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Sony today announced Xperia Sola with a cool new feature called the “floating touch” technology. Exited yet wondering what’s ‘floating touch’ ?! The technology lets consumers navigate by hovering their finger above the screen so it acts like a moving curser, without actually having to touch the screen. Browsing web on the phone becomes extremly simple as you just need to hover your finger above the screen and once the link you need is highlighted you just need to tap the screen. ‘Floating touch’ is not limited to mere web browsing but a lot of other applications will benefit it. The technology lets you access the screen up to 20mm above the display. This is something revolutionary from Sony.

Calum MacDougall, Head of Xperia Marketing for Sony Mobile Communications, commented on this:

“Xperia sola comes with the power of Sony and a sense of magic with floating touch, giving consumers a fun new way to browse the web and latest technology to show off. With Xperia SmartTags out of the box and access to the latest content through Sony Entertainment Network, Xperia sola is perfect for consumers looking for ease of use and the best in entertainment in a smart and innovative smartphone.”

The rest of the hardware includes a 3.7 inch display (854 x 480 pixels), 1GHz dual-core ST-Ericsson NovaThor U8500 processor, Mali 400 GPU supported by 512MB of RAM. The phone packs a 5mp rear shooter capable of 720p video recording. Connectivity options includes NFC and DLNA. It has an 8GB of internal storage of which 5GB is user accessible (microSD, up to 32GB supported). The phone is powered by a 1320mAh embedded battery and will be running on Android Gingerbread (ICS update promised). It will be available globally in Q2. You can select from black, red and white varients.

Xperia Sola Photos and Videos.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Source : Official Sony Mobile Website.

See the magic happen in the floating touch video.

The new Xperia™ sola announced earlier today, includes a brand new touch sensor technology, called floating touch™, that lets you interact with the phone without even touching it. This unique user experience never seen on a smartphone before lets you control the user interface (UI) by simply letting your finger hover above the screen. Floating touch™ enables the phone to register your finger up to 20mm above the screen. This makes it possible to detect not only the screen coordinates that you are pointing at, but also your finger’s distance from the screen. Erik Hellman, research engineer at Sony Mobile and one of the inventors of the technology, explains more after the jump.

Xperia™ sola.

As part of the team that invented this technology, it’s a great pleasure to see the magic of floating touch™ on a smartphone for the first time now. In the article, I’ll try to explain how this technology works. Like many other smartphones, Xperia™ sola uses capacitive touch sensing to register the user’s input on the screen. The event that occurs when you touch the screen of your smartphone is called touch event. Capacitive touch works by having an X-Y grid of electrodes covering the screen, on which a voltage is then applied. When a finger is near the electrodes, the capacitance changes and can be measured. By comparing the measures from all electrodes you can accurately pinpoint the location of the fingers position.

There are two types of capacitive sensors used for touch screens, mutual capacitance and self-capacitance. Mutual capacitance makes multi-touch detection possible. Self-capacitance generates a stronger signal than mutual capacitance, which allows accurate detection of the finger further away from the sensors. However, with self-capacitance it is not possible to perform multi-touch detection due to an effect called “ghosting”.

The difference between self capacitance and mutual capacitance illustrated. The rings represent the spots where a user touches the screen, while the red X-marks represent the ghosting positions described below.

Mutual capacitance makes multi-touch possible
With mutual capacitance, each intersection of a line in the illustration above forms a parallel plate capacitor. This means that each intersection is a sensor, which allows for true multi-touch since the position of each finger can be exactly measured. However, because the area of the intersection between two lines is very small, the electrical field of the sensor is also small. Since the field of the sensor is so small, the signal from it has a low strength. This makes it poor for sensing very small signals, like when the user’s finger hovers above the screen.

Self capacitance and the ghosting effect
Looking at the graphs above, each X or Y line as whole is a capacitive sensor, in the case of self capacitance. This means that the sensors are larger compared to the mutual capacitance described above. The large sensors create strong signals, which make it possible to detect the user’s finger up to 20 mm above the screen. When a finger is on or just above the screen, the nearest sensor lines are activated (X1, Y0). If two fingers are detected, ghosting positions occurs since four lines activated. As you can see in the graph above, this gives four possible touch positions (all four activated intersections of X1, X3, Y0, Y2 in the illustration), and the correct combination is unknown. This makes multi-touch impossible.

Combining self and mutual capacitance to allow floating touch™
Floating touch™ is solved by running both mutual capacitance and self capacitance, on the same touch screen, at the same time. Mutual capacitance is used for the normal touch sensing, including multi-touch. By running elf-capacitance at the same time, we can detect a finger above the surface of the screen. However, since the floating touch™ technology depends on self capacitance, it is not possible to perform multi-touch gestures with the fingers hovering above the screen. However, multi-touch will work fine for the normal touch gestures on the screen.

