Re: Confrontational?

As I mentioned, joining motorways sensibly? Keeping up with the flow of traffic? Getting to where you need to go before you grow old? Overtaking Mavis doing 40 in a 60 safely?

My first car had a similar 0-60 time (not as pathetic mind, it was about 12s), and in order not to be an obstacle on the roads, it had to be given a pasting, which in turn wasted the fuel economy. I'm not suggesting the Zoe needs to be able to tear your face off in any gear, but a proper amount of poke would be beneficial in order for me to consider this car.

I'm sorry, but do you actually know what you are talking about? Hard acceleration for a short amount of time uses a similar amount of fuel as gradual acceleration for a long period of time. I always get up to speed quickly (as you really should do to help keep traffic flowing), yet am currently averaging 45 mpg from a 10 year old 3 litre BMW. Hardly using a massive amount of fuel, and any savings by accelerating slowly would be negligible. I know this as I performed a similar experiment - result 45 MPG and a shedload of boredom.

And if you can't figure out why a car engineered to do 150 is safer on the motorway than one engineered to do 80, I'm sorry, you should probably hand in any driving license you have and get on the bus. It's a question of capabilities and limits, doing 70 on the motorway in a 3 series will find you well in the car's comfort zone, in a Zoe you will be pushing what it can do.

Right. So I'm a tit for wanting a car that can accelerate safely onto a motorway (which I spend a great deal of time on). Not something I would try in a 900cc car because it "felt nippy", and certainly not something I'd do in a French bit of tin powered by a food blender.

There is also the logic that something engineered to do 150 on the Autobahn will be a lot safer doing 70 (ish) on the motorway than something with a top whack of 80.

So basically, this is like any other electric car - a complete waste of time and resources.

"This is obvious. Anything Sony were doing 2 years ago Apple and Samsung will get in on too"

Fixed that for you.

Re: Avoid - screen scratches very easily

That thing you are scratching on the screen IS a screen protector, all Sony phones have had an "invisible" one since the X10. In the case of the Z, I believe the Sony logo is actually printed on that rather than the phone itself.

And as for them not using Gorilla Glass, looks like they do - for the back. The front is Dragontrail, according to collateral released in Hong Kong.

http://www.xperiablog.net/2013/02/20/does-the-xperia-z-use-both-dragontrail-and-gorilla-glass/

Re: Icon says it all

On the contrary, I've always gone for the Sony/SonyEricsson alternative to "king of the hill", as they are generally much nicer to use. Their overlays avoid all the bloat and rubbish of Sense / TouchWiz, and recently their enhancements have been just that - enhancements. I use my phone as a music player a lot, and I must say the Walkman player on my Xperia S is an absolute joy. Slick, powerful, and sounds great. It makes the iPod on my works iPhone look decidedly old fashioned. The photo album and video gallery are similarly well put together, and have really come on leaps and bounds since Sony took over from SE.

Unless you simply must have the last 0.001 % of performance available or insist on having a day-glo AMOLED screen that turns everything green, the Xperias make a hell of a lot of sense at the moment.

Re: FAIL felt as far as Oregon

I wouldn;t bother with the Co-op, I've been with them for about 5 years now and they've been useless. No way of checking available funds online, and when you do check it at a cash machine it's usually half a day behind, instant transfers take about 20 minutes to reach my account, you can't transfer between accounts from the app and staff are generally feckless.

Back to one of the big banks I go, one of the benefits of having shareholders, is they actually provide a decent service to go with it.

You're right, I do remember what Sony have done in the past. None of this petty stuff you mention however, like rootkits done by German subsiduaries completely unbeknownst to the mothership, or removing a feature 3 people used because one of those people was trying to use it to run pirated games.

I'm thinking more of the Walkman, PlayStation (1,2 and 3), Trinitron Wegas and the current range of Bravias, my 90's MIDI system that just will not die, all the professional A/V kit, the Handycams and the current Alpha and Cybershot range, all the decades of innovation (usually for innovation's sake), the inspirations for a certain Mr Jobs, the slim and light VAIO's available years before a Macbook Air, etc etc. Not to mention personally, my K800i, W950i, X10 and my current Xperia S. Oh and my Tablet S.

Best of luck to them I say, about time they got back to past glories...

Re: think bigger

Sony have been doing some pretty awesome stuff with NFC to be fair, from the Smart Tags mentioned above to connecting with Bluetooth Speakers, and now, Bravia Tellies. "Bonk" the phone against the TV, Phone screen appears on TV as if by magic.

