235w ago - A Sony-owned online video entertainment site is expected to unveil its latest season of Internet programs on Monday, as the media giant moves to beef up its online entertainment content.

Crackle.com, which Sony bought in 2006 when it was known as Grouper, will showcase shows that include sketch comedy by "The Groundlings" and Anytime with Bob Kushell, a 5-minute talk show hosted by a Hollywood writer, Reuters reported Sunday.

Crackle has adopted the television practice of rolling out new programming in seasons instead of rolling out episodes when they are completed. Crackle's season begins December 1, according to the report.

The six new shows, which will often be no longer than 5 minutes long, will apply the same production techniques used in TV and films, Reuters reported.

"Just because it has higher production values doesn't mean we're trying to mirror movies and TV," Eric Berger, a Sony executive in charge of Crackle, told Reuters.

Other shows include The Jace Hall Show, which will focus on video games, and Owen Benjamin Presents, which will focus on comedic how-to segments, Reuters said.

In August, Sony Pictures Television signed a distribution deal with pioneering Web series Rocketboom, in which Sony will handle all distribution...

235w ago - A couple days ago we reported on a few holiday adverts that are part of a "bigger campaign".

Today Sony's Senior Vice President of Marketing & PlayStation Network Peter Dille detailed their PlayStation: Entertainment Unleashed ad campaign officially via PS Blog as follows:

This is one of the fun parts of my job, when we get to unveil our TV commercials and give you, our loyal fans, a preview of our spots before they hit the airwaves. This year's campaign is dubbed "Entertainment Unleashed" and for good reason.





The campaign actually began quietly a few weeks back with three fifteen second "tease" executions. Hopefully, you've seen these by now. These initial ads depicted various people catching glimpses and reflections of beautiful PS3 game footage magically appearing on building facades across a city.

This weekend, we're excited to reveal what triggered the excitement. The spot begins with a guy creating a LittleBigPlanet level on a building wall and from there, the PS3 takes on a momentum all its own, spreading amazing entertainment content uncontrollably from building to building throughout the...

237w ago - Today Sony Music Entertainment Japan has unveiled a new Blu-spec CD format that promises higher quality audio by using Blu-ray technologies.

Sony will release 60 Blu-spec music CD's (mostly Classical and Jazz albums) on December 24, 2008. Sony also state they are hoping to encourage rival studios like EMI & Universal to support the format.

To quote: Blu-spec uses the blue lasers that would normally master Blu-ray movies to cut CDs more accurately than would be possible with red lasers.

In tandem with the use of polymer plastic for the discs themselves, the format should improve the quality of audio CDs while remaining compatible with existing CD players; the latter has been a weakness of Super Audio CD and other defunct sound formats.

The first Blu-spec discs are due to reach Japan on Christmas Eve and will focus mostly on classical and jazz music, including Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and Miles Davis' Kind of Blue; 60 titles in all will be available from Sony.

The company is hoping to foster cross-label support from rivals such as EMI and Universal that have developed their own proprietary approaches to CDs.

238w ago - A trusted source has let Ripten in on some information regarding the status of several high profile Sony titles on the horizon, so I thought it would be a good idea for me to take a break from my LittleBigPlanet fun-fest and fill you all in.

For starters, all you third person military shooter fans out there will be happy to hear that, after months of play testing, Socom Confrontation will be getting the patch treatment as well as some eagerly anticipated trophies very soon.

And remember that MAG title we all got a glimpse at during Sony's E3 press conference? You know, the "massive action game" capable of supporting up to 256 players. Well, the word is that the pre-alpha is already being play tested, and the game should be nearing its alpha stage of testing soon.

That brings us to the new IP from Sucker Punch, makers of Sly Cooper. Yes, we're talking about the super hero action game titled Infamous. No specifics were revealed in terms of gameplay, but we've been told that testing has begun on this title as well.

Finally, our source tells us that the Resistance PSP title is being play tested with less than favorable feedback thus far. We're pretty sure that Sony's portable fanboy division won't be happy to hear this, but it's still early -- and regardless of how...

238w ago - A patent application filed on October 23rd that surfaced at NeoGAF reveals that talk of Sony creating a break-apart controller that surfaced back in July of this year might not have been as far-fetched as was originally thought.

The patent is for a method by which a system could track the movement of one or more controllers, with video tracking the position of the controllers and ultrasonic frequencies used to determine their distance from the console.

What this means is that two different controllers would submit data to a video input device like the PlayStation Eye, with the Eye's microphone picking up on both the visual location and aural distance to track motion.

To quote: Through images included in a patent application, Sony has provided us with the first look at what they could be planning for their much rumoured break-apart control that keeps getting mentioned every few months.

It looks like the PS-Eye is involved somehow, and removable...