Guys,

Along with our new smartphone, Xperia Z, we’re also showcasing cool new additions to our Smart Wireless Music Portfolio that all make use of our NFC “One-touch” function…

Here’s a rundown of what booth goers have been getting to grips with -

Stereo Bluetooth Headset SBH20

Our new easy-to-use, call handling / music device in one. It features both the best of premium Sony audio and comms tech – rich sound, full bass and HD voice support.

Wireless Headset DR-BTN200M

A snug over-the-ear headphone that provides an immersive music experience. One-hand music and call handling controls let you easily adjust sound levels, browse tracks and take calls.

Wireless Speaker SRS-BTV5

A compact but definitely perfectly formed wireless speaker that makes a BIG noise. “One-touch” pairs your Xperia smartphone, letting you wirelessly blast tunes or take calls.

Our accessories aren’t just Smart by name, they’re smart by nature too, designed to complement you and your lifestyle. For us, the smarts are two-fold – our app SmartConnect intuitively kicks-in when you connect an Accessory to trigger different (and customisable) actions. Then, NFC “One-Touch” functionality allows you to enjoy content on a range of NFC-enabled Sony devices

We also announced Charging Dock DK26 for Xperia Z – one for the busy and bustling, it lets you charge Xperia Z without opening the USB protective cover.

What do you think about our latest Smart Accessories?

Miło jest nam zakomunikować iż wczoraj został ogłoszony najnowszy smartfon Sony czyli Sony Xperia Z. Sprzedaż najprawdopodobniej ruszy 18.02.2013, od dzisiaj można się zapisywać na przedsprzedaż na www.sonymobile-sklep.pl.

Więcej informacji na temat Sony Xperia Z :

8 stycznia 2013 r., Warszawa – Sony Mobile Communications (“Sony Mobile”) ogłasza dziś swój nowy flagowy smartfon działający na platformie Android –  Xperia Z. Model Xperia Z posiada wszystkie parametry, jakich można spodziewać się od smartfona najwyższej klasy, czyli wyświetlacz Full HD 1080p typu Reality Display, o przekątnej 5 cali, procesor quad-core Snapdragon™ S4 Pro oraz aparat fotograficzny z funkcją “fast capture” o rozdzielczości 13 megapikseli. Dodatkowo, skupia on w sobie najlepsze rozwiązania firmy Sony w zakresie technologii, treści multimedialnych, wzornictwa i możliwości łączenia z innymi urządzeniami, co dostarcza użytkownikowi niezwykle bogatych wrażeń.

Inteligentna technologia Sony

Niezwykła ostrość i jasność wyświetlacza Reality Display w smartfonie Xperia Z, zasilanym Mobile BRAVIA® Engine 2, jest wynikiem przeniesienia na smartfon wieloletniego doświadczenia firmy Sony w produkcji telewizorów. Dzięki temu wrażenia odbiorców z oglądania treści multimedialnych przy super jasnym i wyraźnym obrazie będą dogłębne. Smartfon Xperia Z posiada te same możliwości, co kamery cyfrowe Sony. Zastosowano w nim czujnik obrazu Exmor RS for mobile, czyli pierwszy czujnik obrazu z technologią video HDR (High Dynamic Range), jaki pojawił się w smartfonie. Technologia HDR zapewnia doskonałą ostrość obrazu nawet przy rejestrowaniu obrazu pod intensywne światło, tak aby użytkownicy mogli wykonywać bardzo ostre zdjęcia i tworzyć filmy video w każdych warunkach.

Xperia Z posiada również tryb baterii STAMINA, który może przedłużyć czas trybu czuwania nawet czterokrotnie i więcej, dzięki automatycznemu wyłączaniu aplikacji zużywających baterię gdy ekran jest wyłączony, a następnie przywracaniu ich ponownie, kiedy ekran jest znów włączony.

