Sony VAIO Pocket - Blends Top-End Audio Player with Digital Photo Album

New Vaio Pocket offers 20,000 songs, 20 hours non-stop operation, intelligent playlists & photos too

Brussels, 14 September 2004 – The new Sony VAIO Pocket player/viewer range is to be launched with 2 models – the 20Gb VGF-AP1 (VGFAP1) and the 40Gb VGF-APL (VGFAPL) - a new class of dual function media players aimed at the discerning, style-aware consumer, will hit the stores across a select number of European countries in October.

Not only does the launch introduce a completely novel combination of picture viewer and intelligent audio player, it marks a key point in the evolution of the VAIO concept.

The Sony VAIO Pocket is the first VAIO product to go beyond the conventional limits of the IT world in the sense that it is not a notebook, a PC or a handheld organiser. Future VAIO products will continue to reflect the broadening scope of the brand while remaining focused on its core value: developing the potential of digital audio-visual technology.

The Sony VAIO Pocket exemplifies the VAIO ideal perfectly. It offers users a personal library of thousands of pieces of their favourite music, but uniquely it also acts as a tiny digital photo album. With the Sony VAIO Pocket, users can store and view their photographs, creating a compendium of experiences and moods to be enjoyed and shared whenever and wherever they want.

The Sony VAIO Pocket is also perfectly suited to general use as an external, portable hard disk. With 20GB and 40GB versions available, users have the option of keeping significant amounts of data on the player as well as music and pictures.

The Sony VAIO Pocket uses miniature hard disk technology to give users immense personal storage capacity of up to 10,000 songs (with the 20GB VGF-AP1*) or up to 20,000 songs (with the 40 GB VGF-APL*). The Vaio Pocket can communicate with PCs and even link directly with digital cameras, making it easy to build up a huge collection of sounds and images that fits into the palm of the hand. Sophisticated system design ensures the necessary stamina, with up to 20 hours of non-stop playback from a single battery charge.

The Sony VAIO Pocket has a hybrid technology LCD screen designed to be viewed in daylight without difficulty, and delivers top quality, high colour reproduction of digital images. In general use the Vaio Pocket’s LCD screen displays the intuitive and powerful Grid Sense interface, which makes the VAIO Pocket so simple to operate.

Touching the bump-textured area beside the screen selects and activates on-screen buttons directly, and in a way which instantly feels natural. This fingertip control is augmented by intelligence within the Sony VAIO Pocket itself which monitors what users listen to, and when, then builds up playlists which can be revisited at any time. Without ever thinking about it, users link their own soundtracks to different moods and activities and the VAIO Pocket preserves them for future enjoyment.

A cradle charger provides all the necessary connections for collecting content from a camera or PC, and even an audio output for listening to music through conventional speakers. In addition a sophisticated remote control makes track selection simple thanks to a highly readable three-line backlit display ideal for browsing song titles. Powerful Sony software for managing music on the PC, via Sonic Stage v.2.1, and rapid-fire drag and drop file transfers to the VAIO Pocket comes as part of the package. In addition music downloads can be done easily via the Sony Connect Service that launched in June (in UK, France and Germany only), which has a pick of over 300,000 songs downloadable in ATRAC 3 format.
(* using ATRACPlus 64Kbps mode at 4 min per song).

NOTES TO THE EDITOR

Sony VAIO Pocket concept

The Sony VAIO Pocket design grew out of the challenges that arose from the central concept: a tiny multi-purpose data store with huge internal capacity. The sheer amount of music the Sony VAIO Pocket can hold required an imaginative approach to prevent the user simply getting lost in the detail, so the idea of smart search evolved. With the player itself keeping track of listening patterns over time, and recording the user’s preferences, finding music and re-capturing moods expressed by particular selections of music becomes one of the player’s central and most intuitive features.

Any search, smart or otherwise, is no good unless the physical user interface is fast and straightforward, which led to the development of Grid Sense, with its instantly comprehensible visual-tactile feedback.

