The Ericsson T68 mobile phone in a changing world
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- čas přidán 6. 09. 2024
- The Ericsson T68 mobile phone, the first Multimedia Messaging Service phone. With an add on camera, colour screen and Bluetooth in a tiny package. This was the last phone Ericsson released and also the first phone Sony Ericsson released. A transitional phone in a changing world of mobile technology.
Music
Artist: DJ TR!P
Song: Janus Cycle (Phone)
Song: Janus Cycle (Control)
Link: / finddjtrip
The picture quality is extremely impressive for the time...
I love how it looks too
Indeed
Absolutely, it looks way ahead of its time. I remember older and cheaper Androids having the same picture quality many years later.
Yeah the camera photo was way better than I was expecting too.
I worked with the development of these phones from 2000 to 2012. A very interesting journey. Before Android we had all competence in house for these products.
You made some wonderful phones. The T610 was beautiful, the K750 was amazing.
Did you work at the Lund site? I have two friends that worked there to. A friend of mine worked on the Z1010, he was let go when they moved to Japan.
Sony Ericsson Walkman phones - unbeatable with last model of Live with Walkman... (Turn off that speaker... What speaker it's a phone...) Phone had loudest speakers in 2011
@@matsv201 Yes Lund. I worked as Module Key Responsible with the development of the Phonebook on the T39 in the year 2000. But in in 2001 Sony got involved as the company became Sony Ericsson. In 2012 Sony took over completely. Today there is nothing left in Lund. Only some colleagues left working in Malmö.
Moved to Japan?
@@rogercarlsson8679 Thank you very much for developing Sony Ericsson t610, it was one of the best! Did you y work on the T610? Can you tell me something interesting that you can? Is it true that the t610 was created on the platform from the t68 and had partially similar software? It’s just that many amateurs and enthusiasts say so, and I also saw a photo of an early firmware from the t610 and there in the properties "Phone status" of the t68i it was written. What processor did the t610 have if you remember of course and it won’t make it difficult to say? True, there was ARM7 with a clock speed of 40 MHz, how much RAM and ROM did the t610 have? True, one of the z200 models had partially similar software from t610, although it was changed, because there graphic elements in the interface are very similar to t610 and the themes engine is similar to t610, fans and enthusiasts say, despite this, that new themes cannot be installed, but the themes engine itself is similar.
I still remember the first day I watched the Ericsson T68, as a millennial born in '91, that day remains as one of the most important moments of my life related to technology history. My uncle was working at Ericsson back at that time (Mid 2002), he had one of the early models, (the first version). I remember how he turned it on, a pretty short animation of the space, like the earth getting light from the sun showed up. I know, for today standards, the T68 had a super tiny display and pretty bad color, but back in 2002, seeing something like that in a mobile phone was stunning. Not to mention all the connectivity and multimedia features. I've always thought the T68 has been such an underrated phone, when people think about iconic phones in mobile phone history, some people will think about the iPhone, the Nokia 6600 and 3310, or the Motorola Startac/Razr, and yes, they're important pieces of history, but the T68 played a huge role in mobile development. Super Great video by the way!!!
I really enjoyed your description of seeing this phone for the first time, thanks for sharing.
I also think that t68, t300, t310, t610 and similar phones are very legendary and underrated. I really like these phone models and they are one of the best in my opinion.
@@hypercube2417 I also have a T610 and it's one of my favourites, it deserves it's own video one day.
@@JanusCycle I also have Sony Ericsson T610 and it's one of my favourite phones as well as t68, t300, t310, K750. By the way, t610 can also be modified. I heard that enthusiasts put a screen in it from t630 TFT instead of STN and also firmware from T630, and more. The t630 and t610 have a lot in common. And the board from the T630 fits into the case from the T610. Another theme from T610 classical.thm which I like better than T630 is also compatible with T630.
The T68is was my second phone. What a machine. Productivity, battery for a week, ir dial up modem, and I had a motorola bluetooth headset. If you hit the volume slider while locked it would tell you remaining battery in days and hours instead of percentage
I went on holiday to America when I had my T68. All the Americans were so impressed as they had old flip phones. Then i met up with some Japanese guys and their phones we really fancy, with built in cameras and much bigger colour screens.
My electronics teacher back in 1998 was part of the team at Ericsson that invented Bluetooth. Mats was the best teacher I ever had
Wow, I'm thoroughly impressed with the quality of photo from a 2001 phone. This looks like photos from 2007-08 phone cameras. A CMOS sensor being that advanced on a phone is insane.
