Given that the Sendo X2 seems to be one of the more popular topics on the AAS Forums since it was announced at Cannes, we took the chance to catch up with Hugh Brogan, the CEO of Sendo, to ask him about launch dates, price, and clarify the issue on the Series 60 version they're using. And the answers we got were pretty interesting...
Panasonic are showing off the X800 at 3GSM. The X800 has similar functionality to the X700 but the design has been tweaked. The phone is now just 17.2 mm slim. It is aimed at thie business market (the inclusion of the Quickoffice Premier suite is emphasised. We'll bring you more information in the next few days.
Lenovo have announced their first Series 60 phone the P930. Its a dual band GSM flip phone with a 1.3 megapixel camera and GPS functionality. Connectivity is via IR, Bluetooth and mini USB. It includes a MP3 player and support for MMC and SD cards. The most innovative feature in a pen-input feature to allow for Chinese character input (in addition to standard keypad). The phone is aimed at the Chinese market.
Motorola have announced their latest UIQ smartphone - the A1010. It is a Symbian 7, UIQ 2.1, 3G (WCDMA) device with a 2 megapixel camera (the largest on a Symbian device to date). Other features include Bluetooth and USB connectivity, support for transflash memory cards, A-GPS functionality, a second, VGA, front facing camera for video calling, and multimedia streaming, playback and capture (MP3 and MPEG). Motorola say the phone will be available in Q4 2005.
14.4 million Symbain OS powered handsets were shipped in 2004 (reports Symbian). With 41 phones shipping and another 40 phones in development from the 12 announced licencees. Going hand in hand, 4001 third party applications are now available for the platform. Symbian are looking to build on this in 2005 in conjunction with their partners, and bring the unit cost of building a Symbian device into the $70-$100 mark, which will open up the mid-range mass market to their Partners and Licencees.
Nokia announced the 6680 and 6681 Series 60 (version 2) devices today, focusin them on the differing needs of European and American markets. While the 6680 features 3G heavily (with a second VGA front mounted camera for video calls), the 6681 uses EDGE and has Nokia's Push to Talk solution installed, but only the megapixel camera on the rear. Both have all the standard Series 60 features, but there is a variant of the the 6680 (the 6680 Music Phone) which will include the recently announced Windows Medai and Loudeyes powered music store. Full specs on all models to follow.
Series 60 Version 3 is the big software news from the Series 60 Press Conference today in Cannes at 3GSM. Taking advantage of the enhanced features of Symbian OS 9.1 (announced eary Feb 2005), it promises to bring Series 60 to the mass volume market and push up into the high specification phones though the new scalable UI and hi resolution screen support.
Music is the big thing at 3GSM this year. Nokia have announced another collaboration with Microsoft, this time in mobile music. A long-term collaboration between Redmond and Finland over digital media rights includes Nokia supporting Windows Media Audio, Windows Media DRM 10, and the nesseccary Media Transfer Protocol. Couple this with the Series 60 version 3.0 supporting USB mass storage, and there's a major move here to corner this new market.
18mm thick, Support for miniSD, 1.3 megapixel camera with 8x Digital Zoom, charging over USB sync cable, triband support... meet the Sendo X2. At only 95 gramms, and only 85 cubic centimetres, we're talking small, powerful, and desirable. It plays heavily into the hands of the audiophile with both MP3, AAC and AAC+ audio file support. The Sendo Now! screen (still with exclamation mark) makes the phone just as desirable to networks as well, with its customisation possibilities. Luckily Rafe and Ewan are meeting the Management of Sendo later today, so if we can distract them long enough, we'll bring one home with us. Full specs and pictures can be found on the Sendo X2 Device page. ClarificationThe X2 runs Series 60, v1.2, using Symbian OS 6.1.
Along with the tantalising tagline "UIQ 3.0 is now Commercially Available," UIQ Techologies are showing off version 3.0 of their interface. Geared to one handed operation, it promises better network support, and advanced technologies. Well have more later...
The Zi Corporation have announced Qix, a new application interface system. It allows quick access to information from the idle screen. The software interprets the keys pressed and based on that will bring up various information. The system is highly configurable. One example of use woudl be interpreting the keys as letters in a contact's name. The software will bring up a list of possible matching contacts. Unlike similar systems it is not limited to contacts - it can interface with, phonebook contacts, browser bookmarks, installed applications, operator customized services, help files and more
Endgadget Reports on the latest FCC document from Nokia, with the interesting note that 'The compliance statement can be seen in the User Guide…because the size of handportable…and it’s identification label are so small that the compliance statement cannot be printed visible enough.' There's a diagram as well, and the sim card slot is enough to realise that Series 60 is about to get a very small footprint device.
