Isaiah's Tech

Formerly the Idou, Sony Ericsson has just released the Satio on their own website. Of course, it's available unlocked with AT&T's 3G bands in the US. This handset packs a 3.5-inch touchscreen display with a 360 x 640 resolution, a 12MP AF camera with a xenon and LED flash, a microSD card slot, Bluetooth / WiFi support, an ARM Cortex A8 600MHz CPU, aGPS support, an FM radio, and the S60 5th Edition OS. Check it out on the Sony Style store right here for $649.99.

[Phone Arena]

Vodafone UK looks like they are now selling the HTC Tattoo (here), the Sony Ericsson Satio (Idou) (here), and the LG GM750 (here). All three of them are now available for free, but you'll have to pay a minimum monthly fee. For the Android-based HTC Tattoo you'll have to pay at least £25 ($40 USD) monthly. For the S60-based Satio you'll have to pay at least £35 ($55 USD) monthly on a 2-year contract, but you'll also be able to get it for free on an 18-month contract. However, you'll have to pay a bit more monthly. Last, but not least, for the WinMo 6.5 LG GM750 you'll have to pay at least £25 ($40 USD) monthly. Check em out now!

Update: According to the latest rumour on Tech Radar, Vodafone UK will also be planning to launch the BlackBerry Storm 2 later this week, so be on the look out.

[Electronista]

It looks like Vodafone UK now has the Sony Ericsson Satio now available for pre-orders for free on an 18-month contract or on a 24-month contract. However, you'll have to pay 35 pounds ($56 USD) monthly on the 18-month contract and 40 pounds ($64 USD) monthly on the 2-year contract. This 12MP cameraphone with the S60 OS is also available unlocked for 500 pounds ($797 USD) if that's your thing. It could officially be released on October 13th.

[Tech Radar]

We already know that Vodafone had the Nokia E72, the LG GM750 and the XPERIA X2 listed on their website, but now it looks like two more handsets have made their way to the "Coming Soon" page. The Sony Ericsson Satio - formerly called the Idou - which packs a 12.1MP camera and the less-exciting Samsung Genio - earlier named the Corby. Vodafone says that the Satio is coming as early as next month (October), but lists no possibly date for the Genio. Either way it's something to look forward to.

Vodafone has a couple of hansets on their "Coming Soon" list, so check them all out here.

[Engadget Mobile, Vodafone]

Sony Ericsson has just officially announced that they will have an event on October 7th for the Aino and the Satio. This could mean that both handsets will be available on or shortly around the 7th of October. Both of these handsets will reportedly have Sony Remote Play support. The Aino is a slider that will have a 3-inch touchscreen display, an 8.1MP camera, and GPS support. The Satio (formerly the Idou), on the other hand, will have a 3.5-inch touchscreen display and a 12.1MP camera.

[Pocket-Lint]

Today is a good day. The 12.1MP and 3.5-inch touchscreen display-packed Sony Ericsson Satio / Idou has just hit the FCC. What makes things even better is that it has support for 850/1900 GSM bands, which means North American 3G. This means that it could launch on AT&T in the US, Rogers in Canada or it could be a Latin American model. Let's just hope it hits all three of those places.

[Engadget]

Remember the Sony Ericsson Idou Satio? Well, turns out that - like the Sony Ericsson Aino - it will also be able to sync with your PS3 and its media. But, the Satio takes it over the top by also being able to play PlayStation games, which is pretty magnificent. "The only games mentioned here were Asphalt Road and an unspecified Prince of Persia game, both of which will be in ninth High Definition (nHD) format." As of right now though, it looks like the Satio's content library only involves Asia Pacific consumers only, so it could be exclusive to those people. But, the Satio is on the worldwide Sony Ericsson website, so it could get released worldwide, but we'll just have to wait and see. The Satio is expected to hit the shelves this Fall, so enjoy this video below of the Satio and its gaming capabilities.



