Playstation Now, Gaikai on Xperia devices? A Brief History, and a Love Affair…

The demise of PlayStation Mobile

Last week, Sony made the decision to terminate support for PlayStation Mobile, a platform that would allow PlayStation certified tablets and smartphones to access a catalog of games developed specifically for the platform.

While it aimed to draw in gamers, it had direct competition with the wider catalog of more known titles in the Google Play Store, and the obscurity of available titles paired with the lack of wider known games eventually lead to its inevitable long overdue demise.

Sony Xperia Z2 Review

The stylish yet simple 5.2" IPS display smartphone donning stereo speakers has lately turned a fair few heads in all the right ways, and with every reason.

Equipped with a host of Sony's BRAVIA and Walkman adopted technologies, it's clear to see how the Z2 was built with entertainment in mind, but there's so much more to this multi-functional beast.

Dive into a waterproof Sony @ Gadget Show Live 2014!

Some will have seen the #DiveIntoSony hashtag on twitter over the weekend. In case you haven't, check this out...

Tweets about "#DiveIntoSony"

Xperia SP Hands On Review: Mid-Range But Better

Having recently acquired a new Sony Xperia SP, this review aims to answer any burning questions you might have about what to expect from the phone upon it's release and whether or not it's the right phone for you. I'll be detailing everything from hardware, software, design, exclusives and more with the aim that by the end of it all, you'll be familiar enough with the phone to be able to confidently decide whether or not the Xperia SP will be the next phone making it's way to your pocket.

Xperia E: Sony's First 2013 Budget Phone

The past 24 hours has seen a surge of interest in Sony's Xperia offerings with the announcement of the Xperia Z at CES 2013, quite possibly Sony's most attractive offering since entering the smart phone market and most definitely the most popular Xperia announcement at first glance since Sony's buyout of Sony Ericsson. Indeed, Sony seem to have set the standard early on for what is in store for smart phone enthusiasts across 2013.

CES 2013: Sony Xperia Z

Straight off CES 2013, Sony have today announced the Xperia Z which we previously reported under its former codename the Xperia Yuga. The device is being dubbed by Sony as the most water resistant (IPX5/7) and dustproof (IP5X) phone on the market, making it a contender not only in the personal smartphone market space, but also industrially where conditions may vary, requiring durable smartphones that are less likely to break under hazardous conditions.

Xperia T: The Best Bits

A few weeks ago I managed to get hold of an Xperia T following on from its use in the fantastic Xperia Face Off promo which ran through November over at the Sony Mobile GB Facebook page.

With all considerations of its use, prior to finding its way into my pocket, as you can imagine it is a little beaten up here and there, but I've managed to gleam a lot from it in terms of Sony's direction. So from what I've discovered over the past 5 weeks, here are my top 5 features, in no particular order, of the Sony Xperia T.

Count Them.... Xperia 2012, and What Happens Next [poll]

So as the year begins to draw to a close, Sony Asia announced a brand new Xperia phone exclusive to the China market whilst Sony as a whole are already talking about their next flagship hot off the heels of the Xperia T release.

Now, I may have missed a few out here, but off the top of my memory, here are the devices that I can recall having been released this year:

10 Questions: Round 2

Back in august I ran a blog post collecting some recent questions asked by the fans of the Sony Mobile facebook page, providing some responses in an FAQ form. With the recent release of the Xperia T, the up and coming release of the Xperia J, a handful of regional variations and some kick ass accessories, I wanted to revisit the segment and answer some more recent questions.

So without further ado, let round 2 commence!

Playstation Mobile goes Live Today

Due to less fortunate events I was left without my trusted Xperia S earlier this year and am awaiting a replacement device (fingers crossed for the Xperia T!) and so have been relying on my Xperia arc S recently, however my eyes are still firmly placed on the goings on surrounding the Sony Mobile world.

10 Questions from the Sony Mobile GB Facebook Group

So this is the first time I've done this, and depending on how successful it is I may look into doing this on a somewhat regular basis.

The idea is that many many people are using social networking to request more information or support on their products, much of which gets ansered, some of which that doesn't, but most importantly, a lot of these questions are shared amongst multiple members of the community. In an effort to add a further contribution to the Xperia community, I've found 10 questions on facebook and provided my own responses.

How many Xperias does it take to get online?

What an end to a very long week. Probably made so by the fact the weekend just passed was non-stop during a family BBQ to celebrate my birthday. I haven't rested in nearly two weeks and I'll be lucky to get any rest this weekend coming up.

However, the point of this blog post isn't to show you my family photos. It's to tell you about how Xperia saved the day in a modern world where internet dependency is etched within our nature.

MTP Fix No Longer Working - But an Alternative Solution

Earlier on this week I posted about a problem I have been experiencing with the MTP USB Device driver, for which I also included a fix. Whilst this has worked a few times, regrettably I stumbled across the issue again yesterday, which I was unable to fix.

