Sunday, January 11, 2015

Top 10 announcements from Sony

9. Sony
Sony Smartwatch 3 with stainless steel wrist band
Sony did not showcase any new mobile devices in Las Vegas, but did unveil new 4K TVs and a smartwatch with a metal strap, and even tapped into its past with a new Walkman.

Walkman NW-ZX2
Sony shipped 220 million portable cassette players before the tech became largely obsolete, but the firm has brought the Walkman brand out of retirement.

The new Walkman NW-ZX2 has 128GB of solid state storage, designed to hold music in the high-quality LDAC format, rather than the MP3 format used on many smartphones and tablets.

The storage can be expanded to 256GB with a microSD card, which is likely to be useful as each song in LDAC format takes up to 150MB.

The NW-ZX2 aims to deliver high-quality audio in a portable format, with features that should appeal to audio enthusiasts. Due in spring 2015, the NW-ZX2 will cost an eye-watering £949.

CEO hacked-off at hackers
Sony took the opportunity at CES to discuss the impact of the Guardians of Peace hack on its servers and systems.

Chief executive Kazuo Hirai said that he is proud of Sony and its reaction to the incident, and that the company will always strive to protect freedom of speech.

Hirai did not dwell on the details, nor did he name any suspects, despite many suggestions that North Korea was behind the attack.

"Sony, former employees and current employees were the victims of one of the most vicious and malicious cyber attacks in recent history," Hirai said in his keynote speech.
The hack in late 2014 exposed personal details on celebrities, Sony's business partners and members of staff, current and old.

Bravia X90C TV
Last year's CES saw a bevy of 4K ultra high resolution TVs and this year Sony revealed the latest 4K TV additions to the Bravia line, the 71in X90C taking centre stage.
Featuring a Floating Style form factor, the X90C is thinner than Sony's Xperia Z3 smartphone, allowing it to sit flush against a wall.
Despite its thin frame, the TV manages to squeeze in the Android TV operating system powered by Sony's 4K Processor X1, a chip that Sony says delivers 4K pictures by "evolving greater clarity, brilliant colour and high contrast" with any input.
The X90C displays images in 3840x2160 resolution, and has PlayStation Now functionality enabling PlayStation 3 games to be streamed to the TV via the cloud service.

SmartEyeglass
Clearly not keen to remain corralled in the smartwatch area of wearable technology, Sony also showcased its take on smart glasses.
Ready for developers, Sony’s SmartEyeglass takes the step into augmented reality made by Google Glass and builds on it. However, unlike Google Glass, the display is projected in front of both eyes to prevent any jarring visual crossover.
Control of the interface is delivered via a small puck-shaped unit with a couple of buttons and an area to rest the thumb.
Developers are being offered the SmartEyeglass software development kit so that they can explore the potential of the wearable display, from navigation instructions to augmented reality games.

Smartwatch 3 Stainless Steel
Sony did little to update the third generation of its smartwatch, but it did add the option of a stainless steel strap.
The watch was first released with a rubber strap, making it suitable for sport and running, but the metal strap gives the Smartwatch 3 a premium finish more like traditional watches.
The Smartwatch 3's module is easily detached from its strap, so fans of wearable technology will soon have the option to swap straps to suit the situation.
Keen wearable technology spotters could argue that Sony's addition of a metal strap is an answer to the premium and yet-to-be-released Apple Watch.

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