You can pull up onscreen maps and satellite images of your location and search for directions to other locations, thanks to the Google Maps mobile application you can download onto your Sony Ericsson W880i.

Although the Sony Ericsson W880i doesn't have a GPS receiver inside, the Google Maps application does enable you to quickly and easily find your approximate position on a map, using information from mobile cell sites to determine the area you're in.

With a quick button press, the application can communicate with a remote server to identify where you are and send mapping information back to the phone via a short data call.

On your W880i's display you can see your estimated location on a map or satellite as a shaded blue circle around a flashing blue dot. This allows for the uncertainty of cellular approximation as opposed to precise GPS positioning.

You can zoom into a map or satellite image of the location using shortcut keys, and move the onscreen cursor to get maps of places other than your current location. You can also search for nearby places of interest, such as bars, restaurants, banks and so on, get them displayed on the map or get directions. These can be stored into favourites - along with any other location you choose - for quick access later.

There is the option to employ exact GPS satellite location-finding with the W880i, however, by connecting the W880i wirelessly to a standalone small Buetooth GPS module (you will have to buy one of these separately, though).

Here we take you through the simple steps required to use Google Maps on the Sony Ericsson W880i.

Starting the Google Maps application
If Google Maps is stored as a shortcut in your phone's Activity menu, it takes just a few clicks to open it. First, press the Activity menu key on the phone's control pad (Figure 1) and scroll down to Google Maps (Figure 2). Press Select.

Alternatively, frrom the standby page (Figure 3), press the Menu button.

On the main Menu page, scroll to highlight the Entertainment icon (Figure 4). Press Select.

Scroll down to Location services (Figure 5). Press Select.

Highlight Google Maps (Figure 6). Press Select.

This will take a few seconds to load. You are then presented with Terms & Conditions for using Google Maps. Once you've read these, press Accept to proceed.

You may now be asked to agree to location finding using cellular networks, which you should agree to if you want to use this facility.

The application will now show onscreen your current position, to within a specified range based on local cellsite information. Your approximate location is presented onscreen as a shaded blue circle, centred on a flashing blue button (Figure 7). (If you're using a Bluetooth GPS receiver with the W880i, the blue button on it own will indicate your precise location rather than an approximate zone you are somewhere within.)

Using Google Maps

• You can switch from a map view to a satellite picture of the location by pressing 2 on the numberpad (Figure 8); another press of 2 brings back the map view.
• You can zoom in to a map or satellite image by pressing 3 on the numberpad (Figure 9), or zoom out by pressing 1 (Figure 10). Multiple presses will zoom you closer in or further out, respectively.
• Pressing 0 on the numberpad will refresh your location finder, presenting you with your current estimated position on a map onscreen.
• The phone's main navigation pad can be used to scroll up, down and side to side on the map, so you can view the immediate surrounding area, or if you zoom out, look over wider areas (Figure 11).

Carry out local searches using Google Maps
You can look up local businesses or entertainment venues quickly and easily with Google Maps, and get them illustrated on a map or satellite image. You can also get details of the place you're looking for, including phone number, address and directions to or from it.

First, get your current position, or location you want to search around, up on the map (or satellite image). Press the Search softkey option.

Highlight the Enter a new search option (above the Recent searches list) (Figure 12). Press Select.

Type in the name of the establishment or type of place you're looking for (restaurant, bar, bank, petrol station, and so on). Press OK (Figure 13).

You will be presented with a list of options. Scroll down to browse the list and see addresses (Figure 14). Click on entries to find more information, including details of the establishment and a short description (Figure 15).

You can press the # key to see locations pinpointed on the map (Figure 16).

Local search results with directions
In the detailed Address section of places you've searched for, there are also options for Directions to here and Directions from here (Figure 17). If you want directions, highlight the option required and press Select.

As your Start point or End point you can use your current estimated location, or you can enter a new address. You can also select a point on the map, or choose one of the locations listed in your Recent places list (Figure 18).

Once you've typed in the address and pressed OK, or highlighted one of the other options, press Select.

A written step-by-step route itinerary will be quickly compiled and presented onscreen (Figure 19). Press # to view the turn-by-turn instructions displayed on the map (or overlaid on a satellite image) (Figure 20). If you want to view just a particular part of the route on the map, scroll down the itinerary to highlight the section of the instructions you want and press Select.

You can toggle between previous or next stages of the navigation by pressing 4 and 6, respectively (Figure 21).

