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Sony nominates three new board members, looks for fresh perspective
While Sony has been improving its bank balance as of late, most of that turnaround has come through job cuts and office sales -- the company needs new strategies to thrive in the long run. Accordingly, the firm has nominated three new board directors with experience outside of its core electronics divisions. Tim Schaaff (at right) is a relative insider with his board position at media-focused Sony Network Entertainment, but the same can't be said for his two peers. Eikoh Harada (left) has been turning around McDonald's Japan as its CEO, while Joichi Ito (center) is well-known for his roles as the director of MIT's Media Lab and the founder of Digital Garage. Both Harada and Schaaff also worked at Apple several years ago, giving them experience at one of Sony's main rivals. Provided the three become board members at a shareholder meeting on June 20th, they could bring new thinking to a company frequently accused of clinging to business as usual.
Sony Music Unlimited bringing its own streaming flair to iOS soon
We heard back in December that Sony's fledgling Music Unlimited service would eventually be spreading its wings to cover even more operating systems, and here at CES 2012, we've learned that it's Apple's own iOS on the docket. Tim Schaaff, head of Sony Entertainment Network noted this week that the company will offer a gratis iPhone and iPad app for Music Unlimited "at some point this quarter." It's bruited that the iOS edition will offer offline caching for subscribers to its service (at least the premium ones), enabling 'em to save playlists for listening even when away from a network connection. Naturally, Sony's got some stiff competition in the world of iOS tunage, but it's hoping that at least a few million of those iOS users grow its Music Unlimited user base from a million to... well, more than a million. We're assuming that the pricing will remain the same, with $4 per month grabbing you a basic subscription and $10 per month netting you a premo level of service. So, you downloading on day one, or what?
Sony exec says PSN hack was 'a great experience,' apparently means it
The following are what most humans would call "great experiences": eating gelato on a hot summer's day, riding a tandem bike with Anthony Hopkins, or, in the case of Sony executive Tim Schaaff, having your life's work nearly destroyed by a band of hackers. Because for Schaaff, president of Sony Network Entertainment, this spring's persistent PSN outage wasn't so much devastating as it was... enlightening. Here's how he described the hack (and ensuing epiphany) to VentureBeat's Dylan Tweney: "I think for people running network businesses, it's not just about improving your security, because I've never talked to a security expert who said, 'As long you do the following three things you'll be fine, because hackers won't get you... the question is how do you build your life so you're able to cope with those things. It's been a great experience." Phenomenal as it must've felt to get in touch with his inner defeatist, Schaaff admitted that he "would not like to do it again" -- probably because his mouth can only house one foot at a time.
