So, after an afternoon playing with the MW600, I'm starting to get a little disgruntled with Android again.
When Mrs The Hurf got her X10mini last year it was on 1.6. The problems with Bluetooth were painfully apparent in any Android release pre-2.1 in that Bluetooth didn't really work that well at all, which, if I'm honest is incredibly annoying. And then some. How can you justify building an operating system for a phone that up until Christmas 2009 (or October 2010 - thanks SE) didn't have properly functioning Bluetooth? It's just ludicrous.
The madness continues with Android and the MW600, as while the Arc is perfectly happy sending audio to the device it's not happy sending ID3 tags for music. So, one of the major selling points for the MW600 - the really fancy OLED screen - is rendered practically useless thanks to more limitations of the system. Poor old SE, they do their best to bring some really fancy gear to the market, but they really don't get a break do they!?!
UPDATE:
Posts 22 and 24 on this post repeat the same as before - Android currently doesn't support the particular form of Bluetooth required to get things like ID3 tags and even caller names to send to the MW600.
Wednesday 20 April 2011
Radio
About three weeks ago I entered the Xperia competitions on the Sony Ericsson UK website. To my surprise I was lucky enough to win a MW600 Bluetooth headset. I received it in the post today, and very nice it is too!
Upon closer inspection I can see the unit itself - not much bigger than a lipstick - not only bounces my calls and other audio via Bluetooth but it also contains a very reasonable FM radio reciever. On a unit so tiny that really is impressive, although one can't help but wonder the following...
...The Arc has a much slimmer handset yet has managed to cram an FM radio in. The X10mini is smaller than a credit card yet packs an FM radio. If those two handsets had it, how come it's missing from the X10a/i/HD? Perhaps that's why in some markets the X10 was shipped with a MW600 to counter the missing radio hardware on the phone itself?
It's not the end of the world, just my musings!
Upon closer inspection I can see the unit itself - not much bigger than a lipstick - not only bounces my calls and other audio via Bluetooth but it also contains a very reasonable FM radio reciever. On a unit so tiny that really is impressive, although one can't help but wonder the following...
...The Arc has a much slimmer handset yet has managed to cram an FM radio in. The X10mini is smaller than a credit card yet packs an FM radio. If those two handsets had it, how come it's missing from the X10a/i/HD? Perhaps that's why in some markets the X10 was shipped with a MW600 to counter the missing radio hardware on the phone itself?
It's not the end of the world, just my musings!
Monday 18 April 2011
Bootloader
Unlocking the bootloader on the Xperia range of phones is a debate that has raged on for months between users and SE:
Android is supposed to be an open-system - Users
We cannot open the bootloader due to legal issues with our partners - SE.
Of course there are countless other issues too, namely that hordes of people would've opened the bootloader on their phone and wandered off to use different versions of Android. Or - worst case scenario - bricked their phone, and gone bleating to SE for a new one or a repair.
Thanks to the dedicated work of the geniuses over at XDA, there have been ways and means for people to load custom ROM onto their phone. Held back only by the custom kernel (courtesy of the locked bootloader) they've been providing us with alternate versions of Android for months and months. And jolly fine work it is too.
However, all that changed waaaaaaaaaay back in March when SE announced they were going to open the bootloader for their 2011 range of phones. Of course it wasn't all wine and roses/beer and pizza for the X10 series as "we cannot allow the boot loader to be unlocked due to technical and legal reasons."
That said, it still sent a clear message to the developers that "demonstrates that Sony Ericsson is listening to and working with the open developer world." A massive step in the right direction, let down only by there being relatively few 2.3 custom ROMs currently available for personal use. Damn!
Anyhoo, true to their word SE's bootloader page went live on the 13th of April. Cue all sorts of happenings on blogs - Xperiablog were particularly vocal. It's nice to see though when reading through the comments on the above-linked post that people are starting to forgive SE for past mistakes with Android. You can see evidence of the same shift in opinion if you sift through the 90-odd comments on the SE developer blog page.
I have unlocked the bootloader in anticipation of a root solution - there's some things one needs on a phone and AdBlocker is one of those. Plus there's a few other bits and pieces I use that require root access.
The actual process is spelled out for you by SE although it does help if your PC responds to your commands. I had problems installing the required drivers thanks to some dodgy codes and the above-mentioned ill-behaving PC, but once that was done it was relatively straightforward if you know what you're doing. Thanks to Alan on the Test Lab for his help with those darn drivers!
With the bootloader unlocked there's really not a lot you can do but wait for custom ROMs to become available, FlashTool can install new firmware (if/when when it comes out) but still can't root the device, but it's still a really important move by SE to make it available to those who want it. Really important.
Android is supposed to be an open-system - Users
We cannot open the bootloader due to legal issues with our partners - SE.