Wyróżniające się wzornictwo i trwałość

Łącząc precyzję wykonania z najwyższej klasy materiałami, smartfon Xperia Z wprowadza unikalne wzornictwo OmniBalance, którego charakterystyczną cechą jest subtelne zaokrąglenie rogów smartfona oraz gładkie, odbijające światło powierzchnie ze wszystkich stron. Pomimo swojej smukłości, tj. 7,9 mm, smartfon Xperia Z jest bardzo trwały – zastosowano w nim hartowane szkło i położono warstwę zapobiegającą pękaniu na przedniej i tylnej jego powierzchni. Ma on także najwyższy stopień odporności na kurz i wodę (normy IP55 i IP57), jaki można spotkać w najwyższej klasy smartfonie.

Smartfon Xperia Z  zostanie wprowadzony na rynek na platformie Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), a w krótkim czasie po wprowadzeniu zostaną zaktualizowany do wersji 4.2, tj. do najnowszej wersji oferowanej przez system Android.

Kluczowe funkcje Xperia Z

• Wyświetlacz Reality Display Full HD, o przekątnej 5 cali, 1080 x 1920p, z technologią Mobile BRAVIA® Engine 2,
• Aparat fotograficzny o rozdzielczości 13 megapikseli, z funkcją fast capture, z czujnikiem obrazu Exmor RS™ for mobile, funkcją video HDR i najwyższej klasy automatyczną redukcją szumów, by bez wysiłku i w każdych warunkach wykonywać zdjęcia o nadzwyczajnej ostrości i tworzyć filmy video,
• Odporność na kurz i wodę (normy IP55 i IP57). Posiada wyświetlacz z hartowanego szkła,
• Procesor o taktowaniu 1,5 GHz klasy Snapdragon S4, typu asynchronous quad-core, z pamięcią 2GB RAM,
• Tryb działania baterii STAMINA co najmniej czterokrotnie wydłużający czas działania smartfona w trybie czuwania.

Więcej info na : http://www.sonymobile-sklep.pl/id682,telefon,sony_xperia_z__przedsprzedaz.html

Przewidywany start sprzedaży – 18.02.2013, Przedsprzedaż – trwa.

The CES 2013 expo is going down in Las Vegas, but this week was also active for another audience in Sin City. The AT&T Developers Summit, which Nokia was a Platinum Sponsor of, just wrapped, bringing mobile developers together in the sunny Nevada desert.

Nokia sponsored the Hackathon, where developers produced apps in a marathon session for the chance to win cool prizes and fanfare at the event.

Rewarding the Developers

Nokia gave away 10 backpacks to the top 10 Windows Phone apps that included a Microsoft Surface, a Nokia Lumia 920, a Microsoft Professional Developer token and other goodies, making the backpacks very popular prizes.

The AT&T Developer Summit Hackathon had more than 400 attendees who produced apps in a whirlwind fashion.  Of the mobile apps produced, over half of them were for Windows Phone. Also, two of the top three apps that were judged at the Keynote were Windows Phone applications.

Congrats to the Grand Prize winner, Ruggero Scorconi, who wrote an app called Good Times and won $30,000 for best application overall. This innovative app reads your neural activity. If the app senses you are angry, it will block you from taking a call until you’re in a calmer mood.

Scorconi loves writing apps for Windows Phone and said, “if it wasn’t for the ease of use of the Windows Phone Platform, Nokia and their Developer Ambassadors, it would have taken me up to six months to build a prototype. In stead, I had a working proto in less than 48 hours.”

Time to Party

Nokia also put on an amazing Developer Party with 8-bit as the theme. Attendees played video games, had 8-bit caricatures drawn of them and enjoyed an amazing DJ who put on as much a show to the eye as beats rained down.

Lastly, as an evening event, Nokia sponsored an exclusive concert by famous – and local – rock band, The Killers. Safe to say, they put on an absolutely stunning performance.

Don’t forget we’re giving away 10 Nokia PowerUps this week – just tweet with #NokiaPoweredMeUp to be one of our two daily winners!

If you’ve ever owned a Nokia you’ll know exactly why they’re considered indestructible. Rock solid construction, cutting edge materials and design, which takes life’s haphazard nature into account.

Of course, much of this comes from Noka’s Finnish heritage. The Nordic countries industrialized a lot later than most of Western Europe and so were better able to integrate traditions of craftsmanship into mass production. The result has been called industrial art.

