Sony Xperia S now available worldwide

Sony’s new flagship has been getting a decent reception in early reviews from Europe, but if you’ve got a hankerin’ to get your high-end smartphone on elsewhere in the world, you’ve been out of luck. Until now: the Xperia S is now shipping directly from Sony to retailers all over the world. For a paltry $674.99 (or its equivalent in local currency)  you too can get the stylish dual-core phone. Just add an active GSM SIM card and you’re ready to go. And yes, Americans, you can get in on the action as well – Sony’s one of the few phone companies that regularly releases unlocked versions of its phones in the United States.

As Sony’s latest and greatest, the Xperia S stands head and shoulders above the rest of its stable-mates (if not the other phones shown off at CES and Mobile World Congress). A 1.5Ghz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM run Gingerbread at the moment, but Sony has promised an Ice Cream Sandwich update sooner rather than later (and given the introduction of the Xperi neo L, we believe them). The 4.3-inch 720p display has some incredible pixel density, and that’s not the only stylish thing around: get a look at that transparent navigation bar/indicator light.

Sony is pushing NFC capability hard on the Xperia S, along with a downright amazing 12-megapixel primary camera. It’s all crammed into a body that’s smaller than most, if not especially thin. If you’re in the US and can’t stomach nearly seven hundred dollars, AT&T’s getting its own version called the Xperia Ion soon enough. The AT&T version has a slightly retooled body that unfortunately does away with the swanky transparent elements. The carrier hasn’t announced a timeframe for availability, but its subsidized price should be somewhere in the $200-300 range.

Men In Black III game coming to Android from Sony and Gameloft

Recently mobile games have really been taking off, but to partner with a game developer and release it on the same day as a major movie just seems like a good idea. The popular and highly anticipated Men in Black III is coming to theaters on May 25th. Along with the release will be a game designed and released by Gameloft for Android.

Gameloft and Sony haven’t released too many details, but as launch date edges closer we’ll be hearing more. For now we know the MIB III game will be released on smartphones and tablets, and be available the same day as the movie hits the streets. Not two months later. I wish everyone did the same thing, and released things at the same time but sadly that just doesn’t happen. Take Mass Effect 3 for example. They released a lousy live wallpaper for Android along with the game, and that was all.

The Men In Black game for Android will be a freemium title. Meaning it will be free to download and play but users can also make in-game purchases to go farther, unlock levels, or buy guns and such. The actual type of gameplay hasn’t yet been revealed but most likely will be some sort of side or top down shooter with aliens, but we have nothing to confirm that speculation.

With a movie this big, and the game launching on consoles, iOS, and Android we have a feeling it will be better than just some tossed together game — or we hope so at least. Gameloft and Sony will be giving players the “keys” to the Men in Black universe starting on May 25th, same day the movie launches. Are you excited about this movie, or the game for that matter?

Google Voice update integrates voicemail with phone app

If you’re like most heavy Google Voice users, you keep your GV voicemail and standard carrier voicemail separate. This is great for managing different numbers, but it’s a bit of a pain to wrangle all on the same phone. Android and Google Voice get a little closer today, as GV’s voicemail service is available from the native Android phone/dialer app. The update treats voicemails like calls, so you’ll see them in the same place that you usually see Google Voice incoming and outgoing calls in the dialer. Download the updated Google Voice app to apply the changes.

Unfortunately, this feature is limited to Android 4.0 at the moment. Google may back-port the voicemail integration into an earlier version, but that seems unlikely – if I had to guess, I’d say that this is something Google’s been planning for a while and had to code for specifically in Ice Cream Sandwich. On top of that, early reports indicate that phones without a mostly stock Android system can’t use the feature; skins like Samsung’s TouchWiz and HTC’s Sense UI usually completely replace the dialer and contact system. HTC Vivid users with their brand new Android 4.0 update are reporting that the feature doesn’t work for them. Another new feature that’s exclusive to ICS (but probably works for all Android 4.0 builds) is access to Google Voice folders from the app itself.

