMediaBar) on PS3. After that date, SCE will vigorously promote the service and work with its partners to introduce new services. If you want to know more, hit the source link.

Sony released version 2.53 software update for the Playstation 3 game console. The new release brings in a host of feature tune-ups, feature additions and security fixes. This update is characterised by the introduction of full-screen Adobe Flash video playback for the web-browser, with the addition of Adobe Flash Player 9 to the browser. Others include minor user interface related changes that enhance the user experience. Ideally stability related issues should be addressed by this firmware release. The update can be installed from the console's own interface when connected to the internet, or by means of a PC download and when the update is bundled as a requirement on game discs. To learn more about this update, visit this page.