PC Magazine’s Lance Ulanoff attended a Sony event and unlocked a secret. Here is his account:
Sony celebrated a decade of VAIO innovation at the way-out-of-the-way Guest House club in NYC last night. It was your typical self-congratulatory fest, replete with speeches, large posters lauding early product development (of the first purple VAIO and the ultra thin 505 laptop) and even a huge, 70-pound VAIO laptop cake (left). I tried some and the faux magnesium chassis tasted like tin foil—blech.
There were, of course, some more recent vintage products on display like the Sony VAIO XL2 Digital Living System but the true stars of last night’s event were Blu-ray, a new Blu-ray VAIO (the AR) and a near-pocket-sized “Micro PC,” the VAIO UX. The gorgeous, 17-inch laptop not only has a Blu-ray player, but the drive can even burn Blu-ray discs—a true first.
On one table Sony execs proudly displayed two ARs playing early Blu-ray content: The House of Flying Daggers (below). They even had the Blu-ray packaging. So exciting…but WAIT! I went ahead and ejected one of the Blu-ray drives to see my first Blu-ray disc. Instead, I found a crummy, old school DVD+R, complete with the Sharpie-written, House of Flying Daggers. Apparently even Sony can’t get its hands on Blu-ray content!
Cliff’s - Sony had a small press conference in NYC to show off Blu-ray. Supposed Blu-ray disc of House of Flying Daggers ends up being a DVD+R. Yea… Sony’s in some big trouble…
This is just another example of why I don’t trust anything said/printed when it comes to Sony. Too many times they’ve shot themselves in the foot over stupid shit like this, and its starting to come back and hurt them now.
It looks like Sony is [getting beat up in the media](http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/05/09/011825.php) for everything from a lackluster showing of games so far to higher than expected prices and lower than expected features.
Eventually, Sony will get bitten. They’ve had one single innovation since they entered this industry, and that’s the EyeToy. Everything else has been a take off of a rival company, and it’s getting to the point where even the mainstream will figure it out. This press conference proved how far they’re willing to go to copy their competitors. Sony isn’t innovative as Phil Harrison claims. They’re thieves, and cocky ones at that.
Uhhh, I am pretty sure Sony didn’t develop Blu-Ray, they are just on the board of directors (backing blu-ray), along with a shitload of other companies.