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Hardware

The t68i Replacement is Here 432

Posted by CmdrTaco from the phones-to-lust-after dept.
interdigitate writes "The new T610 was been unveiled today by Sony Ericsson. This is the t68i replacement and its supposed to improve on it in every aspect. It has a 16bit color screen, Polyphonic ringtones, a built in digital camera, GPRS, Bluetooth (ofcourse), and most importantly it has Synchronization which should mean it will work with apple's iSync! " So... pretty. Must... resist.
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The t68i Replacement is Here More

The t68i Replacement is Here

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  • Unfortunately... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @10:48AM (#5432592)
    The telephone aspect of the phone had to be removed to save space.

    • Re:Unfortunately... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by McWilde ( 643703 )
      Yeah, I was wondering how polyphonic ringtones, a built-in camera and 16 bit color display are "supposed to improve" a telephone. For me if it goes [BEEP] it's probably someone trying to reach me, I can read their name or number in black and white just fine. If I have nothing better to do I'll pick up and talk to them.

      • Re:Unfortunately... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Anonvmous Coward ( 589068 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @02:11PM (#5434169)
        "Yeah, I was wondering how polyphonic ringtones, a built-in camera and 16 bit color display are "supposed to improve" a telephone."

        Have you ever had your cell phone go off and have like 5 people check their phones?

        If you're curious how it makes it a better phone, I can explain the ringtones aspect of it. With the T68 you can group people into different categories and give them different ring tones. So if my gf calls, I can make it ring with a song, but if my job calls I have it ring silently. The neat thing about that approach is that I can make the 'NO-ID' calls silent.

        The next step would be to use .WAV files or something like that (I hope that's what polyphonic implies...) so you could have better control over the ring. Not sure what the mass market appeal is for something like that, but I already have my email notifications set up with unique sounds for the people I actually want to hear from.

        I think that in general, the sound aspect of interfaces is not given as much attention as it should.

        • Re:Unfortunately... (Score:4, Interesting)

          by bezza ( 590194 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @05:23PM (#5436091)
          Polyphonic ringtones is sort of like MIDI for phones.

          There are phones that do the .wav thing and I cannot wait to get my hands on one of those. I think it would be hilarious to record myself saying "bring, bring" and have that play when the phone rings.

    • "The telephone aspect of the phone had to be removed to save space."

      As amusing as that comment is, I've found my T68i to do the PDA job that I could never get in the habit of using my PocketPC for. Now it acts as my alarm clock, phone number/email book, appointment book, and I even fiddle on the internet with it once in a while.

      There are two key things about it I wish my PocketPC was: The size/durability to fit in my pocket. The wireless internet connection at a reasonable rate.

      I do use it as phone once in a while, but that's eclipsed by it's PDA capabilities.

  • Read the specs (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rf0 ( 159958 ) <rghf@fsck.me.uk> on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @10:48AM (#5432593) Homepage
    Looking at the Specs [sonyericsson.com] half way down there is apparently DRM (Digital Rights Management). Does this mean that I can't have WAV's as ringtones now? :P

    Rus

    • Re:Read the specs (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Sheetrock ( 152993 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @10:53AM (#5432642) Homepage Journal
      By DRM, I think they're referring to the protection on a user profile of files (not that you'd store many on here), messaging ID, and e-mail account. It probably implements enough of their DRM API to sync with things like Palladium when it comes out later to sufficiently protect a computer sync of the phone's databases over infrared (assuming that's an addon to this model) as well.

      It's a good thing in this context.

    • Re:Read the specs (Score:4, Interesting)

      by cmoney ( 216557 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @12:45PM (#5433483)
      There's DRM already in place on their current phones. It simply stops you from forwarding on content that you paid for.

      For example, if I buy a $.99 ringtone from say T-Mobile and download it to my current T300 (or T68 or 7210 or 3650, etc), it stops me from then putting that ringtone into an MMS and forwarding it to my girlfriend.

      However, if I download a free ringtone that I wrote myself, I can forward it on as much as I like.

      Same goes for background images and I'm guessing games as well.

      This isn't as bad a Verizon's Get $hit Now though!

  • But... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Kshu ( 608394 ) <j AT post DOT ro> on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @10:48AM (#5432594)
    How about a model that lets you chat via IRC? That one I'll buy for sure.

    • Re:But... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by emir ( 111909 )
      well just buy any java enabled phone out on market and download irc client.... it might be wise to buy java phone with gprs as without gprs your phone bill will probably ruin you.....

