10/06, 10:40am
Sony shows OLED mobile electronics prototypes
At CEATEC, Sony is showing off three portable consumer electronics prototype products that use its flexible OLED technology. Conspicuously missing was an OLED TV from the electronics giant, such as its 21-inch OLED prototype shown off earlier in the year. The non-functioning VAIO notebook Sony did showcase was behind a Plexiglas case and was not powered on. It also was seen before, and sports a 0.2mm thick flexible screen that covers both the screen and keyboard area.
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10/01, 10:25am
Sony updates PSP to 6.10 firmware
In sync with today's launch of the PSP Go, Sony today launched its version 6.10 firmware update. The patch gives all PSPs a new SensMe feature which, much like most Walkman players, sorts music by an automatically generated mood or genre, such as "extreme" or "dance." In a special twist for PSPs, though, SensMe can use the clock to set the mood by the particular time of day. The interface is also much more visual with large album art and a pseudo-3D interface.
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09/16, 9:15am
Sony Walkman A840 and S740
Sony on Wednesday unveiled a new Walkman line that appears tailored to compete with and beat the new iPod nano in terms of sheer features. The A840 is not only the first Sony player to be almost as thin as its Apple counterpart, at 0.28 inches thick, but has an even larger 2.8-inch display that uses OLED. The swap gives it better color reproduction than the iPod's LCD and supplies a long 29 hours of music playback, or nine hours of video.
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09/11, 1:45pm
Walkman S740 spotted in Japan
A new Walkman model has been spotted at a Sony dealer convention in Japan, according to a Friday report. Called the S740, the player noted by Engadget appears to be a more expensive and highly featured model than the recently introduced Walkman S540 in North America. Details are scarce, but it has the control layout of the S540 but no stereo speakers built into the front of the portable audio player.
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09/03, 8:55am
First time Sony leads in four years
Sony's Walkman players overtook Apple's iPods in market share for the first time in Japan in over four years, according to a study by BCN. Although Apple held the lead as recently as a month ago, a sudden surge in the Walkman's popularity and a corresponding drop in the iPod's has led to Sony just edging out Apple with 43 percent of the market versus 42.1 percent. The upset ends an unprecedented 241-week run for Apple, which took the top spot from Sony in early 2005.
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08/25, 8:30am
Sony Walkman S540
Sony today updated its Walkman players in the US with updates to its staple non-touch models. As rumored, the S540 series has its own stereo speakers to let users play music or video without headphones. Its display is larger than in the past, now up to 2.4 inches, and users can now record both voice through a microphone as well as the built-in FM radio.
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07/22, 5:40pm
Sony S Series image leak
The next generation of Sony's S-Series Walkman may have been exposed in a leaked press photo posted on Sony Insider. The image, allegedly provided by a credible source, shows several players sporting several different colors including pink, blue, black and red. The design appears to have been refined, keeping the same button configuration but with a larger screen similar to the company's X-Series.
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07/19, 5:00pm
Sony Walkman X1000 Review
Sony has spent much of the past few years regaining ground it lost from its one-time dominance of portable audio. The latest wave of this involves touchscreen players: nearly a year and a half after the iPod touch, the first touchscreen Walkman has arrived. In the X1000 series, Sony is not only looking to compete with the best touchscreen players but to overcome these competitors' mistakes. We hope to find out in our complete review not only whether or not it's a worthwhile contender but whether it's necessarily taking the same path as its most obvious rivals.
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07/14, 11:45am
Sony Walkman E440 and B140
Sony on Tuesday upgraded its Walkman players with a Europe-first launch of one model and expansion of a second model into the continent. The E440 series is a significant update to Sony's core Walkman player with a larger, easier-to-reach button layout and a new Clear Audio engine that both improves stereo separation and bass response. An FM tuner with radio recording and a long 30-hour battery life carry over from earlier models.
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07/01, 1:35pm
Walkman 30th anniversary
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.
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06/29, 9:00am
Sony PSP Phone Leak
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.
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06/16, 5:00pm
Sony Zappin Walkman
Sony has recently taken the wraps off its latest portable music player, the Walkman NWZ-B142F (JE) Zappin, which is effectively an update to the company's B-series players. Chief among the changes is a Zap button that is also found on other Walkman players, such as the W series, that lets users find tracks by listening to five-second samples. The Zappin has an integrated USB interface and contains 2GB of memory that is filled simply by users dragging and dropping MP3 and WMA audio files into it, without having to install any special syncing software. An FM tuner is built in, as is a voice and FM radio recorder.
