Sony Scraps Japanese-style Egalitarian Salaries in Battle For AI Expertise

Sony will increase salaries by up to 20% for new recruits with high-tech skills in fields such as artificial intelligence, moving away from the traditional Japanese emphasis on seniority to better compete in a battle for talent that crosses industries and international borders. From a report: Traditionally, new graduates hired by Sony all receive the same entry-level salary, then are assigned…

Apple Unveils 6K ‘Pro Display XDR’ Monitor That Starts At $5,000

One of the most ridiculous announcements made at Apple’s WWDC on Monday was the new Pro Display XDR monitor. It’s a monitor made to pair with the new Mac Pro, complete with top-level specs and a staggering $5,000 starting price. CNET reports: The monitor’s chief feature is high-dynamic range, aka HDR. Doing HDR correctly requires a lot of horsepower to illuminate…

Sony Builds IoT Chip With a 60-Mile Range

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: Sony is quietly launching a chip that could change how e-bikes, cars, street lamps and all kinds of other connected devices can relay information. The module, when installed on any IoT object, will allow it send data to Sony’s proprietary low-power wide area (LPWA) ELTRES network launching this fall. It can transmit up…

Amazon is Poised To Unleash a Long-Feared Purge of Small Suppliers

Two months ago, Amazon halted orders from thousands of suppliers with no explanation. Panic ensued — until the orders quietly resumed weeks later, with Amazon suggesting the pause was part of a campaign to weed out counterfeit products. Suppliers breathed a sigh of relief. Now a larger, more permanent purge is coming that will upend the relationship between the world’s largest…

Chicago Becomes First City To Collect ‘Netflix Tax’

Four years after announcing a 9% tax on streaming entertainment services, the city has collected $2 million in sales tax from Sony and two online ticketing services, making it the first major city to collect such a tax successfully. CBS News reports: The city collected $1.2 million from Sony in January, on services including PlayStation Video live events and purchases of…

Sony Reportedly Launches Marvel-Inspired Studio To Turn Games Into Movies, Shows

Taking a page from the Marvel playbook, Sony Interactive Entertainment is reportedly launching its own studio to take its video games to the movie and TV screen. From a report: PlayStation Productions is a new division of Sony Interactive Entertainment with the task of adapting PlayStation games into films and TV shows, The Hollywood Reporter reported Monday. Heading up the new…

Sony’s Deal With Microsoft Blindsided Its Own PlayStation Team

When Sony unveiled a cloud gaming pact with archrival Microsoft, it surprised the industry. From a report: Perhaps no one was more shocked than employees of Sony’s PlayStation division, who have spent almost two decades fighting the U.S. software giant in the $38 billion video game console market. Last week, the companies announced a strategic partnership to co-develop game streaming technology…

Sony and Microsoft Set Rivalry Aside For Streaming Alliance

Sony and Microsoft, bitter rivals in the video game console wars, will team up in on-demand gaming to better compete with newcomers like Google as the industry’s main battlefield looks poised to shift to the cloud, news outlet Nikkei reported Thursday. From a report: Sony President and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida has signed a memorandum of understanding with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella…

Sony Cracks Down On Sexually Explicit Content In Games

Slashdot reader xavdeman writes: Hot on the heels of its announcement of the specifications of the next PlayStation, Sony has revealed a new crackdown on explicit content. Citing “the rise of the #MeToo movement” and a concern of “legal and social action” in the USA, Sony has said it wants to address concerns about the depiction of women in video games…

What To Expect From Sony’s Next-Gen PlayStation

Daetrin writes: Sony is unwilling to confirm “Playstation 5” as the name, but their next console is “no mere upgrade” according to a report from Wired, which cites Sony executives — who spoke on the record: “PlayStation’s next-generation console ticks all those boxes, starting with an AMD chip at the heart of the device. (Warning: some alphabet soup follows.) The…