Archive for the ‘announcement’ Category

« Older Entries

New CEO for Sony

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

Sony announced Kazuo Hirai has been appointed as President and Chief Executive Officer of Sony Corporation from April 1 2012. Howard Stringer, currently CEO and President, will become Chairman of the Board of Directors.

With Sony struggling in the market, facing extreme competition from the other tech giants, it would be a tough task for the new leader. Anyway, it’s evident from the take over of Sony Ericsson that Sony is eyeing on the smartphone market for the next couple of years and hence to regain the number one position in the tech arena.

Comment from Sir Howard Stringer

“Three years ago, I started to work with the Board on succession plans, and in February, 2009 we named a new generation of leaders to be my management team. Among them was Kaz Hirai, who had distinguished himself through his work in the PlayStation® and networked entertainment businesses. Kaz is a globally focused executive for whom technology and the cloud are familiar territory, content is highly valued, and digital transformation is second nature. I believe his tough-mindedness and leadership skills will be of great benefit to the company and its customers in the months and years ahead. I look forward to helping Kaz in every way I can so that succession leads inevitably to success. It was my honor to recommend him to the Board for the positions of President and CEO, because he is ready to lead, and the time to make this change is now.”

Comment from Kazuo Hirai

“As challenging as times are for Sony now, were it not for the strong leadership of Sir Howard Stringer these past seven years, we would have been in a much more difficult position. I am grateful to Sir Howard and to the Board for their confidence in me, and I look forward to working with everyone at Sony more closely than ever before to build a strong future for our customers, shareholders, partners and employees. The path we must take is clear: to drive the growth of our core electronics businesses – primarily digital imaging, smart mobile and game; to turn around the television business; and to accelerate the innovation that enables us to create new business domains. The foundations are now firmly in place for the new management team and me to fully leverage Sony’s diverse electronics product portfolio, in conjunction with our rich entertainment assets and growing array of networked services, to engage with our customers around the world in new and exciting ways.”

Source: Sony Press release

Posted in CEO, Corporate, announcement, future, sony | No Comments »

No local repair service anymore!

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

Today I went to a shop to get my Xperia Arc with the crack above the sensor fixed and they told me that SE has forbidden local repair since 2012.
At first I was very angry and then I had a chat with employee of SE.
He said that’s right, there’s currently no local repair and I should send my phone in, which I don’t want as the shop I went to would do it in 30-60 minutes.
Of course I asked for the reason and he told me that they made bad experiences with some local repair shops and they are currently search the shops they want to work with in future, too.
I don’t know if that’s everywhere or just here in Germany.
But be prepared to not get your phone repaired without sending it in.
I think I wait with my Xperia Arc and see if they allow it again in near future.

From Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog: http://blog.se-nse.n…ervice-anymore/

Posted in announcement, xperia | 17 Comments »

It’s official, 2011 Xperia portfolio will get Ice Cream Sandwich!

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Yes,  gentlemen, it’s official. Earlier today, Sony Ericsson posted on their product blog:

“There have been a few questions here on the blog and in our support forums regarding our upgrade plans beyond Gingerbread. We can today confirm that we plan to upgrade the entire 2011 Xperia™ portfolio* to the next version of Android known as Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich. We are working on merging our current Xperia™ experience with the new features in Android 4.0. More detailed information regarding this upgrade, timing and global availability will be communicated in due course here on the blog.

* “2011 Xperia™ Portfolio” refers to the following products: Xperia™ arc and arc S, Xperia™ PLAY, Xperia™ neo and neo V, Xperia™ mini and mini pro, Xperia™ pro, Xperia™ active, Xperia™ ray as well as Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman™”

And that “merging current Xperia experience” should mean that it will not be a stock ROM, whatsoever, I hope update won’t disable features that Xperia ROMs have, and there are many of them.

Only remaining unknown is the date. Well, as I said, I hope they don’t hurry and pack this ROM with all goodies that comes with Xperia. We shall keep you informed on any information that comes available, as well as post some screenshots from various devices as they get ICS.

