Sony Launches World’s Smallest HD Camcorder

Sony has developed what it says is the world’s smallest high-definition video camcorder. The Sony HDR-TG1 measures 32mm by 119mm by 63mm and weighs 300g.

It’s a tall and thin camcorder with a fold-out display – a design along the same lines as Sanyo’s Xacti line of high-def camcorders, but the Sony camcorder is about two-thirds the volume of Sanyo’s latest full high-def model.

Sony plans to put it on sale in Japan later this month and in the US in May.

One of the secrets of its thinness is the lack of a DV tape desk, hard-disk or optical drive. Instead the TG1 records to a Memory Stick Pro Duo or Pro-HG Duo memory card. The camera lays down AVCHD format video at 1,920 by 1,080 resolution (so-called ‘Full HD’). AVCHD is a high-def format developed by Sony and Panasonic that’s designed to provide some compatibility between camcorders and living room disc players and other entertainment hardware.

In the highest quality ‘FH’ mode, which is full HD resolution at 16Mbps, the supplied 4GB card will be able to store 25 minutes of footage. This lengthens to 55 minutes in HQ mode, which records a 1,440 by 1,080 resolution image at 9Mbps. The SP and LP modes record drop the video bit rate – and thus the quality – to 7Mbps and 5Mbps, respectively and result in 65 minutes and 85 minutes of recording time.

As with other card-based cameras, higher capacity cards mean more recording time.

In addition to video the camcorder can also take 4-megapixel resolution still images. Like some of Sony’s still cameras the TG1 has face detection and can track up to eight people in the shot.

Other features include an optical 10X zoom, 2.7-inch widescreen touch panel LCD monitor and HDMI connector.

It will be available in the US in May and will cost about $900.

Sony Unveils First Internal Blu-ray Disc Drive

Sony Electronics unveiled its first internal Blu-ray disc (BD) ROM drive (BDU-X10S) for the computer. The drive offers consumers an option to upgrade their desktop to a Blu-ray player, which can also play DVDs and CDs.

The BDU-X10S now comes bundled with the CyberLink’s PowerDVD BD Edition software for playing movie titles, recorded Blu-ray disc home videos, DVD-ROMs and CD-ROMs. It also supports playback of recorded Blu-ray discs in MPEG-2 or H.264 format, standard DVD-Video discs or recorded DVDs encoded with MPEG-2 or AVCHD formats.

The internal drive allows fast and easy transfer of data or videos through its high-speed Serial ATA (SATA) interface.  Its standard 5.25-inch form factor enables easy installation in desktop PCs running Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows XP operating systems.

Other technical specifications include,  8x DVD ROM (Read Only), 24X CD-ROM (Read Only), data buffer size of 4MB, physical dimension of 5.25 x 1.63x 7.0 inch and installation angle supporting both vertical and horizontal.

Sony BDU-X10S is available through Rashi and its branches throughout India for Rs. 16,950 and enjoys one year warranty.

Nokia, RIM Lead in Phone Innovation: Study

Nokia is the mobile device maker with the best innovation and implementation strategies, followed by Research In Motion (RIM), which produces the popular BlackBerry smartphone, and Samsung, according to a recent analyst report.

The ranking was issued by technology market research firm ABI Research, whose innovation scores for the 10 companies included were based on a handful of factors, including choice of partnerships with cellular carriers, distribution channels, relative cost, hardware scalability, interface customization, handset differentiation, patent portfolio, battery life, handset size, support for third party application developers and operating system source code licenses, among others. ABI’s implementation rankings were based on factors like smartphone shipments, brand equity, the number of handset models available, choice of OS, smartphone market share, smartphone average selling prices, distribution networks, operator relationships, and manufacturing facilities.

Nokia scored the highest in both innovation and implementation.

“Nokia’s commitment to driving smart OS into a wider range of devices, and the success of its N series devices, especially the N95, gives it a huge market presence,” said Stuart Carlaw, ABI research director, in a statement.

Espoo, Finland-based Nokia is also the world’s leading producer of smartphones, and the Symbian operating system (OS) found within the vast majority of Nokia handsets is the most widely used mobile OS, followed by Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and RIM’s BlackBerry OS, respectively, according to Canalys, another technology market research firm.

Nokia may be the global smartphone leader, but in the enterprise space RIM is king with nearly three-quarters of business users, a ChangeWave survey recently found. Palm is RIM’s closest competitor for enterprise smartphone users with 18 percent of the market, followed by Motorola’s nine percent share and Nokia’s seven percent of users, according to the ChangeWave survey.

ABI also predicts that the worldwide market for smartphones will triple over the coming five years from 10 percent of the total handset market in 2007 to 31 percent by 2013.