The technology has been developed in cooperation with Cypress Technologies. By leveraging on the existing capacitive touch sensor, and lowering the threshold for touch registration, it will be possible to differentiate between floating touch™ and “normal” touch. All Android™ applications will work perfectly fine, just like before, and only the apps that explicitly “listen” for floating touch™ events will react to them.

Learn about developer possibilities and the initial implementation of floating touch™
In the Xperia sola, this feature is enabled in the built-in web browser, and it will trigger “hover events” that are never before seen on a mobile phone. This kind of use case has previously only been available on a PC when using a standard mouse. All existing websites which reacts to hover events will work with the floating touch™ technology on Xperia™ sola.

This means that web developers can make use of the technology already now through the standard HTML5 hover events that is implemented in the native Android browser of Xperia™ phones. But we have more interesting stuff for developers in the pipeline. In the upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) upgrade for Xperia sola, third-party developers will be able to utilise the technology in their own apps using the new open API introduced by Google in ICS to handle hover events. A tutorial will be published here at Developer World later, so stay tuned!

To show off to your friends, Xperia™ sola will also have live wallpapers that will react to the floating touch™ events, giving them a magic touch.

So, are you eager to get to try out the floating touch™ technology? Drop us a comment below and let us know what you think!

More information

• Get all the facts about the Xperia sola.
• Check out Cypress Technologies, who developed floating touch in cooperation with Sony mobile.
• Read about UI events in Android, including touch events.
• Learn more about capacitive sensing at Wikipedia.
• Understand how a capacitor works.
• Dive into the Android API for hover events introduced in ICS.

Today marks the debut of the Xperia™ sola, the newest addition to the 2012 line up of Sony Xperia™ smartphones. Xperia™ sola introduces a cool new feature never before seen in any smartphone – floating touch™ technology, which lets you (among other things) browse through your favourite links without even touching the screen. Read more about Xperia™ sola’s floating touch feature, plus the full phone specs, after the jump.

Signature feature – floating touch technology

Xperia™ sola is the first ever smartphone to use the floating touch™ technology, which allows you to interact with the phone without actually touching the screen. The capacitive touch screen in Xperia™ sola enables the device to register your finger up to 20mm above the screen, opening up for completely new ways of interaction. This feature is built-in web browser of Xperia™ sola, to use it you can simply move your finger over browser links to highlight them. For the link you want, touch it to open. There are also live wallpapers that reacts with floating touch™ input, to give Xperia™ sola an almost magic feeling. Look out for our upcoming blog post about floating touch™, which will explain the technology and the possibilities it brings for developers.

Xperia™ sola.

Core specifications

Xperia™ sola houses a 1 GHz dual core ST-Ericsson NovaThor™ U8500 processor to deliver superior performance. The U8500 uses SMP (Symmetric Multi-Processing) dual core technology with a high-end 3D graphics accelerator, which enables a full web-browsing experience. For more information about the U8500 platform, check out ST-Ericsson’s NovaThor U8500 product page. Xperia™ sola also has an ARM Mali 400 GPU that is OpenGL ES 2.0 conformant and provides 2D and 3D acceleration with performance scalable up to 1080p resolutions. To learn about OpenGL ES, read our previous blog post on 3D for Android.

The new Xperia™ sola also comes with a 5MP camera, 8GB of internal phone storage, and a microSD™ card slot. It will be launched on Android™ 2.3 (Gingerbread) platform and will be upgraded to Android™ 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) during the second quarter of 2012.

Connect with NFC using Xperia™ SmartTags

Xperia™ sola with Xperia™ SmartTags.

Xperia™ sola has support for NFC, allowing you to share content with our other NFC-enabled smartphones (Xperia S, Xperia ion and Xperia P), and enjoy an increasing number of NFC applications and services. You can even use it with one of the included Xperia SmartTags, which are SmartExtras accessories that can launch a number of pre-configured profiles in the phone. For more information on how to develop apps with NFC technology and Xperia™ SmartTags, see our recent NFC blog post.

Additional connectivity for Xperia™ sola includes HSPA Cat10, Bluetooth™, Native USB tethering, and USB High speed 2.0 support. DLNA technology also enables a single swipe of the display to view and share content between TV, tablet and PC. You easily connect with Xperia™ sola by simply plugging it into the HDMI port of your TV to enjoy it on a big screen.

Compact, complete entertainment experience

Xperia™ sola provides vivid viewing experience on a 3.7”” mineral glass and scratch-resistant, LCD display, and is powered by the Mobile BRAVIA engine for colour management, noise reduction, sharpness filtering, and contrast management for close to real image reproduction. You’ll get great sound with xLOUD™ to enhance loudness and maximise sound without breaking.

Xperia™ sola users can also take advantage of the Sony Entertainment Network* to access all types of premium content. You can watch movies from Video Unlimited, listen to songs, personal playlists and radio stations from Music Unlimited.

