Posts Tagged “roaming”
Jul
29
2010
 
Apple coughs to iPhone 3G IOS 4 upgrade problemsPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Where are we now?iPhone 3G users who’ve upgraded to iOS 4 are discovering that the roaming switch isn’t working any more, for those on O2′s network at least.… Read Full Story…
Satnav launches an on-the-ropes, ninth-round-style counteroffensive against greatly exaggerated reports of its death
Reports of satnav’s death are greatly exaggerated – and retailer Garmin has launched an inspired marketing fightback to prove just that. The arrival of Google Maps Navigation was touted by many – including the Guardian’s own Jemima Kiss – as a “satnav killer.” Google Maps Navigation is free (at the point of sale), familiar, and feature-rich. But don’t count on traditional satnav retailers to give up the ghost just yet. Seeking to capitalise on customer (and industry?) confusion surrounding mobile data charges – not to mention what happens when you dare to venture outside of the UK – satellite navigation specialists Garmin have embarked on a Top Gear-esque experiment. Using Google Maps on an O2 Pay As You Go tariff, the company set out to see how much a summer tour of France would cost with only an Android phone for company. Twenty pence per mile is the (approximate) answer. A return Calais-to-Paris (185 miles) trip by car notched up £74 of data roaming charges, using 12-13 megabytes of data. Here’s what return trips further afield cost: • Avignon, 614 miles: £245.60 • Saint-Tropez, 730 miles: £292 • Grenoble, 540 miles: £216 • Marseille, 667 miles: £266.80 • Lyon, 474 miles: £189.60 • Cannes, 747 miles: £298.80 • Bordeaux, 540 miles: £216 • Valence, 539 miles: £215.60 • Saint-Etienne, 510 miles: £204 And the eye-watering bill you could find on your doorstep isn’t the only reason you should spurn Google’s advances and stick with traditional satnavs, says Garmin head of communications Anthony Chmarny: “Using free satellite navigation isn’t as free as it would like to make out, especially when you are using your mobile phone abroad. “Many of the well known navigation products use the mobile phone network to download maps as they go, meaning people could end up with a nasty shock when their mobile phone bills arrive – the costs could be double that of the fuel used for the journey they were navigating. “For someone using so called ‘free’ navigation abroad this could leave them in the absurd position that they get half way through a journey and no longer have access to navigation to complete it.” Convinced?
Read Original Story…
Jul
02
2010
Nokia E5 now available on OrangePosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News, New Deals, New MobilesNew Mobile & Latest Deal News!
The latest version of Nokia messaging offers full instant messaging and support for multiple email accounts such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Ovi Mail. For business users Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes Traveller applications are also supported. A-GPS and Ovi Maps with free walk and drive navigation boost the appeal of this 3G handset that additionally connects to the Internet and the Ovi Store in speedy fashion using the HSDPA Web browser. The 5 megapixel camera works well in all lighting conditions, it has fixed focus and an LED flash. Images, music and video files can be stored onto the 256MB internal memory that can be boosted up to 16GB with a microSD card. Keeping up with the latest news, weather, sports and music releases is simple using the stereo FM radio with RDS and listening in private can be achieved by connecting your own favourite headphones to the 3.5mm audio jack. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and quad-band international roaming. The 4 row QWERTY keypad with dedicated nav-key fits nicely into the ergonomic design of the superb Nokia E5. Compare all Nokia E5 dealsTags: 3, all, card, compare, deal, Deals, drive, email, free, latest, latest deal, mobile, new, new mobile, nokia, orange, phone, phones, roaming, sim, test, Touch, update
Jun
23
2010
Compare iPhone 4 deals onlinePosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News, New Deals, New MobilesNew Mobile & Latest Deal News!
