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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!

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]

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.

[via Tweakers]

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.

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.

[via Android Community]

UPDATE: Sony Ericsson have issued a statement on the matter, saying that the tweet, due to the character limitations imposed by Twitter, was not fully representative of their position. Here’s their statement in full:

We believe that the current Xperia range on Android 2.1 coupled with Sony Ericsson’s proprietary upgrades and unique hardware delivers a user experience that is on par with, and in many cases better than, a vanilla installation of Android 2.2.

We’re planning another upgrade to bring new features (such as for example multi-touch for Xperia X10) to the current family of Xperia™ smartphones in Q1 2011.

Our priority right now is to keep enhancing the user experience of the existing products through coming updates and to deliver a fantastic range of smartphones in 2011 that are all on the latest possible version of Android – that is a target we are determined to hit.

The PlayStation phone could very well be the most leaked handsets ever given how much of it has been exposed before its official unveiling. Not that I’m complaining mind you, especially as Chinese forum IT168 have conducted an in-depth preview of the handset.

Before we get to the videos let’s take a look at what’s been uncovered in the preview:

• Qualcomm Adreno 205 GPU, most likely with a 1 GHz Snapdragon in tow
• 4 inch LCD screen
• 5 MP camera
• 512 MB RAM
• 512 MB ROM
• microSD support
• micro-USB connector
• second noise cancelling mic

Of particular interest is the benchmark score we get for this particular unit. Neocore gave a score of 59.1 fps, which is a massive improvement over the frankly weak 24.4fps that was registered in Engadget’s testing early last month. Granted that this is still a prototype unit so that may not be the final score, but it is still better than the Nexus S, which scored 55.6 fps.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

[via it168]

The much anticipated PlayStation phone has been spotted (yet) again and this time it is sporting some new branding, namely the PlayStation and Xperia logos.

Of course it’s been known for a while now that the PlayStation phone would be part of the Xperia range, but this is the first time we’ve actually seen it featuring the branding in the wild.

The handset is also helpfully situated right beside the X10 so you can get some sense of the PlayStation phone’s size. You will no doubt notice that the model in the pictures seem to be a later model than those previously seen. For example, the touch interface for the gaming controls looks a bit more refined with etched circles now visible. The familiar PlayStation buttons are also on display.

It’s also worth pointing out that this particular model is running Gingerbread.

Given that this model does look a bit more finished and that the leaks keep on coming the actual announcement can’t be too far off now.

[via hkgolden]

Bardzo dziękuję Wam za wszystkie głosy. Wasza opinia wyrażona w wynikach ankiety jest dla nas bardzo ważna. Mam uczulenie na konkursy, w których decydują jurorzy, eksperci, fachowcy. Nasz subiektywizm jest naturalny i dopiero większa próba pokazuje obiektywną opinię.  Cieszę się bardzo, że wygrał tak zdecydowanie STAN DARMOWY bo był to dla nas najważniejszy projekt w [...]

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If you are a fan of his biking adventures around the world, you are going to love this…

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…