We've always had a soft spot for Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer, and it sounds like the old man's doing more than cajoling Tom Hanks into telling jokes following his consolidation of power: in a lengthy and illuminating interview with Nikkei Electronics Asia, Sir Howard pledged that Sony would use more open standards in the future, saying "If we had gone with open technology from the start, I think we probably would have beaten Apple" in the music market. That's a pretty bold statement to be making in hindsight -- especially since we're pretty sure the Connect Player and SonicStage would have still driven people screaming into the arms of iTunes -- but it's pretty heartwarming to hear from the head of a company just as famous for an endless array of funky proprietary standards as it is the Walkman. You want to make us feel even warmer and fuzzier, Howie? "We can no longer say that we're right and our customers are wrong. We can't build only what we want to build." Wow -- sounds like the start of a whole new Sony. We'll see if Sir Howard can actually pull off what sounds like a major change in his company's culture, but for right now we'd recommend hitting the read link and taking in the whole interview, cause it's a good one.

In case you missed it, Sony's CONNECT music services based on the ATRAC audio format are finally -- at long last -- coming to an end. In North America and Europe, anyway. The off again, on again music service with a penchant for the ol' ATRAC lock-in will be phased out. Buried in that US-bound video Walkman press release, Sony states that, "Specific timing will vary by region depending on market demand, but will not be before March 2008." The CONNECT e-book service for the Reader will not be affected." We expect the swift demise of ATRAC to follow.

Update: Connect customers are already being notified of Sony's move away from their "proprietary music format." They'll even provide future "guidance" for converting your library over to WMA or MP3 formats. Good times, eh?

Update 2: Those conversions are just for music you added to your library -- not for music you paid for. Sorry, you're gonna be out that cash unless you strip the DRM.

[Thanks, Robert H]

Those rumors of Connect's demise were apparently greatly exaggerated -- Sony today confirmed that while the company is in fact trimming some 20 jobs at the fledging download service, it intends to keep the servers running. The company is still planning on shifting resources and attention to the Playstation Network, however, so we'll see how long this stay of execution lasts for Connect -- Sony Reader downloads alone aren't going to keep it alive, after all.

After a lengthy, albeit fledgling stay in the digital music distribution biz, Sony has reportedly decided to cut its losses and disconnect the Connect service. We'd already seen the service get shuffled around in an effort to strengthen the division, but it seems like it has finally succumbed to the competition. According to reports from an internal meeting, some 20-plus employees were told that their jobs were being "phased out" as the Connect resources were being shifted to handle the needs of the PlayStation group. Interestingly, it was noted that the eBooks segment would still remain alive and well to service the Sony Reader demands, but Steve Banfield, the head of the Sony Connect division, would be "leaving within the next few weeks." Farewell Connect, it seems we all barely knew you.

While most of the Sansa Connect coverage has treated the little fellow fairly well up until this point, we knew it was only a matter of time before someone got their hands dirty and cracked it open. Sure enough, the unashamed folks at AnythingButiPod had no qualms peeling back the plastic and taking a look inside, as SanDisk's portable WiFi audio player was carefully returned to a state it once found itself in on the manufacturing line. So for those of you whose eyes light up at the mere sight of PCB, click on through for a few more snaps, and then hit the read link when you're ready for more.

It's one thing to hold off competitors or annoy those pesky consumers with a bit of DRM, but Sony is really taking this stuff all the way now that they've managed to hold up their own operations with attempts to secure content on the PSP. Apparently they're hoping to launch a WiFi-friendly music store, with similarities to iTunes in operation, but haven't quite got the DRM system sorted. "A big issue for us has been the (Digital Rights Management) and how we can secure that content to the Memory Stick," says John Koller, senior marketing manager for the PSP. "The studios and the labels don't want their content floating around." Sounds like they aren't quite set on using Sony's own Connect music store -- they're watching to see how that performs, and investigating other options -- which is all well and good. But we still can't help but indulge in a bit of unsightly gloating at the though of Sony a development team being hampered by their own DRM and file format failings.

[Via T3]

There are about a million ways to stream music from your PC to other locations in the house, and now Sony has added yet another solution to this lengthy list: the 2.1 channel CPF-IX001 wireless streaming music system. The compact device uses your existing 802.11b/g setup to pull tunes from iTunes, Windows Media Player, Sony Connect, or other applications, and creates a unique IP address so multiple units can operate simultaneously over the same network. To cut down on wire clutter, Sony employed a so-called power line transmission technology that allows the main component to send both juice and audio signals to its subwoofer over a single cable -- pretty handy, especially if you'll be moving the system from room to room.. Expect to see these in stores sometime next month -- although we don't actually know what to look for, because Sony is being a little stingy with the product pics -- for about $300.

Update: Thanks to Christopher over at ATRACLife for hooking us up with a pic.