A few weeks back our friends at the Xperia™ news blog posted a piece about Xperia T being HD Voice certified (in fact, the coming Xperia™ V is also HD Voice certified). Now, we will dive deeper into the HD Voice technology. This is a technology that enables you to get superior voice quality during calls, thanks to speech codec, acoustic design and signal processing enhancements. Read more about how HD Voice works after the jump!
If you’re thinking about extending your app with support for a Small App, here’s some inspiration for you. A Small App is an app that can run on top of other activities on the Xperia Tablet S. But how is it like to develop a Small App? I talked to Paco Salazar, who developed the Task Changer Small App, to learn more about how he used the Small App feature in the Sony Add-on SDK. Get the full story after the jump.
And don’t forget that you can get a free Xperia Tablet S by telling us about your Small App!
Did you miss Droidcon and the VHack in London last week, or do you feel like re-living some of the action? No worries, we’ve gathered up some of the highlights, as well as images and presentations from Sony. Droidcon London is one of biggest and most influential Android events in Europe, gathering about 1100 attendees this year. And the VHack gathered about 70 top developers from all over Europe who celebrated five years of Android by hacking their way through Friday and Sunday. Check it all out after the jump.
![Get all the highlights from Droidcon and VHack London [presentations+pictures]](http://developer-static.se-mc.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2012/11/droidcon_660x384-220x128.jpg)
Have you heard about Linaro? It’s a non-profit organisation made up of eight members working to improve the Linux kernel for ARM architectures (ARM is one of the largest processor developers in the industry). At Sony, we think this initiative is really great, and we can see clear benefits of cooperating in Linux development. Read on as Tony Månsson, Linux developer at Sony, explains why Linaro is so important, and how you can get started on working on the kernel yourself.
On Developer World, we recently made available the Sony Add-on SDK, which lets you support our Small App feature on the new Xperia Tablet S. If you want to enable your existing app to also function as a Small App, you simply have to add some simple code to your app. From a developer’s perspective, adding Small App support is very similar to how you add widget support. And by extending your app with a Small App, you can gain visibility for your app along with the added functionality. Read on for instructions!
*** UPDATE: This campaign has now ended. ***
App developer? Today we’re kicking off a campaign in search of great Small Apps, and in return we will hand out an Xperia™ Tablet S for free to the developer of the app we like the most. Small Apps is a new multi-tasking functionality available on the new Xperia Tablet S, and a Small App can run on top of any other activity or be minimised to the edge for quick access. This enables true multi-tasking! And by using the Sony Add-on SDK and the Small Apps code example and documentation, you can easily extend your app to include the Small App functionality, which will help you gain visibility for your app. Read on for the details on how to get the chance to receive a free Xperia™ Tablet S!
Imagine that you would be able to write joint tweets with a friend, on his or her connected TV, with your friend using a tablet to start writing the tweet, and you adding a link and some hash tags from your smartphone to the same tweet before you publish it. Imagine yourself playing games together using different devices but playing the same game at the same time. Imagine a friend joining the game remotely, on a yet another device such as a desktop computer. All this are visions imagined by the researchers in the EU-funded collaborative* research project called webinos. Read on as Claes Nilsson, researcher at Sony and member of the project, explains more.
If you’re hungry for some meaty developer sessions, then you might want to check out the Big Android BBQ. This preeminent mobile technology conference for Android developers and enthusiasts takes place in Hurst, Texas, USA, from October 19-21. We will be there running a number of interesting and useful speaker sessions, such as a session on how to work with a dynamic sensor HAL. You will also be able to visit our booth to check out our latest products, an opportunity to talk with some of our engineering experts, and maybe pitch us an app idea for a SmartWatch app extension. Learn more about the event and all the Sony activities after the jump.
This spring, we introduced a brand new technology called Floating touch in Xperia sola. This unique user experience lets you control parts of the user interface (UI) by simply letting your finger hover above the touchscreen. And with the release of the new Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) update, a Floating touch API is now available. This means you can add Floating touch™ support to your apps! To learn more about this, check out the Floating Touch API tutorial made by Andreas Sandblad, Software Architect at Sony. You’ll get all the details about this API plus a code example, which will enable you to get an innovative edge on your competition!
![Floating touch™ API now available [code example + tutorial]](http://developer-static.se-mc.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2012/10/FloatingTouch_660x3841-220x128.jpg)
Have you heard of our new feature called Extended Standby Mode, which became available for Xperia P earlier this autumn? With Extended Standby Mode, you can increase your standby time with up to four times. Now it reaches Xperia U, Xperia sola and Xperia go with the Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) software upgrade, and we thought we would give you some more details about how Extended Standby Mode really works, and how much power you can save. Read more after the jump!
![Learn about Extended Standby Mode, Sony’s new power save feature [video]](http://img.youtube.com/vi/XM2fSp1_XuM/0.jpg)
