Sony announced several new phones at CES last week, destined for various parts of the world. North America is getting the Xperia ion by way of AT&T. The ion is similar to the Xperia S which has been named as the 2012 flagship product. There are a few differences between the ion and S though, so I will talk about the S separately. Here are the ion specs:

• Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), upgrading to Ice Cream Sandwich soon
• 4.55″ 16 million colour TFT display, with a resolution of 1280×720 pixels
• 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 MSM8260 dual-core processor
• Adreno 220 GPU
• 1GB RAM
• 16GB eMMC internal memory
• microSD up to 32GB
• Supports UMTS/HSPA 850/1900/2100 and GSM /EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 bands
• LTE 700MHz and 1700MHz and UMTS HSPA+ 850MHz, 1900MHz and 2100Mhz
• Mobile BRAVIA Engine
• NFC enabled
• ANT+ enabled
• 12MP camera with Sony Exmor R CMOS sensor for low light, supports 1080p video
• 1.3 MP front-facing camera, supports 720p video
• Transfer Content through DLNA, HDMI and BRAVIA Sync
• PlayStation Certified

Where to start, here? This looks like the rumored Xperia duo we had been hearing about over the last few months. At 4.55″, this is a very large phone. A dual-core processor brings Sony into the modern phone era, though its competitors are already releasing their next-generation phones. Sony has some catching up to do, and this phone looks like it is off to a good start. Of note, the image sports the Sony logo, rather than Sony Ericsson. There is a note about the name pending regulatory approval, but Sony is planning to release this phone sans-Ericsson.

At 12MP, the camera will be hard to beat. Sony is advertising that it can go from standby to ready to shoot in less than 2 seconds. I am looking forward to seeing this in action. The Xperia X10 was a little slow on that front. Sony is gunning for Apple with this feature. Apple had spent a lot of time playing up the speedy camera feature. Sony’s video camera finally supports 1080p, and throws in 720p for the front-facing camera. I would have liked to see more than 1.5MP on the front-facing camera, but it should be more than sufficient for self portraits.

As with most Sony devices coming out these days, the phone is PlayStation Certified. There is already a pretty respectable list of Xperia Play games available, so if the ion can tap into this, it will be off to a good start. The Tablet S is still waiting for additional games, so it will be interesting to see whether the Xperia ion takes after the phones or tablets for PlayStation support.

Sony is offering a substantial 16GB of internal phone storage, and the microSD slot can support an additional 32GB. Whether you are using this phone for gaming or photography, you should be well-set in the memory department. With 48GB available, you should be able to do quite a bit of both.

Learning a valuable lesson from the Tablet S, Sony is including HDMI support in addition to DLNA. Not all users have DLNA devices, so Sony will be able to reach more customers who do have HDMI-enabled devices.

The Xperia ion is NFC enabled, which means it will support Sony’s new NFC tags, and can support Android Ice Cream Sandwich’s DLNA features.

Sony’s Xperia ion will be available at AT&T in the second quarter of this year, with some rumors hinting about the end of March. There is no word on pricing, or a solid release date.

The full version of Video Unlimited has officially arrived on the Sony Tablet S. When you try to launch the Video Unlimited app, you will see an update prompt. When you’ve installed the update, you’re good to go. Upon re-opening the app you will see an improved start page, and a navigation menu on the left. There are a lot of movies and television shows available to rent or purchase. Sony has broken the selections into the following categories: Store Top, New Releases, TV Shows, Movies, Collections & Sales, Top Movie Purchases, Top TV Episodes, Rent Now, and Deal of the Week. Clicking on the navigation options gets you to either a sub-category or a list of titles, depending on what you’ve clicked. The sub-menus look familiar for PS3 and PSP fans.

In the Top Movie Purchases section the titles are broken down into Popular Movies, Top TV Shows, and You Might Like. Each row moves independently of the others, which is a nice touch. In the Collections & Sales and Deal of the Week categories, the choices fill the screen instead of making you scroll through.

