Xperia NXT Phones: Spec Comparisons

In the past week, we've heard quite a lot about the new Xperia lineup of phones. The S, the U, and the P (I find SUP to be a better acronym that PUS) are similar in design, but differ widely in their features. A few tech reviews have noted that it seems like Sony had a few different design teams working on these phones, as there are some similarities in the general designs of the phones, but their differences are enough that there must have been some miscommunications somewhere. In this post, I will attempt to clarify the different specifications of each of these phones and the pros and cons of each. Let's get started!

Xperia S

The big brother of the group, this phone promises to be Sony's first flagship phone under the new Ericsson-less name. The screen size is huge at 4.3" which is only slightly bigger than my Arc at 4.2" ... which could be a problem for some. A few people have told me my phone is difficult to handle. I'm used to it, and I don't mind the size, but it could be a deal-breaker for some who are tired of phones just getting bigger and bigger. However, for those obsessed with the newest technology and the highest specs, this phone is probably your latest wet dream. It has a resolution of 1280 x 720 and the highest pixel density of any other phone out there at 342 PPI (versus the iPhone 4S' measly 326 PPI). It has a 1.3MP front camera for video calls, and a 12MP rear camera for awesome photos. The storage capacity is enormous, at 32GB (more like 25GB after formatting and installations) and running it all at stupidly high speeds is its 1.5GHz dual-core MSM8260 processor. Did you hear me? Dual cores. That means two. My inner tech geek is drooling so hard.
There are two things stopping me from committing to buying this phone immediately. The first is that the lightbar design feature running through the bottom of the phone isn't exactly... functional. Sure, it lights up when you get a call or a message when the phone is on silent, but it doesn't actually house any buttons. It contains markers for capacitive directly above the lightbar but below the screen. It's not that I have a problem with making those things function (I used to love the capacitive touch buttons on my LG Chocolate) I just wish the buttons were actually on the bar. I feel like they cheated a little. I also want the bar to light up with other colours besides white. Also, I probably couldn't gather enough money to fill a fistful to throw at Sony for this phone. Bummer.


Xperia U
By far the funkiest of the bunch is the super-cute Xperia U. It's smaller and customizable, with extra "caps" you can put on the bottom of the phone (detaches below the lightbar). White phones will come with white and yellow caps, while black will come with black and pink. So awesome, right? Another bonus is that the lightbar on the U actually does what it should on these phones. The lightbar changes colour depending on what's on the screen! For current Xperia users, think of how the colour of the trackbar on the music player widget changes depending on the wallpaper of your phone. Like this!

Pink and blue background = pink trackbar.

And green = green! Awesome.

I've loved this feature since it was implemented, and I'm beyond thrilled to see Sony take it a step further with the lightbar. I think it's genius. 
The specs for the U are slightly less impressive, putting this phone into the average smartphone bracket. Think the Xperia Mini or Mini Pro in terms of the league it's in. It still has a 1GHz processor, which is pretty good. But the screen resolution is 480 x 854, and the screen's pixel density is a lowly 280 PPI. Furthermore, its camera is only 5MP, it has 8GB of non-removable storage, and it will only record video in 720p. That being said, this phone is probably my number-one choice out of the whole lineup. I'm well aware that it would be a step down from my Arc in almost every category (resolution, camera power, storage capacity, etc) however I'm willing to forego the impressive specs of the S if it means I get that funky lightbar. I clearly have my priorities straight, I know.


Xperia P

Last but not least comes the P. This is the only phone in the NXT lineup with an aluminum casing, and the only one that comes in either silver or red. If I was only concerned about build quality and looks, this would be the top contender. It has some great industrial-esque design features, like a visible screw head and a little grille over the side speaker. The lightbar only shows white light, however the buttons on the P are actually on the lightbar itself, and not above it. Its specs land somewhere in the middle of the S and the U: 1GHz processor, 4.0" screen with a 590 x 960 resolution, 8MP camera and 16GB of internal storage. But what sets this apart from the others is its WhiteMagic display: it has an extra white pixel to add to the standard RGB pixels of its cousins. From what I've read, the screen is noticeably clearer, sharper and more beautiful than most of the other phones out there. It manages to be 50% brighter than other screens while being 50% more efficient, so all that extra brightness won't drain your precious battery.


One last thing
ALL the new phones in the NXT series will have the fast-capture camera feature, meaning your phone can go from sleep to photo capture in 2 seconds without even unlocking the device. Simply hold the camera shutter button and it will instantly launch the camera function. I'm looking forward to this, since there have been a few times I've missed a good shot simply because the camera application took too long to launch. Once it's open, however, capture is extremely fast with my Arc--and I absolutely love being able to just tap my screen to take a photo. It's almost instant and I can easily get multiple shots in no time. I really hope they continue that into the NXT series.


