Read more about Xperia™ GX and Xperia™ SX after the jump.

Key features of Xperia™ GX

• 1.5GHz dual-core processor for fast performance.
• 16 GB internal flash storage.
• 4.6” Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA® engine.
• 13 MP camera resolution with Sony Exmor R for mobile.
• HD video recording.
• Will be launched with Google™ Android™ 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

Key features of Xperia™ SX

• 1.5GHz dual-core processor for fast performance.
• 8 GB internal flash storage.
• 3.7” Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA® engine.
• 8 MP camera resolution with Sony Exmor R for mobile.
• HD video recording.
• Infrared port data exchange.
• Mobile wallet.
• Mobile TV.
• Launched with Google™ Android™ 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

Xperia™ GX and Xperia™ SX will be available to the Japanese market from summer 2012. The available colours are black and white. For more information, check out the official Xperia GX and Xperia SX press release.

AnDevCon is all about Android developers
AnDevCon III is happening from the 14^th of 17^th of May at the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame, California. The event is one of the most influential Android conferences in the world. As a major sponsor, we’ll have our own booth (#406) where you can try out our latest smartphones and Smart Extras, including the new Sony SmartWatch.

Don’t miss the Sony SmartWatch developer session
If you come visit us at the booth, you’ll also have an opportunity to chat with Sony business managers and developer engineers. Most importantly, we’re hosting a developer session on Wednesday, May 16^th at 3:30 PM where Magus Helgstrand from the Sony Mobile Companion Products team will teach you how to develop your own SmartWatch app extensions. By doing so, you can create new, innovative use cases and get better visibility by getting exposed in the SmartWatch ecosystem. For more information on this session, and to get some hands on demonstrations of other new Sony products, come to booth #406.

Apply to get SmartWatch
Starting shortly, we will also setup a SmartWatch developer incentive, where you can apply to get a SmartWatch for free if you are planning to develop an app extension for SmartWatch. If you notify us about your app extension and once you’ve uploaded it to Google Play, we will send you a complimentary headset (if you’ve created a substantial app extension). The most interesting new app extensions will also have the chance to get promoted in Sony’s online marketing channels!

More information about this incentive will be published shortly on this site. But the best thing is, that if you’re attending AnDevCon, you can come talk to us at the booth and apply to get a SmartWatch straight away!

Get a discount on your conference pass
It’s not too late to register for AnDevCon. As a compliment, you can use the discount code SONY on the AnDevCon registration page and you’ll save $200 US off the full conference pass!

So will you be going to AnDevCon this year? What are you most looking forward to?

More information

• Read the SmartWatch Development 101 session abstract on our Developer World Event Calendar.
• Learn more and register for AnDevCon III.
• Get the technical specs for SmartWatch.
• Learn how to develop apps using the Smart Extension SDK.
• Stay connected with us and all our latest AnDevCon news through Twitter (@SonyXperiaDev).

Anfish is an open source project with the purpose to provide you with interesting stats related to your Android device. You can see the popularity of different Android OS versions, as well as the percentage of Android devices that are rooted. You can also see what devices and network operators are popular, and you can get stats by country or worldwide presented in neat pie charts.

In addition to the statistics data, Anfish also provides detailed information about your smartphone’s type of ROM, CPU, storage, camera and sensors among other things. Download Anfish on Google Play and let us know if you like it as much as we do!

More information

• Download Anfish on Google Play.
• Check out the Anfish open source project site.
• Visit AZSoft Technology Inc.

Continue reading for downloads, details on the extensions and instructions how to use them!

Music player extension running on SmartWatch. When integrated with a music player, it shows info about track and artist.

Extend your music player to SmartWatch with the Music extension
The Music extension is used to control music playback on the phone from the SmartWatch accessory. It shows the track currently being played and you can start or pause playback, go to next track, go to previous track and control the volume. The open source version of the Music extension works with the Android vanilla Music player or by emulating media button key events.

The Music extension is designed to make it easy to integrate your own music player. In the Music extension, each supported player is interfaced through the PlaybackService interface. The Music extension already includes the GenericPlaybackService for the Android vanilla Music player, and the MediaButtonPlaybackService that sends MediaButtonIntents to the player registered in the Android AudioManager. To make an extension for your own music player you must implement another instance of the PlaybackService interface that knows how to control your own music player. This new class should then be added to the MediaPlayerAdapter and MusicRemotePreference in a similar way as the existing services. For more details on how to add support for your music player, see the SmartWatch extensions open source code.

