Sony steps into the future....

Sony's newest announcement from the pre-IFA press conference was the launch of their Qriocity network service platform. This new service will provide streaming music and movies to Sony’s network-enabled devices.

Sony´s European president said, “Via Qriocity, Sony will deliver a variety of digital entertainment content and services that are “powered by Qriocity”. This will include video, music, game applications, and e-books over time, and through these services, and in combination with its networked devices, Sony aims to bring new and exciting entertainment experiences to customers.”

Qriocity will be a 'cloud'-based service offering hundreds of movies on demand from top Hollywood studios and local content providers, plus the Music Unlimited service with access to thousand s of music tracks and synchronisation to Sony networked devices. 'This will change the way in which we all enjoy our digital music' he predicted.

Available here in Spain and the UK in the autumn, Qriocity media providers include 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Lionsgate, MGM, NBC, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Walt Disney and Warner Bros. Movies will be available in HD and SD, and can be rented for 14 days.
Prices have yet to be announced. Network-enabled BRAVIA TVs and Blu-ray Disc players, Blu-ray home cinema systems and the PlayStation 3 will support the service, with portable devices to follow.

This is just another example of the way Future Lifestyle believe we will all be enjoying our media at home in the near future. Soon unsightly dishes on the exterior of our homes will be a thing of the past as we stream and download everything from the internet.
Are you interested in what the future holds and how we can improve your home entertainment experience today? Contact us and book a free consultation to see what the future may hold............

Internet TV is coming

Speaking at the pre-IFA press conference in Berlin, Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer announced the world's first true TV/internet combination, designed in cooperation with Google. He also emphasised Sony's progress with 3D in TVs, BD players and projectors.

Details are a bit sketchy, but Stringer called this 'an important strategic alliance to bring the first true internet TV to the market', and emphasised that the un-named product would allow full Internet browsing and TV viewing at the same time.

Using the Android operating system and Intel processing, the TV would need some form of internal storage to operate with web browsers, though the form this would take, whether HDD or solid-state memory, is not yet clear.

The set is due for launch as soon as Christmas in the US, with a UK availability date should be released soon.

Sony spokesmen could only say that the TV would 'not incorporate any groundbreaking screen technology', and that Google's search expertise would be used to make sure that internet searches would yield results appropriate to the TV platform - so for instance a search for 'Mad men' would show sites about the TV series, rather than just any sites associated with the key words.

The development of the 'Google TV' will apparently not affect Sony's commitment to the Bravia Internet platform which offers access to selected services from a range of content providers.

For more infromation or to keep up to date with all the latest home entertainment trends join the Future Lifestyle mailing list at www.futurelifestyle.es

Death to the Games Console!

Games on Demand is coming! And according to the company behind it, this online service about to be released will revolutionise how we Game. The promise is to deliver games to your living room - LIVE, and without the need for an expensive console or a high-powered personal computer.

OnLive's launch of the world's highest performance Games On Demand service means instant delivery of the latest high-end titles over home broadband Internet to the TV and entry-level PCs and Macintosh® computers will soon be possible.

Founded by noted technology entrepreneur Steve Perlman (WebTV, QuickTime) and incubated within the Rearden media and technology incubator, OnLive spent seven years in stealth development before officially being unveiled.


OnLive lies directly at the nexus of several key trends, all of which are reshaping the way we think about and use digital media:


• The shift to cloud computing, displacing the limitations, cost and complexity of local computing;
• An explosion of consumer broadband connectivity, bringing fast bandwidth to the home;
• Unprecedented innovation, creativity and expansion within the video game market.


Pioneering the delivery of rich interactive media to the home, OnLive will change the way that entertainment applications are created, delivered and consumed. Some say, it’s the future of gaming and – potentially – the death of traditional gaming devices as we know and love them.


OnLive – say it avoids all need to trudge to the shops, hand over your hard-earned cash and trudge all the way home again with the latest hot game. Instead, this ‘cloud’ service will deliver top games direct to your PC or TV screen instantly, using a small receiver unit that hooks up to your existing broadband connection


All the heavy work, so to speak, is performed by powerful remote servers using clever compression routines. Players simply provide the required inputs using a joypad, as normal. The results of their efforts are then streamed back with almost non-existent lag. OnLive will run on a network of server centres placed so that no user is more than 1000 miles from one. In broadband terms that’s just down the road, figuratively speaking.


OnLive is set to launch in June 2010 in the USA, with a worldwide rollout expected to follow shortly thereafter. Users are expected to pay a $14.95 (£9.99) subscription fee each month, plus the cost of either buying or renting each game. In this regard OnLive has several very significant advantages: there’s no need to invest any further in a game you’re not enjoying; you can sample all the latest releases with minimal costs; and you’ll be able to remove some of the clutter from under/behind the telly and clear a bit of shelf space into the bargain.


OnLive also enjoys the support of many high-profile games publishers – removing the need to manufacture and physically distribute games is an obvious benefit. Big-name titles such as Borderlands, Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed are among the launch games announced so far. As you might expect the Big 3 console competitors have met the announcement with luke warm enthusiasm, perhaps understandably.

Sony Show us the future

Just when you thought you were ready for 3D TV Sony has given the world a glimpse at one possible evolution in display technology – the 360 degree Holographic Auto-stereoscopic Viewer. This small cylindrical unit can display a static image that can be viewed as if it was hanging in three dimensional space. It's a startling piece of research and development that hints at all kinds of futuristic applications.

Don´t panic you will not have to rush out and replace that large flatscreen TV just yet. This is only the first generation prototype and displays only static pictures. The images are a little rough around the edges and pixelated, but in full colour, which makes up for it a bit.

When viewed with one eye shut, these appear two dimensional, but with both eyes open they gained substance and depth. And yes, you can walk entirely around the image; it appears to be fully three dimensional. I could even look down into the content, or peer upwards, and the illusion remained intact.

So where will this new technology be used is anyone’s guess, a larger, fully animated Viewer could be employed as a virtual salesperson in a shop, or find a role as an entirely new type of holographic communications device. Where ever the development leads, we can´t help but feel that this is going to become common place in the future....