Theonewithideas, from SEMC Product Blog

From Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog: http://blog.se-nse.n…cream-sandwich/

Tags: , ,
Posted in Xperia Arc, Xperia Arc S, Xperia Mini, Xperia Mini Pro, Xperia Neo, Xperia Play, Xperia Pro, Xperia ray, announcement, firmware, operating-platform, update, x-series, xperia | 4 Comments »

Sony Buys All of Sony Ericsson

Thursday, October 27th, 2011

The day many had been waiting for, and that many had been dreading, has finally arrived … Sony has taken sole control of Sony Ericsson. The deal is worth a cool £964 million and gives Sony the 50% stake in the joint venture controlled by Ericsson.

So what does £964 million buy you? Well Ericsson’s 50% stake of course, but also five sets of patents that Sony will need to actually make phones as well as a licensing deal on other intellectual property held by Ericsson.

Commenting on the deal Sony’s chairman Sir Howard Stringer said:

This acquisition makes sense for Sony and Ericsson, and it will make the difference for consumers, who want to connect with content wherever they are, whenever they want.

That’s corporate speak for: Ericsson get some dosh, we get full control, future phones will tie in with our various divisions. For it’s part Ericsson summed up its decision to sell as being a result of the synergies between telecoms equipment and mobile phones decreasing.

So there we have it folks … the end of an era … 10 years down the line and the joint venture is over. What now?

Posted in Corporate, announcement, news | 26 Comments »

Android 2.3.4 now official, SE Xperia Pro “coming soon”

Friday, September 30th, 2011

A few things to update you all on:

As we know, the 2.3.4 update that was promised in October has now started to roll out, though it is for generic world and nordic countries only. This is coming to the following Xperia devices:

Arc

Neo

Play

Ray

We are also hearing that it has started to arrive on the Xperia Mini too, so we expect the Xperia Mini Pro and the Xperia Active to follow suit soon.

Sony Ericsson officially announced it a few days ago, and you can find out what kits are officially receiving the update reading it here.

More good news: Xperia Arc S, Xperia Neo V and Walkman Live are now on pre-order from Play.com, with quite close expected release dates. Again, more details here.

In fact, speaking of Play, it seems that the Xperia Active got delayed. We have had no details why, but anyway the new expected release date is now later today. You can find it on the Play website here

SE UK are now selling their own phones via the SE website, instead of using se-store.co.uk. Now this makes things easier to control from SE’s point of view, but it may raise a concern or two;

We all (should) know about the Xperia Pro being delayed until Q4 2011. Also, Xperia Pro (according to se-store) was due to be released in “late September”.

Now whats so worrying about that? Well, since se-store had the Xperia Pro on pre-order, and I would imagine people have placed an order for it, I saw on twitter the other day asking about what has happened to their order:

Now to me, that does not read very well, and does not answer the question. Pre-orders mean very little, but surely someone knows at SE what is happening with the Xperia Pro? On the SE website we are still seeing the “coming soon” on the Xperia Pro.

However, we do have some good news with the Xperia Pro; it appears that it is finally being introduced into the United Kingdom on 6th October. Another blog has already reported this, but to be honest I would rather report on somewhere that has a bit more of a better reputation. It current stands at £300 (all bar a penny) at Play.com. You can read more details here.

From Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog: http://blog.se-nse.n…ro-coming-soon/

Posted in Xperia Arc, Xperia Arc S, Xperia Mini, Xperia Mini Pro, Xperia Neo, Xperia Play, Xperia Pro, Xperia active, Xperia ray, android, announcement, firmware, flashing, update, x-series, xperia | 5 Comments »

Sony Ericsson supporting FreeXperia – CyanogenMod for 2011 devices

Thursday, September 29th, 2011

On 28. September, Sony Ericsson Developer Blog declared that they now support FreeXperia group.

Sony Ericsson seems to accept independent developers more every day, they started unlocking bootloaders, showed how to make your own Linux kernel, and now, they’re supporting FreeXperia devs. Not that they support whole spectrum of modding activities (like rooting) but they recognize independent ROM developing (and such) as indispensable part of Android.

