Upcoming VAIO smartphone could help reshape Japanese market
Once upon a time, Sony was King of the Hill, offering new and exciting products, concepts, and form factors to an endless array of electronics. Fast forward to April 2014 and the unthinkable sale of the VAIO brand to Japan Industrial Partners (JIP).
Although Sony retains a 5% minority share in the new “VAIO Corporation”, just a quick stroll down the aisle of a major electronics store here in Tokyo will serve as a sad reminder of days gone by, as the Sony logo is absent both from branding and displays. Still, JIP has a difficult task of building (back) the VAIO brand: as of yet, the only two products it offers are essentially the same as those which Sony released, although that it’s about to change.
Set to release in Japan next year, the VAIO smartphone line might be a bit of a surprise for what it’s not going to be, given the brand’s pedigree: top-of-the-line. While little is known about the specs of the new device (set to launch as early as January), The Nikkei has reported that it will have a 5-inch screen, and that, “price including service charges has yet to be set but will likely fall between that of major brands and the low-priced handsets already in the market.” Additionally there are plans to “feature an app that can manage email as well as phone and video calls all together.”
The device will be sold by local MVNO (mobile virtual network operator), Japan Communications, which provides pre-paid service under the brand name “b-mobile”, and which leases bandwidth on NTT docomo’s wireless network. Manufacturing for the VAIO smartphone will be outsourced, thus further reducing the cost burden on the fledgling VAIO Corporation.
While the prospect of a mid-range VAIO phone might not be that enticing to those overseas, it stands to have an enormous impact in Japan, where the brand name still has a major “mindshare” in the heads — and hearts — of Japanese consumers. Perhaps more importantly however, it also stands to be at the forefront of a major shift that is about to occur with the mobile market here at-large.
For years now, Japan’s government has been trying to allow consumers the freedom of choice with wireless communication, despite the best efforts of the “big three” (carriers) who have actively sought to keep things the way they have always been. At the moment, only NTT docomo will “unlock” phones (for a fee of course, of about $30), and even then the effort provides questionable benefit for the average consumer, as “unlocking” will only allow for the insertion of non-Japanese SIM cards. For all intents and purposes, the devices are very much locked, and thus only benefit Japanese citizens traveling overseas and eBay sellers.
Finally, however, things are set to really change. As a result of new legislation, The Nikkei reports that, “starting in May, Japan’s communications ministry will require that handsets be sold unlocked so they can work with the SIM cards of any carriers. The move is expected to prompt many users to switch from major carriers to MVNOs, which the ministry expects will double their service contracts to 15 million in 2016.” Indeed the past year has seen a large number of MVNOs crop up, and more recently, even local stores are partnering with MVNOs to create brand-new services, such as the collaboration between shopping chain Aeon Retail, ISP/MVNO Biglobe, and Fujitsu to release the Arrows M01 as part of the new Aeon Mobile product line-up.
With the new legislation in-tow, consumers will have an incredible amount of choice not just among carrier offerings, but among these MVNO products as well, which stand to be significantly cheaper in terms of running costs: a standard 2-year contract with NTT docomo costs about $80 a month, and includes the now mandatory “unlimited calling” plan, 2GB of data, and a monthly device installment. Things can get much more expensive should the customer want more data (the 8GB plan will tack on an extra $30 or so). In the event they don’t want to sign a two year agreement, the aforementioned monthly fee will increase by $20. Even should the customer want a data-only plan (i.e. no voice calling), the running cost will be about $70. MVNOs provide much cheaper service, often require no subscription at all, and use the same network.
Still, even with all the positive potential pending, as The Nikkei points out, “Vaio is rather late to enter the market for cheaper smartphones, products that many Chinese, South Korea companies and startups are already offering. But it contends that it can still capture demand by offering a handset with superior design for a reasonable price.” Given the potential for major MVNO growth in Japan next year, and coupled with the Japanese love for domestic products (especially Sony), there is a good chance the VAIO smartphone will garner a fair share of interest. Of course given that Sony itself has its Xperia line, how far that interest goes will remain to be seen.
Sony had to dig up old BlackBerrys to function during hack
When Sony Pictures’ computers were hacked on Thanksgiving, its employees were forced to use older technologies to keep things running, according to new reports by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. They relayed details about the hack from one person to another via phone, and they’ve had to haul in old machines to be able to issue physical checks since they couldn’t transfer salaries through bank deposit. Sony’s collection of old BlackBerry company phones suddenly became valuable again, as they can send and receive emails through their own servers, so they were unearthed and dusted off to be used by execs. But these reports don’t only shed light on what happened (and what continues to happen) behind the scenes at Sony, they also give us a glimpse of how the investigation was handled.