Another press of the # key will bring up the navigation instructions itinerary again.

Look up directions on Google Maps
Looking up directions on your mobile is simple with Google Maps.

When you're in the Google Maps application, press the Options softkey (Figure 22).

Scroll down to highlight Directions. Press Select (Figure 23).

You must now define a Start point. This can be your current location, one of your automatically stored Recent places, one of your chosen Favourite locations, a point selected on the map or a new address (Figure 24).

Scroll down to highlight the option you want to use as your start point and press Select.
If it's a new address, you will have to tap in address details and press OK.

You must now define your End point (Figure 25). This is done in the same way as the Start point. Once you've chosen your End point, or typed in a new address, press Select or OK.
Your route will be calculated and presented as a list of turn-by-instructions, in a similar way to that described in the section above (Figure 26).

You can then choose to view the route overlaid on an onscreen map by pressing #, as above (Figure 27). Again, you can toggle between instruction list and route by pressing #, and look at sections of the directions by clicking on one of the steps of the route intinerary.

At any time, you can also get a satellite view of the route by pressing 2 on the numberpad (Figure 28).

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The Sony Ericsson W880i uses the latest Walkman 2.0 music player software and one of the key benefits of this is its ability to show album art when you are playing back tracks.

Unfortunately the supplied software with the Sony Ericsson W880i doesn't let you do this - so you will have to use third-party software.

On a Windows PC, one free program that does this is Album Cover Art Downloader. You can also use Music Match, Windows Media Player or iTunes. On a Mac, iTunes is the best option.

One thing you have to remember - because of a bug, the Walkman 2.0 software cannot display high resolution cover art images.

Ideally the cover art you use should match the following criteria:

• Completely square image (ie the width and height are identical in size)
• No larger than 200 x 200 pixels
• In the JPEG format

Adding cover art on iTunes

Don't use the built-in cover art download feature (found under Advanced > Get Album Artwork). The cover art that Apple uses is too high resolution for your W880i and while it will look great in iTunes it won't display on your handset.

In iTunes, find the song you want to add album art (you can select multiple songs - such as an album - by shift-clicking them).

Click on CTRL and I (ignore the alert). You will see a set of menus if you are editing a single track's info - if you are editing multiple tracks you will see a single window showing the shared information you can edit.

Find the artwork you want to add to the track(s) making sure it matches the criteria set out above. Copy and paste it into the Artwork box then click on OK

Transfer music to your W880i

When you have added the artwork to your music simply transfer it to your W880i by using Disc2Phone, the USB cable or via the M2 card.

The artwork should now appear when you play back your edited tracks. If it doesn't appear click on More then Settings and then Visualizations.

Make sure the Album Art option is selected. The album art should now appear.

You can use the Memory Stick Pro Duo in the Sony Ericsson W880i to transfer files between a work PC and home PC, uploading or downloading via cable or Bluetooth at either end. As the Memory Stick Pro Duo comes in capacities as high as 8GB, this can offer invaluable storage space.

Data files (Word or Excel documents, for instance) can be carried in the W880i's Other folder. Files copied into this folder can be accessed via the File manager on the phone itself, or by opening the Other folder on the PC if the phone is connected via USB.

Copying to the phone via Bluetooth
Follow the instructions at Using Bluetooth on the W880i to create a Bluetooth connection. When the W880i's Bluetooth mode has been activated, you can copy a file from your PC to the phone. The W880i will automatically put it in the Other folder in the File manager.

Copying to PC via Bluetooth
Find the uploaded file in the Other folder by highlighting File manager in the main menu and clicking Select. Then highlight Other and click Open to open the folder. Highlight the file you want to send, click More, highlight Send, click Select, highlight Via Bluetooth and choose the destination PC from the search list by highlighting it and clicking Select again.

Copying to the phone via USB cable
Follow the instructions at Use your phone as a USB drive to create a USB connection between the W880i and a PC. When the phone appears as a USB drive in the My Computer window, double-click the icon to show the folders inside. Copy the file or files from your PC, dragging and dropping them over the Other folder.

Note: On a Mac the W880i's Memory Stick will appear in the Finder window as a removable drive. Simply drag and drop the files to the Other folder listed within this drive.

Copying to PC via USB cable
Follow the same process in reverse - connect the phone to the destination PC using the USB cable provided, and when the phone appears as a USB drive in the My Computer window, double-click the icon to show the folders inside. Open the Other folder and drag the file or files onto the destination PC.

