In a effort to cut costs and improve its financial situation, Sony is eliminating two divisions at its main electronics unit, promoting three executives and keeping a close eye on its money-losing television unit, Bloomberg’s Businessweek reported on Tuesday. The Japanese company will shut down its consumer products and services group, which handled consumer-level electronics, and the professional device and solutions group, which handled business oriented products and components. Executive Deputy President Hiroshi Yoshioka, who oversaw the professional device and solutions group, will head the company’s newly created medical business unit. Sony spokeswoman Satsuki Shinnaka said all changes will be effective April 1st and are aimed at speeding up management decisions. On the same date, the company will welcome its new president and CEO Kazuo Hirai. Hiari is largely credited with making Sony’s PlayStation game business profitable and will be looking to do the same with the company’s Bravia television unit, which is expected to post its fourth straight annual loss.

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Microsoft has begun to roll out an update for its Xbox Live service that includes new on-demand content from Comcast, along with apps from HBO and MLB, GigaOM reported on Monday. The launch these services will give users the ability to search through a wide range of content directly from their game console. In October, Microsoft announced a number of new content partners that would deliver movies, television shows and other content to its popular Xbox 360 game console. The system had already received updates that included apps from Verizon, Epix, Vevo, Vudu and YouTube. The launch of HBO Go comes as little surprise. In February, the company’s co-president Eric Kessler told reporters that the Xbox HBO Go app would go live on April 1st, in time for the season premiere of “Game of Thrones.” Microsoft fans noted that the company always releases updates on Tuesdays, however, and it was unlikely for HBO to roll out an update the day of the premiere to avoid download complications.

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Game of Thrones
HBO's hottest new series is back with a new season, and there should be plenty of action in all forms coming along with it. Whether it's through betrayal, all out warfare or political intrigue everyone is making a grab for power in the land of Westeros and of course -- winter is coming. If you're the only person who hasn't watched the show yet, there's a trailer for season two embedded after the break.
(April 1st, HBO, 9PM)

NBA
With the playoffs rapidly approaching we've got a slew of great games this week, including a finals rematch between the Heat and Mavericks, and a West coast battle between the Thunder and Lakers. We're finally getting to the part of the season where the games mean something, and they should at least give hoops fans a quick taste while we wait for the Final Four games this weekend.

Continue reading Must See HDTV (March 26th - April 1st)

Must See HDTV (March 26th - April 1st) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After numerous mobile lawsuits from Apple, Samsung CEO Choi Gee Sung explained that the company plans to be more aggressive in securing patents that can be used to defend itself, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. During the company’s annual shareholders meeting, Sung said that due to slow industry-wide growth and strong competition, the company was bracing for a tough year. “The electronics industry will enter a low-growth period,” he said. “Reorganization of the industry will gain speed and competition among global players will intensify.” Shareholders also approved the company’s plan to spin off its LCD division on April 1st. Samsung posted record revenue last year — thanks largely to its Galaxy smartphones — and looks to enhance its competitiveness in hardware, while strengthening new businesses including medical equipment in 2012. BGR exclusively reported last month that Samsung will launch its flagship Galaxy S III smartphone later this year with a 1080p high-definition display, a ceramic case and a quad-core 1.5GHz Exynos processor.

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We knew it'd be arriving on April 1st, but now we're actually longing for it. HBO has just released a half-minute teaser propping up the impending release of HBO GO on Xbox 360, and while it's available on a plethora of other platforms, being able to verbally command HBO (through Kinect, of course) to play your favorite shows just takes the enticement up another level. Care to see for yourself? Tap that video just after the jump.

Continue reading HBO GO teases vocal controls via Kinect, coming soon to Xbox 360 (video)

HBO GO teases vocal controls via Kinect, coming soon to Xbox 360 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung has announced that it is spinning out its LCD division as a separate company, to be called Samsung Display, on April 1st. The move will see Samsung retain only its OLED production, in a bid to streamline its struggling display section. More »

We love the snooze button as much as everyone else. But we've all postponed exiting the comfort of our Tempur-Pedic one too many times. Enter the Ramos alarm clock, a rise-and-shine solution that integrates a Defuse Panel in order to silence your wake-up call. Don't expect to stay in bed to enter the code either, as the keypad can be wirelessly situated in another room to prevent further slumber. Two time keeping options, LED and Nixie models, await your minimum pledges of $160 and $350 before the April 1st deadline. The latter features a nixie tube display that will put any regular ol' alarm clock's digits to shame. You can spring for a long-range kit if you need to place your key panel more than 50 feet away from your nightstand. If you're feeling extra generous, a pledge of more than $800 will allow you to select the type of wood used for your Ramos. In need of a bit more convincing? Peep the video on the other side of the break for a closer look.

