Sony
 

The Sony Rolly CES Debut

Like many other makers, Sony has plenty of HDTVs specifically putting the Bravia line up in the spot light. Much of their focus was the connectivity between much of their product lines. The products I personally found interesting were the Rolly MP3 Player that you can connect to your PC to upload audio files to its integrated 2GB storage. The Rolly actually moves and responds to the music that comes out of the two small speakers on each end of the unit. It basically dances to the beat of whatever songs you play. This dancing egg may turn out to be a popular item amongst the youngsters if the price is right.

Rollies Dancing	White Model
Mono Flap	Both Flaps Open

Also on display were the new generation PSPs which offer better connectivity and package content downloads including movie playback on the screen of your choice. The PSP graphics still look the best on such a small screen. The Walkmans also offer a few of the same features which should hopefully make music upload simpler and quicker. Of course, controlled content downloads mean keeping the MP3 lovers honest. Personal Communicators now come with a 3.5" screen, back lit keyboard, mega pixel camera, VOIP capabilities, web connectivity, and adobe flash. If the Personal Communicator doesn't have what you want, there is the Sony Reader. The Reader is an electronic alternative to making your favorite books on the "to read" list more accessible and easier to carry. The screen is easily legible and built in audio give it a hands free approach. The Reader offers 92MB of internal memory and has expansion slots for larger MMC storage. It looks a lot like the reader props seen in many space movies.

My Life On Line...	Nice Key Pads	Great Screens
Silver & Black PSP	Close Up	PSP Playback
Silver Reader	New HD Vaio	Black Reader

As for those looking for a new Sony Ericsson cell phone, they released three new models. The W760 offers Gaming fun with tilt controls, "Sense me" features, and is basically an all round 3D Device. The W350 has more of a match box, slim design, Blue Tooth, mega pixel camera, and is roughly 9mm thick. They just keep getting smaller, don't they? If that doesn't interest you, the Z555 phone offers a very stylish Diamond cut gem pad. It also has "Gesture" controls which literally allow you to "wave off" a phone call if you're too busy to take it. Try doing that to a live person and see what that gets you. Of course each phone offers better Blue Tooth support and either Tri-Band or Quad-Band for better connections. Uh huh...we'd like to put that to the test ourselves.

Sony Phone Introductions

Sony Ericsson Phones

Sony's newest endeavor is OLED screens. Yeah, I said the same thing too, "another screen technology?" You have to see the screens in person to really understand how nice these new screens look. The contrast and color quality is much, much better than LCD or Plasma. The darks are truly black and colors hold true to realistic patterns. On display were several smaller 12" or so screens flaunting their abilities going through various color rich environments including night time scenes that show just how nice dark scenes appear. Their best example came in the form of a 27" HD OLED TV. If this is where future screens are going, LCDs and Plasmas should hopefully drop like rocks in pricing.

Screen 1	Specs Look Promising	Screen 2
Screen 3	More Color Samples	Vivid Colors

And one particular new product that looks promising for camera and camcorder enthusiasts is their Transfer Jet docking station. Simply place a supported Sony camera (like the new Alpha series cameras) on top of the station and the data automatically transfers via a built in WiFi connection. The LED ring around the top of the station turns pink while it's transferring and turns blue when it's done or in standby. The transfer rate can be as fast as 500MBs. I can think of a few hundred CES Press personnel that would love that feature. Incidently, the A200 Alpha series cameras are intended for HD users wanting a wider screen shot, more compact frame, HD playback, image stabilization, and feature a Dynamic Range Optimizer.

WiFi HD Camcorder Station	Camcorder Uploading
WiFi Camera Station	Camera Uploading

And here are a couple newcomers to the HD-BluRay market. Sony has two model combo HD and BluRay supporting ROM Drives with one with burn capabilities. The Read-Only model is currently $199 and dropping, while the Recorder model is $299 and also dropping. Sony's high end Vaio laptops now also come with combination ROM drives so users have full HD support on the portable side. We really hope prices continue to drop. This will give regular components a run for their own money and make HD more affordable for everyone in an HTPC.

Blu-ray ROM Drive

Blu-ray VAIO

Blu-ray Writer & Camcorder

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