Ever hear songs playing in bars or on the radio that you just can’t put a name to? You’ll never have to hum a tune to your mates again thanks to the Sony Ericsson W880i’s TrackID feature.

TrackID records a few seconds of a song, runs it through Gracenote’s online music recognition service and within a few seconds tells you the title and artist of a song and which album you can find it on.

The TrackID service is free - you will only be charged for the data you download while it is accessing the online database. Check with your mobile operator but typically this should be about 10p or less.

You can use TrackID to recognise songs played on external loudspeakers in public places - you'll be surprised at how well it can work. So give it a go!

Identifying songs playing on remote devices

1. When you hear a song you want to identify, go to the main menu highlight TrackID, click Select (Figure 1)
2. Click Start to begin the recognition process (Figure 2)
3. Hold the phone as close as possible to the music source as the phone samples the track for 8 to 10 seconds (Figure 3)
4. Wait another 15-30 seconds (Figure 4) and TrackID will confirm the song details (Figure 5). Hold down the back key to return to standby mode

The vast majority of modern phones now come with Bluetooth connectivity and the Sony Ericsson W880i is no exception.

Bluetooth is a short-range, wireless data transfer service that is completely free to use. Its most common function is connecting handsets with wireless hands-free kits, but you can also use Bluetooth to transfer files to and from your home computer and with other handsets.

Changing your phone name
Before you start sending and receiving files, it is a good idea to give your phone a unique name and decide whether you want it to be visible all the time. By default your phone will probably be called ‘W880i’.

You can change the name in the Settings;press the centre button to enter the main menu, then scroll down and right to highlight the Settings icon and press Select (Figure 1).

Now press right to scroll through to the Connectivity tab on the far right. Bluetooth is at the top of the list so press Select to enter the Bluetooth menu (Figure 2).

Scroll down to the bottom (or just up one line), highlight Phone name and press Select (Figure 3). Here you should see the word ‘W880i’; to change it, simply delete the existing text and enter a name of your choice (Figure 4).

Switching on Bluetooth
Enter the Bluetooth menu in the Connectivity tab of the Settings menu. The top item in the list is Turn on, so press Select and the Bluetooth icon shall appear in the upper left corner of your phone screen (Figure 5).

To pair with another device in order to communicate with it, you’ll also need to make sure your phone is visible. Once Bluetooth is switched on, you will be returned to the Bluetooth menu.

Scroll down once to highlight visibility and press Select. Choose Show phone and press Select (Figure 6). Now your Bluetooth is switched on and your phone is visible.

Pairing your handset
Not every action involving Bluetooth requires your handset to be paired with the other device. For example, you can send files to other devices without pairing, but the advantage of pairing is that it gives you the chance to communicate with a paired device straight away without waiting for a search for Bluetooth devices to find it.

By pairing your handset, you can also keep your phone invisible and still communicate with other Bluetooth devices.

To pair your handset with another Bluetooth device, such as a computer, mobile phone or headset, you’ll need to ensure that Bluetooth is switched on visible on both devices. Consult the other Bluetooth device’s manual for information on how to prepare it for pairing.

From the standby screen (you can get back there at any point by holding down the Back button for a few seconds), enter the main menu by pressing the centre button, highlight the Settings icon and press Select.

Scroll right to the Connectivity tab highlight Bluetooth and press Select to enter the Bluetooth menu. Scroll down to My Devices and press Select (Figure 7). Now press Add, and OK to start searching for other Bluetooth devices.

The search shouldn’t take more than a minute and you should quickly see your other Bluetooth device named in the list (Figure 8).

To begin pairing, highlight the device’s name and press Select. You will be prompted to enter a four-digit code of your choice to pair the device (Figure 9). This is a rudimentary security tool and it prevents another device from accepting pairing if it doesn’t have the same code.

When pairing with a computer, you’ll be prompted to enter the same code as you entered on the handset to complete the pairing process (Figure 10).

If you’re pairing your handset with a headset, which obviously doesn’t have a keypad to enter a code in with, consult with the manual to find out which code is needed to complete pairing. If in doubt, try ‘0000’ or ‘1234’ as these are the standard codes used by the majority of Bluetooth device manufacturers.

Once the code has been confirmed, pairing will complete and from now on the device’s name will always appear in the My devices section of the Bluetooth menu (Figure 11).

Sending and receiving files
You can send pretty much any file over Bluetooth, such as pictures, audio tracks, videos, themes, bookmarks and saved webpages.

