Mike Slocombe

Cornucopian Cavalcade Of Canon Cameras Confirmed
Canon have unleashed a veritable avalanche of new cameras today, with no less than ten new models being announced ahead of the PMA 2006 show.
Canon EOS 30D
Top of the pile is the 8.2 megapixel Canon EOS 30D, which is something of a minor tweak of the EOS 20D, offering a slight body redesign, 3.5% spot metering, selectable continuous shooting speed, 100,000 shutter cycle life and a larger LCD monitor.
Sporting a wide 100-3200 ISO range, the camera offers the same sensor and image processor as the EOS 20D but comes in at a slightly lower price than its predecessor (EOS 30D body only, €1,399, £955)
Link
Canon PowerShot S3 IS
Next up is Canon’s third generation ‘super zoom’ compact, the 6-megapixel PowerShot S3 IS.
The successor to the popular S2 IS, the camera offers the same monster 12x optical zoom, with new features including a larger 2.0-inch vari-angle screen and an increased sensitivity range going up to ISO 800.
Decked out in a mean looking gunmetal gray, the PowerShot S3 IS digital camera will be available in May for an estimated selling price of $499.99 (~£286, €420).
Link
Canon PowerShot SD700 IS Digital ELPH (European name: IXUS 800 IS)
Proudly touted as the new flagship of the range, the 6 million pixel Canon PowerShot SD700 IS comes with an optical Image Stabiliser, a 4x optical zoom, ISO range up to 800 and a large 2.5-inch LCD.
This is the first ever ultra-compact from Canon to feature built-in image stabilisation, and with a host of auto, scene and manual modes looks to be a very versatile camera.
The camera will be available in April for an estimated selling price of $499.99 (~£286, €420).
Link
Canon PowerShot SD600 and SD630 (European name: Canon Digital IXUS 60 / IXUS 65)
Looking down the range, Canon have rolled out two more additions to their Digital ELPH / Digital IXUS range, the PowerShot SD600 and SD630 cameras.
Both these 6-megapixel cameras feature a 3x optical zoom and High ISO Auto and ISO 800 settings and seem identical apart from the lack of an optical viewfinder and bigger 3.0 inch LCD screen on the SD630.
The SD600 comes with a smaller 2.5-inch screen and will be available in March for around $349.99 (~£200, €295). The PowerShot will be available in April for an estimated selling price of $399.99 (~£230, €336).
Link
Canon Powershots A700 and A540
Turbo-boosting its ‘A’ series range of compacts with gusto, Canon has announced no less than five new models.
Keen photographers might like the look of the PowerShot A700 and A540 cameras which offer 6 million pixels, full photographic control, 2.5-inch screens and the option to add conversion lenses.
The $349.99 A700 comes with a substantial 6x optical zoom, optical viewfinder and ISO sensitivity up to ISO 800, while the $299.99 A540 offers a 4x optical zoom, viewfinder and ISO 800.
Both should be available in March.
Link
Canon PowerShots A420, A430 and A530
Taking the lift down to the bargain basement, we find three new entry level cameras, the Canon PowerShots A420, A430 and A530, all sporting a 1.8-inch screen and optical viewfinder.
The 4-megapixel A420 serves up a 3.2x zoom and 5-point AiAF auto focus, the 4-megapixel A430 has a 4x optical zoom and 9-point AiAF auto focus while the A530 ramps up the resolution to 5 million pixels, a 4x zoom and ISO 800.
Link
Did we ever mention that we think DPReview is great?
Canon
21 February, 2006
Exilim Zoom EX-Z850 Digital Camera From Casio
A shiny new 8 megapixel digital camera has just rolled of Casio’s well-used photographic slipway, the Exilim Zoom EX-Z850.
The EX-Z850 offers 8.1 megapixel photos, a 3x optical zoom with both manual aperture and shutter speed priority AE options for advanced users who aren’t afraid to delve about with exposure options.