In the Collections & Sales and Rent Now sections you find the 99 cent rentals. Throughout the rest of the app, rentals run from $3-$5, much like a typical Blockbuster or standard video rental store. Though these prices are not abnormally high, Red Box gets the same movies for $1-$1.60 depending on your Blu-ray preference. As for the purchase prices, they are pretty standard. $15 will get you most new movies. Older movies are priced a bit lower. The Deal of the Week section offers movies for $5.

Overall, Video Unlimited is a pretty standard rental store. There is a pretty good selection already, and it will likely grow over time. It will be interesting to see how this store does when the UltraViolet cloud storage project launches. If these purchases are stored in UltraViolet, Sony can get a lot of play out of the two services. Until then, enjoy Video Unlimited. Let me know what you think about it in the comments.

Sony Ericsson and EA Games have teamed up with a new promo called “Get in the Game” for the Xperia Play. Between October 1 and January 15, 2012, Play owners can pick up four free games – Dead Space, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Need for Speed Shift, and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.

So, how do you get your free games? Follow the instructions below:

You can check out the terms and conditions and the game descriptions on the official promo site at www.sonyericsson.com/getinthegame. Check out the video for Need for Speed Hot Pursuit below. There is a fairly graphic video for Dead Space available as well, but I’ll let you check that one out on your own at the Sony Ericsson YouTube channel.

NVIDIA has a convenient app to showcase its Tegra processor. It’s called the NVIDIA Tegra Zone. Smartphones and Tablets with the Tegra chip can take advantage of this app to find games specifically designed to showcase its capabilities.

NVIDIA Tegra-powered devices take advantage of the first mobile super chip to deliver extreme multitasking and breakthrough gaming performance. The best Web experience with up to 2X faster browsing, hardware-accelerated Flash and console-quality gaming. Discover everything you can do with your Tegra-powered super phone and super tablets on NVIDIA.com.
NVIDIA, Tegra Zone

The games run from free to $8, and are quite impressive visually. The colors pop, the processing is smooth, and the gameplay is pretty fun. One of the more popular games, Riptide GP is coming out in a non-Tegra optimized version, and is expected to be pretty nice.

Tegra “Super Tablets“

• Sony Tablet S
• Sony Tablet P
• Lenovo IdeaPad K1
• Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet
• Motorola Xoom
• T-Mobile G-Slate with Google by LG
• LG Optimus Pad
• ASUS Eee Pad Transformer
• Acer Iconia Tab A500
• Acer Iconia Tab A100
• Toshiba Thrive
• ASUS Eee Pad Slider
• Dell Streak 7

Tegra “Super Phones“

• Samsung Galaxy R
• Motorola Photon 4G
• Motorola Droid X2
• T-Mobile G2x with Google by LG
• Motorola Atrix 4G
• LG Optimus 2X

If you have one of these devices, be sure to check out the app. If you are on your computer, scan this QR code to find the app. From your phone, follow the link here.

Learn more about the Tegra Zone at www.tegrazone.com.

Sony Released a new ad this week on YouTube that has earned a lot of buzz, and with good reason. Bringing together favorites from PlayStation games past and present, Sony shows us what they could look like in real life in a live-action commercial. The video brings the various characters together to celebrate Michael, one of many PlayStation gamers. In essence, Sony is paying tribute to its customers in a really cool way. Check out the video above.

I thought it was nice to see Kratos, Nathan Drake, Cole, and Ezio in live action, having spent so much time with their in-game personas. Even Sackboy was a nice touch. What do you think? Did they leave anyone out? Who was your favorite character? Let me know in the comments.

The newest PlayStation Portable device from Sony is now available for pre-order at Sony Style. The Vita is being released in Japan on December 17, but we were told that the US release would come in early 2012. When the Vita was first announced, the date of December 31 was stated as the US launch date. Amazon.com and other vendors have kept this date on their pre-order pages, even after several announcements from Sony about the later launch dates. Now that Sony itself is offering the Vita for pre-order with a shipping date of December 31, 2011, it looks like it may actually get here in time for the New Year.

