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

desktop Visualizer 

SiMi Folder Widget

Silent Mode Toggle New

Poweramp Full

Simple Calendar Widget 

Circle Battery Widget 

WiFi Widget

Timesheet Time Tracker

LauncherPro 

Wallpaper: drop and green by Zim2687

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

Sony Xperia S quick review

While I was happy with my HTC Desire and the Android experience in general,  I was looking forward to a new cell phone for quite a while now.

The HTC Desire didn't have enough memory for all the new big apps and the camera quality didn't satisfy my needs.

When my wife bought a Sony Ericsson Arc I was very surprised by the device's overall performance and appearance - putting the brand into pole position for my next phone.

Went on to preorder the Xperia S at Digitec - for a low CHF 500.-

Box content (Switzerland): USB cable, loader, 2 NFC tags (check the video below), earphones, no hdmi cable.



PROS, now that I've used it for two weeks:
+ very good looking Android customization

+  very good FM Radio (screenshots below)
+  good camera (a bit grainy in low light situations)
+  decent panorama functionality 
+  ultra short start up time for camera, very useful
+  pleasing design
+  good build quality
+  screen quality
+  surprisingly good earphone sound quality!
+  very good hdmi out support, great usability, videos in 720p
+  front facing cam for Skype video calls just works
+  finally a good Sony full keyboard offered with the Update to 4.0.4

Medicore
0  4.3" screen size a bit to small for my liking
0  default keyboard is bad, I'm using "perfect keyboard" instead. Why they don't offer an international version of their POBox eludes me. see above

CONS
-  annoying! no support for USB mass storage mode (MTP only)
-  sometimes you hear fizzling sound during calls (bad shielding against own antenna)
-  battery performance medicore (14hours standby with all my syncing)
-  camera without HDR function
-  mail client doesn't offer a peak time off/on configuration

launcher and widgets look good (music app is Power Amp)

Conclusion:
Two things bother me: battery performance isn't good enough yet and the absence of USB mass storage mode > using the USB media transfer mode isn't as intuitive since it doesn't allow Windows to display thumbnails for the pictures stored on the phone.
Hey! Overall I'm very very happy with the Xperia S. I totally don't care about the nonsense quad-core and duo-core discussion. The phone never ever lacked performance. My fav game Robotek isn't a resource hog either.
Also that everybody is complaining about the absence of Ice Cream Sandwich means nothing to me. It's coming a bit later, so wut. Current Android 2.3.7 is a charm - all the apps are very nicely customized by Sony!

using FM radio everyday - pleased with functionality

[update to ICS made the FM radio unworkable. It has been fixed with the release release of firmware 6.1.A.2.45 on 27.08.2012]

default keyboard is waisting to much space
>> Keyboard has been updated with ICS 4.0.4 release!

finally - full keyboard with dark skin

BTW: Techies should head over to duosecurity.com for a very good read about Ice Cream Sandwich's poor ASLR implementation up to release 4.0.2. Quite a letdown.
Also make sure that you read Nick Kralevich's (Android Security Team) comments in the Wrap-Up Section. Good to know Sony will use at least ICS 4.0.4 from the start.

Xperia S panorama shot (original resolution 4912x1080
)

Logitech Ulitmate Ears 200vi and Android

After about a year of daily use on my bicycle ride to work the loose connection close to the jack began to really bother me. The jittering sound drove me nuts.
Eventually I decided to get a new pair of Ultimate Ears ... and they had to be cheap too [digitec.ch]



Ulitmate Ears 200vi - quick summary:
+  good overall build quality
+  soft and comfortable ear plugs
+  good price while providing mic
+  rigid cables,  means no cable tangle
+  button to pick and end calls (htc desire)
0  Sound quality is not splendid but acceptable, I miss some clearness.
0  Bass is unspectacular also.
-  cheap looking too (nooo really)
-  yup, I said so already: I'd love more bass

full specifications see Logitech site

>> I wanted cheap and got cheap, with acceptable sound quality. Solid, not more, not less
On 2nd thought I might opt for the 350vi instead.

