CompareMobiles.com

New Mobile & Latest Deal News!

Just 99p with free delivery, offer is subject to buying a £10 top up. Available on a choice of networks; Vodafone, T-Mobile or TalkMobile. Don’t delay as this is likely to sell out very quickly.
The Nokia 1661 is frequently one of our most popular phones. It costs less than £1 (limited stock) and it has some amazing cash back deals on contract too. There are no complicated features, it’s just the thing for people who want to make calls and send a few texts. Even though it’s an entry-level phone it does have a couple of nifty tricks. Such as a speaking alarm clock and a built-in torch. Nothing cutting edge but you will find these to be surprisingly useful features!
The Nokia 1661 has six classic Nokia games pre-loaded, including Snake Xenia, Beach Rally, Bounce and Sudoku. It would be unfair to compare them to the impressive 3D games found on high end phones, but they do have their moments and are just as enjoyable, even on the primitive 1.8 inch screen. There’s also a built-in radio and a basic wired headset is included in the box. What a wonderful little phone it is.

Compare all Nokia 1661 prices

Tags: 10, 3, all, compare, contract, deal, Deals, free, latest, latest deal, mobile, networks, new, new mobile, nokia, pay as you go, phone, phones, prices, t-mobile, test, vodafone

It’s hard to imagine an apocalyptic national threat involving a BlackBerry – ‘security’ seems to mean social control

On Friday, barring a lastminute change of heart, the authorities in Saudi Arabia will start to block instant messaging services for BlackBerry users. The United Arab Emirates has threatened similar action from October and India has raised concerns with BlackBerry’s Canadian manufacturer, Research in Motion (RIM).

Their concern is that texts, emails and other data from BlackBerry smartphones is difficult to monitor – partly because of the encryption technology and partly because data is routed through RIM’s own facilities in Canada and Britain, rather than locally as with other types of mobile phone.

The regulating authority in the UAE pointed out in a statement that “in their current form, certain BlackBerry services allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns”.

The security fears have been highlighted a great deal, but considering that most countries have no problem allowing their citizens to use BlackBerry services, how realistic are these fears?

Indian security forces reportedly suspect that BlackBerry services were used in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, though no details have been given. If they were an important factor, it’s surprising that India did not make more fuss about it earlier.

A source at Wired UK said this seems to be the first time that any government has officially viewed the BlackBerry as such an extreme problem or risk, though introducing it into China and Russia took years of negotiations. Thus it would be difficult to imagine that an apocalyptic national security threat would somehow involve a BlackBerry.

True enough, the BlackBerry is used for business because of its security features. Communications can be encrypted and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), a messaging service where BlackBerry users can talk to each other live, is apparently hard to monitor in real time. Or in bulk.

Yet a BlackBerry is usually not bought as a mobile to use anonymously or throw away. BBM requires a special, personalised BlackBerry PIN to function – it’s hardly a Hotmail account, which anyone can set up, from anywhere, with any name.

As has been shown in the past, terrorists and insurgents tend to communicate using quick, cheap and untraceable technology. The BlackBerry is not really any of these things, since the handset’s entire function is to weave its way into its owner’s professional (often corporate) and personal life, so as to be an extremely efficient means to trace and reach them.

So what else could this be about? Snooping, most likely. Matthew Reed, a mobile analyst working from Dubai, was quoted in the Guardian as saying: “In Saudi Arabia, people are using BlackBerry Messenger to talk to members of the opposite sex. It is the fact that it is a form of communication which is quite anonymous that is part of its appeal to people.”

So perhaps they mean security in the sense of social control – that people communicating openly, in a way that transgresses norms, and maybe even laws, or whole systems of government, might be contrary to the Gulf states’ own power geometry.

Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia engage in internet censorship and according to Reporters Without Borders a number of BBM users were arrested last month after trying to organise a peaceful protest about high petrol prices in the UAE.

As far as Mike Lazaridis, co-founder of Research in Motion, is concerned, these countries will only be harming themselves if they go ahead with the blocking. “If you were to ban strong encryption, you would shut down corporations, business, commerce, banking and the internet,” he said recently.