Availability and colours

Xperia™ sola will be available to consumers globally in the second quarter of this year. The available colours are black, white and red.

Xperia™ sola at a glance

Highlighted features:

• 1 GHz STE U8500 Dual Core Processor.
• ARM® Mali™ 400 GPU and NEON®CPU extensions.
• Networks: Quad EDGE/GSM/GPRS 850, 900, 1800, 1900; W-CDMA Band I, II, V and VIII.
• Support for floating touch™ technology.
• Launched with Google™ Android™ 2.3 (Gingerbread), upgraded to Android™ 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) during the second quarter of 2012.
• 8 GB (up to 5 GB user-accessible memory) internal phone storage.
• 512 MB RAM.
• microSD™ card, up to 32 GB.
• 5 MP Camera resolution.
• 16x digital zoom.
• 720p HD video recording.
• Supports NFC.
• Includes 3D surround sound.
• Includes Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA® Engine.
• Supports Bluetooth™.
• DLNA Certified®.
• Support GPS.

Installed apps & services:

• PlayNow™ service*.
• TrackID™ music recognition*.
• Facebook inside Xperia™.
• Sony Entertainment Network*.
• Sony channel in Play Shop*.

* This service is not available in all markets.

More information

• View Developer World’s Xperia sola video on YouTube.
• Download the Xperia sola white paper.
• Read about Xperia sola on the consumer website.
• Read the official Sony press release announcing Xperia sola.
• Find out more about Xperia SmartTags.
• Read our blog post about NFC support in Xperia devices.

What better way to kick off the week by announcing our latest Sony Smartphone, Xperia sola – if you’re a sucker for groundbreaking tech like me, I think this might just get you a little excited…

Now before I get to the spec, let me just tell you about my favourite feature. This smartphone is magical, and no I don’t mean ‘rabbit-out-of the hat’, ‘cards across the table’ like frolics – it includes the amazing “floating touch”, allowing you to magically search and navigate the web.

Making its smartphone debut exclusively on Xperia Sola, floating touch technology lets you browse the web without actually touching the screen! All you have to do is hover your finger above the screen, as if a moving cursor. Once positioned over the intended link or selection, it becomes highlighted and all you have to do is tap to select!

We’ll be evolving this technology and functionality over the coming months, so I’ll be bringing you more on that as it happens and we will look at it in a little more depth in a separate post!

Xperia sola is also NFC enabled, and will ship with two Xperia SmartTags in the box – these will be handily configured for the living room and bedroom, but can be customized to activate up to 10 different commands.

As you’d expect from any Sony Smartphone, Xperia sola gives you access to a world of entertainment experiences anywhere, anytime through its 3.7″ Reality Display powered by Mobile Bravia Engine, all running on a powerful 1GHz dual-core processor. You’ll be able to capture images with the 5MP fast capture camera, going from sleep to snap in just over a second, with the single press of a key.

It also comes with Music Unlimited and Movies Unlimited pre-installed, meaning you can enjoy the latest Hollywood blockbusters and millions of tunes, with its xLoud and 3D surround sound technology!

So, check out the other key features:

• Launching globally quarter 2, and available in either black, white or red
• Floating touch navigation for an effortless web browsing experience
• NFC enabled and Xperia SmartTags in the box to enable quick app loading and easy content sharing
• 3.7” Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine, with scratch-resistant glass gives razor sharp clarity
• Single-swipe connectivity via DNLA, syncing content across TV, smartphone and tablet
• xLOUD and 3D surround sound audio technology for crisp and loud listening
• Direct access to Sony Entertainment Network with pre-installed Video and Music Unlimited apps
• Powered by a 1GHz Dual Core Processor for super fast browsing
• Launches on Google Android™ 2.3 (Gingerbread), upgrade to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) in summer 2012

For all the killer info, check in at our press center and official Facebook page.

Don’t forget to keep checking the blog, as we’ll be getting hands-on (well, maybe not so literally) with floating touch over the next few weeks – if there’s any questions you’d like us to put to the guys about this tech, or Xperia sola, just drop them in the comments below

GDC (Game Developers Conference) is the world’s largest and longest-running professionals-only game industry event and takes place this week, from the 7^th to 9^th of March in San Francisco, California. If you’re planning to attend the event, be sure to stop by our GDC booth (2320) and see our video featuring a new line-up of fully-optimised Xperia™ games from our Stand out developers . Read on to learn more about these games, our Stand out partners, and the benefits of the Stand out from the crowd marketing campaign.

This week at GDC, we’re showcasing at our booth many of our great Stand out partners – Be-Rad Entertainment, Bertil Hörberg, Blyts, Deemedya, Digital Leisure, FDG-Entertainment, GungHo Online Entertainment, Inc, Lantansia, Level Eight AB, Mediocre Games, OrangePixel, Red Fly Studio, Inc, Rubicon Development. Also come check out the great video that highlights their respective titles – Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack!, Helium Boy, Greedy Spiders, Trial Xtreme 2, Dragon’s Lair, Beyond Ynth, Princess Punt, EnbornX, MEGASTUNT Mayhem Pro, Sprinkle, Neoteria, Inertia: Escape Velocity, and Great Little War Game.

