Sony Reader PRS-T1 hacked to run Android apps

Do you own the Sony Reader PRS-T1? As you may be aware, it’s running on a heavily modified version of Android, much like how Amazon’s Kindle Fire will be like, but what that means is that by right you should be able to run Android apps on it, and that’s what an enterprising hacker has attempted to do, and while progress has been slow, he has been somewhat successful. 

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Sony Video Unlimited now available on Tablet S, coming to other devices

Are Netflix, HBO GO, movie rentals from the Android Market and a half-dozen other video solutions just not enough for you? Well take heart movie buff, Sony Video Unlimited is available now for the Tablet S, and it’ll be coming to other Android devices soon. What’s interesting here is that Sony isn’t limiting its distribution to its own tablets and phones – other manufacturers will be supported as well.

That’s a surprising move from Sony, who’s historically been a big proponent of the Apple-style walled garden. (Anybody remember ATRAC? Ugh.) The company says that it will soon release the Sony Video Unlimited rental app (formerly Qriocity) for a wide range of devices, dependent upon the software’s hardware requirements. The complicated dealings of video licensing will play a part too. “Video is complicated by some of the technical aspects of our deals with the studios… we have to make sure that the quality of our service is something that lives up to our standards and is something our studio partners are happy with too.” said Sony vice president Mike Aragon.
Sony is uniquely situated among Android manufacturers. They have a historically strong brand and a decent following along with Sony Ericsson, but they bring something to the table that not even Google can match: media experience. Sony’s got properties and deals in TV, movies, music and video games, a position they’ve tried to exploit to push their own hardware in the past. There’s a fair bit of marketing going on here too, of course, but it’s promising to see the company opening up.
[via The Los Angeles Times]

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Sony’s Tablet S and Tablet P get Japanese 3G versions on October 28th

Sony’s first entries into the Honeycomb tablet market, the creatively-named Tablet S and Tablet P, are getting mobile broadband versions in their home market. Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo will start selling 3G versions of both devices on October 28th. On this side of the Pacific, the Tablet S is only available in a WiFi version, and the dual-screen tablet P is still a complete no-show.

The wireless release is ahead of schedule – Sony had previously planned to have 3G versions of the tablets available November. The Google translation is a little shaky, but it looks like new users will have a 1050 yen ($14) discount applied to their data plan for the first six months. That’s a good sign for Japanese tablet fans, but unfortunately, we haven’t heard anything about a North American release for the wireless broadband versions. Honestly, we’d be happy just to get our hands on the funky dual-screen Tablet P again.
Both of Sony’s tablets use Android Honeycomb 3.2, to their credit and Android fans’ delight. The S model features a 1280 x 720 screen, while the split screens on the P are each 1024 x 480. Both feature Tegra 2 processors and Playstation certification, a la the XPERIA Play, plus a rear 5 megapixel 720p camera. The Tablet S has a built-in infrared port for controlling televisions and set-top boxes, and both of them feature DLNA certification and access to Sony’s media stores for music, video and e-books. There is currently no word on when the Tablet P, or 3G versions of either tablet, will be released in the United States.
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Sony to go it alone? RIP Sony Ericsson

Well, something had to give. Sony Ericsson​, once one of the most successful mobile manufacturers in the world, has become a bit of a laughing stock of late. It’s about a year behind rivals when it comes to dual-core, and the much-hyped Xperia Play – once touted as an “iPhone killer” – is languishing in bargain bins at £150.
It’ll come as little surprise then that Sony is reportedly in talks to buy out Ericsson from their ailing joint venture.

A source “with direct knowledge of the matter” told Reuters that Sony hopes to go it alone in future. At present, tablets (including the Tablet S and Tablet P), gaming devices (such as the PSP), and consumer electronics come from Sony, while smartphones come under Sony Ericsson.
"Up to now Sony's products and network services have all been separate. Unifying them would be positive," said Yoshiharu Izumi, analyst with JP Morgan Tokyo. "If they can leverage their games and other network services I think they can lift their share." Hmm, we’ll see.
"The talks are not something that have been announced by Sony. We are declining to comment," said a Sony spokeswoman in Tokyo. Not denying the existence of the talks then?
Sony Ericsson is well into double figures with its smartphone output this year, and the reaction has largely been “meh”.

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Sony looks to buy out Ericsson’s half of Mobile Division

If you are like the many of users that just thought Sony phones came with a last name, that being Ericsson — you were wrong. The joint venture that began back in 2001 looks to possibly be coming to an end as Sony is about to close the deal and buy Ericsson’s half of their mobile division according to reports. Sony plans to bring all the operations in house to go along with the TVs, Cameras, Media Players, and more that they’ve produced over the years.