I loved my T68i. I used it for connecting my Palm Tungsten T to the internet via bluetooth and GPRS.
Oh man, I had a W580, modded the hell out of that phone. Elfs where amazing and I couldn't believe all the stuff that the community did for these SE phones.
I was also modding with Elfs on a K750 and W910, one day I'll be making a video about that, not soon but one day.
@@JanusCycle soon enough?
Wow I almost forgot about Elfs on SE. Didn’t remember what I installed but I sure had fun modding them 😄
Pointing out that the T68m was so ahead of its time, that 8 months later Sony Ericsson simply re-launched it as the current flagship, just with some new software toys.
Oh yeah also, in England you were able to take the phone to something like Carphone Warehouse and they would update the software, you just left it with them for 45 minutes. It was supposed to cost like £30 but they just did it for free most of the time, regardless.
I really miss these times of ever evolving and changing everyday technology. I remember being so excited for a lot of different products, not least the release of new mobile phones. It's kinda hard, at least in my opinion, to be as exciting nowadays about a new phone when it's gonna be more or less the same as what came out the previous few years but with some minor alterations.
I agree with you totally, but we are really at the peak of smartphone industry right now. More or less we are using phones in the same way as we did 5 years ago. So it's just a refining that experience. Plus, it's easy to find video review of the phones you're interested and in the start you already know what are you going to have. Which is a good and a bad thing at the same time.
I was owner of Ericsson t68 about 20 years ago. That was a very good phone. I loved it's design and menu
Nice, I love hearing from T68 owners. Such a fascinating phone.
I had a t68i, was such a great phone... very fond memories.
I used the phone as a bluetooth modem with my laptop.. was extremely slow, but did work.
I had both the T68 and T68i, they featured in the film Die Another Day as T68i was Jinx phone/ Bomb and the Sony Ericsson P800.
Sony Ericsson Phones were ahead of it's time and i like to remember how proud i was when i got my Sony Ericsson Aino Phone 🥰
I remember the Sony Ericsson K and C series.
They had a proper camera on board with a Carl Zeiss lens and actual Xenon flash.
You never saw that ever again after that, even today.
I had the K800i and then the C905.
I still have these laying around somewhere.
That's right!, the K800i did have a xenon flash. I didn't realise it was so unique for a phone.
@@JanusCycle nokia n82 was better ^^
I was born in mid 90s but I remember vividly phones from that era. My father used to have Sony phones and my uncle had Ericsson phones. Also remember that my father first Sony phone was big like cordless home phones, I don't know how they call that phones nowadays, and it had big menu button in the center. Since he was carrying his phone in special belt pocket, eveytime he went to sleep after work I would sneak and took the phone out of that pocket and went under the table just to press menu button couple times lol. But I liked more Ericsson phone from my uncle as the screen on that phone had cool blue backlight. I also remember one Ericsson phone that had small horizontal screen like the calculator one and it had a small cover for keyboard and small antena. Later on when Sony and Ericsson merged they went with Nokia. 2000s was so exciting period for me. Everytime when I got to try new phone it was learning totally new stuff all over again. Though Nokia did some kind of recylcing software as I some my family who used to buy different Nokia phones, essentially had the same software. Only exterior was different.
3 of maybe even 4 years before that "first color screen mobile phone" was released, I was rocking my freshly released Siemens S10 mobile phone with a color screen.. 😉
The Siemens S10 is a very cool phone with a special colour screen that generates it's colour using a very 'weird' and intriguing method :)
@@JanusCycle You're absolutely right about that :)
my first phone, i still have it, because my father bought it for me as my birthday present when i turned 18, just a few weeks before he died.
everytime i look at that phone my eyes fill with tears, and ad that time that phone was about 600 dollars over here.
after that i had many sonyericsson phones up to the experia and then i moved to samsung when sony stoped inovating
Wow, that phone must mean more to you than I can possibly imagine. Thank you for sharing this story.
I bought a T68i.... and a year later... i replace its case for the gold one which was gorgeous !!! I had also the T28 and T39.... And other Sony Ericssons, before buying my first smartphone... nokia 3230. which was great.... Later on some great devices arrived at home... N8, L1020... L950...
The gold model was the best, some nice phones you had there.
Hmm, my Siemens S25 although not really making use of it - has 4 colour screen. And it's not first Siemens colour screen device as S10 was true first one ever to have it in 1997, waaaay before Ericsson T68. On the other hand - T68 was making hell use of it at its time.