The addition is a handy one for the admittedly small intersection of Google Voice users and stock Ice Cream Sandwich (or a suitably close ROM) users. While this isn’t the VOIP addition to Google Voice that many have been hoping for, it’s one more way that your Google Voice number and identity can easily move between Android devices. There’s just no way to match this kind of integration on another platform – something that Google’s surely proud of.

Sony Tablet P Review

Variety is the spice of life, and in the mobile world this tenet is demonstrated best with Android hardware. When it comes to variety, Android phones and tablets beat all comers. So it was with some anticipation that I received Sony’s Tablet P, a singular device that sets out to put an impressively-sized screen in a small body that’s made possible by a folding hinged design, achieving more portability than anything in its class. But a novel idea doesn’t necessarily make a good product, so I put it through Android Community’s regular review regimen. Does the Tablet P stack up to the competition? Read on to find out.

Hardware

The Tablet P is entirely unique among current mobile products – not just Android tablets, but the entire mobile space. The closest mainstream device that it could be compared to is Microsoft’s cancelled Courier project, though various other folding designs have been tried (and usually failed) by smaller companies. In its primary design goal, the Tablet P succeeds: it’s a full-sized Honeycomb tablet that can fit into a large pocket or small purse easily. Folded up, it’s about the size of a big television remote or a fat checkbook. Completely expanded, it’s the size of a thick 7-inch tablet with an odd aspect ratio.

Closed, the Tablet P presents its Sony, PlayStation and AT&T emblems plus a hole for the 5 megapixel camera. The silver plastic encompasses most of the top and bottom, and both lids slide off to allow access to the SIM card and MicroSD card (2GB) respectively. On the bottom half of the right side sit all the connections and controls: power button an jack, MicroUSB cable (which unfortunately doesn’t charge the unit) and a tiny volume rocker. The rest of the exterior is bare, save a microphone/headphone jack on the bottom.

Unfold the tablet’s impressively strong hinge, and you’re greeted with dual 5.5-inch touschscreens on the top and bottom. That hinge is an important detail, by the way: you’ll be using this moving part every time you pick up the device, so it’s good to know that the part is stiff enough to hold the screens apart at any angle from 1-180 degrees. The screens (1024×480 each, for a combined resolution and size of 1024×960 and just over seven inches) are bright and clear, with plenty of response in their capacitive surfaces.

A note on ergonomics: they’re surprisingly good. Owing mostly to the cunning and natural curve of the outer case, the Tablet P feel extremely comfortable when held in two hands. Holding it with the upper screen angled towards you feels something like a Nintendo DS – or rather, what the Nintendo DS would feel like if it weren’t shaped like a box. Even holding the tablet fully open in a more traditional position is comfy, thanks to a good, solid grip at nearly every point.

Software

Regrettably the Tablet P comes loaded with Android 3.2, despite the fact that Ice Cream Sandwich was available months ago. Sony promises to rectify this, though there’s no hard information on when we’ll get the update except “after April” (allowing AT&T time to distribute it). That said, this non-standard form factor needs a considerable bit of software engineering, going far beyond the standard Android Manufacturer skin – which is nonetheless present.

The tablet runs on NVIDIA’s tried and tested Tegra 2 platform, with a gigabyte of memory to help it along. This makes it admirably responsive and much quicker than I was expecting. And that’s a good thing, since Sony’s custom skin pervades the interface everywhere. You’ll find Sony apps for music, photos, video, RSS, even for connecting to WiFi networks. Other extras include Evernote, Foursquare, and a pre-installed Flash player. Crash Bandicoot, one of many games available on the included PlayStation Store, is free.

The curious form factor that defines the tablet actually effects the software very little. Most apps adjust to the odd aspect ratio in one of two ways: they either fill out across both screens (most of the time) or use up all of the top screen (some of the time). Honeycomb’s built-in resize function for older Android apps is able to adjust the view to one or both screens. Sony’s apps in particular make good use of the split, with play or display functions up top and menu or keyboard functions on the bottom.

