Przedstawiciel PLAY LUBLIN

Nieustająco Play utrzymuje żółtą koszulkę lidera w MNP Nasi konkurenci dwoją się i troją wydając miliony na kampanie w ostatnich kilku kwartałach, tymczasem PLAY nie oddaje koszulki. W ifnografice ustosunkowałem się do jednej kampanii reklamowej. Ciekawe kto z Was zgadnie do której  

Tak jak obiecywałem promo wraca na naszą ścianę na facebook.com/play. Trwaja ostatnie testy dlatego nie chcę obiecywać, że system ruszy jutro lub w środę, ale zrobimy wszystko, żeby odpalić system w tym tygodniu. Mam nadzieję, że nic nam w tym nie przeszkodzi. Jestem przekonany, że w nowej odsłonie ta bardzo atrakcyjna forma doładowania bedzie cieszyć się wiekszym [...]

Nieustająco Play utrzymuje żółtą koszulkę lidera w MNP Nasi konkurenci dwoją się i troją wydając miliony na kampanie w ostatnich kilku kwartałach, tymczasem PLAY nie oddaje koszulki. W ifnografice ustosunkowałem się do jednej kampanii reklamowej. Ciekawe kto z Was zgadnie do której  

It has been 3 months since the Xperia P announcement in MWC 2012 and it’s time to watch the sample videos recorded with the smart phone. If you are not aware of it already, Xperia P has an 8MP camera with Exmor R sensor and it is capable of recording videos at 1080p. Here we have two videos ; one recorded at 1080 p and the other at 720 p. The videos look good and the Sony 8MP shooter once again proves that it is one of the best available on a phone.

Sony Xperia P 1080p sample

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sony Xperia P 720p sample

Click here to view the embedded video.

Note* Make sure to adjust the resolution to the appropriate one before viewing the videos.

Source : Youtube

As part of ongoing contributions to the open source community, we’re today releasing two extensions for the Sony SmartWatch as open source. The first one is an extension to the Music player, which makes it possible to control the music player in your phone from SmartWatch. The second extension is called 8 Game, a puzzle game that can be played on the SmartWatch. With our Smart Extension SDK, you can use these apps as a base for creating your own music player extension or game for SmartWatch. This is an excellent opportunity to get an innovative edge on your competition, and to get better visibility as your app will be easy to find for all SmartWatch users.

Continue reading for downloads, details on the extensions and instructions how to use them!

Music player extension running on SmartWatch. When integrated with a music player, it shows info about track and artist.

Extend your music player to SmartWatch with the Music extension
The Music extension is used to control music playback on the phone from the SmartWatch accessory. It shows the track currently being played and you can start or pause playback, go to next track, go to previous track and control the volume. The open source version of the Music extension works with the Android vanilla Music player or by emulating media button key events.

The Music extension is designed to make it easy to integrate your own music player. In the Music extension, each supported player is interfaced through the PlaybackService interface. The Music extension already includes the GenericPlaybackService for the Android vanilla Music player, and the MediaButtonPlaybackService that sends MediaButtonIntents to the player registered in the Android AudioManager. To make an extension for your own music player you must implement another instance of the PlaybackService interface that knows how to control your own music player. This new class should then be added to the MediaPlayerAdapter and MusicRemotePreference in a similar way as the existing services. For more details on how to add support for your music player, see the SmartWatch extensions open source code.

Screenshot showing 8 Game on the Sony SmartWatch. The user can choose to play the games with numbered tiles or use an image from the phone.

Develop your own game based on the 8 Game extension
The 8 Game extension is a simple puzzle game for SmartWatch. The purpose of the game is to reorder the tiles on the screen until you see the full image. You can either use an image on the phone, or use tiles with numbers. To move a tile, you press it, or swipe it in the direction you want to move it. Once the tiles are in the correct order, you can choose to share the results by e-mail, SMS text message or through a social media app. If you long press during the game, it will bring up a menu where you can start a new game.

How to download and import projects into Eclipse
To use the Music player and 8 Game extensions, you need to download our Smart Extension SDK. Both these extensions are built using the Smart Extension API, and the helper classes from the Smart Extension Utils, which are part of the Smart Extension SDK. The Smart Extension API and the Smart Extension Utils are two separate Android library projects that must be imported into Eclipse to be able to build the extensions.