There’s a sizeable 2.5″ Super Bright 115k pixels LCD onboard and the EX-Z850 includes the latest version of the EXILIM Engine, featuring the software-based Anti Shake DSP to reduce the risk of blurred shots.
Although effective, this is never as good as a proper optical stabilisation system, and relies on ramping up the ISO and shutter speed to freeze action – so you often get sharp pictures at the expense of increased image noise.
Operation looks to be pretty fast, with the Casio boasting a one-second power up, 0.005 second shutter lag and high-speed picture playback of approximately 0.1 seconds interval.
An intriguing Zoom Continuous Shutter feature creates a “shot within a shot”, with the user selecting an area of an image to zoom into and the camera then taking two images with a single press of the shutter.
We’re not quite sure what that means or how the effect is achieved, but we hope it doesn’t involve digital zoom.
The camera’s got a decent battery life capable of notching up 440 shots on a single charge, with the camera sporting three new flash functions:
Rapid Flash blasts out three flash photos in only one second, Soft Flash prevents overexposure of subjects photographed up close and High Power Flash reckons that it can illuminate subjects up to 12.1 metres away.
Casio have also included its Revive Shot, which claims to “refresh faded colours of old photos by bringing them back to life in digital format.”
Apparently it does this by “automatically adjusting for obliquity even when photos are shot while still in the album” – whatever that means.
The camera looks nice enough but without proper optical stabilisation and extended ISO performance, we reckon Casio are going to have to offer a really competitive price to make this one stand out from the pack.
EX-Z850 SPECIFICATIONS
Sensor 1/1.8 ” Type CCD, 8.1 million effective pixels
Image sizes 3264 x 2448, 3264 x 2176 (3:2), 2816 x 2112, 2304 x 1728, 1600 x 1200, 640 x 480
Movie clips 640 x 480, 320 x 240
File formats Still: JPEG (Exif 2.2)
Movie: AVI (MPEG-4)
Lens 38-114mm equiv, F2.8-5.1, 3x optical zoom
Image stabilization Anti Shake DSPDigital zoom up tO 8x
Focus Contrast type AF (selectable between spot, multi), 9-point Multi AF
Exposure Modes Program AE, Shutter Priority AE, Aperture Priority AE
Focus Macro mode, Infinity mode, Pan focus, Manual focus
AF assist lamp Yes
Focus distance Normal: 40cm to infinity, Macro: 10 to 50cm, Manual: 10cm to infinity
Metering Multi-pattern, Centre weighted, Spot
ISO sensitivity Auto (Max ISO1600 when using ‘Anti-Shake’ or’ High Sensitivity’ BEST SHOT modes)ISO50, ISO100, ISO200, ISO400
Exposure compensation +/-2EV in 1/3 EV steps
Shutter speed
Program AE: 1/2 to 1/1600 sec
Shutter Speed Priority and Manual Exposure AE: 60 to 1/1600 sec
Aperture Priority AE: 1 to 1/1600 sec
Aperture
Program and Shutter Speed Priority AE: F2.8-8.0 (Autoswitching)
Manual Exposure and Aperture Priority AE: F2.8/4.0 (Autoswitching)
Connectivity USB 2.0
Storage 8MB internal memory, SD / MMC compatible
Power NP-40 Lithium-ion rechargeable battery
Weight (no batt) 130 g
Dimensions 89 x 58.5 x 23.7 mm
Casio
21 February, 2006
January A Bumper Month For Spam, Mobile Spam Increases
So, it’s Monday morning, you’ve sat down at your desk, powered up your PC and then slunk lower and lower in your chair as a fresh tide of spam rolls into your inbox.
And if you’re thinking that January was a pretty bad month for spam, you’d be right.
Commtouch’s virus and spam statistics for January 2006 show that the year started out with a bang, with four massive virus attacks unleashed during the month including an evil sounding “multi-wave attack of 7 variants.”
The company noted that the most aggressive attacks struck before the average anti-virus vendor could even release a signature
“The number of massive attacks grew in January,” points out Amir Lev, President and CTO. “In large part due to the speed of distribution, they succeeded in reaching many of their targets despite the presence of traditional anti-virus programs.”