Finally, the need to create a truly multimedia device required a small colour display with exceptional qualities, specifically the ability to display photo-realistic colour depth, and to be readable outdoors. Now all the engineers and designers had to do was fuse all these elements into a tiny, elegant but robust whole, and the Sony VAIO Pocket would be a reality…

VAIO Pocket in close-up:

Inside

The Sony VAIO Pocket player/viewer weighs approximately 195g for the 20 GB version and 205g for the 40 GB version, and measures 63.3mm x 115.2mm and is between 20.7mm thick (for 40GB version) and 17.3mm thick (for 20GB version) . At the heart of the player is a tiny 1.8-inch hard disk offering high-speed storage and retrieval of 20GB or 40GB of music and pictures. A built-in Lithium-ion battery provides up to 20 hours non-stop play.

Screen

The Sony VAIO Pocket has a specially engineered screen capable of being used outdoors, unlike conventional LCDs. It has a 2.2-inch viewable diagonal and delivers 262,144 colours for lifelike photographic reproduction. Its native QVGA+ resolution means a crisp, finely grained image displayed on a 320 x 240 matrix.

Grid Sense

Next to the screen, the surface of the device is touch-sensitive. The user moves a fingertip around a grid of raised bumps and the motion is tracked by the highlight on the screen. The visual/tactile feedback from the bump grid gives the user a unique and intuitive feel for just how to move around the on-screen controls. Increased pressure on the grid triggers the selected control, rather like tapping on a notebook touch pad.

Formats

Users can transfer MP3 and Windows WMA formats onto their VAIO Pocket, which in the process get converted into ATRAC3plus. ATRAC3plus is a newer standard than ATRAC3. Originally it was developed in 1992 as a means of squeezing down Audio CD format music onto MiniDisc. It works by removing inaudible sound frequencies from the audio signal, reducing its size without any perceptible degradation of sound quality, as a result ATRAC3plus is a superior compression standard to MP3. The original system could squeeze down data to about 1/5 of its original size, but ATRAC3plus achieves a compression rate approximately 20 times higher than conventional Audio CD. Using ATRAC3plus, a 20GB capacity VAIO Pocket can hold a maximum of 10,000 tracks of 4 minutes in length, recorded at the highest quality 64kbps mode.

Cradle

The Sony VAIO Pocket is supplied with a cradle charger, which also has the necessary ports for communicating with other devices. There’s a standard USB 2.0 port for the PC link and a mini-USB 1.1 port for making a direct connection to a digital camera. It also features a line-level output for sending the audio signal to an external amplifier or speakers when users want to listen to music on a full-sized sound system rather than headphones.

Software

Sony’s SonicStage 2.1 software is provided to help users both download and manage music collections on their PC or notebook. Music files can be transferred to the player by simply dragging and dropping them onto the Easy Transfer application which accompanies SonicStage. This new version allows you to link and download immediately from Sony Connect music download service without using a web browser.

Sony N Series Laptops

SONY has once again unveiled its series of laptop for its high-defined users who looks for more features and technology as they are on the move to stay connected with the people and business customers anywhere anytime in the world. It has many features in it, which I am sure that it is going to make a heads turn and reach out for the incredible series unveiled by Sony.

The SONY N SERIES bounds with performance, portability and value to the user, which makes it more reliable and sought after. It has many features like the ever reliable and latest processor from the Intel, which lets you do the work at greater speed and executes the codes and instruction much faster.

The duo processor consists of two encodes in to one layer of the CPU which gives you the much more needed efficiency for it.

It gives you an impressive PC performance that you look for it. You can surf, access the digital photos as well as enjoy the video as well with its processor bundled with many features in it. It also has a DVD burner and a hard drive with a revolution speed of 4300 rates per second, which helps to carry out the task much easier and faster.

It also has an excellent wide screen display, which helps us with the latest X-technology, which clearly distinguishes between the true black color as well as the vibrant color. It is also best suited for multiple spread sheet documents and also to analyze large amount of data and it has also got a unique feature where it contains an anti-reflection coating which gives you a clear view and good to see from any angle.

It has got a built in wireless LAN which helps you to stay connected any where and it also supports the wireless fidelity which gives you greater access and wide coverage of network to do a lots of work anywhere.

These notebooks are pre installed with new Microsoft windows vista business features, which lets you to share the file you use and many more and it also has a security features which protects your critical data and also while you browse through the net. These notebooks have an inbuilt Bluetooth facility, which helps the user to connect to the different laptops, mobile devices, and video game consoles, which lets you to access with in the specified range limit. It also allows us to share many data within the specified range without the need of cable wire.

