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Hello everyone,

We’d like to bring you up-to-speed with the latest in our Android 4.1 rollout scheduling. 

First up, the upgrade plans* for Xperia T, Xperia TX and Xperia V are progressing as planned – these smartphones will start to receive Jelly Bean during February and March.

Next up, Xperia P, Xperia J and Xperia go will be upgraded from the end of March. Then Xperia S, Xperia SL, Xperia ion and Xperia acro S will follow in the subsequent weeks.

We’re particularly excited about the Sony Xperia Jelly Bean features and functionality – we look forward to bringing you more information on this in the New Year.

The decision has been taken not to upgrade Xperia U, Xperia miro, Xperia tipo, and Xperia sola beyond Android 4.0.

Feel free to drop a comment below, and keep your eyes on the blog as we’ll be sharing more detailed news/updates as soon as we can.

*Availability and rollout timing will vary by market and customer variants

Quick question for budding and experienced developers – have you heard about our exclusive Developer Circle on Google+?

Via our Google+ page, we use the Circle to share dev-focused content, with contributions from the Developer World team here at Sony Mobile.

In the Circle, you’ll find -

• Sony developer news, info and updates
• Tips and tricks on getting the most from your Xperia smartphone
• Xperia product and software advice
• Q&A sessions with Sony developers and Developer World team

If you’d like to join, simply follow +SonyXperia on Google+, drop a comment on this post and we’ll add you to the circle.

Sony press conference at #2013CES, LIVE from Sony booth, Central Hall at Las Vegas Convention Centre.

As you’ll see from the shot above, final preps are underway at the Sony booth ready for our press conference this evening and the week ahead – be sure to drop by later to catch the livestream… rest assured it’s not to be missed

You can keep up with the latest buzz and comment on Twitter, using #SonyCES and #SonyXperia.

Live video by Ustream

Okay, we admit it, we get a bit obsessive about checking out reviews of the Nokia Lumia 920. In fact, we can spend hours cruising the Internet for the latest insights, and there’s no wondering why: the Nokia Lumia 920 has been called “strikingly beautiful” by Wired.com, and “smooth and fast and sleek [with] a ton of future-is-here features” by Gizmodo. However, you probably have lot less time on your hands to indulge yourself in this pastime, which is why we’ve picked out the quotes every Lumia lover should read.

“Nokia surprised us all releasing the Lumia 920, a device that in our mind is one of the most innovative smartphones ever created.”

 V3.co.uk

 ”Bold colours, beautiful design, and the outstanding camera set it apart from the current crop of smartphones… In short, with the Lumia 920, the Finnish manufacturer has delivered both style and substance.”

Techtree

The exclusive apps like Nokia Drive and SkyDrive options are genuinely brilliant and, really, the on-board navigation and clever Local Scout services kick Apple maps into touch – the Nokia 920 makes the best of them.

T3.com

 “The most advanced Windows Phone yet…It has a gorgeous display, a speedy dual-core processor, and its 8.7-megapixel camera masters low-light shots. In addition, it integrates voice navigation and wireless charging, not to mention a music service that saves music offline for free.”

CNET

 “The Lumia 920′s camera is exceptionally good, including a f/2.0 8.7-megapixel sensor, but the magic is in its optical image stabilisation and low-light sensitivity.”

The Next Web

“The 4.5-inch display is also a good’un, crisp and clear it makes watching movies, surfing the web or Facebook stalking an enjoyable experience, thanks to the PureMotion HD technology on offer.”

 Techradar.com

 ”The Nokia Lumia 920 is sure to garner plenty of looks thanks to its bold color choices. Available in a matte cyan finish or a high gloss red or yellow, the bold color choices that wrap around a black face stand out from a crowd.”

Techspot.com

 ”Only [Nokia Lumia 920] has wireless charging capability built in, plus access to exclusive apps like City Lens for turning the handset into an augmented reality tour guide.”

Laptopmag.com

“After days of using the Lumia 920, it’s hard to deny Nokia has delivered a heavyweight player (pun intended) to take on the other smartphones, Windows Phone or otherwise.”

 Wired.com

“Swiping around in Windows Phone 8′s various screens yields sharp transitions with crisp motion. If you’re basing your smartphone buying decision on such things, the 920 is your phone.”

 The Verge

“The 920 looks and feels like an Italian space mothership, with everything rounded, polished, weighty, and conspicuous. A lovely object. A 1957 Thunderbird. It’s so, so smooth—I slept with it one night, and it felt great against my skin. It is a beautiful thing to look at.”

Gizmodo

You’ve just got to love the Nokia Lumia 920. To find out what else the reviews say about Nokia Lumia 920’s perfect marriage of style and substance, join us perusing the web’s 192 million Google results. If there’s anything crucial you think we’ve missed, let us know in the comments below.

Have you had a chance to check out our newest business Twitter channel @NokiaAtWork yet? If not, then here is a quick introduction to the profile and some of the reaction we’ve had so far from members of our growing business community.

What is the purpose of @NokiaAtWork?