Looking through the depressing stats for January reveals 19 new email-born significant virus attacks, of which eight (42%) were categorised as “low intensity”, seven (37%) “Medium Intensity” and four (21%) rated as massive attacks – a rare phenomenon for a single month.
The report also tracks the domains used by spammers, with hotmail.com leading the list with 4.7 million spams, followed by yahoo.com (4.2 million), msn.com (2.1 million), cisco.com (1.9 million) and gmail.com (1.5 million).
As usual, most of the spam revolved around dodgy pharmaceuticals (52%), gifts (14%), ‘enhancers and diets’ (13%), refinancing (7.5%), software (6%), porn and local dating (5%) and fraud (just under 1%).
If musing over updated spam graphs are your thing, check out the Commtouch stats page
SMS Onslaught in Korea
In Korea, unwanted text messages and spam phone calls have got so bad that the Korea Communication Commission (KCC) is to take the unusual step of punishing the country’s telecom companies, along with unlawful marketers.
“Up until now, we have checked just spam senders. But we are required to take punitive actions against fixed-line telecom entities, which are partially responsible,” commented KCC secretary general Kim In-soo.
Initially, mobile spam looked to be in decline after the introduction of an opt-in system in March, 2005 which prohibited marketers from placing promotional calls or sending advertising messages to handset users who hadn’t given explicit permission in advance.
Sneaky marketers tried to get around this with a clever bit of human engineering: they fired off hundreds of computer-generated calls to mobile phones that hung up after just one ring.
Any curious recipients calling back to find out whose call they missed found themselves connected to a porn hotline charged at premium rates. Ouch!
20 February, 2006
Dixons Loads Unsigned Music Acts Onto MP3 Players
In an interesting and innovative twist, Dixons have teamed up with Pulse Rated, a Internet radio station, to fill up the empty space on new MP3 players with tracks from unsigned bands.
The 60 unsigned bands – none of which you’re likely to have heard of before – were shortlisted by Pulse Rated from more than 10,000 wannabes, and Dixons will load a freebie tune from each on selected MP3 players.
The music covers a huge range of genres including pop, rock, dance, R&B and hip-hop (no death metal?).
Bryan Magrath, stores and marketing director at Dixons, was honest about the music on offer: “It is an indication of the rate at which technology is moving that just two years ago an initiative like this wouldn’t have been considered. We won’t be giving Simon Cowell sleepless nights yet, but we do believe we can play a role in helping break new and emerging music talent.”
Richard LaBrum, chairman of Pulse Group, commented: “This promotion is an incredible opportunity for these up-and-coming acts to get their music listened to by a much wider audience.”
We expect this initiative to increase our already impressive tally of artists offered recording deals as a result of our activities – all of which are provided totally free of charge to the artists,” he added with a plug-tastic air.
Anything that gives enterprising bands an opportunity to be heard outside their immediate fanbase can only be good for consumers and the band themselves, so we like the sound of this a lot.
Unless the next MP3 player we get comes with a load of boy band tosh, of course.
The first players preloaded with unsigned bands will be the 512MB and 1GB Logik MP3 players, retailing at £39.99 (~$70, ~€58) and £64.99 (~$113, ~€95) respectively.
Dixons
Pulse Rated
20 February, 2006
MySpace: Parents’ Concerns Grow
The kids may love it, but concerns are growing over social-networking sites like MySpace.com which encourage young users to build ever-larger circles of friends.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch forked out $580 million for MySpace last July and the site is now the undisputed big daddy of all U.S. web community sites, holding nearly 50 percent of the market share – 10 times more than any single rival site, including Yahoo, Craigslist, Facebook, and LiveJournal.
Recent newspaper headlines have led to some authorities claiming that the site is a magnet for adult sexual predators, with Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal already investigating a number of sexual assaults with links to MySpace.
