Sony at CES 2012: Xperia Ion for AT&T, Google TV, Walkman Z1000, Xperia S, and more – The Verge

Sony’s new MirrorLink-enabled car head units put your smartphone in the dashboard (hands-on)

2012-01-14T05:41:04-05:00

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Sony's announced a number of new products this week at CES, including two car entertainment systems with MirrorLink smartphone integration. Sony's XAV-701HD and XAV-601BT feature 7-inch and 6.1-inch WVGA touchscreens, respectively, along with Bluetooth connectivity and the expected assortment of car stereo features. Where things get interesting is how they interact with your phone.

If you're not familiar, MirrorLink is an industry standard backed by various car manufacturers, as well as consumer electronics companies like Nokia, LG, and Samsung. It works with Android and Symbian phones, and aims to allow greater interoperability between mob …

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Sony’s RDH-GTK33iP iPod dock turns your bedroom into a disco dance party

2012-01-12T02:35:04-05:00

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Sony is showing off a new iPhone and iPod dock here at CES that's turning quite a few heads. The RDH-GTK33iP is a 420-watt boombox with a heavy-duty design that is more reminiscent of a stage monitor than a traditional dock - and it also puts on a light show to accompany your favorite tunes. You plug in your iPhone or iPod via the included 30-pin dock connector, or hook up a memory stick or other source via the USB port, and the dock's twin speaker lights pulse through a variety of colors in rhythm with the song being played. We tried it out with a track from Depeche Mode's Violator, and sure enough, it performed as promised - and delivered …

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PlayStation Vita plays augmented reality soccer (hands-on video)

2012-01-12T00:21:56-05:00

Gallery Photo: PlayStation Vita augmented reality soccer hands-on pictures

Earlier today, we saw Sony's PlayStation Vita show off its AT&T cellular chops with Unit 13, and now we've got the quad-core handheld demonstrating another augmented reality title. In case you're unaware, the US and European versions of the PlayStation Vita will come with six AR cards when they go on sale this February, and you can download a bunch of games: This one is Table Football, which turns the cards into goals, grandstands and a scoreboard. You can place them however you like, spreading them apart for a larger field, or closer in for a smaller one, and when you score a goal, the field gets re-rendered with fuller 3D graphics to show …

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Sony still working on OLED display tech, developing Crystal LED ‘in parallel’

2012-01-11T20:20:46-05:00

Gallery Photo: Sony Crystal LED Display prototype pictures from CES 2012

LG and Samsung are showing off crazy next-gen OLED TV prototypes here at CES, but Sony went another way with its Crystal LED prototype - it's extremely impressive, with nearly 90-degree viewing angles, but it's also prompted a lot of rumors that Sony's abandoning OLED TVs for the consumer market. We asked for clarification and it seems the truth is a little different: Sony says that Crystal LED will be developed in "parallel" to OLED for future consumer and professional applications. We don't know if that definitively means that Sony will put out any future consumer OLED TVs - it hasn't done anything meaningful since it killed the XEL-1 in 2 …

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PlayStation Vita 3G for AT&T hands-on demo with Unit 13 (video)

2012-01-11T19:08:34-05:00

PS Vita 3G AT&T Unit 13 stock press 1024

There's not much left to learn about the PlayStation Vita that launched in Japan - find our full review right here - but we just got our hands on a Vita connected to AT&T's 3G HSPA network, and playing Unit 13. It's a third-person shooter from Zipper Interactive, best known for the SOCOM games, where you run from cover to cover though a series of shooting-and-sneaking missions trying for a high score. The game has actual multiplayer over Wi-Fi, but the 3G functionality allows for the game's online global leaderboards to be updated in real time, and in a clever stroke, the game notifies you if a friend beats your score, gently nudging you to …

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Sony VAIO ultrabook prototype shown behind glass

2012-01-10T02:41:59-05:00

Gallery Photo: Sony sliding tablet with keyboard photos

Sony doesn't technically have an ultrabook - the VAIO Z or VAIO SB doesn't really count - but it seems Sony's planning to look at the category sometime in the future. Labeled as a "future ultrabook concept," Sony's displaying a laptop that looks a lot like its current VAIO Z. Unfortunately, it's behind glass, but from what I can tell it has a different touchpad than the current VAIO Z and is a bit thicker. That's all I could really glean from the chassis trapped behind glass, but it seems very likely that Sony will join the race at some point this year. Now, let's just hope that external GPU and docking station comes along for the ride.

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Sony Smart Watch (aka Sony Ericsson LiveView 2) hands-on

2012-01-10T00:15:17-05:00

Gallery Photo: Sony Smart Watch (aka Sony Ericsson LiveView 2) hands-on pictures

Last night we spotted what looked like the successor to Sony Ericsson's LiveView auxiliary display, and it's true: this is the Sony Ericsson Smart Watch. Well, it'll probably just be the Sony Smart Watch soon, given how the company recently swallowed its joint Sony Ericsson venture and has already begun rebranding. Note the lack of an "Ericsson" in that logo? Sony Ericsson reps tell us it can store 255 widgets, most of which will interact with your Android 2.1+ Sony smartphone (some work with Android phones, period, and others run all on their own) and that it will be on sale at an unspecified date for $149. That screen certainly is sharp. T …

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Sony displays VAIO tablet prototypes; future Windows 8 hardware?

2012-01-09T23:07:04-05:00

Gallery Photo: Sony VAIO tablet with sliding keyboard prototype

If you blinked while watching our Sony live blog, you likely missed Kazuo Hirai teasing of a few prototype VAIO laptop and tablets. Well, luckily, Sony's displaying them behind glass at its booth. To me, the most interesting of the two is the tablet that slides over a detachable keyboard. It's a lot like the Series 7 Slider Samsung showed last year (it never came to market), but the tablet separates from the base and also has a stylus. There's a short video of it behind glass below, but if I had to guess this really seems like a perfect fit for Windows 8. (VAIO is Sony's Windows-only brand, its tablet is part of its mobile group.) That said, …

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Sony iPad-compatible Wireless speaker docks hands-on photos

2012-01-09T21:21:56-05:00

Sony RDF-XA700iP

Despite launching its own PMP, Sony is still supporting the iOS ecosystem with three new iPad-compatible speaker docks that feature either Bluetooth audio or Airplay streaming. The RDP-200iP supports wireless Bluetooth streaming and is priced at $199. The RDP-XF300iP is unique in that it is the only new model with a built-in rechargable battery; it supports Bluetooth audio as well and also includes an FM tuner and a retractable speaker dock. The RDP-XF300iP will retail for $249.

The RDP-XA700iP is the cream of the crop: for $399, you'll get a built-in subwoofer and streaming through Apple's Airplay technology - so no Bluetooth audio. All three …

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Sony Crystal LED Display prototype pictures, videos, and impressions

2012-01-09T21:19:13-05:00

Sony Crystal LED hero

It's the viewing angles, really. Sony's 55-inch Crystal LED display prototype is an impressive piece, but being able to view clearly from near-90 degree angles, color intact, is quite a spectacle in person. We did our best to recapture it that from the showfloor of Sony's CES 2012 booth, which you can view in the gallery below. We spent some time watching a series of slides and video clips on the device, both in bright light and in a more cavernous unit next to an LCD TV. The colors were more vibrant, particularly the reds, and blacks were truer and darker. The colors, it should be noted, also looked a little bit warmer than its 55-inch BRAVI …

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