To help businesses of all sizes to get and stay ahead with a Nokia Lumia smartphone. Whether you are a student, a CEO, a member of a major corporation or the co-founder of a new startup, we want you to be a part of our community.

Aswell as giving you a chance to share your thoughts, tips and tricks on Lumia we will also be keeping you up-to-date with all the latest info on Nokia for business

The channel primarily focuses on:

1. Letting you know what the Lumia family can do for you and your business.

2. Giving you the opportunity to try out Lumia & Windows Phone to assess how well it fits into your work life.

3. Being on hand to help with all of your Lumia business questions & queries both before and after the #SwitchToLumia.

4. Looking at the world of smart business and highlighting some of the most innovative companies, as well as sharing business advice and stories.

Since the launch we have been giving some members of the community the opportunity to trial a Nokia Lumia 920 for 30 days.

Here are just a few snippets from the trial feedback, plus some thoughts we’ve picked up so far on Lumia for business

Photo of Jeramiah Dooley receiving the Lumia 920 trial pack through the post

Christian McMahon doesn’t want to give his trial back!

Some good trial feedback and comparison from Paul Sagoo

Blog post from Nelson Saenz – ‘day of work and play with my Lumia 920’

A Nokia Lumia 920 photo taken from the top of Centre Point by Adrian Bridgewater

Finally, some of our favourite tweets from the last few days:

A massive thanks goes out to all of the community members who have taken time to inform us about their experience with the Lumia from a business perspective. We value your opinion and look forward to highlighting more of your thoughts to the wider community.

If you haven’t yet experienced the Lumia then we want to know the answers to these kind of questions:

- How do you manage your calendars, contacts and email on a daily basis?

- What is the best way to get your ‘to do’ list finished?

- Are you looking to #SwitchToLumia from your current business phone?

If you have experienced it, then we want your feedback: have Office applications such as SkyDrive, Lync audio conferencing and the other exclusive WP8 business apps made your life more productive?

So, feel free to come and join in with the @NokiaAtWork conversation on Twitter. The community are already talking about the great work we are doing, and we want you to be a part of it too!

Even though we speak into our smartphones all the time, there’s still something about using voice controls that reeks of science fiction.

I suspect it’s because you’re talking to a ‘machine’ rather than another person. A lot of people find that unsettling. Several people I know dislike leaving voice messages for that exact reason. 

All the same, there are some real advantages to using voice controls, such as when you’re driving, and there’s no doubt that it’s becoming more and more popular. The technology is getting better too.

Voice recognition has now improved to such an extent that many of your Lumia’s core functions can now be controlled via the power of speech.

To initiate the Speech functions on your Lumia smartphone press and hold the Start button. You’ll be able to call people, use search, open apps or dictate notes.

You can also use voice recognition to compose your emails or text messages – just tap the ‘microphone’ icon and speak your message. 

Besides these core functions there are also many apps in the Windows Phone Store that are using voice controls on your Nokia Lumia.

Here are several examples that are worth highlighting.

NB. To use voice recognition you have to download your local language pack and to have the function enabled on your Lumia.

To do this go to Settings > Speech and then check the Enable Speech Recognition Service box. Tap ‘Speech Language’ and select your language to download the pack.

Translator (free)

This is the multi-purpose translator app from Microsoft, which doesn’t just use regular text but also your Lumia’s camera. Take a picture of a sign or menu and within seconds the app will translate it for you. 

Of course, you can also translate by voice. Speak a phrase or word in your language and you’ll then hear the translation spoke back to you in a native accent. Clever! 

Translator requires a data connection although you can also download language packs for offline use.

Sound Pong (£0.79p) 

Retro gaming chic meets futuristic voice controls in this clever update of the classic pong video game. 

You can use your voice, or any sound that can be picked up the Lumia’s microphone, to control the paddle and keep the ball in play.

There is sure to be great potential in speech recognition for games especially in the role-playing genre, I would think. On the downside, it’s not really something you’d want to do in public, is it?

VoiceMusic (free)

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Using this app you can command your Lumia to play an album or playlist or genre simply by talking to it. 

VoiceMusic has a few other nifty tricks too. You can ask for random playback and best of all – if you are listening to a song but you’re unsure what album it belongs to, you can ask that as well.

This app integrates the music voice controls into your Lumia’s core speech recognition feature. So when you’re using it, rather than opening the app, you only need to press and hold the Start button as outlined above.

You begin your commands with “Voice Music… Artist Adele/Album Revolver/Random Song”.  Developer Rob Miles gives a demo of the app in the video above.

Voice Controlled Camera (free) 

If using your voice to control your music wasn’t impressive enough then how about taking some pictures with your Lumia’s camera?

Voice Control Camera is a lens app for the Nokia Lumia 920 or Lumia 820 smartphone that means you don’t even need to use your hands to take a picture.

You just have to command it to Take Picture, which instantly takes a shot or Ready Camera, which starts a timer countdown.

The developer promises that more speech commands will follow in later updates, so this is definitely one to keep your eyes on.

TalkingNotes (free)

Speech recognition naturally lends itself to dictation and note taking apps and TalkingNotes is a good example of how it can be fun to use and save you time. 

