The t68i Replacement is Here

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.

Silent is good

[cindik]

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?

please please please

[rhs98]

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

Verizon

[walt15]

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.

Polyphonic ringtones

[BWJones]

Please!!!! No more ringtones. How many more versions of electronic renditions of Beethovens 9th do we have to listen to ?

Re:Read the specs

[Sheetrock]

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.

T68 does work with iSync...

[Serff]

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???

Re:But...

[emir]

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:Unfortunately...

[McWilde]

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.

Well I /was/ excited...

[FyRE666]

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).

Re:Read the specs

[stratjakt]

DRM isnt an evil term. You've read too much slashdot.

When you use a password on an secure connection to your banks website to transfer funds, that's a form of DRM.

Putting a BIOS password on your own machine so noone but you can boot it up, is DRM.

You have digital stuff, you have rights to it, you want a way to manage access to it, that's DRM - Digital Rights Management.

The problem isnt the fact that stuff can be secured, the problem is the question of ownership. The RIAA/MPAA members think they own the songs on the CD you bought. MSFT thinks it owns all the IP on your desktop, etc.

It's not the technology at fault, it's the IP system and the many vague definitions of 'ownership'.

Saying DRM is evil or wrong is like saying "ping" is a hacking tool.

No screen protection?

[MBraynard]

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?

Re:But...

[brakk]

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.

Re:Read the specs

[Gannoc]

DRM isnt an evil term. You've read too much slashdot.

Incorrect.

Digital Rights Management was defined as a way to people to maintain their "Rights" (as in copyrights) digitally.

Maybe Sony is expanding the term to include general security so down the road people think "Oh, DRM! Great, now I can use online banking! Its just like SSL!", and will ignore the fact it means you'll only be able to play that mp3 for 48 hours until it self-destructs.

Re:Read the specs

[stratjakt]

>> you'll only be able to play that mp3 for 48 hours until it self-destructs.

That's just one application, and a bad one IMO. You could use the same technology to make sure that noone else can listen to the memos you dictate to a device.

It's the use of a technology that's right or wrong, not the technology itself. Like console modchips. Use them to play japanese games in america, good. Use them to pirate games, bad.

It's the completely one-sided view of technology that has us wind up with stupid laws like the DMCA.

Re:I used to think Bluetooth was useless

[jht]

Yeah, it's about the same size, but it might be even smaller without the camera hardware. If the T68i were just a smidge smaller, I could easily toss it in the pocket of just about anything. As it stands, it won't fit in enough stuff that I usually use the belt case or a jacket pocket. It'd be handy if it could fit in a jeans pocket easily.

I'm also not sold on the utility of still cameras in phones for the average user. I do see commercial applications for it (realtors, for instance, or insurance appraisers), but I don't think still photos are a killer app for mobile phones - especially at the quality they can shoot. The thing I like about Bluetooth is that it lets you combine products that do individual tasks well, rather than try and cram everything into one device. As a PDA, for instance, my T68i is fine for reviewing stuff that's been synced to it. But browsing information is a pain when there's a lot of it, it has limited storage, and data entry is awful. But my Palm does that stuff all really well. Since my Palm and T68i can essentially operate as a linked device via Bluetooth, I can deal with the strengths of each separately. I prefer that approach.

What might be a nice feature once 3G is more widespread is lo-res video in phones. If it's simple to use, it could be pretty popular. All I think you'd need to be "good enough" is 5-10 fps, I'd think. At lo-res (like 120x120), that's not a ton of bandwidth.

Re:I've been waiting for this..

[robb0995]

Except for the built-in camera, the T68i already offers all of these features you've been waiting for!

I have the T68i with the bluetooth headset and the "Communicam" and it's an OK phone. It's not all that special. I also don't see what makes this newer version all that special or "a new generation." It seems like a marginal set of tweaks and the permanent installation of the camera.

Not that I'm looking for MORE features. My T68i crashes about once a month, which is totally unacceptable for a phone! It is already feature-bloated. Please, be a phone first and best!!

Support SSH?

[sleeeper]

I know that using SSH on a keypad phone would be very difficult, but I want a small phone that I could use to hook into my servers in a pinch, (i.e., one every two years, maybe never).

With java support, is there a a java ssh client that would work on this phone (or any other small java phone)?

There is scant online documentation about using ssh on a java phone.

What, exactly, is the point?

[Dixie_Flatline]

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.

Re:Is DRM all bad?

[Wntrmute]

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.

t68i sucks

[flats]

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!

Re:Unfortunately...

[Anonvmous Coward]

"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.