Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone) - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

May

Sony: Ice Cream Sandwich On Xperia Play? Denied!

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone)

Sony was among one of the first manufacturers to be completely transparent about bringing Ice Cream Sandwich to its devices. Throughout the process, the company has posted numerous entries on its blog regarding the process, where they were at with various devices, and even offered up downloads of the beta product for advanced users and developers to test out.

With the most recent post, however, comes a bit of bad news: the Xperia Play has been dropped from Sony's ICS upgrade path. According to Sony, "after extensive in house testing with [their] developer teams and working with [their] partners, [they] have concluded that a consistent and stable experience, particularly with gaming, cannot be guaranteed for this smartphone on Ice Cream Sandwich."

The post goes on to say that this claim has been further verified by the development community, including "both experienced developers and advanced users, along with game content providers following [the] ICS beta ROM for unlocked Xperia PLAY smartphones."

It appears everyone was in agreeance: the Xperia Play just can't handle ICS and maintain a stable experience.

Apr

Verizon Xperia Play Updated To Version 4.0.2.E.0.57; It's Not Ice Cream Sandwich

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Gingerbread 2.3, Sony Ericsson, Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone)

I know, I know. 4.0.2 sounds a lot like Android 4.0, but it isn't. It's actually Gingerbread 2.3.4, and Verizon Xperia Play owners who wish to rock out like it's May 2011 need only mash the update button.

The good news (in addition to the version bump) is that this update will let you take pictures with the right trigger (how did they not think of that earlier?), enable 720p video with continuous autofocus, and fix those crazy bugs like charging forcing landscape mode. You also get to take screenshots with the power button. The bad news is that it will install Verizon Video on Demand and Verizon Navigator.

Apr

Sony Begins Rollout Of Ice Cream Sandwich To The Xperia Arc S, Neo V, and Ray In Nordic Countries

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Xperia Active (Satsuma), Xperia Arc (Anzu, X12), Xperia Arc S, Xperia Mini / Mini Pro (Smultron / Mango), Xperia Neo (Hallon), Xperia Neo V (Haida), Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone), Xperia Ray (Urushi, ST18i)

Sony has done an excellent job at being transparent with its progress on the bringing Ice Cream Sandwich to a number of Xperia devices. It has kept users aware of what's going on throughout the process, as well as shared alpha and beta builds along the way. Now, though, it looks like the beta days are behind them and the build is ready for prime time for a certain Xperia devices.

The rollout will being with unlocked variants of the Xperia arc s, neo v, and ray (seriously, Sony, stop with the lowercase device names. It looks awful) in Nordic Countries and will continue over the next four to six weeks.

Mar

Ice Cream Sandwich Updates For 2011 Sony Xperia Phones Starting In Mid-April, But Carrier Restrictions May Apply

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Live w/ Walkman (Coconut), Sony, Xperia Active (Satsuma), Xperia Arc (Anzu, X12), Xperia Arc S, Xperia Mini / Mini Pro (Smultron / Mango), Xperia Neo (Hallon), Xperia Neo V (Haida), Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone), Xperia Pro (Iyokan), Xperia Ray (Urushi, ST18i)

Before Sony Ericsson became Sony Mobile, the company seemed committed to developing an Android 4.0 update, going so far as to release alpha ROMs for a number of Xperia devices, and more recently a beta for the Xperia Play. Here we are, a quarter of the way into 2012, and Xperia owners are still gnawing on last year's official Gingerbread. Although, there may finally be a light at the end of the tunnel; the Sony Mobile blog has announced that the first Android 4.0 updates will roll out to select Xperia phones in mid-April. Don't get too excited when wireless carriers are involved though.

Mar

Sony Releases Beta ICS ROM For Unlockable Xperia Play Models

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News, Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone)

In a time when many users are wondering if an Android 4.0 update will ever come to their devices, it was a pleasant surprise that Sony was open enough to release a beta version of ICS for some of their devices - the Xperia Arc S, Neo V, and Ray. But they didn't stop there, as they have, "upon request," released a beta ICS ROM for the Xperia Play (or as you may know it, the PlayStation Phone).

As with the previous releases, this is certainly far from a final release. A number of features are missing, most notably Google Apps and Wi-Fi, though Sony says that most "basic functionality" is working.

Oct

CyanogenMod 7.1 Nightlies Expanded To A Slew Of Devices, Including AT&T's Samsung Galaxy SII, Motorola Atrix 4G, Optimus Black, And Tons Of Xperias

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Atrix 4G (Olympus), Development, Galaxy S II, Sony Ericsson, Xperia Arc (Anzu, X12), Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone), Xperia X10 (es209ra), Xperia X10 Mini / Mini Pro (Robyn / Mimmi)

It looks like the Cyanogenmod team, in a continued effort to bring continually-updated Gingerbread goodness to as many devices as possible, have brought nightlies to a new crop of handsets, including AT&T's variant of the Samsung Galaxy SII, the Motorola Atrix, LG's Optimus Black and a handful of Sony devices including the Xperia X10, Play, Arc (X12), X10 mini, ST18i, and about five others.