To send files you actually need to have your phone’s Bluetooth connectivity switch on or visible. Press the centre button to enter the main menu, then highlight the File Manager icon on the right and press Select (Figure 12).

Highlight the file you want to send inside its corresponding folder (Figures 13 & 14), press More and then highlight Send (Figure 15). Press Right and a menu will pop out from the right hand side.

Highlight Via Bluetooth and press Select (Figure 16). This will begin searching for the other device and show a list of paired devices. Once it appears, press Select to begin sending.

To receive a file is even easier. Once the other device has started sending, you will receive a pop up message on the screen accompanied by an alert tone (Figure 17).

This will tell you that a file is being sent and will ask you whether you want to receive it. Press Yes to accept it, then choose which folder you want to save it in by highlighting it and pressing Select (Figure 18).

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The W880i’s menu/media navigation buttons can be customised with shortcuts of your choice. This gives you up to four functions that you can access quickly using a single button press.

Your network provider will probably have decided what goes in here, so it’s likely that at least one will point to a WAP service of some sort and by default are set up as Contacts (down), Create New (left), Calendar (right).

To change the change these functions, enter the Menu, either by pressing the centre button or by pressing Menu (the right-hand button). Move down and right to highlight the Settings icon and press Select (Figure 1).

Scroll straight down to highlight Shortcuts and press Select (Figure 2).

Here you’ll see a list of the four customisable buttons called Navig. Key up, right, down and left respectively, along with a short description of which action they currently perform (Figure 3).

Choose whichever key you want change then press Edit. The phone will then appear to have reverted to the main menu, but there should be a new background image and the option to press Shortcut on the right hand selection key (Figure 4).

Now all you need to is navigate through the menu to the function that you require and press Shortcut. So if you want to set the up navigation key to compose an SMS or MMS, you highlight the Messaging icon and press Select.

Then scroll to Create new and press Shortcut. This will save your selection and return you straight to the Shortcuts section in the Settings. Hold down the Back key to return to the main screen.

If you want to add even more quick functions, you can also add them to the My shortcuts section of Activity Menu (Figure 5).

To do so, press the My shortcuts button (bottom right) and scroll up until you reach New shortcut (Figure 6).

Press Add and you will find yourself in the main menu. Once again, all you need to do is navigate the menu until you find the function you’re looking for and press Shortcut (Figure 7). You will then return to the Activity menu.

To move your new shortcut up or down the My shortcuts list, highlight it, click More, highlight Move (Figure 8), click Select and use the up and down navigations keys to move your chosen shortcut (highlighted) into position. Press OK to confirm its new position.

The My shortcuts menu can get quite full, so if you want to delete some items from it, all you need to do is press the My shortcuts button, highlight the shortcut you want to get rid of (Figure 9), press More and then Delete (Figure 10).

The Sony Ericsson W880i comes with an integrated Walkman music player, so once you’ve copied your digital music across to your handset, you can start using your phone as an MP3 player.

You can start using the Walkman at any time by pressing the dedicated Walkman button on the handset (the orange bar that lights up when pressed). This will take you straight to the main Walkman screen that displays information about the track that is ready to play (Figure 1). Press Play or the centre button to play (or pause) the queued track, and use the directional pad to control the playback of your music.

If you want to select a new track from your music library, press More and select My music to sort through your music (Figure 2). Highlighting Artists and pressing Open will alphabetically display your music according to artist name (Figures 3 & 4).

Choosing Albums or Tracks will sort the files alphabetically according to the album or track name instead. You can also use the navigation keypad to scroll through categories and tracks. Once you’ve selected a track you want to hear, press Play to return to the main Walkman screen and the track will start (Figure 5).

Queue the next track
To choose a track to play once the current track has finished, highlight it as above, but instead of pressing Play, press More, highlight Queue and press Select (Figure 6). The track will be added to the current playlist. To view the playlist while the current song is playing, press the down nav key on the main Walkman screen.

Set up a playlist
When you’ve created a live playlist by queuing a set of tracks, you can save the playlist from the Walkman screen or the Play queue by clicking More, highlighting Save playlist and clicking Select (Figure 7). You’ll be prompted to give the playlist a name. Enter the name and click OK.

To load a saved playlist, enter your music library by clicking More, highlight My Music and clicking Select. Scroll down to Playlists (Figure 8) and click the right navigation key to display the saved playlists. Click Open and Play to select the playlist you want to hear (Figures 9 & 10).

