New Sony Dash Personal Internet Viewer Launches With Colorful, Portable Model

Sony has launched the next generation Sony Dash at CES 2011, which are destined for the US market in Summer 2011. The basic version carries many of the features in the original, such as access to over a thousand apps (chumby), a 7″ LCD touchscreen, Wi-Fi, headphone jack and more.

Notable differences include a slight tweak in aesthetics, as well as a larger speaker on the rear of the device.

Sony is also releasing a Sony Dash Portable model, which has the same features as the regular version but includes a built-in lithium-ion battery for mobility. Our birdies said the battery life was only several hours. Color options for the Portable include brown, orange and slate blue.

We’ll let you know more about the refreshed Dash once we hit the show floor.

Raphael Saadiq, American Idol Alumni, Viva Elvis Cirque Du Solei Highlight Sony’s #CES 2011 Booth

For the last several years Sony has brought huge names in music, such as Usher and Taylor Swift, to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. It’s always been a really cool thing for press and those in the industry to see these artists, close up, like very few actually get to do. Talk about a truly unique product launch experience.

This year at CES 2011, Sony is bringing yet another interesting assortment of musicians and performers together. If you are attending CES 2011, stop by booth #14200 in the Las Vegas Convention Center on the following dates to see experience some great tunes. Musicians such as Raphael Saadiq (Jan 7th), Crystal Bowersox (Jan 6th), and Danny Gokey (Jan 8th) will all perform for 50 minute mini-concerts during CES 2011. There will also be a couple of 15 minute sessions with DJ Genki Rocket (11:25-11:40AM Jan 6-8th).

According to the official press release,

Grammy Award Winning singer, songwriter, and record producer Raphael Saadiq (Jan 7th 4:05-4:55 PM) will perform songs from his forthcoming album Stone Rollin’. (Columbia Records)

American Idol season 9 finalist singer-songwriter Crystal Bowersox (Jan. 6th 4:05-4:55 PM) to perform from her new album Farmer’s Daughter (19 Recordings/Jive)

Danny Gokey (Jan 8th 4:05-4:55 PM) season 8 finalist will perform hits from his debut album My Latest Days (19 Recordings/RCA Nashville)

There will also be an exclusive performance by Viva Elvis Cirque Du Soleil during Sony’s CES press conference, which will be streamed live on the Internet .

Personally, I am really excited to see Raphael Saadiq. “The Way I See It” is such a great sounding album that is really special to listen to with my girl. Raphael makes very some sweet sounding music.

Update: Sony’s Press Conference At #CES 2011 Live Video And Our Coverage

Sony at CES 2011 is going to be really exciting. I can’t wait to take pictures, video and review things with Stan and share Sony’s latest with the world. According to my birdies, there will be many new products.

The way CES will work is like last year. As the press conference happens (5PM PST/8PM EST 1/5, 1AM UTC 1/6), we will simultaneously provide with high quality pictures and full specifications, put together the stylish way we usually do it.

Sony Electronics is playing a much stronger hand at giving consumers exclusive access to the show. Additional coverage will be provided on the on the Sony blog and also through their new video series SGNL. It will be cool to be working along with some other people who are passionate about the brand. Sukhjit Ghag, Social Media Evangalist at Sony notes,

We’re also bringing you a live video Q & A immediately after the show with Senior Vice President, Mike Abary. Send your questions during and after the show via a comment on our blog or via Twitter to @SonyElectronics. I’ll be manning the blogosphere looking for your questions for Mike. Tech reporter Mario Armstrong and I will host the live show and are looking forward to giving you this first of it a kind access to Sony.

This year the crew at SGNL by Sony will also be there. They’re working hard to bring you first hand and hands-on view of all the products as well as special interviews and product announcements.

The SGNL crew as well as my fellow Sony Electronics blogger, Gina Campbell will be updating the Sony Electronics blog daily with videos, photos and reports from the floor. We’ll also have for regular updates on Twitter where you can follow our news by searching for #SonyCES.

As for us, we will have coverage of everything as it happens, probably in the range of at least 15-20 posts initially in tune with the press conference (so keep refreshing, we promise it will be good) and then hands-on pictorials (shot with Sony A55) and HD video and whatever else we capture afterwards. If you want us to ask any specific questions or cover something in greater detail, please let us know. We are your Sony CES servants.

