Happy New Year all, and welcome to 2009! This week sees the start of the consumer electronics tradeshow season, with CES 2009 running from 8 - 11th of January. I'll provide an overview of what to expect from CES 2009 from the major mobile phone manufacturers tomorrow, but before then, I thought I'd mention a new trend that has just appeared on the radar regarding mobile phone form factors - the watch phone.
I'm off on my hols for a few days, so I'd like to wish everyone a very merry mental Christmas! Hope Santa brings you the mobile phone of your dreams! I'll be back just after Christmas with a few predictions for what's coming in the mobile phone world for 2009, as well as a look forward and full coverage of all the glorious goings on at CES 2009.
Until then, why not check out the thousands of mobile phone posts we've written over the past few years in our mobile phone archives.
Merry Christmas all!
If you've got a shiny new Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 smartphone and want to create your own panel, you'll find that it's not the easiest process in the world.
You can currently create either code-based panels, written in a language such as C++, or HTML-based panels, which are obviously written using HTML.
However, both types require you to use Microsoft's Visual Studio development environment, which is not exactly for the faint-hearted!
Fortunately, the guys at MySonyEricssonBlog have created an easy-to-use online panel creator, which lets you create the HTML panels you want and then upload them onto your XPERIA.
Best of all, it's free, too,and doesn't require the 4GB that Visual Studio does!
[Source: MySonyEricssonBlog]
2008 has been the year of the smartphone, but we ain't seen nothing yet! With Android, the iPhone, Symbian, Windows Mobile, and yet more smaller players all fighting amongst each other to be crowned king of the smartphone, we consumers are about to be swamped by a torrent of new devices fighting for our hard earned pennies.
While that sounds good at first glance, dig a bit deeper and you'll see a problem emerge - four competing and completely non-interoperable operating systems equals four key platforms for software developers to choose from when building their apps.
Unless the developers have large teams and large pockets, they're going to be forced to choose one or two platforms at most, meaning if you choose a platform that becomes unpopular (Windows Mobile
Or worse, you might move from an iPhone to an Android phone, only to find that you have to purchase all the apps you bought for your iPhone all over again, as they won't work on Android. The nightmare of the fragmented platform looms large, just as it has done for years in the PC market and console market.
What can be done, and who can solve this conundrum? Well, Ericsson, apparently!
Seems everyone and his dog is working on a Google Android handset at the moment! The latest news is of a new Android phone being developed by Chinese laptop and PC manufacturer Lenovo.
As you can see from the pic, it certainly looks more like a phone than a Photoshop fake, so Lenovo are clearly working on something.
Sony Ericsson have announced a brand new music phone in the shape of the Sony Ericsson Xmini. As its name suggests, the Xmini is tiny. So tiny, in fact, it's smaller than an iPod Nano! At just 44mm (W) × 75mm (H) × 18mm (D), the little Xmini barely has enough room for a screen, let alone a keypad!
Sony Ericsson therefore had no choice but to make it a slider, but even then, the keys on the keypad are tiny.
More details and pics after the jump.
Interesting news reaches us from sister-site MediaMentalism of new technology being developed by Intel that could lead to the development of mobile phones and other mobile and portable gadgets that don't need batteries. Intel are working on a series of sensors that can capture energy from the environment.
The sun is an obvious example of where this energy comes from, but other examples that Intel are looking at include the motion of a trackball on a mobile phone and even the energy from a mobile phone basestation.
More info over at MediaMentalism.
Google's Open Handset Alliance (OHA), the group of technology and mobile companies that it set up around the Google Android mobile operating system, has just announced that it's signed up another 14 companies who will "...either deploy compatible Android devices, contribute significant code to the Android Open Source Project, or support the ecosystem through products and services that will accelerate the availability of Android-based devices."
Google must be jumping with delight at this news, at they've managed to bag some big names. Top of the list must come Sony Ericsson, who announced that they're working on a new Google Android phone. Other big hitters include Toshiba (who we can only hope release an Android phone on some decent hardware, so that it's not as appalling as their current range of Portege smartphones!), Vodafone, and, more interestingly, Sat-Nav company Garmin.
More details after the jump.
Sony Ericsson has just announced it's joined the Open Handset Alliance and will develop a new mobile phone based on the Google Android operating system. There had been rumours about this for some time, but now it's official, and 2009 should see the introduction of a new Sony Ericsson Android phone.
Where would we be without leaked pictures?! This time, we have some leaked pics from none other than Nokia themselves, seemingly showing a new touchscreen user interface for an as yet unnamed mobile phone. The pictures come from a slide presented at Nokia's Capital Markets Day 2008, so as it comes from the company itself, the pic itself is genuine. Quite whether the phone it depicts is real or just a Photoshop teaser is another matter, though.
If nothing else, though, it shows the direction Nokia are working towards. Full touchscreen phone, context and presence, integrated services, multiple homescreens. Seems that direction has "iPhone" written on it in super-huge letters!
[Source: Engadget]
