LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – It’s pretty unusual to see a major headset manufacturer’s brand-spanking new flagship phone soaking in a goldfish bowl. Then again, if that phone is the new waterproof Sony Xperia Z, maybe a fishbowl is exactly where one would expect to find it.
A U.S. court has today ruled that Apple’s iPhone infringes three patents owned by MobileMedia Ideas, a so-called “patent troll” jointly owned by Nokia, Sony, and Denver-based MPEG LA.
Last year, Apple joined forces with Microsoft, Research in Motion, and Sony to form the “Rockstar Bidco consortium,” which outbid Google for more than 6,000 Nortel patents covering wireless and LTE technologies. Together, the consortium paid $4.5 billion for the portfolio, most of which — around $2.6 billion — came from Apple.
However, the Cupertino company has reportedly been quietly handing over more cash to secure sole ownership of select patents.
Foxconn CEO Terry Gou has revealed that dealing with Apple’s overwhelming iPhone demand is not an easy task. The company is still struggling to catch up with the strong sales the iPhone has been enjoying, but Gou would not confirm whether the group’s other unit, Foxconn International Holdings, has taken on some of its production.
Sony has become the latest company to bring its digital book service to iOS with the new Reader app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Available to download for free from the App Store, the app offers access to all the books you have stored in your Reader library, and allows you to sync your bookmarks between other Reader devices.
There isn’t anyone with a model catalog quite like Sony (how the hell do they keep track of these things?). The company has just refreshed their line of midpriced, bass-heavy MDR-XB headphones with three new models, replacing four previous ones.
The three new models, the XB800 ($150), XB600 ($100) and XB400 ($60), all follow Sony’s headphone design template: soup-bowl sized, perfectly circular cups attached to massive headbands (the headband on the XB800 is so formidable it looks like it could maybe double as a helicopter landing strut).
For the last month rumors have floated around the web that Apple is been planning to build it’s own Pandora-like music-streaming service. It makes perfect sense to us, but Apple didn’t announce it at the iPhone 5 keynote which had many people wondering if it’s going to actually happen.
A report from the New York Post this morning is claiming that the reason Apple hasn’t launched their music-streaming service is because negotiations with Sony/ATV hit a last minute snag, forcing Apple to scrap the iTunes Streamer announcement from the iPhone 5 keynote.
I’ve never actually played Taboo (which is apparently massively popular; shows you just how much I get out); so when Clucks‘ PR guy referred to this new game as “video Taboo for iPhone,” my reaction was: Huh? So I looked up the game on Wikipedia (and finally realized that I had, indeed, heard of Taboo before), and it turns out that’s a perfect description for Clucks. But he might have called it “the next big social media craze on the iPhone,” because that might turn out to be an even better description.
Sony has launched a whole new range of cameras at the Photokina camera trade show, including the new full-frame A99 SLR with 24MP sensor and a translucent mirror, the NEX 6, with 16MP sensor and Wi-Fi, a 35mm camcorder with interchangeable lenses (the VG900) and several others.
But we're not going to talk about them, interesting as they are (nice launch strategy Sony — burying your own products). We're going to look at the RX-1, the high-end, full-frame mirrorless camera. Why? Because I want one, that's why.
Man oh man. This leaked Sony RX1 looks sweet indeed. If the rumors are to be believed, the camera is a mirrorless body with a full-frame sensor (the same sensor as the also-rumored Sony A99) and a whole bunch of manual controls. It also looks like it’ll play nice with proper, old-school 35mm lenses.
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