Formerly named the ‘Idio’, the Satio has been officially announced by Sony Ericsson. It features a 3.5 inch 16:9 widescreen touchscreen, quadband GSM and a plethora of other high-end features.

The touchscreen has a resolution of 640 x 350 which is fine for displaying photographs. Along with the full internet browser the Satio has:

• Google Maps preloaded
• A FaceBook client
• A YouTube viewer
• On-screen full sized landscape keyboard

Fredrik Mansson, Market Business Manager as Sony Ericsson says:

“With Satio you can enjoy any form of entertainment anytime, anywhere. Whether its music or movies you will never be more than a tap away from your favourite tracks or shows. Just tap directly into your favourite videos and music with the unique full touch media menu, standby panels and music player. Snapping perfect pictures also just got so simple thanks to the 12.1 megapixel camera, intuitive touch focus and Xenon flash. Share them with your nearest and dearest via your social networking site, produce huge prints and you can even comment directly on your images.”

The Sony Ericsson Satio specification includes:

• True 16:9, 3.5 inch widescreen
• 12.1 megapixel camera
• Intuitive touch focus
• Xenon flash
• Face and smile detection
• Web albums with messages
• Intuitive full touch media menu
• Symbian Foundation operating system
• Music player

The Satio also comes with the smallest headset on the market, the Wireless Stereo Headphones HBH-IS800 as well as the Video Viewing Stand IM920.

The promotional video below shows the Satio in use and the Black, silver, ‘Bordeaux’ colour range.

The Sony Ericsson Satio will launch in October.  No word on pricing, but it won’t be cheap.

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Following earlier rumours last week talk persists surrounding new mobile devices that Apple may or may not currently have at the prototype stage. The iPhone lite would broaden the appeal of the iPhone range even further and the Apple Media Pad would answer at least two years of consumer pressure and speculation.

iPhone Lite

The rumoued diminutive iPhone will be both smaller and thinner than the current 3G model and be built on a SoC (system on Chip) reducing the bulk of the components and hence the form-factor of the device. It will also be cheaper than the current iPhones and intended as a dedicated phone rather than the ‘everything under the sun’ range of uses of the 3G model.

Media Pad

The Media Pad is said to be smaller than the Amazon Kindle’s 8″ x 5.3″ and would have a proportionally larger screen which may mean that in absolute terms the Apple device will have a bigger screen than the Kindle.

Like the iPhone and iPod Touch expect the touchscreen to be a capacitive panel and host an interface to navigate music, photos and movies. Some game-play and app-running ability will also be present if, as is likely, the system is opened to third-party developers.

The Media Pad will likely support VOIP over its WiFi connection and may be based on the same SoC as the iPhone Lite.

The Media Pad is likely to be the recipient of the capacitive panels ordered by Apple in the last few months. Earlier rumours speculated that these were for a netbook device but the latest information suggests that they are intended for the Media Pad which may also receive the 5-megapixel camera, also rumoured earlier this year.

Roll out

Given the exclusivity contract between AT&T and Apple which lasts until 2010 it is likely that the Media Pad will be launched first but this depends on the terms of the AT&T agreement. If Apple can make a good claim that the iPhone lite is a different product to the iPhones and not subject to the exclusivity terms both could appear this year with the iPhone Lite available to a much wider range of users that the currnt iPhone.

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HTC has today launched a touch device integrating a 3.8 inch wide-screen VGA screen and a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus with a clear emphasis on media playback and recording on the move.

The phone also features HTC’s TouchFLO 3d user interface providing intuitive access to contacts, messages and most frequently accessed media assets. A standard 3.5mm headphone jack allows you to plug in high-performance headphones.

Anthony Petts, Sales and Marketing Director ANZ, HTC Corporation said:

“Today, Widescreen TV, Internet and Video have become the standard so there is no reason to miss out when you leave the house. Touch HD delivers that uncompromising multimedia and Internet experience. We are living in a time where the concept of entertainment has radically changed. The internet is so much more than just email and our customers expect to be able to access the Internet and high quality multimedia content when they are on the move in Australia, or indeed, the world.”

The wide-screen format allows web pages to be viewed at full page width (800 pixels)

Specification

• Model: HTC Touch HD™ T8282
• Processor: Qualcomm® MSM 7201A™ 528 MHz
• Memory: ROM:512 MB; RAM:288 MB
• Operating System: Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
• Display: 3.8-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 480 x 800 WVGA resolution
• Dimensions: 115 mm x 62.8 mm x 12 mm (4.358 in x 2.4722 in x 0.47 in)
• Weight: 147 grams (5.185 ounces) with battery
• TouchFLOTM 3D user interface
• Network: HSDPA/WCDMA:
• 5 megapixel camera
• 3.5 mm audio jack
• Special Features: FM Radio, G-Sensor

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The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) of Taiwan has developed a flexible display which allows a smartphone’s screen to double to five inches. This makes the display comparable to many netbooks and other portable gadgets.

The demonstration device is branded the “Nokia Communicator” and comprises an editing keyboard (lower half) and a wide format display (upper half). But what the user sees is only the top half of the screen — the rest is hiding behind the keyboard and can be pulled out, if desired, to double the screen real estate.