How to import the Smart Extension SDK into Eclipse:

1. Download and extract the Smart Extension SDK.
2. In Eclipse, click File > New > Project… > Android > Android Project > Create from the existing source and select the SmartExtensionAPI. Set the project name to SmartExtensionAPI.
3. Click File > New > Project… > Android > Android Project > Create from the existing source and select the SmartExtensionUtils. Set the project name to SmartExtensionUtils.

How to import the extensions into Eclipse:

1. Download the SmartWatch extensions.
2. Extract the extensions to the same folder as the SDK.
3. In Eclipse, click File > New > Project… > Android > Android Project > Create from the existing source and select the MusicExtension or the EightPuzzleExtension depending on which project you want to use.

Przed długim weekendem przeczytałem gdzieś, że Polacy mają już dosyć smartfonów. Nie będę polemizował z badaczami, ale moje towarzystwo 1000 osób na lewo i 1000 osób na prawo ma smartfony (wyjątek moje babcie) i z tego co się orientuje absolutnie nie mają ich dosyć. Długi weekend został zdominowany przez premierę Samsunga Galaxy S III. Muszę [...]

Przed długim weekendem przeczytałem gdzieś, że Polacy mają już dosyć smartfonów. Nie będę polemizował z badaczami, ale moje towarzystwo 1000 osób na lewo i 1000 osób na prawo ma smartfony (wyjątek moje babcie) i z tego co się orientuje absolutnie nie mają ich dosyć. Długi weekend został zdominowany przez premierę Samsunga Galaxy S III. Muszę [...]

Xperia U and Xperia Sola went on sale in Honkong and Taiwan. Xperia P will join the party a little late by middle of May. Xperia U is priced HK$2,498 (€246) in Hong Kong and NT$9,900 (€259) in Taiwan. Xperia Sola gets a price tag of HK$2,998 (€295) in Hong Kong and NT$10,900 (€285) in Taiwan. The black variant of Xperia Sola is for sale and the red version is expected to arrive a little late.

Interestingly, the mid range smart phone in the Xperia NXT lineup; Xperia P is delayed but it will be available by the middle of May. The expected price in Taiwan is NT$13,800 (€360). Xperia P and Xperia U will show up in Europe by the middle of May and towards the end of May in the UK.

Next smart phones to be released from Sony are powered by the NovaThor U8500 platform from ST-Ericsson. Sony decided to shift from Snapdragon to ST-Ericsson chipsets for they are well known for its performance and power efficiency. Sony’s 2011 port folio of smart phones packed Snapdragon chips and they were well known for the performance it delivered. Still, the battery performance suffered even though there was a 1500mah battery to power the devices. This might be the reason that prompted the company to try the ST-Ericsson chipsets on their 2012 port folio. ST-Ericsson chipsets are well known for their performance and the power efficient design.

The NovaThor U8500 is the first integrated smart phone platform to support Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) dual core technology in a high-performance, low-power and cost-optimized solution. Also, it is the first smart phone platform to support Full HD 1080p progressive-scan camcorder capabilities. The chipset also delivers high performance 2D and 3D graphics.

NovaThor™ U8500 block diagram

The NovaThor  U8500 consists of the DB8500 dual core ARM Cortex-A9 SoC (system on chip) with ARM Mali 400MP graphics and NEON®CPU extensions, a built-in HSPA+/4G 14Mbps modem,  peripheral chips that handle audio, USB, power and SIM card functions. It has a dual multimedia DSP for low-power, flexible media processing.

Symmetric multi-processing (SMP)

The SMP enabled dual core processor offers a high-end 3D graphics accelerator to enable high mobile computing and graphics performance. An SMP enabled architecture manages the different processes to be split among several processors giving priority to performance and power requirements. Xperia P, Xperia U and Xperia sola uses the same technique used for PCs and high-performance computing; ie, the aforementioned smart phones when running apps simultaneously can spread the applications across different processors, while individual computer-intensive applications can also make use of multi-processing by means of software multi-threading.