ABI’s full ranking of the top 10 smartphone vendors is as follows:

1. Nokia
2. RIM
3. Samsung
4. Motorola
5. Sony Ericsson
6. High Tech Corp (HTC)
7. Palm
8. LG
9. Sharp
10. Hewlett-Packard (HP)

Sony PS3 Set To Enable Downloads

Sony announced that its PlayStation 3 is poised to take the next step in the evolution of the Blu-ray Disc format.

The firmware update, due soon, will update the PS3 to Blu-ray Disc Profile 2.0, also referred to as BD Live. BD Live enables Internet-connected activities such as multiplayer gaming, e-commerce, downloading new content, and social networking.

BD Live impressed crowds earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show, where Sony demonstrated downloading ring tones and new content to a BD Live player. Sony announced last October that the PlayStation 3 would support BD Live. Now, it appears that the PS3 will be the first Blu-ray Disc player to support this latest advancement in the Blu-ray format. Sony Electronics’ own forthcoming BD Live-capable players aren’t due out until this summer and fall.

Director of PlayStation Network Operations, Eric Lempel, revealed the news in his latest blog entry, ahead of the company sending out a press announcement.

The first titles to take advantage of BD Live are due out on April 8 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment: The 6th Day and Walk Hard — The Dewey Cox Story. The extent of the BD Live features on these titles remains unknown.

Releasing this firmware update is a pretty cagey move on Sony’s part. Since the PS3’s release, frequent updates to the system have brought boatloads of needed features on-board — including the ability to upscale standard-definition DVDs.

Research and disc sales show that consumers are using the PS3 as a Blu-ray player. The PS3 played a role in the growing volume of Blu-ray disc sales, which in turn prompted Warner Brothers to back Blu-ray Disc exclusively at the start of the year. Warner’s move led to the format war with rival HD DVD.

Other multimedia additions for the upcoming release include the ability to copy PlayStation 3 Music and Photo playlists to a PSP system (previously, you could create Music and Photo playlists on the PS3, but couldn’t export them to a PSP). Another feature for PSP users: turn your PSP into a remote control, for playing back music files on your PS3 without turning on your TV. You can also play long DivX and .WMV format files (over 2 GB).

Disc playback has been enhanced, to allow resume play: You can pick up where you left off on a DVD or BD disc, even if you’ve ejected the disc and inserted a different movie or game in the interim.

Finally, Sony says the PS3’s Internet browser now displays some web pages faster. You can also save file files locally or to external storage media via the PS3 web browser.

Sony Unveils Wall-Mountable VAIO Notebook

Sony has added to another notebook in their VIAO lineup with the release of the VAIO LM notebook.

The VAIO LM features PC design reminiscent of Sony’s BRAVIA LCD TV’s with its 19-inch screen framed by a transparent bezel. The new laptop can be wall-mounted and features wireless keyboard, mouse and remote control.

Aimed at those who want the functionality of a PC in their living area, the VAIO LM is designed as an entertainment hub that doubles as a TV, with in-built TV tuner, built-in 1.3MP camera with face-tracking software, 2.1-channel speaker system and sub-woofers.

The VAIO LM features an Intel Core2 Duo Processor T7250 (2.00GHz), 2GB DDR2 SDRAM, 250GB HDD, Windows Vista Home Premium, and nVidia graphics card. The laptop comes with the latest VAIO Music Box software, it lets users define default channel capacity for music in advance, so that the system is able to automatically select signal descriptors for sound classification into 24 channels. Besides, VAIO LM new Movie Story software allows users to create and edit their own video easily.

The VAIO VGC-LM18 is available across Sony stores for Rs.1,09,900.

Sony Intros New Point-And-Shoot Digital Cameras

Sony has announced the DSC-H50 and DSC-W300, two new point-and-shoot digital cameras aimed at consumers. The DSC-H50 and DSC-W300 will be released in May for $400 and $350 respectively.

The DSC-H50 is a 9.1-megapixel camera with 15x optical zoom lens. It features optical image stabilization and 3-inch tilting LCD display covered in scratch-resistant UV hardcoat.

The camera also has an improved “advanced sports” shooting mode that supports shutter speeds up to 1/4000th of a second, user-selectable noise reduction with high, low and standard settings, exposure bracketing mode and “D-Range Optimizer,” which can help provide more picture detail in bright highlights and dark shadows. The camera also features a “NightShot” mode, five color modes, in-camera editing, slide show functions and HD component output.

The DSC-W300 features a 13.6-megapixel CCD imager paired to 3x optical zoom lens. On the back is a 2.7-inch LCD screen and eye-level viewfinder.

Features include optical image stabilization, noise reduction, “Smile Shutter” technology, which prioritizes faces so the camera will release the shutter when subjects are smiling, intelligent scene recognition, five color modes and an improved auto focus system that includes macro ranges.