Apparently, while the company quickly got in touch with the feds, employees initially thought it was nothing more than an inconvenience they could patch up within a few weeks. Even Sony Entertainment Chief Executive Michael Lynton told NYT that it took 24 to 36 hours for the situation to sink in and “to fully understand this was not something [they] were going to be able to recover from in the next week or two.” Thanksgiving weekend then became a crucial and extremely busy period for the company, as the internal IT team struggled to get Sony’s emails working again.
Meanwhile, the feds and a cybersecurity team from FireEye Inc. set up their own headquarters nearby. They suspected North Korea a week into the investigation and eventually determined that the hackers, the Guardians of Peace, stole log-in credentials from a systems administrator, harvested data from the computers and used malware to delete them all. The WSJ says FireEye’s investigators still aren’t 100 percent sure whether they’ve completely blocked off the hackers from Sony’s systems. But if the company’s network remains secure, it could be up and running again within the next eight weeks.
In addition to illustrating how the company dealt with what turned out to be an extensive security breach, the reports also detail how Lynton acted away from the public eye. Turns out he was already talking to Google when Sony announced that it doesn’t have future release plans for The Interview, which led to a barrage of criticisms (even from the president) for what people conceived as giving in to terrorist demands. He also personally contacted cinema chain bosses in an effort to control any damage he’s done after blaming them for refusing to show the movie.
If you recall, many cinema chains opted not to show The Interview since the GOP threatened everyone who wanted to see it in theaters, telling people to “remember the 11th of September 2001.” Sony, however, ended up releasing it via Google Play, YouTube, PlayStation and Xbox stores and iTunes, and showing it in hundreds of independent theaters in the US.
[Image credit: Marcus Ingram via Getty Images]
Sony might just launch a VAIO Android smartphone at CES 2015
With CES 2015 rapidly approaching, the speculation inevitably begins, and first up is Sony who may just be set to launch an Android powered VAIO branded smartphone.
There’s no word as to the exact specifics of what a VAIO device may entail, but with the success of Sony’s Xperia lineup, you can bet it’ll be one heck of a device. The VAIO Android device is expected, however, to not be a high-end smartphone, and instead be reasonably priced.
It seems that only time will tell with this one, but keep your eyes peeled on our CES 2015 hub for the latest news.
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FBI maintains that North Korea hacked Sony as detractors mount
Did North Korea’s government hack Sony Pictures? Though the United States government and FBI say yes, a growing chorus of detractors is pushing back on that claim. And the FBI is apparently listening: one firm, Norse, met with the FBI this past Monday to present its own claim that a group of six people were responsible. Moreover, at least one of those six is said to be an ex-Sony employee, reports Politico.
Norse says its been looking into the attack on Sony Pictures since before Thanksgiving, and it presented the results of that research to the FBI yesterday. For its part, the FBI is sticking to its story — at least for now. “The FBI has concluded the Government of North Korea is responsible for the theft and destruction of data on the network of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Attribution to North Korea is based on intelligence from the FBI, the U.S. intelligence community, DHS [Department of Homeland Security], foreign partners and the private sector,” an FBI statement provided to media reads.
Norse senior VP Kurt Stammberger says that his company traced at least part of the attack to a single former employee, known as “Lena”, who apparently had direct knowledge of the network infrastructure at Sony Pictures. The video above, from CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley, goes into more detail about the alleged former employee.
In a related report, Reuters spoke with an unidentified US official who’s close to the government’s investigation of the Sony Pictures attack. The source said the US government now believes that North Korea “likely” worked with outside parties to launch the attack. It’s not clear if the source is referencing an outside government or other party, just that the act may have been “contracted” out.
Taia Global, another security firm, analyzed 20 messages internal to the alleged hacking group (the “Guardians of Peace”) responsible for the attack on Sony Pictures. The firm determined, through “Native Language identification and L1 Interference analysis,” that the primary language of the hackers was likely Russian. Here’s Taia Global’s statement:
“We tested for Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, and German using an analysis of L1 interference. Our preliminary results show that Sony’s attackers were most likely Russian, possibly but not likely Korean and definitely not Mandarin Chinese or German.”
So, who hacked Sony Pictures?
