For your viewing pleasure on N8 Producers today, we have some more amazing user generated videos for you to enjoy. If you haven’t already heard about N8 Producers then you can check out what you’re missing here.
The first of our videos today is an awesome Parkour production from piptrix which not…
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N8 Producers Day
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Ovi presents Lukas world bike tour: Tibet
While I was enjoying my Xmas lunch (yummy! ) Lukas sent his update from Tibet. Yes, after Nepal, he decided to travel to China entering from the Himalaya. I can’t explain well enough how jealous I am…
If you are a fan of his biking adventures around the world, you are going to love this…
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Ovi presents Lukas world bike tour: Tibet
While I was enjoying my Xmas lunch (yummy! ) Lukas sent his update from Tibet. Yes, after Nepal, he decided to travel to China entering from the Himalaya. I can’t explain well enough how jealous I am…
If you are a fan of his biking adventures around the world, you are going to love this…
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No More Android Updates For X10
With the excitement over the Xperia arc it’s been easy to forget the handset that preceded it, the X10. Sadly it too is in the news today, I say sadly because the news isn’t good.
Sony Ericsson have confirmed, via Twitter, that the X10 family of handsets i.e. the X10, X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro have reached the end of their Android upgrade cycle. In other words they won’t be getting Froyo or any other Android upgrade for that matter. The handsets will still be upgraded and supported, but any upgrades will come from Sony Ericsson so probably more in the line of a minor tweak here and a minor tweak there.
Justifying the decision Sony Ericsson used a line that may not strike a happy note with owners of those handsets, they are saying that the Eclair update that has already been released is actually better than Froyo.
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Xperia arc: Specifications
With the Xperia arc now officially out of the bag let’s take a look at exactly what the handset offers and dispel some of the conflicting rumours and reports over its specifications.
The design of the handset is one of its most prominent features and with its thinnest part measuring just 8.7mm thick it could lay claim to being the thinnest smartphone in the world. The screen is a rather massive 4.2 inch affair, which means it’s a tall handset even if it is thin.
In terms of the actual hardware I’ve presented the full spec sheet at the end, but we’ll go over some of the more interesting points in detail.
The screen, as mentioned above, measures 4.2 inches, and it’s packing in what Sony Ericsson are calling a ‘reality Display’. This seems to be the way forward these days, you’re display is no good unless it has a catchy title. More importantly though the arc features a Mobile Bravia Engine to help power the whole thing and make multimedia flow smoothly.
The screen itself is an LCD, no Super LCD or AMOLED I’m afraid, but on the bright side it supports 16 million colours, up from the X10’s 65k and it will support multi-touch out of the box! That’s a huge improvement over the X10 as multi-touch really is a basic feature in smartphones these days.
Camera wise it’s an 8.1 MP effort, in contrast to earlier reports that suggested it would be 12 MP. 8 MP is more than sufficient and compares well with the likes of the Nexus S and iPhone 4, which muster up 5 MP cameras. Of course the megapixel count isn’t the be and end all, but Sony Ericsson does still do well on the camera side of things and its interface for the X10 was roundly praised as a step up from the stock Android interface so we can expect similar results here.
The camera supports HD video recording, 720p in this case. 1080p is obviously better, but that’s probably a bridge too far for Sony Ericsson at the moment. To be fair it’s probably a bridge too far for most manufacturers at the moment and in any case 720p is more than adequate for most people. It’s again another step up from the X10, which received HD recording support through an update, but here we have it straight from the start.
The handset will be shipping with Gingerbread, which is not only great in terms of being able to use the latest version of Google’s OS, but a huge relief for those worried that Sony Ericsson would repeat the huge mistake they made with the X10 and use an outdated version of Android. In fact not only will the arc ship with Gingerbread it has already been spotted running an uprated version of Gingerbread, version 2.4 instead of version 2.3. The handset will ship with version 2.3m, but it’s a promising sign for future updates that a newer version is already being tested on the hardware.
You can check out the full spec list below and the official press release here.
