Sony Ericsson (may be just Sony now after Sony bought Ericsson out of the joint venture) rolled out an Android 2.3.4 update for all the Xperia™ smartphones last month. The updates were said to be globally available for Xperia™ Arc, Play, Neo, Mini, Mini Pro, Pro, Ray, Active, Neo V, Arc S and the Live with Walkman phones during the last week of October. But I could update my Mini Pro only a few days back using the updated Sony Ericsson PC Companion software for PC (India). The update went on pretty smoothly. The PC Companion was careful enough to even mention the longer-than-usual booting time after the update to save me from a panic attack. All the personal data – photos, music, apps, setting, contacts remained untouched.
The update comes with some impressive features, but I’ll still miss the HTC’s internet pass-through (lets you connect to the broadband by hooking up your phone to your PC with a USB cable). The new features are:
1. Gtalk with video chat. This is for the phones having a front facing camera (obviously). The Xperia™ Mini will miss this.

2. Facebook integration with the OS got enhanced thanks to the ‘Facebook inside Xperia™ functionality‘ Eg: now you can see the number of notifications you have in the lock screen.

3. The touchpad now has a TouchPal Keyboard like input cooked into it (much better than the app). It makes typing without sliding out the keyboard much easier, especially for small screen Xperia™ smartphones like Mini and Mini Pro and fat fingers. I found it very practical, polished and useful, it was not included just for the sake of adding a new feature.

4. The camera now has a sweep panorama (just like the ice cream sandwich version) feature. It lets you capture wide panoramas by just holding the camera button and sweeping across your phone. Also, 3D panorama is something new that lets you stitch a 3D panorama of a place for viewing it on a 3D screen.

5. The big feature everyone had been waiting for is finally here. A native screenshot ability without rooting your android comes with the 2.3.4 update. A screenshot option adds to the long press the power button menu. It is so powerful that it lets you capture the screenshot of even the lock screen (just saying).

I’m pretty sure they must have included couple of performance updates in the background as well. I have to say the over all the update impressed me.


Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta