Riley Freeman is The Karate Kid

I just got some spam from Sony Pictures for the "remake" of The Karate Kid (note: there is no karate in this film, it's all kung fu) and there was a photo of Will Smith's kid Jaden who plays the protagonist alongside Jackie Chan. If you're a fan of Adult Swim's The Boondocks you'll recognise this kid immediately.

Yes folks, that kid is the spitting image of one Riley Freeman, the wannabe gansta youngest grandson of Robert Freeman. Check it...

What makes this even more humorous is that both the film and the TV show are property of Sony Pictures International. Cross promotion maybe?

Sony To Post First Loss In 14 Years

According to news.com.au's sources in Japan Sony, the electronics giant, will be posting its first loss in 14 years. Sony is expected to "post an operating loss of ¥100 billion" ($1.6 billion AUD) due to falling demand and a stronger yen the Nikkei business daily reported.

Personally I'm only surprised it hasn't happened sooner. Sony have a tendency to come out with wonderful new gadgets that cost an arm and a leg then not bother advertising them or they sabotage themselves in other ways.

Back in the day I bought (for a ridiculous amount of hard earned cash) the first "portable" MiniDisc recorder, the MZ1. It was huge but dear to my heart but not once did I see a Sony advertisement for MiniDisc other than on English soccer jerseys. By the time other people knew about MiniDiscs the MP3 revolution had arrived burying what could have been a large money spinner and really a handy product.

Now we have the PS3 which is leaning heavily on its Bluray capabilities to convince people that it's worth twice as much as an Xbox 360 which does essentially the same thing. Obviously not everyone is convinced.

It's about time Sony had a big rethink. Maybe they should use Microsoft as an example after all the positive hype around Windows 7 compared to the negative hype surrounding Vista prior to release.

Sony's 0.3mm Super-Thin OLED Screen

While the LCD manufacturers are having a wang-measuring contest with their slim displays Sony comes out with this OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) prototype that just blows everyone away.

Because OLED doesn't require any backlight like LCD the screen can be as thin as, well, the screen!

The screen in this image is that paper-thin (literally!), slightly bent thing in the glass case. Of course what we can't see is the power source and other bits and pieces like a TV tuner but it's cool nonetheless.

OLED's biggest hold-back at the moment is the size, especially when plasmas and LCDs are past the 100" mark (that's 2.5 meters diagonally) but it's just a matter of time before things get bigger and less expensive. That said OLED gives amazing contrast as well as very little power consumption.

More screen bending photos over at Engadget.

Microsoft Kicks Sony Square In the Enix

E3 2008 has kicked off with a big bang with most of the noise coming from Redmond's corner. The news so far is that the Xbox 360's dashboard redesign has been confirmed complete with the Mii-like avatars and US users will be getting more HD content via Xbox Live Marketplace but the biggest news came from Square Enix's head honcho Yoichi Wada.

Yoichi-san stood up proudly and announced that the next Final Fantasy game in the series (XIII) will be released simultaneously on the PS3 and the Xbox 360. Yes, on the Xbox 360. This is a series that has been Playstation-exclusive for years on end with only a few bits and pieces thrown out to the Xbox owners now we're getting simultaneous releases... nice one.

Solid Snake: That's What She Said

I'm all for having strange little easter eggs and cute jokes in games but I think Kojima and Co. have taken it a little too far this time. Earlier today there were some creepy/sexy (depending on your brain chemistry) videos of Old Snake doing an Austin Powers photo session with the "Beauties" of MGS4. Now there's a new video of Snake taking more piccies but this time he plays his iPod (did I mention there is a lot of product placement in MGS4?) and the "Beauty" starts dancing and acting like she's holding a microphone. Thanks for creeping me out again Kotaku!

Xbox 360 "Miis"

Kotaku is reporting on a rumour that soon you'll be replacing your gamer card image with a Mii-like "avatar" for Xbox 360 Live accounts. You could assume this is a response to the Wii's Miis but don't forget that the PS3's "Home"

also features 3D avatars. I guess Microsoft just felt left out.