Sony airs first stop-motion animation ad directed by Wes Anderson showing us how mobile phones really work

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  • March 22, 2012 at 4:09 pm

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Sony "Made of Imagination" ad by Wes Anderson

Sony has just released the first ad in its new “Made of Imagination” campaign set to promote the company’s Xperia smartphones. Sony enlisted the help of director and writer Wes Anderson — if you haven’t watched his movies you’re missing some of the most incredible and quirky films of all time. Wes is responsible for The Royal Tenenbaums, Darjeeling Limited and last, but not least, the stop-motion classic Fantastic Mr. Fox.

In creating the Sony ads, Wes interviewed the most imaginative amongst us, a bunch of kids that is, and used his stop-motion animation experience to bring their ideas to life. Children were asked how they believe Sony’s Xperia handsets work and this first ad comes courtesy of 8-year-old Jake Ryan. We don’t wanna spoil it for you, so lets just say that what makes the device tick are hundreds of tiny little robots.
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Sony Xperia S 4.3-inch Android smartphone is shipping now globally

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  • March 21, 2012 at 4:49 pm

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Sony Xperia S - transparent strip close-up

The Sony Xperia S began its lengthy road to the market back in November, when it was it was initially known as the Nozomi. Well the Playstation-certified Android smartphone has finally started shipping today to retailers globally.

We have to admit that the Xperia S is one of the best looking smartphones out there, thanks to its unique translucent navigation bar running along the bottom half — though still not as good looking as the Xperia Glass concept.
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Sony A57 translucent mirror digital camera announced: 16-megapixel sensor, 12fps for $699.99 (video)

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  • March 14, 2012 at 7:01 am

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Sony SLT-A65 digital camera front sensor

With the entry-level Sony A55 gone the way of the dodo, the company had to fill the gap in its DSLT (digital single lens translucent) camera line-up. The just announced A57 is the official successor to the A55, which was initially released in 2010 and was the first camera to feature Sony’s translucent mirror technology.

Sony’s SLT cameras have a DSLR-style body and a mirror, but unlike DSLRs, the mirror doesn’t move. The translucent mirror allows most light to hit the sensor while some of it is reflected to a phase detection autofocus sensor. Because of this setup, DSLT cameras feature electronic viewfinders (EVFs) rather than optical ones.
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Sony 3.7-inch Xperia Sola smartphone does touch navigation from afar (video)

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  • March 13, 2012 at 4:50 pm

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Sony Xperia Sola Android smartphone in red lying down

Sony has just unveiled a new smartphone in its Xperia NXT series. The Xperia Sola is a 3.7-inch Android smartphone coming in between the 3.5-inch Xperia U and the 4-inch Xperia P. The Sola shares a lot of the design cues that we’ve come to love in recent Xperia smartphones, though it’s missing the transparent acrylic strip at the bottom that we first saw in the high-end 4.3-inch Xperia S.

Nevertheless, the Xperia Sola has something unique. It’s the first smartphone to feature “floating touch” navigation technology. That is the device can sense a finger above the display and allows users to move an on-screen cursor by hovering a finger above the screen, you then tap the screen to navigate.
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Sony puts its WhiteMagic display technology to work in the Xperia P smartphone

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  • March 5, 2012 at 4:51 pm

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Sony Xperia P Android smartphone

The premise behind Sony’s WhiteMagic LCD display technology is simple, add a white subpixel to the standard red, green and blue subpixel arrangement and improve both brightness and power efficiency, win-win. We first covered WhiteMagic RGBW displays while we were looking at the LCD inside the new Fujifilm X-Pro1 digital camera, and Sony has now integrated the technology in its own 4-inch Xperia P Android smartphone.
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Olympus E-M5 vs. Fujifilm X-Pro1 vs. Panasonic GX1 vs. Sony NEX-7 comparison

The Lab

  • February 9, 2012 at 5:36 pm

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Olympus OM-D E-M5 back black

We needn’t say much on the state of the competition in the compact mirrorless interchangeable lens camera (MILCs) space. In the short period of a few months we’ve seen the release of some pretty amazing high-end mirrorless shooters with very distinct design and engineering decisions and featuring a number of innovations.

The latest entrant is the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Micro Four Thirds (MFT) digital camera that has claimed a number of firsts. It’s the first MFT rangefinder-style camera with a built-in EVF and the first with a weather-sealed body, it is also the first ever camera with 5-axis image stabilization, while Olympus is claiming that the camera has the fastest autofocus of any interchangeable lens camera.
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Sony Xperia Glass concept phone bests the Xperia S design

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  • January 28, 2012 at 6:39 am

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Sony Xperia Glass fan concept phone

Sony introduced two new and very good looking Android smartphones at CES this month, namely the Xperia Ion and the Xperia S.

