Sony Creates Mega-Battery to Back Up Powerless Businesses
No doubt inspired by the tragic earthquake and resulting nuclear disaster in Japan, Sony has announced the ESSP-2000, a backup battery fit to keep a business afloat in the event of a power outage. Weighing in at just under 200 pounds, it's no lightweight, but it's capabilities definitely make up for its size. If your business should be unlucky enough to experience a power outage, the ESSP-2000 will kick in to provide 2.4kWh of electricity to the office. To put that number into perspective, a computer uses about .167 kWh of electricity in one hour.
The best part of this mega-battery is that it only takes two hours to recharge to 95 percent. This is due to the type of battery chemistry that Sony chose to use. The ESSP-2000 features olivine-type lithium-ion iron phosphate technology, a form of chemistry for rechargeable batteries that has a number of advantages over standard lithium-ion batteries (which use cobalt). First off, they are cheaper to manufacture, since they don't use expensive elements like cobalt. Secondly, they charge much faster. Third, they are non-toxic, and can be disposed of properly with very little effort, unlike more popular and extremely toxic lithium-ion technologies. Lastly (and probably the most impressive of all), Sony claims that the ESSP-2000 will last up to ten years!
The price of being able to continue to surf Facebook and fantasy sports even in the wake of a power outage or natural disaster? Two million yen, or $25,700 USD.
Source: Engadget
Sony Unveils the PSP2
After much anticipation and leaks galore, Sony has unveiled the PSP2. Except it's not called the PSP2. It's called the NGP, which stands for "Next Generation Portable," a code name for the project to which Sony is sticking for the time being.
Regardless of what they are calling it, the specifications are impressive. Sony claims that it will be as powerful as the PS3, and popular franchises such as Uncharted, Little BigPlanet, Resistance, and Killzone have all been named as titles that we can expect to see once the PSP2 hits the market. Sony has ditched their proprietary data storage technology, the Universal Media Disc (UMD), in favor of a newly developed form of flash memory, made specifically for the PSP2. This means that although the PSP2 is larger (7.1 inches wide) than most phones and handheld gaming platforms, it's surprisingly light.
Sony also boasts built-in WiFi and 3G capabilities for the PSP2, paving the way for social and location-based gaming. Social gaming relates to social networks, and will no doubt entail posting game achievements to Facebook, Twitter, and the like to brag to friends. Location-based gaming, Sony explains, will link players in the same areas into the same game, and pit them against each other, presumably head-to-head or in the highest-score-wins fashion. It will do this using a service called LiveArea, which in conjunction with a program called Near, will allow you to chat with nearby PSP2 users, as well as see what games they are playing.
To Sony's credit, they have not skimped out on any of the features that you would expect in any new handheld device, let alone one that is geared specifically towards portable gaming. It's new, larger, OLED screen is touch sensitive. Combine this with another touchpad on the back of the device, as well as dual analog sticks on the front and SIXAXIS motion controls, and you have incredibly powerful gaming potential. Now, add in front- and back-facing cameras, and 3G and WiFi technology, and you've got one serious handheld device, capable of much more than just "games"
For those of you who just want the meat and potatoes, here are the system specs, courtesy of Kotaku.com:
- CPU: ARM® Cortex™-A9 core (4 core)
- GPU: SGX543MP4+
- External Dimensions: Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)
- Rear touch pad: Multi touch pad (capacitive type)
- Cameras: Front camera, Rear camera
- Sound: Built-in stereo speakers, Built-in microphone
- Sensors: Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass
- Location: Built-in GPS, Wi-Fi location service support
- Keys / Switches: PS button, Power button, Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left), Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square), Shoulder buttons (Right/Left), Right stick, Left stick, START button, SELECT button, Volume buttons
- Wireless communications: Mobile network connectivity (3G), IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1x1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode), Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR （A2DP/AVRCP/HSP
Unfortunately, the PSP2/NGP/Whatever-Sony-Decides-to-Call-It won't go on sale until later this year. Which no doubt leaves many of us biting our nails and counting the days.
Sources: Kotaku 1, 2, 3, 4
Google Announces Google TV at Google I/O Developer Event
Google's I/O Developer Event showcases a lot of different projects Google has been working on each year either by itself or with partners and developers. Short for "Innovation in the Open," past announcements include the development of web applications such as Google Chrome, Google Wave, and different versions of the Android operating system.
This year, Google has announced partnerships with Sony, Logitech, Intel, DISH Network, and Best Buy to unveil Google TV. Using set top boxes made by Logitech or Sony and television service from DISH Network, it will be a system that integrates both television and the internet, allowing you to seamlessly merge your online and offline viewing to your television screen. What's more, it will allow unlimited use of the internet to do whatever you would do if you were on a computer. In a nutshell, it adds internet functionality to your traditional TV setup, with lots of added features that cater to online video-watching.
And, in typical Google fashion, they have made a video that uses cute drawings to explain a more complex topic. Check it out below.
Source: Engadget
PSP Go to be Relaunched… Somehow
In a recent interview with the Senior Vice President of Publisher Relations of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, Rob Dyer, Industry Gamers got an insight to what SCEA itself has to say about the lackluster sales on their PSP Go, and what they plan to do about it.
Apparently, the biggest problem that Sony has been trying to address with regards to their products is piracy. Widespread piracy made attracting bigger developers difficult to say the least, since few people want to invest time and money in a medium that is easily copied and distributed without any recognition. Piracy on PSP games had significantly affected game sales, and the PSP Go was supposed to address that.
With no UMD slot to accommodate regular PSP games, owners download games from the Playstation Store. This was meant to combine the ease of being able to get new games from the comfort of one's own home with legality of paying for them. That proved to be a hard selling point to get across to consumers, however.
“We wanted to find a way to give the consumers what they want... And we were hoping really to eliminate the piracy issue. Did the PSPgo confuse [consumers]? Yeah, I think the higher price point didn't help matters any either," said Dyer. At $249, the PSP Go was only slightly cheaper than a Playstation 3, let alone the original PSP. It remains to see whether a beefier version of the PSP Go will be launched, or if Sony plans on dropping the price, but a change is definitely in the works, sometime soon.
Source: Industry Gamers