Here’s a menu interface walkthrough of the Sony Ericsson G702, codenamed Beibei, that was never announced.

[Thanks phoner!]

Filed under: Prototype, UIQ, Videos

It has to be one of the most surprising news these days: The Big 5 coorporate.

Nokia today announced plans to acquire the remaining shares of Symbian Limited that Nokia does not already own and then contribute the Symbian and S60 software to the Symbian Foundation. Sony Ericsson and Motorola will contribute technology from UIQ, DOCOMO has also indicated its willingness to contribute its MOAP(S) assets. From these contributions, the Foundation will provide a unified platform with common UI framework. A full platform will be available for all Foundation members under a royalty-free license, from the Foundation’s first day of operations.

The annual membership fee is a bargain of 1.500$.

Plans are to get the thing rollin’ on the first half of 2009 with an expected complete framework in 2010.

Make sure you tune in to the live webcast here at 11:00 GMT.

While waiting, have a further look at the press release here and the Symbian Foundation website with the whitepaper here.

Filed under: Announcement, Corporative, Future, Operating platform, UIQ

It looks like some have spotted the poll here on USEB, this time with the subject of what you guys think will be announced on the 17th. Many seem to think that Sony Ericsson will announce a few high-end smart phones, and I do understand why you’d think so, as just about every sign has been pointing to that. But stuff gets postponed, and that’s what has happened in the case of Beibei and Paris.

These phones will not be announced on the 17th, unless there’ll be a major change of plans just moments before the announcements on the 17th, although I extremely doubt this, seeing the announcement events are held in so many countries.

It’s sad, though, as especially the G702 (Beibei) looks to be an awesome phone. On the bright side, though, there has been talk about hardware upgrades, which I personally believe is true, and that should be the reason for the postponements.

It’ll be a mix of low-end and mid-end phones, and of course the camera flagship Shiho, which is awesome, by the way. More - or should I say everything? - on that one later this week.

Filed under: Announcement, Exclusive, Rumour, Symbian, UIQ, Upcoming

Thought I’d just post a few photos of the G700 and G900 compared to each other, and just for the fun of it, add a W960 in on one of the photos, to show you how small these really are. Keep in mind that W960 was actually quite an improvement over other UIQ phones. As you can see, the G’s are quite alike, with only minor hardware differences.

Filed under: Comparison, G series, Hands on, UIQ, W series

If you’re a UIQ 3 user, and you’ve got an older smart phone (before G700 & G900), you can actually add some functionality to it by installing some applications from the G700/G900 firmwares. After only having been released, the G700 & G900’s firmwares have been somewhat hacked, and a group of people have extracted some of the applications, making them available for all current UIQ 3 users. Currently, the torch application as well as the highly anticipated notes application have been extracted, and are available at UIQBlog.com with an install guide

I must remind you that this is probably not supposed to happen, and I’m quite sure Sony Ericsson won’t be too thrilled about it, so you might want to do some thinking before installing these.

Filed under: Application, PDA, Tips & tricks, UIQ

It has been on the market since this Monday: The new touch-and-go UIQ3 smart phone G900, a powerful package of WLAN, 5MP camera with Auto- & Touch-Focus as well as a photo light and a 2.4″ touch screen combined with a regular keypad to bring UIQ to the mass market.

The G900 you can see here is my little precious since Tuesday and it does great so far. The Dark Brown colour really suites it well. The QVGA display is bright and clear and a breeze to handle. I won’t give that much away for now as we’ll post an in-depth review of the G900, once Sony Ericsson sends us the review phone.

I’ll leave you with impressions of the new menu icons, the media menu and the new panels standby.

The G900 is available nearly everywhere now, pricing is set around £275 / 350 € / $525.

Filed under: G series, Preview, UIQ, Upcoming

Thanks to m-one over at SE-World we did not need to post the internal demo tour of Paris, which is set to be announced on the 17th of next month, so roughly in about 3 weeks. Here’s the video for ya’ (high quality, oh yeah)!

By the way… This is nothing to get too excited about. This is very early stuff, and we’re sure lots of stuff has happened since this video was created.

Filed under: Rumour, UIQ, Upcoming, Videos