According to research by warranty firm SquareTrade, you really get what you pay for, with premium-priced laptops lasting longer than their cheaper counterparts on average. Good news for those who’ve spent money for specs, bad for buyers trying to eke by on affordable netbooks; from the survey of 30,000 portables, netbooks have a 5.8% chance of failing within the first year.

Another notable trend becomes clear when comparing brands. Here’s the list of nine different brands, ranked from most reliable to least, in terms of malfunction rate:

Asus
Toshiba
Sony
Apple
Dell
Lenovo
Acer
Gateway
HP

Looks like Asus‘ marketing department have a new talking point to advertise, while Apple has …read more

Looks like Sony’s really pushing the Cyber-shot TX1, the new flagship of its “ultra-thin” compact series. Or at least they’re doing so in Asia, complete with the “Love the Night” tag line and “Lucky in Love” contest, both attempts to highlight the camera’s low-light and panorama shot abilities.

“Lucky in Love” mainly involves a Flash-game where players have to drag and rotate a series of photos to create a panoramic shot. It’s a pretty straightforward yet cumbersome game: not only do players have to properly align images as much as possible, they are also under time pressure. Obviously, the point of …read more

Through some clever use of time-scape photography and sound editing, Sony Australia makes a pretty compelling ad for their campaign to give away 25,000 PS3s. Slow-mo video of a PS3 crashing into a Sony BRAVIA HDTV is below:
Gizmag was on the scene during the production of this unique and cringe-inducing (for gadget lovers) video. Full details are available here.

Sony sent in a Cyber-shot TX1 to review. As the camera features a 3.0″ touch-screen, the only physical controls (zoom, preview, and the on-off buttons) are situated on the top of the device. Here’s what comes with the TX1:

Instruction manuals in 4 different languages (region-dependent)
Warranty card
Software CD
Catalog of Cyber-shot TX1 accessories
USB / TV-out cable
NP-BD1 battery in a plastic case
Changing dock and power cord
Wrist strap (already attached to camera
Paint pen (attaches to wrist strap, used to operate touch-screen

At first glance, that seems like a lot. Yet Sony could’ve done a little better with the bundle, including a Memory Stick and a …read more

The PlayStation 3 Slim officially shipped last September 1. Owners of the original PlayStation 3 should be content with what they already have. For those who want to buy their first current-generation gaming console, or are looking to play PlayStation 3 games, the new PlayStation 3 Slim is a good choice.

Size-wise, the PlayStation 3 Slim isn’t really a revolution compared to its predecessor—despite the 33% profile reduction, both consoles are meant to stay stationary for most of their operational lives anyway. The Slim is still a more attractive option though because of its roomier 120GB hard disk, a definite step …read more

According to the Source, the recently announced PS3 Slim is “33 percent smaller, 36 percent lighter, and comes with a 120GB hard drive”. Set for a September 1 release, the PS3 Slim will cost $299 in North America, 299 euros in Europe, and 29980 Yen in Japan (totally wrong currency conversion for the win!).
Functionally, this new PS3 variant is practically the same, but it uses a smaller, more power-efficient version of its Cell processor—45nm versus the original’s 60nm. Every new PS3 Slim will come pre-installed with Firmware 3.0. Sony will of course phase out the original PS3, selling any remaining …read more

Introducing the Sony PSP Go: Seems Sony realized that the UMD format was effectively dead; the latest planned incarnation of the Sony PSP only accepts media through Memory Stick Micro cards and wireless downloads (via the PlayStation Network). Bad news for current UMD and normal-sized Memory Stick users.
Yet the focus on digital delivery means that Sony was reportedly thoughtful enough to equip the PSP Go with 16GB of onboard memory. The new slide-down form factor may be something new for longtime PSP users. That’s because controlling the portable console requires the hands to be closer together—and below the Go’s 3.8″ …read more

Sony’s new Alpha DSLR-A230, A330 and A380. But for those who are fans of the maker’s cameras, here are the useful facts (courtesy of Crave):

Model
A230
A330
A380

Sensor
10-megapixel CCD
14-megapixel CCD

Sensitivity range
ISO 100 – ISO 3200

Viewfinder
95 percent coverage
0.83x magnification
95 percent coverage
0.74x magnification

LCD
2.7-inch fixed
2.7-inch tiltable

Live View
No
Yes

Continuous shooting
2.5fps

Autofocus
9 points

Dimensions(W x H x D)
5.0″ x 3.8″ x 2.7″
5.0″ x 3.8″ x 2.8″

Weight(ounces)*
15.9
17.3

Replaces
A200
A300
A350

Price
$549 (with 18-55mm lens)
$749 (with 18-55mm and 55-200mm lenses)
$649 (with 18-55mm lens)
$849 (with 18-55mm and 55-200mm lenses)
$849 (with 18-55mm lens)
$1,049 (with 18-55mm and 55-200mm lenses)

*add about 1.8 ounces for battery and card
Most interesting about all three new models though is its support for SDHC cards, on …read more

So, despite the best efforts of Sony to protect the PSP platform from those evil hackers and homebrewers, Team Typhoon has conquered!
Typhoon’s hack takes advantage of a tiff exploit; viewing a carefully crafted image with the PSP-3000’s built-in viewer reboots the portable and makes it load the HEN environment. This, in the words of Boing Boing, opens the PSP-3000 up to “homebrew, customization and piracy.” Here’s the full declaratory message from Typhoon:
This is a demo of the 5.03 firmware running the tiff exploit and booting into a HEN environment on a PSP 2003 (3000 Support also) on 5.03 Official …read more

Husbands, boyfriends, and sons, lend me your ears! Sony’s got a couple of promos for Mother’s Day:

A Sony Cybershot S980BDL/P + a Pink and Black Camera Case for $150 – The CyberShot is a 12.1 Megapixel camera, features a washed metal finish, and of course, comes in pink. A 2GB Memory Stick Duo is part of the package.
Select VAIO CS notebooks + Dooney & Bourke tote bag = $150 in savings – Or basically, you get the bag (which costs $150) for free. This promo is somewhat limited though, since it only applies to “pre-built” CS notebooks. At least you’re …read more