Sony Pictures co-chair steps down months after massive hack
The hacking of Sony Pictures may not have stopped The Interview from being released, but now the Deadline reports the studio has announced co-chairman Amy Pascal will step down. Pascal has been with the company since the 80s when it was just Columbia Pictures, and her profile notes Sony had 95 movies hit #1 since 2000 under her leadership. In November news broke that Sony Pictures had suffered a crippling hack, disabling computers and locking employees out of the network for days, and what followed got even worse as information leaked out in bunches.
A group calling itself the ‘Guardians of Peace’ doled out the personal information of current and former employees (including famous actors and directors), private email conversations between Pascal and other execs with embarrassing and racist comments concerning the likes of President Obama, Kevin Hart and Denzel Washington, salary information that revealed pay discrepancies between male and female stars, and copies of then-unreleased movies like Annie. Now? The Interview is on Netflix, North Korea and the US government are trading barbs about who is responsible for the whole mess, Pascal is moving on to launch a new production venture at the studio and there’s a new trailer for Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2. Seriously.
[Image credit: Eric Charbonneau/Invision/AP]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD, Sony
Source: Deadline, LA Times, The Hollywood Reporter
Android 5.0 Lollipop for the Xperia Z2 and Xperia Z3 to start this month according to Vodafone Australia
Sony Mobile has been remarkably quiet regarding updating its devices to the latest version of Android, but thanks to the database at Vodafone Australia, it seems likely that Android 5.0 Lollipop for the Xperia Z2 and Xperia Z3 is going to start testing this month, presumably to become available not long after, probably in March. This […]
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Kodak and movie studios forge a deal to keep film alive
Good news, die-hard aficionados of movies on film: those reels will stick around for a while yet. Kodak has put the finishing touches on a deal with the six big Hollywood studios (Disney, Fox, NBC, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros.) that will maintain a steady supply of film for movie and TV directors that want to keep using the classic format. The exact terms aren’t public, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Kodak had the studios over a barrel. When high-profile directors like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino virtually insist on film, it’s hard to say “no” — you may as well be telling them to take a hike if you make them go digital. This pact won’t stop the gradual death of film in theaters, of course, but creative types can take comfort in knowing that celluloid’s hard-to-replicate qualities aren’t going away any time soon.
[Image credit: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Sony
Source: Kodak
White and black face plates for the Sony Xperia Z4 leak
We don’t know whether or not Sony will bring the Xperia Z4 to MWC this year, but that’s not going to stop the leaks for the device. The latest images show the front panel of Sony’s upcoming flagship in both white and black, and it looks fairly similar to the Z3 with just a few changes.
The dual front-facing speakers on the device will be split at the top and bottom of the face of the phone, and the sensors and front camera are flipped compared to what we see on the Z3. The camera has moved to the top left of the device, while the other sensors are on the right.
While it’s hard to judge any specs based on just the front display of a phone, rumors are pointing at a 5.2-inch 1080p screen, a Snapdragon 805 or Snapdragon 810 CPU, 3 GB of RAM, and improved camera optics. There’s no telling when Sony plans on making this device official this year, but with all of these leaks, we should know everything about the Z4 before long.
source: Weibo
via: Pocketnow
Come comment on this article: White and black face plates for the Sony Xperia Z4 leak
Sony spends $15 million on dealing with its cyberattack woes
Instead of announcing its financial results today, Sony had to merely issue a forecast for how it’s fared in the last financial quarter. In case you’ve missed it, that’s because it’s dealing with the cyberattack that not only spilled the beans on much of Sony’s movie business but also knocked out its accounting equipment. To that end, it’s announced that it’ll spend approximately $15 million this quarter to both investigate and recover from the cyberattack. (That’s not to be confused with the $15 million in restitution it offered users last month for a separate security breach.) The company otherwise raised its earning forecast for the year, with net profits of $756 million made from October to December of last year. Sony isn’t yet done restructuring, however. In its mobile business, it now plans to shed 2,100 jobs: a further 1,100 positions to cuts it previously announced last year.
Despite this, the mobile division managed to make a slim profit, which the company put down to a healthier (smaller) range of smartphones — expect more streamlining in 2014. While Sony Pictures was understandably hit hardest by the hack, the arm still managed to pull in over $20 million in profit.
Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Mobile, Sony
Source: Sony
OnePlus targets Sony employees in announcing new European R&D center
OnePlus CEO Carl Pei took to Google+ over the weekend to announce the company is building a new research and development center in Europe that the company plans to launch in the latter half of 2015. The wording is a little vague as to whether work has already started on the new facility or if a location has been decided on. The other curious part of the announcement is that Pei linked to an article about Sony cutting 1,000 jobs in its smartphone division, including some in Europe. Apparently OnePlus hopes to scoop up some of these former Sony employees.
Thus far no additional details have been revealed about OnePlus’s plan to open a European R&D center or why they would choose that part of the globe. Some sources suggest OnePlus may be hoping to get a different worldview into their design pipeline, although their devices have certainly not lacked for interest on the part of buyers. Others suggest OnePlus may be hoping a view that European products are more rugged and reliable may rub off on their smartphones.
