Sony Xperia Z headed to US carriers soon

Today during the D11 conference we learned some exciting news for all you Sony fans. The companies CEO Kaz Hirai took the stage and had a few things to say about their products, the X Peria Z, and even mentioned we’ll be seeing it arrive on US carriers soon. Sony’s been making some stellar smartphones, but sadly the US hasn’t been able to enjoy them but that will soon be changing.

Sony’s current flagship smartphone is the impressive 5-inch 1080p Xperia Z, which by the way is waterproof, among other things, and soon enough you’ll be able to get it stateside. We’ve seen images leak with T-Mobile branding, and some odd FCC filings also give credence to the idea that AT&T might also carry the smartphone.

Sadly that’s about all we know at this point, as the comments were short and to the point. Sony’s CEO Hirai stated the Xperia Z is “expected to arrive on a US carrier shortly,” but didn’t share details on which one so we’re still left wondering for now.

Verizon Cloud gives you 500MB of free storage for files and backups

With the likes of Dropbox, Skydrive, Box.net, Google Drive and more swirling about it’s hard to imagine anyone picking a carrier-sanctioned cloud storage service. Verizon has done just that, though, as the carrier has announced Verizon Cloud. It is as it sounds — it’s a cloud storage account where you can store all your files and multimedia, backup your contacts and texts, and never lose your digital goods for as long as Verizon’s servers survive.

The service is only available for Android and via the web for now, but will eventually come to iOS and desktop platforms, as well as other mobile platforms, over the course of the year. You’ll be getting 500MB of free storage to start, a paltry amount compared to what you can get from competitors (be it their base allowance or through deals where you earn additional storage).

If you want more, you’re going to have to cough up the money — it wouldn’t be Verizon without that little caveat, would it? For $2.99 per month you can enjoy 25GB of storage, $5.99 gets you 75GB of storage, and $9.99 gives you 125GB. Those prices aren’t half bad to be quite honest. To compare, Google Drive’s premium options come in at $2.50 for 25GB and $5 for 100GB. Dropbox asks for $10 per month for 100GB. The difference is the generous starting point for each service — Google Drive gives you 5GB for free, while Dropbox gives you 2GB.

Verizon would have made a very nice case for itself if it offered at least 1GB of free storage, but with 500MB to give the service a light workout it almost doesn’t seem worth the time. Trying it is risk free, though, so if you’re curious how a carrier’s cloud storage service stacks up compared to internet heavyweights you can give it a try at VerizonWireless.com.

Download the Google I/O Android app for the 2013 show

With just under a week until the big El Goog developer conference of the year, it’s worth noting that the official Google I/O app has been updated for 2013. As Google does every year, this app follows all the latest design trends and will give you access to everything you need to make sure you can find your way at the show.

You can view the full conference agenda, including sessions by track, form and edit your own personal schedule, view detailed session info — including speaker listings, bios, code labs, office hours, and more — sync your schedule across the Google I/O website and all your Android devices, support for lock-screen widgets in Android 4.2+, the ability to beam session details to another device and scan attendee badges to get their information using NFC, a detailed vector map for finding your way around, and a whole lot more.

There’s also a neat tablet interface if you’re downloading the app to a bigger slate. The Google I/O app is always cutting edge stuff, and it’s fun to take a look even if you can’t attend the show, so head to theGoogle Play Store and give it a download if you are even remotely interested in the events to come next week.

Latest Google Play Services APK reveals Google Play Games resource files

We’ve heard for a while now that Google would start taking mobile gaming more seriously, with a Game Center-like service for people to connect in online games, track leaderboards and achievements, and more. We haven’t had much concrete evidence to go on, but that all changed over the weekend when an APK revealed some resource files which directly mention Play Games in all its glory.

The files were discovered after the version 3.1 update to the Google Play Services APK. In it was found a half-functioning settings app that tips us to functionality like being able to control who can send you game invites and switching between different Google accounts. Some of the strings entries revealed tons of other functionality that we can’t quite envision just yet.

It references things like synchronized game saves for playing your games across different devices, tools for facilitating matchmaking and sending game invites, achievements which reward players for completing goals in-game, and ranking and tracking scores across global leaderboards. We even get a look at some of the early icons and graphics that will be used for the service.

Unfortunately this entire picture has still yet to be painted, but we’re told to expect an announcement this week at Google I/O 2013. Just looking at the slate of events on Google’s sessions schedule shows us they’re putting major emphasis on gaming this year, but we’ll have to wait for the show to see just how much Google is doing to help improve the Android gaming scene.

It’s official: Blackberry Messenger for Android coming this summer — will you use it?

RIM has long been rumored to be bringing Blackberry to rival operating systems. While the company denied it at every turn, we figured they’d want to start branching out and making waves on other platforms in the event that the failing Blackberry hardware business goes the way of the dodo.

While Blackberry isn’t completely dead yet, the company doesn’t want to waste any time in planting some roots on Android (and, in turn, iOS). It has officially announced that Blackberry Messenger — otherwise affectionately known as BBM — will be launching for the top mobile platforms this summer.

The app will be fully featured, with key ingredients like group messaging and screen sharing all coming to the rival platforms. According to  CEO Thorsten Heins believes Blackberry Messenger is ready to expand to other platforms because he believes Blackberry 10 is enough to win customers over on its own merit. We are calling for an early helping of “BS” on that one, but that’s the company line.

The service is expected to launch this summer, and will be free for anyone to download. While other group messaging platforms are gaining recognition on Android and Google planning to launch its own refined communication service sometime soon you may wonder whether or not there is a need for Blackberry Messenger anymore.

I personally still have a lot of friends who would like to use it, but have since migrated to options that are currently present on all platforms. With a solid enough app and key security and collaboration features Blackberry Messenger could once again become the go-to messaging platform even if you weren’t a Blackberry fan back in the golden days. We’ll have to await more information from RIM, but just be glad that it’s on its way soon.

Will you be using the service now that it is making its way over to your favorite OS of choice? Drop a vote in the poll below, and follow that up with a comment for some meaty discussion.

Android 4.3 confirmed, Google Play Games mentioned in game changelog

We’re just minutes away from Google’s IO keynote in San Francisco, and a couple of nuggets have landed in our laps ahead of schedule. For starters, a leaked developers’ page (it’s been removed, but Google still has a cached copy) makes mention of Android 4.3. We already guessed Google would be introducing a new version of Android at today’s show, but it’s nice to be reassured.

In that update, we’re expecting to see the “Game Center of Android.” That particular feature has been rumored for quite some time, and recent Google Play Services updates make mention of the service in brief. Even more confirmation has come in the way of a changelog from a game update in the Play Store, with the update mentioning that “Google Play Games achievements” have been added.

Google Play Music All Access officially announced as music streaming service, rolling out to US today with 30-day trial

Google has officially announced its new music streaming service. The service will come as part of Google Play Music, and gets a sub tag called All Access. With All Access, you’ll get immediate and instant access to millions of tracks in the Google Play Store. Google uses the power of its search engine (ie, the data they know about you from your searches) to help recommend new tracks.

Users will be able to get in on all the action starting today with a free 30-day trial in the United States. Following the trial, the service will cost just $9.99 per month, but,as an added bonus, it will only be $7.99  for those who try the service out before June 30th. There’s no reason not to try it out as soon as you can so make sure you get locked into the cheaper price in case you decide All Access is something you’ll want to pay for down the line.