I'm expecting this to appear on Samsung tellies too, for no apparent reason whatsoever.......

Windows 9 is a disaster is it? Riiiiiiiight. I'll ignore the fact it hasn't even been announced yet......

Re: Battery life

Haven't really found too much of an issue with my Xperia S on the battery front, if I start turning stuff off I can get 2-3 days out of a charge, However I cannot be bothered with that and am a heavy user, and it works fine with a charge every night. Small price to pay for a screen that doesn't give the horrible blue/green tinge you get from AMOLED.

Re: how is the T not 'better'?

The Walkman player

- Has a much nicer interface than the iPod on the iPhone

- handles more formats than the iPod, with FLAC especially being a big plus

- handles ID3 tags a bit better

- has Visualisations and EQ presents (including Mega Bass!)

- has much better sound quality than the dull iPod

I use both daily, and trust me, the iPod isn't in the same league as the Walkman player, in fact its doubtful they are even playing the same sport.

Re: Why the 500 works

I take it those are the people driving round in original Minis with "100% BMW Free" proudly written on the back? I always found those stickers to be fairly pointless - we can tell BMW had nothing to do with your car, by the fact half the trim has fallen off and all the steam coming out from the engine bay.....

Re: I am not surprised

I have an Xperia Ray at home running ICS, and quite nice it is too. Can't remember if it came through SEUS or if I used Flashtool, but if you do need to Flashtool it, no warranty is invalidated as you are using official firmware and the bootloader stays locked.

Sounds like user error to me.....

Re: This is not an ultra book

Your MacBook Air? You mean your poor man's Vaio Z?

Re: Re:Leona A

I would say you were in the minority there, just a quick look on Amazon at the vertiable cornucopia of Bluetooth keyboards available for the iPad and other tablets tells me there are a few people out there who don't like typing on an OSK.

You may have enough spare time to type a 50 page document on an iPad, however the rest of us have more important things to be getting on with.

Re: @Bodhi

I think, from what I can deduce from your inane, badly typed ramblings, that you don't believe I have 2 Tablets? Ever thought one might have been supplied by work? I mean I could sell it, but I suspect it wouldn't go down very well.

I also bought the Sony first, and it was quite a bit cheaper than the Apple one, with a 2 year warranty thrown in for free. It also gets used every day, as for my purposes, it is the better Tablet. I can easily play music from my PC upstairs (without a copy of iTunes in sight) whilst mucking about on the web, play the odd flash video, and control all the electronics in my living room with it. Then if I get bored of that I can have a quick game of Crash Bandicoot or Tekken.

So how did I buy the wrong Tablet exactly? Are you suggesting I could do all this with the iPad? Becuase if you have a way of adding an IR Blaster and PS Store I am all ears.

Re: New Sony Droidphone/Tablet

1) They're the company Jobs openly admitted Apple took most of their inspiration from.

2) I'm gathering they have a patent or thousand, considering the amount of innovations that have come from their labs over the last 30 or so years.

3) They control a hell of a lot of media with Sony Pictures and Music, and could make life quite difficult for Apple to access these if required.

4) Looking at their history I gather they have quite a large legal team.

Judging by the fact they are the only Driod manufacturer they haven't started legal proceedings against, I can only gather Apple agree.

Re: New Sony Droidphone/Tablet

Hehe, I would LOVE to see Apple start on Sony. I don't think things would go particularly well for the Fruity Firm......

Glad it's not just me that's noticed this. The old version was half decent, fairly stable and did what you want a Facebook app to do. This new one appears to be dragging my Xperia S down to a crawl and crashes more often than Takuma Sato after a bottle of sake.

Pure, unadulterated bilge.

Re: Android phones are cheap, Apple phones are not

I still find it amusing when people accuse the iPhone 4 / 4S of being a well made device. Sure they may feel reasonably well put together, however we have them in the office and about 4 have been broken in the past month by fairly insignificant drops onto the floor. Even with a decent bumper on them that terribly flash glass it's wrapped in smashes leaving the phone unuseable. Whereas a clumsy fool like me can drop his Sony all over the shop (without a case) and it generally tends to bounce.

Durability is quite an important part of quality in my book, and I'm sorry, but the iPhone sucks major amount of donkey balls in this regard. Nokia and Sony have no problem making a drop proof phone, why can't Apple with all their millions?

(apart from the fact they'd probably try to patent it)

Re: "Not a PC" What? You are not suggesting that Apple will *copy* this are you?

