Back in September last year we heard that Sony were releasing a slimmer version of the PS Vita. Initially the PS Vita Slim was released in Japan but, the slimmer handheld console is now set to release in the UK come February 7th. While available in several colours in Japan, the UK will only have the option of the black model.

The Slimmer Vita is 20% slimmer than the first generation Vita and 15% lighter. The new model no longer features an OLED display but, instead Sony have opted for an LED display. Other changes include bettery battery life and 1GB of inbuilt storage. The suggested retail price for the new Vita is £180 for the Wifi model. The current ‘phat’ model in comparison can be bought for £169 with the Mega Pack of 10 games and a 16GB memory card.

A new megapack featuring Indie games is also soon to be released, which will feature 10 games from independent developers, such as Hotline Miami as well as coming with a 4GB memory card and is slated to be released priced at £20.

Just a few weeks ago, Sony announced a price drop for their Sony PS Vita handheld gaming system and now we know why. Today Sony have announced a new PS Vita. For the most part it’s pretty much the same as the original PS Vita but, Sony have made it thinner and lighter. The new Sony PS Vita is 20 percent thinner and 15 percent lighter than the previous model. The battery now lasts an hour longer as well. Most likely in part to the screen change. The newest PS Vita, PCH-2000 features an LCD display rather than an OLED display. Other changes include 1GB of inbuilt memory so you don’t need a PS Vita memory card straight away – although still highly recommended, especially if you’re a PS Plus subscriber. The best change they’ve made though, in my opinion is the Vita now no longer requires a propitiatory charger. Instead the latest Vita features a microUSB charging port.

The new PS Vita will also be available in a variety of colors: black, blue, yellow, grey, lime green and pink. There are also three special edition models planned which will feature additional colors, God Eater (camouflage), Otomate and Gundam Breaker. Sony have announced that the new Vita will go on sale October 10th in Japan priced at 18,980 yen (approx $190). The original PS Vita launched for 24,980 yen and got a price drop in Japan to 19,980 yen back in February so it looks like this new Vita will be cheaper than the original model, even after the price cut. Unfortunately Sony haven’t revealed information about the release of the latest Vita outside of Japan yet but, they did announce it at the Tokyo game show, so we expect international information about it soon and hopefully it won’t be a Japan exclusive.

With CES 2012 now over, we’ve compiled a list of Sony specific announcements and news from the Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas.

We also learned some key stats from the event, such as more than 60 billion hours of Sony Music is listened to each year and there are more than a billion people who watch Sony movies and TV shows each year. There will be 300 million Sony networked devices in market over the next three years and there are currently 900 million products in households.

The Press conference also covered the Sony Entertainment Network and why it exists, which summed up is “to give consumers a single, cloud based, place for all their networked content (games, music, movies, TV shows), with one login and one digital wallet”.

The Sony PlayStation Vita will launch February 22nd with Netflix in the US and the Sony Tablet P will be released shortly and both will come with Sony Entertainment access.

The next stage in Sony Entertainment Network is PlayMemories Online which will let you host your photos and video “on the cloud”. This will launch in spring.

Xperia Handsets:
Sony Xperia ION is the first LTE smartphone from Sony and will be exclusive to AT&T in the US. Featuring a 4.5 inch display, 1.5GHz dual core processor and 12 megapixel camera, the Xperia ION along with the Xperia S will be the first handsets to drop the Ericsson branding since Sony bought Ericsson out of the joint venture. The Xperia S features similar specifications as the ION, a 12 megapixel camera and a 1.5GHz processor but, will come with a 4.3 inch display and will be released globally.

Cameras and Camcorders:
Sony’s top 2012 camcorders will come with a new technology called Balanced Optical Steadyshot which will reduce handshake blur by as much as 13 percent. We will also see camcorders with built in projectors with the ability to show images of up to 100 inchs on a wall with enhanced audio. The Bloggie Live Camera was also announced. A new Bloggie that allows you to stream video directly from the Bloggie camera using a Qik account. The Bloggie Live Camera features built in WiFi and is in stores now.

Google TV:
A Blu-Ray player with Google TV packed with features and enhanced Media Remote usage, an Android app that is available on the Sony Tablet S and Sony Xperia phones.

Music:
Sony will be launching an Android powered Walkman. The Walkman Z series features built in WiFi allowing you to connect to the Android Market and can be connected to a TV via a HDMI cable or DLNA. Sony have also announced Balanced Armiture Headphones which are around a quarter of the size of regular noise cancelling headphones.

To start December off with the count down to Christmas, Sony are offering their customers 12 different details, each lasting 48 hours with the last one ending on Christmas day.

The deals will only be known once the deal has started. Each deal starts at 12pm GMT and finishes at 12pm GMT 48 hours. The deals will take place on the following dates:

Christmas Deal 1 – 1st to 3rd December
Christmas Deal 2 – 3rd to 5th December
Christmas Deal 3 – 5th to 7th December
Christmas Deal 4 – 7th to 9th December
Christmas Deal 5 – 9th to 11th December
Christmas Deal 6 – 11th to 13th December
Christmas Deal 7 – 13th to 15th December
Christmas Deal 8 – 15th to 17th December
Christmas Deal 9 – 17th to 19th December
Christmas Deal 10 – 19th to 21st December
Christmas Deal 11 – 21st to 23rd December
Christmas Deal 12 – 23rd to 25th December

Christmas Deal 1 included Little Big Planet 2 and 10 DLC costume packs for £24.99/€34.99 with a 10% discount for PlayStation Plus members. Deal number 2 will be unveiled today.

SOE (Sony Online Entertainment), home of online games such as the Everquest series and host to Facebook based game Fortune League,has been declared as yet another ‘victim’ of the Sony online hacking debacle. Of course, the real victims are the 24.6 million plus customers who’s credit card and personal details may have been stolen by the hackers. The SOE servers are now offline until further notice.

We had previously believed that SOE customer data had not been obtained in the cyber-attacks on the company, but on May 1st we concluded that SOE account information may have been stolen and we are notifying you as soon as possible.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the attack and as a result, we have:

1) Temporarily turned off all SOE game services;

2) Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happened; and

3) Quickly taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our network infrastructure to provide you with greater protection of your personal information.

The SOE service was closed down yesterday as Sony became aware that the SOE service had been affected by the recent hacking of their databases, Sony previously thought that SOE had not been affected and it seems that they only became aware of the problems with SOE whilst making attempts to bring certain services on the PSN back online after last weeks disaster.

Sony have issued a press statement regarding the latest events: Sony Online Entertainment Hacked PR

Certain services on the PlayStation network and on Qriocity are to be reopened, according to a press release from Sony. Kazuo Hirai, the head of the PlayStation department has made a statement apologising for the error that caused over 75 million PSN users to have their confidential details stolen by hackers. He has also announced that some services on PSN will resume

“The organisation has worked around the clock to bring these services back on line and are doing so only after we had verified increased levels of security across our networks. These illegal attacks obviously highlight the widespread problem with cyber-security” – Mr Hirai

Sony have also announced that the PlayStation 3 is to recieve a compulsory system software update which will make users change passwords before they can use the network again. Sony intend implimenting a number of new security measures including more intricate firewalls and data protection and by allowing users to change passwords only from the PS3 console that they first activated the password on or by activating through email.

The ‘limited’ services that Sony are reopening on the PlayStation Network and Qriocity are expected to be up and running within the next week or so.

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