Sony Ericsson releases Android 4.0 preview ROMs for Xperia Ray, Arc S, and Neo V

Once a laggard in the Android update race, Sony Ericsson is flexing its muscle today by releasing alpha-quality Ice Cream Sandwich updates for its Xperia Arc S, Neo V, and Ray models. Though that's extremely cool (and well ahead of the expected releases early next year), average users are going to want to steer well clear of these for now, particularly if you're using the phone as your day-to-day device — the modem, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth are all disabled at present. That said, the ROMs give us a pretty good idea of how Sony Ericsson plans to position its skin in the ICS framework, and it's also a tremendous sign of openness toward the Android enthusiast community — heck, they're even encouraging users to visit a thread on xda-developers to discuss the builds. Hopefully, other top-tier manufacturers are going to follow suit with this kind of thing.

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Hands-On With Edifier’s Bluetooth Spinnaker Speakers, Works With Smartphones and Tablets While Adding Some Style

While perusing the CES show floor we happened to come across Edifier’s booth, the company who is well known for manufacturing high-end speakers and other audio products.  And this go-around they’ve brought their A-Game as far as the wireless speaker dept goes.  So what makes Edifier stand out from the rest?  Well, the company definitely offers some unique and interesting designs.  While there were many designs available which offered great functionality and a fantastic look, one set of speakers particularly caught my eye.  The Edifier Spinnaker Speakers standing at 15-inches tall and touting front-facing tweeter and mid-range speakers along with downward-facing sub woofers located at the bottom.

The speakers allow you to pair any Bluetooth enabled device such as a tablet or smartphone seamlessly and with ease.  There’s also a wireless remote control included which offers a ton of functionality and interaction.  It can be used to play, pause, regulate the volume and skip tracks. These bad boys are clear, loud and take the shape of a horn believe it or not.  A bit unorthodox we know, but damn if they don’t look cool next to my Galaxy S II.  You can purchase this particular model in both Black or Burgundy.  Check out the demo below of the hands-on touting the crystal clear sound of OneRepublic’s “Good Life” and don’t forget to let us know what you think in the comments below.  In addition to the Spinnaker model, we snagged some screen shots of some other oddly but cool designed pairs of speakers as well.  So be sure to hit the break to give them a one-over.

Source - talkandroid 

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Hands-On With the Sony Xperia Ion Smartphone

The Sony Xperia Ion smartphone, announced Monday, has some pretty drool-worthy specs. Not only does it hook into AT&T’s LTE 4G network, but it has a 4.6-inch display, HDMI-out with a TV launcher interface, and a super thin design. Oh--and a 12-megapixel camera. Yep, you read that right--a 12-megapixel camera. And it is pretty darn good.

I got my hands on the Xperia Ion Monday night and I think this might be my favorite of the Xperia series of smartphones. The display is roomy but not oversized, while the interface feels snappy and smooth. AT&T coverage was dismal (meaning there was absolutely no signal) at the event I attended, so I couldn’t test LTE speeds.
But let’s talk about that camera. Sony Ericsson (which is now rebranded as Sony, in case you didn’t notice) has a strong tradition of producing phones with high quality camera lenses. I only took a few snapshots, but I was impressed with how the Ion’s camera handled the dimly lit show floor.

The Xperia has a 1280-by-720-pixel display, which uses a mobile version of Sony’s Bravia Engine. This is the same technology that Sony uses on its Bravia line of HDTVs and the company claims that the Bravia engine helps the Xperia display colors and tones in a life-like fashion. The display looks great with bright colors, sharp text, and good viewing angles.

The Ion is compatible with a dock so you can view it on a larger display. It's similar to the Motorola webtop experience (as seen on the Atrix 2, Droid Bionic and Droid Razr): You can send texts, play music, and view photos from the Ion on your TV. According to Sony, you can also control the phone from any TV remote.

The Xperia is a Playstation-certified device, meaning you will be able to download and play classic Playstation and Playstation Portable games on the phone. The Xperia has an near-field-communication chip built in and will be able to read content stored in NFC chips.