You make a good point, the S10 did have the first colour screen. I think we can also say the T68m had the first full colour screen :)
I think the S10 and S25 were probably using the technique I explored in the 'Weird Colour LCD' video I made. I'm keen to confirm if that's correct.
@@JanusCycle Same type of screen , STN.
@@antyKNP nope it was graphic with 4 colors.
And just look at those glorious colours..
i LOVED and still love the design of these early Ericsson and sony mobile phones. Good times.
I had a T68i it was so small that your hand hide it while using. Technically speaking the T68i was the first (i for Internet) by Sony Ericson the design of T68i was a little more streamlined more curved on the shoulders and more beautiful. It was not available in all countries though. It was the first phone with a blue LED that I saw.
I loved my T68i back then. Awesome phone and made me happily get the P800 later.
My mum had one extremely poor battery life
SonyEricsson T68i first with bluetooth and colours screen GREAT PHONE 👍🏻
I remember seeing this first in a Vodafone shop in my home town. The advert said "Bluetooth" and I didn't know what it was. I noticed the blue colour on the selector stick and wondered if it came off, like a blue tooth. I'd honestly never heard the word before and had no idea what it meant.
What I wish was possible is if you could mod older phones to make them compatible with newer gen mobile networks.
Seems like a mistake at the time, that phones were not made modular. There were a few experiments with add-ons, but that was it.
Nowadays, many phone components are so good, that it should be possible to retain them for as long as possible, and then swap them as needed: the radios, the SIM card tray/s, the display, storage, the computing unit, etc.
@@mardus_ee I have to assume that was a concept that they just never considered at the time.
@@indigomizumi Well, not quite a concept, though not fully realized. Motorola had a series of semimodular Android smartphones called Moto Z and several Moto Mods to accompany the main devices as plug-ins.
Jolla had a smartphone in the form of Jolla Phone and The Other Half add-ons via I2C connectivity. The phone runs on Sailfish OS, which is based on MeeGo.
I had the gray T68m and upgraded the firmware to T68i. I remember missing the Tetris. It was my favorite game. It broke later under warranty and they gave me the beautiful white T68i. I was so happy
With all the firmware upgrades done. I can't imaging there are many versions left with Tetris.
First time in my life I seen photos from Sony Ericsson I have seen this phone 23 years ago as kid and I was mesmerized but it was so rare and then it disappeared
I think the resolution is the same as the 6510 LCD, but that is a small sized screen as well.
I had this, amazing phone. Colour was epoch moment for phones.
Nice! it must have been amazing to have a colour screen back then.
more nostalgia, love the nostalgia
I was a manager at the first AT&T wireless in the US out of San Diego, CA and I purchased the 3rd T68 in the country.
Perfect for tethering to my Palm Tungsten T3!
1:54
I really like the look of that. It reminds me of two things. One, the cameras on the nintendo 3DS, but two, the swirly out of focus areas at the edges are almost like a helios lens.
My T68i had a disco trick... awsome! leds went crazy and the vibrate motor made it walk .. loved it !!! Still got it
When this phone was first released in UK I bought for GPRS and bluetooth, a market first (USD 1200). I used a Compaq IPAQ (USD 3000) with the battery/PC Card sleeve accessory (USD 500) and a Bluetooth PC Card (250) to connect with the Ericsson's GPRS connection. Then I went to Michelin's website to access their interactive map and cross reference with physical landmarks/signs, so that i could find my way around the Ardennes and their picturesque, trout stream laden hills...
Wow, you had some amazing portable tech for the time. Glad you got some amazing experiences out of it as well.
@@JanusCycle just pointing out it costs just a few bucks to do that now + GPS
I had and miss this beauty .
Good to hear from a T68 owner
2003 life was good
Sony Ericsson was my favourite brand. I've had T610, W810 and my absolute favourite phone of all times was C905 with it's sliding body and superb camera. Miss the time when phones were functional yet design accessory... Or maybe I just wish being in my 20's again 🙂
Nice, some great Sony Ericsson models there. I want to try a W810 soon.
Oh my god, those 00-s phones were computer miracles!
I had T310, indestructible thing
the siemens s10 was the first colour mobile
the siemens s10 could indeed display 4 colours, while not a full colour display it was technically the first with colour.
Had this one for a very short time, just after this the Sony Ericsson T610 came out, which was a much more fun phone.
Back when erricson wasnt owned by sony.
Thoes were the good days.
