Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Video

While Sony’s been dealing with exploding batteries, PS3 craziness and now a recall for some Cyber-shot cams, the Japanese behemoth’s handset division is trying to expand into the mobile television sector by partnering with Ericsson. Already the two form a significant presence in cellphones with the Sony Ericsson brand, and they hope to continue that with television as well. Per Nordlof, Ericsson’s director of Product Strategy, said at a press conference in Stockholm on Thursday that a third of the world’s mobile phone users will be watching TV on their handsets on a regular basis by 2008 — something the folks at Qualcomm and others are thinking, too, with MediaFLO and the like. According to The Associated Press, the corporate duo is also working on a way to send clips from your living room’s TV directly to a handset. Of course, if you don’t want to wait until 2008, you could just buy a Slingbox or a Sony LVTV Box right now for the same effect.

Read – Reuters
Read – The Associated Press

 

Permalink | Email this | Comments

---

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

When a single manufacturer accounts for an overwhelming majority of your license revenue, it stands to reason that said manufacturer might save a little dough in the long haul by acquiring you outright. And so it goes for the long, passionate relationship between UIQ and licensee Sony Ericsson; of the 13 handsets running the Symbian-based platform, nearly half — six in all — have been designed and produced by Sony Ericsson, with the remainder split between Motorola and Arima units that haven’t seen been met with nearly as much publicity. The Swedish company, currently owned by Symbian itself, will be transferred to Sony Ericsson (pending clearance of the typical bureaucratic stuff, of course) for an undisclosed sum but will continue to operate as an independent entity with the current management team in place. Though UIQ promises that its platform will continue to be available “on equal terms to all its licensees,” the move makes official what’s been known for years: that UIQ is to Sony Ericsson what S60 is to Nokia, an interpretation of the Symbian smartphone operating system to call its own. Will UIQ ever match S60′s popularity, particularly in the Symbian-friendly European market? Probably not, but with a committed partner now laying out the requisite cash, it does seem more likely than ever that UIQ’s here to stay — and as always, we’re all about choice.

[Via All About Symbian]

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

---

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Home Entertainment, Portable Video

It looks like the Symbian Smartphone Show is shaping up to be a bit of a showdown betwixt placeshifters today, with both Sling and Sony announcing Symbian support for their respective products’ players. Unlike Sling, which announced both UIQ and S60 versions of its SlingPlayer Mobile, Sony is only going as far as UIQ support for its LocationFree on the wings of its fresh P990 smartphone — a very Sony-like (read: proprietary) move, considering Sony Ericsson isn’t down with the Nokia-backed S60 platform. Odds are Sony would’ve liked to have cut a version for its smartphones a year or two back, but the P990 is the first phone in the P series to rock data fast enough (via UMTS and WiFi) to handle the heavy-duty bandwidth requirements LocationFree — or most any other placeshifting tech, for that matter — requires. Sony Ericsson’s claiming immediate availability of the Symbian client, though it’s not yet live on the P990′s download site. Of course, a LocationFree player doesn’t do much good without the device itself, and a US release of the P990 is nowhere in sight, so just keep on toolin’ around with those PSPs until further notice.

[Thanks, Alex]

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

---

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: Sony Ericsson, Misc

Just when we were ready to give the award to Samsung for the most complicated phone form factor, Sony Ericsson outdoes their Korean counterparts in a just-revealed 2004 patent application aptly titled "Flipper Phone Configuration." The concept appears to accomplish essentially the same function as a swiveling clamshell but with additional drama surrounding the conversion between modes, using a pivot point halfway up the sides of the display to allow 180-degree rotation. At least Samsung is trying to bring some additional functionality to the table with their "sliding clamshell" patent; where's the innovation here, fellas?

[Via textually.org]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Handsets, Others, Sanyo, Sony Ericsson, KDDI, 1xRTT, EV-DO, Kyocera, CDMA

Bring it strong, or don’t bring it at all. That’s certainly our mantra here at Engadget Mobile, and KDDI seems to share our sentiment, launching not one, not two, but twelve new phones on their Japanese “au” CDMA network this week. Variety doesn’t really seem to be KDDI’s forte, though — every last model rocks a clamshell form factor and roughly equivalent specs, give or take a megapixel here, FeLiCa support there. Sony Ericsson’s W43S caught our eye for its nifty faux wood exterior (come on, who wouldn’t want a faux wood cellphone?), while the curiously-named glossy black Toshiba “DRAPE” seems to be positioned as the high-style model of the bunch. 2- and 3-megapixel cams (some with autofocus), expansion slots, and comprehensive music support all around… yeah, there’s not a lot of differentiation here, but the uniformity’s good in at least one way: every last one of these 12 are blessed with QVGA primary displays.

