Now, Xperia Studio presents The Swarm, the first movie filmed exclusively with Xperia arc S smartphones, directed by Tom Harper, BAFTA nominated British director of movies as The Scouting Book for Boys, This is England ’86 and The Borrowers.

The Swarm, written by Geoff Bussetil with help from Daniel Kaluuya, is the (really scary) story of an alien invasion, viewed from the eyes of several characters through their phone cameras, giving the short a subjective and realistic feel.

For The Swarm, Tom used a handful of Xperia arc S smartphones, and to get more steady shots, he built a cradle for the phones, rigging them up to a tripod and professional monitors. Also, many shots were captured freestyle, providing the subjective element that plays a strong role on the movie.

Don’t miss the behind the scenes video, so you can experience more of The Swarm, and don’t forget to check out our Xperia Studio Facebook app and  site for news and more incredible videos.

This great application lets you seamlessly connect your Xperia™ phone to your Mac computer. With a few clicks, you can fill your Xperia™ smartphone with new media – Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts and Playlists – by syncing with iTunes™.

Bridge for Mac is also designed to help you free up the memory of your Xperia™, by moving your photos and videos to iPhoto™, so that you can capture even more precious moments!

If you are not an iTunes™/iPhoto™ user, you can sync your Xperia™ content with folders on your disk or just simply drag and drop any type of files between your Xperia™ phone and your Mac.

Cool eh? There is more! We have some more exciting news to share with you, especially for those who in the past have raised the question “I’m a Mac user, how can I update my Xperia™ phone using my Mac?”.

We’re happy to announce that the Bridge for Mac will introduce SW update functionality in the coming release 2.0. Those of you who have previously used our Windows software, PC Companion, will recognize the SW update experience in Bridge for Mac: connect, get notified, accept and update!

 Great news!  Now what do I have to do, to put my hands on this Bridge for Mac?

You can already today download Bridge for Mac 1.2 from the download section of our support web, www.sonyericsson.com/support, there you will find all the details you might need to know about the application. Once the Bridge for Mac is downloaded and installed it will keep you automatically notified of future releases.

One more thing, don’t hesitate to discuss and share your queries related to Bridge for Mac or any other of our computer applications with the great community on Support Forum, check out the Software Download section.

The project required students to research design and produce creative concepts for new, wearable technology incorporating the remote display  LiveView™. We couldn’t tell you then but, behind the scenes, the students were also working on similar concepts incorporating our exciting new Android remote SmartWatch™, recently unveiled at CES 2012.

The winners of the project have now been announced.

First winner, Claire Monique Scanlon, created a houndstooth, two-tone print, jacket accessory for LiveView™. Aimed at fashion bloggers her garment can be worn as a tassel from the jacket, a tie to wrap the jacket in cold weather or detached and worn on the wrist. Claire’s design was chosen by Sony Ericsson Facebook fans from a shortlist of 12 London College of Fashion finalists.

Check out her design.

The second winner, Dominique Taylor, was chosen internally by the Extras team. Her SmartWatch™ Fashion Collection offered a range of high-tech clubbing garments with LED lights to create an illusion of length, size, neckline and hem. The SmartWatch™ is attached to a metal chain which can be worn as a necklace, bracelet or ring, while metal chains on the dress hems allow SmartWatch™ to attach as an accessory.

The two winners will now travel to Sweden to present their concepts to the Sony Ericsson Extras team. We’ll report back later with their experiences.

You can visit the blog of the Project here to check out all the ideas and projects that were presented.

1)     How do you use your phone to make the most of your day?

I use my Smartphone Xperia arc (or ray) to do a lot. It wakes me up in the mornings (well, it tries to) and provides me with the lovely snooze option.

I get out of bed (eventually), get dressed eat breakfast etc. and then I check my Twitter and Facebook. During the day when working I listen to music a lot. LiveSound phone headphones = quality sound! When at the gym I also listen to music but I use a Bluetooth headset since the wires tend to get in the way.

On lunch breaks and during my other free time I play games (Great Little War Game is my favourite right now) and read some blogs (mainly Fredrik Backman from Café).

I also use the phone for minor bank errands.

When travelling I use Wisepilot so I won’t get lost.
To sum things up I guess I use my phone more than I first thought. I have not even mentioned the obvious things like calling, texting and taking photos so far and that’s of course something I do too.

2)     What’s the most entertaining thing your Xperia^TM has ever done for you?

It must be the music, without a doubt. Whenever I travel by bus/train/airplane etc, work or just want to escape from the noises around me, I just plug in my headset and tap play.

3)     How does your Xperia^TM entertain you on the way to work?

I walk to work each morning (takes me about 20 mins) and I usually like to enjoy the silence in the morning but every now and then when the traffic noise is too loud I listen to music. J

4)      If you had one tip for Xperia^TM users, what would it be?

Don’t be afraid to personalize the phone. There are tons of great apps in the Android Market that can be useful and entertaining. Don’t be afraid to get yourself involved with all the features. Explore them all and see what you like.

5)     Which Xperia^TM do you have?