Screenshot showing 8 Game on the Sony SmartWatch. The user can choose to play the games with numbered tiles or use an image from the phone.

Develop your own game based on the 8 Game extension
The 8 Game extension is a simple puzzle game for SmartWatch. The purpose of the game is to reorder the tiles on the screen until you see the full image. You can either use an image on the phone, or use tiles with numbers. To move a tile, you press it, or swipe it in the direction you want to move it. Once the tiles are in the correct order, you can choose to share the results by e-mail, SMS text message or through a social media app. If you long press during the game, it will bring up a menu where you can start a new game.

How to download and import projects into Eclipse
To use the Music player and 8 Game extensions, you need to download our Smart Extension SDK. Both these extensions are built using the Smart Extension API, and the helper classes from the Smart Extension Utils, which are part of the Smart Extension SDK. The Smart Extension API and the Smart Extension Utils are two separate Android library projects that must be imported into Eclipse to be able to build the extensions.

How to import the Smart Extension SDK into Eclipse:

1. Download and extract the Smart Extension SDK.
2. In Eclipse, click File > New > Project… > Android > Android Project > Create from the existing source and select the SmartExtensionAPI. Set the project name to SmartExtensionAPI.
3. Click File > New > Project… > Android > Android Project > Create from the existing source and select the SmartExtensionUtils. Set the project name to SmartExtensionUtils.

How to import the extensions into Eclipse:

1. Download the SmartWatch extensions.
2. Extract the extensions to the same folder as the SDK.
3. In Eclipse, click File > New > Project… > Android > Android Project > Create from the existing source and select the MusicExtension or the EightPuzzleExtension depending on which project you want to use.

As the use of mobile apps becomes a daily part of life, more attention is being paid to how apps collect and use personal data. While some governments have yet to pass laws that require developers to fully disclose when apps collect and transmit data, the State of California has already taken steps to protect app users and will be working with a number of major tech companies to strengthen privacy protection for global app consumers. According to their recent announcement, six of the leading mobile application platforms (including Google) signed an agreement to foster innovation in privacy protection, promote transparency, and facilitate compliance with mobile privacy laws, including the California Online Privacy Protection Act (OPPA).

California mobile app privacy laws

Along with OPPA, mobile app users in California are further protected under California’s Unfair Competition Law or False Advertising Law. Under these regulations, any app that collect personal data from a California resident is required to have a privacy policy that states what information is collected and what that information is used for.  Any app that doesn’t adhere to these standards is subject to prosecution. The act has a very broad scope, so whether you’re a developer based out of Korea, Sweden, or Israel, as long as you have someone accessing your app in California, the same rules apply to you. A California resident can simply file a complaint with the Attorney General or take personal legal action through a private attorney.

Only collect the user data that you need

Assuming that you’ve informed your app users and have their permission, what kind of information should you collect? It should be just the basics, and even then, only the information that you really need. If you have a GPS or navigation-based app, of course it makes sense that you’ll need to location details, but it’s not necessary to have access to users’ contacts list. And if you’ve developed something as basic as a flashlight app, you probably don’t need to collect any information at all.

Protect collected and transmitted user data!

If it’s absolutely necessary to collect and transmit data, you need to ensure that the collected data is handled safely. Employ proper file permissions. Encrypt the locally stored data before sending it to the server to help protect the user’s confidential information. When communicating with a server over HTTP, avoid encoding user information in a URL that is used with HTTP. Instead, post it in a message body. Putting information in the URL increased the chances that it will be automatically logged.

Android Developers Blog – Best practices for handling Android user data.

More best practices for handling Android user data

We also would like to share some valuable hints on how to manage Android user data from Nick Kralevich, an engineer with the Android Security Team. In his article, Nick provides several key points to consider when developing your Android applications:

