Posts Tagged ‘Sony’
Sony unveils ultrathin rollable OLED
May 26th, 2010 | 
Author: Sony on Wednesday unveiled a flexible OLED (organic light-emitting diode) display so thin it can wrap around a 4mm cylinder–roughly the diameter of the average pen or pencil.
The 80 micrometers-thick OLED display (about the width of a human hair) can continuously display moving images even while being rolled up, as Sony demonstrated in a video below.
The working flexibility is possible because engineers have managed to lose the rigid driver IC chips usually used in the substrate of a screen in exchange for a gate-driver circuit with OTFTs (organic thin-film transistors), according to Sony.
The 4.1-inch display, which has a resolution of 432×240 pixels (121 pixels per inch), is not for sale. It’s simply a research prototype Sony said it hopes to one day incorporate into products such as screens in mobile devices. Full demonstrations of the screen will be given this week at the SID (Society for Information Display) 2010 International Symposium in Seattle.
The consumer electronics giant has been at the forefront of this technology, showing one of the world’s first flexible OLEDs in existence at CES 2009, as CNET has reported. That screen was .2 millimeters thick.
Of course, Sony is not the only one experimenting with thin and flexible screens.
In April 2009, Dai Nippon garnered much attention with its flexible and seemingly animated posters for the Rakuten Eagles, a Japanese baseball team. The screens incorporated both energy-saving OLEDs and LEDs.
GE has also been working on ultrathin OLEDs, but in an effort to apply the technology to its lighting products. In March 2008, GE unveiled thin and flexible lighting OLEDs that can be manufactured in rolls akin to newspapers on a printing press.
Source : http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20006000-1.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Sony Fail: “Update” Brings Down PlayStation Network (PSN) Around The World
PS3 owners around the world are complaining that a recent upgrade has left them with in-game errors and unable to access the online gaming Sony PlayStation Network (PSN).
Reports, beginning just a few hours ago from Australia, North America and Europe, started a flood of complaints about people not only being unable to access the PSN but having the failure kick them out of games.
One reported problem is an 80001050F error code which is corrupting trophy information in games like Heavy Rain. Trophies monitor players’ progress throughout the game and without the correct information people are being kicked straight back to the XMB, the main menu system in Sony’s gaming consoles.
There’s still no official word on the problem but it could go beyond the PSN itself into the hardware.
Owners of PS3 Fats (the old-school PS3’s) are reporting that the date on their console has reverted to 12/31/1999. This may have something to do with the reasons why some PS3 owners are also receiving errors while the console is offline.
It should be said that Sony quickly acknowledged the problem and tweeted that they were looking into it – but that’s little help to the millions of gamers out there who have been unable to get their fix for the past few hours.
Updates will be posted as they come.
Source :
http://thenextweb.com/au/2010/03/01/update-brings-sony-playstation-network-psn-gamers-world/
Posted in Gaming, PlayStation, PS3, Sony | 
Tags: PlayStation, PS3, PSN, Sony, Update | 
Comments Closed
Sony to release new PS3 motion controller next spring
Sony announced it was working on a new motion controller at E3 last June in Los Angeles.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
Sony announced late Wednesday night from the Tokyo Game Show that it plans to release a new motion-sensitive controller for its PlayStation 3 video game console sometime during spring of 2010. The news came just hours after Nintendo’s own announcement that it was cutting the price of its Wii console from $250 to $200.
The company originally announced that it was working on a new controller at E3 last June. That news seemed, at the time, to indicate that Sony was aiming at taking on the Nintendo Wii and its intuitive Wii-mote. Microsoft, too, unveiled a hot new controller system, code-named Natal, but revealed no substantial details about how it would be used, what it would cost or when it would be available.
As for Sony, it didn’t say last June when its new device would hit the market. So Wednesday night’s announcement marks the first time it has given any specificity about the date.
“The newly announced Motion Controller is equipped with two motion sensors, three axes gyroscope and three axes accelerometer that can detect the controller’s angle and movement held in the user’s hand,” Sony said in a release. “Together with the PlayStation Eye camera for PS3 which can accurately track the absolute position of the controller, the controller can detect the natural and intuitive movement of the hand and reflect the precise movement on to the game.”
Earlier Wednesday evening, Nintendo said it was slashing the price of the Wii from $250 to $200. Although both announcements were made during the Tokyo Game Show, the timing is notable given that with Sony’s announcement, PS3 users and fans now have a better sense of when their favorite console will take on some additional Wii-like functionality. Nintendo may well have decided it couldn’t waste any time in making its own move to protect its console.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10360590-52.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Sony shipping Chrome on Vaios
Google promised earlier this year that a major computer maker would start to ship its Chrome browser.
Sony’s the one.
Sony’s Vaio line has begun carrying the browser in the U.S., the Financial Times reported late Monday.
According to a Dow Jones report, all Vaio-branded PCs are now using Chrome as their default browser. A Sony representative told Dow Jones that there are no plans to add Chrome to Vaios outside the U.S.
Vaios will continue to come with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer in tandem.
The Financial Times also reported that other companies are in talks with Google about Chrome and that the browser will also be promoted to Internet users who download RealNetworks’ RealPlayer media-streaming software. Google has previously said it’s in discussions with Dell about bundling the software.
To date–a day before the first anniversary of its launch on September 2, 2008–Chrome has around 30 million active users or around 3 percent of the global market. This makes it the fourth most-popular browser after Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s FireFox, and Apple’s Safari.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10322884-92.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
iPods and Transistor Radios Separated at Birth?
@Michael Jack. An iPod with the Regency TR-1 in red (1954-55) and TR-4 (black).
Recording engineer and music producer Michael Jack has amassed an amazing collection of 1,100 transistor radios.
@Michael Jack. Look familiar? An iPod with a Zenith RE-10
These models from the 1950s look like predecessors of the iPod, he notes on his flickr stream:
“When I fist saw the Zenith RE-10 I figured I had come upon the most obvious inspiration for the iPod… Although all these radios appear to have similar design elements to the iPod I would ALMOST bet that the RE-10 was studied (or at least observed) by the Mac design team.”
@Michael Black. Note: the size of the iPod’s click wheel about the same as radio’s tuning dial.
I love the still-modern look of these half-century old radios, whether Jonathan Ive used them for inspiration or not.
What do you think?
Source :
http://www.cultofmac.com/ipods-and-vintage-transistor-radios-separated-at-birth/15104
Posted in Apple, iPod, Tech |
Tags: Apple, inspiration, iPod, Sony, Transistor Radios |
Comments Closed