[PS3 QJ]

Today, Sony Ericsson released a slew of information. One being that the Sony Ericsson Idou will be getting launched this October under the new and official name, the Sony Ericsson Satio. Just in case you forgot, the Satio has: a 3.5-inch resistive touchscreen with a 350 x 640 resolution, a 12.1MP camera, quad-band GSM / UMTS, GPS, WiFi, and will be running on S60 5th Edition. Check out some hands-on details at this link at Tech Radar.

Sony Ericsson wasn't going to stop with the Idou's name change. Next up is the news on the upcoming Sony Ericsson Yari and Aino handsets, left and right in the picture respectively. First up is the Yari, which is a slider handset. The Yari has: a 2.4-inch display, GPS, and support for the PlayNow services we heard about earlier this year. This phone will be available in Q4 of this year for around €400 ($558 USD) unlocked. The other announced handset is the Aino, which has: a 3-inch touchscreen, an 8.1MP camera, Sony Remote Play support, GPS, and HSPA support. This phone should also be available in Q4, but the price is still unknown.

[Engadget (Satio), Slash Gear (Satio), Engadget (Yari and Aino)]

It's no surprise that Sony Ericsson is failing. They are now posting their 3rd quarterly loss in a row with a €358 million loss in Q1 2009 alone, which is quite a bit of money. It's no surprise that they now have to cut 2,000 jobs in order to soften this burden. They're really slipping as a company and their last hope is the Idou, which I hope isn't overpriced like the XPERIA X1 (unlocked) is. I'm still not interested in it though because there's no slide-out QWERTY keyboard. I love me some QWERTY.

A couple of weeks ago, we heard about Orange expecting to release 5 Android handsets by the end of this year. Well, it looks like we could possibly cut out one from the list. Following their huge loss, it looks like Sony Ericsson will be cutting out their Android phone for the year. Sad, sad news - for Android not Sony Ericsson. Too bad Sony Ericsson really doesn't have any time to slack off. I don't really care if Sony Ericsson were to just get wiped off the face of the planet right now, sorry.

[Boy Genius (Q1 Loss), Engadget (Android)]

Sony Ericsson's last hope is the Idou. According to recent reports, we could see the Sony Ericsson Idou as early as this October. The Idou is running on the Symbian OS, has a 3.5-inch touchscreen, a 12.1MP camera and has GPS. The Idou has been confirmed to be released in the second half of this year, but a German PR rep has said that it will be in retail stores come October - with November being the "fall-back" release date. It's just a rumour, so don't get your hopes up too high. On a side note, I think this is Sony Ericsson's last chance because they are on a huge downhill right now - and it doesn't look like they'll be able to recover anytime soon with their mediocre handsets.

[Boy Genius]

Since every other screenshot always had the Sony Ericsson in black, a new colour was recently announced - silver! The Idou will have the 12.1MP camera with a large 3.5-inch touchscreen. It runs on Symbian, but no one knows how much tweaking they have done with it. I'm excited to see more about this phone. Basically, all we know is that it takes 12 megapixels of goodness. After this phone gets released, I think Sony Ericsson should throw in either the white flag or the towel. I think they're going to be finished soon.

[GSM Arena]

It's no surprise that Sony Ericsson is going through tough times, after expecting a rough quarterly loss. Sony Ericsson's President, Najmi Jarwala, has reportedly stepped down. Mr. Jarwala is going to leave his presidency at the end of March. He is currently the President of Sony Ericsson USA and is also the Head of Region North America. The new President of the company will be Anders Runevad, who is currently the Executive Vice President and Head of Global Sales & Marketing for Sony Ericsson. I think it's great that Sony Ericsson is tanking, since everything they make nowadays is just so uninteresting. I think they should disband after they release the Idou that was announced at MWC earlier this year.

[Boy Genius]

You can now customize the colours in Gmail to however you like, for the most part. The themes you can make now are pretty plain and ugly. But, i'm sure that Google is just trying out the new customizable themes. Knowing Google, you will be able to further customize your Gmail layout later on. So, i guess this customization is in beta, just like Gmail still is. I won't be changing my Gmail layout because i like the themes they already have.

