Sony has announced three new mobile phones for UMTS 3G wireless networks, two of which already include music player functions.

The clamshell-format Z800 can play MP3 and AAC music files stored on a 1MB removable Memory Stick Duo. The memory card can also be used to store pictures taken with the built-in 1.3 megapixel camera, or calendar, contacts, and other data transferred from a PC over the phone’s Bluetooth short-range radio, infrared, or USB (Universal Serial Bus) connections. The Z800 works on UMTS and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) networks in the 900-MHz, 1800-MHz, and 1900-MHz frequency bands, and will be available in the second quarter, the company says.

The soapbar-shaped K600i is a 3G phone aimed at the mass market. “Call it a T610 for 3G,” says Flint, referring to the company’s iconic GPRS phone. The K600i contains an FM radio, and can also play music tracks downloaded or transferred from a PC via a USB connection. Video conferencing is possible using the built-in 1.3 megapixel camera, and the phone comes with a game: Vijay Singh Pro Golf 2005 in 3D. The phone works on UMTS and GPRS networks in the 900-MHz, 1800-MHz, and 1900-MHz frequency bands, and will go on sale in the third quarter, Sony Ericsson says.

The third new device is a PC Card modem, the GC95. On UMTS networks, it delivers data rates of up to 384 kilobits per second, the company says. It can also operate on EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) networks in four frequency bands (850, 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz), where it delivers data rates of up to 247 kbps. The card will go on sale in the third quarter, and is compatible with computers with a Type II, 32-bit Cardbus PC Card slot and running the Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Mac OS X operating systems.

Sony Ericsson will unveil a mobile phone-cum-digital music player early next month. The phone/music player is expected to hold multiple CDS and work with the Sony Connect music service.

The phone will carry a name which has already appeared on some 350 million music players over the last 25 years: the Walkman brand of Sony Ericsson’s parent company, Sony. The Walkman phone will play music file formats such as MP3 and AAC (Advanced Audio Coding).

Sony Ericsson will unveil the phone next month, and will go on to exhibit it at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany, which opens March 10.

Microsoft and Nokia announced another collaboration, working with online music store Loudeye to deliver music to mobile phones.

Future music-oriented handsets from Nokia will play Windows Media Audio files, and include Windows Digital Rights Management to prevent unauthorized copying of music. “On the Internet, music is a phenomenon that’s accessed, stored, and managed on PCs,” and Microsoft was the right partner to work with in that market, he said.

“Customers will be able to enjoy their music on their Nokia phone or PC, download it on either platform, and transfer it between the two,” said Amir Majidimehr, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Windows Digital Media Division.

Nokia has announced a partnership with Microsoft to deliver e-mail to users of its mobile phones, but has ruled out the possibility of building Microsoft’s operating system software into its products.

Software supporting Microsoft Exchange Server’s ActiveSync protocol for synchronizing e-mail, calendar, and contact information will be a feature of future Nokia phones, thanks to a deal announced by the two companies at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes on Monday.

Support for ActiveSync will allow future phones based on Nokia’s Series 60 and Series 80 smart phone software to synchronize information with Exchange servers over the air. Nokia will continue to support the Open Mobile Alliance Data Synchronization Protocol and its own Nokia PC Suite software, which enable synchronization between a phone and a local PC.

This nice PDA like device is a smartphone with a difference. With corporate grade functions such as VPN support, advanced PIM management, push email, true internet browsing and Instant Messaging – you have it all at your fingertips. With 48MB of internal memory, up to 512MB expandable through Transflash, and the ability to download and edit Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF documents, whilst at the same time making a conference call or browsing the latest news onlin–––– it is THE mobile convergence device of the future.

However, the A1010 is not all work and no ––a– – a large, full colour, touch screen display, two-megapixel camera, advanced gaming and audio visual capabilities make it suitable both on and off the corporate playing field.

Samsung’s American arm will be unveiling 25 to 30 phones to be launched on the US market in 2005, including a 5-megapixel handset with a 3X optical zoom. It’s unclear if the phones are going to have European equivalents as there’s no actual spec list at present. We’re hoping they will be heading our way, however, since there’s some exciting new features on offer, including the world’s first speech-to-text dictation phone. This allows you to speak your messages to your handset, which converts them into text for your automatically. Handy if you’re in the car - although it would be better if your phone then read your received texts out to you as well.

The Panasonic Z800 3G handset has a 1.3-megapixel outer camera (no mention of the internal cameras resolution) with auto-focusing and Panasonics proprietary AV technology. The 2-inch internal screen is only 65K colour unfortunately, while the outer colour screen display 56K colours. Theres a miniSD slot, Bluetooth, MMS, USB 2.0 and infrared. We’ve had a go with it and first impressions are that it’s fantastic - and it beats the Panasonic for specs as well with 262k colour internal screen, 65K external screen, 1.3-megapixel camera that rotates so you don’t lose quality by using an inferior internal camera and blindingly bright and effective flash light.