sony ericsson
Sony Ericsson W960 assumes top spot
In the world of Sony Ericsson only, that is. The W960 is the latest Walkman phone to be announced, coming with 8GB of flash memory – more than enough space to store up to 700 albums or 8,000 songs. Not only that, you will be able to get 3G and WiFi connectivity, while the 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus ability snaps some pretty decent pictures under optimal conditions. Of course, while Sony Ericsson wants you to think that the W960 will replace your digital camera, cellphone, and MP3 player, you know better than that right? The W960 measures 109mm x 55mm x 16mm and weighs 119 grams. Check out a more comprehensive list of specifications after the jump.
• Tri-band GSM (900, 1800, 1900) and UMTS 2100
• 2.6″ TFT touchscreen with 282,144 colours and 240 x 320 (QVGA) resolution
• The ability to navigate through media stored on the phone using a stylus or your finger on the touch screen
• The ability to transfer music from a PC at the rate 1Gb every 3 minutes thanks to USB 2.0 PC connectivity
• Video playback at 30 frame per second full screen is al supported
• FM Radio with RDS
• Media Manager PRO, a PC program for organising media and optimising music, video and photos for use on the W960. Media Manger will replace the existing Disc2Phone software. Media Manager features include:
-SenseMe – automatically detects the mood of music when you import it into the phone allowing you to take better advantage of the Sense filtering / playback on the phone.-Transfer of music with automatic re-encoding if necessary and the ability to create play lists
– Imaging helps you move images both from and to the phone. It allows you to store images captured with the camera on the phone and to send images to the phone (including resizing to optimum size for wallpapers)
– Media feed allow you to enjoy video and audio podcast on your phone
• Support for TrackID music recognition software allowing you to record a clip of a song and instantly find out the track title, artist and the album. Furthermore TrackID has been enhanced on the W950 to provide more detailed information about the song being identified and there now support for extra searching options (e.g. a text search just giving the bands name)
• A stereo Bluetooth headset (HBH-DS220) will be included in the retail box in addition to the usual wired headset
• A redesigned look compared to the W950 with rounder edges and more defined keypad keys. The back key has moved from the side of the device to the keypad
• The usual range of UIQ and Sony Ericsson applications including the usual Document Viewers, Blogger, Opera Web Browser and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync email support
If you are rocking to the following devices from Sony – the Xperia Z3+, Xperia Z4 Tablet, Xperia C4, Xperia C5 Ultra, Xperia M4 Aqua, and Xperia M5, then perhaps it is time to sit up and take notice. It seems that support pages for all of these six devices have listed down Android 6.0 Marshmallow as the next version of the OS which will be arriving, never mind the fact that all of them happen to run on Android 5.0 Lollipop at the moment.
If true and all turns out according to plan, then it would mean that Sony would have given the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop update a miss, diving straight into development for Android 6.0 Marshmallow which has already been released. Still, it might take some time, so to see Android 6.0 Marshmallow arrive some time this year on the listed devices would most probably happen next year rather than in 2015.
Sony has decided that it is time for three of their older smartphones, the Xperia Z1, Xperia Z1 Compact, and Xperia Z Ultra to pick up the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop update at long last, following in the footsteps of the likes of the Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia ZR, and Xperia Tablet Z in the previous week.
What makes it all the more interesting is the fact that Sony has continued to extend support to these handsets despite them being relatively aged in the fast paced smartphone market. When you apply the update to all three handsets, they will all end up with the build number 14.6.A.0.368, and at the moment, this update will be made live in selected regions, although it is tipped to spread across to the rest of the world in the coming days and weeks.
Do expect to see the infamous Stagefright vulnerability plugged with this update, which is a good thing, among many other improvements and capabilities.
The Sony Xperia T2 Ultra Dual has been around for some time already, and it is no spring chicken in the big scheme of things where smartphones are concerned. Having said that, it is nice to see that the device itself is on the receiving end of the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop update, where it will see the version number bumped up to 19.4.A.0.182 upon installation.
Do bear in mind that the Sony Xperia T2 Ultra Dual happens to sport enough space to stash away dual SIM cards, and this is a slightly modified version of the Xperia T2 Ultra. With Android 5.1.1 Lollipop arriving on the Sony Xperia T2 Ultra Dual, this can only mean that the single SIM model should be able to get the very same update in due time, although nothing official has been revealed just yet. I guess we will just have to sit tight and see.