Here are the specs:

• ARM Cortex – A9 core (4 Core) Processor
• SGX543MP4+ GPU
• 5″ capacitive OLED touch screen, 960×544 resolution, with up to 16 million colors
• Dimensions (W x H x D): 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm
• Front and rear facing cameras
• Built-in stereo speakers and microphone
• 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
• GPS
• Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass

All this needs is a GSM antenna and we could have the ultimate PlayStation Phone. As it is though, it will be a very nice gaming system. There will be cross-compatibility between the Vita and your PS3, including the ability to start a game on one device and continue it on the other. Some of the launch titles looks really sharp on the system, including Uncharted: Golden Abyss. The Vita should appeal to PS3 owners primarily, but PSP fans should enjoy upgrades like an additional control stick.

There will be no UMD support outside of Japan, which is unfortunate for those of us who bought the original PSP. Another point of concern is the proprietary storage. Sony has made great strides recently in using universal accessories, but went back to its proprietary tendencies on the Vita. I’m not sure that this is a deal-breaker, but it is a little annoying. For the 3G enabled Vita, there will be an initial download cap of 20MB. Larger files will require a Wi-Fi connection, at least for now. There is a possibility the cap will change over time.

The touch screen on the front makes a lot of sense, as do the front and rear cameras. The rear touch pad makes a little less sense at the moment, but hopefully with the appropriate games it will be useful. Sony certainly put a lot of effort into the Vita.

The Vita is available with Wi-Fi for $249, and with Wi-Fi/3G for $299. Both are evidently now shipping by December 31. Check out the Vita at sonystyle.com, or your favorite electronics vendor.

The iPhone 4S was officially revealed today in Cupertino, along with iOS 5. Though it looks like the iPhone 4, there have been some important features added, bringing the iPhone up to par with its Android competition in some respects, while maintaining the general Apple look and feel so many know and love. Throughout the announcement, I couldn’t help but think about how Android phones already have a lot of these features. Here are the specs:

• 3.5″ Retina display, 960×640 resolution (326ppi)
• 1GHz dual core ARM-Cortex A9 processor
• Apple A5 chip (like iPad 2)
• 8MP rear facing camera with LED Flash and Face Detection
• VGA front facing camera, 30 fps video
• UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz);
  GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
• CDMA EV-DO Rev. A (800, 1900 MHz)
• 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi (802.11n 2.4GHz only)
• Bluetooth 4.0

An 8MP camera, finally. Apple has had nice cameras in the past, but lingered for years without an 8MP camera. With an LED flash, face detection, image stabilization, and 1080p video recording, Apple finally caught up to Android in camera specs. Sony in particular has had all but the 1080p for a couple of years now, and tacked on smile detection too.

Of note is that there will be a single iPhone 4S phone, across carriers and world-wide. It has both CDMA and GSM antennas, making it suitable for AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint in the US, and the GSM networks in Europe. T-Mobile has been left out of this round. AT&T will reportedly get the fastest speeds with the HSPA+ network, and Sprint has committed to unlimited data plans for the iPhone. The iPhone 4 is also coming to Sprint.

Apple offers iCloud synchronization, so you can access all your content on any of your Apple devices automatically. Think of the Amazon Kindle’s Whispersync. This is a helpful feature, especially for those with both an iPhone and an iPad.

Though iOS 5 is coming to the original iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3GS, the OS’s main attraction will only be available on the iPhone 4S. Siri was an app in the Apple app store. It is now a pretty attractive feature in the iPhone, and has been removed from the store. Siri allows you to speak conversationally into your phone to make things happen. You can send text messages, e-mails, check show times, weather, and more, simply by talking to your phone. If you’ve used Android at all the last couple of years you may be familiar with this concept. Vlingo had a popular Android App, and then Google introduced Voice Actions. With Voice Actions you can also access Google’s free Navigation software on top of the features you get with Siri. Apple did upgrade the service a bit, which is good. You can ask questions with nuances that other programs might miss, such as asking about whether or not you need an umbrella and getting the weather report. Apple has raised the bar a bit on voice features, so it will be interesting to see how Android responds. The customers end up winning in this particular aspect because the feature is pretty cool on both systems.

