Author Archive: Matt

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 global media launch

This evening we’re off to another Sony Ericsson event in London. This time we’re attending the ‘Global Media Launch’ of the Xperia X1 being held at Tent London.

I’m not sure what the format of the event will be but I’ll definitely be reporting back to you with any news that I can get my hands on. Hopefully there will be a few video ops. too!

If there is anything specific you would like me to find out about the Xperia X1 or anything else to do with Sony Ericsson, drop me a line and I’ll try and get some answers!

EDIT: Just on my way back from the event now. It was a good evening and we had some excellent oportunities to talk to Magnus Andersson as well as a number of other people from SE. I’ll have a post with some news and video for you tomorrow.

Posted by: Matt

Windows Mobile 6.1 SMTP issues

Do you have a Windows Mobile 6.1 powered device and use either POP3 or IMAP4 with SMTP? Have you encountered problems sending email or seen the error message below?

If the answer to either of the questions above is yes then read on as what you are seeing is actually a bug that affects all WM 6.1 powered handsets!

Background

I first discovered this problem a few months ago while using my HTC TyTN II. I have access to two Exchange servers but, as you’ll probably know, you can only set up one Exchange activesync partnership per device. So for the other account I have to use IMAP4 and send over SMTP.

I’ve been using the setup for about 18 months and it works perfectly well for me, well until HTC released the WM 6.1 update for the TyTN II it did.

I installed the 6.1 update on the TyTN II and set up my Exchange and IMAP4 accounts. Was able to receive email with both accounts, no problem. All was well until I tried to send an email from my IMAP4 account (through SMTP). Upon trying to send mail I simply got presented with the error message above. I checked the account settings, they were all correct, but still unable to send mail.

I then restored the original WM 6.0 ROM to the TyTN II and the problem went away! This lead me to think that there was a problem with HTC’s implementation of the 6.1 ROM. However later test revealed this to not be the case.

I set up my IMAP4 email on my new HTC Touch Diamond and was able to send one email, but subsequent emails then failed with the same error message. Deleting and recreating the account allowed me to send one or two more emails before it then failed again. One sending failed the account never works again!

So I contacted one of our friends at Microsoft to try and work through the problem.

Having worked with the guys at Microsoft for the past 6 weeks or so (including the top Outlook Mobile chap in the US) and having sent them my TyTN II to test we have discovered the following bug affecting ALL Windows Mobile 6.1 devices.

You can see more in the email excerpt from Microsoft below:

We are done with it and just checked in a bug fix last week to address what turned out to be a severe product bug that will affect all WM 6.1.x devices until they receive a fix or upgrade to WM 6.1.4. Your help both made us aware of the issue before it bubbled up through the forums and your device actually did help us debug the issue.
 
We are driving the issue with our response team and pushing to make a fix more broadly available independent of a device update.
 
More details on this bug:
Symptoms:
At some point sending e-mail stops working for a given e-mail account.
This will happen if the there is *any* failure to connect to the SMTP server – ever. After that point the user cannot send mail with that account again.
 
Recovery:
The user must delete their e-mail account and recreate it each time this happens.
There is no way to prevent this from reoccurring.

So as you can see, the problem is pretty severe and affects all devices with WM 6.1. The work around, if you can call it that, is to delete the affected account and recreate it.

I also suspect that this bug is related to the problem that many people report with GMail on their mobile and the reason why you must delete and recreate an email account if any of the account credentials change.

Microsoft are working on the problem at the moment and are hoping to make an independent update available. Let’s hope that it will be available in that format rather than part of a full ROM update as I suspect that it will take time to filter through the manufacturers and the operator supply channels.

If you are affected by this issue then do drop me a line and I’ll endeavour to keep you updated with the progress of the fix.

EDIT: Please see this post for a potential fix to the problem!

Posted by: Matt

Over 2 Million views on YouTube!

I just went over to have a look at our YouTube channel and videos and was surprised to discover that our collective 99 videos have been viewed over 2 million times! Apparently that puts us in the top 40 YouTuber’s in the UK. I’m sure it wont be too long before we exceed the 100 videos mark as well!

So a quick thank you to everyone that has watched our videos, we definitely appreciate your feedback so if there is anything that you think we should be doing differently then please do let us know.

If you haven’t seen our YouTube channel then you can find it here, some of the videos go back almost two years already!

Posted by: Matt

HTC Touch HD now official

Just days after the first images of the HTC Touch HD leaked out on the web HTC have officially announced the device with a full press release (below) and by adding the product to their site.