Of course there are countless other issues too, namely that hordes of people would've opened the bootloader on their phone and wandered off to use different versions of Android. Or - worst case scenario - bricked their phone, and gone bleating to SE for a new one or a repair.
Thanks to the dedicated work of the geniuses over at XDA, there have been ways and means for people to load custom ROM onto their phone. Held back only by the custom kernel (courtesy of the locked bootloader) they've been providing us with alternate versions of Android for months and months. And jolly fine work it is too.
However, all that changed waaaaaaaaaay back in March when SE announced they were going to open the bootloader for their 2011 range of phones. Of course it wasn't all wine and roses/beer and pizza for the X10 series as "we cannot allow the boot loader to be unlocked due to technical and legal reasons."
That said, it still sent a clear message to the developers that "demonstrates that Sony Ericsson is listening to and working with the open developer world." A massive step in the right direction, let down only by there being relatively few 2.3 custom ROMs currently available for personal use. Damn!
Anyhoo, true to their word SE's bootloader page went live on the 13th of April. Cue all sorts of happenings on blogs - Xperiablog were particularly vocal. It's nice to see though when reading through the comments on the above-linked post that people are starting to forgive SE for past mistakes with Android. You can see evidence of the same shift in opinion if you sift through the 90-odd comments on the SE developer blog page.
I have unlocked the bootloader in anticipation of a root solution - there's some things one needs on a phone and AdBlocker is one of those. Plus there's a few other bits and pieces I use that require root access.
The actual process is spelled out for you by SE although it does help if your PC responds to your commands. I had problems installing the required drivers thanks to some dodgy codes and the above-mentioned ill-behaving PC, but once that was done it was relatively straightforward if you know what you're doing. Thanks to Alan on the Test Lab for his help with those darn drivers!
With the bootloader unlocked there's really not a lot you can do but wait for custom ROMs to become available, FlashTool can install new firmware (if/when when it comes out) but still can't root the device, but it's still a really important move by SE to make it available to those who want it. Really important.
Gravity....
....dealt a cruel blow to a fellow member of the Test Lab over the weekend:
http://justnoel.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/wtf-nightmare-start-sony-ericsson-play/
http://justnoel.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/wtf-nightmare-start-sony-ericsson-play/
720p AV sync update
The rest of the world finally catches up to Test Lab:
http://www.xperiablog.net/2011/04/18/xperia-arc-suffers-audio-sync-freezing-issues-when-video-recording-in-hd/
http://talk.sonyericsson.c
There are 9 people on the Test Lab team with an Arc and I think they've all got the same issues as I was experiencing, what's strange is that the issue wasn't present on the X10HD. Anyhoo, hopefully there will at least be some sort of developer post about this soon, followed by a firmware release to fix the problem.
In the meantime, it should be possible to take non-HD video and not experience any sync issues. And the standard still-image bit of the camera still takes the most fabulous photos!
http://www.xperiablog.net/2011/04/18/xperia-arc-suffers-audio-sync-freezing-issues-when-video-recording-in-hd/
http://talk.sonyericsson.c
There are 9 people on the Test Lab team with an Arc and I think they've all got the same issues as I was experiencing, what's strange is that the issue wasn't present on the X10HD. Anyhoo, hopefully there will at least be some sort of developer post about this soon, followed by a firmware release to fix the problem.
In the meantime, it should be possible to take non-HD video and not experience any sync issues. And the standard still-image bit of the camera still takes the most fabulous photos!
Saturday 16 April 2011
SD Card
More delays, this time due to wedding preparations!
We in the Sony Ericsson Test Lab have spent most of the week dissecting and examing our phones. Many issues and problems have come to light, which are being flagged accordingly internally, but something has come up with regards to Xperia Play games taking up system ROM space on the Xperia Play.
One of my colleagues has noticed their phone is full to the brim after only two weeks of use. For example, Asphalt 6 needs to download 200+ MB; admittedly the game itself is stored on the SD card but, there's still a 30MB file on the phone memory. Throw in a couple more games, less apps than were on their X10HD and apparently they keep getting the low/out of memory notification to the point where they can't install anymore apps on the phone.
From a most basic point of view, if you can't shift something like that around - it's either use it as a phone or as a gaming device, but not both? A bit strange when when it IS actually meant to do both?
Hopefully this is something that can be fixed with a future update to the phones, but there may have to be updates to the games themselves in order for App2SD to work with the software?
We in the Sony Ericsson Test Lab have spent most of the week dissecting and examing our phones. Many issues and problems have come to light, which are being flagged accordingly internally, but something has come up with regards to Xperia Play games taking up system ROM space on the Xperia Play.