To add a file to an existing playlist, open a playlist in the My music browser, click More, highlight Add media and click Select (Figure 11).

Highlight the track or tracks you want to add, and click Mark so a tick appears in the checkbox to the right of the song title (Figure 12).

When you’ve marked all the tracks you want to add, click Add and the additional tracks will be added to the playlist (Figure 13).

To add an entire album or all the tracks by a particular artist – and providing your music files are organised properly – highlight an artist or album folder name and click Mark to add a tick into its checkbox. Then click More, highlight Add and click Select to confirm the addition.

To remove a track from a playlist, highlight the track name within the relevant playlist section in My Music, click More, highlight Delete and press Select (Figure 14). Click Yes to confirm the deletion from the playlist (Figure 15) – the file is not deleted from the phone or card memory.

To turn on Shuffle and Loop, press More in the main Walkman screen, choose Settings and Play mode (Figure 16), press Select and switch Shuffle or Loop on.

Shuffle plays the songs in a playlist in a random order, while Loop plays them in the order they were queued, (Figure 17) returning to the first track at the end of the playlist.

Improve the sound quality
From here you can also adjust the levels to improve the sound quality. Press More in the Walkman screen to open up a new menu, highlight Settings, click the right nav key, highlight Equalizer and press Select (Figure 18).

You can choose whichever seems most appropriate to the type of music you’re listening to (Figure 19), but it is worth noting that ‘Mega Bass’ is a special setting designed to improve audio for higher quality headphones and Sony Ericsson’s own packaged earphones (Figure 20).

You can manually set the equalizer’s audio levels by pressing Manual, and using the up and down nav keys to change the audio channels in turn; use the left and right nav keys to move between channels. The sound will change as you highlight each setting; press Select to return to Walkman mode when you’re happy with the equalizer setting.

One useful trick for skipping and pausing tracks without getting the phone out of your pocket and unlocking the keypad, is to use the play/pause button on the side. Unsurprisingly, the play/pause button does exactly what you would expect, but you can also skip tracks forward by holding the volume down button for a second or so. To skip back, hold the volume up button.

Although the Sony Ericsson W880i offers an impressive all-round feature set, its heart lies in its Walkman capabilities. By transferring digital music files to its Memory Stick, your handset doubles up as a full-blown MP3 player.

Sony Ericsson provides a suite of software applications with your phone on the accompanying CD. Amongst this you’ll find the latest Disc2Phone software, designed to make transferring files to your handset a lot easier.

To start transferring files, attach your handset to your PC using the supplied USB cable.

Highlight File transfer on your handset and press Select. This will cause the phone to shut down and enter File transfer mode (note: if your phone is switched off when you plug it in, it will automatically enter file transfer mode).

Now click the Disc2Phone icon on your Sony Ericsson PC Suite to launch the application (Figure 1).

You will see three panes labelled Music Source, Transfer List and Phone Tracks, which display the music files in your computer, files designated for transfer and the tracks currently on your phone respectively.

By default, the Music Source will show the contents of your My Music folder on your computer, but you can use the drop down menu to navigate to any other folder containing your music. To transfer an individual file or folder, simply click on it to highlight it and then click Add (Figure 2).

Once you have built up a list of files to transfer, click on Transfer to begin the transfer (Figure 3).

The W880i is only compatible with AAC, MP3, M4A and M4B files and you may have a lot of your music stored in WMA or WAV formats. Don’t worry – the Disc2Phone software automatically converts these into MP3 format when you click transfer.

There are two buttons found above the Music Source pane that you can use to speed things up. The left hand one is labelled ‘Shuffle and add to list’ and to the right is ‘Empty the music folder, shuffle and transfer’.

Use these to make Disc2Phone randomly select tracks from your music folder and automatically add them to the transfer list. The right hand button will also empty your memory card first and then start the transfer automatically (Figure 4).

Tip: Even using Disc2Phone, the transfer rate can be quite slow. If you have a card reader, simply insert your Memory Stick and run the Disc2Phone software. This will make transferring files considerably faster.

The Sony Ericsson W880i comes with a wealth of picture editing tools that you can use to spice up photos taken with the phone camera. You can add clipart images, frames and effects by using the bundled PhotoDJ software.

From the standby screen, press the centre button to enter the main menu. Scroll down and left to highlight File manager and press Select (Figure 1).

