Vaio Y Gets i5 And Discrete Update

Sony’s Vaio Y series was Sony’s entrance into the low powered notebook market, but at the time was a little underwhelming. It has been given a much needed refresh, which adds the more powerful Intel i3 and i5 series (the low power versions) of processors to the mix. Additionally, another nice upgrade is the option for an ATI 4550 discrete graphics card (not switchable unfortunately),  256GB SSD and a bunch of pretty colours.
The refreshed Y is available to pre-order now and starts at $US769 . Jump over to Sony.com for more information.

Vaio Mass Recall Exaggeration

Sony has been hit with an unfortunate recall notice following the release of a BIOS upgrade that fixed a potential overheating issue. The issue was that first generation F series and second generation CW series Vaio’s would overheat because the heating management system wouldn’t kick in. Sony is confident that the new Vaio BIOS fixes the issue and is available here.
Unfortunately the mainstream press got a wind that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission had issued a recall notice. It seems that they didn’t see the video of the new Macbook Pro boiling water.
Vaio owners, you guys own the best laptops on the market by a large margin. I say this after owning every major brand and having to support all brands for over 7 years. Issues like this happen constantly to all brands, the difference is the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is usually ignorant to the issues.

Via [Sony Insider]

New Touch Screen Vaio J

Sony has been in the touch screen desktop PC for a little while now, but have been on the rather expensive side of things. The Vaio J is planning on changing that with a starting price of around $US900. Sure it is more expensive then some of the Atom based desktops out there, but it will be a hell of a lot faster and better looking.
The specs are great, with a multi touch 21.5 full HD screen, Nvidia graphics of some sort and a Intel i7 at its heart.
Expect to see it next month, and hopefully priced accordingly.

Via [Gizmodo]

The Prettiest Netbook Reaches US Shores

The Sony Vaio W Billabong addition is one sweet looking netbook. For people who don’t know Billabong is one of Australia’s largest surf wear companies. For $500 this handsome netbook can be yours!
Unfortunately, because of the disposable nature of netbooks, the money might be better spend on a faster notebook.

Via [Engadget]

Sony Vaio June 2010 Refresh Goes Live

Sony’s UK site has gone live with an array of new Vaio’s, and unfortunately there is not much to see. Everyone’s favorite Vaio Z has gotten nothing worth while and has actually gone up in price. The new P series is up, with the touchpad and slightly tweaked design. The most interesting update is the addition of AMD tri-core processors to the E series line up.
Jump over to Sony UK to see all the pretty new models.

Say Hello To The Sony Vaio EB Series

Looks like Sony has released another model to their ever going product line up. This time it is the EB series (E = Entertainment?).
It is a 2.7KG, 15.5″ entertainment machine from the looks of it, with a off center keyboard and touch pad, and options for very powerful ATI graphics cards (both the 5470 and 5650). The EB also seems to be inspired by Skittles for colours, with options for bright green, pink and blue.
The series starts at $US799 and ships somewhere in the future. Lets hope that though we get Acer pricing, we still get Sony quality.

Via [Sony]

Full Spec Vaio Z

The Vaio Z refresh has been known for a few weeks now (since the announcement at CES), but a few facts were still in the air. Sony Japan has now announced the Z officially with specs that will blow your mind.

The first thing to note is the new eye melting resolution of 1920 x 1080 (on the top end model). If you found the old z hard to read then this one will surely implode your brain.

It also features all the rumored bits and pieces; the Nvidia 330GT, the quad SSD (no hdd option anymore), back-lit keyboard (reference other article) and the 1.4 kg weight. Price is expected to be around the $US1899 but with the release date of  March you still have plenty of time to start saving those precious pennies (I recommend collecting cans).

Via [Gizmodo]

Vaio Getting Backlit (Keyboard that is)

It seems all the over hype about how amazing backlit keyboards are
have reached an ear at the Sony Vaio development team. Their upcoming
Z series refresh is rumoured to be the first Vaio to feature a backlit
keyboard (also the first to feature quad SSD drives). All you
need now is to sell a kidney to be able to afford all that creamy Vaio
goodness (2 kidneys for quad SSD).

Via [Engadget]

The Coming Year

Merry Christmas Everyone. Now that is out of my system I would like to look ahead at the year coming.

What will be the defining technology? What breakthroughs will be made? What will be the ultimate lust machine?

This is a hard one for me to answer personally. I am a laptop man, and love the all in one devices, such as smart phones and tablets. I am interested in CES in January and the release of the i3 and i5 Intel processors coming out (and hopefully a new Sony Vaio Z based on it). I am interested in the evolution of Android devices, new Blackberries and Windows Mobile 7. I am interested in emerging green energy and their evolutions.

What you say? No iPad/iTablet/iSlate?

Before you string me up for not being an Apple Fanboy, I want to explain why. Apple are not a hardware company. Sure they make laptops and other devices, but it is usually other companies tech with their own interface. Sure their interfaces are the best (I agree they are simple to use and flow better then most), but they don’t really push the technology envelope very often. The Apple Tablet will be cool to look at and do flashy things, but ultimately it will do exactly what you imagine it will do (good video player, bad E-Book reader).

As the year comes to an end, I am looking forward to seeing something game changing in the coming year.

Powerful VAIO VGN-SZ791N Gets Reviewed

Unfortunately I don’t get to do reviews here, I just can’t afford the toys. The people at PCMag aren’t as unfortunate. They have got their hands on the damn powerful VGN-SZ791N, and they really liked it. They gave it a hefty 4.5 out of 5 circles. It even earned the Editor’s Choice branding. Unfortunately, even the best can’t run Crysis, with a lousy frame-rate of 6 at 1024×768.

For the compete review, click over to PCMag.