Whatever the reason OnePlus has picked for pursuing a European based presence with a new R&D center, any impact will not be felt until 2016 devices hit the market given the timeline for the release of the OnePlus 2.
source: +Carl Pei
via: phoneArena
Come comment on this article: OnePlus targets Sony employees in announcing new European R&D center
News Surfaces about Sony’s MWC Conference
The Mobile World Congress will be taking place in Barcelona on the 2-5 of March. The gathering is where we usually see greats like the next Samsung device (S6) or the next HTC device (M9). Unfortunately, this year it seems that Sony’s March 2nd conference will not feature a new Sony device. The current flagship from Sony is the Xperia Z3, which is a capable phone, but it pales in comparison to the soon-to-be-coming Xperia Z4.
The Z4 should feature a QHD screen, a Snapdragon 810 processor, and up to 4 GB of RAM, which makes it a reputable beast in the smartphone world. However, at this point there is no way to know if it still will be whenever it is finally released in Q2. For those of you upset about the lack of a new mobile device from Sony, the Japanese tech company is doing what it can to keep the Z3 looking appetizing, even releasing a purple color for the phone.
Source: GSM Arena
Come comment on this article: News Surfaces about Sony’s MWC Conference
Daily Roundup: the best ads of the Super Bowl, Raspberry Pi gets an update and more!
In today’s Daily Roundup we have a bargain price for a multi-million dollar maritime vessel, some serious upgrades for Raspberry Pi’s latest board and it wouldn’t be a post-Super Bowl Monday without at least one mention of our favorite ads. Read on for these stories and more!
You can buy Lockheed Martin’s experimental cruiser for just $180,000
Forget paying your mortgage, this experimental naval vessel — dubbed the Sea Slice — is available for just $180,000! That price seems extra low when you consider that it cost tax payers around $15 million for Lockheed Martin to build it back in the ’90s…
Raspberry Pi 2 announced with substantial hardware upgrades
Raspberry Pi has launched a brand new, $35 board that might just make you want to ditch your old one. The Raspberry Pi 2 Model B now has a 900MHz quad-core chip and 1GB of RAM, and officially supports Windows 10.
The end is reportedly near for RadioShack
RadioShack has been in tech sales since 1921, but Bloomberg reports the company is in talks to sell about half of its stores to Sprint and close the rest. Even if this deal doesn’t shake out, things are looking dire for the nearly bankrupt company.
The 10 most-tweeted commercials from Super Bowl XLIX
Now that the dust from Super Bowl XLIX has settled and the Patriots have been crowned champions, we can look back at the true highlights of the Big Game — the commercials. Watch the ads that took Twitter by storm.
Would you put a gas-powered iPhone charger in your pocket?
Well, would you? Enough people have apparently answered “yes” to that question to earn the makers of Kraftwerk well over $500,000 in funding on Kickstarter. Take a look at how this pocket-sized, gas-powered generator works.
Sony has sold the MMO division responsible for ‘EverQuest’ and ‘Planetside 2′
Big things are happening for Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). Sony sold the online gaming division to a lesser-known investment firm, Columbus Nova, that has renamed it “Daybreak Game Company.” Learn what this means for SOE games and Xbox One.
The FCC will reportedly try to ban internet ‘slow lanes’
The Federal Communications Commission is expected to release new rules on Thursday that would classify internet service as a basic public utility in the United States. Read up on why this is good news for net neutrality advocates.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 in 60+ device design pipelines this year, with LG, OPPO, Sony, Motorola and others on-board
Much of what has been written over the last few weeks in regards to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor was negative. Not in the grand scheme of things, but due to information that Samsung wouldn’t be using the chip because it over heats. Just last week Qualcomm said it would be not working with one […]
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Three Sony Xperia model numbers appear online, one likely belongs to the Xperia Z4
Things are not great at Sony. The company has been reevaluating its divisions and just announced it would cut jobs from the mobile division. Despite all of this, the company must continue doing business. And, since the mobile division remains in Sony’s hands, the Xperia Z4 is coming. Three model numbers belonging to Sony Xperia handsets have appeared on the Indonesian Postel Regulatory site and one of them seems to be the flagship phone.
The three model numbers (as seen above) are E5333, E6533, and E2353. The second model number listed is believed to be the Xperia Z4 because of how it aligns with last year’s Xperia Z3. The Xperia Z3 had D65XX. Clearly, the only difference between the two is the first letter and “E” comes after “D” in the alphabet.
The E5333 could be a mid-range handset as it is similar to the Xperia T2 Ultra (D53XX). And the E2363 seems to be a revamped version of the Xperia M2 (D23XX).
A launch for all of these devices is possible at MWC 2015.
Source: Xperia Blog
Come comment on this article: Three Sony Xperia model numbers appear online, one likely belongs to the Xperia Z4
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