Sony Ericsson’s final new cellphone today is the Yari, a motion-gaming handset that brings Wii-style games to a mobile handset. Yari uses sensors hidden in its bezel to recognize body movement, together with accelerometers and gesture controls. There’s also a new Gaming Carousel menu, with access to downloadable games from the desktop.
Video demo after the cut
As well as the Satio, Sony Ericsson announced another touchscreen handset today: the Aino. A slender slider with a 3-inch touchscreen and numeric keypad, the Aino has an 8.1-megapixel camera, Sony Remote Play support for streaming media from a PS3, GPS, HSPA and a nifty docking station that will also charge the wireless remote.
Video demo after the cut
This, according to iLounge’s trusted tipster, is pretty much what the fifth-generation iPod nano will look like. No touchscreen interface, but the display does get an aspect change; there’s also said to be a camera on the back and a smaller control wheel.
More details, plus next-gen iPhone leaks, after the cut
The first retail product to use Intel’s Media Processor CE 3100 – aka the Canmore SoC – has been announced, the Conceptronic YUIXX, promising streaming media at up to 1080p high-definition resolution, up to 2TB of onboard storage and optional DVB T/C/S TV tuners. The handiwork of Conceptronic and Metrological (who supplied the software), the YUIXX has HDMI 1.3a, composite and component ports, together with two USB 2.0 ports, TOSLINK, an SD/MMC card reader and optional Bluetooth and WiFi draft-n.
Details of Nokia’s next-gen Internet Tablet have leaked, suggesting that the Finnish company have moved away from positioning the platform as a companion device and now perceive it more as a smartphone. According to leaked specifications, the Nokia N900 or “Nokia Rover” now has quadband GSM and 3G HSPA, in addition to the WiFi and Bluetooth of the previous-gen models. It also sheds some screen-size, scaling down to a 3.5-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen (from 4-inches) though as this leaked image suggests the overall design is very similar to that of the N810.
Two new Android smartphones have been tipped, both by Samsung and expected to launch in Q3 2009. The Samsung Spico (left) and Samsung Bigfoot (right) will both have 3-inch WQVGA touchscreens, while the Bigfoot adds a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and T-Mobile USA 3G support; each will apparently run Android OS 2.0 “Donut”, the follow-up to Cupcake.
A second video demo of the Samsung I7500 Android smartphone has emerged, this time the handiwork of Tech65. As we saw in the first video, it’s the AMOLED touchscreen that really makes the I7500 stand out: at 3.2-inches and 320 x 480 resolution it’s the same size and pixel count as on the HTC Magic and T-Mobile G1, but we’re hoping for better overall runtime along with the brighter colors.
Video demo of the Samsung I7500 after the cut
Nokia have announced the E52, a S60 handset they’re calling “voice optimized”. Boasting eight hours of talktime from a full charge, the Nokia E52 also has noise cancellation together with the email UI from the Nokia E75. Of course, while the focus might be voice calls, Nokia couldn’t help throwing in other modern-day niceties such as GPS and a 3.2-megapixel camera.
There’s also a 2.4-inch QVGA display and access to the Nokia Ovi services, plus HSDPA and HSUPA for high-speed mobile data access. It’ll be available in silver and a rather sludgy brown.
Video demo of the Nokia E52 after the cut
Samsung have announced a pair of touchscreen cellphones, the Samsung Star S5230 and the Samsung Preston S5600. A 2.5G and 3G handset respectively, the Star and Preston both use Samsung’s TouchWiz GUI: the S5230 has a 3-inch WQVGA display, while the S5600 has a 2.8-inch QVGA panel.
It’s set to be a tough year for smartphones, and there’s plenty of change afoot as companies battle amid tightening customer purse-strings. The new iPhone is set to arrive over the summer; Palm’s Pre is imminent, and Microsoft have the latest incarnation of Windows Mobile waiting in the wings. Into that fray, HTC launch the Touch Diamond2, likely one of the last smartphones to use WM6.1 and an update to what was considered, when it launched a year ago, one of the game-changing handsets of Microsoft’s platform. Can the HTC Touch Diamond2 maintain that legacy, and will TouchFLO 3D improvements sufficiently mask the aging OS? SlashGear set to finding out.
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