Selectamobile - Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Japan Is Docomo's Quickest Ever Selling Smartphone Tweet

The Xperia X10, which sells under the name Xperia in Japan has become the quickest selling smart phone in DoCoMo history since launched in April.

Figures from Barclays' Note posted on the internet show the phone selling 120,000 in less than three weeks beating the previous record of HTC Android which sold a measly 80,000 in 10 months - indicating unprecedented demand for Sony Ericsson's new phone.

From Barclays' Note:

"Last week we upgraded DoCoMo to Buy to reflect our increasing optimism that the company could be the big beneficiary of smart phone proliferation in Japan, given their high quality network and evolving philosophy.

'DoCoMo's new smart phone, Sony Ericsson Xperia, has sold about 120,000 units within its first three weeks on sale; Tsusaka's data shows that the initial 100,000 unit shipment to distributors sold out in 10 says, but another 50,000 units delivered in mid-April, and a third set of 30,000 units is apparently scheduled for late April.

'Stores which open on weekdays are mostly sold out. Sales of over 100,000 units make a positive contribution to the company's net increase in subscribers, so it looks very likely NTT DoCoMo will again have a top share of net add in April.

You can see that the Xperia handset is enjoying unprecedented demand compared to previous smart phones on DoCoMo's network:

Xperia sales versus DoCoMo's previous smart phones

Xperia 120,000 in 20 days
HTC Android 80,000 in 10 months
Blackberry Bold 60,000 in 14 months
Toshiba Windows Mobile 60,000 in 10 months'

The phone is the best selling on the network for April, even outselling formidable rivals such as the iPhone 32GB.

For Xperia deals please visit http://selectamobile.co.uk

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An employee stole a prototype of Nokia phones Tweet

Nokia's subcontractor's employee has stolen nearly a hundred mobile phones and many other electronics for mobile phone company Research in Helsinki Ruoholahti. Phones were of new phones, the model of prototypes.

Helsinki District Court sentenced a man aggravated theft, a suspended seven-month prison term. The man took the theft in March 2009 and February 2010, during which he worked as a subcontractor employed by Nokia Research Center in Ruoholahti.

The convicted person's work included the Nokia prototype phones and phone competitors trial.

Employee stole the 1998 mobile phone, of whom 55 were prototypes. He took possession of unauthorized access to, inter alia, 28 laptop, projector and 232 of the phone's battery.

Nokia rules, the prototypes are not allowed to leave the company premises.

He told me that the reason of professional activities of interest and the desire to find out, would there be non-functioning devices assembled functional.

Many a man stealing equipment were unserviceable. He kept the goods at home and not sold or passed them forward.

The Nokia refused to tell the Helsinki Sanomat, what and how the man of secret equipment stolen from the company's premises.

Man's wife told the court that he had trials of her husband's behalf as a competitor, and Nokia phone model. Spouse was not Nokia or its subcontractors employed.

Nokia has received the stolen goods back. According to the company the value of the stolen property had been vested with at least 27 500 euros.

Nokia law requiring a man, only one tenth of this amount. The district court ordered the man to pay the required amount.

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Unboxing the Nukia O1/Q1 (fake Nokia 7705) Tweet

Oh KIRF, how we love you :)

Chris Zeigler reminded me today of the Nukia O1/Q1, a fake Nokia 7705 (Twist) which I acquired several months ago...

I'll let my unboxing pictures and video to the talking - enjoy the quirky goodness (and some specs) after the break!

Pros:
- Nice form factor
- Good build quality
- Quad-band GSM (instead of CDMA)
- Dual SIM (unlocked)
- QVGA touchscreen
- QWERTY keyboard
- Accelerometer
- Bluetooth
- FM radio
- Micro-SD support (2 GB card included)
- Micro USB support (mass storage)
- Lots of accessories (2 batteries included)
- Super cheap

Cons:
- Crappy VGA camera (much worse than the Nokia 7705 camera)
- GPRS data only
- Proprietary micro-USB audio connector
- No Java support
- Poor software (but still better than the Nokia 7705 software)

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Samsung S5620 Monte review: Well connected Tweet

Gsmarena have posted a review of the Samsung S5620 Monte. Here are the phone's key features, main disadvantages and their final impression.

