+101 - Vote for the best Android Apps

Click here to go to HTC’s site, but we should warm you, it’s not a painless upgrade!

Basically, on upgrade you’ll lose all your data! All text messages, picture messages, emails, etc.

Not a very well thought out upgrade… But if you want the sat nav, pinch zoom, etc, you’re going to have to go through the painful process.

It doesn’t wipe your SD card, but we reckon it’s wise to remove that anyway. Just in case…

The iPhone’s “positive points” column just got another tick…

Sony Ericsson XPERIA™ X10 introduces an open and integrated world of social media, communication and entertainment

 

London

The UX platform builds on top of the Open OS and creates a unique Sony Ericsson user experience by combining best-in-class entertainment features with signature applications, unrivalled integration of social media services and a rich graphical user interface. The XPERIA is the first mobile phone to truly humanise the way people interact with their phones.

Bert Nordberg, President, Sony Ericsson said, “The XPERIA and the family of phones launching in the first half of 2010 underpin our commitment to an open and multi-platform strategy that maximises choice for the consumer and delivers the best possible consumer experience. The reaction from our global operator partners to the XPERIA X10 has been extremely positive and we will be rolling out across the world including Japan from the first half of 2010.”

Rikko Sakaguchi, EVP and Chief Creation Officer, Sony Ericsson said, “The XPERIA is a fantastic example of our make.believe philosophy because we are pushing the boundaries of what is possible and demonstrating that anything consumers can imagine, we can make possible. With the X10, we are raising the bar we have set ourselves with entertainment-rich phones like Aino and Satio by making communication more fun and playful, multiplying and enriching opportunities to connect.”

Introducing signature applications like Mediascape and Timescape™, the XPERIAlets consumers organise everything in their phone in an intuitive way:

– November 3 2009– Sony Ericsson today unveils the Xperia_X10, the first phone in a family of phones to deliver a consistent user experience where communication truly becomes entertainment. Building on Sony Ericsson’s entertainment heritage and combining rich graphics with intelligence capabilities, the XPERIA introduces a new UX platform that will evolve across the product portfolio and expand over time continuously introducing new features and capabilities. ™ X10™ X10™ X10™ X10™ X10 Sony Ericsson Timescape™ manages all your communication with one person in one place. Browse through your conversations the bright way to check out your Facebook™, Twitter™, photos, emails, and texts all in one go

Sony Ericsson Mediascape is the smart way to get all the music, photos and videos you want from your favourite friends and artists. It accesses content from everywhere – your phone, YouTube™, PlayNow™ – and presents everything for you

Intelligence capabilities, integrated into Mediascape and Timescape™, can automatically recognise connections between contacts, content and media. By recommending alternative ways to communicate or guiding to new media experiences, consumers can discover more in a truly open way. For example:

Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson is also introducing the new Wireless Stereo Headset with FM Radio – WM600. Featuring advanced Bluetooth™ technology and a built-in FM radio, WM600 lets you stream music to your headset in high fidelity through sound-enhancing ear-buds. With a crystal clear OLED display, easy access controls and RDS radio station information, you don

Pressing the new “infinite button” guides you through the connected world, aggregating all your interactions with one person into one view

Intelligent face recognition features recognise up to five faces in any picture, automatically connecting them with your social phonebook and all other related communications with that person.

 ’s open approach gives consumers maximum choice and with the XPERIA, users can download any application that they want direct from a wide variety of stores including PlayNow™ X10™ and the Android Market™, co-creating an experience that is entirely unique to them. ’t even need to take your phone with you to tune in to your favourite radio station. The XPERIA™ X10 supports GSM GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900, UMTS HSPA 900/1700/2100 and UMTS HSPA 800/850/1900/2100

XPERIA™ X10 will be available in selected markets from Q1 in the colours Sensuous Black and Luster White. The

XPERIA

New UX (user experience) platform lets consumers organise everything and discover more with the most open, human and intuitive user experience yet

™ X10 is the flagship phone in a family of phones coming to market during the first half of 2010. The XPERIA™ X10 will be available in Q1 2010 

 

 

Each Google Android release is labelled as a confectionary item and the new release: 1.6 is no exception. Nicknamed Android Donut the new release has several updates and improvements on the current version.

Now, we could go through the long list but really you probably just want to watch a video and see it in action:

The update is available for developers to play with now and it should start to appear on phones in October so there’s not too long to wait.

Android is really starting to gain momentum at the moment. LG and Motorola now have Google Android phones in the pipeline.  Samsung and HTC also have phones in the market, HTC (who also make T-mobile’s G1 and G2) has been the Google OS’s biggest supporter.

Last year 195,000 Android phones were sold, and this year that number will increase to 3.4 million, according to Gartner.

From the official Android Blog:

New Features

Quick Search Box for Android

Android 1.6 includes a redesigned search framework that provides a quick, effective, and consistent way for users to search across multiple sources—such as browser bookmarks & history, contacts, and the web—directly from the home screen.

The system constantly learns which search results are more relevant based on what is clicked. So popular contacts or apps that have previously been picked will bubble up to the top when a user types the first few letters of a relevant query.

The search framework also provides developers a way to easily expose relevant content from their applications in Quick Search Box.

Camera, Camcorder, and Gallery

An updated user interface provides an integrated camera, camcorder, and gallery experience. Users can quickly toggle between still and video capture modes. Additionally, the gallery enables users to select multiple photos for deletion.

Android 1.6 also provides a much faster camera experience. Compared to the previous release, launching the camera is now 39% faster, and there is a 28% improvement in the time from completing one shot to the next.

VPN, 802.1x

A new Virtual Private Network (VPN) control panel in Settings allows users to configure and connect to the following types of VPNs:

• L2TP/IPSEC pre-shared key based VPN
• L2TP/IPsec certificate based VPN
• L2TP only VPN
• PPTP only VPN

Battery usage indicator

A new battery usage screen lets users see which apps and services are consuming battery power. If the user determines that a particular service or application is using too much power, they can take action to save the battery by adjusting settings, stopping the application, or uninstalling the application.

Accessibility

Users will be able to download new accessibility services built on the new accessibility framework and enable them in Settings.

Android Market Updates

For devices with Android Market, the latest version improves the overall user experience and makes it easier for users to discover great apps and games from developers.

• At the homescreen, users can choose among Apps, Games, and Downloads.
• Inside a category, users can explore titles that are Top paid, Top free, and Just in.
• For each title, users can now see screenshots submitted by developers in addition to reviews from other users.

Find out more here

Ever since the buzz started with the G1 there has been confusion over the name of the operating system… is it a Google Phone or an Android Handset? Well, it’s both. Sort of. Maybe.

The Open Handset Alliance is a group of companies founded by Google with the aim of opening up the mobile phone operating system marketplace to an open source alternative. The alliance came up with Android – a hardware independant operating system that could be built on, edited, changed and mucked around with by anyone – for the benefit of everyone.

Of course, with Google as a big player, the first glimpses of the OS were secretive and often called a Google phone. T-mobile hasn’t exactly helped the confusion by calling it’s first two HTC made Android phones the G1 and the G2.

But, at the end of the day the OS is called Android… Google just had a hand in setting it all up and giving it a push. This year there are several new Android phones being released and the big phone players are getting involved: Samsung, Motorola and possibly LG (rumours at the moment). Maybe we’ll move onto the possibilities of Android being used in handheld PCs and Netbooks in a later post…