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.

Google Chrome Nabs Sony

From WSJ Blogs -

Google announced Monday that Chrome will be pre-installed on some Sony notebooks - Chrome's first distribution deal with a hardware manufacturer. While it is a step in Google's efforts to penetrate the market, it will need a to exert more, given Sony's minuscule market share.

Chrome itself has only 2.6% of the global browser market, with Microsoft's Internet Explorer accounting for 67.7%.

1 Million (e)Books

From the Sony Electronics Blog -

Sony's free public domain content offering from Google has now surpassed the 1 million title mark. Factor in to the thousands of premium titles, best-sellers and new releases already available, and Sony may possibly have the largest, most comprehensive selection of eBooks available.

All the books are available in EPUB format, already optimized for current models of the Sony Reader Digital Book.

Sony Promises Touchscreen VAIOs for Fall, etc

Per Laptop Mag Sony is working on the following:

1. Touchscreen VAIOs this fall that will take advantage of Windows 7.
2. The PlayStation Network to deliver movies and TV shows to notebooks and netbooks, but no ETA yet. Games are a possibility.
3. Bringing its Sony Reader eBook experience to VAIOs.