A work of industrial art

The Nokia Lumia 920′s a classic example. You only have to hold it to see that it’s a thing of beauty. And we’re not alone in drooling over its sleek form. Some of the world’s most admired designers have given it a big thumbs up, too. But if you’re one of life’s actions heroes, the sort of guy or girl who loves jumping off things or climbing things or riding things, you want more than a smartphone that looks great. You want one that’s hard as nails and works in extreme conditions as well.

Hard as nails

You’ve probably already seen various people give the Lumia 920 a right old battering to see just how tough it is. The guys at Phone Buff knifed it, hammered it, drove over it, smashed it with a slab of wood. While other, more trigger happy tech bloggers, shot it with an AK47 proving, even with a Nokia, there’s a limit to indestructibility. Nonetheless, it’s pretty clear that the Nokia Lumia 920 can take a lot of abuse. But how about working in extreme conditions?

Out of this world

Well it doesn’t get much for extreme than space. Back in November, Finnish retailer Verkkokauppa.com tied a couple of Lumia 920’s to a weather balloon and sent them into orbit. Using the phone’s own camera, the ascent – to 30kms above the earth’s surface – was recorded for posterity and, despite half an hour in the sub-zero temperatures of the edge of space, they returned to earth unscathed.  

The way of the warrior

Now, its action hero cred has been given another boost thanks to an American quad-bike rider, who decided to take his Lumia 920 out for a spin in the snow, mounted to the front of his Yamaha Warrior 350. Held in place with a coat hanger, not only does the Lumia 920 survive the cross country trip, but it show’s why it’s such a great smartphone for mobile movies. Check the video out in HD to see for yourself.

Clearly, we need to see the Lumia 920 in more action hero scenarios before we can categorically claim it’s the perfect companion for extreme adventures. Alas, we’re mainly hunched in front of our laptops and don’t have many opportunities for dare deviling. However, if you’ve done any heart-pounding adventures with your the Lumia 920 as your trusty side kick, we’d love to hear how it, and you, fared.

Image credit: Paul Bennett Photos

Sari heads up business management in the Mobile Phones division and 2013 will be her 10th year with Nokia.

Her favourite from the current Asha range combines a whole host of functionality and some unique features with a very low asking price. It also looks stunning, of course.

It’s the Nokia Asha 205.

Who would you recommend this phone to?

Many of my friends love sending long SMS, email, facebook messages etc. while juggling a million other things – this is easy with the Nokia Asha 205 as the QWERTY keyboard is super for typing quickly, and even with just one hand. 

What do you think is the one unique feature in this phone?

Well, that is hard to choose. I’d go either with the fun colours or the great keyboard including the Facebook key… I would otherwise say all the great apps and experiences like the browser, games, social networks etc.  But those aren’t unique to Asha 205: they come on all the models in the Asha family  .

What’s the killer app you recommend on this phone?

My definite favourite is Slam, especially for sharing pictures with friends right away after taking them. So often, you take a nice fun shot, promise to share it later, but never remember to do it. Slam solves the problem and makes sure we all can have the best takes on our phones right away.

For me, the runner-up is the Nokia Nearby app, helping to find for example  a cosy, nice café around when traveling. For all the FB-junkies, the killer feature would definitely be the dedicated Facebook key.  

When it comes to using your phone in public, there are some dos and don’ts; a social etiquette if you will. Two weeks ago we asked you to take part in an informal poll to find out what places you find it acceptable to use your phone – or not. Here are the results.

Our poll was split into two parts. The first part was to find out where you thought it was OK to make a phone call, and the second was the same question but for sending or receiving text messages.

Phone calls

The top (there is no right and wrong) answer here, is ‘In bed‘ scoring over 17 per cent of your votes. Almost a fifth of you agree that making phone calls in bed is acceptable.

Now, we didn’t stipulate whether you would be in bed alone, or not, but I feel the results would be different if it was the latter. At least I hope it would.

Making phone calls ‘In elevators‘ receives over 14 per cent of the votes, while ‘In the bathroom‘ receives just fewer than 14 per cent. The tiled floors and walls you find in bathrooms make for an acoustic nightmare that send a barrage of echoes to the person on the other end of the line. You can always tell when somebody is calling you from a bathroom.

