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Sony Xperia Sola's 'Floating Touch' Smartphone Allows Hands-Free Hover-Browsing

Sony Announces 'Magical' New Smartphone
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We're getting closer and closer to eliminating fingerprint smudges from our smartphone screens.

Sony has announced a new smartphone, the Xperia sola, whose most notable feature is something called "floating touch." The technology allows the user to highlight apps and icons by hovering their finger above where they would touch, a kind of pre-aiming mechanism to make sure you never miss your intended on-screen target.

Here's a fancy video that shows how "floating touch," which debuts on the Xperia sola, works.

WATCH:

So, what good is this "floating touch" technology? Aside from minimizing accidental link clickage, Sony is framing it as a kind of "look-what-my-phone-can-do" feature, consistently using the word "magical" in its press release and writing that floating touch "giv[es] consumers a fun new way to browse the web and latest technology to show off." A mixture of utility and braggadocio, in other words.

Aside from hover-browsing, the Xperia sola is an Android 2.3 Gingerbread phone (Ice Cream Sandwich coming in Summer 2012, Sony claims), with 3.7-inch Reality Display, a 1GHz Dual Core processor, and a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera capable of recording in 720p. It weighs just 107 grams (compared to 139 grams on the similar-sized iPhone 4S) and features what Sony calls 3D surround sound audio technology. Storage starts at 8GB and expands via microSD up to 32GB. A full list of tech specs are available at Sony's website.

Like HTC, Sony is currently in the midst of re-branding and simplifying its smartphone line, having announced that its handset offerings will henceforth carry the name "Xperia." The massive 4.55-inch Xperia Ion, a 4G AT&T handset that will become Sony's flagship phone in America when it debuts, and the Xperia S were both on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, and the Xperia U and Xperia P were outed at last month's Mobile World Congress.

These phones are now joined by the Xperia sola, which will bring its floating touch technology to handsets some time this spring. Though a launch is assured for the United Kingdom and China, there's no word on whether the Xperia sola will be released in the U.S. along with the flagship Xperia Ion (expected in the coming months). If it doesn't, you might be out of luck: When asked if floating touch would make it to other smartphones, a Sony spokesperson told HuffPost that the company doesn't comment on specifications of future products.

Guess you'll either have to get used to those fingerprint smudges on your screen or invest in a really nice rag, in other words.

Check out the slideshow (below) for a look at some of the other noteworthy gadgets that debuted recently at the Mobile World Congress.

