SISAREA

Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X10 has been out and about for some time, facing off against the competition and predictably getting ripped to shreds. Now it has reached the next natural step of its evolution: receiving the root treatment by a bloke at xda-developers. User Bin4ry over there has posted step-by-step instructions on how to locate your device ID, re-flash your phone, and then enable superuser abilities. It all looks particularly straightforward, as far as these things go, and so if you’re looking for a bit more control this weekend don’t hesitate to click on through.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has been rooted, all is right with the world originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Jul 2010 13:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  xda-developers  | Email this | Comments

In a smartphone market saturated with 3.5-inch and larger displays, Sony Ericsson reckons there’s still a little place for petite packages. Enter the Xperia X10 Mini (E10i) and Mini Pro (U20i) — both direct descendants of the beastly X10 Android 1.6 handset. Apart from the Pro’s slide-out keyboard, removable battery, and positioning of various features, the two Minis are otherwise internally identical — same processor, same camera, and same screen. So can these cute baby form factors offer more than just some palm-cuddling time? Can we get a decent smartphone performance out of them? Follow us after the break to find out.

Continue reading Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini / Mini Pro review

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini / Mini Pro review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

O, to see what Omio sees. The outlet has obtained what it claims to be “a huge UK mobile phone release schedule for the rest of the year… [from] all the manufacturers” (emphasis its own). So, from where would such an all-encompassing roadmap hail? We don’t know, nor can we corroborate any of this, but the details are numerous so let’s go through it — albeit with cautious optimism and a few grains of salt. The biggest phone we can see of this baker’s dozen of a lineup is the HTC Gold (sound familiar?), due in November and loaded with Microsoft’s mobile OS newcomer Windows Phone 7. Unfortunately, that’s all the information provided, but it’s certainly enough to entice us. Also in November, we’ve got Samsung i8700 and Nokia E7 — the latter being possibly a N8-esque QWERTY slider with AMOLED display and Symbian^3, and the former being a mystery (although Omio takes a gander that its aquatic Greek mythology might suggest a Bada-powered existence).

Going up the list Memento style, October purportedly brings across the pond-ers HTC Vision, the virtually unknown HTC Ace, Nokia N8, and Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X8 and Yendo. September’s a bit of a yawner — SE Hazel and a Nokia X2 candybar — as is August with the X6 8GB and BlackBerry Curve 9300. And July? Nokia E5-00, Sony Ericsson W20, and Samsung i5500. As is usually the case, the more you can wait, the better your options. Now, let’s see if this supposed roadmap stays on course.

HTC Gold with Windows Phone 7 in November, and more from a rumored UK roadmap leak originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink WMPoweruser, SlashGear  |  Omio  | Email this | Comments

Sony may come up with some far-out ideas, but the company insists this one’s a bit closer to home: it’s a LCD touchscreen with force sensing resistors and piezoelectric actuators that can detect how much pressure is applied and vibrate the panel respectively. Tech-On was rocking the scene at Open House 2010, and reports that the Cover Flow-like interface shuffled icons faster the harder a demonstrator pressed down, an interesting UI quirk in and of itself. Though the publication sadly didn’t get to test out the tactile feedback for themselves, Sony said commercialization might not be too far off — when asked about that telling Sony Ericsson logo, the company asserted that it’d like to see the tech in mobile phones “as soon as possible.” We’d love to hold them to that, but unfortunately the applied pressure mechanic is just a prototype at this point.

Sony prototypes pressure-sensitive tactile touchscreen, hopes to use it ASAP originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Jun 2010 01:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Tech-On  | Email this | Comments

Call it the Legend to HTC’s Desire, if you will, but we’re hearing that Sony Ericsson may have another Android device in the works that would slot in beneath the high-end Xperia X10. The phone — allegedly codenamed “Shakira” — is said to have a 3-inch display, but otherwise, we don’t have any details; the tipster says that it could be running either Android 1.6 or 2.1, and with Sony Ericsson’s custom skin in full effect, it’s impossible to tell from this shot. Of course, the SE community has a legendary reputation for creating unbelievably convincing mockups, so we can’t rule this real until the day it’s announced; then again, it stands to reason that they’d want to make something cheaper than an X10 and less of a novelty gadget than the X10 mini. Stay tuned, folks.