• Maintain a privacy policy – Trustworthy applications are up-front about the data they collect and the reasons for collecting it. Users are generally happy to share information via such apps if they believe they will personally benefit. A clear and concise privacy policy, with details about the type of information collected and how it’s used, goes a long way towards generating trust and good will.
• Minimise permissions – Android is unique among mobile operating systems for its simple, straightforward, operating-system-enforced permission model. All Android applications must declare the permissions they require, and users must approve these permissions before the application is installed. Users tend to distrust applications that require excessive permissions.
• Give your users a choice regarding data collection – Users are often happy to share their information, but they want control over that sharing. Trustworthy applications give users control over their information. For example, the Android Browser has privacy settings which enable users to control how their information is shared.
• Don’t collect unnecessary information – Trustworthy applications limit the kinds of data they collect. Collecting unnecessary information, especially if you never use it, just invites suspicion. When in doubt, don’t collect it.
• Don’t send data off the device – If you have to handle user data, ensure that the data remains on the device whenever possible. Users are comforted knowing that their private information strictly resides in the phone. Sending data outside the phone, even if done for the user’s benefit, tends to draw suspicion.
• … but if you have to, use encryption and data minimization – Sometimes, the collection of data is necessary. In that case, applications need to ensure that it is handled safely. A privacy policy will avoid leading to surprised and irritated users; in some cases, it may be advisable to prompt the user before transmitting data off-device.
• Don’t use code you don’t understand – In the open-source Android environment, it’s common (and good) practice to rely heavily on other people’s code, in the form of libraries and frameworks. But if that code is handling your users’ information inappropriately, it’s your problem. So make a point of checking code before you rely on it.
• Don’t log device or user specific information – Application developers should be careful about on-device logs. Android makes it easy to write to the phone’s log, and anyone who has looked at “logcat” output knows that it is full of important but seemingly random debugging information from many applications. In Android, logs are a shared resource, and are available to an application with the READ_LOGS permission (only with user consent, of course!). Even though the phone log data is temporary and erased on reboot, inappropriate logging of user information could inadvertently leak user data to other applications.

***

When you create a mobile app, it’s usually with the best intentions for your users – you want them to enjoy your game, save some time or money with a handy app, and spread its popularity among friends. At the same time, your users are putting their trust in your app by agreeing to your apps permissions, which includes disclosing personal data. Though you might not have any app users in California, it’s still best practice to your let your users know if you are collecting any information. Keep that trustworthiness going by ensuring your app only collects that data it needs, and make sure you keep that user data secure – your users will truly appreciate it!

App developers and tech enthusiasts, so what do you say? Will you take any extra efforts because of these laws? Are you considering privacy issues while downloading new apps? Make your voice heard!

More information

• Find out about California’s Online Privacy Protection Act (OPPA).
• Read Nick Kravelich’s article on best practices for handling Android user data.
• Learn more about using security and permissions in Android development.
• Get a general overview on Android Security at the Android Open Source Project.

ApkAnalyser is a static, virtual analysis tool for examining and validating the development work of your Android™ app. It’s a complete tool chain which supports modification of the binary application with more printouts. You are then able to repack, install, run and verify the result from logcat. ApkAnalyser also supports resource analysis, and you can decode XML, look up resource references and detect potential issues in your app. This tool is completely written in Java and requires JRE 1.6 or above. It works on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. To download and install it, please check out the instructions below.

Key features

ApkAnalyser actually includes a number of useful features in several different areas, such as when you’re exploring code and XML, digging deeper in the architecture and dependencies, working with injection and deodexing, or when you’re making a resource analysis. Other features include:

• Explore packages, classes, methods and fields, and look up packages, classes, methods, references and read/write accesses.
• Disassemble Dalvik bytecode methods with syntaxes highlighted.
• Decode Android XML files with syntaxes highlighted.
• Display UML packages and class diagrams, and highlight package and class dependencies.
• Modify the APK file with predefined Dalvik bytecode injections.
• View the logcat with debug level filters.
• Support odex applications and libraries.
• List resource IDs and its contents.
• Find unused resources by resource ID or files.
• Find system resource (@android) references.

For more information about the different features, check out the APKAnalyser wiki page.

Download ApkAnalyser and get started
So if you’re an Android™ app developer, ApkAnalyser might speed up your analysis work and give you a lot more insights. Here’s how to download and install it:

1. Download the ApkAnalyser jar file from the Developer World GitHub.
2. Copy the jar file to your local disk and execute the following command in the command prompt to start ApkAnalyser: java -Xmx1024m -jar ApkAnalyser.jar
3. Before you start to analyse your apps, you need to configure the ApkAnalyser. Go to File > Set paths. In the Classpath tab, you can select several jar files or odex files to be loaded as reference libraries. Or you can simply pick a platform folder in the Android SDK tab, for example C:\android-sdk-windows\platforms\android-15. ApkAnalyser will then import all the jar files in that folder. After that, add the APK file on the right side.
4. Go to File > Settings. Change adb executable path to point out the location of adb, for example C:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools\adb.exe.
5. Start analysing your app by clicking File> Analyse.