“What’s troubling is the pornography and the access by children,” Blumenthal told ZDNet.
Much of the problems are related to teenagers putting up far too much personal information about themselves, making it easier for web weirdos, sleazy stalkers and other undesirables to make contact.
Last week, authorities in Santa Cruz, California arrested a 26-year-old man on suspicion of felony child molestation after he met a 14-year-old high-school student on MySpace.
According to a spokesman for the Santa Cruz County sheriff’s office, the suspect had claimed he was 15, 17 and 26 years old in online conversations that led to several meetings.
MySpace has also been associated with murders in Baltimore and New Jersey, as well as rape and child molestation cases in Texas, Connecticut, Hawaii and California.
Playboy campaign
Playboy’s current campaign, “the Girls of MySpace”, solicits naked photos from the site’s users who are “18 or older,” for possible publication in the magazine, with the company offering discounted membership to its online club for MySpace members.
Here’s the tacky online blurb from the Playboy site:
When we cast our ‘net looking for the sexiest Girls of MySpace, we had no idea the response would be so overwhelming. Hundreds of sexy submissions have already come in, and there’s no sign of letting up. Before Playboy’s all-original Girls of MySpace pictorials unfold this spring, we’ll be showing you a daily updated submissions gallery. Rate the candidates and when you’re done check out users’ outrageous online hookup stories.
With promotions like this, it’s not surprising that the site is proving attractive to older predators seeking to exploit young members.
MySpace says that their users have to be at least 14 years old and are required to fill out an online form that includes their date of birth (like a 13 year old is going to take much notice of that!) – but with no effective screening or enforcement mechanism, we can see more trouble ahead.
The company claims that it uses an automated search engine and a team of 100+ workers to sift through the “tens of millions” of profiles to pick out potential minors, but added that members need to recognise “the public nature of the Internet.”
Perhaps parents need to understand the ‘nature of Murdoch’ and his News Corp organisation too?
Myspace.com
Myspace Tips For Parents
20 February, 2006
What Software On Which PDAs? Survey
Handango has released their annual “Handango Yardstick”, a global snapshot of the state of the mobile content industry in 2005.
Containing specific reports for each of the five major mobile operating systems – BlackBerry, Palm OS, Symbian OS and Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone – the Yardstick offers stats on the top devices downloading software and digital content, best-selling applications and ringtones and software sales by category etc.
Their 2005 report reveals that multimedia was the hot new category for 2005 with fast-rising sales on all platforms.
Across the board, MP3 and music players; DVD/video converters and viewer and ringtone managers topped the best sellers list, with multimedia content ranking seventh in the top ten sales by categories
The big hitters included Ring Tone Megaplex for BlackBerry, Ringo Pro for Palm OS, Pocket-DVD Studio for Windows Mobile Pocket PC and SmartMovie for Symbian OS.
The Yardstick reported an overall increase in the average selling price (ASP) of mobile applications, surging upwards from $16.96 in 2004 to $20.03 in 2005.
The dynamic nature of the smartphone/PDA industry was reflected by the fact that only four of the top ten devices adding content in 2004 – the Palm Treo 600/650, O2 XDA, Sony Ericsson P900/P910 and Palm Tungsten T Series – stayed in the list.
New additions included the Motorola RAZR V3, the BlackBerry 7100 Series and the BlackBerry 7250/7290 (the first BlackBerry smartphone to ever make the top ten).
Palm
The Palm Treo 650 shunted the Treo 600 into second place as it grabbed the title of the number one device adding content, with the Palm Tungsten E, Palm Tungsten T3 and Palm Tungsten T5 trailing behind.
Although more than 2,125 new applications were created for the Palm OS in 2005, this represented a hefty 89 percent decrease from last year.
