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 This is a prayer for Sony Ericsson and the mobile phone industry and their commitment to consolidate the latter as the all-devices-in-one-in-my-pocket industry. It is unacceptable that the last device to jump into the wireless fashion is the stereo headphones. Everything seems to be wireless but the most annoying cableful accesory of our MP3 players and MP3 mobile phones. Did i just say MP3 players? Well, actually, you now CAN turn your iPod or standard audio player into a bluetooth enabled device with wireless headphones, with the Bluetake BT420 Bluetooth Hi-Fi Sports Headphone Kit. It consists of a dongle that plugs to your player's 3.5mm jack, receives the audio from the player and transmits it to a easily paired couple of wireless headphones! Now for the mobile phone related part of the story, it also has a microphone to answer calls from your in-the-pocket Sony Ericsson, through either the Handsfree or Headset profile. But what if you want to listen to the FM radio or MP3 stored in that K700? Unfortunately no phone is able to transmit other sound than the calls sound because their lack of the Advanced Audio Distribution Bluetooth Profile (A2D). YET. You can still connect the dongle to a P910/P900/P800 using a 3.5 to 2.5mm adaptor, but the revolution will happen when the A2D profile comes in a MP3 enabled mobile phone. And the first mobile phone brand to get this... will be a winner. After leadership in imaging, SE, why not do it into audio? Official Bluetake BT420 Hi-Fi Sports Headphone Kit product page Review of the Bluetaje BT420 in Pdacorps.com Buy it at 156€ in Expansys (if you do it, remember to put clubsonyericsson in the "where did you hear from us" field and i owe you a beer  ) |
With models like the S700 and phones that start to have even moving optical zoom in Japan, the only feature left for phones to take really decent photos is to be able to shoot well in poor light conditions; this is: flashes like the ones used by regular digital cameras. There are plenty of phones with what manufacturers correctly call "flashlights". This "lights" are made of one or more LEDs: bulbs smaller, cheaper and less battery hungry than traditional flashes (which are bigger, heavier, more expensive and of course, consume way more battery power). And they also certainly have less lighting power. Actually they are completely useless when the photographed object is farther than 30 or 150 centimeters away, depending on the situation. On the other hand, they have the advantage of being able to stay on for as long as you want (instead of bursts like the traditionals), which is especially useful for recording video. The purpose of this comparative is to show the disadvantages the current flashlights integrated in K700 and S700 over the MPF-10 accesory. In the first photo you can see the main issue: the MPF-10 has 6 leds and the integrated flashlights only one. Altough this may sound like the accessory lights up to 6 times better than the phones themselves, the difference isn't as serious. But there clearly exists difference. To the photos I refer. In conclusion, the integrated flashlights of the 700's are useful for sure (and good looking), but the MPF-10 remains being a must for any Sony Ericsson cameraphone. Well in fact you can take photos with both lights on at the same time 
Visit also the page of the Flash Module MPF-10 to see more photos of this accesory |
Just as they did the past 9th of March, Sony Ericsson today has hold a series of press conferences worldwide presenting new products and announcing their latest business numbers. Continuing their already usual upward trend, the second quarter of 2004 reported a 33% worldwide growth, which means a global market share of 7% —the company's target still being the 10%—. Seems like it's all optimism in Sony Ericsson and they're getting ready for many improvements as a company in many aspects; beginning with an enhancement of the logistic process which pressumably would solve the "out of stock" problem we users have encountered so many times. For this autumn/christmas a promotional campaign has been prepared that will mean the biggest advertising investment in Sony Ericsson's history (4 billion Euro). It will be mainly based on the K700 and the DuelFront philosophy. We had the chance to see the TV spot and it is certainly destined to be succesful and touch the public with style. During the next days I will be building the pages of the newly unveiled phones with all the live pictures (stay tuned to the front page). For the time being, some brief comments: The P910 means an upgrade from the P900 not lesser than the one from P800 to P900, only different: with several hardware changes to support the new Qwerty thumb keyboard (surprisingly comfortable), the Memory Stick DUO Pro cards format (this is, up to 1gb), the new 262k color screen, new built-in applications (like QuickOffice) and... SURPRISE! the inability to upgrade a P900 to P910. An issue to further comment in other occasion. The K500, "unlocked version" of the Vodafone-exclusive F500 happens to be a mid-range phone with very satisfying features and feeling and up to 3 different (only slightly different) front cover designs. 12megabyte internal memory, a 65k color screen of almost 2 inches of diagonal size, MP3 ringtones, VGA videocamera and animated themes bring it closer to the K700 at a very attractive price of not more than 250€. Two new Bluetooth "Akono" branded headsets were also unveiled: the HBH-300, substitute of the HBH-35, of large size and better battery and sound quality performance; and the HBH-660, a version of the HBH-600 without exchangeable covers but with an LCD display where the caller ID, battery status and such is shown. To complete the day, an original desk stand/syncstation/deskcharger/handsfree speaker which can even be used without the charger cable by using the phone's battery power: the CSS-25. Finally, even though they weren't presented in Madrid for not being of interest in most European countries, let's mention the S710a (S700 for americas) and the Z500i (Z500 for some countries in Europe).