      • Re:But... (Score:3, Informative)

        by cmoney ( 216557 )
        Watch out, not every Java enabled phone works properly. I'm told the Nokia 7210 has J2ME support, but doesn't support network sockets from Java apps, only forwarding on to URLs.

    • Re:But... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by horza ( 87255 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @11:10AM (#5432771) Homepage
      With the size of the screen, and the speed of typing on a numeric keypad, it doesn't sound useful for IRC except in the deadest of channels. Even with a normal monitor the text flies off the screen in around a second when the conversation gets heated. If you are really such a masochist, I guess you can load in a Java applet that tunnels over port 80 to a gateway you are running at home.

      Phillip.

    • it has J2ME (Re:But...) (Score:2, Informative)

      by alch ( 30445 )
      Hey - it has J2ME !! You can write it yourself !!

      J2ME gives you control over some SMS aspects, the GPRS data channels. If you want an example - head over to http://www.wireless-village.org to how they implement some of this over the SMS channel.
    • How about a model that lets you chat via IRC? That one I'll buy for sure.

      With a JVM and an always-on connection, you can do whatever you can code...

    • Re:But... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by brakk ( 93385 )
      I have a sanyo 4900 through sprint pcs and i can get an irc client for it, just never really saw the point because it takes so long to type something. the cool thing is that i can plug it up to a laptop by way of USB and just surf/irc that way.
    • I have been chatting on IRC on my CDPD phone for years. But for a newer WAP phone, http://www.irssi.org/ [irssi.org] has a wap module.

      Just host your on webpage, its that easy.
  • .... and it'll only be offered with a 2-year contract, which doesn't guarantee I get to keep my number or even my phone if I switch to another plan, and requires me to jump through all kinds of hoops to get the features and rates I want, plus requires me to pay for incoming *and* outgoing calls, and that's not even counting the lousy service coverage once you go fifteen miles outside a major city....

    I'd love to replace my landline with a cell phone, but not until the U.S. catches up to the rest of the world in service.

    • Well AT&T has a reasonable hardware upgrade policy. We just upgraded my wife to gsm and got the same price on the phone as we would have if I had purchased it and a plan from scratch. So now she has a new phone with a better calling plan and her same old number with a one year contract, a pretty good deal if you ask me.

  • Silent is good (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cindik ( 650476 ) <solidusfullstop@noSpAm.cindik.com> on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @10:49AM (#5432603) Homepage Journal
    I'm very happy to see more wireless communications which don't require people to be chattering all the time. If they're too bored to watch the movie, participate in church, watch the play, etc., now they can busy themselves silently.

    OTOH, is this going to be banned from theaters and other venues where cameras are prohibited? At what point do we end up with unenforceable "no camera" rules?
    • At what point do we end up with unenforceable "no camera" rules

      With the slim size of modern digital cameras, any no camera rules are pretty much unenforceable anyway (at least proactively). We were just at a kids show that had a no camera rule during the performance (good luck trying to get parents to keep the cameras at home when the kiddies are involved). Several people insisted on taking snaps during the performance. During the intermission their cameras were taken away. We had our Sony (boo, hiss, evil) DCR-PC120 and could have easily recorded the entire show had we wanted to.

    • Re:Silent is good (Score:4, Informative)

      by Hal-9001 ( 43188 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @11:11AM (#5432779) Homepage Journal
      At what point do we end up with unenforceable "no camera" rules?
      Forget about unenforcable--most "no camera" rules are rubbish. I can understand "no flash photography" because the flash damages ancient artwork or distracts performers, but passive recording of an image causes no real harm. The only damage that could result from passive photography is the dilution of intellectual property, but that is an abstract, socially-constructed danger--there is no real damage to property or safety.

      • Re:Silent is good (Score:2, Informative)

        by GigsVT ( 208848 )
        Except around military places, in which case the "no camera" rule is taken very seriously.

      • Re:Silent is good (Score:3, Informative)

        by deanj ( 519759 )
        The "no camera" rules most people refer to when they're talking about cell phones is "no cameras" in locker rooms, dressing rooms, etc. It's about privacy, not intellectual property.

  • please please please (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rhs98 ( 513802 ) <rhs98&isitaboat,co,uk> on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @10:49AM (#5432607) Homepage Journal
    I have a t68, and hope to god they have fixed the awful speed of the predictive text messaging. It is truly slow, and not much difference if any from the t68i.