You can read more about these development studios and their Xperia™-optimised games below:

Be-Rad Entertainment

Be-Rad Entertainment is an indie game development studio run by Bradley Johnson, who started his own company in 2010. After having worked for 5 years as a gameplay scripter and programmer at Crystal Dynamics, Brad has branched out and made mobile games on his own, including Xperia™ PLAY hits Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack! and Lame Castle.

Bertil Hörberg

Bertil Hörberg is the technical director and co-founder at Might & Delight, a Stockholm-based studio that makes video games. Bertil’s 3D platform game Helium Boy is fully optimised for Xperia™ PLAY.

Blyts

From Buenos Aires, Argentina, comes Blyts, a young and modern company that is in constant innovation creating applications for mobile. Their puzzle game, Greedy Spiders, has been optimised for Xperia™ PLAY devices.

Deemedya

Based in Tel Aviv, Israel, digital media company Deemedya is an international developer, publisher and distributor of mobile content. They take traditional, mainstream brands, companies, products and activities into the new world of mobile and social media. Deemedya’s games optimised for Xperia™ smartphones include Further Beyond Fighting, Trial Xtreme and Trial Xtreme 2.

Digital Leisure

Digital Leisure is a Canadian publisher of software. The company formed in 1997 with the vision to acquire, remaster, and publish numerous classic video-based arcade games, including Dragon’s Lair. This classic game first wowed arcade gamers back in 1983, and now it’s wowing Xperia™ PLAY owners, with an optimised version for the gaming smartphone.

FDG-Entertainment

FDG-Entertainment is a development studio located in Munich, Germany. Their optimised games for Xperia™ PLAY include Beyond Ynth and Beyond Ynth Christmas Edition.

GungHo Online Entertainment, Inc

GungHo Online Entertainment, Inc specialises in the planning, development, operation, and distribution of online games, mobile games, flash games, and consumer games in Japan. Their unique puzzle game Princess Punt blends strategy and skilled precision, and is optimised for Xperia™ PLAY.

Lantansia

Lantansia is a game creation group from Hong Kong. Their retro-themed shooter, EnbornX, has come fully optimsed to Xperia™ PLAY.

Level Eight AB

Eight years ago in Umeå, Sweden, eight enterprising gamers decided to found a new game company called Level Eight. They’ve optimised their racing game, MEGASTUNT Mayhem Pro, for Xperia™ PLAY.

Mediocre Games

Mediocre is not just a name – it’s a concept. Mediocre Games was founded by two guys who don’t really play video games, but thrive on creating different games without compromise. If water and physics is your thing, then the Xperia™ PLAY-optimised puzzle game Sprinkle is perfect for you.

OrangePixel

OrangePixel is a Dutch independent game developer with a love for retro games and gameplay. Neoteria is their classic shoot ‘em up game optimised for Xperia™ PLAY.

Red Fly Studio, Inc

Located in Austin, Texas, Red Fly Studio, Inc was founded by ten-year veterans of the gaming industry with experience on a wide variety of titles. Their one-of-a-kind physics platformer game, Inertia: Escape Velocity, is soon coming to the Xperia™ PLAY fully optimised.

Rubicon Development

Rubicon Development is a UK-based independent game developer focusing on developing their own games and IP, and bringing them direct to mobile platforms. As the name implies, Great Little War Game is their hit turn-based strategy game, and they’ve optimised it for Xperia™ PLAY.

For more details on Sony Mobile’s activities at GDC, check out the GDC listing on our Developer World Event Calendar.

About the Stand out from crowd program

With the launch of our PlayStation ® Certified Android™ smartphones, including Xperia™ PLAY and Xperia™ ion, Sony is looking for games developers who are mobile innovators and ready to stand out from the crowd. We provide you with the best platform to launch and take your games to the next level. In return, you get access to a targeted audience looking to purchase the best games available, supported on a promotional platform across all markets around the world that uses digital, PR and retail to shout about your games.

Here’s how the Stand out from the program can help you:

• Become part of Sony’s marketing campaigns.
• Take the great unique gaming controls into account.
• Become visible in the Game recommender app in Sony Xperia™ smartphones.
• Get pushed in global press activities – present in 140 markets.
• Get promoted in Sony social media activities (we have 4 million fans on Facebook!).

So are you ready to stand out at our next event? Go to our Stand out from the crowd homepage to get started.

More information

• Watch the Standout video on YouTube.
• Get programme information, speaker info, and full agenda for GDC.
• Get in the developer spotlight through the Stand out from the crowd programme.

We’ve talked about Xperia Studio before in this blog, and every time, I am completely blown away by the great and cool things they are doing with  our Xperia Smartphones and very unique and creative people.

