Sorry, third-parties, all JAVA-enabled Sony Ericssons now have official support from Microsoft to run their new Windows Live Messenger Mobile application. MSN/Windows Messenger site Mess.be found this goodie in a chineese MSN website. Well, actually, functionality may be a little below some other JAVA clients, but if you’re like me and only need your contact list and being able to chat with some few emoticons, you’ll take this Windows Live themed instant messenger over anything else. Apparently these download links (be careful to chose the version for your model) are completely legal and free to download, but after a couple of months they will stop working unless you pay a small unknown monthly fee. Hmm, let’s just enjoy it in the meantime and we’ll talk again in January. Check some screenshots of it running on K800 inside this entry. [Via Mess.be].

For Sony Ericsson J300, K300, K310, K500, K510, Z520 and Z530, Download Windows Live Messenger Mobile 380

For Sony Ericsson K610, K700, K750, W550, W600, W700, W710, W800, W810, W850, Z550 and Z710, Download Windows Live Messenger Mobile 382

For Sony Ericsson K790, K800, S700, W850 and W900 (it should also work for Symbian smartphones), Download Windows Live Messenger Mobile 384

If your exact model number isn’t listed here, make sure your phone supports JAVA and then download the version of models using the same screen pixel size.

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UPDATE: Download links working again

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Tired of my K750’s remote control template for Media Player lacking a couple of functions, I have customized it a bit and thought I should share it with you. As you can see in the background image, it’s the same template but adding the Shuffle, Repeat, Full Screen and Mute functions of Windows Media Player. If your phone has a smaller screen resolution than 176x220 you can resample the image and edit the template with the Sony Ericsson Bluetooth Remote Control application.

Download SuperMediaPlayer.hid

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For a mobile phone manufacturer, this is the advantage of having phones withouth exchangeable faceplates: you can release that phone with a new colour and call it a new model. That’s what they’ve done with this Walkman W700, a 100% W800 dressed in Titanium Gold with just a single change in features (same MSDUO Pro slot, 2mpx camera, 176x220 pixel 262k colour screen… but NO autofocus), and probably a very interesting price tag. Apparently a Soft White version will be available in some countries… that’s the same colour the W800 uses! It will come with a 256mb memory card and there’s an event in Spain later this month in which the first music album released first on a mobile phone will be presented, my guess is, on the W700. (Photo from MobileBurn’s W700 Live Gallery)

UPDATE: SharkyMark points out that the W700 supports Bluetooth 2.0, while as the W800 didn’t.

The Z525 on the other hand does add a little bit of juice to it’s Z520 clone by supporting Push To Talk (thus to be sold only in the US) as well as its known Quadband connectivity and compact clamshell form factor that has made it one successful Sony Ericsson in Europe so far.

W700 Official Page
W700 Press Release
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Z525 Official Page
Z525 Press Release
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Still no press releases or photos available in Sony Ericsson’s websites, but along with the W810 announcement they emailed to UCSE, they presented these couple of cool speaker sets, one more portable-ish, one more desktop-ish, to go with the known MDS-70 (which, numbering-wise, should sound better?). The MPS-60 is really really small and pocketable, at 30x55x42 mm, while the MDS-60 measures 54x120x200 mm. They will be available in the first quarter of 2006 at unknown price and in colors Silver, White and Orange.

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In contrast with Mobileburn’s review, in which the only negative point was the lack of EDGE, Mobique finds a few other problems in an otherwise excellent handset (especially price-per-features wise). The most crucial one seems to be a too sensitive camera button that keeps starting the camera application and taking photos while the phone is in the pocket or even just holding it with the hand. I have my doubts about this being a general problem: usually all SE’s camera buttons have to be pressed more than one second in order to start the camera application; maybe the button in Kinny’s unit got stuck on “pressed” possition. What’s your experience? Check out the review, they have a couple of videos of the cool light effects.