He may well be right: this policy is a contradiction, on a practical level, with Saudi and Emirati desires to achieve a level of economic modernisation equivalent to that of the west.

The style of government common in Gulf states may be putting them at a disadvantage when it comes to this goal of economic and technological development. This is a central theme in Neal Stephenson’s epic cyberpunk novel Cryptonomicon, and idea as old as Athens: that a democracy, where the freedom to think and communicate thrives naturally, has an advantage when it comes to innovation.

While Cryptonomicon may just be a rollicking adventure story reeking a bit of its author’s own cultural background, the principle does seem to hold: democracy, unlike authoritarian systems, provides more space for innovation and, thus, economic development.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, all, Blackberry, deal, email, free, government, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, new, phone, phones, prices, service, sim, test, uk, venture

It’s hard to imagine an apocalyptic national threat involving a BlackBerry – ‘security’ seems to mean social control

On Friday, barring a lastminute change of heart, the authorities in Saudi Arabia will start to block instant messaging services for BlackBerry users. The United Arab Emirates has threatened similar action from October and India has raised concerns with BlackBerry’s Canadian manufacturer, Research in Motion (RIM).

Their concern is that texts, emails and other data from BlackBerry smartphones is difficult to monitor – partly because of the encryption technology and partly because data is routed through RIM’s own facilities in Canada and Britain, rather than locally as with other types of mobile phone.

The regulating authority in the UAE pointed out in a statement that “in their current form, certain BlackBerry services allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns”.

The security fears have been highlighted a great deal, but considering that most countries have no problem allowing their citizens to use BlackBerry services, how realistic are these fears?

Indian security forces reportedly suspect that BlackBerry services were used in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, though no details have been given. If they were an important factor, it’s surprising that India did not make more fuss about it earlier.

A source at Wired UK said this seems to be the first time that any government has officially viewed the BlackBerry as such an extreme problem or risk, though introducing it into China and Russia took years of negotiations. Thus it would be difficult to imagine that an apocalyptic national security threat would somehow involve a BlackBerry.

True enough, the BlackBerry is used for business because of its security features. Communications can be encrypted and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), a messaging service where BlackBerry users can talk to each other live, is apparently hard to monitor in real time. Or in bulk.

Yet a BlackBerry is usually not bought as a mobile to use anonymously or throw away. BBM requires a special, personalised BlackBerry PIN to function – it’s hardly a Hotmail account, which anyone can set up, from anywhere, with any name.

As has been shown in the past, terrorists and insurgents tend to communicate using quick, cheap and untraceable technology. The BlackBerry is not really any of these things, since the handset’s entire function is to weave its way into its owner’s professional (often corporate) and personal life, so as to be an extremely efficient means to trace and reach them.

So what else could this be about? Snooping, most likely. Matthew Reed, a mobile analyst working from Dubai, was quoted in the Guardian as saying: “In Saudi Arabia, people are using BlackBerry Messenger to talk to members of the opposite sex. It is the fact that it is a form of communication which is quite anonymous that is part of its appeal to people.”

So perhaps they mean security in the sense of social control – that people communicating openly, in a way that transgresses norms, and maybe even laws, or whole systems of government, might be contrary to the Gulf states’ own power geometry.

Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia engage in internet censorship and according to Reporters Without Borders a number of BBM users were arrested last month after trying to organise a peaceful protest about high petrol prices in the UAE.

As far as Mike Lazaridis, co-founder of Research in Motion, is concerned, these countries will only be harming themselves if they go ahead with the blocking. “If you were to ban strong encryption, you would shut down corporations, business, commerce, banking and the internet,” he said recently.

He may well be right: this policy is a contradiction, on a practical level, with Saudi and Emirati desires to achieve a level of economic modernisation equivalent to that of the west.

The style of government common in Gulf states may be putting them at a disadvantage when it comes to this goal of economic and technological development. This is a central theme in Neal Stephenson’s epic cyberpunk novel Cryptonomicon, and idea as old as Athens: that a democracy, where the freedom to think and communicate thrives naturally, has an advantage when it comes to innovation.

