After a few short months of proposing a Sony acquisition of Ericsson’s mobile division, the deal has been finalized. The Japanese electronics giant is at the dawning of a new era, and we’re already starting to see the fruits of their labor.

New smartphones like the Xperia Ion and Xperia S no longer have the Ericsson branding embedded. Recent unboxing videos show the same pattern for the boxing of new devices, but with some major changes in packaging design. We must say that the new Xperia S box is a bit odd. It’s wider and thinner, making it look a bit cheaper. But it’s interesting and unique, nonetheless.

We know you guys couldn’t care less about the packaging, as it goes to the closet (or the trash can) soon after it’s opened. If you want to see how the device performs and looks, the second video should be more to your liking. It displays the device’s good looks and translucent buttons bar and Sony’s new UI, which seems to be called UXP NXT (also seen in the teaser video).

Major changes seem to include tweaks to the gallery, media player and TimeScape. You may or may not like Sony’s UI Overlay, but it’s not as bad as others. And after making a few modifications, it has the potential to be much better.

We can see in the unboxing videos that Sony has included Ericsson chargers and cables in the boxes (probably just trying to get rid of them). But this is the beginning of what could be a great improvement for Xperia smartphones.

Either way, the Sony Xperia S is an awesome device. And it looks like it should be coming very soon, as review units are already being delivered. Let’s sit tight and wait for more details. In the meantime, make sure to take a look at our hands-on post and video.

Check out the videos and let us know what you think. Do you like this device? Do you see Sony doing a better job in the Android ecosystem now that it’s running solo?

We have been begging and pleading for Android to get the Chrome browser for years. And now that we have a Beta version available for Android 4.0 devices, the world seems a bit more at peace. Many of you may currently be enjoying this to its full potential, but as usual, Google is not stopping any time soon. Senior VP of Chrome, Sundar Pichai, has gone on the record, and we are expecting some huge improvements within the coming year.

Google’s plan is to make more money directly from Chrome via purchases of web apps. In part, the browser for mobile is being improved, along with the experience, to lure customers into spending more cash on their browsing experience. But with Google Chrome being one of the most popular browsers out there, we assume that will be no problem.

Chrome for Android is only available for Android 4.0 devices, which makes for about 1% of the Android-using population. In just a few weeks, it has been downloaded from 100,000-500,000 times. Sundar Pichai is very proud of the consumer response, and claims that complaints are minor. But he plans to keep working hard on it, and goes on to say that in a year from now, Chrome will take “leaps and bounds.”

Given that it’s a beta product and only available on ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich, aka Android 4.0, which has only barely penetrated the market), we’re really happy where it is. I think most people haven’t experienced it on tablets. They will discover a lot of good things there as well. We’ve received positive feedback, and the feature requests are pretty minor.

We are going to continue releasing Chrome for Android at a pretty healthy pace. In a year from now, we’re going to take leaps and bounds.Sundar PichaiSenior VP of Chrome

But what exactly are some of the improvements we are talking about? The details are scarce, but Pichai goes on to mention that people’s favorite characteristics of Chrome for Android are the speed, sync and tab stack. And what users request more is the ability to see full desktop versions of websites. As we know, the days of Flash are over, but the team will be focusing on HTML5 and assures us that they are working on bringing this feature.

There is much to expand on, and it would be great to see all of the other Chrome features come to Android. Extensions and apps are just the beginning. But we would like to know what you guys think. What do you think we will coming from Chrome in a year?

Hit the source link to read the full interview, and let’s see what the future holds for Chrome.

With the wave of upcoming Tegra 3 devices about to be announced later this month, we felt it was a good time to preview a couple of upcoming games for Tegra Zone. NVIDIA’s showcase app has racked up a couple million installs since it launched last year and it now boasts close to 40 games optimized for Tegra devices.

Now that more devices are coming to market, we are starting to see more quality releases (like Grand Theft Auto III and Shadowgun) and more developers are signing up to bring their games to Android. Read on for our top Tegra picks.

Borderlands 2

Last week at PDXLAN 19, Dallas-based studio Gearbox Software showed off Borderlands 2 running on a Tegra 3 tablet. Some attendees at the event were disappointed because they were expecting a demo of NVIDIA’s next-gen Kepler GPU, but this is still a significant announcement for Android.