The pictures seem to indicate that the screen is interrupted in the middle — as if two independent screens have been used but this is not the case. The grey line simply marks the “task border” which can be shifted up and down the display as the user prefers.

ITRI has partnered with Pilot Fish to produce this demonstrator and is now seeking world-wide manufacturers to adopt the new technology which they say will be ready in a year.

I’d love to see touchscreen phone manufacturers start to use this. Imagine an iPhone that can be pulled out to three times it’s original size — it would make web surfing on it almost bareable!

Photo gallery

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Following hot on the heels of the Blackberry Storm Nokia has at last released details of its first QWERTY sliding smartphone in the form of the N97 which builds on the standard Symbian S60 OS with a UI layer optimized for touchscreens and some surprise features which put it ahead of the competition.

Nokia claims that the Nokia N97 will have a browser which can display Flash animation and like the Nokia 5800 will support Flash Lite 3.0 and Flash video. The Home page also includes widgets for storing favourite web services and social sites making them more accessible from its 16:9 screen much like the Nokia Internet Tablet OS. The widget system is open to third party developers so we could see a marketplace for Nokia widgets open up much like Apple’s App Store.

But the Nokia N97 is not so heavily invested in touch technology as, say, the iPhone: the QWERTY keyboard is a slide-out panel beneath the main body rather than an on-screen virtual keyboard.

The Nokia N97 seems to be a compromise between traditional slider phones and a tentative step into touchscreen waters. To be considered a true competitor to the iPhone I think Nokia is going to have to bite the bullet and invest in enhancing the UI touch input technology further and ditch the hardware keyboard.

Don’t expect to see the Nokia N97 until the end of first quater 2009 and even then it will probably be Europe and Asia first.

Here are the basic specs:

• Size: 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm* *18.25 mm at camera area
• Weight: Approx. 150 g
• Memory: Up to 48GB (32 GB on-board memory, plus 16GB expansion via microSD memory card slot)
• Display: 3.5 inch TFT with up to 16 million colors nHD 16:9 widescreen (640×360 pixels)
• Talk time: Up to 320 min (3G), 400 min (GSM)
• Standby time: Up to 400 hrs (3G), 430 hrs (GSM)
• Video playback: Up to 4.5 hours (offline mode)
• Music playback: Up to 37 hours (offline mode)
• Image capture: Up to 5 megapixels (2584 x 1938) JPEG/EXIF (16.7 million/24-bit color)

And here’s Nokia’s full press release:

Desktop. Laptop. Pocket: The era of the personal Internet dawns with the Nokia N97

Tilting touch display, QWERTY keyboard and personalized home screen – a true mobile computer.

Barcelona, Spain – Nokia today unveiled the Nokia N97, the world’s most advanced mobile computer, which will transform the way people connect to the Internet and to each other. Designed for the needs of Internet- savvy consumers, the Nokia N97 combines a large 3.5” touch display with a full QWERTY keyboard, providing an ‘always open’ window to favorite social networking sites and Internet destinations. Nokia’s flagship Nseries device introduces leading technology – including multiple sensors, memory, processing power and connection speeds – for people to create a personal Internet and share their ‘social location.’

“From the desktop to the laptop and now to your pocket, the Nokia N97 is the most powerful, multi-sensory mobile computer in existence,” said Jonas Geust, Vice President, heading Nokia Nseries. “Together with the Ovi services announced today, the Nokia N97 mobile computer adjusts to the world around us, helping stay connected to the people and things that matter most. With the Nokia N97, Nseries leads the charge in helping to transform the Internet into your Internet”.

The Nokia N97 introduces the concept of ‘social location’. With integrated A-GPS sensors and an electronic compass, the Nokia N97 mobile computer intuitively understands where it is. The Nokia N97 makes it easy to update social networks automatically with real-time information, giving approved friends the ability to update their ‘status’ and share their ‘social location’ as well as related pictures or videos.

The home screen of the Nokia N97 mobile computer features the people, content and media that matter the most. Friends, social networks and news are available by simply touching the home screen. The 16:9 widescreen display can be fully personalized with frequently updated widgets of favorite web services and social networking sites. The Nokia N97 is also perfectly suited for browsing the web, streaming Flash videos or playing games. Both the physical QWERTY and virtual touch input ensure efficiency in blogging, chatting, posting, sending texts or emailing.

The Nokia N97 supports up to 48 GB of storage, including 32 GB of on-board memory, expandable with a 16 GB microSD card for music, media and more. This is complemented by excellent music capabilities, full support for the Nokia Music Store and continuous playback time of up to 1.5 days. The Nokia N97 also has a 5- Megapixel camera with high-quality Carl Zeiss optics, 16:9 and DVD quality video capture, and support for services like Share on Ovi for immediate sharing over HSDPA and WLAN.

The Nokia N97 is expected to begin shipping in the first half of 2009 at an estimated retail price of EUR 550 before taxes or subsidies.