Smart TagsSmart TagsAlongside the Xperia, Sony will be shipping NFC-enabled "Smart Tags" that can be programmed with up to 10 commands. When you touch the phone to one of these tags, the programmed commands will automatically take effect. For example, you could have a Smart Tag in your office that, when touched, would automatically turn on the Xperia’s Wi-Fi and launch the calendar.

The Xperia Ion doesn’t have a price nor a release date yet, but hopefully we’ll see it in the next few months.

Source - PCWORLD

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Android 4.0 - Simple, beautiful, beyond smart

Android 4.0 builds on the things people love most about Android — easy multitasking, rich notifications, customizable home screens, resizable widgets, and deep interactivity — and adds powerful new ways of communicating and sharing.

Refined, evolved UI

Focused on bringing the power of Android to the surface, Android 4.0 makes common actions more visible and lets users navigate with simple, intuitive gestures. Refined animations and feedback throughout the system make interactions engaging and interesting. An entirely new typeface optimized for high-resolution screens improves readability and brings a polished, modern feel to the user interface.

Virtual buttons in the System Bar let users navigate instantly to Back, Home, and Recent Apps. The System Bar and virtual buttons are present across all apps, but can be dimmed by applications for full-screen viewing. Users can access each application's contextual options in the Action Bar, displayed at the top (and sometimes also at the bottom) of the screen.

Multitasking is a key strength of Android and it's made even easier and more visual on Android 4.0. The Recent Apps button lets users jump instantly from one task to another using the list in the System Bar. The list pops up to show thumbnail images of apps used recently — tapping a thumbnail switches to the app.
Home screen folders and favorites tray

New home screen folders offer a new way for users to group their apps and shortcuts logically, just by dragging one onto another. Also, in All Apps launcher, users can now simply drag an app to get information about it or immediately uninstall it, or disable a pre-installed app.

On smaller-screen devices, the home screen now includes a customizable favorites tray visible from all home screens. Users can drag apps, shortcuts, folders, and other priority items in or out of the favorites tray for instant access from any home screen.

Resizable widgets

Home screens in Android 4.0 are designed to be content-rich and customizable. Users can do much more than add shortcuts — they can embed live application content directly through interactive widgets. Widgets let users check email, flip through a calendar, play music, check social streams, and more — right from the home screen, without having to launch apps. Widgets are resizable, so users can expand them to show more content or shrink them to save space.
New lock screen actions

The lock screens now let users do more without unlocking. From the slide lock screen, users can jump directly to the camera for a picture or pull down the notifications window to check for messages. When listening to music, users can even manage music tracks and see album art.

Quick responses for incoming calls

When an incoming call arrives, users can now quickly respond by text message, without needing to pick up the call or unlock the device. On the incoming call screen, users simply slide a control to see a list of text responses and then tap to send and end the call. Users can add their own responses and manage the list from the Settings app.

Swipe to dismiss notifications, tasks, and browser tabs

Android 4.0 makes managing notifications, recent apps, and browser tabs even easier. Users can now dismiss individual notifications, apps from the Recent Apps list, and browser tabs with a simple swipe of a finger.
Improved text input and spell-checking

The soft keyboard in Android 4.0 makes text input even faster and more accurate. Error correction and word suggestion are improved through a new set of default dictionaries and more accurate heuristics for handling cases such as double-typed characters, skipped letters, and omitted spaces. Word suggestion is also improved and the suggestion strip is simplified to show only three words at a time.

 To fix misspelled words more easily, Android 4.0 adds a spell-checker that locates and underlines errors and suggests replacement words. With one tap, users can choose from multiple spelling suggestions, delete a word, or add it to the dictionary. Users can even tap to see replacement suggestions for words that are spelled correctly. For specialized features or additional languages, users can now download and install third-party dictionaries, spell-checkers, and other text services.

Powerful voice input engine

Android 4.0 introduces a powerful new voice input engine that offers a continuous "open microphone" experience and streaming voice recognition. The new voice input engine lets users dictate the text they want, for as long as they want, using the language they want. Users can speak continously for a prolonged time, even pausing for intervals if needed, and dictate punctuation to create correct sentences. As the voice input engine enters text, it underlines possible dictation errors in gray. After dictating, users can tap the underlined words to quickly replace them from a list of suggestions.



Source - developer.android 

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