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06/08, 7:50am
Sony Android Walkman Dev
Sony has been porting Android with the idea of bringing it to the Walkman and other devices, according to claims made on Monday. Calling it an "open secret," Impress says Google's OS is due both on the media player and for other products, likely appearing next year. The aim would be to produce a common platform that could be shared between devices; the Walkman and Mylo communicator are similar, for example, but right now need to use different operating systems and end up duplicating efforts.
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06/03, 3:35pm
Sony Ericsson W995a in US
Sony Ericsson today said it has brought the W995a Walkman phone to Americans as an unlocked device. The slider is Sony Ericsson's most advanced non-touch media phone and has 3G, an 8.1-megapixel camera and Wi-Fi to complement its signature music jukebox app. In US form, it comes with both native AT&T 3G as well as Sony's just-launched Media Go software for loading tracks.
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05/28, 2:40pm
C905, W705 due at Rogers
Canadian wireless provider Rogers announced it is the exclusive retailer of two new advanced Sony Ericsson handsets, including the country's first 8.1-megapixel camera phone, the C905a, and the W705 Walkman. The C905 is touted as a camera with phone functionality, and apart from its large megapixel count, offers face detection, smile shutter and geotagging capabilities through its GPS. A Xenon flash is also built in.
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05/13, 8:35am
Sony Walkman X Hits US
Sony today finally launched its first competition against the iPod touch in the US with the shipment of its Walkman X1000 series and the addition of a new, last-minute feature. In addition to a web browser and YouTube streaming video, the touchscreen Walkman now has a built-in Slacker Radio app; similar to Slacker's own device, the X1000 subscribes to music channels that automatically cache whenever the player is connected to Wi-Fi, supplying it with enough music to continue playing offline. It works with Slacker's free, three-channel service as well as its paid service, which gives more more control and lyrics while removing ads.
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05/08, 4:00pm
Sony Walkman X pricing
A product page on Sony's rewards website reveals the US pricing for the electronics giant's OLED touchscreen Walkman X digital audio players. According to the product page, the 16GB NWZ-X1051FBLK will cost SonyRewards members 29,995 points, which translates to nearly $300, while the 32GB NWZ-X1061FBLK model will cost 39,995 points, or $399. The prices are roughly consistent with costs for existing touchscreen players like the iPod touch.
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04/21, 9:25am
Sony updates E Walkmans
Sony on Tuesday updated its range of USB Walkman E-series personal music players with a slight redesign and a new model with a higher capacity, at 8GB, the NW-E044. There is also the 2GB NW-E042 and the 4GB NW-E043; each new Walkman includes one extra interchangeable skin, or what Sony calls a Style-UP Panel, with more available for purchase separately. There will be five bundles available at launch, each with two skins of different color and style.
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04/14, 10:10am
Sony Dates Touch Walkman
Sony on Tuesday announced the Japanese pricing and release dates for its two Walkman NX-X1000 series media players first introduced at the start of the year at CES. The NW-X1050, which has 16GB of built-in flash memory, will cost the equivalent of about $403, while the 32GB NW-X1060 will cost $503. Either will be available in red or black when they are released on April 25th.
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04/07, 8:30am
S Ericsson W205 and S312
Sony Ericsson in the wake of CTIA has launched a pair of starter phones targeted alternately at music and photography. The W205 is billed as a first Walkman phone and lifts up Sony Ericsson's low end with more essential features: it supports music playback on Memory Stick Micro cards up to 2GB, an FM radio, a 1.3-megapixel camera and basic Bluetooth. Data is limited to GPRS but is helped by preloading Opera Mini rather than the usual and less compatible NetFront browser. It ships worldwide, including the Americas, during the summer.
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03/30, 3:35pm
Sony acTVila BD recorders
Sony Japan has recently announced the upcoming release of a pair of Blu-ray Disc recorders, the 500GB BDZ-A950 and 320GB BDZ-A750. Both support the acTVila video delivery service for digital TVs in Japan, and have the ability to export recorded or downloaded content onto Sony's portable multimedia devices, including the PSP gaming console and Walkman devices. As well, Sony says content recorded from analog broadcasts or other that does not contain copy protection signals can be sent to cellphones.
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03/10, 5:15pm
Sony Ericsson outs T707
At a press conference in China, Sony Ericsson unintentionally showed slides of as-yet-unreleased and unannounced handsets, including the T707, codenamed Elle, as well as the M610. The pages reveal the T707 is a quad-band GSM and dual-band UMTS/HSPA handset and is due to sport a 2.2-inch display. Storage will come from a 1GB Memory Stick Micro card, while the operating system will be OSE from Enea. There is still no word of when the T707 will launch, although it is expected to be fairly soon and in at least five colors.
