Sometimes we hear about new gadgets and can’t decide if it is the coolest or lamest thing we’ve ever seen. It can seem like such an awesome idea, but is it something you’d actually use?
This was our first reaction to the Sony Ericsson LiveView, although the more we think about it, the more we think it’s an awesome idea.
The LiveView is a device with a 1.3 inch 128×128 OLED screen which displays data from the apps on your Android device. It connects via bluetooth and in addition to being used as a remote control for your music player; it can display RSS and Twitter feeds, calendar information as well as missed/incoming calls and SMS messages. The LiveView will also come with a very useful ‘find your phone’ feature. Given that this is a bluetooth device, that is only going to useful for finding it in your house rather than if it gets stolen, but it is still quite a nice feature.
In addition to everything it can do out of the box, the LiveView can be enabled on any Android app built for Android 2.0 or above. This means that the power of the device will increase as more developers get on board and add support for the LiveView.
Due to the fact LiveView uses bluetooth connect, it should work with just about any device running Android 2.x. You won’t have to have a Sony Ericson Android phone to be able to use it. At least, that’s the theory – at the moment Sony Ericsson has only got the Samsung Glalaxy S and the HTC Desire listed as compatible non Sony Ericsson phones.
There’s definitely still a part of us which wonders what we’d actually use it for that would be worth whatever Sony Ericsson decides to charge for it. That said, the potential of it is pretty exciting and it will definitely be worth watching this space!