The main view of ApkAnalyser
Now if you’ve downloaded and installed ApkAnalyser, you might want to take a quick look around the UI (to learn more, check out the Developer World GitHub APKAanalyser wiki). The main window of ApkAnalyser consists of three areas. In the upper left, the tree lists reference libraries with a numerical reference counter. In the upper right, the tree shows the classes and resources of the targeted APK file.

ApkAnalyser’s main window.

When the fields, methods or resource IDs are expanded in the tree, the method invocations, field accesses or resource references for each item will be listed.

Expanded tree showing the reference of the resource ID.

Expanded tree showing the field access and method invocation references.

The area at the bottom of the main view is a preview window. It shows different types of information according to what you select in the right and left trees. In general, there are four kinds of output in the preview window:

1. UML diagrams for packages and classes.
2. A Dalvik disassembler for methods.
   

   The Dalvik disassembler.

3. A resource detail view for resource IDs.
4. An XML decoder for XML resources.
   

   The XML decoder.

Verifying resources with ApkAnalyser

Another good use of ApkAnalyser is to make it help you verify resources. Maybe you’re tired of seeing Resources$NotFoundException when your apps are crashing? Or maybe you have some text strings missing translation?  Here are some scenarios where ApkAnalyser can help you:

• When there’s missing resources in the package. The resource is registered but the content is missing while Android Asset Packaging Tool (aapt) packs it.
• When there’s no DPI specific resource. The DPI specific resource is missing, and there is no default value on that resource.
• When there’s no default value of the resource.
• When there’s missing translations. ApkAnalyer will then collect all the language information from the resource file (resources.arsc), and use it to verify the resources one by one. A report will then be generated, showing all the resources that are missing some language configurations.

All of this will help you verify all the resources, and list potential problems.

To verify your resources, click Resource > Verify xml resources. All you need to do is to provide the screen pixel density (dpi) of your targeting device. “ldpi”, “mdpi”, “hdpi” or “xhdpi” can be selected in the sub menu, and if the application is not a specific DPI build, “nodpi” could be selected.

Bytecode modifications
ApkAnalyser also makes it possible to create a set of bytecode modifications, which could be applied to the APK file in a batch. This automatically adds printouts of suspicious pieces of code, to support you in investigating the execution flow of the application.

You can do this by using any of the two quick samples below. You can choose to apply them on some packages, classes or even the whole APK. The first sample will print all the input parameters of a method in the ApiDemo application from Android SDK. The second sample shows how to get the return value of a method.

How to print all the input parameters of a method:

1. In the targeted APK’s tree, navigate to “com.example.android.apis.graphics”.
2. Select “FingerPaint$MyView.”
3. Right click “touch_move(float x, float y).”
4. Apply “Print method entry(with params)”.

This will append the following output to the logcat when the method is being invoked:

>com.example.android.apis.graphics.FingerPaint$MyView:touch_move(float x, float y)void(0,102)

parameter[1]: float y = 290.0

How to get the return value of a method:

1. In the targeted APK’s tree, navigate to “com.example.android.apis.graphics.”
2. Select “FingerPaint$MyView.”
3. Right click “onTouchEvent(android.view.MotionEvent event) boolean.“
4. Apply “Print method exit(with return value)”.

This will append the following output to the logcat when the method returns:

< com.example.android.apis.graphics.FingerPaint$MyView:onTouchEvent(android.view.MotionEvent event)boolean(10,137)

return: boolean = true

More than twenty types of modifications to create different sets of bytecode are supported. To find out more about these, a complete tutorial is available on the Developer World GitHub APKAnalyser tutorial wiki page.

Use and improve ApkAnalyser
We hope many of you will have great use of ApkAnalyser – feel free to start downloading it today! Since ApkAnalyser is open source, we would be really happy if you would work together with us to improve this tool. If you have any ideas, feel free to contact us, either through the comments of this blogpost, or by checking out the ApkAnalyser forum thread on XDA forum.

So what do you think? Will this tool be useful for you?

More information:

• Download the ApkAnalyser jar-file to start using the tool.
• Download the ApkAnalyser source code from the Developer World GitHub.
• Read more on the ApkAnalyser wiki pages.
• Check out the ApkAnalyser analysis and injection tutorials.
• Learn more in the ApkAnalyser troubleshooting section.
• Check out other Sony Ericsson analysis tools for developers.