For their most recent challenge, Xperia Studio joined forces with Android game developers Pixelbite/Polarbit and car-engineer Dr. James Brighton to recreate Pixelbite’s popular Reckless Racing 2, in real life – using two life sized cars controlled entirely remotely by Xperia phones

To achieve this, Dr. James Brighton overrode the electronic system of the MGF cars so that they could be controlled by the physical buttons on the Xperia PLAY and the touchscreen on the Xperia arc S. Then, Martin Noriander, creator of Reckless Racing 2 faced off against Hunter Skipworth, expert gamer and journalist for  Pocket-Lint,  on a track, built from scratch on an abandoned Cold War airbase. The result was mobile-controlled dirt-racing on a scale never before seen!

Visit Xperia Studio for more information on this, and all their other experiments.

Last week it was announced that we have joined the W3C Core Mobile Web Platform Community Group (coremob), that was announced by Facebook at Mobile Word Congress (MWC). This group will work to accelerate the development of standards for mobile web technologies. We are excited to be part of this, as we believe web apps will be increasingly important in the future, as more and more people are starting to access the web directly from their mobile devices. Read on to get the full details about Facebook’s work to improve mobile browser standards and how we’re supporting these efforts!

Developing mobile web apps have many advantages. It’s a fast and easy way to reach a large audience without the need to develop versions for different operating systems, and a mobile app can be easily accessed via links and search engines. Also, updates for new features are instant and can reach 100% of your user base.

 We have already shown our support for web technologies by being the first mobile phone manufacturer to support WebGL in our browser. A few weeks ago, we also published our WebGL implementation as open source. And now we’ve joined the W3C Core Mobile Web Platform Community Group (coremob), that was announced by Facebook at MWC 2012.

The purpose of the coremob group is to support the community in the development of modern mobile web applications. This is done by accelerating the improvement and standardisation of mobile web technologies, in order to reduce the fragmentation of mobile web browsers.

Ringmark, Facebook’s mobile web browser test suite
Facebook has developed a test suite  for mobile web browsers, called Ringmark, which is soon going to be open-sourced and donated to the coremob group. Ringmark provides an easy method to check web browser capabilities, by simply visiting a URL on your mobile web browser.  The structure of Ringmark  is introduced on Facebook’s HTML5 blog:

“Ring Zero represents the base functionality that most mobile phones have today. Ring One represents what functionality is needed to unlock the most common apps that developers want to build; specifically, 2D games, music and video apps, and camera apps.”

Sony’s 2011 Xperia phones are all capable enough to pass Ring Zero already, and we are working hard to improve our degree of compliance. If you’re interested, you can test the capabilities of the web browser on your phone, by going to rng.io!

It’s crucial, but not sufficient, to have better mobile browsers to ensure success for mobile web apps. A ubiquitous distribution solution is also required, and Facebook’s platform for mobile is one of the best available discovery solutions for mobile web developers. Facebook’s platform is a system of tools and features that bring social discovery to mobile apps and games.

Get to know the Facebook Mobile Platform
Facebook’s Mobile Platform provides many valuable features for developers that want to improve the discovery, distribution, and engagement of their applications. The platform has gained momentum in a short time, sending more than 60 million visitors to mobile apps and games every month. One important part is the Open Graph protocol, which  makes it easy for users to share back to their Timeline and spread the word about your app through users and their friend’s News Feeds. In addition, a range of SDKs and APIs allow developers to create rich social experiences for their mobile users.

There is also support for accepting payments for digital goods or services within your app in the form of Facebook Credits. Facebook announced integration of the mobile payments solution with a group of mobile operators, providing a seamless three-step carrier-billing flow for mobile web apps using Facebook Credits.

To get started developing web apps for Facebook on a range of different platforms, check out Facebook’s Mobile Web Tutorial  and the Facebook Android™ SDK . You can also register your web app  to start using the Facebook mobile platform today.

 Make use of new Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) features to enhance the web user experience
Another interesting addition of tools to enhance future web experiences is included in ICS (Android 4.0). It introduces several new features and APIs, which open up new possibilities for developers. Below we have listed a few features that are especially useful when developing your mobile web apps and games. They will all be supported by Xperia™ phones running ICS, and to try them out right away you can install the ICS beta ROM we released a couple of weeks ago.

