Shiny Little Gadgets

New AIBO in the works?

heathweaver — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 20:54:59 +0000

There is some speculation about a new AIBO that might be in the works. I am definitely going to dig into this one. I will see if any of my Japanese colleagues can find any public information from Japanese bloggers and as someone I know that used to work for European marketing for AIBO and see what turns up. I know a number of people that really adore their AIBOs and I have to say the one that greets us every morning is really funny.

John Koller interview MTV About PSP

heathweaver — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 20:37:59 +0000

There is a really good recap on dcemu.co.uk about the interview John Koler did with MTV. It seems that the interview was really interesting and covered many questions on the top of PSP owner’s minds (I am one of them). There are so many interesting tidbits here. Some of the most interesting are insights into which common requests are being looked into and which are not, some demographic information about PSP versus iPod users, and his opinion about Dark_Alex.

This type of interview is really nice to see as I think it reflects the open honest culture inside Sony that doesn’t always make it out to customers.

Sony Blu-Ray Microsite Live

heathweaver — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 20:19:59 +0000

Sony Europe has recently launched an interesting microsite around Blu-Ray technology. I hope Sony wins this format, not for any reason more than I obviously like Sony and I work for them. It isn’t really fantastic as microsites go, but it’s something. I am not sure if people only associate Blu-Ray with the content, but it seems like it wouldn’t be the case. I would never think about Blu-Ray when thinking about Spiderman or PS3 games. I would think about Blu-Ray when I was considering buying a computer or a DVD player. I guess it is a circle: You see a bunch of movies come in the Blu-Ray format then you want something that can play the movies.

As a side note I really think that something needs to be done in Second Life for Blu-Ray.

Apparently People Really Do Hate DRM

heathweaver — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 20:00:51 +0000

And here I thought I was the only one. The good people over at Emerging Earth have a post about a UK survey with 1,700 people that says the following:

61% said that DRM “invades the rights of the music consumer to hear their music on different platforms.” 49% called it a “nuisance,” and 39% expressed concerns that DRM could have privacy implications. Despite this, 63% agreed that DRM “is a good idea because it protects copyrighted music from illegal file-sharers.”

The general, and obvious, idea is that the music industry hasn’t found the right way to do DRM. It goes to show that when a format isn’t created and agreed within an industry (i.e. Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD) that industry will suffer. This makes me think that the digital music revolution really caught people with their trousers down.

Although it is a bit unrelated I have to put the quote Emerging Earth uses at the top of the article.

“Most people, I think, don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?” — Thomas Hesse, Sony BMG’s president of global digital business.

I could only say things about this quote that would get me fired so I’ll keep quite on this one.

Keep Sony Ericsson Phone From Going on the Internet

heathweaver — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 19:44:27 +0000

Nice little article to keep your phone from going online if you accidentally push the Internet button.

Sony’s New VRD-MC5 DVDirect Recorder Transfers HD Content to DVD

heathweaver — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 18:56:30 +0000

I haven’t see one of these little baby’s, but it certainly looks interesting. I need to do some more research when I have some time. Maybe we’ll see one around the office. See the official press release for more details.

Essentially, this $230 unit allows you to transfer HD content straight from your camcorder or digital camera to a DVD. It has some neat features like only transferring new content, transferring scenes, or recording over multiple DVDs. I don’t know if it comes with the fancy software that can mix your home videos for you, but that would be nice.

I’d just like to say that the biggest pain for me isn’t recording to a DVD, but rather having a really great way to find the best content from a lot of video. Anything that makes that process easier would be solid gold for me.

Sony Comes Home on PSP

heathweaver — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 18:45:24 +0000

GameZoneX.org mentions that Sony Home is coming to PSP. I am really excited for this entire concept. I don’t think it will take over Second Life for me, but I enjoy that type of interaction.

As a Second Life fan I am really excited to see where Sony Home goes.

Home Comming to the PSP and Maybe your Cell Phone
GameZoneX.org - Latest Gaming News 24/7. - Sunday, 12 August 2007

Your Place For Bravia Ad Mania

heathweaver — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 09:56:26 +0000

You may or may not know that a new Bravia ad is coming. You can keep your eye on Bravia-advert.com for the official line or you can keep your eyes here, at shinylittlegadgets for the latest news. I am not involved in the commercial, but I know someone that knows someone that is.

Anyway, I intend to keep some resources here to see how things progress.

To see video blogs and any thing I can find about the shoot and eventually the actual commercial go to www.youtube.com/bravia

To see pictures and such from the shoot you can go to www.flickr.com/groups/467255@N23/ (did anyone tell flickr yet that their URLs are stupid).

I have also added a group on Facebook which can be accessed at www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6878025010

Finally you can access my tumblr blog and my del.icio.us tag bravia advert for the stream of links that I find.

Be Careful About Watching Porn While You Drive

heathweaver — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 20:59:03 +0000

Sony released a pretty wicked new, um, I am not sure what you call it. Sony seems to call it the XAV-W1 and it is a visual entertainment system for the car. See the press release for all the dirty details, but the important part is that you can watch DVDs on it. Just don’t get caught watching while driving, eh!

One aspect that I find very interesting is that it comes ready to hook up an iPod. That is nice to see. I wish they’d install one of these in each employee’s car. One can always dream right.

Watch My PS3 Become a TV Recorder

heathweaver — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 20:34:26 +0000

In an article from The Press the head of marketing, Warwick Light, discusses the advantages of the PS3. It’s an extremely interesting article. He says, “We’re also hoping next year - about the same time that Freeview launches its terrestrial broadcasting service (expected to be in March) - to release a digital tuner for the PS3, turning it into a programmable TV recorder.”

I don’t know anything about this, but it seems quite cool. I suppose it isn’t such a big deal anyway, just stick a tv tuner in the latest VAIOs, which can also record to Blu-Ray and you have yourself a nice little set up.