Sony Ericsson expects disruptions in supply, HTC reports all OK

GSMArena.com - Sony Ericsson released a statement saying that all their employees in the two Tokyo offices are OK, but they expect problems with the supply chains. HTC issued a statement as well saying their operations were unaffected.

Sony Ericsson is not the first company to announce disrupted operations due to the earthquake and the tsunami, the region that was hit is where a large part of the world's electronics are made.

Sony Ericsson is evaluating the situation and looking for secondary suppliers of parts and places to transfer some of the component manufacturing. The full amount of the damage is not clear yet but the company is monitoring the situation constantly and will keep operators and customers up to date.

HTC issued a statement too, saying that their operations will not be affected by the Japan earthquake. They have a framework in place that taps a secondary supply chain in case of a natural disaster.

HTC will keep an eye on the developments in Japan and cooperate with their global supply chain and distribution partners to keep operations running smoothly.

UK getting the XPERIA Play on 31 March, Optimus 3D - in late May

Sony Ericsson is prepping its biggest UK marketing campaign for XPERIA Play launch at 31 March. Meanwhile LG is working hard to unleash the Optimus 3D in “late May”, again in the UK.

It seems the Sony Ericsson’s "late March release" promise about the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play actually meant the end of March. The XPERIA Play will be released on 31 March in the UK going with the biggest marketing campaign Sony Ericsson has done on the Island so far.

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play will be available on all major UK carriers, in various game stores and online retailers. It will come with six pre-installed games, but if we are to believe Sony Ericsson, there will be at least 50 more titles waiting for you in its dedicated game store. There is still no official word on the retail price, but Amazon.de has it on pre-order for 540 euro.

PlayStation Suite coming to Tegra 2 devices, PS1 and PS2 titles too

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play will not be the only Android phone out there that runs PlayStation games. NVIDIA announced that Tegra 2 powered smartphones and tablets will be getting the PlayStation Suite, the software platform that allows PlayStation games to run on droids. There's no info on which Tegra 2 powered devices would be PlayStation certified (certification is used Sony to ensure quality gaming experience) but the recent high-end droids (both phones and tablets) that use NVIDIA's hardware all have enough processing power to run the games, so there shouldn't be any problems on the hardware side.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo preview

Sony Ericsson is keen to start 2011 in style with strong additions to the XPERIA lineup to please every taste. The Arc is the one true flagship, the Pro is the business messenger and the Play is the gaming smartphone. What’s in there for the Neo then?

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo has the appearance of a Vivaz and an Android heart. Is this what the original Vivaz should have been? A conclusion would be premature at this point but consider the advantages. Android instead of the rough-around-the-edges Symbian, bigger and better display, multi-touch support and greater processing power. We guess we shouldn’t be looking at the past though. The XPERIA Neo is stopping in for a quick preview and we want to make the best of the short time we have with it before it’s released.

Sony Ericsson Windows Phone 7 handset is pictured

PhoneArena:"Now that Sony Ericsson has at last captured the attention of a major U.S. carrier or two with the Xperia PLAY, it is time for the joint venture to turn its attention toward broadening its product line. A recently leaked photo appears to show a Sony Ericsson branded Windows Phone 7 device with a slide out landscape QWERTY keyboard.

We can't rule out a little photoshop magic here because usually when a landscape QWERTY is deployed, the image on the screen changes orientation to match the QWERTY. But let's go out on a limb for a moment and say that the picture is real. Anyone in the market for a Sony Ericsson Windows Phone 7 handset?"

Havok game engine demo on Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY

GSMArena.com : 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.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play partners with Havok, MLG

Sony Ericsson has announced two key partnerships to push the XPERIA Play to the top of mobile gaming. Havok has ported all their software to Gingerbread and optimized it for the XPERIA Play, which is also the official Major League Gaming handset.

If Havok sounds familiar you may be thinking of their physics engine - but they have other software too, which runs on all major consoles and computer platforms in many big-name games.