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C901 and W508 were launched today

admin — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:12:25 +0000

Today two great phones from Sony Ericsson were successfully launched: C901 Cyber-shot™ and W508 Walkman™.
Sony Ericsson C901 Sony Ericsson C901 was announced on the 10th of February 2009. C901 has a 5 Megapixel camera with autofocus and xenon-flash. It supports new special imaging feature called Smile Shutter™. Device has a large 2.2″ QVGA-screen and internal memory up to 120 MB. The phone is very thin (sizes: 105 x 45 x 13 mm) and it weighs 107 gram. C901 Cyber-shot™ will be available in three colours: Noble Black, Sincere Silver and Precious Peach. Today C901 was launched in three European countries - Denmark, Norway, Sweden and also some other coutries in America and Asia. In some regions the box of C901 will be included with a 2GB Memory Stick Micro™ M2™ and CCR-70 accessory. You can try the new C901 Cyber-shot™ on a special page on the official Sony Ericsson site:

http://sonyericsson.com/trythephone/c901/
W508 Walkman™ is the latest Sony Ericsson mid-range clamshell, which was announced several months ago - on the 7th of January. It is a nice Walkman™ clamshell with small external screen and three dedicated music keys on the flip. It has 3.2 Megapixel camera without autofocus and large 2.2″ QVGA-screen. W508 is a typical mid-range Walkman phone, so it supports Walkman player 3.0, TrackID™, Mega Bass™, Shake control and SensMe™. It also supports one special function called Gesture control. W508 has two default colours - Metal Grey and Poetic White plus many other Style-Up™ covers. In the box of W508 you can find the phone, battery, battery charger, USB cable, stereo PHF, CD with applications, 1GB M2™ card and one extra Style-Up™ cover. If you want to try the new W508 Walkman™, you can go to this page:

http://sonyericsson.com/trythephone/w508/

JavaOne 2009 keynote: Sony Ericsson to reveal mobile Java strategy

admin — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:41:49 +0000

Sony Ericsson is picking up the pace at JavaOne 2009 with a keynote session on June 3, 2009. The audience will be the first to hear about our mobile Java™ strategy and how to do business by developing mobile Java applications for existing and future Sony Ericsson phones.

Hear it first from Sony Ericsson
As part of the conference’s Mobility track, Sony Ericsson’s General Session Keynote will be where Christopher David, Head of Developer and Partner Engagement at Sony Ericsson, will reveal our mobile Java strategy.

He will also present the business opportunities for developers to create mobile Java applications for existing and future Sony Ericsson phones, taking advantage of the consistent mobile Java platform present throughout our phone portfolio.

On stage with Christopher David will be Rikko Sakaguchi, Sony Ericsson’s Corporate Vice President and Head of Creation and Development, and Patrik Olsson, Head of Software at Sony Ericsson, sharing software development and user experience plans with the keynote audience.

General Session Keynote title: Being unique with Sony Ericsson
When: June 3, 2009 from 8.30-9.30am
Where: Moscone South Hall B/C, Moscone Center, San Francisco, USA
Who: Hosted by Christopher David, Head of Developer and Partner Engagement at Sony Ericsson, with Rikko Sakaguchi, Corporate Vice President and Head of Creation and Development at Sony Ericsson, and Patrik Olsson, Head of Software at Sony Ericsson.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 to get a new firmware soon

admin — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:39:04 +0000

Always highly informed when it comes to all things Sony Ericsson , SEMC blog, shared a news with the world, informing everyone that the company’s flagship Windows Mobile smartphone, Xperia X1, will be getting a firmware upgrade in the near future. As a matter of fact, they say we should expect an update to be available as of June 2009, and that among other things it will include support for BlackBerry connection.

