Sony’s secret kill switch: myth, rumor or hearsay?

Could there be something lurking deep inside your Sony laptop or TV programmed to break the device as soon as the warranty expires? That may sound like a crazy conspiracy theory not far off those involving the mysterious deaths of engineers, but it’s a theory that continues to persist to some degree in Japan, and even seems to have grown in recent years. As Telegraph.co.uk reports, the belief in a secret timer or “kill switch” has been around for the past twenty years or so, but it apparently took on some newfound momentum amid the rash of Sony laptop battery failures, which even prompted some Sony execs to publicly deny that such a switch exists. The kill switch apparently isn’t completely pervasive though, as the PlayStation 3 is supposedly “exempt,” thereby explaining its considerable success in Japan — although there’s some talk that’s because it’s a Trojan horse for Sony’s next big scheme: mind control disguised as 3D glasses.