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British carrier 3, a division of Hutchison Whampoa, owner of a number of 3G networks throughout Asia and Europe, is partnering with Sling Media to stream home television content to Symbian smartphones. This is the first time the placeshifting specialist has teamed-up with a mobile operator.

With the SlingPlayer Mobile client pre-installed on a Nokia N73 or Sony Ericsson 4 GB W950i Walkman smartphone, 3 customers with a Slingbox device attached to their television will be able view 'placeshifted' cable, satellite, or digital video recorder (DVR) content remotely anywhere in the world through a wireless broadband - 3G cellular or Wi-Fi - Internet connection. In the case of a DVR, for example, users can not only watch recorded shows, but pause and rewind live TV or queue new recordings from their phone as well.

The N73 and W950i are the first two handsets 3 is offering as part of its new X-Series initiative, which aims to make accessing mobile Internet services over 3G data networks easier for subscribers; through a flat rate data plan similar to how one might pay for fixed-line broadband (e.g cable modem, DSL) access and the bundling of some core applications, such as the Sling software.

Additional partners include Skype for free unlimited VoIP calling to Skype PC or Skype mobile users, Orb for remote access to PC content, and access to a variety of Internet and messaging services through Yahoo!, Windows Live Messenger and Google. X-Series customers will also be able to shop on eBay in real-time.

By offering all these Internet services through a flat-fee business mode - rather than charging per minute, per message, per click, per megabit - isn't 3 going be biting the hand that feeds it? For example, carriers often charge usage fees to generate revenue, but not here. And all these services will not be on the 3's deck, so the operator loses out on branding opportunities and the level of control it is likely used to exerting. Then there's the potential for Skype service eating into cellular-voice minutes, for instance, or IM clients taking away from SMS earnings.

In spite of all these potential caveats, 3 and its parent company Hutchison say this is the direction the mobile Internet is moving. It could also get customers to leverage 3G services more so than they have in the past. "This is the internet as it was meant to be and what people have been waiting for. Mobile broadband is the natural next step for mobile services, extending the full power of the internet to mobile handsets, according to Hutchison Whampoa managing director Canning Fok. "By partnering with the leaders of the internet and the leading handset makers, the X-Series from 3 will give everyone access to more of what they want, when they want it, and however much of it they want, all free when they use it."

Hutchison plans to launch the X-Series service in the UK on December 1st. It expects to roll it out to additional markets in Asia, Australia, and Europe early next year.

For the time-being, it appears Sling will deliver its Symbian client only through 3. So those in the U.S. and elsewhere must wait patiently for now. Currently, SlingPLayer Mobile is widely available for Windows Mobile smartphones. Sling Media has said in the past it would like to develop wireless clients for RIM's BlackBerry devices, in addition to BREW and J2ME-based cell phones.

More on N73
The candy-bar style N73 is the follow up to the N70, which was Nokia's highest revenue generator and the best-selling 3G handset period since its introduction; accounting for 10 percent of all broadband phones sold around the world.

Nokia's replacement runs on Symbian OS 9.1 along with the S60 interface, 3rd edition. It has a 2.4 inch, 240 x 320 pixel (QVGA) resolution and 262k color display, Bluetooth 2.0, 42 MB of memory, a miniSD card slot, stereo speakers with 3D sound, a digital music player (supporting MP3, AAC, AAC+ and WMA audio formats) with playlists and equalizer, and an FM radio with Visual Radio.

For still images and video, the N73 packs a Carl Zeiss-powered 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, an integrated flash, and a mechanical shutter. The camera can take images up to 2048 x 1536 pixels in size, which translates into 10 x 8 inch (25 x 20 centimeter) prints.

To enhance the camera phone capabilities, Nokia is partnering with Yahoo! to offer users access to their Flickr accounts. They'll be able to upload and add comments to photos directly from their smartphones to the online photo sharing community.

When it ships, the N73, which is a quad-band GSM/EDGE/UTMS 3G phone, will be available in several color schemes, including frost white/mocha brown, silver grey/deep plum, and frost white/metallic red.

More on W950i
The W950i looks similar to the company’s M600—a Symbian OS smartphone with a UIQ interface—but with a keypad instead of QWERTY thumb-keyboard. It still has UMTS 3G broadband, however.

It also boasts a media-storage friendly 4 GB of flash memory. The W950i, as a UIQ smartphone, features a touch screen to simplify navigation through music genres, playlists, individual songs or albums. It supports the MP3 and AAC music formats.

The 4.2 x 2.3 x 0.6-inch (106 x 54 x 15-millimeter), 4-ounce (112-gram) handset's QVGA, 262k screen measures 2.6 inches. It has a stereo FM radio, Bluetooth with streaming audio support, Opera 8.0 browsing, an RSS reader and USB 2.0 for connectivity and charging. Sony Ericsson says the W950i delivers 10 hours of music playback.