Play blackjack for money

A recent patent application filed by Sony Ericsson indicates a technology that will enable front-facing cameras to click a user’s photo and analyse it to find the user’s mood and selec a playlist accordingly. A method may include playing a first song on a device, capturing an image of a user, performing facial expression recognition of the user based on the image, and selecting a second song based on a facial expression of the user.  Pretty neat!  This tops even the Sense Me application in my opinion.

Via: CellPassion

Filed under: Concept, Future, News, Patent, Technology
Tags: Patent

(6 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)

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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.

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
Tags: AU, Keitai, sony ericsson japan, W64S

(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

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You know those cool mini-sites on Sony Ericsson’s website? Yeah, the interactive ones with all the cool animations and… stuff. Well, guess what? SE have put up two new campaign sites in connection with W705’s forthcoming release (that’s 27th Feb, if you’re wondering). The first one has 2 modes you can switch between - one that’s about W705’s features in general and another about the “Clear Audio experience”. Yes, it does indeed resemble W980’s campaign site. Here’s the link:

Great Sound

The second one is your usual run-of-the-mill 3D view of the phone (again, with mini presentations about its features):

W705 in 3D

Source: SEMC Blog

Filed under: Technology, W series
Tags: 3d, campaign site, clear audio, mini site, w705

(5 votes, average: 3.40 out of 5)

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Mats Lindoff, Sony Ericsson’s Chief Technology Officer, has perhaps been taking lessons from Steve Ballmer as he has been dropping sound bites galore this past week. Let’s start with the over-diversification …

As any self-respecting Sony Ericsson fan will know Sony Ericsson have been announcing and cancelling handsets like it’s going out fashion over the past year. Some have been wee gems like the G900 or the C902, others have been … well less than stellar. There have been a lot of handsets and  to be blunt some of them have been either unnecessary given the existence of other handsets in SE’s portfolio or just haven’t added much to the market that previous handset’s didn’t already offer. It seems that Sony Ericsson is finally confirming what the rest of us already knew, namely that they over-diversified.

The admission started last week when Sony Ericsson President Hideki Komiyama said that he is aware that Sony Ericsson has problems and that they are working on innovative products. Now we have Mr Lindoff, speaking at the launch of PlayNow Plus, saying that Sony Ericsson over-diversified in Q3:

There were probably too many devices in the portfolio in Q3. We developed products that have not been ranged by operators. It makes no sense to develop it if we are not damn sure it’s ranged.

It’s good to see Sony Ericsson recognising this issue because hopefully it signals the start of a turn around for the company that sees them release great handsets again like they did in their early days with the likes of the T68i, the T610, the P800, and the K750.

Mr Lindoff had more to say though as he also talked about Sony Ericsson’s smart phone plans. He made the claim that the X1 is primarily aimed at the U.S. market, which seems a little strange given that it will be released there after being released in European markets:

Operators have demanded a Windows Mobile device for the past five years so it’s driven by them for enterprise customers. Yes, you could say it is primarily for the US market.

The claim isn’t so strange when taken in this context given that Windows Mobile has arguably a stronger presence, or at least a stronger image, in the American market than it does in European markets where Symbian rules the roost.

Mr Lindoff wasn’t one for stopping and he continued his comments by talking about smart phone platforms. Android, Google’s open source mobile platform, is something that Sony Ericsson are apparently interested in at least, but Lindoff was cautious in commiting to it. He commented that Sony Ericsson might develop an Android handset, presumably as part of the Xperia line given previous comments by Sony Ericsson to the effect that Xperia isn’t tied to WinMo. However, he cited a lack of resources as preventing Sony Ericsson from realising this any time soon.

Symbian Foundation appears to be more important to Sony Ericsson though as Sony Ericsson already have Symbian Foundation handsets in development, with the first coming next year as part of the Xperia line. The good news for mobile geeks is that it is promised to be very high-end! Lindoff is quoted as saying:

We will launch a Symbian Foundation handset in the next year. There will be really high-end Xperia devices.

Sony Ericsson should allow Mats Lindoff to speak more often!

Source: Mobile News

Filed under: Future, News, Operating platform, Symbian, Technology, Upcoming, Windows Mobile, X series, XPERIA

(7 votes, average: 3.29 out of 5)

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It would be impossible for me to do a comprehensive, technically detailed write-up of how Sony Ericsson turned the million Euro incomes to expenses, and I’m sure it’d be rather uninteresting for you as well. That’s why I’m not going to do that nor try to do it. I will, however, try to sum up what went wrong and how. As you’d expect, this rant will reflect nothing but my personal opinions and thoughts on Sony Ericsson’s past and current decisions, as well as what seems to be Sony Ericsson’s future plans. Also want you to know that I’m uncertain whether or not this piece is finished. I can’t make up my mind on whether I should add more to make it more clear, or leave it as it is, so apologies in advance if parts don’t make any sense to you.

The copy/paste-strategy

Sony Ericsson changed its product strategy a few years ago. The company saw huge advantages of making use of the same hardware and software platforms with only few minor changes. Initially, the strategy worked out very well - probably because it was still of limited use.
Sony Ericsson announced the rather amazing K750 back in very early March 2005. The K750 is one of Sony Ericsson’s most innovative phones ever, period. It was such an immense update from K700, and the camera - which was the most interesting feature about it - was built upon the camera of the S700, and greatly enhanced. I doubt it came as a surprise for K750 users when it was announced the best camera phone of the year. The K750 wasn’t one to miss, and sales surpassed all expectations. Continue reading “Someone needs a wakeup call…”

Filed under: Article, Corporative, Cyber-shot, Future, Market, Market share, Rants, Technology, Walkman

(27 votes, average: 4.07 out of 5)

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