Sony have had an issue with a few, well more than a few, of their VAIO laptops according to a BBC report.
Sony is recalling 440,000 Vaio laptop computers worldwide because of wiring faults that could cause overheating.
The recall concerns 19 Vaio models in the TZ series manufactured between May 2007 and July 2008 – but does not include models sold in the UK.
Luckily doesn’t personally affect me, nor any other VAIO laptops in the UK.
I was reminded of this amusing Microsoft iPod branding video which was leaked.
Still funny.
Though if you look at the Zune, they did learn their lesson.
I really like my EyeHome device. I’ve had it a few years now and even had it fixed in Germany one time when the power supply failed. Changing to 802.11n made it much better and more capable of showing content from my Mac on my television.
It’s such a great concept I did wonder if I would be able to serve media to other devices and not just the EyeHome.
This came up recently when I put a Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) under my television which can act as a uPnP device and serve content from an appropriate media server. Not only that, but you can pair a PlayStation Portable (PSP) with the PS3 to be able to access the PS3 remotely.
A plan was starting to form…
If I could get the PS3 to access content from the Mac, I could then watch it remotely on the PSP. The PSP didn’t like accessing content direct from the Mac, so this could work, couldn’t it?
The first issue was getting some media server software running on the Mac, the EyeHome software didn’t work; and though Elgato make a uPnP software product, EyeConnect, it appeared from the Elgato website that the PS3 as a media extender was not in the list of supported extenders, and there were a few reports in the Elgato forums which kind of put me off. There is a 30 day trial, so I might give it a go later.
What did come out in my research was Twonkymedia.
The PacketVideo MediaServer enables you to share your multimedia throughout your home. It is available for many different platforms and interworks with a large variety of client devices including XBox 360™, Sony PS3™ and Sony PSP™. TwonkyMedia requires fewer resources and is faster than other UPnP media servers, and provides more features that help users enjoy large media collections.
Installed and ran it…
Worked very well.
The PS3 picked up the iMac which I was running the software on.
The PSP picked up the PS3 – though I believe that the PSP can access the media direct, but I was trying to be clever!
I tried a few other devices.
The iPod touch through the web interface could access the media.
My Nokia N95 could access the server, and the media.
A Nokia N810 could access the media, it just couldn’t play it!
Overall I was impressed, very likely to pay the €30 it costs.
Google have gone and released a browser of their own, Chrome.
Windows only at the moment, so I have not yet installed it.
Looks interesting.
