Sony Ericsson's P990 Smartphone Released 216
Dynamoo writes "After months of rumors, Sony Ericsson has finally announced their P990 Symbian smartphone. Packing both UMTS (3G) and WiFi in addition to a 2 megapixel digital camera and a host of other goodies, the P990 looks like it will be a shot in the arm for the Symbian camp. There's no indication of a US release for this handset, but the rest of the world can expect to see it early next year."
Immediate Recall (Score:4, Funny)
Too true (Score:2, Troll)
My next phone will have the simplest UI I can find unless they have made significant advances in the usability of the P9XX series.
Re:Too true (Score:2)
Fucking useless OS isn't it? Quite sad considering I know a couple of people that work at Symbian, but I think the fault is with UIQ.
If it didn't crash it'd be okay. But it does crash. I tried to make a phone call today, wondered why I wasn't getting a ring, looked at the screen to see the "Motorola 3G" logo pop up as it rebooted. Just for making a phone call!
Windows Mobile (which I've also used) is around 3 years ahead of the Symbian + UIQ combination. At leas
Firmware (Score:2)
Great Reception (Score:2)
Re:Immediate Recall (Score:3, Insightful)
That was two years ago, right? And I think you're quite wrong about the "passively-cooled" part. Above the absolute lowest video cards, there are almost none that are passively cooled, whether from nVidia or ATI.
Sony, still sticking it to the consumers (Score:5, Insightful)
from the article: Internal memory is 80Mb, and this is expandable through Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo cards (64Mb is included, 2Gb maximum).
'Nuff said.
Enough with the proprietary memory stick technology already!
I hate company's that use a stick to sell their product.
A memory carrot would be more to my liking. (Can you say SD, or MMC?)
Re:Sony, still sticking it to the consumers (Score:2)
Re:Sony, still sticking it to the consumers (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Sony, still sticking it to the consumers (Score:2)
(I'm stuck too, I have a CF camera and a SD phone)
Re:Sony, still sticking it to the consumers (Score:2)
It's a simple matter of standards... right now we have 3 or 4... so you have to mix and match appropriately... memory stick sucks because it's attached to a single vendor.
Works out for you because you bought all sony in the camera and phone department.
Re:Sony, still sticking it to the consumers (Score:2)
Re:Sony, still sticking it to the consumers (Score:2, Insightful)
Don't you remember what life was like with parallel ports, serial ports, PS/2 ports, etc.... they have all been replaced by USB and life is good now. Why can't we do the same thing for
Re:Sony, still sticking it to the consumers (Score:4, Informative)
Proprietary formats sucks.
Re:Sony, still sticking it to the consumers (Score:2)
Re:Sony, still sticking it to the consumers (Score:2)
Re:Sony, still sticking it to the consumers (Score:2)
Yesyes, because we all know that 90%, heck even 60% of the consumers spend their time messing around with hardware and developing for an open format.
I hate company's that use a stick to sell their product.
Oh wow. I didn't know it was abnormal for a company to support its products. If you had a company and your company created some kind of USB-like device claiming that it's as good if not, better than USB Memory Keys and your company ends up using U
Re:Sony, still sticking it to the consumers (Score:2)
Re:Sony, still sticking it to the consumers (Score:2)
I've had to buy 3 different formats of memory cards (for phone, PSP, and cameras). Most of my devices actually use MS, but that doesn't really matter since even if all my devices used the same memory type I'd probably to have to get one for each of them anyways.
Re:Sony, still sticking it to the consumers (Score:3, Informative)
you imply there's just one type of Sony Memory Stick... let's count them, shall we?
Re:Sony, still sticking it to the consumers (Score:5, Interesting)
B: Try going 100% Compact Flash sometime. Not only can you use devices from multiple manufacturers, but you have no upper limit on size. We have an old digital camera here that came out when 16MB CF cards were considered large. Now we have a 1GB card in it, and it chugs along happily. If I need a little extra space, I can jam one of the many old cards into my PDA. Up or down, you have complete compatibility.
