CES Live: Sony talks gaming, smartphones and Internet TV

Jan. 10, 2012, Consumer Electronics Show—Sony will begin to distribute its new hand-held gaming device, the PlayStation Vita, in the United States on Feb. 22, the company said Monday at a news conference in Las Vegas. The device also can access the Internet and stream Netflix movies.

The company also announced at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show that it will make available its Android-based Xperia smartphone exclusively through AT&T this spring. Sony claims that the smartphone has the highest-resolution screen that’s available on any Android-based smartphone.

Sony also said it plans to enter the Internet TV market with a service called XReality Pro. The service makes “YouTube videos worthy of being shown on your Bravia” TV, says Kazuo Hirai, who is Sony’s executive deputy president. The service is designed to eliminate the graininess and pixelization of low-resolution videos to make them suitable for viewing on large-screen TVs.

– P. Snyder