Sony Ericsson has just launched the latest panels for its multimedia convergence phone, the Xperia™ X1, teaming up with the popular social networking site Facebook and Microsoft Windows Live. These web-centric panels come in addition to the existing connectivity panel from Dashwire, a site which allows you to sync your phone content to the web and share it to a range of popular social networking sites.
The new Facebook application built for Sony Ericsson uses the unique interface of the Xperia™ X1 to deliver an intuitive version of the site, putting images of your friends onto your phone’s desktop (standby screen) and showing their latest status updates as you touch their images. Touch through to access more Facebook features.
New functions available through the Xperia™ X1 Facebook panel include:
* An entirely new visual representation of friends’ statuses
* Simple and fast upload of photos to Facebook
* Easy access to Facebook friends list and phone numbers, with click to call capabilities.
As you touch to view different information, icons and links change to give you one touch access to the information you are likely to use – for example, touch the photo icon from your profile page to see your photos, from a friend’s profile page touch the photo icon to see their photos.
The Xperia™ X1 marks the beginning of a partnership between Sony Ericsson and Microsoft. In addition to building the X1 on the flexible, powerful Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system, which helps extend the phone’s connection to Microsoft Web and PC experiences, a new Windows Live panel will help Xperia™ X1 users instantly bring their existing Windows Live contacts and features to their phone.
The Windows Live panel uses existing Windows Live ID to sync contacts held in the X1’s phonebook, and the panel will provide easy access to an intuitive Microsoft messenger interface, including Hotmail and Live Messenger, the world’s most widely used free instant messaging service. The panel will also give users access to the Windows Live Search function, which is tailored to mobile phones and can be voice activated and controlled. Other Windows Live services will be incorporated into the panel throughout the year.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Sony Ericsson and deliver our Windows Mobile platform and Windows Live panel on the Xperia™ X1,” said Todd Peters, corporate vice president of marketing, Microsoft Mobile Communications Business. “460 million Windows Live users can step into the Xperia™ X1 and tap into the Microsoft experience they already use everyday.”
The Dashwire panel seamlessly synchronises the X1 and the content it captures with a user’s computer and the web. Dashwire’s free service helps users automatically sync the contacts, text messages, photos, videos, calls, and settings from their phones to a private cloud-based account, providing them with access to their information when in front of a computer or on-the-go using their Xperia™ X1, and making it easy for users to do things like backup their contacts, send text messages from the web, and share their photos and videos with friends and social sites like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, FriendFeed, and Bebo.
“Panels open up an exciting set of opportunities for users to interact with their personalized experiences, and for developers to help bring them to life,” said Ford Davidson, founder and CEO of Dashwire. “By building out a custom panel, we’ve enabled our users to instantly access all of their photos stored in the cloud with just a flick of their finger.”
The Facebook, Windows Live and Dashwire panels are available for free download via the device’s on-board downloader and from the Sony Ericsson website, where they join the initial panels from Sony Ericsson and Spb software. Panels can also be downloaded from the Sony Ericsson Fun & Downloads web site at www.sonyericsson.com/fun
In addition to panels developed through individual panel partners, Sony Ericsson is working with the independent developer community to encourage them to create exciting and innovative panels based on the recently released Beta software developers kit (SDK) for Windows Mobile 6.1 compatible with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 development environment and Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. To encourage developers to work with the SDK, Sony Ericsson has dedicated a category of its 2008 Content Awards to the design of Xperia™ panels.
“Sony Ericsson is committed to building a rich and dynamic panel eco-system for the Xperia™ X1 that will really bring the power of the handset to life”, said Rikko Sakaguchi, CVP and Head of Creation and Development at Sony Ericsson. “Making the Windows Mobile SDK available for free to developers and mobile content creators will accelerate the development of new panels and applications for the Xperia™ X1, offering consumer choice and personalisation.”
Entries to the Panel Competition are invited from any developers, both companies and individuals, who develop a panel for the Xperia™ X1. The Panel Competition winner will be announced at Mobile World Congress and featured in Sony Ericsson events at the show. In addition, they will be invited to an exclusive two day workshop and presentation at the Sony Ericsson head quarters in Lund, Sweden where they will present their projects to top Sony Ericsson executives and spend one on one time with several senior Sony Ericsson directors to discuss new joint business ventures.
To find out how to enter the panel competition which has been extended until January 30th, 2009, please visit www.sonyericsson.com/contentawards