I can't say the same for my Sony devices, where some take the original Memory Stick, some take Memory Stick Pro, some only take Memory Stick Duo... and none of which get large enough for serious use. I'm still shocked that a lot of Memory Stick devices can only take 128, 256, or 512BM MAXIMUM card sizes. The old devices are now far less useful, as data expands... a CF-based MP3 player from 1998 is as useful today as when it was bought, as the capacity can expand up to the size of an iPod Nano, but a Memory Stick based MP3 player would be stuck at 128 MB. Why create a standard that is incompatible with future upgrades?
C: SD cards are still smaller than Memory Stick Duo cards, have more capacity, are cheaper... Oh, and are a standard that multiple manufacturers support, not just one. You can buy a Palm Pilot, or a Kodak Camera, or an HP Pocket PC device that all support the same Memory Card. Want to buy a PDA that's compatible with your memory sticks? Sorry, Sony got out of that market.
And while SD cards aren't as upwardly compatible as CF cards (there is a maximum size each generation supports), they're a heck of a lot smaller than both CF or Memory Sticks.
D: Did I mention that even amongst Sony's line there are incompatibilities? It was nice of them to ship "adaptor sticks" with their new cameras, but I've never needed an adaptor for CF. If they keep changing it, it's not a "standard."
There is a reason why professional photographers will only shoot on CF. If you want high capacity and flexibility, you need CF. If you want small space and low power consumption, you want SD. There is really no reason for memory sticks to exist at all, as they don't do anything better than either of the two dominant standards.
Re:Sony, still sticking it to the consumers (Score:2)
CF is only really suitable for dSLR cameras since those are going to be really big anyways. There's not much use in having smaller cards in one of those.
And now MS cards are available from multiple vendors so there's not much more proprietary than SD.
Re:Sony, still sticking it to the consumers (Score:2)
You mean SanDisk and rebadged OEM SanDisk?
Are there actually any other manufacturers of either Memory Sticks or SD cards?
Re:Sony, still sticking it to the consumers (Score:2)
>> Want to buy a PDA that's compatible with your memory sticks? Sorry, Sony got out of that market.
That's a comical statement to make replying to a Slashdot article about a new.... Sony PDA. Which takes memory sticks.
Why all the Cameras? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Why all the Cameras? (Score:2)
Re:Why all the Cameras? (Score:2)
There are plenty of folks in your situation and they are all quite vocal about it. I tend to agree with you but there are always some slimmed down versions of phones which are available for people in your situation. I have two friends that cannot bring cameras into work. One bought a lower end model phone for $49 and uses that. The other just doesn't bring his phone
Re:Why all the Cameras? (Score:2, Informative)
Also, 'citizen journalism'. Camphones are a big win here, and videophones look to be even better.
Also, on my last Grand Tour of Continental Europe, I used my P800's cam to take _all_ my pix, as my PowerShot had given up the ghost a short time before. Even without flash
Re:Why all the Cameras? (Score:3, Insightful)
Any company that does research and development should have policies about cameras. Some military jobs probably have similar restrictions.
I had jury duty recently, and was not able to bring in a camera phone.
Vertical Market Phones Often Have No Camera (Score:3, Informative)
If anyone could confirm this story with actual product numbers I'd appreciate it.
Re:Vertical Market Phones Often Have No Camera (Score:2)
Easy solution (Score:2)
Seriously, if an employee is determined to compromise the security of their employer, they will do it, with or without a camera phone.
Re:Why all the Cameras? (Score:2)
Re:Why all the Cameras? (Score:2)
And the 9500 has been out for more than a year and a half, not 6 months. clicky [nokia.com]
Definitely, you are the one behind the times, and you even proved it yourself.
I think the 9500 is excellent. Still the best phone-kind-of-thing on the market, and quite classy, too (only beaten by the Nokia 8800).
No problem at all! (Score:3, Funny)
1) Get a ball point pen.
2) Shove the pen deep into the CCD - cracking it so that it can no longer hold a charge.