The compatibility list on the ultimate ears website is completely useless. I'll test them for you on some Android devices and report here over time. (These headphones are wired in the CTIA standard.)

HTC Desire
sound works, mic works, only the remote's middle button is usable > one click for play/pause and to pick and end a call, long press the middle button to fast forward to the next song.

Google Nexus S
sound works, mic works, only the remote's middle button is usable

Google Nexus Galaxy
sound works, mic works, only the remote's middle button is usable

Google Nexus 4 lg
sound works, mic works, only the remote's middle button is usable


Sony Ericsson Arc 
completely not compatible with this phone, but that's bearable since Sony Ericsson offers a very good earphone collection themselves. Sony Ericsson Arc headphone jack is using the OMTP standard that isn't compatible to the CTIA wiring standard.

Sony Xperia S
hmmm - I first thought they are most likely to work since Sony promotes in their spec sheets that the new Sony phones will support CTIA wiring standard. Bought the phone, turns out that my ultimate ears totally don't work on Xperia S. No sound, no mic, no nothing.
Doesn't matter much because the earphones that came in the box have better sound quality.


HTC Wildfire S
(follows)

Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II
sound works, mic works, only the remote's middle button is usable

check out CompHelperKid's review vid for some more details

Android 4 - Nexus Rumors

[Update 19.10.11 Been really busy from 0600 through 2300 and ... missed all the great news of course. But then again, Android 4 seems to be even better than expected, so I'm happily looking forward to the upcoming hardware greatness, which will be announced in the coming weeks. What really bothers me, is that wife and kids are angry because of the long away time /]

(btw: i made above's pic - how about backlinking?)

Coming to you October 11th October 19th
livestream on youtube.com/android @ 10:00 HTK

Since the announcement we often get to read that the next Android release will be merging together the Android 2.x and tablet Android 3 branches to one release, handling all display resolutions with a Honeycomb style user interface (Update 19.09.11: YES it will - read through this dev post.)  . There's no official word on the naming of that next release - call it Android 4 - Android 2.4 with 2.6.35.7 Kernel - Ice Cream Sandwich - Android 3.4 - whatever. The next release is being told to bring new

• face recognition features
• better multitasking
• better video conferencing
• USB hosting
• new launcher / new UI
• a lot of goodies for developers!

Reading about all the next Nexus phone rumors? Man they are insane to say the least. I don't even want to name the sources, other than "the net"  ... it just doesn't make all to much sense at the moment. Altogether I belief that we're dealing with Android 2.4 rather than Android 4, we'll just have to wait and see.
Read for your amusement only and drool on. Android 4 stuff will be added here once the news condense in a more rational context.

Nexus 3 aka Nexus Prime promoting Android 4 - rumor summary as of june 2011

• display 720p - 4 inch  (1280*720)
• cpu Snapdragon 'krait' dual core, 1.2 to 1.5 GHz (or TI OMAP 4460)
• gpu? (integrated into OMAP is the PowerVR SGX540)
• 1 GB memory
• of course with NFC and the whole rest
• Hardware might come from LG > nexus 3 teasers like this one are wide spread
• if the hardware comes from Samsung then we might face a 4.65 inch Amoled display in a device called GT-i9250. 1280x720 | 5MP cam 

What does that mean to me?

• Wife's Arc is close to perfect. Great camera, perfect hdmi out, good design
• Samsung? I don't like how they clone the iphone over and over, hardware is superb though
• HTC Sensation reviews don't make me fully happy - camera and product design not adequate
• LG firmware still featuring some weird bugs, bad launcher
• Sony Ericsson and HTC released commitments to unlocked bootloaders
• ...still being very happy with my HTC Desire?
• hardly ever missing any Android functionality other than a really good camera?
• not being an OS Upgrade Junkie?

I would like to see a Sony Ericsson Arc successor, with dual core to support vast media options, front facing camera, edge to edge display and the next Android release in Q1 2012. (Nope I'm not talking about the ST18i). So I guess that I won't buy the next Nexus.
[Update 13.07.] I just checked for news about the Sony Ericsson Duo. Head over to IBT Tech section for a good roundup. In Japan it might be released as the Nozomi ...
[Update 31.08.] today Sony Ericsson announced the "Arc S" single core CPU with 1.4 GHz. I guess that's not the successor I'm wating for but certainly a great device.

announced 09. January 2012: the Xperia S. Quite neat. Probably my next phone. click here for an overview of the phone's specs. (yup, fm radio with rds is included)

.