• Device orientation – one of the most exciting new features is that it will be possible to use a new Device orientation API. With this JavaScript API, it will be possible to utilise data from accelerometers, gyroscopes or compasses in the smartphone. The device orientation gives a completely new dimension on how to develop applications. Previously, the application developer was limited to using touch events to let the end user interact with the application. But, with the device orientation API, it will be possible to control the application based on the orientation and rotation of the device. Check out device orientation in the demo video above, or try it out yourself from your smartphone!
• Multi touch – Once ICS is available, it will be possible to start to develop web applications that are using multi touch events. This should be good news to all game developers, since it opens for faster interaction and more advanced user interfaces.
• Camera capture – The Camera capture API leverage on the HTML input element, where a new capture attribute is introduced. This will enable the possibility for web applications to capture photos from the built in camera.
• HTML5 video – HTML5 video is introduced in ICS. This feature enables playback of video in the web browser. It’s strongly recommended for developers that are rendering video to start using the HTML 5 video element instead of Adobe Flash, since Adobe announced they’re stopping the investment in Adobe Flash for Android.
• CSS 3D transforms – CSS 3D transforms is an exciting feature that makes it possible to make transformations of objects in 3D space. This can also be done with WebGL, which is a 3D-rendering technology for web browsers, but if you feel that learning WebGL takes too much time, this is an easy way to enhance the rendering. For smartphones, this is a very useful feature since 3D transformation is an excellent mechanism to make more information visible for the end user on a small screen without overloading the end user with information.

Join us at Facebook’s Mobile Hack Roadshow
This week, Facebook has started a Mobile Hack Roadshow that will bring their popular mobile hack events to developers in Europe and Asia. At the events, developers will get the chance to meet Facebook engineers and learn more about mobile apps. We from Developer World will join them in most locations, and we hope to meet you there!

So what do you think, will web apps be the future of mobile applications? Have these new features and tools inspired you to start developing for the mobile web? Or are you already a mobile web developer? Drop us a comment and let us know your opinion!

More information

• Read our blog post about introducing support for WebGL in Xperia phones.
• Check out our WebGL open source project.
• Visit the W3C Core Mobile Web Platform Community Group (coremob) web site.
• Read Facebook’s mobile web announcement from MWC.
• Check out Facebook’s blog post about Ringmark.
• Test the compliance of your mobile web browser at Rng.io.
• Dive into Facebook’s guide to mobile web development.
• Read HTML5 Rocks’ tutorial on the device orientation API.
• Learn how to use multi touch at HTML5 Rocks.
• Have a look at the Camera Capture API.
• Check out a demo of CSS 3D transforms.

To continue our open innovation initiative, we now publish our FM radio module for 2011 Xperia™ phones as open source. This means that it’s much easier to configure custom ROMs to use the FM chip and FM radio app on our platforms, if you are a custom ROM developer. We also have updated the previously released sensor HAL, by adding aid to configure the magnetometer sensor. Read on for more information!

The FM radio module for 2011 Xperia™ phones was originally built on Texas Instrument’s (TI) FM chip, with some adaption to improve FM radio handling on chip level. To make it easy for community developers to close the gap between the TI open source FM radio solution and our implementation, we now release our FM radio module as open source under the apache 2 license. We hope this will enable more ROMs to utilise the FM radio. Download the FM radio module for the 2011 Xperia™ phones to learn more.

We have also updated the open sourced sensor HAL for the 2011 Xperia™ phones. This means we have added support for how to configure the three-axis magnetometer sensor. Get started by downloading the sensor HAL for the 2011 Xperia™ phones.

Our ambition is to support the open dev community as much as we can, and we hope you find the FM radio and the updated sensor HAL useful. What else do you wish to see open sourced? Let us know in the comments below!

More information

• Download the FM radio for the 2011 Xperia phones.
• Download the sensor HAL for the 2011 Xperia phones.
• Read our blog post about open sourcing our sensor HAL.
• Check out our other open developer community initiatives.
• Learn about our open sourced WebGL implementation.
• Find out about our open sourced bug report analysis tool ChkBugReport.
• Learn more about how to unlock the boot loader for Xperia phones.
• Read more about how we are supporting the open developer community.
• Download camera libraries  for the 2011 Xperia phones.

This week RealVNC announced the integration of a new Remote Control Service (RCS) in all new 2012 Xperia™ smartphones. RCS makes it possible to take full control of the smartphone and do everything the user could do, from a remote location. In this technical article, we asked the RealVNC team to help explain more about RCS, and how it can be used innovatively. Find out what they said after the jump.

RealVNC’s remote control service (RCS) lets you see and interact with a mobile phone across any network. The Xperia™ S will be the first product to support the RCS at launch followed by all Xperia™ phones launched from then on. In the short term, we hope to see commercial use of RCS technology, such as by a network operator’s customer service centres and car manufacturers making use of this technology. But in the longer run, several other industrial use cases may be possible. We asked the RealVNC team to explain more about RCS, the possibilities and limitations of the service, RealVNC’s solution and some industry use cases. To learn how to get access to the new remote control capabilities with your own apps, you can send an email to mobile@realvnc.com. Find out more below.

***

The new RCS is an enabler to support various use cases related to remote monitoring and management of the phone’s UI. The service allows access to screenshots and injection of touch commands, in order for the phone to be remotely managed, for example by enabling customer care agents to take control of a smartphone from a desktop tool (when the user has agreed to receive in device support), in order to diagnose and fix customers issues. It could also mean accessing your smartphone from the car dashboard controls, or from the infotainment system in a car.

