The Timescape and Mediascape applications are Sony Ericsson’s main points of differentiation when it comes to phone UI. The guys over at the SE Product Blog have produced a quick guide on exactly how the Timescape interface works.
The video shows it off from a user perspective in terms of settings and customisation. Timescape can be launched from a shortcut on the homescreen or either a widget. The central view combines all of the feeds together, including messages, twitter, facebook and call log. You can also view these individually by scrolling left/right.
You can connect each contact to their social media (facebook, twitter) account that allows you to view all of their updates, calls, text messages when viewing that person’s profile. In practice, it reminds me much of HTC’s Sense UI that does the same.
The settings allow you to use Timescape as a your default screen. Doing this moves the filters to the top of the screen and four shortcuts sit at the bottom. I’m not sure whether these shortcuts are customisable. Scrolling through the timelines in Timescape does appear to be a bit jittery/laggy, but hopefully this will smooth out by the time the handset launches in February.