Displaying Items By Tag: Technology

When it comes to backwards compatibility on consoles, it’s safe to say that Microsoft has done a much better job compared to Sony. For instance, the PS4 supports backwards compatibility with PS3 games, but that’s pretty much it, whereas the Xbox One supports the original Xbox and Xbox 360 games.

However, in a tweet by @Renak_schedule, they have discovered what appears to be a patent by Sony in which the company is looking at an idea on how to make its consoles more backwards compatible with older consoles, like the PS4, PS3, PS2, and the original PlayStation through the use of cloud gaming.

When it comes to full frame mirrorless cameras, it’s hard to deny that Sony has pretty much the market cornered. However, in the past few years, we’ve started to see more efforts from other camera makers looking to challenge Sony’s position on the throne, and it looks like Canon might have a potential camera that could rival Sony.

The company has officially announced its latest full frame mirrorless camera in the form of the Canon EOS R6. The camera will come with a 20.1MP full-frame CMOS sensor and DIGIC X image processor, and if you’re wondering why this sounds familiar, it is because this is the same sensor used in Canon’s flagship EOS-1D X Mark III DSLR camera, so you should be able to expect similar performance, but in a smaller package.

Just the other day, after decades of being in the camera business, Olympus announced that they would be selling off their camera division. This is undoubtedly a sad day for many, especially Olympus camera owners, but it seems that the company is still planning on supporting its users.

In fact, Olympus has recently announced and released the OM-D Webcam Beta Software. As the name implies, this is a software for computers that will easily and quickly turn your Olympus camera into a webcam. This means that all users need to do is download the software, connect their cameras to their computers, and they should be good to go!

Now that the Sony PS5 has been more or less revealed in full, the next thing gamers are probably wondering is how much it will cost and when it will be available for purchase. The good news is that these details should be revealed in the next couple of weeks, at least that’s according to a recent tweet by Roberto Serrano’.

According to Serrano’s tweet, he claims that Sony is expected to reveal the PS5’s price and pre-orders on the 13th of July. While we shouldn’t be taking everything we read on the internet to be the truth, it should be noted that Serrano’ has in the past tweeted out several leaks that have proven to be accurate, such as confirming Sony’s PS5 event back in June before the company announced it themselves.

Sony’s A7 series of mirrorless cameras come in a variety of models. If you’re a low-light photographer or someone who prefers a camera that is more adept at shooting in low-light, then the A7S series is one worth checking out, although the downside is that it has been many years since Sony gave it an update.

However, the good news is that if you’ve been looking forward to Sony updating the A7S lineup, the company has confirmed in an interview with DPreview that a new model will be launching this summer. According to Sony exec Kenji Tanaka, he has confirmed that a successor to the A7S II will be coming soon.

While wired controllers on home consoles is acceptable, it is a bit strange when it comes to mobile because it means that it makes it less portable and a bit more clunky when setting it up. Oddly enough, wireless support for Google’s Stadia controller for Android devices was not available at launch, but that has changed.

If you do play Stadia games frequently on your Android phone, you’ll be pleased to learn that Google has announced that they will now be able to use their Stadia controller wirelessly on their Android device. This will come in the form of an update to the Stadia app that will be released on the 30th of June, so do keep an eye out for that.

During Nintendo’s financial Q&A, the company’s president has since come forward to officially apologize for the issues that gamers were experiencing as a result of the drifting. In a statement made by Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa (translated by Kotaku), he apologized for it but stopped short of going into details as to how the company may (or may not) be addressing it.

“Regarding the Joy-Con, we apologize for any trouble caused to our customers. We are continuing to aim to improve our products, but as the Joy-Con is the subject of a class-action lawsuit in the United States and this is still a pending issue, we would it like to refrain from responding about any specific actions.”

The Sony Xperia 1 II (Mark 2) received its first update last week, but Sony has followed that up with another update just a week later. Sony has moved the build version from 58.0.A.3.31 to version number 58.0.A.3.39. Sony doesn't include a changelog so it's tricky to work out what's changed, we guess it must be small performance enhancements and bug fixes. If you've downloaded the update, let us know if you've noticed any tangible changes.

Unfortunately, the inclusion of technology means that there are more issues to deal with, so much so that Toyota has announced that they have begun to recall over 700,000 Prius and Prius V vehicles around the world due to a software flaw. This includes 267,000 vehicles in the US alone.

According to Toyota, “The involved vehicles were designed to enter a failsafe driving mode in response to certain hybrid system faults. Toyota has found that in rare situations, the vehicle may not enter a failsafe driving mode as intended. If this occurs, the vehicle could lose power and stall.  While power steering and braking would remain operational, a vehicle stall while driving at higher speeds could increase the risk of a crash.”

The Pokemon franchise has evolved greatly over the years where it has been released in multiple formats. For example there is the classic Game Boy version of the game, then there is the collectible card version, and then there is also the mobile version in the form of Pokemon GO.

Now it looks like we have a new Pokemon game in a new format to look forward to in the form of Pokemon Unite. With this new game, the Pokemon franchise will now be playable as a MOBA game where players will be able to battle other players in 5-vs-5 games where they’ll be able to choose from various Pokemon as their “heroes”.

Many, many years ago, when cameras were either a compact camera or a DSLR, Olympus came onto the scene and helped to popularize the Micro Four Thirds system. This removed the mirror box from the camera’s design, which led to the mirrorless design, resulting in many of the popular cameras we know and use today.

Now it looks like the company is done with cameras as they have announced that they will be selling off its consumer camera business. This business will be sold to Japan Industrial Partners, who for those unfamiliar, is the same company that bought up Sony’s VAIO computer business back in 2014.

Sony's Album app for its Xperia smartphones has consistently been one of the best apps from its home stable of apps. Over some time we have seen Sony retire a number of its own apps, and its Album app could soon follow.

The Xperia 1 II (Mark 2) has now been out for a few days, so it's a perfect time to ask new owners what their impression of Sony's flagship has been so far. For those lucky owners, please let us know how you are finding the device so far in the comments below. What do you like, and what has you frustrated? If you have previously used a Sony Xperia device, how does the Xperia 1 II compare? Or, if you're new to Xperia, is it living up to expectations?

Sony is rolling the first firmware update for the Xperia 1 II, its newest flagship device. The update moves the build number to 58.0.A.3.31 and the latest June 2020 Android security patches. This update hit dual SIM devices (XQ-AT52) around a week ago, but is only rolling out to single SIM devices (XQ-AT51) today.