Nasty couple of weeks in store (Updated)

The next 14 days could be particularly black ones for investment banking redundancies.

7 April 2008

“Next week will be very big for job cuts,” says the European head of one international search boutique. “Banks are putting the finishing touches to their cost cutting programmes this week, and will announce redundancies starting Monday 14th April.”

“European DCM fees have been squeezed,” says Lee Thacker of search firm Silvermine Partners. “Cuts are going to come over the next two weeks, and in the two weeks in June when quarterly reviews take place.”

Headhunters predict the biggest reductions at UBS and Citigroup - and Financial News reports that Citigroup is slashing its leveraged finance team from 27 to 14 people. However, they’re unlikely to be the only banks reducing headcount.

JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank and Barclays Capital are thought to be overstaffed in fixed income. Morgan Stanley and Lehman are expected to announce another round of redundancies in the coming weeks. Merrill Lynch has already let people go and has signalled its intention to eliminate more investment banking jobs in May.

Not the 1990s

However bad things are at the moment, though, they’ve been far worse in the past.

Andrew Burrell, chief economist at Experian, is predicting that anything between 10,000 and 20,000 jobs will go in the City of London this year. However, he points out that this is nothing compared to the 1990s when 50,000 to 60,000 jobs were eliminated from what was then a much smaller financial services community.

“Right now we don’t have the wider economic context of a UK-wide recession to create job cuts of that magnitude,” says Burrell.

And if conditions do deteriorate further? There will, at least, be small mercies.

“In the early 1990s the trains were half empty – you could always get a seat,” says one headhunter.

The History of Euroclear and Settlement Issues

Sunday, April 06, 2008

In the continuing drive to stay ahead of the markets and technology, it’s hard to remember what the front office of financial services looked like 20 years ago, never mind the back office infrastructure.

In Plumbers and Visionaries, Peter Norman writes the history of securities settlement and Europe’s financial markets, a project sponsored by Euroclear.

Reading the story today, one does have occasional feelings of déja vu all over again. In 1985, the BIS was concerned about some new instruments and off-balance sheet activity. Norman also notes that the 1987 crash focused attention on counterparty clearing houses. Whew – good thing that all got settled, then. The crash did spur the G30 to focus on back office settlement risk, moving the issue to the boardroom level, as the Bank of England said.

He describes the way American banks flourished when Paul Volcker led the Fed and pulls together reports from the BIS and the American General Accounting Office and other official and unofficial groups that focused their attention on settlement issues. And the book comes pretty close to the present with a discussion of Turqouise.

If you’re involved in capital markets, you probably need a copy or two of this around – it certainly would be useful for smart new hires who would like a broad historical view of what happens after a trade is done. It is extremely well organized with a chronology at the end, followed by brief biographies of major players and a glossary of technical terms.

Norman, a writer for the FT, has taken on a complex subject and made its history very readable through good clear writing.

Posted by Tom Groenfeldt on 04/06 at 01:52 PM

Wall Street chaos: How to plan your money

Planners advocate prudence - and a cash cushion - to get you through volatile times.

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writer
Last Updated: March 18, 2008: 5:01 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The phrase "run on the bank" is really something you never want to hear. Yet that's what best describes Bear Stearns' swift demise - and it has caused investors to wonder if such a run could happen elsewhere.

From the average person's perspective, it's a little hard to know how worried, if at all, to be about your money right now.

While certified financial planners are concerned about the financial news coming out of Wall Street these days, they are far from running scared on behalf of their clients. In fact, they're still encouraging them to stay invested in a well-allocated portfolio.

But they do see value in taking certain prudent measures - many of which make solid sense even when the financial markets aren't as rocky as they are now.

Consider the money you've got in the bank. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will insure your money in checking, savings, certificates of deposit and money market deposit accounts up to $100,000. That's per depositor, per institution. In some instances, you may qualify for more coverage, but generally speaking $100,000 is the cut-off for deposit accounts.

So if you have more than $100,000 combined in all your accounts at one bank, you might consider moving some of it to another institution. "That's a good general rule of thumb," said Jim Whiddon of JWA Financial Group in Dallas.

If you're not willing to move money because you'd sacrifice convenience or possibly some yield, "then pay attention to the credit quality of the underlying bank," said Gary Schatsky of Independent Financial Counselors in New York.

Having access to a cash cushion, wherever you park it, is a big plus.

"In a recession, the secret to getting through it is having cash," said Mari Adam of Adam Financial in Boca Raton, Fla.

Adam would typically recommend having access to enough money to cover three months' worth of expenses. But now an even better idea is six months' worth, she said. That doesn't mean you need to keep every spare dollar in your bank accounts - access to a line of credit or some liquidity in your portfolio will do the trick.

