Live from Sony's Thursday keynote
There's so much going on with Sony this year that yesterday's massive press conference couldn't hold it all. This morning, CEO Sir Howard Stringer is scheduled to take Sony's rebound strategy one step further.
10:43am PT: Stringer concludes with a sad story re kids losing their sense of wonder and adventure as they get older.
"At Sony, we're trying not to believe in the word impossible. No drop in the economy can change that this is one of the most innovative industries in the history of the world."
10:37am PT: Howard to Usher: It's now a singles market. Do you miss the album?
Usher: (discussing outlets and opportunity; when this guy gets tired of singing he'd make a good exec or mentor) Artists must take time to build an overall story.
Howard: Summing up: There is a word in the vocabulary of every child that changes whenever it is uttered...Imagination.
Slogan on-screen: "if you can imagine it we can help you make it"
10:29am PT: Who is this setting up to play us music? Usher! Wow, actually a great voice. You never know these days, but he is live here with us and he is great.
10:28am PT: Oh, Howard, I would not be talking about Gracenote OR putting CDs in computers were I Sony. banned for life. (We have moved onward in the conversation, obviously.)
Sony PlayNow Plus music service for music phones (streaming), available in Europe.
10:24am PT: Talking about first DreamWorks 3-D productions, Monsters vs. Aliens -- a work in progress -- is 3d and we have an exclusive preview... You start the clip by being amazed by the tech, and end the clip just totally drawn into the story. That's just how it should be.
10:18am PT: Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, enters the stage.
These glasses for the 3D are rather nice polarized lenses -- not the old red-and-blue kind. Still we look like dorks.
10:13am PT: Talking about the Eco line...This is from yesterday, the pound-for-a-pound recycling thing. We're picking up speed and I sense that we are well behind the correct pace of presentation.
Dye sensitized solar cell...sugar-based bio battery...greenheart phone -- partly biorecycleable. Must be fun to be in research at Sony.
Onward to digital cinema. National availability of 3D a lot closer than we think, Stringer says.
We all have those glasses again.
10:08am PT: Yankee Stadium is Sony's CE partner, so up on stage now is Reggie Jackson, talking about the crazy streak of homers...And when they threw the Reggie bars...And of course Howard was there that day. Jeez, what a life.
And Howard whips out a Reggie bar. Heh.
10:02am PT: Away he goes.
10:01am PT: Belly breathing -- yes, it's de-stressing, but please not in this room -- not enough mint gum at work.
10:00am PT: Cannabis neuroreceptors cause the munchies. Stress among other thing activates them. No comment.
10:00am PT: Dr. Oz comes out now (Oprah doctor) wearing a suit. Well, he's charismatic. Funny too. Talking about excess weight. But why are we having this conversation?
Your waist should be less that half your height? Tight-belt syndrome? We are now measuring Howard's waist. Turns out that his current ideal height is 6'6" -- he does not look so pleased.
9:56am PT: Free Realms; a MMORPG for kids, families, girls, etc. On the PC first then PS3; in beta now. Ooh, colorful.
PlayStation Store is big -- 1200 movies and 3000 TV episodes in service since July. MTV now partnering -- they're announcing this today -- 2000+ hours of content. Meanwhile, 2 million users have d/loaded Life with PlayStation, and there are 900k uniques / month. Looks to me like Google Earth with channels, but Google Earth itself has channels.
PlayStation home, online hangout -- 3.4 d/loads in first month of beta. Electronic Arts is on board -- they're announcing today -- and from the look of it Second Life ain't gonna like that news.
9:50am PT: Kaz Hirai, president of SCEA, up now.
PlayStation Network has 17 million registered users, and 2.1 million accounts. Little Big Planet has 1.3 million unique users, and enough user-generated levels as we speak for someone to play 24/7 for 2.5 years.
9:41am PT: The future of this technology is pretty amazing, he says, and invokes Walt Disney. He's looking forward to 3D at home with Blu-ray.
9:40am PT: Some fun BD Live stuff -- highly interactive. There's a game on the Cars blu-ray? Lasseter created it andHee.
9:39am PT: "We sweat over every tiny detail at Pixar and finally the audience are gonna see that." (Wall-e clip) "We're kind of geeks at Pixar." (You don't say, honey.)
9:36am PT: John Lasseter, CEO of Pixar, joins Springer on stage. "Why is Blu-ray important? Let's ask John Lasseter."
Lasseter on Blu-ray: "You can't go back when you have this"
9:34am PT: "The clearest sign of Sony's leadership in high-definition is the success of Blu-ray. Um... Idle thought: wonder which movie sold more Blu-ray: Wall-e or Dark Knight? Guessing the latter, though I don't need to see the pencil trick in high-def. Really, I don't.
9:32am PT: Available immediately "at an extraordinarily reasonable price."
The Internetted clock-radio -- sort of a very intelligent and helpful picture frame. Co-developed with Chumby. Has "music video of the day" option, powered by Pandora -- knows your tastes. Info preferences, weather and such.
Funny, but this is sort of the way I use my Sidekick most days. I'm on board.
9:26am PT: On to announcing, then: A Wi-Fi Cybershot camera. Can send images online or to a Bravia TV -- many hotspots -- Sony dude is uploading images from this event to Picasa instantly.
9:25am PT: Sony has a history of delivering on challenges (reiterating history).
9:16am PT: Demoing the 3D stuff: "With these glasses you can watch a movie and Tom Hanks at the same time -- that's getting to be a dubious privilege."
9:15am PT: Howard: "At least we'll still be friends...at least 'til the movie comes out."
Tom: "I'm whatever Sony wants me to be today, Howard."
9:13am PT: The script said he uses the Sony Digital Reader and he just made it damn clear he uses the Kindle and, I think, the Mac. Must rock to be so powerful in Hollywood that you can give Sir Howard Stringer hell.
9:10am PT: Doing a cold reading of the TelePrompTer speech, he claims -- it's going great and he's just crazy smart obviously. Ad-libbing -- "they write the lies but I tell the truth." Somewhere a marcom person is praying to sink through the floor to China.
Can we keep him?
9:09am PT: Bitching about not buying Betamax. Crowd lurving this.
"Now before I begin, and quote the words written for me by a lowly Sony marketing exec..." Hee. Brother Tom is WAY too caffeinated for me, but his tales of techish woe are funny as hell.
9:09am PT: After a talk from CEA chief Gary Shapiro on the economy (weird to know that Obama is saying something substantive on this at the same time)...Tom Hanks!!!