Following our photoshoot teaser with the M8910 Pixon12 yesterday we are ready to invite you on a second date with this promising cameraphone. This time we hope to show its other side - the one that doesn’t necessarily revolve around the camera functionality.

You’ve all seen that while the gap between cameraphones and the dedicated digicams seemed huge a couple of years ago, it’s already closing in fast. The Samsung M8910 Pixon12 certainly isn’t a full-time replacement for a camera enthusiast as it lacks the optical zoom and some customization options but it might just do a pretty good on quite a lot of occasions. And the best camera is the one that you always have on you.

We are sure the both flashes will be temptation for many of you especially when the xenon-featured phones were almost forgotten in the last year. The huge count of megapixels plus the wide-angle lens and tons of camera features are something camera geeks can’t and won’t miss just like that.

But we’ve already showed you how it compares photography-wise to some quite unusual peers. This time around we are all set to showing you there’s more to it than just a sharpshooter. Let’s see go through the Pixon12 basic specs one more time:

Samsung M8910 Pixon12 at a glance:

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar
• Dimensions: 108 x 53 x 13.8 mm, 120g
• Display: 3.1 inch 16M color WVGA AMOLED resistive touchscreen
• Platform: Latest TouchWiz 2.0 UI with Smart unlock
• Memory: 150MB integrated memory, hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 16GB)
• Camera: 12 megapixel auto focus camera with Power LED flash and xenon flash, wide-angle 28mm lens, object tracking auto focus, automatic lens cover, geo-tagging, image stabilization, Smart Auto mode, face detection, Beauty Shot, Smile Shot and D1 video recording at 30 fps with auto focus and face detection
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS, TV out
• Misc: Accelerometer for screen auto rotate and turn-to-mute, FM radio with RDS, DivX/XviD video support
• Battery: 1000mAh Li-Ion battery

We only received the Samsung M8910 Pixon12 yesterday but this is our second cover story on it. We’re actually working on a full review but that’s probably going to be ready no earlier than next week, so in the mean time we though we’d give you some good reading beside all those camera samples yesterday.

Samsung M8910 Pixon12 in our office

A high-end mobile phone is not about one thing only. A high-end device like the Pixon12 should keep you connected (online, texting, talking), it must be easy and fun to use, it should also help you organize your personal life and appointments, and finally, it should be there for you when you want to share your life’s most striking moments to friends and family - and be ready to capture them as well.

So this is what an all-in-one mobile is about and we really hope the Pixon12 delivers on as many of those as possible. The notion of the ultimate device is hardly viable anymore as innovation and new features are always around the corner, but if the Pixon12 does deliver on most of those things without huge compromises, then it would be a fine product by our books.

So follow us on the next page for quick tour of the Samsung Pixon12 design and ergonomics

After dabbling with multimedia and eco phones, Sony Ericsson announced a new addition to its T-series phones - the Sony Ericsson T715. It’s a compact, stylish slider that offers 3G connectivity and a 3 MP snapper.

Just like a FashionTV model, the Sony Ericsson T715 relies heavily on looks to impress - the back cover is brushed aluminum and the phone will be available in two colors - Galaxy Silver with piano finish and Rogue Pink with mirror finish. Its size also helps make a statement - 91.5 x 48.0 x 14.9mm and 96g make it quite compact for a slider.

Sony Ericsson T715

The T715 sports a 3.15 megapixel camera with Cell-ID geotagging and a LED flash. Unfortunately, there’s no autofocus. Don’t get your hopes high for the video recording capabilities as well.

The SE T715 screen is 2.2-inch big with QVGA resolution and, Sony Ericsson claim, good legibility under sunlight. It also offers tried music functionality with TrackID, PlayNow and Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, as well as FM radio with RDS.

Many of you will be pleased to hear that the T715 will happily accept microSD cards.

The speedy HSPA of the T715 will be utilized by a NetFront browser and a YouTube application as seen in previous handsets by the company. There’s also video calling, though that uses the main (and only) camera.

Some more photos of Sony Ericsson T715

Sony Ericsson T715 will come with some useful Google integration - Google Maps and Google Search, accessible from the homescreen.

Speaking of the homescreen, T715 offers something Sony Ericsson call a “smart desktop feature” - there will be reminders (including special animations for birthdays and global events) and notes on the homescreen to make sure you don’t forget something important. We’ve already seen notes appearing on the home screen in past SE phones, so we’ll see exactly what this new feature offers.

The iPhone Dev Team has finally released the utility needed to unlock the iPhone 3G under iPhone OS 3.0, which will allow current users in illegitimate carriers to upgrade to the latest version of the iPhone OS, which brings about over 100 new features.

The new ultrasn0w utilityis available for download through Cydia and Icy software repositories, which are both installed during the process of jailbreaking. To jailbreak your iPhone 3G running 3.0 OS you need either the Pwnage tool (Mac OS only) or the redsn0w utility, which was already released by the iPhone Dev Team 3 days ago.

Activating a factory unlocked iPhone 3G S doesn’t need any utilities of the sort

To make things simpler, here are the most common scenarios that you may encounter with your iPhone 3G and 2G:

YOU HAVE an iPhone 3G running 2.x OS and you are upgrading to 3.x OS

• If you only want to jailbreak (factory unlocked handset or legitimate carrier use scenario) use redsn0w utility(Mac and Windows) AFTER you’ve updated to 3.0 OS the regular iTunes way.
• If you are using a 3G iPhone unlocked with previously released yellowsn0w and rely on yellowsn0w to obtain cellular service, DO NOTuse redsn0w. Instead use PwnageTool to jailbreak your iPhone 3G with a patched 3.0 firmware and then use Ultrasn0w from Cydia to unlock it. If you don’t have a Mac handy, you can also download a Pwnage Tool patched firmware uploaded by other users but pick your sources carefully. After you’ve found such a patched firmware, simply make iTunes use it for updating your iPhone 3G.

YOU HAVE iPhone 2G running 2.x OS and you are upgrading to 3.x OS

• Simply use redsn0w utility (Mac and Windows) for both jailbreak and unlock after you’ve updated to 3.0 OS the regular iTunes way.