Apparently the Japanese company plans to take the reigns of the mobile division and bring it up to par with the rest in the market. Combining forces from their tablet, smartphone, and handheld gaming divisions into one that will all work together on various levels as they develop future products. According to the Wall Street Journal, the acquisition for the Stockholm company’s half of the team is about to be closed and Sony will take charge.
Obviously this will kill the “Ericsson” part of the brand, and we are unsure if in the future we’ll just see shiny SONY logos on devices or if they’ll continue to use a name like the Xperia. Analysts have valued Sony Ericsson at $1.3-$1.7 billion not to mention all the mobile patents in their portfolio. This could also be a move from Sony to acquire some patents in the process to fend off possible lawsuits like we’ve seen lately. The deal is expected to be finished here soon but no official details or cash values have been tossed around. As soon as we hear the asking price we’ll be sure to update with further details.
Sony has been known to release some pretty quality products over the years so hopefully this will bring them up to par with the likes of Samsung. I’m hoping we see more Sony branded Android offerings here in the states soon.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 vs Sony Tablet S

We see how Samsung’s big Galaxy Tab 10.1 compares to Sony’s new Tablet S

We see how Samsung’s big Galaxy Tab 10.1 compares to Sony’s new Tablet S.

Form:
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 - 256.7x175.3x8.6mm, 565g
Sony Tablet S - 241.2x174.3x10.1-20.6mm (tapers), 598g
Samsung’s device is the larger of the two but it is more than a touch lighter thanks to being a mere 8.6mm thin. It sports quite a straightforward and plain design but we think that this works in its favour, we also like how there’s not too much bodywork surrounding the screen, lending the tablet a sleek look. Generally it’s nicely proportioned and very clean, your attention isn’t drawn away by an over-abundance of ports and buttons and even the back panel is reassuringly minimalist.
The Sony Tablet S is a little more in-your-face. It looks inconspicuous enough from the front, again the proportions are nice and the screen to bodywork ratio is good.
However, a little bit of textured panelling at the top of the device drops hints at some of the zanier elements of its design. Essentially, the tablet form is as if someone wrapped a flexible TFT screen around a wedge-shaped piece of billet aluminium, and then nailed it in place. Except the end result is much more elegant than that sounds. It looks pretty snazzy and we like it.
We’d have to say the Sony looks more interesting, however, the lighter and thinner Galaxy Tab has its advantages. We’re calling a draw.
Winner - Draw

Display:
Sony’s Tablet S features a 9.4-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen, the resolution is a hefty 1280x800 pixels giving this display a pixel density of 161 pixels-per-inch (ppi). The usual trio of multi-touch, accelerometer and gyro sensor are all included too.
Against this Samsung brings the titular 10.1-inch touchscreen, it’s a PLS TFT capacitive at the same resolution as its competitor, resulting in a lower pixel density of 149ppi. Gorilla Glass has been used, so it should be a tough nut to crack, the Galaxy Tab also comes equipped with a set of capacitive buttons under the display and Samsung’s TouchWiz UX interface overlaid onto the Android operating system,
Just like the Sony it’s got multi-touch input, an accelerometer and a gyro sensor to help with screen orientation.
We have to side with Sony’s crispier pixel density on this one.
Winner – Sony Tablet S

Storage:
Both tablets have options for 16GB or 32GB of internal storage capacity and come with 1GB of RAM to back up the processor. However, the Samsung has an ace up it’s sleeve, with an additional third option for a much higher 64GB of onboard space.
Sadly, the Galaxy Tab loses out when it comes to external, having none whatsoever. Sony’s Tablet S supports regular SD cards up to 32GB, and while we’d prefer microSD which we can share with most phone handsets it’s certainly a much better option than the Samsung in this regard.
We’d have to call this one a draw because it’s very much a trade off – on the one hand we prefer a larger internal capacity because the read speed is generally quicker than external memory, thus making it preferable for normal use.
However, it’s nice to have external memory as it’s useful for a different purpose entirely, namely the movement of data between devices, and not having it on the Samsung does sting a bit.
Ultimately, neither is perfect, we recognise they both offer a lot but it’s because of this they each leave you a little wanting on memory by not going the extra mile. Much wants more.
Winner - Draw

Processor:
Being Android based tablets both have sensibly seen fit to power through things with some chunky dual core processors, but not only that they’ve actually fitted an identical setup in each. Both devices sport a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 on the NVidia Tegra 2 T20 chipset and as part of that particular package you get NVidia’s ULP Geforce graphics processing unit (GPU) too.
Powerful stuff all round then, ARM’s Cortex -9 will take pretty much whatever you can dish out at it and then run a mile. Back that up with 1GB of RAM in each case along with NVidia’s boundary-pushing micro chips and you’ve got something pretty special to say the very least.
There’s nothing to compare the two here though. Moving on.
Winner - Draw

Operating System:
More similarities here, we mentioned both were Android devices and being tablets both are on the tablet-specific Honeycomb build which has been designed to take full advantage of larger screen sizes.
Part of that tailor-made appeal is the very swish tablet interface, it’s designed to compliment the way you typically hold a scaled-up tablet device with tabs, menus and quick buttons placed where your fingers or thumbs would logically be hovering.
The touch keyboard is also much improved from previous Android builds and works really well on larger screens such as these, you can pretty much set it down and use it as a conventional computer keyboard with no issues.
Added OpenGL acceleration and a Renderscript 3D graphics engine, along with in-built multi-core processor support means demanding games absolutely fly on Honeycomb, another plus for devices with larger displays more naturally suited to entertainment.
Another natural tablet task is browsing the web and in Honeycomb it’s the best browser experience Android has had so far. Fully tabbed browsing is now on the cards, along with double tap zoom, pinch zoom and swipe scrolling, all of which work really well.
Android’s notifications bar has been updated and moved down to the bottom-right corner as part of the ‘System Bar’, again it’s next to your thumb, and not only does it display system alerts from your apps but it also streamlines multitasking with a ‘Recent Apps’ button. Tapping this pops up a small menu allowing you to fast-switch between running applications.
Overall it’s a neat system and frankly we can’t wait until Ice Cream Sandwich brings a similar experience to smartphones.
Winner – Draw

Camera:
Samsung’s tablet brings a 3.15-megapixel camera as its primary shooter, with a resolution of 2048x1536 pixels. The Galaxy Tab can capture video in both 1080p HD and 720p HD and supports video calling. Features-wise it’s got an LED flash, autofocus and geo-tagging. There’s also a secondary 2-megapixel camera.
The Sony Tablet S is better catered for thanks to its 5-megapixel primary camera at a higher resolution of 2560х1920 pixels, along with a VGA secondary. Video capture isn’t quite as good as its rival with only a 720p capability, though it still has video calling support. However, the Sony’s camera feature list is a bit more comprehensive with autofocus, touch focus, geo-tagging, image stabilisation and face and smile detection, it is missing one key component though and that’s an LED flash.
Sony’s camera isn’t perfect, but that much higher megapixel count and resolution alone is enough to beat the Samsung’s relatively meagre offering.
Winner – Sony Tablet S

Final Thoughts:
We like the Samsung Galaxy Tab, it’s one of the better Galaxy tablets and one of the better Android tablets all round. However, other company’s are starting to really get into their stride on what constitutes a competitive tablet right now and Sony is one such company. Not only that, but Sony has approached things with typical flair which really lends a great deal of character to the Tablet S.
There are a few areas where Samsung seems to have struggled slightly with the up-scaling of areas where, on phones, the company typically excels.
A prime example is the screen, Samsung normally produce fantastic smartphone screens, but in going for a 10-inch screen size the Galaxy Tab lost out a bit on pixel density, and because of the larger expanse Samsung couldn’t leverage its usual Amoled trump card.
Conversely, Sony has really scored well here by going for a more optimal and slightly smaller screen.
For the most part, there are more similarities than differences here, both tablets equally have quite a lot to offer. The Sony just has a slight advantage with a better display and camera, plus some external storage if that’s a priority for you.

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Sony Tablet S officially now on sale

OK, we'll admit we're a day late on delivering the news, but the fact remains that Sony's long-awaited Tablet S is now on sale.
Price-wise the Wi-Fi only slate comes in at £399 for the 16GB and £479 for the 32GB variant, which in case you were wondering is exactly the same price as that other iPad 2 tablet thingy from that other company called Apple.

Fortunately Apple doesn't have a legal monopoly on what gadgets should cost, though these days we wouldn't be surprised to see Apple's lawyers trying to sue someone for selling something at the same price as an iPad or iPhone.
Sure, that's maybe being a bit harsh, but the reference to the recent spate of legal battles against particularly Samsung is fair game here simply because the Tablet S is definitive proof that it IS possible to bring real variation to the tablet form factor.
Of course that doesn't mean that everyone should have to, or that the Tablet S will actually be popular, but anyway. It's certainly different, and pretty much delivers on that “folded book” analogy we were given when details of the Sony slate first leaked way back in February.
As for the boring spec stuff, well it's Android 3.1 Honeycomb on board, a 9.4in screen with 1280 x 800 resolution, a 5-megapixel camera with forward-facing video cam, and all the usual connectivity bits like DLNA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and the like.

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Sony Tablet S on display at Best Buy, available for pre-order

Want to get your hands on Sony’s upcoming Honeycomb tablet, the Tablet S? If you can’t wait until pre-orders start shipping from the Sony Online Store (September 16), and if you don’t want to buy it right now for $100 more at HSN.com, you might want to check out your local Best Buy.
It appears as if Best Buys have started to put the Sony Tablet S on display at some locations. At the moment, it doesn’t look like the new Honeycomb tablets could be purchased. The person who noticed the new tablet on display, Twitter user @DaHarder wasn’t able to purchase it; when he went to the register to attempt to purchase the tablet, Best Buy was unable to locate the tablet in their system.
So, it looks like it’s only available for display at the moment. If you want to get your hands on the display unit of the Tablet S, head over to your local Best Buy. Unfortunately, it looks like you’ll have to wait a few more days to own this tablet, unless you don’t mind paying an extra $100 from HSN.
Source: @DaHarder (Twitter), via Engadget

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Sony shows off Honeycomb Google TV

It looks like we’re going to get Honeycomb on our Google TV set-top boxes pretty soon. Over at the CEDIA event, Sony was demonstrating its Google TV hardware that has been updated with a near-release upgrade to Honeycomb. Judging by the pictures and video footage of the set-top box, there’s not much to see right now, but I guess we’ll have to get our hands on the final version of Honeycomb for Google TV before we can come to a conclusion.

