We were recently invited to the Sony Conference at the V&A Waterfront. After enjoying a healthy lunch, we were divided into colour-coded groups and taken to different areas displaying different consumer technologies. Everything from waterproof MP3 players, DJ systems and super TV’s were displayed this year.

Sony works hard at being the trendsetter in various fields of technology and I certainly enjoyed some of the  innovations and features added to the already popular product line. As a filmmaker, I naturally lingered longer at the camera section and look forward to getting my hands on a few new Sony cameras for review.

You’ll possibly notice the excitement expressed through my camera work in the video below.

Check it out!

(more…)

Slowly but surely, Sony has been turning its fortunes around in the smartphone market. It went through some dark days while in a partnership with Ericsson, but has now stepped out of that dark shadow of its history and seems ready to take on the world.

The last couple of flagship smartphones that Sony have brought to market have been their first real step in the right direction and they are trying to make the most of the little momentum they do have with their newest flagship, the Sony Xperia Z. A lot is riding on this device for the Japanese company and they need it to be a big seller. We have learned that they sold 4.6 million devices in the first 40 days after release, but now that the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 have hit the market, can it still compete? (more…)

This is definitely a device we are really looking forward to having a proper look at as soon as it is released in SA. It seems that the rest of the world had the same excitement regarding this device. It is selling well – really well. In fact, better than even Sony expected.

Analyst estimates put sales of the flagship Sony Xperia Z at 4.6 million after just 40 days since its international launch. We really think it is a good device, but the reason for the sales is a bit more complicated than that. Sony announced the new flagship at the beginning of 2013, at CES (Consumer Electronics Show). It seems that it was the opportune time to do so, as the world was waiting with bated breath for announcements of the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4. The Xperia Z filled the vacuum before the other devices launched and quietly won a significant lead over its competitors. (more…)

After more than 12 years, the best selling games console of all time is finally calling it quits. After 150 million sold units, and the PlayStation 4 apparently already in the works, you really have to commend Sony for somehow still convincing people to keep buying them until now.

The PlayStation 2 got launched in March 2000 with then very high end hardware, and even included a DVD drive, which was still a rare find. The later Blu-Ray equipped PlayStation 3 was much improved, but its high price meant that the PlayStation 2 actually still outsold it for a further three years. The games ecosystem for the Playstation 2 is also without equal – there is more than 10,000 titles available for the console, and game development houses still keep on developing Playstation 2 versions of high end games, despite it having much worse hardware compared to later consoles.

But now that the Playstation 2 will no longer be produced, Sony can start putting those manufacturing resources towards the new PlayStation 4. There is no confirmation of specs or pricing yet, and Sony is not divulging any info on it yet.

Source: BBC

Last year’s E3 belonged to Microsoft – they showed off Kinect, and people went nuts for it. However this year they showed off a few new games to use the Kinect, and also the new user interface which focusses on the Xbox’s “center of your livingroom” strategy. Good on them, but clearly people were not impressed. Webtrends, an online analyics firm did this great infographic showing off what people spoke about online during E3:

While I am not quite sold on the new Wii U controller, it seems to have gotten people excited. Maybe it is just one of those things you have to use to get a better idea. After the success of the original Wii‘s with a reasonably simple control system, and then the massive success of the Kinect accessory which does away with the controller (our review here), why on earth would Nintendo go for a more complicated control scheme for its upcoming console? Clearly people want less complicated gaming, right? Sure, there is a market for hardcore gamers who will always want their peripherals, but Nintendo grasped the “non-gamer” market, which was very lucrative market. But judge for yourself – if you have not seen the new Wii U, here is a demo video:

So what do you think? Do you see the Nintendo Wii U being a success?

Yesterday we broke the news that 102 million Sony users around the world have had their credit card details, personal information and more compromised in what is being called the biggest hack in history. Today banks around the world have started taking proactive action to prevent any credit card fraud and governments are starting to take action.

One of South Africa’s largest banks FNB made an announcement that they would be monitoring any credit cards that have been used on the Sony network in the last 12 months and reverse any suspect transactions, a number of their clients also been reporting that they were being told to cancel their credit cards. (Ed: You can see their Facebook communication here)

In Australia this hack is being called  the biggest security breach in their history as at least 700 000 people have been affected. Law enforcement agencies and Banks are working closely together and credit card transactions are being closely monitored for fraudulent activity.

In Great Britain 3 million people have been affected and accounts are being closely monitored. If any fraudulent activity is picked up customers are being issued new credit cards.

In Canada 1 million affected users are planning a $1 billion class action law suit against Sony for the security breach. This is being seen as just the tip of the iceberg as millions of users around the world were affected in this security breach.

U.S. House of Representatives, the government of the city of Taipei, Taiwan,  the British, Canadian privacy authorities and the Australian government have now started taking serious note of this attack.

It took Sony a whole week to inform the public about this security breach and to date Sony still does not know the true extent of the hack. Sony has recruited outside security firms to help with the investigation. This is bound to get worse for Sony before it gets better in the next few weeks.

Breaking News: Sony has confirmed that they have evidence that Anonymous was behind the attack.  Sony claims that the only thing they could find in pointing to who was responsible for the attack was a file named “Anonymous” containing the words “We are legion” written inside of the file found on their servers.

Breaking News: Anonymous responds and claims they had nothing to do with attack. Is this Anon getting framed by Sony or Anon simply realizing they might land in hot water for the attack? Read more about it here.

Also check: Banks and governments around the world are responding to biggest hack in history. Read about it here.

On April 17th 2011, Sony fell victim to the largest data security breach in history. The PlayStation Network’s 77 million customers had their credit card information, passwords, location details and personal details exposed and the network has been down ever since. Last night Sony revealed that an additional 25 million Sony Online Entertainment users’ data has also been compromised in this attack.  How did all of this happen?

Sony has not revealed any new information regarding who was responsible for this attack but earlier this year a group of hackers called Anonymous declared war on Sony. Anonymous is a group of hackers that rose to international notoriety when it waged cyber war against any organization that opposed WikiLeaks. Those attacks were all largely DDOS attacks, different to the type of attacks we have seen here with Sony.

Sony made themselves a target for hackers when it bullied a young hacker named GeoHot after he had hacked their PS3 console.  Sony has been waging a perceived war against people tampering with their consoles by raiding homes and using excessive legal force against them. In other words Sony’s hard line on hackers tampering with their consoles has resulted in an endless onslaught on Sony by hackers from around the world.

At the end of the day Sony seems to have been it’s own worst enemy, it’s networks are highly insecure and it’s technology has gaping vulnerabilities. Instead of addressing their problems,  instead they decided to bully individual hackers. The result of this lack of thinking from the top at Sony has now resulted in them being caught in a potentially devastating position for their company.

It’s not easy to predict the outcome to Sony’s very own version of the BP oil spill, all we can imagine is that the consequences are going to be serious. Looming in Sony’s near future are millions of dollars in legal battles,  fines from governments around the world and the threat of 102 million users walking out on the technology giant. Not even to mention the amount of lost business as a result of the down time to its network and bad publicity.

Owners of the older, “fatty” PS3 model who install the latest v3.21 firmware over PSN will no longer be able to house Linux or other operating systems on their console. The firmware, which will be sent out from 1 April, will overwrite foreign OS’s for “security reasons” that Sony has yet to explain. As far as we can tell, there is no April Fool’s trickery at play.

PS3 owners who choose not to install the new firmware will be unable to access the Playstation Network.

[Kotaku]