The problem comes with the apps that don’t quite work. The Android Market (which, interestingly, will not update to the Google Play Store) is chief among these, since it only ever uses the top screen and won’t work at all in portrait mode. Since I’ve found no way to correct this, I have to assume that the problem will persist with at least some apps, though there’s no way to know which. Benchmarks don’t inspire much confidence: Quadrant scored the Tablet P in the 1800 range, well below the norm for Tegra 2 devices.

Media

The split-screen design makes the Tablet P an interesting proposition for media. Movies and music, are artificially stinted since videos can only play on one screen or be bifurcated. Photo viewing is a problem for the same reason. (Regular web browsing isn’t really affected by the split.) Sound is a problem too, thanks to tiny speakers obscured by the plastic lids on either side of the case. To be blunt, video and audio just aren’t a good experience on the device. If you plan on listening to much music you’ll need both a bigger MicroSD card and a decent pair of headphones.

Oddly, the same things that cause problems for movies and music make the Tablet P nearly perfect for gaming, if you stick to Sony’s PlayStation Store. The form factor creates a natural controller grip with the huge bezel acting as a buffer for your fingertips. Gameplay above and controls below mirror the old Game & Watch toys, and it’s a surprisingly fun experience. The cameras are best ignored. Sure, you could take snapshots with the 5 megapixel rear, and you can video chat with the VGA camera, but the quality isn’t anything to write home about.

Battery

The 3,080mAh  battery on the Tablet P is well below average for Android tablets, probably due to the necessity of getting it all in one side of the device. Used normally it’ll last all day on WiFi, but you’ll need to keep a close eye on the bar for journeys out on AT&T’s HSPA+ network. Do a lot of gaming or streaming video, and you’ll need to keep the rather bulky laptop-style charger close at hand. Running straight through with basic web browsing and apps, you should get 6-7 hours of battery life.

Wrap-Up

The Tablet P is a novelty, and at certain tasks it excels. Those tasks are playing emulated PlayStation games, fitting into small spaces and making your friends go “oooh”. Unfortunately, there aren’t many use cases where its unique design comes in handy, and quite a few where it’s a considerable drawback. As much as Sony should be applauded for trying out new ideas, even executing them as well as could probably be expected, there’s not much to recommend here beyond some great ergonomic design and a compact size.

The Tablet P is, almost literally, less than the sum of its parts. Two 5.5-inch displays don’t make an 11-inch tablet, a clamshell design doesn’t make a a thick device thinner, and the addition of lots of Sony software and tweaks doesn’t make Honeycomb an easier pill to swallow. Combine that with a  $399.99 on-contract price at AT&T (and nowhere else, for the moment) and you’ve got an interesting experience that doesn’t justify a large cost and commitment. The one exception is if you absolutely love PlayStation games, and can live with the relatively small library in Sony’s PlayStation Store.

Gameloft plans bigger 2012, going for in-app purchases and social features for all 2012 games

Gameloft is one of few companies that qualifies as a top-tier game publisher in the Android realm, and it looks like they’ve got big plans for all of their upcoming games. Plans of a very specific nature: PocketGamer reports that Gameloft will be placing in-app purchases in every game it releases for the remainder of the year, on every platform, for both smartphones and tablets. The company made the announcement during its financial report, adding that all its upcoming games will also have social elements.

In-app purchases are basically the downloadable content (DLC) of the mobile world, and they’re a polarizing subject to be sure. Essentially operating on a “freemium” model, most games with in-app purchases are free, but require small payments to add new levels or get otherwise unobtainable items. Many games allow you to advance at an accelerated pace with purchases, such as exchanging small amounts of real money for in-game currency. Some of the most popular games on Android, iOS and Facebook operate in this manner and are extremely profitable. A good example from Gameloft’s stable is The Oregon Trail: Settler, now #36 in the list of the most popular free games on the Google Play Store.

Social additions are a mixed bag as well. Many games will connect to users’ Twitter or Facebook account to send out automatic updates on the players; progress and achievements are delivered to friends and followers (often with maddening frequency). Search Twitter for “achievement” and you’ll find millions of nearly identical auto-tweets from whatever games are trending at the moment.

