LTE, Long Term Evolution, 4G, whatever you want to call it, was designed to be a complete IP based system. Many of you may be surprised to hear this, but when LTE became a standard, it only supported data. That’s right, 4th generation networks didn’t have an interoperable standard for voice and SMS. Several solutions have been proposed, and I’ve extended my support to VoLGA, but it looks like Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has decided IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) will be the way going forward.
Who supports the decision? AT&T, Orange, Telefonica (many of you know them as O2), TeliaSonera, Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE). That’s a lot of companies. Their posse is called “One Voice Initiative” and now that the big boys have all decided on a standard, progress towards getting LTE networks up and running will start to pick up. Verizon and TeliaSonera are competing to see who will launch the world’s first commercial LTE network in 2010, but it’s going to quite a ways off until 4G coverage is equal to the current 3G footprint.
If anyone can point me (and IntoMobile readers) to a blog post or a book that explains how IMS works, that would be greatly appreciated. I’ve always avoided the standard since I thought it would never fly. Oh how wrong I am now.
Update: The One Voice spec has been published, check it out [PDF] if you’re a network engineer.
A quick bit of Canadian mobile news here, on Fido. It seems as though the discount Canadian carrier (run by the behemoth, Rogers (NYSE: RCI) (NYSE: RCI)) has released the Sony Ericsson T715A. The T715A is a slider with a 2.2″ 240×320 QVGA display, 3.2MP camera with video, Bluetooth, speakerphone, MP3 player and more. Pretty standard fare… Not ideal for the power user, but a nice solid device for those that need a steady performer for everyday calling and basic tasks.
The price? Try $50 on a 2-year term, or $200 month-to-month, prepaid, or for the device only. For all the details head on over to Fido.
8.1-megapixel auto-focus camera with an array of camera technologies including touch focus, face recognition, smile detection, image and video stabilizer, geo-tagging. Where’s flash???
Android 1.6 Donut – I’m guessing it will be upgradable to 2.0 Eclair
Size: 119×63x13 mm, weight: 135 grams
Colors: Sensuous Black and Luster White
In a nutshell, pretty impressive first Android phone from Sony Ericsson.
As for the mentioned UX platform, it is developed not for the X10, only, but for the whole series which will be launched in the first half of 2010. Included with UX are two signature apps Timescape and Mediascape, which allow users to manage their social networking activities (Timescape), and browse all the media, both on the phone and on the Internet (Mediascape).
And that’s almost it. Plus we have a video to share which Sony Ericsson kindly uploaded to YouTube. It follows after the jump. Enjoy!
Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) may have a winner with the Rachael, which is set to be announced within two days. We’ve seen the teaser clip and now it’s time to see how this baby actually works. Yap, we have the UI video and I can tell you one thing – it rocks! The first Sony Ericsson Android-powered device will come with a WVGA (480×854 pixels) touchscreen and an optimized user interface that really takes advantage of the whole screen estate… Enough said, here’s the video. Enjoy!
8 megapixel camera with autofocus and 8 x digital zoom
LED Flash / Image Stabilization / Smile Shutter / Face Detection / VGA Video Recording
POP3, SMTP, IMAP4, MS Exchange e-mail
miniUSB, 3.5mm AV connector
Bluetooth (2.1), Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11g), AGPS
So I guess within a couple of days we’ll see how the rumours are – but if it’s true then we have got a real smartphone shootout on our hands over the Christmas period!!
Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) has been getting the gears turning for the launch of their first Android handset code-named Rachel with their What’s Next? website earlier this week, which has since been updated with this teaser video. This is the first official nod to the X10 device, though we’ve seen lots of hands-onpictures (mostly from when it was called the X3), and even a video of SE’s impressive custom user interface. Rumoured specs include a beefy 8 megapixel camera, 4″ WVGA touchscreen, 1 Ghz processor, GPS, Wi-Fi, 3G, 3.5mm headphone jack and the recently-released Android 2.0. January is our best guess for launch so far, but an official announcement will be happening November 3 (next Monday).
