Tag Archives | Sony

Clarity on Apple's E-Reader Rule Runaround. Depressing Clarity!

Posted by Harry McCracken on February 1, 2011 at 11:45 am

John Paczkowski of All Things Digital got Apple to comment on the unexpected rejection of Sony’s Reader e-reading app for the iPhone. Spokesperson Trudy Miller told him:

We have not changed our developer terms or guidelines. We are now requiring that if an app offers customers the ability to purchase books outside of the app, that the same option is also available to customers from within the app with in-app purchase.

What Miller is saying is that it’s okay for developers of e-reading apps to provide access on the iPhone to e-books bought in the browser or elsewhere–but that they must also make it possible for users to buy those books using iOS’s in-app purchasing feature, which would let folks buy books in the app itself (and would give Apple a 30 percent cut of the profits).

As Paczkowski points out, this is a big change for e-book merchants, and one that might drive them crazy; they’ll now be forced to cut Apple in on book sales. But it’s conceivable, at least, that if they play ball and implement this feature, it’ll be a modest plus for consumers: They’ll be able to buy books without leaving their favorite iPhone e-reading apps.

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Are Apple's iPhone E-Reader Rules Changing? Tough to Tell

Posted by Harry McCracken on January 31, 2011 at 11:20 pm

Back in November, Sony said it would have an iPhone app that would provide access to e-books from its Reader store out by December. That month came and went. So has January. And now Sony is saying that Apple rejected its iPhone app (an Android version did make it onto the Market):

Unfortunately, with little notice, Apple changed the way it enforces its rules and this will prevent the current version of the Reader™ for iPhone® from being available in the app store. We opened a dialog with Apple to see if we can come up with an equitable resolution but reached an impasse at this time. We’re exploring other avenues to bring the Reader experience to Apple mobile devices. We know that many of you are eagerly awaiting the application and we appreciate your continued patience.

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3G in the PSP2, Perhaps

Posted by Jared Newman on January 24, 2011 at 1:42 pm

Last July, Japanese wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo talked up its ambitions to embed 3G capabilities in video game consoles. Now, it looks like the company has found a taker in Sony’s PSP2, according to a report in Nikkei (via CNet).

The next Playstation Portable, which hasn’t officially been announced yet (the image here is a mock-up), won’t be a phone, says the report, but it will let people download content and play online. Sony is holding a press conference in Tokyo this Thursday, where the company is likely to reveal the PSP2 in full.

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Will Sony Go Old-School to Fight PS3 Piracy?

Posted by Jared Newman on January 21, 2011 at 8:39 am

As incredible as this rumor seems, I can’t resist: According to a “very reliable source,” Dutch website PS3-Sense reports that Sony will fight Playstation 3 piracy with serial codes.

That’s right, an old-school combination of letters and numbers. Players who buy new PS3 games will reportedly have to dig up a unique code — from where is not totally clear, but presumably a slip of paper inside the game box — and dial it in to verify that the copy is legit. Each code, the rumor says, will be valid for up to five authorizations.

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Mass Effect 2 for PS3: Downloadable and On Disc at the Same Time

Posted by Jared Newman on January 12, 2011 at 1:49 pm

Another Playstation story to take eyes off the current hacking unpleasantness, perhaps?

Sony announced that Mass Effect 2 will be downloadable through its Playstation Network on January 18, the same day that it goes to brick-and-mortar retailers. I’m not aware of any previous big-budget PS3 games that launched as downloads day-and-date with their retail counterparts.

Mind you, Mass Effect 2 isn’t a brand new game — last year, it launched exclusively for the Xbox 360 and Windows — but it’s a darned good one, and a sign that publishers are getting cozier with the idea of full game downloads.

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Sony Tries to Scrub PS3 Jailbreaks From the Web

Posted by Jared Newman on January 12, 2011 at 9:28 am

After four years of solid security, Sony’s Playstation 3 hacking defenses have fallen, and all the company can do now is try to snuff the hackers themselves.

