While Sony's Reader has never received the enormous press or enjoyed the supposed whirlwind sales of Amazon's Kindle e-book, and is certainly lacking in, erm, EV-DOness, the Reader is about to get one trick the Kindle doesn't have yet: openness. Sony will be shooting out an update on Thursday to allow the Reader to use purchased books in the protected EPUB format from whoever is peddling them, instead of being tied to the Sony's e-book store, or just DRM-free text and PDF documents. That openness should help Sony beef up its selection -- which is lagging behind Amazon's -- and will hopefully mark a bit of a turning point in the e-book market to more standards and, more importantly, more books.

We Americans have had the opportunity to pick up Sony's Reader for what seems like eons, but you poor bookworms holed up in the UK have been neglected unjustly. No more, as Sony has just opened up the phone lines for folks eager to claim their spot in line the queue. No need in rehashing the specifications you already know -- it's still the same ole PRS-505, just way more expensive in US dollars.

[Via MobileRead, thanks Alex]

Be still, our hearts! After watching the wireless HD / HDMI sector fumble along for years on end, a team of mega-corps have finally agreed to push their self-interests aside and collaborate on a standard. WHDI creator AMIMON has joined forces with Motorola, Samsung, Sony and Sharp in order to form "a special interest group to develop a comprehensive new industry standard for multi-room audio, video and control connectivity" utilizing the aforementioned Wireless Home Digital Interface technology. Reportedly, the group will have a standard completed before 2009 dawns, but we all know how easily these things can get pushed under the rug. Nevertheless, the overriding goal here is to "enhance the current WHDI technology to enable wireless streaming of uncompressed HD video and audio between CE devices such as LCD and plasma HDTVs, multimedia projectors, AV receivers, DVD and BD players, set-top-boxes, game consoles and PCs." A tall order, sure, but one we're elated to see taken on. Full release (and promo spot) after the break.

Only John Koller knows how serious John Koller, Sony's senior marketing manager for PSP, was when mentioning that GPS-enabled games could eventually hit the PSP, but he definitely threw it out there. Speaking about the forthcoming GPS add-on for the PlayStation Portable, Koller stated that said module "changes the dynamics of GPS but also changes the way developers think about games on PSP, because you can start integrating GPS into it." He continued on by mentioning that Sony's own first-party studios were "already looking at a number of things [involving GPS in games]," and concluded by asserting that a GPS game could land on the system as early as next year. Considering just how long we've been waiting for the add-on, we're not holding our breath on the titles.

[Via PSP Fanboy]

We'd heard some rumblings about Sony's plans to introduce a netbook of its own a little while back, but Sony exec Stan Glasgow seemed to put a damper on those the other day when he flat out said that the company was "not looking at competing with Asus." A report from China's Economic Daily News is now adding a bit more confusion to the matter, however, with it claiming that Foxconn will be providing at least some components for, you guessed it, a forthcoming Sony netbook. What's more, that same report also says that a number of other Japanese PC makers, including netbook nay-sayer Fujitsu, are also planning to get in on the low-cost laptop action in the fourth quarter of this year, although they apparently aren't quite ready to disclose any manufacturing partnerships just yet. Of course, it's entirely possible that these low-cost laptops could be just that, and not technically netbooks, but it certainly wouldn't be the first time that companies have jumped on a bandwagon after letting it pass by the first time around.

[Via Electronista]

It's neck-and-neck but Nintendo looks to have just slipped past Microsoft in terms of total US sales for current generation game consoles. What's more, it's pulling away with a 3:1 sales lead for the month of June. NPD Group reports more than 666,000 Wii consoles were sold in June compared to 405,500 PlayStation 3s and 219,800 Xbox 360s. That makes for a total of 10.9 million Wiis sold in the US since it launched in November of 2006. Impressive. Even more so considering that Microsoft had a one year head-start to reach a second place position of about 10.4 million US console sales.

Sony really likes the Xross Media Bar. So much, in fact, that the PS3-like interface has appeared in its Bravia LCD TVs for some time, and now it's putting that same interface theme in its new Vaio FW laptops. The Vaio Media+ software uses the same left/right, up/down scrolling UI to help extend its "digital living room" all the way to your, um, lap. This all makes sense, and we welcome a consolidated UI theme, but this means, of course, that Sony is pretty much locked into this theme for some time, and we won't be seeing any major interface changed to the PS3 like we have on the Xbox 360 Dash, for better or worse.

Although Sony announced that the updated 80GB PS3 "Core" configuration would come to the States in September, it looks like other parts of the world will be getting it a little earlier -- Sony Computer Entertainment Europe chief David Reeves told reporters last night that the new SKU would hit Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand on August 27th. Worldwide pricing wasn't announced, but Sony confirmed that the new model would cost £299 in Britain and €399 in Europe. Sadly, it doesn't look like the Playstation Store's new video service will be making the trip anytime soon, but Reeves said that Sony is "working on it." That's great -- we're still more interested in a 60GB launch console, though.