Key features:
* Quad-band GSM/EDGE, UMTS 900/2100, HSDPA 3.6 Mbps
* 3" capacitive TFT touchscreen of WQVGA resolution, 256K colors
* TouchWiz 2.0 Plus user interface with multitasking support
* 200 MB onboard storage, hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 16GB)
* 3 megapixel camera with smile detection, QVGA video @ 15fps
* Secondary video-call camera
* Wi-Fi connectivity (b/g)
* GPS receiver with A-GPS; Free GPS navigation with NAVTEQ maps
* Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, USB v.2.0
* microUSB slot (with charging support)
* Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
* DNSe sound enhancements
* Find Music recognition service
* FM radio with RDS
* Office document viewer
* Smart unlock
* Social networking integration with direct file uploads
* Accelerometer for auto screen rotate, turn to mute

Main disadvantages:
* Free GPS navigation is for Czech Montes only
* No on-screen QWERTY keyboard
* Flash in browser eats too much RAM, can’t play YouTube videos
* No games preinstalled
* Task manager cannot be used for switching between apps

If you ask Samsung about the future of mobile phones, they’ll say smartphones. Their Bada OS is flying the “smartphone for everyone” flag.

But the market still has quite a way to go till we get there. Right now, feature phones like the Samsung S5620 Monte are advanced enough to blur the line between smart and feature phones.

The S5620 Monte can multitask (though task switching is problematic), it can view office documents, there’s a very good web browser and free navigation This pretty much covers most of what a smartphone will do for you.

The Samsung S5620 Monte offers a compelling package for its price, but it’s getting tough competition from higher end handsets as they’re moving down the ladder.

The LG KM900 Arena costs more, but it comes with 8GB of built-in storage, which levels off the price difference. And its screen has four times the number of screen pixels. Then, there’s the better camera – 5MP, LED flash, D1@30fps video, and goodies like DivX support.

You could probably get a good deal on LG KC910i Renoir or the non-i version too – they’re getting old now, but 8MP cameras are quite compelling.

As smartphones are getting older, they’re moving into this price range too. Take the Samsung I7500 Galaxy, for example – it’s got Android v1.5 (old but still), an AMOLED screen, a 5MP camera. It costs a bit more, but the 8GB storage offsets that again.

Another smartphone alternative is the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic – priced right, rich retail package (including an 8GB microSD card), 16:9 nHD screen and free voice-guided navigation available worldwide with no data connection required.

That sure is a lot of competition, but it’s mostly from handsets that are getting old, which has its downsides (like lower resale value, tendency to get fewer firmware updates, etc.). However, quite a few of the Samsung S5620 Monte attractive features are let down by software (Flash support that never works and poor app switching in the task manager).

So, catching up with smartphones is easier said than done. On a second thought, the S5620 Monte will get away with some faults exactly because it isn’t a smartphone. It’s obvious that it has enough to entice upgraders coming from the likes of Samsung Star or the Corby bunch. Cheap smartphones are a major threat though.

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Doubtful Gadget of the Day: Motorola MB511 (codenamed Ruth?) Tweet

I received an interesting email this afternoon: a complete lineup of releases from several manufacturers between April and July of a given operator, and one of the details was this tiny little cutie the photo above: Motorola MB511, code named "Ruth." For its part, Motorola says it "does not comment on speculation." We'll have to wait until June to see if it's true ...

The name "Ruth" is nothing new: there are rumors about this device for some time. But it is the first time he shows his face, and seems to have a five-row QWERTY keyboard and a screen very large, apparently higher than the Milestone (contradicting what the rumors said initial). It even has a microUSB port there, in what may be the bottom of the unit.

The email also had this slide, proving that he brings MotoBlur (which may indicate Android 1.5 in piece):

The MB511 "Ruth," according to the slide operator, is the fifth player to be launched by it between May and June (the list also appear X10 Sony Ericsson, the first to arrive, and X10 mini Sony Ericsson, LG GT 540 MB501 Quench and Motorola, all scheduled for June, along with the MB511).

The check, of course, if the device is real. As I said, Motorola does not comment on rumors own.

Update: The term "Ruth" is somewhat controversial: the FlipOut, Gizmodo said that this week, uses the same code name, but I seem to have a reduced format that MB511 which came to my email. And the term "slider" is somewhat generic and applies to both pro MB511 as pro Flipout, right?

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Completely useless' Windows 3.1 hits Google's Android Tweet

First, it was Windows Vista on the iPhone. Now, an even earlier Microsoft creation has been updated for the smartphone set.

Windows 3.1 has been ported to Google's Linux-based Android phone platform by developer Shawn McHenry using the DOSBox emulator.

DOSBox is usually used to run old MS-DOS games for Intel x86 PCs that can't run modern operating systems such as Window XP, Vista, Linux, or FreeBSD.