Now, at this point, I spent many many hours trying to resolve this and have hit another dead end. I don't have many more hours to waste as I'm extremely busy with university and kinda expect a phone to be simple to use without needing to go through all of this.

Xperia S MTP USB Device Driver Issue [FIX]

If you're only here for the fix, scroll down :-)

I recently managed to get hold of a brand spanking new Sony Xperia S. I have got to say, so far I'm totally blown away by it. Whilst it does have it's quirks, overall it's a damn good phone - and VERY fast! This is all for another day however.

Do you know about Sony's favourite apps?

 

As ever the app explorer I like to think I am, I do enjoy the occasional wonder around the android market to see what clever new goodies are about. One place I like to look on ocassion is Sony Ericsson's (soon to be Sony) own corner of the android market.

A Beginner's Guide to Rooting, Part 1: Turboboost Your Android Smartphone

NOTE: Whilst this blog post contains steps on how to achieve things that are possible on most android phones, this guide is based on the Xperia 2011 range, specifically the Xperia arc S. The guides should also be applicable to the other Xperia 2011 range devices, however may not be applicable to other devices.

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Test Lab - Chapter 2

Back in February this year I was offered a proposition that would change my position within the mobile phone industry, and that was to be part of a brand new test lab for Sony Ericsson Products. In march we launched with a bang, a successful get together where we all enjoyed our initial meet and greet session before being handed our brand new Xperia devices and heading off the to Xperia play launch party with special guest, Tinchy Stryder.

Yesterday it was time to return to london to meet my fellow test labbers for a second time, and to speak to some of the important people within Sony Ericsson UK about how we have been getting along with our new devices. It was the perfect opportunity to get a few things off my chest, but also to praise Sony Ericsson for the year they have had so far, something which could save them from what was their impending doom. Now - I personally think they have a great chance of coming out the other end, fresh and on top.

The session began at Iris Towers in London, Whilst the weather wasn't completely up to a day out, the primary focus of this visit was to speak to Sony Ericsson. After introductions, we were introduced to the Workshop with a very generic question, but a good way to start off, and that was asking us, "what do you think of your phones?" This question was presented by Dave Hilton, Marketing Director of Sony Ericsson UK. There were a mixture of positive and negative comments, but the one thing I wanted to get off my chest immediately was the lag which the arc suffers from time to time. My main focus within a mobile phone has always been convenience, but balanced with security, so these were my two primary focus points during the session. Being that waiting or the phone to respond significantly reduces the convenience of the device, this to me was an important issue, and having raised the issue I do not feel my comments went amis. This was met with comments from other test labbers on their Xperiences with lag, and I hope that, following on from our discussion, this will be met with additional focus on stability and performance in future products. I did ask also on what Sony Ericsson's opinion was on meeting supply for the demands of a vanilla instance of Android for the Xperia range, as well as how Sony Ericsson will be approaching the developer community following Samsung's recent love affair with CM7, something that I believe has truly contributed to the success of the Samsung Galaxy S II. Both of these questions received pretty much the same response, which was that Sony Ericsson have unlocked the bootloader in the newer devices. Whilst this is true, I still believe Sony Ericsson to be playing catch up to Samsung here. Whilst Sony Ericsson are currently one of those who are satisfying the developer community, I don't think unlocking the bootloader is enough. If Samsung are supporting the developer community by sending out new devices, then Sony Ericsson need to go one better, and right now, I think Samsung win here. In terms of releasing a vanilla version of Android, I was advised along side the bootloader being unlocked, that releasing a vanilla Android would still require aditional Sony Ericsson customisation if the consumer wanted to see features such as the camera and google products working. This I feel is fair enough, particularly as SE have recently won back the hearts of some of it's consumers by promising faster updates, something that would only be hindered with two versions of every firmware.

Next were given a demonstration of the product lifeline for a mobile phone. This was an eye-opener, as it was the first time I've ever had the oportunity to see both sides of the story, from the moment an Idea is thought up to the moment the consumer purchases the device, and from the moment of purchase to the moment the consumer ends their affair with the said Sony Ericsson product. It was interesting to realise that, from the moment an idea is born, this then goes through several stages in the beginning of it's life (Design, consumer research, tech-research - which I will mention again further on, etc.) before rearching it's initial prototype. Post the birth of the prototype, the product is then thoroughly tested through a period that extends over 9-12 months. This consists of 6-9 months of internal testing, and then a period of testing between Sony Ericsson and the operators that will be carrying the devices. This interested me a lot, as it went to show why sometimes the decisions which manufacturers make don't always seem a good step up to the competition. Nokia sprung to mind; a mobile phone manufacture that conquered the dumb phone generation and held it's head high when feature phones were at the helm, but failed to master the smart phone market. The manufacturer that we all at one stage thought invincible, currently dying a very painful death - a sore subject. In terms of technology research, the "technology office" in responsible for finding out where we are going to be in up to 10 years from now, and the technology involved to make these things happen.

