Xperia Play finally lands at O2 UK, available in black or white

It took a while, but that O2-exclusive white Xperia Play is finally with us. Earlier this month, the UK carrier had promised to deliver the Play in June, but evidently things have gone better than expected, as we now see "in stock" signage next to both the black and white models of Sony Ericsson's gaming phone. Pricing is identical for both color variants, starting at "free" when attached to expensive (£34 per month) two-year contracts and peaking at £430 ($702) on pre-pay deals. O2 also throws in a matching multimedia dock plus three bonus games to sweeten the deal. We're guessing that Android 2.3.3 update that Sony Ericsson just rolled out for the Xperia Play might finally have allayed O2's software concerns, which has allowed it to now start selling the device in earnest.

dialtosave.co.uk

O2 (White), (Black)

Sony Ericsson boosts Xperia Arc and Play to 2.3.3, includes Facebook integration

Well, Sony Ericsson might just deserve a gold star for effort. A week ago we reported that a possible rollout of the long-rumored Facebook integration update would come to select Xperia series phones this week, and we're seeing the process begin today. The recipients of this particular push are the Arc and Play, though it will come to all new Xperia devices down the road. While the download includes Android 2.3.3, the major focus is on "Facebook Inside Xperia," another way for you to sync your social media with other aspects of your phone, such as contacts, calendar, and photo gallery. Other improvements in the package include WiFi stability, improved battery performance, HD video recording performance (Arc only), and bug fixes. Don't stress if your phone hasn't seen the update yet; Sony Ericsson says it's rolling it out gradually due to issues with individual markets and carrier branding. No specific timeframe was given, though the company mentioned that "it can take a while." Should you be one of the lucky recipients to get it today, however, sound off in the comments below.

Sony Ericsson

Xperia Play first in line for mobile Minecraft port

If you want to be the first in your hood to take Minecraft with you wherever you go, you'll have to pick up an Xperia Play. The block-building game where cubed avatars hide from creepers and create virtual CPUs will land on the so-called PlayStation Phone before coming to other Android devices and iOS later this year. The Play version will have customized controls that take advantage of the gamepad and button layout found on the Sony Ericsson handheld, though when exactly it will launch or how much it will cost is still unknown. It's also unclear how long the title will be exclusive to the gamer-centric smartphone, but developer Mojang will be holding an event at E3 where, presumably, we'll be getting more details. Now is the time to wrap up any loose ends in your life before what little free time you have left gets buried beneath a pile of bricks and mobs -- even when your PC isn't handy.

Joystiq

Gamasutra, Minecraft (Facebook)

Sony Ericsson's Canadian online store hacked, more than 2,000 customers' data taken

The hackers just won't give poor Sony a break, will they? Following the infamous PSN breach last month and an attack on the company's Greek online music service earlier this week, Sony Ericsson has now seen another intrusion that extracted personal data of more than 2,000 Canadian Eshop customers. Fortunately, the company claims that passwords taken were encrypted and no credit card details were lost, but this is still worrisome nevertheless. Right now, the Eshop service has been taken off line -- for the sake of Sir Howard and his Japanese chums, let's just hope that this will be the last Sony breach we hear about.

The Star, BBC

Sony's SmartAR demoed live, raises the bar for augmented reality (video)

Remember Sony's SmartAR? The markerless AR technology that promises reality augmentation without the need for unsightly tattoos? It's back again, showing itself once more after an all-too-brief 48 hour layoff. A new live-demo shows Sony's markerless object recognition system focusing on posters, tables, books, and coffee cups in lieu of the traditional AR card -- allowing it recognize multiple objects at once. Focusing on objects rather than markers allow augmented entities to interact more naturally with their environment. For instance, bouncing AR balls plummet off the edge of a table, and realistically ricochet off of a book placed in their path. Objects don't even need to remain on screen, as demonstrated by an AR pop-up menu that remained viewable even after the object-marker that spawned it left the viewer's field of vision. Sony seems to have built the groundwork of an augmented reality system that might actually be useful -- pair this up with a set of swank AR glasses (or better yet, holographic AR glasses), and we'll have a vision of the future we can really look forward to.

Engadget Japan

Sony (YouTube)

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, Arc getting Android 2.3.4 update next week, Facebook integration in tow

There's still no confirmation as to when it will be headed to the soon-to-be-released Verizon Xperia Play, but Recombu is reporting that at least some iterations of the phone will be getting upgraded to Android 2.3.4 next week, at which point the Xperia Arc will also get bumped up to the same version. Assuming there's no surprises in the next week, that would seem to make them the first non-Nexus phones to get the update. What's more, in addition to various Android-related updates, both phones will also be getting Sony Ericsson's so-called "Facebook inside Xperia" update, which promises to more deeply integrate your phone (including your calendar, contacts, and even music) with the social network. The company's also confirmed that the Facebook integration will be included on all future Xperia phones, and it will be headed to all Xperia models released so far this year.

Recombu

Ericsson to manage Clearwire's 4G network as part of cost-cutting deal

Now that Clearwire definitely isn't producing its own smartphone, the company has apparently decided to focus its efforts on maintaining its WiMAX network -- with the help of Ericsson. Yesterday, the 4G operator announced that it had struck a seven-year deal with the Swedish telecom firm, just a few months after fighting a brief trademark lawsuit filed by Sony Ericsson. Under the arrangement, Ericsson will assume all network engineering, operations, and maintenance responsibilities, allowing Clearwire to concentrate on cutting costs and increasing efficiency. Clearwire will retain ownership over its technology and will still handle all customer relations, but about 700 of its employees will be transferred to Ericsson. The Kirkland-based company says its decision was at least partially influenced by new best friend Sprint, which forged a similar partnership with Ericsson back in 2009. Financial details on the new deal remain fuzzy, though Clearwire says it expects to see a major reduction in operating costs -- which sounds like the right prescription. Full presser after the break.

Clearwire

Sony SmartAR delivers high-speed markerless augmented reality, blows minds (video)

Some may agree that over the years, augmented reality's been slowly losing its appeal given its sometimes laggy and unreliable performance -- most implementations require a weird marker to be in clear sight, and the graphics rendering speed on your handheld device would rely on your slow and steady hands. As such, we were initially skeptical when Sony's SmartAR announcement came along; but as you can see in the video above, said technology took us by surprise with its super slick responsiveness, and the markerless object recognition makes a compelling hassle-free selling point. What's more, the same clip also shows off SmartAR handling large 3D space with ease -- notice how the virtual objects continue to animate even when the original anchor object is out of sight. Sony hasn't given any dates here, but there's no doubt that once SmartAR is available to game developers and advertisers, it'll rack in some nice pocket money for the electronics giant.

Sony (YouTube)