xperia

Since I can read United Airline's in-flight magazine only so many times on a 10-hour flight between San Francisco and Frankfurt, Germany, I took a few minutes to leaf through the ubiquitous Skymall catalog as well.

Normally, for every one thing I would consider buying in Skymall, I find 20 completely useless things (seriously...who really wants to make a bulletin board out of wine corks?). But this issue of the catalog had the fancy Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 on its cover.

As you may recall, the touch-screen smartphone debuted at the 2008 GSMA World Congress. And even as … Read more

A year after it launched its Xperia X1, Sony Ericsson used the 2009 GSMA World Congress here in Barcelona to launch launch new panels for the high-end smartphone. All panels will be available for download from Sony Ericsson in mid-March.

The Skype panel will offer quick access to the calling service. You'll be able to tell which of your friends are online, browse contacts, and call and instant message your friends. The evening, daylight, and event-based effects will let you customize your handset at will.

The CNN panel will constantly update with the latest news, sports, and weather, all … Read more

Twenty-four hours after teasing us with news of a major product announcement, Nokia officially took the wraps off its mystery smartphone on Tuesday at the Nokia World 2008 conference in Barcelona, Spain. And despite some close guesses, no one got it quite right, so without further ado, let us introduce you to the Nokia N97.

Part of the company's high-end N series of multimedia computers, the N97 trumps all previous models with a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard and a tilting 3.5-inch touch screen (anyone else reminded of the AT&T Tilt or Sony Ericsson Xperia X1?). Yes, there's the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, but the N97 includes phone capabilities and is designed for the "needs of Internet-savvy consumers."

For example, the smartphone provides easy access to a number of social-networking sites, and the Web browser supports streaming Flash videos. The N97 also introduces something Nokia calls "social location," which uses the capabilities of the integrated A-GPS sensors and electronic compass to automatically update users' social networks, or let them share their location via photos or videos with friends.

The Home screen can be personalized with widgets of favorite Web and social-networking sites. Finally, the N97 is fully compatible with Nokia's Ovi Internet services, which include the Nokia Music Store, Nokia Maps, and the N-Gage gaming platform--though these services have yet to fully launch in the United States.

The Symbian-based smartphone also features a music and video player, a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, and a whopping 32GB of onboard memory that can be expanded with a 16GB microSD card.

The quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) world phone is HSDPA-capable handset, but it currently supports only the 900/1900/2100MHz bands (AT&T's 3G network runs on 850/1900MHz, while T-Mobile runs on 1700/2100MHz). There is integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, however. … Read more

Social networking finally reaches its most underserved niche: the hobos. Look for Tom to officially join the Hobo Nation any day now. In other news of the day, Caroline McCarthy joins us for a rollicking discussion of The Washington Post's war on spam, and Molly most likely gets herself fired from CBS and kicked off TWiT in one fell swoop. So, learn to love Caroline. She might be sticking around.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 makes date with U.S.: Black Friday for $799.99 http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/12/sony-ericsson-xperia-x1-makes-date-with-us-black-friday-for-79/… Read more

You're hearing it here first, folks: The long-awaited Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 will be available in the United States on November 28 for an unlocked price of $799.99 through Sony Style stores. Go ahead, we'll give you a second to catch your breath from the sticker shock.

Yes, these are the official details as given to us by Sony Ericsson on Tuesday. The highly anticipated Windows Mobile smartphone, which was first announced at GSMA 2008 in February, won't be coming to a U.S. carrier for now, but it will be available for preorder starting November … Read more

With Sony Ericsson's inaugural Windows Mobile device set to be launched in the coming days, the handset maker has revealed that it had to convince Microsoft to embrace plans to make the Windows interface more user-friendly.

Sony Ericsson hopes that the Microsoft device, first announced at the Mobile World Congress event in February, will appeal to "fast living" professional types who want to be able to use their device for work and play. The Xperia X1 will be released first in the U.K., Germany, and Sweden.

To take the device beyond Windows' traditional business roots, Sony … Read more

Oh, snap. On Monday, Sony Ericsson kicked off its digital marketing campaign for its Xperia X1 smartphone, but the most interesting news to come out of the launch is that future Xperia models may not use Windows Mobile. Magnus Andersson, product manager for the X1, said, "The brand is not tied into any specific technical platform," but did not expand on what other mobile operating systems the company may consider.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 made quite a splash at GSMA 2008, not just for its unique panel interface but also for the fact that it was the … Read more

Why? Why must you tease, Sony Ericsson? On Wednesday, the cell phone manufacturer announced an official launch date for the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, but only for certain markets. Naturally, North America is not one of the lucky ones. No, only the United Kingdom, Germany, and Sweden will be able to get their hands on the hot Xperia X1 come September 30, while the rest of us admire from afar and continue to wait it out.

Sony Ericsson did say that the Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone will make its way to other markets across Europe, Asia, and Latin America … Read more

It's not exactly the announcement we were looking for, but we'll take it as a sign that the launch of the highly anticipated Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 is that much closer. On Wednesday, Sony Ericsson released its Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows Mobile 6.1 that will allow developers to create Web and native panels for the Xperia X1 smartphone.

If you'll remember, the Xperia X1, which was first introduced in February at GSMA, features a interactive panel interface that allows user to customize their Today screen. Given that capability, the SDK is an opportunity for … Read more