Minus the usual Ericsson name attached, Sony will be releasing the Sony Xperia S in the UK on the 30th of January, we finally have an update of the date courtesy of Play.com and it looks set to cost around £429.99 with VAT and SIM-Free.

With CES being the showcase for the Sony device we think with the feature and spec it has on offer that it will be a welcome new addition to the Android family though some may be disappointed that it will arrive with only a Gingerbread operating system with ICS promised some time after the initial release.

<h3.Who will carry the device?

The usual few will be carrying the Sony Xperia S, including:

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• O2
• Three
• T-Mobile
• Orange
• Phones4U (offering exclusive white version)

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The talk is that Vodafone is not going to be adding it to their stock range but time will tell on that.

So what do I think of the Sony Xperia S?

Looks wise it looks great in product shots, nice and slim, powerful with a 1.5 Ghz dual core processor and with a sizable 4.3 inch LCH HD screen it is also impressive to look at, the camera is a huge 12 MP and it shoots in 720p.

But as is mentioned in the original article, this year is now all about the quad core smartphone and (hopefully) making phones a bit bigger so they can contain a larger battery, slim size zero smartphones are so 2011. Hopefully we can start using our phones as we want without fear of no life remaining in them after only a few hours.

So maybe for those reasons this device may be the last of a dying bred, albeit a sweet looking device and top of its class, it looks likely to get superseded pretty much as soon as it comes out by other beasts on the way.

All that said, bloody nice phone though, what do you think?

There is a train of thought that states that humans can only think around 50 years ahead before their ideas turn into the realms of science fiction.

Now if you think back to programmes from the 60/70’s, I remember Star Trek characters talking to people on videophones, and while I did not think too much about it, I never expected it to arrive as soon as it has, so in my mind, it was Sci-Fi, something to expect in many many years to come….that was about 50 years ago.

Now we all know how common place video chat is, so what about all the other advancements that have emerged and will emerge in the coming years, what will change in our day to day lives now that smartphone and tablets dominate?

Well thanks to Ericsson, the inventors of Bluetooth, you may well be able to hazard a guess….be warned though, at 20 minutes long, it is not your average viral video, and with a pretty disappointing 130,000 views, it perhaps shows that length matters online….however as all good things come to those who wait…it is worth it.

Flash based map of “networked cities”

And if you want to look at their Flash based map of “Networked Cities” please click here:

I do feel that this relatively intriguing map could have a) been made in HTML5 and b) worked better.

So what is this “networked society” initiative from Ericsson about?

It has to be said that the one time Nokia rivals seem to have hid away for a while, so where are they heading and how does this project aid that roadmap?

“The Networked Society City Index interactive tool lets you explore and compare the effects ICT has on society, people, and business – in major cities all over the world. Learn about a city, drag-and-drop two cities and compare, or discover initiatives happening in the cities right now.”

They even have a facebook page which works as you might have expected, as part advertisement and part discussion of all things networked and Ericsson, I like what they have done here.

And also take a look at their “to-do-list” video, scraped from their facebook intro page:

So what do you think the future holds technology wise?

Will it be apocalyptic hell, where man and machine are at war after creating technology that outsmarts us and turns nasty?

Or will it be a more peaceful place where harmony is created through a synergy with all things living, being in perfect balance with technology?

Maybe you think that the world needs to stop pursuing technological advancements and start looking at our own personal issues instead of creating more problems with the technology that is designed to help us, either way let us know your thoughts below.