Recently, new touch-friendly web browser for UIQ3 devices Ozone has been unveiled.

Despite of its 0.9 version and Alfa state, Ozone already works pretty good and it easily can compete with Opera or other browsers.

In my opinion, the best thing in this browser is its User Interface, It is a touch-friendly as much as possible and pretty convenient for surfing, but besides of the UI, Ozone's features make it one of the best in its class. From the open-source WebKit engine, it not only delivers advanced features such as client-side database support, zooming, tapping and multiple windows, but Ozone also provides the best web-standards compliant experience that's available.

Features:

• Touch screen control
• Zooming and panning by finger
• Multiple windows
• Pop-up blocking
• Auto-comple URL editing
• Desktop/mobile mode switch
• Netscape scriptable plugin
• HTML5 client-side database support
• High performance disk caching
• Fast image decoding
• Favorite icons
• Bookmark management and advanced HTML
• CSS and JavaScript (SquirrelFish) support.
  

Acid3 test: 94/100
jQuery test: 99.8% pass rate (2 tests of 1271 failed)
3x faster. engadget.com, Ozone: 40 seconds, @Web: 117 seconds, Opera Mobile: 123 seconds
Tested with Sony Ericsson G900

To try Ozone browser, you can download it from here, or if you have any questions or feedback, you can visit its official website.

[Video Source]

Sony Ericsson today announced the winners from its global mobile camera phone photography competition, World View 2008. Now in its third successful year, World View has once again brought together the global mobile imaging community by enabling anyone with a camera phone, to capture and submit their best images – with the chance to win one of two holidays of a lifetime.

The Expert’s Choice Award
The camera phone photo entitled “Peace” has won the ‘Expert’s Choice Award’ for Sony Ericsson’s World View 2008 competition. Taken by Marriane Nill from the Philippines, her photo impressed the international panel of photography experts, and was chosen as the winner from over 64,905 photos submitted from 27 countries.

The world-renowned judging panel felt the photo demonstrated success on all levels and that it captured the essence of mobile photography as it was spontaneous, humorous, memorable and communicated to a universal audience. The judges also thought the use of natural light was excellent and they believed people from all over the world would be able to relate to this photo because it taps into people’s emotions.

Marriane will receive a once in a life time photography trip for two, worth £10,000, to really test out her camera phone skills.

David Viggers, leading UK based press photographer and  World View judge, commented: “This year, the best was even better. World View shows what camera phones are made for; they have the unique capability to capture spur-of-the-moment situations.”

The two experts’ runners-up photos include: “Switching a Bulb” by Minghui Li from China and “Going Upstairs” by Riemer Dekker from the Netherlands. They will both receive the latest stunning Sony Ericsson C905 Cyber-shot 8.1 mega-pixel front sliding mobile phone, enabling them to continue capturing spontaneous moments in life.

The judges thought that “Switching a Bulb” resembled an intricate design, or company logo, and that this image of a light bulb has been transformed from something ordinary into something spectacular.  The panel was drawn in by the form and brilliant artistry of the shot, which can only have been created on a camera phone. Martin Wezowski, senior designer at Sony Ericsson and World View judge, said: “It is the every day things that can become art. This bulb has gone from nothing to something.”

The judges felt the other runner-up image, “Going Upstairs”, had the texture, rhythm and composition to make it a beautiful photo with a classic feel. Liu Heung Shing, international photographer based in Beijing and World View judge, commented: “It would be difficult to achieve a result like this if the photographer tried too hard to compose the photo. It is an excellent image taken in one frame, at an unplanned moment.”

Runner-up Minghui Li comments: “The reason it is better to take photos with a mobile handset is that it is convenient. You can take a photo no matter where you are. Also, the megapixel quality has become better and better, and by using a mobile camera phone I can record my life – it is something that has became part of my life."

Tony Briggs, a UK based photographer and World View judge, commented on the overall World View entries by adding: “No one takes pictures of things they want to forget. This is the essence of mobile phone photography.”

The People’s Choice Award
This year Sony Ericsson introduced a new award, “The People’s Choice Award”, which enabled the public to vote for their favourite camera phone image entered into World View 2008. Gisela Cañete from Argentina received the most votes with “My best memories”, and has won a once in a life time photography trip worth £5,000.

Gisela Cañete comments: “This is absolutely fantastic that people from across the world took the time to look at my photo and then vote for it. It is such a great privilege to have won such a phenomenal prize and I would like to encourage everyone to pick up a camera phone and take pictures; it ensures you never miss an opportunity.”

The two runner-ups will also receive Sony Ericsson’s newest C905 Cyber-shot 8.1 mega-pixel camera phone. The runners-up are:

• Fan Lin’s submitted “the scent of Wuzhizhou island” to showcase the beauty of this island.
• Fredy Aguilar’s submitted “Colombian Butterfly” because he thought the transparent wings on this butterfly were extremely beautiful and unique.