VOILA! Camera-free PDA! This same "break the main part" technique can be used on a remarkably large range of electronic functions, including:
-Speakers
-Microphone
-LCD
-Phone (more complicated - you have to remove the antenna)
Virtually any external feature you don't like can be remo
this actually happens (Score:2)
there was a period when virtually all of their business class phones came with cameras, and it was actually more expensive to buy large quantities of camera-less ones - so some creative thinking was required. the lenses were coated with a nigh-on impossible to remove paint that bonded with the plastic - doesn't hit
Blackberry (Score:2, Interesting)
. . . so this can replace my soon to be defunct [slashdot.org] Blackberry?
Now will someone tell me why all interesting new gadgetery is so slow to be released in the US.
I want a DUMB phone (Score:5, Funny)
These are features I'm looking for:
o) No camera
o) No games
o) No Java
o) No blue-tooth/wi-fi
o) Just a really big phonebook + clock
o) Really, really, small
o) Really, really tough (titanium alloy? liquid metal?)
o) Lots of stand-by time, lots of talk-time
o) Fast (and quiet) power on/off times
o) GSM (my current carrier is T-Mobile)
Re:I want a DUMB phone (Score:4, Informative)
Re:I want a DUMB phone (Score:2)
I think the camera is mandatory on the razr. For my needs (if I told you, I would have to kill you) there must be no camera, and simply breaking the camera is not enough to pass muster.
Re:I want a DUMB phone (Score:3, Insightful)
The RAZR is crap. It's svelte crap, but crap to be sure.
The UI is needlessly complex, compared to a NOKIA at least.
The ringer volume is too low
There are too many buttons & too many features
The vibrate is too gentle
Bluetooth? Not on a simple phone..
MP3 ringtones? Not on a simple phone..
Camera? Not on a simple phone..
The problem is, to get a phone with few features, you're getting a phone that's ugly, big, and uses less-than-high-end components. It's free, there are plent
Re:I want a DUMB phone (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I want a DUMB phone (Score:3, Informative)
How about a Nokia 1100 [nokia.com]?
It does have one extra feature, a flashlight, but I'm sure you can put tape over it and pretend it's not there.
It also isn't really, really small, because like most phones it has buttons, a screen and a microphone + speaker combination.
It isn't made of liquid metal, but seems to have non-slippery sides.
Re:I want a DUMB phone (Score:2)
My god, I picked up my sister's 3 year old motorolla to make a call the other day, and it was wonderful, I pushed 10 numbers, and it took them all.
My current motorolla I have to watch the display as I key in numbers as the 5 works about 30% of the time, the 6 about 80% and the rest are all right, but are so small compared to the dead space that I miss them on occassion.
And my Treo... that's a great phone, but good god man, there's no good way to di
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I want a DUMB phone (Score:2)
It the only thing on a mobiler phone I really wanted, since it allows me to phone handsfree(illegal to phone on the move in the UK). Unfortunately this seems to be considered a high end feature so I had to buy a phone with a lot of other rubbish(camera, etc) just to get the one feature I did want.
My perfect phone would be the above+bluetooth, since it allows you to connect with your other high end devices if you wish later
Re:I want a DUMB phone (Score:2)
Not to mention sync your phone numbers with your computer.
Nokia 1221 from tracfone (Score:2)
Combine an old school phone that does ONLY phone stuff (I suppose it techincally has games - I've never played them. the interface is clean and phone centric) with modern batteries and you have one very useful piece of tech.
The display is nice easy to read text.
It's great! Tracfone uses the cingular network so you should have good coverage.
This costs me
Re:I want a DUMB phone (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, I used to think the same thing. All I wanted was a small, light, no-ringtones, no-camera, black-and-white-screen phone. But I just moved to the UK and bought a Samsung E350 slider phone. It has an MP3/AAC player, a camera, a colour screen, Java games and all that.
But you know what? It's small, the battery life is as good as any other phone I've ever owned (including black-and-white bare basics phones). It weighs next to nothing, the call quality is good, and I just don't use the games or any other extraneous features.
And wouldn't you know it? Within a day of getting the USb cable for the phone, I set my ringtone to an MP3 of the Star Wars theme song (from the Rebellion's medal ceremony at the end of A New Hope). And I took a goofy self-portrait for my wallpaper. Why not? It's fun, a little silly, but entertaining.