While Cryptonomicon may just be a rollicking adventure story reeking a bit of its author’s own cultural background, the principle does seem to hold: democracy, unlike authoritarian systems, provides more space for innovation and, thus, economic development.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, all, Blackberry, deal, email, free, government, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, new, phone, phones, prices, service, sim, test, uk, venture

Free broadband firm TalkTalk promises competitive prices in mobile services deal with Vodafone

Internet and phone firm TalkTalk has struck a deal with Vodafone to launch a mobile service under its own brand.

TalkTalk, which helped revolutionise the broadband market by introducing “free” internet access four years ago, will offer both contract and pre-pay tariffs to existing customers from the autumn.

Market watchers will be looking to see whether the company, the second-largest residential broadband provider in the UK, will have as big an impact in the mobile industry as it did in on internet services.

Chairman Charles Dunstone said TalkTalk, which was spun out of Carphone Warehouse earlier this year, would make a “gentle” entry into mobile services, but would offer competitive prices.

“It will be a way to add a very good value mobile package to the account you have with us for your fixed-line phone and broadband,” he said.

TalkTalk entered the phone market in 2003 and the broadband market in 2006. Carphone Warehouse, meanwhile, still has its own mobile venture called TalkMobile, which also uses Vodafone’s network.

News of the mobile phone service came as TalkTalk announced first-quarter results which showed it added 34,000 net broadband customers in the second quarter, taking its total to 4.23 million. That puts it ahead of Virgin Media, which announced earlier this week that it had 4.21 million customers, having added 28,100 in the quarter. BT said yesterday it had 5.2 million broadband customers, adding 96,000 in the last three months, although it does not split out its residential customers from its large base of business users. The UK’s fourth-largest broadband provider, BSkyB, meanwhile, added 119,000 broadband customers in the quarter, taking its total customer base to 2.6 million.

TalkTalk’s average revenue per broadband user was £23.90, slightly up on a year ago. TalkTalk, which bought rival Tiscali a year ago, said its share of net broadband adds was about 10% this quarter, keeping it on track to add 140,000 to 180,000 customers over the year as a whole.

Revenues climbed 31% in the quarter to £444m, broadly in line with expectations.

The company said it remained confident it would deliver 6-8% revenue growth, and 20% growth in normalised earnings per share and dividends per share for the year to 31 March 2011.

Vodafone, meanwhile, has a number of other wholesale deals which allow companies to use its network to become what are termed mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). It provides network coverage for BT, Asda and Lebara, which targets the UK’s immigrant population.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 3, all, consumer, contract, deal, Deals, free, growth, largest, line, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, months, new, phone, phones, prices, service, tariff, tariffs, three, tmobile, uk, venture, virgin, vodafone

UK comms regulator Ofcom has forbidden
BT from increasing wholesale service charges on other ISPs to part-fund a reduction
in its pension deficit.

Read Full Story…
(Source Yahoo UK News)

Tags: charges, new, prices, service, uk

• Quarterly figures show steep like-for-like decline
• Underlying profits also down 27%
• Sales rise 1% but handset prices are cut

Profits at Nokia have plunged over the last three months as the company continues to struggle against rivals such as Apple and RIM, maker of the BlackBerry, in the smartphone market.

The Finnish handset maker reported today that profits fell 40% in the second quarter of 2010 compared with a year ago. Underlying profits were down 27%.

Although net sales were 1% higher at just over €10bn (£8.4bn), the profitability of its handset and service division slipped as the company cut the prices of its higher-end phones to make them more attractive to consumers.

Nokia’s failure to compete better against Apple’s iPhone and the growing number of handsets running Google’s Android platform has put chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo in the firing line. The company is reportedly looking for a replacement, with analysts warning that Nokia needs to get its hands on a “European Steve Jobs” if it is to regain its dominant position in the mobile market.

Kallasvuo called for an end to speculation over his future, telling the US television station CNBC that it is damaging the company. “There has been a lot of speculation on my position, on myself, during the last couple of weeks and that is not good for Nokia and must be brought to an end one way or another,” Kallasvuo said. “At the same time, I’m not in a position here and now to really shed any more light on the topic so I guess this is a no comment. I really concentrate now on the task at hand.”