    Here's hoping

  • Finally! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Mindjiver ( 71 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @10:50AM (#5432611) Homepage
    Finally a decent phone from Sony-Ericsson. Hopefully this will help to stop Ericsson from bleeding to death.

    Too bad I can't afford this. But maybe it's just as good as I would just destroy it after too much beer.. =)

  • Verizon (Score:2, Insightful)

    by walt15 ( 154554 )
    But what I want to know is why I can't use it with my verizon service. Everyone I talk to says none of the ericson(sp) phones are not compatible with the network here in MI.

    • Re:Verizon (Score:5, Informative)

      by Smitty825 ( 114634 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @11:12AM (#5432785) Homepage Journal
      Verizon (and Sprint) uses a different network standard (called CDMA) than AT&T (and Cingular/T-Mobile) do (GSM). To avoid a vi/emacs level flame war, let's not discuss which one is better :-)

      There is a model very similiar that is coming out for Sprint (and other CDMA providers). It looks the same, but it doesn't include the built in Camera. It does have bluetooth, though. It is called the T608.

      Verizon has quasi-announced that they aren't going to be supporting any new bluetooth phones, until they can charge for the data transfered between the phone and the external device (according to a Verizon Insider on HowardForums.) They get there own version of this phone called the T606, which supports BREW, but does not have the built in camera or bluetooth support.

      If you go to Phone Scoop [phonescoop.com], they have pretty informative pieces on each of these phones...plus a giant preview of all of Sony Ericssons new phones!
  • I should have waiting on my Sony Ericsson i300 picture phone (or whatever model it is)...

  • Wow! 2Mb! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Joel Rowbottom ( 89350 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @10:51AM (#5432623) Homepage
    Wow! Up to 2mb of memory available! I almost wet myself, I could store almost two floppy disks on there!

    (oh, wait...)

  • Polyphonic ringtones (Score:3, Insightful)

    by BWJones ( 18351 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @10:51AM (#5432631) Homepage Journal
    Please!!!! No more ringtones. How many more versions of electronic renditions of Beethovens 9th do we have to listen to ?

    • Personally, mine plays "You were always on my mind" by Willie Nelson.

      • Personally, mine plays "You were always on my mind" by Willie Nelson.

        Hrmmm. I am certainly a Willie Nelson fan, but I think ringtones would be somewhat disrespectful of the man. That and I am getting tired of having cell phones ring little musical interjections in the theatre, on planes, at movies, in lectures, etc...etc...etc...

    • Big difference, newer phones with Polyphonic sound, any tune will sound 100% better. Play wav's or midi's now, much better than the 1 note tunes that most phones have.

    • Re:Polyphonic ringtones (Score:4, Funny)

      by DrewCapu ( 132301 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @05:04PM (#5435915) Journal
      Personally, I've preferred that good ol' piano tune that Yosemite Sam had Bugs Bunny play: e d c d c c e g f a C# C# a a. (... no silly, rabbit! like this!)

      When (clueless) people ask if it's a wrong note in there I just tell them, "No! I just don't want my phone to explode :P"

  • this is why S-E is so far in front of Nokia (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hype7 ( 239530 ) <u3295110.anu@edu@au> on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @10:52AM (#5432634) Journal
    The thing I love about Sony-Ericsson, and the reason why I will continue to buy their phones over Nokia's which I otherwise prefer to use, boils down to this:

    Bluetooth.

    S-E are putting it in a lot of their phones; Nokia are putting it in very few. You haven't seen how cool Bluetooth is until you run iSync with a mac, or get Romeo [irowan.com] controlling your mac from the other side of the room through your phone.

    It's very cool :)

    -- james
    • controlling your mac from the other side of the room through your phone.

      Okay, that sounds nifty, but after the initial "gee whiz" factor wears off, would this ever be a useful feature?

      • Re:this is why S-E is so far in front of Nokia (Score:4, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @11:27AM (#5432879)
        Well I have been using My T68 for controling my Powerpoint and Kaynote presentations for two weeks. The new 12" Powerbook G4 and a T68 is a wounderful combination. No cables needed I i dont have to spend almost $100 on a remote! And when i get back to my office my desktop computer automatically logs me back on our intranet (and of again when I leave).

