By Rikard Skogberg
26th May 2011.
15:52
Category Archives: video tutorials
We have now started the roll-out of the first software update for Xperia™ arc and Xperia™ PLAY. So far it’s released for just a few different markets and “kits” but we plan the wider roll-out to start end of this week or in the beginning of next week.
The main feature addition in this update is Facebook inside Xperia that was presented recently when we announced the new mini products in London.
It allows you to share, like and connect on Facebook in a faster and easier way that hasn’t been possible before. The Facebook inside Xperia features works perfectly side-by-side with TimeScape and the Facebook for Android app. In the video above my colleagues Michelle and Marcus explain the benefits and major use-cases of this nice new integration.
Besides that this update also updates the Android platform to Gingerbread 2.3.3 and brings fixes and improvements based on the feedback we’ve received from you consumers out there. Your feedback on issues or problems is very important for us and I always forward everything I get from you here to our developers.
This update brings lots of fixes and optimizations within many different areas but here are some important ones where I know our developers have included many improvements and fixes:
- Battery performance
- General software stability
- Wi-Fi stability
- HD Video recording performance (Xperia™ arc)
- Touch responsiveness
This update will be possible to perform over the air directly from your phone or through PC-Companion.
The roll-out will start now but, as some of you know from earlier updates, I’d like to point out that it is a gradual roll-out over markets, mostly because of different approvals needed for different markets and customized kits. Therefore, depending on where you live and what customized “kit” you own it can take a while before you get it. In general unbranded “trade-kits” will be early.
I’ve seen lots of questions around the previously announced upcoming Gingerbread update for the Xperia™ X10. The work is progressing well and I hope to have final confirmation on what features etc it will contain within short and then do a blog post about it covering your most frequently asked questions. One thing I can confirm already now is that Facebook inside Xperia currently is planned to come to the Xperia™ X10 too.
To learn more about Facebook inside Xperia, our new Facebook Mobile integration, click on the products and services tab on www.sonyericsson.com
Now my friends over in our customer service team have started to push out their material around our new phones.
For those of you new to Android or the Xperia range there lots of goodies around the basics and the different features over at their youtube channel at www.youtube.com/sonyericssonsupport
Many of these videos go more into details about specific features and help you find answers to common questions. You also find videos made for your specific phone in the Support Application in your phone. You find that in the application tray or by clicking the Support Widget on the rightmost desktop pane. (As shown in the picture above with the headline “Experience More”)
I know that many of you here are very much in the know on how to use your phones but for those of you a bit new to Android or our Xperia range these can hopefully assist quite a bit. Perhaps some of you have suggestions on what you think we should educate more around? If so, please let me know in the comments section. One big advantage of having this kind of dynamic support application is that we can update the content in it to help out with things we find many consumers have questions around.
If you need support in any way don’t ever hesitate to contact your local Sony Ericsson support center or find your way over to our support forum at talk.sonyericsson.com
Here’s one of the videos they made to explain the basics and some of the features of Xperia arc.
Even though the focus of this blog at this point is mostly on the Android 2.1 update of the X10 family I have something else I would like to share with you.
There has also been lots of rumors around this and I just want to clarify what we’re working on and what to expect.
(I will continue posting information on the current SW-update roll-out after this!)
As many of you know, just before the release of the Xperia X10 we saw lots of discussions around any potential support for multi touch.
Myself and Sumit were then very clear on the fact that there were no plans of having X10 supporting multi touch and said so here on this blog mainly to not have you guys hoping for things that just wasn’t planned.
Since then, because of the huge reaction to this and the real desire for multi touch expressed by you the users, there has been lots of investigations going on and I now have some good news to disclose. We aim to enable multi touch (pinch zoom) in an over-the-air update for the X10. The timing for this update is still a bit work in progress but it will for most markets be during Q1 next year.
What has happened is that some brilliant engineers actually was able to change the driver and firmware for the touch digitizer to make some multi touch gestures work. We are still working on perfecting the user experience and I will keep you updated as work progresses.
I also want to be clear on what to expect from this feature. The digitizer in the X10 is not perfect when it comes to multi touch, there will as an example be situations like when the movement of the two fingers cross each other on the X- or Y-axis that could cause strange behavior. (There has been much online debating around what is “good” and “bad” Multi Touch in competitor phones and this is following the same lines.)
Therefore we also will not enable it everywhere but the current plan is to enable it for the following use-cases:
- Pinch/Zoom in the web browser.
- Pinch/Zoom in Google Maps.
