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Sony Ericsson Unveils UMTS P990 Smartphone

Sony Ericsson emphasised its continued commitment to Symbian OS with the announcement of its next generation smartphone to the global development community. The P990 will be the first commercially available smartphone to adopt the enhanced Symbian OS version 9.1 and UIQ 3 software platform.

This flagship UMTS smartphone is Wi-Fi enabled, has a 2 megapixel camera with autofocus and features a new hardware keyboard beneath the flip-down keypad. The phone will start shipping during Q1 of 2006.

The P990 is the next in a line of successful Sony Ericsson smartphones - the P800, P900 and P910 – and is based on the same proven concept and recognisable form factor. All have been popular with users,
operators and software developers, thanks to their powerful productivity features.

As with its predecessors, the P990 is designed to be first and foremost a great mobile phone. It also offers all the benefits of UMTS including video calling, high-bandwidth multi-media downloads and the ability to browse the Internet with full HTML pages. These are viewed in landscape on the new Opera 8 browser. In addition, the P990 is prepared for all major push e-mail clients enabling full e-mail access with attachments, anywhere, anytime.

The P990 has multiple text input methods enabling it to support all users’ needs and preferences. Writing e-mails is made easier by the new hardware keyboard positioned beneath the flip-down keypad on the main body of the phone. Reading them is made simpler on the large 2.8 inch QVGA touch screen. Multi tasking – being able to browse the Internet, send and receive files at the same time as talking – is now possible due to the enhanced capabilities of the new software platform.

Memory has been extended in order to handle all multi-media downloads and e-mail attachments. Memory Stick PRO Duo up to 4GB will be available in the market at launch and the P990 now has up to 80 MB user free memory. A 64 MB Memory Stick PRO Duo is included in the box, preloaded with a VPN client and trial version of a virus scan package.

The combination of UMTS and WLAN features will also significantly improve the efficiency and flexibility of applications such as e-mail, browsing the Internet/Intranet and video telephony. WLAN, available in hot spots all over the world, acts as a complement to high speed 3G services, enabling widespread access to corporate network services.

Other new features include automatic time zone change to the Calendar diary and updated PC sync software with extended synchronization possibilities. Additionally the 2 Megapixel camera with autofocus, digital zoom, photo light plus the bright TFT screen and video recording provide a high quality imaging experience.
The P990 will be commercially available in Q1 2006. The variants will be:

P990i Dual mode UMTS (2100MHz) - GPRS 900/1800/1900 for Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa
P990c Dual mode UMTS (2100MHz) - GPRS 900/1800/1900 for Mainland China. Launch for mainland China dependant on availability of 3G services.
The P990 will be available in 4 hardware keyboard variants: QWERTY, QWERTZ, AZERTY and Russian.

Add comment October 10th, 2005

Boil The Kettle Via Text Message

This gadget is so bizarre and so pointless that it had us checking the calendar to make sure that it wasn’t April 1st. Orange and PG Tips have joined forces (if that doesn’t sound like an unholy alliance then nothing does) to produce a kettle that you can switch on via text message.

The ReadyWhenUR (nice use of txt there guys) actually uses a set of mechanical levers to switch on the power when you text it with the phrase ‘SWITCH ON’.

This strange mechanisation of the process left a lot of technology commentators a little bit flummoxed, until they realised that the whole thing is a Wallace and Gromit tie-in, and as you all know, Wallace would never use an electronic circuit when a set of 10 levers, a rope pulley and a giant boxing glove could do the job just as well. Whether it’s an official tie-in is unclear, but PG Tips and Orange must be pleased with the publicity that their useless gadget is getting.

So let’s be clear. This kettle allows you to remove the heinous step of actually hitting the switch yourself from the water-boiling equation. You still have to fill the kettle, plug it in and make the tea in situ - and pay 10p for the privilege.

If anyone from Orange or PG Tips wants to contact us to explain what this is all about, please feel free.

Add comment October 10th, 2005

Intel Dual-Core Server Chip To Debut

Intel is to play catch up with AMD this week by announcing its dual-core server chip. AMD released its dual-core offering back in April and as a result its market share of x86 server chips rose to 7.4% in the second quarter from 5.6% in the first period.

This was hardly an inroad to have Intel quaking in its boots, hence the lack of urgency in closing the performance gap. The new Intel chip will join the Xeon line and will have the designation DP.

IBM will be one of the first manufacturers to build servers based on Intel dual-core processors. One of the two models planned, the xSeries 346, will be sold at the same price ($2,969) as the single-core model it replaces to encourage users to make the move. HP and Dell are also expected to announce dual-core Intel servers in the next few days and weeks.

Some analysts believe Intel’s dual-core chips will still be held back by their front-side bus design. Intel uses an external memory bus to connect the processor to memory, while AMD integrates that function directly onto the chip, which improves performance.

Add comment October 10th, 2005