[Thanks, Matt]

As the saying goes, the great thing about standards is that we have so many to choose from. Enter TransferJet, as much as we'd like to ignore it, it won't go away. In fact, today the nascent close (real close, as in 3-cm or less) proximity wireless technology just snowballed itself into a proper consortium which lists a who's who of consumer electronics and camera manufacturers including Sony, Canon, Panasonic, Nikon, Samsung, Kodak, and interestingly enough, Sony Ericsson. Sony will lead the effort to develop the specs, guidelines, and licensing schemes required to interconnect TransferJet-compliant products offering a 375Mbps data transfer rate (560Mbps theoretical) without requiring any complex setup (just touch the devices together). Right, they're looking directly at your NFC and Wibree shortcomings Bluetooth SIG. Full list of TransferJet members after the break.

So Sony's got a $399 Blu-ray player on the market now, huh? Really blasting away at that price point, huh Sony? Really keeping on your toes now that HD DVD is dead and gone, giving you zero competition in the physical format space, yeah? Oh, we forgot, you're using a blue laser, and those require bloody war with dastardly intelligent man-eating monkeys to boot up. We got to handle Sony's new BDP-S350 Profile 2.0 Blu-ray player tonight, and while we aren't mad that the new player draws less power, takes up less space, and supports more technical HD hotness, it literally feels like a $20 DVD player in the hand -- no way Sony has $400 of electronic components in this thing. Even the front LCD is teensy: we've bought $200 home theater in a box systems from Sony with more extravagant displays. We understand Sony trying to make back a few dollars from a pricey format war, but at this point this ridiculous price point is looking way artificial. In other, less insulting news, Sony was showing off the new HT-SS2300 Home Theater System, which is designed to complement the S350, along with the HT-IS100 "Micro System," which we found intriguing. Sony also showed off its HDR-CX12, which is nothing special in person, though we certainly like what's under the hood.

Wow, Toys 'R Us was only a day off. Sure enough, Sony's BDP-S350 -- which was first introduced / spotted in February -- has gone on sale at Sony Style retail outlets, the Sony Style website and other fine retailers near you. If you're looking for a quick refresher, this Profile 2.0-compliant deck supports BonusView (picture-in-picture), but curiously enough, Sony mentions that "a firmware update enabling BD-Live is planned [for] later this year." You'll also find full 1080p output, 7.1-channel Dolby TrueHD / DTS-HD Master Audio support and a promise to suck down 21% less power in playback compared to the BDP-S300. All yours for $400 (give or take a few pennies).

We got a chance to sit down with Sony Computer Entertainment of America's CEO Jack Tretton, who gave us the lowdown about a few things we've had on our minds.

PS3
On backwards compatibility: Jack explained that Sony looked at how to "not take a greater hit on production cost, without losing PlayStation's heritage ... Hardware / software for backwards compat wasn't all that expensive. ... but we're selling PS2 software to PS2 customers, and selling PS3 software to PS3 consumers." Still, Jack seems to feel like it may have been the wrong move. "I would like to have had it in there, but Sony's collective strategy determined we could afford to lose it. We've now gone down that road, and we're not going back."

On DRM and the video store: As of right now, Tretton is a firm supporter of the need to DRM content on the PlayStation platforms, and Sony believes that "the drm for a song maybe isn't as important for a movie and a game... this is way too hard a business to make money in to allow people to own multiple copies for the price of one." (That's what they all say!) "I'm all for allowing an individual consumer having the freedom to do with their content what they want," but Sony has no intention of opening its video up any more than it has to.

PSP
On drive or flash storage: Sony has "definitely thought about storage on the PSP," and understands the inevitable "march towards digital content delivery device." But in terms of a drive-based PSP, they have "nothing that's imminent." (Read: don't hold your breath.)

On how downloadable video affects the already sad state of UMD: UMD "has struggled, and it wasn't handled effectively from the beginning. ... I firmly believe in a digital model" as they're rolling out, but Sony is "still going to support UMD" as a device for movies.

What's preventing PSP software sales: Three things. Title ports from PS2 games (people don't want to buy the same title twice), and the PSP's media functions. But Jack put the most emphasis on "piracy in the hundreds of thousands of units are preventing software sales. it's a problem that affects our software sales right now."

Those of you who didn't stay up late last night and check out the new PlayStation Store on your own now have nowhere to go. Stuck inside your cube with no early lunch, no way to slip out at 3:00 -- nada. Thankfully, the crew over at PS3 Fanboy has the goods to satisfy your appetite until you get home. Tap the read link for a gallery of hands-on shots, and chime in below with your likes / dislikes once you've had a chance to meander around yourself.