The Google TV Honeycomb update was announced at the Google I/O event back in May and is expected to arrive on the Google TV Revue at the end of summer, so it shouldn’t be too long now. Head over to endgadget to check out more photographs a and a video of Google TV Honeycomb in action.

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Sony Tablet S vs HTC Puccini

HTC's new 10-inch Pucinni, which isn't a variety of pizza, goes head-to-head with Sony's S Tablet

We take a look at HTC’s forthcoming 10.1-inch Honeycomb tablet, the HTC Puccini (also known as the Jetstream), to see how it fares against Sony’s new Tablet S.

Form
HTC Puccini - 251x178x13mm, 709g
Sony Tablet S - 241.2x174.3x10.1-20.6mm (tapers), 598g
The HTC Flyer, the company’s first foray into tablet territory, was garish and unsightly, but it seems lessons have been learned as this newest device is a much more tasteful affair.
The bodywork is sleek, black and shiny and there’s very little border space around the screen – a look we feel works well more often than not.
HTC has also given the Puccini some visual interest with carbon fibre styling on the back panel, while the camera port is subtly integrated in the top corner.
Logos and motifs are also kept unobtrusive which helps the aesthetic considerably.
It’s quite a thick and heavy device though, but visually things are looking good.
Sony’s Tablet S is a little more unconventional as it’s an unusual wedge-shaped device starting at 20mm thick on the top edge and tapering to 10mm thin at the bottom.
The whole front panel of the device appears to curve elegantly over the top edge and round to the back in a continuous line, which is very appealing to the eye, while a textured surface helps things too.
As much as we like the Puccini and think it’s a massive step forward for HTC’s tablets, we also feel Sony’s styling is much more adventurous and that is something to be commended in our book.
Winner - Sony Tablet S

Display
HTC’s Puccini tablet has the larger display size of these two devices, with a 10.1-inch LCD capacitive touchscreen.
The Puccini’s resolution is WXGA at 1280x768 pixels and with a pixel density of 147 pixels-per-inch (ppi). Multi-touch and an accelerometer sensor are par for the course.
The Tablet S is only a bit smaller at 9.4-inches but it boasts a slightly higher resolution of 1280x800 pixels and subsequently a higher pixel density at 161ppi. It’s a TFT capacitive touchscreen display featuring multi-touch, accelerometer and gyro sensors.
The Tablet S's display might be a bit smaller but not by much and the higher resolution and pixel density will make a difference to image clarity. Sony wins this round.
Winner - Sony Tablet S

Storage
Sony’s Tablet S is the more diverse device when it comes to internal storage, with options for both 16GB and 32GB of onboard capacity.
It is, however, a little more limiting for external support with only SD cards catered for rather than the more common, and arguably more useful, micro SD.
External storage is still up to 32GB though which can only be a good thing.
The Puccini has only one fixed internal storage option at the S Tablet’s higher end of 32GB, it’s also got one-up on the Sony by supporting micro SD up to 32GB.
Both devices prop up their respective processors with 1GB of RAM storage.
There’s not much between these two as, at the higher end option for the Sony they’re both equal on internal storage, and in either case they’re even on RAM.
However, we prefer the micro SD support the Puccini brings and that closes the deal as far as we’re concerned.

Winner - HTC Puccini

Processor
We’re dealing with a couple of dual core monsters here: Sony’s offering packs a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor on Nvidia’s turbo-charged Tegra 2 T20 chipset.
Nvidia also provides the S tablets graphical prowess with a ULP Geforce graphics processing unit (GPU).
Against this HTC has brought something a bit special to the table, opting for Qualcomm technology with a 1.5GHz MSM8260 Scorpion backed up by an Adreno 220 GPU.
There’s no question that each of these tablets is a heavy hitter, easily capable of delivering consistently fast performance in pretty much any tablety task you put them to.
However, that extra half a gig of clock speed on the HTC will certainly make a noticeable difference running Android, which benefits significantly from a more heavy handed approach to processing power.
Winner - HTC Puccini

