Unofficial Picture: Sony Ericsson XPERIA X3

After several leaked “official” Sony Ericsson XPERIA X3 images and even a video demonstrating how its UI should look like, now we have something even more tempting – the first live shot of the device.

The first Android-powered device by Sony Ericsson was first spotted 3 months ago. A few days later we saw its user interface caught on video and now we have its first pic shot in the wild.

We admit, the image might be on the small side and of rather low quality but it's the long awaited sign that the official announce of Sony Ericsson XPERIA X3 is getting closer.

All the fuss around the XPERIA X3 (which you might also know as Rachael) is not only because of its hot looks but also because of what's hiding underneath.

The device will run Android OS and comes with the superfast Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon 1 GHz CPU. Reportedly, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X3 will feature HSDPA and Wi-Fi support as well as an integrated GPS receiver.

Also aboard are expected to be a large 4-inch capacitive touchscreen display of 852 x 480 pixels resolution and an 8 megapixel autofocus sharpshooter. We look forward to seeing more of the XPERIA X3 live, so if you've got one lying around, snap a pic for us and send it over, please!

Thanks to: GSM Arena

Hot News: Sony Ericsson's Financial Report

Just as promised, Sony Ericsson revealed their financial report for Q3 2009 today. Things are still looking pretty gloomy for the company, continuing to lose money, but at least the numbers are better this time around (compared to the previous quarter).

The company has managed to ship 14.1 million handsets, which according to the company analysts, accounts for 5% market share. This is a 0.3 million increase over Q2, but still 11.6 million lower than Q3 2008.

The operating income of the company is in fact a loss of 193 million euro. While this by itself is pretty bad it shows sings of improvement over the 274 million euro loss in Q2 2009.

The average selling price of the Sony Ericsson handsets has dropped to 114 euro, from 122 euro in Q2. However this is still higher than the 109 euro ASP recorded in Q3 of 2008.

The hopes of the troubled company for survival depend on the cost-cutting programs started since mid-2008, which should reduce annual operating expenses by 880 million euro. The effect of those programs however will be felt in the second half of 2010.

In shorter terms we expect the market release sales of the Satio, Aino and Yari to have a positive effect on the company's result for the last quarter of the year. An announcement of the XPERIA X3 would also most probably benefit the profit quite a bit.

Thanks to: GSM Arena

Hot News: Palm Pre Lands in Europe

Finally, as of today, you can also purchase Palm Pre in the UK and Ireland. Germany was first to get the long awaited GSM Palm Pre and a day later on 14 October 2009, it became available in Spain as well. And exactly as planned the UK and Ireland will be able to get it with O2 offering it exclusively.

While the Palm Pre pricing in Germany and the UK have been announced long before the launch date those in Spain and Ireland have still been unknown. Till now that is.

The citizens of Germany who intend to purchase a new Palm Pre at a local O2 store should prepare 481 euro for the device (with or without a contract). However, that price doesn't include any free minutes or data (last time we checked, a data plan costs additional 8.50 euro a month).

In the United Kingdom you can get the Palm Pre for free after signing an 18-month agreement with O2 and you will have to pay at least 44.05 GBP (good 48 euro) a month. At first. But keep in mind that in UK you also get up to 3000 minutes to all UK networks, tons of text messages and unlimited data and Wi-Fi.

One of the most anticipated mobile phones of the year is already on sale at the O2 stores in Ireland, as well. The most affordable way to get it with included minutes and data is to sign an 18-month contract with a monthly fee of 40 euro and pay additional 49 euro for the phone itself. Pay-as-you-go customers will be able to get it for 419 euro.

To get the Palm Pre for free in Spain through Movistar you'll have to sign a two-tear contract with a 54.90 euro monthly.

Well, some of those numbers certainly are steep but nobody said the Palm Pre was going to be cheap in the first place. Go ahead and tell us do you think of buying the Palm Pre in the comments.

Thanks to: GSM Arena

Unofficial Picture: Nokia N920

Nokia N920 showed its fancy face for the first time. The N900 successor is rumored to be a touch-only device with a huge 4.13-inch capacitive screen, ARM Cortex A8 CPU, 32GB internal memory and Maemo 6 OS.