T-Mobile and 3 have yet to reveal their pricing and we’ve heard from a reliable source that there could be some cheaper options for business users and self-employed within the next couple of weeks. But for now, let’s take a look at the initial offers from Vodafone and Orange, which will be available to buy online tomorrow, and O2’s deals which will only be available to buy in-store. iPhone 4 16GB – To buy the handset for just £29 all three networks are offering 1200 minutes for £45pm on a 24-month contract. Here the similarities end though with Vodafone offering 1GB of Internet/Web mail per month, 1GB of Wi-Fi usage with BT Openzone and 5MB of European roaming data usage per day. Orange has offered ‘unlimited’ mobile Internet and Wi-Fi with BT Openzone with a fair usage policy of 750MB per month. Unlimited access to The Cloud and BT Openzone Wi-Fi (fair usage policy in force) is provided by O2 along with 750MB of data usage. For those wishing to keep the monthly line rental to a minimum, O2 and Vodafone offer £25pm rentals with the iPhone available at £279/£219 respectively and Orange offer a rental at £30pm with a fantastic price of only £169 for the handset. The same data offers apply as above but with O2 lowering their data usage 500MB per month and Vodafone removing their free European roaming data. iPhone 4 32GB – Things get a little shaken up here so those who desire the high-end memory iPhone 4 can really take advantage of the networks different takes on what the user may want. Vodafone and Orange tempt those who want a low handset cost with Orange pricing the iPhone at £29 with unlimited minutes, data and Wi-Fi for £75pm whilst Vodafone costs the handset at £59 with 3000 minutes, 1GB of data, 1GB of Wi-Fi and include their 5MB daily European roaming promotion. Lower monthly line rentals see the handset costs ballooning up to £300+ but O2 provide some nice middle ground. Its £45pm/1200 free minutes and 750MB of data plan have the iPhone priced at £129 with unlimited access to The Cloud and BT Openzone. iPhone 3GS 8GB – The release of the iPhone 4 opens up an attractive set of offers here for the new 8GB release of the iPhone 3GS. Provided free of charge across all three networks with 600 free minutes at £35pm the iPhone 3GS becomes a tempting, low cost offer. Various amounts of data and Wi-Fi usage are on offer to ensure the best of the iPhones features can be enjoyed without the threat of large bills arriving through the letter box. A full set of 18 month contracts are also available with Vodafone providing the handsets at the same cost but with an additional £5pm added to the rental. Orange has taken the opposite route with the line rental remaining the same but with a significant increase in the iPhones cost. We think the networks should be praised for being brave enough to take a range of different approaches to the device and line rental costs as this has ensured that you, the user, can get the very best deal tailored to your own needs.
Compare iPhone 4 16GB deals
Tags: 12, 3, 3gs, all, best, cheaper, compare, contract, deal, Deals, free, iphone, iphone 3gs, latest, latest deal, line, mobile, networks, new, new mobile, o2, orange, phone, phones, rental, roaming, sam, sim, t-mobile, tariff, tariffs, test, three, vodafone |
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People have been talking about the coming mobile revolution for 20 years, but on a recent book tour with my Android phone, I realised it’s finally here
I’ve just come back from a month-long, multi-city, US and Canada book tour for my new novel, For the Win. I’ve done book tours before, but this one was different: this was the tour with an Android Nexus One phone, and it was game-changing.
I’ve been told about the coming mobile revolution for 20 years now, but frankly, mobile phones are generally rubbish. The carriers are awful and abusive. The apps suck. And so on. Something’s changed.
Take directions: Google Maps are, of course, the ne plus ultra of navigation, so having them in your pocket is powerful. But combine that with Android’s stellar turn-by-turn directions, which incorporates Google’s traffic data to get you round the terrible snarls, and things get really easy. What’s more, the ability to program the map destination by speaking it (Google’s various voice apps have given it improbably good voice-recognition performance, producing a training set that is wide and deep), or by photographing it on a printout (using the Google Goggles app that converts images to words to Google searches), felt futuristic and deeply right.
Young adult book tours involve a lot of school visits, often in deep suburbs that the media escorts supplied by your publisher aren’t that familiar with (these escorts often come armed with confusing Mapquest printouts that seem to come from an earlier century). When you’re not running late to a tour stop, you’re often running early, with just enough time to stop for a cup of coffee and a snack. Add Google location search to that and you can avoid going to a petrol station or (even worse) McDonald’s or Dunkin’ Donuts and find hidden gems that you’d have to be a local to get at otherwise. I ate better on this tour than I ever have before.
I “rooted” my Nexus One, breaking into the OS so that I could easily “tether” it to my laptop, using it as a 3G modem between tour stops (we didn’t have to root my wife’s matching phone, as Google supplied us with an unlocked developer handset). My typical tour day started at 5am with breakfast and work on the novel, then a 6am interview with someone in Europe, then pickup, two to four school visits with a short lunch break, three or four interviews, then a bookstore signing or a plane (or both). As busy as that sounds, there’s actually a fair bit of dead time in it while sitting in the escort’s car, trying to find the next stop.