One of my colleagues has noticed their phone is full to the brim after only two weeks of use. For example, Asphalt 6 needs to download 200+ MB; admittedly the game itself is stored on the SD card but, there's still a 30MB file on the phone memory. Throw in a couple more games, less apps than were on their X10HD and apparently they keep getting the low/out of memory notification to the point where they can't install anymore apps on the phone.
From a most basic point of view, if you can't shift something like that around - it's either use it as a phone or as a gaming device, but not both? A bit strange when when it IS actually meant to do both?
Hopefully this is something that can be fixed with a future update to the phones, but there may have to be updates to the games themselves in order for App2SD to work with the software?
Monday 11 April 2011
DAMN YOU!
Been using the Arc to shoot some 720p video of my inimitable 97 year old great grandmother and some of her more entertaining, yet slightly bigoted, stories.
Just checking back through some video (which I won't be sharing!) taken with the Arc and noticed a BIG PROBLEM with the audio playback.
Thought something was amiss when I was shooting the video, it seemed to freeze for a few seconds but then carried on as normal. Thought nothing more of it, but then when viewing the videos back again the audio is out of sync from the moment the freeze kicks in - DAMN IT! And damn you, buggy software! Nan's stories end up sounding like poorly-dubbed kung-fu movies, minus the bloody kung-fu!
Just checking back through some video (which I won't be sharing!) taken with the Arc and noticed a BIG PROBLEM with the audio playback.
Thought something was amiss when I was shooting the video, it seemed to freeze for a few seconds but then carried on as normal. Thought nothing more of it, but then when viewing the videos back again the audio is out of sync from the moment the freeze kicks in - DAMN IT! And damn you, buggy software! Nan's stories end up sounding like poorly-dubbed kung-fu movies, minus the bloody kung-fu!
Sunday 10 April 2011
It's not all bad...
The Xperia Play has it's fans but that really appeals to a niche market - a pretty big market of gamers - but a niche market nonetheless.
The iPhone 5 will no doubt claim to reinvent the wheel but personally I think the Arc and the forthcoming Neo are the phones that will really change the game for SE. Incorporating standards like Flash and native wifi tethering et al onboard the Arc and Neo, along with a few minor alterations in future updates, could (and bloody well should!) really start driving a wedge between Apple and it's countless fanboys.
For SE, the Test Lab and for dedicated SE customers, it's going to be an interesting year. All is forgiven!
The iPhone 5 will no doubt claim to reinvent the wheel but personally I think the Arc and the forthcoming Neo are the phones that will really change the game for SE. Incorporating standards like Flash and native wifi tethering et al onboard the Arc and Neo, along with a few minor alterations in future updates, could (and bloody well should!) really start driving a wedge between Apple and it's countless fanboys.
For SE, the Test Lab and for dedicated SE customers, it's going to be an interesting year. All is forgiven!
Media Library
Media Library:
Thank goodness the new Gallery and Music apps replace the old Mediascape; it was a good idea in theory - to have all your media in one place - but in practice it was a mess.
Photos and Videos.
Your photos are now displayed through an app called, funnily enough, Gallery! This is really the stock Android app given a different icon - some of the more intrepid X10 users out there using Titanium Backup may remember seeing this app? For whatever reason, SE had disabled it so you were forced to use Mediascape.
Thankfully a third-party app called Gallery3D, based on the stock Gallery app, could be installed. This overwrote the old Gallery app with this newer model and gave you unfettered access to your photos without having to endure the bloat of Mediascape. Those of you who've rooted your X10 for JiT or DualTouch, but not installed a Custom ROM, might find this very useful indeed.
Note: sometimes the hyperlink works, sometimes it doesn't. But the Gallery3D DOES work.
Music:
Adding music on Mediascape was a pain: adding tracks through anything other than the awful MediaGo, you had to restart the phone in order for it to notice the new music on the SD card. And why would we want to go through to YouTube or PlayNow for more information about our music? That fact that it's on the phone in the first place means we already know plenty about it - i.e. we like it!
Mercifully most of these problems have been eliminated, although something like a library refresh to pick up freshly-loaded music wouldn't go amiss, I've had to restart the phone a few times to pick up new music. A refresh is something basic that could be added in a future update?
While the new EQ is pretty good, the music player is largely useless once the lockscreen has been engaged. Other apps like DoubleTwist or WinAmp allow you to control the player while the screen is locked. Useful and basic stuff that again should be included on a future update.
For the future, I've seen two apps in the last couple days that have some additional bells and whistles on them. One in particular is the port of the 3.0 Honeycomb music player, which has something akin to Apple's Cover Flow. I'm sure it looks fabulous on tablets, whether it will port officially I don't know. I tested it on my X10 and it seemed to work, but due to not having 16 million colours it looked a bit naff. Those who link to tinker can find the 3.0 music player here, but be aware it's still very alpha!