Unfortunately, that’s all we know at this stage, but as soon as we hear something new, we’ll let you know. Stay tuned in the meantime…

Sony Ericsson launching stuff on May 28

admin — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:35:03 +0000

It seems that Sony Ericsson has lined up a shindig in London on May 28 to announce… well, something related to its Entertainment Unlimited multimedia strategy. It’s unclear exactly what that’d be, but the company’s been essentially mum on the Entertainment Unlimited-enabled Idou since its MWC unveiling earlier this year — and we’ve established that an X1 follow-on is basically a lock at this point, so this could end up being a blockbuster event for the high end of the company’s 2009 lineup. We’ll know more soon enough.

Sony Ericsson Idou Review English

admin — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:22:15 +0000

BARCELONA, Spain - Sony Ericsson’s 12 megapixel Idou camera-phone was one biggest of the hits of the Mobile World Congress. The phone, which is yet unnamed, will run on the S60 5th edition software platform, clearly showing the company’s preference for its flagship models.Idou is just a codename for the prototype that could be seen and handled at the event. The word Idou in Japanese means “a change”, the name could imply a change for the better. Sony itself is a Japanese company, therefore it is likely for the codename to be based on the Japanese word. One way or the other, the Idou is certainly generating buzz.The upcoming flagship’s 12 megapixel camera is accompanied by the necessary autofocus, a Xenon flash, LED flash for video recording, geo-tagging, face detection, and Smile Shutter technology, which only captures an image when an individual is smiling.The phone brings usual high-end features such as HSDPA, Bluetooth, DLNA-certified Wi-Fi, an accelerometer (motion sensor), microSD memory card slot, USB 2.0 connectivity, and A-GPS. The Idou has a 3.5″ touchscreen display with 360×640 pixels of resolution.
As said previously, the device runs on Symbian OS, with S60 5th edition software platform. Sony Ericsson has chosen Symbian, and not Windows Mobile or Google Android, which shows its trust on Nokia’s system. The company has previously used Windows Mobile, and is part of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), which supports Google Android as the choice for the operating system.Even though S60 is being used in the phone, the actual user interface is different from those of Nokia’s S60 UI, and Samsung, who uses TouchWiz as its UI. The looks of the software are slick, having a blend of black and transparent, with transitions in the middle. To enable even more futuristic actions, the Idou supports touch focus, where the user touches an area on the screen in order to focus it with the camera; and it features auto-rotation.The phone itself is large and feels quite bulky in the hand. It measures 111 x 54 x 15mm, which is comparable to the Nokia 5800, a phone that does not actually feel bulky, while it measures a similar 111 x 51.7 x 15.5mm.

When put against another all-in-one Sony Ericsson, the XPERIA X1, the Idou is considerably larger. We had the opportunity to actually compare both these phones, in matching colours of black. The Idou has only been showcased in black, and there are no reports of any other colours coming to market, while the X1 is also available on silver.

The Idou only has three colours below its display, just like on the Nokia 5800, the first S60 5th edition phone in the market, but unlike the X1, which has a multitude of buttons in prism form, in the same location.The 3.5″ display of the Idou is larger than the X1’s 3″, which contributes to the size difference. The XPERIA measures 110.5 x 52.6 x 17mm against the already-stated 111 x 54 x 15mm of the Idou.On top of the Idou’s display, the secondary camera, mostly used for video calls, is located, as well as the ear speaker, and the ambiance light sensor, used to regulate the brightness of the display and keypad according to the environment light.

On the left side of the Idou one can find the lock switch, fast port, and microSD memory card slot, while the X1 only has a miniUSB port on the same side. The memory card slot is relatively easy to open, and is not prone to breaking.

The right side of the Idou has a multitude of camera buttons: the shutter button, image/video alternator, playback button, and volume/zoom rocker. The X1 also has a shutter button, and volume/zoom rocker.

The lanyard loop is located at the bottom of both phones.

The top of the Idou has the power button, and what seems to be the loud speaker. The X1, in the same location, has the power button, and the 3.5mm audio jack, which is missing from the Idou, although it could be included in the final version of the phone.

