TamsS60 - the S60 Blog

Even though the world doesn’t look too good for UIQ at the moment(UIQ itself laying off employees); the following shot of the Sony Ericsson Paris has popped up on the internet:

I myself am not sure about what this means for end users as a recent rumor has stated that the device pictured above may never come to Europe and the USA.

On the other hand, developers have received white papers covering the devices; and FCC certification has been achieved - the device IMHO is in a more-less ready-to-drop state and doesn’t look too unattractive for average customers.

In the end, however, the release of the Paris is of little significance for UIQ developers. The ship has begun to sink - get off it asap!

via JAMPB

The rumor mill has been spinning in the UIQ department; here are the latest leaks. As always, these are not confirmed by officials of the relevant companies - take them with a grain of salt:

Motorola plans last-stand UIQ phone
The Boy Genius Report claims that Motorola will debut a “last stand” cell phone powered by UIQ in Q4 2008. As of now, little more is known about the machine - except that Motorola will sell off its cellphone division if this device tanks…

Sony Ericsson may not bring BeiBei/Paris to Europe/USA
The Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog claims that the Paris and BeiBei UIQ boxen(sister devices to the Gx00 boxen handled at the CeBit) will not hit America and Europe. However, it is possible that they may drop in Asia.

Should the scenario outlined above become true, it IMHO is time to abandon the UIQ ship ASAP. Sony did something similar when killing off its Clie organizers(the last Clie was Asia-only); and there is no UIQ licensee left once SE has jumped ship…

Even though the G700 and G900 haven’t shipped yet, a load of new info has popped up recently. Enjoy:

Reviews
The G900 has been reviewed by both Mobile-Review and UnwiredView. Both think that the device will sell extremely well - that could mean some more “victims” for all UIQ developers who cross the chasm…

Whitepapers
Sony Ericsson has the great habit of releasing publicly-accessible datasheets of hallmark devices well before they hit the market. The datasheets for the G700 and G900 have now dropped and can be downloaded after passing a captcha(100page PDf files) - these things cover literally every nook and cranny of the device:
G700 whitepaper
G900 whitepaper

The rumor mill has spit out a few new bits of info relating to Sony Ericsson’s new, stylish UIQ devices via the folks at JAMPB(who seem to have an excellent translator team).

G900 unboxing pic
We handled the G700/G900 at the CeBit - another news service now managed to get their hands onto a box and present the first-ever unboxing.

BeiBei - preliminary review
The folks at Mobile-Review managed to post a preliminary review of the BeiBei(aka G702). Generally, the reviewer seems to be rather happy with the box, but is unhappy with the scroll wheel and the stylus.

The FCC has done it again - this time, they leaked information on Sony Ericssons upcoming UIQ handset that was circling the rumor mills for quite some time under the designation BeiBei.

Anyways, the BeiBei is for real - and it will be sold as G702.

As for photos - they have already been taken offline again(set to reappear in June if I understand the FCC web page correctly). However, the folks at Symbian-Freak managed to archive a few - give them a click here:
http://www.symbian-freak.com/news/008/05/se_g702_gets_fcc.htm

After having spit out a few images of the SE BeiBei, the rumor mill keeper has brought along these pictures of yet another UIQ handset from Sony Ericsson(bringing the total number of handsets up to four: G700, G900, BeiBei and Paris):

Anyways, the box seems to have a “dual-tap” keyboard and a 5.0MP camera in the back - further information is not available as of now…

Motorola really seems to believe in its non-touchscreen UIQ phones - after rehashing the Z8 for Korean markets(Motorola Z8m), the Z8’s corpse got yet another adrenaline injection ans was transformed into a Ferrari-branded phone that is said to retail for 600$:

I personally consider this a bit confusing, as the successor of the Z8 has been on the road for quite some time. Also, wasn’t Acer responsible for the creation of Ferrari devices so far(they had a few laptops and even a GPS PDA)?

P.S. The folks at JAMPB managed to snag up two videos of the box - give them a click for the full scoop.

Korean web site AVING recently reported from a press conference held in Korea. At this event, Motorola Korea unveiled a device called Z8m - in case anyone of you wonders, yes, the Z10 has already hit the market some time ago.

anyways, here’s a shot of the Z8m:

The device is described as following:

Adopting a 2.2-inch LCD QVGA resolution, it comes loaded with other multimedia features including a 2M built-in camera with 5x digital zoom, navigation function, 4GB of expandable memory, USB 2.0 and Bluetooth connectivity.

For me, this has the strange smell of Motorola attempting to dump excess inventory onto the Korean market - time will tell if non-touchscreened UIQ devices are here to stay…