Przedstawiciel PLAY LUBLIN

Ruszył nasz nowy program wypożycz tablet.  Tak, wiem, przeczytałem, że nikt nie lata LOTem z wyjątkiem mnie i kilku pozerów ( Szybki konkurs – ile osób podróżowało LOTem w 2011 roku?) Jeżeli lecicie to gorąco zapraszam do rejestracji na playtablet.pl Korzystając z okazji chciałem pokazać Wam coś myślę bardzo ciekawego. Chyba nigdy nie podsumowaliśmy [...]

Hi folks,

Back in February this year, my fellow Xperia bloggers and I headed out to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress – well, now we’ve packed our suitcases once again and are flying out to Berlin, Germany for IFA 2012!

We’ll be bringing you all the killer info, interviews, news and behind-the-scenes scoops, exclusively from the Sony booth, live from the floor.

IFA (Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin) is one of the world’s leading trade shows for consumer electronics and home appliances, and one of the oldest industrial exhibitions in Germany.

Since 1924, IFA has been a global showcase for the digital world, with major tech manufacturers presenting current and upcoming innovations. Key digital lifestyle products are a mainstay with TVs, PCs, smartphones and tablets set to be a major focus this year, along with keynotes and discussion forums covering industry trends and issues.

This year, IFA will run from 31st August to 5th September, and we’re kicking things off with our Sony press conference at 16:00 CET tomorrow. Feel free to join us for that by visiting the Sony community forum to catch the livestream – take it from me, it’s not to be missed ;–)

The show is open to the public from Friday 31st August, so if you’re about in Berlin, feel free to come and say hello, or if not, keep your eyes on the blog over the next week as Will, Clare and I will be checking in regularly, every day!

PS. You can also follow the action as-it-happens on Twitter with #Sony_IFA, #SonyXperia and #IFA2012.

Today we’re proud to announce a new Developer World website. With the new site, we will continue to bring you the latest developer and technology news & tools for Sony Xperia™ products in an even better way than before. Now it will be easier for you to find our most popular content, such as tutorials, popular posts, articles, open sourced phone software, drivers and many other downloads, as we have restructured and cleaned up the site based on the feedback we have received from many of you. Read on to learn more!

Easier to find popular posts
Most notably, you may first recognise that we have updated our frontpage with a multi-item area on top. Here we will pin many of those blog posts and links that we think are of special interests to you. It will be like headlines for some of the hottest topic right now. This way you don’t have to search or browse through the blog post history to find the hot topics. In addition, we’ve also added a classic “Most commented” widget to the right, so that you can see what posts have really engaged a lot of people. Maybe you want to share your opinion as well?

A new Knowledge base section
Another big change on the site is the new Knowledge base section. In a clean and straightforward way, you will easily find:

• All of our tips and tutorials, from concrete coding tutorials, to tips on app promotion and monetisation.
• Tool guides related to Sony Xperia™ products, or tools released by Sony and Sony Ericsson.
• Technical articles about popular Sony technologies, or technologies used in Sony Xperia™ products.
• An introduction to the different open source initiatives we are working on related to Sony Xperia™ products, including links to open sourced phone software, code examples and GitHub projects.
• A massive list of useful external developer resources (outside of Sony), presented in different areas. If you’re looking for a special developer tool, or some specific knowledge, there’s a good chance you fill find a useful resource in this section.
• A big archive of older reference information related to older Sony Ericsson phones and technologies.

More focus on our developer services
The new Developer World website also emphasises our different developer services in clearer way than before. Check out our Services menu to see our current services, and learn more about the Phone loaner program for North America, the Unlock boot loader service or the Stand out from the crowd program.

We hope you will enjoy it
This site obviously includes lots of other changes, and we truly hope you will enjoy the change. Feel free to click around to check out all of the different sections and assets. As it is a new site with some complexity built in, you may experience some minor glitches during a short period. If you find anything that does not work as it should, or if you have suggestions on improvements, feel free to drop a comment below! We will try to look into it as soon as possible.