Next, I got to take a look at the Xperia Ray and Xperia Mini Pro, two handsets that are expected to arrive within the coming months. I recently ran a blog post on the Xperia Ray, when first announced by Sony Ericsson and couldn't wait to get my hands on the device to see for myself how well it performed. I was not dissapointed in terms of what a wonderful device it is, however felt a little empty when it was time to put the devices down and to proceed onto the next step. The back casing of the ray is of a material similar to that of the X10, therefore not only looked smart, but felt smart to hold aswell. Size wize I was concious of the high resolution on a small screen, and unsure on how my fingers would cope with this. Generally when people complain of "fat fingers", I feel privilaged of my tiny hands. Finding watches and jewelry for my hands whilst avoiding the childrens sections is something that doesn't come easily, but this benefits with touch screen phones. The Ray however, had even I wondering how well I would be able to perform with the high resolution on the small screen. I was pleasantly suprised - The screen recognised absolutely everything I wanted to do without error - whilst had I spent a whole day with the phone I imagine I would have been saying something else, within the moments I was able to get a grasp for the phone, it felt intuitive and slick to use. The one downside to the phone, and really a necessary evil with the screen size, was the sacrifice of the qwerty keyboard for a 9 key input, however the qwerty keyboard would return when tilting the device to a landscape angle.

Following this, I had the opportunity to play the up and coming Xperia PLAY game, Desert Winds. I hadn't actually used the Xperia PLAY up until yesterday, so as a heavy gamer, felt it necessary to give this a spin to once and for all decide where I sit in terms of whether or not I was a fan of the device. Unfortunately I just didn't feel the love for the PLAY, however for fans of the device, the few minutes I had with Desert Winds played well, and the graphics are superb for, what is primarily, a mobile phone. This was a quick session, before moving onto the next topic, what we'd like to see in the future.

There were several hints as to what we could expect from the future of Sony Ericsson, however all of this was down to interpretation. The biggest thing of interest was the keen interest on seeing how we would fare with more space on a phone, if a phone were able to have more estate in terms of screen space, without increasing the size of phones from their current position. With this in mind, I had thoughts of a dual screen phone, so whether this is what's next for Sony Ericsson is again, open to interpretation. I commented on my own experiances that, whilst productivity was something that tablets could handle well, advanced productivity is something that certain consumer markets crave to be capable of whilst on the go. My examples were Image Editing and Music Production. Music Production is something that is close to my heart, a keen hobby of mine, for going on 15 years. Whilst tablets contain the screen space to have something such as Photoshop working well (I've never used photoshop express on tablets, but on Android mobiles, it's not a pleasant experiance) mobile phones struggle a little bit here, however it's not impossible to make something that works, especially when considering the interface used on the arc's camera. The one downside, as I mentioned, was processing power. Both Image Editing and Music Production are very intense on processing power, however I was quickly assured this this is not an issue. Again, open to interpretation.

There was one more thing left to do, and that was to meet the creators of, and watch the trailor for Sony Ericsson's new social online mini-series. To add a little light humour to end the event, we met Gary, a character that has been created based on the Sony Ericcson Xperia PLAY. One thing that Sony Ericsson does well is to engage it's fans not only in what devices they release, but also in providing fun, social media based entertainment. Meeting Gary was pleasant few minutes. The character (Gary) in one who has played pretty much every game in existence, and has moved onto the Xperia PLAY as the next logical step. He has again, managed to finish every game and along the way has picked up many skills. He'll kick yor ass at call of duty, and wipe the pool table clean before you have a chance to say "Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro". He has however been challenged to "get a life" and so takes up on the callenge, and gets himself a job - as a superhero! It looks like a fun project that, in time will become the audiences own creation. Using facebook and other social services across the internet, members of the audience will be able to challenge gary to a duel at something they find they are good at. Whether it's Tae Kwon Do, Snooker trick-shots, or a hurdles race. Members of the audience will be able to submit their challenges, and based on the response from other members of the audience, gary will be sent to challenge the audience member. It's all a little vague right now, however the advert really managed to engage. It's very well done, and I look forward to finding out more about Gary when he makes his debut on the Sony Ericsson UK Facebook page on Monday. I did have a look around for the video on Youtube (I noticed during the presentation that the video was hosted on youtube) however failed to find it. If I manage to locate it I will embed it here for your own viewing pleasure, however look out for Gary, coming soon, if your into the whole additional entertainment thing that Sony Ericsson does.

Well, this was pretty much it for the Sony Ericsson workshop. The rest of the evening involved eating Chinese and getting very drunk around London - Very drunk indeed. So now I'm going to tackle my headache with the hair of the dog. It's friday night, after all!

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