Borderlands 2 is scheduled for a summer release on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC. We are still waiting for more details, but this could be the first time that a console-quality game sees a simultaneous release on Android. We know that Tegra 3 has a PC-class GeForce GPU, but only a couple of developers have taken full advantage of it.

Check out the Borderlands 2 site for future updates on this game.

Demolition Inc.

Also announced last week was Demolition Inc. from Zeroscale. This action strategy game lets you assume the role of a demolition worker and shows off the physics processing power of Tegra devices. Demolition Inc. is currently scheduled for a March release.

Highlights of Demolition Inc. include:

• Car and building physics are fully simulated. Everything is destructible and nothing is pre-animated.
• Use the endless possibilities of combining your tools and weapons to make devastating chain reactions.
• Use your tractor beam to take control of cars, place anti-gravity ramps to maximize damage, use the huge wrecking ball to make way.
• Three cities and 15 districts are awaiting to be demolished by you and lead to their true destination!
• Compare your skills with those of your friends and the world-wide steam community.

Today we’re getting a second look at the Android 4.0.3 update for Verizon’s Motorola DROID RAZR. The new leaked images show off the detail of Motorola’s new UI which is a much needed improvement over the most recent versions of MotoBLUR.

As you can tell from the images, Motorola has done a full reset with Android 4.0, removing most of their custom skin and allowing the Android 4.0 Holo theme to shine through a bit. The only real customization that Motorola has done to the home screen and the app launcher is swap out the stock Android 4.0 application icons with their own and add functionality to the app launcher which allows users to sort their applications by various groups.

Diving deeper into the OS, you will find that Motorola’s customization of Android 4.0 gets a little heavier. The dialer, camera, lock screen and settings all bear the classic MotoBLUR look while pulling in a bit of Ice Cream Sandwich styling.

Gallery

According to the official Motorola Android 4.0 update list, the Verizon DROID RAZR update eligibility is still “under evaluation” while the international version of the phone is scheduled to receive its update in Q2 of this year. We have a feeling that Motorola is planning on giving Verizon’s DROID RAZR owners a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich in Q1 and maybe even beating HTC in becoming the first OEM to push out an Android 4.0 update. We’ll have to wait and see how this plays out.

What do you think of the Android 4.0.3 build for the Verizon Motorola DROID RAZR? Is Motorola on the right track with the latest version of MotoBLUR or do you prefer HTC’s approach to Android 4.0 with HTC Sense 4.0?

The LG Optimus LTE is getting a bit of a spin-off. A press release issued this morning by LG announced the LG Optimus LTE Tag, which adds the forward-looking NFC capability to LG’s flagship device.

NFC on the Optimus LTE Tag offers a unique twist in addition to the standard LTE functionality. The Optimus LTE Tag features the LG Tag+ program which uses the Optimus LTE Tag’s NFC chip to communicate with special stickers (really) that can be programmed to change your phones settings in certain locations. Imagine placing a big ol’ sticker on your car’s dashboard which disables the ability to send text messages while in the car, or a sticker on your workstation that turns on Wi-Fi and puts your device into silent mode when you’re at work.

Adding NFC comes at a cost, however, and unfortunately this is in the way of display. The 4.5″ IPS HD display found on the LG Spectrum (Verizon) and LG Nitro HD (AT&T) were some of the better displays we’ve seen on a mobile device. The LG Optimus LTE Tag instead opts for a smaller 4.3″ IPS display with an 800 x 480 resolution. We’re scratching our heads a bit over why LG would choose to put a lesser display into the Optimus LTE Tag, and we’re sure you are as well.

Specs on the Optimus LTE Tag include:

• 1.2 GHz dual-core processor
• 4.3″ IPS display
• Android 2.3 Gingerbread with an upgrade to Android 4.0 coming later
• NFC (duh)
• 16GB on-board storage
• 5 megapixel rear-camera, with 1.3 megapixel front-facing
• 1,700 mAh battery

The Optimus LTE Tag will likely launch in Asia later this year, and we don’t know whether this device will be making its way stateside. We’ll be looking for the Optimus LTE Tag at Mobile World Congress next week, and will bring you our impressions if it makes an appearance. Anyone interested, or is it time for the 800 x 480 resolution to go the way of the dodo?

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