USATODAY.com - Being a pioneer is fraught with risks. Take the gorgeous, black $3,500 Sony Vaio VGN-AR190G notebook is the first laptop with a built-in recordable Blu-ray drive. But the computer is outrageously expensive. And it is saddled with stubborn technical snags around disc burning and playback.

Reuters - "Donnie Darko" writer-director Richard Kelly's "Southland Tales," which ran into a critical buzzsaw when it debuted at May's Festival de Cannes, will be released domestically by Sony Pictures.

PC World - Vaio U laptop will feature flash memory instead of a hard drive.

Reuters - International stars Chow Yun-Fat ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") and Gong Li ("Memoirs of a Geisha") soon will be returning to American shores.

Reuters - Sony's "Click" controlled the box office in North America this past weekend with a $40 million debut and the top spot.

Microsoft says it won't cut prices on its Xbox 360 gaming console, despite the impending fall release of Sony's PlayStation 3. Gamers have hoped the Xbox 360s, which sells its basic model for $299, would take a price cut to continue growth when Sony debuts its console....

Reuters - Sony Corp. CEO Howard Stringer said on Monday the future ownership structure of Sony BMG, Sony's music venture with Bertelsmann AG, would be determined by how the German company decides to repay its debt.

AFP - Sony Corp chairman Howard Stringer has admitted that the electronics icon had taken a gamble with the high price of its new PlayStation 3 but predicted the console would still trump its rivals.

Reuters - Tokyo stocks are expected to fall on Monday, with shares of tech firms such as Sony Corp. and other exporters declining on concerns that further U.S. interest rate increases will dent demand in a key market for Japanese goods.

Sony and Toshiba have been heating up competition for the latest DVDs. The first Blu-ray DVD discs have been released in the US ahead of the launch of the first Blu-ray player on June 25.

AFP - The top brass of Sony Corp. have told shareholders that the electronics giant was firmly on the path to recovery and set a goal of selling 100 million PlayStation 3 machines.

AP - Howard Stringer, the first foreigner to head Sony, tried to allay investor worries about the future of the Japanese electronics and entertainment company Thursday by pointing to a budding recovery in its core electronics business.

Reuters - The Nikkei average rose about 2.6 percent to clear the key 15,000 level for the first time in two weeks in afternoon trade on Thursday after a rally on Wall Street sparked buying of Sony Corp (6758.T) and other blue-chip shares.

AP - Sony CEO Howard Stringer tried to allay investor worries about the future of the Japanese electronics and entertainment company Thursday by pointing to a budding recovery in its core electronics business.

NewsFactor - "The Terminator" and friends are spearheading the Blu-ray invasion. The Arnold Schwarzenegger classic is among the first seven movie titles to hit the streets in the new the high-definition DVD format created by Sony.

PC World - The best from Asia this month also includes new audio players and portable photo printers.

FT.com - Consumer electronics companies such as Apple, Siemens (NYSE:SI), Nokia and Sony could save hundreds of millions of euros every year under plans by the European Commission to slash the copyright levies on products ranging from iPods to DVD players and mobile phones.

PC World - Sony home entertainment executive discusses the quality and technology behind today's launch.

U.S. video game sales fell by 10.2 percent over the month of May. However, that is expected to change once Sony launches its Playstation 3 console in November and Nintendo releases its Wii console sometime in the fourth quarter of this year....

AFP - Two earthquakes with magnitudes of 5.1 and 5.2 rocked the Indonesian province of Aceh but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, the meteorological office said.