Merran Wrigley, VP, Head of External Communications at Sony Ericsson, said: “We expected a high level of participation for World View 2008 and have been extremely pleased with the calibre and number of outstanding photos that were entered. The age of instant content sharing has arrived and Sony Ericsson, with its Cyber-shot range of camera phones, has been at the forefront of this camera phone photography evolution. It is fantastic that people around the world can use high-quality camera phones to spontaneously capture and share their life experiences. Not only that, World View offers an exciting prize incentive to encourage people to test out their camera phones and show-off their best images to the world.”

World View Background

• The competition was first launched in 2006 with 15 countries taking part and a total 30,837 entries
• Now in its third year, the 2008 competition has seen more than double the entries since its first year with 27 countries activating the competition and over 64,905 entries received
• Seven markets also partnered with local media publications and online websites to raise awareness of the competition
  

World View Judging Panel
The panel consists of four international judges, including:

• David Viggers – UK based Press Photographer
• Tony Briggs – UK based Photographer/Director
• Martin Wezowski – Senior Designer, Sony Ericsson, Sweden
• Liu Heung Shing– International photographer based in Beijing
  

Winning Images – World View 2008
To see the two winning images along with the four runners up and winning pictures from each of the participating countries, and for further information about World View, log on to www.sonyericsson.com/worldview

Sony Ericsson announced the intention of making future Symbian Foundation-based phones Project Capuchin enabled. This is part of the continued evolution of the Project Capuchin bridging technology and to make Project Capuchin more widely available in a shared and collaborative manner.

If you don't remember, Sony Ericsson's Project Capuchin technology is a Java ME API that defines a bridge between the Java ME and Adobe Flash Lite programming environments and is currently available for mobile phones that are largely developed on Java ME with Flash Lite on board. (Read more here...)

In order to spread the use of Project Capuchin technology, Sony Ericsson announced the intention to develop another set of Project Capuchin tools for Symbian Foundation-based phones at the Symbian Smartphone Show (October 21-22, 2008 in London, UK).

In his keynote presentation, Patrik Olsson, Head of Software at Sony Ericsson, illustrated the possibilities of Project Capuchin by showcasing some of innovative applications where Flash Lite uses the intelligence from Java applications.

It is Sony Ericsson’s intention to make Project Capuchin more widely available in a shared and collaborative manner to the industry. The terms and conditions under which Project Capuchin will be made available is still work in progress.

Sony Ericsson will base phones on the upcoming Symbian Foundation platform in the future but as the Symbian Foundation is not a reality yet, Sony Ericsson suggests us to use the Symbian/S60 5th edition SDK for application development as this will be compatible with the upcoming Symbian Foundation platform.

The most popular mobile web browser Opera Mini has been updated to version 4.2 ... It's a beta version at the moment, but works perfectly for me.

So what we got in the new version:

Skins
Personalize Opera Mini by choosing a new colorful skin. We have reintroduced the popular skinning feature from Opera Mini 3.

Performance
Opera Mini 4.2 can use our newly established server park in the US. This means significantly faster page downloads for our users in the Americas and Asia-Pacific region. Users in the rest of the world will also experience faster page downloads since we’ve reduced the load on our other servers.

Video
We are working to make video content available on more phones through Opera Mini. If you have a new Sony Ericsson or Nokia phone, the chance is high that you can take Opera Mini for a spin on m.youtube.com.

Sync your Notes
The handy Notes functionality from the Opera Desktop Web browser just got more portable through Opera Link. All of your notes are available in Opera Mini directly from the Bookmarks menu.

To download the beta version of Opera Mini 4.2 Point your phone’s browser to mini.opera.com/beta or alternatively, you may download Opera Mini to your computer for a manual installation.

Standard Opera Mini 4.2 beta JAR (124 KB)
Standard Opera Mini 4.2 beta JAD (4 KB)
BlackBerry Opera Mini 4.2 beta ZIP archive (104 KB)
Palm (requires JVM installed) Opera Mini 4.2 beta PRC (316 KB)

Note that: Opera Mini 4.2 beta installs next to any existing stable Opera Mini version on your device and will not overwrite any of your data.

Dick Komiyama, President of Sony Ericsson inaugurated its new and expanded Product Development Centre in Chennai. Sony Ericsson first established its Product Development Centre in India in June 2008 and it has now been expanded covering an area of more than hundred thousand square feet in a new building in DLF City, Chennai.

Speaking on the occasion, Dick Komiyama said, “We put special emphasis on India and are committed to further investment and expansion in this country as we strengthen our market presence. India is one of the three most important markets for us.”

