Developer World

We’re excited to announce a new promotion channel for game developers called Xperia exclusive, which will be visible on the majority of all Xperia™ smartphones and tablets. This channel will promote games and game developers who are willing to go the extra mile and create unique in-game content exclusive to Xperia™ smartphones. It could for example be special Xperia™-car, or the option to play as a new character. These games will also include a link from the main menu of the Xperia™ exclusive list (for the best discoverability of new games), and they will be fully optimised for Xperia™ smartphones. Are you a game developer who wants to be part of this? Learn more after the jump.

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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!

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*** 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!

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If you’re gearing up to attend Droidcon UK next week, don’t miss the opportunity to attend Erik Hellman’s session Fast, user friendly, and effective network communication on Android on Day 2. Erik, a research engineer here at Sony and a regular speaker at Droidcon events, sat down with the DroidCon organisers to discuss his Droidcon experiences, Android development, and how developers can make their applications better. Read the Erik Hellman interview on Droidcon News for the inside scoop.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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Ahoy ahoy developers! Here’s a short note for you – there are some parameters in class android.os.Build which are manufacturer and brand dependent, and as of now we are changing our manufacturer ID from “Sony Ericsson” to “Sony” in the parameter called android.os.Build.MANUFACTURER. Read on for more information on how to handle this.

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Sony is committed to be at the forefront of augmented reality (AR) research, which is all about creating live physical views that are enhanced by computer-generated sensory input. This week, Günter Alce and Klas Hermodsson from Sony’s mobile division are participating in the insideAR 2012 conference in Munich, Germany. Günter and Klas are part of the VENTURI project, which is all about constructing augmented realities in new ways, where the available information is presented in a ‘user’ rather than a ‘device’ centric way, which often is the case. This actually requires a change in how we think of and develop user interaction interfaces. Read on for more information VENTURI and other augmented reality research concepts!

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