The back part of both phones has a Sony Ericsson logo and text, although on the Idou, the text is located on top of the lens cover. The lens cover itself is a large piece of material in similar style of the Samsung G800. It adds not only weight but also skews the phone, therefore it is not the best of lens covers. The X1 does not have a cover for the camera.

The actual camera is surrounded by the Xenon flash and a LED flash, and it is sitting on a metal plate. It is here where Nokia and Samsung fail by providing a single flash solution.

The software of the Idou was still at an early stage, therefore we were not able to get a full demonstration. The simple and intuitive user interface promise to make the Idou a worthwhile experience, as long as the software is stable.

Sony Ericsson to make TD-SCDMA handsets? English

admin — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 15:17:36 +0000

Sony Ericsson is evaluating the possibility to start making TD-SCDMA handsets for the Chinese market.According to Carl-Henric Svanberg, president and CEO of Ericsson who also serves as a director at Sony Ericsson, it is expected that 3G handsets will see an increase in sales now that the government has released 3G licenses.Apparently, China Mobile — the country’s leading mobile operator — has already held talks with the Swedish-Japanese handset maker for the possible purchase of TD-SCDMA phones, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported.The way I see it, now that LG has pushed Motorola and Sony Ericsson to the 4th and 5th place, respectively, entering the Chinese market seems like a logical move. After all, aside from India, there are not that many mobile phone markets growing as fast as China. Sony Ericsson certainly has all the right skills to make decent phones and Ericcson has the technology needed, so why wait?

Sony Ericsson unveils 12MP touchscreen “Idou” at Mobile World Congress! English

admin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:31:19 +0000

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Mobile World Congress is definitely the right place to launch a new high-end touchscreen handset, and Sony Ericsson knows how to play this game to a “t.” We hit the Opium Cinema in Barcelona, home of the Mobile World Congress 2009, thinking we were going to put hands on some of Sony Ericsson’s new handsets. Little did we know that Sony Ericsson was going to announce a brand new Symbian-powered touchscreen handset with a 12-megapixel camera!
Introducing the Symbian-powered Sony Ericsson “Idou” (rhymes with “doodoo”). So new it doesn’t even have an official model name, the Sony Ericsson Idou spec-sheet includes class-leading features like a 12-megapixel camera (no sony-ericsson-iduo-6CyberShot) with Xenon flash, 3.5-inch widescreen touchscreen display, and DLNA-compatible WiFi and GPS receivers. And, to top it all off, the Sony Ericsson Idou is powered by what will be known as the Symbian Foundation OS - based on the Symbian platform and Nokia’s Symbian S60 UI and should make for a user experience not too unlike the current S60 5th Edition OS. Not much else is known about the Sony Ericsson Idou at this point. Thanks to our friends at Mobile Burn, we can tell you that it feels downright solid in the hand - which makes sense for a high-end cameraphone from Sony Ericsson. Generous use of brushed metal hammers home the Sony Ericsson Idou’s place as a class-leader, not just in the feature-set, but also in aesthetics. Really, it’s a pretty looking piece of kit. Full details and availability/pricing information is expected to go public around Summer of 2009, so don’t go expecting to see this 12-megapixel monster of a cameraphone hitting market before end-of-2009, if that.