This time round, I plugged the laptop into the cigarette lighter and the phone into the laptop – this gave the phone a battery charge and the laptop internet access. And best of all, it meant that I could harvest those dead minutes to answer emails, keep on blogging, and generally stay abreast of things.
Which meant that I got lots more of the touring author’s most precious commodity: sleep. On previous tours, returning to the hotel meant sitting down for three to four hours’ worth of emails before bed, which cut my sleep time to less than four hours some nights. But this time round, I got back to the room completely caught up, and was able to flop down in bed, eat some minibar cashews, and hit the sack.
Travelling with your own internet source is brilliant. At Atlanta airport, I was stuck for four hours while a monster storm hammered the building with barrages of lightning. Immediately, every one of the expensive Wi-Fi networks in the building went dead as thousands of stranded travellers tried to use them all at once. I found a corner with a mains outlet, plugged in the laptop, tethered my phone, and enjoyed my own private network connection. It wasn’t fast, but it was free and it worked.
I still have a US T-Mobile account from when I lived in the US, and I pay for the unlimited data plan there (which, like the Orange UK Sim I use here, has a bizarre and fraudulent definition of “unlimited” that includes a data cap). It’s easily worth keeping the account alive for those times that I’m back in the US – one day’s 3G savings (not having to pay for expensive hotel and airport broadband) pays for a month’s mobile service.
But when I travel to places where I don’t have a Sim, such as France or Germany, where I’ll be touring in September, it’s not pretty. Orange charges nearly £1 per megabyte, and its bolt-on Euro traveller plans charge something like £30 for 30MB, and limit you to 30MB per month. I can’t figure out who the putative customer for this is: the travelling exec who really needs email on the road, but receives a tiny trickle of email every day, apparently.
The most absurd part is when you take an Orange UK Sim to France (France Telecom being Orange’s parent company) or a T-Mobile Sim to Germany (Deutsche Telekom has the same relationship to T-Mobile except in the UK, where it’s a joint venture with France Telecom) and the company charges an extortionate roaming charge for using their parent company’s network, on the grounds that they’re “different companies”.
Which is the fundamental paradox of mobile – so long as the mobile carriers remain a part of mobile computing, it will only work for so long as you don’t go anywhere.
• Cory Doctorow’s new novel, For The Win, is out now
Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)
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A legal challenge to the EU’s capping of roaming rates, brought by the UK’s four biggest networks, has failed at the European Court of Justice.…
Read Full Story…
(Source The Register)
A whole new standard has been set with the Dell Streak that is certainly capable of matching the functionality of a laptop, with the added benefit of phone calling, and surpassing the experience given by smartphones with its 5 inch capacitive touch-screen and super slim 10mm design. Four customisable home screens, multi-touch capabilities, a 1Ghz processor and pinch and zoom ensure that all the applications and features run smoothly.
The graphical qualities are amazing with a resolution of 800×480 pixels providing high-definition video playback. Your own videos can be uploaded to YouTube within a few easy clicks and social networking integration makes uploading pictures a breeze. The 5 megapixel camera has the functionality of a dedicated device with auto-focus, dual LED flash, geo-tagging, an editor and face/smile detection. A secondary camera is also provided to allow video calling.
Access to the Internet is granted with a 3G HSDPA connection that rivals the experience obtained via broadband and with portrait or landscape viewing web pages can be enjoyed with ease. The Android OS v1.6 can be upgraded to v2.2. The connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, quad-band roaming and a HDMI port is provided for connecting to a TV. The Dell Streak offers the best of both worlds and with a GPS receiver, digital compass and Google Maps the package is rounded off nicely.
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Anyone going to the World Cup or abroad can minimise the cost of mobile calls, text messages and internet fees
As if the thousands of UK travellers trapped abroad after the recent volcanic ash drama hadn’t suffered enough damage to their bank balances, many are now facing mobile phone “bill shock“.
These holidaymakers, many of whom are just receiving their latest mobile phone bills, may be dismayed when they discover how much they have spent on calls and data roaming while stranded abroad. The Observer recently ran a story about William Harrison, a student who accidentally ran up an £8,000 phone bill with Orange while in France by using his mobile to access the internet.