With a new improved release of Gingerbread coming soon, possibly 2.4 - which would have more elements of the aforementioned Honeycomb, my hope is when it comes to browsing music on a hand-held device, SE's music app will be on a par with the Apple user experience. In fact, I have high hopes for a much-rumoured, Walkman-based Android phone possibly coming out later in the year...
Thank goodness the new Gallery and Music apps replace the old Mediascape; it was a good idea in theory - to have all your media in one place - but in practice it was a mess.
Photos and Videos.
Your photos are now displayed through an app called, funnily enough, Gallery! This is really the stock Android app given a different icon - some of the more intrepid X10 users out there using Titanium Backup may remember seeing this app? For whatever reason, SE had disabled it so you were forced to use Mediascape.
Thankfully a third-party app called Gallery3D, based on the stock Gallery app, could be installed. This overwrote the old Gallery app with this newer model and gave you unfettered access to your photos without having to endure the bloat of Mediascape. Those of you who've rooted your X10 for JiT or DualTouch, but not installed a Custom ROM, might find this very useful indeed.
Note: sometimes the hyperlink works, sometimes it doesn't. But the Gallery3D DOES work.
Music:
Adding music on Mediascape was a pain: adding tracks through anything other than the awful MediaGo, you had to restart the phone in order for it to notice the new music on the SD card. And why would we want to go through to YouTube or PlayNow for more information about our music? That fact that it's on the phone in the first place means we already know plenty about it - i.e. we like it!
Mercifully most of these problems have been eliminated, although something like a library refresh to pick up freshly-loaded music wouldn't go amiss, I've had to restart the phone a few times to pick up new music. A refresh is something basic that could be added in a future update?
While the new EQ is pretty good, the music player is largely useless once the lockscreen has been engaged. Other apps like DoubleTwist or WinAmp allow you to control the player while the screen is locked. Useful and basic stuff that again should be included on a future update.
For the future, I've seen two apps in the last couple days that have some additional bells and whistles on them. One in particular is the port of the 3.0 Honeycomb music player, which has something akin to Apple's Cover Flow. I'm sure it looks fabulous on tablets, whether it will port officially I don't know. I tested it on my X10 and it seemed to work, but due to not having 16 million colours it looked a bit naff. Those who link to tinker can find the 3.0 music player here, but be aware it's still very alpha!
With a new improved release of Gingerbread coming soon, possibly 2.4 - which would have more elements of the aforementioned Honeycomb, my hope is when it comes to browsing music on a hand-held device, SE's music app will be on a par with the Apple user experience. In fact, I have high hopes for a much-rumoured, Walkman-based Android phone possibly coming out later in the year...
Camera Issues
Camera Issues:
We all know the Arc takes fabulous photos in low light, as evidenced by some of the stuff posted here, but Bex Foster from the Tech Lab has raised a valid question about the zoom capabilities (or lack thereof) on the Arc and Play.
See here for original post and discussion:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=16281&post=67102&uid=283958346371#post67102
There IS a zoom facility when you take take pictures at 2M resolution but seeing as though the phone can take 8M pictures why you would use this setting is beyond me. This is something that could (and should) be a problem as it's a bit weird to have a really good camera phone with limited zoom capabilities and does seem like a step backwards.
Maybe it's the BRAVIA software interfering with the zoom mode? I'm not sure, but this issue has popped up a lot in the last few days. Using third-party apps lilke Vignette will grant you zoom in 8M, plus a full-screen, 16:9 display. But, as stated above, why should we use third-party apps to do what was previously available on an older phone with older software?
Update 11/04/2011:
Xperiablog seems to have picked up the original thread of our discussion on Facebook and have run their own post:
http://www.xperiablog.net/2011/04/11/xperia-arc-cannot-zoom-at-higher-camera-resolutions/
We all know the Arc takes fabulous photos in low light, as evidenced by some of the stuff posted here, but Bex Foster from the Tech Lab has raised a valid question about the zoom capabilities (or lack thereof) on the Arc and Play.
See here for original post and discussion:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=16281&post=67102&uid=283958346371#post67102
There IS a zoom facility when you take take pictures at 2M resolution but seeing as though the phone can take 8M pictures why you would use this setting is beyond me. This is something that could (and should) be a problem as it's a bit weird to have a really good camera phone with limited zoom capabilities and does seem like a step backwards.
Maybe it's the BRAVIA software interfering with the zoom mode? I'm not sure, but this issue has popped up a lot in the last few days. Using third-party apps lilke Vignette will grant you zoom in 8M, plus a full-screen, 16:9 display. But, as stated above, why should we use third-party apps to do what was previously available on an older phone with older software?
