Google and Sony strike new partnership

It’s not usually nice to see one huge conglomerate chewing up every market it sets its eyes on but in Google’s case, it’s fair to say that their exceptional track record speaks for itself.

And so they keep on chomping; this time Google are stepping up their assault on the internet browser market by striking a deal with Sony.

Google’s Chrome was already the default browser on the Sony VAIO NW but now the Financial Times reports that all Sony VAIO laptops and desktops will come with Chrome preinstalled as an “experimental” arrangement and, most importantly, will default to Google for both their homepage and search queries.

Along with their agreement to bring over a million Google Books to Sony’s Ebook reader, it’s pretty clear that this world domination bid has turned into a two-pronged attack.

End of the road for the Sony Vaio TT

The word on the street  is that the Sony Vaio TT has been confined to laptop heaven after Sony removed it from the product range on its global website.

It’s believed that the 11.1 inch Sony VAIO TT will not be making a comeback despite fairly decent sales figures overall.

Sony’s decision is said to be based on price, and in these testing financial times, a price tag of around£2,000 was just too expensive for many laptop-hunters despite how aesthetically-pleasing the TT was.

Sony admits some Vaios may contain faulty Nvidia chips

A Sony spokesman has confirmed that some Vaio laptops feature faulty Nvidia graphics chips, which the graphics company believes could lead to overheating laptops and ultimately complete laptop failure.

The global electronics brand are the most recent addition to a growing list of PC makers implementing faulty Nvidia chips, including Apple, Dell and HP.

A Sony Vaio owner can detect if their model is affected if a laptop shows ‘distorted video, duplicate images or a blank screen due to failure of the Nvidia chip’, the company said.

Sony will cover the cost of repair. The PC maker is also providing an extended three-year warranty in addition to the standard 12-month warranty. No refunds for the laptops are being offered by Sony.

Some Sony laptop owners shafted by Windows 7′s ‘XP mode’

It appears that Sony Vaio laptop owners won’t be taking advantage of Windows 7’s capability to run old Windows XP applications and clamour has now begun for Sony to make a concrete a decision about enabling hardware processor virtualisation (VT technology) on its portables.

Sony currently disables VT technology supported by certain Intel processors on its laptops for ‘security reasons’. The technology allows software like Virtual PC, VirtualBox and Parallels Desktop to run self-contained operating systems directly on the processor hardware rather than on a processor emulated in software. VT technology isn’t essential for such software, but it can help your laptop run far more smoothly.

The sting in the tail is that while Windows 7 won’t run all Windows XP applications, it will ship with ‘Windows XP Mode ’. This is basically a single-purpose PC virtualisation application for Windows XP — and it requires VT technology to be enabled. So, Sony laptop owners face a tough time if they upgrade to Windows 7.