Here’s the top ten best-selling applications for Palm OS according to Handago:
- 1. Agendus Professional Edition
- 2. Treo Voice Dialing
- 3. AOL for Treo 650
- 4. Agendus Standard Edition
- 5. PocketMirror Standard Edition
- 6. Diet & Exercise Assistant
- 7. SplashID
- 8. KeySuite
- 9. SOLITAIRE PACK
- 10. Ringo Pro
Palm Yardstick [PDF]
Windows Mobile Pocket PC
A total of 3,024 new applications were launched on Windows Mobile Pocket PC platforms in 2005 – down on the previous year’s total by 17 percent.
The top ten Windows Mobile Pocket PC applications were:
- 1. Spb Pocket Plus
- 2. Battery Pack Pro
- 3. Agenda Fusion
- 4. Pocket-DVD Studio
- 5. SBSH PocketBreeze
- 6. Microsoft Voice Command – US Edition
- 7. Pocket Informant
- 8. eWallet
- 9. Pocket Controller-Professional
- 10. Spb Weather
Pocket PC Yardstick [PDF]
Smartphone Yardstick [PDF]
BlackBerry
The Handango Yardstick reported a busy year for BlackBerry with 462 new applications contributing to a 67 percent increase over last year.
The top three BlackBerry devices adding content in 2005 — the BlackBerry 7250, BlackBerry 7290 and BlackBerry 7100t — were also three of the top smartphones adding content across all platforms.
The top ten best-selling applications for BlackBerry were:
- 1. Ring Tone Megaplex
- 2. WebViewer
- 3. Aces Texas Hold’em – No Limit
- 4. IM+
- 5. Acrobat PDF Graphical Attachment Booster
- 6. CryptMagic + PC Desktop
- 7. Sol Mania
- 8. Ascendo Photos
- 9. Requwireless Value Bundle
- 10. PocketDay Professional Edition
Blackberry Yardstick [PDF]
Symbian Yardstick
Handago
20 February, 2006
W220 RAZR-lite From Motorola For The Masses: 3GSM
Motorola has unveiled their new, mass-market Motorola W220 phone at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona, Spain.
Using the hugely popular – and expensive – RAZR clamshell phone as inspiration, the handset offers the same super-slim factor form but with a lot of the goodies taken out.
Designed with the goal of “connecting the next billion” handset users, the highly affordable W220 comes with a basic feature set including an FM radio (but no MP3 capability we could find), a 600-entry phonebook and a 128×128 pixel colour screen.
There’s no external display for caller ID purposes, with Motorola instead offering a simple set of three icons on the outer fascia displaying call status, message status, and battery remaining.
Targeted at emerging markets, the phone is a pretty lightweight affair – just 93 grams – with Motorola claiming a hugely impressive 497 minutes of talk and 293 hours of standby.
Other features on the Motorola W220 include a WAP 2.0 compliant browser, alarm clock, MMS, SMS and NSM messaging services and the ability to download the all-important wallpapers, ringtones and games.
With such a slender feature set, we expect the W220 to be offered for next to nowt for contract deals sometime in Q3 2006.
Things have been somewhat quiet for Motorola at the 3GSM conference so far, leading pundits to anticipate big things at CTIA cell phone trade show in Las Vegas, from April 5-7 in Las Vegas. As ever, we’ll keep you posted.
Motorola
16 February, 2006
i320 Smartphone From Samsung – More Details
Samsung have released a few more details about their new i320 Smartphone, which was unveiled at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona.
The mean’n’lean, wafer thin, none-more-black smartphone weighs in at a sprightly 95g, with a 2.2″ 262K colour TFT screen offering QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) resolution – a healthy improvement on the Treo 700w’s paltry 240×240 screen.
The pocket-friendly i320 runs on Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0, and offers the new Direct Push Email functionality via the Messaging & Security Feature Pack when used with Microsoft Exchange Server SP2.
For a fully featured smartphone, the dimensions aren’t too bulky- 111mm x 59mm x 11.5mm only – so you won’t feel too much of a berk walking around with it stuck to your ear.
Impressively, there’s a thumping great 120MB of onboard memory with a microSD slot for expansion and a QWERTY keyboard for bashing out short messages.
