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Why can't you have a phone that is the same form factor but is essentially just a touch screen?

The Sony Ericsson P800...

PhoneScoop is a good source for wireless phone news, all Nextel phones are iDEN/TDMA, manufactured exclusively by Motorola.

Verizon also does not offer a Bluetooth phone, and Sony-Ericsson has stopped making CDMA phones.

I don't miss any extra buttons.

I would prefer a dock for the mouse with a rechargeable battery

I will miss the USB ports on the keyboard, especially for connecting my camera or my JumpDrive.

That being said, I'll probably be getting them anyway.

I was disappointed that Jobs didn't introduce the iTMS for Europe at Expo.

I guess SonyEricsson is using special blue tooth then for their Bluetooth Headset HBH-3 seeing that it handles two way audio for their cellular phone for 5 hours of talk time.

I recently signed up with AT&T Wireless for cellular service when I was required to get a phone. AT&T had the lowest priced service plan with the most minutes: 300 nationwide minutes for $29.99, plus free nights and weekends. I ordered the Sony Ericsson t68i phone. I live in Indianapolis, IN, and I've found the service in the metro area to be pretty good. Unfortunately, my job requires me to drive to northern Indiana quite often, and as soon as I live the I-465 belt, I lose service. Service along I-69 and I-65 is so-so, but I've had several dropped calls for no apparent reason along these interstates. If I'm not on the interstate, I have no chance of getting reception. I've read that the t68 is notorious for poor reception. It has an internal antenna, which doesn't help matters. If I walk outside my house, I get two bars of service, but none indoors. Call clarity is excellent, when I have it. It seems that it is an all or nothing ordeal. A coworker of mine is on the same plan with AT&T, but has the Motorola t720. He is able to get reception in areas that my phone won't.

If you have no need to travel outside of the Indy area, I would recommend the AT&T service, just with a different phone model.

This is a fantastic idea, but as the developers pointed out... it's a bit frustrating without the ability to CTRL + ESC.

So... the chat keyboard should work:
Chat Keyboard @ Sony Ericsson

The Sony Ericssons use the same interface as all prior Ericsson phones, and whilst they haven't updated the site accordingly, I do have my old accessories for my T29 running smoothly on my T610... namely my old data transfer cable (for syncing contacts with Outlook).

I believe that the chat keyboard above should work fine with the P800... thus solving the input method.

Does anyone have the keyboard? Can you confirm if the extra keys are on it? Maybe the developers can use key combinations (if the interfaces expose them) to emulate the CTRL and ESC keys.

Jack type? Psssh... Who needs a jack when you've got the Bluetooth Car Kit?

This is somewhat like what you described, only a billion times better. Basically, you get in your car with your phone in your pocket or jacket or briefcase or wherever... And turn on your car. And that's it. Your phone is connected to the handsfree system and you can make calls using the voice dial or whatever you want.

Conveniently enough, there are whole communities of people out there who scan in new releases & make them available as txt or HTML (just be sure to buy the real book before downloading).

And best of all, since it doubles as a phone, my current books are always with me :-)

The Sony Ericson P800 is a pda, phone and camera, running Symian OS.

Why on earth would anyone buy a Clie?

P800 has Bluetooth built in, memory stick...why are Sony doing such an inferior AND superior product at the SAME TIME?

I want the big screen and the virtual graffiti space. I don't want the freakin' camera. Drop the camera off one of those models and shave off $100 for crying out loud.

Same problem with all these great new cellphones... the Sony Ericsson P800 looks like a pretty awesome device with a killer interface, but darnit, I have a $1000+ digital camera, I don't need a stinkin' webcam making the phone/pda bulkier.

On top of that, I want PDA functions in a phone with bluetooth. That doesn't exist either.

There are the SONY Ericsson P800, and the Nokia 7650. They both run Symbian, have Bluetooth, and loads of PDA features. P800 also got handwriting (sort of) recognition.

Here it is!

While I do believe he is correct, I think he may be off base with the PDA. This is one of the only devices that I would like to see be more "all in one". I'd personally like a Sony Ericsson p800 style PDA phone that had the screen from a Clie NZ90, GPS, iPod sized hard drive, megapixel camera, the VERY cool remote control center from Sony, 802.11g and Bluetooth + an Mp3 player and DIVX/MPEG4 decoder. While something like this would be in the high end (probably where the NZ90 is = $800 + $100 802.11 card) I still think it'd fly off the shelf, and possibly be subsidized by cell phone companies, at least in part with service agreements.

