Sony planning a tablet to computer with Apple offerings

Sony is planning a tablet computer with a touch panel similar to Apple's iPad for later this year that the Japanese manufacturer promises will make the best of its gadgetry and entertainment strengths.

The product code-named S1, shown Tuesday in Tokyo, comes with a 9.4 inch display for enjoying online content, such as movies, music, video games and electronics books, and for online connections, including email and social networking.

Sony, which boasts electronics as well as entertainment divisions, also showed S2, a smaller mobile device with two 5.5 inch displays that can be folded like a book.

It did not give prices. Sony Corp. Senior Vice President Kunimasa Suzuki said the products will go on sale worldwide from about September. Both run Google's Android 3.0 operating system.

The announcement of Sony's key net-linking offerings comes as it tries to fix the outage of its PlayStation Network, which offers games and music online.

It is unclear when that can start running again. Sony has blamed the problem on an "external intrusion" and has acknowledged it would have to rebuild its system to add security measures and strengthen its infrastructure.

Suzuki said both of the latest tablets feature Sony's "saku saku," or nifty, technology that allows for smooth and quick access to online content and for getting browsers working almost instantly after a touch.

"We offer what is uniquely Sony," Suzuki said after demonstrating how the S1 was designed with a tapered width for carrying around "like a magazine."

The devices will connect to Sony's cloud-computing based library of content such as movies and music, as well as to Sony PlayStation video games adapted for running on Android and digital books from Sony's Reader store, the company said.

News Source:  The Daily Star

Sony - challenges iPad in tablet war

Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony on Tuesday unveiled its first tablet computers, codenamed S1 and S2, in a direct but belated challenge to Apple's iPad.

The "Sony Tablet" S1 has a single screen and the portable S2 has twin screens, company officials told a news conference, with both devices using Google's Android operating system and equipped with Wi-Fi for Internet access.

Competitors have rushed to cash in on soaring demand for tablets since the iPad was released in April last year, but Sony's devices are not due to go on sale around the world until the northern hemisphere autumn, well behind its rivals.

Kunimasa Suzuki, deputy president of Sony's consumer products and services group

Research in Motion is the latest to join the fray, with the release last week of its Blackberry PlayBook.

Sony said earlier this year it planned to be the number-two tablet maker by 2012 but until now had given little indication of how it intended to compete in a market already dominated by the iPad.

Samsung's Galaxy Tab is the best-selling rival to the Apple gadget but technology research company Gartner says iPad will keep its crown for the next few years despite competition in an expanding market that has eaten into PC sales.

The iPad accounted for 83.9 percent of the total 17.6 million tablets sold in 2010, according to Gartner, which predicts worldwide tablet sales will soar to 294.3 million in 2015.

Unveiling its first tablets, Sony said they would have access to online content to buy and download videos, music, digital books and other entertainment and be compatible with existing PlayStation games

The S1 has a 9.4 inch (24 centimetre) screen, and front and rear cameras while the folding clamshell S2 has dual 5.5 inch colour touchscreens and fits into a pocket.

"This design is particularly relevant for reading digital books whose content is displayed on screen as two pages side-by side," Sony official Kunimasa Suzuki said.

Both screens can be used together as a single large screen or for playing games on one and displaying control buttons on the other.

The S1 can also work as a universal remote to control audio-visual equipment or send content to television screens or music to wireless speakers, Sony said.

The two devices use the Google Android 3.0 operating system, known as Honeycomb, which is optimised for devices with larger screen sizes.

"I'm excited about 'Sony Tablet' as it will further spur the development of applications and network offerings, which users are looking for," said Andy Rubin, senior vice president of Google's mobile division.

The announcement comes as Sony looks to focus more on pushing its content such as games and music through hardware platforms including game consoles, smartphones and tablet computers.

The company did not give any indication of pricing.

Sony also announced a new line of "hybrid" notebook computers that feature a slide screen covering a keyboard.

News Source:  The Daily Star