Fifth on your list of places to make a phone call was ‘On a plane‘. Whether using a phone on a plane can cause it to crash is still to be proven, but it’s not worth the risk. Is it? Over 10 per cent of you think so.

The last three items on the list for making phone calls, are: ‘At a funeral‘, ‘At the cinema‘, ‘Job interviews‘, with 2 per cent, just under 2 per cent, and 1 per cent respectively.

It’s good to see that people still respect other people’s feelings when it comes to attending funerals, and when they’re watching movies at the cinema. It’s not surprising that people don’t make phone calls during a job interview; why would you potentially mess up a new job opportunity?

Texting

Joint first and second here, is ‘In elevators‘ and ‘In bed‘, both collecting over 13 per cent of your votes. Third, with 13 per cent, is ‘Hospital/doctor waiting room‘. This latter option reached fourth in the phone calls poll, but we’re glad to see that people are being considerate when surrounded by sick and vulnerable feeling people. If you must contact somebody, do it quietly.

It seems that more of you make phone calls while ‘In the bathroom‘, than those who text – which I find unusual. Texting by nature means that you can do it from anywhere you want without the other person knowing where you are. Still, 12 per cent chose this option.

Almost 10 per cent agreed that sending a text message ‘On a plane‘ was fine, and ‘Sitting down at a restaurant‘ took over 9 per cent.

It’s reassuring to see that ‘At a funeral‘ appears in the bottom three again. When it comes to people’s emotions, you’re mindful of breaking their feelings and know that that text message can probably wait.

We’ve all been there, you’re talking to somebody ‘Face-to-face‘ and the other person pulls out their phone to reply to a text. It’s annoying, it’s rude and it’s just not on – according to just fewer than 3 per cent of you.

At the bottom of the list is again ‘Job interviews‘. Keep it professional and wait until you get outside to send that text. Nothing is worth losing a job over.

Thanks for taking part in our poll.

What do you make of these results? Are you surprised by any of them? Use the comments section below to let us know.

Image credits: scragz, ralph and jenny, PhillipC

 Twenty years ago the mere thought of wireless telephones was enough to make us raise our eyebrows; now, we can even ditch the cables we use to charge them. And because the highest failure rate in mobile equipment tends to be the fraying and kinked power cord, this is very good news.

While it’s not yet mainstream, you probably already know that smartphones like the Nokia Lumia 820 and the Nokia Lumia 920 are the wireless charging trailblazers. However, there’s plenty more to learn about this futuristic tech. 

One. Wireless charging works by using induction – the same basic principle that Michael Faraday discovered way back in 1831. An electrical current in one part of the charger creates a magnetic field, which in turn creates a voltage – and that voltage powers your phone, wire-free! You simply place your phone on top of the charging unit, just like, with an induction cooker, you place your pan on the hob. Simple!

Two. Like any other emergent tech, there are competing systems. Nokia has adopted the Qi standard, developed by the Wireless Power Consortium, a cooperation of worldwide companies that aims to create a proprietary standard for wireless charging technology that will eventually operate worldwide. ‘Qi’ comes from the Chinese concept of energy flow in traditional medicine – pretty appropriate, we think!

Three. You won’t always have to bring your charging pad with you. Nokia, for instance, has teamed up with Virgin Atlantic and Coffee Bean And Tea Leaf, which means that when you’re the London Heathrow Clubhouse lounge, or in a Coffee Bean café, you’ll be able to make use of their table-top charging stations while you relax. Now that’s twenty-first century customer service if ever we saw it.

Four. While many manufacturers are getting in on the act, Nokia aims to be the best of the bunch, which is why it increased the active charging area to over 80 per cent on the wireless charging plate. It also designed the Nokia Wireless Charging Pillow by Fatboy – for when your hard-working phone fancies a well-deserved lie-down – and the Nokia Wireless Charging Stand, which allows you to charge up whilst on video calls. We’re also very fond of the JBL PowerUp Wireless Charging Speaker for Nokia, which will charge your phone as you’re listening to your favourite tunes. 

