Sony Ericsson’s finally given up the goods — their Canada website now features the long awaited Xperia X1a under phones “Coming Soon”!

We’ve heard rumours that Rogers is scheduled to get the Xperia X1 for an August launch. Fingers crossed!

The Xperia X1 features a 3-inch WVGA touchscreen, full QWERTY keyboard, WiFI, GPS, and 3.2MP camera. Sure, it’s no Toshiba TG01 – but who can keep up with all the new fancy gadgets kids are raving about these days, right?

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Though we’re not exactly sure what Sony Ericsson will be calling their next phone, let’s just call it the Xperia 2. We have no reason to believe that Xperia 2, expected to be released in 2009, won’t be running Windows Mobile, but we do know that HTC is no longer on their list of handset makers in final talks with Sony Ericsson.

The Digitimes reports that “Sony Ericsson is now in final talks with three handset makers, including FIH and Pegatron – the spin-off manufacturing arm of Asustek Computer – for the new smartphone project.” Also in the report: “But HTC is not among them, said the sources, adding FIH or Pegatron is the most likely candidate to win the contract. Sony Ericsson is expected to finalize details with its prospective partner in the first quarter of 2009, with an aim to launch the new Windows Mobile-enabled smartphone before year-end 2009 at the earliest.”

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Thanks to My Sony Ericsson, you can now download an unofficial web app that allows you to create your own Xperia X1 panels!

It’s simple – code up your own HTML files and a few thumbnail screenshots for use in the panel browser, upload the files, and then download the panel the web app creates for you on the site.

Try it out, Xperia X1 users, and let us know how it goes!

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Are you in the market for a new Windows Mobile phone? Well the good folks over at Mobile Tech Review have just posted up a very detailed and lengthy video review of the new Sony Xperia X1. They are “very impressed” with this WinMo device:

The hardware is impeccable, the panels are both fascinating and useful, and of course there’s no carrier bloatware! Though other phones offer many of the same features, somehow the Xperia X1 has that special sauce where the whole is greater than just the sum of its features. It’s fun, it’s cool and it offers very good entertainment possibilities while also being a very good business device thanks to Windows Mobile, the hardware keyboard and push email. The Xperia is perfect for power users and those who like something new and different (courtesy of panels), and it’s priced at the high end where mostly power users tread. If you’re just looking for an affordable Windows Mobile touch screen phone with a single user interface, the Xperia isn’t for you.

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Uh oh, Xperia hopefuls! Best Buy has just changed their online listing from “Pre-Order” to “Coming Soon” and Sony Style is showing the estimated shipping date as January 12, 2009.

For those of you hoping to have this device in time to find it in a finely decorated box under your Christmas tree, you’ll have to wait a bit longer, I’m afraid. Even those who have pre-ordered through Best Buy are reporting of sad, sad emails about stock delays.

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Now, I’ve seen some great fake phones. And I’ve seen some not-so-great ones. But man, this one stinks. It’s operating system is jumbled looking, but I guess it’s supposed to look like the Xperia X1… I guess.

I bet this has Sony Ericsson’s skin crawling.

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The object of Fish Tycoon game is to discover the seven magic fish of Isola and restore the island to its former glory. It’s simple game – start it up and quickly become a lil fish farmer right away! It’s not time consuming unless you want it to be and the game itself is small so it’s not a big resource hog.

You start with a small selection of fish, some money and a tank. You must breed them, care for them, help them grow, and cure them if they get sick. Along the way you can buy supplies, medicine, research technologies or invest in advertisement to enable you to discover rarer and rarer species until you find the Magic Fish. All of this will be financed by selling exotic hybrids in your shop where cartoon kids come with their parents to tap on cartoon aquarium glass. It’s just like real life!

The game actually runs in real-time, so when your device is turned off or you exit the game, hours later small fish will have grown larger and new surprises await you.

QUICKLIST:

• Requirements: Windows Mobile, 2.8mb RAM available, PROCESSOR: ARM/XScale
• Price: $19.95 (get 20% off your purchase with the coupon code ‘WMCoolOpen’ – valid only for the month of November 2008)
• Company: LDW Software, LLC
• Download Link
• Free Trial Link

INSTALL/SETUP:

• Download Fish Tycoon (Trial or Purchase) from our storefront
• Move .cab file from your desktop computer to your Windows Mobile device (main or storage)
• Select the .cab file from its location on the device, file should automatically install

KEY FEATURES

• Real-time! Keeps going even when your Pocket PC is off!
• New surprises every time you turn on your device!
• Extremely Addictive and Unique Style of Gameplay.
• Genetic Puzzle: discover which breeding combinations will create the 7 Magic Fish.
• Strategy Game: test your business skills and aquarium skills at the same time (multiple approaches to solving the game).
• Screensaver Mode: breed and choose your own fish for your built-in screensaver.
• Totally Relaxing Game: care for your fish without timers in a soothing aquarium environment!
• No time pressure – No stress – No violence.
• Adjustable difficulty and flow of time
• Tutorial mode to help get you started.

CONCLUSION

It’s cute and mindless fun. It’s not as rich and glamourous as its desktop counterpart, but it’s just as entertaining. If you like sim games, this one is likely to be right up your alley. While the screensaver mode for Fish Tycoon doesn’t have the same sex appeal that the screensaver for the Xperia X1 does, it’s still pretty cute. It does, however, lose some points with me based on my attention span for watching cute little cartoon fish eat microscopic specks of pretend food. But, to be fair, if I can’t light it on fire or shoot it with a laser gun, it’s hard to keep my attention. If you’re planning on playing this steadily for an hour, you’ll be disappointed. But if you like the kind of game that you can play for 5 minutes then check back in on periodically to see what’s new – then this is for you!

RATING (out of 5)

Click through to the next page to check out the image gallery!

Whoah ho ho! Looks like the old saying is true – it’s not the size of the device that matters…

The above video puts the HTC Touch Pro (640×480) up against the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 (800×480) in a web browsing contest and guess who won? Watch the video to see for yourself!

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The good folks over at XDA-Developers have created a hack that brings full TouchFLO 3D capabilities to the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1! TouchFLO 3D on the Xperia means a more finger-friendly UI, YouTube usability and a ton of other awesome enhancements.

If you’re an Xperia user, I suggest heading over to the XDA-Developers thread now and downloading this for yourself!

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This video from pocketnow shows off some of the cool software on the new HTC Touch HD. And, since the HTC Touch HD doesn’t have a hardware keyboard, be sure to check out the part of the video that takes a look at how usable the on-screen keyboard is — looks great!

This device seems very similar to many of the new Touch devices from HTC and actually runs the same version of TouchFLO 3D as the Samsung XPERIA X1.

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