HTC, Nokia and Samsung At Mobile World Congress
Samsung Unleashes Another Tidal Wave Of Tablets And Smartphones(01 of06)
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Some companies, like Apple, have a "One Size Fits All" approach to product design. Samsung, meanwhile, seems to be taking the opposite approach: If One Size doesn't Fit All, then surely All Sizes Will Fit All, right? Don't like this 10-inch tablet? How about a 7-inch tablet, or a 7.7 inch tablet, or a 5.1 inch half-phone/half-tablet? Surely one of those meets your needs?Samsung continued its effort to please all-comers at MWC, showing off (DEEP BREATH) the Galaxy Ace 2, the Galaxy Ace Plus, the Galaxy Note 10.1, the Galaxy Tab 7.7, the Galaxy S Advance, the Galaxy Mini 2, the Galaxy S WiFi 4.2, the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, and the Galaxy Tab Ace 3 10.7.1.5 Plus (4G). Okay, that last one was made up (I think), but the point is that Samsung showed off a ton of new hardware, from big to small, at Mobile World Congress. No word on when Apple will begin suing all of these Samsung devices for patent infringement, but I would guess that the paperwork is being drawn up as we speak.So, what's important, interesting, controversial, sexy here? Hard to say. The Galaxy Note 10.1 is a ten-inch tablet (iPad-sized) that comes with a stylus and is getting good reviews from those who have tried it. The Galaxy Tab line of non-stylus tablets, meanwhile, adds a new member with the Galaxy Tab 7.7, while the 10-inch Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 7-inch Galaxy Tab 7.0 received their first updates.Actually, the biggest Samsung news of the week probably didn't even come out of Barcelona: Boy Genius Report claimed to have the scoop on the Samsung Galaxy S III, the next flagship Galaxy smartphone. Rumor has it the S III will be a 4.8-inch monster, with a quad-core processor, a "full HD display with 16:9 aspect ratio," and an intriguing ceramic shell case. (credit:Verizon)
The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1(02 of06)
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Here is the 10-inch version of the Galaxy Note, which I am confident in calling the most high-profile stylus-packing tablet in the market. It runs Android Ice Cream Sandwich and is quite thin at 0.37 inches. It boasts a dual-core 1.4 GHz processor, 1GB RAM and up to 64GB storage and 32GB available via microSD. And, yes, it comes with an S-Pen stylus for doodling, note-taking, and the like. For full specifications, check PhoneArena; for a video tour of the 10-inch Galaxy Note, head to Engadget. (credit:Engadget)
Nokia Shocks With A 41 Megapixel Camera On A Smartphone, The 808 PureView(03 of06)
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The Nokia 808 PureView so thoroughly stole this show that they should have called it the Nokia 808 Thomas Crown Affair.Well, maybe not -- I don't work in marketing. In any case, the talk of the show was indeed the 808 Pureview, the smartphone with a FORTY-ONE megapixel sensor that won the MWC's Best New Mobile Handset prize. Five years in the making, the 808 PureView has some pretty nice specs on its own-- a 4-inch ClearBlack AMOLED screen, a 1.3 GHz processor, 16GB memory with up to 32GB available via MicroSD slot -- but it is the pixel-packing camera that shocked the crowds in Barcelona. 41 megapixels: It's easily the most ever for a smartphone camera and more than many expensive digital cameras (Pixels aren't everything, of course: click here to read why). Nokia points out on its website that the camera on the 808 PureView isn't taking gigantic, wall-sized photos, but is rather combining and overlapping pixels to create what it calls "purer" pixels. Tech pundits are split as to whether the 808 PureView will really deliver meaningfully better photos -- TechCrunch says yes, Gizmodo says no, dubbing it a "stupidphone" -- but one thing is for sure: Nokia's latest was the surprise of Mobile World Congress.And now for some 808 Heartbreak for American consumers: The PureView will only be available in Europe in Q2, running the Symbian OS. Nokia has said it plans to make a Windows Phone version in the future, without providing a timeframe for its release. (credit:Nokia)
Nokia PureView 808, Front View(04 of06)
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A camera that can make phone calls, or a phone that can take pictures?Here are some sample shots taken with the PureView 808, provided by Nokia.Full, uncompressed images available here. (credit:Nokia)
HTC Unveils One Smartphone(05 of06)
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The headline says HTC Unveils One Smartphone, but HTC actually unveiled three smartphones at MWC: All of them just happened to be named the One. That is to say that at MWC, HTC unveiled three One smartphones.(I'm asking you: What's the guy's name on first base???)Though this is, indeed, quite a mouthful, HTC believes it is merely simplifying its offerings with its One line. In 2011, HTC made available to consumers -- by my count -- the Evo, the Rezound, the Titan, the Sensation, the Radar, the Rhyme, the Explorer, the ChaCha, the Salsa, the Incredible, the Desire, the Wildifire, the HD7, the Trophy, the Surround, the Mozart, and the Aria. In 2012, and for the foreseeable future, the Taiwanese handset maker will release smartphones under one moniker: The HTC One.All of these HTC One phones will run Android Ice Cream Sandwich with a modified, less complicated HTC Sense interface. As for killer features, HTC is really pushing the image and audio quality on its One phones, bestowing upon them the tagline "Amazing camera. Authentic sound." On the audio front, the HTC One phones will come pre-loaded with Beats Audio, which for the first time will work for all audio played on the phone (not just in the Beats player, as was the widely-derided reality on last year's Rezound). Click forward to get the details on these three new One phones from HTC, including its big new flagship phone, the HTC One X... (credit:HTC)
The HTC One X(06 of06)
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Here's the flagship phone that HTC hopes will change its fortunes: The HTC One X (not to be confused with the X1, which changed the fortunes of aviation and -- well -- science). It has a brilliant 4.7-inch screen with a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution, is super-light at 130 grams (4.6 ounces) and boasts an 8 megapixel camera with an interesting continuous shooting mode feature, allowing for dozens of pictures to be taken in seconds. It will come to the United States on AT&T with 32GB of storage, 1GB RAM and a 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor (quad-core everywhere else, sparking a miniature, very nerdy scandal).The One X will come to America exclusively on AT&T in the coming months. And though the One X was one One introduced at MWC, it was not the only One: HTC also outed its One S, its "mid-sized" 4.3-inch smartphone that will hit T-Mobile soon, and the One V, a 3.7-inch budget One smartphone with a small bump like a Jay Leno chin at the bottom of its face. For full specs on those two One phones, click here for the One S and here for the One V. HTC was, briefly, the number one smartphone maker in the United States, topping Apple and Samsung in the third quarter of 2011, but it had a weak Q4. With the One line, it hopes to retake that crown in 2012. (credit:HTC)

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