Keeping an eye out for yield and return is always smart. But you may find it in some surprising places these days, especially given the hit savings rates have taken from all the Fed rate cuts. Adam said she is getting a better return on her short-term CDs (1 year or less) than on the 10-year Treasury.

The hunt for value

If you're an optimistic contrarian, you're probably thinking - correctly, many experts say - that some companies are getting punished unfairly in this environment and that long-term they're solid bets. After all, whatever happens with the mortgage mess, everyone is still going to need toilet paper, right?

But rather than placing your bets on an individual stock or sector to find long-term winners, Schatsky recommends looking for a solid value fund and let the fund manager do all the research on undervalued companies for you.

The same goes for bonds. If you're looking to expand the bond portion of your portfolio, he recommends looking for a fund that is more focused on shorter-term, high-quality bonds such as Vanguard Short-Term Investment Grade Bond Fund (VFSTX).

The personal finance self-exam

There are still a lot of unknowns about the Bear Stearns fallout. But the biggest opportunity it presents for the perplexed investor and saver is to get smart about their investment exposure.

"It's a wake-up call to look at your portfolio. How is the overall portfolio allocated?" said Schatsky. Don't just consider your 401(k) or your brokerage account in isolation.

Consider the allocation across all accounts and figure out if the breakdown between stocks and bonds is right for you. "Markets like this truly test risk tolerance," Schatsky noted.

Then, Adam said, do what you you should have been doing all along: get rid of any investment that is toxic regardless of the events surrounding the mortgage meltdown on Wall Street.

First Published: March 18, 2008: 11:00 AM EDT

Wall Street welcomes merger talk

Stocks rise as investors eye deal news and rumors, including the latest on the Microsoft-Yahoo potential merger.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks struggled higher Monday morning as a spate of deal talk encouraged investors, including the latest in the potential Microsoft-Yahoo combination and a possible $5 billion investment for mortgage lender Washington Mutual.

However, gains were limited by spiking oil, gold and gas prices.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) had added 0.2%, over an hour into the session. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) index had gained 0.4% and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) rose 0.2%.

The major gauges posted bigger gains at the open, before scaling back a bit.

Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) said over the weekend that Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) has three weeks to agree to a takeover or face a proxy fight for control of the company. On Monday, Yahoo said it isn't opposed to a deal, but wants a better offer than the current $41 billion.

Swiss drugmaker Novartis (NVS) is buying 25% of Alcon (ACL) with an option to buy more than 75% of the eye-care company in a deal that could be worth as much as $38 billion.

Washington Mutual (WM, Fortune 500) is in talks to receive a $5 billion investment from private equity firm TPG and other investors, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Stocks were mixed Friday - at the end of a strong week - as the dismal March jobs report vied with hopes that the worst may be over for the market.

The first-quarter earnings reporting period starts after the close of trade Monday when Dow component Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500) reports earnings. Earnings for the overall S&P 500 are expected to decline versus a year ago, due largely to a big drop in financial sector results amid the credit and housing market crises.

Commodity prices. U.S. light crude oil for May delivery rose $2.72 to $108.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

COMEX gold for June delivery rose $16.80 to $930 an ounce.

Other markets. The dollar rose versus the euro and the yen.

Treasury prices slumped, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.53% from 3.58% late Thursday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.
First Published: April 7, 2008: 9:36 AM EDT

Next Steps for China

Eswar S. Prasad

Why financial sector reform is a crucial element of a long-term growth strategy

China’s emergence as an economic power and its sheer size have put it firmly at the center of the global economic stage. Its remarkable pace of growth has attracted a lot of attention, with some observers speculating that it could become the world’s second-largest economy if this rate of growth were to be sustained for the next two or three decades. Furthermore, in light of China’s trade expansion and rapidly rising stock of international reserves, discussions of global current account imbalances invariably put the spotlight on Beijing. At the same time, the possibilities of overheating and excessive investment in China are raising concerns, because a downturn in its growth could reverberate not just domestically but also in the Asian region and beyond.

Indeed, China’s recent move to allow for more flexibility of the renminbi’s exchange rate (by linking it to a basket of currencies rather than a fixed peg to the U.S. dollar) is seen as a response to both domestic and international pressures. Some observers have dismissed this initial step, which included a small revaluation of the renminbi, as being too modest to make much of a difference to domestic or international imbalances. What is more important, however, is the symbolic as well as economic significance of this step in terms of setting in motion the shift toward greater exchange rate flexibility and the authorities’ stated goal of eventual capital account convertibility.

But the exchange rate regime is just one piece of the broader reform agenda. This article provides an assessment of what China needs to do to ensure the durability of its economic expansion by addressing the looming issues of financial sector reform and the need to bolster balanced domestic-led growth.

Trade patterns and the reserve buildup

To gain a better understanding of the implications of China’s currency policy and growth strategy, it is helpful to examine the dynamics of China’s international trade patterns and rapid reserve accumulation.