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03/09, 1:30pm
Sony OLED Walkman
Sony has finally posted up a product page for its NWZ-X1000 series Walkman MP3 player, albeit in Hong Kong, revealing it will sport a 3-inch OLED display that plays video at 320x240 even though the hardware supports a larger 432x240 resolution. On that energy efficient screen, users will be able of watching MPEG-4, H.264 and WMV format videos or browse the Internet and watch YouTube videos thanks to the Walkman's already recognized Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, videos are only playable up to 2GB in size.
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03/02, 10:25pm
Sony S360 and S560 Blu-ray
As part of a round of updates, Sony this evening updated its Blu-ray lineup with two players and two home theaters, half of which focus on wireless as the central feature. The BDP-S560 movie reader is one of the first Blu-ray devices with 802.11n Wi-Fi that lets it access BD-Live special features, player upgrades or DLNA-supporting media sources on the local network without either requiring an Ethernet cable or sacrificing relative speed. It and the lower-end BDP-S360 nonetheless have Ethernet connections for a physical link.
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02/27, 8:25am
Sony Merging Groups
Sony on Friday continued efforts to improve its business and said (registration required) that it would launch a major reorganization of its electronics groups. Under the new plan, company CEO Sir Howard Stringer will also become president of the electronics business; simultaneously, the company's key PlayStation, VAIO and Walkman divisions will be united. The moves take effect at the start of April and put current electronics president Ryoji Chubachi in a vice chairman position, while consumer products VP Katsumi Ihara leaves his position and will instead have just a board position at Sony's financial group.
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02/15, 1:35pm
Sony Ericsson W995
Sony Ericsson today started off Mobile World Congress early with a new high-end Walkman phone. Once known as the Hikaru, the W995 stands as the company's flagship non-touch media phone with an 8-megapixel camera, a larger than average 2.6-inch LCD, GPS mapping and Wi-Fi with DLNA support for sharing media on a local network. It also touts built-in stereo speakers, and comes bundled with an 8GB Memory Stick Micro card that holds a typical music library.
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02/10, 10:30am
Sony Ericsson C903 W395
Sony Ericsson's pre-MWC efforts have begun with the launch of two sliders in its Cyber-shot and Walkman lines. Topping the list, the C903 steps up the quality of the company's mid-range cameraphones with a 5-megapixel sensor, flash and a sliding lens cover like on some of Sony's dedicated still cameras. It also includes face and smile detection, TV output and built-in GPS that can geotag shots in addition to locating the owner's position.
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01/29, 9:35am
Sony E Premier3 and S001
As part of a sweeping update to KDDI's phone lineup, Sony Ericsson has launched a pair of handsets that both have features often left out of non-Japanese cellphones. The Cyber-shot S001 has the 8-megapixel camera still rare for the company but centers on an extremely sharp, 854x480 OLED display with enough color saturation to help previewing photos or watching 1Seg digital TV. The camera itself also has features closer to dedicated cameras with shooting up to the equivalent of ISO 1,600, image stabilization and detection of both faces and smiles.
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01/19, 10:50am
YouTube Downloading
Google's video site YouTube has started rolling out downloadable versions of its video clips as well as newer viewing options for set-tops. The former lets viewers of freely available clips, such as from Barack Obama and home-made movies, download permanent copies of those clips in their higher-quality but standard definition 480x270 versions in an H.264 format playable on modern portable devices such as all modern iPhones and iPods, Sony's Walkman line and Microsoft's Zune series.
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01/08, 7:15pm
Sony Ericsson at CES
Sony Ericsson has staked out a position at CES with three new phone launches. Leading the field, the W715 is an improvement on the older W705 that adds GPS to the Walkman slider and thus support for both turn-by-turn directions and finding points of interest on the ordinarily music-centric phone. It continues to offer a 3.2-megapixel camera, 3G and Wi-Fi with DLNA media sharing along with signature music functions like shake-to-shuffle control over random play and smart playlists based on moods.
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01/07, 8:40pm
Sony Walkman X and W
As part of its CES campaign, Sony on Wednesday updated the Walkman line with two models that enter uncharted territory for the company. The Walkman NWZ-X1000 is its first touchscreen media player in North America and aims squarely at the same field as Apple's iPod touch or the Samsung P3. The player claims a much more vivid picture through a 3-inch OLED touchscreen which is both more color-rich and quicker to respond than LCDs. Sony also asserts that the X series is easier to control as it has hardware side controls that can be used in addition to finger input.
