Sony release a whole load of new stuff

Sony have announced new products in virtually all their lines. As I'm not interested in some of them, I'll only post about those that I am. So here goes.

New V-series HDTVs

Not their top of the line X-series sets but the respectable 1080p capable V-series are updated to accept 1080/60p and 24p signals and have the advanced Bravia EX engine, thus far found on the X-series sets, for super high-quality picture processing. They also have 10-bit processing for better colour gradients.

Also interesting is that the displays now use Sony's XMB Xross Media Bar interface, the same as used on the PS3 and PSP. I'd like to see for myself if that works well, it could be really interesting.

They did also announce one updated 32-inch X-series set that has three HDMI inputs and a 120Hz refresh rate (Sony call it Motionflow) to help reduce blurring and motion artefacts.

The existing line of Sony LCDs have had great reviews, so I'm particularly looking forward to seeing how these new ones fair. For me right now, if you're buying LCD, it's Sony vs. Sharp.

Cheap(er) Blu-ray player

This is good news for anyone looking to grab a Blu-ray player. Sony announced a much cheaper version of the existing trés-expensive BDP-S1 player. The new BDP-S300 will be $600 as opposed to $1000 (no word on UK pricing yet) and offer pretty much the same features.

The model also supports AVC-HD discs encoded with xvYCC technology, a new international standard for wide colour space, which Sony has branded as x.v.Color.

This will hurt HD DVD I'm sure as it will bring the Blu-ray players down to a much more comparable price level. Although I expect we'll be seeing cheaper HD DVD players out soon as well.

New Cyber-shot cameras

"Sony is introducing a line of slim and stylish Cyber-shot T-series cameras that are destined to be the fashionista crowd’s favorite party companion."

Sony's lovely marketing speak but they actually look pretty well featured. The 8 megapixel DSC-T100 has a 5x optical zoom and 3-inch LCD screen and is available in red, black and silver.



Also 8 megapixels, the DSC-T20 has a more usual 3x optical zoom and a 2.5-inch LCD screen and will be available in pink, white, black and silver.

At less than half an inch thick, the cameras are easily portable and you can even buy matching cases in pink, red, green, grey, crème, brown and black! Good for the ladies ;)

Bluetooth headphones

I like the sound of these (no pun intended) bluetooth headphones. The idea of wireless headphones appeals, tangley wires always annoy me. These look perfectly suited for using in the house maybe streaming music from iTunes or something if your computer (or any other bluetooth-enabled music device) supports A2DP, AVRCP, HFP or HSP stereo bluetooth profiles, which my Mac doesn't.



They've got a 17-hour battery life (200 in standby) and you can even use them with your mobile phone to answer and end calls with the press of button. Nice.

Panasonic announce "world's smallest" solid-state camcorder

Panasonic has announced what it claims is the world's smallest solid-state camcorder i.e. it has no tapes or hard drives, just SD or SDHC cards to record onto, much like a digital camera.

This has several advantages, apart from the small size, including shock resistance (as the recording mechanism has no moving parts), fast start up times and efficient battery life. Other features include a 2.7” wide-screen LCD, 10x optical zoom lens and USB 2 connectivity.

A 4GB SDHC card allows up to approximately 100 minutes of recording and the supplied 2GB SD card allows about 50 minutes.

It also has impact resistance and can survive a drop from up to 1.2 metres. In addition, it's water resistant which makes it great for recording poolside, at a beach or while skiing.

It's designed for easy shooting and you grip it so that you can stabilise the shot by bracing your elbow against your body or you can shoot in pistol-grip mode, all comfortably in the palm of your hand.

I'm not usually massively into camcorders but this does look like a real carry anywhere device that would be great for holidays and special events (skiing and my wedding come to mind!).

The Panasonic SDR-S10 is expected to be available in Europe from May 2007. See more details on the Panasonic site.

New phones galore

A bevy of new mobiles were released today at 3GSM 2007, the world’s biggest mobile telecommunications conference, in Barcelona. Among the highlights were new handsets from RIM, Nokia, Samsung and LG. Some pics and quick details below.

BlackBerry 8800

The Pearl's big brother (above), sporting a full QWERTY keyboard, GPS receiver to work with a mapping service, microSD slot, bluetooth 2.0, the usual email stuff and the now de rigeur 'pearl' trackball. And it's only 14mm thick.

Nokia E61i, E65, E90 and N77

Nokia released 3 new business focused phones (above): the E61i, their answer to the BlackBerry; the E65, a smaller, more stylish, slider phone and the E90, an old-style communicator flip phone. The E61i now packs a 2 megapixel camera and both it and the E90 feature 3G and WiFi.

The N77 (above) is a consumer phone which features a 2.4 inch screen, stereo speakers and the ability to pick up mobile TV broadcasts over DVB-H - a special digital TV format for viewing on mobile devices.

Samsung Ultra Edition II

Announcing a a whole new range of ultra-slim phones, ranging from 5.9-12.1mm thick, Samsung stole the show. The U100 (above) is the thinnest phone in the world at 5.9mm. Amazingly it features a 3 megapixel camera, bluetooth and 70MB of memory!

LG Prada



LG's pre-emptive, touch-screen strike against the iPhone. It's 12mm thick and features a 2 megapixel camera. Very slick and very expensive.

Black Xbox 360 with 120GB drive?

We had the rumour of the Xbox 360 v2 last month, well they've surfaced again but this time it's black!



So, pretty much the same as before: HDMI port, 120GB hard drive and now a black paint job.

I hope so, I need an excuse to pick up a 360.

Gmail opens up

If you haven't already got yourself a Gmail account, now's the time. Google have opened up their popular email service to anyone, so you don't need to be invited by an existing user.

You just have to go to https://mail.google.com/ and sign up for an account!

I'm a big fan of Gmail and it's the way to go if you're looking for a new personal email account.

New UK 'Get a Mac' ads

If you live in London you've probably seen the posters all over the tube already but take a look at the new UK versions of the 'Get a Mac' ads featuring comedy duo Mitchell and Webb.



I like them a lot, I think they're funnier than the original US versions, we even got two new ones 'Tentacle' and 'Office at home'. Go check them out and laugh at silly PC.

Panasonic Lumix FX30

Panasonic have announced a new ultra-compact camera, the world's thinnest at 22mm, with a wide angle 28mm lens. The zoom is 3.6x, so as well as the wide angle for capturing large group shots, landscapes or buildings, you still get the 100mm top end for far off subjects.

It's 7.2 megapixels, has a 2.5 inch LCD screen, high ISO setting and Panasonic's latest image processing engine, Venus III.



It has some other nice tricks up its sleeve as well, like optical image stabilisation, 848 x 480 widescreen video mode and a clever additional zoom that lets you go up to 5.3x but only using the centre of the CCD at 3 megapixel resolution, potentially very useful in certain situations where resolution isn't paramount.

Certainly looks like a really interesting little compact and, if it takes good pictures, it could take over from the Canon 850 IS as my new favourite. I'll be on the lookout for the first reviews.

It will be available in the UK in March. Panasonic UK site.