Sony brings voice search to their Android TV remote app
Using a plugin for their Quick remote: TV SideView Sony app, Sony is enabling users to access voice search on their Sony Android TV devices. The TV SideView Voice Plug-in is designed to only work with Sony’s Quick remote app and a compatible Sony Android TV. The app is capable of working with speakers using English, French, German, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
Hit the break for a download link and a couple screenshots.
Come comment on this article: Sony brings voice search to their Android TV remote app
Inside Taipei’s huge tech wonderland of a mall
Taipei isn’t really lacking in gadget shopping options, but, even so, the recently launched Syntrend Creative Park is noteworthy. A joint project between electronics supplier Hon Hai and Taipei’s government, Syntrend is a massive 12-story tech-focused mall covering more than two acres. And it’s got plenty of notable tenants, including storefronts from Intel, Samsung, Sony, Asus and Lenovo. For the most part, it’s a place for you to relax and check out new gear. Imagine an Apple Store-like experience for dozens of tech brands across a high-end mall, and you’ll get the idea. Now that we’ve pretty much seen all there is at Computex, we took a stroll through Syntrend to see if it really deserves to be likened to Tokyo’s Akihabara district.
After spending an entire morning at the mall, I came away mostly impressed. it was surprisingly barren (then again, I visited during a weekday morning), and there are plenty of small stores that just sell phone cases and accessories. But it was nice to be able to go to a single spot to see tech offerings from plenty of companies. There are also cafes and interactive exhibits throughout Syntrend, as well as an entire floor dedicated to activities for kids. It’s something that both nerds and families could turn into a day-long trip.
While only seven of the mall’s 12 floors were open when I stopped by, there was still more than enough to check out. All of the floors have different themes: the first, “Look,” includes Intel’s Concept store and a stylish HTC store, while the fifth floor, “Listen,” is devoted to audio gear. It’s kind of kitschy, but it was a nice way to conceive of everything happening in the mall.
Filed under: Misc, Samsung, Sony, HTC, ASUS, Intel, Acer, Lenovo, Canon
‘Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection’ brings Naughty Dog’s trilogy to PS4
After Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End was pushed into 2016, PlayStation 4 owners hungry for supernatural-tinged archaeological adventure, adequate gunplay and roguish quips were braced for a disappointing year. Then with the easy charm of a cad with his shirt only half-tucked in, Sony made a reassuring announcement on Thursday. Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection will bring all three PlayStation 3 games in the series to the new console with a bevy of technological upgrades this fall, making the wait for Uncharted 4 that much easier.
Series creator Naughty Dog isn’t producing these touched up versions of Drake’s Fortune, Among Thieves, and Drake’s Deception. Remaster masters Bluepoint Games are on the job, sprucing up all three with improved textures, lighting and new character models to prepare the trilogy for a 1080p presentation running at 60 frames per second. For those not versed in this gaming jargon, Bluepoint is prettifying the old Uncharted games in a similar way to The Last of Us Remastered, another Naughty Dog fan favorite that jumped from PS3 to PS4.
Bluepoint, whose other remaster credits include the spectacular Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, will also introduce other changes and improvements to the Uncharted games that remain unspecified in the trailer below.
Diehard fans that have already played these games so many times that a facelift won’t entice them, the collection won’t be entirely Uncharted 4-free. Anyone who buys the collection gets access to an impending Uncharted 4 multiplayer beta. Is that as appealing as a new adventure where Nathan Drake says, “No no no!” repeatedly while standing on a cliff edge? Certainly not, but it will at least be a chance to feel how Naughty Dog’s series feels on new hardware.
Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection will be released in the US on October 9th and Europe on October 7th.
[Images: Sony]
Sony pledges to be 30 percent ‘greener’ by 2020
Like the epic vomiting session after a long evening in Las Vegas, climate change is inevitably coming for us all. Sony has decided to show off its greener side by pledging to shrink both its carbon footprint and the amount of power that its devices guzzle. The company has launched a “Green Management 2020″ project that aims to make its products 30 percent more efficient by the end of the decade. At the same time, executives are committing to a target of having no impact upon the environment at all by 2050.
We’re not sure how excited to be by that 30 percent target, since it’s going to be an average measure taken across all of the company’s devices. A cynic would suggest that, like the gas-guzzling truck company that makes a petite, eco-friendly ride as a “compliance car,” that Sony’s targets are easy to game. That may not be the case here, however, since it has pledged to put environmental concerns at the heart of its design process, so future hardware will all be built with an eye on sipping from the mains.