Operating System
Both tablets run on Google’s Android platform and they’re each sensibly using the tablet specific Honeycomb build.
We’re rather fond of Honeycomb, of course there’s always room for improvement but we feel it certainly made Android a more complete and well-rounded system, at least in terms of what we expect at the most basic level of functionality these days.
It ironed out a lot of the kinks present in previous builds and means everything runs much smoother.
The interface has also had a few intuitive tweaks which make things much easier to use – a new app tray, much like the ones provided by third party launchers, makes switching between apps a breeze.
Multi-tasking never gets left out in the cold on Android and it’s as good as its ever been on Honeycomb.
There’s also all the perks from Gingerbread’s enhanced app management suite and system auto-management facilities, so you not only do you have total hands-on control but if your attention is elsewhere you need never worry about system resources getting hogged.
Android’s much-mimicked notifications bar has returned with a bit of a facelift, this time it shows more detailed text information for each alert as well as displaying relevant pictures so you know exactly what it’s talking about.
All in all it’s the best Android build to date and performance is top-notch on dual core processors such as the ones found here.
Winner - Draw

Camera
The Tablet S is fitted with a 5-megapixel primary at 2560х1920 pixels, plus a VGA secondary. Video capture is 720p and video calling is supported.
Features include autofocus, touch focus, image stabilisation and face and smile detection.
With the Puccini you’ve got a much more impressive setup: the primary camera comes in at 8-megapixels and a 3264x2448 pixel resolution while the secondary is also considerably better than its rival at 1.3-megapixels.
Video capture is also higher quality with 1080p capability and like its opponent the Puccini also supports video calls.
The standard autofocus and geo-tagging are on board along with a dual-LED flash.
Clearly HTC’s Puccini tablet is better equipped when it comes to snapping pics on the go.
Winner - HTC Puccini

Final Thoughts
We really like Sony’s Tablet S but it’s very much outclassed by the HTC on paper and actually that’s a situation we’re more than happy with.
We’re glad to see HTC has upped its game from the frankly disappointing HTC Flyer to offer a much more competent piece of hardware this time round.

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Sony P Tablet vs Sony S Tablet

We compare Sony's two new Android 3.2-powered tablets to see which is most worthy of your time

Sony has gleefully skipped carefree into the tablet world with two very individual devices, which are sure to attract attention – the wedge-shaped S tablet and the quirky clamshell P tablet. We take the time to compare the two and see which comes out on top.

Form:
Sony P Tablet - 180x158x14mm, 370g
Sony S Tablet - 241.2x174.3x10.1-20.6mm (tapers), 598g
The first thing which strikes you looking at both these tablets is how interesting and innovative Sony has been with the shapes and designs.

They couldn’t really be any more different, on the one hand you have the P tablet – a clamshell, split-screen device with a very space-age feel. When closed it looks like the world’s most stylish glasses case with its curved outer surfaces and long profile.

Open it up and you’re presented with two neat touchscreens cleanly surrounded by a shiny black border.
It all looks very prestigious and if you didn’t know it was a tablet you’d wonder what on earth it was as it could easily be mistaken for some kind of bespoke controller for a swanky home entertainment system – and we mean that in a nice way. Not in a Peep Show 'megatron' way.

The S tablet is not so extreme, but it’s still determined to be different.
On the surface it looks much more like a conventional tablet with its rectangular shape and sharp corners. However, a closer look reveals some very purposeful design tweaks which help it stand out from the crowd.
For starters, as we mentioned before it is wedge-shaped. Look at it side on and you’ll see it tapers from 20.6mm thick at the top down to a 10.6mm razor edge.

The devil is in the details here and that thicker edge is rounded-off and carries a continuous curve round the back of the device neatly. Plus it’s made of a snazzy carbon-fibre style material giving it a mean look.
We like the thoughtful design of the S tablet but it doesn’t have the same charm and portability of the P tablet, which is still sizeable when unfolded while being lighter and handier all round.
Winner – Sony P Tablet

Storage:
The P tablet has a fixed internal capacity at 4GB but the S tablet is better equipped with options for either 16GB or 32GB. Both use 1GB of RAM to back up processor tasks.
External storage is similar between the two though not identical. Both support an additional 32GB of data via cards but while the P tablet supports micro SD the S tablet uses full sized SD cards, which could be considered something of a faux-pas on Sony's part.

The S tablet has a lot more space to play with, which automatically makes it a more attractive prospect, however we’re not overly keen on the use of the larger SD format cards.

As tablets often make companions for smartphones, being hindered by potentially non-transferable external storage is not the best setup.

Obviously we’d rather have the internal capacity of the S inside the P tablet but 4GB is still not to be sneezed at and we think on balance we’d take the P’s versatility with micro SD over what the S offers.
Winner – Sony P Tablet

Display:
Again both tablets have very different setups here.
The S tablet once again sports a more traditional approach with a single continuous screen – it’s a 9.4-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen at 1280x800 pixels resolution.

Pixel density is a little less impressive at 161 pixels-per-inch (ppi).

The P tablet is up to some crazy stuff but we love it. It’s got a pair of 5.5-inch TFT capacitive touchscreens in a split arrangement, rather like a Nintendo 3DS, with each clocking in at 1024x480 pixels and a decent 206ppi.