Well that wasn't such a surprise, since the rumors for the N920 flooded the web since the N900 announcement. While the N900 sports a hardware full QWERTY keyboard and a smaller resistive screen, the N920 should leave the keyboard and upgrade the screen to the capacitive technology allowing for multi-touch input.

Following the N900, the N920 will also come with GSM connectivity, along with HSPA capabilities. All the other connectivity stuff will be also onboard - Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth. The standard 3.5 mm audio jack is not forgotten along with the microSD card slot. The camera will remain the same as the N900 - a 5 megapixel unit.

The CPU is rumored to be the same as the one on Nokia N900 - the 600 MHz ARM Cortex A8 embedded on the OMAP3430 platform. The Maemo OS is supposed to be next sixth iteration, which is quite doubtful given the fact that ver. 5 has just been announced with N900. No matter the version however, the N920 UI is expected to implement more portrait-oriented applications and interface in contrast to the all-landscape N900.

Despite its GSM powers, the N920 remains a tablet device and will centralize around the VoIP telephony along with all the modern social networking stuff and integration.

In conclusion, we've gotta admit the Nokia N920 surely impresses and intrigues. However until everything is official, we can only speculate here. There's always the possibility that this is just the next Chinese interpretation that will try to make use of the hype that surrounds N900 - Nokia's latest tablet.

Thanks to: GSM Arena

New Phone: Blackberry Storm 2

Finally, after all those leaks the BlackBerry Storm 2 is official. This second version of BlackBerry touch phone has piles of technology by its name - starting with the amazing piezo touchscreen, right to almost every nuke and cranny of the 802.11 specification (something sorely missed in the original).

The Storm2 is available in two versions, both of them having quad-band GSM radios. The North American version (BlackBerry Storm2 9550) also sports CDMA as well as EV-DO Rev A. BlackBerry Storm2 9520 on the other hand comes single-band 3G with HSPA (2100MHz).

The centerpiece of the BlackBerry Storm2 is of course the SurePress touchscreen. No, it's not the old one, which everyone loved to hate (though it won an award). It's a brand new one, complete with piezoelectric gadgetry, which makes the screen clickable only when the device is on.

Here are the other important features of the BlackBerry Storm2: the screen is 3.25" big with HVGA resolution using capacitive technology, while the autofocus camera has 3.2 megapixel resolution. The list goes on with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, built-in GPS receiver and a 1400 mAh Li-Ion battery.

The BlackBerry Storm2 will be available to Vodafone customers in seven European countries and South Africa before the end of the month. A 2-year 35 GBP/month contract will get you the handset for free.

Thanks to: GSM Arena

New Phone: Samsung S7550 Blue Eartg

Being eco-friendly is increasingly important to companies (or rather to their public image). But whatever the reason, the end result are several eco-friendly phones - the latest of which is Samsung S7550 or otherwise known as Blue Earth.

Samsung S7550 Blue Earth is the most advanced eco-friendly phone by the South Korean giant and besides charging from the sun it's capable enough in GPS navigation, Wi-Fi connectivity and it packs enough TouchWizardry to keep the crowds entertained.

The S7550 Blue Earth will start selling this month with shipments already started towards... Sweden. Yes, Sweden of all places, will be the first country to welcome the Blue Phone by Samsung. Other countries should follow soon.

The timing of this announcement is anything else but accidental - it's been only a couple of days ago that LG reminded us of their new eco-friendly LG GD510 Pop, which boasts environmentally conscious materials and design, as well as an optional solar panel. The Pop is set to launch in Europe mid-October (so it should be days away).

France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Portugal along with other European and Asian countries will be getting the S7550 Blue Earth "soon after" the Sweds. How soon however is not really clear.

Are Samsung finding it hard to close operator deals for the Blue Earth - perhaps operators are not really ready to welcome the eco efforts of the manufacturers and those products are doomed to remain marginal.

This year at the EISA, LG snatched the European Green Award and they did it with the LG KM900 Arena. This could be Samsung's counterblow.

We can already tell the competition next year for that same prize will be much more heated. Samsung are slowly building up quite the arsenal - the old Samsung E200 Eco, the E1107 Crest Solar and of course, the more feature-full S7550 Blue Earth. And others are getting into it too.

We reviewed Samsung S7550 Blue Earth and we didn't mind the recycled plastic and paper. In fact, the plastic the phone was made of was on par with that of most other phones and the recycled-paper box had one of the cleverest designs we've seen - it can turn into several different things, like a photo frame or a pen stand. And the phone was a nice break from the bare-minimum eco phones that came before it.