Sony Ericsson Arc

Wife wants to replace her Sony Ericsson Satio because sometimes it just behaves really weird - every week it happens once that you can't pick calls or one can hardly hear her talking (crash related!), the symbian user interface also turned out to be very unintuitive etc.
From all devices her friends are using she likes Xperia X10 the most > for the simple reason, that its design is appealing! Via my HTC desire it's also clear, that Android  usability is fantastic. Requesting: good product design, multitouch and Android? We're currently looking forward to the recently announced Sony Ericsson Arc!

It also features:

• large screen | 4.2"
• respectable cam | 8MP backround illuminated sensor
• decent battery pack | 1500mAh
• hdmi out | all videos easily presentable on tv
• robust Gingerbread
• fm radio

 

the rest is nonsense geek stuff that doesn't bother her the least (for example two microphones which will provide noise canceling during phone calls). All together it seems to be a cool gadget, fusing tons of technical stuff with an appealing jacket...   let's see where it goes from here
Price @digitec is extreme! >> chf 799.- reasonable chf 569.-

more information can be found here:

more pictures: google image search
launch article at sony ericsson blog with commercial videos

technical specifications at sony ericsson / at GSM arena

hey this video seems cool to me - also spotted our bedroom tv in it LOL:

Sony Ericsson and Windows Phone 7 Series

For the longest time I thought, wow the ZuneHD user interface is by far the best looking of any mobile device currently out there! Just perfect.

aaaahhh... Today we got good news! Microsoft brings the Zune UI to phones and calls it Windows Phone 7 Series! So the next months I'm looking forward to Sony Ericsson's announcements for matching Xperia hardware in Q4 2010. I just really really hope they'll pack a decent camera with xenon flash into the thing - hdmi out for 720p vid is also very high on my wish list.






The main hardware buttons will be reduced to three: home, search and back - similar to how Symbian and Android phones work these days.
Allthough Ballmer has no objections to Adobe flash, the first release of Windows Phone 7 won't come with flash support. As does Win7, the OS itself supports multitouch for up to 4 fingers.

At the moment the videos are enough for me. If you feel like wanting to read more about the OS, I suggest this good read @ pcworld / oder auf Deutsch gibt's natürlich bei heise was zu lesen. Here's also a short introduction to the next symbian^3 > quite good looking as well.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 announced

So it's offical now, the Xperia X10 was announced by SE and presented by pretty Ullis Norström:



You'll find the full press release and a lot of details about the device here.

I'm very surprised how accurate all the rumors and leaked pictures were! Some of us now need to decide between the X10 and the Satio. Both are packed into a very classy design, but X10's user interface brings more of Sony Ericsson's style and Android 1.6 OS, which simply has more appeal to many out there. When the phone will finally be released to the market it hopefully features Android 2.0. (since 1.5 and 1.6 still lack some common things: for one currently it's not possible to transfer files via bluetooth, because MANY of its profiles ain't supported yet. In our office that was the main method for quick phone2phone file transfer.) Update Nov 12.2009: The phone will be released with Android 1.6

But the commercial video shows something essential: we might just focus on the simple questions and cut the geek crap, does the phone look good? does the user interface look good? Is the touchscreen responsive, does the camera shoot good pictures, can we sync our appointments and address books?

Sony Ericsson however introduces the so called UX Platform, a comprehensive way, how the user can access contact information and media stored on the device, plus also on the internet. They split this function into two new productnames: Timescape for contact information and Mediascape for songs and videos; they are accessible through the infinite button. The press release tries to explain it to us - but one has to wait and see how the functionality and performance develop during the next 4 months.