[Via Akihabara News]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Samsung, Misc

As if Samsung wasn’t already building a reputation for dubious, if not illicit activities in the market, they’re now about to undergo investigation by the US International Trade Commission at the behest of Ericsson, which claims that the US sale of at least some of their handsets is illegal based on a patent licensing deal that expired at the end of last year. It’s a little convoluted, but it seems that the outcome can have only a few results: Ericsson withdraws their claims (not likely), Samsung withdraws the offending devices from the US market (not likely), Ericsson’s patents are not found to be applicable in this instance (possible), or Samsung settles and pays royalties (the likeliest of scenarios). We’ll let you know how it turns out as Sam and Eric have at it.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson, GSM, GPRS, EDGE

At first glance, the new Sony Ericsson Z558 looks like nothing more than a rehash of the Z550 geared toward the Chinese market. By and large, that’s an accurate assessment, save for one critical detail: the new model packs a touch screen and stylus for handwriting recognition — a feature that seems like overkill for Latin characters, but thinking about Chinese puts things in an entirely different perspective. Much like the Nokia 6108 before it, the Z558 sports handwriting recognition for the sole purpose of making life a little easier on folks whose languages are composed of thousands of characters (though as you can see from the press photo, you can write in English too, if you’re into that sort of thing). Other features include a 1.3-megapixel cam, 18MB of internal memory expandable to 1GB via Memory Stick Micro cards, and a 900 / 1800 / 1900MHz GSM radio with EDGE; look for it in Z558c and Z558i variants for mainland China and the rest of the world, respectively.

[Via Slashphone]

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

---

SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson, GSM

Is there really room in Sony Ericsson’s lineup for another candybar wedged in between the diminutive K610 and the K790 / K800 3.2-megapixel monsters? These pictures (if real) seem to suggest that our favorite Euro-Asian manufacturer thinks there is. The rumored, unnamed device is emblazoned with the “Cyber-shot” brand, suggesting that the handset will be photo-centric — perhaps a bit of a stretch for a phone whose camera resolution tops out at 2 megapixels, regardless of the presence of autofocus. Other specs allegedly include a QVGA display and Memory Stick Micro slot; if we had to guess, we’d say that UMTS 2100 is in the cards, too. We’ll keep an eye on this one and confirm or debunk it just as soon as we’re able.

[Thanks, Shaliron]

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

---

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Filed under: Handsets, Reviews, Sony Ericsson, GSM, GPRS, EDGE

Sony Ericsson’s Z710i is a bit of an ugly duckling. Maybe “ugly duckling” is the wrong phrase — after all, we found the phone to be just swell-looking in the flesh — perhaps “black sheep” is a better way of putting it. Stuffed squarely between the Walkman line and Symbian-based smartphones, a handful of perfectly respectable handsets like the Z710 virtually blend into the shadows of Sony Ericsson’s product range — but often offer all the functionality of their flashier brethren in a toned down (and sometimes cheaper) package.

Putting ourselves in the mindset (if only for a moment) of a corporate suit on the lookout for a capable midrange phone, the Z710i stacks up impressively on paper for a clamshell in its class: 2-megapixel camera, Memory Stick Micro expansion, extensive media support with external controls, and dimensions that make it all but disappear in a pocket. In practice, it’s just a solid device, and there’s just not a lot to say about it. Then again, Sony Ericsson would probably have it no other way for its low-key clamshell.

If you can get past the missing Send and End buttons, a paradigm that Sony Ericsson’s been fond of for some time, there’s not much here not to like. Menus were speedy and predictably organized (and animated, but not annoyingly so), camera picture quality was decent, and the inclusion of A2DP is (in our humblest of opinions) huge for a phone in this class. We found the keypad’s blue lighting to be a bit uneven, but the unit we were provided with was an engineering sample, so we’re inclined to Sony Ericsson a mulligan here. Sound quality over the handset was clear and loud but had a strange quality to it, like the phone was sitting in a can; again, we’re guessing (read: hoping) it’s a pre-production quirk.

We found the large monochrome external display to be surprisingly pleasing, to the point where we think we’d take it over most any color one. Why? At the end of the day, a clamshell’s outer screen should be all about presenting key information quickly and efficiently; if you need more, you can always flip ‘er open. With 128 x 128 pixels at its disposal, not only are we getting virtually everything we need on the Z710i without opening it, but we found it far more readable in typical outdoor conditions.

Added to a T-Mobile or Cingular store shelf, the Z710 could run the risk of disappearing in a sea of similarly-priced flips, but it’s saving grace could be its brand name. Samsung and LG typically lead this segment in the domestic GSM market, and Sony Ericsson brings a breath of fresh air with a different (arguably more refined) user interface and a feature list that could make even a power user crack a smile. That being said, we haven’t heard any announcements to make us think this thing’s going to make it onto our networks in an official capacity, but the quad-band GSM radio with EDGE make it a solid choice for our business exec alter-ego looking to try something a little different.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

---

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson

While Sony’s been dealing with exploding batteries, PS3 craziness and now a recall for some Cyber-shot cams, the Japanese behemoth’s handset division is trying to expand into the mobile television sector by partnering with Ericsson. Already the two form a significant presence in cellphones with the Sony Ericsson brand, and they hope to continue that with television as well. Per Nordlof, Ericsson’s director of Product Strategy, said at a press conference in Stockholm on Thursday that a third of the world’s mobile phone users will be watching TV on their handsets on a regular basis by 2008 — something the folks at Qualcomm and others are thinking, too, with MediaFLO and the like. According to The Associated Press, the corporate duo is also working on a way to send clips from your living room’s TV directly to a handset. Of course, if you don’t want to wait until 2008, you could just buy a Slingbox or a Sony LVTV Box right now for the same effect.

Read – Reuters
Read – The Associated Press

 

Permalink | Email this | Comments

---

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.