Kallasvuo also insisted today that Nokia, which makes roughly four out of every 10 phones sold worldwide, had reasons to be optimistic, although the company is only aiming to maintain its share of the mobile device market this year. “The global handset market has continued to grow at a healthy pace, led by some of the less mature markets where Nokia is strong,” he said.

Kallasvuo added that solid sales of cheaper phones to developing markets had boosted the overall performance of Nokia’s handset business.

The average selling price of a Nokia handset dropped to €61 (£52), from €62 in the previous quarter. For smartphones, average prices fell 8% quarter-on-quarter to €143, and are down 21% over the last year.

Today’s figures suggest that Nokia is having to cut smartphone prices to maintain market share at the expense of profitability. Its smartphone shipments were up by 12% quarter-on-quarter at 24m units, in line with Nokia’s estimate for the overall growth of the market.

The company is now pinning its fortunes on the new Nokia N8 smartphone, although its release has already been delayed until later in the year.

Nokia also maintained its prediction that the global handset market volume would grow by 10% this year.

Earlier this week, Apple reported its best ever quarter, partly due to strong demand for the iPhone.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 12, 3, all, android, apple, best, Blackberry, cheaper, compare, compared, consumer, global, google, growth, iphone, line, maker, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, months, new, nokia, phone, phones, prices, sam, service, sol, station, three, uk, world

New Mobile & Latest Deal News!

Just 99p with free delivery, offer is subject to buying a £10 top up. Available on a choice of networks; Vodafone, T-Mobile or TalkMobile. Don’t delay as this is likely to sell out very quickly.

The Nokia 1661 is frequently one of our most popular phones. It costs less than £1 (limited stock) and it has some amazing cash back deals on contract too. There are no complicated features, it’s just the thing for people who want to make calls and send a few texts. Even though it’s an entry-level phone it does have a couple of nifty tricks. Such as a speaking alarm clock and a built-in torch. Nothing cutting edge but you will find these to be surprisingly useful features!

The Nokia 1661 has six classic Nokia games pre-loaded, including Snake Xenia, Beach Rally, Bounce and Sudoku. It would be unfair to compare them to the impressive 3D games found on high end phones, but they do have their moments and are just as enjoyable, even on the primitive 1.8 inch screen. There’s also a built-in radio and a basic wired headset is included in the box. What a wonderful little phone it is.

Compare all Nokia 1661 prices

Tags: 10, 3, all, compare, contract, deal, Deals, free, latest, latest deal, mobile, networks, new, new mobile, nokia, pay as you go, phone, phones, prices, t-mobile, test, vodafone

Plus development of “motoring masterclass” iPhone app costs only slightly less than brand new Audi TT Roadster, and you might be closer to Kevin Spacey online than you think

Enjoy the latest smattering of links, as picked by the Technology team

Dev aims to get Frash running on iPad >> CNET News
Canny developer brings out Frash – an application for jailbroken iPads allowing use of Flash in Safari. We await the tests on battery life etc.


Photo by mikealex on Flickr. Some rights reserved

Government spends thousands on iPhone apps >> BBC News
Freedom of Information request reveals iPhone app development costs ranging from £10,000 to £40,000 – a proposed DVLA “motoring masterclass” app (still in development) costing £40k.

On Twitter, a close-knit network >> New York TimesTell all of your friends: 98% of Twitter users are within six degrees of connection from each other.

Sony drops eBook reader prices – but UK still sky high >> PC Pro
No comment from Sony on why, despite UK price cut, we’re still getting a bum deal compared to our Stateside friends.

Everything you need to know about the fragmented mobile developer ecosystem >> TechCrunchVision Mobile’s extensive Developer Economics research report has some interesting findings, worth bookmarking for later reference. Interesting findings, for example, like app stores having reduced the average time-to-shelf by two thirds, and reduced the average time-to-payment by more than half.

Chrome OS gets ready for gaming >> ReadWriteWeb“Web browsers, like IE, Chrome, Safari and Firefox, haven’t traditionally been able to detect which way is up. That may soon change for Google Chrome”

The unstoppable “tech support” scam >> PC Pro
PC Pro investigate a cold-calling scam reportedly affecting UK PC owners.

Strong sales lift HTC profit 33% >> Wall Street Journal
Second-quarter unaudited net profit for the Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer was $268m, up 33% year-on-year.

