October 19th, 2009
By Paul Smith

First Bravia Phone for AU KDDI

Japanese network AU KDDI have just announced their winter range of handsets and Sony Ericsson have contributed a few models to that range (as an aside I wish European networks had ‘winter’ and ’summer’ ranges, there is something sort of cool about that, but I digress). As you can see from the previous post they released a handset apparently aimed at older customers, but they also announced AU’s first Bravia handset, the U1.

Bravia handsets have appeared in Japan before of course, on NTT DoCoMo, but this is a first for AU. The handset packs in a 3″ WVGA screen based on Sony’s Bravia technology and Sony Blu-ray forwarding technology. Basically what that means is that the handset can be hooked up to a Blue-ray player. Memory expansion is through microSD cards with capacities of up to 16 GB supported. There’s all the other usual goodies too e.g. 5.14 MP camera, Bluetooth, WiFi GPS, Felica, 1Seg TV, etc. Check out the pictures below!

P.S. If you’re wondering why there is a shot of a woman in a bath it’s because the U1 is waterproof!

[via AkihabaraNews]

Filed under: Bravia, Japanese, New phone
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October 19th, 2009
By Paul Smith

SE Handset for Japanese Elderly - Not Crap!

As part of their Winter line-up for the Japanese AU KDDI network Sony Ericsson have released a handset targeted at the 40-50 age group, or what it apparently terms ‘the elderly’ in Japan. The question of 40-50 year olds being ‘elderly’ aside this phone actually packs some pretty serious heat for a product apparently aimed at a non-techie demographic. The handset, the Urbano Barone, is supposedly designed with older folks in mind e.g. high contrast keys, etc. It also packs in a 5.14 MP camera, microSD support up to 16 GB, a 3″ WVGA screen and WiFi and GPS. It’s certainly a far cry from the sort of handset Sony Ericsson releases for older customers in the rest of the world!

Urbano Barone

[via AkihabraNews]

Filed under: Japanese, New phone
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February 27th, 2009
By clauf

Sony Ericsson W64S Now Available… To The World!

design_im_01

Sony Ericsson’s W64S has been availabe under Japanese operator AU for a while now, but only to Japanese customers.  Previously, AU phones never worked outside of Japan unless you are a customer and subscriber of AU’s mobile phone service in Japan.  Well it looks like that is beginning to all change.  Rather new, a few tech geeks managed to create an unlock for the Sony Ericsson W64S, as shown above.  This unlock, still in the preliminary stages, does not require an external hypersim and is said to be “99.9% stable and perfect.”  A few business owners have managed to get a hold of this and are now beginning to sell unlocked Sony Ericsson W64S.

The Sony Ericsson W64S is available for an average $700 CDN, or appoximately $556 USD and €439 EURO.  The W64S is aviable in four colours, Snow x White, Diamond x Pink, Lattice x Black, and Mist x Blue.  The Lattice x Black, by the way, looks much darker and only purple in certain angles in reality than rather than the following renderings.

color_im_02-3color_im_01-2color_im_03-2color_im_04

Reviewing the specifications of the W64S, it has obviously a flip phone with a rotating/swivel screen.  This allows it to be used as a TV/Media Player or used as a 3.2 megapixel camera, located on the back of the phone.  The screen is a 16M colour WFVGA 2.8 inch screen.  On the front, there are hidden notification lights that glow when there are new text messages, missed calls, and ringing alarms.

For more information regarding the W64S with more specification, commercials, and media campaigns, visit Sony Ericsson’s W64S Product Website (Japanese).  I would highly recommend watching the W64S demo, even if you don’t understand Japanese.

There is a catch with this phone.  Well, there are catches with all Japanese keitais.  For one, one cannot use the internet browser or use anything that involves the internet, such as GPS and downloading of applications and games.  This is locked only to the AU by KDDI USIM.  TV is not an option either as the signals are only available in Japan.  But with all AU by KDDI phones, unfortunately and at the moment, text messaging does not work at all.  Nevertheless, this is a ground breaking discovery and spark more AU by KDDIs available.  You never know, you might be picking up a Walkman Monster Premier3, Cybershot Flagship S001, or the endless customization RE soon.

Filed under: Exclusive, Japanese, News, Operating platform, Operators, Technology, W series, i-mode
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February 23rd, 2009
By clauf

S0X01

Just recently, Sony Ericsson Japan filed a report of their upcoming SOX01 phone for AU by KDDI.  What does the “X” mean?  I’ll let you guys interpret that.

https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/retrieve.cgi?attachment_id=1070202&native_or_pdf=pdf

Filed under: Exclusive, FCC, Future, Japanese
Tags: ,
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February 15th, 2009
By clauf

Premier3 Campaign

Just 7 hours away before the Sony Ericsson MWC Conference, I decided to post something else to help you guys pass some time away. Sony Ericsson has released the commercial campaign for the Premier3, the entertainment flagship of Japanese operator AU by KDDI.

Here’s a few screenshots of the commercial:
premier2
premier1
premier3
premier4

You can watch it here from Sony Ericsson Japan (in Japanese):
http://www.sonyericsson.co.jp/product/au/premier3/common/cm/index.html

And the making of this commercial (in Japanese):
http://www.sonyericsson.co.jp/product/au/premier3/common/making/index.html

Don’t you wish you were surrounded by so many Premier3s? For more videos of the Premier3 campaign, visit Sony Ericsson Japan Premier3’s website: http://www.sonyericsson.co.jp/product/au/premier3/

PS: Sony Ericsson will be releasing the TV-CM of the S001 Cybershot phone soon.

Filed under: Japanese, Operators, Videos, W series, Walkman
Tags: , , , ,
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