Sony Ericsson surprised quite a lot of people today when they made the Android 2.3.3 update available for Italian Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 devices. Apart from receiving a new and updated version of Android, users will also find deeper Facebook intergration, USB tethering, WiFi hotspot, a new photo widget, and a sortable applications tray. The update can be downloaded via Sony Ericsson’s PC Companion software.
Good new for Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 users out there! Sony Ericsson will release Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread to your handset in late Q2, or early Q3. Sony Ericsson earlier stated that Eclair (Android 2.1) will be the last update for the Xperia X10. Extremely good news for Xperia X10 owners! Good work Sony Ericsson :)
The SE Xperia X10 mini and Xperia X10 mini pro will be left without this update.
Check out Sony Ericsson’s Q&A regarding the update.
Sony Ericsson confirmed on their official blog that DLNA support will never be added to the Xperia X10 family of phones. DLNA support was promised earlier, but today’s blog post unfortunately will let many owners down.
The Q&A from their blog:
Q: Wasn’t DLNA supposed to be in the latest update for Xperia X10?
A: That was our plan, as stated here back in May last year. However lots of things has changed since then like splitting the update into two parts, changes to timing, adding Pinch Zoom touch etc. One of the consequences of all those changes was unfortunately that DLNA had to be de-scoped. I know that there are 3rd party apps available that enables DLNA though so hopefully you can enjoy one of those.
Sony Ericsson just informed that the whole Xperia X10 family and the Xperia X8 are currently receiving a new firmware update. The biggest addition with this update will only affect Xperia X10 owners, who will see pinch-to-zoom added to their browser and Google Maps.
Here’s the changelog:
Addition of some bi-directional languages (Arabic, Farsi, Thai and Hebrew) – All products.
Pinch/zoom touch for mobile Internet and Google Maps. – Only Xperia X10.
Moxier in an updated version (2.7.13) that includes a great overview widget for e-mail, calendar and tasks.
Moxier e-mail shown in Timescape.
Possibilities of trimming videos in the phone.
Videos are transcoded to fit into MMS-messages even if they were recorded in high quality.
Minor changes to Mediascape with access to “Now Playing” in the top right corner.
Xperia X10 owners should see the update go live now, and for the rest of the products the update will go live within a week.
Sony Ericsson today announced on their official blog that the SE Xperia X10 will get its next big update in early 2011, and that the update will bring partial multi-touch on board! Partial meaning that it will not be OS wide, but application specific. For instance Angry Birds, the map and browser applications will see pinch and zoom, while other applications will not get it.
I also want to be clear on what to expect from this feature. The digitizer in the X10 is not perfect when it comes to multi touch, there will as an example be situations like when the movement of the two fingers cross each other on the X- or Y-axis that could cause strange behavior. (There has been much online debating around what is “good” and “bad” Multi Touch in competitor phones and this is following the same lines.)
Therefore we also will not enable it everywhere but the current plan is to enable it for the following use-cases:
- Pinch/Zoom in the web browser.
- Pinch/Zoom in Google Maps.
Besides that there is also support in third party applications but because of the limitations on e.g. crossing axis there might be situations where it behaves strangely while it will work just fine for most use-cases.
The support is basically for gestures like pinch/zoom so don’t expect e.g. multi touch gaming with buttons pressed simultaneously on different parts of the screen to work.
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 family is now getting the Android 2.1 update in Scandinavia. The video above shows you the steps needed to update your XPERIA X10 mini or XPERIA X10 mini pro to Android 2.1. Follow this link to see the same procedure done on the XPERIA X10.
Sony Ericsson today announced that they will begin rolling out the long awaited software update to Android 2.1. The XPERIA X10 family will receive the update starting this Sunday. Scandinavia will be the first market where it is released, so don’t get paranoid if you won’t receive it this Sunday :)
Here is the changelog for the XPERIA X10 family’s Android 2.1 update looks like this:
Xperia X10:
HD video recording with continuous auto-focus for high quality videos
Upgrade of the Android platform to Android 2.1
New back up and restore application, with extended content back up
5 homescreens for apps, widgets, shortcuts and folders
Social phonebook which automatically syncs contact pictures from Facebook and shows when your friends are online
Xperia X10 mini and X10 mini pro:
Improved Bluetooth functionality with support for sending and receiving pictures, contacts and more
New backup and restore application with extended content back up
Automatic synchronization of your contact pictures between Facebook and your phone book
Improved ways of handling pictures, audio, text and numbers in your messages
Upgrade of the Android platform to Android platform 2.1
Sony Ericsson has published the first official promo video showing the benefits of upgrading to Android 2.1. Even though there’s a text in the video that the update is available now, it isn’t. You still have to wait a little longer to get your hands on the Android 2.1 love for the XPERIA X10 series.
