13.3-inch Sony VAIO S Series with Core i7, 2x 512GB SSD in RAID 0

Sony announced drool-worthy S Series 13.3” VAIO laptops that boast impressive performance and battery life (up to 16 hours for some configurations). The laptops weigh around 1.7kg and pack more processing power than your average desktop computers, depending on how you customize it.

Prices range from a little under $1000 to you’d-better-not-ask.
The Sony VAIO S Series start with Core i5 @ 2.3GHz (2.9GHz Turbo Boost), but you can pick a Core i7 dual-core CPU @ 2.7GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost) as well. Then there’s the AMD Radeon 6470M with 512MB VRAM (for the i5 CPUs) or the Radeon 6630M with 1GB VRAM (for the i7).
And if you’ve got the cash, you can skip over the lowly HDDs and go for the ultimate, bank-breaking 1TB SSD storage in the form of 2x512GB SSDs in RAID 0 configuration. The kind of performance you’ll get out of that makes my mouth water and my office PC weep. My wallet too – the 1TB SSD option costs more than anything else in the laptop itself put together.
The 13.3-inch screen is either 1366×768 (for the cheaper S Series options) or 1600×900 for the higher end models.
The S Series laptops are under 2.5 cm thick and boast magnesium and aluminum materials. The weight is a very respectable 1.72kg.
Using an optional sheet battery (costs $150) will push battery life to 16 hours if get an SSD configuration. The extra battery can be charged separately and can be ingeniously plugged into the laptop without having to shut it down first.


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Sony makes good, doles out identity protection activation codes for PSN and Qriocity users

Still feeling burned by Sony's record-breaking PlayStation Network outage? Fret not, promised reparations have arrived: a short form on the PlayStation website is now distributing activation codes for a free year of Debix AllClear ID Plus identity theft protection. The offer is good for all US PSN and Qriocity account holders who activate before June 28th, netting users up to $1 million in identity theft insurance coverage. Feel better? Hit the source link below to get your redemption code.


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Sony BMG Greece Hacked, User Info Revealed

It seems Sony cannot catch a break. On Friday the company faced more bad press when a credit card phishing site was found running on one of its Taiwanese servers. Now, it’s Sony’s Sony BMG music and entertainment arm that is in the crosshairs.

Sony BMG Greece’s website was recently hacked and user information stolen. According to Sophos, an anonymous poster uploaded a user database, including usernames, real names and email addresses of users registered to SonyMusic.gr, to pastebin.com. The hackers responsible are thought to used an automated SQL injection tool to find a flaw.

Information sent to Hacker News from the hacker, named only as b4d_vipera, indicates that the attack took place on May 5. A total of 8385 users are said to be affected by the attack.

Last week Sony CEO Howard Stringer commented that no company’s system is 100 percent secure and the PSN breach was "a hiccup in the road to a network future." However, given the trend of attacks on Sony’s system, it seems the company would do well to prepare itself for more hiccups as the high profile PSN attack seems to have made it a target for hackers.

Sony has yet to comment on this attack specifically, and it has not yet addressed last week’s phishing site incident.  

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Sony’s PSP Remaster title series will bring select PSP games to your PS3

The PlayStation Portable, otherwise known by us lazy people as the PSP, may very well be outdated now, but it still has some of the best games out there that you wouldn’t mind playing again if only they didn’t have graphics that belong to 2005. If that’s the case then consider yourself lucky because Sony has got something called PlayStation Portable Remaster that will bring select PSP games to your PS3, that too in high definition, which is the right kind of definition as far as games (or anything, for that matter) goes.

So it works like this. Sony will select certain games of their choice and then give them the full royal treatment, which involves updated graphics, extra content, support for the Sixaxis controller and in some cases, even stereoscopic 3D support. The games will then be distributed on Blu-ray.
Now one of the best parts about these games is that if you already have a copy of the PSP version, then the PS3 will sync with it and transfer the save game files so you can pickup and start playing from the same point you stopped on the PSP. Another thing is the support for Sony’s Ad Hoc multiplayer service, which lets you play the game on your PS3 with other PSP owners.




For now the only announced title is Capcom’s popular Monster Hunt Portable 3rd HD and even that is only for Japan. Still you can be sure to expect more titles heading your way. Meanwhile we are crossing all our fingers for the PS3 version of God of War: Chains of Olympus and God of War: Ghosts of Sparta, preferably on a single Blu-ray.


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Sony to Post $3.2 Billion Loss From Last Year

Sony is expected to post an annual loss of $3.2 billion dollars for the company's fiscal year ended March 2011.

Sony today announced that it had revised its consolidated results forecast for the fiscal year ended March 31 and expects to record a loss of 260 billion yen or $3.2 billion dollars. This is a sharp contrast to the 70 billion yen profit that the company forecasted back in February.

Sony cited the Japanese earthquake as part of the reason for the big loss along with a non-cash charge of approximately 360 billion yen against certain deferred tax assets in Japan. The quake is said to have cost Sony 22 billion yen in sales this year and 17 billion yen in operating profits. The company also expects to incur various expenses relating to repair, removal, cleaning and other restoration jobs as a result of the disaster and values these at about 11 billion yen. However, Sony said today that it expects insurance policies to offset almost all of the losses and expenses related to restoration.

While the earthquake has had a significant impact (indeed, CNet reports that Sony’s 2012 fiscal year will be hit even harder as the company recovers), the company has yet to put a figure on the damages incurred as a result of the massive breach on its PSN and Qricoity network back in April. The company has supposedly already spent 14 billion yen on on customer support, legal expenses, network upgrades, and other expenses related to the outage and breach, but the total cost of the fiasco is not yet known.


Read the full story on CNet.

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