The Sony Xperia Z Ultra is not quite a smartphone with its 6.4-inch 1080 display and yet it’s not quite a tablet which generally offer a 7-inch display like the iPad Mini. If anything, the Xperia Z Ultra is designed to compete with devices like the Samsung Galaxy Note series which houses a 5.5-inch display. Now the device is making its way to the US market, thanks to Google.
Update time! Xperia M Dual users will be glad to see update 15.2.A.2.5 on their phones. Users had mentioned issues with auto-flash and low volume quality. Well it seems our friends over at Sony Xperia Care have been listening as this update gets straight to fixing things. With all of the KitKat talk, M Dual owners may have been wishing for more than JellyBean 4.2 but this update should keep users happy while the first round of KitKat updates are prepared. What’s else has changed? Read on…
Good news Xperia M owners – there’s a new update. It is still Jellybean but there could be some new features and bug fixes nonetheless. This moves up from the previous version 15.1.C.1.17. Users are reporting changes to the launcher, camera, menu bar at the top of the screen and more. Read on to find out more about this update…
The PlayStation App, Sony’s official mobile companion to PSN and the very-soon-to-be-released PlayStation 4, is now available for download, according to Polygon and various other outlets. You can find it on the iTunes App Store or Google Play.
Announced in February, the PlayStation App allows you to access your PSN Account on compatible mobile devices. From the app, you can add friends on PSN, send voice, image, and text messages to those friends, and–when the PS4 launches this Friday in North America–view game footage and livestreams shared by PlayStation 4 users.
The Xperia L has finally been updated, after been left quiet on the update front since May this year. Some users had began to doubt the update support for the device until now. Thankfully it has jumped to a newer version of Android too – Jellybean 4.2. Sony says to expect an updated user interface, new camera features and more. Read on to find out when, where and how.
Update – Xperia L 4.2 Jellybean Update Certified – 15.3.A.1.17.
If you have a Sony Xperia Z1, Xperia Z Ultra, and/or Xperia Tablet, then listen up. Sony Mobile has announced a new app titled Privilege Movies for the given devices. The new app, powered by Sony Pictures, gives device owners access to six free films. Those films include 2012, Battle: Los Angeles, Django Unchained, Elysium, Men in Black 3, Premium Rush, Terminator 4, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Karate Kid, and Total Recall. One caveat is that not every country will have access to the free app. Let’s talk details.
Sony has finally released details of the KitKat and Jellybean updates… KitKat is coming to Xperia smartphones at last! We’ve been anxious about software updates since Sony initially teased us future upgrades. We know that in addition to the new KitKat 4.4, some devices will receive another injection of sweet Jelly Bean. Read on to find out which Xperias will be updated and more about what treasures KitKat brings.
With the announcement of Android 4.4, aka KitKat from Google, many began to look at their favorite Android smartphone maker for news. (Yes, I can state that since I run this site! But seriously, Sony smartphone sales are up nearly 40% so they’re doing something right). Sony who in the past has been slow at adopting new versions of Android and received appropriate flack for it has been getting better in the last year. Of course with the Android 4.4 KitKat, many not only wondered when they may receive that update, but they also wondered when they’d receive Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. Luckily, Sony seems to be aware of this and has announced that they will have an announcement soon.
Many of us here at SonyRumors have been watching Sony’s mobile strategy carefully and wondering what their next plans are, particularly, regarding the US. With the stellar success of the Xperia Z – a phone which ranks in the top three smartphones in over 20 markets by revenue, followed by the mammoth Xperia Z1 it has been an antagonizing wait for US consumers to see when the next hot Sony smartphone will come to US shores, or worse – if at all.
The company has just released it’s second fiscal results which tells us a lot more about what’s going on at the company and we can’t forget CEO Kaz Hirai’s unpopular announcement that the US was not a priority market at the moment and hinting at a reduced presence in the market. With a combination of CEO comments and fresh fiscal results we can start to see exactly why Sony is bailing the US and perhaps estimate when they might return. After the jump, the Q2 FY13 Sony financial results.
Sony has just announced their FY 2013 Q2 earnings report and smartphones continue to be a bright spot for the company. While other divisions have been a bit of a mixed bag, smartphone sales are up 39.3% compared to a year ago. Despite a lackluster effort in the US, Sony Mobile has continued to push hard in Europe and Asia with the company releasing a steady fleet of smartphones like the Xperia Z and Z1 and phablets like the Xperia Z Ultra. Just last year, Sony Mobile was responsible for ¥300.4 (billion) while this year, the division brought in ¥418.6 (billion), making it the companies highest performing division by far.
