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Sony Ericsson just announced they plan to bump up the Facebook integration on their XPERIA phones to a whole new level. Beyond the obvious single sign-on and contacts and calendar sync, Facebook will now show its face at numerous places throughout the Xperia user interface.

Some of the new features are showcased on these press images.




Here's the new stuff we caught so far:

-There's a Like button in the music player, so you can share the tracks you like.
-The photos shared by your friends on Facebook now have a dedicated tab in the Timescape UI.
-Facebook notifications now appear alongside your mised calls and text messages on your lockscreen.
-The Android image gallery now integrates your photo albums from Facebook besides the Picasa web albums.
-A new Media discovery widget will automatically show you the videos and music shared by your friends.
-Besides getting synced with Facebook, contacts now have new tabs full of their likes, interests, wall activity, and photos and videos.

The new Facebook integration will come standard issue on the new Xperia pro and pro mini, but it will be implemented on the entire 2011 Xperia lineup via an update sooner or later (Q2 2011 is promised).
Via
Gsmarena

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Posted: 2011-05-06 03:00:47
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Some of the main features are:

- Single sign on to Facebook

When you start your phone for the very first time you have the option of logging into Facebook and thereby create this connection. That way you won’t have to log into Facebook or different apps like the Facebook app, Timescape or any of added integration points coming with this feature. This also enables all of the above to happen automatically unless you choose to turn specific parts off of course.

- Contact sync with Facebook

Just as with the current Facebook app you have the option of syncing your Facebook contacts into your phone book but we’ve added more Facebook info that you can access. So now if you want to see your friends’ status, photos or likes you only have to look them up in your phone book.

- Calendar sync with Facebook

Now also your calendar can be synched with Facebook so that you see your Facebook events and birthdays of all your Facebook friends directly in your calendar.

- Facebook photos in your phone Gallery

The Gallery application in your phone automatically shows your local pictures and e.g. your Picasa pictures. Now we’ve included in the gallery your Facebook photos and the Facebook photos your tagged in. So now you can find all these photos one click away and comment and like straightaway.

- Music player Like-button

When listening to a track in the included music player you now will have the possibility of clicking “like” on a song directly while listening. Whenever you do that a post will be posted on your Facebook wall. From that post your friends can click through and learn more about the specific song you liked, in some cases listen to it directly and also even buy it. It all works through the framework we’ve built over years on our Track-ID service.

- Media discovery widget

A widget is included that automatically shows you the videos and music that your friends have recommended on their Facebook wall. Everything your friends link to on services such as YouTube, Spotify etc will be shown there and you can easily view your friends favorite media by just a single click – great to keep entertained.

I’ve tried this out for a short while now and must say that the integration is really neatly done. It’s available in lots of places but in a very non-intrusive way and you also have the possibility to turn specific features on or off as you please.

Important differences compared to other initiatives are that this really integrates into your phone in many different places and does not focus only on easy sharing or posting on Facebook but also on reading and interacting with your friends content. Another important benefit of this is that it will be included in the entire 2011 Xperia range and isn’t limited to a specific model. Our aim with the Xperia family is to offer a broad range of choice but all of them will give you a great entertaining experience and with the wide appeal of Facebook I really think this suits almost all target groups and form factors.

Via
Productblog

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Posted: 2011-05-06 03:11:01
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I wonder if they show the notifications, "like"-shortcuts etc regardless of signing in to facebook.. I find it sad that facebook is "soooo" important, some people can't handle it already.
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Posted: 2011-05-06 10:32:25
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brize, it's an incredible convenience. Just like the current Xperia line, there will be a button, but it won't do anything unless you log in.

Facebook is not all useless interactions. It can be used as a live database so you don't have to keep telling your friends that you've changed your number. Extremely private people will not be on Facebook anyway, so I don't see why that's even an issue. The Xperia won't sign up Facebook for you if you don't have an account, and you don't have to log in.

Facebook and other SNS/cloud based systems are the future. It would be foolish for SE to not adopt it NOW. If in the future it dies out then no harm.

Thanks to Android and Facebook, I spend less time on my computer... and less time indoors despite being on FB all-day.

Events and group collaborations are easier to coordinate on Facebook.

We have a few people in an org that are not on FB... and reaching them is a pain since they can only be reached by email and they're not the type to check it all the time. So in the end, we just leave them out of the approval loop. We don't have time to wait for them to dial-up and check email.

Facebook and Twitter, regardless of the millions of useless posts... if used properly by a closed group is quite productive and convenient. Much easier than emailing or texting... all appointments and meeting times can be adjusted live by anyone in the group and automatically updates everyone else in the group.
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Posted: 2011-05-06 10:58:20
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Hope this comes to branded Xperias.

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Posted: 2011-05-06 11:21:34
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@goldenface as you already have your Play on Three Sony Ericsson might provide it in future updates I am sure they will. I hate Face Book
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Posted: 2011-05-06 11:28:00
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I never said anything about it being "just" useless interactions, it serves a purpose yeah, but it is the useless interactions that fueled this integration and everything else that happens on facebook. You said it yourself, being on FB all day. People who are online all through the day with active places, who upload photos, updates their status and so on, THATS the targeted audience.

The ones you talk about who actually uses facebook for collaboration, groups etc, they don't need facebook integration to like a song etc. Contact and calendar sync is a neat feature that has been availiable for corporate people for AGES, using systems designed to do just that. I don't want to be friends with all my co-workers on facebook just so I can get their contact details and synced calendars. That's not a viable option for any corp with a little privacy rules.

Now, this is not all bad but my personal opinion is that there could be a little less facebook in our lives, not more.
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Posted: 2011-05-06 11:43:41
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I'm not the biggest FB fan but its pretty cool feature. I just hope you can exclude FB shortcuts from appearing... I don't want to accidentally hit a 'like' button if I'm listening to my ABBA album...
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Posted: 2011-05-06 11:51:48
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this New FB feature will be available in the next update to all the 2011 Xperia phones.
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Posted: 2011-05-06 12:03:00
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Xperia mini and Xperia mini pro - first developer demos [official]
+ Some More DEMO on Facebook Inside + Media Discovery Feature.

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Posted: 2011-05-06 12:18:16
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