Now as you might have seen, we’ve continuously kept you updated on our work with the ICS upgrade, and we started by telling you about what we do to get the latest software release from Google working on our Xperia™ smartphones in the article Ice Cream Sandwich – from source code release to software upgrade. Then we released ICS alpha and ICS beta versions of the coming software upgrade.

However, although ICS is new and compelling in many ways, we would like all of our users to make an informed decision when selecting what Android™ software to use. We are actually proud to say that our Gingerbread software is very stable and has great performance, so it’s not a bad idea to stay on this release. Ice Cream Sandwich is more intensive, for example in terms of resource usage. As smartphones become more capable, our own applications, as well as the Google Mobile Services (GMS) applications, are becoming more advanced, which means that they require more CPU power, run more network activities and use more RAM. On the other hand, ICS brings a refined UI and some nice new features as described below.

Comparison of the look and feel in Gingerbread (left) and Ice Cream Sandwich (right).

New features in ICS
From a UI perspective, ICS is based on a new look and feel, the Holo theme. In order to accommodate the new look of Android, we decided to do an extensive touch up of our own assets, since the graphical assets of the Holo theme cannot be changed in any way as stated in the Android Compatibility Definition Document (CDD). New looks have been added in the platform layer as well as in the application layer. All in all, well over a thousand icons have been modified. In addition, we have deployed new wallpapers and application backgrounds, which harmonise more with the flatter graphical structures of ICS.

In ICS, the activity manager has a completely new UI, where all running apps are shown as thumbnails in a list. To close an activity, you can simply swipe it out of the list. ICS also introduces a face recognition app as a way to unlock the phone, called Face Unlock. Face Unlock uses the front-facing camera and advanced object recognition algorithms. It is included in our ICS upgrade for all phones that have a front-facing camera.

The contact list will show more information about the contacts, including updates from social networks. In the calendar, colour coding has been added and it is now possible to zoom. There is also support for a new type of voicemail that is more visual, offering transcriptions of voice messages.

When it comes to ICS, it’s a major upgrade of Android™, and there are a lot of things that have changed compared to the Gingerbread release. Some of these changes affect the performance and stability of the system, for example by using more CPU power and RAM. ICS was developed with Galaxy Nexus in mind, which is based on a TI platform with dual-core processor and 1GB RAM. We are now adapting ICS to run on our 2011 Xperia™ smartphones, which are all built on a Qualcomm platform with single core and 512 MB RAM. This means that in some cases, the resource usage in ICS is heavier on the system compared to Gingerbread. The following sections identify some key areas where there is a  difference between ICS and Gingerbread.

Increased RAM usage
In general, it can be said that the RAM is the working memory in the phone, used by running processes in contrast to the flash memory, which is mainly used to store things. As you might understand, this is a simplified explanation and might not be entirely true in all cases. However, it can serve as a help to understand the difference between the RAM and the flash memory of the phone. To see how much RAM is currently used, go to Applications in the Settings app of your Xperia™ phone.

Now, let’s look at how the RAM is used. Out of our 512MB RAM, about a third is used for functions that require a dedicated memory slot to operate fast enough. For example, this is the case for certain multimedia functions. The remaining space, which is at least 340MB, is reserved for the Linux user space, as required in the Android Compatibility Definition Document (CDD). Within the Linux user space, functions like the activity manager and Home screen app are running.

Another interesting thing is that many apps use slightly more RAM in ICS. For example, the web browser is quite intensive, and our measurements indicate that it uses 20-30MB more in ICS compared to Gingerbread. All in all, there are a lot of changes that together result in greater RAM requirement.

Illustration of the RAM usage.

When running low on RAM, typically with less than approximately 40MB left, the activity manager will start to close processes according to priority. At first, idle background activities are killed. The last thing to be closed down is the foreground activity. We have described this briefly in the table below. For more information, check out Android developers. (Please note that all figures mentioned about RAM usage are approximations and will differ depending on phone model and use case.)

Table showing different types of processes. When running out of RAM, the activity manager starts shutting down processes from the bottom and up, so that the last things to close are foreground and persistent activities.