Have fun devs!

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

In an interview a couple of weeks ago, the founder of the PureView Club told us that his Nokia 808 PureView had replaced his digital camera.

This came on top of the many reviews and prizes that have, in effect, said the much the same thing. At the very least, it has been acknowledged that PureView imaging technology can produce results that compare favourably to the very best digital compact cameras.

It’s worth repeating that this is a camera phone. Yet, it has a staggering range of advanced camera features. To name just a few:

• Exposure compensation
• Touch focus
• Auto Exposure
• ND Filters
• Creative Mode
• Scene Mode
• Auto and manual white balance
• Red eye reduction

So what are the advantages of the Nokia 808 PureView that would make you want to leave your camera behind?

Obviously, your standalone digital camera cannot make phone calls, text or surf the web, so it seems unfair to judge it on such wide-ranging criteria.

Instead, based solely on the photo and video experience, here are five reasons why I think the 808 PureView dropkicks the digital camera into the dustbin of history.

1. Sharing & Connectivity

As his comments partly inspired this article, let’s start with a point made by the PureView Club’s Marc Wielaert. He said that he could use his 808 PureView to instantly share his photos, whether by Facebook, email or Twitter. He went on to say:

“It has so many communication opportunities, cellular data, WiFi, Bluetooth and NFC. The Nokia 808 PureView offers all those possibilities and is a perfect camera too. It’s a very complicated concept made extremely simple.”

Displaying the photos and videos on your DLNA-enabled TV, or similar media device, is a superb demonstration of the 808 PureView’s peerless sharing and connectivity options.

2. Photo editing

The Nokia 808 PureView includes photo-editing software, so there’s no need to transfer your images to a computer before you touch them up.

You can crop, rotate, flip, resize or change the colour of any image that you’ve taken. Furthermore, you can really let your creativity blossom by adding clip art or putting your photos within a variety of different frames.

Just as the 808 PureView has made it possible for everyone to take super pictures, it’s also made it easy for you to edit those photos too.

3. Camera apps

As if its camera was not good enough already, you can also install various camera apps on your 808 PureView.

You can do anything from turning the 808 PureView into a thermal camera, experiment with stop motion video capture or even take 3D photos. 

We chose a selection of our favourite camera apps for the 808 PureView a while back. In particular, Scalado’s Camera Lover Pack is an essential. 

4. HD Video 

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Most, if not all digital cameras can record HD video and the 808 PureView is no slouch in this department either.

The 808 PureView is a fully featured HD video recorder with a multitude of settings, including low light, night and sports, so that you can film and achieve excellent results in all conditions.

Then, just as with still images, you can edit videos directly on your 808 PureView, share them via email, SMS or Bluetooth, upload it to YouTube or watch them wirelessly on your DLNA-enabled TV set. With the aid of a HDMI cable you can also watch it in full, glorious high definition on a HDTV.

5. Rich Recording

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Rich Recording is another ace up the 808 PureView’s camera case. It means that the 808 PureView can record unbelievably rich, clear and natural audio.

It’s so good in fact that Marc Wielaert of the PureView Club, who works in radio so he knows a thing or two about sound quality, didn’t actually believe what he was hearing when he first listened back to an audio track on a video.

Early adopters of the 808 PureView have not been slow to pick up on this unique aspect of the device. Here is a website that showcases fantastic concert footage recorded on Nokia 808 PureViews.

Just one device

Those are my five reasons why I think a Nokia 808 PureView beats a digital camera.

Unless, you are a professional or serious amateur photographer, I believe the 808 PureView has most of the things that most people would want from an every day camera.

Isn’t it just incredibly convenient to have all these camera features AND a smartphone in one device?

Disagree? Let me know. Equally, if you think there are other advantages of the 808 PureView, please share it with us in the comments below.

Okay, hands up. I admit it. I’m something of an armchair athlete. Fortunately, there’s nothing that soothes my couch-potato guilt more than watching amazing feats of extreme sport, like those performed by these incredible PureView filmed freerunners. If you like to marvel at daredeviling from the comfort of your own living room too (or need some sporting inspiration) these three stunning extreme sports documentaries are just the job.

