The Sony Press Conference was arguably as impressive as the Microsoft one (which was a huge surprise, by the way). Many PlayStation fans were ecstatic about the upcoming Sony Motion Controller and there was one last thing that they were hoping for: a price cut for the PS3. It didn't happen of course. So, what happened to the PS3 Slim rumors?

Apparently nothing, but don't dismiss it quite yet. For one, big price cuts usually come at the end of the year. Secondly, while Sony is fighting to get some market share, it would be really dumb to announce a cost-reduced version coming later in the year. In all likelihood, Sony will avoid talking about any cost-reduction to avoid stalling the sales of current PS3 models.

And because Sony doesn't want to alienate their retail partners, they will probably help them sell current models before an upcoming one shows up, so keep your eyes open for stocking/availability issues. We're not confirming that the PS3 slim exists - it is just a rumor- but it is about certain that eventually the PS3 price will come down. It is a matter of when.

[E3 2009] I don't think that anyone had envisioned a post-E3 motion controller war, but that's what's happening in the forums and elsewhere right now. After the cool on-stage demos from Microsoft and Sony, gamers are split on what's "better", Sony's Motion Controller magic wand or Microsoft's full body project Natal. Our first take was that Project Natal was "better, but let's try to go beyond the hype to review how each technology works, how it could be used and which might ultimately win.

Amazon has enjoyed much press as of late, but by positioning the Kindle DX as a student-friendly device, the company has made a mistake and criticism is now mounting. We think that for tech enthusiasts and whoever wants to use eBooks, the $488 pricing is probably something that the market can bear.

However, for a cash-strapped student the added-value, if any, is much harder to demonstrate. Amazon's argument is that over the course of three years, students break-even or "save" money when comparing the cost of the Kindle DX+ebooks ($1239) and dead-tree books ($1464).

It is interesting until one realizes that the book aftermarket is not being taken into account by Amazon (yes students do sell their old books!). We thought that Amazon was selling used book, right? And this doesn't take into account additional costs that might occur if students email docs to the device. In the end, the Kindle is hardly a device that a student "needs", although it is certainly nice to have. Yet, student aren't always as cash-strapped as one might want us to think: often times, professors are simply looking at a sea of Macbooks, which are hardly the most cost-effective laptops "for cash-strapped students"... Cool has a price, and for eBooks, it's $488.

The Buzz of the day seems to revolve around the fact that Apple is hiring top-level chip engineers/executives like Raja Koduri and Bob Drebin (both ex AMD CTO).

But why does it comes as a revelation today? Apple has bought a fab-less semiconductor company (PA Semi) last year with the goal of building the system on a chip (SoC) to be used in upcoming products. Using proven core technologies like ARM cpus and Power-VR graphics, Apple has to build and evolve SoCs for years or even decades to come.

This effort requires the best hardware engineers Apple can find. To justify such an effort and because the cost of designing SoCs will increase exponentially with complexity, Apple will have to produce ever growing volumes of devices, or resell its chip to 3rd parties (that is in a somewhat distant future). For now, nothing will happen until next year, when Apple will complete its first silicon.

There's nothing like an analyst report to create drama: Robert Castellano (The Information Network) believes that the future of Netbooks lies with ARM and its Cortex-A9 architecture. According to him, ARM's processor will be much cheaper than Intel's offering - cheap enough to sway swaths of netbook makers to ARM's side. For this to happen, Mr. Castellano is betting on two things:

• Massive adoption of Linux, as Microsoft does not intent to build an ARM version
• Dominance of Cloud computing that would "eliminate" the need for local storage

First, predicting the future is a difficult business and Robert Castellano might be right, but in my opinion, he's most likely very wrong.

Concept image not created by Apple

If it is building anything at all, that said. I guess that it's just fun to speculate on the rumored Apple "netbook". Some background: leaks from components provider in Asia hint that Apple is building a 10" laptop. Often, these rumors turn out to be true, because there's little that Apple (or anyone) can do about them and there has been little repercussions from past leaks, at least in Asia.

