Android Launcher Pro on Xperia S

Android Launcher Pro Plus receives many bad reviews these days, because it isn't further developed. For the very few bucks I once spent for the product? No anger at all over here - the contrary is the case: Launcher Pro works like a charm on my new Xperia S (Android 2.6.7). How about some screenshots to illustrate my minimal design setup?

The only big drawback worth mentioning: the extremely nice Xperia Weather Widget can only be used with Sony's own Xperia launcher. But hey, my message is: personalizing your phone is fun and very satisfying! There's an adequate launcher out there for all of you.
How can still be people out there defending the "fruity" icon imposition from cupertino? it's crap ...


I'm completely aware that Launcher Pro might not work anymore with Android 4.0 ICS, but that's another story. Most likely I'll be switching to Nova Launcher by the end of june.LauncherPro works absolutely fine on top of Android 4.0.4 - currently testing Nova Launcher - it's features are very similar to LP.

homescreen  5 rows / 4 columns

all labels hidden

dark icons in the dock are self made - not downloadable yet

glass icons from MySiteMyWay

desktop Visualizer 

SiMi Folder Widget

Silent Mode Toggle New

Poweramp Full

Simple Calendar Widget 

Circle Battery Widget 

WiFi Widget

Timesheet Time Tracker

LauncherPro 

Wallpaper: drop and green by Zim2687

variations - many excellent wallpapers out there

.

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Sony Xperia GX announced

There are so many likers of the Xperia Arc design out there... I believe the Xperia GX will be better accepted as a 'true' successor than the cool Xperia S. Specs and Design come in a pleasant package, it's not surprising that the phone announcement was received well so far.

Please bear in mind, that most Sony Japan releases don't make it over to europe, but I have the feeling that this will not hold true for the Xperia GX, because there are so few negative critics in the forums at this point - it would be dumb to not wide-release the phone. Might be the model LT29i, codenamed ‘Hayabusa’ - scheduled for July/August.

But then again the specs are so close to the Xperia S' ones, we just have to wait and see.



notable Specs
(taken from sonymobile japan)

• Japan June release with Android 4.0 
• screen: 4.55"  /  1280*720  /  LCD  / 319ppi
• camera: 13MP back illuminated sensor, LED flash, coming with the very very handy fast startup functionality. Good: the flash was moved away from the lense (reducing a bit the chance for red-eye effect). sample pictures here
• front facing camera has 1.3MP
• video full HD video recording of course (let me tell you that it works surprisingly well on Xperia S)
• 1 GB RAM, 16 GB inbuilt (?) Storage plus microSD slot... see picture below
• lack of native hdmi port  >  coming with microUSB MHL instead
• supporting Bluetooth 3.1 / not 4.0 as required by upcoming gadgets
• supporting nttDocomo's 75Mbps high speed connectivity  Xi（クロッシィ）  LTE down 75Mbps, LTE up 25Mbps max. (theoretical stuff)
•  with 127g a bit lighter than the Xperia S (144g)
• dual core cpu @1.5GHz (S4 Qualcomm MSM8960), fed by a removable 1700mAh battery
• btw: Felica is their wireless wallet, doesn't matter to us folks in europe

Sony Xperia GX in white and black

Sony Xperia GX parts, translated by google chrome

Xperia GX removable memory. posted without asking first - please visit the source

more pictures over at sonymobile.co.jp

 and more pictures from the launch event at ascii.jp
more pictures @ xperia freaks 

.sold out a day after the release in japan on 09 aug 12

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Sony Xperia S quick review

While I was happy with my HTC Desire and the Android experience in general,  I was looking forward to a new cell phone for quite a while now.

The HTC Desire didn't have enough memory for all the new big apps and the camera quality didn't satisfy my needs.

When my wife bought a Sony Ericsson Arc I was very surprised by the device's overall performance and appearance - putting the brand into pole position for my next phone.

Went on to preorder the Xperia S at Digitec - for a low CHF 500.-

Box content (Switzerland): USB cable, loader, 2 NFC tags (check the video below), earphones, no hdmi cable.



PROS, now that I've used it for two weeks:
+ very good looking Android customization

+  very good FM Radio (screenshots below)
+  good camera (a bit grainy in low light situations)
+  decent panorama functionality 
+  ultra short start up time for camera, very useful
+  pleasing design
+  good build quality
+  screen quality
+  surprisingly good earphone sound quality!
+  very good hdmi out support, great usability, videos in 720p
+  front facing cam for Skype video calls just works
+  finally a good Sony full keyboard offered with the Update to 4.0.4

Medicore
0  4.3" screen size a bit to small for my liking
0  default keyboard is bad, I'm using "perfect keyboard" instead. Why they don't offer an international version of their POBox eludes me. see above

CONS
-  annoying! no support for USB mass storage mode (MTP only)
-  sometimes you hear fizzling sound during calls (bad shielding against own antenna)
-  battery performance medicore (14hours standby with all my syncing)
-  camera without HDR function
-  mail client doesn't offer a peak time off/on configuration

launcher and widgets look good (music app is Power Amp)

Conclusion:
Two things bother me: battery performance isn't good enough yet and the absence of USB mass storage mode > using the USB media transfer mode isn't as intuitive since it doesn't allow Windows to display thumbnails for the pictures stored on the phone.
Hey! Overall I'm very very happy with the Xperia S. I totally don't care about the nonsense quad-core and duo-core discussion. The phone never ever lacked performance. My fav game Robotek isn't a resource hog either.
Also that everybody is complaining about the absence of Ice Cream Sandwich means nothing to me. It's coming a bit later, so wut. Current Android 2.3.7 is a charm - all the apps are very nicely customized by Sony!

using FM radio everyday - pleased with functionality

[update to ICS made the FM radio unworkable. It has been fixed with the release release of firmware 6.1.A.2.45 on 27.08.2012]

default keyboard is waisting to much space
>> Keyboard has been updated with ICS 4.0.4 release!

finally - full keyboard with dark skin

BTW: Techies should head over to duosecurity.com for a very good read about Ice Cream Sandwich's poor ASLR implementation up to release 4.0.2. Quite a letdown.
Also make sure that you read Nick Kralevich's (Android Security Team) comments in the Wrap-Up Section. Good to know Sony will use at least ICS 4.0.4 from the start.

Xperia S panorama shot (original resolution 4912x1080
)

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