Besides that there is also support in third party applications but because of the limitations on e.g. crossing axis there might be situations where it behaves strangely while it will work just fine for most use-cases.
The support is basically for gestures like pinch/zoom so don’t expect e.g. multi touch gaming with buttons pressed simultaneously on different parts of the screen to work.
Let me know if you have specific multi touch enabled apps you want me to test!
Below is a video where I show some of the use-cases and what to expect on a prototype SW in my X10.
First of all – sorry for this blog going and up and down lately, the traffic has been increasing more than expected and we struggle with keeping it online.
Regarding the update it is now out for the first kits, Nordics since yesterday and I’ve also seen that the generic trade kits for Russia, Singapore, Indonesia and many African countries should be up now since earlier today.
There are more kits coming this week and then it continues over the weeks after.
As said earlier I will unfortunately not be able to have detailed information in advance since it all depends on when the different approvals drop in. I will however try to give updates on this blog, probably both in the comments section and as new posts when there are a bunch of new ones available.
There has been several questions in the comments section here but because of the state of the blog I haven’t been able to answer as I would have wanted. I really apologize for not being able to be more active! I have focused on chasing more information around the update and keeping the blog servers online.
Some FAQs that I’ve found in many places:
Q: Rikard – do you know when kit XY will be released?
A: No, unfortunately not – it depends on the status of all approvals needed (both internal and external) but I will try to keep track and update you as they are released.
Q: Will it have Multi Touch, 16M colors, Arabic language support?
A: No (there has been lots of discussions around this in earlier comment-threads but in short – No)
Q: Android market behaves strangely and some of my download seems stalling, what’s up?
A: As I understood it from browsing lots of forums yesterday this seems to be a general issue with Android Market (at least in the Nordics) and should be temporary.
Q: I have issues with the backup & restore application, what do do?
A: First make sure that you follow the guide in PC companion (while doing the update) to make sure you get the latest version of the Backup&Restore application. The new version adds the benefit of also updating your downloaded applications as links so that you easily can restore them afterwards. If you experience issues with lost data please contact our customer support in your local market. Below is also a video posted by my colleagues at our Customer Service department. This video shows the steps to do when you do the update.
Today I can confirm that we will start the roll-out of the Android 2.1 based updates for Xperia X10, X10 mini and X10 mini pro now this coming Sunday. The roll out will start in the evening European time.
So far I have received confirmation that the generic kits for the Nordic countries will be the very first ones out on Sunday evening and then there will be more kits coming already during Monday and then the roll-out will continue throughout the month of November.
As said earlier these updates will give you some features introduced by Android 2.1 and the Xperia X10 will also get HD-video recording in 720p with continuous auto focus.
The changes in user experience after the update is a mix of things added or changed going from Android 1.6 to Android 2.1 and things changed or improved by us directly.
As a re-cap – The key changes for the different products are the following:
Xperia X10:
• HD video recording with continuous auto-focus for high quality videos
• Upgrade of the Android platform to Android 2.1
• New back up and restore application, with extended content back up
• 5 homescreens for apps, widgets, shortcuts and folders
• Social phonebook which automatically syncs contact pictures from Facebook and shows when your friends are online
Xperia X10 mini and X10 mini pro:
• Improved Bluetooth functionality with support for sending and receiving pictures, contacts and more
• New backup and restore application with extended content back up
• Automatic synchronization of your contact pictures between Facebook and your phone book
• Improved ways of handling pictures, audio, text and numbers in your messages
• Upgrade of the Android platform to Android platform 2.1
In most markets, your phone will automatically let you know with a notification when the update is ready for your specific software version and then you will be guided to how to perform the update using the PC Companion software. In that process, because of this being a big update, you will also be guided through some steps to be able to backup personal data before the update and then restore it when the update is finished. Find out more at www.sonyericsson.com/update
IMPORTANT: As I’ve pointed out previously here on the blog the software upgrade will be done in a phased roll-out which means that different “kits” gets the update at different times. This to secure quality in all networks and countries. So don’t get paranoid if your phone isn’t updated in the very first days – it will come!
What we mean by a “kit” is a different configuration, i.e. color of the phone, bundled accessories but most importantly in this case different software configurations. The difference in software between different kits is mainly related to included settings, applications, network configuration etc – all this to comply to different legal and network requirements. All of these different kits need separate approvals based on market and network, hence the phased roll-out.
I will try to keep track of which versions that get released continuously and will post updates when new markets or “kits” become available. Feel free to share your findings in the comments section here when you get the update for your phone!
