Archive for: xperia
Fancy the new yet subtly different launcher on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray? New features include a new widget overview mode, a “themes” function (not yet working) and a quick uninstall button within the app drawer. Minor, yes. Welcome, you bet!
The leaked .apk is now ready and waiting for public consumption. So far, the Xperia X10, Arc and Play have taken the new launcher in stride. If you manage to get it up and running on a different device, be sure to let us know how it goes.
Well looky there, a Sony Xperia Mini Pro casually posing for FCC cameramen. The hardware looks pretty awesome and we’re really digging that QWERTY keyboard. Unfortunately we Americans are unlikely to enjoy the full awesomeness of this device seeing as how it taunts us with European-only 3G bands (for now). If only there was a U.S. version…
Hop on past the break for the full spread.
While smartphone manufacturers still are releasing sub-qHD resolution displays, Sony is taking the higher pixel count to somewhere it doesn’t often go — the small screen. The media and consumer electronics giant has announced the Xperia Ray Android phone which features among other things, a 3.3″ qHD display, 1 GHz processor, and 8.1-megapixel camera with Exmor R for HD video capture. Your usual assortment of wireless technologies including Bluetooth, WiFi, and GPS are included as are two special cellular flavors: quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE and dualband UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (900/2100 MHz) or quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE and triband UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (800/1900/2100 MHz).
Look for the Xperia Ray to launch globally starting in Q3 in black, gold, white and pink. Without a price to consider, do you think the phone as it is now is worth your time? Or is the lack of dual-core processor and tiny screen a turn off?
Is this Sony’s next flagship Android device, the Xperia duo? While we’re not sure if of the legitimacy of the photo nor claim that it packs a the company’s first use of a dual-core processor, we’re keeping our fingers crossed. As much as we despise Sony for the way in which they run business, we can’t help but stare at some of their hardware. Case in point: this phone (and UI) are hot!
Whatever this phone is, we want it.
Details are still scant, but Sony just announced (again) their PlayStation Suite package for Android. The gist is simple: Xperia-like games and environment on non-Xperia “certified” hardware. Simple enough, right? Unfortunately Sony was entirely too light on details at their E3 keynote tonight. Here’s to hoping more is revealed sooner rather than later…
Beginning today, Sony Xperia Arc and Xperia owners on Vodafone UK should take a minute to hook up to their computer and initiate the latest Android 2.3.3 update. Besides the usual bug fixes, stability improvements and improved voice quality as well as exchange tweaks have made the cut in the latest OS release. Most exciting, however, is the revamped Facebook UI — “Facebook Inside Xperia” — that ties Facebook actions into various aspects of Android’s core. Users will now be able to share various things on Facebook with simple taps within the address book, media apps, music player, and camera.
As mentioned before, this is a manual update that will not alert you for OTA install. With that said, we here in the U.S. will have to wait a little longer before we get our own version of both Android 2.3.3 and the Facebook Inside Xperia app.
In conjunction with Sony’s announcement of all new Xperia phones, Facebook has something of their own to add — deeper Facebook integration. Specifically, the new Xperia Mini and Mini Pro contain a number of tweaks that will make social networking/sharing faster, more natural, and easier. Just a few of the new Facebook features in the Xperia line include:
- The ability to like a track from the music player
- See what other Facebook friends are listening to
- Interact with personal photo albums as well as your Facebook friends’ within the photos app
If you ask us it sounds a lot like normal Facebook integration in Android save for the added music sharing feature. But hey, we’re not complaining. We like where Sony’s going with this new approach and hope to see it hit more devices over the coming months — we’re looking at you iOS devices…
Aprils 1st will not see the release of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play on UK carrier O2. The much awaited PlayStation Phone which was announced back in February at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona apparently has a few minor yet critical issues according to O2:
“As the head of O2’s device testing team, my team and I see every phone that O2 will be selling before it goes on sale. Our job, as I mentioned in my last blog post, is to make sure these phones are ready for our customers before they go on sale,” explains Stuart Hibberd, head of O2’s testing team. “We’ve been testing the phone non-stop for weeks and have found some bugs in the software that, if they’re not fixed, means customers won’t have a great experience. We’ve been working with Sony Ericsson to get these bugs ironed out, but haven’t been able to get them fixed in time for us to be able to launch the phone on April 1st as we originally planned.”
The statement by O2 doesn’t include any specifics as to what the exact bug(s) are. Nonetheless, it’s a bummer for O2 customers looking to get their hands on a very popular Android device that has been rumored as in the making for years. However, we must applaud Sony Ericsson in not simply rushing the Xperia Play to market and instead taking the time to iron out as many bugs as possible before shipping said phone. Contrary to popular belief, such a scenario isn’t the norm.
- February 13, 2011 11:16 am
Sony kicked off their MWC celebrations with a bang by officially announcing the Xperia Play (aka: “Playstation Phone”) Featuring a 4″ 480 x 854 display, 1GHz Snapdragon processor + Adreno GPU, 512MB of RAM, and 5-megapixel camera, the Xperia Play is meant to turn heads. While we would have personally liked to see SE go one further than the competition spec-wise, we can’t dismiss the power on hand. Add in a capable OS — Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) — and you’ve got quite a mobile gaming machine. Wireless coverage is provided by 3G, WiFi (w/ hotspot functionality), Bluetooth 2.1, and GPS/aGPS.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play will ship drop on Verizon Wireless this coming March for an as of yet undisclosed price.
