Review: Sony Xperia Play

The long awaited “PlayStation Phone” has arrived. Although, it carriers a different name — Xperia Play. Nonetheless, this phone completes several years worth of dreams from gamers and nerds alike all over the world. The basic ingredients include a speedy processor, slide-out gaming controls, and Google’s latest Gingerbread OS. It certainly sounds like a recipe for success. Jump inside to see if Sony finally delivered…

Facebook Prepping Big 1.6 Update For Android.

To say the Facebook Android app is lacking would certainly classify as an understatement. It’s two short steps from full on failure. (We’re not hatin’ either, the iOS version is just as terrible.) But things will soon change if the upcoming 1.6 update is as awesome as some say it is.

Using a test pool of over 1,000 Reddit comments, the Facebook team has developed the latest 1.6 update to be the best yet. Besides the plethora of bug fixes, improvements to timelines, video uploads, the ability to like comments, pages support, and increased notifications options will all see the light of day in the near future.

Currently the 1.6 Facebook app is in private beta. With that said, interested readers can visit this page and fill out a short questionnaire for a chance to be included in the beta team. We can only hope the iOS app receives some improvements of its own, namely in the departments of speed and “not having to press ‘done’ 50 times for it to clear notifications”.

Google Closing Down Google Translate API Due To “Abuse”.

Bad news for app developers with an app that pulls from Google’s Google Translate service and API — the API was deprecated on May 26th, 2011 and will cease working entirely by December 1, 2011. On Google’s code website, they state the following:

The Google Translate API has been officially deprecated as of May 26, 2011. Due to the substantial economic burden caused by extensive abuse, the number of requests you may make per day will be limited and the API will be shut off completely on December 1, 2011.

Looks like people bumming off of Google’s free translate API will have to switch over to Microsoft’s Bing equivalent. Any app developers care to weigh in?

Confirmed: Apple Announcing iOS 5, OS X Lion, And iCloud At WWDC.

Rumors and speculation have pointed to a rather packed event at the upcoming June 6th WWDC hosted by Apple. Today, those rumors were confirmed with an official press release from Apple previewing the events which will include iOS 5, OS X Lion, and iCloud. Of course what’s incredibly odd is that Apple is issuing a press release to confirm an official event’s content. Apple rarely does that. Such a spin can be taken two ways. (1) Apple has so much to announce that they had to offload a small portion ahead of the show to fit everything in or (2) Apple doesn’t really have much of anything to show hence the more casual reveal.

On a side note, we’d love to see some new hardware to go along with the new digital bits. Unfortunately all the latest rumors point to a delayed fall (September) release of the next-gen iPhone. In a similar fashion, we’re excited to see if Apple will actually launch OS X Lion in the Mac App Store the day of WWDC or if it too is destined for a later date.

We’ll know soon enough. Press release after the break…

OfficeMax And Walmart Inventory Screenshots Points To Imminent 3G/4G HP TouchPad Launch.

Thanks to a new 1-2 punch of OfficeMax and Walmart internal screenshots we have more confirmation that the HP TouchPad webOS tablet launch is nearing.

First and foremost, a leaked OfficeMax screenshot shows a later than usual July 17th release date. But PreCentral’s tipster assures them it is merely OfficeMax arriving late to the TouchPad party. Backing up that claim is a second screenshot (right) originating from Walmart showing 3G and 4G TouchPads (Error?) while also lacking a certain codeword “bupukiss”. The lack of said word according to the Walmart tipster means that the TouchPad launch is coming sooner rather than later. As we can see, pricing for the 32 GB TouchPad will come to market in June at just south of $600.

Things are beginning to pick up for Palm/HP. Let’s hope the TouchPad isn’t their only whizzbang hardware for the summer — because the Pre 3 and Veer certainly aren’t going to do it…

Sony To Finally Restore (Almost) All PSN Services By June 2nd.

The ongoing PSN Hack saga nears the end today with a new announcement by Sony that (almost) all PSN services will be active by “end of week” (June 2nd) in the Americas, Europe, and most of their Asian markets:

Fully Restored

• Full functionality on the PlayStation Store

• In-game commerce

• The ability to redeem vouchers and codes

• Full functionality on Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity for PS3, PSP, VAIO and other PCs

• Full functionality on Media Go

Excluded from this list include parts of Sony’s Qriocity and video services which according to a new blog post on the PlayStation Blog by Jeff Rubenstein, Sony’s social media manager, will be revealed at a future undisclosed date.

Still in progress

• Video on Demand powered by Qriocity

• Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity (for devices not specifically mentioned above)

Also going live this week will be the “Welcome Back” packages that include numerous free movies, games, and music downloads for customers to choose from.

Meanwhile specific Asian markets Japan, Hong, Kong, and South Korea will have to wait a bit longer for PSN services to relaunch in their own territories. The added delay for areas closer to home are likely due to increased concerns about Sony’s security and the various governments wanting more proof of Sony’s efforts before said networks resume services.

Official Sony press release after the jump…

Qualcomm Dual-Core Tablets Hit Computex With Honeycomb In Tow.

Nvidia’s Tegra 2 may be the go-to standard for dual-core tablets in the here and now, but things will soon change if Qualcomm has their way. At Computex this week, Qualcomm had several different hardware vendors on display showing off their new dual-core Snapdragon processors.

One such manufacturer, Quanta, demoed the device you see above. While it’s not known whether the this tablet is powered by the same MSM8660 that’s in the HTC Sensation or the more powerful MSM8960, we’ll take comfort in the fact that reports claim the screen to be as vivid and colorful as a Super AMOLED. Toss in Android 3.x for good measure and you’ve got the start of something great.

Here’s to hoping we see some more Snapdragon-powered tablet hardware in the near future. Video of above tablet after the break…