Sony has officially announced their PlayStation 3 Slim that will retail for $100 less than the current PlayStation 3 fat which is also being reduced in price.
According to Gizmodo, the PS3 slim will come with a 120GB drive, and will be 32% smaller and 36% lighter than the standard PlayStation 3, as well as using 34% less power.
The $300 price will apply to all PlayStation 3s and the Slim will be available to the public during the first week of September.
The current PS3 model will be reduced to $300, whereas the 160GB PS3 will be $400. There will be a new PS3 logo as well as modifications to the official name from PLAYSTATION 3 to PlayStation 3.
It’ll also have a BRAVIA Sync feature that’ll allow you to control the PS3’s XMB with your Sony TV remote as long as they’re connected via HDMI. And the TV will automatically turn off the PS3 when the TV goes off.
Sony also says that they’re eliminating the feature of installing other operating systems on the Slim, so no more Linux.
And there will only be two USB ports.
To shop for the current Sony Playstation 3 please click here.
A US court has banned American Software Company RealNetworks from selling a program that lets people make copies of their DVDs.
The ruling stops Real from selling RealDVD, a piece of software that allows you to make back-up copies of their movie discs and save them to their computer.
Although free DVD ripping software is already available online, Real raised the hackles of Hollywood executives in 2008 because it paid for a license to the DVD Copy Control Association, believing that it could be interpreted to allow the services they wanted to provide.
In her ruling, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel said:
“While it may well be fair use for an individual consumer to store a backup copy of a personally-owned DVD on that individual’s computer, a federal law has nonetheless made it illegal to manufacture or traffic in a device or tool that permits a consumer to make such copies.”
Campaigners had argued that consumers had the right to make personal copies of material they had legally obtained, and that Real should not be punished.
Real Networks said that it was “disappointed” in the ruling and would take time to examine the verdict closely before considering whether to appeal.
Do you agree with the judges verdict or do you think we should be able to copy our own DVDs??
Either way you can watch them on the DVD players and recorders available here at AJ Electronics, for more details please visit the website.
Google has announced a new version of its search engine which is said to be faster and more accurate than ever before.
The upgrade, which has been dubbed “caffeine” by insiders, was announced on Monday after the company opened up access to web developers.
Although little about the appearance of the new version has changed, engineers promised that radical changes behind the scenes would result in vast improvements for users.
The company said in a statement: “For the past several months a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: next-generation architecture for Google’s web search.”
Caffeine will allow Google to index the web at a higher pace – gathering more information and doing it faster.
Martin McNulty, director of search marketing specialist Trafficbroker wrote on his blog: “Google’s Caffeine is undoubtedly faster, almost twice as fast at times. It’s like a Google Gti.”
The company claims that significant changes to the way the system works will improve the experience for users – although it will also send shockwaves through marketers who try and optimise their results to appear higher up in Google’s index.
This new Google “caffeine” injection will increase the speed of your searches on your MacBooks and Sony Living Room PC available here at AJ Electronics.
The 2009 Panasonic Blu-ray players launched earlier this year will now be able to view more than just Blu-ray discs, following a deal with Amazon.
According to Panasonic, current owners of Panasonic’s 2009 Blu-ray disc players in the USA will automatically receive a free software update to be able to access their Video On Demand service.
The Blu-Ray players, which were launched in April, will be able to access 45,000 titles, 1000 of which are in HD.
Models to get the software update include the DMP-BD60, BD70V, BD80 and the company’s portable Blu-ray disc player, the B15.
As well as Amazon Video On Demand, VIERA CAST will continue to provide access to YouTube, Picasa Web Albums, Bloomberg News and weather information says Panasonic.
To shop for current Panasonic Blu-Ray players at AJ Electronics please click here.
An analyst claims to have seen Apple’s rumoured touch-screen tablet computer and says it will fulfil a variety of multimedia functions.
The source said: “It’s close enough now to a final design that in Asia, there’s no other product in the waiting room or in the bullpen. There are dozens of [original device makers] making products for Lenovo and other PC makers that are all waiting to see what the Apple product is.”
The touch-screen tablet, is expected to have a 10in touch-screen and be similar in look and feel to a large iPod touch. Experts expect it to be positioned as a home media hub, capable of streaming content and services in much the same way as Apple TV does, and doubling as a games console.
Apple has however refused to comment on the rumour and speculation surrounding the launch of a possible touch-screen tablet, but it has hinted that it is exploring new product lines.
Apple’s chief operating officer, Tim Cook said on a recent earnings call that Apple was working on something “very innovative”.
Analysts believe the machine may even compete directly with Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader by allowing users to download books, music and movies directly to the device over the Wi-Fi network.
And it is rumoured to be available in November following an official September launch.
Well we hope the rumour is true because this new device looks very exciting… But until we find out we will just have to make do with Apple’s already brilliant Macbook and iPod Touch, both of which are available here at AJ Electronics.
MSN UK’s new video-on-demand service will let people watch some of their favourite TV programmes.