In line with its strategy for the region, Sony Ericsson has established integrated operations in India Region which include product development, manufacturing, marketing, distribution and after sales service.

Anil Sethi, President of India operations added that Sony Ericsson will tap the vast pool of very talented young engineers in the Chennai area to create India specific products and services. He added that the center will also serve as a global resource to augment Sony Ericsson’s technical capabilities around the world. It will also create opportunities for the young engineers coming out of the Indian educational system to get exposed to the latest technological practices around the world for which closer interaction with the Indian technical institutes is planned.

Live pictures of the recently announced Walkman phone Sony Ericsson W705 from se-community.com

In pair of the Sony Ericsson W705, Sony Ericsson also announced new wireless stereo speakers - MBS-900.

The unique innovative design of the Wireless Home Audio System MBS-900 makes a real stylish statement in a home. The MBS-900 connects wirelessly to your mobile phone through Bluetooth giving crystal-clear sound through the high quality, dual speaker and sub-woofer system.

The Wireless Home Audio System MBS-900 is a complete speaker system to be proud of. Make the most of a wireless world and adjust the music settings from the other side of the room with your phone, or use the touch controls on the speaker for smooth control of the music. Users can even listen to the built-in radio and make a phone call at the same time, or if the phone rings the speakers will cleverly automatically mute. Just plug the Wireless Home Audio System MBS-900 into a power socket, sit back and enjoy. Built-in FM radio, touch controls and a stunning OLED display complete the full hi-fi system experience. A 3.5 mm line in allows you to play the music on your PC or iPod too.

Features
2.1 speaker system. 2x10W + subwoofer 20W
Built in FM Radio receiver
Touch control on/off and music settings
3.5 mm line-in functionality
Unique design
Monochrome OLED display
Stereo widening setting
Speaker phone functionality
A2DP & AVRCP Bluetooth profiles
Control music from speaker or phone
Music mutes when a call comes in

Available colors
White

Sizes
200.0 x 200.0 x 100.0 mm
7.9 x 7.9 x 3.9 inches

Sony Ericsson announced recently leaked phone from Walkman family - Sony Ericsson W705.

Sony Ericsson W705 is a Walkman version of the recently announced G705 from Generation Web and features the same superior sound quality as the W890 Walkman phone which was rated "best audio experience" in a trial conducted in Germany by TESTfactory. The W705 includes popular Walkman features such as the music recognition application TrackID, SensMe, for matching your mood to the music and Shake control to change tracks with the flick of your hand.

Sony Ericsson W705 is completed with a metal finish in a compact slider form factor. It's equipped with 2.4" TFT screen with 240X320 pixel resolution, 3.2MP camera with up to 3.2x digital zoom, Photo fix, Photo light, Video light, PictBridge printing, Wi-Fi and DLNA, Accelerometer, FM radio with RDS...

W705 is a Walkman family member and of course features Walkman player, Clear stereo, Clear BASS, Album art, TrackID, Bluetooth stereo (A2DP), Shake control and SensMe.

The dimensions of the housing is 95x47.5x14.3mm and weights 98 grams. Built-in memory is up to 128MB and supports Memory Stick Micro (m2) memory format. Talk time is up to (GSM/GPRS) 10 hours or (UMTS) 4 hours and standby time is up to (GSM/GPRS) 400 hours or (UMTS) 350 hours, video talk time is up to 3 hours and music listening time is up to 20 hours...

Sony Ericsson W705 will be available in selected markets from early Q1 2009 in the colors of Luxury Silver or Passionate Red.

Sony Ericsson W705 Walkman

Size: 95 x 47.5 x 14.3 mm
Weight: 98 grams
Colors: Luxury Silver, Passionate Red
Screen: 262,144 colour TFT
Resolution: 240 x 320 pixels
Size: 2.4 inches
Phone memory: Up to 120MB with Memory Stick Micro (M2) support
Talk time GSM/GPRS: Up to 10 hrs
Standby time GSM/GPRS: Up to 400 hrs
Talk time UMTS: Up to 4 hours
Standby time UMTS: Up to 350 hours
Video talk time: Up to 3 hours
Music listening time: Up to 20 hours

Networks:
W705 and W705u:
GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
UMTS/HSPA 900/2100