A Sony press release has also pegged the Viva Elvis Cirque Du Soleil group to perform during the press conference, which is invite only. If you want to see the announcements and performance, there will be a Sony’s CES 2011 press conference live video stream on USTREAM. Kudos to Sony making this available for everyone.

Feel free to bookmark this page to watch the stream.

Sony’s “End Target” For OLED: The Rollable Large-Screen TV

(picture from an official Sony website)

One of the most tantalizing technologies Sony has experimented with is OLED. Sony has teased the world many times with OLED concept products, including the flexible Walkman, Reader, and VAIO OLED shown at CES 2009. They also showed off a nifty little bendable OLED display at the show. Last May, Sony showed their latest R&D stunner with an incredible rollable OLED display that could roll up around the circumference of a pen.

The reason I remind you of all this is really for something that isn’t discussed too often, but is an eventual reality: The Sony rollable large-screen TV.

Start salivating.

In an interview found on Sony Semiconductor & LCD news, there is some interesting revelations about Sony’s “end target” for OLED. Kazumasa Nomoto, Ph.D, a Chief Distinguished Researcher/Genaral Manager at Sony Corporation actually is really clear about what the company is working towards:

Our end target is a rollable large-screen TV. The time will come when the very idea that an enormous black box (TV) was ever placed in rooms will seem strange.

Sign me up.

Unfortunately, they don’t give a time table as to when we can expect these rollable OLED displays. How crazy would it be able to bring the big screen with you where ever you want? What’s interesting is in that picture from Sony’s site (above) it also has noise icons near the rollable TV indicating audio output. So I wouldn’t even need a speaker system? I wonder how good that would be. I guess it would just have 5GHz (or higher) Wi-Fi for everything else, including video, just like some current and past models have now.

If I had to really guess, would we see a product like this next year, or 2012? Doubtful. 5 years? Can’t be 10. I think 5. Maybe less? Hard to tell.

The interview is full of gems that give you a behind the scenes feel.

There is some chatter about how the PSP was an inspiration for display size and specifications in those various prototypes. And sometimes, the interactions during development got heated. It’s humorous to imagine a heated situation in the place they create this technology, but it does happen.

Nomoto: We also had the PSP size as our target. And the display we developed has specifications that are very close to PSP. To have an even greater impact, we aimed at a level that would succeed as an actual product. At that time, however, a resolution of 121 ppi in an OTFT-OLED display was a specification that was impossible for everyone working in this area worldwide.

Iwao Yagi, Ph.D (FD Section 2/Sony Corporation): One problem was that when multiple layers were stacked on a flexible substrate, since stretching and shrinking could occur, if the pattern was too fine it would become impossible to align the features in different layers. Our arguments as to whether or not this would be possible almost turned into fights.

Achieving higher PPI was a priority for the team, and Dr. Kobayashi was pushed to dump pentacene (organic semiconductor material), and use a new PXX derivative high-performance semiconductor material. The difference between penacene (left) and PXX (right) is shown below.

The PXX derivative took time to create, though, and in the interview Kobayashi (Ph.D/Organic Electronics Research Group Sony Corporation) gives you an idea why it took five years.

How much time did you spend developing the new material, the “PXX derivative”?

Kobayashi: Getting it to the point that everyone could use it took 5 years. The most important aspect was stability. In the basic research phase, if you make 100 devices and one produces good data, you have succeeded. But if you try to make actually transistors with that material, when you make 100 devices, all 100 must have the same characteristics.

Nomoto: Not only that, but just because you can make transistors doesn’t mean you can rest on your laurels. You have to form a protective layer, the pixel electrodes, and the emission layer on top of the transistor. They will be subject to heat and various solvents.

Kobayashi: The greatest feature of this new material is, perhaps, that it can survive these stresses and after making it through, continue to exhibit its abilities. If you look at the molecular structure, it is just a sequence of hexagonal benzene rings, but properties are radically different from those of previous organic semiconductor materials.

The interview goes on about the PXX derivative, and then discusses the unique challenges of co-operating between the device and material groups. Nomoto seems optimistic.

Nomoto: These two technologies, materials and devices, are two equal pillars that support this project. While it appears that there are still people who doubt that organic materials can be used in these sorts of devices, we have the strong impression that they definitely can, both in the devices themselves and in a printing process. We will be doing our best to create products that give Sony an overwhelming lead in this area; you can count on it.