Microsoft’s MSN Video site is extending the length of some of the programmes it streams in the UK, having agreed content deals with BBC Worldwide and All3Media. MSN Video is planning to offer 350 hours of free content, supported by advertising.
There are over a dozen BBC series in the pilot, including The Young Ones, Mock The Week and That Mitchell And Webb Look.
Programmes will come in both WMV and Flash formats, to cater for both PC and Mac users and the streams are optimised for 512kbps broadband, to reach a wide audience.
Crossen says MSN UK reaches about half the UK’s broadband audience, second only to the BBC. “We’ve learned to understand the different audiences and their different requirement. We’re aiming to be one of the most popular services in VOD [video on demand].”
However, it seems unlikely that MSN Video will have the same impact as the BBC’s iPlayer.
Online-demand is becoming increasingly popular so MSN are right to join in, but have they left it too late??
Either way you can view MSN video on the Macbook or the Sony Living Room PC available here at AJ Electronics.
According to an Ofcom report the average broadband speed delivered in urban areas is 4.6 megabits per second compared to an average of 3.3 Mbps delivered in rural areas.
Ofcom have reported that over half of broadband users are on packages that promise speeds of “up to” 8 Mbps but research found that in practice they received an average of 4.1 Mbps.
They also found that no broadband customers were receiving the top download speeds advertised by the country’s largest internet service providers.
The highest speed that can be received is around 7.2 Mbps if they lived close to the telephone exchange through which their connection is routed.
In rural areas, households are further from the exchanges leading to a great number of internet “not spots”.
The six-month study involved more than 60 million broadband performance tests in 1,600 homes, and found the average broadband speed in the UK in April to be 4.1 Mbps.
According to the communication regulator Virgin Media’s next-generation fibre-optic broadband network achieved closest to the advertised speeds, while other suppliers, offered users much less than the “8 Mbps” speeds advertised.
Regardless of whether you get 4 Mbps or 8 Mbps broadband speed, your internet service will look fab on the desktops and Macbooks available here at AJ Electronics.
For more information please visit our website.
Predictions for the LCD TV industry couldn’t be better and everything indicates that the industry is in full recovery. According to DisplaySearch, global LCD TV shipments are expected to grow 21% this year with 127 million units shipped worldwide, while for 2010 shipments are expected grow another 16.5% with a total of 148 million units shipped worldwide.
“LCD TV shipments from the world’s top-10 brand vendors are likely to expand 35% to 141.5 million units in 2010, accounting for 96% of the total global shipments, according to the paper. In 2009, the top-10 vendors are expected to see their LCD TV shipments increase 25% to 104.8 million units and account for 83% of worldwide shipments, it noted.” DisplaySearch
Leading the pack in annual shipments is Samsung Electronics, Samsung LCD TV shipments are expected to climb to 25 million units this year and grow another 28% in 2010 with 32 million units shipped.
Another sign of recovery is the new highest monthly record for large-size panel shipments, according to DisplaySearch global large-size TFT-LCD panel shipments reached 46.7 million units in June 2009, up 8% sequentially and 24% on year.
Some pundits thought that with the credit crunch people where going to stay in more and watch films on their home cinema equipment. Ordering in takeaway pizzas rather than going out to restaurants and cinemas. The positive figures for shipment of LCD TV’s seem to bear this out.
What about you are you upgrading your TV and staying in more?
According to The Guardian, Sony Pictures has bid $50m for the film of Michael Jackson’s rehearsals of his ‘This Is It’ comeback tour.
AEG Live, Jackson’s concert promoter, offered the distribution rights for about 1,200 hours of footage to all the major studios last week, bids were then received from major companies Sony, Fox, Paramount and Universal.
The winning studio will produce a film with AEG and his estate, AEG are eager to get back the money it spent on producing the concert, with the amount said to be around $30m.
Sony Music are in a strong position to receive the footage because they distribute Jackson’s recordings and are in a 50-50 partnership with his estate in Sony/ATV Music Publishing. So will therefore benefit from the music licensing rights attached to the film.
Not only do Sony own the music licensing rights to Michael Jackson’s music but they also make the means to listen to it.
Here at AJ Electronics we retail a wide variety of Sony sound systems, from MP3 players to Mini Hi Fi Systems, so you can listen to all of the late and great Michael Jackson hits to your hearts content.
For more details please visit the AJ Electronics website.
One leading online store has said that the market for mobile applications, will become “as big as the internet”, reaching its peak at 10 million apps in 2020.
According to the chief executive of GetJar, a leading independent application store:
“Apps will be as big if not bigger than the internet.
They will peak at around 100,000 by the end of the year. That will be a tipping point and after that there will be a gradual fall in the rate of development.”
They add: “The full blossom will come in ten years and mobile apps will become as popular as websites are today with consumers.”
Apple currently runs the most popular application store with over 65,000 applications. Just last week it notched up another milestone with 1.5 billion downloads.
Its success was a shock both to Apple and the industry. And now every smartphone company is trying to do the same thing, from BlackBerry makers Research in Motion to Nokia.
All of these Apple app’s are on the iPod touch available here at AJ Electronics, for a full specification please click here.