I think the "I just want a simple phone!" is at times overstated. What I really want is a phone that doesn't make too many compromises for extra features. I don't need video recording capabilities, but if it can add them without sacrificing size or battery life, I'm not too worried. And besides, I do like gadgets (and I can't imagine I'm alone in that regard, especially not on Slashdot), so why wouldn't I want my phone to be gadgety?
I think we geeks are just more sensitive to tradeoffs. There are a lot of phones that are heavy on features, but sacrifice basic useability to get there. The Microsoft Word of phones, if you will. But there also exist phones that are good compromises. Just don't use the features you don't need.
Re:I want a DUMB phone (Score:2)
I HAVE THE PERFECT PHONE FOR YOU (Score:2)
I used this phone because I wanted a small/thin flip phone. Last week I upgraded to the Panasonic X800 [panasonic.co.jp]
Panasonic EB-A100 (Score:2)
http://www.panasonic.it/Products_Info.asp?M=2529 [panasonic.it]|
Sorry the page is in italian, and those fuckers at panasonic don't seem to like firefox either.
Re:I want a DUMB phone (Score:4, Insightful)
I personally think it's really not $500, but looking at the pictures of the people using them I really don't get the feeling that I'm the target demographic here (even though I do have the tiny iPod shuffle, which is pretty much the same size. But then again I did carry an MP3 diskman around before a cellphone... maybe Apple will come out with an iPhone shuffle that just calls random people in your phone book?)
Sure, it looks nice, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
With the increasing price of oil, I can't help wondering what the face of computing is going to look like five or ten years down the line. The average computer uses as much as 37 Conestoga wagons worth of coal to run on any given day. Much of this is spent on wasteful peripherals we could do without, such as fancy 3D graphics cards or optical mice, but even more is being spent on processing power well beyond the needs of the average user.
Inefficiencies in microcomponent fabrication mean that a great deal of the electricity that goes into your computer is given off as heat. Techniques such as reversible or quantum computing hold much promise in the future for putting more energy into computation but today it is up to the consumer to safeguard the environment.
In a way, the argument is the same as with vehicles -- most people don't need a SUV or a top-of-the-line system but many choose to get them to compensate for inadequacies or because of marketing -- but with computers at least it is impossible to argue you are "safer" for having a faster system. Indeed, you are more likely to run viruses or worms without realizing it because you don't notice the hit in operating performance. If anything this argument is stronger with a cellphone that can be reprogrammed by malware to call phone numbers that cost you a lot of money or hassle.
I've noticed that I've been holding on to computer equipment longer and longer these days. Oh sure, I have to fix a power supply here and a fan there, but besides slack engineering standards from software companies there is little reason to keep up with the hardware treadmill... and at least one compelling reason not to.
Re:Sure, it looks nice, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Hmm. I may have to call you out on several elements of that argument. Firstly:
A Conestoga Wagon transported about 8 (short) tons of cargo (according to the wikipedia article). According to howstuffworks.com, coal produces approximately 2,460 kWh/ton. Now, your average computer/monitor combination draws between 150W and 200W, according to some basic research. That could also be written as .2kWh. So in 24 hours, this device draws, um, 4.8 kWh. Considering that a Conestoga Wagon's worth of coal would be about 19,680 kWh of power, I think we can safely assume that a computer uses about 1/12 of a Conestoga Wagon full of coal PER YEAR.
What else? Um. The thought that lots of power is spent on optical mice is kind of funny. I haven't been able to find any concrete information, but since an optical mouse can run solely off the power provided by a PS/2 port, I'm going to assume that there's virtually no power usage involved.
Strangely enough, though, I do agree with you. For basic tasks (word processing, web browsing, etc), I've never seen anybody who needed more than about a 1GHz machine. That's fast enough to handle the flashy graphics and jazz. I've always found it funny to see Intel advertising their latest 3.9GHz dual-core hyper-threading machine as good for web browsing. But, having played Doom 3 and Half-Life 2, I can tell you quite authoritatively that you can never have too much power in your graphics card. ;)
Re:Sure, it looks nice, but...SIG Feedback (Score:3, Funny)
Considering how neither of my kids (boys in their 20's) feel no compunction at all about paying back any of their debts no matter how extravagant their promises at the time of borrowing, I worry less about this debt every day.