Currently I’m using Xperia arc but I’ve just switched to this from Xperia ray. The bigger screen is simply better for gaming. J Apart from the screen and the camera I think ray could be one of the best smart phones on the market. I love it and I will probably go back to it if I run out of fun games. J

6)     What’s the most common question you get asked about social media?

“What exactly do you do? What is there that can be done for a whole day five days a week?”

I guess people underestimate the power of social media. Old media is still what most people are used to. Who wants to read a newspaper nowadays? It holds yesterday’s news.

Everyone is online, and if they’re not, they should be.
It is 2011 (almost 2012) and people Google to find answers. We should be there so our presence and work is what they find when they search.

The Hot Stuff awards are given by the UK’s leading gadget magazine Stuff, to the 10 most desirable, most exciting and most innovative products to launch at 2012 CES. The awards were decided by the team of  editors from the magazine, and its web counterpart ww.Stuff.tv.

This year, among the winners we could see tablets, headphones with great design, ultrabooks, TVs,  a fridge and even a Vynil player. Want to see the complete list of the winners? Check it here.

This week, Xperia S was also nominated for CNET’s Best in CES 2012 Awards and came as second place in the People’s Voice award, thanks to your votes!

During CES, we asked on our Facebook page what would they like to know more about the Xperia S smartphone, so we could make a video about that feature, explaining a little more in depth about it.  People voted, and the feature that our Facebook fans wanted to know more about was the Dual Processor.

So, with a little help of the Developer World guys, Stephen Sneeden, our Product Expert, gave us an overview of the  1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 MSM8260 dual core processor and what it means for the phone and the users.

What feature would you have voted for?

Our colleagues from Sony also did a great crowdsourced video about the multimedia features on the Xperia S that is worth checking out!

On the show , we showed the new Android remote  SmartWatch and stereo Smart Wireless Headset Pro. Our model also wore a garment chosen from the LiveView Design Project – a motion responsive cycle jacket, plugged into the SmartWatch, that allows the wearer to indicate simply by moving their arms.

The jacket’s creator, Alastair Leighton Crawford from London College of Fashion, was in attendance at the show with the Sony Ericsson team.

If you want to know more about the SmartExtras, don’t miss our blog post about the announcement at CES.

With the new Xperia™ S and Xperia™ ion,  content accessing and sharing with other devices such as Laptops, Tablets and TVs becomes really easy and intuitive.

Just connect the smartphone through an HDMI cable to your TV and you can share the HD videos you took before with the 12 MP Camera, or use the remote control to navegate on your phone and check the most watched videos on YouTube or read what did your friends say on Facebook about your latest picture. If you are bored, you can go to Video Unlimited and watch one of the latest films, directly from your phone, or on your Tablet or TV.  If you are traveling, you can connect your Xperia™ S to the screen on your room and read your latest emails or check your calendar so you know exactly what meetings you have the next day.

The video we posted really explains more what you can do with Xperia™ S, so check it out.

The SmartWatch is a micro display for Android smartphones, that communicates with the phone via bluetooth  and  enables you to wirelessly access or decline calls, read messages and use applications.

With SmartWatch, you can read what your friends are doing on Facebook,  read your latest email, record your exercise routine, or just use it to check the time, as the 1.3 inch OLED touch display can be mounted on a strap and used like a watch.  You can personalize your experience with SmartWatch through widgets and applications that will be available on Android market.

Want to know more? Watch the SmartWatch video now!

We also presented the Smart Wireless Headset pro, that is a stereo bluetooth headset  for Android that not only delivers premium stereo sound, but also offers multifunctional features. This headset can be used as an MP3 player ( it includes an SD card reader), a portable FM radio, or a remote that displays messages, caller ids, calendar events, etc. Also, the Smart Wireless Headset pro can actually read you your incoming messages, via text to speech, so it really makes your life easier while on the go. This headset is perfect for doing exercise accompanied by your music!

Check the video for the Smart Wireless eadset pro  here .

Both SmartWatch and Smart Wireless Headset pro are designed to work with most Android phones, so you can use them with your favorite Xperia phone, or with phones of other manufacturers. And you can watch the great video that our colleagues from Developer World did of both accessories here.

The SmarTags are small NFC enabled tokens that work with any NFC (Near Field Communication) enabled smartphone, including Xperia S, and how they work is really simple: you just need to touch your NFC enabled smartphone to a SmartTag, and it will launch a pre-configured action or series of actions. For example, you can activate the alarm and your mute your phone by touching the SmartTag by your bed, or launch your calendar or email and increase the volume of your phone with the SmartTag on your office desk.

The actions can be personalized to your needs, depending on what you want your phone to do on a certain situation, so your life is made easier.

Near Field Communication is a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to establish  radio communication with each other by touching them or bringing them close to each other, enabling data exchange between devices, and can be used for many things, for example for payment systems. The guys from Developer World prepared a great post about what does NFC mean and how it can be used, so if you want to know more about this technology, don’t miss the post here.

For more information about Xperia SmartTags, including features and phone compatibility please visit the SmartTags product page.