I still hope Apple is considering such a device or at least with most of the features listed here with a compact flash & SDIO slot.

I know there's a little link overload, just illustrating how easily this could be done right now!

All of this could be squeezed into a current form factor Sony Clie.

I dunno about other phones, but the last 2 Sony Ericsson's I've bought (T68, T610) have big enough screens and bright enough backlights to see by!

I dunno about other phones, but the last 2 Sony Ericsson's I've bought (T68, T610) have big enough screens and bright enough backlights to see by!

PDA? Get yourself a Sony Ericsson P800 instead. Phone, PDA, Opera, Bluetooth .. etc.

Now my plans for taking over the world using hordes of CLDC/MIDP MIDlets, all communicating via Bluetooth, can be realised! Soon, your phone will become your worst enemy...

But seriously, I've heard this release includes an implementation of JSR-82, the standard Java API for Bluetooth. This will be very cool, you'll be able to write java apps for the P800 which can do Bluetooth!

w00t!

/mike

If we're adding accessories, can I add a couple and remove one, take away that keyboard , add a touch screen, put in a mobile phone, and you have something I might be interested in. Oh and make it fit in my back pocket. Sort of like a Ericsson p800 Mark X. That I might be interested, as long as I could whack a version of mame on there, and perhaps a GBA emulator, and maybe a corkscrew.

Control system volume and navigation - launch apps - use for timeline and frame by frame manipulation in final cut pro - use for TRON tank turrets and Centipede!

A lot like this device: Shuttle Express You can see the similarities.

This is one reason the Mac is great - I have been able to use lots of devices that I have investments in; in lots of different ways. T68i & Romeo is just one example.

hehehe

(just dropped a new GPS and bluetooth carphone in it.. bling bling!!!)

Get the P800 instead - bluetooth, tri-band so it will work in the states (u guys just have to be different), massive screen for a phone, bluetooth, built in camera & speakerphone & you can d/l more apps for it (java support included). It takes the new memory stick duo mini memory stick & runs the same o/s as Nokia's 9210 communicator (Symbian v7). It's got gprs for fast net access, polyphonic ringtones, touch screen, handwriting recognition, web & wap browser, mms support, mp3 & video player & even comes with 3 styli. About the only thing I haven't been able to do is work out how to switch it from portrait to landscape mode & it doesn't do faxes (but who does anymore). This baby is the bomb.

check out http://www.sonyericsson.com/ (no i am not an employee)

I had a brief play with the Nokia 3650 this week; I was particularly interested to see how it compared with my shiny new P800. I had been a bit nervous about getting the P800 because (a) it was pretty expensive (b) my previous Ericssony (the T68i) had been a big disappointment and (c) I'd always been a Nokia fan, ever since the 6110.

I needn't have worried. Beside the P800, the 3650 is clunky, circumscribed, and weird. The screen is poky and not as clear as the Sony's, and the keyboard's striking aesthetics aren't backed up by anything so mundane as actually being easy to use. The camera on the 3650 is better than the P800s in low light, but this is more than made up for by the P800's superb user interface and PDA functions. The jog dial on the P800 is the closest return to the old Nokia "do what I want" button I've seen in years, and the clever choices of "open" and "closed" UI styles make the P800 the best phone/PDA compromise I've ever encountered - in fact, the only one yet which is both a usable phone and a great PDA.

I used to be a staunch Nokia partisan, but it seems that their only innovations these days are in weird keypad layouts. Check out the P800 instead of the 3650. Sell your dog if you have to - you won't regret this phone.

The best thing about T-Mobile's data support: it's not a stupid CDMA "cell modem". It's an "always-on" packet protocol, GPRS. Instead of paying for connect time, your pay for the amount of bandwidth you use. If I weren't broke, I'd trash my obsolete, poorly-designed SCH-3500 and get one of these.

Or maybe not. I've been wondering why there hasn't been more buzz about the widespread availability of GPRS. Are there interface issues using it to run a web browser? Or are people just unenthused by the 56K bandwidth? Hey, it's fast enough to access slashdot! What more do you need?!

I don't think the T68i is Tri-band. I wish it were, though, because GSM coverage is still pretty weak here in the US.

