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Sony Ericsson Spain confirms Xperia Play for €649 on April 1st
Apparently in an effort to reduce confusion and settle the situation once and for all, Sony Ericsson's Spanish outpost has taken to the wires today to clarify the pricing and availability situation of the Xperia Play there: €649 off contract and unlocked (which works out to roughly $907) on April 1st. That more or less lines up with what we've been hearing in other European locales, though in Spain, Vodafone will have a 15-day exclusive on the white model -- other carriers will only have access to black at first, and none of the carriers have come clean with on-contract pricing details just yet. Clearly, $900 is an enormously tough sell, but a weak dollar never helps these situations -- we'll need to wait for word on the US retail picture before we've got the whole story.
Sony Xperia Play hits the UK on March 31st, thumbsticks coming never
Readers in the British Empire get ready for Sony Ericsson's biggest UK marketing campaign ever. That's in the lead-up to the release of the Xperia Play, a phone that we've been hearing about for so long that we'd need some pretty shocking commercials to get us all excited again. You may feel differently, though, so mark your calendars for March 31st. That's the end of the month and falls in nicely with the "late March" word we'd heard for elsewhere in the world, though that is awfully late. As to where you can buy it, it's said that "all the mobile operators and retailers" will have it, so you shouldn't have to wander too far. And, with six games pre-installed, you should even be reasonably well equipped to kill the rest of that Thursday.
Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc turns pink in Japan for March 24th launch
After having played with it back at CES, we'd argue that the Xperia Arc is a pretty stunning phone purely by virtue of its design; there's not really any need to spice it up with a crazy color. But hey, if you want to, you'll be able to -- if you're on Japan's NTT DoCoMo, anyway. The carrier has announced the Xperia Arc as the SO-01C in the local market with retail availability coming on March 24th -- right around the same time Europe should be getting it, too -- and the in-your-face "Sakura Pink" is joining Misty Silver and Midnight Blue for the launch palette. Retina damage seems inevitable in this particular segment of the visible light spectrum, but we'll admit: ultra-thin Gingerbread devices seem like a pretty good excuse to sustain said damage.
Sony Ericsson developer boss: 'in favor' of rooting option if done right
Is the tide about to turn in the Android hackability debate? Not long after Motorola indicated its willingness to start helping out folks that want unlockable bootloaders, Simon Walker, head of Sony Ericsson's developer program, has noted on Twitter that he's "actually in favor" of allowing some sort of rooting option as long as it's "done right." Clearly, manufacturers across the board are interested in getting tight and cozy with the developer community -- apps are the key to any platform's success, after all, and many Android devices have unique features that can take advantage additional custom coding -- so they're appearing a little conflicted about how to proceed on the dev-friendliness front without coming across as outright hacker-friendly (commercial developers and hackers are often at odds, after all). Walker says that he needs to "take the discussion" inside the company before any sort of decision is made, but at least we know there's a proponent up in the ranks.
Sony Ericsson details Xperia Play development: buttons easy, touchpad just a little trickier
In a post on Sony Ericsson's Developer Blog coinciding with the official launch of the Xperia Play at MWC earlier this month, the company clued in developers on how to take advantage of the game-specific controls they'll be dealing with on that glorious slide-out board. In short, it's insanely straightforward for the most part: the hard buttons just generate standard key codes, which explains why existing games worked so well with the unit we'd previewed. The only tricky part comes into play with the center-mounted touchpad, which can't be accessed through the standard Android SDK -- for that, you'll need to turn over to the NDK, the native-code escape hatch that Android devs use when they need higher performance and want to get closer to the hardware. SE's published a 16-page guide on getting to the touchpad through the NDK, and it seems straightforward enough -- and plenty of game developers are well acquainted with the NDK already, anyway -- so we're guessing it won't be much of a hurdle. Getting devs to support an input method that's only available initially on a single commercial device might be a bigger hurdle... but we digress.
