By admin
17th March 2010.
14:43
Monthly Archives: March 2010
Finally an update on the question of Equalizer for Satio and Vivaz. As some of you might know one important feedback from you the readers of this blog has been that you want an equalizer in Satio and Vivaz. Since I got this feedback and saw your engagement in the issue I’ve worked quite a lot with trying to make that happen. As it turned out it unfortunately hasn’t been possible to add it in an integrated way in a software update. However some real hero colleagues of mine decided to try to build it as a separate application instead so I’m now delighted to at least offer a kind of solution for those of you that have been missing an equalizer.
For most markets there is now an free application called “Equalizer” available on PlayNow in the music category under applications. This equalizer will give you the following different options: Off, Classical, Jazz, Dance, Party, Pop, Rock, Spoken Word, Loudness, Mega Bass and Treble Boost. As I understood it it will equalize all music played in the phone, also the setting it makes is global and stay there if the Equalizer application is closed and also even stays after rebooting the phone. There are two important notes though: First of all this application needs the latest update to work on Satio (on Vivaz it works on the launch SW of course) and also since it’s a separate application it needs to be started separately when you want to start using it i.e. it’s not included under options in e.g. the music player. When an equalizer setting has been chosen it should stay even if the application is closed or the phone rebooted.
I’m well aware that it would have been even better to have a fully integrated equalizer and I’m sorry that we don’t have that. Still I hope that this solution will work for those of you that really feel that an equalizer has been missed a lot.
Here are some screenshots and a short video I shot to show you how it works. (Sorry for the shaky video – I didn’t have my tripod in the office today so I had to navigate the Satio with one hand while filming with a Vivaz with the other hand)
To continue on what has become a good tradition it’s now time for unboxing of XPERIA X10 now when we have our first commercial samples here in the office. This time Gustaf is on vacation so my friend Mårten helped me out instead. We show the boxes for both colors of XPERIA X10 and also show a bit of what to expect in the box. We also tried to show a bit more of what the boxes look like since I guess most of you have seen quite a few videos of the phone by now 
The clip is shot with Vivaz so to get an HD-experience remember to click Watch on YouTube and select 720p. (This will also show a bit on the continous auto focus working, it struggles a bit from time to time in indoor lighting but I think it does quite a good job! This time I also set white balance manually)
As for the earlier unboxings I’d like to remind about the fact that kit content differs between markets and service providers so there might be more things in the kit that will be available on your market.
The next software update for Satio is now just around the corner. Timing on the update is however different for different markets and operator branded versions. The first ones should start to come up this weekend and then continue over the coming week. However it might differ slightly between markets as some kits might need approval from operators and can therefore take some more time, still I would expect most versions of Satio to have the new software available in latest a few weeks from now.
The update will be available through the Update Service client found at www.sonyericsson.com/update
A software update is important from many perspectives, of course it should rectify some issues, optimize performance even further etc but for this case I’m glad to announce that it will also add and improve some features.
Here’s the list of highlights:
- Support for WVGA video recording – The already great video recording will be enhanced to fit the wide screen format and hence resolution is also slightly increased to 864 * 480 pixles. (the preset size will still be VGA, user has to change to get WVGA)
- Upload of pictures to Facebook – It will be possible to upload pictures directly from the picture menu you have on the home screen or from the Media UI.
- Youtube video uploading – It will be possible to upload videos to Youtube directly from the Media UI.
- Conversational messaging – “Conversations” will be nicely integrated in the messaging menu in order to easily find and inspire to more conversations with your friends.
- DLNA support – The new software will support DLNA media server for easy transfer of audio and still pictures. (Note that video is not supported)
- UI improvements – On top of above, several minor UI improvements have been done in order to optimize the user experience.
- The Facebook application that is now available on PlayNow for free download will be included in the sw.
So in a few days time I think that at least many of you will be able to try this new update out. Please let us know how it turns out in the comments section.
Have a great weekend all!
Uploading videos to Youtube directly from the phone may not sound like the most revolutionary thing for a hardcore mobile techie. But for the more average mobile phone user, I actually think this possibility may be seen as very cool and also very useful. With the video quality of mobile phones increasing (this video is for example shoot with my Vivaz in HD ) and peoples growing desire to constantly share with their friends their status and what they are doing right now, I believe a lot more people would use this functionally if they knew how easy it is. Below is a short video of me uploading a full quality video to Youtube from my Xperia X10 with just a few “klicks” (could you refer to “klicks” on a touch screen… ?).
To get started, the only thing you have to do is to register an account with Youtube. This can also be done directly from the phone itself. Then it runs increadibly smoothly.
Enjoy!
BTW – we just realized that Rikard’s previous post was the 100th post on this blog since we started 7 September last year – we will celebrate that with some apple cake after lunch today