How it works
There is a new API library, RemoteControl.jar, which interfaces with the new system service – ‘RemoteControlService’ (RCS) – that enforces the security measures described further down, and decides whether to allow your app to control the smartphone. In turn, the RCS talks to the existing Android ‘Surface Flinger’ and ‘Window Manager’ components.

Remote control architecture.

The RemoteControl.jar APIs enable you to:

• Capture the screen image.
• Inject key events.
• Inject touch events.

These are global operations. Typically your remote control app would be running in the background as a service, enabling remote control of other apps which are running in the foreground.

The APIs are very complicated and to gain optimal performance and ease of use, RealVNC’s VNC Mobile Solution can be used. It provides an abstraction layer that greatly reduces the effort and time to market for development of new applications making use of the APIs.

Security while using the Remote Control Service
Security is always of the upmost importance. While the new RCS is available to any application, they are only available if the user agrees to a prompt.

Remote control request view.

The prompt is designed to go much further than the standard Android ‘permissions’ system. This prompt appears at run-time instead of install-time, and is designed to make explicit the implications of the user agreeing to the action. It is conceptually similar to the Android ‘device policy manager’ subsystem which grants applications the right to lock and wipe the smartphone.

There are further security measures on top – if the user touches the smartphone screen while remote control is active, the remote control session will be disabled. Also, notifications keep the user aware of what is happening at all times. These security measures are sufficiently robust, and the safest way to expose remote control functionality.

About VNC Mobile Solution
VNC Mobile Solution is a kit which incorporates the new service and enables you as a developer to embed remote control capabilities into your applications. The solution has been adopted by many leading helpdesk, device management, testing tools, and automotive vendors. If you’re interested in trying it out, it is available for licensing. Check out the VNC Mobile Solution webpage and send an email to mobile@realvnc.com to find out more.

The VNC Mobile Solution comprises two components:

•  The VNC Server SDK, enabling developers to embed remote control into Android software (as well as other smartphone platforms).
• The VNC Viewer SDK is available for Linux, Mac, Windows, Java and a wide range of embedded operating systems popular in the automotive world.

The VNC Server SDK communicates over any data channel, for example, USB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPRS, 3G, LET, to the VNC Viewer SDK, which provides the user-facing end of the remote control.

Smartphone to head unit architecture.

It also comes with robust security measures: encryption, authentication, VNC Viewer and VNC Server signature validation, a ‘closed system’ protection against interoperability with other software, and maintains any additional vendor specific security measures already included in the helpdesk tool or automotive system.

Using the VNC Mobile Solution, remote control can be incorporated into existing systems with minimal development effort. VNC Mobile Solution facilitates control of the widest variety of smartphones from one system, and is easily configurable to fit seamlessly with existing systems. Altogether, it’s a great tool to facilitate a vast number of use cases. These are some examples of how it’s currently used by different vendors:

• Automotive infotainment. In this use case the RealVNC technology delivers a reproduction of the smartphone screen on the vehicle head unit human machine interface (HMI), in a platform independent format (see above diagram). Software extension capabilities enable you as a developer to offer a customised and branded product, and safety restrictions such as interlocking smartphone access with vehicle speed can be implemented, ensuring safe usage by the driver. RealVNC’s technology is fully compatible with MirrorLink™, a wide spread car connectivity technology, but also enables many additional features and greater performance.
• Helpdesks. Network operators and large corporate helpdesks often have a need to ‘login’ and fix users problems remotely and provide training. With the VNC Viewer software built into the helpdesk management application and VNC Server software on the smartphone handset, a vastly improved customer care model can be created. With remote control in-built, provided the user agrees, a remote support session is started immediately, without any concerns about IP addresses or firewalls. The solution allows customer care agents to troubleshoot, manipulate and fix the end users handset remotely, resulting in increased first time call resolution, reduced churn and improved satisfaction ratings. The system can be used to provide end-user training of higher value applications, such as video messaging, which can drive additional revenue for mobile operators.
• Testing tools. Remote control functionality makes it possible to create a testing tool to allow easy connection to a smartphone, and reduce testing time and cost for the customer. The testing tool would then call for simple functions to inject keys, screen taps and so on. The resulting screen images are then sent back. The images can be automatically checked and recorded for compliance and regression testing verification.
• TV. More and more often, people have a desire to take the fantastic applications they have on their smartphone, and replicate this on TV or presentation screens. This is another nice use case for the VNC Mobile Solution. Smartphone content such as games, videos and images could be displayed and controlled from the TV unit.

The core – VNC® technology
At the core of RealVNC’s RCS solution is VNC® technology, based on the RFB® (Remote Framebuffer) protocol that allows graphical replication of a remote screen on another screen.