Sony has filed a restraining order (and filed a lawsuit — see update below) against three named hackers — including George Hotz of iPhone jailbreak fame — along with two pseudonyms and numerous John and Jane Does, all of whom were involved in the latest jailbreak for PS3 firmware 3.55. It’s not a proper lawsuit yet, but Sony’s trying to get all information related to the PS3 jailbreak removed from the Web.

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Sony's Playstation Move Rifle Literally Changes the Game

Posted by Jared Newman on January 10, 2011 at 8:41 am

With 3D glasses around my head and a big, plastic, fake assault rifle in my hand, I did something that seasoned gamers might consider sacrilege: I played Killzone 3.

Understand, Killzone is the Playstation 3’s answer to Halo. It’s a loud, violent shoot-em-up against enemies with gas masks and glow-in-the-dark eyes, and a multiplayer mode with all the classics, like capture the flag and team deathmatch. And with the Playstation Move stuffed inside a $40 gun-shaped accessory, Killzone 3 is also Sony’s attempt to prove that motion control is for serious gamers, too.

But really, it’s not. Playing Killzone 3 with the assault rifle peripheral was a blast, but it was also an entirely different game than the one you play with plain old thumbsticks. Continue Reading →

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Sony to Fight Off 3D Skepticism

Posted by Jacqueline Emigh on January 7, 2011 at 7:07 am

The skeptics are wrong about 3D technology, said Sony CEO Howard Stringer, as he unveiled a far-reaching Sony roadmap for 3D “without or without glasses” across TVs, PlayStations, Blu-ray players, displays, movies, camcorders, and more.

Consumers will start to really buy into 3D technology whenever their favorite TV shows start showing up in 3D, he predicted, during a CES press conference.

Stringer contended that if anyone can convert the 3D naysayers, it’s Sony, with the company’s huge presence in the entertainment, hardware, and software industries.

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E-Readers: They're All Selling Like an Unspecified Number of Hotcakes!

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 30, 2010 at 10:04 am

Back in August, I wrote about Amazon.com’s odd habit of frequently bragging about sales of its Kindle e-reader without ever providing explicit numbers. It continues to do so–and it’s inspired its competitors to do some similarly evasive crowing of their own.

Barnes & Noble issued a press release today that it had sold “millions” of Nooks since the first version’s release in December of 2009. But it mostly bragged about Nook sales without disclosing them, by saying that Nooks are the company’s best-selling products ever, and that the Nookcolor is its best-selling gift this holiday season.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced that with millions of NOOK eReading devices sold, the line has become the company’s biggest bestseller ever in its nearly 40-year history.  The new NOOKcolor Reader’s Tablet, introduced just eight weeks before Christmas, is the company’s number one selling gift of the holiday season. Barnes & Noble also announced that it now sells more digital books than its large and growing physical book business on BN.com, the world’s second largest online bookstore.

[snip]

Demand for the critically acclaimed NOOKcolor remained high following the product’s introduction in late October through the holidays. Sales have continued to exceed the company’s high expectations.

The only hard number in the release is the “millions” of Nooks sold; we can apparently assume that B&N has sold at least two million devices. (A few weeks ago, it was a minor news story when an Amazon staffer said that “millions” of third-generation Kindles had been sold in 73 days; I wonder if B&N would have been even this specific if Amazon hadn’t made the leap first?)

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Sony Dives Into Subscription Music, Misses the Point

Posted by Jared Newman on December 22, 2010 at 9:43 am

Sony’s “Music Unlimited Powered By Qriocity” doesn’t roll off the tongue like MOG, Rdio, Rhapsody or Zune Pass, but it’s essentially the same subscription music service — with one major drawback.

The streaming music service launches today in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and next year in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and New Zealand. For 4 pounds per month, users get ad-free radio with personalized stations and categories, kind of like Pandora. For 10 pounds per month, Music Unlimited Powered By Qriocity (MUPbQ?) adds on-demand access to more than 6 million songs, playlists and all.

Here’s the problem: For now, the service is tied to Sony devices, such as Bravia TVs and Blu-ray players and the Playstation 3. An Android app is supposedly in development, but getting on a smartphone platform doesn’t solve Sony’s problem.

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