The Touch HD is one device that I am very excited about but it looks like it’ll be on the large side, I suspect along the lines of the HTC Blue Angel in form.

Devicewire already have the HTC Touch HD listed on their site and are expecting to have them in stock from the 10th November! No word on pricing at the moment but head over to their product page where you’ll be able to check the price and get availability updates.

The HTC Touch HD (Click images to enlarge)

NEW HTC TOUCH HD^TM RAISES BAR FOR MOBILE INTERNET AND ENTERTAINMENT

Large, 3.8 inch wide-screen VGA display, HTC TouchFLO^TM 3D, desktop-class broadband browsing and a 3.5mm audio jack and more provide the ultimate entertainment combination

Taoyuan, Taiwan — September 16th, 2008 — HTC Corporation, a global leader in mobile phone innovation and design, today unveiled its latest handset, the HTC Touch HD^TM, an entertainment focused mobile handset that will transform how people experience multimedia on the move. Integrating a large 3.8 inch wide-screen VGA display (WVGA), a standard 3.5mm audio jack and a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, the HTC Touch HD^TM is the perfect device for multimedia fans.

Shifting the boundaries of design and innovation
The HTC Touch HD^TM combines high performance capabilities with a stylish, sleek design that has made HTC a global leader in mobile phone design and innovation. Its large 3.8 inch WVGA touchscreen offers users stunning clarity and vibrant colours, providing an unrivalled experience when watching movies, browsing the Internet or even scanning through photos taken with the 5 megapixel auto focus camera.

The stylish new device also features HTC’s beautiful TouchFLO™ 3D user interface to provide quick and intuitive access to the people, messages and content that are most important. A standard 3.5mm headphone jack has also been designed-in, allowing consumers to use high-performance headphones with the device for the best possible sound quality.

“Today, Widescreen TV, Internet and video have become the standard so there is no reason to compromise when you leave the house, the Touch HD^TM delivers that uncompromising multimedia and Internet experience,” said Peter Chou, president and CEO HTC Corporation. “We are living in a time where the concept of entertainment has radically changed. The internet is so much more than just email and our customers expect to be able to access the Internet and high quality multimedia content no matter where they are in the world.”

Getting the most out of the Internet
The large high resolution, widescreen display combined with download speeds up to 18 times faster than standard 3G, enables the HTC Touch HD^TM to render websites quickly and in full-page width. This provides a comparable Internet experience to that of home broadband in terms of both speed and page layout. This true mobile broadband experience allows users to navigate more easily, leveraging the mobile internet in a variety of ways. For example, browsing to favourite websites, using Google Maps to find a restaurant for lunch, searching for and streaming video from YouTube or even catching up to the minute news, blog posts and video podcasts with the integrated RSS reader, will be more intuitive for consumers familiar with desktop browsing.

No compromise 
The HTC Touch HD^TM has been conceived for both business and consumer users alike, who demand style and performance and do not think the two are mutually exclusive. The HTC Touch HD^TM is the ideal handset for people who are embracing the mobile multimedia shift but who do not wish to forgo quality, simply by being on the move.

Availability
The HTC Touch HD will be available across major European carriers in Q4 2008 and be introduced in other global markets shortly following.

Key Touch HD specification:

• Size: 115 x 62.8 x 12 mm
• Weight: 146.4 grams/5.164 oz with battery
• Connectivity: Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHzWCDMA / HSPA: 900/2100MHz. HSDPA 7.2 Mbps
• Software/Operating system: HTC TouchFLO 3D with Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
• Display: 3.8 inch Wide Screen VGA screen (480 x 800 WVGA)
• Camera: 5.0 megapixel with auto focus – Second Camera: VGA
• Internal memory: 512 MB flash; 288 MB RAM
• Memory card: microSD™ memory card (SDHC™ capable)
• WLAN: 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth®: 2.0 with EDR
• GPS: GPS/AGPS
• Interface: HTC ExtUSB™ (mini-USB and audio jack in one; USB 2.0 High-Speed)
• Battery: 1350 mAh
• Talk time: WCDMA: Up to 390 minutes*** / GSM: Up to 310 minutes***        
• Standby time: WCDMA: Up to 450 hours*** / GSM: Up to 390 hours***
• Chipset: Qualcomm® MSM7201a™ 528 MHz

EDIT: Our HTC Touch HD review is now live for your reading pleasure!

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 preview video and photos

As you probably know, we were at the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 today where we were introduced to the device as well as Johnny-X.

Paul (MoDaCo) and I managed to get a little bit of hands on time with the device so I took a few photos for you and we recorded a video tour for you to enjoy. There is another event for the X1 later this week so we will try to get more hands-on time and naturally secure a review unit!