Processes that are closed will obviously have to be restarted when the user enters the app again, which takes time and slows the system down. For example, when running a heavy game that uses all available RAM, the activity manager will be forced to kill all processes running in the background. This might include vital functions like the dialler and even the Home screen application. When you exit your game, there is a risk that the phone is perceived as slow, since the Home screen app will have to be restarted, just like every other activity you access afterwards.

Slower interaction with the SQL database
Another change in ICS compared to Gingerbread is that Google has moved a lot of the SQL handling from the native to the Java layer. In our internal studies, we have seen that read and write operations to the SQL database takes longer time, which slows down the apps. Many applications perform a lot of SQL operations when started, which greatly impacts the start-up time.

According to good practice, database operations or http requests should not be performed in the main thread. However, we know that there are quite a few applications that perform these kinds of operations directly in the main thread, which might cause them to hold up other operations. Also, when reading feedback on ICS software out on the market now, we’ve seen comments about people having problems with some applications and games.

If an operation takes too long, there is a risk of getting an Application Not Responding (ANR) as a result. An ANR occurs when an application doesn’t answer an intent, or responds to an input event, within a certain time limit. In case of intent, the time out is set to five seconds. For the input event, such as screen touch or button click, it’s ten seconds.

This can result in a user experience that is perceived as slower and less stable, due to longer response times and increased ANRs.

Introducing full hardware acceleration
Yet another change in ICS, is that the graphics hardware acceleration is on by default for all apps from API level 14. For apps at lower API levels, it can be turned on in the manifest with the attribute android:hardwareAccelerated=”true”. Hardware acceleration means that the GPU is used to render graphics, which enables a smooth user interface. However, it also results in at need to load additional graphic libraries for certain apps, which makes them use even more RAM.

When we performed internal tests on our applications, we saw that the Settings app consumed 1-2MB more RAM, and actually took longer time to start with HW acceleration, compared to without. Once the app is running, the UI is HW accelerated, but unless the app performs advanced graphics, the user will not see the difference.

Another effect of the hardware acceleration is that it can make the battery drain faster in some cases. An example of this is video playback, where the hardware acceleration requires every video frame to be run through the GPU, thus making the system use more power than it would have without HW acceleration.

As a developer, you should therefore evaluate if HW acceleration is required or not, as it comes with a cost in terms of RAM usage, start-up time and possibly even battery duration which can have negative effects on the user experience. You can read more about hardware acceleration in Ice Cream Sandwich on the Android Developers blog.

So, what will be your platform of choice? We hope this article clarifies some of the aspects to consider when making the decision. As always, we are eager to hear your opinion, so drop us a comment below and let us know! For more details on timing and practicalities on the ICS upgrade, check out this latest post on the Sony Xperia™ Product Blog.

Updated – comment from the Developer World team:

We we would like to clarify that above mentioned “challenges” have already been addressed by our SW engineering teams. For instance, we have not only optimised the RAM management by making the RAM usage for internal apps as good as possible, but we will also introduce a Performance assistant at start up when running ICS. In this Performance assistant, you can enable and disable certain services that you might not want to run on your phone, in order to optimise the performance of your phone.

We have also worked with quite a few partners in regards to architecture optimisations for SQL handling. In addition, we have also optimised the hardware usage. And as a result of this article, a number of app developers have notified us that they are evaluating if HW optimisation will be needed or not for their apps.

The aim of this article was to share our knowledge regarding the different characteristics for ICS and Gingerbread in an open way, as we strive to have an open communication with the developer community. All in all, we would like to point out that it’s our clear aim to deliver an as good ICS update as ever possible. As you might have seen on the Sony Xperia Product Blog, we’re not far from releasing it now. Thanks for all the feedback!

More information

• Get the latest information about the timing for the ICS upgrade for Xperia smartphones on the Sony Xperia™ Product Blog.
• Learn how we work with ICS in our article Ice Cream Sandwich – from source code release to software upgrade.
• Have a look at the ICS alpha and ICS beta versions for unlocked Xperia™ phones.
• Check out the ICS beta for Xperia PLAY.
• Read about how a CPU works at Wikipedia.
• Learn more about RAM.
• Learn more about flash memory.
• Check out requirements on Android devices in the the Android Compatibility Definition Document (CDD).
• Visit Android developers for details on how processes are closed when running low on RAM.
• Read more about responsiveness and Application Not Responding (ANR).
• Learn about GPU at Wikipedia.
• Read more about hardware acceleration in ICS at the Android Developers blog.

