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Android 2.0 detailed: Exchange & Facebook, simple YouTube uploads, more
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X3 Snapdragon Android phone caught in wild
Sony VAIO X gets reviewed: engineering marvel, pricing madness

Android 2.0 detailed: Exchange & Facebook, simple YouTube uploads, more

Posted: 16 Oct 2009 01:26 PM PDT

android 2 0 screenshots 1 Android 1.6 is only just rolling out to users of specific smartphones, but already we’re getting particularly excited about what’s set to occur in OS 2.0. The Boy Genius Report are doing nothing to minimize that excitement, either, with a photoset and run-through of just what’s going on in the latest 2.0 builds. Android 2.0 brings with it not only native Exchange support and a fresh – dare we say it “grown up” – new UI, but native Facebook integration, a unified email inbox and new Maps app.

Google have also obviously been working on streamlining usability, too, with more functional desktop widgets that step beyond mere shortcuts. You’ll be able to trigger a YouTube upload in literally two taps, from recording through titling and describing footage then squirting it off to the video sharing site, direct from the homescreen. Meanwhile, while there’s no multitouch support in either the browser or the new, layer-toting Google Maps app, there is double-tap to zoom.

Learning, perhaps, from the HTC HD2’s in-car navigation pane, Google have also developed a Car Home page for easier access to commonly used functions while driving, such as internet voice searches, voice-controlled mapping of POIs and more. Like in HTC Sense and Motorola MOTOBLUR, contacts now have pop-up menus with social networking integration.

What will be interesting is seeing how those manufacturer-specific custom interfaces shift to keep ahead. Google’s bare OS looks set to deliver functionality companies like HTC and Motorola are currently using in an attempt to differentiate their devices from the rest of the Android crowd; oh, to be a fly on the wall in the HTC and Motorola labs.

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Android 2.0 detailed: Exchange & Facebook, simple YouTube uploads, more

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X3 Snapdragon Android phone caught in wild

Posted: 16 Oct 2009 01:13 PM PDT

sony ericsson xperia x3 leak 281x500 The Android race is hotting up, with another leaked live image of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X3 showing there’s plenty of room in the market for a big-screen slab of megapixel-toting smartphone. Yet another handset tipped to use Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon chipset – as found in the recently announced Acer Liquid A1 and expected to make an appearance in the rumored HTC Dragon – the XPERIA X3 will also pack an 8-megapixel autofocus camera.

Up front there’s a 4-inch 852 x 480 capacitive touchscreen, while under the hood lurks both dualband HSPA, WiFi b/g and GPS. Full specifications for the handset were previewed by a prematurely posted Expansys product listing, though right now there’s nothing approaching official confirmation from Sony Ericsson themselves.

What’s not on show from this snapshot is the distinctive UI that Sony Ericsson are tipped to have included on the smartphone, back when we knew it under the codename “Rachel”. That UI – which you can see in a leaked video demo after the cut – is expected to replace the standard Android interface perhaps even more fully than HTC Sense does on the HTC Hero. The XPERIA X3 is expected to arrive on the market in January 2010.

[via GSMArena; Thanks Mohith!]

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Sony VAIO X gets reviewed: engineering marvel, pricing madness

Posted: 16 Oct 2009 10:12 AM PDT

Say what you like about Sony – their machines might be expensive and their customer service might throw the occasional wobbly, depending on who you speak to – but they certainly know how to put together a slick, appealing notebook. The Sony VAIO X has fallen lightly into the hands of T3, and they’ve been putting the carbon-fiber marvel through its paces.

sony vaio x slashgear 1

In the sub-800g machines favor is, well, its incredible size: at 16mm thick it’s thinner than a MacBook Air, and yet by soldering the ports directly to the motherboard Sony have managed to outfit the ultraportable with more connectivity than Apple’s machine. You get two USB 2.0, VGA and an ethernet port, though you’ll need to make use of the flap-down legs if you actually want to squeeze a wired network connection into the socket.

Less impressive is the flexible body, which – despite the exotic materials – bends “alarmingly under light pressure”, and the short-travel of the keyboard. You’re also getting a mere 2GB of RAM and a 2GHz Atom processor, neither of which are exactly stellar, although the 256GB of SSD storage do at least maintain the premium message. In the end, though, unless you’re seriously unwilling to carry any more weight around, T3 reckon the MacBook Air or Sony’s own Z-series VAIO are better bets.

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Sony VAIO X gets reviewed: engineering marvel, pricing madness