Sony World - PlayStation VR - An Instant Hit! Sony announced World's fastest SD card!

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Sony Xperia Z5 and Z5 Premium launched in India



Sony today announced the Xperia Z5 and the Xperia Z5 Premium in India. Both the phones being launched are the dual SIM variants. The Z5 is priced at INR 52,990 ($813) and the Z5 Premium at INR 62,990 ($966). In case you're not aware, the Xperia Z5 has a 5.2-inch 1080p LCD, Snapdragon 810, 3GB RAM, 32GB storage with microSD, 23 megapixel rear camera with 4K video, 5.1 megapixel front camera, water and dustproof body, and 2900mAh battery. The Z5 Premium has all that but in addition gets a crazy 5.5-inch 4K LCD instead and a bigger 3430mAh battery. The Z5 will go on sale on October 23 and the Z5 Premium on November 7. The company has no plans to sell the smaller Z5 Compact in India yet.

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Sony to buy Toshiba sensor business for around $165 million: sources



Toshiba Corp is set to sell its image sensor business to Sony Corp for around 20 billion yen ($164.68 million) as part of a restructuring plan laid out earlier this year, sources with knowledge of the deal said on Saturday. Toshiba, whose businesses range from laptops to nuclear power, is undergoing a restructuring after revelations this year that it overstated earnings by $1.3 billion going back to fiscal 2008/09. Image sensors, which are used in digital cameras and smartphones, are part of Toshiba's system LSI semiconductor business. Toshiba plans to sell its image sensor manufacturing plant in Oita, southern Japan, and pull out of the sensor business altogether, said the sources, who declined to be identified. The sale is likely to be finalised soon, the sources said.

Toshiba is considering several options for its system LSI semiconductor business and its discrete semiconductor business and that debate is ongoing, a Toshiba official said when contacted. An official from Sony declined to comment. Masashi Muromachi, who became Toshiba's CEO following the accounting scandal, has promised to restructure lower-margin businesses. The deal for the image sensor business would be the beginning of the restructuring, Nikkei reported earlier on Saturday. Sony is already a dominant player in the image sensor market, with its products used in phones made by China's Xiaomi and India's Micromax Informatix Ltd.

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PlayStation 5: What To Expect From Sony?



PlayStation 5 – 4K emphasis

One of the first elements of this next generation console that Sony is likely to address is 4K resolution compatibility. This is theoretically possible with the existing PlayStation 4, but limitations of the hardware effectively mean that the prospect of 4K gaming with the PS4 is unthinkable.

By the time that the PlayStation 5 is released, which is generally considered to be around 2020 according to analysts, 4K resolution technology should be a mainstream reality in people’s lives. There will certainly be an expectation for both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Two that these next generation systems will deliver true 4K gaming, and Sony will already be planning the internal specifications required in order to achieve this.

Virtual reality

Another major aspect of the video games industry that will be prominent by the time that 2020 rolls round is virtual reality gaming. Numerous companies, including Sony itself, are currently working on virtual reality systems, and these are expected to become extremely popular in the next few years.

Thus, Sony will have to consider whether it builds in some sort of VR capabilities as standard, and to what extent it embraces virtual reality when the PlayStation 5 is released. Sony’s own Project Morpheus technology is due for release in 2016, at least according to optimistic estimates, and this will hopefully mean that by the time the PlayStation 5 is released that the virtual reality project is established as being successful.

Streaming

Video game streaming has become massive in every sense of the word, with services such as Twitch attracting millions of viewers on a daily basis, not to mention the rampant success of YouTube video game channels. But another aspect of streaming that is important for the future direction of the industry is the ability to stream games live.

This is already being offered by the PlayStation Now service, but the capabilities of video game streaming should have improved significantly by the time that 2020 rolls round. There are always issues related to broadband speeds with such a project, particularly if Sony is looking to seriously embrace 4k gaming, as indeed it should. But it could be possible for Sony to launch the PlayStation 5 with some sort of live streaming service in place, ensuring an entirely different video games model to the one that has operated for decades.