 The Man Who Skied Down Everest (1975)

The first sports documentary ever to win an Academy Award, Japanese poet and Alpinist (now there’s an extreme combo!) Yuichiro Miura’s record of his adventures on the world’s highest peak is renowned not only for its topic, but also its tragedy – several of Miura’s team members died on the ascent.

Criticised by some for its creator’s self-aggrandisement (his crew was 850 strong and he used 27 tonnes of kit costing over $3m – in 1970!), it’s nonetheless a jaw-dropping watch. Miura skied down an 8000ft glacier, at a 40-45 degree angle, from the 26,000ft level near Everest’s summit, crashing to a halt at the lip of a crevice that might have swallowed him. The footage is grainy and there’s not much of it, but the narration, taken from Miura’s diary is massively compelling. As one review says, ‘what a peculiar and wonderful thing we have here in the human ego.’

Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001)

Skateboarding films aren’t a rarity these days, but this is the one that propelled the sport into the Extreme Annals. Director Stacy Peralta was a one-time member of the Z-Boys, the surfer gang that pioneered a new style of skateboarding in the streets and empty swimming pools of 1970s Santa Monica. Using old home Super-8 videos made by the gang as well as present-day interviews, it’s voiced by Sean Penn and features Bowie, Aerosmith and Hendrix on the soundtrack. Gorgeous, nostalgic, and very impressive.

Jump London (2003)

Remember the opening scene of 2006’s Casino Royale? Daniel Craig’s Bond chases terrorist baddie, Sebastien Foucan, around a building site in a thrilling parkour sequence that reminded the world just how exciting running could be. Well, Foucan’s no fly-by-night free-runner – in fact, he’s one of the originators of the sport – and he’s also the star of 2003’s Jump London (and its 2005 sequel, Jump Britain), a Channel Four documentary about parkour by filmmaker Mike Christie.

Meet the Parkouristes – Foucan and his colleagues, Aoues and Vigroux – as they take to the streets of London, vaulting and somersaulting over and across all of our favourite landmarks. Well, who else could make us put ‘death-defying’ and ‘the Royal Albert Hall’ in the same sentence?

That’s my top three, exhausting yet exhilarating, extreme sports must sees, but what about yours?

Image credit: Diesel Damon

The growing popularity of audiobooks reflects our increasingly busy lifestyles; now you can get your literary fix even when you’re jogging, driving or doing the dishes.

It is not a new phenomenon though. In the US, ‘talking books’ for blind adults have been around since the 1930s. Towards the end of the 20^th century, professional actors began narrating audiobooks and took the listening experience to another level.

The advent of digital downloads to our personal devices gave audiobooks a further boost from which they have never looked back.

Now, we have Audible, a free audiobook app on your Nokia Lumia for all those occasions when you would prefer to listen than to read.

Audible, an Amazon company, is one of the world’s largest providers of digital audiobooks. Through their Windows Phone app you can listen to over 100,000 different titles ranging from contemporary best sellers, language guides and the classics.

The app is free to download, however, you will need to subscribe to their service or pay for audiobooks individually. In the UK, subscriptions are £3.99 for one download per month, or expect to pay about £15+ per book.

Upon installing the app, you can listen to eight excerpts for free before you need to commit any money. 

There are four mains screens to the app: my library, shop, news and stats. You will mostly be using the library, where you listen to your audiobooks, or the shop to browse and buy books.

Shopping in Audible’s mobile store can be done by searching for a title or browsing through categories by genre, new releases or best sellers.

Listening to audiobooks 

Tapping on a book in your library takes you through to the listening player. Here, you can swipe across to look the book details, rate it, skip to a chapter or skip to a bookmark that you have inserted.

The player is extremely intuitive to use and there are a couple of nice little touches as well.

