A group of tinkers have been hard at work getting the Panels interface from the Sony Xperia working on the HTC Touch HD. Progress is being made at a decent rate, as evidenced by a few YouTube videos that have been released.

Why do such a thing? Well, as one of the guys says, “I like the look of this front end alot better than the TF3D.” So, rather than complain about the user interface, they adapt their own. Good on them.

Head over to MobiltyToday as they examine, in gory detail, what they’re calling “The ultimate Windows Mobile phone anyone can ask for… ” My only question is this: what if I never asked for a WinMo phone from Sony Ericsson? What if I asked for the charm and power of a UIQ-powered P800, my first and favorite smartphone? What if asked for a logical addition to the S-E family instead of some weird HTC-designed monstrosity? What if I asked for some S-E phones on these shores? I’m happy they’re trying, but this ain’t the direction they should be taking if they want to hit the big time.

I was talking to some mobile guys in Stockholm and one mentioned that S-E was always doing well and now moved to WinMo while Motorola is betting on Android, which, in my opinion, is a smart move for low-end smartphone manufacturers. S-E, take a tip from Motorola: nobody ever got fired for choosing Microsoft but they did falter for being behind the times.

It’s been a long time coming, but it looks like the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 might almost be here. BGR has some shots of Best Buy’s internal stock showing a December 7th in-stock date and an unlocked selling price of $799. That’s a lot of coin, so we can only assume that it’ll be the greatest phone in the history of cellular telephony, right?

Johnny X is about a young man with amnesia desperately piecing together his identity. The webisodic thriller comprises of nine episodes, created to demonstrate the rich, immersive and experiential elements of the Xperia™ X1.

The storyline follows Johnny X on his mission to rediscover his identity. As he finds out more about his lost life in a race against time, he updates his Xperia™ X1 with new content to piece together his personality and identity, reflecting how the phone can be personalized to suit users’ individual lifestyle and needs. Will Johnny X find out who he really is before it’s too late?

“Producing the Johnny X thriller has given us an engaging platform to demonstrate all the capabilities and features a user can experience with the Xperia™ X1 phone,” said Lennard Hoornik, Head of Marketing at Sony Ericsson. “The panel interface is a perfect way to reflect your personality and can be tailored and changed to suit your exact needs at any given time. No two Xperia™ X1 will ever have the same combination of panels on the phone; we are all individuals and deserve to have a phone that reflects that. ”

Over a three week period, one new episode of Johnny X will be posted online at www.sonyericsson.com/Johnnyx every Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting on Monday, September 22. Check out the trailer for the series at www.whoisjohnny-x.com

Oh, that’s unfortunate. I’ve been eyeing this device since it was announced and have always thought the keyboard looked phenomenal. BGR is reporting, however, that the keyboard on the XPERIA X1 device is a “major flaw” – that’d definitely be a deal-breaker for more than a few people, myself included.

Not to say that this keyboard is absolutely terrible, but it’s one of the worst. Think Sony UX computer, for those of you that have one or have used one. The sliding mechanism comes right on top of the keys, and thus, the keys don’t travel a lot when pressed. They give little to no feedback despite having a cool triangular design.

Aside from the keyboard, everything else appears to be pretty delightful. The 800×480 screen would make surfing the web and watching movies on this thing much more palatable. The device that BGR got ahold of is only a pre-production unit, so “the software runs a little slow,” but the XPERIA still seems to perform admirably and should only improve with the final version. I don’t suppose that Sony-Ericsson is going to revamp the keyboard before the rumored September launch, though.

WARNING: Do not ingest self-tanner.

I haven’t seen a BengalBoy post in almost a year and for a minute I had all but forgotten about our soft-core brother from another Best Buy who gets brand new, unreleased phones and then makes strange women hold them in bikinis. Lucky for us, BB got himself the Sony Ericsson X1, the phone we call “Lipstick on a Pig” for it’s melding of high fashion styling and cool form factor with Windows Mobile 6.

What does BB have to say?

Ummmm, I’m finally realizing my dream…..(no,,,, not the dream your thinking…… ) from over 5 years ago when I first got the Sony Ericsson P800 and then out-grew the kindergarden capable Symbian Operating System for my first Windows Pocket PC Operating System device, the iMate Pocket PC phone. What if I could have it all??? The all metal construction of my beloved Nokia 8890 cell phone, the bluetooth and construction quality of my Sony Ericsson P800/900 device, the hardware, processor, and memory of the iMate, coupled with the power of its Windows Mobile operating system??? Well, fuck, its been a long god-damn time……. …… but today….. it finally arrived!!

It has been a long god-damn time, son. Looking forward to seeing more of your signature crazy with a little jubbly thrown in… because it’s there.

This video has been making the rounds that shows something similar to the S-E X1 along with another unnamed device that seems to be able to all sorts of good things including live chat a la iChat. While I’m down on the Xperia line so far — the X1 was a gimmick as egregious as the original HTC Touch — I’m willing to give S-E the benefit of the doubt and hope to god they start selling something here in the U.S.

If you’ve got almost a thousand bucks burning a hole in your pocket and you want to get a head start on ordering up that Xperia X1 by Sony Ericsson, why not head over to CellHut.com and pre-order one? Rumors are also beginning to swirl about a mid-September launch. What a great way to make friends at your new school!

It’s going for $999 with an initial $100 off and the phone is unlocked. Unlocked! Compatible networks include T-Mobile, AT&T/Cingular, Cellular One, and various Asian and European carriers.

Far be it for me to tell you what to do with your money but if it were me, I’d probably just wait until September-time. There might just be even COOLER phones out by then, although each time I’ve seen the Xperia rotating in a glass case at a convention like a digitally rotisserie chicken, I’ve wondered if it might be the right kind of phone for a guy like me. I don’t know if I’d pre-order it that far in advance, though.

via The Earth Times

The charming, polished S-E X1 runs Windows Mobile 6.1, which is like saying that hot, 6-foot-3 model you know is a furry — and not the fun kind of furry but she wears a ratty old Tweety Bird costume with her ugly, loud boyfriend who dresses up like Sylvester and they have sex. And you’re all like “What? She can do better than that. Hell, I’ll dress up. Just not in something so predictable.” See, the model, in this case, is the hardware, and the fat boyfriend is Windows Mobile. I’m the frustrated guy who is witnessing this travesty.

Leaked! Experia X1 Runs on Windows Mobile 6.1! [AdonisDemon]

Launched at MWC is the Xperia line and with it comes the X1. A Windows Mobile device that isn’t fully WinMo with a 3-inch display, QWERTY keyboard, 3.2-megapixel camera with AF, optical joystick navigation, aGPS, Wi-Fi and Xperia panels. From what I can glean from the press release, it appears that the Xperia panels are much like Expose on a Mac or Flip3D on Vista. Biggs will have more details later on.

The X1 will be available in select markets in the latter half of the year.

Press Release