In theory, mobile bills should no longer be too painful for those travelling to Europe, as from 1 March all European mobile operators have been obliged under EU roaming rules to offer their customers a cut-off limit of €50 (about £45) for using the internet on their phones. However, it is still early days and not yet clear whether all operators are complying with this rule.
In a month’s time the regulations will tighten further, as at the moment customers need to opt-in to this limit, whereas from 1 July the cut-off limit will be set at €50 by default unless they opt out.
For those travelling further afield the cost of calling, texting and using the internet on their mobile can still be an expensive pastime. Independent consumer body Consumer Focus warned World Cup ticket holders last week that costs for calls, texts and data use could add up to more than £100 on a match day – more than the face value of a ticket.
Mobile phone operators are expected to start bringing out more competitive overseas mobile phone packages in the next few weeks as the holiday season hots up.
But for now, anyone who is about to go abroad has a number of options: doing nothing and sticking with their operator’s standard overseas charges (expensive); switching to their operator’s overseas calls package (cheaper); buying a global or local sim (potentially even cheaper, depending on usage).
Mike Wilson, mobiles and broadband manager at moneysupermarket.com, says: “Don’t underestimate how easy it is to rack up a hefty mobile bill if you are going overseas and planning to use your phone.
“Before escaping the country be sure to check with your operator how much calls, texts and internet use will set you back when you’re away, because you won’t be charged the same rates as your UK tariff. I would advise asking if there is a cheaper international tariff available.”
For standard call charges in Europe, T-Mobile and Virgin are the most expensive at 43p a minute, according to moneysupermarket.com, while 02 is the cheapest at 35p a minute. Network operator 3 is the cheapest for receiving calls at 15p a minute compared to Orange, T-Mobile and Virgin, which all charge the most at 19p. Sending texts is 11p a message with all networks, and all are free to receive.
The cost of using the internet is where operators’ charges vary hugely, and where holidaymakers are most likely to run up large bills. T-Mobile, 3, 02 and Orange all charge a flat fee per megabyte (MB) of between £1.25 (3) and £3 (02 and Orange), while Vodafone and Virgin offer the option of either paying per MB, or paying either a daily or hourly fee for web usage (with a cap on how much data can be used).
Virgin, for example, charges £5 a MB, or £4 for a one-hour pass with a 3MB limit and £6 for a 24-hour pass with a 5MB limit.
Whichever package you have you need to be careful about how much data you download. One MB is not much – watching a two-hour film uses about 800 MB.
All these charges when incurred within Europe are considerably lower than in some other countries. For example, if you visit Egypt with your Orange phone you will pay £1.75 a minute to call home and £8 per MB of data used, while in Australia you will pay £1.20 a minute per call and £7.50 per MB of data with T-Mobile.
To keep costs down, a good alternative is to opt for your operator’s travel package. Vodafone’s Passport deal, for example, means you pay your standard home rate to call the UK from more than 35 European countries (and from Australia and New Zealand) after paying a 75p connection charge. These calls can be part of your inclusive minutes if you are on a contract. To receive calls you pay the 75p connection charge and you can talk for up to 60 minutes free of charge. After that you pay 20p a minute.
02′s My Europe Extra, on the other hand, is £10 a month for 25p-a-minute calls, free received calls and 11p texts.
You can avoid your UK operator’s charges altogether by switching your network sim card for a global or local sim using websites such as 0044.co.uk and UK2Abroad.co.uk. A global sim card will work across a number of countries so is particularly good for frequent travellers or backpackers, while a local sim will only work in one country. You can buy these before you travel, but you might need to get your phone unlocked by your operator so you can switch cards.
Most global and local sims cost somewhere between £15 and £30 and come loaded with differing amounts of call credit, which you can top up by credit or debit card at any time. For those travelling to South Africa for the World Cup, for example, 0044′s South African local sim costs £29.99 and gives you ZAR 55 (about £5) of credit.
After that, local calls cost 10p a minute off-peak, calls to the UK are 63p a minute, while texts to the UK are 15p. This compares with the standard pay-as-you-go rates on Orange where charges for local calls within South Africa and to the UK are £1.45 a minute and texts are 50p a message.
Buying a local or global sim will mean you temporarily have a new phone number, so you will need to make sure people know this before you go.
Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)
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• Mobile internet use as much as £8 to view 20 pages
• Fans urged to check with phone operators before travelling
Football fans lucky enough to be travelling to the football World Cup this summer are being warned that they could face huge mobile phone bills if they call, text, tweet or surf the web while in South Africa.
Many mobile phone companies count the country in their most expensive bracket when calculating the cost of mobile phone calls and texts, while accessing the web costs as much as £8 per megabyte with some operators. Football fans will run up that much data usage after accessing as few as 20 web pages, while any that download an “app” while abroad could run up far higher data charges.
Mobile phone operator 3 will this week slash its prices for customers going to the tournament, which starts on 11 June, while Vodafone has already announced it will extend its Passport cheap calls package to include the country.
But with more and more mobile phone users carrying smartphones that can access the internet, use social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and send emails, the tournament could turn out to be very expensive for football fans who do not check first with their mobile operator.
“The rise of smartphones, like the iPhone, means that all it takes is a bit of browsing or a downloaded app and you are going to get absolutely stung if you don’t know what you are paying for,” warned Mike Wilson, broadband and mobiles manager at moneysupermarket.com. “The high cost of roaming is always an issue in the summer but the fact that the World Cup is being held in South Africa has upped the ante.
“The first thing that anyone considering travelling this summer should do is speak to their existing provider and find out what they are going to charge and whether there are any special deals that will reduce that amount. Don’t forget to also shop around for better deals.”
This week 3 will announce that it is dropping its data roaming prices by more than 50% during June and July. It will charge £1.25 per megabyte of data, which compares with as much as £8 per megabyte with Orange.
Owned by Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, 3 is also dropping its call charges for South Africa – making calls from the country to anywhere else in the world will be charged at £1.40 per minute, while receiving calls will be 99p per minute and texts 25p.
While 3′s data roaming charges are cheaper than its rivals, its voice prices are still relatively high. Both O2 and Vodafone charge less, while all four rival networks offer discounts to customers who sign up for special international calling promotions.
Vodafone, for instance, has extended its free Passport service to include South Africa for June and July, meaning football fans who register before they travel can make calls from their existing bundles, after an initial 75p connection charge.
Vodafone has also dropped its data costs but only from 15 June, which is four days after kick-off in the first game. It currently charges £14.99 for 25MB of data a day in South Africa, but from 15 June it will charge £3 per megabyte for the first 5MB used by customers and £15 for every subsequent 5MB.
Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)
The HTC Wildfire is essentially a mini HTC Desire – our most popular phone. Just 13mm shorter than the Desire and with a lower resolution screen (240×320), the Wildfire offers outstanding value for money. It runs on Android 2.1 and it has the flexibility to download new apps, access the Internet with speed (via HSDPA) and enjoy your favourite media wherever you go. The optical trackpad and HTC Sense UI offer a great user experience and the 3.2 inch capacitive touchscreen can be used in landscape or portrait mode.
The 5 megapixel camera takes excellent pictures, it has auto-focus, smile detection and an LED flash. Internal memory can be expanded up to 32GB with a microSD card. Staying connected with your contacts has never been easier with the Wildfire. Texts, emails and instant messages can all be displayed in a chat-like, continuous view. The Wildfire will also stream wall updates from Facebook, Flickr and Twitter to ensure you stay up to date with the gossip wherever you may go.
A new feature for the Wildfire is the ability to rate and share downloaded apps with your contacts, which is a great idea. Built-in applications include Google Search, YouTube, Picasa, Gmail, Gtalk and Google Maps. A variety of connectivity options comprise of quad-band roaming for use overseas, Wi-Fi for hotspot locations and GPS for guided navigation. The HTC Wildfire is a compact (107 x 60 x 12mm) user friendly smartphone that will continue to evolve as new applications are released.
The new Samsung S3370 costs just £10 per month and comes with unlimited internet, 100 mins/texts per month, calls to other 3 mobiles are free, voicemail is free, 2 months free Spotify, free Skype-to-Skype calls, free Windows Live Messenger, free Twitter and more.
High-end looks and smartphone functionality make the Samsung S3370 a desirable option for those who want a feature-rich handset without having to break the bank. The front face incorporates two function keys and a diamond shaped navigation key that is mirrored in design with the phones speaker. A glossy finish encapsulates the large 2.6 inch TFT resistive touch-screen that has a resolution of 240×320 pixels.