Magnus Andersson showing off the Black and Silver Xperia

Black and Silver Xperia X1’s

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 showing off its keyboard

Paul gives us a quick tour of the Xperia X1 in the video below:

Sorry about the background noise on the video, the SE guys started packing up their kit while we were recording the video!

Our Xperia X1 review is now live!

As we should be getting more hands-on time later this week and will be meeting with Sony Ericsson and Magnus Andersson again, please do drop us a line if you want us to ask any specific questions!

Posted by: Matt

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 launch event

Today I will be heading over to Covent Garden to the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 launch event. As we now know, the X1 should be available from the 30th September but this event should give us a chance to get our hands on the device ahead of launch, and fingers crossed well have one to review shortly too!

We’ll be live blogging with our friend Paul O’Brien from MoDaCo and the live blog will be here in this post later on. Be sure to come back by about 12:45 when we hope to start coverage.

Webcast
To start the countdown to the launch of Xperia™ X1, Sony Ericsson will host a live global webcast on September 15 at 13:00 GMT + 1, offering viewers the first in-depth demonstration of the handset. The web cast will also premiere the first episode of an alternative reality thriller Johnny X. To register to view the web cast and Q&A session with Xperia™ X1 Senior Product Manager Magnus J Andersson, please visit: www.sonyericsson.com/premiere.

“We are extremely pleased with the innovation and new user experience we have created for consumers on the Xperia™ X1,” said Rikko Sakaguchi CVP and Head of Creation and Development at Sony Ericsson. “The in-depth demonstration on the web cast will showcase how this handset is truly unique. The nine panel eco system puts the user in total control of the primary experiences available on the phone and allows consumers to personalise the panel interface to suit their needs and lifestyle. The Xperia™ X1 has the highest quality screen on the market, four-way navigation keys and optical joy stick to give a stressless browsing experience and, with its super fast processor and network speed the Xperia™ X1 really bridges the gap between personal, entertainment and work mobile needs.”

Johnny X Alternative Reality Thriller
Johnny X is about a young man with amnesia desperately piecing together his identity. The webisodic thriller comprises of nine episodes, created to demonstrate the rich, immersive and experiential elements of the Xperia™ X1.
The storyline follows Johnny X on his mission to rediscover his identity. As he finds out more about his lost life in a race against time, he updates his Xperia™ X1 with new content to piece together his personality and identity, reflecting how the phone can be personalized to suit users’ individual lifestyle and needs. Will Johnny X find out who he really is before it’s too late?
“Producing the Johnny X thriller has given us an engaging platform to demonstrate all the capabilities and features a user can experience with the Xperia™ X1 phone,” said Lennard Hoornik, Head of Marketing at Sony Ericsson. “The panel interface is a perfect way to reflect your personality and can be tailored and changed to suit your exact needs at any given time. No two Xperia™ X1 will ever have the same combination of panels on the phone; we are all individuals and deserve to have a phone that reflects that. ”
Over a three week period, one new episode of Johnny X will be posted online at www.sonyericsson.com/Johnnyx every Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting on Monday, September 22. Check out the trailer for the series at www.whoisjohnny-x.com

Global Launch
The official global launch of the Xperia™ X1 will take place at Tent London as part of London Design Week between September 18 – 21st. Journalists are invited to attend the official Tent London opening party on Friday evening 19 September 2008 to see the Xperia™ X1 and meet with Sony Ericsson spokespeople.

Check out this post for a couple of photos and some hands-on video of the Xperia X1!

Posted by: Matt

Friday Deals!

We have some superb Friday deals for you from eXpansys. We’ve managed to get these products to a great price point and the deal won’t last long!

MWg UBiQUiO 503G

Normally £229.99 Special price only £99.99 inc VAT, save £130

BenQ E72 Smartphone Special UK Email Offer

Normally £99.99 Special price only £79.99 inc VAT, Save £20

OQO model e2 with Vista Ultimate

version: 1.5GHz, 1GB RAM, 60GB HDD, Vista Ultimate

Normally £1099.99 Special price only £699.99 inc VAT, save £400

OQO model 2 with Vista Business

version: 1.5GHz, 1GB RAM, 60GB HDD, Vista Bus, Office

Normally £1229.99 Special price only £764.99 inc VAT, save £465

* Special pricing only applies between 11am and 4pm UK time, normal pricing will resume at 4pm on Friday 12^th September 2008. Deals available while stocks last. eXpansys/partner voucher codes do not apply with these deals, limited to 2 units per customer.

Posted by: Matt