Update 11/04/2011:
Xperiablog seems to have picked up the original thread of our discussion on Facebook and have run their own post:
http://www.xperiablog.net/2011/04/11/xperia-arc-cannot-zoom-at-higher-camera-resolutions/
Physical Features
Physical Features:
I'm still to trying to figure why the LED notification light is on the right hand side of the phone, actually on the side of the phone. It might seem a tiny niggle, but as someone who's right-handed I generally have my phone on my desk at work within grasp of my right hand. If I wander away from my desk and get a text, if I don't wake my phone up from sleep to check the screen every 2 minutes, how will I know I've had correspondence? A minor point yes, but it could mean the difference between sausages or fish fingers for tea!
Also, something that a few Test Lab attendees noticed, the USB port isn't covered, HDMI is. Wouldn't it have made more sense to have the more important port covered? Yes, it makes it easier to access if you're in that much of a hurry to get the phone charged, but it also makes it easier to jam lint and other stuff into the most important port on the phone - no juice, no phone!
I like the shiny finish on the Arc, it is very pretty, which is the aesthetic SE were aiming for. However, having tinkered with my X10 again this week, I do like the feel of the X10 case - it's got far more grip on it, and for a phone the size of the Arc it might've been useful to have some sort of finish that would stop it flying out of a sweaty paw?
I'm still to trying to figure why the LED notification light is on the right hand side of the phone, actually on the side of the phone. It might seem a tiny niggle, but as someone who's right-handed I generally have my phone on my desk at work within grasp of my right hand. If I wander away from my desk and get a text, if I don't wake my phone up from sleep to check the screen every 2 minutes, how will I know I've had correspondence? A minor point yes, but it could mean the difference between sausages or fish fingers for tea!
Also, something that a few Test Lab attendees noticed, the USB port isn't covered, HDMI is. Wouldn't it have made more sense to have the more important port covered? Yes, it makes it easier to access if you're in that much of a hurry to get the phone charged, but it also makes it easier to jam lint and other stuff into the most important port on the phone - no juice, no phone!
I like the shiny finish on the Arc, it is very pretty, which is the aesthetic SE were aiming for. However, having tinkered with my X10 again this week, I do like the feel of the X10 case - it's got far more grip on it, and for a phone the size of the Arc it might've been useful to have some sort of finish that would stop it flying out of a sweaty paw?
Basic OS Functions
Been a bit busy and also feeling quite poo this week, hence the delay for more musings!
The time spent feeling poo has really given me the time to check the phone over and really get to grips with some of it finer and not-so-fine points. All in the name or research and honesty of course - it is the best policy after all.
Basic Functionality:
I don't get why SE do away with so many of the stock Android apps? One whose absence bothers me a lot is the File Manager. In the old days of Symbian you could Bluetooth music/photos etc and the file would appear in the appointed media folder. In Android, the file is received by the phone and stored in a folder on the SD card called, yes, Bluetooth.
If you're like me and you like to carry music on your phone in case the iPod packs up, it makes sense to have some emergency tracks in the media folder, not lurking in the bluetooth folder. Call me fussy, but I like to keep things organised! Just to clarify, you can access the file you've transferred by dragging down the status bar, however, without something as simple as a File Manager you can't shunt the file about into it's respective folder.
The stock File Manager will enable you to perform some basic housekeeping without messing up important firmware of your phone. Personally I like to use Explorer by SpeedSoftware as this has a built-in ZIP manager, which I found very useful when zipping music on the X10 to be Bluetoothed to the Arc when I was first setting the phone up.
There's some other basic stock apps missing too, or they've removed some usability from the OS to suit some sort of purpose - I don't know why, as it's annoying at times to use the SE 2.3 when the 2.2 custom ROMs I've been using have more tweakable options. Just seems the phone is being dumbed down for the general market - maybe take on board some of things my fellow Test Lab attendee Graham Gilmour was talking about and rather than treat all customers as casual users, perhaps include the option to have a setup for the more discerning user and let us play with the phone more? That way, we can tailor the experience to our needs, rather than what SE think we should have.
Plus I think they should include an option to use long-press of the back key to kill an app - it's in all the custom ROMs. For the amount people complain about the battery life of a smartphone, the ability to kill an app when you've finished using it, rather than letting it continue to draw juice in the background, seems to be a glaring omission.
Also what about when you hold the power button, having the option to reboot, rather than just turning the phone off and waiting 5 seconds, let the phone do all the work!
It's these simple little things that can make all the difference to the user experience.
The time spent feeling poo has really given me the time to check the phone over and really get to grips with some of it finer and not-so-fine points. All in the name or research and honesty of course - it is the best policy after all.
Basic Functionality:
I don't get why SE do away with so many of the stock Android apps? One whose absence bothers me a lot is the File Manager. In the old days of Symbian you could Bluetooth music/photos etc and the file would appear in the appointed media folder. In Android, the file is received by the phone and stored in a folder on the SD card called, yes, Bluetooth.
