08
Nov
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Sony Xperia S No Longer An "Experimental AOSP" Device, Project Moved To GitHub

Posted by in Android OS, Development, Jelly Bean 4.1, News, Xperia S (Nozomi)

Sony announced today on it's official Sony Mobile Developer blog that the Xperia S "experimental AOSP support" project, first announced by JBQ back in August, is no more. It was an interesting idea, to be sure - a non-Nexus device that would be supported both with the help of members of the Google developer community, as well as AOSP maintainer JBQ, on the AOSP main branch.

The project did see some success, too - Android was booting, and according to Sony, Wi-Fi and sensors were up and running. Unfortunately, because of proprietary software binaries that by definition could not be part of AOSP (which requires legitimate open source code only), it seemed unlikely audio and mobile network modem functionality could be achieved in that environment.

03
Sep
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Sony Releases Xperia S Binaries For Use In AOSP Support, Will Get Devs Far Enough 'To Boot Up And Reach The Homescreen'

Posted by in Development, News, Sony, Xperia S (Nozomi)
Last Updated: September 4th, 2012

In a gesture of good faith, Sony, on its developer blog, has announced the company is releasing the software binaries for the Xperia S. It has done so explicitly in support of Android developer JBQ's "experimental" support for the device in AOSP (found here). If you're unfamiliar with the project, we covered it earlier this month when it was announced.

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The software binaries Sony released consist mainly of drivers for the hardware on the Xperia S's chipset. These binaries allow developers to get that hardware to function with non-OEM software. Manufacturers are generally under no obligation to make these binaries public, because they typically fall under the "proprietary" umbrella.