Highlight Camera album and press Select (Figure 2). Here you’ll see your stored photos – scroll down to the one you want to edit and press View (Figure 3). You’ll see a vertical preview of your photo (Figure 4), so press More and a new menu will appear.

Scroll down to highlight Edit in PhotoDJ and press Select (Figure 5). The next screen will show the photo and a row of tool icons. From left to right, these are:

Auto level – automatically corrects colour imbalance in poor lighting conditions. Highlight and press Select to activate. If you like the result, press OK to confirm or Undo to reject.

Light balance (Figure 6) – lets you correct images that appear too dark when captured, without lightening the entire image. Highlight and press Select to activate, use the up and down nav keys to move the slider and press OK to confirm.

Brightness & contrast (Figure 7) – brightness lightens or darkens an entire image, while contrast alters the balance between dark and light colours. Highlight and press Select to activate, use the up and down nav keys to move the contrast slider and the left and right nav keys to move the brightness slider. Press OK to confirm

Red-eye removal – Automatically removes the red-eye effect caused by flash photography. Highlight and press Select to activate,

Rotate (Figure 8) – Rotates the captured image 90 degrees clockwise. Highlight and press Select to rotate. Press OK to confirm or Undo to reject.

Add effect – runs your image through one of four creative effect filters – Negative, Cartoon, Frosted glass and Painting. Highlight the Add effect icon, press Select to call up the menu, highlight your choice of effect and press Select. Press OK to confirm or Undo to reject.

Add item – Add clipart, a frame or text to your image. Highlight the Add item icon, click Select and choose from the three choices on offer - Add clipart, Add frame and Text - by highlighting and clicking Select.

Clipart – A range of clipart items will appear. Use the navigation keys to select an item, click Select to return to your photo and use the navigation keys again to position the item on your image. Press OK to confirm or Undo to reject.

Frames – You’ll see a range of frames. Use the navigation keys to pick a frame, click Select to apply. Press OK to confirm or Undo to reject.

Text – Selecting text opens a text editor. Type up to two lines of text (around 40 characters) using the keypad, press OK to return to the photo and use the navigation keys to position the text. There is no way to change the size or colour of the text, which is white. Press OK to confirm or Undo to reject.

Working on copies

1. If you don’t want to risk spoiling a photo accidentally, you can create a duplicate of any picture by highlighting it in the Camera Pictures menu, then pressing More
2. Scroll down to highlight Manage file (Figure 9) and press Right
3. Now press Copy (Figure 10) on the new menu and select where you want the duplicate to appear.
4. To create a copy alongside your other photo, choose Memory Stick and press Select (Figure 11), then highlight Camera album (Figure 12) and press Select
5. Now press Paste to make a copy (Figure 13)

It can be a pain when buttons on your Sony Ericsson W880i get pressed when in your pocket or bag. You can force your W880i to lock the keypad by pressing * then Lock keys or you can set it to automatically lock after a short time.

1. Enter the main menu by pressing the centre button, then select Settings (Figure 1)
2. Scroll down and select Security (Figure 2)
3. Highlight and select Automatic keylock (Figure 3). Then select On to activate it (Figure 4)

For added security, you can set your phone to lock with a numerical code. This means that if you should lose your phone, it will require a passcode to be switched on again.

You have three options: On, Automatic and Off. 'On' means that you will be required to enter the passcode every time the phone is switched on, whereas ‘Automatic’ will only require a password if the SIM is changed.

To activate any of these functions:

1. Hit the centre button to enter the main menu, then select Settings
2. In the Settings menu click on Security
3. In the Security menu select Locks (Figure 5)
4. Then choose Phone Protection (Figure 6) and Protection
5. Choose the protection level by selecting from On, Automatic and Off (Figure 7)
6. You’ll be required to enter your passcode to continue (Figure 8), then you’ll see a confirmation message

All Sony Ericsson mobile phones, the W880i included, come with the Sony Ericsson PC Suite, a software tool that allows you synchronise your handset with a Windows PC.

The most obvious use for this is backing up your contacts from your SIM card into Outlook (or Outlook Express), in case the worst should happen and your handset gets lost or stolen. But the PC Suite doesn’t just keep your SIM contacts safe – you can also use it to synchronise your Calendar, Notes and Tasks as well if you have a full copy of MS Outlook.

Inside your W880i box, you’ll find a CD with the Sony Ericsson PC Suite software installer. Insert this into your PC to begin installation. If you don’t have the CD you can also download the software directly from the Sony Ericsson website.