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The largest and most important telecommunications and technology fair, where all mobile phone manufacturers show they latest products. Go to the full report |
A simultaneous event in New York, Toronto, London, Madrid and Beijing where SE unveiled three new phones, many accesories and a clear strategy. Go to the full report |
Synergenix —the creators of Mophun— has sent me a Run Time Engine of the upcoming Mophun 3D gaming platform (see the press release) and a full version of the Rally Pro Contest game, winner of the 5th Ericsson Mobile Application Award in the category of "mobile gaming". I am not allowed to distribute the files, but at least I can show you some screenshots and a video of it working on a P900. Mophun 3D works like a single application in your smartphone, and shows a list of the available games. Once a game is executed, it is displayed full screen, showing a less than comfortable virtual joystick (better than the one shown in JAVA games, though). This new Mophun platform is available for all Symbian 6 and 7 devices, but I don't think it will have a full touchscreen support for UIQ smartphones. Motorola A920 users won't bother because they do have a hardware joystick, but it isn't very probable that Mophun 3D games can be played with the keys of the Flip Closed in P900 and P800 (although this actually POSSIBLE in P900). I'm not going to make a side by side comparison between this Rally Pro Contest and V-Rally, but I will say that the controlling of the car is a hundred times more realistic in this Mophun game, the tracks are more "real Rally" (they are not closed circuits, but long open tracks), and there are more realistic geographical features (precipices, pronounced hills...). However, and altough the game runs very smoothly, I think the feeling of speed is greater in V-Rally (well, maybe it's just that I have only driven the slowest car...). The graphics are good, the sound is just correct, but overall... it's more fun. And by the way. V-Rally needs like 6mbytes of space in your memory, and Mophun games are always under 300kb. I haven't heard of any other Mophun 3D game, but if developers manage to make a better virtual joystick, or more desirably Flip Closed support, this could be the best news for gamers. By the way, It's supposed that having Mophun 3D means that you can also run traditional Mophun games (the ones for T610, T310...), but I get an error. I hope it's just a temporal bug. I also wonder, does "Mophun 3D" mean that all Mophun 3D games will be 3D games?