• If your mind was wandering, then you can skip back 30 seconds with a touch of a button
• You can set up bookmarks
• Pin the book to the start screen
• Share it on your social networks
• Sleep function: time the app to switch itself off at 15-minute intervals or when you get to the end of the chapter. If you like listening to audiobooks in bed, then this feature is for you.

Another innovative feature is called button free. This lets you control the listening experience by swiping the screen rather than pressing any buttons. 

The controls are:

• Tap anywhere to play
• Swipe right to skip forward 30 seconds
• Swipe left to rewind 30 seconds
• Swipe vertically to add a bookmark

Badges and reading levels

Within the app’s settings you can choose a light or dark theme, select “WiFi downloads only” if you are concerned about data usage, choose standard or quality download formats and adjust the duration of the rewind button (default is 30 seconds). 

Finally, there is the stats screen where you can monitor your listening usage, collect badges and work towards raising your listening level to that of the ‘app master.’

It’s a bit of fun, although I am not sure how useful the stats are or if users will take the badge collecting seriously. Even so, this is a really strong app that has been well thought out for the Windows Phone interface.

Download Audible for free from the Windows Phone Marketplace for your Nokia Lumia.

Would you like to watch a selection of quality movies and TV shows on your Nokia Lumia for free? Does that sound too good to be true? Rejoice, because Crackle is now here for Windows Phone. 

Crackle, if you’ve never heard of it before, is a video streaming service and one of the fastest growing entertainment hubs in the world. It is backed by Sony, so you can watch top films, TV series and original shows for free and uncut straight on your Lumia.

There is a huge selection of films for you to choose from; contemporary movies, such as Pineapple Express and The Grudge 2 to cult classics, like Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day. 

You can also watch favourite TV shows such as Seinfeld, cartoons, comedy and music shows, like the From The Basement series.

Using Crackle

Crackle is a free app that you can download from the Windows Phone Marketplace for your Nokia Lumia smartphone.

Once the app has been installed you will need to sign up for a Crackle account, or alternatively you can sign in using Facebook.

When the app starts, you swipe through a series of screens: featured, movies, shows and watchlists. Watchlists is where you can save films or shows that you want to watch later and there are also recommendations and celebrity watchlists.

Tapping on any film/show gives takes you to the overview page. From here you read an overview and description about it and press the ‘play’ icon on the film’s poster to watch it. 

From this screen you can also pin the film/show to your home screen, add it to your watchlist, or share it on social networks, email or SMS.

Crackle has a large back catalogue so you might find it useful to find a film by looking at the most popular category, recently added or by genre. To do this you only need to select the ‘filter’ icon at the bottom of the screen.

There are a couple of other things you may want to keep in mind. The app does work over a 3G connection but obviously you need to be aware of data usage. For the best experience I would always recommend using WiFi if at all possible.

Furthermore, within Crackle’s settings you can set parental controls so that children are not watching films that they shouldn’t be. 

Those precautions aside, Crackle is a, er, cracking app that brings a world of entertainment to your Nokia Lumia.

image credit: mark sebastian

The growing popularity of audiobooks reflects our increasingly busy lifestyles; now you can get your literary fix even when you’re jogging, driving or doing the dishes.

It is not a new phenomenon though. In the US, ‘talking books’ for blind adults have been around since the 1930s. Towards the end of the 20^th century, professional actors began narrating audiobooks and took the listening experience to another level.

The advent of digital downloads to our personal devices gave audiobooks a further boost from which they have never looked back.

Now, we have Audible, a free audiobook app on your Nokia Lumia for all those occasions when you would prefer to listen than to read.

Audible, an Amazon company, is one of the world’s largest providers of digital audiobooks. Through their Windows Phone app you can listen to over 100,000 different titles ranging from contemporary best sellers, language guides and the classics.

The app is free to download, however, you will need to subscribe to their service or pay for audiobooks individually. In the UK, subscriptions are £3.99 for one download per month, or expect to pay about £15+ per book.

Upon installing the app, you can listen to eight excerpts for free before you need to commit any money. 

