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.

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.

Sony’s S5500 series entry level LCD TV’s are a good way to get into HDTV or as a second HDTV set in the bedroom.

Internet connectivity has emerged as the current must have accessory on high end HDTVs, but if you don’t need these features, Sony’s S5500 series have some of the best performance for the money on the market.

You don’t get all of the high end bells and whistles like an Ethernet port to connect to the internet. What you get in the Sony s5500 series HDTV’s is Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution screen and all you need in an entry level HDTV

The Sony S5500’s have decent connectivity with 3 HDMI’s and an USB 2.0 input. The S5500’s only have Bravia 2 rather than the latest version of Sony’s picture processing engine, Bravia 3, but there is 1080p/24fp compatibility for those who need to connect a Sony Blu-ray player.

The Sony S5500 HDTVs are available in store now from AJ Electronics in the following sizes.

The new software, named the Google Chrome Operating System will be in netbooks for consumers in late 2010 and aims to make web applications easier to use.

Vice president of product management at Google said: “The operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web.

The Chrome OS is our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be”.

According to The Telegraph, Google are already working with a number of manufacturers to produce and distribute the system.

However, Microsoft Windows is currently installed in over 90% of people’s PCs. Google and Microsoft have often been in competition over the years in a variety of markets, from internet search to mobile software.

The success of this software will largely depend on whether Google can strike partnerships with PC makers, which currently offer Windows on most of their product lines.

If  Google is successful in its mission, then the Chrome OS will be available on most Desktop and laptop computers, and let’s face it if anyone can do it super search engine Google can!

AJ Electronics offer a range of PCs including the Apple Macbook and Sony Laptop, for more information about out products please visit the website.

With holidays around the corner, a digital camera is an essential summer buy, after all you don’t want to be missing classic snaps such as your Aunty falling in to the pool.

AJ Electronics offer a wide range of digital camera to suit everyones wants and needs.

Our selection includes Panasonic, Canon and Nikon cameras of the highest quality that will provide you with beautiful snapshots during these Summer months, as long as you use it correctly of course!

Whether it’s a waterproof camera you’re after or a stylish digital camera that will impress your friends and family, we have it all.

For AJ Electronics full range of digital cameras, please visit the product page.

Sony has just released an update of its PS3 Firmware patch v2.70.

There first update is a new Text Chat system, it’s like an IM program for the PS3, allowing you to hold conversations with up to 15 other players and engage in up to three different chats at once.

The Text Chats run in the background, so you can keep chatting whilst you swap in and out of games.

There is also a new way of sorting your friends list, sorting them according to their online status and you can now add attachments to messages of up to 3MB.

Sony have also introduced  a way of choosing to back up your videos purchased from the PlayStation Store to portable devices in order to free up space.

The addition of Text Chat has solved the problem of trying to organise games with multiple friends, but gadget experts T3 reckon without a voice chat system, getting on the phone is still going to be quicker.

For AJ Electronics full Sony range please click here.

Interesting one this. A new joint venture company has been formed by LCD TV rivals Sony and Sharp. The new company called Sharp Display Products Corporation will be open for business from April 1st 2009 with the intention on focusing on large LCD TV panels.

Sharp will have 66% of the company and Sony will have 34%. The venture is aimed to help both companies; to give Sony ready access and control over large LCD panel and to relieve the site development off Sharp. The first screens from Sharp Display Products are expected to be launched in just under two years from now.

The second joint venture could possibly be by Toshiba who are currently in negotiations to buy out Panasonics stake of a joint LCD venture.

Presently, Panasonic controls 40% of Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology which produce small LCDs used in mobile phones and the deal, said to be initiated by Panasonic, should be worth several million yen when completed. Panasonic have refused to comment on the buyout but has admitted that its current strategy is to focus on larger LCD TV panels (sound familiar?) and larger Plasma TV panels.

Sony has just upped the stakes of Blu-Ray players with their new offering which includes high specifications and a stunning design.

The new Sony BDP-S5000ES has a Super Bit Mapping Technology included which aims to assist you in achieving the best possible outcome, allowing you to select your TV bit depth to match the players output.

Other features include a Vertical Edge Correction to make the images smoother and sharper, a HD Reality Enhancer to fine tune images to perfection and Precision Cinema HD to add detail!

To create the best sound possible, concentration has been placed upon the audio selection and Sony have ensured that with Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio the deepest bass and surround sound is available.

Sony have included connections such as USB 2.0 and Ethernet for BD-Live Interactive content in order to future-proof the BDP-S5000ES.

This is Sony’s technology that allows you to download content to view on your LCD or Plasma TV such as movie trailers, additional scenes and much more.

For AJ Electronics full range of Sony Blu-Ray players, please click here.

Sony has won 17 International Forum Design (iF) product design awards, including 3 coveted gold awards, at a recent ceremony held at the CeBit trade fair in Hanover, Germany.

An iF award is considered in the industry to be one of the most prestigious design awards available and the 2009 iF design awards attracted almost 3,000 entries from 39 different countries.

Out of the 50 gold awards available, Sony received 3 iF Gold Design awards for their Cybershot DSC-T700 digital camera, DSC-T77 digital camera and the Active Headphone Series. The other 14 iF product design awards awarded to Sony included the Bravia EX1 Picture Frame LCD TV, XEL-1 the worlds first OLED TV, the DAV-F500 Home Cinema System, VGF-CP1 Digital Photo Frame and the Sony Walkman S Series video MP3 player.

Kazumasa Sato, Head of Sony’s Creative Centre said:

“At Sony we strive to build high-performance, easy-to-use, beautiful products with a distinctive Sony flair which involves every department. I am absolutely delighted that Sony has been awarded 3 iF gold awards from an organisation that has such a strong reputation for recognising leading design as the iF design award. It is hugely encouraging and reinforces our commitment to excellence in design.”

Sony, Philips, and Panasonic are joining together to create a less expensive and simpler licensing process for companies that wish to make Blu-ray devices.

A new license will be established by the middle of 2009 as a ‘one-stop shop’ for device makers. The license will include all necessary Blu-ray, DVD, and CD patents for selling Blu-ray players.

The licensing program will be handled by a new licensing company to be led by Gerald Rosenthal, former head of intellectual property at IBM. It will be based in the U.S., but will have local branches in Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

Instead of having to approach Blu-ray, DVD, and CD holders individually and paying them separate royalties; the single license should reduce the total cost of royalty payments by 40%, according to Sony.

The fees for the new licenses will be $9.50 for a Blu-ray player, and $14 for a Blu-ray recorder.

The idea for a one-stop shop for Blu-ray has been floating around since a 2007 meeting of the 18 companies that hold Blu-ray patents. Licensing fees can be extremely lucrative for disc format patent holders: several years ago license fees for making a DVD player cost between $15 and $20.

This one-stop shop will help avoid the headache DVD licenses created. To make a DVD player or disc, manufacturers have had to ink deals with three separate organisations that represented various patent holders.

For our selection of Blu-Ray players, please click here.