The t68i Replacement is Here

interdigitate writes "The new T610 was been unveiled today by Sony Ericsson. This is the t68i replacement and its supposed to improve on it in every aspect. It has a 16bit color screen, Polyphonic ringtones, a built in digital camera, GPRS, Bluetooth (ofcourse), and most importantly it has Synchronization which should mean it will work with apple's iSync! " So... pretty. Must... resist.

Comments

siiick...

[ludeyork]

I wonder how long it will be before AT&T makes this phone available...

Unfortunately...

[Anonymous Coward]

The telephone aspect of the phone had to be removed to save space.

Re:Unfortunately...

[McWilde]

Yeah, I was wondering how polyphonic ringtones, a built-in camera and 16 bit color display are "supposed to improve" a telephone. For me if it goes [BEEP] it's probably someone trying to reach me, I can read their name or number in black and white just fine. If I have nothing better to do I'll pick up and talk to them.

Re:Unfortunately...

[lc_overlord]

Figures, but what the heck, nobody ever calls me anyway. It just feels nice to have something totaly useless that costs to much in the pocket.

Re:Unfortunately...

[cyb97]

Not to mention all the battery all this talktime consumes...
To heck with it ;-)

Re:Unfortunately...

[Anonvmous Coward]

"The telephone aspect of the phone had to be removed to save space."

As amusing as that comment is, I've found my T68i to do the PDA job that I could never get in the habit of using my PocketPC for. Now it acts as my alarm clock, phone number/email book, appointment book, and I even fiddle on the internet with it once in a while.

There are two key things about it I wish my PocketPC was: The size/durability to fit in my pocket. The wireless internet connection at a reasonable rate.

I do use it as phone once in a while, but that's eclipsed by it's PDA capabilities.

Re:Unfortunately...

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah. That explains the platinum-iridium penile implants, then....

Re:Unfortunately...

[Anonvmous Coward]

"Yeah, I was wondering how polyphonic ringtones, a built-in camera and 16 bit color display are "supposed to improve" a telephone."

Have you ever had your cell phone go off and have like 5 people check their phones?

If you're curious how it makes it a better phone, I can explain the ringtones aspect of it. With the T68 you can group people into different categories and give them different ring tones. So if my gf calls, I can make it ring with a song, but if my job calls I have it ring silently. The neat thing about that approach is that I can make the 'NO-ID' calls silent.

The next step would be to use .WAV files or something like that (I hope that's what polyphonic implies...) so you could have better control over the ring. Not sure what the mass market appeal is for something like that, but I already have my email notifications set up with unique sounds for the people I actually want to hear from.

I think that in general, the sound aspect of interfaces is not given as much attention as it should.

Re:Unfortunately...

[bezza]

Polyphonic ringtones is sort of like MIDI for phones.

There are phones that do the .wav thing and I cannot wait to get my hands on one of those. I think it would be hilarious to record myself saying "bring, bring" and have that play when the phone rings.

Re:Unfortunately...

[bigneight]

I hope that's what polyphonic implies...)

I have a Nokia 3590 with polyphonic tones. You can use pretty much any midi file you want. All i do is upload the midi to my website, then browse to the file in the phone's web browser. It says "Tone Received". I've got Foo Fighters, the WHOLE Mario Bros theme song. It is definitely a very cool feature.

Re:Unfortunately...

[Anonymous Coward]

Heard one of these babies ring. They're currently rubbish - too quiet. The power required to drive a proper speaker capable of playing back WAVs (or in this case, mp3s) is not really appropriate for a device powered as minimally as a mobile phone.

Re:Unfortunately...

[Anonvmous Coward]

'Heard one of these babies ring. They're currently rubbish - too quiet. The power required to drive a proper speaker capable of playing back WAVs (or in this case, mp3s) is not really appropriate for a device powered as minimally as a mobile phone."

It begs the question: Why does a cell phone need to be loud?

1.) You carry it with you, as opposed to having it bolted to a wall like in the olden days of phones.

2.) If you miss the call, your phone very clearly tells you a.) who called, b.) when, c.) if they left a voice mail or not.

My phone's been on vibrate since December. A quiet .WAV file would be useful, at least to me. I think other people would too if they'd realize they had virtually no need to have it so loud the whole apartment/house can hear it.

Re:Unfortunately...

[WowTIP]

Siemens C55 (which I happen to own) among other phones can record or download MIDI tunes in 16 channels for polyphonic ringtunes, along the newest phones from most manufacturers (Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Panasonic, etc.). It also have the ability to play wav files that can be either recorded live from the phone or downloaded from the net. You would think wav files in phones would be cool, but there are currently two mayor drawbacks. One, the sound quality is far from good, it is better if you download a pre-recorded wav file, but still sounds like someone speaking in a tin can. Two, wav files use a lot of valuable memory space in the phone. MIDI files are much smaller given the length in time. They also generally sound much better.

Re:Unfortunately...

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

I carry my phone in my bag, in the top pocket near my head. Quite a few times I have been supprised that I have missed a call--Surly I would have heard it, since I have good hearing. But not always.

So that's why cellphones need to be loud, and it's also why vibrate is not the answer for everyone.
And some people want to take a call when someone calls, not spend money and ring them 2 hours latter or hope they ring back sometime.

Also, when I go to the toilet, or into the kitchen. I don't want to have to bring my phone with me.
And no, not all of us are shameless enough to wear a belt-clip. Some of us have small pockets. And quite a few of us want to keep our reproductive organs in working shape, even if some of us never get a chance to use them.
But most of use would still thank you anyway for opting for vibrate mode over a customise ring tone set at it's loudest setting.

Re:Unfortunately...

[Anonvmous Coward]

"So that's why cellphones need to be loud, and it's also why vibrate is not the answer for everyone."

Unfortunately, the need to have cell phone ringers to be loud will result in them getting banned. It's already happening. There have been lots of articles here on Slashdot about places trying to jam our outlaw cell phones.

You may have very well have to choose between a quiet phone, or no phone at all.

Believe me, I totally understand your point of view. I'm in no way saying you're wrong. Just saying that it may be imposed upon you.

Re:Unfortunately...

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

I highly doubt they will be banned. Maybe banned from certian places, like the theater, school, library, etc. But not in public, or the work place, or your home.

I've seen lots of talk on /., yes. But we all know that /. can be full of BS most of the time--Reality seems to get distorted on the /. forums.

Re:Unfortunately...

[McWilde]

When I say it goes [BEEP] it actually signs "telefoon" (it's Dutch) in morse code. It doesn't need polyphony for that and I've never met anyone else whose phone knew any morse code beyond "sms". But your point is valid of course.

Re:Unfortunately...

[jontsok]

All good stuff but can it play Doom as well as pro scate or whatever.

Re:Unfortunately...

[Arctic Fox]

Are you talking about cigarettes or cellphones?

Read the specs

[rf0]

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

Re:Read the specs

[Sheetrock]

By DRM, I think they're referring to the protection on a user profile of files (not that you'd store many on here), messaging ID, and e-mail account. It probably implements enough of their DRM API to sync with things like Palladium when it comes out later to sufficiently protect a computer sync of the phone's databases over infrared (assuming that's an addon to this model) as well.

It's a good thing in this context.

Re:Read the specs

[bumby]

If you want wave's as ringtones, buy a sony cmd-j5. It's cheap too :) It's not exactly wave's, but you can record 5*10 seconds with the internal mic, and use as ringtones. I have had lots of fun with it ;)

*ring ring* PICK UP THAT DAMN PHONE!!! *ring ring* [loop]

Re:Read the specs

[b96miata]

Or you could get any phone from sprint that supports pcs vision. Qualcomm makes a free tool to convert wav's into ringers you can download right to your phone (they're bigger than midi ringers of course) Anyone who's into cool new phones and wants a service that won't charge you an arm and several legs for data use should check out the above. I don't wanna count the hundreds of dollars I'd owe if I'd used the same amount of data on at&t's network that I have on my $10 unlimited data plan.

Re:Read the specs

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, sounds like the 'lect property people are now making up uses for DRM to entice the consumer to his death. Sure, sure infrared transmissions are in such danger of being intercepted. You see, that's why we have DRM, ma'm, to protect you and your loved ones address book against the underpants gnomes which hide between your phone and the infrared connection on the syncing computer. Pay no attention to that loss of fair use. Your ring tone royalty payment will only be $.10 per incoming call. What a steal!!

Re:Read the specs

[stratjakt]

DRM isnt an evil term. You've read too much slashdot.

When you use a password on an secure connection to your banks website to transfer funds, that's a form of DRM.

Putting a BIOS password on your own machine so noone but you can boot it up, is DRM.

You have digital stuff, you have rights to it, you want a way to manage access to it, that's DRM - Digital Rights Management.

The problem isnt the fact that stuff can be secured, the problem is the question of ownership. The RIAA/MPAA members think they own the songs on the CD you bought. MSFT thinks it owns all the IP on your desktop, etc.

It's not the technology at fault, it's the IP system and the many vague definitions of 'ownership'.

Saying DRM is evil or wrong is like saying "ping" is a hacking tool.

Re:Read the specs

[Gannoc]

DRM isnt an evil term. You've read too much slashdot.

Incorrect.

Digital Rights Management was defined as a way to people to maintain their "Rights" (as in copyrights) digitally.

Maybe Sony is expanding the term to include general security so down the road people think "Oh, DRM! Great, now I can use online banking! Its just like SSL!", and will ignore the fact it means you'll only be able to play that mp3 for 48 hours until it self-destructs.

Re:Read the specs

[Anonymous Coward]

But, since it's made by Sony-Bony, I woudn't put it past them to pull something like that.

To prevent anyone from using "Un-authorized" audio as a ringtone, just use what they have, and most likely have to pay for it, and maybe big time for it.

Remember Sony-Bony is a member of the MPAA, RIAA, and maybe even the IDSA. Hey, just about any normal DVD player you can hook up to a VCR and make a backup copy of your DVD. Not with the Sony-Bony Pixelation Station 2, You get a bunch of red lines in the picture when you try to make a backup copy of your DVD. That is why Sony-Bony should not be TRUSTED.

Re:Read the specs

[stratjakt]

>> you'll only be able to play that mp3 for 48 hours until it self-destructs.

That's just one application, and a bad one IMO. You could use the same technology to make sure that noone else can listen to the memos you dictate to a device.

It's the use of a technology that's right or wrong, not the technology itself. Like console modchips. Use them to play japanese games in america, good. Use them to pirate games, bad.

It's the completely one-sided view of technology that has us wind up with stupid laws like the DMCA.

Re:Read the specs

[adixon01]

What makes DRM so sad is, that in the unforseen future (past the next 100-300 years), the data formats we use now will be long obsolete. When things become obsolete, people ususually find a way to access them and learn about how things work, but with secure computing systems, and a huge precent of all important information being moved on these system, they may leave the next 50+ years of human history unreadable to future generations.

Re:Read the specs

[Sgs-Cruz]

Somehow I doubt this. Think about the absolutely most advanced encryption from 50 years ago you can think of. Don't you think we could break it today in about, oh, 10 seconds (including programmer time and coffee breaks)? Obviously, I'm not including One-time Pads in this equation, but that's okay, because we don't even use those for todays DRM. In 50 years, I have every confidence we'll have no trouble cracking todays' DRM-encrypted files.

Re:Read the specs

[Sheetrock]

Nothing we're doing in the near term will be unbreakable in the long term. Moore's Law, nanotechnology, and quantum cryptographic methods will make today's best ciphers (barring one time pads, which are unusable for DRM on any meaningful scale) as secure as yesterday's substitution cipher.

We have more to fear from the attitude that it is a right to keep information from the public domain indefinitely or for periods of time beyond that which is necessary on average for a creator to recognize benefits from a piece of work that made it worth the effort to create it. The artificial scarcity on information will have a very real impact on the innovation and creativity of tomorrow's minds.

Not that anybody seems concerned about the cerebral anymore.

Re:Read the specs

[cmoney]

There's DRM already in place on their current phones. It simply stops you from forwarding on content that you paid for.

For example, if I buy a $.99 ringtone from say T-Mobile and download it to my current T300 (or T68 or 7210 or 3650, etc), it stops me from then putting that ringtone into an MMS and forwarding it to my girlfriend.

However, if I download a free ringtone that I wrote myself, I can forward it on as much as I like.

Same goes for background images and I'm guessing games as well.

This isn't as bad a Verizon's Get $hit Now though!

Re:Read the specs

[Fig, formerly A.C.]

Great. It will still be illegal to do so.

Re:Read the specs

[robspychala]

I believe a lot of the DRM relates to the Mophun Gaming API. It's going to prohibit you from uploading a game to your phone through IRDA or USB that you didn't buy (or that isn't signed to your phones ID.)

You will still be able to SMS the game to your friend (ex: viral marketing), but they will only be able to play the demo functionality untill they decide to purchase the game and get a new copy that is signed for their phone.

pretty neat.

MophunGames

Re:Read the specs

[ecki]

Maybe, maybe not. All major phone manufacturers, some major operators and most content owners push for DRM on mobile phones, coordinated by the Open Mobile Alliance (ex WAP forum). Meaning full DRM and not something privacy related.

But...

[Kshu]

How about a model that lets you chat via IRC? That one I'll buy for sure.

Re:But...

[emir]

well just buy any java enabled phone out on market and download irc client.... it might be wise to buy java phone with gprs as without gprs your phone bill will probably ruin you.....

Re:But...

[horza]

With the size of the screen, and the speed of typing on a numeric keypad, it doesn't sound useful for IRC except in the deadest of channels. Even with a normal monitor the text flies off the screen in around a second when the conversation gets heated. If you are really such a masochist, I guess you can load in a Java applet that tunnels over port 80 to a gateway you are running at home.

Phillip.

Re:But...

[sql*kitten]

How about a model that lets you chat via IRC? That one I'll buy for sure.

With a JVM and an always-on connection, you can do whatever you can code...

Re:But...

[brakk]

I have a sanyo 4900 through sprint pcs and i can get an irc client for it, just never really saw the point because it takes so long to type something. the cool thing is that i can plug it up to a laptop by way of USB and just surf/irc that way.

Re:But...

[Anonymous Coward]

Go for a P800: IRC on the move with the P800
http://www.infosync.no/news/2002/n/3010.html

Re:But...

[BrookHarty]

I have been chatting on IRC on my CDPD phone for years. But for a newer WAP phone, http://www.irssi.org/ has a wap module.

Just host your on webpage, its that easy.

Re:But...

[ivan256]

I can't do it, but I've seen 50 WPM using T9. I know people who chat on their phones constantly, and they can type faster on the keypad than on a full sized keyboard.

Re:But...

[Troed]

Sony Ericsson P800

I have one - you should have one too.

Re:But...

[cmoney]

Watch out, not every Java enabled phone works properly. I'm told the Nokia 7210 has J2ME support, but doesn't support network sockets from Java apps, only forwarding on to URLs.

Re:But...

[cmoney]

Already have a Nokia 3650, but I agree. It's great having access to Symbian OS apps. I've got a full web browser and IRC client for real chat.

Re:But...

[Anonymous Coward]

when i see you around i'll unleash my script kiddie irc attacks on you, just because of your silly idea.

bahahah!

Re:But...

[Anonymous Coward]

There's IRC Clients for Palm OS. you could pick up a cheap used Palm off ebay and grab a bluetooth adapter for it. I'm still waiting for my m505 to get here, but I checked out upIRC in a Palm OS emulator, and it works great.

Re:But...

[nchip]

No problem: WirelessIRC for nokia 7650 (and 3650?) Symbian programs are out there, today, despise the fact that programming tools and API docs suck. Kudos for the coders!

Re:But...

[nikitin2k]

Nokia 7650 has an IRC client. It works great with dial-up or gprs connections. It can handle dcc-chats, sends and ssl enabled servers.
Check it out at http://www.infosync.no/news/2002/n/2592.html

Re:But...

[Locutus]

It has Bluetooth so use it with your Sharp Zaurus and IRC all you want. IRC on a phone would be painful unless you were just lurking around.

With the Zaurus you can pick from many IRC apps or port one yourself. And there's Java on the Zaurus too.

IMO, the phone should be a phone and provide the voice and connectivity while the handheld or laptop uses the connectivity. With Bluetooth, you could keep the phone in your pocket or briefcase while you IRC on the handheld computer.

LoB

Re:But...

[Jucius Maximus]

"With the size of the screen, and the speed of typing on a numeric keypad, it doesn't sound useful for IRC except in the deadest of channels."

That's what this is for!

Swell....

[imac.usr]

.... and it'll only be offered with a 2-year contract, which doesn't guarantee I get to keep my number or even my phone if I switch to another plan, and requires me to jump through all kinds of hoops to get the features and rates I want, plus requires me to pay for incoming *and* outgoing calls, and that's not even counting the lousy service coverage once you go fifteen miles outside a major city....

I'd love to replace my landline with a cell phone, but not until the U.S. catches up to the rest of the world in service.

Re:Swell....

[binaryDigit]

Well AT&T has a reasonable hardware upgrade policy. We just upgraded my wife to gsm and got the same price on the phone as we would have if I had purchased it and a plan from scratch. So now she has a new phone with a better calling plan and her same old number with a one year contract, a pretty good deal if you ask me.

