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.

Xperia Software Update

// January 30th, 2009 // 10 Comments » // X1 NEWS

We’ve had a couple of comments on the site regarding a sporadic Bluetooth problem with the phone. This is just a quick post to say that as far as we can see, they are fixed in the new ROM which you can download from the Xperia support site.

The new ROM (version 1.02.931.3) speeds up the load time, updates the 3D drivers, adds a Google search bar to the default home screen and  fixes the problem with Bluetooth. (note: as we’ve not had any problems with Bluetooth here, I can’t guarantee that this is right, but according to reports elsewhere, it is.) For a fuller review of what the software update does, check out this fansite for the most in-depth review of the software changes.

(image courtesy of pocketnow.com)

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.”

Your Xperia Questions Answered

// September 26th, 2008 // 192 Comments » // FEATURED, XPERIA X1

This blog is coming up to being two weeks old and we’ve received a fair few questions in the comments sections. Yesterday I went through the questions with Ramanath and we sorted out answers to those which are most commonly asked. So here goes:

• Launch dates / networks etc… It’s really not up to us to say which networks will be carrying the phone and when. They all have their own business plans and their own plans for the launch etc…. so we’re not going to get involved in speculation as to who will carry it and when. The launch date of the 30th is the day we ship the phones to the networks and there will, most likely be some lead time before it appears. (though I’d expect to see it on some shelves in early October.)

• Is there an accelerometer? No.

• Will there be 30 fps video recording? Yes ,as promised.

• Will there be one or two versions of the phone? There will be two versions, one for the US and one for everyone else.

• Is there any difference between the black and silver versions of the phone? Yes, one is black, the other is silver. Other than that, no they are the same phone.

• How big is the battery and how long does it last? The battery is a 1500mAh unit (about 10% bigger than, for example, the touch pro). How long it lasts depends very much on how much you use the phone. Even in the worst case scenario, with all the features turned on (GPS, internet, applications etc…) and heavy usage, it will last all day and need to be charged over night.

• Questions re: the speed etc… The device has a graphics accelerator, a 528 Mhz processor and 384 megs of ram (so it should be as fast as anything else that is out there.)

That’s it for the moment, keep the questions coming and we’ll keep trying to answer them. We should also take this opportunity to thank all of you who have been involved so far. Since we launched on the 15th we’ve had more than 9,000 unique visitors and 28,000 page views (which is more than we hoped for). The opportunity to engage in a conversation with all of you is hugely important to us and we genuinely appreciate your involvement in the site.

Thanks again,

Sam Oakley and Ramanath Bhat

Sony Ericsson launches 2008 Content Awards

// September 18th, 2008 // No Comments » // ANNOUNCEMENTS, X1 NEWS

Finally, the 2008 Sony Ericsson Content Awards are here. This year we hope to build on the success of last years event, and make the Content Awards 2008 even bigger and better.

One of the key goals of the 2008 Content Awards is to reward innovative and useful Panels for the X1 that make use of Xperia’s capabilities to deliver a better mobile experience. Our growing developer community will be an absolutely key part of creating better mobile experiences that attract mobile users around the world.

Developers can open up a world of possibilities for people to interact with the Xperia X1 and we want to recognize and support developers who build great Panels for it.

Here are some suggested areas of focus to get you started:

* Location based services
* Social networking
* New and exciting, intuitive and innovative user interfaces
* Productivity and collaboration such as email, instant messaging, etc.
* Use of widget functionality
* News and information aggregation

You can download the SDK here and jump start your Panel development.

Vildan Hasanbegovic

Welcome

// September 9th, 2008 // 4 Comments » // FEATURED, X1 EVENTS, X1 NEWS, XPERIA X1

Hi, welcome to Xperiancers.com, the Xperia blogger’s centre. We’ve created it so that Sony Ericsson can start to understand and engage in all of the conversations that are already happening about the Xperia.

It’s fair to say that up until now, apart from with the developer community, we’ve not done a great job of listening to and talking with the wider blogging community. This is our first step in changing all that. We’ve been inspired by some of the great initiatives by other companies, but this is very much our own idea and we hope we’ve learnt from what others have done.

To help us we’ve taken on Wolfstar, a public relations company that specialises in social media. Now I know that will worry some of you, but I promise it shouldn’t. This site absolutely isn’t about old-fashioned spin and marketing. It’s a genuine initiative to improve the two-way conversation between Sony Ericsson and you, our customers. Wolfstar are going to help us do that.

The reason that we’ve decided to focus on the Xperia is that we think it is such an exciting and powerful new handset and its already had an amazing amount of buzz and attention.

You’ll be hearing from lots of different people over the next few days and weeks. This post is a joint effort by Merran Wrigley (a senior corporate global PR bod at Sony Ericsson) and Stuart Bruce (the managing director of Wolfstar) and we’ll both be authors. Other authors will include several members of Sony Ericsson’s development team, as well as people from Wolfstar.

We’ve got lots of exciting news and ideas to talk about, so please subscribe to our feed and use the comments to let us know what you think.

Merran Wrigley and Stuart Bruce