Xperiancers

Two new UIs available

// May 5th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // X1 NEWS

We posted earlier about Pointui’s free Xperia panel version of their Home 2 interface – well, now the pro version is available. As there’s no trial, I haven’t tried it out but judging from the release notes it goes someway towards fixing the issues that made me give up on the free version. I still think its the best looking of all the Xperia interfaces, but, lacking the ability to use the keyboard to search through your contacts makes it impossible for me to use it as my day to day home screen.

Unlike…

SPB shell 3.0, which came out last week. I downloaded the trial version and have since become a massive convert. It’s impossible to compare it to the free panel version which comes with the Xperia as it does so much more, including, incorporating a similar 2.0like interface which it refers to as the “professional” desktop. A vertical swipe down the touch screen switches between the professional and lifestyle desktops  (professional = does lots,  lifestyle = looks good,) and I genuinely do use both, (primarily because the widgets on the lifestyle desktop provide great access to programs.)

I always thought that, if I found a really good UI, I would use panels less, but this hasn’t been the case with SPB. As it replaces the traditional winmo home screen, it doesn’t use up one of the assignable panel slots so I can still use my standard panel layout (media panel, evernote skype, cnn, facebook, radio, on the road and the fish.)

There are way too many features to go through them all here but you can download a 15 day free trial if you’re interested or read the excellent review posted by xperiancer.

SPB Traveler wins panels competition

// February 9th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // PANELS, X1 NEWS

Sony Ericsson announced the winners of their content awards for 2008 this morning. You can see all the other winners on the content awards site but the prize for the best new Xperia panel went to SPB software for the SPB traveler panel.

The panel uses the internet connection and the GPS on the X1 to provide you with a number of useful travelling tools including a currency convertor, flight search, multi time zone diary and a phrasebook. For more information check out SPB’s website.

Update:

The nominees were:

Evernote

Ping.fm

Mobisystems (English to Japanese dictionary)

PlusFourSix (for their work on 3 sweden’s operator panel)

Spb Software releases Xperia panel screen shots

// October 23rd, 2008 // 11 Comments » // ANNOUNCEMENTS, PANELS, X1 NEWS

The guys over at Spb have released the first full version of their Spb Mobile Shell panel. The official announcement is here. Importantly, they’ve also released a number of screen shots to show you all how it looks. (the pics are on our images page but if you don’t have the required flash player check out our flickr stream)

I’ve just installed my version and, as someone who hasn’t used Spb much before, I’m mightily impressed. It’s quick to load, easy to operate, it looks great and it’s free – so it ticks all the boxes as far as I’m concerned.

You can download it here from the Sony Ericsson site.

Update: pocket pc thoughts is also covering this, read more here.

Update 2: Just had an email from Yaroslav Goncharov, the product manager for Spb Mobile Shell. In his words:

“Spb Mobile Shell is a means to a de-cluttered device and finger-friendly menus and an immensely popular program. We think that the custom Spb Mobile Shell panel goes especially well with the Xperia X1. The Panels interface feels like it was created with the developers in mind, from the start. It was a very good decision to reuse the standard interface of Today Plug-ins, which makes for a comfortable application migration, taking up minimum resources and leading to a good ROI in development. The panels are absolutely an exceptional opportunity for developers, especially taking into account the X1’s on-device portal, which will help to further promote quality Windows Mobile software in this competitive market.”

Busy week for the X1 team

// September 15th, 2008 // No Comments » // ANNOUNCEMENTS, X1 EVENTS, XPERIA X1

Hi, just wanted to give you an update on what’s been happening with the Xperia X1 team. – Last week we’ve all been at CTIA IT & Entertainment in San Francisco showing the X1 to as many media and interested people as possible as part of the build up to the phone’s launch later in the month.  We haven’t announced a launch date for the North American market yet, but our US colleagues will be making their own announcement about the launch over here on November 3rd so watch out for that one.  Sony Ericsson held a Xperia X1 discussion panel breakfast meeting on Wednesday where Microsoft, Handango and SPB joined us to discuss the unique panel interface of the X1 and how opening the SDK to developers will enable us to build a rich panel eco-system for consumers to enjoy.

I also attended a Microsoft sponsored press mingle on Wednesday evening, the apple martinis were a bit on the sweet side, but there was some interesting people at the event.  Spent most of the evening chatting with Chris Davies and Vincent Nguyen from www.slashgear.com which was fun.  Seem to meet Vincent at every event I go to and he’s a lovely chap to have a drink with plus a big fan of the X1. Vincent managed to persuade Kei Kakoi one of the founding members of the Xperia X1 project based here in San Francisco to give him a full X1 demo.

We didn’t stay long at the Microsoft event as we had to head over to the Gracenote party – their parties are always pretty special and not to be missed.  This one was at Bong Su, a fusion Vietnamese restaurant and the food was delicious.

I’m now back in London for a very busy week – what with our Johnny X webcast later today and then the TENT launch Thursday to Sunday at the Truman Brewery, it really is going to be a bit of a week. I hope to see you at Tent as the exhibition space is going to look pretty special – we couldn’t just do a regular tradeshow set-up as we need to be able to hold our heads up among all the design and architecture companies that will be exhibiting.  We’ve really pushed the boat out on the space design and visuals so I hope you can make it down there and give us your feedback.