Developer World

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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Do you remember Sony’s ChkBugReport tool that was published on our GitHub last year? ChkBugReport is a tool for analysing the output of an Android™ bugreport. Now Pál Szász, who created the tool, has added some new features and made several updates to it. You can also download a presentation about ChkBugReport that Pál held at Droidcon Berlin a couple of weeks ago. Learn more after the jump!

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One of our most popular services here at Developer World is the flash tool for Xperia devices, which lets you flash Sony software on a device with unlocked boot loader. This is convenient if you want to go from a custom ROM to generic Sony software. We’ve now added software for several more models, most recently Xperia go, Xperia ray and Xperia neo V. At the moment, we support 13 different models, including Xperia Z and Xperia T. Check out the list of supported devices or click the read more link below for more information!

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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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Our friends at App Promo have just opened up their 2nd Annual Developer Survey, which looks at how developers are performing with their apps from a discovery and financial perspective. The study aims to gather data to illustrate trends and insights that represent the developer community at large, and which will be used to create an infographic and white paper at the end of May this year. The survey runs from now to May 5, 2013. As an incentive for completing the survey, App Promo is also giving away the chance to win an App Store Optimisation package worth $1,500. So get started on the App Promo survey right away!

Click the Read more link below to read all of our App Promo developer tips.

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Designing and implementing an efficient network communication in your Android application is not an easy task. This is something Sony research engineer Erik Hellman has put a lot of thought and work into, and he shared some of his best hints and tips regarding this at his presentation at Droidcon London 2012. Check out the video and the presentation after the jump.

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One of the unique features you’ll find with recent Xperia™ smartphones is a “blinds” effect that’s part of the lockscreen display – touch your finger anywhere on the screen, and the window shreds into horizontal blind slats. The BlindsView feature is also available on Xperia™ smartphones running the Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2 update (at the moment, Xperia™ TL). You can easily incorporate this graphical UI effect to your own standalone apps using our BlindsView tutorial from Johan Henricson, software project manager at Sony. You’ll also be able to download a separate BlindsView code example kit as part of this tutorial.

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If you’re a developer based in the US or Canada, and are eager to start testing your apps to ensure they work on the latest Xperia™ smartphones, you’re in luck! We’ve just added Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, and Xperia T to our Device Loaner Programme. And tablets and mobile accessories are also available, including the Xperia Tablet S and Sony SmartWatch. With the Device Loaner Programme, you can freely borrow a physical Xperia™ smartphone, tablet, or accessory device for up to 30 days, to ensure that your app works properly with Sony products. Read more about the programme after the jump.

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The battery life of smartphones and tablets is extremely important for many users, and in order to provide end users with good battery performance, device manufacturers have a joint responsibility together with all of you app developers. The power-save feature STAMINA mode, available on our latest Xperia™ devices including Xperia Z, is a clever way for us to improve the battery life for our users. And as an app developer, there are several things you can do to make your app more power efficient. Read on for five of our best tips, that will also ensure your app runs well with STAMINA mode turned on.

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