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No specific Sony Ericsson or Nokia stands, no P900, no T630, Z600 and T230 only in the Vodafone stand, no Z200 (just some faceplates...), most of the "new" accessories in glass cases, of course no prototypes and certainly almost anybody who knows about what he/she's talking about or about what you have asked for... The former exciting "CeBIT" in Madrid is morphing into a party for large families and people with nothing else to do than going in the search for free pens, helium balloons, useless propaganda and hostesses... Thank God you can find interesting people if you search a bit. In any way, it's always good to take some photos for the ones who haven't been able to go. See photos of the SIMO 2003 |
They state it loud and clear: "YESTERDAY we made mobile phones; we made mobile platforms for in-house use only. TODAY we DON'T make mobile phones, we make mobile platforms for everyone!" We are talking about Ericsson's Mobile Platforms "division". It has passed some time since some details about newer Ericsson Mobile Platforms were made public. These platforms are the base where the phones are built over. Not only Sony Ericsson, but many other manufacters like Benefon, LG or even Siemens (through an ODM company called Microcell) signed agreements to use that technology in some of their products for the GSM market. The latest Ericsson platform presented is the E100, which supports many of the newest and coolest features that we may be seeing in the comingg Sony Ericsson phones: GSM+GPRS+EDGE (E-GPRS class 12), quad-band (850, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz), video/audio streaming, screens up to 144x176 pixels with 65536 colours, stereo sound up to 48kHz of sampling rate, MP3/AAC playback, USB interface, external memory cards like Memory Stick DUO and MMC (the latter not for SonyEricsson phones, obviously), etc. This document shows every detail of the Ericsson Mobile Platform roadmap, which states that on 2004 all the new platforms will support EDGE.  See the PDF on Ericsson Mobile PlatformsBy Wildnomad |
Be that as it may, I do not think SONYERICSSON has ever followed NOKIA whatsoever. SONYERICSSON strives to obtain its unblemished picturesque finesse within the boundaries of Mobile-technology conceptually. This has been its prominent achievement. Perpsectively, the previous "oldies" ERICSSON GF/GH-series stood on its own merit with its compact-classical standard-design and technology at that time. Following this "concept" were T28s, T29, T39 (GPRS), T65, T66 and finally "in color" for the 1st-time: T68. As our needs have been growing rapidly to convert mobile-phone into more of an advance PersonalDigitalAssistance, ERICSSON merged with SONY, thereby produced the so-called "King of the Mobile-phone": The legendary T68i. Bare in mind, that this handset was the first to include Multimedia Messaging feature, eloquently exceeded the concept of CommuniCam (MCA20) not as "a cosmetic" but an "essential-function". Not so many operators around the globe were ready for this concept by that time. Even in my country; Indonesia, and mostly SouthEast Asian Region. As if it was not enough to improve our knowledge in adapting the latest mobile-technology, the T68i has included POP3-mail feature to download/upload images/photos to our E-mail as attachments, Bluetooth and InfraRed for an unblemished data-transmition. Not to mention the first use of GeneralPacketRadioService for Internet-browsing and ultimately the commencing of SONYERICSSON FUN&DOWNLOAD WEBSITE for which we were brought into a totally different perspective about mobile-technology. We were able to create/edit our own THEMES, as well as uploading our own PHOTOS directly from MCA20. Such were the oustanding achievement by SONYERICSSON. Today, we have been quite familiar with "high-tech" options. From the slim-stylish and powerful "mighty" 610, the mobile-game station of T310, up to the ultimate PDA-Phone (again, totally new concept) P800, it would be a reasonable doubt for us to question SONYERICSSON's astonishing platform. Even so, the "cosmetic" vendors around the globe have their own share of the market. This would lead into such confusions, if provided without proper market-education. The projection of understanding in this particular issue is the questions of "OUR NEEDS" instead of "WHICHEVER THE BEST". I am most certain that eventually, "THE NEEDS" would overcome "THE WANTS' within every bits of aspect in our life. Mobile-technology is definitely included. Hence, to "satisfy" our "needs" has been - indeed - SONYERICSSON's tremendous efforts and achievements simultaneously. That's my objective opinion about SONYERICSSON today. Not merley NOKIA, but other has to follow. Not the other way around. Why? IT'S "THE NEEDS". By Wallpepper |
Some of the models we have been hearing about all these months have been officialy presented a couple of days before the Sony Dream World event 2003, "a unique global opportunity to experience the total strength of Sony", taking place in Eurodisne, Paris. Because, remember, Sony means A LOT: Sony Electronics, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. Go to Sony Dream World 2003 websitePress conferences around the world (Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Hong Kong...) shown Z600, Z200 and T230 as real products and we can appreciate the real concept and design of each one. A new CommuniCam, a new Bluetooth handsfree headset and other two interesting accesories were presented too. Nothing was heard about Z300 (which could actually be a fake rumour in the end), P810/P900, T620/T630, S-series or R-series; but we can expect more press releases in the next weeks. Click on the links below to read more and see photos of all the new stuff. Go to new Z600 page Go to new Z200 page Go to new T230 page Go to new HBH-200 Bluetooth Handsfree Go to new CommuniCam MCA-30 Go to new CAR-100 Bluetooth Car page Go to new EGB-10 Gameboard page |
