By Evan Ackerman

One of the biggest announcements at this year’s Game Developers Conference here in San Francisco is the Move, Sony’s new motion control system for the PlayStation. It’s generally similar to the Nintendo Wii, in that you hold a thingy, and something attached to the game console watches that thingy (in this case, it’s the PS Eye camera), and can tell where the thingy is being moved and translate that motion into in-game actions. Here’s the thingy in question:

More, including hands-on impressions and video, after the jump.

There’s a trigger on the reverse, at the top near the glowy ball, which changes color to differentiate one remote from another. Depending on the game, you can use one remote or two at the same time. It’s very light, lighter than a Wiimote, which makes me think it must have a rechargeable battery inside. I got a chance to test the Move out for a while last night, and it’s pretty impressive. It’s less forgiving than a Wii as far as where you can stand, but it’s much more precise and gives you a huge range of motion. You can rotate the controller vertically (twist it) or horizontally (make it do flips) and the system has no trouble tracking what it’s doing. This means that for fighting games, you can pull all kinds of moves just like you (hypothetically) would in real life: for example, you can spin around, and the tracking handles it perfectly. Or, for games like table tennis, you can actually put spin on your shots buy angling your wrist just like you would in real life. It’s a lot of work for a video game, and a lot of fun.

While the technology is great, in my opinion, the actual gaming software isn’t quite at the same level. What I was hoping for was a system that would take my motions and integrate them into the game directly. What happens currently (and it’s worth noting that all the demos were pre-alphas) is that the system reads the motions you make, and uses those motions to trigger preprogrammed actions. The Move is supposed to be very easy to program into games, though, so hopefully we’ll be seeing some innovative titles in the near future.

As far as pricing goes, a bundle with the PS Eye camera and one Move controller (and a game) should go for under $100, which usually means $99.99, but it could be less. You’ll also be able to get the Move controller by itself, and as part of a PS3 bundle. Look for launch late this year, in time for the holidays.

By Evan Ackerman

Have you ever tried to taste electricity? You can, you know… Go find a 9v battery and stick the contacts on your tongue.* Not pleasant, right? Sony has this problem (and it’s a serious, serious problem) totally licked with an RC car that runs on juice. The tasty kind of juice. You know, from fruits and stuff.

The Tomy Ene pocket RC car has, inside of it, a “bio battery” that can generate electricity from sugar in things like juice or soda. As of two years ago, each cell could output 50 mW of power. For this little car, its speed and endurance depend entirely on what you decide to feed it, and while Sony is promoting Coke products, grape juice apparently works the best.

From what I can tell, Sony’s liquid battery technology uses enzymes to digest glucose, which may mean that they last far longer (and are rechargeable more times) than those incredibly strange Nopopo urine powered batteries, which use magnesium and carbon and only last for about 4 charges. However, when you consider which kind of fluid you’d rather donate to your batteries, Nopopo might come out ahead.

Tomy’s car, with Sony’s battery inside it, is currently in the functional (yay!) prototype stage, you can see a video of it motoring around here.

[ Gigazine ] VIA [ Inhabitots ]

*OhGizmo takes no responsibility for whatever you crazy people might actually do at our suggestion. Try this one at your own risk.

By Evan Ackerman

I don’t have a big screen TV, but I can pretend that I do by sitting just inches from the screen. Sony is having none of that, though, with their Distance Alert system, which uses a small camera to measure your distance from the TV screen. If you get closer than about a meter to the TV, a message pops up advising you to back away, and it won’t restore the picture until you do.

The same technology is used for a couple other things, too… Since the TV knows where you (and any other people in the room) are, it can optimize its sound and light output so that if you’re all sitting off to one side, everything still looks and sounds balanced. Also, if the TV doesn’t see anyone in the room, it shuts its backlight off and will turn itself off completely after 30 minutes to save power. Neat tricks, but since the little camera is hardware integrated, Sony is currently only planning to release one model with these features so far this year, and it’s going to be (to quote the Sony rep) “expensive.”

By David Ponce

Considering SD cards are slowly trudging up to 64GB, it’s pretty impressive to hear good old Sony’s getting ready to drop a 2TB Memory Stick XC. The XC series will have the same form factors as Sony’s current PRO series, also featuring support for MagicGate content protection technology as well as Access Control function, currently available in the PRO series.

According to Sony, the XC range will use the exFAT file storage system, which is far and away better than the antiquated FAT12/16/32.