Let us begin with a regional perspective. China is becoming increasingly important in the Asian region in terms of both trade and financial flows. It now accounts for about 40 percent of all foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into emerging market economies in Asia (including FDI flowing between Asian economies). On the flip side, Japan and the emerging market economies of Asia together now account for more than two-thirds of China’s FDI inflows. This share remains well over half, even if one excludes a significant share of flows from Hong Kong SAR on the premise that these may represent round-tripping of capital originating from China to take advantage of preferential tax treatment afforded to FDI.

These patterns of intraregional capital flows are tied in to developments on the trade front, where China has become a major processing hub for goods manufactured in other Asian economies and destined for industrial country markets. Indeed, over the period 2000–04, the increase in China’s combined bilateral surpluses with the United States and the European Union was offset to a significant extent by the increase in its trade deficit with other Asian economies (see table).



But this is hardly the full picture. China’s current account surplus rose to about $70 billion in 2004, with the overall trade surplus accounting for the major portion of this increase. During 2001–04, Chinese exports grew at a remarkable rate of about 30 percent on average each year (imports grew at a similar rate, but the level of imports has remained lower than that of exports). While this rapid export growth since 2001 can be attributed partly to China’s low labor costs and accession to the World Trade Organization, there has been a contentious debate about the significance of the role of its currency regime in generating this trade expansion.

From 1995 to July 2005, China’s currency—the renminbi—was effectively maintained at a fixed parity relative to the U.S. dollar and there were indications that, with the decline in the value of the dollar relative to other major currencies over the last 2–3 years, the renminbi had become undervalued. Critics of China’s exchange rate policy have frequently pointed to the country’s rapid reserve accumulation as clear evidence of such currency undervaluation. Its gross international reserves have been on a sharp upward trajectory since 2001, with about three-fourths of the total buildup over the last decade taking place in just the last three years (see Chart 1). As a result, China now has the second largest stock of international reserves in the world (after Japan).



How have different components of the balance of payments contributed to this surge? As Chart 2 shows, current account surpluses and net inflows of FDI have been consistently quite large over the last decade. What is particularly interesting is that, until 2000, these factors were offset by the non-FDI financial account balance plus errors and omissions, the latter being the residual balancing category in the balance of payments that typically captures unrecorded flows in both the current and capital accounts. Since 2001, the sum of errors and omissions and the non-FDI capital account balance has swung around markedly, turning sharply positive in 2003–04. Indeed, this category has been the dominant contributor to the surge in the pace of reserve accumulation since 2001. A likely reason for the turnaround is that it represents large inflows of speculative capital in anticipation of a possible appreciation of the renminbi. Such flows may not enter through official channels since they would otherwise run afoul of capital controls.



This analysis of the forces influencing the recent sharp increase in the pace of reserve accumulation has some important implications. For one, it makes it less obvious that the rapid accumulation of reserves by itself constitutes clear evidence of a substantial undervaluation of the renminbi. Speculative inflows tend to feed on themselves and may sometimes bear little relation to macroeconomic fundamentals. But there are no doubt more fundamental forces putting continued upward pressure on the renminbi, including what appears to be a higher rate of labor productivity growth in China compared to its major trading partners.

Flexibility reduces risks

As has been evident in recent years, resisting such fundamental forces for currency appreciation by maintaining a fixed exchange rate regime has spurred large capital inflows. Such inflows typically have deleterious consequences by flooding the monetary system with liquidity, which could end up in a misallocation of resources and fuel domestic inflation.

China has been able to counteract some of these domestic pressures by undertaking sterilized intervention—that is, withdrawing from the financial system the liquidity increase that would otherwise result from capital inflows and the associated accumulation of reserves. The explicit costs of such sterilization have been held down simply by requiring the state banks to purchase government (or central bank) bonds at low interest rates that are close to, or below, the rate of return earned on reserve holdings. This approach has been facilitated by the relatively closed capital account and the fact that the banking system is state owned.

Of course, even China cannot escape the basic laws of economics. In truth, the broader costs of sterilization may just not be obvious. For instance, a major part of the costs has been implicitly borne by Chinese households who, for want of other investment opportunities, have left their deposits in the state-owned banking system and earned very low real returns on their savings.

A greater concern engendered by the fixed exchange rate regime had been that, over time, the capital controls would prove increasingly ineffectual as the incentives to evade them became stronger. Maintaining a fixed exchange rate system in the face of the inevitable erosion of capital controls could have posed risks to the financial system, which remains weak in many respects.

Thus, in many ways, moving toward greater exchange rate flexibility will mitigate some of these costs and help foster economic stability in China. But that is hardly the end of the story.

