Color your Sony's PS3 Slim !!!

Yes folks... now you can have a custome made PS3 Slim in your gaming place. It just came up to my knowledge that the guys over ColorWare's are offering a dream color job to your PS3s. So go on and tell your friends and spread the word that the company is now offering custom-colored Sony PS3 Slims. Color the logo, the top, the base, and up to four controllers. They'll sell you a console outright for $449, or send yours in and they'll ugly it up for $149 (controllers cost extra). So what are you waiting for, hurry up and be the first ones amoung your friends to show off ;)

Sony announces 2TB Memory Stick XC

Not even a day has passed since I posted about the Toshiba 64 GB memory card, Sony has stuck back by announcing specs for its 2 TB Memory stick, yes you read it right its 2 TB MEMORY !!! Ever wondered what we are supposed to do with this much memory? As far for my calculations I think there are not even 1 % computers out there in the world which has 1 TB space in them, and with this stick a cell phone can have this much amount of memory?

Looks like next thing we will see would be hardcore gaming machine in a soda can size! As appearing on Sony's oss-formats.org site, the Memory Stick XC keeps the current form factor for memory sticks (most likely these guys will be backwards compatible) with the XC series (XC Duo, XC-HG Duo, XC Micro (M2 XC), XC-HG Micro (M2 XC-HG)) using the exFAT file system, and the PRO series (including the PRO Duo, PRO-HG Duo, Micro (M2), HG Micro (M2-HG)) using the tried and true FAT12/16/32

Sony said to have seriously considered second analog nub for PSP Go

It's no secret that a second analog nub was one of the biggest demands for what's now known as the PSP Go and, according to Sony exec Shuhei Yoshida, those requests were heard loud and clear during the Go's development. Speaking with Game Informer, Yoshida said that Sony had some "very serious discussion" about adding a second analog nub to the PSP Go, but ultimately decided against it to avoid splitting the PSP market in two.

He further elaborated that the PSP Go is "designed to be perfectly compatible with the PSP-3000 and all the games that released before that," adding that "we are talking about the mid-life cycle of this platform" (referring to Sony's ten-year life cycle plan for all of its consoles). In other words, don't bet on one showing up on the inevitable PSP Go Slim 6000 either.

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Sony's PlayStation Eye to gain facial recognition capabilities

It was almost two weeks ago that we first heard about the patent for Sony's PlayStation Eye-powered object motion detection, and now the company's announcing facial recognition for the console. According to Gamasutra, Kish Hirani, SCEE's Head of Developer Services, said that the facial recognition software would "detect gender and even the age of the face, separate facial features such as the nose, eyes and ears, and even detect whether you're smiling or not." This new gear will also work with the Sony Motion Controller, with the camera tracking X, Y and Z motion by using the glowing ball. Speaking at the Develop Conference in Brighton, Hirani stressed that companies won't need to develop their own tech to work with the new controllers.

"If you are working with the PlayStation Eye and think there is some new tech you're going to have to develop for the motion controllers, just get in touch with us. We have a wealth of libraries available, and the chances are you won't have to develop any technology yourself." You hear that, guys? get to work!

Sony Ericsson Packs In the Pixels With New Camera Phone

Sony Ericsson is aiming to polish the image of cellphone cameras, which are typically associated with low-resolution, poorly lit, badly focused snapshots. The company's new C905a Cyber-shot camera phone, available through AT&T (NYSE: T) on Sunday, features an 8.1 megapixel camera.

Sony Ericsson C905a Cyber-shot
This will be at least the second camera phone in the U.S. market offering over 8 megapixels; recently Samsung announced the Memoir, available through T-Mobile .
The Sony Ericsson C905a Cyber-shot will be priced at US$179.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a two-year service agreement, and it will be available both online and at AT&T stores.
Many of its features are similar to those of the Samsung Memoir.
The Lowdown on the C905a
Sony Ericsson's new Cyber-shot is a slider 3G phone with dedicated camera buttons and shortcuts.

It incorporates several features more often associated with pocket digital cameras than with phones that also happen to have cameras. It has a 2.4-inch, scratch-resistant, mineral glass camera screen; face detection; a Xenon flash with red-eye reduction; and Smart Contrast. For still shots, it has BestPic technology, which captures seven successive photos with one click so users can select the best one.
Users can record videos and share real-time streaming videos through AT&T Video Share.
Other features include an FM radio, mobile email , instant messaging and music playback. Users can do over-the-air music downloads through Napster Mobile and eMusic Mobile via AT&T Music.
Users can also print pictures directly to PictBridge-compatible printers or upload them to computers with a USB cable, which is included with the device.
The Tech Specs The C905a measures 4.1 by 1.9 by 0.7 inches and weighs 4.8 ounces. It has a 240 by 320 pixel color TFT (thin film transistor) QVGA screen and is available in black, silver and gold.
The C905a has 160 MB of memory and comes with a 2-GB M2 stick (Memory Stick Micro). The actual amount of free memory will depend on how the phone is preconfigured.
Some reviewers have spanked the C905a for using the M2 stick, which they contend is not as widely used as the SD and micro SD card formats.
AT&T did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
About the Samsung Memoir
The Memoir, which T-Mobile unveiled in February, consists of a combo 8-MP camera with video capture and playback; a music player; a 3G phone with photo caller ID; and Web-browsing capability.
It uses stereo Bluetooth wireless technology and comes with a variety of instant messaging flavors -- Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) , Windows Live and AIM. It also offers picture messaging and comes with a USB cable.
The device has a 2.64-inch touchscreen interface with 240 x 400 pixel resolution, autofocus, Xenon flash, and 16x digital zoom. Users can send pictures directly to My Album Online, Flickr , Kodak Gallery, Photobucket, or Snapfish.
Users can customize the Memoir with widgets on the home screen.
Other features include a built-in assisted GPS with TeleNav GPS Navigator, a full touch virtual Qwerty keypad, and an accelerometer.
Pricing is $199.99 with a two-year service agreement, T-Mobile USA spokesperson Tom Harlin told TechNewsWorld.
The New Norm: More Bang for the Buck
The Samsung Memoir and Sony Ericsson C905a seem to be setting a trend of offering consumers an increasing number of features at a lower price.
For example, the Sony Ericsson C902 Cyber-shot camera phone, which includes MP3 playback and FM radio, is a 5.0-MP camera phone listed at $549.99, reduced to $449.99.
The iPhone has only a 3-MP camera, and is listed at $199.99 for the 16-GB version with a two-year contract, though it offers several additional features not necessarily targeted at photography.