The Blackberry Niagara is on its way. There is no confirmed date, but rumours are saying that it will be available in May of this year. The Niagara looks good, but i am not attracted to the rear of the phone. Boy Genius says that "you can definitely think of it as a cross between the Bold and the Curve 8900. It's bigger than the Curve, but smaller than the Bold." The phone itself is said to be part of the "large screen family" like the Bold. It will also have the standard QWERTY keyboard, a 480 x 360 resolution screen (again, similar to the Bold), aGPS, a 3.2MP camera and has a 624MHz Qualcomm MSM7600 processor.

Today for lunch, i went to ashlee's place, so it was me, her and Nikki. Nikki mentioned that since Chrome was out of beta (She thought Chrome was still in beta, cause she got it confused with Windows 7, LOL), she's going to be making the switch. Chrome is just that fast. My Firefox takes forever to open up nowadays and Chrome pops up, just about, instantly. Anyways, we're not talking about Chrome or Firefox in this post though. I'm going to continue my Internet Explorer bashing. Just how good is Internet Explorer 8? Well, it may have improved speed-wise, but they have an incompatibility list. These are sites that don't render correctly, meaning they don't load the way they are meant to. For a full list go to this link, via ZD Net. Some notables are: google.com, microsoft.com, yahoo.com, live.com, wikipedia.org, youtube.com, gizmodo.com, kotaku.com. Wow, i know! But, just in case you wanted to know just how many sites show up on this "incompatibility list" - it's a grand total of 2,400 major sites. Gotta love Internet Explorer!

Capcom will be revealing a trailer for a new game that they are going to be releasing. "The announcement will apparently come in the form of a trailer available though Xbox LIVE Marketplace on the evening of February 23 (Japan Time)." Other details are unknown, for the time being. It'll be exciting to see what game it will be. Any guesses?

At MWC this year, Motorola has yet to unleash anything that catches the consumer's eyes. Even Sony Ericsson managed to create some buzz with their Idou (See two videos here of the Idou's new interface, via Gizmodo) Anyways, here's a look at the best Motorola thing i've seen so far. The Motorola ZN 300. It still looks like junk, but this could be the reason why Motorola is going down the drain. This phone is packed with a 3MP camera, runs Linux and has Opera Mini as the default browser.

Customize Gmail Themes (and picture): http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/choose-your-own-theme-colors.html
Blackberry Niagara (and picture): http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/02/19/upcoming-verizon-news-blackberry-niagara-hub-updates-netbooks-apex/
IE 8's Incompatible Sites (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5156518/internet-explorer-8s-incompatability-list-is-really-sad
Capcom Announcing New Game (and picture): http://kotaku.com/5156303/capcom-announcing-new-game-on-xbox-live-next-monday
Motorola ZN 300 (and picture): http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Motorolas_ZN_300_Images_Leaked/551-99165-893.html

The iPhone clone. The Meizu M8 officially went on sale. The 16GB model is actually "out of stock" currently on the official Meizu site. The M8 was already available last week, but it went for around $440 USD and was, pretty much, a beta or a test phone. The M8 looks very similar to the iPhone and they may have got their touchscreen down-pat, since it's stirring up quite a bit of news today.

I've talked about this Android-running General Mobile DSTL1 before and it looks like a pretty hot device. It looks like the device is so shiny (see in picture) that it reflects everything and that could be a bit distracting. This phone is packed with the Android OS, a 5MP camera, 4GB of internal storage, a microSD slot, dual SIM slots and even FM radio. I think this phone looks pretty good, how about you guys? I think the first picture (on the other post) looks better though, cause it's not so reflective, but it also doesn't reveal Android. So, both pictures have their ups and downs.

More laptops? Why not? Gateway has unleashed 2 new models: a 15-inch and a 14-inch, the TC7307u and the TC7306u, respectively. These laptops will start off at a base price of $649.99 USD and will have a wide array of features. These 5.3 pound babies each have "a 1.3 megapixel webcam, WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, a 1,366 x 768 resolution panel, a built-in multicard reader and three USB 2.0 ports. You'll also find a variety of colors, Intel's Core 2 Duo CPUs, a dual-layer DVD writer and a 6-cell Li-ion battery." Personally, i like the red one, but i think a black, silver or white one would also look decent. Go Gateway!

