Posts filed under Rumours

More leaked pics of forthcoming Sony Ericsson phones to whet your appetite, this time showing the new Sony Ericsson Bei Bei smartphone. Of course, it won’t actually be called the Bei Bei when it’s launched – like all Sony Ericsson phones, that’s just its codename, based on women tennis players. It’s also not a real picture, but a Photoshop mockup of what the real phone will look like.

Don’t let the Photoshopped image put you off, though – although a mock-up, it’s based on the actual phone itself, rather than some fan-boy’s fantasy.

Bei Bei will be a smartphone running the UIQ 3.2 user interface, the same Walkman player that’s used in the Sony Ericsson W960, radio, MP3 player (naturally), and a huge 5 megapixel camera.

Expect the Bei Bei to be on show next week at the Mobile World Congress (which is looking more exciting by the day!)

[Source: Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog, Esato]

Sony Ericsson are readying a new Walkman phone (yes, another one!), codenamed the Sony Ericsson Alona. Unlike previous Walkman phones, though, Sony Ericsson have gone for a completely new style, with three distinct music keys on the front, and the main phone keys buried inside its clamshell internals.

These pictures are annoyingly small, so you can’t see much detail. Fortunately, the guys at Esato knocked up a good Photoshop image of the phone (which you can see after the jump), so you can see what it will look like in more detail.

News of the Samsung G810 has been leaked just before next week’s Mobile World Congress (what used to be known as 3GSM), and it’s a real beauty. The G810 sees Samsung continuing its strategy of releasing top-end phones, as it actually beats the Nokia N95 for features.

Only just, though, it has to be said. In fact, when you look at the features, you get a sense of deja vu, as it seems the G810 could be the N95’s younger brother! Samsung have managed to match the N95 feature for feature, then thrown a few extras into the mix, shrunk things a bit, and extended the battery life as well!

Read on for more details of the amazing new Samsung G810 after the jump.

The 3GSM conference is just around the corner, and already the rumours are flying. The most interesting of them at the moment is that Dell are not only working on a smartphone based on Google’s new Android platform, but that they will actually be demonstrating it at the conference.

The rumours are courtesy of MarketingWeek, who aren’t exactly known for throwing around casual rumours, so there’s a good chance we could at least see an announcement from Dell, if not the actual phone itself. However, in case the rumour turns out to be fluff, MarketingWeek have covered themselves by quoting Google, who apparently have denied the rumours.

So they must be true then!

We’ll give you full coverage of any announcements as and when they’re made.

[Source: MarketingWeek]

Despite Sony Ericsson not actually having announced the Z660i yet, it’s obviously official, as it has its own official video. Oddly, Sony Ericsson put it up on their own official site, which the Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog managed to upload onto YouTube just in time before the official Sony Ericsson (still with me here?!) took it down again!

So now we get to see the new Sony Ericsson Z660i in action, as well as getting official confirmation that it’s on its way, without actually getting an official confirmation! Don’t you just love rumours!

Anyway, looking rather sleek and designery, the vid makes it clear that the Z660i is being pitched as a man’s phone for men, so don’t expect it in pink anytime soon.

The video shows the Z660 off in all its finery, and also shows how well it uses Google Maps to find various services in your neighbourhood, such as restaurants. Certainly looks super-responsive, which is what you need from a good location-based service.

[Source: Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog]

At CEs 2008, Sony Ericsson announced that a new GPS phone was on its way in the form of the Sony Ericsson W760. However, that’s not all the company has up its sleeve. Here are a few leaked pics of a new Sony Ericsson GPS phone that currently has no model number (although it will be a K series Cyber Shot phone)

The specs on this new device seem quite tasty. Although it comes with only a 3.2 megapixel camera, as it’s a Cyber Shot phone you do get auto focus for money. The icing on the cake, though, comes from the built-in GPS device, which should help you geo-tag your photos.

More pics of the mystery Sony Ericsson phone after the jump.

Motorola had a dire time in 2007, being overtaken by Samsung and dropping to the world’s third biggest mobile manufacturer, and losing money as well as market-share. Consequently the majority of rumours surrounding the company involve who’s going to take over its ailing mobile phone division as much as what new phones it’s going to be releasing for 2008.

The rumours include everyone from Ericsson to Dell, all of whom are sniffing around the once great mobile manufacturer, convinced that they can do better (which, to be fair, they probably could).

Motorola’s mobile phones for 2008

Of more interest to us, though, are the mobile phones that Motorola will be releasing in 2008. Here, there are some juicy rumours doing the rounds, but these may be more like wishful thinking from Motorola fanboys (or at least their PR department!) than reality.

Top of the lot must be the Motorola ZiNE, a new line of Motorola handsets with some top-end features. The most impressive of the new ZiNE line-up will be a camera phone that Motorola is allegedly working on with Kodak.

Aware that they’ve really dropped the ball in the camera phone stakes, with all other manufacturers having released a 5 megapixel camera phone in 2007, while Motorola can only muster a 3 megapixel variant, the company is rumoured to be working on a whopping 8 megapixel camera phone, with Kodak providing the necessary camera goodies to make it actually take good pictures.

In addition to the huge megapixellage, the new camera phone is also rumoured to offer a large touchscreen, WiFi and GPS.

How much of this is speculation and how much is based on reality, only time will tell. BoyGenius reports that the rumours are false, and he’s been right in the past. Worse, he even suggests that a 5 megapixel phone being worked on with Kodak is still only in development phase, and hasn’t even been given a name yet.

Personally, I’m not holding my breath, as Motorola have consistently underwhelmed in previous years. However, the technology isn’t beyond Motorola’s labs, as they’re preparing to release the A1600 phone in China, which features a 3.2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and GPS. They certainly need to develop a phone with something like these features if they’re not to slip further behind the competition in 2008.

We should know more come the CTIA show in April, where Motorola traditionally shows off its new hardware.

[Source: IntoMobile ]

Sony Ericsson had a strong 2007, selling over 100 million mobile phones, and both their sales and profits all up, despite a range of phones that were largely based either on music (the Walkman phones) or photos (the Cybershot phones). No all-in-wonder phones for Sony Ericsson – just phones that offer a limited feature set, but implement each feature exceptionally well.

So what can we expect for 2008? Time to get the crystal ball out again, as we round-up all the rumours surrounding Sony Ericsson’s 2008 mobile phones.

Conspicuous by the lack of any substantial new coming from this year’s CES were the two South Korean behemoths LG and Samsung. Actually, that’s not quite true: both of these electronics giants were busy showing off hundreds of hi-tech products, with HDTVs in particular occupying pride of place in the line-ups.

As far as mobile phones were concerned, though, CES 2008 was a decidedly low-key affair, with LG in particular showing off a range of phones that were decidedly underwhelming.

More details after the jump.

Well, it was never actually alive, really, more just speculation and rumour. Now Microsoft have gone all official and announced that they’re not working on a Zune phone, nor do they intend on creating a phone that will challenge the iPhone.

Speaking in an interview with Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Bill Gates said: “No, we won’t do that. In the so-called smart phone business we will concentrate solely on software with our Windows Mobile program.”

“We have partnerships with a lot of device manufacturers from Samsung to Motorola and this variety brings us significantly more than if we would make our own mobile phone,” he added.

More info after the jump.