Sony Ericsson’s booth at Mobile World Congress wasn’t as big as we remember it being last year, but was nevertheless impressively stocked with new hardware from the Japanese-Swedish cellphone maker. The newly unveiled Sony Ericsson Idou 12-megapixel smartphone was on-deck as the highlight Sony Ericsson’s Barcelona appearance was the. With an industry-leading 12 megapixel camera fitted with a Xenon flash, 3.5-inch widescreen touchscreen display, and DLNA-compatible WiFi and GPS, the Sony Ericsson Idou is no doubt going to out-class other smartphones when it comes to picture and video recording.
The Sony Ericsson Idou is still riding the hype-wave generated by Sony Ericsson’s PR team, and with good reason - the Sony Ericsson Idou smartphone boasts a class-leading 12-megapixel autofocus camera, GPS, WiFi, and the Symbian Foundation OS. As a smartphone, the Symbian Foundation OS is expected to deliver all the functionality you could want, in a familiar and usable package. As a cameraphone, the Sony Ericsson Idou tops them all with ease. While other shooter-phonesout t their sub-double-digit resolutions, Sony Ericsson went straight for the high-end with a whopping 12-million pixels of imaging resolution!We wandered over to Sony Ericsson’s booth in hopes of catching the Sony Ericsson Idou, only to be pleasantly surprised with a working demonstration model! After putting hands on the Sony Ericsson Idou, we can say that, early prototype or not, the Sony Ericsson Idou looks to be a strong contender in the cameraphone segment. Oddly, the 12-megapixel camera on the Idou lacked any Cybershot branding. We figure Sony Ericsson is looking to market the Idou more as a Symbian smartphone with a badass camera rather than a cameraphone with smartphone functionality. Whatever the case, the Idou’s early-stage development looks promising.

If you’ve ever handled any of Sony Ericsson’s metal-accented Cybershot cameraphones, you’ll have a good idea of what the Idou feels like in the hand. “High-quality” is a good way to describe the Idou’s fit and finish, but company reps told us that things would only get better as the Idou closed in on its final production status.

In the hand, the Sony Ericsson Idou feels a bit lighter than its size might suggest, but that might be due to the Idou’s early-prototype status. The handset is a bit thicker than we’d expect from a Sony Ericsson cameraphone, but then again, a 12-megapixel camera module isn’t exactly going to be small and thin.

Sony Ericsson announces W995 Walkman™ and slips out ahead of schedule English

admin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:59:56 +0000

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On the 15th of February, Sony Ericsson announces it’s new flagship Walkman™ phone W995, previously known as Hikaru. W995 is high-end slider phone, which has high-end features. W995 is multimedia Walkman™ phone offering a complete entertainment experience. Hikaru is the first Walkman, which has 3.5mm audio jack on the top of the phone. Also Hikaru has perfect stereospeakers. W995 adds richness to your entertainment! The main feature of Hikaru is the perfect 8.1-Megapixels camera with autofocus. Unfortunately, W995 has no lens cover. I think, it’s not bad for Walkman™ phone.
The phone has 118 MB built-in memory plus 8 Gb M2™ card in the box. One of the good features of Hikaru is, of course, large 2,6″ QVGA scratch-resistant TFT screen, which support up 262,144 colours.
On the left side you can find fastport, on the right side available three dedicated music control keys plus volume keys and one camera key. W995 has three different colours: Progressive Black (black phone with blue includings), Cosmic Silver (silver phone with orange includings) and Energetic Red (red phone with blue includings).To complete a full multimedia experience Hikaru has aGPS, Google Maps™, Wayfinder Navigator™, Wi-Fi™, DLNA Certified™ and a full PlayStation3 compatibility. On the back of W995 you can find special kickstand, which helps you to relax and watch your favorite videos, converted with a special application Media Go™. Hikaru has pretty nice sizes: 97×49×15 mm with weight only 113 grams. W995 will be available in selected markets from the end of Q2 2009.
Others say:

Clearly, the flood gates have opened well before Sony Ericsson intended over in Barcelona, as the countdown is still on while we’re watching handset after handset leak out. Next up is the W995 Walkman (can someone say Hikaru?), a multimedia-centric slider which boasts an 8.1 megapixel camera, A-GPS, Google Maps, WiFi, DLNA certification, 118MB of built-in memory, an 8GB M2 card and a 2.6-inch QVGA scratch-resistant display. The mobile should ship in a trio of colors — Progressive Black, Cosmic Silver and Energetic Red — and the inbuilt kickstand should make airplane-based movie watching a touch easier on the neck. No word on a price or release, but SE should be remedying that at any moment.
The W995 is now very much official, and just as described in its not-quite-official form. SE did have a few small surprises up its sleeve, however, in the form Sony’s MediaGo software, which will let you share media with your PS3 over WiFi, and take advantage of Sony’s PlayNow services, including downloaded movies purchased on your PC. Hit up the gallery below for a closer look.

