The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S has been out for a little while and now the handset is available in the US. You can  purchase the souped up Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S from the Sony store. Pricing is $499.99 for an unlocked handset. Unfortunately no carriers have announced that they will be subsidizing the handset, which isn’t that surprising as the original Arc also arrived Stateside with no carrier. The Xperia Arc S comes with an improved processor over the original, packing a 1.4Ghz single core processor compared to the 1GHz single core processor found in the original Arc.

The Xperia Arc S will come preloaded with Android 2.3.4 which has recently been released for the Xperia devices and is available in either Midnight Blue, Glossy Black, Pure White or Misty Silver. Head on over to the Sony Store to plaace an order for the Xperia Arc S.

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Sony Ericsson released the Android 2.3.4 update slightly earlier than expected when we saw the Android update hit Nordic handsets. However it took a little while longer for the update to be rolled out globally, which Sony Ericsson have now done.

The update is going out globally but, as always the ability to update is more than just region dependant, if your handset is network branded you will need to wait for the network to release the update to your phone.

The update brings Android up to version 2.3.4 from 2.3.3 which includes Google Talk with video chat for handsets with a front facing camera such as the Xperia Neo. Unfortunately because the Xperia Arc doesn’t feature a front facing camera, it will not get that part of the update. What it will get however, along with the Neo is 3D and 2D Sweep Panorama. You can now take panoramic photos in either 2D or 3D and view them on your TV through HDMI. You will also be able to connect USB peripherals, such as a keyboard, game controller or mouse through the Sony Ericsson LiveDock, turning your Xperia smartphone into a mini mobile PC.

Other new features include:

Updated Facebook inside Xperia
16x video zoom
Swipe to type
WiFi DLNA
Screen capture

To see if the update is available for your phone yet, head on in to the settings menu. From there select “About phone”, you’ll then be giving the option to do a “Software update”.

There has been rumors for a few years that Sony were looking to buy Ericsson out of the Sony Ericsson joint partnership which was created 10 years ago. It has now been confirmed by both Sony and Ericsson that Sony have paid Ericsson for full ownership of the venture.

Sony have paid €1.05 billion to Ericsson for their 50 percent stake in the company. As well as giving Sony full control over the franchise, Sony will have a cross licensing agreement, along with ownership of five patent families which are described as essential. The move is set to be finalised in January 2012, pending regulatory approval.

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The price of the Xperia Play just keeps dropping and dropping. Originally the handset was priced at £500 in the UK and recently saw a price drop which made it less than half of the original selling price. More recently, we’ve seen the Xperia Play at Argos for £180 but, unfortunately all the available stock has already been snapped up. Now the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is available for even less through O2. O2 have reduced the price of the Xperia Play to only £149.99 and does not require a top up. The price drop applies to both the standard black model and the O2 exclusive white model.

While the Xperia Play has received mixed reviews, this is a price that can’t be passed up and is in fact cheaper than Sony Ericsson’s budget Xperia phones, such as the Xperia Mini yet, packs more punch.

O2 Black Xperia Play

O2 White Xperia Play

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Sony Ericsson are looking for new members to join their Test Lab team. More specifically, it appears they are looking for people to be Xperia Ray ambassadors. As it is Sony Ericsson UK, the first and foremost important requirement is that you are based in the UK. Next up, they are looking for creative types, whether it be blogging, film making or a photography that you’re creative about, to join the Sony Ericsson UK Test Lab where there are currently eleven members.

Sony Ericsson say that they “want to know more about how people use our phones, so in exchange for you sharing your views and ideas with us we’ll give you our latest smartphones and accessories to test as they’re released” and are looking for two people who will add a creative dimension to the Test Lab.

If you’re interested in applying, you’ll need to be quick as there’s only until tomorrow left to send in your reasons why you should be an Xperia Ray ambassador. Head on over to the Sony Ericsson UK page here to find out how to apply.

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After just over 6 weeks, Minecraft is no longer an exclusive to the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. Today saw the game go live on the Android Market to other Android powered handsets, including the Xperia Neo and Xperia Arc. To celebrate the time it was an exclusive to Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play, the company have built a giant Xperia Play handset in the game.