After releasing the ICS beta ROM for three other Xperia™ smartphones a while back, we got a lot of requests from Xperia™ PLAY users that wanted to try out ICS. When it comes to Xperia™ PLAY, we do know that some games will need to be optimised to work fine with ICS. Of course, big parts of the work with games are already initiated, and we work close with several game partners on this. However, we would still like to get additional input from you, to get your opinion on how the content and games work on your Xperia PLAY.

We are especially interested in how the gaming experience works on ICS beta for Xperia™ PLAY, what games that work well and if there is any unexpected behaviour. Please let us know what you think once you’ve tried it out. You can submit your feedback either through the Ice Cream Sandwich beta ROM survey for Xperia™ PLAY, the Ice Cream Sandwich beta ROM for Xperia™ PLAY thread on the XDA forum, or in the comments to this blog post. If possible, please describe your experience of different games using the following format:

Game title:
What was your general impression?
Did the buttons work properly?
Did the touch pads work properly?
Did you experience any lagging?
Any other feedback?

Important information
Even though a lot of the basic functionality of this ICS beta ROM is working, you should only download and install the beta version if you are an advanced developer. This is not the final software, and the stability of the software may not be ideal as it has not been finally tested and bugfixed.

Even if you’re an advanced developer, there are a few things to pay close attention to before you download and install the beta ROM:

• You should be an advanced developer with extensive knowledge in how to install, and switch between different ROMs. If you are a consumer without these developer skills, then we strongly recommend you do not try this, as you may damage your phone.
• You must be using Xperia™ PLAY, running the latest Xperia™ software release (which is 4.0.2.A.0.42). For an ICS beta ROM for Xperia™ Arc S, Xperia™ Neo V and Xperia™ ray, check out the previously released ICS beta ROM for unlocked Xperia™ smartphones.
• You must unlock your phone using our Unlock boot loader service, and agree to all the legal and warranty conditions that apply. Please note that you may void the warranty of your phone, any warranty from your operator or both if you unlock the boot loader of your phone. Sony Mobile can then no longer guarantee the full functionality of your phone, and will not be responsible for any unusable functions or loss of personal data associated to the beta ROM being flashed to the phone. Please pay special attention to the following legal statement before downloading (the full statement is available on the download link):

“You must acknowledge that the software is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, and to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.”

• Also, if you unlock the boot loader, you will not be able to download and install the final Ice Cream Sandwich software upgrade for Xperia™ phones. For additional information on limitations and warranty, please see our Unlock boot loader service page.
• You should have read through and acknowledged the limitations of the software described below.
• You must read and accept the end user license agreement on the download link, before you can download the beta ROM zip file.

Please note that the Google Mobile Services (GMS) apps (for example Gmail, Google Maps and Face Unlock) and Wi-Fi™ are not included in the beta release due to that they are still waiting for the certification and type approval to be finalised.

Download and install
Follow the instructions below to download and install the alpha ROM. Please note that it only works with Xperia™ PLAY.

1. Make sure your phone is running the latest software release, which is build number 4.0.2.A.0.42.  If you can’t upgrade to this build number, it is not possible to try the Ice Cream Sandwich beta ROM for Xperia™ phones.
2. Go to unlockbootloader.sonymobile.com and unlock the boot loader of your phone. To do this, you must read through and agree to all the legal and warranty conditions that apply.
3. Download the Ice Cream Sandwich beta ROM for Xperia™ PLAY.
4. Extract the downloaded zip file to your Android Fastboot directory. For example: ..\android-sdk\fastboot\Xperia_PLAY_ICS_beta.
5. Open a command prompt and go to your Fastboot directory: ..\android-sdk\fastboot\
6. Flash the three beta ROM files one at a time using Fastboot. Use these three commands:
   •  fastboot flash boot ..\Fastboot\Xperia_PLAY_ICS_beta\boot.img
   •  fastboot flash userdata ..\Fastboot\Xperia_PLAY_ICS_beta\userdata.img
   •  fastboot flash system ..\Fastboot\Xperia_PLAY_ICS_beta\system.img
7. Once done, please reboot your phone.

So feel free to go ahead and test this version and let us know what you think. Your comments are really important to us!

