Author Archive: Gareth

SE Satio unboxed and played with

Just a little over a week before its scheduled release in the UK on October 7th, this unboxing video of the Sony Ericsson 12.1-megapixel camera phone monster known as the Satio (formerly called the Idou) has suddenly popped up on the internet. Obviously not content with just unboxing one Satio phone, the guy in this video unboxes all three colored iterations of the first Symbian-based handset from Sony Ericsson. So, what’s the deal with the Satio? Well, apart from being one of the first phones to boast of a 12.1-megapixel camera, the Sony Ericsson Satio also comes with 3.5-inch touchscreen, Xenon flash, WiFi, Bluetooth, aGPS, Exchange ActiveSync support, and an 8GB microSD card (supports up to 32GB in capacity). We’ve got no word on its pricing, but we do have some instructional videos on how to use the Sony Ericsson Satio.

Orange to do iPhone 3G and 3GS

Orange UK and Apple have reached an agreement to bring iPhone 3G and 3GS to Orange UK customers later this year. Orange globally now offers iPhone in 28 countries and territories.

Orange, which has the largest 3G network covering more people in the UK than any other operator, will sell iPhone in all Orange direct channels including Orange shops, the Orange webshop and Orange telesales channels, as well as selected high street partners. A pre-registration site for customers to log their interest has been launched at www.Orange.co.uk/iPhone

More information on pricing, tariffs and availability dates will be released in due course.

[Source Press Release]

HTC Leo arriving on O2

If you needed another reason to frown upon the state of the North American wireless industry, allow us to go ahead and turn your attention to Exhibit A here. What you’re looking at is some promotional material backing up earlier rumors that the HD2 / Leo is en route to O2 in the UK, but what’s especially upsetting (though not terribly surprising) is the knowledge that customers will be able to scoop up HTC’s new ultra-high-end WinMo beast for zilch on an O2 1200 tariff — a plan that runs something like £45 (about $72) a month. Oh, and that’s on an 18-month contract, not 24. Meanwhile, we’ll be lucky to ever see the Leo land in its natural, original, HTC-approved state on a carrier at any price in the US, but hey, at least we’ve still got some more Touch Pro2 launches to look forward to, right?

[Source Engagdet]

BGR reviews Motorola Cliq

Something of a painful review here, a phone highly anticipated by many seems to stumble and fall. Thankfully the unit reviewed seems to be running an earlier than what is to be released. With any luck this will sort many of the problems on display here.

Check it out over at Boy Genius Report.

New HTC devices to feature 1GHZ processors

HTC is rumored to be  joining the clockspeed war in the smartphone segment with its latest Windows Phone – theHTC Leo featuring a 1GHz Snapdragon processor.

The manufacturer, which has been using Qualcomm’s 528MHz processor on almost all of its present market offerings has been indicating a shift to higher clockspeeds when leaked specifications of the HTC Touch HD2 first surfaced, early this month.

With the competition gearing up their devices with high speed processors along with dedicated graphics,HTC smartphones were losing the sheen in the competitive smartphone segment. However, going by the latest leaks, the Taiwanese manufacturer is showing its intent to be at the forefront of the smartphone market, a segment which it has dominated for a while now.

Vodafone UK announces the 360 H1 and 360 M1 with Vodafone 360

Vodafone today revealed its new linux based OS called 360, it was made official with two handset as well as a new internet service, Vodafone 360. Manufactured by Samsung, the new Vodafone 360 H1 comes packed with all the normal technology you’d expect in a new handset. With HSDPA 7.2, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and A-GPS it ticks all the right boxes from a connectivity point of view. You get the FM radio and the 3.5mm jack for your favourite headphones.

The touch display is pretty special too, with a 3.5-inch AMOLED display with a cracking 800 x 480 pixel resolution. In terms of memory you get 16 or 8GB models with support for microSD card, around the back is a 5-megapixel camera with a flash, as well as a wedge of multimedia support, including H.263, H.264, MPEG4 and DivX. It comes with a YouTube client too.

Powering this new beast is a TI 600MHz processor, with motion, proximity and light sensors, but no mention of a compass for your mapping. It runs on a new Linux Mobile platform – dubbed LiMo – and brings together the new Vodafone 360 experience, mashing together apps and services to connect your digital and mobile life.

You’ll be able to get the Vodafone 360 H1 in the UK before the end of the year.

Review: Nokia MD-8 portable speakers

Matthew Miller from Nokia Experts checks out the Nokia MD-8 speaker set that was included with the Nokia 5530 XM evaluation unit. The Nokia MD-8 speakers have a £20 retail value, although you can pick them up for £5 at Amazon, until now I never had a chance to check them out. As a person who travels on the road for my company, I can truly appreciate having a set of speakers like this to enjoy my music content and podcasts in my hotel room and rental car.

The retail package includes the Nokia MD-8 speakers, Nokia Audio Adaptor AD-52 (2.5mm adapter), 3-AAA batteries, and User Guide. The audio adapter is present so you can use the speakers with a phone that has a 2.5mm headset port. The end of the 29.5 inch cable contains a 3.5mm headset jack so you can plug in the speakers to just about every MP3 player and most new Nokia Smartphone’s. I tested the speakers with the N97, Nokia 5530 XM, and my new Zune HD.

S60: Playlist DJ available for free in the Ovi Store

Syntonetic is offering Playlist DJ completely for free until October 31st.  So, head over to the Ovi Store to save 4.99€ . This is an indeed nice introductory offer. Playlist DJ works on all S60 5th Edition devices. So the N97, 5800 XpressMusic, 5530 XpressMusic, 5320 XpressMusic are supported.

Unleash the DJ inside you. Instantly create new playlists. Match your music to your mood or change your mood with your music. Playlist DJ automatically analyzes and profiles your music collection, then builds playlists at your command. You simply set the fun and colourful mood and tempo sliders, or start with a favourite song. Discover music you forgot you had.

Nokia N900: Share Your Life with Pixelpipe

Mark Guim of Nokia Blog bumped into Brett Butterfield, CEO and founder of Pixelpipe during the first day of Nokia World. I told him I love the service and have been using it frequently with my Nokia phones. I also told him that I had my hands on the Nokia N900 and hope that Pixelpipe works on it. I was in luck. He asked permission from Nokia then got the green light to demo it.

Pixelpipe rocks because it is the best way to share photos, videos, and more from the phone to the web. I use it frequently to upload photos and videos to Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook directly from the camera on Nokia phones. There are more than 100 places to choose from! If you haven’t heard of Pixelpipe yet, watch Brett explain it while using the highly anticipated Nokia N900.

via

Firefox Mobile on Nokia N900: Screenshots

Mozilla is planning on bringing Firefox Mobile to the N900 in the next quarter, despite the Finns’ native browser already being built on Mozilla’s framework.

TechRadar managed to nab some time with the new browser, and here are some exclusive screenshots of the new browser, previously codenamed Fennec, running on Nokia’s new flagship device, the N900.