For better or worse, Gameloft seems to be adopting the driving strategy of one of its biggest rivals, Zynga. Plenty of players and pundits don’t appreciate this move towards microtransactions, but there’s no arguing with the money it’s bringing in. Just a few of Gameloft’s upcoming titles are The Dark Knight Rises, Ice Age, The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man, My Little Pony, Littlest Pet Shop and Men in Black III. 

Sony Xperia S heading to Canada [unlocked]

Sony’s Xperia S made a splash a CES in January, but as with most high-profile phones, it took a while for Canadian carriers to get on the trolley. That trends may or may not continue, but it looks like either way Canadians will get a crack at the company’s new flagship. Earlier today MobileSyrup reported that Sony’s official Facebook page posted the new that the Xperia S was headed to Canadian carrier Rogers. Hours later the Facebook update had vanished, and Rogers contacted the blog to deny the news.

It looks like Sony will instead be selling the phone unlocked, as it does with most of its smartphones. “I can confirm that while this device will work on the Rogers network, we will not be selling it directly,” A Rogers representative told MobileSyrup. Sounds like an unlocked phone to me. That’s a shame for Canadians who want the high-end phone with a subsidy, since the unlocked version will surely be in the $500-600 range. On the plus side, it’ll mean that Canadians (and maybe even Americans!) will have easy access to a carrier-agnostic version of the Xperia S. There was no mention of a price or date on Sony’s Facebook page.

The S is the largest and most advanced phone that Sony’s produced to date, with a 4.3-inch 720p screen (an impressive 341 PPI) a dual-core 1.5Ghz processor, NFC capability with an included set of tags, and a jaw-dropping 12.1 megapixel camera. Unfortunately it’s running Android 2.3, but Sony has (say it with me, kids) promised an Ice Cream Sandwich update some time in the future. The phone has already made its way to the UK and greater Europe, and will be making it here to the US at AT&T’s Xperia Ion, minus the swanky transparent menu buttons. For a review of the British version, check out SlashGear for more info.

Sony PlayStation Vita review: Hands-down the best gaming handheld available today

Sony’s PlayStation Vita has hit Europe, North America, South America and Singapore, marking its second major launch after an impressive but short-lived sales frenzy in Japan. It’s Sony’s second handheld gaming device, following the PSP which debuted some seven years ago, bringing some of the most powerful hardware specs you will see in any portable gaming device this year.

Questions are going to be asked how it compares to the Nintendo 3DS and even Apple’s iOS devices; before we even dive into this review, I can tell you that two 3DS consoles combined wouldn’t be able to get near the Vita. There is no competition, the Vita is a superb gaming device that manages apps, touchscreen interactions, social and a whole host of other features with consummate ease.

Let’s get started shall we?

Design

The PlayStation Vita is beautiful device, there’s no doubt about it. You could say that it has similarities to the iPhone, in the fact that it utilises a black front and brushed metal sides, but with the amount of buttons, pads and bumpers, the similarities stop there.

The Vita is large in the hand, especially for children, but its design ensures that it can fit a 5-inch 960 x 544 Super AMOLED Plus touchscreen and an array of gaming controls. Whilst pixels-per-inch come it at 220ppi, compared to the 326ppi of an iPhone 4S, the Vita’s screen is still pretty impressive.

Weighing around 260g, it is lighter than its predecessor and feels solid in the hand without being too heavy to use for long periods, nor too light to feel like you might break it at any moment.

The D-Pad is located on the top left of the Vita, with Sony’s familiar shape-marked face buttons on the top right. Slightly below each of these lies an analog stick, a smaller version of the ones you will be used to on a PlayStation 3 controller. Sony employs a home button of sorts, which sports the PlayStation logo, and the traditional Select and Start buttons on the front.

On the top of the Vita are left and right bumpers, the power button and the volume controls. The power button can be used to wake the Vita when in Sleep Mode and does exactly what you expect it to.

On the reverse are two small dips, strategically placed for your index or middle finger to rest and gain a careful grip of the device as you play.

