Here’s an even better look at the Xperia Z4
Yesterday we got our first look at the Sony Xperia Z4, but the device was only partially visible. Today the full image has been released leaving nothing to the imagination. Nothing surprising here, and as we said yesterday, it looks very similar to a Z3.
Is anyone excited for this phone?
source: @OnLeaks
Come comment on this article: Here’s an even better look at the Xperia Z4
(Update: Xperia Z2 and some tablets) Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact getting Lollipop update
Update, March 17: Sony has kicked off the rollout for the Xperia Z2, the Xperia Tablet Z3 Compact, and the Xperia Z2 Tablet (Wi-Fi and LTE). As per Xperia Blog, Scandinavian and Baltic countries are getting the updates first. To check if you’re on the list, go to Settings>About phone.
Original post, March 16:
Just as rumored, Sony has finally kicked off the Lollipop upgrade for its Xperia devices, starting with the top of the line: the Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3 Compact.
Sony has begun updating the Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact in Europe, with the Nordic and Baltic countries getting first dibs. As always, the actual availability of the update for your device will depend on your market, carrier, and specific model.
According to a posting on Sony’s official blog, the Lollipop (Android 5.0.2) update will bring the following enhancements to the software of the Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3 Compact:
- “Fresh, streamlined looks” based on Material Design that retains Sony’s “minimalistic” approach to UI design
- New card-based notification style and lockscreen
- Multi-user support and guest mode
- Android for Work
- Ability to move apps to and from the microSD card
If you’re curious to see what Sony means by “fresh” and “minimalistic,” folks over at XDA (via Xperia Blog) have secured several screenshots of the new UI:
#gallery-1
margin: auto;
#gallery-1 .gallery-item
float: left;
margin-top: 10px;
text-align: center;
width: 25%;
#gallery-1 img
border: 2px solid #cfcfcf;
#gallery-1 .gallery-caption
margin-left: 0;
/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
Sony hasn’t specified it again, but today’s post links to the list published back in October of Xperia Z smartphone and tablets that will get to join the Lollipop club.
If you own a Sony device other than Xperia Z series, you’re probably wondering what Sony has in store for you, and we’re afraid we don’t have any good news on this front. Sony is mum about it, and it looks like that non-Xperia-Z devices will really be left behind.
Sony says updates for more Xperia Z devices will begin rolling out in “around two weeks’ time” so stay tuned for more.
What do you think of Sony’s Lollipop upgrade performance?
Alleged Xperia Z4 render shows familiar design and a few inconsistencies
Sony has been a hot topic this year in the mobile world, though admittedly for all the wrong reasons. The Xperia line has been around for years now, yet has failed to gain a mainstream following in any country but its home (Japan), where any given subway ride will inevitably turn up close to a dozen-or-more branded smartphones. One of the chief complaints the flagship Xperia Z line has endured is a bi-annual refresh rate that does little more than anger the very customers who buy the “latest and greatest.” However, word has it Sony has decided to rethink this habit.
Finally, today we have our first look at what claims to be the Xperia Z4, courtesy of OnLeaks, although there is one oddity that we’ll talk about in a little bit. First, let’s dive in and look at the leaked image (seen above). The source has claimed that the dimensions of the Z4 will be 146.3 x 71.9 x 7.2 mm thus indicating it will be a svelte product despite packing some serious hardware.
The endless supply of rumors can’t seem to conclude as to if the device will be QHD or standard Full HD, although judging from the dimensions seen here it would seem Sony has decided against a larger, 5.5-inch display. Other rumors include a new camera sensor along with the possibility of a Snapdragon 810. For additional details, please make sure to check out our rumor roundup. If the specs on the recently announced Z4 Tablet are anything to go on however, a QHD display and Snapdragon 810 will be on-board.
In terms of the phone’s design, there has already been criticism suggesting it looks too similar to the Xperia Z3, as well as the recently announced M4 Aqua. With respect to the latter there are some key differences in that the phone depicted in the leak’s top speaker (and presumably the bottom as well) are positioned along the edge of the device, the sensors’ positioning has been reversed, and it lacks the port seen on the right side of the Aqua:
Those suggesting the Z4 looks like the Z3 should re-familiarize themselves with the product in question, as if anything the Z3 looks like the Aqua:
In terms of the oddity mentioned earlier, one point must be raised about this leak: The screen simulation itself does not appear legitimate. Notice the app tray icon’s position: it’s about half-way up the phone which would suggest this device has a screen closer to 3 inches than a phablet. Still, when we examine the other recent leak claiming to be pictures of the Z4’s frame, the right-side does mesh with this new render:
On a final note, barring any dramatic changes, it’s safe to say the Xperia E4 isn’t going to be a design reference for Sony this year:
The Z4 is apparently not going to be taking any cues from the Nokia Lumia 1320-esque Xperia E4.