When it comes to multimedia, the Samsung sports a 1.3 megapixel camera and supports MPEG4 / H.263 / H.264 / WMV video formats and MP3 / AAC / AAC+ / WMA / WAV / OGG audio formats, with dual stereo speakers onboard.
Connectivity comes in the shape of Bluetooth with the tri-band (900/1800/1900) GSM phone capable of GPRS/EDGE but no Wi-Fi as far as we can see – a major omission in our book. Bad Samsung.
Samsung i320 is scheduled to arrive in your greasy palms sometime during Q2 of 2006.
Samsung i320 specifications:
Band : GSM 900/1800/1900MHz
Data : EDGE/GPRS
Size : 111mm x 59mm x 11.5mm
Weight : 95g (3.35oz)
Display : 2.2″ 320 x 240 262K Color TFT
OS : Windows Mobile 5 for Smartphone
Camera : 1.3 Megapixel Camera
Video : Video capture/playback
Messaging : SMS/MMS
Email : Yes (POP/IMAP/SMTP)
Bluetooth : Yes
Infrared : No
Java : Yes
Polyphonics : Yes
Memory : 120MB User Memory, External Memory (microSD)
Features : QWERTY Keyboard, Video Recording & Messaging (MPEG4/H.263), Video Playing (MPEG4/H.263/H.264/WMV), MP3 / AAC / AAC+ / WMA / WAV / OGG, Dual Speaker / Speakerphone, Bluetooth Technology / USB / Voice Recognition, Document Viewer
Samsung
16 February, 2006
Fujifilm FinePix F30 Offers Amazing ISO 3200
With PMA 2006 (Photo Marketing Association International) looming ever closer on the horizon, there’s been a flurry of new camera announcements, and of real interest is Fujifilm’s successor the award-winning FinePix F10/F11 digital compacts, the new 6.3 megapixel Fujifilm FinePix F30.
Fuji are billing the F30 as the world’s first digital compact camera to feature an incredible IS3200 sensitivity at full resolution – that’s eight times as effective in low light as a conventional compact with IS400.
The camera comes with a 3x (36-108mm equiv) F2.8-8 zoom and uses a sixth generation Super CCD and Fujifilm’s groundbreaking Real PhotoProcessor II.
Although we would have liked to have seen an optical stabilisation system built in, the high sensitivity rating should prove effective for freezing action and producing atmospheric shots in dark lighting.
As with the F11, the camera boasts a sizeable 2.5-inch LCD screen, coated with Fujifilm’s proprietary CV film for reducing glare and reflection.
The overall layout of the F30 remains the same as the F11, although the design has been tweaked slightly with a new mode selection switch and some smoothed body lines.
We like the addition of a dedicated exposure compensation button on the back of the camera as we found some functions on the F11 to be annoyingly buried deep in menus.
Shutter lag and start up time remains nippy (0.01 and 1.4 second respectively) and there’s a new ‘intelligent flash’ system onboard which takes uses the camera’s high sensitivity to combine natural foreground illumination with balanced exposure in the background.
This, claims Fuji, will avoid, “both the messy background blur of ‘slow-sync’ flash, and the stark contrast of conventional flash.”
Sticking with their annoyingly obscure xD-Picture Cards, the FinePix F30 boasts an exceptional 500-shot battery life and should be available from UK retailers in May 2006.
Pricing to be announced nearer to the date of retail launch.