Now, we're just waiting for the first solar powered smartphone, so all that's left to say is - gentlemen (and phone manufacturers), start your electric vehicle's engines and let's spin off!

Thanks to: GSM Arena

New Phone: Samsung W820 Armani

After the recent release of new images, Samsung has unveiled its new Giorgio Armani, fashion-based mobile phone that will run on the new Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system.

Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer presented the new device, which he described as 'the most fashionable phone I've ever had a chance to talk about'.

The new smartphone resembles the Samsung Armani W820/W8200 mobile and, in addition to featuring the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system, the new handset includes a full QWERTY keyboard, a high quality, 3.5 inch-AMOLED screen for more intense colours and GPS.

It also features a five-megapixel camera, according to the Engadget website. In addition, the new Samsung is accompanied by a microSD slot to increase the internal memory capacity, which is already a healthy 8GB.

The Samsung Armani Windows phone will cost €700 in Europe but the release date is, as yet, unannounced.

Hot News: Nokia Maemo on Way

Continuing its recent developments, according to Nokia, the next generation of the Maemo OS will feature support for capacitive screens and multi-touch.

Nokia has revealed that it is working on the next generation of its new operating system, Maemo. Currently usable as version 5 and part of the new, high-end, mobile phone, the N900, the Linux-based OS will be known as version 6 and will include support for capacitive screens and multi-touch, elements of version 5 that have already received some measure of criticism, according to the Intomobile website. In addition, future mobiles that support the new Maemo 6 operating system will support both landscape and portrait mode. Currently, the N900 works only in landscape mode.

Analyst, Tero Kuittinen from MKM Partners, said, "Maemo is clearly far more flexible than Symbian, so it's a better option for advanced devices using various display technologies and rapidly evolving user-interface software."

Thanks to: Mobile Choice

Hot News: Sony Ericsson Readying for Rugged Mobile

Sony Ericsson is working on two new mobile phone designs which promise to be both rugged and waterproof.

At the moment, the new phones are being described as the Sony Ericsson Sunny and the Sony Ericsson Susan - although, observers say that these are merely codenames. The highlight of each phone, apart from their rugged natures and their waterproof capabilities, is that both sport a 5-megapixel camera. However, neither phone will be positioned within the Cyber-shot series of handsets, such as the latest C702, according to the Esato website, which is both rugged and part of the Cybershot family.

While the Sony Ericsson Sunny is based upon a sliding form factor and resembles the T715 handset, the Sony Ericsson Susan sits within a candybar chassis and includes, intriguingly, a Home button - similar to that found on Android handsets. It is not thought that the new phone will support the Android operating system, however.

There are no release, price or distribution details available yet.

Thanks to: Mobile Choice

New Phone: LG GD510 Pop

Today, LG officially announced the LG GD510 Pop … again. This time they gave green light to the in-depth explanation of the Pop's eco-friendly nature.

So what is all this fuss about? According to the new info, the GD510 Pop is an environmentally conscious phone from the ground up - starting with the materials used, going through the production process and ending with the product disposal.

The LG GD510 Pop packaging is made from recycled paper with soy ink printing. The battery charger cuts off power supply once the phone is fully charged, while the phone alerts the user to unplug the charger.

Pre-installed applications like Eco-tree and Eco-calculator under the phone's CO2 menu allow people to track how much they have reduced CO2 emissions just by taking the train instead the car, for instance.

The most important eco feature of the LG Pop however is its optional solar-powered battery cover that uses the power of the sun to charge the phone. According to the official information, it appears to be more efficient than the oneof its rival Samsung Blue Earth. Ten minutes of sunlight exposure should provide the LG Pop user with up to 2 minutes 15 seconds of talk time or up to 180 minutes of standby time - that's impressively efficient.

But turning our attention aside from the eco nature of the Pop, the new LG touch phone is also impressive design-wise - with a thickness of only 11.2mm.

While we're quite fascinated by the single receiver key design, we still can't figure out how you're supposed to reject an incoming call with it.

Specs-wise it has been confirmed that the phone will not have 3G support, but the rest of the specifications remain the same: 3" WQVGA resistive TFT display, 3 MP camera with fixed focus and video recording, Bluetooth, microUSB slot, and FM radio - not much different than LG Cookie.

