The Sony Ericsson X2 was announced a little while ago, and recently I’ve been fortunate enough to have been able to do some work on an early release version. It’s a nifty device – Windows Mobile 6.5, 800 x 480 touch display, and this feature called “Panels”.
Panels are applications that can assigned as the “homescreen” of the device, and have full interactivity with the hardware. They can be written as C++, HTML/JavaScript, OpenGL ES, Native Windows Mobile, JavaME, Capuchin or Flash Lite 3 applications, and can access features of the device OS such as launching applications (like Email, Messaging, Calendar, Settings) or reporting missed calls, calender events, unread emails or SMS. The “panelization”" of content is a very simple process once you’ve optimised the content for use on the homescreen, and essentially packages your content into a CAB file that is installed over ActivSync to your device.
The good news (apart from all of that so far) is that the PlayNow Arena “app store” for Sony Ericsson will be soon featuring a category for Panels, so developers can monetize these homescreen applications. One that I hope makes it into PlayNow is the “Punky Panel” that I’ve developed (pictured above), and later in October I’ll be doing a video on the development process of creating the application using Flash Lite 3.