There are four mains screens to the app: my library, shop, news and stats. You will mostly be using the library, where you listen to your audiobooks, or the shop to browse and buy books.

Shopping in Audible’s mobile store can be done by searching for a title or browsing through categories by genre, new releases or best sellers.

Listening to audiobooks 

Tapping on a book in your library takes you through to the listening player. Here, you can swipe across to look the book details, rate it, skip to a chapter or skip to a bookmark that you have inserted.

The player is extremely intuitive to use and there are a couple of nice little touches as well.

• If your mind was wandering, then you can skip back 30 seconds with a touch of a button
• You can set up bookmarks
• Pin the book to the start screen
• Share it on your social networks
• Sleep function: time the app to switch itself off at 15-minute intervals or when you get to the end of the chapter. If you like listening to audiobooks in bed, then this feature is for you.

Another innovative feature is called button free. This lets you control the listening experience by swiping the screen rather than pressing any buttons. 

The controls are:

• Tap anywhere to play
• Swipe right to skip forward 30 seconds
• Swipe left to rewind 30 seconds
• Swipe vertically to add a bookmark

Badges and reading levels

Within the app’s settings you can choose a light or dark theme, select “WiFi downloads only” if you are concerned about data usage, choose standard or quality download formats and adjust the duration of the rewind button (default is 30 seconds). 

Finally, there is the stats screen where you can monitor your listening usage, collect badges and work towards raising your listening level to that of the ‘app master.’

It’s a bit of fun, although I am not sure how useful the stats are or if users will take the badge collecting seriously. Even so, this is a really strong app that has been well thought out for the Windows Phone interface.

Download Audible for free from the Windows Phone Marketplace for your Nokia Lumia.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

In an interview a couple of weeks ago, the founder of the PureView Club told us that his Nokia 808 PureView had replaced his digital camera.

This came on top of the many reviews and prizes that have, in effect, said the much the same thing. At the very least, it has been acknowledged that PureView imaging technology can produce results that compare favourably to the very best digital compact cameras.

It’s worth repeating that this is a camera phone. Yet, it has a staggering range of advanced camera features. To name just a few:

• Exposure compensation
• Touch focus
• Auto Exposure
• ND Filters
• Creative Mode
• Scene Mode
• Auto and manual white balance
• Red eye reduction

So what are the advantages of the Nokia 808 PureView that would make you want to leave your camera behind?

Obviously, your standalone digital camera cannot make phone calls, text or surf the web, so it seems unfair to judge it on such wide-ranging criteria.

Instead, based solely on the photo and video experience, here are five reasons why I think the 808 PureView dropkicks the digital camera into the dustbin of history.

1. Sharing & Connectivity

As his comments partly inspired this article, let’s start with a point made by the PureView Club’s Marc Wielaert. He said that he could use his 808 PureView to instantly share his photos, whether by Facebook, email or Twitter. He went on to say:

“It has so many communication opportunities, cellular data, WiFi, Bluetooth and NFC. The Nokia 808 PureView offers all those possibilities and is a perfect camera too. It’s a very complicated concept made extremely simple.”

Displaying the photos and videos on your DLNA-enabled TV, or similar media device, is a superb demonstration of the 808 PureView’s peerless sharing and connectivity options.

2. Photo editing

The Nokia 808 PureView includes photo-editing software, so there’s no need to transfer your images to a computer before you touch them up.

You can crop, rotate, flip, resize or change the colour of any image that you’ve taken. Furthermore, you can really let your creativity blossom by adding clip art or putting your photos within a variety of different frames.

Just as the 808 PureView has made it possible for everyone to take super pictures, it’s also made it easy for you to edit those photos too.

3. Camera apps

As if its camera was not good enough already, you can also install various camera apps on your 808 PureView.

You can do anything from turning the 808 PureView into a thermal camera, experiment with stop motion video capture or even take 3D photos. 

We chose a selection of our favourite camera apps for the 808 PureView a while back. In particular, Scalado’s Camera Lover Pack is an essential. 

