Sony's So-net VOD HDTV box with FeliCa

Sony seems intent to prove you can -- and one day will -- buy just about everything with FeliCa, their contactless payment system we've been talking up for years now. Latest on the block is So-net distributed high definition video on demand service, which plays back MPEG-2, VC-1, and h.264 video  on a Sentivision set top box with a 600MHz CPU and a 40GB internal drive; you pay for the privilege instantly with your FeliCa card, phone, implant, etc. We know, we know, it hurts; but one of these days when a large swath of this ginormous nation gets fiber to the home, we'll probably ourselves likely see similar VOD / IPTV systems.

[Via Impress]

[bowzer @ Apr 24th 2006 11:50AM]

Black mac mini? haha

[Johnny English @ Apr 24th 2006 12:01PM]

Please try not to use the word "ginormous" ever again. Please use a thesaurus if you need help finding a suitable replacement. Please.

[Pacey @ Apr 24th 2006 12:14PM]

Johnny,
get over yourself and put away the red pen. This is a blog, not the NY Times, they can and will use slang terms, misspell things, and even make punctuation errors if they so please.

[Nick Soper @ Apr 24th 2006 1:07PM]

Apple designers should get a cut of the profits from this one.

[Josh Warner @ Apr 24th 2006 2:05PM]

I will never buy *anything* from Sony. Ever. Again.

That is all.

[Ag @ Apr 24th 2006 7:17PM]

Felica/Suica is amazing if you ever used it.

I have it in my cell phone in Japan, basically I can use my cellphone to be like a smartpass to get on the subway by just waving my phone over the gate. Also been seeing vending machines that accept it now, and I also use it like a credit card at a bunch of places.

[Tifosi @ Apr 24th 2006 7:24PM]

>>I will never buy *anything* from Sony. Ever.

Thank you for your useless comment, Josh. Now go suck cock on Digg & Slashdot.

[Deluxe @ Apr 24th 2006 9:23PM]

Ag, me too.

I use FeliCa daily, as well as buying downloads and items online using the exact same FeliCa reader in the picture.

It's truly becoming a standard here, many shopping centres are now "EDY Up!", which means each and every store lets you pay by FeliCa, very cool.

[Matt @ Apr 24th 2006 9:40PM]

@Ag and Deluxe.
Yea, FeliCa is really amazing. I love using Suica on trains, vending machines, and at Family Mart. Hahaha. Sometimes I go out of my way just to go use it. I will never get bored of tapping my wallet to buy something :P

It's one of the things I'm going to miss so much when I go back to Canada :/

[Supa Idei-san @ Apr 25th 2006 2:27PM]

So-net is indeed the ISP subsidiary of Sony, but business-wise So-net has little to do with Sony Corporation. This Engadget entry omits, for instance, the fact that the box was developed/manufactured by a
start-up called Sentinel, with no connection with Sony. The So-net announcement was for a trial and So-net representative said there is no definitive plan
to launch the service or sell the box as is. So there won't be no profit due Apple desingers (to Comment #4). The racist comment by "Tom Cruise" of Comment #5 only proves the low intelligence level and lack of appreciation for history of electronics of the one who posted it.

[Ryan Block @ Apr 26th 2006 10:09AM]

Supa Idei-san, that information was not immediately available when I wrote this from machine translation. I'll look into it, thanks.

Best, Ryan

[Jeff @ Apr 26th 2006 4:52PM]

We have a great invention called ATM Visa/Mastercard Debit Cards in the U.S. It's really caught on here in the past 10 years. I can use it to buy post office stamps, coffee, books, clothes, groceries, and even BART Subway tickets, geez...I could go on and on and on!

Sorry, I don't need another stinking card to carry around in my wallet, so keep your Felica Piece of Shit in Japan...we don't need it here.