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Sorry for not posting anything in the past week, I’ve been busier than SE’s lawyers in spyshot times. Let’s get back to blogging with Mobileburn’s review of the Z520, the small and light Quadband clamshell we also previewed in July. And even without the EDGE support U.S. residents miss so much, the Z520 gets another top “Mobileburn Highly Recommended” rating for Sony Ericsson:

“As far as mid-level GSM handsets go, there is nothing in my mind that tops the Z520. In fact, if it had EDGE data support, I’d have nothing to complain about at all. The Bluetooth system works well, the light effects are very cool, and it is a nice compact handset. In short, it is just great all around. With that much said, it should be no surprise that I give the Sony Ericsson Z520 a “Highly Recommended” rating. If you like Sony Ericsson phones and don’t need the memory card slot or 2 megapixel camera of the K750, this is probably your handset.”

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The third product announced yesterday is another music accesory. The Walkman-branded MMR-60 is a music transmitter via FM, one of the most ready-to-go ways to connect portable music devices to bigger HiFi equipment like your home/car/party stereo, and one of the favourites of iPod users (isn’t it great to put iPod and Walkman in the same article and not feeling unfair competition anymore? Go SE Go!). If you’re not familiar with this, it’s as simple as choosing an FM band in your phone (in the menu that appears after connecting the MMR-60) and then selecting said FM band in your FM receiver, that must be within 10 metres of distance. Wireless music streaming at 43x27x11mm and a mere 9 grams, connecting to any Fast Port enabled Sony Ericsson, but leaving a replica of the port below if you want to use the charger. Despite being a basic device, Sony Ericsson has released even more official photos than they usually do with phones, and in some you can count up to 5 Walkman logos in the same photo. That’s what I call a comeback. By the way, the Press Release says it will be available in silver, white and black colors (to match your chosen W900) but the Official Product Page just mentions the silver and I haven’t found photos of the other two.
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With the help of Sony (who will be also selling the same product, Sony branded “Cradle Audio CPA-001″), Sony Ericsson has presented a set of speakers of an apparently high quality (RMS 25W output, S-master digital amplifier, neodymium magnet speaker units, shielded speakers and Surround mode) that you sit your Fast Port enabled Sony Ericsson on in order to listen to your Radio FM or MP3’s out loud while charging the battery. According to what I understand from the Press Release, it also has a standard “Line-In port” (3.5mm? RCA?) and Bass/Trebble controls, while the Product Page says something about a “Multi AC adaptor with subwoofer” which if it turns out to be an AC adaptor with an integrated subwoofer it will start to appeal to me seriously. There’s also a “Remote Control” but I can’t help putting it all between quotation marks if they don’t show it in photographs. So far I’ve only found high res pics of the main unit holding both black and white hot W900’s.
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It’s been out for some time now, but in case you missed it, all-imaginable-accesory shop DomL.com has this useful 3.5mm jack adaptor for the new connector generation (K750/D750/W800/S600/W600/Z520). All these phones come with their own stereo headsets but for $9 or 7€ it’s nice to check if your beloved high end headphones sound actually better, plus you can plug some external speakers in. For HiFi and in-car connectivity you can even combine an 3.5mm-to-RCA cable, and if you like this idea but don’t mind the Sony Ericsson stereo headphones, you can totally forget everything you’ve just read and go for the official MMC-60 cable (pictured left). [Thanks Ed Xavier for the tip]
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UPDATE: Emil reminds us of the official HPM-70 Stereo Headset to which you can connect your desired 3.5mm headphones/speakers while keeping the microphone and the handsfree function. This is the one with the in-ear earpieces you get bundled with the W phones.

As part of the testing of the new phones (check the S600 preview), I put my hands on the new Z520, which happens to be the most beautiful clamshell made by Sony Ericsson, ever — few will disagree with this. I loved it, and I’m eager to tell you everything I experienced, but firstly I would like you to take a look to the picture on the right, the Z520 prototype status screen. When I saw that, I immediately asked the people around me what the hell was that K426a thing and the only response I got was that it’s the name of the firmware prototype, and not a future or rejected phone. But you know official sources, they can deny the existence of a phone the day before its presentation. Even so, if we take the risk of imagining a candybar “K400″ with the same features as the Z520 (which are these), it would be weird for it to be better spec’d than the K500, of higher nomenclature. Then again, it wouldn’t be the first time we find a Sony Ericsson named under a phone with lower specs (K600 > K700). The 26a part of the name shown in this screen would refer to the quadband access (we’ve seen xx26 models aimed at the South American market and the “a” models are for North America, both with different GSM bands). What would this “K400″ mean in SE’s range? A cheap way to get a quadband K700 with USB 2.0, sacrifying some 26mb of internal memory and with a slightly worse display. But honestly I haven’t seen a phone of this kind in Sony Ericsson’s 2005 roadmap. This could just be the least lasting rumour ever […]