The question is: what would this laptop be? One thing is certain: Apple won't call it a "netbook" (what about Macbook Mini?) and the company will try to address key issues with today's netbooks like full screen movie replay and "cheap" industrial design. Because it would come later this year, it is fair to suspect that it will use Intel's new ultra-low power processor, which can induce a longer battery life, something that *everyone loves*. While we're at it, we can even imagine having an ION chipset from NVIDIA - after all, GPU computing will be in the next Mac OS.

Earlier today, I saw an interesting article on CNET from Don Reisinger about how the PS3 was hard to develop for, "on purpose". I would like to comment on it and add to the discussion.

As a former PC developer, it's easy to see why the PS3 is more complex to develop for than the Xbox 360. Even if the 360 can be programmed at a much lower level than a PC (basically game devs can code at the PC "driver" level), it is still much closer to a PC than a PS3. The PlayStation instead went for an "exotic" architecture with CELL (among other things) and the end result is that the strong points of both consoles are exactly inverted. For practical purpose, a port from PS3 to 360 then PC is the easiest way to proceed. Given enough time and resources, the PS3 could be a little more powerful than the Xbox 360. But, developers would point out that the real problem is game portability. If PS3 had a huge market share, it wouldn't be a problem, but it doesn't have a big market share.

Is the PS3 hard to program to program because Sony "wanted" it to be so? Does it have “more juice” because it is hard to program? Finally, is it so important? I'd say "no”, “a little” and “no".

Intel and TSMC have entered into an agreement in which they will adapt the Atom design to TSMC's manufacturing process. TSMC is a contract foundry that makes chips for fabless* semi-conductor companies like Broadcom or NVIDIA. Intel on the contrary, usually design and manufacture its own chips.

From a logical chip design (which resembles software), each foundry has its own set of "design rules" and libraries that chip designers have to use to get their design manufactured there. Intel's ultimate goal is to allow chip designers that currently work with TSMC to use its Atom design, just like some people use ARM's designs today. Intel aims to take steps to end up into cellphones and the path is clearly defined: Netbooks, mobile internet devices (MID) then phones.

Today's announcement with TSMC is a critical step from Intel to let third party integrate its Atom design into their custom system on a chip (SoC). TSMC is the largest contract foundry in the world. *"fabless" means that these companies do not have chip manufacturing facilities.

By guest editor Stephane Delbecque

[Mobile World Congress] We had the opportunity to spend some time with Nicholas Babaian, Product Manager Mobile at Skype to learn more about Skype Mobile products and strategy.

With 400 million web users worldwide, Skype is the definitive leader in VoIP. In order to know more about people’s opinion on the service, they conducted a survey and had the surprise to learn that the #1 request was “make it mobile”. Back to October 07, Skype released the first Skype Phone in the UK with 3, an innovative mobile carrier and got some pretty good success with more than 500,000 phones and 1 million minutes a day. Because data traffic for people with the Skype phone was 20% bigger than an average user, it served as a case study for any mobile carrier aiming at not only acquiring new users but also retaining existing ones.

That's the essence of Rick Clancy's Blog Post on the Sony Electronics Blog. Sony knows that their IT (laptops...), Consumer Electronics and Content (movies, music) products have to interact "seamlessly" and that they have to be "interconnected", "open" and "green". It’s all true.

Difficult times certainly get organizations to change (or go away), and we hope that Sony does get out of this stronger. In the past, its lack of openness and the reliance on the Sony brand name have been weaknesses.

Rick doesn't mention the software efforts that are required at Sony to achieve these goals. During my previous short stays in Japan I felt that software engineering was not as "noble" as hardware engineering. I don't pretend like I know Japan well, but if my perception is correct, I would recommend Sony not to neglect software engineering, as there is a lot more value to be created there than on the hardware side for Sony.

