CES: Sony Press Conference Round-Up

During tonight’s CES Press Conference, Sony announced a slew of new services and sales milestones. Beginning with the PlayStation Vita, Sony revealed that 500,000 units of the handheld have been sold as January 5th and over 6.5 million PlayStation products were sold over the holiday season worldwide. In addition, Sony revealed Netflix and Music Unlimited will be day one apps for Vita, and PlayMemories Online – a cloud based video and photo storage system – will be coming to PS3, including support for editing home movies.

On the tech side, Sony announced that Sony Ericsson, recently acquired by Sony, will be renamed Sony Mobile Communications. The company revealed a Bravia engine-powered smartphone, the Xperia Ion, which will be available exclusively on AT&T this Spring. Along with the Xperia S, the Ion will be PlayStation certified. Sony also discussed its X-Reality PRO technology, which cleans up streaming video by reducing compression and noise. New 3D glasses made of titanium were also revealed. For more on TV reveals, be sure to see our stories on Sony’s 2012 Bravia lineup.

Sony discussed a unification of its services and revealed a new digital remote that includes a 3-axis motion sensor for use with games from the Android Marketplace. It also showed off an update to its camera with a built-in projector, now allowing for brighter images and picture quality and up to 100 inches on a wall. Its new Bloggie Live was also revealed to do HD streaming over Wi-Fi.

The company also revealed a 4K upscaling Blu-Ray player and the world’s first 4K home theater projector. Its personal 3D viewer, which we went hands-on with last year, was also discussed, as were new Sony 3D centers in multiple cities. CEO Howard Stringer also revealed that the Sony Open in Hawaii will be broadcast in 3D.

For the full rundown of announcements, be sure to check out our archived live blog. To stay up to date on CES news, make sure to follow our full coverage of the show.