Sony makes impressive DSLR move with new A300 and A350 for PMA 2008

Today is the first day of PMA 2008 and I have to say that I have never seen before so many DSLR launches in a single show by so many manufacturers. Sony has been up to now silent but the wait was worth it as it is releasing two new DSLR models in its Alpha range, the A300 and the A350. They both squeeze between the entry A200 and higher end A700. Features are nothing but rich:

• A350 resolution is an impressive 14.2 megapixels, in direct competition with Pentax’s new K20D. The A300 has the usual entry DSLR 10 megapixels.
• Live view which means that pictures can be taken by just looking at the 2.7 inch screen. In fact, to leave free room for the live mechanism, the viewfinder is smaller than that of the A200 as this was deemed a necessary sacrifice for this very useful feature.
• Great -I will say it again great!- tilt 2.7 inch monitor that can be positioned at “difficult” positions to take advantage of the live view feature when unusual camera positions do not allow viewfinder use.

Video games grow 28.4% in the US in 2007

Video games are the entertainment stars of 2007 as their software side of the business sold $9.5 billion in the US, an amount similar to what was spent for movies and music. The bad news -at least for me- is that PC games account for only 9.5% of sales. Whether piracy or less interest in PC gaming is responsible for this disappointing result is hard to say, sales show that consoles are dominant since their hardware side sold a healthy $9.35 million. The surprise? It is the Wii which has smashed competition from both Microsoft and Sony.

Blu-Ray camp celebrates win with 2.0 spec, early adopters in trouble

At CES 2008 there was no official press conference to declare that the HD war is over and Toshiba stated that it will battle on. However, nobody is fooled and the release of Blu-Ray’s spec 2.0 is an indirect confirmation that Sony et al actually now control the game. While spec 1.1 required a double decoder for PIP and 256 MB of storage, spec 2.0 goes a large step further as it requires an Internet connection and 1 GB of local storage for updates and content. Those features more or less complete the previously unfinished Blu-Ray specifications, and imply the following facts:

• Although HD-DVD had from the start a complete spec to match Blu-Ray’s spec 2.0 it did not manage to promote its advantage and future proof nature to the customer.

Tech developments I would like to see in 2008!

Now that 2008 is only a couple of days away is the right time to write about the developments I would like to see. I am not in favour of votes for the best of each category of 2007. We have all bought and used stuff this last year, we have also already done our choices for Christmas, so what’s the point? After all these things are so much down to personal taste that it is hard to announce a single product or site as the best in its category and clearly above everything else. So many CPU cycles have been devoted to Facebook vs MySpace & iPhone vs Nokia N95 type stories that I think a bit more of that would be overkill. So summarising thoughts from previous posts and by also adding some new ones, here is the things that I would love to see happening in 2008:

• Good, reliable, fast internet access, both wired and wireless. The wired part is getting better briskly. But for wireless still a lot has to be done… 
• Some compatibility between social networks. What is happening now is crazy and exhausting. Separate accounts, separate contacts, separate everything for each one of them. When for example Yahoo and MSN made their messengers compatible -even with limited inter-functionality- it was a great relief for me.

It’s the end for Sony rear-projection TVs

Rear-projection TVs were major show off tools back in the days of CRT TVs. They could offer large sizes at affordable cost. Personally I never liked their picture quality so never went anywhere near them and do not feel much sorrow now that Sony has decided to pull the plug in all related production sites. Combined with a similar move by all other rear-projection TV manufacturers, it means that now this technology is more or less display history.

Since SED displays by Canon and Toshiba don’t make it to the market, the game is LCD vs plasma vs OLED. For the time being OLED screens are too small and expensive to challenge LCD and plasma but with R&D funding from large names behind them the battle will be anything but boring. Now all that manufacturers and electronics chains have to do is unload older stock to unsuspecting and non-informed customers as we approach the 2008 Olympic Games to make room on the shelves for the new LED backlight stuff for Christmas 2008… :-)

Link 1: Engadget

Link 2: Reuters