The Japanese mega-corporation also wants to green up its factories, promising to knock five percent off the emissions that each facility produces. It’ll also exert some light pressure on its third-party suppliers by monitoring their activity and asking them for a small (one percent) reduction in CO2 and water use. The company has also promised to use its vast entertainment division to educate people and promote green causes. As such, we’re giving it six months before Sony buys the rights to Captain Planet and makes it a starring vehicle for Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill.
Source: Sony
Sony announces game plan for Android 5.0 and 5.1 releases
Sony fans have something rejoice about today. Sony has announced somewhat of a game plan for rolling out Android 5.0 and Android 5.1 for specific devices over the course of the next year.
Owners of the Sony Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia ZR, and Xperia Tablet Z, have already begun to see the Android 5.0 update rolling out to their devices. Well there’s even more good news, as Sony has announced that they plan to update those devices to Android 5.1.
Also expected to get the Android 5.1 update, are the Sony Xperia T2 Ultra, and Xperia Z3. Something to be mindful of, is that while Sony is expecting to start these rollouts in July, there are still some various hoops to jump through your service provider of choice.
We’ve also seen a fevered raft of feedback and requests for us to extend our Android Lollipop rollout to other products in the portfolio – so, we’re happy to announce that we’ll be bumping Xperia M2 and Xperia M2 Aqua directly to Android 5.1. The upgrade will start a little after we’ve made the update available for the Xperia Z Series, but stay tuned as we’ll share more on timings soon.
This will more than likely be a staged roll out, so please don’t expect your device to have the update as of July 1st. So while you shouldn’t jump to your Settings application and start spamming the Software Update button, you at least have a timeline for when to expect the update to start rolling out.
The post Sony announces game plan for Android 5.0 and 5.1 releases appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Sony promises Android 5.1 for the Xperia Z series, C3, M2 Aqua and T2 Ultra
Sony has been gradually pushing out Android 5.0 Lollipop to a wide range of its Xperia products this year and the company has confirmed that the roll-out continues to land in new regions this week. Not only that, but Sony has also announced that it will be upgrading its premium Xperia Z line-up to Android 5.1 Lollipop.
Along with another update to Sony’s extensive Xperia Z range, the company has stated that the Xperia T2 Ultra and the Xperia C3 will receive Android 5.1, beginning in July. The Xperia M2 and M2 Aqua will also jump straight to the same update, but this roll-out will commence sometime after 5.1 is available for the Xperia Z range.
For reference, the premium Xperia Z series includes the Xperia Z, ZL, ZR, Tablet Z, Z1, Z1S, Z Ultra, Z1 Compact, Z2, Z2 Tablet, Z3, Z3v, Z3 Compact and Z3 Tablet Compact, according to Sony.
Back in mid-May, a video appeared demonstrating Android 5.1.1 running on an Xperia Z3, the first hint that the company was planning to update the handset further. Although, a 5.1 update for so many handsets is a bit of a surprise. The video also granted us a quick look at some new animations, icons and changes to the Walkman app that will likely appear in the new update.
Sony says that the time-frame for the Android 5.1 updates will vary from device to device and will be dependent on the market and carrier. Further details will be made available in the future and it’s certainly good news to hear that Sony’s update plans aren’t stopping at Android 5.0.
Sony announces Android 5.1 update for Xperia Z series to begin rolling out from July
Sony may be laying off almost half of its Swedish workforce, but that doesn’t appear to be impacting the Japanese company’s plans to provide timely firmware updates to its Xperia Z series of smartphones. The Xperia Z1 handset began receiving its share of the Android 5.0.2 Lollipop goodness a few days ago, and now Sony has announced that it plans to begin rolling out Android 5.1 from July onwards.
According to Sony’s blog post, all Xperia Z, Z1, Z2 and Z3 devices are to be updated to 5.1. from July onwards. If you own an Xperia T2 Ultra or C3 handset, don’t worry because Sony has also confirmed that they will also receive the 5.1 update, also from July. The Xperia M2 and M2 Aqua handsets haven’t been forgotten either, as they are slated to jump directly to Android 5.1 Lollipop, although only after the Xperia Z series of devices has been updated. Still, at least they haven’t been abandoned.Sony does say that more information regarding the Xperia M2 and M2 Aqua updates will be shared soon.
If you are curious as to what the Android 5.1 update will look like on Sony’s devices, it was recently spotted on a Xperia Z3.
