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Thursday, May 17, 2012

Android Launcher Pro on Xperia S

Android Launcher Pro Plus receives many bad reviews these days, because it isn't further developed. For the very few bucks I once spent for the product? No anger at all over here - the contrary is the case: Launcher Pro works like a charm on my new Xperia S (Android 2.6.7). How about some screenshots to illustrate my minimal design setup?

The only big drawback worth mentioning: the extremely nice Xperia Weather Widget can only be used with Sony's own Xperia launcher. But hey, my message is: personalizing your phone is fun and very satisfying! There's an adequate launcher out there for all of you.
How can still be people out there defending the "fruity" icon imposition from cupertino? it's crap ...


I'm completely aware that Launcher Pro might not work anymore with Android 4.0 ICS, but that's another story. Most likely I'll be switching to Nova Launcher by the end of june.LauncherPro works absolutely fine on top of Android 4.0.4 - currently testing Nova Launcher - it's features are very similar to LP.


homescreen  5 rows / 4 columns
all labels hidden
dark icons in the dock are self made - not downloadable yet
glass icons from MySiteMyWay



variations - many excellent wallpapers out there

.

Sony Xperia GX announced


There are so many likers of the Xperia Arc design out there... I believe the Xperia GX will be better accepted as a 'true' successor than the cool Xperia S. Specs and Design come in a pleasant package, it's not surprising that the phone announcement was received well so far.

Please bear in mind, that most Sony Japan releases don't make it over to europe, but I have the feeling that this will not hold true for the Xperia GX, because there are so few negative critics in the forums at this point - it would be dumb to not wide-release the phone. Might be the model LT29i, codenamed ‘Hayabusa’ - scheduled for July/August.

But then again the specs are so close to the Xperia S' ones, we just have to wait and see.



notable Specs
(taken from sonymobile japan)
  • Japan June release with Android 4.0 
  • screen: 4.55"  /  1280*720  /  LCD  / 319ppi
  • camera: 13MP back illuminated sensor, LED flash, coming with the very very handy fast startup functionality. Good: the flash was moved away from the lense (reducing a bit the chance for red-eye effect). sample pictures here
  • front facing camera has 1.3MP
  • video full HD video recording of course (let me tell you that it works surprisingly well on Xperia S)
  • 1 GB RAM, 16 GB inbuilt (?) Storage plus microSD slot... see picture below
  • lack of native hdmi port  >  coming with microUSB MHL instead
  • supporting Bluetooth 3.1 / not 4.0 as required by upcoming gadgets
  • supporting nttDocomo's 75Mbps high speed connectivity  Xi(クロッシィ)  LTE down 75Mbps, LTE up 25Mbps max. (theoretical stuff)
  •  with 127g a bit lighter than the Xperia S (144g)
  • dual core cpu @1.5GHz (S4 Qualcomm MSM8960), fed by a removable 1700mAh battery
  • btw: Felica is their wireless wallet, doesn't matter to us folks in europe

Sony Xperia GX in white and black

Sony Xperia GX parts, translated by google chrome


Xperia GX removable memory. posted without asking first - please visit the source

more pictures over at sonymobile.co.jp
 and more pictures from the launch event at ascii.jp
more pictures @ xperia freaks 

.sold out a day after the release in japan on 09 aug 12