Ohh man I remember having one of these phone back in the day. It was a nice transition I had from the Nokia 3310, seeing a lit colored screen and being able to play games etc. This was a nice phone back in the day but unfortunately very hard to repair as it wasn't as well known here in our area here in South East Asia, I literally had to go thru ton of repair shops before someone managed to fix it. Overall it was a great phone for it's time.
I remember those old cellphones
I loved my t68 phone back in the days 😍
this was truly a gem back in the days
The first colour screen phone was the Siemens S10, not the Ericsson T68.
The S10 was first! Maybe we can the the T68 was the first 'full colour screen' phone.
Sweden had Ericsson, Finland NOKIA, and nothing could ever go wrong 😭😭😭
101 pixels wide? What an odd number (literally).
I remember when I was like 14 years old and I told my dad that I wanted to move to Japan or at least import all the newest phones from there because I seen all the high tech gadgets that they had way before us. I got one of the very first phones that played MP3 and I had to order the hands-free cord from Japan on eBay I felt so cool back in the early 2000s with my phone playing music and answering phone calls in my vehicle like a boss.
I remember getting this phone… it’s still kicking around in the attic somewhere, including the camera (which i had around the neck when i was out and about, it came with a leather sleeve in matching color and lanyard)
In 1998, Siemens had s10, it had 3 colors, i still hve it, and it still works
I have one of them, not long after i got it, sony ericsson came into being and offered everyone in the uk a software upgrade to the sony ericsson t68i!
My first phone! ohh.... that was 2004 or 2005 year. Great times.
I have almost 0 models of Ericsson and SE...
First phone to have a Bluetoothe was the T39m ;)
Hi there!
I just watched your video on the Ericsson T68m. I’ve got a T68m as well, but sadly it’s updated to the R5 software version. What hardware (such as cables…) and which software did you use to perform the downgrade on yours? Also, where did you find the flashable firmware file required for the downgrade?
In this video I used a Twister box. But I do think there is free software and a basic service cable that can do this. It's been a long time since I did this and I will have to refresh my memory. Do you use Discord?
Sony Ericsson made the best phones out there. Stylish, nice menu, great end diverse design.
My first color screen phone was a kyocera. It had tetris as a game
My first cell Phone ;)
A very interesting and cool phone. What about modifying old Sony Ericsson and Ericsson phones, both hardware and software, including firmware, adding new games, etc.? Enthusiasts haven't found a way to modify these Ericsson and Sony Ericsson phones yet, as is the case with Nokia?
The K750 and some later models have some interesting firmware modding possible. This is going to be in an upcoming video.
we are old
I bought one of these to tinker with J2me and the "mascot capsule" 3d api. Was pretty easy to get something up and running (point sprites + 3d landscape was easy to write) main annoyance is the joystick broke so ended up being kind of useless.
The first colour screen phone was probably also the Samsung T100.
I believe t68 came in trio, t65 and t66. I remember saw it in local magazine and advertized as camera capable phone, t65 displayed greyscale photograph with early mca 10. It was amazing technology so much ahead than nokia, siemens and samsung.
I had t68i and experienced the early internet with GPRS and wap browser. Later I studied how to made WML webpage and become programmer until today
That is a cool story, I love that the T68 was an early inspiration to you!
Actually the first company to make a phone with color screen would be SIEMENS and the phone was S10. This was happening in 1998.
Awesome video many thanks for the upload.
Cheers
I had a Simmons phone that looked like that Erickson one but unlocked for voicestream which later became t mobile oh the good old days
The first colors screen phone I had before this was a Seimens slider. It had 5 colors.
Well.. a lot of the "new" features in T68 was alreddy in the T39. If we look at Ericsson (and later sony ericsson) flagship phones. They typically come in a trifecta. Small, normal and smart. And it was pretty much one every year or so.
Start with the 788 and 888 was the first multi system phones. (first that of ericsson)
T28/R320/R380 was the first highly integrated (it was tiny)
T39/R520 was the first GPRS and BT phone. The R580 was suppose to be the first color smartphone, but it was delayed and canceled.
T68/P800 was the first color phone.
After that it seams like sony ericsson just plowed out models with no real market strategy. Lots of them was to similar and was pretty much pointless.
I agree Ericsson were very focused with every model. But I thought the T610 and K750 were great phones during the Sony Ericsson era.
@@JanusCycle That is true. Really the K750 (and the W800 that was basically the same phone) as well as the T610 was peak Sony Ericsson. I use to have a M600, was actually a really good phone. Its a pitty that the OS become bloated out of control.
