The Havok game engine demoed on the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play

As we reported yesterday, the guys behind the Havok game engine teamed up with Sony Ericsson to provide better gaming experience for Android users. As a result, today an interesting video demonstrating the power and capabilities of the Havok engine was released.

In the video, Marcus Hansson, a Sony Ericsson representative, demoes a couple of features available to developers using the Havok engine.

First of them is the ability to create destructible environments, which should make games feel more natural. Speaking of natural, the Havok engine also supports rag-doll physics. Lastly demonstrated is the way a game character can be controlled using the XPERIA Play.

Enough talking, here's the video in question

Hopefully, we'll see a finished mobile game using the Havok engine sooner rather than later.

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Sony Ericsson announces XPERIA Play, Neo and Pro

This just in - Sony Ericsson announced the XPERIA Neo and the XPERIA Pro. The XPERIA Play was uncovered too, specs and all. The Neo and the Pro are like smaller-screen versions of the Arc but the Pro adds a QWERTY keyboard to the mix.

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play packs a 4" FWVGA (that's 480 x 854 pixels) display and runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread (with a customized UI aimed at gaming).

As expected, the XPERIA Play has slide-out game controls and also a touch-sensitive area on the back. The CPU is a 1GHz Snapdragon. The Play packs a latest Adreno GPU, which will provide 60fps gameplay in 3D games.

The Play measures 119x62x16mm and weighs 175 grams. It features a 5MP camera and has an 8GB microSD card in the box.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play is the first PlayStation Certified device and will have access to content from publishers like Sony Computer Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Namco and more.

The XPERIA Play will be available in March first. Interestingly, Sony Ericsson has scored a deal with Verizon US, which will start selling the Play in April.

Check out this new ad for the Play:

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo is much like the XPERIA Arc. It features a smaller 3.7" FWVGA display, but it's again dubbed as Reality Display with Bravia Mobile engine. It's covered with a scratch-resistant surface so it won't lose its luster.

The XPERIA Neo camera is an 8MP Exmor R unit capable of HD video recording. The onboard HDMI port can be used to display what you've captured on a big HDTV display (or you could use DLNA to do the same wirelessly).

The Neo is even powered by the same single-core 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon processor as the Arc and runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo measures 116x57x13mm and weighs 126 grams. An 8GB microSD card will be in the box.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pro is to the Neo like the X10 mini pro was to the X10 mini. It's a QWERTY droid with 3.7" FWVGA Reality Display (scratch-resistant too), 1GHz Snapdragon (MSM8255 again).

The XPERIA Pro has a slide-out four row QWERTY keyboard but it's actually not much bigger than the Neo. It measures 120x57x13.5 and weighs 140 grams. There will be an Office document editor out of the box to really make that keyboard useful.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pro

The similarities continue - the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pro uses an Exmor R sensor (probably 8MP but that is not confirmed yet), it has an HDMI port, DLNA and an 8GB microSD card.

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pro will be available in Q1. The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo will come in late Q2 (though the Sony Ericsson just said it will launch in March).

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XPERIA Neo demoed on video, we get camera and video samples

It hasn't been a week since the last Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo preview and here is another one. This time we get glimpse of the homescreen and main menu, some camera and video samples.

Yeah, the XPERIA Play and XPERIA Neo keep showing their faces everywhere. Not that we complain, but it's tedious to get teased about an unannounced device again and again.

The focus today is on the XPERIA Neo, which is caught on a hands-on video. The video shows part of the Android UI - the main menu and the homescreen. It seems a lot like the XPERIA Arc.

There are a few camera samples too, but they are shot (or resized) to 2 megapixels only.

XPERIA Neo camera samples

The last two videos are 720p recording samples:

There are also a few new pictures of the device itself:

Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo

The XPERIA Neo will be announced along with XPERIA Play this upcoming Sunday as a pre-MWC event.

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XPERIA Play is finally official, thanks to the Super Bowl ads

Sony Ericsson has finally made the XPERIA Play official through a creepy Super Bowl commercial. The presentation is still scheduled for 13 February, but now you finally know what to expect then. Oh, wait...

We've already lost count of the XPERIA Play leaks, pictures, videos, previews, benchmarks, etc. Sony Ericsson did the right thing teasing with the Super Bowl ad and making the XPERIA Play somewhat official. Really, it was about time.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play

The ad itself turned out to be an extended version of the same creepy one leaked a few days ago.

We are not sure if this commercial would be allowed in some countries because of its setting and illegal-looking thumbs operation. Still we admit it's an ad like no other and will make the people think about it, which is the goal, after all.

The official presentation will take place a day before the MWC in Barcelona - on 13 February. We'll be there to play with it and you'd be the first to know what the feeling is.

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Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc to be offered by O2 UK in April

UK mobile operator O2 has thrown a special ?Coming soon? page for the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc. According to O2 UK, the device will be available for sale in April, but the pricing still remains unknown for now.

As you have probably read in our thorough hands-on preview of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc, the phone features a 4.2-inch capacitive touchscreen with a Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine and is powered by a 1Ghz Scorpion processor.

It seems like waiting is everything you could do right now. On the bright side, April is just a couple of months away.

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Galaxy with Giorgio Armani hits UK, XPERIA Arc gathers for-orders

The Froyo-powered and fashion-dressed worldwide version of the Samsung Captivate - the Galaxy S Giorgio Armani - has just hit the UK and is available for free on a contract. Meanwhile the XPERIA Arc is available on pre-order for ?460. Ouch!

The Samsung I9010 Galaxy S Giorgio Armani is the worldwide version of the AT&T exclusive Galaxy S phone - the Captivate. The most attractive things about the GA-branded Galaxy S (besides its logo) are the matt plastic, the metallic battery cover and the Android v2.2 Froyo running inside out of the box. We already reviewed the Galaxy S GA and you can find all about it right here. It's enough to say, it's our dream Galaxy S phone.

Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange in the UK are already offering the Galaxy S Giorgio Armani on quite attractive contracts. You can have one for free on a two-year contract and ?46 tariff. If you are interested in all the offers just follow this link.

In other news the Gingerbread-running Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc is already available on pre-order at Play.com. It's priced at ?460 and is scheduled for 1 April launch. Of course both the price and release date may (and will) change in the future. Let's hope the retail price drops to a more reasonable level.

If you want to know more about the upcoming XPERIA Arc, you're welcome to check our preview.

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Sony Ericsson Halon to be called XPERIA Neo, fight agent Smith?

Nothing stays a secret on the Internet for very long - the latest reveal is the alleged retail name for the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Halon (which also goes by Vivaz 2). The name is XPERIA Neo, which sparks instant association of the iconic character from the Matrix.

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo uses the same camera as the XPERIA Arc, an 8MP Exmor R sensor that can record 720p videos. The camera placement is reminiscent of the Vivaz, explaining the "Vivaz 2" name.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo

The Neo name though marks a new beginning - the aging Symbian OS is giving way to a shiny new Android 2.3 Gingerbread with the same customized UI as the XPERIA Arc.

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo is not yet officially announced (it will be announced at the MWC alongside the XPERIA Play) but that didn't stop the first preview from hitting the web. We know some of the hardware specs already - FWVGA screen (480x854) and 1GHz Snapdragon platform with 512MB RAM.

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