Even though the processing is complex, the SMP powered chips are power efficient. When a single processor runs at full capacity to complete a task, multi-processors work half as hard enabling the entire chip to run at a lower temperature and thereby saving the power and allows the user to do much more on a single battery charge.

Advantages of ARM Cortex-A9 processor

NovaThor U8500 packs the Cortex A9 processor. The Cortex A9 processor is well known for its maximum performance using minimum power and it has attracted a lot of manufactures to adopt it on their smart phones. Apple opted the Cortex A9 processor to do the computing on their iphone 4s.

Smart phones are prone to thermal conditions where there is a probability that the chipset blows off  but the MPcore technology on the Cortex A9 processor supports the chip to work efficiently within the thermal constraints. The processor also has the ability to share software and tool investments across multiple devices. Cortex A9 employs a hard macro implementation that delivers a peak performance of 4000 DMIPs while consuming less than 250mW per CPU. The Cortex A9 Media Processing Engine (MPE) can be used with either of the Cortex-A9 processors and provides an engine that offers both the performance and functionality of the Cortex-A9 Floating-Point Unit (FPU) and implements the NEON Advanced SIMD instruction set for further acceleration of media and signal processing functions.

Mali-400MP dedicated to Graphics

Mali-400MP is the world’s first OpenGL ES 2.0 conformant multi-core GPU that provides 2D and 3D acceleration with performance scalable up to 1080p resolutions, while maintaining power efficiency.

General Architectural features of ARM MALI GPU:

• To reduce memory bandwidth overhead and lower power consumption, advanced tile-based deferred rendering and local buffering of intermediate pixel states is made use of.
• To avoid additional bandwidth consumption or unexpected performance drops, MALI 400MP makes use of an efficient alpha blending of multiple layers in hardware.
• To allow virtualization of GPU memory resources and fine-grained memory protection, integrated MMU based on standard ARM MMU is employed.
• Full Scene Anti-Aliasing (FSAA) using rotated grid multi sampling.
• The fully autonomous GPU enables maximum parallelization of CPU and GPU tasks.
• Achieving power efficiency is a tedious task hence to maximize battery life and to minimize heat dissipation, independent CPU and GPU power management is adopted.
• The quality software drivers ensures maximum efficiency with low memory fragmentation, reduced integration time, cost and reduced support burden.

Xperia P, Xperia U and Xperia sola are the power efficient and maximum performance oriented smart phones from Sony since they pack the NovaThor U8500 chipset from ST-Ericsson. These smart phone have the unique advantage of the above mentioned technology from ARM and hence we hope that the smart phones will keep up to the promises of the company. The power efficiency of ARM processors might be the reason why Sony decided to give these phones a power source of only 1300mah (the first dual core from Sony had a 1700mah battery under the hood). Moreover they can make it cost efficient too.

Source : Developer World ARM ST-Ericsson

Right now (or pretty soon, depending on your market), the Xperia™ sola, Xperia™ P and Xperia™ U are available to buy around the world. These smartphones are powered by the NovaThor™ U8500 platform from ST-Ericsson, which is the first OpenGL ES 2.0 conformant, multi-core GPU that provides 2D and 3D acceleration with performance scalable up to 1080p resolutions. In this article, we’ll explain why the NovaThor™ U8500 will give you the same level of CPU performance as from a larger and faster uni-processor CPU while using less power. You’ll also get some pretty interesting insights in what the specs mean for app developers. Read on to find out more.

The NovaThor™ U8500 consists of the DB8500 dual core ARM® Cortex™-A9 SoC (system on chip) with ARM® Mali™ 400MP graphics and a built-in HSPA+/4G 14Mbps modem, as well as peripheral chips that handle audio, USB, power and SIM card functions. This platform Integrates a single chip and a dual core 1GHz application processor. It’s also the first integrated smartphone platform that offers symmetric multi-processing dual core technology in combination with a high-end 3D graphics accelerator, to enable high mobile computing and graphics performance.

A symmetric multi-processing-enabled (SMP) platform allows different processes to be split among several processors based on performance and power requirements. For example, a smartphone running multiple applications simultaneously can spread applications across different processors, while individual computer-intensive applications can also exploit multi-processing by means of software multi-threading. This is a well-known technique used for PCs and high-performance computing, now being used in the Xperia™ sola, Xperia™ P and Xperia™ U.