The LG GD510 will be available in Europe beginning in mid-October (which means right about now), with other markets following soon. The solar panel battery cover will be sold as an optional accessory and its price (much like the price of the LG Pop itself) will be market and region dependent.

Thanks to: GSM Arena

New Phone: Nokia N97 Mini RAOUL Edition

We seem to be amidst a fashion phone splash today as the wave is still rolling with no intention of stopping. The star in this next fashion show is the Nokia N97 mini RAOUL Limited Edition coming only in 1000 units (and it's a Singapore deal for now).

You all know the Nokia N97 mini, so we'll just skip the introduction. The upcoming RAOUL Limited Edition will pack an additional emblazoned back cover with RAOUL signature stripes, a cal-skin leather pouch and appropriate lather dangler. All that stuff will be sold in a huge, beautiful leather-wrapped RAOUL box.

As far as software is concerned, the limited edition Nokia N97 mini will have a special Fashion Asia widget made exclusively for this package.

As a reward for buying this limited edition you will receive a complimentary RAOUL Gold membership with 25 euro credit, which can be traded on your next purchase in their boutiques. In addition Nokia will grant you a 25 euro voucher to show how much they appreciate you buying the fashion package.

Nokia N97 mini RAOUL Limited Edition costs exactly 400 euro and can be pre-ordered now from Nokia Snigapore until 29 October. Remember there are only 1000 available packages so you better hurry up.

Thanks to: GSM Arena

Hot News: SE Aino, Satio, Yari, Jalou, and Naite Hits Stores

Shortly after the release of the Sony Ericsson Satio, here comes the launch of the Aino, Yari and Naite. With those three fellows released almost the full Sony Ericsson portfolio is on the market now with only the X2 and the XPERIA Pureness waiting in the line for release.

From now on the Sony Ericsson Aino, Yari, Jalou and Naite are available for purchase. After the launch of the long awaited Satio, it seems that Sony Ericsson just can't stop pushing their phones out in the wild.

The Aino can be yours for nearly 420 euro, while the Yari can fit in your hand for 250 euro. The fashion-conscious Jalou is priced at 170 euro, while the eco-friendly Naite will cost you around 200 euro and it might not save the nature, but will still will make quite a few green guys happy.

Almost the whole Sony Ericsson phone lineup has been released now and there is only XPERIA X2 and Pureness left in the works officially. It's a public secret that the XPERIA X3, also known as Rachael, is cooking somewhere hidden from the public and it's rumored to be announced next month. It should be the company's first Android smartphone. Let's hope the income of the released trio will help push Sony Ericsson through Q4 so that they will be able to finish all their planned stuff.

Thanks to: GSM Arena

Hot News: Sony Ericsson Satio Hits Shelves

The long sought after Sony Ericsson Satio has just been released and it's attacking the retailers worldwide. So if you spent the last couple of months dreaming of buying the beast, now might be a good time to break that piggy bank of yours. After all early adopters and rip-off prices are pretty much synonyms as far as mobile phone manufacturers are concerned.

The Sony Ericsson's flagman Satio, previously known as Idou, became the dream gadget of many people since its announcement back in February during the MWC 2009. The Satio managed to impress with 3.5-inches touchscreen, 12 megapixel camera with xenon and LED flashes, all connectivity options you may think of and the latest Symbian S60 5th edition OS.

Its hardware resembles that on its rivals - a 600Mhz AMR Cortex CPU with PowerVR SGX graphics - the same stuff used to power up Apple iPhone 3GS, Nokia N900 and Samsung i8910 Omnia HD.

Thanks to: GSM Arena

Hot News: Blackberry Onyx 9700 Out in November

Mobile dealers are saying that the BlackBerry Onyx 9700, the follow-up device to the powerhouse Bold 9000 will launch in November, and on Orange and Vodafone.

BlackBerry has been totally mum on the Onyx, which leaked back in September. Though likely to be another high-end, 3G smartphone like the Bold 9000, a leaked photo showed it with an optical trackpad instead of the traditional trackball, just like recent entry-level 'Berry, the Curve 8520.

Wonder if that's the end of the trackball - we recently also got wind of two new 3G BlackBerrys, both of which feature optical trackpads.

