Sometimes getting lost in the maze-like sprawl of the Messe can turn up unexpected surprises. In this case, we chanced upon Sony's Xperia sola hiding in plain sight at Sparhandy's booth. The petite Android handset, formerly codenamed "Pepper", was officially announced earlier this spring and even crept up in FCC filings. But until now, we'd never had quality hands-on time with the 3.7-inch Gingerbread device. For its diminutive size, the wee phone sports a 854 x 480 LCD display powered by Mobile BRAVIA Engine, a dual-core CPU clocked at 1GHz, 5-megapixel rear shooter and NFC functionality for Smart Tag use.
As you might expect, the sola fits quite nicely into the palm of your hand, though its tiny screen can pose an issue for those with larger digits. And speaking of touch navigation, this Sony phone separates itself from the rest of the Xperia pack with the inclusion of floating touch technology -- much like the Galaxy Note 2. What's that? Well, turns out this device can detect your finger's presence up to 20mm away from the screen, allowing users to highlight links, but only from within the browser. Apart from that neat touch, which in practice, is a bit awkward to properly use, the phone functions exactly as it should for the low-to-mid range it occupies. Performance is appreciably quick and pages loaded up in the browser in just about 30 seconds time.
There's still no word on whether the sola will ever make it stateside, but if you're keen to see that hovering functionality in action, head past the break for a video demo and check out our gallery below.
Mat Smith contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/31/sony-xperia-sola-a-pint-sized-android-handset-with-floating-tou/
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Gameplay in Sound Shapes is simple, it has your platform elements such as jumping, sticking on surfaces to get to the next area of the level and there are quite a few puzzles thrown in as well but they are very easy and fun and none of it feels like it?s forced into the game. There is a campaign mode in which you will spend at least 3 hours on but there are some really cool levels that I did like a lot such as the Jim Guthrie level in which everything is black and white and it looks very similar to Swords and Sorcery EP and it has some great puzzles in it as well. The other worlds are really fun to look at and play as well ranging from a cold, winter setting level to a homage to retro games, each world you play in has a great level design of it?s own and at first the game will be ridiculously easy but it will be a little challenging during the later levels but nothing that?s hard. That is not the goal in Sound Shapes. There is a more challenging difficulty that is unlocked after you beat the campaign mode but to me Sound Shapes is all about the smooth controls, easy to pick up gameplay and hard to put down because the game feels so rewarding to you as you finish each album(world) because you can?t wait to see what is next. Also if you choose to put the time into it, you can create your own levels and you can put in different objects in the level that will trigger different sounds and music and when it is all put together, it really feels nice and gratifying.
Benjy Sarlin 
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