- Subject: SE W950

- New UIQ Devices

- Re: netBook OS.IMG

- Re: netBook OS.IMG

- Metal / Chrome Stylus for 5mx

Date: 16 Feb 2006 09:28:55 +0700
From: Franco Cozzani <address truncated>
Subject: Subject: SE W950

Back to Itamar on the new SE phone:

Dear Itamar,

Yes indeed, this is one more UIQ-3 phone announced by SE. It has a touch screen interface.
At 4 GB of flash memory, it matches the larger capacity Apple iPod nano in that respect.
I like to think, though, that the (normally) seamless integration of the various iPods with iTunes, so typical of the Apple mantra, remains unmatched.
I bought an iPod mini (pink, 6 GB hard disk) last year for my daughter, to start converting her to the cult of Apple, and I listen to the daily press briefings at the US State Department, or watch "this week at Nasa", as audio/video podcasts on my 30 GB, fifth generation iPod, when off to work. But if people are mostly interested to listen to a few (or a lot, with this capacity!) songs on the go, the W950 "sounds" very good indeed.

BTW, SE also annouced the M600 (same specs as the P990 but no mini keyboard, no WiFi and no camera), but - apparently - the P990 itself is delayed, to integrate one more e-mail client application (if I got this right) in its firmware.

Good then, more is coming from SE.
But when?

Regards,
> Franco COZZANI
> Brussels
>

Date: 16 Feb 2006 12:40:55 +0700
From: Arabbitte <address truncated>
Subject: New UIQ Devices

As per Itamar's post, Sony Ericsson recently announced the W950 at the 3G conference in Barcelona. The week before they also announced the M600, bringing the total number of - soon to be available - Symbian 9/UIQ 3 phones to 3. Looking at the features of each of these:

P990: The P910's replacement. Announced in October '05 & originally planned for a Q1 '06 release, this has now been put back to Q2. The reason originally given for the delay was to allow SE to redistribute it's phone/UIQ resources to assist in the development of it's 2 other newly announced UIQ phones. However most industry commentators reckon it's to allow a bit more time for Symbian 9/UIQ 3 applications to be ported/developed. The P990 is positioned as the SE phone with uncompromised functionality. It works very well in a business environment and can also do all the fun things such as music and games. About the only thing it's missing is on-board GPS, it has everything else:
- Business card reader which converts a scanned business card into a contact. (OCR capability)
- Synchronisation with Outlook, document readers/editors, email, internet, RSS feeds, VPN client calculators, etc.
- 2 MP camera with 30 FPS video capability & video call capability
- 3G
- Wireless LAN
- Dedicated QWERTY keyboard (Backlight)
- RDS FM radio & Music player
- 80 MB memory
- MS DUO Pro expansion (as many Gigabytes as you can afford!)
- Removable flip (but unlike P910, qwerty stays when "flipless"
- High Speed USB & phone can be used as a USB drive (USB mass storage device)
- 114 X 57 X 25mm, 150g (about the same as the P910)


M600: Like a smaller (much!) P990i with reduced functionality:
- Suitable for both business and fun use - comes in black or white
- Synchronisation with Outlook, document readers/editors, email, internet, RSS feeds, VPN client calculators, etc.
- No Camera
- 3G
- No Wireless LAN
- "Combo" QWERTY keyboard - On a single key, press the LHS for Q, the RHS for W
- RDS FM radio & Music player
- 80 MB memory
- MS Micro expansion (Yet another physical format for Sony's Memory stick...)
- No Flip
- High Speed USB & phone can be used as a USB drive (USB mass storage device)
- 107 X 57 X 15, 112g (so much thinner and lighter than it's big brother!)

W950: Similar form factor as M600 but aimed primarily at music lovers:
- Branded as a Walkman
- Comes in Mystic Purple colour
- NO document readers/editors or VPN client but still allows synchronisation with Outlook, email, internet, RSS feeds, calculators, etc. It's probable that any missing applications can be added at extra cost.
- No Camera
- 3G
- No Wireless LAN
- Regular Phone keyboard (albeit flush with top surface of phone)
- RDS FM radio & Music player (looks to be much enhanced over M600/P990 equivalents)
- 4 GB memory (LOTS!)
- No external card expansion possible
- No Flip
- High Speed USB & phone can be used as a USB drive (USB mass storage device)
- 106 X 54 X 15, 112g (even more "candy bar" than the M600!)

From a development perspective, all three share exactly the same environment. This, combined with the fact that the M600 and W950 will probably be heavily promoted and subsidised by the networks, will bring the benefits of mass market to these phones resulting - at least - in a greater variety of better quality applications. Nokia's S60 range of phones (mass market smart phones) now have a realistic challenger in the marketplace and the SE phones above - with their touch screens - are starting off with an advantage.

All the above certainly answers most of the early concerns I had over Symbian's strategy for the new environment and how this would impact application availability. I still have a few questions over how the digitally-signed applications will work in practice, but at least if there is lots of interest in this environment, simple commercial realities will overcome the technical challenges.

It will be interesting to see over the next few months what the strategy of the existing P910 application developers will be to those who want to upgrade to one of the new phones above. Will the developers port the application to the new environment? If they do, what will the existing owners have to pay? I recently emailed epocware asking them if the license for the "slovoed" dictionary application I purchased from them could be transferred to the new P990. The answer is no (they also said that I would have to pay almost full price if I wanted to upgrade to the V2 Slovoed for my existing P910i). Like many P910 owners, I have spent quite a bit on 3rd party software and if this investment is lost if I upgrade to a new phone, this will be a factor in whether or not I will do it. Along with the other question as to whether or not I can afford it, that is ;-)

Interesting times ahead.

All the best from Dublin, Ireland
Alan Rabbitte

Date: 16 Feb 2006 13:40:34 +0700
From: Jack
Subject: Re: netBook OS.IMG

to Clare Shepherd who asked
<<<... where do I get the OS.IMG itself. Clare>>>
  Re
Hi,
For "latest" release, have a look also at:
http://portal.vakoveverky.net/modules/articles/article.php?id=6 Jack

Date: 16 Feb 2006 15:53:01 +0700
From: Keith Giles <address truncated>
Subject: Re: netBook OS.IMG

Clare Shepherd, you can get the image at:

http://www.psionteklogix.com/teknet/pdk/netbook-pdk/downloads.htm

I don't know where you're located. I'm in the US and first tried the US image, but found things worked better with the UK image.

A "de-bugged" version is available at:

http://free.pages.at/boni/os.html

It uses a .rar compression instead of a .zip compression. To get to the actual os.img file, you may need something other than WinZip to decompress. There's a free one which will do the job - 7-Zip. You can download it at:

http://www.7-zip.org/

Good luck.

Happy Cycling,
Keith
Sunnyvale, CA

http://ohsix827.home.comcast.net

Thought For The Day: A person's age can be measured by the degree of pain one feels as one comes in contact with a new idea.

Date: 17 Feb 2006 14:23:52 +0700
From: "The FD" <address truncated>
Subject: Metal / Chrome Stylus for 5mx

Does anyone know where you can buy the metal stylus for the 5/5mx/7? I cannot seem to locate a seller online. 

Any help would be useful.
__________________
Tim