Another feature highlighted today was iMessage. You can chat with other iOS users and keep the conversation going across devices. Again, this is already possible on Android, and includes the Chrome browser as well, specifically with Google Talk. Apple took it even further with GPS-based friend location, called Find My Friends. This works like Google Latitude, and you can see your friends on a map, assuming they opted in to the service and have allowed their location to be known.

I think the best features announced today were the camera and Siri. Other than that, think of the iPhone 4S as an upgrade to the iPhone 4. Though many were disappointed with this launch, there is nothing wrong with upgrading the phone without calling it the iPhone 5. There were plenty of new apps and features added to make it a significantly better phone than its predecessor.

The iPhone 4S will be available for pre-order on October 7, and will be available October 14. There are three versions available, subsidized by Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T. You can get a 16GB phone for $199, 32GB for $299, and 64GB for $399. Yes, I said these were subsidized prices. Meanwhile, the iPhone 4 (8GB) will drop to $99, and the 3GS (8GB) can be picked up for free.

Check out all the new features at apple.com/iphone.

The next iPhone has been the talk of the town lately. Sprint announced it would have unlimited data plans when it gets the iPhone 5. T-Mobile complained that it didn’t get any iPhone love. AT&T thinks it will continue to dominate in iPhone sales and services. After all this posturing, it isn’t a surprise that the new iPhone is likely being announced at an upcoming press conference. Apple sent out simple invitations to the event, saying “Let’s Talk iPhone”. Sounds pretty clear.

Apple has changed up its tablet/phone launch strategy this year, which has led to a lot of speculation. Different manufacturing specs and concept images have leaked, and there are a number of possibilities as to what we will see next week. The iPhone 4S has been discussed in addition to the iPhone 5. Some have even expressed concern that the original iPod may have reached its end of life. It would make sense to leave the bottom end iPods intact, but even Sony ditched the cassette Walkman recently. For the iPod to become a dinosaur this quickly is something, though.

We’ll likely get to find out if the iPod has met its end next week. We’ll also get to see if Apple releases two phones instead of the usual ace. I am looking forward to seeing what Apple comes up with, especially now that Jobs has resigned. Things may start getting even more interesting.

What do you think? Will we see two iPhones? Will the older iPods retire? Let me know in the comments.

Introducing three new Kindles. Photo Credit: Amazon.com

Amazon just announced not one, but four new Kindle devices. The keyboard is gone, and three of the four feature touch screens, including the new Kindle Fire tablet. Pictured above, you can see the Kindle Fire, Kindle Touch (3G version also announced), and the new basic Kindle without touch. Amazon loaded all of them with features.

The Kindle uses a new feature called “X-Ray” to provide helpful information with the book, on top of traditional dictionary searches. Wikipedia entries and other relevant content is included with the book upon download. Unlike some other devices (including older Kindles), there will not be a page turn button on the Kindle Touch. There will be a thin column of touchable space on the left and right where you can tap to move forward or backward. Amazon has two price points for the new readers, with ads or without. You can also now check out Kindle books from a library.

Kindle

The latest Kindle is pocket-sized, according to Amazon.com. It weighs 5.8 ounces, and is 18% smaller, and turns pages 10% faster. It is the same 6″ screen you may be used to. For $79, Amazon may have finally hit the price point to keep e-readers relevant. The Kindle is available today. Don’t want special offers? The ad-free version is $109. Still not a bad price. Check it out at amazon.com/kindle.

