July 2 - 3:25pm EDT   Sony's PlayStation product planning head Naoya Matsui today told Japanese publication GameBusiness that the company had always planned a version of the PSP without the UMD drive. He claims that the company had wanted downloadable games from the handheld's launch in 2004 but that it wasn't feasible until the PSP Go due to infrastructure. It was necessary to have not just simple download to the system itself but a means of getting games from a PS3 to the PSP as well as an easier sync process for loading games, movies and music. [full story]

July 1 - 1:35pm EDT   Versions of the Sony Walkman have now been on sale for 30 years, notes Agence France-Presse. The first version of the product went on sale July 1st 1979, based on the sketches of engineer Nobutoshi Kihara, and sold 30,000 units in two months. By 1989 cumulative Walkman sales had exceeded 50 million, and today, numbers are said to be over 385 million. The company has since lost much of its ground to Apple, which has sold over 200 million iPods in eight years. [full story]

July 1 - 8:05am EDT   Foxconn today tried to deflect rumors that it was building the slim PS3. Following a newspaper's claim yesterday that the new Sony console was to be shipped by Foxconn for next month, the assembly firm has filed an official stance with the Taiwan Stock Exchange that turns down commentary on the rumor, citing "customer confidentiality." Pegatron, which has been rumored to share responsibilities for making the new system, hasn't formally responded to the apparent leak. [full story]

June 30 - 2:50pm EDT   Sony's slim PS3 may start shipping as early as next month if a claim from China's UDN. It points to the smaller, redesigned model being made by Foxconn (Hon Hai) with expectations that Sony would receive it in July. The publication doesn't say when Sony would start selling the system in earnest, but recent credible rumors have the updated model surfacing just weeks after this newest shipment takes place. [full story]

June 30 - 2:20pm EDT   Sony on Tuesday added a pair of iPod speaker docks that center on its first network-aware system. The NAS-Z200iR (shown) puts all its controls on an advanced visual remote that also serves as the center of a Wi-Fi streaming system. Besides controlling iPods and other physical media on the stereo itself, the remote can share media streamed from DLNA-supporting devices like the PlayStation 3 or PC software as well as to browse Internet radio stations. [full story]

June 30 - 8:35am EDT   Sony today hoped to spur growth in add-ons for PlayStation systems by launching an expanded official licensing program. The new approach lets companies in most areas make controllers or other peripherals for PS2, PS3 and PSP systems with full technical help and an official logo. In return, these companies will have to meet certain standards; it's not mentioned if companies will also pay royalties for the right to use the logo. [full story]

June 29 - 9:00am EDT   Sony is just now developing a gaming-themed phone that would be targeted explicitly at the iPhone, Japan's Nikkei BP said this weekend. The company is supposedly creating a device team as soon as July that would merge the gaming qualities of the PSP with its Sony Ericsson handsets. It's implied that the device would have a touchscreen to better position the device against Apple's hardware. [full story]

June 26 - 3:00pm EDT   An apparent scoop today hints that the PlayStation 3 should receive a major firmware update in the near future. The 3.0 update as described by VG247 will center on a new reputation system for the PlayStation Network. Much like Xbox Live, it would let gamers rate each other and view each other's reputations. They can purportedly flag offending players, though whether this can lead to a ban isn't clear. It may bear similarities to a similar approach in Little Big Planet. [full story]

June 26 - 2:10pm EDT   Both Microsoft and Sony are coordinating significant updates to their consoles for the fall, a tip says. Citing the same historically reliable source as for earlier leaks, Ars Technica hears that Sony's slim 120GB PS3 is still on tap for the fall and should be accompanied by a long-awaited price cut. It's not known if this will take place before the new system ships, but Sony is now thought to only have 60 days of stock for the present 80GB model and may leave the 160GB model alone in the market until the revamped model shows. [full story]

June 26 - 11:40am EDT   Samsung may be triggering a sudden crunch in supplies of 1.8-inch hard drives through a strategic decision, Taiwan-area notebook builders reportedly said today. They claim that the Korean company has stopped development of the ultra-mobile disks in favor of solid-state drives, cutting the number of suppliers in half. Only Toshiba is left, DigiTimes says, and it's feared that prices might go up as the remaining producer tries to control demand. [full story]

June 26 - 10:20am EDT   Sony today began officially selling a silver version of its Dual Shock 3 controller in the US. Previously only available in Japan, the color is the first official variant other than black in the country. It's functionally identical to the reference version and has the same Bluetooth, motion support and rumble as earlier models. It sells for $55 and should be available immediately. [full story]

June 25 - 4:15pm EDT   Sony spokesman Al De Leon today teased that Sony is considering downloads of non-game software for the PSP. In an early demo of the upcoming PSP Go, De Leon told Crave that most of the downloads from the soon to be expanded PlayStation Network store will be games but that there's a chance "non-gaming applications" will be available. What these would entail isn't mentioned, but Sony already incorporates utilities such as Skype in PSP firmware. [full story]

June 25 - 10:55am EDT   Sonic Solutions, the company behind Roxio, on Thursday announced its streaming movie service CinemaNow will be made available for the Nintendo Wii. Sonic will partner with Fujisoft to bring the former's content to the game console via the latter's video-on-demand Everyone's Theater Wii service. While the announcement only covers Japan, its successful integration potentially leads to the service arriving in other countries as well. CinemaNow offers more than 1,500 streaming movies, short films, and concerts to buy or rent. [full story]

June 23 - 3:05pm EDT   The Splashtop instant-on platform from DeviceVM is coming to Sony's VAIO NW-series notebook PCs and Acer's AspireRevo nettop PCs, as per a pair of Tuesday launches. Sony's implementation of the platform is called Quick Web Access, while Acer calls its RevoBoot. In either case, Splashtop, which could be described as a lightweight Linux operating system, allows users to access the Internet within a few seconds but without having to boot the full operating system. [full story]

June 22 - 3:05pm EDT   Sony Computer Entertainment has recently released more information on its upcoming motion control technology for the PlayStation 3 gaming console that it introduced at E3. The technology is due to launch in the spring of next year and include both first- and third-party content. The technology relies on the PlayStation Eye to track movements of a wand users hold, and Sony has revealed developers can already begin developing for it as the PS3 Software Development Kit (SDK) already includes face-tracking and head-tracking capabilities. [full story]