MAKUHARI, Japan, Sept 20, 2007 (AFP) - Sony said Thursday it was delaying until next year the launch of an online virtual universe for the PlayStation 3 where users will be able to socialise, shop and even go to the movies.

Sony had planned to launch 'Home' this year but PS3 owners will now have to wait until early 2008, the head of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, Kazuo Hirai, revealed at the Tokyo Game Show.

The delay is another setback to Sony, which has much riding on the success of the PS3 but faces fierce competition from Microsoft's XBox 360 and Nintendo's Wii.

MAKUHARI, Japan, Sept 20, 2007 (AFP) - Sony said Thursday that it was bringing the rumble feature back with a new PlayStation 3 controller, but there was no mention of any price cut for the console.

In a keynote speech at the Tokyo Game Show near the Japanese capital, the head of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, Kazuo Hirai, said that 40 new PS3 software titles would be released by the end of the year.

Sony has 'reflected on the basics and we want to make an interactive game machine for consumers to enjoy,' Hirai said.

TOKYO, Sept 18, 2007 (AFP) - Sony Corp's financial arm on Tuesday scaled down its giant initial public offering as renewed worries about the fallout from a global credit squeeze sent financial shares tumbling.

The planned flotation, one of the biggest in Japan in recent years, is being closely watched as a test of investor appetite for financial shares following recent turbulence on global markets.

MUMBAI, Sept 16, 2007 (AFP) - Hollywood studio Sony Pictures is ready for its maiden foray into India's money-spinning Bollywood movie industry with a love story due for release this year, a company official said here.

The film Saawariya (Beloved) -- which will still have Bollywood's trademark song-and-dance sequences -- will hit cinemas in November.

'Bollywood makes roughly 200-odd films every year. We believe there is reasonably good money to make here,' said Gareth Wigan, vice chairman of Columbia Tristar Motion Picture Group, a Sony Pictures Entertainment Company.

TOKYO, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - Sony on Monday unveiled a new robotic music player shaped like an egg with flapping wings that can twist to its tunes.

The 'Rolly' is a digital music player that plays music through built-in speakers and has colour lights that flash as it 'dances'.

Users can set the movements along with the music they download from their personal computers and Bluetooth devices, the company said.

The music player, which will go on sale in Japan on September 29, has one gigabyte of memory to store tunes.

BRUSSELS, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - EU antitrust regulators are poised to approve again the merger that created the music giant Sony BMG without conditions, the Financial Times newspaper reported Monday.

The European Commission has until October 10 to rule on the deal, but it is probably too late for regulators either to block it or demand conditions for its go-ahead, the British newspaper reported without citing its sources.

TOKYO, Sept 5, 2007 (AFP) - For those fed up with the family photos where one person is perpetually frowning, a new Japanese camera is said to automatically weed out pictures when a person isn't smiling.

Electronics giant Sony Corp. said Wednesday it will begin sales this month of the compact 'Cyber-shot T' series that can detect a smile and immediately drop the shutter.

The photographer can program the camera to detect which type of facial expression to look for, be it a faint smile or a tooth-baring grin, a Sony spokeswoman said.

TOKYO, Sept 4, 2007 (AFP) - Sony Corp. said Tuesday it would list its financial arm next month in hopes of raising some three billion dollars to reinvest in the recovering group's core electronics business.

The initial public offering will be one of the largest in recent years and the biggest of 2007 at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which is the world's second largest bourse.

TOKYO, Sept 4, 2007 (AFP) - Sony Corp. said Tuesday it will list its financial arm next month in hopes of raising some three billion dollars which it can reinvest in its core electronics business.

The iconic Japanese company is in the midst of a restructuring drive that has finally begun to bear fruit after years of suffering as rival Apple raced ahead with the iPod.

Sony Financial Holdings -- the holding firm of Sony Life Insurance, Sony Assurance and Sony Bank -- said it will sell 75,000 newly issues shares.

TOKYO, Aug 29, 2007 (AFP) - Recovering Japanese giant Sony Corp. said Wednesday it will introduce a new lineup of flat-screen televisions including the largest on the market in a bid to boost its mainstay electronics sales.

Introducing 15 new models of its Bravia line, Sony said its top-end flagship model with a 70-inch screen will be the largest flat television commercially available.

The new models will also have advanced technology that can eliminate fuzziness, Sony said.

TOKYO, Aug 24, 2007 (AFP) - Bread and potatoes are sources of human energy, and now a carbohydrate diet is also powering up a Walkman.

Japanese technological giant Sony Corp., hoping to be eco friendly, said it developed a prototype battery cell that generates electricity from carbohydrates and sugar.

The test cells have achieved output of 50 milliwatts, enough to play music on a Walkman, Sony said.

In a demonstration on Thursday, a Sony employee poured a sugary sports drink to power a music player and speakers.

TOKYO, Aug 21, 2007 (AFP) - Japan's Toshiba and its partners gained a much-needed boost in the next-generation DVD format war after Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation said they would exclusively support HD DVD.

The decision to drop the rival Blu-ray format is a blow to Sony Corp. and its partners, who have scored some valuable points recently in the tussle in high-definition DVDs.

TOKYO, Aug 2, 2007 (AFP) - Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp. said Thursday it would recall 350,000 Cyber-Shot digital cameras worldwide because the metal coating could peel off and scratch the user's hand.

The affected model, the Cyber-Shot DSC-T5, was released in September 2005 and is no longer manufactured, the company said.

'The coating did not have enough adhesive strength, so it may peel off and curl up, hurting a user's hand,' said Sony spokeswoman Ryoko Takagi.

TOKYO, July 26, 2007 (AFP) - Japan's Sony Corp. said Thursday its quarterly net profit more than doubled as surging sales of cameras and televisions offset swelling losses from its beleaguered PlayStation 3.

Sony said operating profits more than tripled as a weak yen boosted its overseas earnings and it cashed in on the box office success of Spider-Man 3.

The electronics icon has undergone major restructuring under its first foreign head Howard Stringer and is recovering after a difficult 2006 when it was hit by recalls of millions of faulty computer batteries.

TOKYO, July 26, 2007 (AFP) - The Wii outsold the PlayStation 3 almost fivefold in the quarter to June as Nintendo ratchets up the pressure on Sony in the multibillion dollar video game industry, figures showed Thursday.

Sony said Thursday it had sold 710,000 PS3s worldwide in the three months to June, a day after Nintendo reported Wii sales of 3.43 million for the same period.

The PS3 'sales figure was somewhat weaker than our target but we still believe that the main battle is still ahead of us,' Sony's chief financial officer, Nobuyuki Oneda, told reporters.

TOKYO, July 26, 2007 (AFP) - Sony Corp. said Thursday its net profit more than doubled in the fiscal first quarter, helped by strong sales of electronic goods such as cameras and the box office success of Spider-Man 3.

Sony's earnings were also boosted by a weaker yen, rising revenues from its semiconductor business and a much improved performance by the group's financial services unit.

TOKYO, July 26, 2007 (AFP) - Sony Corp.'s ailing video game division will be in focus Thursday as the electronics icon reports first-quarter results that analysts say are likely to show a chequered performance.

Sony has forecast a strong recovery in profits this year after a difficult 2006 when it was hit hard by recalls of faulty computer batteries and the huge cost of developing the PlayStation 3 (PS3) game console.