So there you have it. Assuming this new leak is legitimate, are there any thoughts on the design? While the product is seemingly more One M9 than it is Galaxy S6, if the camera sensor and screen quality are superior to the already-impressive paring on its predecessor, the Xperia Z4 might indeed be a phablet to watch out for. Now if only Sony could find some way to market it…
Leaked images surface online showcasing the design of the Sony Xperia Cosmos
Renowned leaker @Upleaks took to his Twitter account earlier today to share not one, but two leaked images of an upcoming Sony Xperia-branded smartphone, which appears to be targeted at selfie enthusiasts.
Unfortunately, we don’t have much information about the device in question, other than that it’s dubbed the Xperia Cosmos, carries the model number E5306, packs a large front-facing camera with an LED flash, features a MediaTek MT6752 processor and ships running Lollipop.
That’s it, really. We expect to see an awful lot more of this smartphone over the course of the next few weeks, though, as these images suggest that the device has already entered internal testing, which means that an FCC filing is on the horizon very shortly.
Source: Twitter
Come comment on this article: Leaked images surface online showcasing the design of the Sony Xperia Cosmos
Walkman update allows users to view songs in a playlist on Android Wear
The Walkman application received a new update today that moves the build from 8.5.A.2.10 to 8.5.A.3.2. While there are visual improvements to the app, the key part of the update is the ability for Android Wear users to view songs within a synced playlist and start playback from any song in a playlist. Some users are reporting seeing other things as well.
Users are reporting that Spotify is listed as a usable service in the settings portion of the app and is a likely precursor to the Spotify powered Playstation Music coming at the end of the month. For those of you who want the update it’s 14.1MB.
Let us know if you know if you find anything else.
source: Xperia Blog
Come comment on this article: Walkman update allows users to view songs in a playlist on Android Wear
JXE Streams: ‘Splatterhouse’ makes a mess of Friday the 13th
Jason Vorhees’ hockey mask in Friday the 13th was an accident. Special effects man Martin Jay Sadoff just happened to really like hockey and have a bag of old-school gear with him when the third movie was in production. As pop culture serendipity goes, the mask is a brilliant success: when Friday the 13th rolls around, it’s impossible not to think of that chipped face guard. In turn, it’s impossible not to think of pulpy horror and that infamous date when you see something that even sort of looks like the mask. No doubt that was the logic at Namco when it conceived Splatterhouse — one of gaming’s earliest gore-fests — and its masked star. That’s also why we’re playing a whole lot of Splatterhouse for you on JXE Streams!
Starting at 3PM ET we’re going to play not one but two Splatterhouses. (Splatterhousi? Splatterheese?) First up is the 2010 reboot on PlayStation 3, what with its three-dimensional violent silliness. After that we take a tour through the first two levels of that, we’ll dig back into the original Splatterhouse from 1989. The whole thing will be streamed live right here, on Engadget.com/gaming and over at Twitch.tv/Joystiq.
Enjoy our streams? Bookmark Engadget.com/gaming to check out our upcoming schedule and follow us on Twitch.
[We’re playing a retail copy of Splatterhouse on a PS3 streamed through an Elgato Capture HD via OBS at 720p.]
5 Android apps you shouldn’t miss this week! – Android Apps Weekly
Welcome back to another episode of Android Apps Weekly! Here are your headlines for this week:
- Cyanogen has announced that they will begin using Boxer as their default email app.
- PlayStation Mobile is shutting the doors for good. Goodbye PlayStation Mobile, you had a rather underwhelming run.
- Amazon is tossing a $25,000 contest. How do you enter? By downloading just one application from the Amazon Appstore.
- An application is under development from Google called Interactive Events. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do anything yet.
- Pocket Casts, one of the best podcast apps ever, received a huge Material Design overhaul.
For more headlines, updates, and news, don’t forget to check out this week’s newsletter by clicking here. We put out a new issue every Friday that we personally curate. If you’re interested in getting it straight to your email, click the subscribe button below!
Subscribe to our Android Apps Weekly newsletter!
Android System Webview
[Price: Free]
Android System Webview is an app powered by Chrome that allows other apps to display web content. If you’re running Lollipop, this has already been installed on your device but now it’s officially in the Play Store so it can be updated. There’s really not much to do on your part. It’s already there and now it’s in the Play Store.
Blood & Glory: Immortals
[Price: Free with in app purchases]
Blood & Glory: Immortals is an action RPG out of GLU Mobile where you play as one of three heroes that take on the armies of Zeus, Hades, and Ares. It features decent graphics, plenty of game play, and you can create your own guilds. It’s free to play so it costs nothing to check out.
Corgi for Feedly
[Price: Free]
Corgi for Feedly is a free lock screen replacement app that brings you news stories from your Feedly feed straight to your lock screen. It has a colorful, fun design and it works fairly well. It is a newer app which means it has newer app problems, but it’s totally free so it’s worth a shot.
