New 2011 Xperia Phones

Today saw the announcement of an additional two new phones to hit the 2011 Xperia portfolio, during the CommunicAsia conference held in Singapore. I have to admit, upon the announcement of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 (and the long wait that followed) I had high hopes for the device, but not much hope for the series itself, but I seem to have been extremely wrong on my judgement, in that each revision of the series so far has taken the Xperia range leaps and bounds.

The two new phones, both featuring the Gingerbread flavour of Android, come packed with additional enhancements which in 2011 have become standard for an Xperia device. These include Facebook Inside Xperia, the mobile BRAVIA engine, Exmor-R reality display, along side everything you could expect to see on an Android device such as the Android Market, and synchronisation with google services.

From a personal perspective, the Xperia Ray focuses on desirability whilst maintaining the full Xperia experience. With just 3.3" of screen, the interface used here is the same as the interface we've seen in the larger Xperia devices of this year, but maintains the same resolution as the Xperia arc. This sounds impressive to some degree - I'd like to see exactly how the phone looks, particularly with video playback, but the drawback here is that I really don't know how my fingers would cope with all that's going on in such a small space.



Xperia Ray



The Xperia Active, whilst less appealing visually, will be a highly impressive device for the more active user, and in particular those who endulge in water dwelling activities. The Active promotes itself as a device you can take anywhere, under any circumstances. It claims to be water resistant for up to 30 minutes in fresh water up to 1 meter deep, but also bosts a scratch resistant screen that works seemlessly with 'wet fingers'. Whilst nothing was officially mentioned, the device also looks to be surrounded with rugged protection. The Xperia Active uses the same 4 corner interface as the Xperia mini.

Xperia Active

Other announcements include the Sony Ericsson txt, LiveDock, an official docking station for the Xperia arc (and presumably other Xperia devices) and LiveSound headphones, said to be tangle free, with LiveKey control.

It is also worth noting that no announcement was made for the rumoured Sony Ericsson Xperia duo.

via. Sony Ericsson Product Blog

Is that a dual-c-.... oh wait.... no it's not.

"The DR" Xperia arc clone

Engadget today reported on a new device from the chinese market, cloning the XPERIA arc in cosmetics, although that's about as far as it goes in terms of what is comparible between the arc and the new chinese device. The biggest thing that stuck out to me, however, and the reason I wanted to run this article, is the dual-core perspective of the device.

The device reported by Engadget supposedly sports a dual-core ARM processor - but wait, it goes beyond that. Not only does the device supposedly contain a dual core processor (I say supposedly, as it's not true dual-core, just a half arsed attempt), but those cores are already reserved; one for the OS, and one core exclussive to the radio partition.

In the great debate of 'to dual, or not to dual', I have to admit, I openly express my opinion that dual core in mobile phone technology is not the end of the world. It's just an extension to the posessors e-peen. You can have dual core that, if not implemented correctly, is a waste of time. You can also have single core devices that are done well enough to challenge dual core devices. Personally I think that may have been the objective when Sony Ericsson built the arc, and this clone goes back on that.

With 624MHz in total (and to put this into perspective, the first Android phone released to the general public in 2008 ran on 528MHz), and 208MHz reserved for the radio, this 'dual-core' device is on no par with the actual Sony Ericsson range, but that's ok. We wouldn't expect it to be. But what this does go to show is just how having a dual core phone doesn't instantly make your phone better than one with a single core. I do however imagine many people will ignore the numbers that actually mean anything, and head straight for the buzz word that plagues this story due to it's innacuracy, 'dual-core', drooling at their screens in Envy that they do no posess one of these Chinese rarities.


Source: Engadget

make.believe. Then make.reality

Well, firstly thank you for visiting my blog. First blog posts are always the hardest, right? It's the introduction stage, telling the world about you, who you are, and what you do - all without straying too far from the point.

Who runs this blog?

So firstly, a little about me. My name is Steven Crossley, and I live in sunny England; not too far from London. When I think back to how long I've been a 'techy', I struggle. I struggle, but that doesn't stop me. I began my technical journey on Day 1, and for as long as I can remember have been involved in some way or another, in modern technology. Be it taking apart VCRs whilst shitting my nappies, or my first computer (an AST). In school, IT lessons were the one thig I took notice of (can you tell how bad my english is yet?!), and after school I studdied a diploma in IT. In 2003 I purchased my first ever smart phone, the Sony Ericsson P800i, second hand from ebay, and it was then I began my journey in mobile computing.

Fast forward to 2011, and here we are. I work in IT, although my product support portfolio includes a wide range, from SQL Server to Windows Mobile based portable barcode scanners. I am also a member of a very secret society!! Actually, it's not all that secret, or at least that's not the intention. The group I speak of is a selection of hand picked contributors to the Sony Ericsson online social media community. We are the Sony Ericsson UK Test Lab, and are an extremely active group of participators in a number of tests on Sony Ericsson devices. We are also responsible for testing firmwares as well as providing innovative ideas into the future of Sony Ericsson's product portfolio. We're a small group, and rather new (test lab launched on the 31st March 2011) and so our best is yet to be seen. Watch this space!

Who is this blog intended for?

Audiences are a funny thing, almost a bit of a catch 22. With one, restrictions are put in place, but without one, nobody feels welcome. I have an audience, but in doing so I try not to make people feel unwelcome in reading my blog, and therefore have only a loose basis for an audience, and that is 'Intermediate entry level portable computing'. The first three words probably seem to be a bit of a contradition of terms. How can you have "Intermediate" entry level? In this case, the Intermediate represents the millions and billions and gazillions of fellow tech-heads out there, whilst the entry-level stands for the portable aspect. We're heading into the next tech-bubble - or so some say. Some say we are, some say we are not, although personally I've felt for a long time that technology was about to make a big impact in our lives - no, bigger than that. Much bigger than ever before, and this in my opinion, is mostly down to how portable computing has become, from tablets to mobiles, to netbooks - even to the end of Microsoft's monopoly. People are challenging the technology industry. It's no longer good enough to be curious, and THIS is the cause of the recent explosion of technological advances.

So to summarise, this blog is mostly intended for people who already have experience in technology, but want to make the adjustment from the desktop to the pocket.

What can you expect from making.believe?

making.believe is all about usage. You're not likely to find the latest news, here, first. If that's the reason you're here, then I'm affraid to have to dissapoint. The primary focus here is to share my findings within the portable computing industry, be it old news with new relevence (particularly making extra use of what we are already familliar with), points of interest (I eventually aim to include a glossary of terms within the mobile industry), or conceptual community ideas (I'm BIG on innovation). I will also be posting a daily (within reason) summary of the past 24 hours in the mobile industry.

There is another big catchment for what this blog will be used to share, and that is that (again, within reason) the majority of news shared here will be in relation to Sony Ericsson products.

And then...

And then there was now. I've pretty much covered everything I need to, in terms of what to expect for the future of making.believe, and now I'm excited. I'm really excited! I've been wanting to do this for so long, but I've never found that 'the right moment' was present. Now I can finally rest in assurance that my 'mobile enthusiast' blog is up and running. Excusing the poor Eglish bound throughout the blog in days, weeks, months, or who knows, even years to come, here's a toast to the future, and in hope that I am able to help many people through the transition from desktop to pocket computing.