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Curious: How much did that cost you? I was under the impression that S-E phones were quite pricy.

Well it wasn't too bad - however I did have recurrent technical issues with it - SonyEricsson maybe a little expensive, but it was worth it for the service I received from them. I bought the T600 phone from a third party supplier, and when it stopped receiving network the third-party quoted several weeks to have it repaired, but suggested I drop by the local SonyEricsson shop to see if there was a firmware update that might fix it. SonyEricsson took it in for the afternoon, and 4 hours later when I returned just replaced it with a brand new one, no issue at all. Six months later when that also had the same problems I went back to the SonyEricsson shop, they offered to replace it with another new one, but after 2 identical failures I wanted something else so they gave me 200 euros credit towards any other phone. I now have a T610, it's a bit larger but I appreciate the bluetooth integration.

In fact I use two phones, I have dual sim cards (only one of the phones may be active at once, but I don't have to move a sim between them to keep the same number). My "work phone" is a Qtek2020, and when I'm out and about I just carry the T610. Just for reference, checking one supplier I see the Qtek2020 is retailing for around 800 euros, and the T610 is about 270 euros (from http://www.proximus.be/).

-- Pete.

I didn't want a full color LCD (drains batteries) or a phone with useless background images or a million built in ring tones or any of that frilly stuff. Guess what, there ARENT any new phones that are "plain"

What's more, for all its frills, it doesn't have the functionality to do a simple thing like vibrate, THEN ring. My old motorola, which is at least four - five years old, can.

My last "it's just a phone phone" was a SonyEricsson T600. Such phones exist if you want them to. As for the vibrate before it rings, it had an editor built in for the ringtones, and that included the ability to set vibrate and lights on/off in the timing, so you could have it turn on the front light and start vibrating, then make a noise after a few seconds...

Seek and ye shall find.

-- Pete.

Invest in a PDA or phone that has built in bluetooth and use Clicker. From personal experience, it is the best. I have the Sony Ericsson Z600. Not only can I control keynote or powerpoint via the phone, but the notes portion of each slide shows up in the display of the phone. An added bonus is the ability to sync the phone and my powerbook. Clicker does have many other features, though. I have yet to use the proximity controls, but the first time that an incoming call on my cell phone muted iTunes and brought up the caller id information I just about... well.. erhem... I'll leave this clean....

PDAs and mobile phones have already (imo) been almost perfectly converged in the Sony Ericsson P900

users can listen to music and can pick-up incoming calls with the MP3 Player.

i have been able to do this for ages now on my Ericsson p800 and now on my new p900

i almost feel sorry for you Americans using clunky old phone tech, perhaps i can interest you in one of these ?

users can listen to music and can pick-up incoming calls with the MP3 Player.

i have been able to do this for ages now on my Ericsson p800 and now on my new p900

i almost feel sorry for you Americans using clunky old phone tech, perhaps i can interest you in one of these ?

I think you'll find that sony ericsson released the first device like this called the HBM-30.

If you want to see the real future of Sony PDAs, look here.

Except for a small little caveat where Sony Ericsson phones suck for making phone calls, i.e. a phone's basic function. I had a T68i, which was a sweet phone, except that it never worked as a phone. S/E burned me once; never again will I buy into their crap. My new Samsung phone works 1000 times better.

I recently ditched my Palm IIIxe for a Sony Ericsson T616. It isn't technically a "smartphone", but it still has a calendar, to do list, phone book (of course). And it syncs perfectly with iSync over bluetooth.

If you want to see the real future of Sony PDAs, look here.

Sony Ericsson P900 - I've had one for about 6 months and it does all of the above, as well as playing games, email, web browsing and integral kitchen sink. If you actually look at the things it's damn impressive for the size, it's really a very well though out PDA/phone.t

flashlight

I want broadband, not TV. When are business execs finally going to figure this out?

A number of manufacturers provide website demos of their phones. For example, I bought a phone this week, for the first time doing so on-line rather than in a store. I was comfortable doing so because Sony provides a demo of the phone (the T610) on their website. In addition, the provider to which I have switched, T-Mobile, provides demos of the phones on their site.

It ain't as good as the real thing. Just yesterday -- after ordering my T610 but before getting it (I'm anxiously awaiting its Monday delivery) -- I saw a T610 in person for the first time. I was surprised at how tiny that it was. But there were no surprises -- it functioned just as the demonstration showed that it would.