Damn cut-n-paste. Here is the working link: P800,

Not exactly what you are asking for, but very close, I believe: Sony Ericsson P800.

There is a sony ericcson phone that has the whole surface as a touch screen - it has a flip over button panel that just pokes the touchscreen if you want to use buttons...

this is available in the UK at the moment, about £200 or ~ US$300

see here.

Thought costing just a tad bit more :) the SonyEricsson P800 is by far the best phone out there. US release date is March 15 (or 17th, something like that).

Since it's Sony, why not add memory stick read/write capabilities to the dang thing?

Perhaps to differenciate it from the P800, which features Memory Stick Duo slot?

"But a standalone PDA is going to be better than the built-in PDA, if for no other reason than it has more memory."

Both the Nokia 3650 and Sony Ericsson P800 have removable memorycards, easily expanding memory to 128MB+, so even though that argument is valid conserning the phone mentioned in this article, it's not valid for all smartphones.

"A standalone digital camera will be better because it'll have more memory and a better lens. A standalone phone will be no worse, and from the looks of it, it'll be easier to talk on and handle because it's smaller."

Regarding memmory, read what I wrote above. Regarding the lens and resolution, I agree, but regarding the size-issue; What takes the most space, a dedicated camera AND a cellphone, or a cellphone with a buildt in camera?

"Are people that anxious to free up some space that they'll use a somewhat inferior all-around package instead of 3 high quality individual pieces? Do geeks really not want to carry a bag around?"

Well, it's not allways convenient to carry a bag around, f.eks. when out clubbing, a bag poses a higher risk of having something stolen, unless you don't dance at all, and only sit watching it all the time. And, an all-in-one package is not neccecarly automatically inferior to deticated devices. Series 60 Smartphones and the SE P800 do f.eks. both use an OS that is technically superior to PalmOS, and I have heard from more than one ex-palmOS user who recently bought the P800, that it is nicer to work with than Palm.

"Maybe I'm missing everything about this phone except the 'cool' factor of owning a high-tech cutting edge phone."

For most geeks, that is more than enough. ;)

You want a T68i and one of these the Ericsson MP3 player. Although it doesn't list the T68i as a compatable phone it works fine. The quality is pretty good and it works well as a hands free kit by pausing the music when you get an incoming call. If you've recorded a voice dial 'word' against a name in the phone book it will even replay that when it gets a recognised caller.

It comes with a 32Mb MM card (standard FAT16 format) and a workable but naff card reader. I've found by using VBR encoding at 64Kbps I get very reasonable quality with a playing time of about 2 hours on a 64Mb card.

Battery life is reduced. I find with using the player for about 3 hours a day (travelling to and from work) together with leaving the phone on all the time and may be and hours calls a day I get two to three days charge out of the battery. Using the 'magic word' voice dial (rather than press button voice dial) cuts that down to about 36 hours.

...I'd rather save the size and go small...

I thought this too because looking at the phone it seems bigger than the T68i but then I checked the specs... The T610 is marginally smaller than T68i (2mm taller, 4mm less wide and 1mm thinner than the T68i).

I've currently got a T68i and I think that its is an awesome phone and it is still cuter than T610 if you ask me... The square styling doesn't work for me.

...I'd rather save the size and go small...

I thought this too because looking at the phone it seems bigger than the T68i but then I checked the specs... The T610 is marginally smaller than T68i (2mm taller, 4mm less wide and 1mm thinner than the T68i).

I've currently got a T68i and I think that its is an awesome phone and it is still cuter than T610 if you ask me... The square styling doesn't work for me.

You're probably dreaming about a P800.

Ok it's only 320x208, and no gps, but the rest is there.

"Anyone know S-E's pland for 3G?"

Sony Ericsson's plans rock! Check out the Z1010 (Flash Rqd.)

The only thing the T68i lacks that I want is J2ME. This has it, but it also has crap I don't care about like a camera -- and I assume it is more expensive than the T68i.

Will the T68i be replaced or will it get a price-reduction?

The only thing the T68i lacks that I want is J2ME. This has it, but it also has crap I don't care about like a camera -- and I assume it is more expensive than the T68i.

Will the T68i be replaced or will it get a price-reduction?

Imaging and messaging applications.