If you're like me and you like to carry music on your phone in case the iPod packs up, it makes sense to have some emergency tracks in the media folder, not lurking in the bluetooth folder. Call me fussy, but I like to keep things organised! Just to clarify, you can access the file you've transferred by dragging down the status bar, however, without something as simple as a File Manager you can't shunt the file about into it's respective folder.
The stock File Manager will enable you to perform some basic housekeeping without messing up important firmware of your phone. Personally I like to use Explorer by SpeedSoftware as this has a built-in ZIP manager, which I found very useful when zipping music on the X10 to be Bluetoothed to the Arc when I was first setting the phone up.
There's some other basic stock apps missing too, or they've removed some usability from the OS to suit some sort of purpose - I don't know why, as it's annoying at times to use the SE 2.3 when the 2.2 custom ROMs I've been using have more tweakable options. Just seems the phone is being dumbed down for the general market - maybe take on board some of things my fellow Test Lab attendee Graham Gilmour was talking about and rather than treat all customers as casual users, perhaps include the option to have a setup for the more discerning user and let us play with the phone more? That way, we can tailor the experience to our needs, rather than what SE think we should have.
Plus I think they should include an option to use long-press of the back key to kill an app - it's in all the custom ROMs. For the amount people complain about the battery life of a smartphone, the ability to kill an app when you've finished using it, rather than letting it continue to draw juice in the background, seems to be a glaring omission.
Also what about when you hold the power button, having the option to reboot, rather than just turning the phone off and waiting 5 seconds, let the phone do all the work!
It's these simple little things that can make all the difference to the user experience.
Monday 4 April 2011
Media Server
In a previous post I talked about the DLNA onboard the Arc, so I'm going to pick up that thread again.
Back in May 2010, SE started making noises about DLNA connectivity coming to the X10 handsets. All went quiet for a while, until in February 2011 they changed their mind and said it wasn't coming to 2.1 after all. Damn.
In the meantime I had been using Twonky Media and found it worked wonderfully for my needs. Still, there was the disappointment that we had been let down again by missing out on features 2.2 users were enjoying as part of their phone software, not third party. So, when Media Server appeared in the app drawer for the Arc, a big smile appeared on my face.
Arriving home on Friday I was anxious to really test this out. Of course, I still had some additional bells and whistles to sort out with the phone and the market etc so it took a little longer. After setup though, which is easy-peasy, I checked through photos taken with the Arc, running them through my PS3 and DLNA blu-ray for good measure. It's fast, responsive and works really well.
Not sure if iPhone users have something like this native to the phone, Steve Jobs will be turning in his sick bed if they don't, as this is a great utility; the ability to broadcast your A/V content to pretty much any DLNA compliant receiver? Really great!
Back in May 2010, SE started making noises about DLNA connectivity coming to the X10 handsets. All went quiet for a while, until in February 2011 they changed their mind and said it wasn't coming to 2.1 after all. Damn.
In the meantime I had been using Twonky Media and found it worked wonderfully for my needs. Still, there was the disappointment that we had been let down again by missing out on features 2.2 users were enjoying as part of their phone software, not third party. So, when Media Server appeared in the app drawer for the Arc, a big smile appeared on my face.
Arriving home on Friday I was anxious to really test this out. Of course, I still had some additional bells and whistles to sort out with the phone and the market etc so it took a little longer. After setup though, which is easy-peasy, I checked through photos taken with the Arc, running them through my PS3 and DLNA blu-ray for good measure. It's fast, responsive and works really well.
Not sure if iPhone users have something like this native to the phone, Steve Jobs will be turning in his sick bed if they don't, as this is a great utility; the ability to broadcast your A/V content to pretty much any DLNA compliant receiver? Really great!
720p
Much has been said about the 720p HD capabilities of the onboard camera with the X10HD and it's 1.6 predecessor. The same features have been carried over to the Arc as well, and with the inclusion of the Exmor R sensor the Arc is capable of taking some excellent video in low light conditions.
I was going to post up a couple videos I shot over the weekend, taken at the tail of the fiancess hen do (don't ask) but didn't they they were suitable for public viewing. Rest assured, however, the HD video really is amazing. My previous post included a link to a timelapse video created by a fellow Arc owner, it's good stuff, and a perfect showcase for what you do with a little time on your hands and a little patience!
I was going to post up a couple videos I shot over the weekend, taken at the tail of the fiancess hen do (don't ask) but didn't they they were suitable for public viewing. Rest assured, however, the HD video really is amazing. My previous post included a link to a timelapse video created by a fellow Arc owner, it's good stuff, and a perfect showcase for what you do with a little time on your hands and a little patience!
Sunday 3 April 2011
Shooting with Exmor R
One of the much-touted features of the new Xperia series is the inclusion of some proprietary Sony tech to make things a bit more whiz-bang on the mobile phone front.