-Waldo Jaquith

Sony Ericsson have a 1.3 MegaPixel 1280 x 960 16x zoom called SO505iS.

SonyEricsson also introduced a 1.3Mpix phone a couple of weeks ago, the s700. (Warning, horrible flash-contraption)

I'd rather have a SonyEricsson s700

http://www.sonyericsson.com/s700

MultiSync is a free modular program to synchronize calendars, addressbooks and other PIM data between programs on your computer and other computers, mobile devices, PDAs or cell phones. MultiSync works on any Gnome platform, such as Linux.

Currently MultiSync has plugins for

• Ximian Evolution synchronization, supporting calendar, ToDos and contacts.
• IrMC Mobile Client synchronization (supported by e.g. SonyEricsson T68i/T610/Z600, Siemens S55 phones etc.) via Bluetooth or IR on Linux, or cable connection.
• Windows CE / Pocket PC synchronization. This plugin is part of the SynCE project, and can be downloaded there.
• Opie and Zaurus synchronization.
• SyncML support (supported by e.g. SonyEricsson P800/P900 and many other phones and devices, for example the SyncML server Sync4j). SyncML also allows you to do remote connection of two MultiSync programs via an encrypted connection over the net.
• Palm synchronization.
• LDAP synchronization.
• Backup of your PIM data.

More detail about Multisync supported devices

SonyEricsson P800 and P900 can also sync with MS Outlook/Lotus Notes/Lotus Organizer, according to SonyEricsson's website.

I've been using GSM phones since 900MHz-only years around the world, and when I finally got a GSM phone for using it in the States as well, I didn't realize that I needed to be careful about reception issues. Apparently, 1900MHz (the main -and until recently only- frequency for GSM phones in North America) is not as good as 900MHz for rural areas. That means that, while it's probably great in big cities, it's no good elsewhere around the States.

Moral of the story: I got burned badly with an Ericsson T68i, which I had replaced 4 times before finally giving up on it ever working well as a phone. Sure, it was one of the first phones with color, bluetooth, PDA-like capabilities, it could even iSync with my PBG4 and my Palm, but I expect a phone first of all to work fine - as a phone! Is that so unusual?

So I looked and looked, and finally found a good independent source of information about phone's reception qualities (since no phone company nor cellphone provider will tell you anything about which phone works better in terms of reception: I've tried asking a lot of them).

I ended up with a Motorola P280. It does what I need, in order of importance:

1. great reception on all 3 main bands (1900,1800,900MHz)
2. SMS with enough characters on the screen at once
3. it can sync phone numbers (even calendar entries?) with iSync (despite the fact that no documentation admits it, its icon appears happily on iSync's panel when connecting it with a USB cable).
4. if necessary, it can be used as a GPRS modem (again, through USB)

Apparently, Nokia's 3650 is a good phone despite the built-in gadgets. But the keypad... that's what I would not want to have when typing SMSs...

"Or even put in a palm pilot"

In that case you should like this crossbreed between a palmtop and a mobile phone. From what I have heard the clunkyness is just about worth putting up with because of the features. It is expensive of course, but it has bluetooth and many palmtop features. Personally I prefer the Vanilla phones because so far none of the features were good enough to pay for. This is the first time anybody has managed to stuff features into a mobile phone that are good enough to tempte me to pay for them.

The Sony Ericsson P800 can do GPS. Infact there is an app that will record the ID of the tower you are currently connected to and you can configure it to alert you next time you connect to that tower. It will also run Opera! As well as many other java apps.

Give me a phone that is lightweight, gets decent talk time off a single charge (I'd LOVE to be able to carry my phone an entire work week without charging), and that has features I'll actually use, and I'll be a customer for life.

You'd be interested in a phone like the Ericsson T39m or R520m. They're basically the same phone--GPRS, Bluetooth, IR, incredible battery life--the T39m is a flip phone of sorts, while the R520m is a bit bulkier, "brick" style.

All the features you could need, unless you like to take pictures with your phone... And the reception is great because of the external antenna. With the BHC-10 battery (about $10 on eBay) you could easily go an entire week without a charge.