During CES, I got asked many times if I thought that Blu-Ray will succeed. And today, I'm receiving an email from "The Blu-Ray Press Office" in which they use an article from CNET to convince me that Blu-Ray will succeed (the alternative is getting stuck with DVDs forever). The nine points from CNet's David Carnoy, with my quick comments

1. "Digital downloads will not eliminate the need for discs anytime soon" - Agreed
2. "Having one clear standard is a big advantage" - Can't argue with that
3. "Blu-ray isn't going to be replaced by another disc format anytime soon" - Clearly
4. "Prices for large-screen HDTVs will continue to drop" - Indeed
5. "Prices for Blu-ray players will continue to drop" - Indeed 2
6. "Prices for Blu-ray discs will drop to near DVD price levels" - Indeed 3
7. "Sony will sell lots of PlayStation 3 game consoles" - Maybe, depending on what "lots" means
8. "Sony can't afford to have Blu-ray fail" - Toshiba couldn't afford to see HD-DVD fail... oops
9. "Sony and its partners will figure out a way to have Blu-ray resonate with the public" - Blu-Ray does resonate with the public. It's just a matter of pricing now.

I think that Blu-Ray is succeeding *right now*. The "why" is pretty obvious: did someone notice that they have the *monopoly* on next-generation "HD" optical discs? The cost of video streaming makes networks loosing business proposal for years to come, so no danger there. Frankly, I don't see where the drama is. Blu-Ray has already won, it is propagating like a virus and it's here to stay. To be “The Blu-Ray Press Office”: it looks like you’re out of business. There’s no need for propaganda anymore.

NVIDIA's CFO Marv Burkett was recently quoted at a technology conference saying about Nettops: "We’re not saying we’re not interested; it’s a matter of how the market will evolve". That got many people wondering what that really meant.

One complaint about Netbooks is that most can't even play a fullscreen YouTube video at full speed, let alone 1080p video (on an external display) or video games. Clearly, NVIDIA could help there. The thing is, NVIDIA does not need to build a new product to enter that space. Look at the GeForce 9400M in the Macbook Air. Its thermal dissipation and power consumption *could* make it eligible for a Nettop. Heck, it might even be smaller than competing two-chips solutions.

Now, there's the matter of pricing, but there are ways to find the correct combination of price & performance like "binning", or work out a volume deal. If everything else fails, Moore's law will cut the price by half soon enough.Technologically, there's little that prevents someone from building a Nettop with a GeForce 9400M. 

It might not be a coincidence that Apple released its iPhone 2.2 update just as the BlackBerry storm gets its 15 minutes of fame but, I doubt that Apple is "scared" of RIM as CNET's Don Reisenger says. It looks to me like Apple had carefully planned to "steal some thunder" rather than was "scared". That's a known marketing tactic, right?

Is Apple "concerned" by Blackberry's venture into the touch-only phone? Of course they are and they should be - only the paranoid survive (Andy Grove, Intel) . But let's remember that fundamentally, both companies have prospered using different strenghts.

Blackberry's killer app is still its legendary push-email. It is a well-oiled machine that has been tightly integrated into wireless carriers’ sales effort and support. Secondly, people associate it with "reliability" & "security"—an image that Apple would certainly like to have. Finally, The Blackberry OS is arguably better than Windows Mobile, although, my Blackberry Curve is as slow and bloated much more than my Blackjack (rest in peace).

The iPhone capitalizes on design (hardware, interface) and on an impeccable implementation of basic features (calls, contacts, unlock, voicemails, web browsing). Apple also has more interesting applications and that's good because , as most companies have come to realize, the value is in the software. It seems to me that while Apple could eventually implement a good Blackberry client (BB's "killer app"), Blackberry would have a much harder time matching the overall execution and cool "halo" of Apple.

A number of employers have started a class action against Microsoft, arguing that their employees spend between 30mn to 60mn a day in the Windows boot sequence. The attacking party includes AT&T or Cigna.

To reach 30mn to 60mn of boot times a day, the worker must either have a computer that really suck (they claim that Vista takes 15mn to boot), or they have to reboot 15-40 times a day. In either case, someone in this company has to be fired. It could be whoever decided to install Vista on crap machines (come on, Vista boots in less than 3mn on a $400 Nettop) or for using apps that crash 40 times a day.

I'm not particularly fan of Microsoft, but I'd like to see more information on these boot times. PC specifications, number or reboots a day. Right now, it just sounds like one more stupid lawsuit. I used to work for a hardware company using beta hardware and beta drivers, sometimes on a beta OS, writing beta software, but I don't think that I ever spent 60mn a day in boot sequence.