4. HD Video 

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Most, if not all digital cameras can record HD video and the 808 PureView is no slouch in this department either.

The 808 PureView is a fully featured HD video recorder with a multitude of settings, including low light, night and sports, so that you can film and achieve excellent results in all conditions.

Then, just as with still images, you can edit videos directly on your 808 PureView, share them via email, SMS or Bluetooth, upload it to YouTube or watch them wirelessly on your DLNA-enabled TV set. With the aid of a HDMI cable you can also watch it in full, glorious high definition on a HDTV.

5. Rich Recording

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Rich Recording is another ace up the 808 PureView’s camera case. It means that the 808 PureView can record unbelievably rich, clear and natural audio.

It’s so good in fact that Marc Wielaert of the PureView Club, who works in radio so he knows a thing or two about sound quality, didn’t actually believe what he was hearing when he first listened back to an audio track on a video.

Early adopters of the 808 PureView have not been slow to pick up on this unique aspect of the device. Here is a website that showcases fantastic concert footage recorded on Nokia 808 PureViews.

Just one device

Those are my five reasons why I think a Nokia 808 PureView beats a digital camera.

Unless, you are a professional or serious amateur photographer, I believe the 808 PureView has most of the things that most people would want from an every day camera.

Isn’t it just incredibly convenient to have all these camera features AND a smartphone in one device?

Disagree? Let me know. Equally, if you think there are other advantages of the 808 PureView, please share it with us in the comments below.

Okay, hands up. I admit it. I’m something of an armchair athlete. Fortunately, there’s nothing that soothes my couch-potato guilt more than watching amazing feats of extreme sport, like those performed by these incredible PureView filmed freerunners. If you like to marvel at daredeviling from the comfort of your own living room too (or need some sporting inspiration) these three stunning extreme sports documentaries are just the job.

 The Man Who Skied Down Everest (1975)

The first sports documentary ever to win an Academy Award, Japanese poet and Alpinist (now there’s an extreme combo!) Yuichiro Miura’s record of his adventures on the world’s highest peak is renowned not only for its topic, but also its tragedy – several of Miura’s team members died on the ascent.

Criticised by some for its creator’s self-aggrandisement (his crew was 850 strong and he used 27 tonnes of kit costing over $3m – in 1970!), it’s nonetheless a jaw-dropping watch. Miura skied down an 8000ft glacier, at a 40-45 degree angle, from the 26,000ft level near Everest’s summit, crashing to a halt at the lip of a crevice that might have swallowed him. The footage is grainy and there’s not much of it, but the narration, taken from Miura’s diary is massively compelling. As one review says, ‘what a peculiar and wonderful thing we have here in the human ego.’

Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001)

Skateboarding films aren’t a rarity these days, but this is the one that propelled the sport into the Extreme Annals. Director Stacy Peralta was a one-time member of the Z-Boys, the surfer gang that pioneered a new style of skateboarding in the streets and empty swimming pools of 1970s Santa Monica. Using old home Super-8 videos made by the gang as well as present-day interviews, it’s voiced by Sean Penn and features Bowie, Aerosmith and Hendrix on the soundtrack. Gorgeous, nostalgic, and very impressive.

Jump London (2003)

Remember the opening scene of 2006’s Casino Royale? Daniel Craig’s Bond chases terrorist baddie, Sebastien Foucan, around a building site in a thrilling parkour sequence that reminded the world just how exciting running could be. Well, Foucan’s no fly-by-night free-runner – in fact, he’s one of the originators of the sport – and he’s also the star of 2003’s Jump London (and its 2005 sequel, Jump Britain), a Channel Four documentary about parkour by filmmaker Mike Christie.

Meet the Parkouristes – Foucan and his colleagues, Aoues and Vigroux – as they take to the streets of London, vaulting and somersaulting over and across all of our favourite landmarks. Well, who else could make us put ‘death-defying’ and ‘the Royal Albert Hall’ in the same sentence?

That’s my top three, exhausting yet exhilarating, extreme sports must sees, but what about yours?

Image credit: Diesel Damon