Steve O’Hear is in London this week for the 2009 Symbian Exchange and Exposition and had a brief sit down with Anders Westin, Head of Software Relations, Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE). Several questions were asked, mainly concerning Sony Ericsson’s current portfolio which spans every single smartphone operating system under the sun, including, hopefully, Android 2.0 on the XPERIA X3, but the kicker was Steve asking Anders why the Sony Ericsson Satio had such a piss poor battery. The Satio, for those unfamiliar with the device, has a 3.5 inch touch screen, runs Symbian S60 5th Edition and has a 12 megapixel camera. It eats batteries for breakfast. Sony Ericsson has been shipping the Satio with a 1000 mAh battery, and when Steve brought this up to up with Anders, he seemed a bit shocked. “Don’t you mean 1350mAh?” he said, lifting the battery cover off his device to reveal a 35% larger 1350 mAh battery, to which Steve, and many customers around the world, replied “ummm no. what the fuck?”
Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) is preparing to unveil new phones on November 3rd. The special “What’s next?” mini-site has been prepared for the occasion, hinting us we could finally see the Swedish-Japanese handset maker releasing something official on their Android plans. Yap, we hope to see the Xperia X3 announced, now that we’ve seen it in in-the-wild photos.
I’ll only remind of you of the X3’s specs – this baby should pack a 4-inch WVGA screen, 8-megapixel camera, and a 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU. In that sense “I want it” is an understatement.
T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) is Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE)’s main partner in the U.S. and now we have the two companies launching the mid-range clamshell, Equinox, on October 28th. Specs wise, there’s GPS on board, quad-band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM and dual-band (2100/1700 MHz) HSDPA radio, 3.2-megapixel camera, 2.2-inch QVGA screen, Bluetooth, FM radio, YouTube client, and so on. The key differentiating point of the Equinox is its “eye-catching night effects” feature that allow users to set different “pulsating light effects” for their favorite contacts. Kinda nerdy, don’t you think?
Anyway, to celebrate the launch, Sony Ericsson engaged its sexy ambassador, Maria Sharapova, who will make an appearance at the grand opening of a new T-Mobile store in Los Angeles on October 31st. At the event, the Swedish-Japanese company will hold a Maria Sharapova look-a-like contest, with prizes including Maria-style VIP treatment for a day, Sony Ericsson Equinox phones and Sony’s VAIO computers.
In addition, Sony Ericsson is organizing “Get Your Glam On” sweepstakes beginning November 9th. The winner of the contest will get a trip to Los Angeles to meet Kim Kardashian and receive the makeover from her personal glam squad…
The Android revolution has begun, and you know what that means – loads of Android smartphone spy pics! We’ve already seen the Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) XPERIA X3 (Rachel) doing its thing in the wild, and we even have video demonstrating the Rachel’s customized Android UI concept. But, we still can’t get us enough of the Rachel. So, we’re happy to see another round of Rachel spy pics coming to light. This go ’round, Mobile Crunch is calling it the Sony Ericsson “X10.” What happened to all those other “X’s” is beyond us.
The X10 you see in these pictures is reportedly running the vanilla Android UI, and not the “Rachel” UI that we’ve seen before. The lighting here is way better than we’ve previously seen in X3/X10 spy photos, but it’s as blur-tastic as most other spy pics. Maybe whoever took these pics thought it would be funny to use a Motorola (NYSE: MOT) RAZR as a camera.
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X3/X10 (Rachel) is still expected to launch in the first quarter of 2010 with its 4-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen, 8.1-megapixel camera, 1Ghz Snapdragon processor, GPS, WiFi, 3G data and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Android 2.0 OS (Eclair) will likely be on tap to battle the well-endowed HTC Dragon.
A quick bit of Canadian mobile news here, on Fido. It seems as though the discount Canadian carrier (run by the behemoth, Rogers (