Facebook, Twitter, web enrich social lives, says Pew >> eWeek
“A survey by Pew and Elon found that 85 percent of 895 “technology stakeholders” and pundits agreed that the Internet has mostly been a positive force in peoples’ social lives.”

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 3, all, App Store, bbc, compare, compared, deal, free, google, government, HTC, iphone, latest, line, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, moto, new, phone, phones, prices, sony, survey, test, twitter, uk

Samsung has officially unveiled its Q-Series range of laptops, although the
company has yet to confirm prices.

Read Full Story…
(Source Yahoo UK News)

Tags: all, new, prices, sam, samsung, uk

Don’t be taken in by the empty threats from the big four mobile operators

Readers of your news article could be forgiven for believing that the prospect of the vast majority of UK consumers paying lower prices for calling mobiles would cause the sky to fall in (Reform of mobile phone charges may leave poorest users worse off, June 22). The four biggest mobile operators have been scaremongering with variations on this theme for years.

You report the end of telecoms watchdog Ofcom’s consultation on “its plans to slash the cost of calling a mobile phone … by reducing so-called mobile termination rates – the price networks charge each other and fixed-line companies such as BT to connect calls”. The article states that O2 has “warned the regulator that its proposals are ‘irresponsible’ and could force millions of people on low incomes to abandon their phones”.

Every time the prospect of lower mobile termination rates is raised, operators have cried that prices would go up and that people would stop using their phones. But a quick glance at the facts shows that when rates have come down the exact opposite has happened.

My company, Three, is part of a broad campaign along with BT and 65 other organisations – ranging from charities to financial advisers – that recognise high termination rates as a barrier to lower mobile prices. Orange, Vodafone, O2 and T-Mobile seek to pull off a bold double act by threatening to raise prices yet at the same time quietly introducing more competitive rates every time termination rates come down – as they have done again this year.

The article states: “The industry has warned that the likely shake-up will lead to the reintroduction of controversial ‘expiry dates’ on prepay top-ups.” Again, effective competition will address this threat.

High termination rates have been a net subsidy to the mobile industry from landline users for years, but the bills paid to call mobiles by vulnerable landline users and the organisations that support them never feature in the analysis from the big mobile companies. The Terminate the Rate campaign includes Age UK, Crossroads Care and Carers UK who work with the vulnerable all day, every day and know their experience.

Low termination rates will enable effective competition in the UK voice market. They will drive better value for mobile and landline users alike. Since these threats are being made by those who want to delay this change, then as the only mobile operator supporting it we have to make our own case. While Vodafone claims that changes “could see the end of mobile handset subsidies”, we have committed to continue to offer subsidised handsets. Rather than cutting off prepay customers, we expect to serve more.

That the four major operators don’t welcome change is no surprise. But ultimately it is our firm belief that high mobile termination rates don’t protect low users, they create them.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, all, charges, consumer, drive, HD, lg, line, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, networks, new, o2, orange, phone, phones, prices, sam, t-mobile, three, uk, vodafone

Subscribers to discount website Groupola can pick up handset for £400 less than Apple charges – if they are quick enough

A discount website specialising in ‘city deals’ is offering users the chance to purchase the new Apple iPhone 4 on 1 July for just £99, compared to the £499 Apple charges . Groupola.com only has a limited number of handsets available and is offering them exclusively to its email subscribers.

It says it is able to offer such low prices because it relies on group-buying to regularly offer discounts of up to 90% on events and products across the UK’s major cities and tourist attractions.

O2 is selling the 16GB iPhone 4 for £209 if you sign up to an 18-month contract and spend £30 a month, while Vodafone wants £219 for the 16GB version if you also spend £30 a month for 18 months. You can compare packages here.

Mark Pearson, managing director of Groupola, says: “Given that the iPhone 4 sold out through pre-orders alone in just 48 hours through the Apple store, we thought it was only right to offer loyal Groupola.com discount hunters another bite of the cherry. We’ve proved that the concept of group buying can work within the UK.”

To purchase the iPhone for £99 you need to be an email subscriber, so you’ll need to visit the site and sign up to receive daily alerts. You will be sent a link on 1 July which will allow you to purchase the phone on 2 July on a first come, first served basis.