Update: Here are some of the popular device/codename mappings (mapping these took a significant and unnecessary amount of time. This is exactly why Artem posted this today):

AT&T Galaxy S II - galaxys2att
Atrix 4G - olympus
Optimus Black - p970
Xperia X10i - es209ra
Xperia X8 - shakira
Xperia Play - zeus
Xperia Ray - urushi
Xperia Mini Pro - mango
Xperia Mini - smultron
Xperia Active - satsuma
Xperia X10 Mini Pro - mimmi
Xperia X10 Mini - robyn
Xperia Neo - hallon
Xperia Arc/X12 - anzu

Personally, I am on pins and needles waiting for CM9 to bring us Ice Cream Sandwich, but if you're more interested in the latest and greatest software that's actually available for your handset, head over to download.cyanogenmod.com and look for your device.

Sep

CyanogenMod Joins With FreeXperia Team To Bring CM7 Support To Ten New Sony Ericsson Devices With Upcoming Release

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Xperia Arc (Anzu, X12), Xperia Mini / Mini Pro (Smultron / Mango), Xperia Neo (Hallon), Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone), Xperia X10 (es209ra), Xperia X10 Mini / Mini Pro (Robyn / Mimmi), Xperia X8 (Shakira)

At the beginning of August, the CM team announced that they would be supporting the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, arc, and neo. Cyanogen himself has now announced via Google+ that they have joined together with the FreeXperia Team to bring CM7 to seven other Xperia devices in future releases, totaling the number of supported Xperia devices to ten. The full list includes:

Xperia Arc
Xperia Neo
Xperia Mini
Xperia Mini Pro
Xperia Play
Xperia Ray
Xperia X10
Xperia X8
Xperia X10 Mini
Xperia X10 Mini Pro

There's no word on when this update will roll out, but we'll make sure to keep you posted.

Sep

AT&T's Xperia Play 4G Hitting Shelves On September 18 For $50

Posted by Cameron Summerson in AT&T, News, Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone)

Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play, also known as the Playstation Phone, will be hitting AT&T's HSPA+ network on September 18th for a mere $50, finally allowing gamers rocking Ma Bell to let go some of that envy towards VZW. This portable gaming/smartphone hybrid sports a 4-inch screen, 1GHz processor, 512MB RAM, 5MP rear shooter, and Android 2.3 out of the box; what really makes this device unique, though, it its slide-out Playstation gamepad and exclusive gaming content.

Aside from the already low pricetag, the Play will come bundled with the multimedia dock and MC100 music cable, adding even more allure to this deal.

Aug

Skype For Android Updated To v2.1 With Official Video Support For 17 More Devices (Including EVO 3D/4G, Thunderbolt, SGS1/2), And Unofficial Support For Any 2.2+ Device

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Charge (i510), Desire (Bravo/BravoC), Desire HD (Ace), EVO 3D (Shooter), EVO 4G (Supersonic), Flyer, Galaxy S, Galaxy S II, Galaxy Tab, Incredible S (Vivo), News, Revolution, Sensation / Sensation 4G (Pyramid), Thunderbolt (Mecha), Xperia Mini / Mini Pro (Smultron / Mango), Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone), Xperia Ray (Urushi, ST18i)

Last Updated: September 16th, 2011

Skysoft... errr, I mean Skype updated its previously measly Android device support from 5 devices to more than 20 today with the introduction of version 2.1 of its Android app. There are no new features outside of expanded device support, which was badly needed in order for the app to climb out of the sea of 1-star reviews (although stability and quality improvements would have made today's release even sweeter).

Update: Other devices with 2.2+ should work, but you need to enable Video support in the settings, according to the in-app changelog.

The new devices are (glad to see many flagships here):

Samsung Galaxy S II
Samsung Galaxy S
Samsung Droid Charge - Verizon
Samsung Galaxy Tab
HTC Desire (2.2)
HTC Thunderbolt - Verizon
HTC Sensation
HTC Evo 4G
HTC Evo 3D
HTC Incredible S
HTC Desire HD
HTC Flyer
LG Revolution - Verizon (2.2)
Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY
Sony Ericsson Xperia ray
Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro
Acer A5

As usual, download the app from the Market by using the links below.

Aug

CyanogenMod Coming Soon To The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, Xperia Neo, and Xperia Arc

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Development, News, Xperia Arc (Anzu, X12), Xperia Neo (Hallon), Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone)

Good news, Xperia Play, neo, and arc owners: the worlds greatest custom ROM, CyanogenMod, is coming soon to a device near you! Thanks to some newly submitted code, support for these devices can be expected to hit the CyanogenMod repositories soon, and nightlies will be available shortly after that.

Let the celebrations begin!

[CyanogenMod [Play] [Arc] [Neo] via PocketNow]