If memory serves, the first GPRS/WAP phone by Ericsson was R318, but it was a limited-release model.
@@mardus_ee As far as i can find there never been a R318, there been a R310 and a GA318, but not a R318.
T39 is just a T36 with GPRS function. It was made only to get GPRS on the market, so it should be very early, possibly the first.
@@matsv201 I remember the 318 number, so this was from memory. But the device was clearly a business phone, and was said to have been a pilot/demonstration unit sent out to operators for testing. A relative of mine used to work for a mobile operator, so this is how I know.
I remembered having one of these
Nokia 9210 from 2000 can display 4096 colours.
Yes, you are right
Goddam I bloody loved this phone!!
I wouldn't say that this phone was ahead of its time. Back then mobile devices were evolving as fast as computers in late 80's and early 90's.
It just had a color screen when compared to other high-end phones. However it lacked polyphonic ringtones and JAVA or Mophun.
In general I would say that Siemens had better phones than Ericsson. They had superior firmware with full file system access. SL45i had monochromatic screen, but with Java, MP3 player and SD card slot.
Released year later Siemens S55 was clearly inspired by T68, but it was better in every way and the most feature complete phone of that time.
It had all the features T68 lacked.
However (Sony)Ericsson was just starting. T68 was great, but T610 and especially its improved version T630 was the real revolution. It had bigger, better screen, great polyphony with high-quality MIDI soundfont (best MIDI ever in a phone!) and it supported both Mophun and Java. Java was limited and slow, but low-level Mophun was great.
Then K series was released, which was something else entirely. The most overpowered devices ever. While most other phones used low-end CPUs, K series had not only fast and responsive UI, they also could run 3D games with Playstation 1 graphics. They were so fast that they could emulate NES at the full speed. In an emulator written in Java.
Late to this video, but damn a blue led in 2001 was pretty ahead of the curve. That was some damned new tech at that time, until we worked out how to do it cheaper and suddenly everything had blinding blue leds
my first phone very nostalgic. The navigation joystick always break I only scroll on the volume slider
I had a T68 and when T68i launched I heard about the software update but was unable to find a store that could update the firmware unfortunately.
4:30 You destroyed me haha
Thank you for my exploded ears!
I apologise for that. I've been learning more about proper audio levelling recently.
Btw i had the T68i and i loved it
I remember seeing one of these in late 2002. I really wanted one of those but few months later Nokia 7650 arrived and not too long after I had one. Anyway those times were amazing with different styles of phones: clamshells, flips, sliders and other convertibles. These days everything is bland not only in technology
Good Stuff.
4:47 Made In Malaysia, nice
apparently it was in the movie Die Another Day.
I'd like to see that!
@@JanusCycle unfortunately it was used as a bomb detonator and not by Bond himself.
I had S10, what was actually the first color screen phone. Had whopping 4 colors (red, green, blue, white).
My first ever phone
Nice history lesson there, really informative keep em coming
Remember it came in gold.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is a pretty neat design.
I had one in red 😊
How about boot animation of original T68? (not SE firmware)
The boot animation is very similar to the shutdown animation which is included near the end of this video. If you think it needs to be seen then there are more Ericsson videos to be made in the future which can include it. For example the important story of the Ericsson GH337 evolving into the Ericsson T28 could include the T68 starting up at the end. That would work well.
My classmate had one with an attachable camera,pretty neet
I remember as a student becoming friends with engineers at a trade show. The following years i was able to trade swiss chocolate for replacement joysticks
What does next 20yrs Hold??
EricsSony.
How could they miss that opportunity?
3:52 colour is spelled the correct Canadian way with a “u”
T68 is not first Bluetooth phone. R520m and T39 is first.
Yes, it's one of the first!
Another great video.
Hi, how can I downgrade my t68i in 68m? I flashed it from t68m to 68i a long time ago. I didn't have any special flashers, only software. I don’t remember how I did it, probably either I soldered the wires to the contacts on phone or using a data cable. Now I have only a date cable to USB.
You're going to have to find some flashing software that works. You might be able to use the emulated com port that comes with the driver with your USB cable.
There is a test pin that needs jumping as well, pin 9 to pin 11. You will have to modify your cable and probably use Windows XP for any chance this would work.
ericssoners.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/unlockflash-software/
@@JanusCycle Thanks for the answer! I'll try to remember everything, I have cables for firmware somewhere, I have WIN_XP and I even have a computer with WIN98) I need to study this question further. Did you reflash successfully? Now this is 68m?