Todays & Tomorrows Technology

Rumors regarding a PSP phone have circulated for almost as long as the gaming handheld itself has been available, and despite Sony’s best efforts they refuse to die down. According to the Nikkei business daily this weekend, Sony is looking to set up a department that would explore gaming/phone hybrid devices; the team could be established as early as July, suggests the report.
While the Nikkei’s sources are unspecified, the Sony project is tipped to bring together their own gaming-device experience and the cellular functionality of Sony Ericsson handsets. That implies that the project may not be a Sony Ericsson device but solely bear Sony’s branding; previous rumors have suggested strong internal disagreement over Sony Ericsson handsets using the PlayStation name.

Sony themselves have declined to comment on the report, which does at least make a change from the usual “we have no plans” we tend to hear from them. Their most recent handheld, the PSP Go, has WiFi but no 3G connectivity; however as it relies on digital distribution for its gaming titles and content, it would be a likely candidate for the sort of anywhere-downloads integrated WWAN would permit.

Sony Ericsson have announced a new entry-level cellphone, the T715, offering 3G connectivity, a 2.2-inch 240 x 320 LCD display and a 3.2-megapixel camera. The handset differs from the usual run-of-the-mill consumer device by adding Exchange ActiveSync support to the normal IM, MMS and SMS messaging; it also comes loaded with Google Maps.
The T715’s A-GPS is used for directions and also for geotagging photos. Sony Ericsson have loaded on a YouTube viewer and the NetFront browser, which take advantage of the handset’s quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE and HSPA (both a 2100MHz UMTS model and a 850/1900/2100MHz UMTS model, the T715a, will be released). Internal storage is 90MB, augmented by microSD card, and the whole thing weighs 96.5g and measures 91.5 x 48 x 14.9mm.

GSMHelpdesk.nl had a chance to go hands-on with the T715, and you can see some of their live photos in the gallery below. The shots seem to confirm that it’s quite a chunky device, but they praise its full feature-set and media functionality.

Oh crippling disappointment, how we loathe you. According to Sony Ericsson’s Merran Wrigley, the imminent launch event in Singapore – which kicks off in around 30 minutes, at time of writing – is not, in fact, for the XPERIA X2’s triumphant reveal, but merely a regional recap to announce existing devices.

Those devices will include the Saito, the new brand for the Sony Ericsson Idou, together with the Aino and Yari devices announced at the same time in London. The company will also bring out their GreenHeart range, currently consisting of the C901 GreenHeart and Naite.

As for the new smartphone, Merran says “We’ll have some news on the X2 later in the year, but tomorrow’s event is not it.” That’s at least a roundabout suggestion that what we’ve been seeing so far is likely legitimate, but no comfort to anybody hoping for a launch in the next week or so.

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X2 leaking continues, and after the black handsets we’ve seen it’s a nice change to spot not only a silver version but one switched on. Running Windows Mobile 6.5 as tipped in the earlier spec sheet, there’s no telling whether the X2 actually has an OLED display or plain old LCD, but the D-pad does look to be an optical mouse.


The original X1 had an optical mouse, where an on-screen cursor is controlled by rubbing a thumb across the D-pad. Now, no optical mouse was mentioned in the last batch of specifications for the X2, but it seems strange that Sony Ericsson would change the whole color-scheme for the silver model and yet leave the select-button for the D-pad black.

Otherwise there’s nothing so much new here as just pleasant to look at. The XPERIA X2 is believed to have an 8.1-megapixel autofocus camera capable of 30fps video recording, A-GPS and of course that slide-out hardware keyboard.

The small leaked Sony Ericsson XPERIA X2 shot has apparently opened the floodgates, as there are now more live shots of the unannounced smartphone together with a tentative spec list. According to the latest leak, the XPERIA X2 will have an 8.1-megapixel camera with autofocus and 30fps video recording, together with a 3.5-inch WVGA OLED touchscreen and a custom version of Windows Mobile 6.5.
That “custom version” is apparently a specially cooked version of Microsoft’s smartphone platform that’s tipped to be particularly fast on the XPERIA X2’s hardware. No specific CPU is known, though it’s said to be faster than the X1’s Qualcomm MSM7200A 528MHz chip, paired with 512MB of RAM. Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA Panels are making a reappearance, unsurprisingly, and they’ll also be compatible with Windows Mobile 7 should users upgrade.

Other than that, there’s A-GPS, a 3.5mm headphone socket and an accelerometer. Obviously that’s on top of the slide-out QWERTY keyboard, which these new shots show to be made up of separate buttons rather than a molded keypad.