Symmetric multi-processing (SMP) = more efficient power consumption

One huge advantage of SMP in mobile applications is more efficient power consumption, which will be very apparent to the end user. Multi-processing uses lower voltages and will allow users to do much more on a single battery charge.  Instead of a single processor running at full capacity to complete a task, multiple processors can work half as hard enabling the entire chip to run at a lower temperature, creating less leakage. This allows an SMP system to deliver the same level of CPU performance one might expect from a larger and faster uni-processor CPU, while using less power.

ARM Cortex-A9 processor for increased power efficiency and peak performance

Cortex-A9 MPCore architecture.

The chipset of the NovaThor™ U8500 platform incorporates the ARM Cortex-A9 processor, with key features that include increased power efficiency with higher performance for lower power consumption. ARM’s MPCore technology incorporates design flexibility and advanced power management techniques to operate within thermal contrainsts and tight mobile power budgets. The processor also has the ability to share software and tool investments across multiple devices. The Cortex-A9 implementation in the U8500 platform is also power optimised, which is important for thermally-constrained devices such as mobile phones. The Cortex-A9 uses a hard macro implementation that delivers a peak performance of 4000 DMIPs while consuming less than 250mW per CPU when selected from typical silicon.

Mali™-400MP provides the complete graphics stack for embedded graphics

ARM® Mali™-400 MP architecture.

On the NovaThor™ U8500 platform it’s possible to get close to console-quality gaming graphics thanks to the Mali-400 MP GPU. It’s the first OpenGL ES 2.0 conformant, multi-core GPU that provides 3D acceleration with performance scalable up to 1080p resolutions. The Mali™-400 MP supports 3D, shader-based and fixed function graphic and is based on open standards (OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0). Among the general architectural features of ARM Mail:

• Advanced tile-based deferred rendering and local buffering of intermediate pixel states for reduced memory bandwidth overhead and lower power consumption.
• Efficient alpha blending of multiple layers in hardware for unlimited number of blended layers without additional bandwidth consumption or unexpected performance drops.
• Full Scene Anti-Aliasing (FSAA) using rotated grid multi sampling for significantly higher quality and performance than alternative oversampling methods.
• Integrated Memory Management Unit (MMU) based on standard ARM MMU which allows virtualisation of GPU memory resources and fine-grained memory protection.
• Fully autonomous GPU that enables maximum parallelisation of CPU and GPU tasks.
• Independent CPU and GPU power management to maximise battery life, and minimise heat dissipation.

Complex apps with multi-threading? No problem!

As the performance and processing capabilities increase in mobile devices, this allows for more complex development that can be written in a more parallel way, such as multi-threaded applications. These types of apps are ideal for achieving the true benefits of SMP. Threads make up the processes in applications, do not need to keep going back to the OS for resources, and multiple threads can run at the same time on multiple cores. With SMP, software apps (like web browsers) that are multi-threaded see increased performance, faster response times and an overall improved user experience.

Want to know more? Key developer resources and more information from ST Ericsson

ST-Ericsson Developers site.

If you’re a software developer interested in leveraging NovaThor™ technology, here are some ST-Ericsson resources available to you. The Igloo open source community is a collaborative site that accelerates the development of system and software innovations for Android, Ubuntu and Linaro embedded devices based on ST-Ericsson’s platforms. You can also get information from the ST-Ericsson Developer Community site, which provides downloadable reference and user manuals, as well as licensing for application developers. Additional technical information, including RSS feed subscription, is available on the ST-Ericsson technology blog.

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So what do you think Developer World-readers, did you find this article interesting? Please let us know if you have suggestions on other topics you would like to know more about.

More information

• Get additional specs on the NovaThor U8500 platform.
• Find developer resources on the ST-Ericsson Developer Community site.
• Subscribe to ST-Ericsson RSS feeds on the ST-Ericsson technology blog.
• Check out the Igloo open source community.
• Read the Mali GPU OpenGL ES Application Developer Guide.
• Download the ARM Cortex A9 Processor white paper.