Street Art watch face
[Price: Free]
Street Art watch face is a new Android Wear watch face and it’s the first that’s been released by Google. It features some colorful, fun visuals along with an analog, minimal, and digital option. There aren’t a lot of customization features but it’s a nice addition to the watch face collection. Especially if you like urban scenes.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 3
[Price: $2.99]
Five Nights at Freddy’s 1 and 2 were huge hits in 2014 and we imagine that the third iteration will be a big hit in 2015. The game play is a lot of the same kind of stuff with some new game play elements mixed in. There are even multiple endings that you can try to go for. It’s $2.99 with no in app purchases.
Wrap up
If we missed any great news, let us know in the comments!
Nexus 4, is that you? No, it’s the VAIO phone
For those of us who used to cherish Sony’s once proud VAIO brand, 2014 was a truly depressing year, as it saw the VAIO line’s rights sold off to a third party company. Fast-forwarding to today, VAIO is a solo company, and arguably just a shadow of what it once was. As a way of garnering a little extra attention, the company is now moving past producing just computers and into the realm of phones.
We first heard about the idea of a VAIO phone late last year. The device was said to be priced between a low-end and a flagship product, with plans to sell on Japan’s b-Mobile MVNO service. Two and a half months later, the phone is now a reality, although in some ways it’s more of a mosaic, for it gets messier the moment you take the product at anything beyond face value. Picture a Nexus 4, then add in microSD card support, LTE, drop a few things like NFC, and you basically have the VAIO phone.
The VAIO phone, known as the VA-10J, will be released on March 20th with b-Mobile for the startling price of 51,000 yen (or, roughly $420), however it’s also going to be sold on a monthly installment plan. The phone has truly mid-ranged specs that include a 5-inch, 720X1280 IPS display, an unspecified 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a 2,500 mAh battery, a 5-megapixel rear camera, 1.3-megapixel front camera, and Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box.
While the design certainly seems to mimic the Nexus 4, the phone is in fact not much more than a rebadged Panasonic Eluga U2. Coming with the same components as the Eluga and produced by the same company, Quanta Computer. While rebranding isn’t a crime in and of itself, it is a bit frustrating that the Eluga U2 offers essentially the same experience for a fraction of the price ($254)! The only real difference between VAIO’s offering and Panasonic’s U2 is the software, with Panasonic touting its modified Android UX, while the VAIO Corporation has apparently done nothing, slapping vanilla Android on its offering. Granted many people actually love AOSP builds, but paying so much more for what is essentially less is quite far from what the VAIO brand once stood for.
The Problem at Hand
Aside from the mounting criticism from around the web that paints the VAIO phone as a Nexus 4 clone, the question needs to be raised as to just what VAIO Corporation is thinking here. While it’s easy to assert that Japanese consumers will buy anything so long as its a domestically “produced” product (as sadly almost no electronics are still actually made in Japan these days), this situation is a bit different.
MVNOs are extremely fringe at the moment; despite their offering fantastic prices for services on-par with those of the three main established mobile carriers, the mainstream customer has either never heard of them or else doesn’t plan to actually use one. Indeed it is this conservative nature that is part-and-parcel with Japan, and ironically should it rear it’s head here, the VA-10J might end up in the bargain bin, slashed to prices that Panasonic’s Eluga would be laughing at.
So now that you have the details, what do you think of the situation at hand? Is this product worth over $500 for the simple privilege of the VAIO logo?
A render of a mysterious new Sony device has surfaced; Possible Z4 design?
For the past year or two, I’ve always felt Sony’s Xperia Z line has been the most underrated Android flagships. Thus, I’ve been eagerly waiting to see what they have in mind for their Xperia Z4 device – which brings us to the image above. As you can see, a new Sony render has surfaced and could possibly be our first look at the upcoming Xperia Z4 that’s slated to be unveiled this April with a Summer release date. If this indeed is an early look at the Z4, you can see that Sony isn’t straying too far away from the current look of the Z4 with it’s sharp edgy look. The lack of bezel looks great and what interestingly looks like a home button appears at the bottom. Personally, I think it could be a sensor or maybe even a notification light.
What do you guys think of the render? Are you at all looking forward to the Z4, or has HTC and Samsung’s newly unveiled devices already have your money?
source: IAPPS
Come comment on this article: A render of a mysterious new Sony device has surfaced; Possible Z4 design?
Sony sunsets PlayStation Mobile; store front to close in July
Sony this week announced it will close the doors on its PlayStation Mobile service and distribution store later this summer. Designed to provide Android smartphones with access to older PlayStation titles, things apparently never took off the way Sony intended. According to Sony, distribution of content will end on July 15, 2015; in-app purchases and downloading of purchased content ends on September 10, 2015.
…Consumers will still be able to access and play the PSM content they have purchased, after September 10, 2015, by activating their devices..
- For PlayStation Certified device users: You will need to open up the PSM app and launch any purchased PSM content between April 10, 2015 and September 10, 2015*3 to complete the content authentication process.
- Please ensure that you have downloaded all of the games that you want to keep. After September 10, 2015, you will not be able to re-download your purchased content.
Sony says that devices that aren’t authenticated prior to the cutoff date will be unable to access previously purchased PlayStation Mobile content.
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AIVAnet 