Each tablet has the same run-down of display features – multi-touch input, accelerometer and gyro sensors are all included.

With two 5.5-inch screens you’ve got more room to play with and in a handier package to boot.
Not only this but the pixel density is a lot better than on the S tablet. The P tablet gets our vote this round.
Winner – Sony P Tablet

Processor:
Processing power is identical between the devices. Both are equipped with a 1GHz dual core ARM Cortex-A9 processor running Nvidia’s Tegra 2 T20 chipset.
Visuals are whipped into shape by another bit of Nvidia tech in the form of a GeForce graphics processing unit (GPU).
It’s a stalemate here but each is offering an impressive hardware line-up capable of some nifty performance.
Winner - Draw

Operating System:
Yet more similarities in this category with Sony’s duo of Android devices running the tablet-specific Honeycomb build.
Honeycomb is our favourite build of Android, at least until Ice Cream Sandwich arrives.
It resolves pretty much every gripe we’ve had with previous iterations of the system.
A slicker, faster and more intuitive interface makes it easy to get to grips with and, because they run on dual core processors, there’s not a hint of lag or stuttering.

Web browsing was a continual bugbear in previous builds of Android, but here you’ve got all the glory of Javascript plus fast site loading, tabbed functionality and silky scrolling and pinch zoom navigation.
Intensive apps and games are more viable than ever before thanks to newly added OpenGL graphics acceleration and a bespoke Renderscript 3D graphics engine.

Multi-tasking is as deftly handled as ever and now includes a useful apps tray for quick switching between active programs.

The notifications bar has also been improved to include more text and now image information in each alert.
Winner - Draw

Camera:
Guess what? That’s right, identical setups again, but Sony has taken a thorough approach to the device's imaging compartments, which we appreciate.
Both tablets have 5-megapixel primaries at 2560х1920 pixels and VGA secondary cameras.
Video capture in each case is at 720p and there’s also video calling support.

The features run-down includes autofocus, touch focus, geo-tagging, image stabilisation and face and smile detection.
All in all it's good stuff here.
Winner - Draw

Final Thoughts:
We’re really liking Sony’s efforts here and the company has taken a very thoughtful and unique approach to making two tablets which will really standout from the competition.
Both are highly competitive offerings which should easily please most users.

However, we do have a favourite and that is the P tablet. There’s nothing else quite like it and we can clearly see how usable it would be in daily life.

We feel it brilliantly bridges the gap between the larger 10-inch tablets and the smaller 7-inch versions offered by many other manufacturers.

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Sony debuts Android tablets; HTC steps things up

With IFA kicking off this week, you can bet there’s tons of toys in store for Android lovers. This week brought news of new Sony and HTC Android tablets, each making their mark in this red-hot market. Sony Ericsson also revealed the Xperia Arc S smartphone, while Samsung unmasked a new lineup of Galaxy handsets geared towards the masses. Here are this week’s most notable Android devices.

Sony S and P tablets

Sony’s in it for the long haul, focusing its Android devices on quality over quantity. That’s been the case with its Xperia PLAY smartphone for gamers, and the same principle holds true for its debut tablets. The S and P are Sony’s first Android tablets, the P with a clamshell case. The S runs android Honeycomb (3.1 or 3.2), comes with a 9.4-inch IPS display and a Tegra 2 processor, along with Sony TruBlack and Bravia technologies. It supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 4G, and comes in 16GB and 32GB sizes, with a full-size SD memory card reader. With a clear focus on its own technology, there’s cross-device connectivity for controlling Bravia TVs and the PlayStation 3.
The P tablet comes with the same hardware in a dual-screen clamshell design, sporting two 5-inch 1024x480 displays. The screens can work independently or together, so you could use one as a keyboard, or use both for reading e-books. The tablets are set to hit European stores at the end of September, with shipments in the States slotted around the same time. The S & P are priced at $499 and $599 for their respective sizes.

HTC Jetstream

AT&T is scoring big with all the new Android tablets hitting the market, which includes the new HTC Jetstream. The 10-inch device is HTC’s latest Android tablet, hot on the heels of the 7-inch Flyer. Featuring a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, the Jetstream has two cameras including an 8-megapixel shooter with dual LED flash in the rear, and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. HTC’s tablet is also LTE compatible, making it AT&T’s only non-modem LTE device. With a launch date for September 4th, AT&T may have a hard time selling the Jetstream in volume, as it’s priced high at $699 with a 2-year contract. With the new tiered pricing for data users, tablets are becoming pricey little gadgets.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S

Sony Ericsson further expands its Xperia line with the newly unveiled Xperia Arc S. The manufacturer was short on details, but we do know it will be powered by a 1.4GHz processor, and will come with Sony’s Reality display, run on the company’s mobile Bravia engine. That indicates a high quality media device, reiterating Sony’s desire to attract a certain demographic (namely existing fans) around its smartphone efforts. The Xperia Arc S will also be able to shoot panoramic photos with its Exmor R image sensor, and images can even be converted to 3D (and subsequently viewed on 3D Bravia TVs). All in all, this is a minor update to the original Xperia Arc, with a bit of extra power. Expect the Xperia Arc S to hit stores in October.