"Please sir, point out exactly what computer the Macbook Air is "reverse engineered" from"

Believe it or not, the MBA was far from the first thin and light notebook out on the market, Samsung and Sony had been putting together such models since 2004. The main difference was the Sonys sctualy had some power to go with the lightweight build as well, and weren't quite so crippled. They weren't quite so cheap

Re: Looks good!

Shhhh, you're not supposed to stand up for Sony in these here parts, they once did a rootkit you know!

I would agree with just about everything you've said however, I would rate the Tablet S in my all time top 3 gadget purchases. Comfortable to hold for hours on end, feels a proper solid bit of kit, and, like you say, ICS has improved it even further. Battery life has doubled now I don't need to keep the WiFi awake all the time (the one issue I did have with it), and the mini-apps are superb. It's great scrolling through what music to listen to whilst controlling the volume on my stereo at the same time. Sound quality is also superb, best I've heard on a portable device.

Let's just say I have an iPad 2 as well which I use for work, however once I have left the office the iPad stays in its bag and the Sony gets used, as for my purposes, it's a much better tablet. The iPad feels like a bit of a toy in comparison.

Can't wait to see this new Tablet in stores.

Re: Almost waited...

ICS on the Xperia S has been out for a while now, I got it on my (unbranded) handset about a month ago. The biggest benefit it brought was the ability to install Chrome, which is far nicer than the stock browser. The new Sony apps are nice though, such as the Walkman player and new photo gallery. Bit strange you haven;t had it yet though, which network is that on?

Re: Why pay 900 quid...

Considering both Sony and Samsung were doing thin and light laptops before Apple made them shiny, I would say the Ultrabook was a Vaio knock-off personally. Apple getting credit for inventing something they didn't again I see.

Re: alt-tab functionality

My Sony Tablet can do this now as well with its Mini-Apps. If you are listening to music and want to adjust the stereo volume, just bring up the mini app for the Remote Control, adjust, hide the app again, all whilst keeping the music player on display. Becuase of stuff like this, and how comfortable it is to hold for extended periods, means my iPad 2 stays in the bag and the Sony is the tablet of choice in our household.

Also means I don;t get to use it that often as 'Er Indoors keeps nicking it to read The Sun, relegating me to the iPad (I'd rather not) or my phone. I suspect we may need another Tablet S.....

On the subject of these "new" patents, seems to me again to be a case of Apple patenting something the rest of the market have been doing for years, and will no doubt try to sue the world + dog over. Sadly Apple wouldn't know innovation if it bit them on the posterior, which doesn't half make me laught when they try and claim the moral high ground.

Re: Surely some mistake, the Samsung Q30 was the first Ultrabook ;)

Sadly you are both wrong, the Vaio X505 was launched in 2004, beating Apple and Samsung by at least a year. I'd still takes its latest the devlopment, the Vaio Z Series, over with the MBA or indeed this new fangled MBP. OSX really isn't for me (far too un-intuitive after 20 years of Windows), and I think the Apple laptops are ugly things personally.

Re: screen

That's quite standard for AMOLED screens, whites take on a greenish tinge, especially if you aren't look at them straight on. I noticed it when I had a play with a GS3 yesterday in Phones 4 U, yes the screen is big, but its pretty fugly imo. Forced colours and nowhere near as sharp as the one on my Xperia S, I'll pass on this one thanks.

Re: Sorry... no more Sony for me

I'm struggling to find any Sony apps running on my Xperia S that aren't in some way useful, which ones were you thinking of?

Re: Nokia may have something to say about that.

I suspect Sony (and SE) may have some input as well. Only reason I keep my Satio is it saves me buying a Digicam.

Re: Eyes's glinting

As smoking is still legal I really rather doubt that.

Re: Yawn @Lee Dowling

Again the AC makes a very good point, cosying up to MS has made Nokia the darling of the mobile phone industry, selling more phones than they can build. I was late for work this morning due to the queues to get into Merry Hill P4U to pick up a Nokia Lumia.

I feared this article was going to make me regret picking up an Xperia S a couple of months ago, but not a bit of it. Now I realise I should have got a Lumia, it's what all the cool kids are doing! Although all these cool kids do appear to be in Reading. I still can't figure out why.

Re: Yawn

That will be why no-one has pre-ordered it I'm guessing?

Re: Point Being?

Oh. That market positively bristling with customers, techies who live in London and have 32k to spend on a car.

Silly me.