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The new Reese from Sony Ericsson or Sony Ericsson “Reese” flip QWERTY smartphone leaked? English

admin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:44:02 +0000

Reese has unique swivel design and full QWERTY-keyboard. It seems to be G-series device. Here is all text from this advertisment:

“The new Reese from Sony Ericsson. A unique swivel design reveals a QWERTY keypad below the large portrait screen which allows you to view several messages of any one kind in high definition. It also comes with one-click access to your favourite networking sites. So now it’s never been easier to keep up with your mates.”

So in conclusion…

If the above picture is to be believed, Sony Ericsson’s looking to release a new swivel-based QWERTY called the “Reese” that boasts one-click access to “your favorite networking sites.” Details beyond this ad are pretty light, and we’re not ruling out the possibility that this might be a fan render (as SE aficionados are fond of). Furthermore, the original poster told forum members at Esato that this device “will not be announced soon,” which makes the appearance of an advertisement even more perplexing. Regardless, we’ll know one way or another soon, as the company is just about to start its MWC press conference… and we’ll be there live.

Sony Ericsson announces the brilliant mid-tier C903 English

admin — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:39:10 +0000

Along with the W395 and car Bluetooth accessory AB900, Sony Ericsson also announced the midrange C903 Cyber-shot phone. If you ask me, the C903 is one of Sony Ericsson’s most important products in a long time, as it combines a great deal of features, a small size and a decent price tag.

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The C903 is a rather stylish Cyber-shot slider, making it the second slider phone in the Cyber-shot range of products. Its unique design touch has to be the sliding lens cover on the back, which makes it look a lot like a real digital compact camera. Behind the lens cover is a 5-megapixel camera with auto focus, as well as a Photoflash LED.It’s got quite a bit of photo features, this one… Face Detection of up to three faces; Smile Shutter to automatically snap a picture when a person is smiling; BestPic to rapidly take up to nine full resolution pictures in a second; Snapfish printing service by HP; Photofix to apply minor corrections to your images, geo-tagging with the built-in a-GPS; TV-out; photo /video blogging; image / video stabilizer; and finally support for both Flickr and Picasa on your mobile. Phew.

- The C903 Cyber-shot adds a creative and stylish mobile phone to our mid-range segment, said Daniel Sandblom, who’s the Global Business Marketing Manager at Sony Ericsson.
- The C903 Cyber-shot furthers Sony Ericsson’s digital camera heritage and makes capturing special images even more memorable, he continued.

Okay, enough about the camera. What kind of phone is this, anyway? Well, it’s a quad-band GSM phone with support for EDGE networks / dual/tri-band HSPA (850 / 1900 / 2100 MHz) phone, depending on the variant. There’ll be a C903a with tri-band HSPA.
It’s got a 2.4-inch scratch-resistant TFT display, capable of displaying up to 262.144 colours. The resolution of the display is QVGA - 240 x 320 pixels.
If we take a closer look at its features, we find chat view messaging, Bluetooth, Java, motion gaming using the built-in accelerometer, FM-radio with RDS, Media, YouTube, Walk Mate and Tracker applications, PictBridge, Google Maps, 3-month trial version of Wayfinder Navigator, and so on.
I think it’s also worth mentioning that the C903 will in fact be Sony Ericsson’s first phone to include an e-manual on the phone. This was first mentioned some months ago in a post about Sony Ericsson aiming to be the champion of sustainable development.
The phone measures a good 97 x 49 x 16 millimetres and weighs only 96 grams. One could say that it’s a slightly stripped version of the C905. Battery life is said to be 10 hours of talk or up to 400 hours of standby time.The C903 will be available in selected markets in Q2 this year in three colour variants; Glamour Red, Lacquer Black and Techno White. No final price has been set as of yet, but considering it’s a mid-range product, it’ll be relatively low.