The myth of the Sony 'kill switch'

From Telegraph U.K. -

For nearly 20 years, a surprising number of Japanese consumers believe that Sony products have a kill-switch that destroys them to break as soon as the warranty expires. Not surprisingly, the 2006 recall of 4.1 million Dell laptop batteries gave renewed life to the rumor and catapulted it to urban legend. While the company has periodically issued denials, sales has been effected. The Playstation 3 though remains popular as it is perceived to be exempted from the kill switch but VAIO laptops are generally avoided.

Now new rumors allege the timers are controlled remotely by Sony and are set off just when a new model is released. Things got more interesting when it was revealed that a bug in selected E-Series Bravia TVs made them last only 1,200 hours, before refusing to power on or off. This conveniently adds up to about 3 hours watching per day for one year, the exact period of the television’s warranty. Sony has issued a software patch to fix the problem.