Sony Corp

Apple Computer Inc. yesterday became the second PC maker to recall hundreds of thousands of potential- ly flammable laptop bat- teries. But the recall may prove less a headache for Apple Chief Executive Officer Steven P. Jobs than for Sony Corp. CEO Howard Stringer. That's because Sony manufactured the 1.8 million potentially problematic batteries in Apple's iBook G4 and PowerBook G4 laptops - just as it did the 4.1 million batteries recalled last week by Dell Inc. Now, other device makers are scrutinizing rechargeable lithium-ion batteries made by the little-known Sony Energy Devices Corp.

TOKYO - Sony Corp. said yesterday that it will double production of its PlayStation 2 in the next three months because parts shortages left many consumers empty-handed after introduction of the video game console in Europe and the United States. The world's largest game console maker aims to make up for delays caused by lower-than-expected production capacity for the PlayStation 2's advanced graphics chip. The machine was the must-have item for Christmas, though manufacturing delays forced Sony to scale back shipment targets in the United States by as much as half.

TOKYO -- Sony Corp., the world's biggest maker of video-game players, cut the price in Japan of its PlayStation 3 by about 20 percent, responding to complaints it cost twice as much as Microsoft Corp. and Nintendo Co. consoles. The game player will retail for 49,980 yen ($430) when it goes on sale Nov. 11, Ken Kutaragi, head of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., said at the Tokyo Game Show yesterday. The company previously said it would sell the cheapest model for 59,800 yen, excluding tax. "They had to cut it because rivals have lower prices, and they may lower the price again if sales don't go well," said Yoku Ihara, head of equity research at Retela Crea Securities Co. in Tokyo.

Sony Corp. has patented technology that would prevent its PlayStation consoles from playing used, rented or borrowed video games - raising questions about whether the electronics and entertainment giant may attempt to redefine what it means to own something in the digital age. Speculation over Sony's plans for the technology have sparked a furor online as game fans and consumer advocates fret that the company may incorporate it into the PlayStation 3...

ZAMA, Japan -- The call came at 4 p.m. Tuesday.The head of Zama's most important employer, the Nissan factory, told Mayor Katsuji Hoshino that Nissan's officers had made an announcement in Tokyo: The plant will close its assembly line and move 2,500 of its 4,000 workers to other parts of Japan by 1995.With that, this Nissan community of 116,000 became the first automaking town in Japan ever to join cities like Flint and Ypsilanti, Mich., on the ever-lengthening list of places where competition and harder times are yanking the hearts out of local economies.

Ellis A. Cohen, whose true-life TV movies introduced the nation to a disabled woman coaching Little League baseball and a paralyzed girl learning to walk through electricity, is taking us behind bars in his latest project to meet a convicted rapist.But was he guilty?In "Dangerous Evidence," published in paperback by Berkley Books, Mr. Cohen and co-author Milton J. Shapiro take on alleged racism and injustice in the Marine Corps, examining how a 1983 court-martial convicted black Marine Cpl. Lindsey Scott and sentenced him to 30 years on charges of raping and stabbing the wife of a white fellow Marine.

Akio Morita,75, the entrepreneurwho co-founded Sony Corp. and helped give new meaning to the words "Made in Japan," died today in Tokyo, Kyodo news service reported.Ted Arison,75, the American-Israeli billionaire who founded Carnival Cruise Lines, died of a heart attack Friday in Jerusalem.Pub Date: 10/03/99

Barbra Streisand has joined Madonna and Michael Jackson in the biggest bucks brigade by signing a $60 million movie and record deal with Sony Corp., New York Newsday reported yesterday.The paper said the entertainer will get about $3 million for each movie she directs and $5 million for each album she produces over 10 years. She'll also get a $4 million advance for each film she appears in, plus an additional $1 million when she produces them. Neither Sony nor Miss Streisand would discuss the deal.

NEW YORK -- Sony Corp. has teamed up with renowed author and illustrator of children's books Maurice Sendak.Sony said the working partnership agreement covers existing and new intellectual properties of Sendak's, including books, characters and his national children's theater, "The Night Kitchen."The company said Sendak, along with John Carls, his partner in Wild Things Productions, will work with TriStar Pictures, an arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment, to develop and produce full-length feature films based on Sendak's own books and books by other artists.

This week's acquisition of entertainment giant MCA by Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and the previous purchase of Columbia Pictures by Sony Corp. have raised some concerns about the future of the entertainment industry.The Evening Sun would like to know whether you believe foreign ownership of powerful entertainment companies will change the content of what we will see on TV and at the movies in the near future.To register your opinion, call SUNDIAL, the Baltimore Sun's free directory of telephone information services at 783-1800 (or 268-7736 in Anne Arundel County)