Samsung Galaxy

Samsung’s looking to stay on top of the Android market, despite its recent indications that it’s shifting some efforts towards its own mobile OS, Bada. A new family of Samsung Galaxy devices was launched this week, spanning the Galaxy W, Galaxy M Pro, Galaxy Y and Galaxy Y Pro. Like automobile connotations, this new naming system indicates where in the ranking each device stands, with Galaxy S devices marking flagship products, R (Royal) for premium models, W (Wonder) for mid-range, and M and Y (Magical and Young) for lower end devices. Pro devices are those that come with QWERTY keyboards.

The Galaxy W has a 3.7-inch touchscreen with 800x480 resolution, a 5-megapixel camera, and runs on a single-core 1.4GHz processor. The Galaxy Y has an even smaller screen at three inches, with 320x240 pixel resolution, a 2-megapixel camera and an 832MHz processor. The Galaxy M and Y Pro devices are the business-driven BlackBerry competitors, sporting a 1GHz processor and a 5-megapixel camera. All four devices run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The release date and carrier information has yet to be confirmed.

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Sony Tablet S Review

After plenty of awesome Sony commercials the time has finally come for Sony to release their much hyped Android Honeycomb tablets. After just recently been officially named the Sony Tablet S and Tablet P they are now ready to rock. Today Sony has announced both the Tablet S and P devices and luckily I’ve been enjoying the Tablet S for a few days and have a full rundown and review for your viewing pleasure.

We have plenty of pictures, details, and video for you all below to check out but first we’ll start with this quick hands-on and walk-through video of the hardware and software.

Sony Tablet S Hands-on Unboxing and software walk-through



We have seen mixed information and leaks as of late so I’ll officially put some of those details to rest. What we have here is the Sony Tablet S and that is the official name. This tablet comes out of the box running Android 3.1 but immediately was updated to the latest version which is Android 3.2 Honeycomb after powering on. We have a 9.4″ 1280×800 resolution display with Sony “TruBlack” screen technology with better colors, true blacks, and less glare. You hardly notice the screen is smaller than most 10.1″ tablets unless you actually have them side by side.

Hardware
To go along with the 9.4″ IPS LED display and unique magazine fold-like design we have some dual-core power. Under the hood is an NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core 1.0 Ghz processor, 1GB RAM and 16GB internal storage. We have a micro USB and full size SD slot for additional storage as well. The full size SD slot makes adding storage not only cheaper as micro SDHC costs more, but you have more options and higher capacities available.

If you haven’t seen in until now the photo above does plenty of justice. The Tablet S features a very unique design where it’s almost like a magazine cover folded around back of the device. Not only does this make it easier to hold and grip, but they’ve done some weight balancing and management that actually makes it really nice and easy to hold. It may be thicker than the Galaxy Tab but it sure is easier to hold and doesn’t get tiring.
Around the right side we have the power button (with led notification for charging) and the volume up/down rocker buttons, a reset pinhole, and the stereo speaker grills.

Then on bottom we have nothing but the dedicated charging and sync port that will also be used for docking accessories. The charging cable is proprietary and if you forget or lose it you wont be charging this tablet any time soon.

The left of the device features the 3.5mm headphone jack along with the micro USB and full-sized SD slot nicely covered by a removable door. Along the left is another speaker grill and a little spot to attach an included lanyard for easy and safe carrying.


The top and rear have a unique textured finish that not only helps with fingerprints but also gives users a great grip on the device so you don’t always feel like you’re about to drop the tablet. Sony also nicely provided some rubber feet around back to help while laying the tablet down to protect the surface.


Overall I’m pretty impressed with the hardware. Even though most of the device is made from a hard plastic it does not feel cheap or fragile, while staying extremely lightweight. The folded over design was well thought out and the weight management and distribution Sony incorporated really helps while using the device from day to day. The rounded top is almost like a backbone and holding the Tablet S in portrait mode was not only easy, but was not tiring and I didn’t get nearly the fatigue I do from using other tablets. The design isn’t thin, but it’s extremely lightweight and great for reading and while it was daring, I approve of the design and like the different approach.
Software
The software on this beast isn’t anything new, we have Android 3.2 Honeycomb (was updated upon arrival) running smooth and stable as ever. It did however have an over the air update that once accepted and installed kept returning and prompting me to update again and again, not sure what that is about. Everyone should be plenty familiar with Honeycomb so I’ll move right into a few custom changes Sony has included. First off you’ll notice on the top of the main screen they’ve added a few buttons. Almost like widgets but smaller we have easy access shortcuts to popular things such as browser, email, infrared (for remote TV control), and the E-reader client.

