Two weeks ago, the VAIO team headed to L.A. to support Design For Humanity – Billabong’s annual charity event. If you’ve seen the new boardshort-inspired W Series, you know we’ve partnered with Billabong to create the design. We also featured the colorful new VAIO at the charity event.
Find out more about the event, the charity and what inspired the design of the Imperial Lime W Series in this behind-the-scenes look at the Design For Humanity charity event by our very own Sony Electronics video blogger, Sukhjit.
Also, be sure to check out all the photos from the event here, on our flickr page.
To help kick off the unofficial start of summer, we’ve partnered with surf wear apparel brand Billabong to bring you a unique PC design for the beach season ahead.
The all-new VAIO® W Series Imperial Lime Edition features a boardshort-inspired design and includes graphics based off Billabong’s summer ’10 collection. Also featuring a vibrant HD (1366×768) 10.1” LED backlit display, a roomy 250GB hard drive and up to seven hours of use on a single charge – it’s bound to be a summertime favorite for those wanting to surf the web pool side or while relaxing on the beach.
We’re excited about working with Billabong and to build on the partnership, Sony is participating in Billabong’s Design for Humanity event on June 10th in L.A. This year, the Design for Humanity charity will benefit Invisible Children, an organization that rebuilds schools and provides jobs in war-torn Northern Uganda. Our team will be there to capture all the unique stories and we’ll be sure to share all the photos and videos from the day. So be sure to check back next week for the latest.
In the meantime, the all-new VAIO W Series Imperial Lime Edition mini-PC is available today for pre-sale and starts at $500.
Have questions about the new Imperial Lime Edition? Leave them below and I’ll be sure to hunt down all the answers.
We all have our favorite things. Mine: evening baseball games, ski trips and movie night. When it comes to my favorite VAIO notebook, it’s the Z Series hands down. I use a Z Series both at work and at home. And when I got my first sneak peak at the newly redesigned Z Series – as you did at CES last month – I couldn’t have been more excited.
And now, with the new Z Series available for presale on SonyStyle.com, I wanted to offer you a behind-the-scenes look at the year long project to makeover the Z Series.
What could possibly be so different from the original 1st generation Z Series? Surprisingly a lot! From carving the chassis’ core from a single, solid piece of aluminum to adding a backlit keyboard and engineering the world’s first quad SSD configuration in a notebook, there’s so many things to discuss. So, in this four part series – Reinventing the Z – you’ll uncover the innovations, upgrades and detailed thought that went into giving the Z Series a new look – both inside and out – and why it remains my favorite VAIO Series.
To begin, I’d like to have you meet Product Planner Kaya Kanamori and Chief Project Manager Masahiko Suzuki. Both highlight their roles and the team’s mission to develop an all new high-performance, ultra-mobile notebook and why in the end they choose the 1st generation Z Series as their starting point and ultimately, their champion. Check out the video below for the complete story.
In part two, Designer Shimpei Hirano and others open their sketch books to offer you a candid look at the stories behind the design themes of both the original and the new Z Series. They also highlight the unique attention they paid to often overlooked features to enhance usability, look and feel – like removing port covers that feedback proved to be an inconvenience and carving the chassis’ core from a single, solid piece of aluminum to reduce parts and enhance durability. Check out the video below to uncover all the details.
Want to discover more? Uncover answers to questions not answered in these interviews? Post your questions below and I’ll hunt down the answers for you. In the meantime, check back next week for more in this series and visit SonyStyle.com for complete model details.
Last month the Sony Style Blog reported the announcement of Sony Style’s new spring line of the VAIO Signature Collection. This is an exclusive set of VAIO models only available at SonyStyle and includes a limited production run of each model. This spring’s line includes a CW290 in “Brilliant Pink” and “Crystal Rain White”, a VAIO X in a new, Matte Silver shade, a Z series notebook in a “Metal Mosaic” along with an uber Z model, an L Series All-in-one Touch PC in Bronze, and most recently the new E Series notebook in “Caribbean Green”.
This week we wrap up the Making of the X Series with our last two installments.
Throughout this series I’ve introduced you to some of Sony’s best engineers and designers. They’ve taken you behind-the-scenes to offer you a unique glimpse into the many challenges their teams had to overcome to make the X Series possible. And today you’ll uncover two new stories. One takes a look at arguably the most important component of a notebook. Any guesses? The other story follows an inconspicuous engineering team to discover why they were so intent on destroying as many X Series models as they could. And interestingly, they still work for Sony.
First, let’s meet Kataoka Tatsu, Lead Battery Engineer on the X Series project. As you can imagine, the battery is arguably one of the most important components of a notebook – without it, all you have is a desktop. Tatsu-san’s team was tasked with what seemed like an impossible goal – engineering a standard capacity battery to be less 0.5 inches thin and weigh less than 1 pound. And most importantly, all of this had to be done without sacrificing battery life. Remember too that batteries are often the heaviest component of any notebook – which only added to the number of obstacles on this project.
What makes Tatsu-san’s story even more interesting though is that with the production deadline looming over their heads, his team wrapped up the battery project with little time to spare and just as headquarters came to them and requested an additional large capacity battery be developed. This was a huge surprise for the team to say the least and they would have to start from scratch. This time however the development window was much smaller. Was Tatsu-san’s team up for the challenge? Check out the battery they developed and discover the amazing detail that went into it in the video below.
Lastly, I’d like you to meet Kasai Takafumi who’s goal was to destroy as many notebooks as possible. What was behind his motivation? It wasn’t stress or anger but rather something very important. Kasai Takafumi’s job as Lead QA Engineer is to put all VAIO notebooks to the test. It’s his team’s job to design unique test that measure the limits of VAIO construction, design and engineering to ensure that each chassis meets the high standards of Sony quality.
With its incredibly thin profile, his tests were especially important for the X Series. Although it has a stunning design, it was important to ensure the uniquely thin-and-light X Series could withstand the rigors of the road. Twisting, hitting, smashing, heating and dropping were all critical to finding where the weak spots in construction were so that adjustments could be made. Learn all about the story and the unique tests that were performed from Takafumi-san himself in the video below.
Want to discover more? Uncover answers to questions not covered in these interviews? Post your questions below and I’ll hunt down the answers for you.