How would you change Sony's OLED Walkman?

Sony's OLED Walkman is something else. Literally. In many ways, it's Sony's first formidable iPod rival to emerge in quite some time, and with its striking OLED panel, tastefully appointed graphite casing and absolutely amazing audio quality, it's certainly worth a look. For those of you around the world that have picked one up, we're curious to see if you think you made the right decision. For many, anything sans an Apple logo is the right choice, but we're wondering if the UI, design and value here were up to snuff in your mind. Are you digging the overall look and feel? Do you mind not having an App Store? Are you floored with audio / video performance? Have at it in comments below -- don't hold back now, okay?

Best Buy's 80GB PS3 to be bundled with MGS4 and Killzone 2

Remember a couple weeks ago, when Ars Technica's trusty, eerily accurate "mole" prophesied that the 80GB PS3 would be ushered off store shelves in order to be replaced by the 160GB model, ultimately leading to the introduction of the oft-rumored PS3 slim? Remember when he (or she) said the 80GB model would have boosted sales thanks to the creation of new, attractive bundles? Did you notice the image above? Do you see where we're going with this?

One week after releasing an 80GB bundle containing Wall-E and LittleBigPlanet, Best Buy will supposedly be upping the ante with the package you see above, which includes Killzone 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4. Said photo was sent in to Kotaku from a Best Buy employee, and several other Best Buyers have confirmed its legitimacy. We won't know for sure until the bundle hits store shelves, but it certainly looks like the ol' "mole" might have another notch in his accurate-prediction-belt.

Update: We've received confirmation from two Best Buy employees stating the bundle is real. One employee's store anticipates the bundle will go on sale within the next week (possibly on Sunday), while the other employee says the bundle is on sale in his store in Louisiana. They claim the price of the bundle is the standard $399 price point for the 80GB system. We recommend asking your local store if it's carrying the bundle, and finding out when it'll hit shelves! Thanks, guys!

UMD-less PSP

Well, it's no secret that plenty of folks have been talking about a UMD-less PSP since day one, but it looks like that's been the case behind the scenes at Sony as well, at least according to the company's head of product planning, Naoya Matsui. Speaking with GameBusiness.jp, he said that Sony has "planned to release a PSP model without a UMD drive since the very beginning," but that if "we'd simply released the hardware, there wouldn't have been much for everyone to enjoy," adding that Sony "needed to prepare the right environment for it first - things like the transferal of content with the PS3 and PSN, and PC software to manage content like music and movies such as Media Go." Matsui further went on to explain that Sony also had to wait until the "delivery of digital content was on par with the delivery of physical media," which it obviously thinks has nowfinally happened.

UK Indie Retailers Downbeat On PSP Go

So that "certain premium" for the UMD-less PSPgo? We may gripe about the $230 price tag here, but our friends across the pond might actually have it worse. Right now, while UK gamers are shelling out on average £100 (about $165 US) for a new PSP, the "guide price" for Go is currently set at around £230 ($370 US). Egregious? We think so, and it looks like British consumers might agree, as two independent retailers have reported zeropre-orders so far.Ouch. Of course, it's not indicative of the entire region, especially given there's no data here from the big chains, but as a "canary in a cage" indicator, it still doesn't sound good -- but hey, there's still plenty of time before its October 1 launch, and anything can happen.

Sony investigating PSP phone?

As recently as May Sony has itself stated that a PSP phone "could happen," and now a report from Nikkei business daily states that Sony is planning on putting together a team as early as next month to build product that would act as a combination of a PSP and a Sony Ericsson handset. It makes plenty of sense, both as a differentiation from Nintendo and as a confrontation of the looming iPhone threat -- and hey, it might also act as a decent salve over the lukewarm reception of the pricey PSPgo. Unfortunately, if Sony is just about to get started on this, we likely wouldn't be looking at any resulting product for a while to come. Sony declined comment according to Reuters, which doesn't mean a whole lot, but it's worth keeping in mind that we've been hearing this sort of rumoring since back when the N-Gage (as a product) was still almost relevant.

Reuters reports that Sony Corp is working on a cellphone/game player hybrid to better compete with Apple's iPod Touch and iPhone.

Sony plans to set up a project team as early as July to develop a new product that combines functions of its portable game player and Sony Ericsson's mobile phones, the Nikkei said.

Sony appears to be considering a number of different moves to go head-to-head with Apple's iPod Touch and iPhone platform. An earlier report claims Sony was talking to major recording companies about providing downloadable music to the Playstation Portable (PSP). While Apple's devices aren't dedicated gaming machines, there is a notable overlap in audiences and the App Store has started attracting major gaming developers such as Capcom, id Software, and Square Enix.

The PSP has sold over 50 million units