Sendo team found inside Motorola

THE INQ has learnt that the former Sendo handset design team is alive and working on the newly-announced Motorizr Z8 from Motorola. This Symbian phone is also using the UIQ interface.

Under intensive questioning, former Sendo top techie, Ron Schaeffer, confessed, "I'm working on the Z8 right now." He also hinted that he and his former Sendo design team had survived the recent Motorola cuts intact.

Motorola is making a lot of noise about the Z8's unusual shape - which it calls a 'kick slider'. It's intended to curve to match the contours of your face.

Never mind that. This is actually a Symbian based phone and more to the point it is the first handset to deploy the UIQ interface after the company was acquired from Symbian by Sony Ericsson.

So UIQ hasn't lost its independence at all.

A prime feature of the Motorizr is its ability to playback video. Plus it supports high download speeds thanks to its HSDPA/Superfast 3G capability. And it's got 90 MB of internal memory.

The company has also done a deal with BSkyB so you can watch its Anytime mobile TV programmes. Plus the handset can reputedly be used to program Sky + boxes.

Oh. And thanks to the Z8's stereo Bluetooth support, this handset will make a pretty good MP3 player too.

It's nice to know what Sendo would have given us if the company hadn't been acquired by Motorola. µ