This are pretty good news, meaning that CyanogenMod 7 is now available on :

Arc
Neo
Mini
Mini pro
PLAY
Ray

Active and Pro will be supported soon after they get out.

The only lack is that currently now, FM radio isn’t working, but that shouldn’t be a big hassle to fix, nor that much of a major feature.

What is CyanogenMod?


Well, in case you’ve been living on Mars, or never had a Android smartphone, CM is:

Aftermarket ROM that offers many features over default manufacturer ROM’s like  Open VPN and DSP equalizer. And theming. With one APK you can repaint your whole system, where before, you could only change background and maybe some colours. And they claim that their ROM is better on performance and reliability sides than default manufacturer ROM’s.

By: Theonewithideas

Source: Both Sony Ericsson Developer Blog and CyanogenMod Blog

From Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog: http://blog.se-nse.n…r-2011-devices/

Posted in Xperia Arc, Xperia Arc S, Xperia Mini, Xperia Mini Pro, Xperia Neo, Xperia Play, Xperia Pro, Xperia active, Xperia ray, android, announcement, customization, developer, x-series, xperia | 1 Comment »

Xperia PLAY 4G coming to at&t on 18th of September

Friday, September 9th, 2011

Some time ago at&t said that their version of the Xperia Play, the Xperia Play 4G, will come to the company later this year, but now the company confirmed that it will come on 18th of September.

The Xperia Play 4G (it’s compatible with AT&T’s 21MBps HSPA+ 4G network) will come for an upfront cost of $49.99 on a two-year contract.
Other than the different radio it will also come in a new color called Stealth Blue.
Plus it seems as if buyers will also get the DK300 Multimedia Dock and MC100 music cable with the Play 4G, which doesn’t sound like a bad deal.

It will also come with seven preloaded games including Dungeon Defenders Second Wave, Asphalt 6 Adrenaline, Star Battalion, Madden NFL 11, The Sims 3, Tower Bloxx: My City and Crash Bandicoot.

And it’s the first 4G device from Sony Ericsson.

Source: Xperia Blog

From Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog: http://blog.se-nse.n…h-of-september/

Posted in Xperia Play, android, announcement, new-colour, new-phone, operators, upcoming, x-series, xperia | 2 Comments »

Update to 2.3.4 announced

Monday, September 5th, 2011

With most manufacturers now rolling out the Android 2.3.4 update, those on the latest Xperia devices were left in dark, wondering if their device would ever get the Android 2.3.4 update, which was said to be released around October. You can also see this pretty much echoed here.

Maybe then, it is about time someone at Sony Ericsson woke up, and realised that an official announcement hadnt been made about it. Thankfully then, they have done exactly that, and released some new features of the newer 2.3.4. The main features:

  • This brings video chat via Google Talk. Not a major feature if you already have Skype or some other video calling service in use already, except it will allow you to have video conversations though your google contacts (who probably use Skype already). Still, choice is not exactly a bad thing though.

  • Another advantage is Swipe input. Now we assume that is Sony Ericsson’s own version of Swype. How good it is remains to be seen. However, I fear Swype enthusiasts will of already dumped the original Sony Ericsson keyboard for another keyboard that has Swype as part of the app.

  • The update also has the ability to take a sceen capture (or a screenshot) of your phone without root or a dedicated app, which seems to be more handy for developers rather than your everyday user.

  • Facebook for Xperia moved to version 2.0. New features include the ability to share apps that are already installed on your phone.

  • A 3D sweep panorama app, that takes 3D panorama photos, and then you can project them onto your 3D HDMI TV from your phone (suitable phone required)

  • Also, not forgetting the ability to control the phone with the recently released Live Dock.

Sony Ericsson have also uploaded this short video of the said updates:

So far we have no date set in stone from Sony Ericsson regarding when the update is due to be released, but we do have a month: October. Cunningly though, they havent said which phones will get the update either. The update will be over 3G/WIFI, and of course via PC Companion and the SEUS application.