We recently heard about the Sony Ericsson Idou, the full touchscreen phone with a 12.1 megapixel camera. Gizmodo explains why cameraphones aren't exactly better the more megapixels they have. Go to this link to read more, via Gizmodo. It's an excellent read.

I didn't get to blog much last night because i went to the Raptors game. They got owned by the Cavaliers and i got to see Lebron in action again. The last Cavs game i watched, Gibson hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to win the game. Today was much different. From the 2nd quarter on, the Cavs dominated the game. On a side note, i didn't really have much to blog about, so i didn't really skip any important topics. I thought MWC was going to be more blog post-packed, but it looks like everything was done after the first day. Maybe MWC will end off with a bang. I don't recall seeing Samsung's 12MP cameraphone anywhere yet.

Meizu M8 (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/18/meizu-m8-defies-the-odds-and-officially-goes-on-sale-again/
General Mobile's DSTL1 (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/18/general-mobiles-dstl1-android-phone-eyes-on/
New Gateway Laptops (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/19/gateway-unveils-14-inch-tc7306u-and-tc7307u-laptops/
Megapixels Aren't Everything: http://i.gizmodo.com/5155942/giz-explains-why-more-megapixels-isnt-always-more-better

According to Engadget's live blog, they just announced the Sony Ericsson W995 and i guess it's impressive for a Walkman phone.

Sony Ericsson looks like they're going to focus more on the camera features on a CyberShot and PMP features on their Walkman phones. This is something that they should have already been doing... Sony mentioned their Idou (12.1MP camera, full touchscreen) and showed a "somewhat frightening video." They also said that they won't be announcing it's commercial name until a late date, maybe in the summer. Wow, looks like i wasted my time keeping up because they actually didn't announce anything entirely new that interested me. Looks like it's already Question and Answer time. I'm still looking for a live stream for future press conferences, but it looks like there won't be any. Boo! Oh, the Idou will have a 3.5-inch touchscreen which i believe is the same as the Nokia N97.

Since this post is so short, i figured that i might as well talk about the Samsung Memoir. It will, in fact, be hitting US on February 25th, just like my old post said. This phone has a full touchscreen and an 8MP camera with a xenon flash. More specs are listed at the link, if you really want to go check it out. It'll be interesting to see how good the Idou will do running Symbian and thankfully, not Windows Mobile.

I am going to finish my Poem for English today and also my Physics homework, so that i won't have to do it tomorrow. Tomorrow will be MWC-filled.

Engadget's Live Blog of Sony Ericsson's Press Conference (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/15/live-from-sony-ericssons-mwc-press-conference/
Samsung Memoir (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/15/samsung-memoir-hitting-t-mobile-usa-on-february-25/

Since i can't find an MWC 2009 live stream and Sony Ericcson's press conference has already started, i'll be constantly refreshing Engadget's live blog of MWC here.

Before Sony Ericsson's press conference started, a couple of their phones slipped out early. Number one on this list is the Sony Ericsson Idou which will run on Symbian and have a 12.1MP camera with a xenon flash. Impressive. There are no other specs revealed for this phone, but we could be expecting it in the second half of 2009.

The Sony Ericsson W995 Walkman phone also slipped out early. This is the Hikaru that was announced a couple of days ago. It will have an 8.1MP camera, GPS, Google Maps, WiFi, 118MB of built-in memory plus an 8GB card. The screen is also scratch resistant. Nothing too new here, but the camera is definitely a plus.

Anyways, i'm constantly refreshing Engadget's live blog of Sony Ericsson's press conference, so i'm gonna focus on that now. They actually just officially unveiled the W995.

Sony Ericsson Idou (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/15/sony-ericsson-idou-revealed-a-little-early/
Sony Ericsson W995 Walkman (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/15/sony-ericssons-w995-walkman-slips-out-ahead-of-schedule/