        It is really amazing! Jonas Sallings Sony-Ericsson Clicker and S-E phones really rule! Now I just have to decide if to buy a P800 or a T610 not an easy choise :)
    • that's all fine and well, but what if you just want a *phone*?

  • A most disappointing "feature" (Score:3, Interesting)

    by no_such_user ( 196771 ) <jd-slashdot-20071008.dreamallday@com> on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @10:53AM (#5432643)
    From the specifications [sonyericsson.com]:

    Features
    o DRM (Digital Rights Management)

    Again, when did DRM become a *feature* for end users? And exactly what are they using DRM for here... ringtones?
    • I can think of a few uses on a mobile phone. For instance, on my Sprint PCS, applications can "expire" anywhere from 1-3 months after you pay for them, and not work until you pay again.

      Isn't it a beautiful world we live in?

    • And exactly what are they using DRM for here... ringtones?

      Games as well? I think the "feature" may be to entice content providers to create apps and content "secure" in the knowledge that the phone offers a way to "protect" that content. Right now ringtones and some games, tomorrow, who knows?
    • So, I had a dig around on their site & there's very little on DRM (it's not in their extensive glossary). I found this press release [sonyericsson.com] from 2002, tho' ...

      Imaging and messaging applications.

      Sony Ericsson's collaboration with Sony Pictures (with titles such as Men In Black, Charlie's Angels, Stuart Little 2 and the upcoming Spiderman), Sony Music Entertainment (one of the world's largest music companies) and Sony Style Imaging (Sony's digital imaging community on the Internet) constitute the core of Sony Group's entertainment content group. The collaborations will focus on three key areas:

      Technology - to ensure optimization of content delivery on Sony Ericsson products, technology standardization, Digital Rights Management and strategic technology review forums. Sony Ericsson is fully committed to the open standards in the mobile environment and is a principal driver of many open standards initiatives. In addition, the collaboration with the Sony group delivers a powerful mobile entertainment solution to the consumers.

      [snip]
      For the consumers, these collaborations will result in the possibility to personalize their phones with exciting content from the rich world of Sony. Examples are wallpapers and screensavers with motives from movies, personal images, downloadable ringtones from Sony's top musical artists and branded games.
      So there ya go. Partner with Sony, guarantee DRM in future phones & peddle DRM-restricted ringtones, images, etc. Cha-chinnng!! $$$
    • Hmm, maybe they want to restrict you from using your phone to download warez with. After all, it has a shocking 2 MB of storage.
    • If there is no DRM what incentive is there for a content provider to create content? Are people going to pay for something when they can just get it off a friend? One of the reasons that Windows Media is being used as a format to deliver streamed content is to do with DRM.

      Like it or not DRM is here and will appear as a standard feature on new technologies. From an end user point of view is DRM a good thing? In some circumstances yes. DRM can be used to allow only authorized people to view my images/video that I upload to a web site. Is how DRM is used not that it is available that causes issues.

      • Re:Is DRM all bad? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Wntrmute ( 18056 )
        If there is no DRM what incentive is there for a content provider to create content?

        Yeah, 'cause as we all know, before DRM was invented in the last few years, no content existed. All those movies, music, works of art, books, and software created before the existence of DRM are just a big collective hallucination. After all, we all know people would never create anything without absolute total control until the end of time, right? This website is a perfect example. Would slashdot even exist if DRM wasn't stopping us from cut-and-pasting the slashdot headlines, blantantly stealing Malda's content? Would Linus Torvalds have ever created Linux without DRM to protect it? I think not.

    • You can also upload new games or other Java or Mophun software. Probably something which can be controlled by DRM as well?

    • Re:A most disappointing "feature" (Score:4, Informative)

      by Mr_Silver ( 213637 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @11:46AM (#5433037)
      And exactly what are they using DRM for here... ringtones?

      Forward-locking. In other words, if you download an application, ringtone, logo, icon or something else you can't forward it onto your friend. You can't physically get it off the phone (via IR, Bluetooth or PC Link).

      DRM in games (as in timeout expiration) is nothing new and doesn't require a DRM enabled platform for it. You simply get the server to pass an identifer in the JAD file which details the download time. The JAR file can use this to work out when an application will expire.

      This works for any Java enabled phone.

  • Lots of memory! (Score:2, Informative)

    by steelerguy ( 172075 )
    Wow, according to their web site it has plenty of memory also to store photos and other garbage. A whopping 2 MB! That tremendous number is 7% the size of my hard drive back in 1992. Why do they even bother wasting space with a camera? My 3 year old digital camera could barely fit one picture on there.