According to a new report, Sony is looking to implement wireless charging in its next generation of Xperia smartphones that will arrive in the second half of 2014. While wireless charging is not a new concept and the now dead Palm even released some phones with this feature, the reality is that with current technology, a wireless charge can take double or triple the time versus just plugging in your phone. Additionally, battery sizes have gotten considerably bigger since Palm introduced their smartphones, resulting in another obstacle for the technology. So why is it that Sony is looking to implement this? Because they’ve been able to develop a new chipset that can pump out more power than ever.
For those unaware, Apple today announced some new products, the iPad Air and the iPad mini with Retina display. Those who know me are aware of my incredibly close ties with Apple yet this article isn’t about the iPad vs Xperia Tablet. Instead, the announcement got me thinking about Sony’s tablet ambitions and how they’ve evolved with the less-than-stellar Tablet S and the improved Xperia Tablet S and finally, the highly-refined Xperia Tablet Z. As I tell a lot of my friends, clients, and colleagues, Sony is the electronic industry’s best kept secret. They tend to have innovative designs and breakthroughs in hardware, and they even release them prior to their competitors. Yet Nikon sells more mirrorless cameras than Sony thanks to their ad campaign starring Ashton Kutcher. This happens despite Sony pioneering the product category with the NEX series, and this is not an anomaly related to just the NEX cameras. At this time, Sony has the most aggressive 4K television lineup with the 55-inch XBR (XBR-55X850A) starting at $3,500 yet wait till Samsung jumps into the market with their own version and I guarantee they will be the center of the conversation. Speaking of Samsung, while the company has just released their first foray into the SmartWatch category, Sony has been busy releasing their second generation SmartWatch with a four day battery life versus the 12-24 hours from Samsung yet no one knows of Sony’s watch ambitions outside of the hyper tech crowd and the same holds true for the company’s tablet ambitions.
This is a pressing matter for Sony and one that they need to address boldly if they want success on a larger scale. In fact, this issue isn’t about Sony vs. Samsung or Sony vs. Apple. Instead, it’s what Sony must do to reach everyday consumers who make up the majority of consumer electronic sales. So with that as backdrop, I’d like to introduce you all to a new series called “Let’s Reconsider” where we look at Sony products that have come and gone. No, we’re not looking at old devices from a decade ago or even a year ago. Instead, the series will highlight Sony products that have been released within the year and/or are still relevant, yet have little publicity and public awareness. Unlike a product review, this series will be designed as a reminder about what the given product has to offer and we’ll leave you, our educated readers, to make up your mind if it deserves your purchase. So with the announcement of the iPad Air and a continued strong growth of tablets in the post-PC world, our first series will focus on the Sony Xperia Tablet Z.
Just a quick one for those of you running iOS 7 and either own or planning on purchasing the Sony DSC-QX100 or DSC-QX10, the attachable lens for smartphones. Sony has updated their PlayMemories Mobile for iOS 7 devices with a fix for the mentioned devices. According to Sony, PlayMemories Mobile 3.2.1 update comes in at 7.2MB and
Fixed a problem that cannot automatically set the date and time of Cyber-shot DSC-QX100/QX10 in some cases.
As a recap, the Sony QX100 and QX10 are designed to attach to your smartphone, be it iOS or Android via a magnetic lock and act as an improved camera. The two units will house their own image sensor, battery, and memory with the QX100 offering a 20.2-megapixel image sensor with 3.6x optical zoom and the QX10 offering a 18.2-megapixel image sensor with 10x optical zoom.
If you’re rocking yourself an Android smartphone and you’ve got a thing for next gen devices then listen up. The Sony SmartWatch 2 is now available for pre-order from Sony. Priced at $200, the next generation SmartWatch carries a bevy of improvements over its predecessor and includes features like built in Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and SMS. Sporting a 1.6-inch display, the Sony SmartWatch 2 is also water-proof and offers a “transflective” screen, making usage outdoors a none issue. Pairing the new watch is easy to any Android smartphone via Bluetooth while those rocking NFC with Android 4.0 and higher will be able to sync the two by a just a tap.
There were so many different titles that came to my mind for wanting to convey the following news and frustration but what you see on top if the most straight forward and least sensationalist one of them all. After taking a hard look at the current market realities (ie that Apple and Samsung dominate the US), Sony has decided that it will no longer try to compete in the US market and instead focus all of its resources in Europe and Japan.
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