Re:Sure, it looks nice, but...SIG Feedback (Score:2)
There was a campaign to get loan ads off of kids tv at http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/ [moneysavingexpert.com]
Re:Sure, it looks nice, but... (Score:2)
Re:Sure, it looks nice, but... (Score:4, Funny)
Uh oh - when did the sun go out?
Re:Sure, it looks nice, but... (Score:2)
Well, technically he said 'in' the world, so as long as the sun was up when he wrote it, he's right.
After all, we all know the sun burrows through the earth at night, right? Lands somewhere in Arizona, that's why the rocks there are so red...
Mark
PS Thanks to Bill Watterson for the Arizona information - everything I need to know about science I learnt from "Calvin & Hobbes".
Re:Sure, it looks nice, but... (Score:2)
Erm, no. There's a constant amount of energy in the universe. Energy is constantly entering and leaving this planet via sunlight, radiated heat, and so on.
Re:Sure, it looks nice, but... (Score:2)
I've been hearing more and more about the Pentium Mobile vs. the Pentium 4 in the past few months; lots of people were saying that the Pentium Mobile was a good choice for a desktop machine, that the design (ironically based on the Pentium III) was the way forward rather than the dead-end (following the 'Prescott' iteration) that the Pentium 4 i
Slashvertising? (Score:2, Insightful)
Thats what i get for not reading carefully. (Score:5, Funny)
Lol, shot in the arm (Score:2, Troll)
Unless they're shooting that thing out of a 50 calibur, I'm not exactly holding my breath for the triumphant Symbian comeback.
Re:Lol, shot in the arm (Score:2, Informative)
What do you mean comeback? Last I heard, Symbian was by far the most successful smartphone OS so far [linuxdevices.com] (in terms of market share).
Looks Like (Score:2)
Looks like:
1: New avenues to hack into my phone.
2: More software that probably hasn't been adequately tested in the competative enviroment before release.
It's ugly, Jim! (Score:2)
Skype? (Score:2)
Not to mention making long distance calls via 3G internet access. You're still using your minutes, but now you can call anywhere in the world without having to get a second mortgage on your house.
um... er... (Score:2)
Ring Ring
Yeeeeouch!
Ring Ring
Yeeeeouch!
Horrible keyboard design (Score:4, Insightful)
This is a step back for the P series and i hope SonyEricsson will change it.
Re:Horrible keyboard design (Score:2)
If it's at all like my P910a... (Score:3, Informative)
* Battery life is acceptable if you don't use push services
* It's gotta be tough - the very first day I had my P910i, I dropped it from about 4ft. right onto the concrete and cringed knowing that I was about to be so very fired. I picked it up and the plastic on the side where the photo button had popped loose, but that's it. I used the stylus to pry it back in, and no problem except a bit of cosmetic damage. By and large, most of my Sony/Ericsson phones have been pretty tough. It's ironic that when Ericsson's phones stopped looking like little Volvos did they become less breakable for a klutz like myself.
* the browser hangs sometimes, giving the white screen of no return. Battery removed, power back on and viola.
* it's size is a bit clunky, but one option is to remove the flip entirely and TFM for this comes in the box. Even then, you almost have to use the holster that comes with it - it's just too damn big to put into your pocket.
Charging issues? (Score:2, Insightful)
The damn metal corroded, and it became impossible to consistently charge it for any length of time, and the headset became useless for the same reason. I junked it. Now I have a phone with a male charging plug, so hopefully the unexposed contacts won't wear out
Re:Charging issues? (Score:2)
You do know that those contacts are still exposed. Air is + moisture causes most corrosion. The real solution is to use gold plated contacts.
The quality of the metal means a lot more than if it is a female jack or exposed contacts. Unless y
Title misleading (Score:3, Informative)
Shot in the head (Score:2)
the P990 looks like it will be a shot in the arm for the Symbian camp
I do hope they've come up with programming API to it that doesn't suck compiler designer's hairy balls. I had a course on mobile programming last spring and boy did symbian suck (even compared to mobile java).
I'm still of the optinion that whoever designed programming interface with 16 or more character string types was out of their mind and should be shot, multiple times.