The technology enables connections to be established across cellular networks, Wi-Fi™, USB, Bluetooth™, 2G, 3G, 4G and LTE and is available for viewer platforms including Java, Native and .NET, and server platforms including the widest range of smartphone platforms.

This technology puts the smartphone at the centre of the connected world and represents exciting opportunities for the developer community and its partners.

Many thanks to the RealVNC team for providing input to this article! Now, using this technology, what use case would you like to see? Write us a comment and let us know!

VNC and RFB are registered trademarks of RealVNC Ltd. in the U.S. and in other countries. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

More information:

• Read the RealVNC press release about the new APIs.
• Request a copy of the APIs from RealVNC.
• Learn more on the Sony Xperia Car section.
• Check out a video showing how the RealVNC technology can be used in the automotive industry.
• Find out more about integrating remote control.

Ever had trouble viewing your phone screen in bright sunlight? Yesterday, we announced the Xperia™ P, which solves this problem through Sony’s new WhiteMagic™ technology. In the Xperia P display we introduce a fourth sub pixel, adding a white to the red, green and blue that common displays have. By combining this sophisticated new hardware with advanced algorithms, the display becomes up to twice as bright and up to twice as power efficient. When used outside with “outdoor mode”, the screen of the Xperia™ P is one of the brightest displays on the market; while inside with “indoor mode”, it is extremely power efficient. Get a deeper understanding of the technology after the jump.

Xperia™ P is the first smartphone with an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) that utilises Sony’s WhiteMagic™ technology. In common LCDs, each pixel is divided into three sub pixels which are aligned horizontally beside each other. Each pixel has one red, one green and one blue sub pixel. In our WhiteMagic™ display, we add a white sub pixel beside the other three, so that each pixel consists of four sub pixels.

With WhiteMagic™, the red, green blue and white (RGBW) sub pixels are aligned horizontally. This illustration shows four pixels in total.

In LCD screens, the sub pixels are made of liquid crystals in the three primary colours through which the backlight  is filtered in different proportions to compose different colours. In normal LCDs, white is represented by letting the backlight pass through all three sub pixels in the right proportion. In the Xperia™ P display with WhiteMagic™ technology, the light can also be filtered through the white sub pixel, to represent a true white. WhiteMagic™ technology will significantly increase display brightness compared to normal LCD and OLED screens. In this way, WhiteMagic technology can be used to double the brightness or to save up to 50% of the backlight power based on user’s preference and surrounding light. By making the display brighter, it also brings out details in images and video content.

Super bright outdoor mode and power efficient indoor mode
With WhiteMagic™ technology, the display operates in two different modes called outdoor mode and indoor mode. To simplify, outdoor mode can be described as a mode using all LED lamps that provide backlight, while in indoor mode half of the LEDs are used.  With the same content shown on the screen, outdoor mode reaches double the brightness compared to indoor mode. In other words, indoor mode can save up 50% of the power. Indoor mode saves power by intelligently analysing the individual content’s colour composition, so there are no worries about colour distortion. The Xperia™ P is equipped with a sensor that measures the light in the environment, and depending on the surrounding light the display settings are automatically changed between indoor and outdoor mode.

In the settings menu, you can choose to manually set the level of brightness. In this case, the use of indoor or outdoor mode is fixed and the light sensor is turned off. This means that when choosing a high level of brightness, outdoor mode is always used, while with a low level of brightness indoor mode is always used.

Choose between bright mode and power efficient mode
When automatic brightness is enabled, there are two options for users – bright mode and power save mode.  In bright mode, your phone will always prioritise a bright and clear viewing experience and at the same time save power compared to other displays when indoors. In power save mode, the WhiteMagic™ technology is combined with a lower level of backlight to save even more power. It has up to 50% lower backlight compared to bright mode. This way you prolong the battery time, which lets you use your Xperia P even longer without charging. However, in both cases the backlight is adapted to surrounding light to provide a comfortable viewing experience.

Illustration of the difference in brightness between a normal LCD and the Xperia™ display with WhiteMagic™, and also the difference between outdoor and indoor mode with WhiteMagic™. cd/m2 means candela per square meter.

 

Xperia™ P is capable of up to 935 candela per square meter (cd/m2)  which is more than any other phone with the same level of pixel density (pixels per inch – PPI)  on the market.

Developer tips
By using as much white as possible in the content shown on the screen, you can make your app less power consuming when running it on an Xperia™ P. For example, if you have a use case where power efficiency is crucial, you can save a considerable amount of power by using only black and white. When your app is running on Xperia™ P, the display will then save up to 50% in power consumption, compared to most other displays. In addition, almost all use cases where natural photos are used saves power, since these normally contains a lot of white. Also, Images of humans and natural surroundings save a lot of power, since the colour saturation tends to be low in these kinds of images.

So what do you think of WhiteMagic™? Do you think about these things while developing applications? Let us know what you think! Drop us a line below with your comments.

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