Continue reading Insert Coin: Alarm clock makes you enter a code to silence it, in another room (video)

Insert Coin: Alarm clock makes you enter a code to silence it, in another room (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony already revealed Kazuo Hirai will take over for Howard Stringer as CEO and President April 1st last night, and with the big shocker out of the way it's time for the fiscal Q3 reports. After posting a net loss of $346 million last quarter, Sony is now expecting a bigger loss for 2011 than it had previously estimated, as well as lower sales. It's currently showing a net loss for the quarter of 159 billion yen ($2~ billion), or a $1.2 billion operating loss. Blame is put on a larger than expected effect from the flooding in Thailand, strong yen and weakness in cellphones. Sales for the quarter were about $23 billion, down 17.4 percent from the same quarter last year. The consumer products and services division (HDTVs, PS3s, etc.) in particular caught a brick, with an operating loss of over a billion dollars on sales that dropped 24 percent from last year. It recorded a loss on its sale of shares in the S-LCD venture with Samsung, LCD TVs sold for prices lower than its cost reductions, and the PlayStation 3 had the killer combo of higher marketing costs and lower unit sales. Check the PDF and slides linked below for more bad news. We'll let you know what we hear on the earnings call in a few, but until then, Kaz, may we suggest bringing in Jimmy Rollins for tips on breaking out of a slump?

Continue reading Sony's Q3 earnings are in: wider than expected full year loss, lowered sales projections

Sony's Q3 earnings are in: wider than expected full year loss, lowered sales projections originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon announced on Thursday that Amazon.com customers are now purchasing more books for the Kindle than print books — including hardcover and paperback — combined. Since April 1st, for example, for every 100 print books that were sold on Amazon.com, the site sold 105 Kindle eBooks. “Customers are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books,” Amazon’s CEO and Founder Jeff Bezos said. “We had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happy this quickly — we’ve been selling print books for 15 years and Kindle books for less than four years.” Bezos also noted that Amazon has been pleased with the customer response to the $114 Kindle with Special Offers product, which is the most popular selling Kindle right now. Hit the jump for the full release.

Amazon.com Now Selling More Kindle Books Than Print Books

Kindle with Special Offers for only $114 is already the bestselling member of the Kindle family

SEATTLE, May 19, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) –

(NASDAQ:AMZN)–Amazon began selling hardcover and paperback books in July 1995. Twelve years later in November 2007, Amazon introduced the revolutionary Kindle and began selling Kindle books. By July 2010, Kindle book sales had surpassed hardcover book sales, and six months later, Kindle books overtook paperback books to become the most popular format on Amazon.com. Today, less than four years after introducing Kindle books, Amazon.com customers are now purchasing more Kindle books than all print books – hardcover and paperback – combined.

“Customers are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books. We had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happen this quickly – we’ve been selling print books for 15 years and Kindle books for less than four years,” said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon.com. “In addition, we’re excited by the response to Kindle with Special Offers for only $114, which has quickly become the bestselling member of the Kindle family. We continue to receive positive comments from customers on the low $114 price and the money-saving special offers. We’re grateful to our customers for continuing to make Kindle the bestselling e-reader in the world and the Kindle Store the most popular e-bookstore in the world.”

Recent milestones for Kindle include:

• Since April 1, for every 100 print books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 105 Kindle books. This includes sales of hardcover and paperback books by Amazon where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.
• So far in 2011, the tremendous growth of Kindle book sales, combined with the continued growth in Amazon’s print book sales, have resulted in the fastest year-over-year growth rate for Amazon’s U.S. books business, in both units and dollars, in over 10 years. This includes books in all formats, print and digital. Free books are excluded in the calculation of growth rates.
• In the five weeks since its introduction, Kindle with Special Offers for only $114 is already the bestselling member of the Kindle family in the U.S.
• Amazon sold more than 3x as many Kindle books so far in 2011 as it did during the same period in 2010.
• Less than one year after introducing the UK Kindle Store, Amazon.co.uk is now selling more Kindle books than hardcover books, even as hardcover sales continue to grow. Since April 1, Amazon.co.uk customers are purchasing Kindle books over hardcover books at a rate of more than 2 to 1.

Kindle offers the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read. The U.S. Kindle Store now has more than 950,000 books, including New Releases and 109 of 111 New York Times Best Sellers. Over 790,000 of these books are $9.99 or less, including 69 New York Times Best Sellers. Millions of free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are also available to read on Kindle devices. More than 175,000 books have been added to the Kindle Store in just the last 5 months.