Concentration of investment

A different perspective on the balance of payments is that the current account, in effect, represents the balance between domestic saving and domestic investment. Chinese saving rates are very high, with gross national saving amounting to almost half of GDP—this includes saving by households, the corporate sector, and the government. Perhaps the real question is why the current account surplus is only 5 percent of GDP since even this implies a ratio of investment to GDP that is an astonishing 40–45 percent of GDP, with a substantial fraction of this investment being undertaken by enterprises. Cheap bank credit has played an important role in financing the recent investment boom.

Such high investment rates are, in principle, a boon for a developing economy, since most such economies tend to be labor-rich but capital-poor. Indeed, one could point to China’s relatively well-developed infrastructure—much better than in many other economies at a similar stage of development—as a positive effect of such investment. But the disturbing fact is that, in recent years, investment growth has been mostly concentrated in a few sectors such as aluminum, autos, cement, real estate, and steel.

While demand growth has been strong, there is a fear that annual rates of investment growth exceeding 50 percent in some of these sectors—fueled by cheap credit and overoptimistic expectations about future growth in demand—are likely to result in a buildup of excess capacity. Indeed, in some sectors such as autos and steel, there is already some evidence that rising competition and excess capacity are beginning to drive down prices. This could result in an accumulation of new nonperforming loans in the banking system, setting back a good deal of the progress that has been achieved in recent years.

In short, one basic problem in China is that the high degree of thrift that fuels such rapid investment growth has a low payoff because of the fragile threads holding the economic picture together. Providing cheap capital to enterprises, especially state-owned firms, requires low interest rates. Sustaining bank profits then requires correspondingly lower rates of return on deposits. Thus, maintaining economically unviable state enterprises and supporting them through the banking system results in large implicit costs.

But why does all of this matter if growth remains as robust as it has in recent years? Could not China simply grow out of a lot of its problems? Growth is undoubtedly a wonderful tonic. But there is a potential dark side associated with the fact that a significant portion of this growth in recent years has come from investment, with rising fixed investment becoming the main driver of output growth since 2001 (see Chart 3). A good chunk of this investment is likely to prove unproductive from a long-term perspective. Even building bridges to nowhere can raise output in the short term but is hardly a good use of resources. For it is ultimately consumption rather than investment or even output that is a true measure of economic welfare.



Squaring the circle

So how does one square the circle? The answer—one that the Chinese authorities themselves recognize as being crucial to China’s sustainable long-term growth—is financial sector reform. Whether or not the financial system becomes more efficient at intermediating China’s large pool of saving and directing it to the most productive investments will have major repercussions on long-term growth. Reform of the state-owned banking sector is an essential component of this agenda since banks continue to dominate the financial landscape, with the stock and bond markets still relatively underdeveloped. But development of the broader financial sector cannot be ignored, because this will be essential to provide alternative vehicles for saving and alternative sources of financing for firms and households. This would have the added benefit of promoting banking reforms by exposing state banks to domestic competition.

Progress has already been made in improving the oversight of the banking system. The formation of the China Banking Regulatory Commission in early 2003 and its mandate to improve the supervision and regulation of the banking system have provided a kick-start to banking reforms. Capital injections into three of the major banks have improved their balance sheets and are bringing their capital adequacy ratios in line with international norms. And foreign strategic investors, who are being invited in and have begun taking stakes in the large banks, are expected to bring in technical expertise and inculcate improved corporate governance practices.

But it is difficult to turn around behemoths on a dime. And notwithstanding measures taken to streamline their operations, the large Chinese banks are still massive by any standards—with hundreds of thousands of employees and tens of thousands of branches in far-flung areas. This makes the reform process a logistical challenge. Furthermore, rooting out the legacy of government-directed lending, and training banks to make lending decisions based purely on commercial considerations, with adequate regard to viability and riskiness of projects, remains a major reform challenge. The recent liberalization of lending rates, which will allow banks to price risk appropriately, should improve the commercial orientation of banks’ lending practices.

If these reforms were to lead to an increase in interest rates, might it not trigger a reduction in investment and increase saving, thereby adding to China’s current account surplus? This is far from obvious. Consider saving first. Providing households with opportunities to use financial markets to smooth consumption could in fact reduce the level of saving for precautionary purposes. It would also allow individuals to borrow against their future income and could thereby spur consumption growth. Saving by enterprises could also decline if they had better access to financing for commercially viable projects and did not have to rely as much on retained earnings.

In any case, wouldn’t a decline in investment growth hurt China’s long-term growth prospects? Quite the contrary. Reducing China’s overall investment growth and directing capital toward more economically efficient uses is in fact essential to help ensure the durability of China’s economic expansion. Moving in this manner toward domestic demand-led growth, and tilting domestic demand itself toward consumption-led rather than investment-led growth, would help put China on a more sustainable growth path.