TL;DR
Xperia S: stunning beauty and immense power, but at a high cost.
Xperia U: funky design to set it apart from the Android clones, but with average specifications.
Xperia P: lovely aluminum body and good specs, but no fancy lightbar.


I hope this adequately summarized the specifications of the NXT series for you. If you're stilly really stuck, the guys over at Xperia Blog made a handy chart to put them all side-by-side for you. Good luck deciding on only one!

For the love of tech.

I love this time of year. Not because of the weather (I hate the cold). Certainly not because it's the start of a new semester (my classes have yet to show up in my schedule, and I have been loving the extra sleep I've been getting over the holidays).

It's a new year. And it's time for new announcements about new technology to be released in 2012. That is what I love about Q1.

I'm not sure how to describe my love for technology. In some ways it's similar to the love you can feel towards another human being, in some ways not. There is a physical aspect to it. That excitement you feel when unboxing your new toy. The despair and anguish you feel when it gets its first little nick or scratch. The intellectual stimulation, the feeling of wonderment experienced while engaged with your beautiful new object d'art is like no other feeling in the world. There's just something about it that I can't get enough of. Within months after getting a new piece of technology, the itch starts to grow again. With all the announcements, all the posts about leaked phones with fuzzy pictures and uncertain spec lists, I start to dream. To wonder. Really? Is it possible? A dual-core phone with AMOLED display and 3GB of RAM? Suddenly your once-loved piece of tech looks not-so-shiny anymore. And when did that scratch get there? WHY DO YOU TAKE SO LONG TO TURN ON and etc.

Technology is wonderful. I love the things it can do for me. My phone is like my own personal computer that I keep in my pocket for instant access to entertainment and knowledge. Have a question about anything? Give me a few moments and I'll look that up for you. No, I haven't seen that new hilarious video. Let's watch it. I can connect with anyone, learn anything, experience everything, with just a few swipes. All it costs me is some electricity at the end of the day. A recharge and a wipe-down every once in a while, along with a reasonable monthly bill, is worth it for sure.


So let's talk about some of the more exciting tech announcements I've seen recently.

Sony Ericsson says “something big is coming” next week http://bit.ly/zzj4Rw
This is one of the first announcements I read, released last week when everyone was all abuzz about CES. I predicted that SE would be announcing a tablet, since that would be a "big" thing for SE as they normally only deal in the phone market. And besides, SE has been announcing a new phone what seems like every week! So a tablet would definitely be a change of pace. However, Sony already has a tablet out, so I'm curious to see if SE would come out with one of their own, especially after just being bought out by Sony. We'll just have to wait and see!


Huawei breaks out two new smartphones, including world's thinnest http://bit.ly/whzTaX
This one came at me just this morning, and announces two new super-thin smartphones with giant screens and dual cores. Just how thin is super-thin? We're talking 6.68mm thin. That makes the phone I'm currently using (the Xperia Arc) look bloated at around 9.8mm thin. I thought that stat was a mistake when I first read the spec list for the Arc last year before it was released. Complete with 1GB of RAM, this is a surprising announcement for Huawei, who have been the underdogs of the smartphone world until now. This could be a huge game-changer for them.

Acer launches Aspire S5 ultrabook http://bit.ly/w2Qq35
Now THIS is exciting. Last week my boyfriend bought himself a lovely little Christmas present: the Asus Zenbook. It was the first time I'd heard of such a thing; not a laptop, not a netbook, but something in between, and much more special. Super-thin, super-light, and super-powerful. The ultimate in portable computing. And now Acer is announcing one of their own. Just 15mm thick and boasting a boot-up time of 1.5 seconds, it promises to be the most beautiful and powerful piece of tech in your collection. What's more is the presence of a solid state drive for maximum storage capabilities, which is impressive. SSDs are still pretty rare in the laptop market these days. This one hits close to home for us, as we love Acer's line of little netbooks. They're cheap, reliable, and work well enough for everyday internet use (and are also easily given a boost by the addition of some extra RAM). By the time one breaks, its successor is already out and has a nicer screen and a bigger hard drive. So we can't wait to see one of Acer's more high-end efforts in real life.

I can't wait for CES! How about you? Anything in particular you're looking forward to?

For more buzz and announcements from CES, click here.
CES on Twitter: twitter.com/intlces
For Tech Buzz on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/hannahxb/tech (sparse at the moment but I will be adding to it over the next little while).