Kindle Touch/Touch 3G

The Kindle Touch is 8% lighter, and 11% smaller, and features a multi-touch screen. It includes the new X-Ray technology so you can read about relevant content in addition to your book. All your books are stored in the cloud, and feature Whispersync so you can pick up where you left off no matter what device you are using. The Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G are available for pre-order, and will ship November 21. The Touch is $99 with Special Offers, and $139 without. Check it out at amazon.com/kindletouch. The Kindle Touch 3G is $149 with Special Offers or $189 without. Check it out at amazon.com/kindletouch3G.

Kindle Fire

The Kindle Fire rolls the best of Amazon.com into a single package. Movies, Music, TV shows, Books, cloud storage, and an Android app store are all part of this package. For $199, this tablet is set to sell. Quickly. It features a dual-core processor, 7″ multi-touch display, and 8GB of internal memory. The screen resolution is 1024×600, and the display can show 16 million colors. The Fire has free cloud storage for all Amazon products, which explains the smaller storage. It also comes with a free month of Amazon Prime. Unlike the readers, this one does not have two price points. It will ship for $199 on November 15. Check it out at amazon.com/kindlefire.

So, there you have it. Four new Kindle readers, or three if you don’t count the Touch 3G separately. Amazon has thrown down the gauntlet on pricing, both in the e-reader and tablet arena, so things should get pretty interesting in short order. Even though I don’t like the idea of ads on a screensaver, the ads are not too intrusive on the Kindle. Given a reasonably long expected lifetime of the product, is it worth a $40 savings? Maybe. I would probably spring for the ad-free version. Amazon did not disappoint today. The e-Ink Kindle that we have come to know over the years continues to be relevant, and now there is a tablet ready to shake things up. What do you think? Did Amazon show you something you’re excited about? Let me know in the comments.

For years there has been an ongoing debate about tablets vs e-Readers. I wrote about a few of the competitors a while back in a series called the e-Reader Wars. People were comparing the Kindle, Nook, and Sony Reader against the iPad, even though they are in completely different markets. Some devices tried to bridge the gap between e-reader and tablet, like the Adam from Notion Ink and the ill-fated Edge from Entourage. The e-reader market continued to thrive, even as more and more tablets emerged. There is a reason for this. e-Ink is a better medium for reading books. Back-lit displays are hard on the eyes, tablets tend to be heavier than e-readers, and sometimes people want a gadget that does just one thing really well. The Kindle was never really in competition with the iPad.

With the launch of the Nook Color, Barnes & Noble crossed over into tablet territory. The Kindle and Sony Reader stayed true to e-Ink, among some other competitors including the Nook touch. When it comes down to it, a 7 inch Kindle Fire is better able to compete with the Nook Color than it is the iPad. It is not necessarily the device though that is causing the stir. Amazon’s Prime membership, Android apps, cloud services, media services, and Android market have positioned it to change the tablet industry. Amazon provides hardware to sell software, and there is a lot of software to choose from with Amazon’s label. This will certainly make things interesting in the near future, but until the 10 inch model comes out, it sounds like the Kindle Fire is geared to enhance the e-reader space over the tablet space.

Is the Kindle Fire going to excite a lot of people? Of course. This should be a pretty cool device, full of Amazon innovation. The rumored low price point will make this a hit in time for the holidays. Is Apple concerned about this new market entrant? Probably, but there is plenty of time for this to considered a threat. Apple will likely have some time to respond. Hopefully Amazon will continue to carry its e-Ink Kindle readers. Though Apple is a tempting target in the tablet industry, there is still plenty of life left in e-Readers. I carry my Sony Reader Daily Edition to work right along my Tablet S. I like what my tablet has to offer, and I like what the Reader has to offer. They are complimentary, or at least not in direct competition. We may soon see if the market agrees. I expect Amazon to sell a lot of tablets in the coming months.

Even though I don’t think this first run of Kindle Fire will be a huge threat to Apple, I am looking forward to seeing what Amazon comes up with. We should know a lot more about the Kindle Fire tomorrow morning. Let’s hope it can live up to the hype. I have a feeling it will.