Sony Ericsson

Now that Sony is getting its PlayStation Network back on track, there is finally a release date for the Xperia PLAY smartphone. Available for pre-order online at www.verizonwireless.com beginning May 19, it will sell for $199.99 with a new two-year customer agreement. The Xperia PLAY arrives in stores on May 26.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY is not your ordinary smartphone. Sure, it has all the features you would expect with an Android device – a 4-inch multi-touch display, support for Google Mobile Services, 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and a VGA front-facing camera for video chatting - but this phone was built for gaming! It comes pre-loaded with seven titles - Madden NFL 11, Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline, The Sims 3, Star Battalion, Crash Bandicoot and Tetris – all playable with a slide out game pad which has a directional keypad, dual analog touch joystick, two shoulder buttons and the four PlayStation symbol keys: circle, X, square and triangle. At launch, more than 50 game titles will be available for download via V CAST Apps.Read more

This week at Mobile World Congress Sony Ericsson announced the Xperia PLAY, the first PlayStation certified smartphone. Powered by Android Gingerbread 2.3, the smartphone will come preloaded with Asphalt Adrenaline 6, Bruce Lee, Star Battalion, The Sims 3, and Tetris, with more than 50 additional titles available for purchase when the phone launches at Verizon Wireless in the spring.

Additional features:

• 60fps play-back enabled through the Snapdragon 1Ghz process, optimized with enhanced graphical processor unit the Adreno 205
• Dedicated gaming controls for real console quality game play, including four-way directional keys, recognizable ABCD keys with PlayStation iconography, left/right shoulder keys and two analog touch inputs for joystick action
• 4-inch multi-touch display
• 5.0 megapixel camera

Read more

Congratulations to Mary from Memphis, TN! She was one of the lucky winners of BestStuff.com's "Super Smartphone Giveaway"! Valued at almost $400, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is an Android device with a 4-inch touch screen display, super-fast 1GHz Snapdragon processor and GPS. The smartphone also features an 8.1 megapixel camera – more megapixels than ANY other Android phone – and it has smile detection, face recognition, autofocus and an LED flash. The device comes with 1GB of on-board memory and a 2GB in-box memory card (expandable up to 32GB).

Available from both AT&T and T-Mobile, the Xperia X10 also features a variety of social media applications such as Mediascape and Timescape, allowing you to manage all of your communications in one place, browse conversations, check out your tweets on Twitter or photos, emails and texts.

Many thanks go out to the fine folks over at AT&T and Sony Ericsson for giving us the goods to host this contest!

Our next giveaway starts on Monday, so be sure to come back to BestStuff.com for your chance to win a Balanzza Mini Digital Luggage Scale!

T-Mobile this week announced that for one day only – Saturday, June 19 – every phone in every T-Mobile store is free. Starting at 8 a.m., go to a T-Mobile retail store and switch to any family plan, or add a new line to an existing family plan, and walk out of the store with a new phone for every new line with a two-year agreement.

No phones are excluded from the promotion. Over 30 devices are offered, including the new myTouch 3G Slide, HTC HD2, and Garminfone. Additional phones are available from Motorola, Nokia, RIM, Samsung, SonyEricsson, and Sharp. All phones will be available while supplies last, so you better arrive early to get the phone you want!

T-Mobile's free phones promotion is one day only, June 19, 2010 in every T-Mobile store across the country. For additional promotion details and a list of participating stores, visit www.t-mobile.com/celebratefamilies.

Sony Ericsson just launched the Aino multimedia smartphone in the United States. Though not cheap at $599.99, this 3G-enabled phone includes an 8.1 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, stereo Bluetooth headphones, charging base, 8GB microSD card and comes unlocked. It also has a Remote Play feature, which lets you access content from your PlayStation 3 and PC.

The Aino has a 3-inch, 432 x 240 touch screen display, media browser with 3D navigation, and another cool function, Media Home, which will check your PC every 30 minutes for videos, music and photos, and upload them from your PC to the Aino phone.

The Aino is now available at Sony stores and online at www.sonystyle.com for $599.99. Read more

Convergence is what stood out at me while attending PMA 2009. Here I am attending an awesome trade show about all things photography. Sony Ericsson is there showing off their new phones! Phones? Four of them specifically; C702 Cyber-shot phone, C902 Cyber-shot phone, C905 Cyber-shot phone and the C510 Cyber-shot phone. These camera phones were not only smaller than most point and shoot cameras at the trade show, but feature rich to boot!

C702 Cyber-shot phone is a 3.2 megapixel camera phone that is both dust and splash resistant. The camera function has Face Detection, Geo Tagging and Google Maps. The GPS is for location-based services and comes in Speed Black, and Cool Cyan colors. Read more

At Mobile World Congress this week, Sony Ericsson announced a new 12.1 megapixel camera phone…yes…12.1 megapixels! Not much information is being given at this time, but they are calling the phone “Idou” (expect the name to change as the people at Sony are saying that Idou is the concept name). The 3G smartphone will have a 3.5-inch 16:9 touchscreen, Xenon flash, Wi-Fi and will run on the Symbian operating system. It also comes with photo editing applications to edit your photos on the go. Good thing if you ask me. After all, what good it is to have so many megapixels if you can’t do anything with the pictures ON the device?

The phone will also feature Sony Ericsson’s new “Entertainment Unlimited” strategy which is said to bridge together communication and entertainment.

More details of the Idou will be announced later this year. Sony Ericsson says (right now, anyway) that the Idou will be available the 2nd half of 2009. www.sonyericsson.com/idou