    OK, enough complaining, the phone actually looks cool. Just don't get the camera in the phone thing.

  • Open Source & synchronization (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MnO-Raphael ( 601885 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @10:55AM (#5432661)
    the T610 is fully compatible with any computer. Your phone books and calendars will stay synchronized and updated

    Sounds promising, but is this also true for the various open-source calendar software? I've tentatively been looking for non-Windows synchronization software for my t39m without any luck.
  • I have a T68m and it works great with iSync...So I don't know what you mean by that. Phone looks pretty sweet. But will we see it in the US before 3G phones come out???

  • Interesting ... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Draoi ( 99421 ) <draiocht&mac,com> on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @10:57AM (#5432681)
    From the specifications [sonyericsson.com];

    DRM (Digital Rights Management)

    It's got this 'Music DJ' function, but just how capable is it if it's got DRM. Is it crippled beyond belief? And with e-mail and Java built-in, how long before we see the first T610 virus?

    • It's got this 'Music DJ' function, but just how capable is it if it's got DRM

      Presumably as capable as the content provider and/or you wallet wants it to be (unless by capable you mean using the content in any way YOU see fit vs the provider).

      nd with e-mail and Java built-in, how long before we see the first T610 virus?

      Well that's the risk you run whenever you have a "full featured" system. I suspect that the script kiddies are out there as we speak looking for exploits. Next thing you know you're phone will be running a pr0n site and relaying for spammers.
  • *obligitory comments*
    1.) bluetooth is dead
    2.) bluetooth is the future.

    All that aside, one of the absolutely coolest things is the bluetooth enabled headset that goes with it. That is just cooler than anything i've ever seen.

    Next project: make a NES emulator for it (hey, it's got 2MB rom!)

  • You got to love it (Score:3, Funny)

    by cca93014 ( 466820 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @10:59AM (#5432690) Homepage
    Say what you like, but the SonyEricsson corporate branding is really fucking good.

    No doubt they spent more on that logo than most people earn while they are taking a shit at work.

    • No doubt they spent more on that logo than most people earn while they are taking a shit at work


      WTF? I would hope so. Considering if I only spend a minute or two taking a dump at work, I probably couldn't afford a Big Mac, much less an advertising budget. Are you sure that you said what you meant?

  • Hoped they improved... (Score:5, Informative)

    by usmcpanzer ( 538447 ) <usmcpanzer AT hotmail DOT com> on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @11:01AM (#5432705) Homepage
    the antenna strength. I shutter when someone walks into my store to buy the t68i. It looks cool, everyone wants a color screen phone, but about two thirds of them are returned. Horrible reception compared to the Nokia gsm phones.

    **This is with AT&T's new GSM network.

    • Re:Hoped they improved... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Cato ( 8296 )
      I've never had a problem with T68 reception in the UK or Europe, or even India. I did find reception in Florida (Tampa area) and Texas (North Dallas) was very flaky, but I assumed that was just the state of US GSM networks (mainly Voicestream/T-Mobile and AT&T Wireless).

  • It states "Camera built-in" but doesn't say anywhere on the site what resolution it is. Obviously fairly crappy then.

    One of it's listed top 'features' is "DRM (Digital Rights Management)" and mentions an application called "Music DJ"... but it doesn't appear to play MP3s.

    It talks about Internet connectivity, but doesn't even have a web browser (only now-defunct WAP technology).

    Other than a pretty screen, bluetooth and Java (the first I'd rather have the longer battery life, the second my PC connecting cable cost me $15 which is cheap, and the third you would have to show me something useful it can do) it doesn't seem any more advanced than my Sony J70, which came free with my mobile subscription.

    I can see this one dying a slow death at the bottom of the 'freebie' phones.

    In fact, anyone with spare cash would go for the Sony P800 [theregister.co.uk].

    Phillip.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Hrmmm.. (Score:3, Funny)

    by dasmegabyte ( 267018 ) <das@OHNOWHATSTHISdasmegabyte.org> on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @11:04AM (#5432732) Homepage Journal
    So, GSM phone. That means it only works with "T-Mobile" in the states, right? The company with decent calling plans, but the shittiest service, worst calling areas, no roaming (that's what "no roaming fees!" means...you can't roam at all with an all-digital phone!) worst building penetration and no plans to improve any of these? The one that paid several million dollars for their spokesman, and it was Jamie Lee Curtis? No thanks, man. I'll stick with my POS $30 Kyocera and Verizon, where I spend a lot extra to get the basic level of service I should get with everybody -- service that works indoors, service that works in the mountains as well as in the city, service that works in Canada and Mexico and the peace of mind to say "no, go ahead and call me, my phone will be on, I get service everywhere?"