All Kindle Books let you “Buy Once, Read Everywhere” – on all generation Kindles, as well as on the largest number of devices and platforms, including iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Android-based devices, and soon HP TouchPads and BlackBerry PlayBooks. Amazon’s Whispersync technology syncs your place across devices, so you can pick up where you left off. With Kindle Worry-Free Archive, books you purchase from the Kindle Store are automatically backed up online in your Kindle library on Amazon, where they can be re-downloaded wirelessly for free, anytime.

April 1st – 7th

• Sony suffers another major security breach
• Apple to fix location tracking bug in iOS 4.3.3; due out soon
• Live from RIM’s BlackBerry World 2011 keynote!
• RIM to launch 10-inch BlackBerry PlayBook this fall; OS 7 devices delayed?
• BlackBerry Bold 9900 / 9930 hands-on!
• Samsung Galaxy S II hands-on
• BlackBerry Bold 9900 / 9930 gets official, finally touch and type
• No iPhone 5 this summer according to AT&T rep
• Samsung Infuse 4G hands-on!
• White iPhone 4 not thicker than black version according to Apple SVP and Consumer Reports

There is quite a bit of Internet showmanship that takes place every year on April 1st. Tech companies and blogs — present company excluded — try and swindle users and readers into believing, if only for a moment, that a new, slightly outlandish product or feature is on the way. Google is a frequent offender on April Fool’s Day, and last week the company’s homepage was waxing poetic about its Google Motion service. The faux feature was said to allow users to control Gmail using their computer’s built-in camera and body movements. One week later, University of Southern California scientists, aided by a Microsoft Kinect, have turned the prank into a reality. Leveraging movement tracking software already in the works, the school’s Institute for Creative Technologies demonstrates in a video exactly how Google Motion could work. It’s humorous, interesting, and funny, all at the same time. The video is awaiting your scrutiny after the break.

[Via Business Insider]

Ah, April 1st. It's that time of the year again when the Internet is rife with odd news and pranks. As before, news sites like us end up with a healthy stream of tips throughout April Fool's Day (thanks, by the way), so let us round up some of the best findings for your comedic appetite. Contenders include the usual suspects like Google and ThinkGeek, the former of which dominating the gigglesphere this year with some new "features." We also have some interesting submissions from Hulu, a font company, and probably plenty more to come as the day progresses, so keep watching this space as we add new entries to this post. Right, let the fun commence after the break.

Continue reading April Fools' Day roundup: Google overload edition

April Fools' Day roundup: Google overload edition originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 07:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola Xoom WiFi now available for pre-order originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 16:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola announced the March 27th launch of its Wi-Fi-only XOOM on Wednesday, and now Costco has made the tablet available for pre-order. While Costco quotes a ship date five days later than Motorola’s — April 1st as opposed to March 27th — the wait will award buyers free shipping, a discounted price and a free gel case. Granted, the discount is only $10, but tack on the free shipping and that snazzy gel case, and you’ve got yourself a solid deal. We reviewed the Motorola XOOM in February and said it packs a serious punch. Included with that punch is Google’s Android 3.0 Gingerbread OS, a dual-core 1GHz processor, 32GB of storage and a 10.1-inch HD display.

Thanks, Roberto

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The only thing we really know about Chinese electronics retailer Cybermart in the Western hemisphere is that tourists often enjoy stopping by one of its locations and snapping pictures of fake iPhones — which of course is ironic, considering the chain is owned by infamous iPhone builder Foxconn. All that may soon change, however, as DigiTimes reports that the Chinese gear vendor has scored distribution rights for authentic Apple products. The retailer supposedly has plans to open 500 Apple-licensed retail locations throughout China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, the first of which will open its doors on April 1st. Cybermart also currently has 34 electronics outlets spread around China, and it plans to open seven or eight more this year.

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Google released an update of its Google Earth for Android app yesterday, giving users the chance to look underwater at the sea floor. Seeing as it's not April 1st, we have to assume this is a proper feature release. More »

Well, we've got some good news and some less good news for potential PSP Go owners. The good news is that Sony has now officially announced the ten free game offer for PSP Go buyers in the UK, which is just as we had heard and is available in quite a few countries besides the UK as well (hit up the link below for the complete list). Not among those, however, is the United States or Canada, which is where the less good news comes in. While Sony has also announced a similar promotion for US and Canadian consumers, it only covers folks that buy a PSP Go starting today (not anyone that bought one after April 1st, as in the UK), and you'll only be getting three free games, not ten -- those include LittleBigPlanet, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters and SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3. What gives? We're not entirely sure, but the only other incentive Sony is offering for North America is a new line of "Favorites" titles that will be priced at $9.99 apiece.

Sony confirms ten free game offer for UK PSP Go buyers, North America gets less awesome deal originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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