Confession: I hate Charmin.

I have a confession to make. I absolutely HATE Charmin. Yes, the toilet paper brand. Why, you ask? Because they stick to the most ridiculous concept for their commercials: the "little white pieces left behind" problem.

Who has this issue? Who wipes their ass and then feels around for little pieces that have been left behind? What mother keeps tabs on the status of their children's bottoms in this way? "Did you just go to the bathroom, Jimmy? Alright, then drop trou and show me your bottom so I can check for little white pieces that may have been left behind. STOP SQUIRMING, THIS IS IMPORTANT!" What parent does this?! And then says, "Oh dear. Look at all these little white pieces of toilet paper that have been left behind on your ass by our second-rate toilet paper! I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE! WE NEED CHARMIN! HELP US, CHARMIN!"

I'll save you the wondering. I can tell you: no parent does this. Unless they are a mysterious unknown species of red bear, they do not wait outside the bathroom and watch their child as they leave in an attempt to spot any debris that may be left over from the process of wiping their butt.

So, Charmin: please change your advertising angle. I don't want to be thinking about pieces of toilet paper left behind on someone's ass while I'm eating my breakfast. You are "solving" a problem that doesn't exist. SO JUST STOP IT ALREADY.

Rant over.

Feist // Metals

You can listen to Feist's new album Metals in its entirety, here!

All it takes is your email address. It's worth it. The Leslie we know and love is back in full force, and this album is full of her rich, sweet vocals layered over simple melodies that sound complex but aren't. If that makes any sense. See for yourself!



Enjoy!

Easy, yummy Tomato Sauce with Beef.

I was struggling to come up with a title for this recipe, and so I ask for your forgiveness. It's quite... un-inspired. But really, what else can I say about this dish? There are tomatoes. There is some beef. And some other spices. And voila! A beefy, tomato-y sauce. It's adapted from this recipe from Real Simple. I leave out the fresh mozzarella because I found it didn't really need it, and I don't always have it around. Also it doesn't really add any flavour. Parmesan is much more flavourful and not so bad with the sodium if you don't dump it on. Just use a little. Like, less than a tablespoon's worth. There's enough flavour here already that you don't really need any at all. But you can add some if you really feel it's necessary. You won't die without it, I promise.

I also add some canned/jarred pasta sauce to this recipe, because otherwise it isn't really saucy enough for me. And so, this recipe is a wonderful mix of home-made and pre-made. I hate to take things out of cans or jars, heat them up, and just eat them as is. This might be because we didn't really do this at my house growing up. I was fortunate enough to have a mom that valued eating fresh food, and so hardly anything came out of a can--even our holiday cranberry sauce was made on the stove, a simple mixture of sugar, water and fresh cranberries boiled down into a mush. This is probably why I prefer to add things to pre-made sauces and make it my own. Or you could see it as using these convenience items as helpful aides in the kitchen, since I don't have time to be simmering a pot of home-made sauce for hours. ANYWAYS.

I really love this recipe. I've been meaning to write a post about it for quite some time. I've made it at least four times in this past month alone, and every time, I think "Crap! Should've taken a picture for the blog," including this time. Apologies for that, too.

It's really quite simple to put together. The ingredients are staple items which you would usually have lying around, looking uninteresting and lonely in their natural state. However. Don't be fooled by all this normalcy. Because inside each of these ordinary, boring ingredients is the potential for something delicious. Beef. Onions. Garlic. Tomatoes. You can make these ingredients sing. They'll mingle and make love in a hot pan, and conceive delicious flavours for you to enjoy.

Alright, enough of that business. Let's get down to it.


Ingredients
olive oil
1/2 of a white onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 lb ground beef
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 large beefsteak tomato
1/2 a can of plain pasta sauce 
3 basil leaves
A pinch of Italian Seasoning (I only cheat a TINY bit here because I don't have any other nice fresh herbs and spices. This does the trick.)
Salt and pepper


Method
Do my fancy water-boiling trick (which isn't really all that fancy. It's more time-saving than fancy) and put some pasta on the boil. Since this sauce is quite chunky, I like to use pasta that is in shapes instead of long strings. Shapes like rotini or penne are great for holding lots of thick, chunky sauce. I've preferred using whole-wheat pasta lately since it's extra filling (and you won't be eating a whole bowl of simple carbohydrates, which basically turn into sugar in your digestive system), BUT HEY. It's your thing. Do what you wanna do.