These many feature are sure to help the high tech users to awe about this marvel, which is released by SONY, and also to have an easier way to do the work with the latest technology under it.

Sony launches Blu-ray laptop in RP

Sony is finally carrying its Vaio laptops in the Philippines, launching new models including one that plays Blu-ray DVD.

Toshiya Kasita, managing director for Sony Philippines, is convinced that the market for PCs in the Philippines is growing.

"The PC has expanded its user base from professionals to family use," Kasita said in an interview during the Vaio launch.

But more important, he said launching the Vaio fits into Sony's consumer market strategy.

Like Apple, Sony is treating the PC as the central component that links together consumer devices like digital cameras, mp3 players and even connects to its high-definition TV sets.

"The Vaio is important to our Sony Solutions strategy," said Kasita. "Also, we have more than 20 Sony Square stores dedicated to it so it's time we add the Vaio."

Previously, Vaio laptops were sold as parallel imports or in the gray market, which means the local Sony office will now officially support product warranty.

The Vaio TZ Series and SZ Series notebooks are priced from P100, 000 to P150, 000.

The Vaio FZ, which supports full 1080 high-definition TV and can do Blu-ray recording and playback, is priced at almost P200,000. A single-layer Blu-ray disc can store as much as 25 gigabytes of data, more than five times the capacity of regular single-layer DVDs.

The Awesome: Sony VAIO

SONY VAIO notebook has some of the best technologies used which is the reason for its success in the market. Some of the technologies used are:

· It incorporates an Intel Centrino Duo processor technology (given below) as well as a built-in 802.11n wireless LAN technology for high-speed, wireless connections.

· It uses the sound reality technology which delivers exceptional sound quality. Unlike other conventional computers, Sony’s advanced audio integration technology allows you to enjoy professional audio quality directly from your notebook computer.

· With the XBRITE-ECO™ LCD Technology Sony Vaio provides extraordinary color purity and saturation, while conserving battery life.

· The ExpressCard™ Technology which is a smaller and faster solution with the throughput to port data with incredible speeds.

Sony Launches Vaio CR Laptop Range

Sony has launched and made available its new CR series of Vaio laptops which are designed for the fashion conscious and at the same time pack in substantial performance upgrades as compared to previous generation Vaio machines. This new range of laptops come with an 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo T7100 processor, system memory of up to 4GB RAM, storage space of 200GB hard drive (optional external 100GB drive), a dual-layer DVD drive, full support for 802.11n Wi-Fi, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X310 onboard graphics, an LCD panel capable with a native resolution of 1280x800, a 1.3 mega-pixel webcam, and Windows Vista. These new laptops as their specifications show, are based on the new “Santa Rosa” platform.

Apart from the performance upgrades, this new line of laptops will also ship in some funky colors such as sangria, cosmopolitan, dove, indigo and black.

These new laptops will be available by the end of this month and will ship at prices starting at US$ 1,399.

Sony Vaio goes Colourfull

Sony has introduced a new line of notebooks featuring eye-popping colours and a chic design -- Vaio CR series. Trimmed in silver, the CR notebooks come in what the company calls five "fashion-forward" colours: sangria, cosmopolitan, dove, indigo and black (matte finish). The notebooks will also have an LED light that pulsates when the machine is booting, shutting down or hibernating. Sony has long led the laptop-as-fashion-accessory movement (remember the C series models and the FJ series), offering laptops in varied hues when other manufacturers were just starting to experiment with colours beyond black and grey. The CR series is no different, featuring a case that is brimming with colour, right down to the touch pad. Completing the look, each CR notebook comes with its own funky VAIO branded wallpaper and optional colour-coordinated carrying bag and mouse. As for specs, the 5.5-pound thin-and-light laptops comes with Intel's latest Centrino Duo platform, with Core 2 Duo processors, integrated graphics, and an 802.11n wireless card. The 14.1-inch wide-screen display includes a fairly standard 1,280x800 native resolution, and the display bezel has room for a built-in Webcam and microphone. The laptop also packs Sony's LocationFree software that lets users watch live TV, access their personal video recorder or DVD player, and view that content on their notebook via the Internet. The six new CR series models start at $1,350 and will start shipping by the end of June.

