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Sony Ericsson Pushes Two Android Phones, Xperia X10 Mini, X10 Mini Pro

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Over at the ongoing Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Sony Ericsson suprises everyone by launching two Android-running mobile phones – Xperia X10 Mini and Xperia X10 Mini Pro. I said exciting because before this announcement we’ve been hearing only about the Xperia X10 Mini being a compact version of the Xperia 10 smarthpone. But we’ve never knew that the X10 Mini will have a twin, the X10 Mini Pro.

So what makes these two mini Xperia X10 different from each other? Nothing much really, except for their colors. the Mini will be available in black, pearl white, lime, pink, red and silver. The Mini Pro on the other hand will sport either a black or red color design. The Pro will also be sporting a QWERTY keyboard while the Mini will sorely rely on touchscreen for inputing method.

Both compact phones as we said will be running the Android OS, unfortunately it’s only version 1.6 and not the latest Android version yet. Fortunately, both phones will be loaded with a 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 processor so that will probably make them perform faster than usual Sony Ericsson mobile devices.

Other features are pretty standard Sony Ericsson stuff including quad-band EDGE support, WiFi, Bluetooth, 2GB microSD card, 5 MP camera and so on.

What’s pretty major is Sony Ericsson’s Timescape which both phones have. Timescape is a pretty nifty system that will enable you to integrate your contacts in one place, making it simple to access call history, Facebook, Twitter, messaging and other communication services.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini and Mini Pro will be available sometime in Q2 this year.

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Sony’s On-Demand Video Service, Qriocity Spotted at CES 2010

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Before we finally bid goodbye to CES 2010 and wait for another year for 2011, here’s one last nice piece of information from the said event. Spotted by Sony Insider during the gig was Sony’s latest take on getting into on-demand video service – a new Sony service dubbed, Qriocity.

Sony Qriocity is bringing home both standard definition and high definition videos to consumers.  The service will be added as a main icon to the XMB as well as a special button on many Sony remote controls that will come with Sony’s networked TVs and Blu-ray players.  The Sony Qriocity will prove a great looking interface with rich album art as you enter the store. It’s like an iTunes for Sony’s on-demand video service with options in the main menu for choosing your account, searching, finding new releases, genre and most popular videos.

The service will let you get in by using your PSN account. In addition, the service will allow you to have multiple accounts among family for parents and children with a master account controllin sub accounts to ensure that children are not accessing prohibited internet sites.

Sonny Insider also said that there will hundreds of HD and SD video available once Sony rolled out the service.  Sony has been working with Walt Disney Pictures, Lionsgate, Warner Brother and many others

No pricing or any other information on how Sony is going to implement this on-demand video service. But we’re pretty sure it’s not going to be something that will not make Sony more money.  Sony’s Qriocity is still one good new media service to watch out for this year.

 

Great! PSP is now a Comics Reader

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Comics and video games compliment each other, right? Pretty soon, both these seemingly becoming entertainment media for the big boys will be sharing a new platform. Actually, that soon is almost now, as the PSP Comic Store (link is still broke at this time)  has just gone live.

So, if you own any of the several PSP units, you can now bring hundreds of digitized comics from Marvel, Disney, IDW, Titan, iVerse and 2000AD catalogues, anywhere with you. Some underground comic titles as well as those locally published ones will also be available in the Playstation Digital Comic Store.

It’s a good thing that the PSP Comic Store will only be initially available to the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa stores. Otherwise, it  would be enough reason for me to get a new PSP unit since I already passed on my unit to my son. And buying one would be too costly since I just got a new PS3 the other day.

Anyway, the European Playstation Blog says that the PSP Comic Store should also feature free comics, great!  Aside from that, the PSP Comic Store would also feature AutoFlow, making it easier to navigate through the whole PSP Comic Store catalog.

psp comic store

Alright PSP fan boys, go check out the PSP Comic Store and start downloading your favorite comics in their digital format now.

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Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness for $999, Comes with Concierge Service

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Screen shot 2009-12-15 at 3.00.27 AMFrankly, I really don’t get it why the Xperia product series is always priced expensively. Sony Ericsson must be putting some valuable materials in the Xperia phones since they can’t seem to bring the prices of these mobile phones to  sub-standard price level.

Take the case of the Sony Ericssson Xperia Pureness which is available at Saks.com and Sony VIP Shopping Service for a whopping $999. And what do you get for that price? According to Sony Ericsson, a pureness phone that “represents an alternative approach to life in the complex, digital age by refining the mobile phone to its most essential functions – talk, text, time.”

You see, the Xperia Pureness displays nothing on its front except the screen. Everything else is hidden including the keypads. This means that when you are not using the phone, it doesn’t really look like a mobile phone but a fashionable accessory. You can only see the keys when touched. Sounds a lot like another famous phone, right?

Now here’s the clincher which may actually convince you that its price is justified – the Xperia Pureness package comes with a concierge service available worldwide 24/7.

And why would Sony market an expensive phone with a concierge service? According to them:

The Xperia Pureness is not simply about a phone; it is about opening a debate about people’s relationship with technology in a complex world.

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Air Force Buys 2,200 PS3s. Sony Loses.

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Sony PlayStation 3 Server ClusterAh, the Sony PlayStation 3. A Blu-Ray player, an online video player, a Linux box — it’s used as anything but what it’s supposed to be: a game console. Now the US Air Force is buying 2,200 PS3s to build a supercomputer.

No, I’m not kidding.

The U.S. Air Force is looking to buy 2,200 Sony PlayStation 3 game consoles to build out a research supercomputer, according to an document posted on the federal government’s procurement Web site.

The PlayStation 3s will be used at the Air Force Research Laboratory’s information directorate in Rome, N.Y., where they will be added to an existing cluster of 336 PlayStation 3s being used to conduct supercomputing research.

The Air Force will use the system to “to determine the best fit for implementation of various applications,” including commercial and internally developed software specific to the PS3’s Cell Broadband Engine processor architecture. The research will help the Air Force decide where Cell Broadband Engine processor-derived hardware and software could be used in military systems.

You might think that Sony’s the big winner in this deal, and that the Air Force is stupid for buying thousands of overpriced game consoles. You’d be wrong, on both counts. Sony sells PS3s at a loss, hoping to make their money in games and accessories. That means the Air Force is getting Cell hardware for a fraction of the cost. [Read more…]