This is where exchange rate flexibility comes in as well. The link is a subtle one. Since most Chinese saving is intermediated through the banking system, a more commercially-oriented banking system would ensure a more efficient allocation of resources in the economy. And this, in turn, would require that banks respond to market-based measures to control economic activity. The instruments that are typically employed in such circumstances in market economies include the short-term interest rate. In the absence of exchange rate flexibility, however, the independence of monetary policy had been greatly constrained, even if capital controls insulated the monetary system to some extent. This resulted in the monetary authority having to use nonmarket measures such as moral suasion to control credit and investment growth, an outcome that may have had short-term benefits but that vitiated the process of banking reforms. The need to sterilize large waves of capital inflows had also put a heavy burden on the central bank.

While exchange rate flexibility by itself is hardly going to be a panacea, attaining monetary policy independence through greater flexibility will eventually remove an important shackle that has hindered financial sector reforms and restrained other key aspects of the move toward a more market-oriented economy. This will also provide a useful tool to deal with external shocks that China will increasingly become exposed to as it continues its integration with the world economy. Indeed, there is no looking back for China as its trade and financial linkages bind it ever more closely to economies both within and outside the Asian region. China’s rising prominence means that there is much at stake in the outcome of its reform efforts, not just for China but also for the Asian region and the world economy.

C902

- C902i HSDPA/850/900/1800/1900 MHz
- C902c 850/900/1800/1900 MHz for ChinaMainland
- C902a 850/900/1800/1900 MHz for AmericaGeneral

2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 2100 - C902i only

Announced
2008, February

Status
Coming soon. Exp. release 2008, Q2

Size
Dimensions 108 x 49 x 10.5 mm
Weight 107 g

Display
Type TFT, 256K colors
Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2 inches
- Wallpapers, screensavers

Ringtones
Type Polyphonic, MP3
Customization Download
Vibration Yes

Memory Phonebook 1000 x 20 fields, Photo call
Call records 30 received, dialed and missed calls
Card slot Memory Stick Micro (M2)
- 160 MB internal memory

Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
HSCSD No
EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps
3G HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps
WLAN No
Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
Infrared port No
USB Yes, v2.0

Features
Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Push Email, Instant Messaging
Browser WAP 2.0/HTML (NetFront), RSS reader
Games Yes + downloadable
Colors Swift Black, Luscious Red
Camera 5 MP, 2592х1944 pixels, autofocus, image stabiliser, video (QVGA@30fps), flash; secondary videocall camera
- 8 illuminated camera touch keys
- Java MIDP 2.0
- FM radio with RDS
- MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player
- TrackID music recognition
- Picture editor/blogging
- Organiser
- Built-in handsfree
- Voice memo/dial

Battery
Standard battery, Li-Ion 930 mAh (BST-38)
Stand-by Up to 400 h
Talk time Up to 9 h

REVIEW:
GSM Arena
PhonesReview
CNET
TestFreaks
68phone

G900

General
2G Network GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network UMTS 2100

Announced
2008, February

Status
Coming soon. Exp. release 2008, Q2

Size
Dimensions 106 x 49 x 13 mm
Weight 99 g

Display
Type TFT touchscreen, 256K colors
Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.4 inches
- Wallpapers, screensavers
Ringtones Type Polyphonic, MP3
Customization Download
Vibration Yes

Memory
Phonebook 1000 x 20 fields, Photo call
Call records 30 received, dialed and missed calls
Card slot Memory Stick Micro (M2)
- 160 MB internal memory

Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
HSCSD No
EDGE No
3G Yes, 384 kbps
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
Infrared port No
USB Yes, v2.0

Features
OS Symbian OS, UIQ
Messaging
SMS, MMS, Email, Push Email, Instant Messaging
Browser WAP 2.0/HTML (Opera), RSS reader
Games Yes + downloadable
Colors Dark Red, Dark Brown

Camera
5 MP, 2592х1944 pixels, autofocus, image stabiliser, video, flash; secondary videocall camera
- Java MIDP 2.0
- FM radio with RDS
- MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player
- Handwriting recognition
- StickyNotes
- TrackID music recognition
- Business card scanner
- Picture editor/blogging
- Document reader/editor
- Organiser
- Stopwatch
- Built-in handsfree
- Voice memo/dial

Battery
Standard battery, Li-Ion 950 mAh (BST-33)
Stand-by Up to 380 h
Talk time Up to 12 h

REVIEWS:
GSM Arena
PhoneArena
MobileWhack
PhonesReview
Ciblant

JSR 234 Advanced Media Supplements API, controls overview & examples

How to use JSR 234 to control the camera or radio and transform images, with code snippets and a MIDlet example.

The Advanced Multimedia Supplements API (JSR 234) extends the Mobile Media API (JSR 135) with several controls simplifying usage of multimedia files and streams. JSR 234 consists of a set of controls that can be used for operating on different media.

This article shows examples of how this API can be used for controlling the camera, radio and transforming images and focuses on the Image Post-Processing Capability, Camera Capability and Tuner Capability. Attached is a MIDlet example using selected parts of the Advanced Multimedia Supplements API.

