Sony's Music Service Puts The Pressure On Google (SNE, GOOG)

Sony's subscription music service is finally coming to mobile phones, filling a big gap versus services like Rhapsody, Rdio, and (in Europe) Spotify.

It should also provide welcome competition to Google's own music service by giving users access to their music collection from any Android device.

The unfortunately named Music Unlimited by Qriocity (pronounced "curiosity") service launched last year overseas and in February in the U.S., but it was kind of a dud: mainly because it was only available on PCs and Sony electronic devices like the PlayStation 3 and various TVs.

But starting today, a Music Unlimited app is available in the Android Marketplace, and will work on all mobile phones running Android 2.1 and later (not just Sony Ericsson phones, which would be silly).

The service comes in two tiers. The Basic level, at $3.99 a month offers Internet radio (think Pandora) plus a scan-and-match service that scans your existing collection and then lets you listen to those songs on any compatible device, without having to upload songs. (That part is like the iTunes Match service Apple announced last week but won't release until this fall.)

The premium service at $9.99 a month adds on-demand playback of the seven million songs in Sony's Qriocity library -- which includes tunes from all four major labels, not just Sony.

The service has the potential to make the Google Music product look out of date and incomplete. It could increase pressure on Google to work out deals with the record labels so that it can offer a comparable service of its own.

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See Also:

• THE APPLE INVESTOR: Apple Stock Has At Least 30% Upside Potential
• Spotify Is One Step Away From A U.S. Launch
• BUSTED! Spanish Police Arrest Three Sony Hackers

Sony's Music Service Puts The Pressure On Google (SNE, GOOG)

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Here's Proof That Sony's Android Tablets Will Play PlayStation Games (SNE)

Following the announcement of Sony's two new Honeycomb tablets, the company released this sleek video of the two devices.

The images are just renders, but we do get a hint at what the tablets will be able to do. Sony says the S1 and S2 tablets will interact with all your Sony entertainments systems (Bravia TVs, PS3, etc.) for streaming content and games.

The video shows a shot of the S1 running a video game and what appears to be an online media hub more movies and TV shows.

Check out the video:

Don't Miss: Photos of Sony's new tablets

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• GADGET LOVERS: Here's Your Always Up-To-Date Product Release Guide For The iPhone 5 And More
• Are Android Phones About To Get Their Own FaceTime Copycat?
• Samsung Galaxy S II: The Phone U.S. Android Lovers Will Be Begging For

Here's Proof That Sony's Android Tablets Will Play PlayStation Games (SNE)

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Sony's PlayStation Phone Would Have Been Cool Four Years Ago (SNE, AAPL, GOOG)

The Sony PlayStation phone is finally, actually a reality, judging by photos leaked to Engadget. Could you wake us up when it matters?

The truth is that the PlayStation phone is so past its due date that no one is going to care besides a small population of PlayStation Portable addicts. The mobile gaming industry has picked up and moved on, and now Apple's iOS and even Google's Android operating system are all most casual gamers need to play games on-the-go.

Even Facebook's secret phone sounds like a more exciting mobile gaming platform than some PlayStation phone.

Sometime in 2006, when I was a cub reporter at Forbes.com, I attended a media breakfast roundtable at Sony's NYC building with Sony executives. It was a semi-regular event, and I was the youngest person there, so it was pretty fun.

I asked the execs: Since Sony has all these amazing assets -- PlayStation gaming, sexy Vaio computers, neat digital cameras, the Walkman legacy, the huge music and content business, and the Sony Ericsson mobile partnership, when is Sony going to line everything up and make the best gaming/multimedia/Internet/smartphone in the world?

I don't remember the exact answer, but I think it was something along the lines of: We know we have all these businesses, they should probably work together more, but we're really excited about what Sony Ericsson is working on. Or something predictable like that.

The point is, the folks weren't jumping out of their seats at the idea that Sony's PlayStation -- arguably its most successful brand since the Walkman -- should be stamped on a phone. And now you see why: Because it takes half a decade to get anything done at Sony.

Meanwhile, Apple announced the iPhone several months later in January 2007, and totally revolutionized the industry. Everything that Sony and Sony Ericsson and every other mobile-phone player thought they knew about phone software and hardware was suddenly wrong.

Since then, Apple has forged ahead in mobile gaming, getting studios like Electronic Arts and Take-Two to make games for the iPhone that look better than most anything you'd need to play on a PlayStation Portable. Now Apple is getting into social gaming. And, as you've seen, it has taken the industry many years -- some companies, like Sony, longer than others -- to figure things out.

Sony is basically at square one right now, and most people just won't care. A PlayStation phone may have been cool four or five years ago, before anyone had ever heard of an iPhone, App Store, or Android -- back when Nokia was messing around with the N-Gage. But now it just shows how slow and hamstrung that Sony is.

Unless there's something we don't know about -- an amazing feature, or an amazing price, or something else -- it's hard to imagine that this phone is going to be a hit.

Read: 10 Apple TV Apps We Can't Wait To Use

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See Also:

• Here's The Guy Running Facebook's Secret Phone Project In A Secret Building
• 10 Apple TV Apps We Can't Wait To Use
• 10 Ways People Are Using The iPad To Create Content, Not Just Consume It

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