Re:Swell....

[steelerguy]

As long as you get a phone that works at home you at least have the functionality of your land line...I mean your land line is not going to help you much 15 miles outside a major city.

Even with the crappy coverage it is still pretty painless to go completely wireless as long as you find out the best provider in the area you live in.

Re:Swell....

[Anonymous Coward]

and man does that new phone work fine! I just called your wife and phone sex is better than ever was :)

Re:Swell....

[binaryDigit]

and man does that new phone work fine! I just called your wife and phone sex is better than ever was :)

Well luckily for you they increased the size of the microphone hole another .5mm to allow for your increased sexual satisfaction.

Re:Swell....

[Anonymous Coward]

I get tired of saying this, but will still do so.

I dumped my landline four years ago, and went with Sprint PCS, as it's strongest in the part of the country I inhabit.

The one or two times a month that I drop a call, and the person ridicules my "dumb" decision to abandon a landline, I mentally note that if I did not have a cell phone, they would be calling my landline at home, and not actually talking to me at that moment.

The fact that few understand that $35 a month for 650 anytime (retention), 3500 off-peak, nationwide no-roam, and no LD charges, together with way more phone "features" than SWB would offer me for any amount of cash, tells me just about everything I want to know about those same people.

WHO in their RIGHT mind wants to pay WAY more for a phone that's attached to a wall, when a cheaper, more versatile, and outright geekier option is available?

Re:Swell....

[SpookyFish]

With which provider? I have had the same number on about 10 different phones for over 10 years with AT&T, while changing services from analog cellular to TDMA to GSM.

Each new phone has only required a year extension (from upgrade date) to get the subsidized price, regardless of how long I had the previous phone.

Silent is good

[cindik]

I'm very happy to see more wireless communications which don't require people to be chattering all the time. If they're too bored to watch the movie, participate in church, watch the play, etc., now they can busy themselves silently.

OTOH, is this going to be banned from theaters and other venues where cameras are prohibited? At what point do we end up with unenforceable "no camera" rules?

Re:Silent is good

[binaryDigit]

At what point do we end up with unenforceable "no camera" rules

With the slim size of modern digital cameras, any no camera rules are pretty much unenforceable anyway (at least proactively). We were just at a kids show that had a no camera rule during the performance (good luck trying to get parents to keep the cameras at home when the kiddies are involved). Several people insisted on taking snaps during the performance. During the intermission their cameras were taken away. We had our Sony (boo, hiss, evil) DCR-PC120 and could have easily recorded the entire show had we wanted to.

Re:Silent is good

[Hal-9001]

At what point do we end up with unenforceable "no camera" rules?

Forget about unenforcable--most "no camera" rules are rubbish. I can understand "no flash photography" because the flash damages ancient artwork or distracts performers, but passive recording of an image causes no real harm. The only damage that could result from passive photography is the dilution of intellectual property, but that is an abstract, socially-constructed danger--there is no real damage to property or safety.

Re:Silent is good

[GigsVT]

Except around military places, in which case the "no camera" rule is taken very seriously.

Re:Silent is good

[deanj]

The "no camera" rules most people refer to when they're talking about cell phones is "no cameras" in locker rooms, dressing rooms, etc. It's about privacy, not intellectual property.

Re:Silent is good

[Cranky_92109]

Maybe you saw this article in wired a few weeks ago about banning cell phones with cameras in places like gyms and theatres. I hadn't thought about it before, but these cell/cam combinations are a little scary. I am now much more aware of people talking on phones in certain places (public restrooms, gym locker room, etc).

Re:Silent is good

[gl4ss]

just now.

the usual places where you're not generally allowed to go on photo shooting don't have guts to say that 'please leave your phone home'.

and as they have no flash(usually) you really can't tell if somebody is taking a picture either(hey, if people figured out that flash doesn't help in just about any 'no camera' areas anyways maybe they wouldnt exist.. ).

quality still is only good enough just for partyphotoing to assist memory on the day after..

Re:Silent is good

[Anonymous Coward]

actually in theatre and other public performance spaces it is usually to do with the fact that the theatre company have only paid a licence to perform the play/song/musical in front of an audience (a PPL - Public Performance Licence) not to allow audience members to "take away" their own permanent recording of the play/song/musical (a recording/publishing licence) Needles to say the latter is way more expensive than the former.

Sad but true state.....copyright law is a mess and has been poorly modified over the years to cope with digital stuff. So no more videos of little johnny in the school play unless the school or parent pays for a licence.....unless of course its aplay written by one of the staff/pupils who are quite happy to let parents do this...

Re:Silent is good

[Anonymous Coward]

if people figured out that flash doesn't help in just about any 'no camera' areas anyways maybe they wouldnt exist.. )

While it is true that the flash is pretty useless in a museum where pictures and other exhibits are behind glass, this is not necessarily true in other "no-camera" venues.

Inside a dimly lit church or cave, for example, a flash can be useful if used properly (but it sure does disturb the other visitors)...

Re:Silent is good

[Hal-9001]

I hadn't considered those scenarios...my mind is still in tourist mode since I just got back from a mini-vacation. Lots of tourist attractions, especially in Europe, have "no photography" rules--I know firsthand that a number of European museums have such rules, as did the Schloss Schonbrunn in Vienna and quite a few churches and chapels in England. For many of these places the motivation--to compel tourists to drop lots of money on overpriced guidebooks, postcards, and souvenirs--is purely selfish.

Re:Silent is good

[someguy]

Even just around skyscrapers they're enforcing very seriously. A week ago I was in Chicago and wanted to take a picture of the Amoco building(I used to work there) to try out my new digital camera. As soon as I pulled out the camera a guard ran at me and yelled at me about no pictures being allowed. Dammit.. Why couldn't I have had a digital camera to play with when I actually worked there?

Re:Silent is good

[gl4ss]

the cave or church would have to be very small, or the flash a pro one and used properly for the flash to be of any major use beyond few meters..

Re:Silent is good

[Hal-9001]

I hadn't thought of security considerations...I remember being told that there are two bridges that connect Middle Eastern Turkey to East European Turkey across the mouth of the Black Sea, and that to try to photograph those bridges literally risks death because of the strategic importance of those bridges. When I wrote my comment, I was thinking more about touristy stuff like museums and cathedrals and concerts and plays.

It looks kinda big.

[BgJonson79]

I can see it now:

Is that a T610 in your pocket or are you happy to see me?

Re:It looks kinda big.

[Anonymous Coward]

Its not big... its the same size as a T68i. Its a very sleek phone, check one out. The screen is amazing!

Re:It looks kinda big.

[Anonymous Coward]

When all you have is a 3-inch hammer, everything looks big

Re:It looks kinda big.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's 1cm longer and 35 grammes heavier then my current T600, and that's one of the smallest phones availible at the moment. So it won't be that big.

Adonized aluminium.. drool

please please please

[rhs98]

I have a t68, and hope to god they have fixed the awful speed of the predictive text messaging. It is truly slow, and not much difference if any from the t68i.

Here's hoping

Re:please please please

[Darren Winsper]

I found there was a considerable difference in the T68i version. The T68 was intollerable, but the T68i is just fine for me.

Re:please please please

[Anonymous Coward]

It helps if you disable the stupid suggestions menu popping up.

Re:please please please

[duffer_01]

I also have a t68i which I love, but I hope that the RF reception is better in this new device. I know GSM (in N.A) is still new, but other GSM phones do not see, to have the same RF reception problems as this one.

Re:please please please

[rhs98]

i didn't find it very different on the t68i's I have tried...they just can't keep up when you type fast

Re:please please please

[Anonymous Coward]

You can have your T68 flashed with upgraded software which fixes this problem (you can even have it flashed with the T68i software). Speak to your local cellphone dealer.

Re:please please please

[frisket]

My T68i is fine, if a little sluggish in the menus (it it written in Java?).

But the big turn-off for the new one is that it's plug-ugly compared with the T68i. Camera? Got one as accessory to the T68i. 16-bit color? Don't care. Polyphonic tones? Just sad. GPRS? At 60/month I won't be using it. Bluetooth? Haven't found a use for it yet. I got the T68i because it's small, light, can exchange VCs with my Zaurus via IR, do a simple GSM dial-up, and work most places I go.

Maybe they just wanted the new one to compete with the traditional brick-like US cellphones.

Finally!

[Mindjiver]

Finally a decent phone from Sony-Ericsson. Hopefully this will help to stop Ericsson from bleeding to death.

Too bad I can't afford this. But maybe it's just as good as I would just destroy it after too much beer.. =)

Re:Finally!

[iainf]

Finally a decent phone from Sony-Ericsson. Hopefully this will help to stop Ericsson from bleeding to death.

The last decent phones from Ericsson were the T39m and the R530m.
All the ones since have just been techno-fluff.

Re:Finally!

[bezza]

Yes! The T39 was a great phone!

Re:Finally!

[Yer Mum]

Well you can have mine, then. It's got the low microphone problem and Ericsson still can't/won't fix it. You have to scream down the thing and the other person's going, "Eh? Speak up?" So I bought a rock-bottom cheap one as a stop-gap (T200) and that gave up after a couple of months as well with the No Network bug. I will never buy another Ericsson again because something always goes wrong 3-6 months down the line. (Having said that, everything will probably work great from the P800 onwards.)

Java! Finally!

[Anonymous Coward]

Lack of java midlets was only thing to make me go Nokia last time. BTW T68i was nicer looking than this one.

Maybe now I wont get the Siemens sx-56

[wwwssabbsdotcom]

I miss having my IPAQ with CDPD on it, but $54 a month from AT&T was just too much. AT&T with the siemens I beleive is $29 for the phone, and $39 for the data portion of the bill. I'll have to look into it, and since its not running Palm (from what Im reading), I might seriously consider it.

Verizon

[walt15]

But what I want to know is why I can't use it with my verizon service. Everyone I talk to says none of the ericson(sp) phones are not compatible with the network here in MI.

Re:Verizon

[Smitty825]

Verizon (and Sprint) uses a different network standard (called CDMA) than AT&T (and Cingular/T-Mobile) do (GSM). To avoid a vi/emacs level flame war, let's not discuss which one is better :-)

There is a model very similiar that is coming out for Sprint (and other CDMA providers). It looks the same, but it doesn't include the built in Camera. It does have bluetooth, though. It is called the T608.

Verizon has quasi-announced that they aren't going to be supporting any new bluetooth phones, until they can charge for the data transfered between the phone and the external device (according to a Verizon Insider on HowardForums.) They get there own version of this phone called the T606, which supports BREW, but does not have the built in camera or bluetooth support.

If you go to Phone Scoop, they have pretty informative pieces on each of these phones...plus a giant preview of all of Sony Ericssons new phones!

Re:Verizon

[alch]

Verizon uses CDMA technology ... most of the new ericsson phones (Noka as well) are GSM/GPRS for "the larger market" (GSM: 100's of million of users, CDMA: 10's of millions ).

I also think the SIM cards help in user adoption - ie: I can easily switch phones WITHOUT asking the phone company. I have 3 phones - a business phone, a fun phone, a basc phone - changing from one to another is as simple as pulling out a card and placing it in the new phone.

Re:Verizon

[cetan]

until they can charge for the data transfered between the phone and the external device

You mean my ear?

How exactly are they planning on doing this?

Re:Verizon

[halocline]

They already do that: it's called your monthly bille.

Re:Verizon

[RESPAWN]

Actually, Cingular is only running on a GSM network in certain areas of the country. Mostly West and East coasts I'm guessing, as these are the most widely populated areas. In other regions such as the Gulf States where I am now and whatever region Arkansas is listed in, Cingular is still using TDMA. That's fine by me however, because if I did live in an area with GSM, then I would be spending waaaay too much on these really cool phones. That's not necessarily a good idea when I look at the amount of wear I've put on my Ericcson T60d in the last 7 months.

Re:Verizon

[Anonymous Coward]

Well we can at least point out where you are wrong...

AT&T uses TDMA in most all of it's areas...it is just now building out it's GSM network, so you can get one of these phones to work in bigger cities.

Verizon's network is CDMA and GSM. They are also still building out their GSM network.

Cingular is quickly going down the toilet as they sell off most of they network capacity.

Re:Verizon

[Anonymous Coward]

Where is VERIZON building out GSM?!!!

Re:Verizon

[RobertKozak]

Verizon has quasi-announced that they aren't going to be supporting any new bluetooth phones, until they can charge for the data transfered between the phone and the external device (according to a Verizon Insider on HowardForums.)

Gee. I hope not. I was happy with Verizon until I read this. Time to look elsewhere I guess.

Re:Verizon

[Smitty825]

I know exactly how you feel. I started to feel this way a few months ago, when I realized the Samsung A500 was never going to come out for Verizon!

I'm still a customer, but I'm getting closer and closer to switching to another provider. I will admit that they still have the largest network footprint, but in my market, other providers have slowly caught up in call quality. (San Diego).

Add to that the insistance of Verizon to have "outdated" phones and to only support technologies they can charge for (BREW...aka "Get It Now") instead of open standards...it costs lots of money to develop for BREW, but J2ME is free (as in beer). (Examples: They never released the A500 from Samsung, primarly because it had J2ME support, and not BREW. They will release the A530 soon, but it is slightly larger, and doesn't look as good. They also botched the T720 release, because they insisted that J2ME not exist. Many Verizon users are unhappy with the performance of this phone, while other service providers users are very happy with it!) So, for me, it is a question of is it worth paying $10 more a month for a larger coverage area, versus having handsets that do more of what I would want my handset to do and a network provider that is more "open"

Re:Verizon

[RobertKozak]

I am in LA. SO coverage is fairly good for many of the providers. There is only two major features I want in my next phone: Camera and Bluetooth. In that order. I meet a lot of girls and I can't remember 3 days later these girls I have on my phone. I need to take a picture ;-) Bluetooth would be cool because of the handsfree and wirefree headsets.

Re:Verizon

[cetan]

Yes and no. What happens to the signal after it reaches my cell phone is up to me. If I don't listen, I'm still going to get charged. But let's not get too silly on this topic.

Re:Verizon

[illumin8]

Hey, I was looking on PhoneScoop and I couldn't find out if the T608 that is coming out on Sprint supports 3G data. Do you know? I am about to switch to Sprint service in June and this could be the perfect phone for me.

I lust after 153kbps data via Bluetooth connected to a 17" Powermac. This just might be the perfect mobile setup...

I was also looking at the Samsung 330i which is great for it's Palm and full 3G data capability, but it only has an infrared port for synchronization, and using it as a wireless modem would really suck because Infrared isn't very fast.

Thanks for the info and the link to a great site.

Re:Verizon

[illumin8]

I know, bad form to reply to your own question, but I answered my own post...

The first Sony Ericsson phone for Sprint PCS. Also the first CDMA phone with built-in Bluetooth for North America. Sports a color display, 1xRTT high-speed data, and Java downloadable applications.

The 1xRTT high-speed data, with Bluetooth will be the shiznitt! Combine that with a Sprint unlimited data plan and slurp all the 153kbps you want for just $45 a month.

Has anyone thought about the possibility of creating a Bluetooth enabled IP-telephony headset? I know it would kind of defeat the purpose of having a cellphone, but imagine if you could make free voice over data calls all day long on the Sprint network.... Definitely cool.

Dammit!

[mschoolbus]

I should have waiting on my Sony Ericsson i300 picture phone (or whatever model it is)...

Wow! 2Mb!

[Joel Rowbottom]

Wow! Up to 2mb of memory available! I almost wet myself, I could store almost two floppy disks on there!

(oh, wait...)

Re:Wow! 2Mb!

[rf0]

Wonder how many pictures that is? I can get about 30
on my 7650 (shared with other apps admitally). Least with the P800 you can upgrade the memory

rus

Re:Wow! 2Mb!

[Anonymous Coward]

My 3650 has an MMC slot so it can fit as many pics and ringtones as you have money for.

The only problem is it's not as nice as Palm yet, many applications still want to be installed in main memory.

Re:Wow! 2Mb!

[perky]

quite. it never ceases to amaze me that the handset manufacturers have spent so much time on the fancy features. Why the hell do you need a 16 bit screen on a telephone? All I want is:

• sensible, comfy buttons. unlike the ones on the hideous Nokia 7210.
  
• lots of space for contact details
  
• lots of space for text messages
  
• a few MB of onboard RAM and a USB cable that let's me plug it into a computer and store or retrieve files from it.
  
• The simple ability to synch names and addresses with common PIMs
  
• Bluetooth
  

Things I don't need or want are:

• a really shit camera
  
• MMS messages. Don't they realise that the reason that sms has been so successful is because it's *cheap* and easy.
  
• polyphonic ringtones
  
• screen savers on a fucking telephone!
  
• cases that are designed to look "funky", "urban", "modern", or any other shit that makes it less ergonomical in the name of fashion.
  
• A fucking FM radio. It's a phone for god's sake! If I wanted a radio, I'd buy a radio.
  
• mobile internet
  
• computer games. buy a gameboy if you want games.
  

Nokia: sort it out!

The Reason For Releasing It At This Time

[Anonymous Coward]

They are only releasing this because I bought a T68i last week! The tech equivalent of washing your car to bring on the rain...

LOOK AT THIS! IT'S UNBELIEVABLE!