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12/12, 1:35pm
Sony Touch Walkman Rumor
Sony is on the verge of releasing a touchscreen player as its headlining Walkman, a rumor from historically reliable Sony Insider says. Alleged sources say the electronics maker's first touch music device for the West will have a three-inch touch OLED that will give the player especially high color accuracy for video. It should also have Wi-Fi and use this not only to support web browsing and a YouTube viewer but also to subscribe to audio podcasts and Crackle videos. Users could also buy music directly through Amazon MP3.
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11/20, 4:05pm
Sony to pay $18.5m in suit
A lawsuit filed against Sony over two years ago by Agere Systems has finally been settled, according to a Thursday
report, with Sony ordered to pay $18.5 million for infringing on eight patents held by Agere. The jury ruled Sony willfully infringed on the patents, which dealt with wireless local area network apparatus that Sony uses in its PSP portable gaming system, Network Walkman and mylo portable Internet device.
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11/19, 3:40pm
iTunes Plus Talk Rumors
Apple is discussing deals with the three major music labels yet to sign on to iTunes Plus to remove the locks on their music as well, alleged sources tell CNET. Two reported contacts describe "preliminary" negotiations that would expand Apple's deal for music without copy protection beyond EMI and independents to include Sony, Warner and Universal. The talks are said to have been spread over the past several months for at least two labels and aren't certain to result in a favorable income.
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11/17, 5:30pm
Sony Ericsson W760 Review
The W580 has been a staple of GSM phone carriers ever since it was released simply because it does most things well (including music) at a low-enough price. Still, there were definite limitations, and the device now has a RAZR-like overabundance that signals a time for something new. The W760 promises to check off some the remaining flaws -- including the addition of 3G -- but also faces a tougher cellphone market. Sony Ericsson's ultimate challenge may be less to improve the device and more to consider the roles of the devices themselves. Read our full W760 review to see where the slider fits in.
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11/07, 5:20pm
Walmart drops prices
As part of a price drop campaign it is calling Operation Main Street, Walmart on Thursday announced it will cut back prices of many popular products over the next seven weeks, in time for the holidays. The more noteworthy items include a Magnavox Blu-ray player, the NB500MG9, priced at $198, down from its regular price of $229. It is capable of upconverting standard DVD movies and will support Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound formats. A 2GB Sony Walkman MP3 player will be priced at $49.
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11/06, 7:35am
Sony Ericsson W705
Sony Ericsson today held a characteristically low-key unveiling centered around one music phone and a universal Bluetooth home stereo. The W705 represents a relatively high-end Walkman phone for the company and centers on its addition of Wi-Fi. All versions can use the format for faster Internet access and for sharing media on the local network with DLNA-supporting devices like the PlayStation 3 and certain PC software; a special W705u variant also supports Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) for Internet calling that bridges to the phone network.
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10/13, 11:15am
AT&T gets 3G Walkman phone
Wireless provider AT&T and handset maker Sony Ericsson on Monday announced the availability of the Sony Ericsson W760a Walkman phone, unique as the first Walkman-branded handset to offer access to 3G data networks on AT&T and possessing a built-in accelerometer that allows users to switch tracks by shaking or tilting the device. The new interface method can also be used as a controller when playing video games.
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10/05, 9:55am
Sony Walkman S730 Review
After years of insisting on little-used proprietary formats and software, Sony has recently been mending its ways: the company's latest Walkman players have virtually become champions of cross-platform standards (including the Mac), beautiful design and the no-fuss interface. The S730 promises to be an evolution of an already solid formula, especially with its active noise cancelation feature, but it remains to be seen how well the S730 stacks up against the veteran iPod nano and Microsoft's latest Zune software. Click through for our full S730 review.
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09/08, 4:30pm
Sony intros mini systems
Sony on Monday announced it will soon begin shipping three new mini sound systems, two of which are network capable and all of which feature built-in drives. The NAS-M500HD and NAS-M700HD sport 160GB hard drives and a 4.3-inch LCD display, while the CMT-E300HD has an 80GB drive and makes do with an 8-color monochrome LCD screen. In addition, the two NAS systems will connect to users’ existing home networks via their Ethernet jacks. All will be capable of ripping music CDs and storing the contents on their built-in drives, though the NAS drives can do it at 16x speeds versus just 4x for the CMT-E300HD.