Continue reading the Z520 preview: Continue reading… (more photos)

MartinFields, the creators of the famous screen protectors and other mobile phone and PDA accesories, have just released this retractable USB cable for all the Sony Ericssons with the new connectors (K750, D750, W800, S600, W600 and Z520 so far). The standard USB cable (pictured at the right) is a huge improvement from the old serial cables. It not only makes the Memory Stick DUO in your phone a Plug&Play sorage device: it also charges your phone. But it’s terribly bulky. 1 meter of 5mm-thick stiff cable plus one bulge on each end is just uncomfortable. MartinFields’ retractable cable, while small and light, is supposed to withstand heavy usage. [Thanks Ed for the tip]
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ThreeGmobile also got the chance to meet the new phones in person and take some too small shots. At least we can now see the real size difference between the S600 and his old bro’ S700.
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As usual, Mobilmania.cz and their endless galleries of quality photos from every possible angle. Good job!
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Here are all the official photos of the Z520, the charming quadband clamshell we published the specs of yesterday. The size of the Z520 is finally 83 x 46 x 24 mm, and seems that the EDGE support is also confirmed (in the S600/W800 too), correct me if I’m wrong. The global Official Page isn’t updated yet, but the Spanish Official Page already showcases everything about the Z520. By the way, Se-nse.com has some live shots of all the new phones.
Read the Z520 Press Release
Go to the Z520 Official Page
Discuss this in the Z520 forum thread

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I’ve got the press releases since today morning (Sunday 12) but I haven’t been able to publish the news until now (It’s 2:00am GMT). The good part is that, of course, we have new phones! And Ellen has a pretty new name —S600— and really interesting specs, like 64mb internal memory, HTML browser, 176x220 pixels 262k color 1,8″ screen, integrated double stereo speakers, 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, USB support and a bunch of 3D games that can be played holding the phone horizontally (with the support of two extra buttons at the right of the screen), conventionally, or in “L” shape, with the rotating keypad open. The bad part, for the moment, is that Sony Ericsson hasn’t uploaded the official photos to their website and we won’t know if it also looks good until 9:00 am or so (six hours to go).

Zoe, surprisingly, seems to be a nice little clamshell phone with decent features. Its official name becomes Z520 and excels the Z600 with a VGA camera, 16mb of internal memory, MP3 support, USB support, integrated handsfree speaker and a series of colorful leds all around the perimeter of the phone that flash in costumizable fashion (even synchronized with the melodies) when someone calls or an sms is received. The press release highlights the small size of the phone. The internal screen is the same of the Z600 (a TFD with 65k colors and 128x160 pixels), and the external is a 4k color 101x80. The Z520 gets the honour of being the first quadband Sony Ericsson: it supports the 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 GSM bands. This two phones use the new charger-data connectors.

The J200-based J210 and the K600-spec’d K608 won’t be any great surprise but we’ll have to wait for the photos to see if they’re any cooler than the phones they’re based in. The J210 upgrades the 128x128 pixel STN display from 4k to 65k colors while keeping the Infrared, 600kb internal memory and triband support. I’ve heard that the K608i will be an operator exclusive but I’d say it could be a sim-free version of the Vodafone V600.

By the way, new accesories have been also announced: the HBH-610 headset with Bluetooth 2.0 support, the HCB-700 car handsfree kit with a screen, the sporty HPS-60 wired stereo headphones and a new PC card that combines UMTS and WiFi access, the GC99. Nothing is said about the future 4gb Memory Stick DUO cards but this was confirmed to me by a Sony Ericsson representative.

Continue reading for complete spec tables of the phones (NO PHOTOS): Continue reading… (more photos)