Sony Ericsson's collaboration with Sony Pictures (with titles such as Men In Black, Charlie's Angels, Stuart Little 2 and the upcoming Spiderman), Sony Music Entertainment (one of the world's largest music companies) and Sony Style Imaging (Sony's digital imaging community on the Internet) constitute the core of Sony Group's entertainment content group. The collaborations will focus on three key areas:

Technology - to ensure optimization of content delivery on Sony Ericsson products, technology standardization, Digital Rights Management and strategic technology review forums. Sony Ericsson is fully committed to the open standards in the mobile environment and is a principal driver of many open standards initiatives. In addition, the collaboration with the Sony group delivers a powerful mobile entertainment solution to the consumers.

[snip]
For the consumers, these collaborations will result in the possibility to personalize their phones with exciting content from the rich world of Sony. Examples are wallpapers and screensavers with motives from movies, personal images, downloadable ringtones from Sony's top musical artists and branded games.

DRM (Digital Rights Management)

It's got this 'Music DJ' function, but just how capable is it if it's got DRM. Is it crippled beyond belief? And with e-mail and Java built-in, how long before we see the first T610 virus?

Features
o DRM (Digital Rights Management)

Looking at the Specs half way down there is apparently DRM (Digital Rights Management). Does this mean that I can't have WAV's as ringtones now? :P

Rus

Let's not forget the Sony Ericsson 3G phone announced today.

It'll be quite interesting to see if and how Sony merges their PDAs with their cell phones. Perhaps this one hints at their future strategy.

Alright, is this just the coolest phone accessory? A phone with a friggin' laserbeam?

OK, yeah, maybe not...

Yes it do.

Specifications

Check out this link and click the icon in the lower right (stupid javascript, should be banned)

Ciryon

I'm a little disappointed with this release... Many of us are breathlessly awaiting an Ericson / sony style crossover, in the hopes of picking up a very stylish, very functional treo mp3 equivalent.

Don't forget about the P800, cool stuff. The problem though with existing phones as pda's is that most real phones have to small a display and a very unsatisfying input device. They are getting closer though, well at the least the phones are. Sony keeps pushing the envelope though with the Clie's. Here I think that price is the biggest factor. If Sony could sell this new Clie for $400, they wouldn't be able to make them fast enough.

If it's going to get bigger for phones, it's got to be faster. Have you ever tried to use one of these T68s? It takes 15 seconds to bring up the phone book.

I can't wait for the P800, although i agree americans may have difficulty as it's GSM. AFAIC its the first fully-fledged PDA-phone combo thats actually the size of a phone.

Upsides of P800:
- size of a normal phone
- pen-based input. Using Jot, which might have been a problem for grafitti fans until palm announced its shifting to Jot
- all the usual stuff - MP3s, camera, bluetooth
- java
- Unbelievably, a mame port.

More downsides:
- Cost - currently selling at about US$900.
- Proprietary Sony memory stick rather than SD/MMC card.

Ericsson released the Chatboard for their mobile phones if you prefer a QUERTY Keyboard.

All mobile phones I bought the last 3 years came with T9 Text Input. Don't know about phones in the USA, but here in Europe, most people I know use this system on their phones. They come with a built in dictionary, so you only have to press one button per character and it knows, which word you want to type. If there are several possibilities, you can choose the right one. It's much faster than the "normal" way to type text messages and you can even add new (swear)words to the dictionary ;)

-------- Create your your personal color combination and see if people like it or not: colorcell.org

Apart from the title there is no mention of 3g in the article. Is the author actually looking for a 3g solution (in which case i can't help because 3g is not available in most of the world, including where i live) or was the 3g buzzword just thrown in for good measure ?

(note: the following info is gsm-only because that's all i'm familiar with)

Getting your mail via webmail can only be done if you have a phone that can surf the web like the nokia 9210i (gsm 900/1800 only, old, no gprs), siemens sx45 (again 900/1800 only, kinda old) or the sony ericsson P800 (which works on gsm 1900 and looks way better than the other two). Apart from the cellphone, make sure your gsm network provider supports gprs, because data transfers without it are more painful and more expensive.

If you only need pop3, all you need is a phone with a pop3/imap client (there tons available). Again make sure your network supports gprs.

Of course you could always get phone with decent data capabilities and a pda. If you really want to impress you friends, make sure they both have bluetooth. (bluetooth products: nokia hp/compaq Toshiba