Powering the Vita is a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, with a SGX543MP4+ quad-core GPU, 512MB RAM and 128MB VRAM. This guarantees that the Sony’s new device comes to market as the most powerful gaming handheld by quite a margin, leaving Nintendo holding onto its 3DS and its copy of Nintendogs as it rocks backward and forward repeating “But we have 3D!”

In The Hand

When the device is powered on, you will almost certainly be hit with the realisation that despite all of the buttons adorning the Vita’s front, you are able to use the touchscreen to perform the initial setup and navigate through the menus.

If you choose to play one of Sony’s launch titles, which will likely take a spot on the Vita’s homescreen, you can still utilise the touchscreen to navigate and select in-game options, until its time to get down to business, like guiding your craft to victory in Wipeout 2048.

The analog sticks are small, but they aren’t flimsy. The controls are responsive to the touch and lend well to continued use, with the top part of the thumbstick big enough to match a good portion of your thumb’s surface area.

The face buttons are also pretty small but they are extremely responsive and don’t require much pressure to notice a small click, telling you have pressed it enough to utilise it. The bumper buttons form part of the Vita’s curved design and are positioned nicely to rest your index finger upon them until they are needed to be called upon.

The home button (the one with the PlayStation logo on it) also serves a neat little notification system, glowing when the Vita returns from Sleep and turning orange when the device is on charge. Pushing this button is similar to the home button on an Android device (you can really see Sony has borrowed elements from its Sony Ericsson handsets), returning you to the home screen when playing games or within certain apps, but also displaying a cards system of windows, allowing the you to scroll through your open apps to select your chosen screen.

If you hold the home button, you can display a limited settings screen that enables you to adjust the brightness, music volume, enable or disable the microphone and decide whether to prioritize chats when in an in-game party.

On the rear of the Vita you will see a rectangular patch of PlayStation shaped icons. Sony hasn’t included this for aesthetic reasons, it’s actually a touch-sensitive pad that allows you to interact with the Vita from what feels like another dimension.

It’s a unique feature, one that is wasted on me, but it does have its uses — especially in games like FIFA.

Features

Like any modern mobile devices, the Vita comes with its own app-focused operating system that not only allows you to launch games from the homescreen, it also provides access to the camera, PS Store, system settings and a whole host of third-party apps.

By looking at the menus and associated icons, you can tell that Sony has taken cues from Google’s Android platform, most probably from its years of experience helping to deliver Sony Ericsson smartphones. The touchscreen is responsive to the touch and responds to gestures effortlessly, even if the glass finish on the Vita isn’t as smooth as your smartphone’s screen.

On the Vita review unit we tested, there were four homescreens with a large number of demos for us to try. However, when it comes to downloading games, you will need to make sure that you purchase an additional memory card, as the Vita does not come with any form of usable internal storage space.

This isn’t a problem if you intend on grabbing your games from a retailer and inserting the little cards on which they are loaded, but it makes a mockery of Sony’s PS Store, which provides digital titles without you needing to leave the house.

Put simply, expect to spend upwards of $20/£15 to grab yourself a memory card worthy of storing your downloads and media on, you are going to need it.

The demo unit were provided with didn’t allow us to download many apps, but following the Vita’s wider launch beyond Japan, social networking apps including Facebook and Twitter have been added, allowing you update your statuses, and also Netflix, serving as an on-the-go movie device.

Native apps include a Photo application, Friends – which lists your online friends, Maps, Trophies and a collection of social apps that help users connect and play along with their friends.

There’s also a browser, but it’s not up to much. It doesn’t support Flash or more advanced Web technologies, it simply serves basic websites. That’s not too bad if you intend on using your Vita purely to play games, but the browser is somewhat slow and limited, causing the handheld to jitter its way though pages as you navigate with the touchscreen.

Gaming

Whilst we wanted to pick up a copy of Uncharted, we were content to play Wipeout 2048, which is one of the Vita’s launch titles.

When you select any game (or app for that matter) from the homescreen, the Vita will immediately display a sort of tile card for the game you are about to play. You can then check for updates, hit the search icon to learn more about the game via a Google search, or you can hit the Refresh button and refresh the content of what Sony calls the ‘LiveArea’ screen.