Disc-based gaming

Speaking of which, Sony also has to decide what the future of disc-based gaming is in its consoles. It seems certain that consumers would prefer for some form of physical media to remain part of the video gaming experience, and Sony will certainly take this into consideration. It will not have escaped the attention of the corporation that the main reason for the success of the PlayStation 4, certainly in the early days of the console, was the fact that the company listened closely to customers, something that Microsoft manifestly failed to do.

So the smart money would be on console games to remain on discs for the time being, but Sony may at least wish to offer gamers the opportunity to experience console gaming without ever needing to purchase a physical disc. This is already theoretically possible, but it must be said that Sony hasn’t really delivered downloadable games in a particularly flexible or affordable format. It is pretty scandalous that downloads still cost more than physical games, and Sony must surely address this if it is to encourage gamers to move away from the physical medium model.

Early release date?

One recent rumor related to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Two is that one or both of the consoles could be released in the next couple of years. This would mean that one of the Sony or Microsoft consoles currently available would have had a pretty short shelf-life, but there are rational reasons to believe that this is possible.

With hardware evolving rapidly, and 4K resolution technology already available for television and movies, both of these consoles are becoming somewhat out of date. This could put pressure on Sony and Microsoft to advance the release of their next generation consoles. But there is certainly less pressure on Sony to do this considering that the PlayStation 4 is outselling the Xbox One comfortably.

Music streaming

In order for video games consoles to stay ahead of other possible gaming platforms, it is essential for both Sony and Microsoft to offer more than merely video games machines. Thus, one suggestion related to the PlayStation 5 is that it could focus on improved music streaming and playback. Spotfiy is already available on the PS4, but Sony has gone backwards with CD playability, at a time when Apple is investing strongly in music. The PlayStation 5 could thus be presented as a major music player and streamer from day one.

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SONY HINTS AT NEW PS4 FEATURES IN THIS USER QUESTIONNAIRE

Sony is asking PlayStation 4 players what they want to see in the next major PlayStation 4 update. Neogaf user Saint of Killers shared details of an invite-only questionnaire, which asks players to rate what are the most important features from a list that includes friend online notifications, appearing offline, custom backgrounds, avatars, PSN ID changes, and folders.



PlayStation 4's 3.00 update, codenamed Kenshin, introduced a significant number of UI enhancements and brand-new features to the PlayStation 4 dashboard including Request to Share Play and Broadcast, a feature that enables you to watch a friend play, or - with your friend's permission - try a game out yourself.

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SONY CONFIRMS IT'S STOPPED FIRST-PARTY VITA DEVELOPMENT

Sony has confirmed its first-party studios are no longer working on PS Vita titles. Sony Computer Entertainment SVP Masayasu Ito told 4Gamers (via DualShockers) that from here on out, all attention has been switched to PS4. "Currently, first-party studios have no titles in development for PS Vita," he said. "Since third-parties are working very hard on PS Vita, SCE’s own strategy is to focus on PS4, which is a new platform.

“At the beginning the PS Vita did not resonate with age targets under 20, but now the situation is changing and the popularity with younger demographics is increasing. Minecraft: PS Vita Edition has provided a boost. "In addition to that, a variety of third party games is also planned for the future, and in order to further accelerate that flow, we decided to release new colors for the PS Vita this fall.” We heard a similar thing from Sony at E3 this year, but it seemed then the door had been left open for future releases. It seems this is no longer the case.

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SONY REVEALS PLAYSTATION PLUS LEAGUE ESPORTS PLATFORM



Sony appears set to launch its own eSports platform called PlayStation Plus League. A new French-language site has popped up, revealing games like Street Fighter IV Ultra, Battlefield Hardline and FIFA 16 will all be included, with Championships occurring throughout the year across several different seasons and divisions. Diving deeper into the site reveals tournaments are set to kick off this week to celebrate Paris Games Week in titles including Rocket League, Mortal Kombat X and more. What's even more interesting is the fact that real money appears to be up for grabs in games here - the Project CARS website reveals a monthly stipend will be paid out to the top 32 players.

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Sony Xperia XZ Flagship

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Play Station VR _ Instant Hit

http://www.trustedreviews.com/playstation-vr-review

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