Rogers Wireless has officially launched the Sony Ericsson Xperia x10.
Experience a whole new level of connectivity with Sony Ericsson’s flagship Xperia X10. The signature Timescape™ application pulls all your emails, texts, Facebook or Twitter updates into one place so you can intuitively flick through. Mediascape allows you to manage photos, videos and music easily – jump from your favourite song on your X10 to instant YouTube or Google search results with one quick tap.
Featuring a 4″ high resolution touch screen, 8.1 MP camera, WI-FI, GPS, and Google Android (v 1.6) operating system the x10 is currently listed at $150 on a 3 year term with voice and data.
3-year contract: $149.99 (voice and data)
2-year contract: $449.99
1-year contract: $499.99
No contract: $549.99
Rogers has just announced that they’ll have plans for the 3G versions of the Apple iPad at the end of the May. Rogers can’t confirm yet if they’ll also be selling the Apple iPad.
Nokia and WIND Mobile have announced that the Nokia 5230 will be launching in the immediate future. The Nokia 5230 is a “stripped down” version of the Nokia 5800. Look for the 5230 to launch in around the $150 mark.
3.2″ (640×360 pixels) touchscreen
70MB on device memory
microSD up to 16GB
3.5mm headphone jack
2.0 MP camera
free Ovi Maps turn by turn navigation
A-GPS
Apple has allowed Opera Mini into the App store. Apple had previously denied 3rd party browsers to be part of the Apple App Store. Opera Mini will be free of charge and should be avaliable for download within 24 hours.
Follow the “more” link for some screen shots of Opera Mini.
I was at a Motorola MOTOBLUR event earlier today. I got to check out the Android 1.5 powered BACKFLIP, DEXT and QUENCH. The BACKFLIP will be on TELUS, DEXT on Bell and QUENCH on Rogers. I also got a demo of the MOTOBLUR Social networking software.
Here’s a tour of the BACKFLIP:
Motorola MOTOBLUR demo:
Hands on with all 3 devices and comparisons with some competitors:
Both the BACKFLIP and DEXT are similar software wise. Hardware wise both have QWERTY keyboards though their physical design is quite different. The QUENCH lacks a physical keyboard but gets a few extra software features; a special on screen keyboard, multi touch support and a nifty music app. Check out the last video to see those features in action. All run Android 1.5. Motorola is saying that they’re evaluating whether they’ll offer an upgrade in the future so that’s a no for now. While the Quench has the most features software wise I thought the BACKFLIP had the most interesting design. All will be available later this year.
When I reviewed the N810 a while back I thought it was an interesting data only device. I’d say the user experience was somewhere in-between a phone and a computer. Now this is not normally a good thing but the n810 had a large enough display with enough resolution that I didn’t mind it. Anyways the n900 runs a newer version of the n810′s software, the screen retains the same resolution but is smaller (3.5″ vs 4.3″), has a faster processor (600Mhz vs 400Mhz), more memory and storage and most notably a built in phone so you don’t need to worry about finding WiFi or tethering anymore.
The n900 is a thick phone. It reminds me of some of HTC’s older phones like the TyTN. Personally it doesn’t bother me much but your mileage may vary.
Here’s a quick tour of the N900 along with some comparisons with comparable phones:
You can pre-order the Sony Ericsson X10 from Rogers with a free MW600 bluetooth headset now for $149.99 on a 3yr voice and data plan. It should be available the week of April 12th (next week).
The X10 has a 4″ 854×480 LCD display with a 1Ghz Snapdragon processor, 8 megapixel autofocus camera and an included 16GB Micro SDHC card. It’s powered by Android 1.6 (an upgrade should be available before year end) and includes Sony Ericsson’s signature Timescape and Mediascape applications.
Timescape is a program which ties your address book, phonebook, SMS, photos, music, Twitter and Facebook together so whenever someone from your phonebook tweets, updates facebook, sends you an SMS or appears in a picture it will show up in chronological order within Timescape. Timescape does not support Instant messaging. The X10 can take your photos and recognize up to 5 faces in each and automatically sort them based on your phonebook.
Mediascape allows you to watch videos, listen to music or look at pictures. It has built in links to Google search and YouTube so you can search for related content as your listening/watching. It also has integration with Rogers UrMusic service.
Thanks to out tipster, “FidoMarketing” we have obtained a few screen shots of Fido’s plans and devices for this upcoming quarter (Q2 2010). Below is a summary of the screen shots, follow the “more” link to see the images of the leaked information.
Wireless Internet Options
$40 – 2GB/2GB BIS
$50-5GB
$80-8GB
CarryOver Minutes
this option will become available in the near future
Fido UNO
will be decommissioned as of June 1st 2010
Devices
5 new devices and a HSPA+ modem
LG GW300-April 13 2010
Nokia X3-May 18 2010
BlackBerry 9100-May 4 2010
Nokia 3710-May 18 2010
Sony Ericsson ASPEN-June 2010
Novatel Wireless MC988DF*-May 2010
*28.80 Mbps downlink available after network upgrade
FIDO will be launching two new monthly prepaid plans March 28th in order to remain competitive in the changing Canadian Wireless Industry. The existing City Fido prepaid plan will remain unchanged. The addition of these new price points allow FIDO to cover all monthly price points with both prepaid and post paid.
$19
50 daytime minutes (local)
300 evening/weekend minutes (local)
50 outgoing text messages (Canada-wide)
unlimited incoming text messages
$29
100 daytime minutes (local)
1000 evening/weekend minutes (local)
100 outgoing text messages (Canada-wide)
unlimited incoming text message
both plans will include
call display
voicemail
call waiting
call forward
billing by the minute
activation bonus
$10 activation credit
$15 bonus credit if activation is done online or e-mail address is registered with account
requires purchase of new FIDO handset