    • Re:Hrmmm.. (Score:3, Funny)

      by SLot ( 82781 )
      The one that paid several million dollars for their spokesman, and it was Jamie Lee Curtis?

      Michael Douglas will no doubt be upset to find that he actually married Jamie Lee Curtis instead of Catherine Zeta-Jones. I'm sure Christopher Guest will be a little surprised too. :)

    • Re:Hrmmm.. (Score:3, Informative)

      by krokodil ( 110356 )
      That means it only works with "T-Mobile"

      Well, here in San Francisco it works also with Cingular and AT&T. Plus it is 3-band and will work pretty much anywhere in the world.

    • Re:Hrmmm.. (Score:3, Informative)

      by BrookHarty ( 9119 )
      GSM - ATTWS, Cingular, Tmobile. CDMA - Alltel, Sprint, Verizon. (Nextel is in there somewhere, dunno)

      Lots of national GSM providers, some small local providers, and too many international providers.

      I have both tmda and gsm phones, the only thing that has been holding me back from upgrading full to gsm, is I have too many extra hardware. Multiple car chargers, batteries, speakerphone, ear phone accessories. But those polyphonic ring tones and 16 bit color displays are really tempting to upgrade. Played around with uploading midi files to a polyphonic phone, freaking sweet.

  • I used to think Bluetooth was useless (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jht ( 5006 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @11:09AM (#5432764) Homepage Journal
    Then I got a T68i last fall. Now I have a Bluetooth adapter for my Mac, a Jabra Bluetooth headset, and a Palm Tungsten T. Amazingly, it all Just Works together. I can sync the Mac to both the Palm and the T68i, use Bluetooth to copy themes and ringtones to the phone, leave the phone buried in my pocket and use the Palm to dial it (I keep more of the database in my Palm than I do in the phone - I only keep the 50 or so most likely numbers in the phone), and just use the Jabra to talk.

    Once set up, Bluetooth is actually pretty neat stuff. Personally, it's now a feature I will look for going forward in phones, computers, and accessories.

    This new T610 phone looks interesting, but I'm not sold on cameras in my phones. I'd rather save the size and go small.

    • The BEST thing about Bluetooth is the Mac!! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by adzoox ( 615327 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @11:40AM (#5432988) Journal
      Have you seen Romeo and Sony Clicker?

      They let you control iTunes, Keynote, PowerPoint, DVD Player

      Sony Clicker has a proximity sensor, applescripts lauch like check mail and iTunes play when you walk in the room

      Romeo lets you use the joystick on the phone like a mouse

      One is availible from www.versiontracker.com the other from www.macupdate.com

  • Well I /was/ excited... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by FyRE666 ( 263011 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @11:13AM (#5432799) Homepage
    I've been keeping an eye on the Ericsson developers site for a while now, being a j2me developer and to be honest I'm a bit disappointed with this new phone. I'm sure it's great technically, but Ericsson are doing the bare minimum to support java developers. Their "emulator" for the P800 was simply a skin for the reference emulators in Sun's Wireless Toolkit, and since their documentation is little more than sales pitch (that I've found at least) it appears they have no extended APIs to take advantage of sound or other phone specific features.

    So what this means is that people buying this, hoping to be able to download whizz-bang games are going to be a bit disappointed. There's no way of knowing whether it even supports image transparency for christ's sake. If you're interested in Java apps, then Nokia or Siemens are the way to go as both have pretty good APIs and very good documentation (Sprint java phones apparently have their own classes for sound too).

  • It still looks ugly (Score:3, Funny)

    by VEGx ( 576738 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @11:16AM (#5432820)
    It still doesn't look anything as nice as Nokia. It has Bluetooth, aye, but is it a requirement to look bloody ugly to have a bluetooth? :/

  • Looks like fun, but, (Score:2, Interesting)

    by irving47 ( 73147 )
    There's not much point in upgrading from a t68i unless you've just gotta have the camera and polyphonic ringtones.


