With so many great devices on the market to help us entertain and manage our lives, its sometimes hard to choose which is best for our own lifestyle. This is not only true for consumers, but also for developers, who may not see the full potential of a device if its capabilities aren’t fully understood. This could be the case of the Sony Ericsson LiveView, which has reportedly been receiving quite a few questions about how the device actually works and what it can do. To help clear the air and shed some light for both buyers and developers, Sony rep Marcus Hansson has a few answers for those on the fence about the LiveView via YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRQxg13zSY8&feature=player_embedded
“First of all, I want to make it clear that the LiveView is a small screen with buttons on it, it connects with Bluetooth to your phone. So it’s compatible with all Sony Ericsson Android phones with 2.0 and above, it’s also compatible with most Android phones with 2.0 and above.”
Marcus adds that the LiveView can be used as a watch, which can attach to many kinds of wristbands. As for the developers out there, he says they will be able to develop apps to work on the device by using two methods. One way will be with the “Announce Plug-in” for announcements from Facebook, Twitters, Text messages, etc. The other would be with the “Sandbox Plug-in” , which can take over the whole phone and allow for sending images, using vibration, and control of the app on the phone by using buttons on LiveView. Hansson does say that Sony will be posting SDK and documentation for developers who would like to get started soon. Also for better visualization of the process are the diagrams below.
