Sony Xperia Z Ultra promo video is live, check it out

The Sony Xperia Z Ultra was officially launched just moments ago and Sony, as is its tradition, has promptly posted its first promo videos on YouTube.

The Big Screen, Big Entertainment video is Sony’s roundup of the Xperia Z Ultra’s mouth-watering features. The X Reality display for richer colors and great sharpness, the water-resistance and its uses (naturally there’s a pool involved), Sony has even got a smart cover-type accessory in the video. Check it out after the break.

Here goes the video itself – it’s almost 2 minutes but worth it.

The Sony Xperia Z Ultra features a 6.4″ X Reality display of 1080p resolution resulting in around 344 pixels per inch and is the first official device to be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 chipset. That kind of specs certainly make the first Sony phablet one of the devices to keep an eye on in the second half of the year.

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Unknown 02:28  No comment

Google Edition HTC One source code released, won’t be getting direct updates from Google

Along with its launch on the Google Play store, the kernel source code for the HTC One “Google Edition” has been released on HTCDev.

Also revealed is that the device won’t be receiving its Android updates directly from Google, since it is not technically a Nexus device. The same applies to the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Edition.

One of the main advantages of Nexus devices is that they’ll always be the first to get any Android releases, and that they’ll be “pure” Android versions, with no added modifications from the manufacturer.

While lack of direct updates from Google may sound like a bit of a downer, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. After all, several small tweaks with added functionality have been implemented by the manufacturer, like the addition of Beats audio support on the HTC One, which is not found in the 100% pure AOSP.

Also, we’re fairly removed from the days when manufacturers took significantly longer than Google to push the latest Android versions to their devices, and what are typically the most time consuming middlemen of all when it comes to receiving updates – carriers – are out of the picture.

So, while Nexus users will still have the purest version of Android out there first, Google dition devices shouldn’t be too far behind – although we’ll have to wait and see how this plays out in practice.

Meanwhile, you can get your hands on the HTC One Google Play edition kernel source here.

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Unknown 02:16  No comment

Check out this epic 16-minute Sony Xperia Z Ultra hands-on video

The Xperia Z Ultra was announced yesterday and we were quick on our feet on giving you an extensive hands-on of Sony’s phablet. However, we simply didn’t have the time to film the smartphone on camera as extensively as we’d liked. Luckily, Lutz Herkner of Mobilewatch managed to get a prototype of the device and give it a thorough hands-on treatment.

Covering all the basics, Herkner goes through all the major features and gives valuable insight on each of them. There’s even a detailed screen comparison between the Xperia Z Ultra’s 6.4″ 1080p TFT Triluminos display and Xperia Z’s 5″ 1080p TFT display.

Additionally, the Xperia Z Ultra is compared with another phablet in the face of the Huawei Mate. Sadly, the Galaxy Mega 6.3 couldn’t make it, but the Huawei phablet still serves as good reference. Check out the 16:00-minute video to get your Xperia Z Ultra fix.

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Unknown 02:12  No comment