Xperia X10: has Android 2.0 and a very fast cpu, no Xenon flash, display can only show surprisingly few colors, Video Recording 854*480 16:9 / xxfps, truly multitouch capable? No automatically changing Wallpaper on X10? ds ds ds well all these features will be delivered by you or the android community I guess. Then there's timescape and mediascape ... and possibly a very hefty price tag, around €600-700.
Update 26.12.2009: sample pictures and movies taken with Xperia X10 (8MP)

Satio: has Xenon flash, 12 MP (only 9MP when shooting in 16:9), Video Recording 640*480 / 30fps, superb address book and messaging client, very good value for money.

Slashgear Demo Video

for a rather complete comparison of Satio and Xperia X10 click here [sony ericsson UK]

General	Satio™	Xperia™ X10
Size	112.0 x 55.0 x 13.0 mm	119.0 x 63.0 x 13.0 mm
Weight	126.0gr	135.0gr
Available colours	Black Silver Bordeaux	Sensuous Black Luster White
Screen	360x640 pixel 16,777,216 color TFT touchscreen	480 x 854 pixels WVGA 16,536 color TFT touchscreen
External screen
Memory	SanDisk microSD™ support	Phone memory 1GBSanDisk microSD™ up to 16GB, 8GB included
Networks	GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMTS/HSPA 850/900/1900/2100	GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMTS/HSPA 900/1700/2100
Performance GSM Standby time: Talk time: Video call:	11 hours 0 min 360 hours 0 min 0 hours 0 min	0 hours 0 min 0 hours 0 min 0 hours 0 min
Performance UMTS Standby time: Talk time: Video call:	4 hours 50 min 340 hours 0 min 2 hours 20 min	0 hours 0 min 0 hours 0 min 0 hours 0 min

Sony Ericsson Satio first impressions

(Update JAN 2011: don't buy this phone anymore! It's old by now - opt for Sony Ericsson Arc)

Finally Satio was released and became Wife's early Christmas present. While I stick to my C905 for now, let me give you some information on the perfect looking device. (Übersetzung, siehe unten)

The phone itself has the look of a high-value device, has good usability and very good display. No multi touch but surprisingly I don't miss that at all.
I won't write much, because it has all been covered in this review at gsmarena in great detail and with superb screenshots! I recommend that you read through the whole review, since it's been written in a balanced tone.

I can only add the following:

>> the S60WebKit browser is better than described in the review. While in a bus or train I prefer the news site's mobile versions a lot! It doesn't make sense to download and show the complete homepage of let's say washingtonpost.com; to big, to much commercial, to colorful, distracting. Why should my tiny mobile device care to render 500kB+ of data? That just doesn't make sense. This mobile version is what I want to see, and that's exactly what Satio presents by default. A major plus to me.

>> the xenon flash is phenomenal

>> the review states that Satio's on-screen QWERTY fares well. Me? I think it works like a charm, a lot better than I hoped for.

>> the high resolution screen is absolutely superb! Google maps and all the other apps have a lot of space to render onto.

>> unbelievable: while this might not be important to you, the phone even showed a correct thai font rendering for our thai mp3 tags!


What can be done better by Satio's successor?

• better menu look & feel > more logical and prettier as we are used to by Sony Ericsson, less conservative and square à la Nokia.
• the homescreen should offer more options (customizable icons at top and bottom)
• divx & xvid support out of the box
• hdmi out
• 720p video recording
• current camera is to grainy in low light (high iso) conditions

Currently there's no better cell phone available. Don't hesitate, it doesn't even cost all to much. Just be aware that you have to reload it every 48 hours.

Update: For me this has already changed in April 2010 > the HTC Desire is the recommended device!

Satio Sony Ericsson Theme Creator

(Updated May 18, 2010)
Of course we all purchased a Satio and are eager to create themes for it!

You too? Argh, Theme Creator 4.08 through 4.12 don't support Satio's Symbian OS yet. You might be interested in the following thread over at developer.sonyericsson.com.

For the moment we have to stick to Carbide.ui Theme Edition. read more here or in the Satio section at developer.symbian wiki

...without custom themes it already looks quite fine though!

(Update Feb 27, 2010)

A beta version is available for some days now.