[Thanks, Dion]

Sony Ericsson ‘Shakira’ is a lower-cost X10 alternative? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Jun 2010 10:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

You may not agree with Sony Ericsson’s time table, nor their decision on what flavor of Android to use, but let’s face it: you were intrigued when SE told you the Xperia X10 would be its first Google-fied smartphone. To date, the X10 has yet to gain the kind of global appreciation shared by the Motorola Droid, Nexus One or iPhone, but that’s not to say quite a few of you haven’t ended up with one. We had our fair share of gripes and grins when reviewing the thing, but as you well know, this is no place for us to rehash what we’ve already explained. Rather, we’re curious to know how exactly you feel about the Xperia X10. In what can only be described as the most competitive smartphone landscape in the history of the world, the X10 is going up against some huge players; do you feel that the product SE has delivered is up to snuff? Would you have rather seen a different version of Android from the start? Any issues with the touch panel, camera, or industrial design? Digging those hard buttons below the display? We have to imaging that the X11 is already floating around in someone’s mind, and chances are high that they’ll be looking in comments for advice on where to turn. No pressure.

How would you change Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X10? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Jun 2010 23:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Well, this is just great timing. What we’re looking at here is supposedly a Sony Ericsson smartphone, which seems to sport a five-inch screen and a hinged slide-out keyboard like the HTC Shift and the Eking S515. Even if this prototype turns out to be legit, our tipster — who has a solid track record — says it’s only running on Android 2.1 and that development is in its infancy while low-level drivers are being tested. Well, we can probably wait, except we’re also told that internally SE doesn’t appear to have any plans for 2.2 yet. Cue the angry tomatoes and eggs, but bring us a PSP phone any day and we’ll call off the rally.

Update: We’ve received word from a second highly-trusted source who says that the display is 5.5 inches (too big to fit in the front pocket), and runs a clean Android 2.1 install. Oh, and it’s launching in the fall.

Sony Ericsson prepping a 5-inch Android phone with QWERTY keyboard? (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Jun 2010 02:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  IT168 Sony Ericsson BBS  | Email this | Comments

Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer has always been delightfully direct, and he didn’t hold back at Google’s I/O conference: talking about Sony Ericsson with Eric Schmidt during the Google TV launch, Sir Howard noted that the Xperia X10 is the best-selling handset in Japan, and that “when you beat Apple, you’re dominating — it’s the new definition.” Strong words from a gadget titan — we’ll leave it to you to debate their veracity.

CE-Oh no he didn’t!: Sony’s Sir Howard says ‘when you beat Apple, you’re dominating’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 May 2010 14:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Continue reading Xperia X10 Mini unboxed, dwarfed by its own peripherals (video)

Xperia X10 Mini unboxed, dwarfed by its own peripherals (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 May 2010 14:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Sony Ericsson Product Blog  | Email this | Comments

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/playstation/Sony_posts_another_huge_annual_loss_but_PS3_sales_are_up’; Sony just posted its yearly results today, and while a ¥40.8 billion ($439 million) loss is never a good thing, it’s at least a marked improvement from last year’s staggering $1 billion drop into the red, which was the company’s first loss in 14 years. LCD TVs and cameras were Sony’s big electronics sellers, while PS3 sales went up to 13 million from 10.1 million last year — and hey, Sony’s console actually became profitable at the end of the year as production costs have gone down. Now for the bad news: PSP sales were down to 9.9m from 14.4 last year, with game sales dropping to 44.4m from 50.3m units, while PS2 hardware went down to 7.2m from 7.7m units and PS2 software fell sharply from 83.5m units to 35.7m units. That’s not completely unexpected, as the PS2 can’t last forever and the PSP is getting long in the tooth, but it means that Sony faces some serious pressure to hit its target of 15m PS3s sold this year to pick up the slack and help it hit its goal of posting a ¥50 billion ($541 million) profit next year. Let’s hope that Move controller lives up to the hype, right? Sony’s also counting on 3D to help it get there, and wonder of wonders, it also expects Sony Ericsson to hit profitability, so that X10 mini pro had better be a big improvement over the Xperia X10. We’ll see if Sir Howard can keep all these various ships going in the right direction while still keeping the rest of Sony’s diverse operations (like its profitable life insurance business) in line — it should be an interesting year.

Sony posts another huge annual loss, but PS3 sales are up originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 May 2010 17:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Joystiq  |  Wall Street Journal  | Email this | Comments