Monday, June 1st, 2009
It’s been a busy few days for the guys over at Sony Ericsson, with not 1, but 3 handsets being officially launced. The first – Satio, is the official name for the 12MP touchscreen ‘Idou’ that was announced back in February and is covered on a separate post.
The Idou certainly attracted a lot of attention at the Mobile World Congress, and the Aino & Yari will no doubt turn a few heads too.
First up then is the Sony Ericsson Yari. The name is unusual, especially as Sony Ericsson are known for using model numbers with letter prefix to determine the range the handset belongs to ( think W for Walkman, C for Cyber-Shot etc..), but as Sony Ericsson are moving towards a new ‘Entertainment Unlimited’ range, I suppose the naming rules had to change too. Anyway, back to the phone. The Yari is a Slide handset that is a strong all round multimedia handset, with a 5MP camera, HSDPA for faster Internet, GPS, 2.4" screen and support for 16GB memory cards.
The one feature though that makes this phone stand out though is something new called gesture gaming. I say new, gesture gaming has been around for a while, since the introduction of accelerometers anyway, but the Yari takes this a step further. As well as being able to detect movement and translate this into game controls, the Yari can use its camera to detect movement and translate them in to game moves too (similar concept to eyetoy for the Playstation 2). Add this to multiplayer support, and you’ve got a whole new gaming experience on a mobile phone. Sony Ericsson have tried to launch a gesture gaming phone before, the F305, but this had limited success, as most other features on the phone were quite low spec. Hopefully with the Yari having a better camera, more storage and faster internet, this will have more success.
The Menu system on the Yari has been given an upgrade too, you can now view your geo-tagged photos on a map on the phone using Google Maps and you can send your images directly to Flickr & Picasa. In a first, the Yari also has a fully featured Walkman music player, despite the handset not being branded as a walkman device, the camera too has most of the features that you would normally only find on a Cyber-Shot branded phone.
You can find a more detailed preview on the Sony Ericsson Yari at GSMArena.
The Sony Ericsson Yari is expected to go on sale around September 2009, Register your interest for priority stock availability.
Next up is Aino, a touch screen Multimedia phone with a twist & baby brother the Satio.
The Aino has been designed act as a streaming media player when connected to a PS3 Console, so once you are connected to your Wi-Fi network, you’ll be able to access and control any music, pictures and video stored on your PS3 on your handset. The Aino also supports DLNA for watching back your media on networked TV’s and PC’s (What is DLNA).
The Aino has some pretty impressive features: 3" Touch screen display with Numerica Keypad, 8MP Camera, Support for 16GB memory cards, GPS, HSDPA & Wi-Fi for faster internet browsing. The Aino is though to include a desktop charging stand matching Bluetooth Headset.
The Menu system is the same as is found on nearly all Sony Ericsson handsets, the only real difference is that parts of it are now touch controlled. The camera, the FM radio, the gallery, the Walkman and the video player are enabled for touch control, with the rest of the phone being controlled using the traditional D-pad.
As with the Yari, the Aino has a fully featured Walkman Player and Camera. The camera on the Aino though has a touch based interface and is capable of recording video at near DVD quality. You can also sync your content to the phone using Wi-Fi, rather than USB.
The Aino also has Wayfinder navigation software preinstalled, along with Google Maps.
You can find a more detailed preview on the Sony Ericsson Aino at GSMArena.
The Sony Ericsson Aino is expected to go on sale around September 2009, Register your interest for priority stock availability.
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Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
DLNA Certified Logo
DLNA is all about the Digital Home and getting the devices you use everyday to work together. Chances are you’ve got a digital camera, but are restricted to watching your photos back on the screen of your PC, or you’ve got video footage on your camcorder that you have to stop and burn to disc, and then hope it will play on your DVD player. You’ve got a big screen TV in the lounge, but can only use it for TV and DVD’s. Getting them all to work now normally involves lots of cables, lots of patience and a fair bit of time too, but DLNA is hoping to change all that.
DLNA stands for Digital Living Network Alliance, and is basically a set of rules that electronics companies are all following in order for devices to talk to each other. I struggled to get to grips with it to start with, but if you look less at what it is and look more at what it does, you’ll soon see how its going to change how we use our devices.
What is DLNA?
The first thing to remember is DLNA is not a product itself (you can’t buy DLNA adapters for existing devices) the support for DLNA needs to be built into the software of the device you’re using, so for most of us its not gong to be something we can all use straight away – but the next time you buy a digital device its worth looking for one with DLNA support built in, just look out for the DLNA logo (shown above).
In order to use DLNA features there are a few things you’ll need:
- A home network (wired or wireless)
Most of us by now already have networks in place at home for accessing the internet, so you should easily be able to expand your network to incorporate more devices with minimal hassle. Some devices will only be able to connect wirelessly, and others will need to connect to your network using a cable.
- Home media server software
It sounds scary, but its not. There are several different media servers available, but these are becoming a standard part of PC operating systems, and most new PC’s should have one built in.
- DLNA Certified products
Certified products include mobile phones, PC’s, TV’s, Network Storage Devices, Digital Video Recorders, Audio Systems, Printers & Digital Media Players. You’ll need more than one obviously in order to really do anything, but no doubt over time most devices in your house will support DLNA.
What does DLNA do?
In a nutshell, DLNA allows digital devices to talk to each other over a wired or wireless network. It lets you access content from your PC on your TV, play music from your phone through your Hi-Fi, all with out having to plug anything in!
Example of a connected home using DLNA
What does it allow me do?
There are loads of different ways that DLNA devices can help make your life a little bit easier, here’s a couple of examples.
You’ve been on a day out, you get home and want to look back at the photos on your phone. With DLNA devices, you can play your photo slideshow back on your widescreen TV, and when you’re finished you can send all your photos to your network storage device for safe keeping. Without DLNA, you’d have been restriced to watching them back on your phone screen or messing around with cables to transfer them to your PC to watch on your computer screen.
You’ve filmed your recent holiday and downloaded it to your PC, and you sent it to your networked storage device for safe keeping. When the family come round, you can all sit and watch it together, watching it back on your TV using just your TV remote to play it back – its that simple. Without DLNA, you’d have been restriced to watching them back on your computer screen, burning the film to DVD or messing around with cables to connect the camcorder to your TV.
For more possibilities have a look at the DLNA website.
In reality:
I’m sure you’re probably thinking this all sounds good, but does it really work? Honestly, Yes. To give you a better idea of what a simple DLNA network set-up would be, this is my current set up at home:
With this set up I can view photos from my phone and PC on the TV using my TV remote. I can play music from my phone through my PC or TV, and can control hte music playback from my phone or my TV remote. My Dad has a DLNA enabled laptop, and when he visits, he simply logs onto my wireless network and he is able to show pictures and music on my TV straight away with out having to set anything up.
Current DLNA certified Mobile Phones:
Currently there are only around 12 handsets in the UK that are DLNA Certified, the more recent of these are listed here:
Nokia N79
Nokia N82
Nokia N95
Nokia N95 8GB
Nokia N96
Sony Ericsson W705
Sony Ericsson C905
Samsung Omnia
To see what other devices are available have a look at the DLNA certified Product Range.
If you don’t have a Media Server installed on your PC, take a look at these solutions.
These aren’t the only options out there, but the one’s I’ve found easiest to use, although Orb is slightly different in as much as it allows you to stream your content over the internet to any device. Twonky and Home Media Server are simpler to set up and use.
If you have any questions or comments, or need anything clarifying – leave your comments below!
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