Sony announces Vaio AR laptop with Blu-ray

Part two of Sony's minor attempt at viral marketing -- which just brought us the Vaio UX Micro PC -- is Sony's new Vaio AR series of laptops with 17-inch screens and an option for a Blu-ray drive. The specs aren't much of a surprise, with that 17.8-inch 1920 x 1200 display leading the charge, accompanied by a 50GB Blu-ray burner, internal TV tuner, HDMI out, and 256MB GeForce Go 7600GT graphics (check our prior coverage for the rest of the juicy details). The good news is that beyond this $3500 model, there will be a "stripped down" version for $1800 that lacks the Blu-ray and TV tuner, but still does the WMCE thing and houses that ginormous 17-inch display.