Download example MIDlet>>

The Advanced Multimedia Supplements API (JSR 234) basically consists of a set of controls that can be used to enhance the usage of the Mobile Media API (JSR 135). The set of functionality provided by JSR 234 can be summarized by the following (some are mandatory and some are optional according to the specification):
Music Capability: Equalizer and volume controls
3D Audio Capability: Support for 3D sound
Image Encoding Capability: Support for encoding images
Image Post-Processing Capability: Effects and transformations for images
Camera Capability: Flash, focus, zoom functionality
Tuner Capability: Tuner functions for the radio

There has been a limited support for JSR 234 since JP-7 but is since JP-8 fully implemented for TCK compliance. On JP-7 phones only the Camera Capability is included. To test for support there is a set of system properties that can be queries as described below:
"supports.mediacapabilities"
"tuner.modulations"
"audio.samplerates"
"audio3d.simultaneouslocations"
"camera.orientations"
"camera.resolutions"

For a more thorough listing of supported functionality please have a look at the document Developers' Guidelines Java ME CLDC (MIDP 2) - download here>>

Image post-processing and encoding capability
The image post-processing and encoding functionality is implemented so that the image transformations are performed by a media processor. A media processor for jpeg can be retrieved by the call:

MediaProcessor mediaProc = GlobalManager.createMediaProcessor("image/jpeg");

The media processor operates in a series of states and processing an image is done by the following steps:
Create a media processor
Configure the media processor using available controls
Instruct the media processor to start processing the image

The media processor must also be configured to read and write from and to a media stream, reading and writing image data. This can be done like the following example:

InputStream is = this.getClass().getResourceAsStream(INPUT_IMAGE);
mediaProc.setInput(is, is.available());
mediaProc.setOutput(os);

The full documentation can be found in the Java Community Process (JCP) JSR 234 information. When having an instance of the media processor, you can retrieve the following controls to perform image processing and encoding using:

ImageEffectControl imageEffect = (ImageEffectControl) mediaProc.getControl("javax.microedition.amms.control.imageeffect.ImageEffectControl");

ImageTonalityControl imageTonality = (ImageTonalityControl) mediaProc.getControl("javax.microedition.amms.control.imageeffect.ImageTonalityControl");

ImageTransformControl imageTransform = (ImageTransformControl) mediaProc.getControl("javax.microedition.amms.control.imageeffect.ImageTransformControl");

OverlayControl overlay = (OverlayControl) mediaProc.getControl("javax.microedition.amms.control.imageeffect.OverlayControl");

WhiteBalanceControl whiteBalance = (WhiteBalanceControl) mediaProc.getControl("javax.microedition.amms.control.imageeffect.WhiteBalanceControl");

ImageFormatControl imageFormat = (ImageFormatControl) mediaProc.getControl("javax.microedition.amms.control.ImageFormatControl");

All the different controls have different methods for querying and setting possible values. For a complete list of functions please have a look in the JCP JSR 234 documentation. Common for all the controls is that they must be enabled by the call "setEnabled(true)" to be executed.

An example using the ImageEffectControl could look like this:

String[] preset_names = imageEffect.getPresetNames();
//…//
imageEffect.setPreset(choice);
imageEffect.setEnabled(true);

The same type of configuration can be performed using ImageTransformControl:

int source_width = imageTransform.getSourceWidth();
int source_height = imageTransform.getSourceHeight();
//…//
imageTransform.setSourceRect(x, y, new_width, new_height);
imageTransform.setTargetSize(w, h, rotation);
imageTransform.setEnabled(true);

Once the media processor has been configured properly you can trigger the media processing either synchronously or asynchronously using a framework with callbacks. To trigger synchronous processing one can do the following:

mediaProc.complete();

Camera capability
The camera capability for JSR 234 is implemented as controls operating on the Player object available from JSR 135. The controls provide a set of functionality for taking snapshots, photography and recording video. The player can be retrieved using the following call:

player = Manager.createPlayer(playerStr);
player.realize();

Once the player is created, the following controls can be retrieved for the extended camera functionality:

CameraControl camContr = (CameraControl) player.getControl("javax.microedition.amms.control.camera.CameraControl");

FlashControl flashContr = (FlashControl) player.getControl("javax.microedition.amms.control.camera.FlashControl");

ZoomControl zoomContr = (ZoomControl) player.getControl("javax.microedition.amms.control.camera.ZoomControl");

FocusControl focusContr = (FocusControl) player.getControl("javax.microedition.amms.control.camera.FocusControl");

SnapshotControl snapshotContr = (SnapshotControl) player.getControl("javax.microedition.amms.control.camera.SnapshotControl");

All the different controls have different methods for querying and setting possible values. For a complete list of functions please check the JCP JSR 234 documentation.