Of course this is Sony, the grandfather of proprietary formats so just how much this will cost is anyone’s guess, but is likely to be in the let-me-sell-my-kidney range. There’s also no word on availability, though we suspect this is still a long way off.

[ Specification Page ] VIA [ GearLive ]

While the term ‘Exmor R’ is nothing more than a new PR catchphrase for Sony to toss around, the technology behind the sensors in their new Cybershot DSC-TX1 and DSC-WX1 is kind of interesting. Traditionally, compact P&S digital cameras are not known for their fantastic low-light performance. The smaller optics means there’s less light hitting the larger and larger sensors, which leads to noisy photos. I mean there’s a reason professional photographers will drop thousands of dollars on a gigantic ‘fast’ lens. But the ‘Exmor R’ technology supposedly results in a sensor with twice the light sensitivity of a traditional sensor since the various elements like wires and circuitry which usually hinder the photo-diodes from gathering light have been effectively moved out of the way.

And further improving the camera’s low-light performance are the hand-held twilight and anti-motion blur multishot modes which basically use exposure bracketing and in-camera HDRI techniques to automatically combine multiple shots with varying exposures to produce a final result with more detail and less noise. As for other specs, both cameras feature a 10.2 mega-pixel sensor and while the thinner TX-1 includes a 3-inch touch screen LCD on the back, the larger WX-1 benefits from a wider angle Sony G lens instead. $380 for the DSC-TX1 and $350 for the DSC-WX1 and both should be available come October.

[ PR - SONY DEBUTS WORLD’S FIRST DIGITAL STILL CAMERAS WITH BACK-ILLUMINATED “EXMOR R” CMOS SENSOR TECHNOLOGY ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Chris Scott Barr

You have to give a lot of credit to Netflix. These guys have really re-invented the way we rent movies. First with their idea to let you order movies online and have them mailed to your door. Then they decided to let you stream rentals to your computer. Now they’re offering the same streaming service to other devices like your Xbox 360 and TiVo. Today they announced the latest devices they will be invading, Sony Bravia HDTVs.

Starting this Fall, all of their new internet-enabled sets will be able to stream movies via Netflix. Older models will be able to do the same using the BRAVIA internet link module around the same time. Give it a couple of years and you won’t be able to find a new TV that doesn’t work with Netflix.

VIA [ CrunchGear ]

Sony Japan has just released a compact bluetooth mouse that looks like a perfect complement to the Vaio P ultraportable laptop they introduced earlier in the year. The VGP-BMS10 features an aluminum sliding cover that powers the mouse on and off and also protects the scroll wheel and buttons while it’s stashed in a laptop case. Otherwise it’s not exactly swimming in extra features or functions, though it does have an 800dpi laser and a decent range of about 10 meters. The VGP-BMS10 will be officially available in August for about $67, and it appears to be only Windows compatible, so anyone who’s endeavored to install OS X on their Vaio P is out of luck.

[ Sony Vaio VGP-BMS10 Compact Bluetooth Mouse ] VIA [ Newlaunches ]

With the announcement of a $250 price tag, Sony pretty much guaranteed there will still be a market for the old PSP once the PSP Go hits store shelves. And if the reason you’ve been holding off on getting a PSP 2000 or 3000 is because of the battery life and ergonomics concerns, you’ll be happy to know that Nyko has heard your plight.

Their Charge Grip Flex works with either model and features a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that increases your play time by about 1.5x. I also like that it uses the PSP’s included AC adapter to charge both the PSP and the Charger Grip at the same time, so you don’t need to wrangle or store another cord. And when it comes to ergonomics, there’s a set of fold-out grips that extend from the bottom, making the unit feel more like a dual-shock controller.

[ Nyko Charge Grip Flex ] VIA [ Mobile Magazine ]

MAG is one of those titles that many people have been waiting to see more of. Imagine playing a FPS with 255 other people at the same time. I’ll admit to being a bit skeptical on the gameplay when it was announced, but check out the gameplay footage from the show. Each and every person you see, every single shot fired is from a real live person playing against the 8 guys that were demoing it at the conference.

It has been wondered aloud by many gamers, have we seen the last of Solid Snake? Well at Sony’s press conference today, Hideo Kojima made a guest appearance to confirm that no, we haven’t seen the last of him. In fact, he’s going to be sneaking his way onto the PSP  sometime next year. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will take place 10 years after Metal Gear Solid 3. It was greatly stressed that this was a “true” sequel, and not a spin-off or side story. Nothing speaks better than a video, so check out our official first look at Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.