Sony announces PlayStation Music powered by Spotify

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BY Unknown 04:03 0

Sony announces PlayStation Music powered by Spotify

Today Sony has unveiled a new music streaming service that will become available in the spring. It’s called PlayStation Music, and it will be powered by Spotify. It will be available on PS3 and PS4, as well as unnamed “Xperia smartphones and tablets”.

You may be wondering what this means for Sony’s in-house developed service called Music Unlimited. Well, nothing good as it turns out. Music Unlimited will be shut down on March 29 in all the 19 countries where it’s available. Prior to that, from February 28, all of its users with active subscriptions will get free access to the service until it closes down.

From Sony’s description of it, PlayStation Music seems to be little more than a rebranded Spotify. Spotify playlists will be in, and you’ll be able to “enjoy the service on all of Spotify’s supported devices”. So basically this is Spotify coming to the PlayStation. Listening to music from the service while playing games will be possible on your PS4.

To use PlayStation Music, you’ll need a Spotify Premium subscription. Sony will offer you a way to link your PlayStation Network account to Spotify. PlayStation Music will be available in 41 markets across the world when it launches.

New Sony flagship to skip MWC

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BY Unknown 03:47 0

New Sony flagship to skip MWC

With MWC 2015 just over a month away the hype is naturally growing around new device announcements and primarily flagship smartphones. And while chances are high that we will be seeing the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the HTC One M9, recent rumors speculate that Sony might just disappoint on the Xperia Z4 front.

The Japanese manufacturer has traditionally kept to an end-of-March release scheme for its premium models, but insider sources now point to a summer release for the next generation flaghsip. Of course plans may change and this should be taken with a grain of salt, but upon further observation of the mobile scene this scenario seem very likely.

The fact of the matter is that we haven't been hearing as much about the upcoming Xperia Z4 as we would expect, which either means that Sony has somehow tightened all leaky cracks or the Xperia Z4 will not be appearing in Barcelona this March.

Furthermore the recent announcement of a purple Xperia Z3 only further suggests that Sony still intends to pass it off as the current flagship and is therefore trying to keep it as fresh as possible.

We do however have enough puzzle pieces regarding the rumored Sony flagship to put together a tantalizing picture of the new device. Beastly specs have been rumored, featuring a Snapdragon 810 SoC, 4GB of RAM and a 5.2-inch display, which might be available in QHD and Full HD resolutions. Other than that, and an alleged certification in Japan, little is known of the Xperia Z4 which should not be the case if Sony was anywhere near the release.

Still we remain hopeful that MWC will bring us more than mid-range Sony devices as the manufacturer has some time to speed things along and not get outshined by the competition at the expo. What is your take on the Xperia Z4 and a possible delay in its release?

Limited Edition 20th Anniversary Sony PS4 sold for nearly $129,000

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BY Unknown 17:45 0

Limited Edition 20th Anniversary Sony PS4 sold for nearly $129,000

Sony recently announced the limited edition 20th Anniversary PlayStation 4, decked out in the same gray color as the original PS One. There were only 12,300 of these made, each having a serial number embossed on it denoting its number in the series.

Naturally, the most special one of the lot is the one with the 00001 number on it, making it even more rare and super expensive. But to see just how much it would sell for, Sony recently held an auction in Japan on Yahoo Auctions, and the console was won for ¥15,135,000, which is roughly $129,000. In comparison, the other 12,299 units were sold for ¥49,980 ($425).

Sony said they were surprised by the highest bid, and that it was higher than their expectations. The money from the auction will be donated to Save the Children Japan.