Five. Last but by no means least, wireless charging is better for the planet. Leaving your charger plugged in, after you’ve powered your mobile up, might not make a noticeable difference to your home’s total energy consumption, but when tens of millions of people do the same thing the amount of energy wasted can be huge. Wireless charging only works when your phone touches the charger. No touching. No power. It’s a greener way of energizing your phone and that’s got to be good news for everyone. 

As you’ve probably guessed we’re massive fans of the wireless way, but what do you think? Does it herald the start of a brave new wire-free world or is it just an electric flash in the pan?

I recently travelled over to Milan to meet fashion and beauty blogger Angela Ricardo (aka Koreandoll). I took a cameraman in tow and we made a video about her recent #Switch to the Nokia Lumia 920 from the iPhone.

If you’ve not seen the video yet (90,000+ people already have, where have you been?) then please do check it out.

We had so much fun as Angela took us on a whistle stop tour of the unofficial fashion capital of the world; taking in the sights and sounds of a bustling inner city shopping district. We even had time to stop for some traditional Italian food (which Angela kindly took photos of, for her other part time hobby – food blogging).

On the trip we learned lots about how Angela used her Lumia 920 to capture fashion inspiration from some of the leading fashion designers on the planet and we also got a taste of her day-to-day life as a fashion blogger (satisfying her 55,000 + followers on Twitter and a community of fans across a wide range of social networks with regular fashion updates). 

We started the day by taking the Milan Metro down to the famous Piazza del Duomo in the centre of the city, taking in some luxury brands along the way.

Duomo Square is an unbelievable place, rich with Italian architecture and we captured all of it with not only the film camera (as you’ll see in the video above) but also with the Lumia 920.

As the light started to fade we thought it would be a good idea to do a fashion shoot in front of the famous Duomo di Milano. Angela got her make-up professionally applied in a local retail store, changed her outfit and then gave us the signal that she was ready to go!

Crowds came to us from far and wide to see what we were doing and then everybody started to snap away with their digital cameras!

At night (to end the day) Angela took on us stroll around the famous outdoor markets to take in the wonderful bright colours of the fabrics and foods that inspire her work online.

A perfect end to an incredible day in Italy! We had so much fun with Angela, she was amazing company and knew so much about Nokia. She even coined the term ‘Re#Switch’ because she felt like she had never left Nokia, see for yourself.

Get in touch with the KoreanDoll herself on Twitter/Facebook if you would like to know anything about the shoot; she is incredibly approachable and will be more than happy to answer your questions about the Lumia 920 or fashion/beauty/food blogging. 

David Harrigan heads up visual content in Nokia’s Brand Experience Design team, which is responsible for, among other things, the wallpaper that comes installed on a new Nokia handset.

You might have thought that this isn’t such a big job. Find some pictures of nice sunsets and the job’s done, right?

Wrong. Choosing wallpapers for a device is as serious a design job as deciding its shape or colour.

“There needs to be a sense of visual cadence across everything,” says David.

“The images need to be distinctively a part of the device. Distinctively Nokia.”

This hasn’t historically been the case. Nokia used to provision images at a per-device level in some cases. Now, in the same way the shape and colour palette of our phones is becoming instantly recognisable, so will be the extra elements, like wallpaper, that make up the whole.

Out of box

Of course, once the phone has come into its owner’s possession, the rules change. “Most people will use a picture of their partner or family as their wallpaper,” David admits.

However, this doesn’t alter the need to offer a coherent set of built-in images that are recognisably Nokia. “It’s about the ‘out-of-box experience,” says David. “People can see that that thought and care has been put into every element on the phone.”

Going forward, creating new wallpaper offers an opportunity for engagement with a broader artistic community. David  is planning to commission new wallpapers from a wider range of sources, including young, emerging artists and photographers.

But there’s no chance that Nokia will be making this a free-for-all. “The artists need to be commissioned carefully and understand what fits and what doesn’t. Imagery is extremely emotive and has to fulfil a wide range of requirements. It’s right that we should really, really care about this.”

So far, I’ve made $457 just by doing surveys