The most promising thing coming from Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) these days is the Android-powered X10, but not so fast – they haven’t put all of their eggs in one basket. This here is the Kurara, a Symbian smartphone with 8 megapixel camera with LED flash, ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz processor, 3.2″ touchscreen, and HD video recording at 720p. Also called the U5, the usual fixings like GPS, Wi-Fi (with DLNA support), 3.5mm, microUSB and HSDPA/HSUPA connectivity are packed inside. We’ll have to see more of the device to pass judgment, but maybe SE should take a hint from Motorola (NYSE: MOT) and focus on Android for the immediate future. No release date, target markets, or pricetag just yet, but we’ll be keeping an eye out.
Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) UK’s X10 launch page has spelled out their launch window in black and white: February is the month to hold out for. The most we got out of the announcement of SE’s impressive Android handset was an expected release in the first half of 2010, so it’s good to have that narrowed down a bit. The X10 promises to be the biggest, baddest Android handset out there – an 8 megapixel camera, 1 Ghz processor, and 4-inch WVGA display put it head and shoulders above the HTC Hero, and will give the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) droid a run for its money. Their custom Timescape user interface is exceptionally slick, all practicality aside. If you’re interested in a prerelease tour, check out this video.
Just caught this – a brand new Sony Ericsson X10 commercial. All (or at least some) of the phone’s features are shown in real-world. Or at least that seems like the main idea behind the clip. I like the handset maker’s approach – it’s the experience they want to sell, not the specs, even though we’re talking about the high-end smartphone which is powered by Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM)’s 1GHz Snapdragon CPU. But I’m talking too much. Here’s a clip, enjoy it!
The Sony Ericsson Xperia ‘Pureness’ has made an appearance on the Canadian Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) site… a move that will almost certainly see the device make its debut on a Canadian carrier in the near future. My money would be on a January 2010 launch, but we’ll have to wait and see.
If you check out the details on the ‘Pureness’, you’ll notice key features such as Bluetooth, an FM tuner, Exchange ActiveSync compatibility, and a very cool transparent scratch-resistant monochrome 1.8″ TFT display. Of course, all of the standard apps come preloaded as well, including your alarm clock, calculator, calendar, yadda yadda, you know the deal.
For those looking for a stylish new candybar, the Xperia Pureness could be the one. I’ll keep an eye open for availability and pricing when it becomes available.
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).
Sony Ericsson (
A quick bit of Canadian mobile news here, on Fido. It seems as though the discount Canadian carrier (run by the behemoth, Rogers (