[Anonymous Coward]

I herewith declare you the person with the lowest ID I've ever seen!

synching

[Erwos]

Sure, it works with isync... But does it work with multisync?
http://multisync.sf.net

-Erwos

Polyphonic ringtones

[BWJones]

Please!!!! No more ringtones. How many more versions of electronic renditions of Beethovens 9th do we have to listen to ?

Re:Polyphonic ringtones

[Anonymous Coward]

That's why my phone plays the Super Mario Bros theme. Sounds just like the original.

Re:Polyphonic ringtones

[Surak]

Personally, mine plays "You were always on my mind" by Willie Nelson.

Re:Polyphonic ringtones

[aug24]

Actually, the answer to that wish is the title!

Polyphonic ringtones reproduce using several frequencies at once, so instead of rendering (for example) the 5th as dee-dee-dee-diiiii, you get something that doesn't sound electronic. They may still be irritating in the library/theatre/cinema, but they don't jar the ear.

Justin.

Re:Polyphonic ringtones

[BWJones]

Personally, mine plays "You were always on my mind" by Willie Nelson.

Hrmmm. I am certainly a Willie Nelson fan, but I think ringtones would be somewhat disrespectful of the man. That and I am getting tired of having cell phones ring little musical interjections in the theatre, on planes, at movies, in lectures, etc...etc...etc...

Re:Polyphonic ringtones

[BrookHarty]

Big difference, newer phones with Polyphonic sound, any tune will sound 100% better. Play wav's or midi's now, much better than the 1 note tunes that most phones have.

Re:Polyphonic ringtones

[Chokma]

Bah, classic. Now it's time for the original Doom theme.

Is there a phone available which selects an appropriate ringtone for each caller?

Mother-in-law: Funeral March
Lawyer: I shot the sheriff or Liar (Queen)
Landlord: Hotel California (Eagles) or Rent (PetShopBoys)
Evil HR [Catbert]: Demon's Whip (Manowar)
your bank/broker: Money

PHB: ?

Re:Polyphonic ringtones

[DickBreath]

I like the newer phones that can play any recorded audio instead of just tones. That is, instead of a G note for so many milliseconds, followed by an E note, etc. to form a melody, the phone plays what effectively amounts to an MP3.

Now if I could just download a ring sound that sounds like "When Harry Met Sally". (For those who don't know, it is when Sally in the resturant makes a very long and loud faked orgasm sound.)

Re:Polyphonic ringtones

[Anonymous Coward]

The reason for the alternate rings is because when everybody in the room has a phone, you need a way to tell which phone is ringing.

Re:Polyphonic ringtones

[ryanvm]

The reason for the alternate rings is because when everybody in the room has a phone, you need a way to tell which phone is ringing.

Uh, that's why I have two ears.

Re:Polyphonic ringtones

[troc]

my T39 does this.

I think it's been standard on most GSM phones for a few years.

Troc

Re:Polyphonic ringtones

[Coppit]

Even worse: I was in the library yesterday and someone's phone started playing "Play that funky music"...

DO IT! OOOWWWWW!

Re:Polyphonic ringtones

[BWJones]

Even worse: I was in the library yesterday and someone's phone started playing "Play that funky music"...

[guffaw] Yes, this must be a trend as I heard it from one of the med students phones I was teaching just a little while ago. I had to comment on that, suggesting that he turn it off before seeing any patients. I was irritated, but easy going. However, some of the attendings he would be working with might smack him hard for it.

(By the way, interesting personal page documenting you research. It could be timely considering recent events).

Re:Polyphonic ringtones

[angle_slam]

Is there a phone available which selects an appropriate ringtone for each caller?

Not polyphonic, but my wife's Nokia 3390 allows you to assign different ringers for different callers. My Kyocera 3035 allows you to do separate ringers for separate groups of callers (personal, business, and uncategorized).

Re:Polyphonic ringtones

[splattertrousers]

It's so you can tell whose phone is ringing. For a while, everyone had a Nokia 6xxx and when one went off, everyone started digging.

If everyone has a different ringtone, it's easy to tell. It's still annoying though.

I think a Bluetooth wristwatch would kick ass. It would vibrate when you have a call and show the name (or picture!) of the person calling. All of that superimposed on top of an analog face that looks like a normal watch. That would rock.

Of course, you'd have to recharge your watch every week...

Re:Polyphonic ringtones

[Surak]

Hrmmm. I am certainly a Willie Nelson fan, but I think ringtones would be somewhat disrespectful of the man. That and I am getting tired of having cell phones ring little musical interjections in the theatre, on planes, at movies, in lectures, etc...etc...etc...

Aw, c'mon, admit it. You think it's cute, don't you? :-P It's okay to admit it. Really.

Re:Polyphonic ringtones

[Chokma]

As someone whose mobile was canceled by my telco because I did not use it often enough, I should perhaps have had at least one look into current cell phone technology... once again, +1 for ignorance :)

Re:Polyphonic ringtones

[DrewCapu]

Personally, I've preferred that good ol' piano tune that Yosemite Sam had Bugs Bunny play: e d c d c c e g f a C# C# a a. (... no silly, rabbit! like this!)

When (clueless) people ask if it's a wrong note in there I just tell them, "No! I just don't want my phone to explode :P"

Re:Polyphonic ringtones

[BWJones]

Personally, I've preferred that good ol' piano tune that Yosemite Sam had Bugs Bunny play: e d c d c c e g f a C# C# a a. (... no silly, rabbit! like this!)

O.K., so, you made me laugh for the second time today. Thanks. :-)

Re:Polyphonic ringtones

[strick]

hahahaha. thought you had a cool idea and did some googling:
beam me up scotty

It's freakin huge!

Re:Polyphonic ringtones

[Anonymous Coward]

The Sony Ericsson 610 will do this! Choose any ringtone, polyphon, or regular for as many contacts as you like... though when your GF realizes your phone plays "Taps" when she calls, she might be a bit upset!

this is why S-E is so far in front of Nokia

[hype7]

The thing I love about Sony-Ericsson, and the reason why I will continue to buy their phones over Nokia's which I otherwise prefer to use, boils down to this:

Bluetooth.

S-E are putting it in a lot of their phones; Nokia are putting it in very few. You haven't seen how cool Bluetooth is until you run iSync with a mac, or get Romeo controlling your mac from the other side of the room through your phone.

It's very cool :)

-- james

Re:this is why S-E is so far in front of Nokia

[Viol8]

Wowww , so you can control your mac using a phone???
Man thats almost like ... uh , a remote control. Yawn.
So f*cking what? I want things that are useful , not technology for its own sake that only impresses teenage geeks.

Re:this is why S-E is so far in front of Nokia

[TopShelf]

controlling your mac from the other side of the room through your phone.

Okay, that sounds nifty, but after the initial "gee whiz" factor wears off, would this ever be a useful feature?

Re:this is why S-E is so far in front of Nokia

[Anonymous Coward]

Bluetooth: goood!
Design: Baad!
Design > Bluetooth

Re:this is why S-E is so far in front of Nokia

[ejaw5]

that's all fine and well, but what if you just want a *phone*?

Re:this is why S-E is so far in front of Nokia

[Anonymous Coward]

Well I have been using My T68 for controling my Powerpoint and Kaynote presentations for two weeks. The new 12" Powerbook G4 and a T68 is a wounderful combination. No cables needed I i dont have to spend almost $100 on a remote! And when i get back to my office my desktop computer automatically logs me back on our intranet (and of again when I leave).

It is really amazing! Jonas Sallings Sony-Ericsson Clicker and S-E phones really rule! Now I just have to decide if to buy a P800 or a T610 not an easy choise :)

Re:this is why S-E is so far in front of Nokia

[Anonymous Coward]

it is a remote control. But what about integrating it with X11 home automation - and applescript - I mean, the possibilities are literally endless.

you walk out of the room, you could set it so the lights go off and the curtains shut.

you get a call come in, itunes or your dvd can be paused.

I'm just scratching the surface, I'm sure there are hundreds of useful things you can do with it.

-- james

Re:this is why S-E is so far in front of Nokia

[Viol8]

Do you not perhaps think it might be quicker to turn the lights off and close the curtains
yourself? I mean how long does that take , 10 seconds? Jeeez... I can't think of anything
useful for it other than to do tasks that only the terminally lazy or moribund would find an
effort.

Re:this is why S-E is so far in front of Nokia

[FatherOfONe]

While I agree with you somewhat, I want bluetooth because I can then use it with my Ipaq and connect from anywhere in the world via SSH to admin my Linux boxes.

Currently I have a VoiceStream wireless PCMCIA card that does that. It makes the Ipaq huge and also cost me around $20/month for service.

That to me is a valid good reason for bluetooth in a phone.

Re:this is why S-E is so far in front of Nokia

[Aqua OS X]

Now when I walk into my office my development environment loads up, my CVS directories auto update, my email gets checked, my instant messenger signs on, and my address books sync up. It's quite handy... and it ain't no kiddy toy ;). It's the best 10 bucks I ever spent.

Moreover, considering that I keep a desk and computer in my room, this software makes watching DVDs, watching DIVX movies, listing to music, etc a lot easier to do from bed. Nothing sucks more then being half asleep and having to get out of bed because you've decided that your tired of the movie you started.

Bluetooth is the shiznit

Re:this is why S-E is so far in front of Nokia

[10Ghz]

Does it really matter on how many models Nokia has with (or without) Bluetooth? Or do you think that when you see a cool Nokia phone with BT that "Whoa! I would really love to buy that phone! It has Bluetooth! Unfortunately Nokia doesn't put BT in all their models, so I can't buy that BT-enabled phone...". I fail to see the logic here.

I have Nokia 6310i with Bluetooth. And yes, it workd very very well.

Re:this is why S-E is so far in front of Nokia

[cmoney]

Nokia's current phones don't have good BT support. The 6310i was the last Nokia that supported the headset profile. The 3650 supports the HANDSFREE profile which means current headsets don't work with it. The 7650 didn't support BT audio at all.

Maybe his argument wasn't well-put, but Nokia has simply dropped the ball with BT so far.

Re:this is why S-E is so far in front of Nokia

[10Ghz]

Nokia's current phones don't have good BT support. The 6310i was the last Nokia that supported the headset profile.

I use 6310i with BT routinely with my laptop (it's alot easier than with data-cables or IR) and it works flawlessly. I can't speak for headsets, since I don't use 'em. I fail to see why I should use BT-headset instead of regural headset.

My point was that one should not steer clear of Nokia phones just because they don't have as many BT-models as S-E does. When buying a phone, one should judge each phone-model individually, not the whole range of phones as a whole.

Re:this is why S-E is so far in front of Nokia

[Anonymous Coward]

We have development 6310i's at work that support HFP and HSP. Check the version of your phones software by hitting *#0000#. If it is above 5.09 (I think) then it should support both.

HSP and HFP are not mutally exclusive.

Out.

A most disappointing "feature"

[no_such_user]

From the specifications:

Features
o DRM (Digital Rights Management)

Again, when did DRM become a *feature* for end users? And exactly what are they using DRM for here... ringtones?

Re:A most disappointing "feature"

[syle]

I can think of a few uses on a mobile phone. For instance, on my Sprint PCS, applications can "expire" anywhere from 1-3 months after you pay for them, and not work until you pay again.

Isn't it a beautiful world we live in?

Re:A most disappointing "feature"

[binaryDigit]

And exactly what are they using DRM for here... ringtones?

Games as well? I think the "feature" may be to entice content providers to create apps and content "secure" in the knowledge that the phone offers a way to "protect" that content. Right now ringtones and some games, tomorrow, who knows?

Re:A most disappointing "feature"

[Draoi]

So, I had a dig around on their site & there's very little on DRM (it's not in their extensive glossary). I found this press release from 2002, tho' ...

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.

So there ya go. Partner with Sony, guarantee DRM in future phones & peddle DRM-restricted ringtones, images, etc. Cha-chinnng!! $$$

Re:A most disappointing "feature"

[fredrikj]

Hmm, maybe they want to restrict you from using your phone to download warez with. After all, it has a shocking 2 MB of storage.

Re:A most disappointing "feature"

[Hal-9001]

when did DRM become a *feature* for end users?

Besides being a misnomer, digital-rights management is not an end-user feature--it's a built-in design flaw. :-p

Re:A most disappointing "feature"

[Diabolical]

You can also upload new games or other Java or Mophun software. Probably something which can be controlled by DRM as well?

Re:A most disappointing "feature"

[deanj]

I hate that too, but I'd rather pay the $2-5 most of those games cost for the 1 month (or less) that I'd play it rather than $50 for a lifetime. Still, it'd be nice to have either option.

Re:A most disappointing "feature"

[Mr_Silver]

And exactly what are they using DRM for here... ringtones?

Forward-locking. In other words, if you download an application, ringtone, logo, icon or something else you can't forward it onto your friend. You can't physically get it off the phone (via IR, Bluetooth or PC Link).

DRM in games (as in timeout expiration) is nothing new and doesn't require a DRM enabled platform for it. You simply get the server to pass an identifer in the JAD file which details the download time. The JAR file can use this to work out when an application will expire.

This works for any Java enabled phone.

Re:A most disappointing "feature"

[Anonymous Coward]

Built-in design flaw like preinstalled OEM Windows on PC:s :-p

Re:A most disappointing "feature"

[Hal-9001]

Yup. ;-)

Re:A most disappointing "feature"

[timmyf2371]

tomorrow, who knows?

Pr0n.

Tim

Re:A most disappointing "feature"

[Pepebuho]

If they want to use DRM to prevent me from sharing CuteWallpaper1 with everyone, then I think it is ok.
If the want to use DRM to prevent me from downloading CuteWallpaper from a NON-APPROVED content provider, then I am totally against it. I will go to the firt judge I can find and sue them on Antitrust basis.
If they want to use DRM to 'expire' the CuteWallpaper1 which I paid good $$$ for so that I have to purchase it again, then I want to go to a judge and sue them for breach of trust. Once I pay for something they do not or should not have the right to artificially expire it.

Lots of memory!

[steelerguy]

Wow, according to their web site it has plenty of memory also to store photos and other garbage. A whopping 2 MB! That tremendous number is 7% the size of my hard drive back in 1992. Why do they even bother wasting space with a camera? My 3 year old digital camera could barely fit one picture on there.

OK, enough complaining, the phone actually looks cool. Just don't get the camera in the phone thing.

Re:Lots of memory!

[Viol8]

You'll probably find its NVRAM so the photos and other information doesn't disappear as soon
as you change your battery. In which case 2Mb is quite a lot!

Re:Lots of memory!

[arthurs_sidekick]

Since it's Sony, why not add memory stick read/write capabilities to the dang thing? 128MB on something about the size (and tactile properties!) of the bubble gum they used to put in collectible cards. That would make it potentially useful (for reference, my 3.3Mpx camera stashes about 60 full-size jpgs on a 64 mb stick). Plus, it's non-volatile. The thing already looks huge, what's an extra 2 oz? =)

Re:Lots of memory!

[Viol8]

An extra 2 oz = an extra $N upgrade if they feel in the mood...

Re:Lots of memory!

[henele]

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?

Re:Lots of memory!

[arthurs_sidekick]

I am reminded of the Harry Golden rule, which says that you can't produce genuine satire, because chances are that your satire is literally true of something somewhere! Well, OK, except my comment wasn't satire =)

Toys

[lazyl]

The constant urge many consumers have to buy new toys always amazes me. Sure, it may be "cool", but what the hell do I need all that crap for? I'm not interested. Thanks, but I'll keep my money in the bank.

Re:Toys

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm with you. I'll stick with my Ericsson T28w, which is pretty much the last Ericsson phone made before Sony started making all of them look like cheapo Nokias.

Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would anyone need these features? It's a phone fer chrissakes. Is this anything more than just a new toy for the "I earn more than you" brigade?

Re:Why?

[normaldude]

RE:"I don't understand. Why would anyone want a thing that wasn't the P800?"

Size. The P800 is a very wide brick. And since I carry my phone in my front left pocket along with my wallet, every cubic mm is important.

Ericsson T68/T68i: 100mm x 48mm x 20mm
Ericsson T610: 102mm x 44mm x 19mm
Ericsson P800: 117mm x 59mm x 27mm

Re:Why?

[normaldude]

RE:"I don't understand. Why would anyone want a thing that wasn't the P800?"

In fact, in terms of cubic space, the P800 is more than TWICE the size of the T610.

Ericsson T610: 102mm x 44mm x 19mm = 85,272 cubic mm.
Ericsson P800: 117mm x 59mm x 27mm = 186,381 cubic mm.

Open Source & synchronization

[MnO-Raphael]

the T610 is fully compatible with any computer. Your phone books and calendars will stay synchronized and updated

Sounds promising, but is this also true for the various open-source calendar software? I've tentatively been looking for non-Windows synchronization software for my t39m without any luck.

Re:Open Source & synchronization

[phil-trick]

Well, look no further than:

Multisync @ Sourceforge

Works great with my T68 and evolution.

Phil

Does it run Linux?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it run Linux?

Re:Does it run Linux?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it runs an Symbian derivative, (probably 60 or 90), the great great great great grandson of PalmOS, the same one that Nokia uses for its new generation handsets.

Pros: It's not Windows.
Cons: It's not Linux.