Give me a phone that is lightweight, gets decent talk time off a single charge (I'd LOVE to be able to carry my phone an entire work week without charging), and that has features I'll actually use, and I'll be a customer for life.

You'd be interested in a phone like the Ericsson T39m or R520m. They're basically the same phone--GPRS, Bluetooth, IR, incredible battery life--the T39m is a flip phone of sorts, while the R520m is a bit bulkier, "brick" style.

All the features you could need, unless you like to take pictures with your phone... And the reception is great because of the external antenna. With the BHC-10 battery (about $10 on eBay) you could easily go an entire week without a charge.

It says in the article that "Orange, O2, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Virgin and 3" are all doing this.

There is no other network in the UK - and indeed, Virgin don't even have their own network: they re-sell T-Mobile's airtime and use their masts. Therefore, voting with your wallet (as you probably intended to say :-) would involve buying a SIM card from another country to use at huge cost here.

Not quite as simple as you might think :-)

But seriously, WAP is a thing of the past. I have full connectivity on my SE P800 using GPRS, and browse the web using Opera, use putty, vnc, etc. Most phones coming out today support GPRS and Java, so you can just get a java browser and set the proxy and woohoo - no censorship. WAP phones have never been successful, and this is a bit of a non-story.

What do you think the P900 is ?

So, today are we getting excited about tech converging (eg. your phone+camera+pim+kitchen-sink) or are we getting excited about the tech diverging into hundreds of specialised interconnected devices?

With all the 'innovation' these days it's getting hard to keep track ;)

Landrocker

Check out the SonyEricsson T610 if you want to see something well designed.

That's funny. Have you seen the follow up phone: the T630? It corrects some of the major flaws of the T610/616 and guess what... It's white semitransparent plastic. Styling looks much more like the iPod now.

not that simple it would seem...
T610
Z600

not that simple it would seem...
T610
Z600

The upcoming T630 model uses a Thin Film Transistor (TFT) active-matrix LCD screen that should be much easier to read in bright sunlight.

I think the Sony-Ericsson P900 seems to do all of this reasonably well, although yes, it is very expensive. /AC

The difference between T610/616 is that the T616 gives up GSM900 support for GSM850 support. Both supports GSM1800 and GSM1900.
Dropping GSM900 support is NOT a good thing as the best GSM networks are the GSM900 ones. GSM1800 networks have poorer coverage, furthermore, fewer operators support it.

I know you're asking about headsets, BUT...

I just purchased an 2004 Acura TL. It's the first car that has internal Bluetooth... which means I can use voice activated dialing (available on the TL w/Navi model) to call people while my SonyEricsson T616 stays in my briefcase.

Once the pairing is done it's simple to use and the sound quality is exceptional.

Bad link for the T61c.

The other option for Verizon customer is the Motorola 270c and phone module

Lack of cool Bluetooth phones is my #1 gripe with Verizon.

I recently picked up a used Sony-Ericsson T61c, and an Ericsson DBA-10 adapter from eBay. Although the DBA-10 isn't officially supported on the phone it works fine for my Jabra headset.

I'm still working on getting the phone/adapter to work with my T3. All of the profiles/init strings are for GSM phones.

The headset works great with the phone, but I'm still not able to do all the things I would like to do, like syncing the address book.

Both the Apple Bluetooth Mouse and Keyboard are only my holiday wish list.

Dead? I think not.

Lack of cool Bluetooth phones is my #1 gripe with Verizon.

I recently picked up a used Sony-Ericsson T61c, and an Ericsson DBA-10 adapter from eBay. Although the DBA-10 isn't officially supported on the phone it works fine for my Jabra headset.

I'm still working on getting the phone/adapter to work with my T3. All of the profiles/init strings are for GSM phones.

The headset works great with the phone, but I'm still not able to do all the things I would like to do, like syncing the address book.

Both the Apple Bluetooth Mouse and Keyboard are only my holiday wish list.

Dead? I think not.

Everything in the parent's post has been copied verbatim from that discussion. To wit:

• infoSync's coverage (Score:5, Informative)
  by holygoat (564732) on Tuesday October 28, @06:11AM (#7327703) http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/4237.html
  
  Pictures, and running a damn sight faster than Nokia's site for me!
  --
  -Rich [ Reply to This ]
  • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.