Once the installation is complete, you’ll be able to run the PC Suite application. Recent versions are much more straightforward to use than previous ones and you’ll see all the various tools laid out in a convenient menu.

To begin using the tools, you need to connect your handset to the computer. The fastest and most straightforward way of doing this is to use the supplied USB cable. Plug it into your handset and a spare USB port on your PC.

Once it is plugged in, your phone will show a new menu that will ask you if you want to enter File transfer or Phone mode (Figure 1). To synchronise, you need to use Phone mode; scroll down once to highlight it and press Select.

Once your PC has recognised the phone and automatically installed the correct drivers, the menu will disappear and the PC Suite will inform you that your W880i is connected.

Now you can use your PC to do the rest. You will normally just use the Synchronisation button to back up your information, but first it is worth making sure that the settings are correct. Click on Sync Manager, then Settings to adjust the settings. Within the menu is a list of the different types of information you can synchronise: Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Notes (Figure 2). Clicking on these will expand the menu on the left hand side and give you a few basic options, or you can just use the Wizard to talk you through it.

The main thing you need to do is make sure that your information is going to the right program. If you have a full copy of Microsoft Office, you will probably want to ensure that everything goes into your copy of Outlook. If you don’t, you can make do with Windows Address Book / Outlook Express – use the drop down menu to select the correct program (Figure 3).

If you have a more up to date contact listing on your SIM card than on your PC, it will be worthwhile temporarily using the manual settings to set the Conflict Policy in the side menu to Overwrite PC content (Figure 4). If you want the PC information to overwrite your phone’s information, you can set the Conflict Policy to keep the PC item instead of the phone content. However, if in doubt, click the Use last item modified radio button to ensure that whichever information was most recently edited has priority.

Once you’re happy with your settings, click OK to return to the PC Suite’s main menu and click Synchronise Now (Figure 5). This begins the synchronisation process and will present you with a summary of the items changed when completed (Figure 6).

If your PC has integrated Bluetooth or a Bluetooth dongle, you can synchronise your phone wirelessly. Once your handset is paired to your PC, double click the Bluetooth icon in your taskbar and then double click on your mobile phone icon to connect to it. You will automatically enter Phone mode as above and can begin synchronisation.

Tip: Although the Sony Ericsson PC Suite is not compatible with Mac operating systems, Mac OS X users can use iSync instead. This allows you to synchronise contacts and calendar entries within iCal.

The Sony Ericsson W880i has the ability to appear as a USB flash drive to your PC, so you can easily copy files from your phone to your PC and vice versa. You could even use the 1GB capacity of the Memory Stick Micro to carry files between work and home.

The W880i's hardware setup means that no drivers are needed to connect to any version of Windows since Windows 98, and it can also be used as a USB drive with Macs or Linux machines.

To use this mode, plug the supplied USB cable into your computer and the phone. The phone will ask which mode you want to use: File Transfer, Phone Mode or Print.

File Transfer mode makes the W880i act like a USB flash drive, and is used by the Disc2Phone (Figures 1 & 2) and Adobe Photoshop Album applications.

Phone mode is used when you want to use the phone as a modem for your computer or synchronise your contacts.

Print mode lets you connect the phone directly to a Pictbridge-compatible printer to print your photos without using a PC.

For the best flexibility when moving files to and from the handset, choose File Transfer, and the phone will reboot into USB memory stick mode. Whilst in this mode, most of the phone features (including receiving calls) are disabled.

You can now access the W880i as you would any other USB flash drive; on a Windows computer go to “My Computer”, and select “Removable Disk”, where you’ll find a set of folders for different types of content.

• DCIM contains the photographs taken by the phone.
• Music contains your music files, including folders for ringtones and VideoDJ
• Picture can be used to store pictures to view on the phone, or to show on a remote display.
• Other contains various other files
• Sports contains data from the pedometer including a spreadsheet of your training data
• Theme is for phone themes
• Video is for video clips
• Webpage contains saved web pages and bookmarks.

You can copy data to and from the memory card just as you'd move files around your PC. Remember to copy files to the correct folder (Figure 3) - if you're copying a theme from your PC to your phone, drop the .thm file into the Theme folder.

Ending the connection
Always stop the connection properly before disconnecting the W880i; on a PC click the “unplug or eject hardware” icon in the system tray at the bottom right hand corner of your screen, then stop the removable disk. This ensures that all file transfers have completed (Figure 4). On a Mac just click and drag the the phone's removable disk icon to the Trash can.