An example using the SnapshotControl to take 10 snapshots could look like this:

snapshotContr.setDirectory("/c:/pictures");
snapshotContr.setFilePrefix(picName);
snapshotContr.setFileSuffix(".jpg");
int bursts = 10;
snapshotContr.start(bursts);

Tuner capability
The tuner capability for JSR 234 is also implemented as controls operating on the Player object available from JSR 135. The controls provide a set of functionality for easily tuning to different radio channels. Once the player is created, the following controls can be retrieved for the extended tuning functionality:

TunerControl tunerControl = (TunerControl) player.getControl("javax.microedition.amms.control.tuner.TunerControl");

RDSControl rdsControl = (RDSControl) player.getControl("javax.microedition.amms.control.tuner.RDSControl");

Once the tuner control has been retrieved, you can use this for easy tuning of the radio frequency as the example below:

boolean forward = true;
int freq = tunerControl.seek(tunerControl.getFrequency(), tunerControl.MODULATION_FM, forward);
tunerControl.setFrequency(freq, TunerControl.MODULATION_FM);

In a similar way the RDS control can be used for querying for RDS data:

if(rdsControl.isRDSSignal()){
String channel = rdsControl.getPS();
String text = rdsControl.getRT();
}

On-device Debugging of UIQ 3 applications

Step-by-step guide to performing On-device Debugging on Sony Ericsson's UIQ 3-based phones using a USB cable.

When developing an application for UIQ 3, you can debug it either on the emulator included in the UIQ 3 SDK, or on a real phone using the App TRK tool for UIQ 3. Debugging on the emulator is often sufficient, but in some cases it may be required to debug on a phone, for example when using specific hardware features.

The App TRK tool is a small application which you install on your phone. It makes it possible to run and debug applications directly from Carbide.c++. It communicates with Carbide over a serial port, either using USB cable, Bluetooth or IR. This article will show how to perform On Device Debugging using USB cable.

The App TRK tool supports important debug features such as setting breakpoints, monitoring variables etc. The tool is free, but to use it, a non-free version of Carbide.c++ is required, for example Carbide.c++ Developer Edition. Carbide.c++ is available here>>

Download App TRK tool for UIQ 3, version 2.8.3>>

To get started with On Device Debugging for UIQ 3 (using USB cable), follow these set-by-step instructions. It is assumed that you have a version of Carbide.c++ supporting On Device Debugging installed:

1. Download the App TRK tool from the link above and install it in the phone as a normal application.

2. Connect the phone to your PC with a USB cable and start the App TRK application on the phone. To change the application settings, use the settings dialog. To run On Device Debugging over USB, make sure that USB connection and port 2 is selected, then click Save.

3. The App TRK status should be Connected. If you have the appropriate drives installed, an Application Port should be added on your PC when the USB cable is connected. Use the Windows Device manager to find out the number of the Application Port, COM37 in the example shown below.

4. Start Carbide.c++ and open the project you want to debug.

5. Set the active build configuration to the Phone Debug configuration for your compiler (GCCE is the compiler included in the UIQ3 3rd party SDK) by choosing Project – Active Build Configuration – Phone Debug.

6. If your project does not have a Phone Debug build configuration you must add one. Right click on the project folder and select Properties. Choose Carbide Build Configuration in the project properties dialog that is displayed, and then click Manage…. In the Add/Remove Carbide Build Configurations dialog that is displayed, select the Phone Debug configuration and click OK.

7. Make sure that the PKG File field in the project properties dialog is pointing to the PKG file you want to use. If no PKG file is specified, the SIS file will not be created.

8. Build the project by choosing Project – Build Project and verify that the SIS file was created.

9. Create a debug configuration for your project. Select the project folder in C/C++ Projects tab and choose Run – Debug…. In the Debug dialog which is displayed, select the Symbian OS App TRK configuration type and click the New launch configuration icon.

10. A new debug configuration for the project is created. On the Connection tab, select the port you noted in step 3 using the Device manager.

11. Press Debug in the lower right corner of the dialog. The application should be silently installed and launched on the phone. The Debug perspective is opened in Carbide, and in the Debug view you can se the debugger instance.

12. You can add breakpoints to stop the execution by double clicking in margin next to the line you want to halt on (you can also right click in the margin and select Toggle Breakpoint, select a line and choose Run - Toggle Line Breakpoint or select a line and press Ctrl+Shift+B).

13. Make the application executing on the phone execute the line where you have set the breakpoint. The Debug view shows that a breakpoint has been hit.

14. The Variables tab (shown in the top right corner in the picture above) shows the variable values, but can also be used to change the values. Below are two examples from running the code shown above. In the rightmost example, the num variable was changed to 10 at the breakpoint.

15. When you want to continue after the execution has stopped at a breakpoint, you can use commands such as Run - Step Into (F5), Run – Step Over (F6) and Run – Resume (F8).