    Someone mentioned unenforceable camera rules in theaters and the like. Add to that military personnel that will be unable to take this phone to work. I'd imagine intelligence agencies as well.

  • No screen protection? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MBraynard ( 653724 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @11:20AM (#5432836) Journal
    That's a really pretty screen and I fear it getting scratched up against my pen or pocket knife. Why wouldn't it have a flip over protector?

  • P800 (Score:2, Interesting)

    by elmo13 ( 252565 )
    This phone looks ok, but has anyone seen the P800?

    The P800 is verily cool - I would get one if I wasnt a poor student (you can send me money if you want, cheers ;-). It can do just about everything the T610 can do + lots more. I think the only bad thing about it is the Sony memorystick instead of SD or something.

    3G phones seem to almost be here (UK). I wonder what they'll be like. Anyone know S-E's pland for 3G? What I want is a phone that I use as a PC when I'm at home, not just on the move (with a contact lense screen of course).
  • I hope by "improving in nearly every respect" they mean that it will actually work! We got no less then 5 of these phones into our tech dept for testing purposes and not one of them worked correctly! It's very lustful technology, but again only if it actually WORKS! :)
  • OK, so it's got more features, but I much prefer the look of the T68i. Seriously, I far prefer the curvy features to the brick-like ones of this phone.
  • 3 billion human lives ended on August 29th, 1997. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day. They lived only to face a new nightmare: the war against the machines.

    the T800 is next
  • I don't agree with the trend to include more and more functionsin a device just because it's possible. It's much more important to have it perform the function it's supposed to perform well.

    To illustrate my point - do you want a fork and a spoon or just a spork? If you're eating fast food, maybe the spork, but if you're eating home cooking or fine food, I think you'll opt for the two utensils.

    Give me a phone that gets good reception, adequate volume, and good sound quality over onewith tetris on it any day.

  • These combined devices are too big and the battery life typically sucks. I think that you make too many compromises by throwing everything into the same device. I think that it is better to split them up.

    The phone should be as small as possible with awesome battery life. Simple email, contact list, and calendar access is a must. I always carry the phone.

    The Bluetooth in the phone allows it to broker communications to the network for all of your other devices.

    PDA's should be able to connect to the Internet through the bluetooth giving you better access to your email, contacts, calendar. It also gives you better web browsing and the ability to run other programs.

    Up another notch and your laptop should use the phone via the bluetooth to connect to the Internet.

    Your digital camera should use the Bluetooth connection to upload pictures to your server via the Internet as you take pictures. In this case, the local CF card only acts as a cache while the pictures are uploaded in the background. Your pictures are safe if you loose the camera. A 128MB CF card could also last on a long trip because it is only the cache. It doesn't have to store all of the pictures from the whole trip.

    If standards are established, any vendor's device could work. You are your own little walking intranet. You could pick the camera, PDA, laptop, phone combination that meets your needs. You also only carry around the things that you need.

  • ...Lifespan. The screen is just about the easiest part of the phone to break, and is more vulnerable the larger it is. I tend to put my phone near my ear when in use, and so I can't see the screen. I really don't see that being easier to break is a selling point for a phone...
  • <matthew_perry>Could it BE any more boxy?</matthew_perry>

    I'll keep my T68i, thanks.

    ~Philly

  • To me, that's more important than the silly camera they put on there.

    How good is the phone at picking up a signal?

    Lastly, why in the world aren't there any GSM phones that have analog or digital as backup, given how scarce the GSM network is in the US?

    Witold
    www.witold.org
  • I don't get polyphonic ringtones. Why do people think these are cool on cell phones?

    It's a fucking phone. If my phone at home played the Muppet Show Theme [tonez.co.uk] every time it rang, people would think I was a fucking moron. But somehow on a cell phone it's okay.

    Whatever happened to *ring* *ring*?
  • Both providers I have in my area that use GSM/GPRS both SUCK. AT&T and T-Mobile are the only ones that use SE phones as well as Nokia's(Cingular carried Nokia's too) and their coverage SUCKS compared to CDMA and Verizon. When is SE going to make these? Or if were stuck with MOTO, when will Motorola make a Bluetooth enabled CDMA/1xRTT phone? And so what if you have GPRS if your only limited to 10 MB a month with out paying a exhorbitant fee? Call me when I can get a price slightly lower then broadband for data. Broadband will always be faster and I ain't paying what they want for something slightly faster then a modem.