Filed under: Networking, Internet, Software, HD, Sony
HTC teases a new Desire smartphone for CES 2015
HTC took to its official Weibo account earlier today to confirm it will definitely be making an appearance at CES in January together with ASUS, LG and Sony. According to the teaser image posted with the announcement, the Taiwanese company is set to unveil the latest handset in its Desire range of smartphones.
It’s unclear at present if the new Desire device will feature similar specifications to HTC’s long-rumored Hima flagship, but renowned leaker @Upleaks firmly believes that the handset, dubbed the A52, will be marketed as the company’s second-generation “selfie phone”, boasting a 13-megapixel front-facing camera on a 16GB model and a whopping 4-ultrapixel front shooter on a 32GB variant.
HTC will be holding its launch event between 5:00pm and 7:00pm on Monday, January 5.
We will be reporting live with news and first-hand experiences during the conference – so stay tuned to Talk Android for more coverage on what the Taiwanese company has in store for us.
Source: Weibo
Come comment on this article: HTC teases a new Desire smartphone for CES 2015
Front panel to Sony’s Xperia Z4 leaked, shows a similar size to the Z3
We’ve heard a few things about Sony’s upcoming Xperia Z4, but thanks to a leaked front panel, we’re getting our first actual look at what may potentially be Sony’s first phone of 2015. The panel is the touch screen for the device, and while we can’t get a screen resolution or anything out of it, we can at least see how it stacks up next to the size of the Xperia Z3.
Fortunately, it looks like Sony is sticking to that 5-inch range with the Z4 instead of going with a massive 6-inch screen like we’ve heard off and on. The display looks very similar to the Z3 with just a few minute differences. The cut-outs for the proximity sensor and camera have switched, and the speaker hole has moved up to the edge of the digitizer instead of sitting halfway between the screen and bezel.
We’re still waiting for more details, but if Sony does end up announcing the Xperia Z4 in January, we won’t have to wait much longer.
source: Future Supplier
via: Pocket Now
Come comment on this article: Front panel to Sony’s Xperia Z4 leaked, shows a similar size to the Z3
‘Dragon Age: Inquisition’: The Joystiq Review
Dragon Age: Inquisition is an immense fantasy epic, a sprawling adventure across the many landscapes of Thedas, unapologetically mature in its exploration of politics and brazen in its combat. Inquisition is also developer BioWare’s redemption song. It’s everything that a sequel to Dragon Age: Origins should have been, and time will slip by as players enjoy the hundred hours of escapades it delivers.
The end of Inquisition‘s spectacular first act gave me chills. The last time I can recall that feeling is when the Normandy was reintroduced in Mass Effect 2. It’s the chill of being at the beginning of a grand story and anticipation for what’s to come.
Click here for more
Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD, Sony, Microsoft
Source: Joystiq
Sony Xperia Z4 LCD touch digitizer leaked
It was only a few months ago that Sony unveiled their newest flagship, the Xperia Z3 at IFA 2014 (September 4th to be exact). Now rumors are already swirling that Sony is piecing together the Z3’s successor, the Xperia Z4.
The Z3 was released originally on September 19th, but only recently hit carriers such as T-Mobile on October 29th. That was only 19 days ago, and a supposed part of the upcoming Z4 has leaked.
The Z4 rumors have already suggested that it will be one of the highest spec’d phones to date with a QHD display (1440 x 2560), 4 GB of RAM, and the 64-bit Snapdragon 810 processor. It’s no wonder that the rumor mill is churning and people are excited, and that includes myself.
Future Supplier, has obtained images of the purported Xperia Z4 LCD touch digitizer comparing it to the Xperia Z3 LCD touch digitizer.
The two touch digitizers look fairly similar in size, so we can expect the Z4 to come with around a 5.15 inch display like its predecessor. If that is the case, the Z4 could boast the sharpest display to-date on a smartphone with around 570 ppi. Motorola’s new Droid Turbo comes in at 565 ppi. It may be only five pixels more per inch, but it is a nice title to have.