With the game now available on more Android devices, the developers will be updating Minecraft: Pocket Edition and survival mode shouldn’t be too far away. Mojang have uploaded a video that demonstrates how the game can be played using touch screen controls, which you can watch after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

UK network and mobile phone retailer O2 are offering two of Sony Ericssons finest handsets to buyers at greatly reduced prices.

The Xperia Arc and Play are both on sale with O2 and can be picked up from as little as £10.50 a month on a 24 month contract. The Xperia Arc is on offer at £16.50 a month with 50 minutes, 250 texts and 500mb of data however, this can be reduced by decreasing the data bundle size to 100mb to just £13.50 a month. With O2 it is then possible to cancel the data bundle altogether once your contract has begun which would take the cost down to a superb £10.50 a month. Obviously, if you need more call time or data use then that deal isn’t going to be suitable but, o2 are offering a number of reduced price contracts which include a free Xperia Arc handset.

As for the Xperia Play, that is priced at a higher £27 a month for 200 minutes and unlimited texts with a 500mb data bundle attached. This is around £10 a month cheaper than the same deal when the handset is not included in the O2 sale. The same applies when it comes to reducing the cost of the contract by removing the data bundle which could take the monthly cost down to £21 a month with no data included. It is also possible to get the Xperia Play on a cheaper monthly contract however, there is a cost of upto £105 as an upfront payment for the handset on cheaper contracts. Higher call time and text contracts are available for the Play too.

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Sony Ericsson have added the extended user guide for their Xperia Ray mobile handset to their support website.

Containing the usual instructions for setting up your new Xperia Ray, the manual is 119 pages in length and contains information on the Sony Ericsson PlayNow service along with instructions on using preinstalled apps such as Neo Reader and a guide to help users when connecting their handsets to the internet wirelessly.

If you’re interested in viewing the manual, it can be downloaded via Sony Ericsson: HERE

The guide comes as a .PDF file so be aware that to view you will need a PDF reader.

As previously reported, the newly released Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray is available to buy in the UK. The handset has now been picked up by at least three of the major UK mobile carriers, namely Orange, O2 and Vodafone who have the Ray listed for sale on their respective websites.

The listing on the O2 website itself shows the Xperia Ray as in stock and it is available to buy on the network if purchasers go through third party sellers such as the Tesco phone shop. It is available from £15.50 a month which offers a free handset over 24 months.  The Xperia Ray is also available on the O2 £10.50 a month tariff but, costs £79.99 upfront to purchase that way. The Orange website is now showing the Ray as ‘coming soon’ but, is confirmed as coming to the network for the first time and is expected to be available on a variety of contract options and with a pay as you go deal too. Vodafone have the phone listed as available to buy and the handset is free with their £26 a month, 24 month contract.

Yesterday we learned that a representative from Sony Ericsson had confirmed that the Xperia family would receive an update to Android 4.0. Sony Ericsson have now said however, that despite the comments from the representative, there has been no official decision made with regards to Android 4.0. The official line from Sony Ericsson is:

“When it comes to future platforms of the Android OS, we will make them available to consumers in a timely manner, as long as they improve the user experience and are viable from a hardware point of view.”

Some commenters and bloggers take this to mean that the 2011 range of Xperia handsets won’t receive Android 4.0 and that they haven’t learned from their Xperia X10 mistakes. However, with not all that many details known about Ice Cream Sandwich, it’s perhaps wise to not get too far ahead until they know the handsets can definitely run the software without any problems. Sony Ericsson have already proved they’ve learned from their past mistakes. Since the release of the Xperia Arc and Xperia Play, the handsets have already been updated to Android 2.3.3 from 2.3.2 and 2.3.4 is promised for release this year. They haven’t just updated the Android version though either but, have added additional features, such as Facebook inside Xperia and the next update will bring FiX up to version 2 and we will see the inclusion of the ability to take 3D panoramic photos. Hopefully when Android 4.0 is released, Sony Ericsson will be able to provide an official update then.

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