Xperiancers

X2 SDK available for download

// September 4th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // ANNOUNCEMENTS

The new SDK for Xperia panels is available download as of now, via our developer world site.

The most significant change is the inclusion of the new Panelizer tool which turns existing flash, java and Windows Mobile apps into Panel cabs in a couple of clicks. (visit the SDK download page and scroll down for tutorials)

It’s designed to be a quick and easy way to allow developers to turn their content in Panels, and as part of this we’ve streamlined the submission process as well. Developers just need to go to http://submit.sonyericsson.com, upload their “Panelized” applications and we’ll get back to you within 30 days.

If your panel is approved it will be automatically available for download from the playnow arena and you get a 70% share of the net revenue.

SPB Traveller and Weather panels available to download now

// March 26th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // PANELS

The first paid Xperia Panels are now available to download from the fun and downloads section of the Sony Ericsson website.

The new weather and traveller panels are both produced by SPB software, the same company which produced the free SPB shell.

I would spend the next few paragraph explaining what they do but the guys over at pocketnow.com have beaten me to it with a video review. We posted about the traveller panel when it won the panels category in the 2008 content awards.

The two panels cost $29.95 (for traveller) and $19.95 (for weather.)

New Xperia Panels on the way

// March 24th, 2009 // 10 Comments » // FEATURED, PANELS, XPERIA X1

The guys over at pocketnow.com have posted a review of the beta versions of the 4 new panels (announced back in feb at MWC.) Not sure they installed 100% properly as the Skype one certainly did more on my X1 when I was testing it. I know a few other bloggers have beta versions for feedback so I’ll update this if / when they post anything.

Also, I noted (thanks to the Xperiancer blog) that there are a couple of new 3rd party panels knocking about.

Wakoopa is a software focussed social network. The panel was built by a guy who goes by the name of Chopinfreak over at XDA developers. I’ve not yet installed it but will up date with my thoughts when I have.

The other panel is really quite cool, it’s similar in some ways to the goldfish panel that ships with the phone but is more interactive and has more functionality. It’s called “Growing” and seems to use some kind of flash. The instructions to install it are a little complicated (well, you need to install 2 cabs) and links to them both can be found here.

If anyone stumbles across any more panels leave a link in the comments and I’ll update this.

Evernote panel now live

// March 11th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // PANELS

The new evernote panel (we talked about it back when we announced the content awards winners) is now available to download for free from the Sony Ericsson website. Check out the video above to see how it (Evernote, not the panel) works. There are a few new panels going live in the coming weeks and we’ll be posting reviews of them here.

If there’s anything in particular you want to know about the panels please leave questions in the comments and I’ll get some answers from the developers.

New version of Panels SDK available with open GL ES support

// February 24th, 2009 // 7 Comments » // DEVELOPERS, PANELS

The title says it all really. The latest beta version of the Panels SDK has been released, and is available now to download free from the Sony Ericsson developer portal.

The new beta includes Open GL ES support and allows you to access the internal hardware graphics acceleration on the X1.

If you’re a developer with any questions drop me an email and I’ll put you in touch with the right people at Sony Ericsson.

New Point UI Xperia panel – beta available for free now

// February 12th, 2009 // 13 Comments » // FEATURED

The guys over at PointUI have just released the beta version of their new home-2 software.

I only installed it this morning but I’ve already been won over. It is intuitively laid out, easy to navigate and slickly rendered. The beta has quite limited functionality but it’s a great taster of what’s to come when they release the pro version, and perfectly useable in it’s own right. It’s free and available for download in panel form from the products section of the PointUI website.

feel free to leave any feedback re: the Xperia panel in the comments, we’ll collate it and get it back to PointUI.

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)

New YouTube App for the Xperia

// January 9th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // ANNOUNCEMENTS

We’re back from the new year break and thought we’d kick off 2009 with a bunch of new ways you can personalize your Xperia.

The guys over at pocketables have come up with a list of 15 tips for new Sony Ericsson Xperia users (we should say at this point that a couple of the suggestions are quite technical so don’t mess about with settings if you don’t know what they do.) In particular we’re loving the YouTube Panel and the improved battery monitor.

If you know of any other good ways to personalize the phone, please leave them in the comments and I’ll collate them all in to a post later on.

Sam

Facebook Demo Video

// November 30th, 2008 // 16 Comments » // FEATURED, PANELS, XPERIA X1

As promised, here is the video demo of the new facebook panel. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments and we’ll do what we can to answer them. Enjoy.

New panels available

// November 24th, 2008 // 9 Comments » // ANNOUNCEMENTS

The first new panels (facebook and windows live,) for the xperia are now available for download from www.sonyericsson.com/fun. We’ve been trying them out over the last week or so and so far so good – windows live panel lets you integrate your hotmail, msn messenger and live search into the handset, whilst the facebook panel provides a custom interface between the handset and the site.

Two of the facebook features are particularly noteworthy – you can use the phone number field of your friends’ profiles as a kind of subsidiary phonebook and call them from within the panel, which is very cool. Also, the photos page gives you a one click upload and allows you to open the camera without leaving the panel.

We’ll have a demo video of all this up tomorrow.

Sam

(on a train, blogging from the xperia)

Update: video camera broken – video coming later this week

Update 2: One of our first panel partners, Dashwire has posted on the Dashwire blog about the xperia panel. Also, the official Sony Ericsson press release is here.