• Today is one of Sony’s biggest achievements in the digital music player market in the last 5 years. They have managed to outsell the iPod lineup with its latest version of the Walkman. According to Tokyo-based research firm BCN Inc., for the week ending August 30th, the Walkman series had a 43 percent share of the personal music player market versus 42.1 percent for iPods. Congrats Sony, but BCN forgot to tell you that iPhones don’t count as iPods, so they title will be forever left with an asterik. The iPhone 3GS is currently the best-selling phone in Japan, so if you combine those figures, Apple is sure to have their crown back. Congrats to Sony though, this is not something that should go unnoticed. I didn’t even know they were still making a walkman. (Engadget)

• Sony is adding their own motion controller to the PS3, aptly named The PlayStation Motion Controller (to comete with Nintendo’s Wii obviously). Gizmodo says “It’s the best motion control demo that we have ever seen, but it may be arriving a little too late”

• Not only did Sony post their first loss in 14 years, it was a big one, coming in at a total of $1.03 billion.
• Electronic sales dropped 17% while the game division dropped 18%.
• Sony expects next year to be no different, predicting a loss of $1.1 billion.
• What will save Sony?

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• The W205 Walkman Phone is here from Sony.  Not sure if any of the features listed below deserve any bragging rights. It’s a sad day for the once prominent mobile giant.

Features:

• Enjoy your music with the Walkman™ experience
• FM radio – catch up with the latest news and views
• TrackID™ – name that tune at a press of a button
• 1.3 megapixel camera – capture your favourite moments on film
• Bluetooth™ – share your favourite songs, pictures  and video clips, or connect to a wireless headset
• Multiple phone books – keep your contacts in order if someone needs to borrow your phone
• Set to release Q3 of 2009.

• CES has been crazy this year, with the launch of Palm’s new Pre, LG phones converting to watches, and thousands of other new products launching.  One thing that’s consistently at the forefront of these announcements are new and improved green practices.
• CES, the show itself is working with Carbonfund.org to offset 20,000 tons of carbon and invest over $100,000 on environmental efforts.  They’ve also devoted a portion of the show to cleantech and sustainable technologies. They’ve named the area Sustainable Technologies TechZone….clever.  Companies displaying their work and practices include Dell, Voltaic Systems, Freeplay Energy and Meraki Networks among others.
• Three giants; Panasonic, Toshiba, and Sharp formed the Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Co. LLC (MRM).  The organization will manage the collection and recycling of old electronics.  MRM has  been running for 5 months in Minnesota and has already collected over 750 tons.  This year, they plan expansion to 280 sites throughout the US.  This goes along with all the other green moves Panasonic has been making lately.
• Just following it’s announcement to enter the solar market, Toshiba continued to deliver the goods with a few notable green product announcements.  They’re launching the Portégé laptop which is said to be the greenest laptop sold in the US (by EPEAT standards), a electric bicycle that goes 20-30 miles on a 5 minute charge (sick), a LED downlight that uses one seventh the power a normal light bulb, as well as some energy efficient LCD’s.
• Garmin made one of my favorite announcements with their free “ecoroute” software update.  Before they only had “fastest time” and “shortest distance” as route options.  The new update includes a “less fuel used” option by suggesting the most fuel efficient route….nice.
• Motorola seems to be doing all it can to stay current by introducing a new green phone to the mix.  The MOTO W233 is made partly from recycled water bottle plastics and is 100% recyclable and carbon neutral.  They make this claim by neutralizing the carbon emission from manufacturing and distribution with Carbonfund.org….one of the better announcements I’ve seen out of Motorola in while.
• Keep your eyes up for more updates from Vegas….

• Sony finally let those at CES get a hands-on with their latest stealth computer release. It truly is the ultimate computer on the go @ 1.4 pounds/1 inch thick, with an Instant-on OS, internet access via 3G, minimal storage, movie player and photo application. What’s inside? 1.33Ghz Atom inside so not that quick, 2GB of RAM and Vista Home Basic for $900. 
• Setbacks: Very small (screen is only 8 inches), uses a trackball instead of a track-pad, must sign up with Verizon to score the 3G connection (No GSM), and the price is a little steep (The base is $900, but the notebook can run as high as $1500 with 60GB of storage capability). Take a look at the pic below to see how small the computer actually is, and trust me when I tell you this lady is no giant. 

Pics via Gizmodo.

• A new eBook reader is about to hit the streets to take on the Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s eReader. Foxit Software will soon begin shipping their eBook reader, the eSlick, which will sell for $229 when it first goes on sale in January from Foxit’s site.(The Kindle costs $359, Sony’s $399)
• It is about the length of a medium paperback,  but only 0.4 inches, so it’s thinner. Its 6-inch, 600-by-800-pixel “electronic paper” screen is made by the same company that makes the Kindle’s. It offers the same ‘easy on the eyes’ features such as text resizing and lighting that make the new eReaders so enjoyable to read and rival reading a real magazine or paper.
• The eSlick comes in 3 different colors, comes with 2GB of memory (SD card clot), long battery life (8,000 page turns) and a headphone jack (Yep, it’s got an MP3 player on it). The downside is that at first, it won’t come with wireless. If you are someone who wants to read the paper in the morning on your eReader, you will have to plug the usb into the computer and fetch it. The Kindle (for $10 a month), will automatically push the paper straight to your Kindle when it’s ready. 
• All in all, if you don’t plan on being a daily Kindler, then the eSlick will certainly be a good fit for you. This should worry Amazon as they have had the chance in the past to license out their software to others. Now, they will have to face competitors like these who will stop at nothing to get into the ever-growing market. Should Amazon have focused on protecting their proprietary technology or should they have embraced competitors and licensed it out?

• The Dark Knight Blu-ray release is the first Blu-ray disc that supports special online features, otherwise known as BD-Live.
• Blu-ray 2.0 player required. Hint: PS3 would be a good choice.
• Launch the BD-Live feature on the disc and you’re prompted to create an account with Warner Brothers. The first part of the registration takes place on the disc, with the second portion requiring you to click a link that WB sends to your email.
• The actual BD-Live features are available online via your computer. The main feature? User recorded commentary.
• Warner Brothers allows you to stream the movie via the ‘net while recording your own video/audio commentary as it plays via webcam/mic. You can browse through the library of everyone else’s recorded commentary (kind of cool and random yet mainly pointless), in addition to a “Featured Commentary” list of hand-picked recordings by Warner Brothers. On the list: Paul Levitz, creator of DC Comics, and Jerry Robinson, the alleged creator of the Joker.
• Other BD-Live features include some extra videos talking about the film’s soundtrack and a few animated comics. Nothing that couldn’t be found on a normal DVD. Oh, and you can send an ‘e-vite’ inviting your friends to watch the film “with” you on their own separate computers. Sweeeet.
• User-recorded commentary is the only real offering here. Cool? Yeah. A little underwhelming? Yep. The only tracks anyone wants to hear are those by the pros. Put em on the DVD.

ArsTechnica