Incorporating Sony's BRAVIA Engine for starters, the Arc has great visuals straight out the box. I loaded a, ahem, mobile-optimised version of Inception onto the Arc and was pleasantly stunned by the results. Loading on Toy Story, with it's high-saturated colours etc, is also a visual treat for the eyes.
As if that weren't enough, SE also incorporated the Exmor R sensor into the phone. Developed with the aim of creating a camera capable of taking exceptional photographs even by candlelight, this technology had previously only been available on standard digital cameras. And what a technology it is; capable of taking decent-to-excellent pictures in the darkest of conditions.
The pictures above were taken at the Xperia Play Launch party on 31st March. The venue itself was lit like a neon-drenched distopian wasteland, a bit like Blade Runner meets Hansel and Gretel, with some Chinese symbols, half a Lynx helicopter and a Dodge Charger thrown in for good measure - Ridley Scott would be thrilled!
Obviously not the best environment for a normal camera phone to be taking photos but as you can see from the shots above, the Exmor R technology can more than cope with such harsh lighting conditions.
More to come on the 720p video capabilities, but in the meantime, check out this series of amazing timelapse videos done using the Arc's HD video camera and the excellent Vignette app from the Android Market:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjCbDDVR_ZM
Incorporating Sony's BRAVIA Engine for starters, the Arc has great visuals straight out the box. I loaded a, ahem, mobile-optimised version of Inception onto the Arc and was pleasantly stunned by the results. Loading on Toy Story, with it's high-saturated colours etc, is also a visual treat for the eyes.
As if that weren't enough, SE also incorporated the Exmor R sensor into the phone. Developed with the aim of creating a camera capable of taking exceptional photographs even by candlelight, this technology had previously only been available on standard digital cameras. And what a technology it is; capable of taking decent-to-excellent pictures in the darkest of conditions.
The pictures above were taken at the Xperia Play Launch party on 31st March. The venue itself was lit like a neon-drenched distopian wasteland, a bit like Blade Runner meets Hansel and Gretel, with some Chinese symbols, half a Lynx helicopter and a Dodge Charger thrown in for good measure - Ridley Scott would be thrilled!
Obviously not the best environment for a normal camera phone to be taking photos but as you can see from the shots above, the Exmor R technology can more than cope with such harsh lighting conditions.
More to come on the 720p video capabilities, but in the meantime, check out this series of amazing timelapse videos done using the Arc's HD video camera and the excellent Vignette app from the Android Market:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjCbDDVR_ZM
Raiders of the Xperia Arc...
...see what I did there?
So, about the Arc itself. This was my second choice of phone, after the Neo, which has been unfortunately delayed due to various unforeseen events. I must admit it is a very slick, sleek and slender phone. Almost bordering on sexy, dare I say it, although that term shouldn't really be applied to anything less than a woman. One woman, to be precise; the future Mrs The Hurf to be.
See the unboxing photos from Xperiablog.net here...:
http://www.xperiablog.net/2011/04/02/xperia-arc-unboxing-pics/#more-850
...for an exhausting list of pictures of what's really in the box with the Arc. One thing I noticed was missing from my Arc upon receipt was the mini-HDMI cable. I have been assured one will be sent to me and the others from the group with an Arc as, given the Arc was demoed to us using the HDMI-out capabilities of the phone I was a little disappointed to find the cable missing from the contents. A packing issue perhaps which will be quickly rectified I'm sure?
First thing I noticed when holding the Arc? It's lightweight. It really is quite shiny and it's super-slim.
First thing I noticed when it was up and running? It's fast. Very fast. Compared to the sluggish response of from my 2.1 powered handset, it was like greased-poop-off-a-teflon-shovel fast. As someone who rooted and hacked their X10HD handset to get 2.2 (which is considerably faster than SE's own 2.1) this Arc is even faster, even with the custom SE (albeit lighter) UX overlay.
A quick check through the app drawer on this phone and the first thing that jumps off the screen at me is the presence of a DLNA Media Server. This was promised..ish...to X10 owners in May 2010: http://blogs.sonyericsson.com/products/2010/05/05/sony-ericsson-xperia%E2%84%A2-x10-to-get-uxp-upgrade-in-q4-2010/
However following the No FroYo scandal of January 2011, things just got worse when SE announced they weren't going to bring DLNA to the X10 after all. Given that X10 owners were promised...ish...DLNA, this didn't go down to well at all, especially when SE were committed to bringing a series of software updates to the X10 in lieu of a proper upgrade to 2.2 and beyond:
http://blogs.sonyericsson.com/products/2011/02/25/questions-and-answers-from-mwc2011/ (4th question)
If DLNA wasn't enough, further inspection through the settings showed wifi/usb tethering was in place an fully functional. A couple minutes after this discovery my battered 1st gen iPod Touch was bleeping for joy, filling it's little email utility with my email, all via the wonder of a shared 3G connection from my phone.
