Sony LiveDock - small but powerful...

I haven’t really paid too much attention to Sony Ericsson's mobile phone products for a while. Whilst I am a huge fan of their home audio and imaging gear, I have never really been inspired by their phones. The Xperia Play was a clever idea, taking the original Playstation and putting it in a phone is remarkable achievement but it has hardly dominated the gaming or mobile space. Whilst manufacturers such as Motorola (Droid) and Samsung (Nexus S/Galaxy) have product lines that are seen as synonymous with cutting-edge Android devices, Sony appeared to be adrift of the front runners.

However, the recent announcement of their new LiveDock media station is an intriguing one. This very small device is, in essence, a charging station and dock for your mobile allowing you to link it with your home stereo and a power supply. However, and here’s the twist, it can also allow connection of a keyboard and mouse and even a gaming controller. 

This clever add-on would allow for your increasingly-powerful mobile to act like a miniature pc, especially if your Sony phone had an HDMI out connection, like their Xperia Arc, that allowed it to connect to your HD television. It could be partnered with a pair of mini speakers, foldaway keyboard, travel mouse and hdmi cable to give you the perfect portable system for business and holidays. Even if you don’t have access to a larger screen, the ability to use a full keyboard and mouse on your phone would speed productivity and usability.

Well done Sony for packing so much in to something so small - a welcome return to form...

Google TV

Word has recently emerged of a collaboration between Google and several of the big consumer electronics firms in Sony, Logitech and Intel.

It seems they are co-developing the next weapon in Google’s war on established media business models in Google TV – which is in essence an open source set-top box operating system that will unify a number of existing services (web, media centre-esque, Android etc.) in to a lounge-friendly box.

By making the system open source, they are bound to attract developers who would see this as a way of combining web-based services with the traditional delivery of tv-based content. YouTube would be a certainty to feature on the device, further boosting revenues from this now profitable arm of the Google empire.

However, Google’s interest lies not only in the sale of the no-doubt Google branded boxes but also in the advertising that would surely follow. Giving away the O.S. is only the foot in the door. Indeed, Google have already said that they are keen to see the Google TV’s O.S. in as may blu-ray, cable box, games console, tv or other devices as possible and the company sees this as a way of further establishing itself in the tv advertising market which it has fairly recently moved in to.

The existing media and cable companies, especially in the USA, must be quaking in their shoes as this appears to be another powerful attempt to draw people away from their walled-in, high cost, low value channels to Google’s completely open, internet-delivered services. Another wmd launched from the Googleplex arsenal…

(Photo courtesy of www.HiDefDigest.com)