Xperia Play battery life supports gaming for 5+ hours, and other specs
Here come the official specs! According to Sony Ericsson, the Xperia Play (aka "PlayStation Phone") includes a 1GHz Snapdragon processor with an embedded Adreno GPU graphics processor to enable "smooth 60fps" mobile gaming. And if the specs are to be believed, the Play will be able to game for "up to 5 hours and 35 minutes" -- making it a better performer than some of Sony's other handheld devices. The device will be available in black and white, and will come with a 5.1 megapixel camera. If you plan on downloading a lot of games, remember this: the device will have 400MB of on-board phone memory and a 8GB microSD memory card. Finally, Xperia Play will be one of the first devices to support Android 2.3, aka Gingerbread, when it launches this Spring. For more specs, click past the break.
Xperia Play pre-loaded with 'legendary' PS1 game, will launch with 50 games from 20 publishers
Sony Ericsson has (finally!) officially announced details on the Xperia Play, aka PlayStation Phone. The device will come pre-loaded with a "legendary" PS1 game, according to Kazuo "Ridge Racer" Hirai and a number of PlayStation titles will be available through the Android Marketplace "exclusively to Xperia Play" for a limited time. PlayStation Suite will be available later in the year. In addition, Ericsson has revealed that 20 publishers are working on content on the device, with up to 50 games available at launch. Some of the brands you can expect on the device include the not-so-dead Guitar Hero, Assassin's Creed, Battlefield, and Dead Space. Notably, EA's FIFA will be "the first multiplayer FIFA game on mobile." Many of the games available on Xperia Play are ports, and a partnership with Unity -- a cross-platform engine -- will allow for easy and optimized ports to Sony's mobile device. But there are some exclusives beyond PSone games: Dungeon Defender Wave 2, for example, is exclusive to the platform. Today's announcements make it clear that Android's finally got game -- but are you interested?%Gallery-116437%
Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo put through its paces on video
The rumored Xperia Neo still isn't official -- we think we're probably looking at MWC next week for that -- but there are enough floating around at this point so that they're getting tested pretty thoroughly (or, at least as thoroughly as you can test a pre-production device). The latest tidbit comes via a series of videos and stills that put the phone's 8.1 megapixel sensor through its paces; frankly, they look a little washed out, but it's really common for camera performance to improve by leaps and bounds through firmware updates right up until a phone's commercial release so we don't want to sound the alarm quite yet. My Android Life has also thrown together a quick video walkthrough of the UI, where you see that Sony Ericsson seems to be standardizing on the same experience first seen on the Xperia Arc and later on the Xperia Play -- highly widgetized with a Gingerbread core. All things considered, it seems the Arc's a higher-end device -- but if the price is right, this Neo could win some hearts as well. Follow the break for the UI walkthrough.
O2 UK says it's getting the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play (update: all UK carriers, April launch)
Now that the Xperia Play is finally official ahead of a full unveiling at MWC next week, carriers are ready to hop on the bandwagon -- or at least one is: O2 in the UK. Other than a brief tweet, no other details are given at this point, though the quick support of a major European carrier has to be good news for Sony Ericsson considering that device subsidies are no longer a sure thing... and without question, the Play represents something of a Hail Mary for one of the most badly bruised and beaten titans of the wireless industry. Pricing on contract is, of course, a huge open question -- as is North American support -- but hopefully all will be revealed on the 13th. [Thanks, Ed] Update: Pocket-lint says it can "exclusively confirm" that Vodafone will be getting the phone as well, suggesting that Sony Ericsson may not be pursuing exclusivity periods here -- at least, not in the UK. Update 2: Pocket-lint is additionally reporting that Orange and T-Mobile UK (collectively known as Everything Everywhere) are signed up to get it in April, which would put it around the same time as the Xperia Arc. Still no word on what this might mean for North American launches. Update 3: And the circle is complete. Three has just tweeted its confirmation that it too shall be "ranging" the Xperia Play. Thanks, Tom!