The Xperia S (as you can see below) features a transparent acrylic strip along the bottom half of the device, which houses three touch-sensitive buttons and is also part of the smartphone’s antenna design.
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Olympus claims title of best-selling mirrorless camera manufacturer for 2011 in Japan

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  • January 26, 2012 at 6:17 am

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Olympus new PEN cameras: E-P3, E-PL3 and E-PM1

Embattled Olympus didn’t have such a bad year after all. The Japanese camera manufacturer has just claimed top position for the mirrorless camera category in the 2012 BCN Award.

The BCN Ranking pulls in point-of-sale data from a number of major Japanese electronic stores, including online stores like Amazon Japan, and once a year hands-out awards based on the number of actual sales. Olympus has moved ahead of both Sony and Panasonic, capturing more than a third of the market with sales numbering 36.6% of total. Panasonic has the number two spot with 29.3% of sales.
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Next generation Sony back-illuminated CMOS image sensors promise better image quality and low-light camera performance for your smartphone

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  • January 23, 2012 at 12:35 pm

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Sony conventional vs. stacked CMOS image sensors

Sony was the first to introduce a consumer-grade (i.e. cheap) back-illuminated CMOS sensor in 2009 and the technology has found its way in a number of devices demanding good low-light camera performance within very tight space requirements, namely in smartphones. iPhone owners can thank this technology for their awesome low-light camera performance.

Sony continues to develop the technology and the company has announced today its new generation of backside-illuminated CMOS sensors, which the company is calling ‘stacked CMOS image sensors’. Sony has created a new manufacturing process that allows it to move supporting circuitry to the back of the sensor, i.e. create a stacked structure. So what does this achieve? Well, Sony is claiming that the new sensor can achieve better image quality and lower power consumption in a smaller package. In addition Sony can build signal processing circuits on the back of the sensor, removing any requirement to have them externally.
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Sony enables GLONASS on a bunch of Xperia handsets for faster and better location fix

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  • January 21, 2012 at 5:13 am

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Sony adds GLONASS support to its Xperia smartphones

Why have support for just one satellite navigation system when you can have two. Qualcomm announced support for GPS and GLONASS for its Snapdragon S2 and S3 SoCs last month and now Sony has just posted on its developers blog that it would enable GLONASS support on a bunch of its current Xperia devices and the upcoming Xperia S and Xperia Ion.

We’ve seen support for GLONASS increasing since the Russian satellite system was completed in October 2011, but here is a quick intro first. GLONASS is a radio-based satellite navigation system and the Russian equivalent to the US developed GPS. The first GLONASS satellites were launched during Soviet times but the system has had a bumpy ride since then. Following a number of upgrades it can now rival GPS – because of the positioning of its satellites, GLONASS is more accurate than GPS in northern latitudes.
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Sony releases Micro Vault MACH USB 3.0 flash drive, gives it the Cylon treatment

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  • January 18, 2012 at 3:28 am

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Sony Micro Vault MACH USB 3.0 drive next to computer

We’ve got to give it Sony, as it really knows about style. The company’s latest line of flash drives has just been announced and besides their good looks you’ll find a speedy USB 3.0 device inside. The Micro Vault MACH USB 3.0 flash drive comes in 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB varieties and claim read speeds of 60MB/s for the 8GB and 120MB/s for the rest of the line. Write speeds can shoot up to 90MB/s, busting what most USB 2.0 drives can achieve.
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CES 2012 best concepts: Sony VAIO Slate & VAIO Hybrid and Samsung’s Smart Window (video)

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  • January 14, 2012 at 4:46 am

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Sony VAIO Slate concept with morphing soft back

We really want consumer technology manufacturers to take big risks and to surprise us this year. After all it’s in their best interest to do so, big successes come from thinking out of the box.

So, in this frame of mind, we’d like to share with you a couple of concepts, which we wish they would soon become actual products, that really peaked our interest.
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Sony Xperia S Android handset gets UK pricing and March 5 release date

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  • January 13, 2012 at 8:22 am

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Sony Xperia S camera landscape

Sony announced its latest Xperia S Android handset at CES this week and we now have UK pricing and availability. The Xperia S (a.k.a. Nozomi) will be released on March 5th in the UK for £468 ($719 and €560) for the 32GB version, at least according to mobile device online retailer Clove.

The Xperia S has a 4.3-inch 1280 x 720 gap-less optically laminated display, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and a impressive 12-megapixel Exmor back-lit sensor rear camera.

It will be sold in both white and black, though initially the white Xperia S will be a Phones4U UK exclusive. The Xperia S includes NFC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and HDMI, together with GPS and GLONASS navigation support. There is no external microSD card slot — so it would probably mean no mass storage support — and it will ship with Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Sony however promised that it will be updated to Ice Cream Sandwich in the second quarter of the year. Did we mentioned it’s also PlayStation certified.