“My advice is to open the link the second the clock ticks over at 9.30am – by 9.31am you may already have been too late,” adds Pearson.

The firm has admitted that the deal is a loss-leader and there is only a limited number of phones available. It has also said that people can easily unsubscribe from the daily alerts should they wish to.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 3, all, apple, apple iphone, charges, compare, compared, consumer, contract, deal, Deals, email, iphone, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, months, new, o2, phone, phones, prices, sol, uk, vodafone

The chief executive of the search giant believes smartphones will empower the poor and is the equivalent to the arrival of TV

Phenomenally successful, but also imitated, envied and feared – Google is the technological icon of our time. But is its ubiquity and influence a force for good?

Chief executive Eric Schmidt has no doubts. He tells the Guardian that Google has been instrumental in a generational shift in democratising information. “Over my lifetime, we are going to go from a small number of people having access to most of the world’s information, to virtually everybody in the world having access to virtually all of the world’s information,” he said. “That’s because of web search, cheap phones and automatic translation. That’s a pretty amazing achievement and Google is part of that.”

Yet with Google active in so many areas, from shopping to video and translation to music, its competitors are becoming more numerous and opponents more vociferous. Schmidt admits: “We try to do everything … We don’t shake off the big goals.”

In an interview ahead of his keynote presentation at the Guardian’s Activate Summit on Thursday, he makes it clear Google is positioning itself for the future through mobile, with the development of its Android mobile system and with subsequent Google-branded handsets. He is keener to talk about this area than the battle with newspaper groupss such as News International, whose paywall model is partly based on what it considers Google’s parasitical attitude to original content.

The mobile battle pitches the three biggest tech firms against each other: Google, Apple and Microsoft. Analyst Gartner puts Android as the world’s fourth most-popular smartphone operating system in the first quarter of 2010 – ahead of Microsoft in a market it joined less than two years ago but behind Symbian (Nokia), Research in Motion (Blackberry) and Apple.

“I believe that the very best engineering is now going on the mobile devices — the hardest problems and the most clever solutions,” says Schmidt. “You know who the person is and where they are, and you don’t get that from a desktop app.” The 50,000 apps built for Android, mostly by third-party developers, cover almost every topic, but the one killer app is still Google itself, says Schmidt.

Schmidt describes how our online lives are now more personal, social and mobile. “When people are awake, they are now online, and that has a lot of implications for society and for Google,” he says. Google’s secret, he adds (though it’s not much of a secret), is that it can handle more data than its rivals because it has larger networks and data centres. Google in effect pulled its business from China earlier this year after moving the operation to Hong Kong, bypassingChina’s censorship regime. Google, whose company motto is “Do no evil” had been heavily criticised for its decision to do business in China and its rethink was welcomed by the industry. It also increased pressure on rivals who still operate there.

“Google doesn’t necessarily do things that other companies do. We have our own set of principles that we work hard on. In the China case, the decision was made not for revenue – it was about what we were willing to deal with. We want to be a good global citizen and we believe very strongly in the openness of information.”

Another key push from Google is encouraging governments to open information to the public, via formats that developers can build useful public services around. One recent victory for open data campaigners in the UK was Transport for London opening its travel data for commercial use, but the coalition government has indicated it may establish a broader public “right to data” that will have to be provided by local and national authorities.Schmidt says Google’s policy is to encourage governments to open their data to the public. The California-based company has teams helping to prepare “non web-resident” archives and databases for the web. “It is no longer acceptable online for government researchers to publish documents read by 500 people in printed form,” he says. “It needs to be web first.

Once that happens, there are lots of interesting things you can do to correlate real-time information, if that is what is needed, or put it on a map … government services are fundamentally about where people are, about what is going on in my town or my school.”

These projects are just as relevant in developing countries, where the introduction of smarter, cheaper phones has created a powerful network. How does Google help developing countries break through the digital divide, and ensure the opportunities of the web are open to all? “Hardware manufacturers are being incentivised to make higher volumes of lower-priced mobiles, and prices have fallen dramatically. But a young person now in pretty much any country, if they have a mobile device, can get access to pretty much all the world’s information and get it translated into their own language.”