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10's multitouch update rolling out now; X8, X10 Mini, and X10 Mini Pro getting ANT+ support soon
That pinch-to-zoom update for the Xperia X10 that Japanese customers got an early lead on is now rolling out around the globe according to a new blog post from the boys and girls at Sony Ericsson. That may not be the most interesting part, though: they're also chatting up a future firmware update that'll enable ANT+ support on the Xperia X8, X10 Mini, and X10 Mini Pro, a capability baked into the chipsets on those devices that Sony Ericsson hadn't previously exploited. Theoretically, that means that heart rate monitors and other wearable fitness gear -- a market where ANT+ has really blossomed -- could connect directly to your phone rather than passing through a computer with an ANT+ dongle first, perfect for analyzing jogs on the go. Of course, workout technology is always more appealing than the workout itself... but if you can solve that problem, Sony Ericsson, let us know. You can find us on the couch over there. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Ericsson does HSPA+ plus some, achieves 168Mbps downloads
Back in 2009, we squealed like giddy schoolgirls when the hotshots over at Ericsson crushed standard HSPA+ speeds with 56Mbps downloads, but even then we wondered if the standard would last much longer. Two years later, HSPA+ is still around and Ericsson is still crushing records -- three records, to be exact. At a recent demonstration in Stockholm, the company showed off multi-carrier HSPA with 168Mbps downlinks and 24Mbps uplinks, dual-carrier HSPA with peak speeds of 84Mbps, and single-carrier HSPA sporting 42Mbps. We'll admit, we're impressed, but considering Korean researchers have hit speeds of 600Mbps on LTE, we're afraid we won't be busting out the Cristal for this one. Ericsson expects to roll out single-carrier HSPA with 42Mbps and dual-carrier HSPA with 84Mbps sometime later this year.
Notion Ink Adam hits the FCC, torn apart in haste
Although Rohan told us that his Adam tablet had cleared FCC testing a few weeks ago, it's not until today, just now actually, that we've seen the filing go public. For our troubles the FCC has done us the solid of a full-blown teardown. And honestly, it's not pretty. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised to see so many hand-soldered connections and individual strands of wire encompassing the NVIDIA Tegra T20-H-A0 application processor and embedded Ericsson F3307 HSPA broadband module -- it is, after all, the tiny startup's first mass-market device. But we've borne witness to many a splayings including the tidy tablet teardowns of the iPad and Galaxy Tab. As such, the Adam comes across as a bedraggled mess of suspect build quality -- great for modders, less great (potentially) for the average I-just-want-it-to-work consumer. Naturally, NI doesn't have the design or manufacturing muscle of Apple or Samsung and with the tablet having only just now shipped it'll be months before we have a good idea about the device's integrity. So kick back for now with a few of the more egregious components (like the swiveling camera) after the break with the rest piled up in the gallery below. %Gallery-115282%
Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc goes on UK presale for April delivery
Have £460 ($732), British residency, and a hankering for gently-sculpted, mega-thin phones running Gingerbread? Well, then, you might want to consider browsing over to Play.com, where Sony Ericsson's rather attractive Xperia Arc has recently gone on pre-order -- certainly not the cheapest phone in the world, but at least that's an unlocked, unbranded price. The site is listing the phone as "due for release" on April 1st, though -- just like any handset in the world -- that's subject to plenty of wiggle room, especially this far out. Get out your credit cards, folks!
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10's pinch-to-zoom update starts rolling out this week -- in Japan
It's been a long, tough, road, but customers of Sony Ericsson's beleaguered X10 have some reason to celebrate this week as the Japanese version offered on NTT DoCoMo becomes the first to get an official multitouch software upgrade. Mind you, it's not a full, perfect multitouch implementation: pinch-to-zoom is actually the only gesture supported, which means rotation (in Maps, for example) won't work, and it's also not guaranteed to work in all multitouch-capable third-party apps. Furthermore, Sony Ericsson isn't yet talking about when the update will be available for other markets -- and considering the phased Android 2.1 rollout, some markets could be in for a bit of a wait. [Thanks, Vidit]
PlayStation Phone captured in the wild, on video
Well, the leaks have been flying fast and furious: the presumed PlayStation Phone has been in the hands of folks for a hot minute, and now a video has popped up showing one lucky hombre playing Resident Evil 2 and Rage Racer on the device. The hardware is apparently on the up and up, although the fact that the titles had to be loaded through ROM Buddy (a third-party Android app for running ROMs) suggests that the software is still being tinkered with. Or that this is all a terrible hoax. That said, it looks like this thing is pretty much a done deal. See for yourself after the break. [Thanks, Dan]
Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro successor out for another casual stroll?