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RIM has recently announced the introduction of a device that eschews the traditional input methods of Blackberries we have learned to know and love. No more the keyboard and trackball. Say hello to the touch-screen display.

(Matt Buchanan has conducted a comprehensive review at Gizmodo from which many of the facts below have been gleaned.)

The Screen

The touchscreen is 3.3 inches diagonal with a resolution of 480 x 360 pixels and incorporates a single touch-sensitive layer using capacitive technology.

The unique feature of the Storm’s screen is that it is clickable giving some tactile confirmation of a deliberate touch to the screen an difficult to trip accidentally.

Communication

Wireless 3G communications is enhanced by GPS ability but you’re stuck with Verizon’s VZ Navigator software. RIM doesn’t provide a network independent maps/location package. Unfortunately Wi-Fi connectivity is not present in this version.

Camera

The camera is a 3.2MP affair and early adopters claim its very noisy — so just like every other phone camera then.

User Interface

Despite a sea-change in hardware input design, and the precident set by Apple for re-inventing the wheel for the sake of the touch-screen, This Blackberry’s user interface will be farmiliar to any ‘berry user. You’ll just have to remember that selecting items is different from pushing them, that’s all.

The accelerometer will reorganize the screen if you turn the screen sideways and is pretty responsive.

Matt claims that the interface, despite its good points, is slow and suffers considerable lag that he found annoying.

Summing Up

The Blackberry Storm will be a strong development for those who are either locked into purchasing a Blackberry or just won’t consider anything else but fails to live up to the ridiculous hype that’s been surrounding it. It’s no iPhone killer but probably the best of the rest.

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LG has launched their KP500 claiming that it’s price, which they won’t tell us, is the lowest for a touchscreen phone.

LG says:

“despite its low price tag, this attractive phone has the latest touch technology and features normally found in high-end handsets.”

The company goes on to describe the quad-band KP500 as “slim and lightweight, with a chic black casing and sleek titanium rim”.

It’s also packs:

• GSM
• Quad-band communications
• Hand-writing recognition

The bad news is that the touchscreen use by the KP500 requires a stylus, a technique long abandoned by more up-market touchscreen phones in favour of finger-touch inputs.

In keeping with modern trends, the KP500 does at least include an accelerometer allowing the playing of motion-sensitive games. A QWERTY keyboard is also available on-screen when the phone is turned horizontal. When turned all documents, images and the UI are rotated to suit the new view.

The LG-KP500 will be available at the end of October 2008.Maybe we’ll know what ‘affordable’ means by then!

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Toshiba seems to be about to take the plunge into the netbook market but as you can see from the photograph their offering is going to be very different from the products like the Eee PC and the MSI Wind.

The Toshiba machine seems to be a UMPC/netbook hybrid. The planned device is expected to feature the following:

• 5.6″ touch screen display
• Microsoft Vista operating system
• 64GB SSD
• GPS chipset
• Intel Atom processor

With those specs it seems the Toshiba netbook could be aimed at a premium market compared to current models unless the final product changes significantly from the leaked prototype specs.

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Apple has since last year been peddling an under-specified, over-priced phone that locks users in to a single network for the duration of a two-year contract and boasts only 2.5G connectivity and a 2 megapixel still camera. So there was plenty of scope over the last eight months for another company to come up with what might be regarded as the ‘ultimate phone’. It may be about to happen.

No real pictures are available yet (the image above is a mockup by unwiredview.com) but some specs have been leaked — and here they are:

• Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900). WCDMA 900/2100, 7.2 Mbps HSDPA connectivity
• 3″ WQVGA 400×240 px TFT touchscreen
• 5 megapixel camera
• front camera for video calls
• Wi-Fi b/g connectivity
• USB 2.0, Bluetooth
• Full HTML browsing
• FM-Radio
• TV-out
• microSDHC memory card slot (up to 8GB)
• slide-out QWERTY keyboard

According to the leaked press release, LG Prada II will be even more focused on the overall design/user experience than the original LG Prada KE850 handset. The Prada designers will be closely involved in making the custom themes, touch UI, built-in ringtones and cellphone accessories for Prada II phone.

LG Prada II is expected to launch in Q4 2008 but by then the second generation iPhone will be out so chances are nobody will notice.

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Gigabyte has been known to be working on a number of UMPC products but information was thin on the ground for one particular model: the M700. That’s all changed with a photo and specifications from Gigabyte released at CeBIT 2008.

Disappointingly the new device will not feature Intel’s latest Penryn processors. Instead it will be powered by a 1.2MHz C7-M Via CPU. The other disappointment is that it will run Windows Vista Home Premium unlike the Ubuntu installation of the M528. Its sibling product also has a sliding keyboard which the M700 seems to lack judging by the photo.

The M700 is endowed with 2GB RAM (Windows Vista will use most of that!) and a touch-screen with a 1024 x 600 pixel resolution. Hard disk capacity is 40GB or 60GB as desired.

• 7” Touch display, 1024×600
• 1.2Ghz C7-M Via CPU
• 2GB
• 40GB to 60GB of hard drive
• Windows Vista Home Premium

Further specs and prices are as yet unknown but will be posted here as soon as they are announced.

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