Thanks to: Mobile Choice

Hot News: Motorola DEXT Out This Week

This week sees the arrival of what many are tipping as Motorola's return to the mobile phone arena. The Motorola DEXT is a Google Android phone and is the first to sport the manufacturers MOTOBLUR solution that cleverly manages and integrates all your contacts into one view. The handset which is exclusive to Orange will be available from Orange Stores from 7 October, with Phone 4u following suit the next day. However, early birds will be able to get their hands on the DEXT from 3pm tomorrow at the Orange Multimedia Store in Milton Keynes, the operator's first Multimedia Store in the UK.

The Motorola DEXT will be available for free on a 24 month contract at a cost of £34.26 per month. This includes 900 any network call minutes, unlimited texts, Orange Maps along with inclusive anytime internet browsing.

Thanks to: Mobile Choice

New Phone: Samsung T939

T-Mobile are pretty keen on getting every hot Android-powered device so the arrival of Samsung T939 Behold II in their window comes as little surprise. The US version of the Samsung I7500 Galaxy has just appeared on the company website in a pretty nice brown dress.

The full-touch Samsung T939 Behold II is quite similar in terms of functionality to its overseas cousin. It sports a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash and relies on a 3.2-inch AMOLED display for its operation.

Some of the other highlights of the Samsung Behold II include WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, and microSD card slot. It will also have the company's proprietary TouchWiz UI preinstalled on top of the Android OS.

T-Mobile are yet hesitant to reveal the exact release date or the pricing of the handset but they promise to start selling it "in time for the holidays."

Thanks to: GSM Arena

Hot News: Android 1.6 Donut Now Released

T-Mobile has confirmed that over-the-air updates of the Android operating system, version 1.6 but known by many people as 'Donut' (and which will succeed Cupcake), have now begun to be issued.

The new version of the Android operating system improves upon several areas of the current version including Android Market, enhancing the navigation aspects to and in this service plus an integrated camera, camcorder and gallery interface.

Voice Search has now been improved so that, in use, it responds quicker. This search option is also better integrated with the applications on your phone making the utility more efficient - it also includes the ability to dial contacts, according to the Mobile Crunch website.

Speaking of searching, the general search option has also been updated making it easier to search a variety of areas including the browser, bookmarks, history, your contacts area and the web itself. You will also be able to do this directly from the homescreen.

Thanks to: Mobile Choice

Hot News: Samsung Giorgia Armani

New press images of the forthcoming Samsung Giorgio Armani W820/W8200 (which appears to be different from the Samsung Armani 2) have been released.

A luxury mobile phone, the Samsung Giorgio Armani features a standard keypad format interface while the rear the of the chassis appears to be coated with gold. Features for the new phone include a large, 3.1in touchscreen packing in a WVGA resolution. HSDPA connectivity is supplied to aid fast data transfer of the likes of music files, video and images while a built in camera offers a good specification of 5-megapixels. A DMB TV socket is also supplied along with a microSD card slot that will enable you to expand the internal memory up to a maximum of 16GB. Bluetooth is also supplied to attach accessories wirelessly, according to the Samsung Hub website.

At the moment, there are no details of any distribution outlets. In addition, there are no price details mooted at the moment.

Thanks to: Mobile Choice

Hot News: Nokia N86 8MP Get an Up Date. Now with Face Detection

Nokia has released another update that improves the camera performance of its imaging flagship - the Nokia N86 8MP. The key addition in this one is face detection, but there's also a general improvement of still image and video quality plus other updates and bugfixes.

The previous major update for the N86 8MP was 11.043, which improved quality in videos and low-light shots. The new update builds on that, adding red-eye removal, a new focus point indication and improved macro shots.

With this new update, Nokia N86 8MP also gets bugfixes to Ovi Maps, the browser, Nokia Messaging, Music store client, Here and Now (which is still in beta), N-Gage and the RealPlayer.

The update also adds an Ovi Store client (which reportedly is still buggy) and does some tweaking that should improve performance. Interestingly it seems like Nokia did some spring-cleaning - the update also frees up some memory both in storage and in RAM - C: now has 70MB free and RAM has 65MB free on system boot. As for the update itself - it's about 8MB big and preserves user data. The new (20.115) update is available over the air or through Nokia Software Update.

Thanks to: GSM Arena