I had a Sony W800 Walkman Phone in my hands for the first time today at the Sony Media Experience in Bordeaux. There’s already been a terrific buzz about this camera and it was great to get my hands on the thing during what Sony claims was its first European outing.
First impressions – good. Its weight is just right, light enough to make it carriable but sufficiently weighty to make it of substance.
The central music button is the focus of the handset and, not surprisingly, pressing it takes you straight to your music selection.
Once tracks have been selected, there are separate buttons on either side of the handset. The button on the left is play/pause and the right control volume. Again, without having to dive into the menus of the phone. A smart move.
The software comes with the handset will take music CDs straight from the player on your machine to handset, without intervention.
It follows on from other Sony camera phones, in that taking photos is easy. Simply sliding the switch at the rear of the machine, takes the horizontally-held phone straight to camera mode, again without having to devle into menus.
The W800 should retail for €500 (US$644/£341) pre-operator’s discounts.
Single button to access music
Volume controls
Headphones attach at the bottom
TComm has launched a mobile TV service capable of delivering live, streamed and downloaded audio/video content to mobile phones. 
Subscribers currently have a choice of six premium channels with another eight channels rolling out over the next 60 days. 
Tony Johnson, the Content Manager of TComm (UK) Limited, was on hand to lavish praise on his own service: “With content from UK and US production companies such as 2 Minute TV, Fearless Music, Sandy Frank Entertainment and Hungry Biker, TELLYfone sets a new standard in content provision for the mobile phone market.” 
A special promotion is offering free access to the service throughout April, after which access will be on a paid subscription basis. 
It must be tough trying to get noticed in the crowded MP3 player market. 
The new teensy-weensy MobiBlu DAH-1500 player apparently offers MP3 and WMA support, a FM tuner and a claimed 15- 20 hours battery life (we say ‘apparently’ because our Japanese translation skills aren’t too good). 
If users manage to avoid dunking the player, their publicity photos also suggest they can wear the device as a head tilting earring or lug it around the neck as a clunky necklace. Cool, or err, what? 
Canary Wireless have released their Digital Hotspotter device, which, as the name suggests, is a WiFi detection and analysis tool. 
To scan for more networks, bash the button again. 
And while we can’t disagree with Ben’s summary, we wonder how long it will be before laptop makers start fitting WiFi sniffers into machine cases to let users seek out accessible networks without going through all the palaver of booting up. 
We’ve never quite been persuaded to move to 3, but these two price plans they’ve just announced sure look tempting. 
The second plan, “Talk, Text & Video 600”, is an enhancement to 3’s best selling plan, “Talk & Text 600”.As you’ve probably worked out, clever reader, this new plan bundles in 3’s video mobile services to the £35 (US$65/€50) a month package. 
Bob Fuller, 3 UK CEO swivelled on his heels and span out the corporate spin: “3 is the fastest growing network in the UK, we now have over 3 million 3G customers and we continue to lead the market for both value and video mobile services. With these new price plans 3 continues to set the pace for value in the UK mobile market. 3 was the first network to launch live, over-the-air, multi-player gaming, the first to stream concerts live over video mobile and first to launch quickplay video streaming of 3’s content.” 
Irish VoIP solutions provider Cicero Networks has announced its first major telecom provider deal with Talktelecom Ltd, an independent, fully licensed General Telco Operator, based in Dublin. 
“Cicero Networks’ integrated end-to-end solution has given us a fast time-to-market in delivering a truly innovative and cost-effective wireless voice service,” buzzworded Talktelecom CEO, Johathan Mills. “Cicero lets us grow our existing business and enter new markets while delivering a substantial return on investment in a short time,” he added. 
Microsoft has launched MSN Video Downloads, a spanking new mobile service that will provide daily television programming for downloading to Windows Mobile devices, such as Portable Media Centers, Smartphones and Pocket PCs. 
The video content is compliant with ‘PlaysForSure’ video devices, and is optimised for Portable Media Centers and compatible with Smartphones and Pocket PCs that support Windows Media Player 10 Mobile. 
“With content from some of the most recognized brands in entertainment, MSN Video Downloads helps bring this vision to life, allowing people to take their favourite television shows with them whether they are on the train, waiting for a doctor’s appointment, or keeping the kids occupied in the back seat of the car.” 
All music videos on the site will be made available in multiple formats for playing on traditional PCs, laptops and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile-based secure devices including the Portable Media Centers, Pocket PCs and select Smartphones. 
As of early May, Dutch Vodafone customers will be able to say ‘nr!’ to saucy adult content offered via Vodafone live! from their mobile phone. 
With hand-rubbing porn-shifters keenly eying up a growing – and lucrative – mobile multimedia market, it makes sense for telcos to be able to reassure parents that young Timmy’s new handset isn’t going to become a mobile gateway into the portals of smut. 
After the humiliating no-show of their much hyped (and currently in-limbo) iTunes phone at CeBIT earlier this month, Motorola have hit back with two new music phones. 
Sporting a ‘slider’ form factor, the E725 is a music player-cum-smartphone featuring a 1.9″ display (176 x 220 pixels resolution) with dedicated music keys, 5-band graphic equaliser and dual stereo speakers with virtual surround sound. 
Mobile operator Orange has announced a GSM-based tracking service which it claims is both cheaper and easier to use than GPS technology. 
Electronic Tracking Systems (ETS), makers of battery powered security tracking devices under the mtrack brand, is one of the first to pilot the product.