Android Developer: Sony Ericsson LiveView

Submitted by Leslie on May 9, 2011 – 2:20 pm
                                                                                                                                      Football United LiveView
The cool thing about Android is that its an open platform- and gives developers a great opportunity to try new things.  Last year Sony launched its Live View Product which I have finally got my hands on one to review.


The Sony Live view is a wrist mounted display for your phone, which lets you display information directly from your phone.  Think of it as a Digital watch that has been dragged into the 21st Century.

Features supported out of the box are Facebook, Twitter, Rss Feeds, Messages,Calendar, Caller Id, missed calls and Find your Phone.  Its also possible to download some extra apps which are LiveView enabled. One of my favourite apps is Life Cycle Widget- which includes live view support ( See Video  below)


The great thing about the live view-is that its compatible with any handset.  I used my Nexus phone  to test the device. most of the features worked (except the media player) although it did take patience, configuration and manual reading to get it to  to work.

Overall opinion is that it could do with some improvements to make it easier to setup-  but for someone who likes new gadgets, it is a great gift to play with.  Once its setup – it works amazingly!

From the developer perspective- I was taken back how easy it was to write an application for the LiveView taking into account that this device is in it’s first hardware iteration and the software tools are still quite new.

This lead me onto writing a LiveView plugin that hooks into FootballUnited to display live score feeds and event notifications.

The thing to remember is the device is purely an extension to your Android phone not a replacement allowing remote viewing of notifications, status updates and limited interaction. it weights in at  mere 0.53 ounces in weight, 0.4 inches in depth and 1.7 inches in the diagonal. The best comparison for the look of the device is a stopwatch it has two buttons on the top with a LED built into the power button and four touch sensitive areas in the bezel around the screen.

It comes with a watch strap which must be removed before charging or the micro USB will not fit and  belt type clip which I can’t really see the use of , if I keep needing to unclip it from my belt I may as well get my phone out of my pocket, then again if I wasn’t to use it as a name tag it might have a purpose.

This is one of those odd products that looks seemingly plain from the user’s perspective, yet for us it’s caught a fair bit of attention when worn on our wrist. At a humble 0.53 ounces in weight, 0.4 inches in-depth and 1.7 inches in diagonal width, this aesthetically simple device resembles a black mini stopwatch with two buttons at the top — power and LED on the left, and select on the right (the latter of which was slightly sticky on our particular device). There’s not much at the bottom except for a micro-USB port covered by a soft flap. This leaves us with the front 1.3-inch OLED display — which is annoyingly reflective under daylight — beneath a domed piece of transparent hard plastic, and a trio of slits on the back for easily snapping to either the shirt clip or the watch bracket. To detach, simply poke the device from the back of either attachment.

LiveView is one of the first reasonably prices gadgets that you would be happy to spend money one just to play with.

The LiveView is a  product designed by Sony-Ericsson, however I don’t think that everyone fully hit around to what it does. The thing that took me by surprise was how easy it was to value add your android application with a LiveView. Its true potential will become apparent when the developer community embraces it and moves it forward with apps.