Camera: 3.2 megapixel camera, Up to 3.2x digital zoom, Photo fix, Photo light, Video light, Video recording, Picture blogging, PictBridge printing, Video blogging
Music: Walkman player, Clear Stereo, Clear Bass, Album art, PlayNow, TrackID, Bluetooth stereo (A2DP), Music tones (MP3/AAC), Shake control, SensMe
Web: Access NetFront Web browser, Web feeds, Photo feeds
Communication: Speakerphone, Polyphonic ringtones, Vibrating alert, Video calling
Messaging: Email, Picture messaging (MMS), Predictive text input, Sound recorder, Text messaging (SMS), Instant messaging, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, Chat view
Design: Navigation key, Auto rotate, Picture wallpaper, Wallpaper animation
Entertainment: Media, YouTube, 3D games, Motion gaming, Java, FM radio with RDS, Video streaming, Video viewing
Connectivity: Bluetooth technology, Modem, Synchronisation, USB mass storage, USB support, Wi-Fi, DLNA Certified
Organizer: Alarm clock, Calculator, Calendar, Flight mode, Notes, Phone book, Stopwatch, Tasks, Timer
Location-based service: Geo tagging of photos, Google Maps
In-Box: W705, Battery, Battery charger, 4GB Memory Stick Micro (M2), USB cable, Stereo PHF, Sony Ericsson PC Suite, Media Manager, User guide
Optional: Wireless Home Audio System MBS-900, Stereo Bluetooth Headset HBH-DS205, Noise Cancelling Headphones HPM-88.

Looks like Sony Ericsson is preparing to its next and maybe last announcement for 2008 on the Thursday, 6th of November. This announcement will be focused on Walkman branded phone (Probably Sony Ericsson W705 - A.K.A. Rika) and one accessory Sony Ericsson MBS-900...

Well, announcement of the W705 is not so exciting thing for the latest announcement of the year, but, who knows, lets wait and see...

[Source]

To mark the start of the prestigious Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha, Sony Ericsson staged a unique tennis game in a place that has never been played in before - a desert island. Set against the stunning backdrop of the Doha skyline, Ana Ivanovic and Elena Dementieva rallied on a replica tennis court, specially built for the occasion, on Palm Island in the middle of Doha Bay in the Arabian Gulf.

After the game, 2008 Roland Garros Champion Ana Ivanovic said: “It was such a fun way to start the Sony Ericsson Championships; it was amazing and so unusual to be playing tennis on a deserted island with no one there but Elena, myself and the ballboys. I’m really looking forward to the tournament here in Doha and a great finish to the 2008 season.”

The Sony Ericsson Championships is the prestigious end of season finale to the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour year; and sees the world’s top eight women singles and top four women’s doubles teams compete for the title and a share of a record prize money of $4.45 million. The Championships sees female players from eleven countries: Australia, Czech Republic, Japan, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, United States and Zimbabwe compete to end the 2008 season on a high.

 “This was a fantastic way to celebrate the beginning of the Sony Ericsson Championships. All the players have played brilliantly during the season and have earned a deserved shot at this prestigious title,” said Aldo Liguori, Corporate Vice President and Head of Global Communications & PR.  “We are committed to innovating and introducing unique activities in women’s tennis to continue to attract new fans and broaden the appeal of the sport on a global basis. It has been a great year for the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and I hope through events like this we can attract more fans to the Tour and the exciting prospect of the 2009 season.”
The stunt involved a replica tennis court being constructed on Palm Island, similar to the court in the Khalifia Stadium where the Sony Ericsson Championships are being held.

The number 5 seed, Elena Dementieva commented: “It was such a special experience to play a game of tennis in the middle of the sea looking back at the Doha skyline - what a great memory to have of Doha. I’m really excited for the Sony Ericsson Championships to begin and showcase my best tennis to end the season.”

The Sony Ericsson Championships will run from November 4th to November 9th and the line up for the tournament has been finalised: Jelena Jankovic (SRB), Dinara Safina (RUS), Serena Williams (USA), Elena Demeniteva (RUS), Ana Ivanovic (SRB), Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS), Venus Williams (USA) and Vera Zvonereva (RUS) will all compete for the singles crown. Doubles players Cara Black (ZIM) - Liezel Huber (USA); Anabel Medina Garrigues (SPN) – Virginia Ruano Pascual (SPN); Kveta Peschke (CZE) - Rennae Stubbs (AUS); and Katarina Srebotnik (SLO)-  Ai Sugiyama (JPN) will compete for the doubles title.  The Sony Ericsson Championships will be held in Doha, Qatar for the next 3 years, after being held in Madrid for the past two years, with Justine Henin having won the title in 2007.

Sony Ericsson is committed to bringing entertainment, innovation and glamour to tennis by creating unique sporting events such as the 2008 Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha. This tournament will bring the excitement of the game to a new audience, with the city of Doha set to benefit from the biggest tennis event ever to be held in the region. Sony Ericsson strives to energize the audience experience at the Championships, by bringing them closer to tennis through the integration of innovation and technology.

Lots of unboxing pictures of the new mobile phone from Walkman family - Sony Ericsson W980 in the Violin Red color.

[Source]