Sony Ericsson's noddy phones: "Sony Ericsson's big idea, for two of the phones, the J220 and J230, is to include an option that allows the user to customise the interface to make it even simpler to use. They can either opt for the traditional multi icon interface or go for a single icon menu. This enables them to access their core features - and on these phones there aren't a great deal to chose from anyhow – with one click."

Weird.

Firstly, what's in it for a handset manufacturer with a brand of its own to make low-spec devices? Sure, they'll sell more but the margins must be lower on low-end kit using commoditised tech. I can understand why Vodafone want to sell a simple handset - it takes them to a customer-base they might not otherwise reach, which they can then tease into making more use of mobile - but not why SE want to make one.

Secondly - isn't this single-icon/multi-icon menu exactly what Series 40 has been doing for the last few years? I've not seen it, so I can't be sure, but it sounds identical.

Thirdly, it's a mark of how far we've come that a "simple" phone with core features only includes a 128x128 colour screen, calendar, games, and a radio :)

Anyone seen or heard any sales figures for Vodafone Simply btw?

El Reg on Sony and DRM: "We have now gone from being valued customers to potential criminals. That’s it in a nutshell. The protection being promoted now is not about protecting us but protecting profits - at any cost."

O2 ups revs and punters: "The UK-based cellco's total number of customers stood at 25.7m - up 17 per cent compared to last year - thanks in part to a 34 per cent jump in numbers in Germany. But customer numbers were also buoyed by O2's ability to hold onto existing punters and stop them from switching cellcos."

Not only this. O2s customer base has a predisposition towards using mobile data unrivalled by other operators.

I just upgraded to a Nokia N70 yesterday. Is it me, or does pressing the red STOP key when you're running a Java app kill said app? It used to be that this would place it into the background where it would continue running - nowadays you can only background such an app by manually switching back to "phone" using the menu key.

Slightly annoying if so. We've done a couple of Java apps this year that benefit from being run in-the-background...

Other impressions of the phone:

Camera and image management are both more complicated, and the keypad shortcodes I used to use ("1" to activate night mode, etc.) no longer work. Not sure why - it's not like those keys are used for anything else instead.

The gallery app is awful. I *loved* the old "image viewer" on my 6680, it made scanning through pictures a joy (using full-screen mode). The current gallery seems to insist that I set up a slideshow and choose some accompanying music before I can view my pictures - yuck.

The Orange-supplied icons are too spindly, not solid and clear enough.

Fonts are weird, particularly in J2ME and the browser.

The handset seems faster, and memory issues on the 6680 (made worse by Orange Homescreen and iSync Agent) don't seem to have recurred yet, I appear to have about 30mb of RAM to play with which should keep the pressure off for a while.

Analysis of Wario Ware: "It pushes the boundaries of game size and complexity, the speed at which we can adapt to new games, and game fictions, to the breaking point. Through these formal experiments, WarioWare demonstrates how complexity can be achieved through combining micro games into bigger games, the range of free play between fiction and rules available to designers, and the role of continuity in games."