OTOH I doubt that the Motorola Linux based phones will ship with (x)term and GCC.

Re:Does it run Linux?

[lhand]

Yeah, and imagine a Beowolf cluster of these!

T68 does work with iSync...

[Serff]

I have a T68m and it works great with iSync...So I don't know what you mean by that. Phone looks pretty sweet. But will we see it in the US before 3G phones come out???

Re:T68 does work with iSync...

[Anonymous Coward]

I have been using my T68i to synchronise my calendar , contacts, and to dos with my Mac for more than six months, so I have no idea what the original post was on about.

Moreover, last night I got around to using my T68i as a GPRS modem -- after twenty minutes of Internet research and a quick activation call to my mobile carrier (Orange), I was up and running via Bluetooth and GPRS. *That* was pretty darn cool.

Audio

[Anonymous Coward]

What, no Dolby 5.1?

The feature list doesn't look much more than what my t68i does (GPRS, Bluetooth, address book, organizer, calculator, games, and it can even be used to make phone calls!).

Now just hope that it does all those things better, because frankly, my old cheap T twenty-something was a better phone.
The only thing my t68i is good (and really good) at, is its battery life (at least if you turn bluetooth off when you're not using it).

Interesting ...

[Draoi]

From the specifications;

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?

Re:Interesting ...

[binaryDigit]

It's got this 'Music DJ' function, but just how capable is it if it's got DRM

Presumably as capable as the content provider and/or you wallet wants it to be (unless by capable you mean using the content in any way YOU see fit vs the provider).

nd with e-mail and Java built-in, how long before we see the first T610 virus?

Well that's the risk you run whenever you have a "full featured" system. I suspect that the script kiddies are out there as we speak looking for exploits. Next thing you know you're phone will be running a pr0n site and relaying for spammers.

Bluetooth

[zerocool^]

*obligitory comments*
1.) bluetooth is dead
2.) bluetooth is the future.

All that aside, one of the absolutely coolest things is the bluetooth enabled headset that goes with it. That is just cooler than anything i've ever seen.

Next project: make a NES emulator for it (hey, it's got 2MB rom!)

You got to love it

[cca93014]

Say what you like, but the SonyEricsson corporate branding is really fucking good.

No doubt they spent more on that logo than most people earn while they are taking a shit at work.

Re:You got to love it

[jgerman]

No doubt they spent more on that logo than most people earn while they are taking a shit at work

WTF? I would hope so. Considering if I only spend a minute or two taking a dump at work, I probably couldn't afford a Big Mac, much less an advertising budget. Are you sure that you said what you meant?

Re:You got to love it

[schiefaw]

No doubt they spent more on that logo than most people earn while they are taking a shit at work.

Wow! You found a way to be vulgar and yet meaningless. So now we are left to wonder if you meant that they spent a lot of money, or very little money.

Re:You got to love it

[big_gibbon]

Well *obviously* cca93014 is a professional footballer, movie star, or Bill Gates . . . duh! P

Not the T68i replacement...

[mr.henry]

It looks like it's actually the T600 replacement.

I think I've seen that design before...

[Natoi]

in Nokia 2110 http://www.rogsm.go.ro/2110a.jpg , way back in the days... And it's still ugly :D

Hoped they improved...

[usmcpanzer]

the antenna strength. I shutter when someone walks into my store to buy the t68i. It looks cool, everyone wants a color screen phone, but about two thirds of them are returned. Horrible reception compared to the Nokia gsm phones.

**This is with AT&T's new GSM network.

Re:Hoped they improved...

[Anonymous Coward]

Agreed, I returned my t68i for that very reason. The phone looked and worked great in every other respect. But if you have any marginal reception areas for other phones, you can almost bet that the t68i will drop out completely.

Great phone as long as you don't plan to use it as a phone.

Re:Hoped they improved...

[ilsie]

I have US AT&T GSM service. Recently I got the itch to buy a new gadget and ended up buying the Sony Ericsson T300. Since AT&T does not officially carry this phone, I had to buy it from T-Mobile and then get it unlocked to use with my AT&T sim card. I have to say, the internal antenna on that thing is great. Tons better than the Nokia 3590 brick that got replaced.

Re:Hoped they improved...

[Anonymous Coward]

As you noted, reception is dependent on the network.

I never had any problem with reception - t68i and Eurotel.

Re:Hoped they improved...

[BrookHarty]

Its really a phone issue, the T86i is better than the T68. The motorola t720 is better, but it has an external antenna. Would be nice if some company or website did some side by side testing for the consumers. Too many people get burnt by bad hardware, and think its the carriers coverage. But the consumer doesnt know the difference, they just want a phone that works.

Re:Hoped they improved...

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what you get for using American GSM - I have had few signal strengh problems in Europe, mind you the population density warrants more base stations than in the US.

FWIW I have _no_ idea why the US picked 1900 - for high density areas it is ok, but considering how much of the US is basicly empty 900 would probably have been smarter. Considering they had the opportunity to 'borrow' european multifrequency chipsets and use both 900 and 1800 (like O2 do, 1800 in cities for picocells, 900 in the country) they could have expanded range considerably and at a lower cost to boot.

It was probably a lobbyist who got in the way. Feh, lawyers, good for nothing scumbags.

Re:Hoped they improved...

[mcgroarty]

BIG nod here. I've got a T68i, and it's worthless as a phone. I just use it to give my PDA and laptops internet access. If I need to make a call, I'll walk a few blocks to the nearest payphone rather than use the T68i in my pocket.

This is also with AT&T. I'm told TMobile in the US and the European carriers are much better.

Re:Hoped they improved...

[Anonymous Coward]

hmm, i'm on t-mobile, and I had a nokia 8290 (Cingular) that I replaced with a t68i. Since T-mobile is using the same network as Cingular (in my area) this is a pretty good comparison. Reception seems to be roughly identical, though in some places the 8290 would get better reception and in others the t68i would. Compared to my friends Nokia 3390s, I get better reception almost everywhere. Are the other Nokia GSM phones, like the 8390, improved? I do have problems with the t68i failing to place calls sometimes (and others with t-mobile have had this problem too), but it seems to happen no matter the singal strength.

Re:Hoped they improved...

[Fizzlewhiff]

This is with AT&T's new GSM network.

I went to buy the T68i last month and changed my mind when I saw a map of AT&T's GSM network. I decided to give them a couple more years to roll out that network before going GSM.

Re:Hoped they improved...

[Alderete]

I have a T68i that I use on the AT&T Wireless GSM network in the Bay Area.

For the most part, I get fine signal strength in all the places that I spend time at, and the phone works great...except at home. My neighborhood (Lower Haight in SF) has terrible coverage, and the phone is unusable.

That said, I was using a Nokia 8860 on AT&T's regular digital network, prior to the T68i, and it was only marginally better at home, and marginally worse elsewhere.

I think the T68i doesn't handle very low signal strength situations very well, but anything above that works fine for me.

Re:Hoped they improved...

[Anonymous Coward]

900MHz is reserved for public use. We have cordless phones, police radio, etc on 900MHz.

It sucks and I agree that 1900 isn't as good.

BUT, 2 of our GSM providers are switching to 850MHz, which is a good thing. But it means new phones once again!

Re:Hoped they improved...

[Cato]

I've never had a problem with T68 reception in the UK or Europe, or even India. I did find reception in Florida (Tampa area) and Texas (North Dallas) was very flaky, but I assumed that was just the state of US GSM networks (mainly Voicestream/T-Mobile and AT&T Wireless).

Re:Hoped they improved...

[DiscoOnTheSide]

My friend got the T68m about a year ago. I heard some good and some bad about the phone so I waited about 2 months to see how his was. He didn't have any major problems at all, so I went ahead and bought one too. Some sales people tried to talk me out of the T68 saying they were recalled, tried to sell me other phones (some crappy little motorola that looked like it belongs in a Fischer Price toy set) and I finally found a guy willing to sell (and for $150 mind you!) so I bought it and haven't had many problems. My original T68 died about a month ago.(I think I dropped it too many times) so I sent it back to T-Mobile. They sent me a new one, but it was locked to a certain SIM and there was no way to unlock it. They sent me another one and I'm back in business. I like the phone, and T-Mobile's customer service is way better than Sprint's. Unfortunately it depends on which one you get. One woman told me I should get a Nokia with Cingular if I want to get better service. I hung up, called again, got someone different, told them what the woman said, and I was 2 months of service and got a free upgrade to a T68i. I'm happy with it, although those new Nokia's are miiiiiight tempting... :)

Re:Hoped they improved...

[Locutus]

AT&T has no vision IMO. The purchased the CDMA network I was using and forced me to change phones to a TDMA phone. The coverage was bad and we hated the "new" service. Then they start moving to GSM and we moved off of AT&T.

T-Mobile with T68i at a better rate too. So far so good.

LoB

Re:Hoped they improved...

[4mn0t1337]

And you must be in San Diego...

When the whole Verizon merger/creation-thing happend, both the A-carrier and the B-Carrier were companies that were to be merged into Verizon (GTE was on the A-side and the local land-line provider was usually granted the B-side, which in this case was a division of PacBell.).

As FCC regs are that no one company can own both A & B (to "prevent monopoly" and "encourage competition"), they had to sell off the A-side.

TDMA is (was for a while) much more of an East Coast thing. [They did early deployment tests of TDMA in Los Angeles and it sucked so hard, it set back the adoption of digital for a few years, by which time better standards came out.] It also helps that Qualcomm is here on this coast (in san Diego).

So, ATT comes along buys the GTE business in SD, which is CDMA. But they have substantial investment in older TDMA systems in the rest of the country. So they let the SD users keep their CDMA for a year or so. This kinda sucked as the second you left SD you were usually dropped down to analog, as the only digital option was TDMA.

After the dust settled, they then started to shift users over to their TDMA network and ditched the CDMA portions.

So now I have a crappy TDMA connection. I *really* can tell the difference between it and the CDMA network. CDMA was just so much clearer, cleaner, and had better reception.

TDMA sucks.

But, alas, I am waiting for number portablity to go into effect later this year. (I have a really good number I have had for years. Don't want to loose it.) If they delay number portability again, I'm going to be pissed.

As far as CDMA vs. GSM is concerned, I'm still not decided. The latest Rev of CDMA looks promising and a lot less limiting than GSM, but I guess time will tell...

Re:Hoped they improved...

[Tailhook]

Nokia + T-Mobile. Excellent coverage in fly-over country. ...why am I not surprised to learn AT&T coverage sucks?

Built in CrimeCam

[SmackCrackandPot]

Just think .. if one of these puppies gets stolen, you'll get a mugshot of the perpetrator.

Re:Built in CrimeCam

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there anything stopping a phone network operator from locating your phone and taking a picture remotely? Could this be done? You can already figure out where someone is from their mobile, what about spying on them without them ever knowing?

Re:Built in CrimeCam

[SmackCrackandPot]

You could always put a bit of masking tape over the camera lens.

Looks poor even for low-end phone

[horza]

It states "Camera built-in" but doesn't say anywhere on the site what resolution it is. Obviously fairly crappy then.

One of it's listed top 'features' is "DRM (Digital Rights Management)" and mentions an application called "Music DJ"... but it doesn't appear to play MP3s.

It talks about Internet connectivity, but doesn't even have a web browser (only now-defunct WAP technology).

Other than a pretty screen, bluetooth and Java (the first I'd rather have the longer battery life, the second my PC connecting cable cost me $15 which is cheap, and the third you would have to show me something useful it can do) it doesn't seem any more advanced than my Sony J70, which came free with my mobile subscription.

I can see this one dying a slow death at the bottom of the 'freebie' phones.

In fact, anyone with spare cash would go for the Sony P800.

Phillip.

Unsuitable for Unix people

[Stephen Williams]

The Unix philosophy is "do one thing, and do it well". This phone-cum-kitchen-sink does lots of things; whether it does any of them well remains to be seen.

I like my landline phone. It allows me to make phone calls, and performs that task extremely well.

-Stephen (no, I've never owned a mobile phone)

Re:Unsuitable for Unix people

[Anonymous Coward]

Man, I would like to see how this guy uses his computer. Probably just boots it, and then does nothing else since his Unix philosophy tells him that his computer wasnt only meant for booting, and it does that well.

Re:Unsuitable for Unix people

[otis wildflower]

I like my landline phone. It allows me to make phone calls, and performs that task extremely well.

Yeah, but can you SSH into a critical machine from a diner, after you get the 911 page? Laptops don't come with couplers..

Re:Unsuitable for Unix people

[Anonymous Coward]

Th Ux phil i "d 1 thg, & d i wl". Ts ph-cum-ktc-sk dz lts v thg; wh i d ay v thm wl re t b se.

I lk m ll ph. I al m 2 ma ph cls, & per tht tsk ex wl.

-Stephen -- who has a great excuse for being such a moron, as he never leaves home (no, he has never owned a mobile phone, and forgot to type in true "Unix style," so I did him a favor and re-posted for him)

Hrmmm..

[dasmegabyte]

So, GSM phone. That means it only works with "T-Mobile" in the states, right? The company with decent calling plans, but the shittiest service, worst calling areas, no roaming (that's what "no roaming fees!" means...you can't roam at all with an all-digital phone!) worst building penetration and no plans to improve any of these? The one that paid several million dollars for their spokesman, and it was Jamie Lee Curtis? No thanks, man. I'll stick with my POS $30 Kyocera and Verizon, where I spend a lot extra to get the basic level of service I should get with everybody -- service that works indoors, service that works in the mountains as well as in the city, service that works in Canada and Mexico and the peace of mind to say "no, go ahead and call me, my phone will be on, I get service everywhere?"

Re:Hrmmm..

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a GSM phone (Siemens S46) through AT&T. I can even use GPRS on it to talk to all my friends on AOL!

Re:Hrmmm..

[SLot]

The one that paid several million dollars for their spokesman, and it was Jamie Lee Curtis?

Michael Douglas will no doubt be upset to find that he actually married Jamie Lee Curtis instead of Catherine Zeta-Jones. I'm sure Christopher Guest will be a little surprised too. :)

Re:Hrmmm..

[krokodil]

That means it only works with "T-Mobile"

Well, here in San Francisco it works also with Cingular and AT&T. Plus it is 3-band and will work pretty much anywhere in the world.

Re:Hrmmm..

[marksven]

That's not true. Cingular wireless also uses GSM, and so does AT&T now.

I use T-mobile, my girlfriend uses Cingular, and we have great coverage in most all places we've been in the states.

Re:Hrmmm..

[BrookHarty]

GSM - ATTWS, Cingular, Tmobile. CDMA - Alltel, Sprint, Verizon. (Nextel is in there somewhere, dunno)

Lots of national GSM providers, some small local providers, and too many international providers.

I have both tmda and gsm phones, the only thing that has been holding me back from upgrading full to gsm, is I have too many extra hardware. Multiple car chargers, batteries, speakerphone, ear phone accessories. But those polyphonic ring tones and 16 bit color displays are really tempting to upgrade. Played around with uploading midi files to a polyphonic phone, freaking sweet.

Re:Hrmmm..

[yolto]

AT&T is in the process of switching over from TDMA to GSM (I believe they're almost done), as is Cingular. I heard somewhere that there's some agreement between the two of them that AT&T will build GSM network on the East coast while Cingular builds it on the west, and they'll "meet in the middle". I dont know if this is true, but I know Cingular doesn't yet have GSM service on the East Coast (at least not in the Baltimore/Washington region).

Sprint and Verizon both use CDMA (Sprint uses 1900mhz frequency, while Verizon uses 800, I believe. This is one reason why Sprint service sucks indoors, the higher frequency has trouble penetrating the walls).

Nextel uses a hacked up version of TDMA to support their walkie-talkie feature. I dont know if they have any plans to switch to some other type of network. But apparently Spring is going to release phones in the future that have the walkie-talkie feature as part of their 3G network, so Nextel may have a hard time coming up....

Re:Hrmmm..

[Anonymous Coward]

Odd, I have had the exact opposite experience with T-Mobile... great calling plans, great service (they actually answer the phone), and great reception (Central Texas) even in dense buildings! I have also traveled extensively throughout the US and Europe with T-Mobile (T68m), I have been very impressed with the world roaming plan coverage, the reasonable rates (.25 to Europe and .99 a min in Europe or back to the US), and the call quality. The cities (I used to travel for my job) I have been pleased with service are: New York, LA, Chicago, Austin (my home), Dallas, Houston, San Fran., Boston, all of CT, San Antonio, RockPort, Corpus Christi, Albuquerque, Sante Fe, Taos (yes even here, though I think I was roaming on AT&T), Denver, Boulder. In Europe I found that: Ireland was completely covered, as well as England, and France. The more I think about it writing this, I can only think of two places I have had bad call quality, on base in San Antonio in an old Bomb Shelter converted to the Commissary (which in retrospect I should have expected), and in far west Texas were nothing but analog works, and then, only part of the time. The experience you describe is they same I had with SprintPCS, dropped calls, atrocious service, that Claire system is the worst, and unending billing problems. We (my sig. other) were not to impressed with Verizon either (which she had when we met). They bought PrimeCo, down here, and the result was a drop in the quality of service, and more billing problems. I feel that service and call quality changes from the same provider from region to region, my experince with T-Mobile has been very good in all the markets I travel to, yet your mileage may vary.

