Sony Ericsson Idou is official, PS3 streaming phone too

By Joseph Hanlon on 29 May 2009

Sony Ericsson put our worried minds to rest on Wednesday, finally announcing that its concept phone Idou is to be released and renamed to Satio. At the same event, the company announced two new handsets for the second half of 2009, a gesture-controlled gaming phone and a slider that can control and access media on your PS3 remotely.

Meet the Yari, Anio and Satio (nee Idou)
(Credit: Sony Ericsson/CNET Australia)

Idou debuted at the Mobile World Congress expo in Barcelona earlier in the year, but at the time Sony Ericsson would only refer to Idou as a concept design which made us very anxious. After reading its spec sheet, which told us it will have a 12.1-megapixel camera, a 3.5-inch touchscreen and running the latest Symbian platform, we wanted to see one immediately. Now that it's official, we can play the waiting game.

Moving away from touchscreens, Sony Ericsson also announced the Aino; a neat looking slider with an 8-megapixel camera and the ability to stream media from your PS3 over the air. It will come bundled with Sony Ericsson's upcoming Media Go software, which can sync the media on your PC over Wi-Fi to the phone, but in addition, you'll also be able to control your PS3 remotely using the handset and access your media over both Wi-Fi or the internet. This sounds to us like you'll be able to watch a video stored on your PS3 on your phone while on the bus to work, though time will tell how smooth that experience is over a 3G network.

Lastly, the Japanese-Swedish manufacturer showed off the Yari, a follow up to last year's F305 with a focus on gesture gaming controls. The F305 used an acceleromter to control games, like 10-pin bowling with a swing of your arm, but while the F305 was a prepaid model, the Yari is a mid-range product with a 5-megapixel camera and assisted-GPS hardware. It will also sport a function Sony Ericsson calls Music Call, letting you play a track from your music library to a friend during a phone call to them.

Sony Ericsson says these three new handsets will be available in the fourth quarter of the year.

Topics: idou, mobile phone, sony ericsson, anio, yari, ps3, phone, media, handset, control

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Comments (5)

  • Micky F commented on 01/06/2009 20:03 Report abuse

    Do u guys think that the phone will be over a $1000 dollars outright also do u think its possible for this phone to be one of the best one more thing do u think this phone is better than the HTC TOUCH PRO 2

  • Sta commented on 31/05/2009 21:14 Report abuse

    Oh.. oops.
    Aino is only spelt wrong under the photo caption.

  • Stan commented on 31/05/2009 21:14 Report abuse

    Nice..
    I THINK you might have spelled 'Aino' incorrectly, I searched Anio on Youtube and nothing came up. I searched Aino, and results actually appeared. Not sure if Anio or Aino is correct.

  • Joe commented on 29/05/2009 23:20 Report abuse

    Andrew, you are right but also wrong.

    Mobile phones are now coming with cameras in-built with great megapixels. 3mp used to be the largest 2 years ago, now 3.2 - 5 is the minimum these days. Now phones are getting 8 and 10 and now 12 megapixel cameras.

    However, these don't make them great devices to take photos with. The specs need to be just as great as a camera. You can have a 12 megapixel camera with the same specs as a 3 megapixel camera and all you will get is a the same blurry or less quality image just able to see it larger.

    They need to create these phones with greater specs in order to dominate over cameras. But still, people will still buy digital cameras.

    They are cheaper, last longer and can hold more memory. Unless you do buy a decent phone with all the above and somethine like 8GB of storage. But then you gotta save contacts, msg's & music.

    But soon, just not VERY soon.

  • Andrew commented on 29/05/2009 16:43 Report abuse

    oooooooo now thats sony for you =P

    Cameras are going to be overtaken by mobile phones soon BEWARE =D

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