  Nice try, but it's no Sidekick (Score:5, Informative)
  by ChaoticChaos (603248) * <l3sr-v4cf@sp[ ]x.com ['ame' in gap]> on Tuesday October 28, @06:14AM (#7327726) I keep waiting for a device that has the functionality of my T-Mobile Sidekick (IM, email, web browsing, phone, scheduler, notes, etc.) that is as thoughtfully made (screen flips up to reveal a solid thumb-board and every bit of data I enter is automatically backed up on T-Mobile's servers) that is anywhere close to the price point ($300).
  
  I bet this Nokia device is plenty expensive and I could send out an email 10 times faster with my Sidekick thumb-board than you could peck one out with the stylus on this device (if you could find your stylus ;-) ).
  
  http://www.t-mobile.com/products/overview.asp?ph on eid=195184
  
  [ Reply to This ]

  • 8 replies beneath your current threshold.

  640x320 is pretty good! (Score:5, Interesting)
  by jeroenb (125404) on Tuesday October 28, @06:25AM (#7327812)
  (http://slashdot.org/) First thing I checked was ofcourse the screen's resolution and it turns out it sports 640x320 [nokia.com]. That's very good! Especially since close competitors (like the P900) only have 320x208 [sonyericsson.com]. Even some of the big-screen PDA's currently out like the Palm Tungsten T3 and the clamshell Sony Clie's only have 480x320. Even Sony's latest UX50 has that resolution [clieplaza.com] and if I'm not mistaken so does the latest Zaurus.
  
  640x320 is finally something you can seriously browse the web on!
  [

http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/4237.html [infosyncworld.com]

Pictures, and running a damn sight faster than Nokia's site for me!

First thing I checked was ofcourse the screen's resolution and it turns out it sports 640x320 [nokia.com]. That's very good! Especially since close competitors (like the P900) only have 320x208 [sonyericsson.com]. Even some of the big-screen PDA's currently out like the Palm Tungsten T3 and the clamshell Sony Clie's only have 480x320. Even Sony's latest UX50 has that resolution [clieplaza.com] and if I'm not mistaken so does the latest Zaurus.

640x320 is finally something you can seriously browse the web on!

Stop complaining. These ugly & expensive & too big devices with too many funktions are the ones witch are making technology to walk forward. You don't have to buy it, some tech freaks will, and thx to them next generation devices are actually better.

the opera guys might be making real money now and i've got to say i'm happy for them. this and the other nokia series 60/90 phones all use opera for their web browser. that and a design win with adobe, and the fact that it runs natively on windows, linux, freeBSD, AND solaris. well, i think it's worth applauding the fact that small innovative comapnise CAN actually succeed on merit! well done guys... :-)

I keep waiting for a device that has the functionality of my T-Mobile Sidekick (IM, email, web browsing, phone, scheduler, notes, etc.) that is as thoughtfully made (screen flips up to reveal a solid thumb-board and every bit of data I enter is automatically backed up on T-Mobile's servers) that is anywhere close to the price point ($300).

I bet this Nokia device is plenty expensive and I could send out an email 10 times faster with my Sidekick thumb-board than you could peck one out with the stylus on this device (if you could find your stylus ;-) ).

http://www.t-mobile.com/products/overview.asp?ph on eid=195184

First thing I checked was ofcourse the screen's resolution and it turns out it sports 640x320. That's very good! Especially since close competitors (like the P900) only have 320x208. Even some of the big-screen PDA's currently out like the Palm Tungsten T3 and the clamshell Sony Clie's only have 480x320. Even Sony's latest UX50 has that resolution and if I'm not mistaken so does the latest Zaurus.

640x320 is finally something you can seriously browse the web on!

I was so turned on to see the SE P900 that was announced yesterday. But, now I have to clean my keyboard a second time for the fact that LG has finally decided to actually enter the electronics world, with a real device. This is their first that looks good, and it looks damn good.

P800 is clearly evolved from a phone line towards PDA than from PDA towards phone so it's is a device usually referred as a "Smartphone", and yes, it has a touch screen.

I'm sure it's not the only one either, just one that came to mind first.

There is a distinction, and it's mostly in the form factor & interface.

Something that's the same rough size & proportions as a phone, and has a phone-style keypad/interface is a phone with a PDA (e.g. SE P800). Something that's, say, wider & has a qwerty keyboard - or no keyboard/keypad (e.g. Treo 600 is a PDA with phone. They both have similar capabilities, just different focus.