UPDATED: They finally chose "P900" The logic will tell that this model should be called P810. It is clearly based on P800 and its improvements aren't enough to mean that it will be the final substitute for P800. However Sony Ericsson might have thought that current P800 users could be upset by the appearance of a "P800 upgrade" that will cost the same money they spent on their P800s. A product named P900 would then sound as a substitute, not as an "alternative". But will the users be fooled by the names of the products or by the real features? Logic is one thing; marketing is another whole thing...  Even Sony Ericsson seems confused. In THIS IMAGE you can read "P900" in the System Information screen of the phone, while in THIS OTHER IMAGE you can read "P810" in the CD label. |
Slowly, little by little, rumours grow over what I'd call "The Sony Ericsson Neonode". Little is known about it, but what is very probable is that Sony Ericsson is preparing the release of a new fascinating device. All my final beliefs build a coherent concept: A smaller and cheaper P800, targeted to the young. Yes, that means touchscreen, integrated camera and Multimedia Playing capabilities. But without Bluetooth. Doesn't this remind you of the T68i/T300 case? I can't keep biting my tongue: In my honest opinion it will be very similar to the Neonode N1 (you can see photos and short description of this one down in the middle column of this page). What about its name? Do you like P200? |
The P800 is still unbeatable mostly thanks to the awesome operative system it uses, the Symbian 7 UIQ. Haven't you imagined other phones using the same OS? Motorola and BenQ have, and they are going to release two new contenders: the A920 Communicator and the P300 respectively. See photos and comparison table here: See the new UIQ smartphones compared to the P800 |
Möbius is a never-ending conversation about mobile technology. Each year Microsoft Mobile Devices Division invites some of the most influential mobile device bloggers from around the globe and they spend two days learning Microsoft's new products and strategies; sharing thoughts, ideas and inspirations; and having a great time in an open-minded geek atmosphere. This year I've been invited to this event and also to the Mobility Developer Conference, which was also held in Paris. Now I'm back to certify that, at the moment, nothing can beat our P800 . I will possibly be writting some reviews of the event and the products showcased (especially the Microsoft Smartphone platform) in my other site, Avantglance'com, but meanwhile you can already see the Photo Gallery. Go to the Möbius and MDC 2003 Club Sony Ericsson Photo Gallery |
For real fans, Consumer Concepts in association with Sony Ericsson has a large variety of promotional products with the logo and the style of the phones. There's almost any thing you can imagine: Shirts, t-shirts, caps, watches, bags and backpacks, stickers, pens, golf balls, cups and glasses, notebooks, coolers, umbrellas and even a fridge; all with the refined and minimalist design we're used to.  Sony Ericsson promotional products |
After showing the T68i and P800 in "James Bond, die another day", Sony Ericsson consolidates its intention of promoting in the movie world by making the T610 the official Charlie's Angels 2 mobile phone. We stil haven't got any movie shots but it's possible that a T610 Charlie's Angels special edition is released.  See promotional photo of T610 Charlie's Angels 2 |
In december we found a very rare specimen of the T300 in an "Amena" operator shop in Malaga, Spain. Since then it is well known in this country as "Sony Ericsson T377". The point is that in the key that should be the 4, there is a 7. We swear it's not a motage, it's completely real and the phone it's still on sale. Sure some collector would pay big dosh for this unique piece.  See T377 photo |
The company that designed the P800 more than one year ago has became independent and has pulled a cooler devide out of its hat. They call it Neonode N1, it has better touchscreen, better speaker, it's cheaper, lighter and smaller than the Sony Ericsson. Yes, it also has integrated camera, mp3/video player and external memory cards. It seems that the marketing campagin will be very aggressive. Ver fotos del Neonode N1 Ir a la web del Neonode N1 |
Until now we could enjoy it as a short MIDI in the T300. Thanks to Bartram we have the original song, "Happy Here" of group "Danmass". From here we predict, or what's more, we announce, that this type of music is will be the latest fashion on upcoming months   Download danmass-happyhere.mp3 (it's VERY possible that this link doesn't work. Search Kazaa and such) |
Nokia promoted its 7650 with the film "Minority Report" and Sony Ericsson has done the same with their P800 and T68i in the last James Bond movie. Bad guys use the P800 to shoot a spy photo of 007, and the T68i are used by Halle Berry as bomb detonators  Photo of P800 in James Bond |
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