It is unknown as to when Sony will debut the Z4, but usually Sony tends to follow a six month release cycle. That would likely lean towards a March release with a February debut. If any more news about this monster device come up, we’ll be sure to post updates
The rumored specs can be seen below.
| Screen Size | 5.15 inches |
| Screen Resolution | 1440 x 2560 (570 ppi) |
| Processor | Snapdragon 810 – Octacore |
| RAM | 4 GB |
| ROM | 16 GB expandable |
| Battery | 3000+ mAh |
| Operating System | Android 5.0 Lollipop |
| Durability | Waterproof/dust resistant (IP 68) |
Source: Future Supplier | Via: Android Community
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One year in, here’s what our readers think of the PlayStation 4
One year ago today, the PlayStation 4 was released in North America. When we took a look at it in our original review, we lauded the console for its “masculine chassis” that could “compete for visual attention” in your living room, a controller that’s “damn close” to being perfect and a user interface that marks a “massive improvement” over the PlayStation 3’s. But games are the thing that can make or break a system and, while the initial games lineup had a few bright spots, the system had few “satisfying game experiences available at launch.” Regardless, we called the PlayStation 4 “worth your hard-earned money” and said it was off to “a hell of a start.”
Since then, more games have been released and plenty of people have gotten their hands on a PlayStation 4 — more than 10 million people worldwide, in fact. After such a strong start, have things gotten better? Is it still worth the money? To find out, we turned to you, our readers, who have written some great user reviews to let us know how the system performs in the wild and whether it’s living up to its potential one year after release.
In many respects, our users agreed with our review, with MasterX25 loving its “sleek design” and admdrew saying it “fits well into standard entertainment centers.” Reactions to the controller were a little mixed, with admdrew calling it “almost” perfect, save for some odd button placement and the “weird nature of the touchpad.” But REZIN8 finds it “very small for my hands” with “terrible” battery life. The graphics were more well-received, with logicrulez calling them “clear and detailed,” while nug050 says, “The gameplay is smooth at any resolution.”
But with a year under the PlayStation 4’s belt, it’s worth talking about the state of its games library. Though Saltank notes it has “some great exclusives,” many users, like aussiegrossy, were left asking, “Where are the games?” Nug050 says there are “not enough A-List games” and PaulMEdwards also feels there aren’t “a ton of titles available currently,” specifically wishing for “more cooperative 2-player games so my wife … could play with me.” But he also notes that some “really good ones are coming soon.” In fact, many of you were optimistic about future releases, with admdrew “eagerly awaiting GTA V‘s upcoming release.” However, the continued lack of games especially hurts given what Saltank calls a “poor selection of apps,” and MasterX25 says, “I can’t use the PS4 for anything apart from playing games,” while aussiegrossy even feels it’s a bit of “a downgrade.”
Despite this continuing disappointment in the PlayStation 4’s game lineup, reviewers still feel rather magnanimous toward the system as a whole, with ghost616 telling us, “I do not regret buying it.” Meanwhile, in a similar vein, admdrew says, “I haven’t regretted my choice for a second.” With so much on the horizon for the system, year two looks rather promising for those who laid down their hard-earned money, as well as making it a great time for the rest of you to pick up a PlayStation 4.
Sony’s Music Unlimited streaming service review
Streaming music is something I do on a daily basis for hours on end, so when Sony contacted me about trying out their Music Unlimited service I was extremely excited to see what the biggest name in music had to offer.
You’ll probably have heard about Music Unlimited as it is heavily integrated into Sony’s PS4, but they also offer a very feature-rich mobile app and web experience. In this review I will share my experience with using the Music Unlimited service across a range of devices and analyse different aspects from the selection of music Sony offers, to how they deal with organising your collection, all of which makes up the overall experience.
To pretence the review, the many music streaming services currently available all offer pretty much the same selection of music when it comes to the big players, so whilst I will touch on the selection of music available on Music Unlimited and how easy it was to find, this review will mainly focus on the value-added features that differentiate this service from the others. A further note must mention that Music Unlimited is available in two forms on the mobile platform through the Music Unlimited app (available to all Android devices) or if you own a Sony device through the Walkman app, both of which offer different experiences and I will highlight this throughout the review.
Music Selection
I could find every artist I searched for on Music Unlimited: Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, Andrew Rayel, Martin Garrix, Professor Green, to name a few. Now these are fairly mainstream names that I would expect any music service to offer, but since I listen to these artists these are the ones that, for me at least, matter in music selection. For others, indie bands also turned up on Music Unlimited such as The Unicorns.
Music Unlimited certainly didn’t disappoint when it came to finding an artist or a song as their catalogue facilitated all my requests with no issues, but, as I mentioned before, it’s how that catalogue is presented to the user and how the stored music is orgranised that really differentiates services apart from each other.
Music Discovery
For me, this is the most important part of any music streaming service. It’s all great if I know what I want to listen to, but I want a service that knows what I want to listen to, even if I don’t. By using my listening history, skipping habits, and library, I want a service to deliver an endless stream of similar songs or alternatives to discover artists and albums I never knew existed, but love.