Re:Hrmmm..

[killmeplease]

T-Mobile works on the Cingular digital network. If it works with T-Mobile than it works on Cingular. Not necessarily the other way around. I think that AT&T has a new GSM network as well. Verizon is really the best service. Driving through the USA, Verizon always works.

Re:Hrmmm..

[Elwood P Dowd]

Here in San Francisco, T-Mobile and Cingular use different routing, but the same towers. So reception is equally crappy on both of them. AT&T is, however, much much better. Still not as good as AT&T's TDMA network, of course.

My vote goes for Verizon's network. Much better reception than any GSM network, and CDMA quality everywhere. Of course, then you're restricted to CDMA phones, with their gi-huge-ic antennae and antiquated feature set. Still, they're the best phones.

Re:Hrmmm..

[fafalone]

I use a T-Mobile phone at college in the Miami area, and coverage is great. I can usually hold a call while in an elevator. I travel to the other side of the state often, and the coverage is not so great. There's a T-Mobile tower at the end of alligator alley, and that's it for about 100 miles (but the entire alley is covered, which is weird since fort myers isn't). I live about 35 miles south of sarasota, which is shown as covered on the coverage map, but I can only get a signal at night, and at random times during the day, and even at these times is extremely weak (the good thing about digital with my phone is that conversations still sound fine at 0-1 bars on the signal strength meter). I'll be staying in that area all summer, so I've been looking at some external antennas. (from how ive described the coverage here, can anyone offer suggestions as to how many dBi in gain would be good?)
But otherwise, I'm happy with the service, and really like the idea of the great international coverage. Perhaps they will make a roaming deal with ATT, as my phone shows that its network is available in the area, but won't let me on.

Um, I think you mean I.Q.

[Anonymous Coward]

Now who's the dumbass?

I've got a ti68

[supergiovane]

Sure, no Bluetooth, no 16 bit screen, no built-in digital camera, but it's damn fast at computing square roots!

Re:I've got a ti68

[Anonymous Coward]

t68i has bluetooth and removable camera.

Re:I've got a ti68

[phillymjs]

Yes, but he said TI68.

That whooshing sound you heard while posting your reply was his joke, whizzing by over your head.

~Philly

SyncML on t68 as well

[alch]

T68 has sync features as well (t39 also) - it is standards based SyncML (http://www.syncml.org) - iSync should work with most Ericsson phones since the T39, some just need cables (ie: no Bluetooth)

I think the cool thing is the J2ME on the phone !! eg: J2ME/Blutooth network games (GPRS as well, but that would incure costs and LAG)

Is this a Symbian OS phone?

[cacheMan]

Can't find it anywhere in the specs. But I can't find it anywhere in the P800 specs, and I know that the P800 uses Symbian...

Re:Is this a Symbian OS phone?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it's not...

I've been waiting for this..

[normaldude]

WOW. I've been waiting a long time for a phone like this.

- Tri-Band GSM
- Built-in Camera
- Bluetooth
- No antennae sticking out
- Size of Ericsson T68i or smaller

I'll probably wait a while for the price to come down a bit, but this is almost certainly my next phone. I'll probably pay extra, and buy it "unlocked" (so I can use it with any GSM carrier, and prepaid SIM cards when overseas) from a vendor like digitalbynet.com, romeohifi.com, or mindlogic.com.

Re:I've been waiting for this..

[robb0995]

Except for the built-in camera, the T68i already offers all of these features you've been waiting for!

I have the T68i with the bluetooth headset and the "Communicam" and it's an OK phone. It's not all that special. I also don't see what makes this newer version all that special or "a new generation." It seems like a marginal set of tweaks and the permanent installation of the camera.

Not that I'm looking for MORE features. My T68i crashes about once a month, which is totally unacceptable for a phone! It is already feature-bloated. Please, be a phone first and best!!

Re:I've been waiting for this..

[Anonymous Coward]

Unlock it yourself. Its easy, and it's not illegal.

Re:I've been waiting for this..

[Stuart Gibson]

Then why did you buy it instead of a less feature packed and cheaper phone? It's not like they didn't warn you it was feature packed.

Goblin

Re:I've been waiting for this..

[robb0995]

I needed a GSM phone for international travel and they only had 2 models in the store.

Besides, like Richard Gere in Pretty Woman who stayed on the penthouse floor despite being afraid of heights, it was the the best, and I had to buy the best!

I used to think Bluetooth was useless

[jht]

Then I got a T68i last fall. Now I have a Bluetooth adapter for my Mac, a Jabra Bluetooth headset, and a Palm Tungsten T. Amazingly, it all Just Works together. I can sync the Mac to both the Palm and the T68i, use Bluetooth to copy themes and ringtones to the phone, leave the phone buried in my pocket and use the Palm to dial it (I keep more of the database in my Palm than I do in the phone - I only keep the 50 or so most likely numbers in the phone), and just use the Jabra to talk.

Once set up, Bluetooth is actually pretty neat stuff. Personally, it's now a feature I will look for going forward in phones, computers, and accessories.

This new T610 phone looks interesting, but I'm not sold on cameras in my phones. I'd rather save the size and go small.

Re:I used to think Bluetooth was useless

[normaldude]

RE:"I'd rather save the size and go small."

The reason the T610 is impressive is because it has a built-in camera AND is small (about the same size as T68/T68i)

Ericsson T610: 102mm x 44mm x 19mm
Ericsson T68/T68i: 100mm x 48mm x 20mm

Re:I used to think Bluetooth was useless

[jht]

Yeah, it's about the same size, but it might be even smaller without the camera hardware. If the T68i were just a smidge smaller, I could easily toss it in the pocket of just about anything. As it stands, it won't fit in enough stuff that I usually use the belt case or a jacket pocket. It'd be handy if it could fit in a jeans pocket easily.

I'm also not sold on the utility of still cameras in phones for the average user. I do see commercial applications for it (realtors, for instance, or insurance appraisers), but I don't think still photos are a killer app for mobile phones - especially at the quality they can shoot. The thing I like about Bluetooth is that it lets you combine products that do individual tasks well, rather than try and cram everything into one device. As a PDA, for instance, my T68i is fine for reviewing stuff that's been synced to it. But browsing information is a pain when there's a lot of it, it has limited storage, and data entry is awful. But my Palm does that stuff all really well. Since my Palm and T68i can essentially operate as a linked device via Bluetooth, I can deal with the strengths of each separately. I prefer that approach.

What might be a nice feature once 3G is more widespread is lo-res video in phones. If it's simple to use, it could be pretty popular. All I think you'd need to be "good enough" is 5-10 fps, I'd think. At lo-res (like 120x120), that's not a ton of bandwidth.

Re:I used to think Bluetooth was useless

[mehrar]

...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.

Re:I used to think Bluetooth was useless

[malex23]

Yeah, it's about the same size, but it might be even smaller without the camera hardware.

Not to mention cheaper.

I'm sure that having a small camera chip is useful for communicating landmarks or shooting Little Richard, but all things considered I'd rather have a full function PDA-integrated-phone with a quality bluetooth camera.

it has J2ME (Re:But...)

[alch]

Hey - it has J2ME !! You can write it yourself !!

J2ME gives you control over some SMS aspects, the GPRS data channels. If you want an example - head over to http://www.wireless-village.org to how they implement some of this over the SMS channel.

So much for my buying it

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks for pointing that out, you just saved me a few hundred dollars.

I haven't read precisely what the DRM is used for, though I sure have my suspicions. But regardless, I am not going to purchase anything that tries to make the term "DRM" sound like it's fashionable.

Well I /was/ excited...

[FyRE666]

I've been keeping an eye on the Ericsson developers site for a while now, being a j2me developer and to be honest I'm a bit disappointed with this new phone. I'm sure it's great technically, but Ericsson are doing the bare minimum to support java developers. Their "emulator" for the P800 was simply a skin for the reference emulators in Sun's Wireless Toolkit, and since their documentation is little more than sales pitch (that I've found at least) it appears they have no extended APIs to take advantage of sound or other phone specific features.

So what this means is that people buying this, hoping to be able to download whizz-bang games are going to be a bit disappointed. There's no way of knowing whether it even supports image transparency for christ's sake. If you're interested in Java apps, then Nokia or Siemens are the way to go as both have pretty good APIs and very good documentation (Sprint java phones apparently have their own classes for sound too).

Re:Well I /was/ excited...

[juuri]

emulators in Sun's Wireless Toolkit, and since their documentation is little more than sales pitch (that I've found at least) it appears they have no extended APIs to take advantage of sound or other phone specific features.

Uh because it is supporting the midlet standard. Hello, you are jumping down on them for following a spec? You wouldn't want java to take advantage of phone SPECIFIC features because then it is no longer a general, portable app but one tuned to a certain phone.

The P800 is a symbian based phone so of course they push that as the way to develop. There are already a few pretty impressive games out that featured 3d polygon worlds.

Re:Well I /was/ excited...

[FyRE666]

Hello, you are jumping down on them for following a spec?

Not at all - it's great to follow the spec, but the fact is that MIDP1.0 on its own is unsuitable for games use (no transparency, no sound etc) and so savvy vendors have ADDED classes which can be used if required. This is not a bad thing - games are usually designed for a subset of phones anyway, due to differences with memory, processor speed and display type and size. It's impossible to design anything other than a simple game that will work and look good on ANY j2me phone, unless you just design for the worst case which is insulting to the people who have splashed out on a nice big colour screen.

Siemens were the only manufacturer who departed from the standard by altering the way certain methods worked in the Image class, but they've fixed this and their game API is very very close to the spec for MIDP2.0, which can only be a good thing.

Phones and games have a much shorter lifespan than websites - so it makes sense to design to a phone than design for technology over a year old when virtually all the meatspace implementations offer more.

Why?

[rendle]

I don't understand. Why would anyone want a thing that wasn't the P800?

It still looks ugly

[VEGx]

It still doesn't look anything as nice as Nokia. It has Bluetooth, aye, but is it a requirement to look bloody ugly to have a bluetooth? :/

Re:It still looks ugly

[Anonymous Coward]

So... pretty. Must... resist.

Indeed... what an ugly phone.

This is pretty . And get this... it is a great phone! I don't care that the web browser isn't the best, or that the screen is not color. It's a phone, a very good phone. I also have a good digital camera (PowerShot S200) and an OK computer (ThinkPad 600X). I prefer using the right tool for the job. Not a multi-tool that does nothing great, and everything so-so.

Re:It still looks ugly

[arnie_apesacrappin]

but is it a requirement to look bloody ugly to have a bluetooth? :/

I don't know about a bluetooth, but Julia Stiles has a snaggletooth, and she's hot

Looks like fun, but,

[irving47]

There's not much point in upgrading from a t68i unless you've just gotta have the camera and polyphonic ringtones.

Someone mentioned unenforceable camera rules in theaters and the like. Add to that military personnel that will be unable to take this phone to work. I'd imagine intelligence agencies as well.

Re:Looks like fun, but,

[stienman]

Nopt to mention the military and intelligence personel that will be required to take it with them to 'work'.

-Adam

Re:Looks like fun, but,

[Anonymous Coward]

Uhh, would you imagine that if it didn't take pictures, but only broadcast data via RF, that military personnel and intelligence agency workers _would_ be allowed to take it to work?

I'd think not!

No screen protection?

[MBraynard]

That's a really pretty screen and I fear it getting scratched up against my pen or pocket knife. Why wouldn't it have a flip over protector?

Re:No screen protection?

[dago]

you know, what's nice with sony ericsson is that they have planned to have more than 1 model ...

want a flip-cover similar phone : wait for the Z1010, it even accept memory sticks

Re:No screen protection?

[quick_dry_3]

if the screen is the same basic design as my T68 then don't worry about it, the screens have a hard, transparent plastic cover - its not something that you need to worry about like the screen on a PDA.

P800

[elmo13]

This phone looks ok, but has anyone seen the P800?

The P800 is verily cool - I would get one if I wasnt a poor student (you can send me money if you want, cheers ;-). It can do just about everything the T610 can do + lots more. I think the only bad thing about it is the Sony memorystick instead of SD or something.

3G phones seem to almost be here (UK). I wonder what they'll be like. Anyone know S-E's pland for 3G? What I want is a phone that I use as a PC when I'm at home, not just on the move (with a contact lense screen of course).

Re:P800

[Anonymous Coward]

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

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

I don't have a 'phone...

[Anonymous Coward]

... and to be honest I don't think I'll be getting one, at least for a while. Products like this don't help, either.

What, exactly, is the use of a polyphonic ringtone? Why does it matter if it has a 16-bit or an 8-bit or a whatever-bit colour screen? It's a phone, it makes phone calls and sends SMS messages, that's all I could want it to do. I do not need the ability to take photos with my phone - that's what digital cameras are for, they do it better and more cost-effectively. I do not need to play mp3s on my phone, as that what mp3 players do better.

And I bet most of the nerds who get this will be the disparaging sort who'd mock jocks for having fancy cars while preening over their ubermensch gaming rigs or tech devices or whatever. Hypocrites.

improved? does it boot?

[bluethundr]

I hope by "improving in nearly every respect" they mean that it will actually work! We got no less then 5 of these phones into our tech dept for testing purposes and not one of them worked correctly! It's very lustful technology, but again only if it actually WORKS! :)

Ugly

[Darren Winsper]

OK, so it's got more features, but I much prefer the look of the T68i. Seriously, I far prefer the curvy features to the brick-like ones of this phone.

Re:Ugly

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree 110%.

To me it is obvious that this is a Sony phone. Sony have always prefered the brick like phones. The T68i was an Ericsson made phone who had a much more curvy look.

It's a shame that Sony can pollute SonyEricsson with those phones designed by a brick head... :(

P

It's only just the beginning:

[banana fiend]

3 billion human lives ended on August 29th, 1997. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day. They lived only to face a new nightmare: the war against the machines.

the T800 is next

Re:It's only just the beginning:

[RMH101]

The P800 rocks, I have one on my desk. Seamless synch with Notes or Outlook, simultaneous synch with separate pop3 mail via GPRS on the move, the whole shebang. I've replaced my Ipaq with it and now carry one device. There's an SDK available as well. They've even ported Doom to it. Ric

I know this is standard, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

I know that every time a cell-phone story pops up somebody pipes up about the cell-phones in Japan, but I just was wondering about the price.

I've got a phone with pretty much the same features (16-bit color, internal camera up to 480x640 (except this one comes with an 8mb removable memory card in addition to the internal memory), internal antenna, polyphonal ring tones), plus I'm pretty sure it's smaller. The real kicker, though, is that you can pick it up for under $50, and it's over 6 months old. No Bluetooth, but still.

Spork

[nightsweat]

I don't agree with the trend to include more and more functionsin a device just because it's possible. It's much more important to have it perform the function it's supposed to perform well.

To illustrate my point - do you want a fork and a spoon or just a spork? If you're eating fast food, maybe the spork, but if you're eating home cooking or fine food, I think you'll opt for the two utensils.

Give me a phone that gets good reception, adequate volume, and good sound quality over onewith tetris on it any day.

My phone list features

[lazuli42]

It looks like the phone manufacturers are getting close to my 'fantasy specs' which would include:

320x240 hi-res display
Camera
GPS
always-on wireless internet (with built-in router)
reasonable d-pad with game buttons
bluetooth
oh yeah and telephone.

Until then I can cope with my ancient PCS phone.

Re:My phone list features

[Anonymous Coward]

You're probably dreaming about a P800.

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

I am a total gadget whore

[AssFace]

I have said on here before, I love gadgets. They have to pass two tests and then I find them drool-worthy.
1) they have to be shiny.
2) they have to be smaller than my penis.

While that phone looks vaguely cool, I feel like such an old fogey for thinking "what the fuck would I need all those features for in my phone?"

I currently have the Nokia 8890 and love it - when the newest replacements for those come out (They are sturdier) in the states or in Bermuda, then I will gladly buy one of them and hold it close, whispering sweet nothings to it.
But otherwise - there are a ton of new phones coming out that I just have clue at all why the hell I'd want one.
It might as well come with a very small dishwasher and chopsticks - I'd never use those either.

Is DRM all bad?

[MrMickS]

If there is no DRM what incentive is there for a content provider to create content? Are people going to pay for something when they can just get it off a friend? One of the reasons that Windows Media is being used as a format to deliver streamed content is to do with DRM.

Like it or not DRM is here and will appear as a standard feature on new technologies. From an end user point of view is DRM a good thing? In some circumstances yes. DRM can be used to allow only authorized people to view my images/video that I upload to a web site. Is how DRM is used not that it is available that causes issues.

Re:Is DRM all bad?

[aaarrrgggh]

DRM is very bad when you are purchasing a phone from a company that also happens to be in the content business. Good luck accessing competitor's content on that phone...

In a more general sense, there is nothing wrong with an "appliance" having restrictions on how you use the content it serves you. The problem is that it cannot be a "general-purpose" appliance like a phone or PC. People have uses for content that go beyond what the author may envisoin. If this use actually expands the author's audience (and sources of revenue), why should they object?

Content providers are interested in Pay-Per-Play more than concerned about piracy. Do you want to purchase a product that has restrictions on how you use it in your daily life?