Arriving at Google in 2001 after a career spent in Silicon Valley, Schmidt is still excited by its possibilities. “That’s a big news thing – that’s equivalent to the arrival of television.”

For more information on the Activate Summit, visit guardian.co.uk/activate

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, all, android, apple, best, Blackberry, cheaper, deal, global, google, government, line, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, networks, new, nokia, phone, phones, prices, service, sol, three, uk, world

Vodafone has confirmed its
iPhone
4 contract pricing plans , including a 24-month contract at £60 a month that
requires an upfront payment of £59.

Read Full Story…
(Source Yahoo UK News)

Tags: contract, iphone, new, phone, prices, uk, vodafone

O2 has announced prices for the iPhone 4, but there has been some confusion
over the cheapest monthly tariff.

Read Full Story…
(Source Yahoo UK News)

Tags: 10, 12, 3, cheapest, compare, comparemobiles.com, iphone, mobile, Mobile News, mobiles, new, o2, phone, prices, sol, tariff, uk

Having lost its exclusive rights to sell Apple’s new phone, the mobile network now seems to have an inverse pricing at its low end to discourage 24-month contracts

O2 has announced the pricing for its iPhone 4 handsets – and seems to be trying to push people away from buying longer-term contracts.

Under the 24-month contracts, the phones are more expensive than the 18-month contracts, by between £70 (for the white 16GB version priced at £209 for 18 months, or £279 for 24 months) and £24 (for the black 32GB version, costing £299 for 18 months and £323 for 24 months). Even though the price plans at that tariff differ by £5 per month, over 18 months the 16GB handset works out cheaper on the lowest tariff by £10.

Pricing plans for Vodafone’s iPhone 4 leaked out earlier this week, although the company has not formally announced them and is only letting people indicate interest in ordering it.

Orange’s charges start at £169 for a 16GB phone on a £30-per month 24-month contract (£229 on £30 for 18 months)

O2′s pricing decision has puzzled people on Twitter: “O2 seems to have forgotten the idea is to lure people onto longer contract by *lowering* upfront costs. Duh.,” commented journalist Scott Colvey.

The decision – tied to O2′s decision to introduce strict caps on data downloads per month, varying between 500MB and 1GB, replacing its previous “unlimited” data contracts that many are still using – may mean a migration of former iPhone customers away from the company, which until last Christmas had the monopoly on iPhone sales in the UK. Now the phone is sold by Orange, Vodafone and 3 – though only Orange and Vodafone have announced prices.

Many iPhone owners who bought the second-generation iPhone in 2008 on 18- or 24-month contracts will be eligible to upgrade with O2 – or possibly to shift to another carrier.

Apple has apologised to would-be customers after overwhelming demand meant that its own and AT&T’s servers crashed when the phone went on sale in five countries on Tuesday. It says that 600,000 phones were ordered on the day – which suggests that it has tapped into huge pent-up demand from owners of older versions, as well as new buyers seeking to join the smartphone bandwagon.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 12, 3, all, apple, blog, charges, cheaper, compare, comparemobiles.com, contract, gadget, gadgets, iphone, mobile, Mobile News, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, months, new, o2, orange, phone, phones, prices, sol, tariff, tariffs, twitter, uk, vodafone

Apple sees sales of 600,000 units on Tuesday, with demand in Germany 10 times ahead of that for last year’s model

Apple has reported overwhelming demand for its new iPhone 4 model, selling more than 600,000 in a single day on Tuesday which saw ordering websites crash in the US and UK.

In Germany, demand for the new model, which was only unveiled by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs at the start of the month, is running 10 times ahead of that for last year’s model, the iPhone 3GS, reported Deutsche Telekom.

By comparison, when the iPhone 3GS went on sale last year, 1m were sold in its first three days. But that debuted in eight countries, whereas the iPhone 4 has gone on sale only in five.

Apple has apologised to people who tried to order the phone and gave up in frustration, saying demand was far higher than it expected. “We hope that they will try again.. once the iPhone 4 is in stock.”

Since its debut in June 2007, Apple’s smartphone has taken a huge chunk of the smartphone market and forced companies such as RIM, maker of the BlackBerry, and Nokia, which has the lion’s share of smartphone sales, to play catchup. Nokia issued another profits warning on Wednesday, and its share of the smartphone market is falling every quarter.