If you need to sign your application in order to use some capabilities, you can do that by modifying the build configuration in the projects properties dialog. Right click on the project folder and select Properties. Choose Carbide Build Configuration in the dialog that is shown. Add the path to your .cer and .key file and optionally specify the password and signed sis filename.

If you are having problems to make On Device Debugging work, you may get some information about what is going wrong by examining the traffic between the phone and the IDE. It is displayed in the Console tab in Carbide if you have selected the View messages between PC and debug agent on the phone checkbox in the debug configuration.

For more information, see Carbide.c++ help.

Cyber-shot Tips & Tricks

Posted by sranjanm2002 at Esato.com

K810i TIPS (ONE TOUCH)
1. Instead of going to files->camera album ; just click any of the 2 tiny buttons at the top of phone. SO THE NEXT TIME IF YOU WANT TO SHOW YOUR ALBUM TO YOUR FRIENDS just click them and impress all with your fantastic photography.

2. at the left side there is Radio / Media player button. Click it and it will start based on your choice at last time.

3. Make shortcuts vi right side shortcut keys. More example if i want to use opera mini then i would just click shortcut key at right and select APPLICATION. To make application your preferred shortcut , you have to select this item from ORGANIZER menu ( not from files )

4.Camera shortcuts :-

apart from camera specific illuminated keys, those 2 buttons which i discussed earlier are also very useful for selecting SHOOT MODE and SCENE.

volume buttons can be used for zooming in and out.

5. at 3g call menu, you can switch camera to see your real non mirror live picture or mirrored picture.

Sony Ericsson brings new level of personalization to the mobile phone with the XPERIA™ X1

01 April 2008

Sony Ericsson to put the user at the center of the mobile multimedia experience with its XPERIA™ range of phones

Las Vegas, USA – 1st April 2008 – Sony Ericsson today confirmed that it will be running Windows Mobile® 6.1 on its stand-out arc-slider phone, XPERIA™ X1, the innovative multimedia phone announced at this year’s Mobile World Congress. Using Windows Mobile® 6.1, together with Sony Ericsson’s unique XPERIA™ panel user interface (UI), will enable a highly user-focused experience with enhanced connectivity, messaging and multimedia features.

As the mobile broadband comes of age, consumers are waking up to the vast array of multimedia services and content they can access on the move through their mobile phone. The XPERIA™ X1 from Sony Ericsson enables consumers to personalise their experiences through a distinctive touch screen, panel-based UI creating an interface which is uniquely relevant to them and how they live their lives. This continually active desktop allows users to organise the phone’s active dashboard as they want, changing between panels just like they change their mood, activity and information needs in the course of every day.

“No two individuals have the same tastes and desires. Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA™ X1 has been developed to ensure that mobile web communication and multimedia entertainment can be tailored, putting the individual at the heart of the mobile experience in a uniquely personal way,” said Rikko Sakaguchi, Head of Portfolio and Propositions, Sony Ericsson.

Operators will also be able to custom build the touch panels that run on the XPERIA™ X1 to provide the consumer with a rich, aggregated offering of their applications and services. In addition, Sony Ericsson also plans to align with key partners around the panel technology to enable them to develop exciting applications that can be enjoyed by users on the XPERIA™ X1.

Visit the Sony Ericsson booth (Central Hall C3 Booth #1627) a CTIA in Las Vegas between April 1 – 3to hear more about the unique personalization and customization capabilities of the XPERIA™ X1.

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA™ brand of multimedia mobile phones will bring a totally new user experience to the mobile phone market, putting the consumer at the heart of their experience and allowing the individual to create a touch panel dashboard that is unique to them and how they live their life.

Sony Ericsson appoints new Head of Marketing

31 March 2008

London, UK – Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications announces today that Lennard Hoornik, Corporate Vice President and Head of Asia-Pacific region, Sony Ericsson, has been appointed as the new Head of Marketing effective April 1, 2008.

Lennard has been responsible for Sony Ericsson’s business in the Asia-Pacific region since January 2006 and was based at the company’s regional office in Singapore. Before taking up this role, he was in charge of the Sony Ericsson global customer unit for Vodafone and was based in Munich. Lennard initially joined Sony Ericsson (during the early days of the joint venture), as Vice President of Marketing. At that time, he was responsible for launching the Sony Ericsson brand in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Lennard joined Sony Ericsson from Sony Europe, in his native country of Holland, where he worked in the areas of both sales and marketing.

Commenting on his recent appointment, Lennard Hoornik said, “The time I have spent as head of our business in Asia-Pacific has been very rewarding and enjoyable. I am delighted to have been appointed the new global Head of Marketing for Sony Ericsson where I can use my regional business experience to strengthen our marketing efforts and position worldwide. I will be relocating back to Europe and based in London.”