More information

• Download the Ice Cream Sandwich beta ROM for Xperia™ PLAY.
• Give us your feedback in the Ice Cream Sandwich beta ROM survey for Xperia PLAY.
• Discuss this software in the Ice Cream Sandwich beta ROM for Xperia PLAY thread on the XDA forum.
• Unlock your Xperia™ phone with our Unlock boot loader service.
• Check out the ICS beta ROM for Xperia™ Arc S, Xperia™ Neo V and Xperia™ ray.
• Read what happens from from source code release to software upgrade.

Recently, we’ve introduced the new, China-specific smartphone Xperia™ neo L, featuring:

• 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon with Adreno 205 graphics processor.
• 4” capacitive touch screen display.
• UMTS HSPA 900 (Band VIII), 2100 (Band I).
• GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900.
• 1 GB internal phone storage (up to 301 MB user free memory).
• 512 MB RAM.
• Memory card slot: microSD™, up to 32GB.

• 5.1 MP camera.
• Front-facing camera (VGA).
• 720p HD video recording.
• xLOUD Entertainment

• Accelerometer.
• Proximity sensor.
• Ambient light sensor.
• Magnetometer.
• eCompass™.

• GLONASS.
• Bluetooth™.
• aGPS.

• DLNA Certified®.
• Google™ Android™ 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

• Xperia™ Timescape™
• PlayNow™ service.

Fluid graphics and low power utilisation

Xperia™ neo L comes with a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 MSM8255 processor for stunning, fluid graphics and lower power utilisation. You’ll also find the Adreno 205 GPU for smoother, more efficient 2D rendering, and which allows for support of a number of APIs, including OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenGL ES 1.1 and OpenVG 1.1. For more information on OpenGL, see our previous blog post on 3D for Android. 

Supported SDKs and distribution channels

If you’re ready to start developing or testing against the Android 4.0.3 platform, you’ll first want to use Android SDK API level 15. From there, we offer a wide range of SDK and developer tools are available in conjunction with developing for Xperia™ neo L. With the Smart Extension SDK, you can create apps for Smart Extras™ accessories (SmartWatch and Smart Wireless Headset pro). The LiveView SDK lets you extend existing Android™ apps to make use of the unique features in micro display accessory. You can also create extensions that enhance the capabilities of Timescape™ and Music player, signature apps in every Xperia™ smartphone, by using our Extension Developer Kit (EDK). Creating games for Xperia™ neo L can be done easier with the Unity game engine. See our previous blog posts on using Unity for game development.

As with all Xperia™ smartphones in China, Xperia™ neo L comes preloaded with the PlayNow China storefront widget, which provides easy access to an extensive library of the latest mobile apps and games. If you’re a developer located in China and have an app that you’d like to submit to PlayNow China, you can send it to PlayNowCN at sonymobile.com. Please note that, at the moment, only developers located in China can be considered for PlayNow China submissions, due to limited resources.

Availability and colours

Xperia™ neo L will only be available to consumers in China in the second quarter of this year. The available colours are glossy black and glossy white.

More information

• Find out about Xperia neo L on the consumer website.
• Download the Xperia neo L white paper.
• Check out the PlayNow China site.
• Get everything you need to develop Android apps in our Android developer tools section.
• Read our blog post on 3D for Android.

The Resource Power Manager (RPM) is a hardware block required for managing shared resources in order to optimise power consumption. RPM communicates with processors and hardware accelerators in each subsystem to process and coordinate shared resource requests. Since the RPM.bin file is a proprietary file provided by Qualcomm, you will need to accept an end user license agreement before you can download it. The script (mkelf.py) is released under the 3 –clause BSD open source license.

How to use the flash tools
Download RPM_firmware_for_Xperia_smartphones_20120319.zip and image_generation_script_for_Xperia_smartphones.zip, to somewhere on your computer. Then perform the following steps:

1. Create the kernel image by executing the following command in the command prompt:

python mkelf.py -o kernel.elf zImage@0x40208000 ramdisk.img@0x41200000,ramdisk RPM.bin@0x20000,rpm

2. Flash and reboot your phone with the following commands:

fastboot -i 0x0fce flash boot kernel.elf

fastboot -i 0x0fce reboot

So, are you eager to start developing your own ROM for Xperia S? Check out our open source archives for Sony Xperia™ phones, and feel free to drop us a comment below if you have any questions!

More information

• Download the open source archive for the Xperia S.
• Download the image generation script.
• Download the RPM firmware.
• Learn how to build a Linux kernel.
• Check out the open source archives for Sony Xperia phones.
• Find out more about the Xperia S.
• Learn about the Sony Xperia open initiatives.