These are small and stay out of your way but have actually been really convenient for daily usage as I no longer have to icon hunt for launching the browser or email. Sony has also dramatically changed the application tray just as we saw in these leaked screenshots. The entire design, layout, background and color has all been changed from the standard Honeycomb interface. Sony does allow the user options to change this to their own liking and you see that in the video above as well as pictured below.

You’ll notice in the image above things such as camera, browser, email, video player and more that are all stock for Android have generic blue icons instead of what we are used to for Honeycomb. Sony has confirmed this is pre-production software and they will all be ready at launch. The final software we will likely see custom icons much like how the Sense UI has changed many of these same items.
Sony also has customized the music and video players with their own unique layout and design. The music player has a great artwork concept where you can move around albums and stack them to your liking. Although once I upload a few thousand songs we may run out of room. Clicking an album cover instantly starts playing said music. My only concern is when I later return my stacks had been randomized again so getting everything how you’d like it seemed pointless, but neat either way.

The last major interface change is a “favorites” tab on the homescreen next to the app tray launcher. This will quickly show you all recently opened apps, games, music and more and you can even set your favorite items. This makes one simple place to see your favorite music, games, and even webpages all in the same place instead of each individually and it was a nice touch that I’ve really enjoyed.


Performance
As always here at Android Community we have plenty of benchmark results for everyone to take in and enjoy. We’ve ran CF Bench, Smartbench 2011, Quadrant as always, and even Vellamo for everyone to analyze and compare to their own devices.
I’ll start with Quadrant and the Sony Tablet S with its 1.0 Ghz Tegra 2 CPU scored around 1900. While this is about average for most NVIDIA Tegra 2 tablets we’ve seen thus far, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 did score over 2500 on average during testing.

Smartbench scored about 2900, something that is lower than most smartphones as seen in the photo below. But then they aren’t pushing a 1280×800 screen resolution either. For another comparison the Acer A100 7″ Tab scored 3600 in Smartbench.

We also have Vellamo and CF Bench below for you to check out.



Camera and Battery
Sony claims iPad 2 like battery performance from the Tablet S’ 5,000 mAh pack. From my first initial few days of testing I’ve been getting great results with at least 10 hours of moderate to heavy usage. Last night I ran just about every benchmark you could imagine, browsed the web for a few hours and played way too much of the extremely popular Riptide GP racing game and I still had around 60% battery life. That was after almost 6 hours being unplugged. Using the device randomly throughout the day instead of continuously I can see a solid 24 hours or more of battery/stand-by time.
As for cameras, the Sony Tablet S features a 5MP camera on the rear (sadly no LED flash) and VGA camera up front for video chat and they performed about average compared to most tablets. The rear camera was a bit slow on image capture and the shutter speed was slow enough to make me retake more than a few photos.


Browser
While this will only take a short minute Sony did make it clear that they’ve put some effort into enhancing the browser experience for the Sony Tablet S and P devices. They’ve included some software changes and performance enhancements that really speed up overall browser usage. We decided to try a head-to-head comparison with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and can officially say whatever Sony did worked great. The Sony Tablet S was first to load almost the entire page every single time. It instantly pulls the page up and you barely have to wait to start scrolling or browsing. Overall time wasn’t a lot faster, but the initial boost was much appreciated.

Browser Test Video






Accessories

Sony will also be introducing a few accessories at launch with the Sony Tablet S. Those consist of a bluetooth wireless keyboard that will have dedicated controls for DLNA and their infrared features as well as media controls. This will also work with a wide array of Honeycomb tablets that support bluetooth and it will start at $79. Next they will also be offering a Sony charging cradle dock, while this doesn’t have any outputs such as HDMI out it is a great way to angle the tablet while using the wireless keyboard and it has two tilt settings for those that need more angle. The dock will also be competitively priced at $39 and should be available shortly. Check out the accessories at the end of our hands-on video.

Tablet S Hands-on and Accessories Video



Wrap-Up
This tablet has a lot going for it. With the NVIDIA dual-core power in a neat package that is slightly smaller than most tablets on the market along with a very unique design this is a custom experience that is for sure. Being Playstation certified and bundled with apps such as Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited, and having DLNA and infrared remote control this is truly a multimedia consumption device. Whether you’re streaming movies with QRIOCITY over DLNA or controlling your Sony 3D HDTV with the infrared remote app users truly have tons of options. These were not fully ready in our review unit and therefore were not tested. We did however test and thoroughly enjoyed Crash Bandicoot.
Pair all that with the latest Android 3.2 Honeycomb OS giving you a fluid, smooth, and easy user experience there isn’t much not to like. Yes, some may be thrown off by the design and I had my doubts at first — but once you get this in your hands you’ll quickly appreciate the design, weight, and comfortableness of this tablet. Pricing is set at $499 (16GB) and $599 (32GB) and should be available mid September.

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