Openness towards the developer community has been an important driving force for us for a long time. We’ve have, for example, published everything from open sourced binaries and code examples to DASH, and made it possible to unlock many of our smartphones and tablets. We’re now adding an experimental project we call Open SmartWatch to that list, resulting, we hope, in a lot of innovation. It means we’ll make it possible for advanced developers to create and flash alternative firmware to Sony SmartWatch, by sharing technical details and instructions. Find out more in the full post!

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Today marks the announcement of Xperia™ M, which is the latest model in the Xperia™ range of premium smartphones, and it brings a number of potent features often only associated with high-end models. Xperia™ M comes with a 1 GHz Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ S4 dual-core processor, a generous 4” FWVGA display, and a 5 megapixel fast-capture camera with auto-focus and HDR for pictures. Xperia™ M also comes in a dual SIM version called Xperia M_dual. Learn about all the specs and features in the full post.

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Today we added Xperia Tablet Z to our Android™ Open Source Project (AOSP) for Xperia™ devices. Xperia Tablet Z follows in the footsteps of Xperia Z and Xperia S, which are open for developers to explore. Learn how to participate and get the latest technical status in the full post.

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Today we’re happy to tell you that a number of Sony devices have been made available at Testdroid Cloud, which is a premier cloud-based Android testing platform for apps and games. Testing and verification are becoming more and more important for app and game developers, as more software platforms and devices are introduced all over the industry. To make it easier to verify your apps and games, Sony and Bitbar (the company behind Testdroid) have added a number of different Xperia™ devices to the Testdroid Cloud service. Read on to learn more about Testdroid and what Sony devices are currently available.

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Today, we’ve announced the new Xperia™ ZR, which closely follows on the heels of its bigger sibling, Xperia™ Z, with its waterproof* and dust-resistant capabilities. Xperia™ ZR comes equipped with a Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ S4 Pro quad-core 1.5 GHz processor, Adreno 320 GPU, 4.6” HD Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA® Engine 2, Android™ 4.1 (Jelly Bean), LTE, NFC, GLONASS, Battery STAMINA mode, and a 13 megapixel fast capture camera with HDR video and “Exmor RS™ for mobile”. Xperia™ ZR will launch in various global markets from Q2 2013 (availability will vary by market). Full specs are available after the jump.

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Last year, we published a story covering GLONASS (Globalnaya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema), a Russian, radio-based satellite navigation system covering the globe (locations mapped above), which a number of our Xperia™ devices support. In addition to an overview of GLONASS support in our latest Xperia phones from Sony Positioning Specialist, Magnus Persson, he also explained how you can incorporate the feature into your own apps. And in that time, our list of GLONASS-support devices has increased from 8 to 21. Read on to get the full list and a general recap of GLONASS technology.

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***Update: Software binaries updated. ***

Remember our Android Open Source Project for Xperia S? Because of the great interest we saw in that project, we’ve now decided to create an AOSP project for Xperia Z as well. This means that the software will be open for you as a developer to use and contribute to. This is a way for us to continue our commitment to support the open Android community. It is also a tool for us to facilitate and verify contributions to AOSP on the APQ8064 Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ S4 Pro platform. Get the details after the jump!

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With Sony’s power management setting called Battery STAMINA Mode, you can extend the standby time of your Xperia™ device by more than four times. With Battery STAMINA Mode turned on, the background activities of most applications are reduced when you turn off the screen. Read more on how it works after the jump!

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A long-sought-after functionality was added to the Developer World website last week, as we made the whole site fully responsive for most kind of screen resolutions. This means the site will adapt to basically whatever device and screen size you are browsing from, and make it really easy to read and navigate on all devices. So now you are all able to fully enjoy Developer World on everything from desktop computers to tablets and mobile phones! Learn more after the jump.

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Today, we’re introducing the Xperia™ SP & Xperia™ L, two new models joining the Xperia™ range of premium smartphones. Xperia™ SP comes with a 1.7 GHz Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ S4 Plus dual core processor with the Adreno 320 GPU, 1 GB RAM, 4.6” HD Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA® Engine 2, Android™ 4.1 (Jelly Bean), LTE, NFC, GLONASS, Battery STAMINA mode, and an 8MP camera with HDR for picture.  Xperia™ L offers a 1 GHz Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ S4 Plus dual core processor, 1 GB RAM, 4.3” FWVGA display, Android™ 4.1 (Jelly Bean), NFC, Battery STAMINA mode, and an 8MP camera with HDR for picture and movie. The new Xperia™ SP and Xperia™ L will both be available from Q2 2013. Get more specs after the jump.

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