You dictate your notes, which are then transcribed and you can also use voice commands to save your notes or quit the process. After you’ve finished, the app can even read your notes back to you.

The novelty value aside, TalkingNotes demonstrates that speech recognition is hugely important for accessibility reasons as well.

Do you use speech recognition on your Lumia? Tell us about your experiences and favourite voice controlled apps in the comments below.

The Nokia Asha Touch smartphones are terrific devices for keeping yourself informed of the latest news and information. 

I’ve spoken in glowing terms before about the awesome CNN app and, of course, many people nowadays get their news fix from social networks such as Twitter or Facebook.

Then, of course, there’s the Nokia Xpress Browser with its cloud compression technology that makes surfing the web both faster and cheaper. It’s a portal to all the news websites you could ever want.

All of these apps work magnificently on your Asha Touch but there is another way you can follow the headlines on your device: The Nokia News Reader.

Nokia News Reader

It’s easy to overlook the Nokia News Reader. It comes pre-installed on Asha Touch smartphones and perhaps amidst all the excitement over setting up your emails, signing into social networks and downloading 40 free EA games, it swiftly gets forgotten about. 

News Reader delivers your news provider’s latest feeds and stories direct to your device via RSS (multiple RSS and ATOM formats are supported).

It is a highly efficient and cost-effective way of getting the news because you’re not downloading full web pages; you can even decide not to download images and set a maximum number of stories you’re downloading.

Adding your Feeds 

Before you can enjoy these benefits though you have to set up the News Reader app and the first thing you’ll need to do is add your RSS feeds.

The first time you launch the app, you’ll be prompted to do this. The screen will have the following message:

Tap the Add button to enter your RSS feed. For the purpose of this article, I’ll be adding the BBC News top stories feed to the News Reader on my Asha 311. 

However, you should be able to find the feeds for your favoured news website or blog without too much difficulty.

Many providers, particularly the larger organisations, divide their feeds into separate categories such as news, sport, entertainment or technology. You can add as many as you like.

You type in the RSS URL (in my case http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml) and tap the ‘Tick’ to confirm.

It’s as simple as that! It’s probably also worth mentioning that you only need to add each feed once so you won’t need to keep on entering the URL.

Reading the feeds

The feeds themselves are very easy to read. In fact, it looks like a mobile version of the feed provider’s website.

You get all the information you want – a headline and a first paragraph to tell you the main facts of the story. You’ll notice that unread stories have their headlines bolded up too.

You can refresh the feeds at any time by tapping on the reload button in the top right corner.

Settings

Tapping on the icon in the top left corner will give you options to add more feeds just like you did at the beginning, access the settings and manage your feeds library.

Within the settings you can:

• Control the loading of images
• Choose how many stories you want to download, 50, 100 or 200.
• Set the font size. 

In the feeds library you can disable some feeds – this is useful if you’ve set up several sources and feel some are no longer relevant.

For example, if you’ve got a football news feed you can turn it off when the season is over and then turn it on again when the new season starts.

Nokia News Reader really does bring the latest news directly to your Asha.

It’s superb for bringing several different sources into the same place, it’s fast and it has a minimal impact on your data usage.

We want to give people the most accurate maps and location-based information.

Innovative collection technologies (e.g. LiDAR, the recent earthmine acquisition, etc.) and a team of local experts are at the heart of this process. But only when we compute all this fresh, detailed content are we able to create close to perfect digital copies of reality.

Recently, we have updated the maps that represent the backbone for all our products, from here.com to the latest Nokia Maps on Windows Phone 8. In fact if you have downloaded maps on your Windows Phone 8 smartphone, you should have been prompted to update them and enjoy the latest improvements. If you haven’t done so yet, go to settings > applications > maps > check for updates

Here’s a rundown on some of the highlights.

Maps for Serbia and Israel

Because we are committed to extend the coverage of our detailed maps to the whole world, we have added Serbia (including Kosovo) and Israel with this release. You can now search for places and calculate precise routes in these two countries too and soon we will also introduce turn-by-turn navigation with Nokia Drive.

High definition maps

Other improvements are happening under the hood, providing a better representation of the reality, more clarity and easier orientation.  Every detail of our maps has been designed to provide the best experience. This abstraction is getting so precise, that may not need to look at satellite images anymore, if this is what you used to do to better orientate yourself.

Shapes are highly precise and detailed to better represent roads, coastlines and streams.

In Russia, Norway and Sweden we now collect and show higher details in wooded areas, improving orientation.

Pedestrian paths have been extended to more areas, including lesser-known parks, providing better walk navigation.

We also show more detail in less populated areas of Greece, France and Ireland.

Added or amended roads

To provide accurate and fresh maps, in the last 18 months we added or amended 133,000 km of roads only in the UK as you can see in the animation below.

Similar or larger numbers are valid for many other countries too. In Italy, for example, we already added the tunnel under Roma Tiburtina or in Germany the roads to the future main Berlin airport.

That’s it for this post, but as you can see, the improvement is continual and comprehensive. Not just in the apps, but in the data that provides their lifeblood.

Image credit: vivekrajkanhangad, James Jordan

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