I'm not counting phones with small screens & organiser functions, or iPaqs with phone modules attached.

A touch thicker, a touch lighter

screen is 208x320 (vertical format) and very bright

Full bluetooth etc

expandable memory (16MB to 128MB, Memory Stick Duo)

plays MP3/Ogg and MP4 video (and comes with a stereo headset)

Runs Symbian/UIQ (which I happen to prefer over PalmOS)

Great for eBooks (probably my major use)

No keyboard, but I could never use one that small, with my large fingers, and the Jot recognition works very well.

I'm typing this over a bluetooth enabled keyboard, to my bluetooth enabled laptop. And you know, I just cannot figure out how my phone and laptop keep that darned address book synchronized. It really has me puzzled. Whatever it is is sure is useful.
Hmm. let me wiggle over to check the links here, using my mouse.
Let's not even talk about a headset or two.
Definately dead. Yup.
Whatever.

I'm typing this over a bluetooth enabled keyboard, to my bluetooth enabled laptop. And you know, I just cannot figure out how my phone and laptop keep that darned address book synchronized. It really has me puzzled. Whatever it is is sure is useful.
Hmm. let me wiggle over to check the links here, using my mouse.
Let's not even talk about a headset or two.
Definately dead. Yup.
Whatever.

The only problem that I have found is that the pre-installed Netfront browser can not open new browser windows, so I get error messages every time I am supposed to see a pop-up. Does anyone know how to allow more windows to open? Can Palm multi-task at all? Is there an alternate browser for my Palm that would work better for me? Thanks in advace.

• Takes photos with inbuilt camera, which I can then transfer to my laptop.
  
• Syncronizes its contacts, Todo list and Calendar with Evolution.
  
• Allows me to read Slashdot via WAP on the tram into work.
  
• Add and edit entries in my Movabletype blog.
  
• Gets net access for my laptop wherever I am via GPRS (only about modem speed, and kinda expensive, but good enough for email on the road).
  
• Recieves wallpaper, ringtones, themes and java apps from my computer. Uses JPG, GIF, MIDI and Tar (yes, that tar).
  
• Looks very shiny.
  

usually an exec would already have his phone, but if a cell phone is what you want this phone. it's 650$ (or 1150$ for the phone with development kit, which every exec would want on their shelf) with camera, bluetooth, 150mhz processor, 208x320 touchscreen, handwriting recognition, up to 256mb memory stick duo. it's yummy. i'm no exec but i went poor getting this thing ;]

The reason why Nokia got to the dominant market position they enjoy today is because their phones were simple and intuitive to use, and looked sort of cute and non-threatening and accessible, but not to the extent that they came over as toy-like. In a world of disgustingly ugly Ericssons with awful interfaces and Motorolas that were just downright embarrassing, they cleaned up because they appealed to the masses.

Now, though, they seem to be forgetting everything that made them popular. Their devices are becoming ever more contrived in both appearance and functionality, and they're blatantly chasing the zeitgeist instead of telling us all what it was.

Meanwhile, the companies that they so thoroughly trounced have really raised their game, and phones like the Sony Ericsson T610 are exactly the sort of thing you might have expected from Nokia before they started producing phones that look like they've melted in an effort to appeal to tha kidz.

This stupid gadget's yet another example of this silliness. Amazingly, it actually uses elements of a UI layout that Nokia had previously binned because users hated it - well, OK, admittely it's been updated, but several years ago they played with a prototype of a device with the buttons in a row down the side, thinking that it would increase speed of text input for SMS messages, but it turned out it was much worse. There's ample detail about it in this book. Here, instead of one row, they've got two, but apart from that, it's pretty much the same idea they've already rejected. Now tell me they aren't going for form over function.

Oh, and it's a crap shape for putting in your pocket. By my reckoning it's about the size of a 3.5" floppy, maybe a bit smaller. Now look at the way you'll have to hold it in your hand - the broadest diagonal will go right across the palm of your hand. Try picking up a floppy and hold it that way and tell me it's comfortable. And in all likelihood you've got big ol' Western hands - how's it going to go down in Japan? Remember how small those original designed-for-Japan Playstation joypads without the analogue bits felt in your mitts?

Ooh, but isn't it pretty?