Nice platform (Score:2)
Wi-Fi (Score:2)
Re:Wi-Fi (Score:3, Interesting)
That's the idea. That's also why the wireless carriers have been dragging their feet on supporting phones with built-in WiFi.
Quality? (Score:2)
Re:Quality? (Score:2)
While I don't have a SonyEricsson myself (I'm using a Treo at the moment) I know a few people who do have the earlier versions of this phone.
They love it. It's great. It does what it's meant to do, looks just fine, doesn't go wrong, doesn't break.
I'm going to look seriously at this thing, because although the Treo is great as a PDA, it's somewhat lacking as a phone, and this meets my key criteria of phone/pda/wifi/qwerty keyboard all on one device. I have limited pocket space, and this meets the need.
Step forward (Score:2)
Anyone who has used a P900 (ok, most people) will know that typing with the onscreen
Step away from that VoIP, sir. (Score:3, Insightful)
and:
Their spin seems to be that if these controls are not put into place, the sky will fall on the smartphone world as angry users who installed crapware/malware on their phones will annoy the crap out of the network operators' support lines, and other assorted Bad Things will happen. You know, like it happened with PCs.
Me, I just follow the money and I know what to expect: You wanna play? You pays your dues to enter Mr Telco's walled garden.
If you're a P990 (or other Symbian 9 device) owner, you don't get to decide what to install/run. Mr Telco does. For Your Own Good, of course.
Anyone want to take a bet which way it'll go?
VOIP (Score:2)
Big screen on small phone... (Score:2)
If I call somebody, I press the phone to my ear. And you get a big smeary blob on the screen, which needs to be wiped off. Which irritates me, quite apart from the uncomfortable shape.
(Very funny. No, it's perfectly normal stuff from your skin, and not mud, blood, or whatever
So, guess what: I have a PDA with everything on it. And a simple phone. To call people with, nothing else.
Re:2 MP? (Score:5, Informative)
Maybe.
2MP is just how well the camera captures the image through the lens. if the lens is shit (and it's a very small nonfocusing lens, so for many people it's shit) all you're getting is a higher resolution version of the same washed out, blurred, chromatically-distorted fisheye photos that every other camera gives.
You can get very small lenses that aren't shit, but they cost more than this entire phone would.
Re:2 MP? (Score:2)
Re:2 MP? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:2megapixel is pretty impressive quality (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:2megapixel is pretty impressive quality (Score:3, Informative)
Not untill the optics and sensor in the typical phone camera get a lot better. Substantial distorition at the edges of the picture, noise and bad colors and such are the primary reasons why pictures with the cameras in the last geenration of phones still look crappy compared to any somewhat decent compact digital camera with the same resolution. They will however cut away the market for real low-end digicams.
No (Score:3, Insightful)
There are lots of things that could be merged with a cell phone (mp3 player, voice recorder/dictaphone, PDA, thumb
Re:No (Score:2)
The 1.3Mpx camera in my phone gives about the same quality as a throwaway camera. With an auto-focus lens and 2 Mpx, you are probably getting close to the quality of compact film cameras that most of the population are happy with as their main camera. Still nowhere near a good digital compact or an SLR, but good enough for casual snapshots.
Re:2megapixel is pretty impressive quality (Score:3, Informative)
Carrying your phone around is more convenient than a bulky camera, but the long time to setup the autofocus (seconds) can be annoying, as is the fact that it takes the picture some time *after* it makes the "click" noise and people have faced away again.
However, it is nice to be able to capture (somewhat grainy) pictures at night and get detail beyond the reach of a flash.
It would
MPixels != Quality (Score:2)
2M Pixel photos will print fine on 6x4, but if the lens and the sensor are crap they will still look crap.
It's grim (Score:2)
Though the conditions you used are quite difficult even the cheapest proper 2MPixel camera will produce much much better results.
Camera phones are fine for the odd fun snapshot, but don't try and use them for photography!
I never have a problem (Score:2)
Re:American 3G (Score:2)
UMTS is coming to the US eventually, but it's not here yet. Today all we have is EV-DO.
Re:American 3G (Score:2)
Re:Released? (Score:2)
OK, enough National Geographic...