  • You might also want to consider... (Score:5, Informative)

    by SunnyElLoco ( 621085 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @11:50AM (#5433075)
    the new Nokia 3650 [nokia.com] (came on sale here two days ago). I just bought one and I must say it's the nicest phone I've used. It comes with all features of the T610 (minus DRM) and then some. The most important features in my opinion of the 3650 that T610 lacks are: more memory (3.4MB internal memory + memory card, mine came with 16MB card, vs. 2MB of T610), bigger screen (176x208 vs. T610's 128x160) and video capture. Also the 3650 looks nicer than the T610 IMHO. On the other hand T610 is smaller and lighter at least on paper, although I have to say that the 3650 is by no means "heavy".

    Other than that there are many similarities between the phones. Both are tri-band, run the Symbian OS, both have a camera, bluetooth, infrared, Java, e-mail etc.etc.

    Of course these are just my opinions, but you should at least check out the 3650 if you're considering the T610.

  • What, exactly, is the point? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Dixie_Flatline ( 5077 ) <vincent.jan.gohNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @12:03PM (#5433158) Homepage
    Now, I really don't mean this as a troll. I looked at the phone, and I tried to think of what I could do with it and what it provided me over anything else, and I couldn't really think of anything.

    Yes, bluetooth is cool. I can get behind that.

    But a standalone PDA is going to be better than the built-in PDA, if for no other reason than it has more memory.

    A standalone digital camera will be better because it'll have more memory and a better lens.

    A standalone phone will be no worse, and from the looks of it, it'll be easier to talk on and handle because it's smaller.

    Half decent versions of all these things would probably even cost less. They didn't have a price on that page that I could see, but the T68i was pretty pricy. Is it all just a space/convenience thing? Are people that anxious to free up some space that they'll use a somewhat inferior all-around package instead of 3 high quality individual pieces? Do geeks really not want to carry a bag around?

    Now, being a programmer, I've never really had a use for a PDA (no meetings or things to remember...I never used the PDAs that I had), I'm only starting to want a cell phone (and even then, it's mostly because I bicycle on my own a lot) and I've been doing okay with SLR film cameras (though a digital would be awfully nice with a couple good lenses...) Maybe I'm missing everything about this phone except the 'cool' factor of owning a high-tech cutting edge phone.

  • w00t! 3|337 |-|40r speak has ruined me (Score:3, Funny)

    by revery ( 456516 ) <charles@NoSpam.cac2.net> on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @12:11PM (#5433226) Homepage
    This is the t68i replacement and its supposed to improve on it in every aspect. It has a 16bit color screen

    Am I the only one who tried figuring out what the heck t68i and 16bit were in script-kiddish before my brain took back over...

    --

    Some days it's not even worth uploading my consciousness

  • t68i sucks (Score:5, Insightful)

    by flats ( 5097 ) <flatspunk@ya3.14159hoo.com minus pi> on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @01:11PM (#5433673) Homepage
    I have a t68i, and I can't wait until my contract is up in a month or two so I can renew and get a Nokia phone. (So I don't have to pay full price for the phone)

    I bought the t68i based on features before actually testing the phone.

    1) It was slow until I got a refurbished model which is faster.
    2) The microphone is WAYYY too sensative, nothing but background noise! My girlfriend hates it when I'm in a car or airport.
    3) Bluetooth-schmootooth, there's nothing THAT cool about it yet...sure there's a few tricks, and maybe sync-ing address books is all right...but there's not enough practicality in it yet.
    3) The antenna is horrible, you put a finger on it and the strength goes down a notch or two. And that's not just because it's GSM...I've used my phone in 10 different cities by now...some have better signal than others, but the antenna is putrid.
    4) Not a rugid phone. Anytime it has ever been dropped, I'm worried I'm out of luck!
    5) Anytime I go out of range, it takes more than 5 minutes to re-establish -- it's faster to turn the phone off and turn it back on -- what kind of crap is that?

    I can't wait to get a nokia phone again, I've been searching eBay -- but I want to test the phone first.

    It might be feature-rich, bluetooth, and a good battery -- but as a phone IT SUCKS!

  • hmmm.... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @02:14PM (#5434215)
    Okay, it doesn't look anywhere near as pretty as the T68i, but that's hardly a big deal. The thing is, like the T68i, it has an internal antenna, which means it's reception is going to suck as bad as the T68i's did. You can tack on all the features in the world, but when you keep dropping connection in iffy areas, I'm just not impressed.

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