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09/08, 9:20am
Sony Designed for Walkman
Sony on Monday reversed another one of its longstanding blocks against third-party support with news of a Designed for Walkman program. Similar to Made for iPod, the program finally allows third parties to develop and sell accessories for Walkman players based on Sony's proprietary WM-PORT connector; similar to the program for Apple's Dock Connector, it allows speaker docks and other add-ons that put out audio and video as well as charge the player.
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08/28, 8:45am
Sony Walkman Aug 2008
Sony today followed through on recent leaks with a significant overhaul of its Walkman music players. Apart from a new design that slims the device down to under 0.3 inches and harmonizes the look among all video-capable Sony players, the S730 series are the first to simplify smart playlists with a fully automatic feature known as SensMe. The addition gauges the tempo, rhythm, and other factors of songs and creates as many as 11 playlists of its own to match a given mood.
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08/20, 10:20am
Invision and W350a at ATT
AT&T today began offering two new phones, including just its third mobile TV device. The LG Invision is billed as the smallest phone of the type in the US and is just four inches tall while also registering at under half an inch thick. Both of which make it small enough to fit in most pockets but still supply live digital TV broadcasts. It also fully supports AT&T's 3G network as well as matching online music services like eMusic.
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08/17, 5:45pm
Sony E430 Walkman Leak
Sony is planning a new entry level Walkman that would combine the simple features of its stick players with the more advanced features of its full-size devices, the company itself has accidentally revealed through its New Zealand website. The NWZ-E430 series appears a sequel to the A600 series with a slightly larger two-inch screen and at most 8GB of storage, but will be easier to load than earlier models; full drag-and-drop support allows not only loading music and video through the operating system's file manager but through sync software; both iTunes and Windows Media Player are claimed to support new Walkman range.
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08/06, 2:05pm
Rogers Roadmap Leak
Canadian cell provider Rogers Wireless will put most of its emphasis in the next few weeks on the BlackBerry line and music phones, according to a roadmap slip from BGR. The details confirm the launch of the BlackBerry Kickstart and add that the device will work with Rogers' Home Calling Zone Wi-Fi phone service, which will be rechristened Talkspot. The EDGE-only flip smartphone hasn't been given pricing but has previously been slotted into a late September release that may arrive near that of T-Mobile USA's version.
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08/05, 9:10am
Sony BMG Now Sony Music
Sony today announced that it has bought out Bertelsmann's 50 percent stake in Sony BMG and will now completely own its music label. The new label, named Sony Music Entertainment Inc. (SMEI), ends the short four-year run of Sony BMG and will let Sony create a "total entertainment experience" where the electronics giant can more closely integrate its music with its devices, according to company chief Sir Howard Stringer.
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08/04, 11:25am
Sony Ericsson Zeemote
Sony Ericsson and Zeemote today teamed up for a hardware tie-in aimed at spurring mobile gaming. Dutch buyers of the cellphone maker's W760i Walkman phone have the option of getting Zeemote's JS1 Bluetooth joystick for free. The grip-style analog controller gives more precision than the directional pad on most cellphones and permits a class of games that are normally off-limits to feature phones, such as Tomb Raider Anniversary. Two games that support the controller are already included in the box.
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07/31, 1:45pm
Nokia Cuts Phone Prices
Nokia has been cutting the prices of its media phones in a bid to stay competitive with rivals, according to sources speaking to Reuters. The news organization points to industry and market research leads which say that Finland-based Nokia is dropping prices across much of its lineup but is making the most substantial cuts to music- and video-friendly phones, including the N81 8GB smartphone as well as mid-range devices like the 5310 and 5610 XpressMusic. These devices will allegedly see price reductions as steep as 10 percent.
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07/22, 7:00am
Sony Ericsson W302
Sony Ericsson's announcements today wrapped up with a new entry Walkman phone and a trio of speakers. The W302 is labeled the most affordable Walkman phone to date but still comes with a 2-megapixel camera, a 512MB Memory Stick Micro, Bluetooth with stereo sound, and FM radio. It's also relatively slim at about 0.4 inches thick and better-built than some phones in the category with an aluminum front. The phone supports GSM calls and EDGE data and will be ready by the fall.
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07/22, 6:30am
Sony Ericsson W902 W595
Sony Ericsson this morning launched a major upgrade to its Walkman series, starting with two higher-end models. The W902 (shown) promises to improve on other music phones with an enhanced stereo field and bass response; the bar phone also comes with premium earphones and an 8GB Memory Stick Micro that lets it hold as much as many portable media players. It also touts a 5-megapixel camera unusually sharp for the class with 16X digital zoom and basic on-phone image editing.
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