Meanwhile, heat some olive oil over medium-ish heat in a large skillet. Turn it down if you need to. I always do, since my garlic tends to burn in a matter of minutes on medium. I go for medium-low. Chop some garlic and throw it in. Let it simmer while you chop your onions. Throw them in the pan too. Add some salt and pepper and let the onions simmer for a few minutes until they get soft. Add the ground beef and brown. Drain any extra fat in the pan. Add the tomato paste and stir it around so it gets on most of the beef. The pan might seem a little dry right now, but that's alright.

Let it all simmer while you chop your tomato, then throw it in and mix everything up. Your tomato should add enough liquid that all these ingredients can mingle sufficiently. If it doesn't, add a little water to the pan. But not too much. Add your basil and/or Italian spice mix. Stir occasionally. Let it simmer for a few minutes, until the tomatoes look soft, and then add the pasta sauce. Turn the heat right down at this point, almost to the lowest setting. You want the sauce to heat up and obtain the flavour you just coaxed out of all the lovely ingredients in the pan. You don't want the sauce to boil and bubble and leave streaks of sauce on your walls that you'll still be finding weeks later. Heat slowly. Let it simmer for at least five minutes. My pasta had to sit in the pot all drained and dry, waiting to get sauced. It's worth it if you have the time. If you don't, it isn't the end of the world.

Taste the sauce. If you like the way it tastes, throw in the pasta and mix it around and call it a day. If it's not done yet, let it be, or adjust your seasonings if you like. This recipe makes enough sauce for approximately 2-1/2 cups of prepared pasta, which will feed two people twice. Or four people, once. It makes a bunch, how about that. Bonus of cooking in large amounts: it's even better the next day.

Note: Feel free to experiment with the amount of tomatoes you add, and even the type. Last time I did this recipe I used some grape tomatoes I had in the fridge that weren't getting eaten and were about to go soft.

And there you have it. An easy yet delicious and filling meal that comes together in under 20 minutes.

Hooray for minimal effort in the kitchen!

Hail to The Sheepdogs.

These guys can rock. They came by UWO on Monday afternoon to shred and test the air for its hair-blowing qualities. We were right in the front, so we got to see their skills up-close. For free!

I don't know how they can see.

I have to say I was pretty impressed with their sound. Until a few days ago, I (embarrassingly enough) was part of the crowd that only knew of The Sheepdogs because of That One Song They Play On The Radio, and because they got an insane amount of press a few months ago for being the first unsigned band to ever grace the cover of The Rolling Stone. And they're Canadian! Yay!

Listening to their entire album online was a pleasant surprise, as they revealed themselves to be more than just one-hit-wonders. They're clearly a talented bunch of dudes who perfectly emulated the easy-going down-South sound. During their performance on Monday, they were musically tight in every way, plucking out complex guitar melodies in harmony with ease, every member singing and smiling along the way.

Here's some more of The Sheepdogs for you to experience. Enjoy the hairy, gritty, bearded glory.

Cheese Ravioli with Spinach and Tomato

In search of an easy pasta dish with which I could make use of the remaining pile of baby spinach in my fridge, I found this recipe over at Real Simple. Its minimal ingredients and fresh approach won me over, as did the frozen bag of ravioli I picked up last week as a just-in-case-I-had-no-energy meal. Since I had already consumed three pieces of bacon with my breakfast this morning, I decided I could do without the bacon and keep this a veggie meal.

This recipe was thrown together and finished in about 15 minutes, making it great for someone without much time. It was full of flavour and just as satisfying as one of those frozen skillet meals you can get in a bag, but this version is obviously better in every way: it's cheaper, healthier, tastier. The only part I cheated at was the ravioli, and frankly, I trust Ontario Ravioli Ltd to deliver a well-made product. I know where it comes from.

Please excuse the picture quality. There was still a bunch of steam in the way.

Ravioli with Spinach and Tomato (makes 2 servings, measurements are approximate)
1 cup fresh or frozen ravioli
1-1/2 cups baby spinach leaves, stems removed
2 medium-sized tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
3 basil leaves
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Place a large pot of salted water to boil (boil the water in a kettle first if you're really strapped for time). Boil the ravioli, stirring occasionally, following package directions for timing.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Finely chop the garlic (or mince it, or bash it with your knife) and toss it into the heated oil. Stir and let it cook for a few minutes. Dice the tomatoes roughly, and add them to the pan. Add salt, pepper and basil leaves and cook for about five minutes, until the tomatoes are soft. Finally, add the spinach leaves and stir frequently for two minutes or until the leaves are wilted.

Drain the ravioli well and add it to the skillet. Toss it all together and adjust your seasonings if necessary. Dump it all into a bowl and top with Parmesan cheese if desired (I found it unnecessary); stuff into face.