Sony Planning to Drop $30 LocationFree License Fee

According to Maximum PC, sometime between now and the end of the month Sony will formally announce the end of their obnoxious $30 LocationFree PC serial key license fee (rhyming!). Currently, if you want to install the software on multiple PCs you would have to cough up the extra dough. The move is believed to be in response to the stiff competition Sony faces from companies like Sling Media, who have always offered software for their Slingbox free of charge. [Maximum PC]

Sony LF-V30 LocationFree Video Streamer Reviewed (Verdict: Not Bad)

Ever since Sony introduced us to the LF-V30 LocationFree Base Station last summer, we were wondering if this place-shifting Slingbox precursor could deliver the goods. Now our buddies at Maximum PC have taken the VAIO-branded video streamer for a test drive, calling the image quality from its new HD-source-handling component inputs "excellent" even though it's downscaled to a puny 320x240 pixels. They also dug its Wi-Fi connectivity and ability to act as a wireless access point, a feature retained from the earlier Sony LocationFree LF-B20. More »

Sony LocationFree, Now in HD

Sony is stepping up their LocationFree game, now supporting HD transmission through this new transmitter/receiver pair, the LF-W1HD kit. The catch? Well, there are two, actually. More »

Sony's Location Free LF-V30 Gets HD and Vaio Branding

It won't stream HD, but Sony's newest LocationFree TV (and Slingbox competitor) will take HD video sources by component cables, down sample them to QVGA, and spit em across your network or the internet to laptops running the Location Free TV clientware. (I believe Sling does higher res on a LAN, and their Pro unit already does HD by component.) Oh, this one gets VAIO branding, too. The question is, who will be the first to do HDMI?

NetFront LocationFree Player For Windows Mobile PPC

If you've managed to buy yourself a Sony LocationFree to stream your TV to wherever you are, you might as well hock up another $19 and watch shows on your Windows Mobile phone as well. NetFront's LocationFree player for Pocket PC lets you stream MPEG4 over the air—or more likely, over Wi-Fi—from your Sony LocationFree at home to your phone on the go. More »

Pinnacle PCTV To Go: Slingbox Fighter?

Slingbox and Sony's Location Free TV have a Placeshifting competitor on their hands. And let's face it, Location Free TV isn't really competition to Slingbox, so really the question is, will Pinnacle have the balls to bring it to Sling? More »

Sony LocationFree Gets Delayed

Wow, Sony. Two delays in one day. Things must be getting bad. Our buddy, Zatz, points out that Sony's Slingbox competitor, the LocationFree, is getting delayed and no new release date has been announced. This device was originally slated for a release next week, but pushed back because of remote problems. More »

Sony LF-PK1 Wireless LocationFree LCD TV

Sony's showing off a bunch of stuff this week in Japan as part of an electronics show and this wireless LCD TV is one of the items that caught our eye here. This 12-inch LCD TV, the LF-PK1, is compatible with a wireless TV unit, hence, it's a "location-free" TV, or LocationFree in Sony speak. The gist of it is that you're able to use the LCD as a sort of satellite anywhere in your house to receive high quality digital entertainment from the broadcasting unit. Don't worry, Sony's Web site has plenty of flow charts and pretty colors explaining the birds and the bees of LocationFree. The wireless range right now is expected to be somewhere around 100 feet. More »

Sony LocationFree TV LF-B20: A Wireless Place Shifter

What's going on with placeshifting watch-your-tv-from-anywhere-in-the-world gadgets? I'll tell you what's going on: Sony's LocationFree TV line gets the LFB-20 wireless video-streaming base station, and the LFB-10, which is an ethernet only version. The systems both use H.264 codecs to put video across your network to a PC, Mac, PSP, and Sony's dedicated display. And now, a regular old TV. *cough*obvious*cough* What will they think of next!? Jump, and I'll tell you the secret. More »

PSP System Update 2.70 Released Today

Sony released the 2.70 System Update for the PSP today, so if you're still using yours—all of our friends who own one put theirs away again after finishing Me & My Katamari—consider downloading it through the PSP Browser over WiFi or from yourpsp.com. The three four key features of this update: More »

Sony, Sony and More Sony

Sony released several new products at the CEDIA Expo in Indianapolis recently, of which three are from its brand new strangely-named BRAVIA line. More »

Sony LocationFree: Big Brother Anywhere

So you've just returned from a long weekend at the beach house thinking: 'If only I could have watched Big Brother from inside the cabana.' Well, lucky for you Sony has just updated its LocationFree line with the LF-PK1 place shifter. Unlike the previous LocationFree devices, which were essentially WiFi TVs, this does not have a screen. It wirelessly beams the signal to a PC, much like the Slingbox. The hitch is that Sony's steaming pile of proprietary media streaming software has to be installed on the receiving machine. Available in Japan this October for around $300. More »