Camera | 8.1 megapixel camera
Up to 2.46x smart zoom Aperture f/2.4 Auto focus Face detection Flash/LED Geo tagging Image stabilizer Noise suppression Send to web Smile detection Sony Exmor R™ for mobile CMOS sensor Touch Focus Touch capture Video light Video recording, HD 720p |
Music | Album art
Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP) Media player Music tones (MP3/AAC) PlayNow™ service* TrackID™ music recognition application * This service may not be available in every market |
Web | Bookmarks
Google™ search NeoReader™ barcode scanner Pan & zoom Web browser (WebKit) |
Communication | Call list
Conference calls Facebook™ application* Sony Ericsson Timescape™ Speakerphone Vibrating alert * This service may not be available in every market |
Messaging | Conversations
Microsoft® Exchange ActiveSync® Instant messaging Picture messaging (MMS) Predictive text input Sound recorder Text messaging (SMS) |
Design | Auto rotate
Keyboards (onscreen, QWERTY) Picture wallpaper Reality display Sony Mobile BRAVIA® Engine Touchscreen Wallpaper animation |
Entertainment
* This service may not be available in every market |
3D games
Media browser Motion gaming Radio (FM) Video streaming Video viewing YouTube™ * |
Organiser | Android™ OS
Alarm clock Calculator Calendar Document readers Flight mode Infinite button Phone book |
Connectivity | 3.5 mm audio jack
aGPS Bluetooth™ technology Google Maps™ HDMI Modem DLNA USB mass storage USB support Wi-Fi™ Wisepilot™ turn-by-turn navigation * * This service may not be available in every market |
Google™ services*
* These services may not be available in every market |
Android Market™ Client
Gmail™ Google Calendar™ Google Gallery 3D™ Google Latitude™ Google Maps™ with Street View Google Media Uploader Google Music Player™ Google Phone-top Search Google Search widget Google Sync™ Google Talk™ Google Voice Search Set-up Wizard YouTube™ |
Screen | Sony Mobile Bravia Engine
16,777,216 colour TFT Capacitive multi-touch 4.2 inches 854 x 480 pixels (FWVGA) Shatter proof sheet on scratch-resistant mineral glass |
Accessories | In-Box:
|
Facts 1)2) | Size: 125 x 63 x 8.7 mm
Weight: 117 grams Phone memory: Up to 512 MB Memory card support: up to 32 GB Memory card included: microSD™ 8 GB Operating system: Google™ Android 2.3 Processor: 1 GHz Qualcomm |
Availability and versions | Networks
UMTS HSPA 900, 2100 GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900 UMTS HSPA 800, 850, 1900, 2100 GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900 |
Colour | Midnight Blue
Misty Silver |
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Android Gingerbread 2.4 Spotted On Proto Xperia arc
An interesting find from Tweakers.net shows the newly announced Xperia arc running Gingerbread, but not the version 2.3 we are familiar with. As you can see in the picture below it’s running Gingerbread 2.4.
Tweakers are saying that this is an incremental update to Gingerbread, perhaps akin to the Android 2.0 to 2.1 upgrade, that will see features introduced that Google didn’t have time to include in the 2.3 release. These new features apparently include minor things like new icon deletion animations as well as more major updates like support for video calling albeit the hooks included for video calling don’t seem to be related to Google Talk alas.
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Hands-On With Xperia arc
Sony Ericsson unveiled the new Xperia arc last night at CES during the wider Sony presentation. The device will apparently launch in Q1, which, if it proves true, would mark a new beginning for Sony Ericsson in getting a top tier handset out the door and onto shelves quickly. For those who simply cannot wait even that long rog over at SE-First has posted up a hands-on look at the device.
I’ve included the hands-on video below, but head on over to SE-First to check out lots of pictures and rog’s impressions of the device!
Click here to view the embedded video.
[SE-First]
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Xperia arc Announced – Ships In Q1
Sony Ericsson have just announced the Xperia arc at CES. It will feature a mobile Bravia engine for improved image quality and also supports HDMI out, but perhaps the most surprising thing about it is that it will (allegedly) ship in Q1!
Yes you read that right, Sony Ericsson have announced a handset and are planning on launching it soon after the announcement!
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Huawei U8300 w podstawowej ofercie Play
Przypominamy, że w podstawowej ofercie Play znajdziecie bardzo ciekawy model telefonu! Huawei U8300 Jest to telefon działający pod kontrolą systemu operacyjnego Android OS. Poza dotykowym panoramicznym wyświetlaczem (2,6 cala), dysponuje pełną klawiaturą QWERTY i kulką nawigacyjną doskonale sprawdzającą się podczas przeglądania stron internetowych. Dodatkowo posiada: Aparat fotograficzny 3.2 MPix, A-GPS, WiFi, czujnik ruchu, złącze kart [...]
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Meet the Winners of Ovi Daily App’s “Must-Have App of the Year Awards”
Last month we asked for your help. We asked you to help us identify the “Must-Have App of the Year Award” winners. We were very eager to see which apps would come out on top as the best picks in Ovi Store.
All the votes are counted, and we are pleased as punch to be able to share with you the winning…
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