Sony’s Music Unlimited attempts to do this to an extent, and the experience differs depending on which app you’re accessing the service through. With the standalone Sony Music Unlimited app, you’re able to see ‘Related Artists’ from a search but most significant is the ‘You Might Like’ section on the Home screen. This section does all the things I mentioned, but it isn’t customisable, meaning that if I don’t agree with a recommendation I cannot correct it and tell the app it is wrong. It would some effort to figure out what song in my library is causing this recommendation and then remove it. Whilst not significant, what this means is that if I use this section to continually play music (like I usually do), until I remove that offending song from my library that is causing the incorrect recommendation, that recommendation will remain and I’ll have to listen to it or manually skip ip, every time. Compare that to Spotify’s radio feature that will learn when you ‘thumb down’ a track and it won’t appear again.
The Walkman app has no such feature and your music discovery will be limited to the top charts or the integrated ‘Channels’ that group songs based on genre, mood, or era. Both apps have the ‘Channels’ and ‘Chart’ feature but is very much a manual method of finding new songs as opposed to the seamless recommendations other services may offer. I did find myself sticking with what I knew when it came to using Music Unlimited, searching for songs I knew I wanted in my library and very rarely ventured into the music discovery realm.
Music Arrangement
Once you’ve found music that you like, the second most important aspect is how it is arranged. What’s the point of liking a song, saving it, to then never be able to find it again? Music Unlimited utilises playlists and libraries to organise your music. What’s great specifically here about the Walkman app is that if you have music stored on your local device it will pick it up and display it seamlessly with your online library – similar to that of Google Play Music, without the upload part.
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Music can be added either to a playlist that can be dedicated to a specific purpose and will display the songs in a long list, or as songs/albums/artists. Songs can be added by simply tapping on the 3-dot menu and selecting the action for it. What’s good here about Music Unlimited is that if you add a song to a playlist it is automatically added to your library, allowing it to be broken out into that album/artist separation. Other music services don’t do that just yet, with those two organisation mechanisms remaining completely independent of each other, often making the user chose between which method they prefer or else resulting in double adding of songs to both playlist and library.
Mobile App
As previously mentioned, there are two experiences when it comes to accessing Music Unlimited and they are in the form of a standalone dedicated app, or baked in through the Walkman app if you have a Sony device.
The two apps achieve pretty much the same thing, aside from the aforementioned music organisational difference, but the Walkman app looks a lot nicer and seems much more polished. Using the Music Unlimited Service through the Walkman app was a much nicer experience and felt better, but then you are restricted to using a Sony device.
As nice as the Walkman app is, however, it would look even better if it adopted the new material design in Android 5.0 Lollipop. Granted, the concept of material design is still making it’s way around developers in it’s infancy, but would be great to see the Walkman app updated in the near future.
As for the Music Unlimited standalone app that is available for all Android devices, it could desperately do with a touch of material design, or a lick of paint for that matter. The design seems very dated and basic and although utilised the hamburger slide-out menu just didn’t appeal to me in the way the Walkman app did, or many competitors apps. Some of the colours of the music controls clashed with the album art, sometimes the album art would blend into the background and in the ‘Browse’ section it’s just a list of text.
Design aside, both apps are extremely easy to use and navigate and new users won’t have any trouble picking up the ropes. There’s even a useful tutorial upon initial launch of the Music Unlimited app to demonstrate how to download songs for offline playback.
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Web Experience
This unfortunately echoes my comments above with the Music Unlimited mobile app; the interface will get you into Sony’s music streaming service and it works, but it’s not winning any awards for design. I would really like to see this updated to mimic the Walkman app at a minimum.
The appearance will look very familiar to the Music Unlimited app, which is good for consistency, and you’ll find all the similar features as with the mobile app.
Value
At $4.99 a month for the ‘Access’ plan that will get you Music Unlimited on your PS3/PS4 and PC/Mac, or $9.99 a month to add in your smartphone, tablet, and TV, Music Unlimited is on par with other music streaming services when it comes to pricing.
For your money you’ll get access to the best music around the world right at your fingertips, with excellent music organisation, chart music discovery, and recommended music based on your listening habits. Music Unlimited certainly is up there as one of the top music streaming services, but the methods in which you access the service could definitely do with improvement when it comes to design. Whilst the Music Unlimited app will certainly get the job done, Music Unlimited is most definitely best enjoyed from a Sony device, and with a touch of material design for the Walkman app could see Music Unlimited winning the music streaming competition.
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