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Sony Ericsson's "Next Big Thing" coming June 14th
So, remember the rumor that June 14th would see the launch of some major new handsets from Sony Ericsson? Right, well consider it a fact now that SE has issued a formal invitation to "the next big thing" event in Berlin to "celebrate the latest developments in Sony Ericsson Music and Imaging." Of course, now the rumor mill is churning with speculation over which phones will launch. According to a veteran Esato forum jockey, SE will be announcing the HSDPA 850 Sofia packing a 5 megapixel shooter along side the W950 Walkman successor dubbed the Maria/Mooi/W960 which touts 8GB of flash storage. There's also hope of seeing the HSDPA 850 Shinobu Walkman slider with music shaker feature -- tilt forward to skip to the next track, back to skip backwards, and shake it for a random track. Mark your calendars kids, it's going to be interesting. [Via Slashphone]
Sony Ericsson rumors aplenty
Member shaliron over at Esato appears to have done some serious homework compiling a list of all known Sony Ericsson handsets in the pipeline, complete with nifty color coding to indicate verified, debunked, and new intelligence. We encourage Sony Ericsson fans and non-fans alike to go check out the real deal, but in the meanwhile, we've put together a Reader's Digest peek here at some of the highlights. First up, the music-oriented Walkman series could be growing by a solid six devices in the coming months, topped off by a successor to the UIQ-based W950 codenamed "Maria," a (possibly UIQ-based) clamshell dubbed W910, and the oft-discussed Ai. The camera-focused (no pun inteded) Cyber-shot series will be enjoying a bumper crop itself: a successor to the K800 is allegedly already in the works, "Sofia," packing a 5 megapixel shooter, UMTS, and QVGA recording, while a possible Handycam-branded M600 variant would obviously reign supreme for its video capabilities. Other highlights include a promise that HSDPA will factor into the company's 2007 plans, a wide-scale migration of the FastPort connector to the sides of the handsets, and a shortening of the span from announcement to release of UIQ-based models (a move we applaud). As we said, there's plenty more juicy tidbits to digest over at Esato -- but even with what we've presented here, it's safe to say Sony Ericsson's shaping up for a killer '07. Any UIQ or 3G love for the US of A, folks?
Motorola intros white PEBL through contest
For some odd reason, Motorola always seems to pull off new colors of existing handsets with an amount of fanfare other manufacturers can only dream of. We don't suppose it has something to do with the Maria Sharapova tie-ins, could it? Much like the Sharapova-endorsed magenta RAZR before it, the white PEBL offers nothing its more colorful siblings don't -- except exclusivity to the tune of 50 examples in total, all of which will be won via contest. Of course, no one would be surprised to see Moto turn right around and start pumping out white PEBLs en masse just as soon as the contest ends, but they wouldn't be printed with Maria's signature, rendering them all but useless to us.[Via Yahoo Tech]