Get the Beta Version 5.0.6.4 here http://creations.sonyericsson.com/download

You should read Gseth' comment before using it.

(Update May, 2010)
Sony Ericsson made a new Beta Release available on it's Developer World site. It's given version 4.16 for now and can create themes for Satio and Vivaz. For description and download link go here.

.

Sony Ericsson Android

Android will be a winner in the end, but the OS is still at an early stage. So it wasn't a surprise when Sony Ericsson announced that they would go for the 2nd gen release and skip v1.1 (& 1.5?).

We have to notice that the Android market currently hosts VERY few applications, plus we all dislike the hidden bomb called google kraken - but even more we dislike the apple cult >> an overpriced mass product, from a company with questionable methodology (solved in phone's v3 though but oh you also payed twice to unlock your MP3s, plus the craziness [flickr])

What the heck am I talking about? Well the rumors around Sony Ericsson Rachael are very promising...

maybe it looks like this

eventually it hosts a snapdragon chipset

the user interface might look really cool [youtube]

UPDATE1: the product will be announced Nov. 3rd [youtube]

Sony Ericsson Satio

(Update JAN 2011: don't buy this phone anymore! It's old by now - opt for Sony Ericsson Arc)
The release date is nearing! Meanwhile you've all realized that it's project name Idou has been dropped for "Satio"
I really hope things turn out fine, since Frank, Stooves & Wife seem to be hooked on the device. Some URLs for the crowds:

good images [eprice taiwan]

long video [youtube, 6min]

internet on satio video [youtube]

fact sheet [sony ericsson]

digitec price in switzerland

interesting to me: fm radio / high resolution cam with xenon flash / microSD / can play youtube / webkit based browser / exchange active sync / no multitouch / no 720p output / unaestethic icons call for a mod / good design / good looking media browser

*

Windows Mobile 6.5

SE Idou ( >> video)

I am
- EXTREMELY Apple skeptic (rip-off, quick time washout, quick time a trojan for itunes, worse than MS etc.)
- iPhone skeptic (actually everything fine with it, but it's from Apple)
- disappointed by the Xperia (lame CPU, bad cam)

All of a sudden I think - hey Windows Mobile doesn't look all to bad after all...
watch the upper video [german, golem.de]
Well I'm looking forward to the presentation of Xperia2 and the next gen Androids [nvidia] - siehe auch bei heise.

Pictures of the new Sony Ericsson W995 [golem.de]
and Sony Ericsson's potential Cybershot future: Idou [golem.de]
[Idou update and videos see here]

still very happy with my SE C905 though.

Sony Ericsson SE S001

New Cybershot phone anounced in Japan:


3.3" wide screen / resolution 480 × 854 / up to 26 million colors (organic)
8MP Camera (LED flash) / up to iso 1600 / smile shutter / BestPic
capturing video in VGA: 640 × 480 (up to 90 min, 1GB)
GPS / jap. cellphone TV / three colors: black, pink, greengold
145g / lithium-ion battery 870mAh /


web presentation here
more pictures @ sony ericsson

source: sony ericsson japan

Sony Ericsson G705

Very good looking phone for the ladies. More Info @ sony ericsson

- with WLAN, HSDPA & HSUPA
- aGPS
- no Xenon flash, 3 MP cam

Sony Ericsson C905

probably my next mobile phone. 8 MP camera with aGPS, WLAN access and FM radio. Due late october 2008.

commercial video (youtube).

More Info @ sony ericsson
prices CH toppreise
sunrise 2 Jahre Abi verlängern: CHF 247.-


update nov 08:
some more facts

- video recording resolution is limited to 320 x 240
- only HSDPA, no HSUPA (though hsupa providers are VERY rare)
- ActiveSync
- conference calls with up to 5 parties
- WiFi/WLAN connecting just fine with WPA2

Got myself one and can't say anything bad about it! fantastic display and picture quality.

Sony Ericsson W902

The next Walkman Handy looks fantastic. release date october 2008. Features all the usual stuff, inclusive rds radio and 5MP camera. Read more.
No WiFi, no GPS.

Sony Ericsson K850i

would get it... if I wouldn't already own a K810i.