The Sony Ericsson W880i may be primarily a music phone but it also has a top quality 2.0 megapixel camera and video recording capability.

While the W880i's camera offers impressive performance just using its automatic settings, you can unlock a lot more of its potential by learning how to get the most from its various settings.

To enter the camera mode, simply hold the phone horizontally, then press and hold the camera button on the upper right edge. The screen will become your camera viewfinder (Figure 1). Click the camera button again or press the centre navigation key to capture an image,

To access the camera menu, press Settings.

Pressing Left and Right on the control pad (up and down in vertical phone mode) will let you scroll through the options.

Pressing Down will set the camera to video mode (Figure 2), while Up will revert to camera mode.

One of the first things to consider is the size of the image. You can adjust this to 2MP (large), 1MP (medium) and VGA (small). Large is the best option if you want to keep your pictures and transfer them to a PC for printing later.

The screen size on the W880i isn’t large enough to really see the full potential of a 2.0 megapixel image but you should see a big difference when displayed on your computer screen.

To change image size, Press Settings, highlight Picture size and click Select (Figure 3). Select the size you want (Figure 4) and click Select to return to the viewfinder. Your chosen picture size will be displayed in the bottom right corner of the screen.

The Picture quality setting lets you increase the quality of your photos. Press Settings, highlight Picture quality and click Select (Figure 5). To increase the quality of an image, highlight Fine and click Select (Figure 6).

Fine images are slightly less compressed, and will appear smoother, especially on a PC. However, they are larger in size, and so if you’re planning on sending pictures via email or MMS, it is a good idea to reduce the size and quality of the shots you’re taking as this will make them faster - and cheaper - to send.

Adjusting the Shoot mode in the camera menu lets you take different types of shot. Panorama will take three shots in succession; after you take the first shot, you’ll see an outline of the right-hand edge of the first image, which lets you line it up with your next photo. This is great for taking pictures of scenery and panoramas.

For action shots, set the Shoot mode to Burst. This will take four photos in rapid succession and save them so you can pick the best one later. Frames mode lets you add fun frames that overlay the viewfinder before you take the shot.

To activate any of these modes, click Settings, highlight Shoot mode and click Select (Figure 7). Choose your mode using the navigation keys and click Select (Figure 8).

Other options within camera settings include Night mode and Light. Night mode enhances the brightness for use in low lighting conditions, while the Light acts as a substitute for a flash.

The W880i also includes a choice of effects (Figures 9 & 10), which let you take photos as negatives, in sepia tints, or in black & white. The camera also features a self timer – activate this by highlighting the self-timer icon and clicking Select.

When you press the shutter button, the camera will tick for 10 seconds, allowing you to get into position before the photo is captured.

Like many digital cameras, the W880i camera also offers an adjustable White Balance. It is set to automatic by default, but it’s worth experimenting with the different settings to get the best possible results from your phone camera.

Choose from Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent and Incandescent to suit different lighting conditions. You can access these by scrolling right in the camera setting until you highlight White balance, then pressing Select.

Ever wanted to take a photo with your Sony Ericsson W880i and seen the moment pass before you can thumb through the settings menu to switch the flash on, choose an image size or go into night mode?

You can activate the camera instantly using the camera button on the right-hand side of the phone. And you can immediately activate many of the W850i’s camera settings using shortcuts on the keypad:

• Press 7 to activate night mode
• Use * for the light
• You can also use 1 to scroll through the image size options
• 3 and 6 to zoom in and out of an image
• The move the navigation key up and down to adjust the brightness of a an image

There are also two small buttons either side of the speaker at the top of the phone. The left button scrolls through the four Shoot modes; the right button switches the light on and off.

Pressing 0 in camera mode displays these shortcuts for you.

The default option on many Sony Ericsson phones is to prompt to start up in Flight mode or Phone mode. Being as most of us don't take flights every day this does get annoying after a while.

This guide shows you how to turn off this irritating prompt.

1. In the Menu screen click on Settings
2. In the Settings screen make sure the General tab is selected at the top then scroll down and click on Flight mode
3. In the Flight mode screen the Show at start-up option is selected. Click on Don't show to change this

The next time you restart your phone you won't be prompted to choose between Phone or Flight mode. To bring back the prompt return to Settings - General - Flight mode and change the option back to Show at start-up.