So, what do I make of the updates? Well, there is already apps out on the Android Market that do some of the jobs that the new updates do already (including for my X10 Mini Pro), so I’m not really all that excited, so its hard for me to see why anyone with a new Xperia device will be more excited. However, saying that, most updates are good, so if this also adds features as standard (and work rather well), then there is no real reason why I wouldnt want the new update if (and when) the Xperia Pro is released. Speaking of which: October; does this ring any bells for anyone, or do I forecast another November release like they did for the Eclair update for the Xperia X10? As ever though, I would absolutely love to be incorrect, and Sony Ericsson decide to release it at the end of this month.

From Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog: http://blog.se-nse.n…-3-4-announced/

Posted in Xperia Arc, Xperia Mini, Xperia Mini Pro, Xperia Neo, Xperia Play, Xperia Pro, Xperia ray, android, announcement, application, firmware, flashing, update, x-series, xperia | 7 Comments »

Arc S and Neo V revealed

Monday, September 5th, 2011


Arc S, sharing the almost same design as it’s predecessor may fool you into thinking it’s ordinary Arc, but when you go little deeper, you will certainly see the the difference. That is 1.4 GHz single chip processor,  ”delivering up to 25% faster entertainment”, also “Music Unlimited” and “Video Unlimited” will be available, similar to what we saw in SE Live,  sources to latest songs and movies, exclusive to Xperia phones.And one thing: every time I saw Arc S in news and such, it was white. Could this be the obvious difference to help us determine Arc S from Arc?


On the other hand, there’s Neo V.

Basically, it is the budget version of Neo, with not much differences. In fact the only difference is the camera, it’s not 8MP Exmor R, but 5MP. “Wow, what a reason to create a new model!” you may think, but this will cut the cost of the device by €50-€100!
It will bring more audience to this neat device. Also, some of the Neo V’s seem to have this “nature” graphics on the back cover (like the one above), which could, like in Arc S, help us in differentiation of the old boring Neo ( ) and Neo V.

Arc S press release

Source: Xperia Blog

From Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog: http://blog.se-nse.n…neo-v-revealed/

Posted in Xperia Arc, Xperia Neo, android, announcement, x-series, xperia | 3 Comments »

Sony Ericsson unveils “Live with Walkman”

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

Four months after Mix Walkman, here comes Live. Not really a Walkman related name, but it certainly fits with the look. The newest phone from “Walkman” line, first Android-based phone from SE not Xperia branded, this phone has to be something special. Known specifications so far are: 1GHz processor, 3.2 inch capacitive screen with HVGA resolution unfortunately,  5 megapixel camera with Auto Focus and 8x digital zoom. Biggest surprise is front facing VGA camera capable of capturing 720p HD video! It has 320 MB or RAM, with tri-band 3G connection (HSPA+), or dual-band 3G, depending on model.

Software-side, it has Android Gingerbread, “Deep Facebook” integration (briefly, adds Facebook content to Photos, Phonebook, Calendar and such), Media Discovery, as seen before, that allows you to discover more music by recommendations both based on what you already listen, and what your friends on Facebook suggest. Infinite button within media player allows you to see more information from artists you are currently listening songs from. Simply, just tap the “Infinite” button and have instant access to latest albums, events, and lyrics.  Qriocity music and video content from Sony- only Sony Ericsson Android users have access to this. Millions of songs, thousands of movies, right on your fingertips! Sony’s xLOUD technology, recently integrated into newest Xperia models, enhances sound quality at high levels. And a good old TrackID to find song titles based on recordings from microphone and FM radio.

Sounds promising, but we’ll have to wait for the revelation of price to see will it be success or not.

Source: various, mostly Sony Ericsson Product Blog

Finally, an official video:

From Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog: http://blog.se-nse.n…unveils-live-2/

Tags: ,
Posted in android, announcement, w-series, walkman | 6 Comments »

« Older Entries