Sensor 1/1.7 ” Type CCD, 6.3 million effective pixels
Image sizes 2848 x 2136, 3024 x 2016 (3:2), 2048 x 1536, 1600 x 1200, 640 x 480
Movie clips 640 x 480 @30fps, 320 x 240 @30fps with Monoaural sound
File formats JPEG (Exif 2.2)
Movie AVI (Motion JPEG)
Lens 36-108mm equiv, F2.8-8, 3x optical zoom
Focus AF with Macro
AF area modes Center, Multi
Macro 5cm (wide)
Metering 25- zone TTL
ISO sensitivity Auto, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200
Shuttter speed 1/2000-15secs
Aperture F2.8-8
Modes Auto, Program AE, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Burst/Continuous
Scene modes Natural light, Natural light with flash, Portrait, Landscape, Sport, Night, Fireworks, Sunset, Snow, Beach, Underwater, Museum, Party, Flower close-up, Text
White balance Auto, Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight), Fluorescent light (Warm white), Fluorescent light (Cool white), Incandescent light
Self timer 2 or 10secs
Continuous shooting 2.2fps max 3 images
Image parameters Standard, Chrome (vivid), B&W
Flash Auto, Intelligent flash mode, Red eye reduction, Forced flash, Supressed flash, Slow synch, Red eye reduction & Slow synch
Viewfinder No
LCD monitor 2.5-inch, 230,000 pixels
Connectivity USB 2.0 high speed, Video out
Print compliance PictBridge
Storage 10MB internal memory, xD-Picture Card
Power NP-95 Li-ion battery
AC adapter AC-5VC included
Weight (no batt) 155 g (5.5 oz)
Dimensions 92.7 x 56.7 x 27.8 mm (3.6 x 2.2 x 1.1 in)
Fujifilm
15 February, 2006
K610i 3G Phone Announced By Sony Ericsson: 3GSM
Sony Ericsson has slipped out is slimmest-ever 3G handset at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona, Spain.
The Sony Ericsson K610i is a lightweight and affordable 3G phone measuring a pocket-unruffling 102 x 45.2 x 16.9mm – roughly the size and weight of a typical 2G stick phone.
The lightweight handset (92g) sports a built in 2 Megapixel camera which should be good enough to produce reasonable quality 5″ x 7″ prints (and even the odd 10″ x 8″ print at a squeeze).
Reminiscent of the hugely popular T610 phone, the front of the phone is dominated by a 1.9 inch, 262K (176 x 220 pixels) colour display and a large keypad, with a tiny camera, midget-sized mirror and speaker on the rear.
Naturally, there’s an integrated music player lurking inside the rounded lines of the K610, with supported formats including MP3, AAC and e-AAC+.
Connectivity comes in the shape of Bluetooth, Infrared and USB 2.0 with external storage comes in the shape of Sony’s new Memory Stick Micro M2, which can be expanded to 1GB.
The excellent NetFront Web browser comes pre-installed on the phone, and there’s also an RSS reader integrated into its messaging section.
Sony Ericsson are promising an impressive battery life: 7 hours GSM, up to 2.5 hours WCDMA and up to 400 hours GSM and up to 350 hours WCDMA in standby mode.
The Dual Mode UMTS handset will be available in ‘Evening Red’ and ‘Urban Silver’ colours, and should start shipping during Q2 2006.
Sony Ericsson also announced a new, entry level handset at the show, the J100. This dual band handset offers a 65K colour screen, polyphonic ringtones and 8 hour talk time.
Sony Ericsson K610i Specs:
Imaging & Messaging:
2.0 Megapixel camera
2 x digital zoom
Horizontal camera user interface
Video call (integrated VGA camera)
Video record and play
Video streaming
PictureDJ
SMS and MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
262,144 color 1.9″>176 x 220 pixels
Entertainment:
Disc2Phone ripping software
WAP 2.0 XHTML/HTML
Java MIDP 2.0
Media player (supports MP3, AAC and E-AAC+)
Music download
Polyphonic ringtones, 72 voices
MusicDJ
2D and 3D gaming
Connectivity:
USB cable
USB 2.0 mass storage, full speed
Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™)support (up to 1 GB ) Bluetooth
Dual mode UMTS and GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900
Business:
Standard Push e-mail (M-IMAP)
Sony K610 has Speakerphone
Modem
PC synchronization
File manager
Talk time:
Up to 7 hours GSM, up to 2.5 hours WCDMA
Standby time: Up to 400 hours GSM and up to 350 hours WCDMA
Size:
102 x 45.2 x 16.9mm
Weight: 92 grams
15 February, 2006