In the UK, where Apple is offering the phone without a contract through its online store, Apple’s website crashed as people tried to order it. And in the US, where it is only available with a contract from AT&T, the telephone company’s website froze as it tried to cope with an avalanche of orders each of which had to be verified on its own servers. That also led to problems in which some customers saw details of other peoples’ accounts – a reminder of the flaw exposed by a security group last week in which hundreds of thousands of Apple iPad users’ emails were stolen via weak security on AT&T’s site.

As a result of the heavy demand Apple has had to push back the delivery date for phones ordered online, and on Wednesday AT&T suspended orders, citing “unexpectedly high demand”.

Apple said “it was the largest number of pre-orders Apple has ever taken in a single day and was far higher than we anticipated, resulting in many order and approval system malfunctions.”

Last year in the UK O2 had exclusive rights to sell the new iPhone, and said then that more of those handsets were sold in the first two hours of trading than all handsets in an average day.

This year Apple is selling the iPhone 4 without a contract – at £499 for the cheapest version – and O2, Vodafone, Orange and 3 are competing to offer it on contract terms. However neither O2 or 3 have yet announced prices, or allowed customers to pre-order the phone.

However the new contracts being offered for the phones have sparked anger among web users, who say that the carriers’ use of the word “unlimited” for the amount of data that can be downloaded through the smartphone is misleading. The companies impose a “fair use” cap, while describing the service as “unlimited”.

Now, a formal review by the advertising regulator could be about to put a cap on the practice.

This could mean that fixed-line and mobile operators will not be able to use the term “unlimited broadband” unless they are offering a genuinely unlimited service – and that means nothing in the small print that lets the provider send warnings to customers if they reach a certain threshold.

The review is being led by the Advertising Standards Authority, reports New Media Age, which will work with two ad industry bodies to make a comprehensive assessment of industry claims and consumer complaints on both broadband speeds and “unlimited” tariff penalties.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 3, 3gs, all, apple, Blackberry, cheapest, compare, comparemobiles.com, comparison, consumer, contract, email, gadget, gadgets, in stock, iphone, iphone 3gs, largest, line, maker, mobile, Mobile News, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, new, nokia, o2, orange, phone, phones, prices, review, service, sol, tariff, three, uk, vodafone

Apple UK has announced pricing details for a SIM-free iPhone 4 direct from
its Apple Store and online.

Read Full Story…
(Source Yahoo UK News)

Tags: 10, 12, 3, apple, compare, comparemobiles.com, free, iphone, line, mobile, Mobile News, mobiles, new, phone, prices, sim, sol, uk

But how do they compare with the other networks? And how do they compare with previous prices?

Vodafone has – oops! – leaked details of its iPhone 4 pricing. Which, since you can pre-order them from Tuesday 15th, means that it’s not much of a leak, but on the other hand you’d think the networks might have got their pricing out earlier.

The numbers were accidentally leaked by Vodafone and captured from its datasheets by Engadget (whence we’ve copied them) reader Liam Gladdy, and we’ve got them here now for you.

Note that the white version seems to be the 16GB one, and the black one is your 32GB one. Pore over the details and tell us your thoughts.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 12, 3, all, apple, blog, compare, comparemobiles.com, gadget, iphone, mobile, Mobile News, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, networks, new, phone, phones, prices, sol, uk, vodafone

TAIPEI/HONG KONG (Reuters) – iPhone maker Foxconn International Holdings Ltd said it will seek higher prices from clients to help offset wage increases at a plant in southern China that has been hit by a series of suicides.

Read Full Story…
(Source Yahoo UK News)

Tags: 10, 12, compare, comparemobiles.com, iphone, maker, mobile, Mobile News, mobiles, new, phone, prices, sol, uk

C3 roll-out detailed

Nokia will begin selling its Qwerty keyboard equipped C3 phone on 18 June, the handset giant said today.…

Read Full Story…
(Source The Register)

Tags: 10, 3, compare, comparemobiles.com, mobile, Mobile News, mobiles, new, nokia, phone, prices, sol, source the register