Starting to look pretty real, isn't it? That rumored X10 Mini Pro replacement seems to be gallivanting about in China again; this time it's not turned on, but the point is that it's out there and certainly doesn't seem knockoff-y to be a fake. For what it's worth, the original X10 Mini series has been one of the few relatively bright points in Sony Ericsson's Android lineup thus far, so we're pretty stoked to see that they appear to be taking another shot at the diminutive form factor -- let's just hope those wild GPU results we saw last time hold up by the time it's at retail.
PlayStation Phone sized up with numerous devices in another in-depth Chinese preview
Okay, now this is getting ridiculous. It's been literally less than 48 hours since we saw the first in-depth Chinese-language preview of Sony's still yet-to-be-confirmed PlayStation Phone, and believe it or not, we've got another one. (Our resident translator Richard Lai suggests this might be the same PS Phone just being passed around the various websites.) It's just as long and arguably just as in-depth with an absolute ton of comparison pics with the PSP Go, the Xperia lineup, a DSi, a Droid... the list goes on. Much of what's written is the same, and the PlayStation Pocket app is still a mystery. The preview does say a third-party emulator was downloaded and tested, with 70 percent success, but that doesn't actually tell us anything. Anyway, even if you don't know Chinese, hit up the source and bask in the glory of a ton more pics. [Thanks, Shaun]
Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc breaks cover, announced at CES this week?
Russian site Gagadget seems to have scored pictures of a phone that matches up perfectly with the teasers Sony Ericsson has placed strategically around the CES show grounds this week -- which, in turn, look a whole lot like the Anzu we've been seeing leaked for a few months. The site's saying this bad boy will come to market as the Xperia Arc, so called thanks to a concave backside. The specs, if legit, are decent: 1GHz Qualcomm processor (single-core, it seems), 4.2-inch 854 x 480 display, Gingerbread, 8 megapixel back-illuminated Sony sensor with HD video capture, and a body that measures just 8.7mm at the thinnest point. Sony's CES press conference is later today, so we might not have long to wait to get all the details on this one; in the meantime, follow the break for a quick promotional video Gagadget seems to have turned up. [Thanks, SillentTroll]
Sony's PlayStation Phone finally gets Xperia, PlayStation logos
We've heard of the mysterious, still-totally-unofficial PlayStation Phone running Android 2.2 in the past, but we'd also heard it could run 3.0 -- thing is, that was back before we knew Gingerbread would be 2.3, so it's possible that those 3.0 rumors ended up materializing as 2.3. Capiche? Anyhow, this is the first time we're seeing the Xperia Play (or Zeus Z1, or whatever it'll end up being called) running 2.3 in the wild, doing its thing next to a white Xperia X10 to give you an idea of scale. The lucky poster actually has two of the phones available, so they seem to be leaking out of factories in sufficient quantities now to suggest that it'll likely be announced soon -- or so we hope, anyway. CES? MWC? We'll know soon enough. Follow the break for the 2.3 evidence up close. Also notable: these appear to be new hardware builds that feature refined touch surfaces -- notice the engraved circles -- along with PlayStation-themed and Xperia logos at the bottom (notice the telltale square, triangle, X, and circle shapes). The screen shots call out a model number of R800i, which has previously been associated with the Zeus... so this is definitely lining up nicely. [Thanks, Sze] %Gallery-112492%
Japanese paper pegs PlayStation Phone for spring launch
In case you needed any more evidence that Sony is ramping up to launch a gaming system on a phone in the next few months, here you go: Japanese rag Asahi Shimbun says that the PlayStation Phone -- which could be known as the Zeus Z1, Xperia Play, or something else altogether by the time it's on store shelves -- is expected in the spring of 2011 for a North American and European release. That lines up with virtually everything we've been hearing lately, and it's also fortuitous timing considering that both CES and MWC are right around the corner; we don't know what Sony Ericsson might have on tap for CES, but we definitely know they're planning some new Xperia-branded models for MWC. There are many questions left unanswered -- how (and if) any of this ties into the standalone PSP2, how gaming titles will be purchased, and how many models will be available that support the platform, just to name a few -- but hopefully Sony can clear all that up here within the next few weeks.