Re:Is DRM all bad?

[Wntrmute]

If there is no DRM what incentive is there for a content provider to create content?

Yeah, 'cause as we all know, before DRM was invented in the last few years, no content existed. All those movies, music, works of art, books, and software created before the existence of DRM are just a big collective hallucination. After all, we all know people would never create anything without absolute total control until the end of time, right? This website is a perfect example. Would slashdot even exist if DRM wasn't stopping us from cut-and-pasting the slashdot headlines, blantantly stealing Malda's content? Would Linus Torvalds have ever created Linux without DRM to protect it? I think not.

Re:Is DRM all bad?

[MrMickS]

Yeah, 'cause as we all know, before DRM was invented in the last few years, no content existed. All those movies, music, works of art, books, and software created before the existence of DRM are just a big collective hallucination

Typical /. rant. Until now copying things has been relatively difficult or produced poor quality. Both of these things create a similar effect to DRM. Sure it's possible to make copies of VHS tapes but the quality is poor. Yes it gets done but if you want a good copy then you go an buy the original. If you can make a perfect copy for free why bother buying an original? Don't give me some cock and bull story (UK expression) about buying it if it's good, that doesn't happen in the majority of cases.

DRM in itself is not a bad thing. It's the way that it's applied that can be bad. Say you were to develop a Java app for a phone that was cool and everyone wanted. Would you be happy if one person bought it then sent it to 10 people, they then send it to another 5-10 people each etc. etc.? Answer truthfully.

As long as there is a way to get none-DRM controlled stuff on and off the phone where is the problem?

Gaming

[tom_conte]

The T610 also supports both Java and Mophun for mobile games. Mophun was introduced on the T300, and it looks like SonyEricsson is going to stick to it. It looks much leaner & lighter than Java, but it's proprietary. For those interested, you can get a free SDK from Mophun. However, you apparently have to go through Mophun to distribute your games.

The T800

[Anonymous Coward]

....living tissue over a metal endoskeleton. The metal endoskeleton is a microprocessor controlled fully armoured hyper-alloy combat chassis...

not what I'm looking for

[nomadicGeek]

These combined devices are too big and the battery life typically sucks. I think that you make too many compromises by throwing everything into the same device. I think that it is better to split them up.

The phone should be as small as possible with awesome battery life. Simple email, contact list, and calendar access is a must. I always carry the phone.

The Bluetooth in the phone allows it to broker communications to the network for all of your other devices.

PDA's should be able to connect to the Internet through the bluetooth giving you better access to your email, contacts, calendar. It also gives you better web browsing and the ability to run other programs.

Up another notch and your laptop should use the phone via the bluetooth to connect to the Internet.

Your digital camera should use the Bluetooth connection to upload pictures to your server via the Internet as you take pictures. In this case, the local CF card only acts as a cache while the pictures are uploaded in the background. Your pictures are safe if you loose the camera. A 128MB CF card could also last on a long trip because it is only the cache. It doesn't have to store all of the pictures from the whole trip.

If standards are established, any vendor's device could work. You are your own little walking intranet. You could pick the camera, PDA, laptop, phone combination that meets your needs. You also only carry around the things that you need.

Re:not what I'm looking for

[normaldude]

RE:"These combined devices are too big and the battery life typically sucks.. ..The phone should be as small as possible with awesome battery life.."

I don't know about the battery life, but in terms of size, the T610 is SMALLER than the T68/T68i.

Ericsson T68/T68i: 100mm x 48mm x 20mm = 96,000 cubic mm
Ericsson T610: 102mm x 44mm x 19mm = 85,272 cubic mm

Re:not what I'm looking for

[Goth Biker Babe]

" These combined devices are too big and the battery life typically sucks. I think that you make too many compromises by throwing everything into the same device. I think that it is better to split them up.

The phone should be as small as possible with awesome battery life. Simple email, contact list, and calendar access is a must. I always carry the phone."

You've obviously never seen a T68i. It's about as small as it can be whilst allowing me to actually press the buttons. It will run almost a fornight on standby (ie on but not transmitting phone calls) and even using the clip on MP3 player I generally only have to charge it once a working week.

It has bluetooth and IrDA, uses GSM and GPRS standards and works fine with my PDA both as a modem for internet usage and synching it's phone book and calendar via OBEX.

Erm, exactly what you're on about!

Re:not what I'm looking for

[TheSync]

I've been kind of amazed at the battery life of the Sanyo SCP5300. My wife takes all kinds of pictures, uploads them, and talks on it a lot, but has not yet run down the battery.

Big Screen, Small...

[TheRaven64]

...Lifespan. The screen is just about the easiest part of the phone to break, and is more vulnerable the larger it is. I tend to put my phone near my ear when in use, and so I can't see the screen. I really don't see that being easier to break is a selling point for a phone...

The BEST thing about Bluetooth is the Mac!!

[adzoox]

Have you seen Romeo and Sony Clicker?

They let you control iTunes, Keynote, PowerPoint, DVD Player

Sony Clicker has a proximity sensor, applescripts lauch like check mail and iTunes play when you walk in the room

Romeo lets you use the joystick on the phone like a mouse

One is availible from www.versiontracker.com the other from www.macupdate.com

Re:The BEST thing about Bluetooth is the Mac!!

[mbourgon]

What are some good bluetooth phones, provided I don't want to spend an arm and a leg on it? I don't really need a camera. Mp3 would be cool if available, but probably useless compared to my old 32mb Rio.

Re:The BEST thing about Bluetooth is the Mac!!

[adzoox]

The T68 can be had at TMobile, AT&T, and Cingular for $49 - $99

If you can do TMobile and a year contract TMobile will send you the phone with the camera attachment (don't have to use it if you don't want to) and THEN send you $25!! That deal is at AMAZON

It really is a nice phone + standard ericcson accessories fit it.

Since it's the phone most developed for I wouldn't recommend anything else, besides the fact that all the icons for the utlities that use bluetooth look like the T68i.

Re:The BEST thing about Bluetooth is the Mac!!

[Goth Biker Babe]

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.

Bluetooth benefit of drawback?

[StrawberryFrog]

Just wondering about the bluetooth handsfree headset. The theory goes that the radiation of holding what is essentially radio receiver/transmitter next to your head is bad for the brain.

With the bluetooth headset, is the situation better (phone in briefcase, away from head) or worse (headset next to brain doing a second receive/transmit to the phone)?

Re:Bluetooth benefit of drawback?

[chris234]

While I haven't seen actual research on the subject, 2 things to keep in mind comparing emissions of a BT headset and a phone. Bluetooth emissions are about 2 orders of magnitude lower than a phone, and it's at a higher frequency, so skin penetration is probably lower.

Re:Bluetooth benefit of drawback?

[Scyber]

Well this page:

http://www.jabra.com/fscs/FreeSpeak_FAQ.html#5
Says that bluetooth is less than 1% of cellphone radiation. Of course if your phone is in your pocket while using the headset then the radiation is going into your crotch.

This page:

http://www.goaegis.com/shielding_options.html

says:
Wireless headsets replace the wire normally found on a headset with a transmitter and receiver. They can represent a greater health risk than a wired headset, particularly when their frequencies are within Bluetooth or 3G operating specifications. In addition to the wireless headset frequency entering the ear canal, the earpiece attracts higher frequencies generated by the phone and from the air that surrounds all of us.

So I guess it depends on who you talk to.

Re:Bluetooth benefit of drawback?

[Shenkerian]

Ignoring the brain for a moment... With the bluetooth headset, do you really want your phone transmitting in your pocket/briefcase, closer to your groin?

Think of the children...

What about reception?

[saikou]

So far I see lots of people complaining about RF performance of T68*. If it's a replacement, will they finally have radio tract performance of at least Samsung phones or, even better, Motorola? :)
Otherwise you have to carry two phones. This new toy for taking pictures, and regular Samsung s105 to actually talk :)

Looks like the Volvo of mobile phones

[phillymjs]

Could it BE any more boxy?

I'll keep my T68i, thanks.

~Philly

*Yak* *Barf*

[Froggie]

Full featured. Shame it's ugly as sin.

Why no CDMA or TDMA in addition to GSM?

[pole]

For those of us who need good coverage (in the US) where GSM is still under penetrated, these phones need CDMA or TDMA also. Why are they excluded? Cost? Market pressure to make GSM successful on its own?

Re:Why no CDMA or TDMA in addition to GSM?

[K.]

I'd guess coz it would add too much to development costs for only limited returns. The rest of the world uses GSM, and the rest of the world is a far bigger market for phones than the US (partly because of the fragmented nature of US networks).

Does it work in Europe?

[Mr. White]

To me, that's more important than the silly camera they put on there.

How good is the phone at picking up a signal?

Lastly, why in the world aren't there any GSM phones that have analog or digital as backup, given how scarce the GSM network is in the US?

Witold
www.witold.org

Re:Does it work in Europe?

[Anonymous Coward]

AT&T do have a Siemens (s46) phone that can switch to TDMA if required. I'm getting one this week to see how well it does. It seems AT&T are turning off TDMA in areas they want GSM in so my current 6360 doesn't work at home any more.

Polyphonic ringtones

[ryanvm]

I don't get polyphonic ringtones. Why do people think these are cool on cell phones?

It's a fucking phone. If my phone at home played the Muppet Show Theme every time it rang, people would think I was a fucking moron. But somehow on a cell phone it's okay.

Whatever happened to *ring* *ring*?

Too Bad.....

[Chanc_Gorkon]

Both providers I have in my area that use GSM/GPRS both SUCK. AT&T and T-Mobile are the only ones that use SE phones as well as Nokia's(Cingular carried Nokia's too) and their coverage SUCKS compared to CDMA and Verizon. When is SE going to make these? Or if were stuck with MOTO, when will Motorola make a Bluetooth enabled CDMA/1xRTT phone? And so what if you have GPRS if your only limited to 10 MB a month with out paying a exhorbitant fee? Call me when I can get a price slightly lower then broadband for data. Broadband will always be faster and I ain't paying what they want for something slightly faster then a modem.

Re:Too Bad.....

[Bj�rn]

...compared to CDMA and Verizon. When is SE going to make these?

Well Sony Ericsson also just presented two CDMA-telephones, the T606 and the T608, and a model called A1301S for the japanese market.

You might also want to consider...

[SunnyElLoco]

the new Nokia 3650 (came on sale here two days ago). I just bought one and I must say it's the nicest phone I've used. It comes with all features of the T610 (minus DRM) and then some. The most important features in my opinion of the 3650 that T610 lacks are: more memory (3.4MB internal memory + memory card, mine came with 16MB card, vs. 2MB of T610), bigger screen (176x208 vs. T610's 128x160) and video capture. Also the 3650 looks nicer than the T610 IMHO. On the other hand T610 is smaller and lighter at least on paper, although I have to say that the 3650 is by no means "heavy".

Other than that there are many similarities between the phones. Both are tri-band, run the Symbian OS, both have a camera, bluetooth, infrared, Java, e-mail etc.etc.

Of course these are just my opinions, but you should at least check out the 3650 if you're considering the T610.

Re:You might also want to consider...

[Scyber]

Very strange keypad though. I guess you could get used to it.

Re:You might also want to consider...

[Xerithane]

I got a T68 and have never been more pissed off at a phone before. I'm going to replace it pretty quickly, as it gets no signal what so ever, but the Nokia GSM phones work just fine around here.

How much did you pay for it, and have you had any issues with signal strength?

Re:You might also want to consider...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's perfect for one-handed use though. My thumb circles around the keypad really fast now.

Re:You might also want to consider...

[cmoney]

3650 was just released for non-Asian markets (Asian market release was late 2002) and they're just coming to the channels as we speak. Expect to pay $450 for a SIM-free, never locked phone with no sub. Probably around $350-$400 with a new contract.

Lots of eBay auctions for the Asian 3650 flashed to English models for anywhere from $400-$500.

No signal strength issues, in fact, maybe they put in a bigger antenna (or just screwed around with the signal meter software) because I get better reception than my other Nokia phones.

In the US of course...

Re:You might also want to consider...

[Xerithane]

3650 was just released for non-Asian markets (Asian market release was late 2002) and they're just coming to the channels as we speak. Expect to pay $450 for a SIM-free, never locked phone with no sub. Probably around $350-$400 with a new contract.


I'm going to have to tell AT&T how pissed off I am that they didn't warn me the T68 is better used as a paper weight than a cell phone, and see if they can cut me a deal on the phone. I'm pretty irritated about that situation. They have many known issues with the phone around here, and didn't disclose any of them when I bought the phone. Considering how long I've been a customer with AT&T, it pisses me off pretty bad that they did it.

No signal strength issues, in fact, maybe they put in a bigger antenna (or just screwed around with the signal meter software) because I get better reception than my other Nokia phones.

In the US of course...

I have a friend in the area who has the other Nokia GSM phone w/ Bluetooth and he says it's great. He was the one who originally showed me the T68, then a week after I bought it told me not to buy one because the signal strength sucks. I think I'm going to have to go back to Nokia.

What region? I'm in Portland, OR and have horrible luck with GSM. Also, only the major cities (Portland, Salem) have GSM networks right now so if I travel outside of the metro area into the rest of Oregon, I'm SOL.

Re:You might also want to consider...

[mbbac]

SyncML isn't listed as one of its features. My next cell phone will support SyncML so that I can use it to sync up with Address Book on my Mac.

Re:You might also want to consider...

[ecki]

... minus DRM ...

That's only true for certain markets (IIRC US and China). The rest of the world will receive 3650s with DRM support for preventing forwarding of protected content.

Support SSH?

[sleeeper]

I know that using SSH on a keypad phone would be very difficult, but I want a small phone that I could use to hook into my servers in a pinch, (i.e., one every two years, maybe never).

With java support, is there a a java ssh client that would work on this phone (or any other small java phone)?

There is scant online documentation about using ssh on a java phone.

ARSE !!!

[Macka]

My T68m died last week and I just replaced it with a new T68i. Bad timing on my part :-(

Re:ARSE !!!

[Ch_Omega]

"My T68m died last week and I just replaced it with a new T68i. Bad timing on my part :-("

Don't worry. By the time this new wonder-phone is available in the stores, your T68i will be ready for retirement anyway.

Hmm, but how much?

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone seems to focus either on how nice this phone is, "DRM feature", whooping 2MB of memory ... but has anyone asked just how much $$$, or [insert your local currency here] it is?

The Nokia 7560i (I may be wrong on the number) w/ builtin camera and a flip down keyboard --- sucks, I know I've used it. So this would be a viable solutions for many people, expecially since its TriBand.

Can someone tell me just how much lighter (-wise, SIM Free) my bank account is going to be after I get this thing?

Please have Better Reception

[evilned]

My wife has a t68i and although she really likes it, I hate the damned thing. Sure its tiny, and it has a cute color screen, but its reception is awful. I dont know how many times I have not been able to reach her just because the phone is not getting a signal. And even when I do get through, if she is in a building of any significant size, she cuts in and out. Unless the reception has vastly improved for this phone, her next phone will definately be a nokia after our experience with the t68i.

What, exactly, is the point?

[Dixie_Flatline]

Now, I really don't mean this as a troll. I looked at the phone, and I tried to think of what I could do with it and what it provided me over anything else, and I couldn't really think of anything.

Yes, bluetooth is cool. I can get behind that.

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

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.

Half decent versions of all these things would probably even cost less. They didn't have a price on that page that I could see, but the T68i was pretty pricy. Is it all just a space/convenience thing? 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?

Now, being a programmer, I've never really had a use for a PDA (no meetings or things to remember...I never used the PDAs that I had), I'm only starting to want a cell phone (and even then, it's mostly because I bicycle on my own a lot) and I've been doing okay with SLR film cameras (though a digital would be awfully nice with a couple good lenses...) Maybe I'm missing everything about this phone except the 'cool' factor of owning a high-tech cutting edge phone.

Re:What, exactly, is the point?

[Ch_Omega]

"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. ;)

Local Number Portability

[Anonymous Coward]

actually, you _can_ keep your phone number according to FCC rules effective Nov '03:

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,5667 5, 00.html

Looks?

[Kizeh]

I think the phone looks ugly! The last decent looking phone Ericsson (or Sony) put out is the T39, which I love dearly. Maybe I'm just old fashioned :-)

Is it just me, or is that thing ugly?

[chipset]

I don't buy phones solely based upon looks, otherwise I wouldn't have bought my current phone (HTC/Siemens/VoiceStream PocketPC Phone). However, this phone looks like a brick, somewhat like the old Casio EM-500 PocketPC. I think it's a bit ugly.

But how does it compare in size and wieght. I don't have the T68 (a friend is sending me his today), but they are light and visually pleasing. This phone is... ugly, in my opinion.

Another reason bluetooth is good

[Scyber]

You never have to worry about physical connectors changing. That was one of the things I always hated about ericsson phones. It seemed like every phone I got had a different connector. So that meant new chargers, new handsfree, and a new data cables.

With BT the only one I will have to get is a new charger and they typically come with the phone.

w00t! 3|337 |-|40r speak has ruined me

[revery]

This is the t68i replacement and its supposed to improve on it in every aspect. It has a 16bit color screen

Am I the only one who tried figuring out what the heck t68i and 16bit were in script-kiddish before my brain took back over...

