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Never one to shirk his duties I forced myself to attend a brilliant private concert with Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly last night, all so I could bring you news of the latest handsets from this Sony Ericsson sponsored event... *cough*
Along with the previously announced (and highly desirable) W960i, SE showed off the anticipated W890i, W380i, and K660i but sadly not the much rumoured 'P5i' - a touchscreen based super phone with crazy specs (5MP camera, 2.8in VGA LCD, GPS, WiFi, 125g) which we'll have to put to bed for now.
King of the hill therefore in this trio is the W890i (above left), the follow up to the very popular W880i in SE's Walkman line which brings 3G, an improved 3.2MP camera and larger 2in QVGA screen. The W890i is as slim as its bulimic predecessor (9.9mm thick) and barely tips the scales at 78g. A 2GB Memory Stick Micro card is also bundled. Does the W890i fill the gaps found in the W880i? I think so...
Also expanding the Walkman range is the W380i, a midrange GSMer whose killer feature is its 'Gesture Control' which allows users to mute calls or silence the alarm by simply sweeping a hand over the exterior.
Being a Walkman handset the W380i also comes with the line's standard fare including TrackID and PlayNow compatibility and is also bolstered by an FM tuner. Sadly the camera is rather measly at 1.3MP, there just a 512MB M2 card in the box and at 92 x 49 x 16mm and 100g it isn't that pocket friendly. Still, expect it not to break the bank.
Finally, the K660i is a 3G web focused phone with zoom capable landscape browsing, controllable mouse pointer and dedicated shortcut keys that only appear when surfing. Google Maps is also integrated (though no GPS) while a 2MP camera thickens the feature set. At 104 x 47 x 15mm and 95g it is certainly portable too while a multimedia player provides video and audio support.
The W890i, W380i and K660i will all appear in Q1 '08 with prices subject to contract but I'd be surprised if a decent sized monthly contract didn't make them free.
In related news Sony Ericsson has also announced its first USB mobile broadband modem. The 'MD300' can work at speeds of up to 3.6Mbps, measures just 70 x 32.5 x 15mm and usefully has 128MB of user accessible memory. It is compatible with Windows 2000, XP, Vista and all Mac OS X variants (including Leopard) and will be available in either black or silver again in Q1 2008.
In addition (and unsurprisingly) SE has confirmed it turned down an offer from Google to join the Open Handset Alliance. I don't think anyone is particularly surprised...
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The remote control hasn't been around long in the overall scheme of life on Earth, but its evolution over the past thirty years has mirrored that of human kind in an eerily similar way.
From its humble sonic-click hunter-gatherer-like beginnings, the remote has spread steadily like a virus, multiplying in numbers. Once you'd count yourself lucky if you had one. Now living rooms across the globe are drowning in a deluge of them. It can't be long before they start to reproduce - and global meltdown will surely not be far behind.
Melodramatic metaphor aside, however, the proliferation of remotes is a growing problem. It's why the universal remote control is an increasingly popular device, and why many manufacturers are beginning to ship remotes with some sort of multi-device capability in the box.
As a technology journalist, I'm afflicted by a particularly virulent strain of remote control plague. At the last count I had seven remotes in, on and around my sofa at home, not counting the stuff that I'm reviewing at the moment - and though not life-threatening it's getting to be a real pain.
I'd love a decent universal remote that does away with the need for so many button-festooned slabs of black plastic, but the problem with many of these is that they rarely duplicate your other remotes perfectly. And this means you have to keep the other remotes handy in case you need to access some obscure menu that isn't on your universal unit - or you have to 'teach' them laboriously, button by button, the functions you want.
It's a problem Logitech aims to solve with its Harmony 1000. And it looks to have impressive credentials. The manufacturer claims that it has more than 175,000 products in its remote control database, and these are constantly updated. And because the Harmony 1000 is managed via your PC, this in theory, means that the remote will never go out of date and will always be able to cope with your ever-expanding hi-fi and AV system.
It certainly looks and feels the part. It's slim, clad in brushed silver aluminium on the front with blue-backlit buttons, while the rear is rubberised to help you grip it. The remote doesn't just have hardware controls - for common stuff like adjusting volume and changing channel - but also a touch screen so it can emulate the operations of even the most obscure buttons. Other neat touches include a lithium-ion battery, which recharges when you drop it into the supplied cradle, and a motion sensor, which turns the remote on whenever you pick it up.
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When I go away on a trip, I always take some music with me. An MP3 player jam-packed with quality tunes and a decent pair of headphones can make hours of tedious travel fly by.
But when I get to where I'm going I often just want to disconnect and listen to the music through a set of speakers. That goes double if I'm travelling with friends; on a group skiing trip, or staying in self-catering accommodation in the wet wilds of Wales it's nice to be able to have some of my own music to play in the background. Normally, I'd have to take two speakers, a charger or batteries, plus all the cables to connect them up to my MP3 player. However, that's where Parrot's Party speakers come in - which aim to do away with at least some of these hassles.
The first inconvenience consigned to the dustbin is the cables: Parrot is a Bluetooth specialist, so it's hardly surprising to find that this unit is Bluetooth enabled. So you'll have no wires trailing from your MP3 player, as long as it's Bluetooth enabled, of course. I did most of my testing using the Samsung YP-T9 Bluetooth player I tested earlier in the year, but you can also use any A2DP Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone or laptop as well, which is really handy since the majority of phones and smartphones still don't possess a standard 3.5mm headphone output.
Being a specialist in all things Bluetooth, it's not a shock to find that the Party works perfectly. To connect a new device, you just press the Bluetooth button on the top, go through the pairing process on your player, phone or laptop, and Bob's your uncle. The range is pretty good too - I managed to walk 10 metres away with my MP3 player without having the signal degrade, which is probably all the range you need from a device such as this. And even if your source doesn't have Bluetooth you can use the 3.5mm line-in socket on the back without having to flick a switch to enable it. The Party detects whichever source is 'live' and switches over to it automatically.
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