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'World's fastest' home internet service hits Japan with Sony's help, 2 Gbps down
Google Fiber might be making waves with its 1Gbps speeds, but it's no match for what's being hailed as the world's fastest commercially-provided home internet service: Nuro. Launched in Japan yesterday by Sony-supported ISP So-net, the fiber connection pulls down data at 2 Gbps, and sends it up at 1 Gbps. An optical network unit (ONU) given to Nuro customers comes outfitted with three Gigabit ethernet ports and supports 450 Mbps over 802.11 a/b/g/n. When hitched to a two-year contract, web surfers will be set back 4,980 yen ($51) per month and pony up a required 52,500 yen (roughly $540) installation fee, which is currently being waived for folks who apply online. Those lucky enough to call the Land of the Rising Sun home can register their house, apartment or small business to receive the blazing hookup, so long as they're located within Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Tokyo, Kanagawa or Saitama. Click the bordering source link for more details on signing up.
P-Kara brings karaoke to the Japanese masses
At Tokyo Game Show, Sony unveiled a game called P-Kara, a karaoke game that's supposed to give users access to thousands of songs. The game is now available in Japan, and although it looks to feature some really great songs, it's also a little pricey: the game retails for 6980 yen. Granted, this includes the cost of a SOCOM headset and 20 songs on the UMD. The game becomes considerably more expensive when you consider the monthly subscription fees the game charges: 840 yen (~$7US) a month for "all you can sing" access. If you want to download songs for offline play, that'll cost you an additional 105 yen (~$1US).P-Kara will rank your performance against other P-Kara users so you can be sure how awful you sing. Regardless, with songs like ?????????? from CHEMISTRY, * ?????????????????????? from ORANGE RANGE, and more [full song list], I want to get it now. Unfortunately, a gaijin like myself can't register for the service (So-Net requires a Japanese mailing address when registering!) Considering how unlikely a game like this will ever leave Japan, that blows big time.[Via Pocket Gamer, Siliconera & PSP GadgetZ]
PlayStation 3's P-TV video download service in photos
Our crew out in Japan gave us the 411 on the P-TV video download feature; it seems that all of the content currently being offered on P-TV is anime clips and movie trailers -- nothing full length -- and it's all free. Think of the iTV trailer blade we saw at Apple's last big event. One accesses the P-TV store via the PlayStation browser -- there's no in-system interface (lame) -- wherein users can snag H.264 video to their internal drive or a USB drive. Thankfully, the video is un-DRMed and can be played back on a PC, although it doesn't really matter since it's mostly promo stuff anyway. Apparently there's also an account registration and payment method screen in with a shopping cart interface in the PlayStation Store, so it's entirely possible full-length downloads might happen in the future, a la Xbox Live Video. But for now, it's all about quick clips and trailers, with no option to buy the big content.
Sony Japan adds PS3 online content downloads
It's not exactly an Xbox Live Video killing app here from what we can tell, but it looks like Sony's Japanese broadband unit, So-net, has added content download support in conjunction with PlayStation 3 firmware 1.10. That is to say, if you're a proud owner of a new PS3, you'll be able to acquire digital media over their P-TV service, with video in 720p or even 1080p. Details are still sparse as we're waiting for our Tokyo branch to fill us in, but the 8Mbps H.264 downloads appear restriction free (although we doubt you can actually get them off your PS3). We'll let you know more as we do (like exactly what content this pertains to, prices, IPTV, etc.), but since it's So-net something tells us it could be a little while before digital movie downloads make it to US customers.[Thanks, Dj NoPantsCuban]
Sony Japan adds PS3 video downloads
It's not exactly an Xbox Live Video killing app here from what we can tell, but it looks like Sony's Japanese broadband unit, So-net, has added content download support in conjunction with PlayStation 3 firmware 1.10. That is to say, if you're a proud owner of a new PS3, you'll be able to acquire digital media over their P-TV service, with video in 720p or even 1080p. Details are still sparse as we're waiting for our Tokyo branch to fill us in, but the 8Mbps H.264 downloads appear restriction free (although we doubt you can actually get them off your PS3). We'll let you know more as we do (like exactly what content this pertains to, prices, IPTV, etc.), but since it's So-net something tells us it could be a little while before digital movie downloads make it to US customers.[Thanks, Dj NoPantsCuban]
Sony to buy stake in Gamepot
Sony Communication Network Corp. has announced it will buy a 27-percent stake in Gamepot, (No, not Gamespot or Gamestop) a mobile content and solutions provider, for about $22 million, according to Gamasutra.So-net says the move will broaden its online games operations.In addition, Sony Communication, which operates So-net Internet service provider, will purchase 8,200 new shares of Gamepot in a third-party allocation. It will also buy 15,000 existing Gamepot shares from Aeria Inc., Gamepot's parent, a Reuters report stated.Gamepot made a name for itself by publishing the popular online fantasy golf game, PangYa. I doubt this will have much of an impact for anything coming stateside, but it's encouraging to see Sony continue to take online gaming seriously.(Via Gamasutra/Yahoo)
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]