--

Some days it's not even worth uploading my consciousness

Mmmmm, T610....

[njb42]

I've had a T68i since last August. And while it's the best phone I've ever owned (and still one of the best on the market), there are a few things about it that bug me. So all I can say about the 610 is: drool........

Nuts

[trialsboy]

Damn, another phone upgrade in the works for me. I've just got used to my Sony T300!

This is a feature request from carriers.

[juuri]

Have you ever wondered why not every provider has carried phones from SE or phones with bluetooth? Unfortunately it was because of the lack of DRM.

You see a number of phone providers (HI SPRINT!) see ringtones, wallpapers, and such as an important revenue stream. They were terrified of the fact that with bluetooth you could easily just put stuff on and take stuff off the phone. SE, to sell phones to these providers, had to add DRM features.

Re:This is a feature request from carriers.

[aber]

Part of the problem is that the market in the US is so screwed up that people think they have to buy a phone from their provider. They fail to realize that all that matters is the kind of network you're in -- the t610 is a GSM phone, so it should work for any provider using GSM (say, t-mobile).

So, to be able to sell their phones, manufacturers have to think of providers first (the main outlet), and then users.

And, of course, the fact that sony has evil inclincations towards DRM by default doesn't help either.

Phone=good. One provider=bad.

[Eric_Cartman_South_P]

My trouble is that a great phone comes out, and only AT&T, or Cingular, et. al. provide service for the phone and the initial discount. SUCKS. At least here in New York City and Long Island NY (USA) nothing beats Verizon, but all the cool phones are Sprint or Cingular (which both, to be technical, suck nuts).

Oh well.

Only problem with this phone

[AKnightCowboy]

It's GSM. :-( Why doesn't S-E start making nice phones like this for CDMA networks? I recently switched from AT&T to Sprint because they have unlimited "Vision" plans for $10/month which is nice. AT&T Wireless used to give me Pocketnet (CDPD) for free, but I hear they're shutting off that network at the end of the year so I switched.

I would've bought this phone in an instant simply for the Bluetooth compatibility and how easy it is to sync to my Mac with iSync. Alas, AT&T's 3G (ok 2.5G?) data rates are astronomical IMHO. I'm not going to pay outrageous fees per megabyte when there are alternatives. $2.99 for mmode and you pay $.02 per K all the way up to $19.99 for a whopping 8 MB with 6/10ths of a cent per K over that. I use more than that just checking my e-mail with my laptop plugged into my Sprint phone on the road. I can't seem the find a decent GSM provider with good coverage and flat rate data access. Maybe I need to move to Europe. :-)

Re:Only problem with this phone

[jtrascap]

Europe! Cheaper?! HAH!!

I live in The Netherlands now, and I just got a P800. My carrier (T-Online) has 3 plans that run atop the usual fees. Check this out:

1) 15 Euro fee per month, then each MB costs 1 Euro
2) 5 Euro fee per month, then each MB costs 5 Euros
3) No monthly fee, but each MB costs (get ready...) 30 Euros!

Gooooooodbyyyyyeee AvantGo!

I spoke to a friend back in Denver and he's getting charged 6-cents/MB! So I'm waiting...I've got GPRS but I'm not setting up a DAMN thing yet - at least the GSM service is relatively cheap.

Re:Only problem with this phone

[mlrtime]

That is no lie... I have the 7.99 mlife addon which gives you 2mb/month and anything extra is .02$/kilobyte. It adds up VERY quick.

Just as a test, I used the gprs connection on the t68i to dial a connection (via infrared) to my laptop. Loaded slashdot.org, waited... closed the connection

STATS: ~580k down / 115k up.

That is about 15 cents to just load the front page. :P

Clie

[omich]

...when oh when do we finally see those great clie devices with mobile features like this (and with palm os of course)!?

T68i and Mitsumi Bluetooth

[Fubar411]

Did anyone actually get these two to play with each other? I'm still trying to, but on the verge of giving up. I heard that the Widcomm drivers were good, but I only received Mitsumi's lousy suite.

If anyone has figured this out, I'd love to see a how-to.

Thanks.

Re:T68i and Mitsumi Bluetooth

[phillymjs]

Here's your how-to:
Step 1: Buy a Mac that runs OS X 10.2.x.
Step 2: There is no Step 2!

I've got two Mitsumi WIF-0402C adapters, one for my iBook and one for my G4. Plugged 'em in, and they worked with Apple's built-in support. I have no problems using them with my T68i.

I know that's not what you wanted to hear, but that's life.

~Philly

Re:T68i and Mitsumi Bluetooth

[Fubar411]

I just got off with "customer support" at Mitsumi for their bluetooth adapter. Their stance is the WIF-0402C never was supposed to be released in the USA, so they aren't supported here. I was referred to http://mitsumi.co.jp. That should be useful.

Re:T68i and Mitsumi Bluetooth

[phillymjs]

I bought mine from someone on eBay for $29 each. They came with a Windows driver CD, and I did get a coworker's Dell laptop (running XP) paired with my iBook for sharing files, just as a test. Once the driver was installed, the settings needed a little tweaking but we did get it to work. Never tried my phone with his laptop, though.

~Philly

Wrong Direction for Phone Developers

[Chaltek]

Sony Ericsson continues to lead the way into a feature-rich paradise that turns into purgatory when you realize they still haven't spent the time to figure how to make a phone that can just place and receive calls, quickly and consistently.

I've owned a T68i for 6+ months now, and it is flashy and pretty and seductively geekish, but can't make a simple phone call! My friends with T68*s have all had similar issues and we're migrating back to the good Nokias - behind in features, but first in phones.

Re:Wrong Direction for Phone Developers

[Goth Biker Babe]

It must depend upon how you use the phone. I tend to use mine for phoning the same old numbers over and over again so it's "yes", select number, "yes". My most common numbers have been set up for voice dial so it's hold "yes" for a couple of seconds then say name. You can't get simpler or quicker than that.

I'm sad enough that my local food delivery outlet is stored with the word "Pizza". So it's pick up phone, holding "Yes" button as I do, say pizza and voila!

ooh

[Ionedawg]

I've only had my T68i since December, I love it.

My only gripes are polyphonic ringtones and J2ME
games.. it was a choice between the T68i and T300, unfortunately the T300 had no bluetooth support (and was pretty ugly imho).. So I got the T68i

I wish I'd waited now :/

Hmm I might go and upgrade my current handset if the cost isn't too steep.. purely for the novelty though :s

HOW???

[Eric_Cartman_South_P]

How do you control the Keynote presentation with the t68??? I'd love to know.

And I just realized I'm replying to an AC post but hopefully someone will help me out over here!

Re:HOW???

[zuhl]

Here is some shareware to control PowerPoint and Keynote from your S-E.

http://homepage.mac.com/jonassalling/Shareware/

Pretty slick stuff. You can also control iTunes with it as well. And it has a "proximity sensor" so when you and your phone are out of range, iTunes will pause. When the phone comes back in range, iTunes starts playing again. It's all mac-based right now. Bunch of AppleScripting going on in the background as well, I believe.

16 bit color screen

[jetmarc]

I hope it's really 16 bit and not 57k colors or 12bit plus dithering..

So... pretty. Must... resist.

[Anonymous Coward]

...tha PRECIOUS !!!!!!!

Re:Phone=good. One provider=bad.

[Nuge]

I totally agree! Sprint has the best coverage/price plan in my area. Verizon has awesome coverage but no cheap unlimited data yet. I reallly hate T-mobile's coverage and AT&T prices.

That's Nice

[Anonymous Coward]

It sure is nice to hear that Sony Ericson has released a product that finally does the same things the Motorola T720 did last September.

Good job guy!

Re:That's Nice

[halocline]

... except coming in a flip phone form factor. Nothing worse imho.

Re:That's Nice

[Anonymous Coward]

why? so you don't have to lock your keypad everytime you put it in your pocket? The t720 has an external caller id...what else do you need to see?

What a yawner

[Anonymous Coward]

When I buy a cell phone, I want the best phone I can get, and I don't give a flying fig about cameras, programmable ring tones, color screens, or any of that other garbage.

I want a cell phone that works everywhere, at a reasonable service price, and lets me do things like use voice recognition to call people in my address book (e.g. I say "call Charlie" instead of having to blip-blip-blip through the directory to find his entry first) or even enter people into my address book in the first place.

Ping

[Anonymous Coward]

I had this computer once, and it was running windows 95... and one day.. somebody pinged me. Next thing I knew the screen was covered with skulls and the little crossbones! I said "ARGHH!!! I've been HAx0r3d by l33t pingz0r5... ARGH!!!" So I pinged them back and they submitted to my pingz0rn3ss. Ph34r. That's my story about ping. All pingers are hax0rz.

- Natalie Portman

What of the T68i?

[mbbac]

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?

With Java, you can download a Web browser

[LiamQ]

Since the phone supports Java, you can download an HTML Web browser for J2ME phones.

Re:With Java, you can download a Web browser

[msaulters]

Since the phone supports Java, you can download an HTML Web browser for J2ME phones [reqwireless.com].

In that case, forget browsers... I want to put a server on this thing, combined with the builtin camera, you've got a walking, wireless, go-anywhere, self-powered webcam.

On the down side, data charges would be rough, but you could perhaps get around that while at home/office using bluetooth.

Wonder how long it would take for me to be slashdotted?

A Rant.

[EllF]

"So... pretty. Must... resist."

It is a telephone. Telephones are for talking to people -- they do not make you cool, sexy, suave, professional, or anything else.

That polyphonic ring? It's fucking annoying. The color screen, camera, GPS, etc.? Shiny baubles to suck the money out of your hands. Sure, sure -- you can never get lost, you can show people things at the touch of a button, etc. Personally, I rather *like* getting lost once in a while. It's an experience that breaks from the norm. It sort of goes along with preferring to be out of contact -- no voicemail, no email, just my ears. You want me, you can find me; otherwise, it is just not that important.

You folks with your chirping, buzzing pieces of plastic can operate at maximum efficiency and synergistic quality all the time. Maybe next year they'll release a phone that whispers how important and unique you are into your ear for you. /P>

Re:A Rant.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is SLASHDOT you troll.

Re:A Rant.

[EllF]

Hardly a troll, Anonymous Coward. Go look through my history of comments.

Re:A Rant.

[Sporkinum]

I agree. I prefer to not be easily accessable. I did have to break down and buy an answering machine though, after being "let go" at Worldcom in December. Besides, the cell companies can't compete with my heavily subsidised rural telephone coop at $12/month.

Re:A Rant.

[Stuart Gibson]

Erm, that's GPRS, ie high speed (ok, 56k) Internet access, not GPS location pinpointing.

General Packet Radio System
Global Positioning System

Just to clarify.

Goblin

Mod parent up! +5 Insightful

[Anonymous Coward]

If only CT would shutup.

Re:Mod parent up! +5 Insightful

[Anonymous Coward]

[i]If only CT would shutup.[/i]
who is CT?

so it works with an apple product...

[Anonymous Coward]

that make one thing that does.... apples dont even work with apples...

Re:so it works with an apple product...

[wembley]

No, you're confused. You're thinking of oranges.

Heh! You just want one...admit it!

[jtrascap]

I don't...only because I just got a P800 on Friday, but it does look to be a SCHWEET leetle tang!

Seriously, the cam IS very helpful - I snap the photos of people when I grab their phone numbers, so when a call comes in I can see who it is. Mounted in my car, it's great - I can instantly associate the photo without having to actually read anything, which makes driving alot safer.

The polyphonic ring tones can be as annoying as anything else out there, but it can also be a hell of alot less harsh on the ears. Boss calls, theme from "Empire Strikes Back" softly plays. 'Nuff said.

I love my Sony - I immediately replaced my Siemens SL45i and Palm Vx at once and never looked back. The new Sony line is kickass...

t68i sucks

[flats]

I have a t68i, and I can't wait until my contract is up in a month or two so I can renew and get a Nokia phone. (So I don't have to pay full price for the phone)

I bought the t68i based on features before actually testing the phone.

1) It was slow until I got a refurbished model which is faster.
2) The microphone is WAYYY too sensative, nothing but background noise! My girlfriend hates it when I'm in a car or airport.
3) Bluetooth-schmootooth, there's nothing THAT cool about it yet...sure there's a few tricks, and maybe sync-ing address books is all right...but there's not enough practicality in it yet.
3) The antenna is horrible, you put a finger on it and the strength goes down a notch or two. And that's not just because it's GSM...I've used my phone in 10 different cities by now...some have better signal than others, but the antenna is putrid.
4) Not a rugid phone. Anytime it has ever been dropped, I'm worried I'm out of luck!
5) Anytime I go out of range, it takes more than 5 minutes to re-establish -- it's faster to turn the phone off and turn it back on -- what kind of crap is that?

I can't wait to get a nokia phone again, I've been searching eBay -- but I want to test the phone first.

It might be feature-rich, bluetooth, and a good battery -- but as a phone IT SUCKS!

Re:t68i sucks

[Slotted Aloha]

I can only double that. The t68i is the 4th GSM phone I am using and it's the first and last Sony Ericsson.

Speed quality is ridiculous. My previous phone, a Siemens SL45 (which I replaced because I've dropped it once too many times) had crystal clear reception in place where the speech quality on the t68i is just barely tolerable. I am not sure that the lack of speech quality is related to a bad overall reception though; the phone usually picks up signals just fine.

The user interface just sucks. Simple things such as selecting an entry in the phonebook and placing calls requires "CLICK", "CLICK", "CLICK", "CLICK", "CLICK", "CLICK" .....

Re:t68i sucks

[Anonymous Coward]

3 clicks to call an address. RTFM.

Re:t68i sucks

[Cato]

I agree with some of this, I upgraded the T68 s/w and it's still very slow. I had to have it repaired twice in the summer as well, after it stopped being able to make calls.

The really annoying thing is that the joystick is near broken and won't work in some directions, and there are no keyboard equivalents...

Re:t68i sucks

[Slotted Aloha]

Screensaver -> Click -> Menu (select phone book)
Menu (select phone book) -> Click -> Phone Book
Phone Book (select "Call Contact") -> Click -> Find
Find -> Click -> List all addresses
Select address -> Click (after selecting entry) -> Phones
Select Mobile, Office or xxx phone -> Click -> Calls

6 Clicks. Either a) you can't count or b) you're referring to keeping the keys pressed for a ~2 seconds to directly jump to the phonebook (how intuitive)...

Re:t68i sucks

[tairox]

well.. true... but as fat as antenna.. i trew one of mine in a wall friday coz when i called peeps.. it was muted or so.. nobody could hear me... was pisssed... when broken ..the top cover on top of battery holder reveiled a nice (antenna booster paper like film) well.. if i knew earlier i would of bought one and taped it there to improve receptivity... also.. i got one form at&t USA wich is 100% better then same model from CANADA Fido.. so i guess the provider software core has some speed issues...

Re:t68i sucks

[Anonymous Coward]

How about hitting 'down' in the screensaver and skipping the first four steps.

Pressing a key for ~2 seconds indexes the list alphabetically. Seemes fairly intuitive to me.

Again, RTFM.

Re:t68i sucks

[henele]

3) Bluetooth-schmootooth

Speaking as a mac user I would disagree with that. The interation with the system software is sweet, and going online via GPRS *without taking the phone out of one's pocket/bag* is seriously sweet, especially if you've ever tried to get a phone and notebook talking via IR...

4) Not a rugid phone. Anytime it has ever been dropped, I'm worried I'm out of luck!

Thats why syncing all the important information contained with your mac/comp so easily via bluetooth is so sweet :)

Re:t68i sucks

[codework]

Oh I so agree, the T68 was the first and last Ericsson I'll ever buy. It was awful in every respect. I went back to a Nokia 3 weeks ago and things are good again..
My T68 will be on ebay soon now, thankfully it's a popular yoooof phone. Although I can't imagine anyone in their right mind owning it.
Can you believe I found the original receipt for it, damn thing cost me £175 at the time!!! And probably 1000s in lost time..

Re:t68i sucks

[Anonymous Coward]

Why are you waiting to renew your contract? I can't speak for others, but ATTWS lets you extend your contract anytime to a year or two out from the current date.

Re:t68i sucks

[flats]

You misunderstood.

I can extend any time...BUT to get the "cheap" phone deals (ex: $100 for the phone rather than $400) -- that can only be done every 6 months.

I've been to 3 AT&T stores...same deal.

sucks because i waited past the "30 day window" to return my phone *shrug*...It took me 2 months to realize the features overshadowed the quality of the phone.

Derek

Japan, Europe and GSM

[MosesJones]

The answer is simple, make a tri-band GSM phone (only the US could do GSM but require yet another band) and sell it to Europe and the Far East where new and funky phones come out all the time.

With CDMA and TDMA you are buying a brick that does analogue as well and looks like shit, and is also a much smaller market.

GSM IS successful on its own, the issue is that the US hasn't standardised like the rest of planet earth.

I wonder if GSM works in Iraq ?

Are these cameras any good?

[johnmat]

How well do these phones work as cameras? I could not see the camera resolution anywhere in the specs, is it 16-bits 128x160 like the display? 20 Kilopixels, hmmmmm.

Re:Are these cameras any good?

[codework]

If it's anything like the one for the T68, the MCA-10, it will bite..