Windows 3.1 launched in 1992, bringing Windows to the mas market and paving the way for Windows as we know it today. Windows 3.1 added support for long file names, virtual memory, and the ability to share devices.
Windows 3.1 on Android

Windos 3.1 mounts Android

Why rehabilitate this Microsoft relic from the dawn of modern PC computing? According to McHenry, a self-confessed Android fiddler:

I realized, Hey, Windows can be installed VIA Dos. So I went on google & youtube and looked up "Windows on Android" and what do you know, No results. However, I saw a lot of videos about Windows 95, NT, 3.1, etc on a Nokia. So I thought, I want to try and put it on Android. It appears its never been done before. So I gave it a shot...

McHenry goes on to explain what he did here, but finishes succinctly: "It's completely useless, but really damn cool."

We can't help but wonder whether Windows 3.1 on Android is an omen of Android's future success. After all, the VistaPerfection 2.0 application - from another phone fiddler - gave the iPhone a Windows-Vista look, and the iPhone now has a quarter of the US smart-phone market sewn up.

Look out Windows Phone 7.

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Steve Jobs got involved in investigation over iPhone lost in Silicon Valley bar Tweet

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Brian Hogan's world closed in fast almost as soon as he sold the next-generation iPhone he found in a Silicon Valley bar to a popular technology website for a stack of $100 bills, according to court documents released Friday.

By April 19, Hogan's roommate had tipped off investigators that he was at the center of the drama, Apple's top lawyers were meeting with police to press for criminal charges and Steve Jobs himself was personally demanding the iPhone's return.

The ordeal has set off ethic debates in journalism and law enforcement circles while Hogan and a website editor are now at the center of a criminal investigation that has been rife with speculation but devoid of many facts — until now.

On Friday, San Mateo Superior Court Judge Clifford Cretan ordered unsealed a 10-page sworn statement with details written by San Mateo Sheriff's Detective Matthew Broad to obtain a warrant to search the car and home of Jason Chen, a Gizmodo.com editor. Broad's statement was used to obtain a search warrant for Chen's home and car.

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According to the statement, the saga began March 25, when Apple engineer Robert "Gray" Powell left the iPhone prototype in the bar area of Redwood City's Gourmet Haus Staud restaurant.

It said Gizmodo paid Hogan $5,000 for the device, cracked it open and posted images of it on April 20 despite a phone call from Jobs the day before demanding website editors return the gadget. Gizmodo promised Hogan an additional $3,500 bonus if Apple formally unveiled the device by July, according to Broad.

Now, Chen is under investigation for theft, receiving stolen property and damaging property, according to the affidavit. The affidavit also suggests Hogan and a third roommate, Thomas Warner, also may face criminal charges, and alleges the two panicked and attempted to hide evidence when they caught wind of the criminal investigation.

Nobody, including Chen, has been charged with any crime,

"The events have taken on a life of their own," said Jeff Bornstein, Hogan's attorney. "He thought it was dumb luck that he stumbled on to something valuable and he regrets not doing more to return it."

Bornstein said Hogan always intended to return the phone and didn't believe he was breaking the law in dealing with Gizmodo.

Bornstein also denied the affidavit's suggestion that Hogan was trying to get rid of evidence on April 21. That's when, shortly before midnight, Hogan's roommate Katherine Martinson called investigators and told them that Hogan and Warner were removing evidence from their apartment, the document said.

Investigators found Hogan at his father's Redwood City house and he directed them to nearby Sequoia Christian Church, where they recovered Hogan's computer and monitor.

Bornstein said that Hogan was in the process of moving out of the apartment and that Warner ended up with Hogan's computer, panicked and dropped them off at the church.

The investigation has prompted debate over whether he should be shielded from prosecution by California's so-called shield law, which protects journalists from having to turn over to police unpublished notes and the names of anonymous sources. But the shield law doesn't immunize journalists from breaking the law.

The investigators themselves have come under fire as well for apparently launching the investigation at Apple's behest. Detective Broad belongs to a special high technology task force called the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team, which is comprised of investigators from several jurisdictions and investigates crimes against technology companies.

According to Broad, task force investigators met with two high-ranking Apple executives and outside lawyer George Riley on April 20, the day Gizmodo published the images. Riley told the task force that Gizmodo's action were "immensely damaging to Apple," because consumers would hold off buying iPhones until the new version was released. Riley didn't estimate a dollar figure, but said losses were "huge," according to the affidavit.

Apple is a member of the technology crime task force's board, but the company said it didn't use its influence to pressure law enforcement to investigate.

"We reported what we believe was a crime, and the D.A. of San Mateo county is taking it from there," said Apple spokeswoman Katie Cotton.

San Mateo County prosecutors had argued to keep the affidavit under seal to protect the identities of witnesses and the ongoing investigation. But The Associated Press and several other media companies convinced a San Mateo County superior court judge to make the document public, arguing disclosure was necessary to ensure that the raid of a journalist's home was proper.

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