This...is important stuff for Ericsson Android users who were really behind other Android users in terms of additional features present in FroYo and beyond. Very important stuff indeed. Further inspection of installed apps etc showed Adobe Flash 10.1 already installed on the phone and BBC iPlayer sat in the app drawer. Live TV, on my phone? Fantastic!
My heart sank a little when I discovered Timescape was still on the phone, but recovered when I remembered portions of the presentation about Ericsson's version of Gingerbread and the fact the UX overlay was no longer so deeply embedded in the OS. Crisis over, back to normal!
More to follow, just waiting on a delivery of Tim Tams....
So, about the Arc itself. This was my second choice of phone, after the Neo, which has been unfortunately delayed due to various unforeseen events. I must admit it is a very slick, sleek and slender phone. Almost bordering on sexy, dare I say it, although that term shouldn't really be applied to anything less than a woman. One woman, to be precise; the future Mrs The Hurf to be.
See the unboxing photos from Xperiablog.net here...:
http://www.xperiablog.net/2011/04/02/xperia-arc-unboxing-pics/#more-850
...for an exhausting list of pictures of what's really in the box with the Arc. One thing I noticed was missing from my Arc upon receipt was the mini-HDMI cable. I have been assured one will be sent to me and the others from the group with an Arc as, given the Arc was demoed to us using the HDMI-out capabilities of the phone I was a little disappointed to find the cable missing from the contents. A packing issue perhaps which will be quickly rectified I'm sure?
First thing I noticed when holding the Arc? It's lightweight. It really is quite shiny and it's super-slim.
First thing I noticed when it was up and running? It's fast. Very fast. Compared to the sluggish response of from my 2.1 powered handset, it was like greased-poop-off-a-teflon-shovel fast. As someone who rooted and hacked their X10HD handset to get 2.2 (which is considerably faster than SE's own 2.1) this Arc is even faster, even with the custom SE (albeit lighter) UX overlay.
A quick check through the app drawer on this phone and the first thing that jumps off the screen at me is the presence of a DLNA Media Server. This was promised..ish...to X10 owners in May 2010: http://blogs.sonyericsson.com/products/2010/05/05/sony-ericsson-xperia%E2%84%A2-x10-to-get-uxp-upgrade-in-q4-2010/
However following the No FroYo scandal of January 2011, things just got worse when SE announced they weren't going to bring DLNA to the X10 after all. Given that X10 owners were promised...ish...DLNA, this didn't go down to well at all, especially when SE were committed to bringing a series of software updates to the X10 in lieu of a proper upgrade to 2.2 and beyond:
http://blogs.sonyericsson.com/products/2011/02/25/questions-and-answers-from-mwc2011/ (4th question)
If DLNA wasn't enough, further inspection through the settings showed wifi/usb tethering was in place an fully functional. A couple minutes after this discovery my battered 1st gen iPod Touch was bleeping for joy, filling it's little email utility with my email, all via the wonder of a shared 3G connection from my phone.
This...is important stuff for Ericsson Android users who were really behind other Android users in terms of additional features present in FroYo and beyond. Very important stuff indeed. Further inspection of installed apps etc showed Adobe Flash 10.1 already installed on the phone and BBC iPlayer sat in the app drawer. Live TV, on my phone? Fantastic!
My heart sank a little when I discovered Timescape was still on the phone, but recovered when I remembered portions of the presentation about Ericsson's version of Gingerbread and the fact the UX overlay was no longer so deeply embedded in the OS. Crisis over, back to normal!
More to follow, just waiting on a delivery of Tim Tams....
Was it all really a dream...?
In short, 14 lucky individuals (some pictured above, taken with an Ericsson Arc) were chosen from the countless hordes of people who complained about the No FroYo scandal, and were asked to attend a Xperia Play/Arc launch event on 31st March, where we would be given unprecedented access to senior members of SE UK's management team and then attend the evening VIP launch party (pictures to follow in next blog entry). Not only would we have this opportunity to speak with some of the people behind our chosen phones, but we would also be given a handset of our choice from the 2011 range of phones; choose from either the Arc, Play or Neo. I opted for the Neo.
The PR event in the afternoon was very imformative. SE UK had clearly realised mistakes were made with the X10 series of phones and were anxious to put things right. I personally was very impressed with the honesty and clarity displayed/presented by the various members of SE UK management that we met; this is a company that is anxious to make amends for previous mistakes and reclaim their place in the mobile phone market.
In answer to the question posed as the title of this article, I still wasn't 100% convinced about this Test Lab until my train tickets were in my hand and I was en route!
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