VAIO® FZ Series Notebook PC with Blu-ray Disc®

Fusing mobility, power and style, the VAIO® VGN-FZ180E/B notebook is designed to exceed your entertainment and computing needs.

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7300 (2GHz, 4MB L2 Cache)
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium


Features

Mobile entertainment and power to spare. The VAIO® VGN-FZ180E/B notebook features Intel® Centrino® Duo processor technology and the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor for lightning-fast speed and embedded A/V controls for one-touch access to your music, movies and pictures. An included CD/DVD burner and the streamlined instant search and automated security features of the Windows Vista™ Home Premium operating system make burning discs and navigating through programs fast and easy. And viewing your friends and family while video chatting on the gorgeous 15.4" widescreen LCD with XBRITE-ECO™ technology is so lifelike, it's almost like being there.

More display for your dollar
The thin-and-light VAIO® FZ notebook packs big power and even bigger entertainment into a small, portable package. This unique 5.75 pound1 with standard battery PC combines all the benefits of a 15.4” widescreen display2 with the dimensions or “footprint” of a much smaller notebook. The VAIO FZ is designed to maximize LCD space with advanced space-saving engineering techniques implemented throughout the chassis, including a reconfigured battery and motherboard design. The result is a brilliant, 15.4” widescreen display2 in the body of a portable, thin-and-light notebook.

Experience Blu-ray Disc® media playback
Watch movies in the best high-definition picture quality available today with the VAIO® FZ Premium notebook, the world’s first thin-and-light Blu-ray Disc®-enabled notebook12. Until you experience movies and concerts on Blu-ray Disc® media, you won’t know just how good high-definition can be. With pristine Full 1080 HD resolution and stunning clarity, Blu-ray Disc® technology is an impressive new way to enjoy your entertainment. Blu-ray Disc® also enjoys the most extensive industry support as it is backed by more than 85% of consumer electronics companies, seven of the biggest movie studios, the world's two largest music labels, plus PLAYSTATION® 3 and leading game companies.

Elegance and sophistication
With subtle sophistication and undeniable elegance, the lightweight VAIO® FZ notebook is crafted with an aesthetic touch and careful attention to detail. From its exciting entertainment functions to its brilliant XBRITE-HiColor™ display, the VAIO FZ is a beautifully designed, thin-and-light mobile entertainment center.

XBRITE-HiColor™ LCD technology
By applying engineering techniques from our BRAVIA™ high-definition LCD TVs to our new and improved XBRITE-HiColor™ LCD technology, we've created a notebook PC display that reaches an incredible color contrast of 90% - without increasing LCD power consumption. With richer greens and fresher blues than ever before, the new and improved XBRITE-HiColor™ LCD technology reproduces vivid colors and delicate contrasts with uniform brightness. Far superior to the 40-50% color reproduction of most notebook PCs, the VAIO FZ notebook with new and improved XBRITE-HiColor LCD technology delivers an incredibly luminous display that reproduces 90% of the color spectrum.

Entertainment controls
An A/V fan’s dream PC, the VAIO® FZ notebook includes a full set of dedicated multimedia controls just above the keyboard. A round A/V interface jumps out of the clean design of the VAIO FZ, adding a unique and practical touch to its sophisticated appearance. These intuitive music and video controls are user-friendly, so you can easily control your CDs, DVDs, pictures and home movies with the push of a button.

Notebook PC - VAIO : no more bounds

BLU-RAY / DVD CREATION

With Click to DVD, you're only a click away from creating your own personalised DVDs. Make DVDs with photo, movie + photo and videos with 5.1 surround sound. Roxio Digital Media takes you to Blu-ray burning, the new generation optical disk experience. Share and enjoy!

CONTENT BROWSER

VAIO Zone lets you seamlessly enjoy CDs, DVDs, music, photos, videos and other AV files through a single user interfac. And VAIO Media software enables AV files on your VAIO to be accessed and played by other VAIO Media installed VAIO notebooks and PCs on your home network. Making it a truly portable entertainment center!