Check the photos out here..

http://www.phlog.net/viewphlog.php?first=50&num= 10 &user=colbrad99

That's not even a retailable product.. Like the T68, a totally loathsome phone.

Ericsson sell GSM systems!

[Herkules]

"Why doesn't S-E start making nice phones like this for CDMA networks?"

Ericsson is the biggest supplier of GSM sytems! Why would they support competing tech(CDMA) ?

"No Photography" rules

[Raetsel]

I encountered an interesting "no photography" rule when I was in Connecticut last year. While visiting Gillette Castle (as in William Gilette, the actor famous for portraying Sherlock Holmes), I was informed that I could not take a camera inside the "castle" -- because someone owned the copyright on images of anything inside!

Normally, if one takes a picture of something, you did the work, you own the copyright. (Simple enough.) However, for some reason, Connecticut has sold the rights to images of everything inside the mansion, and the staff have to waste their time trying to make sure people don't bring cameras in. Ridiculous.

With the increasing ubiquity of digital cameras, cameras in phones, cameras in PDAs, cameras in watches, cameras "in" people... where do you draw the line? Can you even draw a line?

If I remember correctly, Steve Mann was allowd to use his body-mounted computers while taking tests at MIT. The reasoning was -- since he never took the stuff off -- that it was just another part of his body. I wonder what would happen if he tried to enter Gillette Castle...?

(Though I haven't visited, I believe that Biltmore has the same no-camera rule for the same reason...)

It's all about greed... when people realize all this greed is hurting the common good, things will change. Problem is, the greedy ones are busy trying to convince us we're all "better off this way."

Riiight.

This is not the replace to t68i

[Anonymous Coward]

This model is replacing the t600! OMFG!

How can you review for ./ and not mention...

[Anonymous Coward]

...that it comes with a java vm?!!!

cool phone

[mcguyver]

A friend came back from japan with a phone that reminds me of the ericsson phone. The phone from japan has a rotory style keypad, it's color and has a camera on the back. It's good that ericsson is getting with the times but if you're living in japan then this phone is not new news.

Games

[Anonymous Coward]

For more info on the games, goto mophun
This might be what the DRM "feature" is all about.

J2ME not very virus capabile

[SuperKendall]

If you knew anything about the capabilities (and limitations) of J2ME, you would realize how ridiculous the thought of a Java virus on your phone really is...

the VM has no capability to affect phone settings, and also has to be initiated by the user - in two ways, the user has to download a midlet and then has to ask to run the app. Not very fertile ground for a virus.

Unlike other systems you might be thinking of, Java systems at least think about security to start with and then figure out what they can do from there.

Bluetooth?

[blitzoid]

I certainly hope someone ports a VNC client to this phone. I can use bluetooth to get work done on my computer over my phone... from 10 feet away!

hmmm....

[Tumbleweed]

Okay, it doesn't look anywhere near as pretty as the T68i, but that's hardly a big deal. The thing is, like the T68i, it has an internal antenna, which means it's reception is going to suck as bad as the T68i's did. You can tack on all the features in the world, but when you keep dropping connection in iffy areas, I'm just not impressed.

Re:hmmm....

[Fat Cow]

I have 2 phones, a T193 (internal antenna, gsm) and a Sanyo SCP-5150 (external antenna, sprint pcs). The T193 is _far_ superior in quality and the sanyo keeps dropping the signal even though I'm sitting in the same place, and the signal strength was 4 bars only 30 seconds before.

Are internal antennas really that bad?

Re:hmmm....

[Tumbleweed]

Well, you can't compare the abilities of two phones side-by-side unless they're both the same distance from their respective celltowers (which may or may not be the same). In general, however, cellphones with internal antennas will be worse than cellphones with external antennas, if they're of the same type (both GSM, both CDMA, whatever). Trying to figure out which spec phone, with different antenna types is left as an exercise for the reader. :)

What I want is a CDMA2000 phone with external antenna. And I want CDMA2000 access nationwide. Which isn't possible, yet, as CDMA2000 coverage is quite miniscule as yet. :(

As for internal/external antennas, look, the cellphone-makers aren't too bright about this topic. It's a known issue, and phones are so frickin' small already that it's hard for even those of us with normal hands to easily use them. I think a little external antenna nub isn't out of line anymore.

SE's Direction

[onthefenceman]

I really hope that SE has improved the antenna on this model. The t68i has mediocre reception, especially for initiating a call or sending an SMS. This has proved true both on T-Mobile and on foreign networks I have tried. I appreciate a lot of the features on the latest SE phones, but why does it seem that every phone that comes out now builds in a digital camera? They have no optical zoom, poor resolution, and occupy lots of silicon real estate. I'd say SE needs to tilt their R&D budget a few more degrees toward usability over bells and whistles.

But what about the OS?

[endquotedotcom]

I had a t68, had to pull teeth from Voicestream to get one, was totally excited about it, but then sold it a couple of months later on eBay because I hated it so much. The interface is clunky and hard to use, the thing may actually be *too* light, and the buttons just feel totally cheap.

I got a Motorola V70 instead, and it doesn't have a color screen or bluetooth, but it's a lot closer to the ease-of-use I'd gotten from the Nokia I had previously.

Here's a few. :)

[Ch_Omega]

"How about a model that lets you chat via IRC? That one I'll buy for sure."

Oh, that..
Here's one irc-client for the Sony Ericsson P800, and here's one for the Series 60 UI(Nokia 7650/3650 & Siemens SX1).

OLED!!

[silverhalide]

I want an OLED phone. NOW!!! MOMMMY!!! I think that's the next minor killer app for phones. Should significantly boost battery life, and leave more room for things like, oh I don't know, antennas? :-)

What a twonk.

[Goth Biker Babe]

Er you! To quote

" by Mindjiver (71) Alter Relationship on Tuesday March 04, @02:50PM (#5432611) "

Mindjiver has an *ID* of 71 which *is* really really low.

Nokia 5100

[toriver]

No, that's the Nokia 5100: It has every phone feature you can think of save Bluetooth, but in addition it's a flashlight, thermometer, stopwatch and calorie counter!

Those guys are insane. Well, at least it's tons more useful than the slightly older and weirder 5510.

Cost?

[CitznFish]

So what's it cost? Or by asking this have I just disqualified myself from purchasing the phone? =]

Re:Cost?

[otis wildflower]

According to News.com, it's expected to be US$710 when released.

Yow-diddely-owza...

And btw, you don't get subsidies unless you start a new account, so upgraders will be paying at least wholesale on that puppy..

No Symbian OS...

[Anonymous Coward]

A gadget you can't program in C++, that's... doh!

looks puzzling to me...

[cornflux]

Not sure why anyone would want a phone that looks like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle with the words "Click Here To Get The Plugin" written on it.

Weird.

t610 and p800

[tairox]

well why are they coming out with the 610 when the 800 already better ? or is it ? i own 3 t68 right now well one t68 ,t68i's(2) and cant wait 2 buy both the 610 and 800... anyway i guess poly tones is what i like most...

Update the phone

[erik umenhofer]

There is a firmware upgrade availible for the t68 series. I think they are at version 7. Most early phones shipped with 3. and the newest ones shipped with 6 at the most. Ask your service dealer to update it.

Re:Update the phone

[tagevm]

Very good advice. Actually T68 has exactly the same hardware as T68i and hence can use the same firmware, making it just as fast (or slow..)

Re:Phone=good. One provider=bad.

[tairox]

also ... they advertise these phones as being GSM... well they dont want to unlock it .. so if you roam... and i mean ROAM.. like 3 months in CANADA.. well.. no roaming.. meaning a nice 1$US/minute... so i had to buy one from here and get it unlocked to be able to use At&t chip

VGA-resolution, mostly.

[Ch_Omega]

"How well do these phones work as cameras? I could not see the camera resolution anywhere in the specs, is it 16-bits 128x160 like the display? 20 Kilopixels, hmmmmm."

All the Smartphones with cameras I have seen so far(including all of Nokia's as well as SE P800), have a resolulion of 640x480x16bpp, or the same as your average webcam. I would surprise me if this phone is any different.

Who needs astroturfing

[Sunnan]

with slashvertisements like these?

I really love slashdot, I do, but I guess we all have our various side-thorns with it. It took me longer than it should have to be cautious with articles like these.

Multitasking Makes You Stupid

[ChrisCampbell47]

You folks with your chirping, buzzing pieces of plastic can operate at maximum efficiency and synergistic quality all the time.

Or, maybe, minimum efficiency, because multitasking makes you stupid.

/.ed

[SHEENmaster]

thanks for /.ing wearcam.org!

Just out of curiosity, is this is first /.ing from a comment with no direct link or just a coincidence?

Reception, Battery, and Audio!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

While these new phones are fantastic gadgets, none of them have huge battery lives, excellent sound, or good reception. It's an engineering tradeoff.

It seems like the phone makers, in the quest for a gameboy-camera-pda-wristwatch-blackberry forgot about the phone.

It's missing something...

[JakiChan]

The new phone appears to be nice, but it's only triband. According to this story (with pictures), the T610 will be sold in Europe and supports GSM at 900, 1800, and 19000 Mhz. The T616, which will be sold in North America, drops the 900Mhz support and supports 850, 1800, and 1900Mhz. So while technically it is a world phone it is missing 900Mhz which is the most used frequency for GSM world wide. It also provides the better coverage (verses 1800Mhz) and penitrates buldings better - one of the hoped for advantages of GSM800 (850Mhz) in the US.

My biggest complaint with the T68i is the SMS alert tone - it totally sucks. And I like to use my phone as a pager, but I can't trust it to wake me up. Given the number of changes we've seen with T68 firmware revisions I had hopes they would fix this, but with the release of this phone I doubt they will. The interaction of Apple's address book with SMS is hopefully...I might just write something to play a loud file when I get an SMS. Or maybe when I get a BT-enabled PDA it will have something.

I have high hopes for Motorola's V600, which will appears to do everything the T610 does and is quadband. However syncing isn't mentioned, which I am a big fan of. I know some friends who have had bad luck with Motorola phones, but I had good luck (quality wise) with my v3682. This phone seems to be a good replacement for that - it's a nice silver color (didn't like the dark plastic of the V60) and is a bit more streamlined than the squarish T720.

I wasn't thinking I'd use BT for more than a headset (which is cool on it's own), but with the Mac it's really nice. Sending SMS messages from apple's Address Book is nice if you're in the office, although I don't use their Address Book since I don't use Mail.app. For those of us that use Entourage, however, there is MobileSync which does the same thing as iSync does but with Entourage. This is from the same guy who wrote the BT clicker program and the client program that makes getting files to the T68i very easy.

One advantage to all this that may get overlooked is that if I were to loose my phone and had to get a replacement T68i then all of the data from the phone (pictures, ringtones, numbers) would be back on there in 5 minutes. And if my next phone supports SyncML (which it almost will have to) it'll make upgrading fairly painless.

WearCam down

[Raetsel]

Well, that's odd... I thought my ISP's nameserver was being a flake, but you just proved it's not limited to me!

No, it's most certainly not a /.-ing from a link in a comment. It was dead when I wrote it, otherwise I would have used a wearcam.org link instead of the Google one.

Gotta chalk this one up to "coincidence."

Dagnabbit!

[doggo]

Frickin' Cingular here in Illinois refuses to get any cool phones whatsoever. I was forced to upgrade to a new phone because of Nokia crappiness out of warranty (the infamous 3360 firmware flaws), the phone that appealed to me the most, in terms of features and form factor was the 6340i(I don't like external antennae and flippy things that can get ripped loose in a struggle).

It was free, so when, and if, Cingular ever decides to offer a bluetooth phone in the Chicago area market, I guess I could just toss it. I even searched on eBay for a Cingular T68i.

Now this! Aaaarrgggghhh!

hehe, yeah

[kingkade]

This thing looks cool, can't wait to see it in action: really looking forward to hearing one of these ring in the middle of a movie in the theater or hearing some dumbass lady yapping into it on the train ride home. It's going to be sweet.

Real world

[Slashdot Fool]

I note that unlike the t68i pages there's no obvious mention of battery life. I *love* my t68i and the number one toppermost-top feature is the battery. It has essentially removed the main irritation from my use of mobile phones. OTOH, others have reported problems with theirs, so perhaps I'm just a lucky fucker.

This new model, I'm guessing, will be much more like the t300[1] which had all the doodads but sucks as a phone because it has ~50% of the battery life.

Steff

[1] See http://www.sonyericsson.com/t300/

That's funny...

[lsd]

I could've sworn that the T68i had already been replaced, by the Siemens S55. I picked one of these up quite recently, and it's a truly amazing phone - Bluetooth, J2ME, great polyphonic ringtones, and an excellent set of PIM applications (address book, notes, calendar), which I sync with Evolution on my laptop, thanks to the fantastic Multisync. About the only thing it misses is the funky colour screen - the S55's screen is limited to 256 colours, like the T68i.

The T610 does look quite nice though, as long as it's not as bulky as it looks in the photos. Either way, for serious data use, especially with Linux, both Siemens and Sony-Ericsson are miles ahead of Nokia, with their non-standard communication protocols which make it nigh-on impossible to fully communicate with their phones under Linux.

Mobile IRC and ICQ client already exists

[joshua42]

Check out this page for an ICQ and IRC software for mobile phones. It has so far only been tested on the Nokia 7650, though, but why not give it a go? Most up-to-date info is in this paper,
Mobile Instant Messaging. I have not tried it myself, but it sure looks pretty awesome.

T-Mobile

[wembley]

Of course, assuming you wanted to use it as phone, you wouldn't get T-Mobile. They're not so good with that pesky coverage area thingy.

Sync Software

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope that SE improves their support (the web site makes me pull out my hair) and their PC software. I have a t39, and in order to use the software with Windows XP, I had to download the latest software for a t65 (of course, this was after a grueling trawl through their sorry excuse for a knowledgebase.)

Unfortuneatly, after installing and uninstalling the software, it hosed up my system. I'm waiting until I have a day or so free, so I can re-install the os.

I prefer Siemens phones

[Anonymous Coward]

I prefer Siemens phones. They're really nice, including the littler details...

One thing I like

[Anonymous Coward]

At least it keeps the buttons where they should be. Thank god nobody seems to pick up on that Nokia feature.

Not tempting at all.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a flipping phone. I dunno why people flip out over a stupid phone. Ringing incessantly, as if in a panic, needing to be answered. Just spam. Just someone annying from work.

I want to be uncontactable. I hate people and don't want them to contact me. People are horrible monsters. Why do you want these scum calling you, able to reach you at a whim?

Yes, I did get awakened at 3am by my cellphone from work, why do you ask? ;)

Enough of Taco's shite !

[Anonymous Coward]

Can't you post something interesting for once, stupid ?
When Taco is posting, it's either for Mod cases or some crap that only concerns him like an anime for 7-year olds or a mode case for X-Box (and then he will come to say how crappy M$ is and all and how we should all run Linux. Now why would you buy an X-Box then, stoopid ?)
And stop wanking off, moron!

Bluetooth is a must...

[Eminence]

3) Bluetooth-schmootooth, there's nothing THAT cool about it yet...sure there's a few tricks, and maybe sync-ing address books is all right...but there's not enough practicality in it yet.

I use Bluetooth primarily (only in fact) to be able to access the network via GPRS from my notebook or PDA without the hassle of cables or balancing the devices to keep IR ports aligned.

I'm still stuck with my old T39m, because it is much more rugged than T68 was, but I won't buy a phone without Bluetooth now. A GPRS card for my notebook is not an alternative, because I would have to get another SIM card or to move the one I have from one device to another and back. WLAN is also not an alternative, because coverage is scarce yet, as compared to GPRS coverage which is practically everywhere I go.

US GSM or T68i? Who is to blame?

[asdhwesd]

I have a T68i and use Cingular. Some days the phone works great. Other days I can't dial out (the phone never gets to the 'connecting to' stage, or simply drops the attempt in under 2 secs).

It is very frustrating and I would love to know if other people have the same problem with the phone jumping into this 'I am not going to connect to any number even though I have full signal and even though you have tried turning me on and off over and over again' mode.

Is Nokia the way to go? Should I return my T68i for a newer Sony-Ericsson?

I honestly would rather have a simplier phone that could connect to most of the calls I make. Is that too much to ask?

Synch software

[nitelyfe]

Hey, does anyone know if it will sync with Lotus Notes like the T68i does? If so, does anyone know if it will still be a STUPID ASS $70 additional purchase from XTND Connect for the sync software like the T68i?

Polyphonic not so great

[Michael Snoswell]

I have several friends with polyphonic ring tone phone and they're really cheesy. Much better is Samsung phones (and a few others) that allow you to record *any* audio and use it as your ring tone. This way you can have proper music or sound effects as your ring tone. The first I saw this feature was about 18 months ago here in Australia so surely it's available elsewhere.

Hotline Chatting

[johnlunney]

I would love if one of these wireless PDAs or mobile phones could chat on IRC, or better still Hotline.
I would love to be able to keep up with my Hotline friends when on the move.

-johnl

Last Post!

[alpg]

We who revel in nature's diversity and feel instructed by every animal tend to
brand Homo sapiens as the greatest catastrophe since the Cretaceous extinction.
-- S.J. Gould

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