Source: SonyMobile
Come comment on this article: Sony announces Android 5.1 update for Xperia Z series to begin rolling out from July
Somebody’s already making a movie about the Sony hack
Mere months after a series of red lights began flashing in Sony’s IT department, a film covering the event has already been greenlit. The Hollywood Reporter believes that a documentary about the studio-toppling event is to be helmed by the creators of Netflix’s award-winning The Square, Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer. There’s already a suggestion that the pair will discard the notion that North Korea was behind the attack, investigating the likelihood that this was, instead, an inside job. It’s slightly fortunate for the duo, who were already researching a documentary concerning cyberattacks and digital warfare. The flick is still at an early stage of production and no studio has yet to agree to distribute it, but we’d think Sony would be a receptive host — after all, they’re certainly likely to make some money out of everyone’s morbid curiosity.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
T-Mobile’s Xperia Z3 will get its Lollipop update starting tonight
If you’re the lucky owner of a Sony Xperia Z3 on T-Mobile’s network, you should see the update to Android 5.0 Lollipop make its way to your device sometime tonight. Des Smith, Senior Product Manager at T-Mobile, just announced on Twitter that the update should start making its way to devices at 12am PDT. Along with the update to Android 5.0, the Z3 is also gaining support for LTE band 12.
Software Update: @TMobile #Z3 – #Lollipop + Band 12 support! Should start after Midnight Pacific ✌Des pic.twitter.com/766pvQpKsq
— Des (@askdes) June 2, 2015
Android 5.0 will bring notable features such as Priority Mode notifications, actionable lock screen notifications, Smart Lock, and a redesigned user interface based off of Google’s Material Design guidelines. If you’re wondering what exactly your phone will look like after the Lollipop update, check out this quick YouTube video which shows off some of the main changes.
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As is the case with other OTAs, this update will be rolled out in stages, so it may be a few days before it makes its way to your device. Once you receive your update, be sure to let us know how you like it!
‘Gravity Ghost,’ a game that heals, heads to PlayStation 4
Gravity Ghost is currently in development for PlayStation 4, but it’s already a success. It launched on Steam in January, offering physics-based platforming tucked inside of soothing, spiraling gameplay and wrapped in a touching story. Ivy Games founder Erin Robinson Swink of course hoped that people would enjoy Gravity Ghost, but reception to the game still surprises her five months after its release. She’s mostly touched by the emotional reaction many players describe on the game’s Steam forums. Gravity Ghost helps people deal with loss in a visceral way.
“It’s not a forum where I usually see people sharing personal details from their lives, but there are multiple posts like this,” Robinson Swink says. “One reviewer said the game changed how he felt about his reaction to losing his grandfather…. Another ended their review with this: ‘My mom died last year, and in some weird way, this helped me deal with that? I can’t explain it, but it… well, did.’ My jaw just dropped when I read those.”
It’s more than loss, too: Gravity Ghost has found its way onto a list of recommended video games for self-care and one of Robinson Swink’s acquaintances said she played at least 20 hours of the game after her home was severely damaged. “It surprised me because that’s far longer than it takes to beat the game,” Robinson Swink says. “She must have started over a few times. We’re so early in the life of the game, it’s hard to know what its legacy will be. But if it continues to help people bring down the level of stress in their life, I will consider that a great success.”
Gravity Ghost stars Iona, a celestial spirit searching the stars for her lost best friend, a similarly ghost-y fox. Iona soars through a splintered galaxy, flinging herself around the gravity fields of planets to collect survivors and fragments of broken worlds. In Gravity Ghost, you can’t die — you only fly.
Soon, Gravity Ghost will be able to entertain and help people on PS4. There’s no official release date yet, but the PS4 version will feature exclusive content, including a new constellation with new challenge levels, three new original tracks from composer Ben Prunty and a new, unlockable character to play. Until now, Gravity Ghost has been strictly a PC game, from conception to sale. Robinson Swink says she developed it entirely on her laptop, where everything is small and up-close.
She’s not just an avatar, she’s a character in this world.
“For me it’s a very different experience to be playing the game on a TV,” she says. “It feels larger and makes outer space feel more encompassing. I deliberately made Iona very small compared to the planets, but now I get to see her in high detail even when the camera is far away. It makes her feel a lot more real, somehow. She’s not just an avatar, she’s a character in this world.”
Robinson Swink believes Gravity Ghost should do well on PS4, considering that players already compare it with Journey, a soothing, highly acclaimed, PlayStation-exclusive game. Besides, PC sales have already covered her direct development costs, so from here on out it’s smooth sailing — or soaring.
“I’m pretty stoked to bring it to the PS4, as it’s a platform where I think not many people have heard of the game yet,” she says. “I think the chill-out gameplay and impressionistic art style will be a really good fit with that audience…. Obviously I’d be thrilled if our sales were really good on the PS4, but I think the port will be worthwhile no matter what.”
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