You can, of course, just hit the start button and play your game.

Games tend to load quite slowly. Wipeout takes about five seconds to load past the first splash screen before launching the initial credits and then the start screen. Once here, it’s a case of choosing what you want to do within the game — in the case of Wipeout 2048, it’s selecting a track on which to race.

Most games require additional loading periods in which they can write data to memory and prepare your gaming experience. For Wipeout it was probably no more than a 10 second wait, during which you are shown racing controls to familiarise yourself with how to play.

Depending on what game you are playing, you will be required to utilise the analog sticks and D-pad for different outcomes. In Uncharted, there is additional touchscreen and rear-touch support but many titles don’t require too much interaction using touch. However, it appears more touchscreen-intensive games are on their way.

When in-game, you really are playing a console game – no soft textures and low-refresh rates, games are fast-paced and they look especially crisp. Some of the more cartoony games, like Everybody’s Golf, suffer from some minor texturing issues, but that may be down to the game developers, not the Vita.

Let’s come back to the touch-sensitive rear panel.

Whilst the range of games available to me was low, I was able to try out FIFA, which allowed me to take advantage of the Vita’s rear control panel. Just like FIFA on the PlayStation 3, you control your players using the two analog sticks and the four shaped face buttons but on the Vita is supports that additional dimension.

EA has made sure that if you want to have more control over where you shoot, you can apply pressure to the specific point in the goal where you wish to shoot and it will aim around that specific spot. The longer you press the panel, the harder the shot, and there’s even a traffic-light indicator to let you know if you are pressing too hard.

It takes a bit of practice, but it works. If you don’t feel comfortable, you can just make use of the normal face buttons, like you would on any console controller. For most of your early games you will inadvertently press the rear panel and shoot from ridiculous parts of the pitch, but it all adds to the fun.

Battery Life

The battery life on the Vita isn’t too bad, I average around six hours of gameplay with Wi-Fi on, playing games and using several different apps. This was the 3G version though, and that will of course consume more battery than its Wi-Fi only counterpart.

Wrap Up

As the title suggests, this is unquestionably the best gaming device available. It’s a gaming device first and a mobile-capable gadget second. Granted, the Nintendo 3DS has its quirks — the 3D, cartoon-like appeal, broad range of games, stylus input for greater control — but its reputation as a children’s device is especially apparent when compared to the Vita.

Looks-wise, you will be happy to parade around with the Vita in your hand, showing it off to all of your friends and family. It’s probably small enough to slip into the bigger-pocketed jeans you own if you want to take it out and about without drawing too much attention to it.

With games like Uncharted, FIFA, Wipeout 2048, Escape Plan, Touch My Katamari, Lumines, Rayman and some other very good titles available at launch, you are going to have your hands full with high-quality titles that will take all of your console-honed skills to complete.

The Vita does have its drawbacks; the fact you need to spend out for a memory card is frustrating, especially if you grab yourself a Vita and go to download games without knowing that you need one to store them on. The apps, whilst useful, are limited in features, so you will find yourself heading back to your smartphone to perform some of those more advanced tasks, especially when it comes to social apps.

The browser is a little frustrating, as is the battery life, but for something that is tuned to provide bright vivid graphics, kick out copious amounts of sound and immerse you in its games, I believe you should overlook that.

Looking past that, Sony has done a fantastic job of porting the console experience into a handheld gadget. With all the features you would expect something that is twenty times the size, the Vita is able to draw you into its differing catalog of games and leave you wanting more.

Gaming on your iPhone or Android device is great but Apple and Google are only ever going to offer you access to titles that are more quirky than actual console titles. They also excel at powering mobile devices.

The Vita doesn’t try to be an all-in-one device, it delivers a flawless gaming experience – and then offers an array of added services to make it useful if you were ever to be without your phone or tablet. To try to compare it to an iPhone or a tablet would be futile.

Mobile devices might one day replace the handheld gaming device, like the smartphone did with the MP3 player (to a point), but until then the PlayStation Vita shows us exactly why dedicated gaming handhelds need to exist.