Flipping the phone over reveals more quality design features and a basic 1.3 megapixel camera with smile detection. The camera offers flexibility by doubling as a video recorder (QCIF quality) and captured images can be stored onto the internal memory that can be increased with a microSD card for heavy users. Music lovers can access live tunes via the stereo FM radio with RDS or download music and video files for playback on the built-in MP3/MP4 player.
Communication on the go hasn’t been forgotten with support for SMS, MMS and email in addition to Facebook and MySpace applications. Internet connectivity is provided by a fast 3G HSDPA Web browser and with wireless Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and quad-band roaming, Samsung offer a comprehensive list of essential tools. The Samsung S3370 weighs only 86g and has dimensions of 100 x 53 x 13mm.
The HTC Wildfire is essentially a mini HTC Desire – our most popular phone. Just 13mm shorter than the Desire and with a lower resolution screen (240×320), the Wildfire should offer outstanding value for money. It runs on Android 2.1 and it has the flexibility to download new apps, access the Internet with speed (via HSDPA) and enjoy your favourite media wherever you go. The optical trackpad and HTC Sense UI offer a great user experience and the 3.2 inch capacitive touchscreen can be used in landscape or portrait mode.
The 5 megapixel camera takes excellent pictures, it has auto-focus, smile detection and an LED flash. Staying connected with your contacts has never been easier with the Wildfire. Texts, emails and instant messages can all be displayed in a chat-like, continuous view. The Wildfire will also stream wall updates from Facebook, Flickr and Twitter to ensure you stay up to date with the gossip wherever you may go.
A new feature for the Wildfire is the ability to rate and share downloaded apps with your contacts, which is a great idea. Internal memory can be expanded up to 32GB with a microSD card. Built-in applications include Google Search, YouTube, Picasa, Gmail, Gtalk and Google Maps. A variety of connectivity options comprise of quad-band roaming for use overseas, Wi-Fi for hotspot locations and GPS for guided navigation. The HTC Wildfire is a compact (107 x 60 x 12mm) user friendly smartphone that will continue to evolve as new applications are released.
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Swedish firm
Anyfi
Networks has announced a new Wi-Fi roaming technology that it claims will ”
shake up the mobile broadband industry” by offering a virtual Wi-Fi network
which can be accessed anywhere in the world.
Read Full Story…
(Source Yahoo UK News)
The Samsung Wave S8500 incorporates the latest LED and LCD TV screen technology to bring a display that is sharper, brighter and less reflective. The 3.3 inch capacitive AMOLED display is ideal for video streaming, video capture and for taking pictures on the 5-megapixel camera that boasts blink detection, smile shot, flash and geo-tagging. Access to the Internet opens up a world of entertainment and HSDPA technology brings mobile broadband speeds. Web pages are easy to view in either landscape or portrait modes and the one-touch 10x zoom allows you to see the finest of details. Users first port of call should be Samsung application shop to customise their handset with the latest and most relevant services.
Samsung’s new Bada operating system and powerful 1GHz processor make phone operations lightening quick whether its accessing the social networking hub or customising the home page with pictures and widgets. Entertainment options include a music player with 5.1 surround sound and FM radio. Storage of files onto the 2GB memory is easy and anyone who wants to download their whole music collection can upgrade the memory to 32GB with a microSD card. The digital compass points you in the right direction, GPS will guide you through unfamiliar places and quad-band roaming keeps you connected over all 5 continents. Overall the Samsung Wave is definitely a leader of the pack and users will be hard pushed to find a more comprehensive high-end package.
Outstanding optics, refined looks, on-demand TV for channels like CNN and National Geo, and a huge array of features take the Nokia N8 straight to the head of the pack. The 12 megapixel camera records 720p video and professional optics from Carl Zeiss combine with a xenon flash, face recognition and geo-tagging to bring possibly the best camera and video package available. The multimedia story doesn’t end here though, with thoughtful inclusion like an HDMI interface for TV or projector connectivity and Dolby Digital Plus technology for compatibility with home theatre systems.
The Nokia N8 has a 3.5 inch OLED capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 640×360 pixels. Your own widgets can be added to the three customisable home screens which can be accessed with a simple finer swipe. The home screen shows live updates from social networking sites and there’s a dedicated widget for Facebook and Twitter, bringing them into one application.
The N8 can download applications from the Ovi store via the 3G HSDPA web browser. For music addicts there’s an FM radio and Nokia’s Music Player. There’s 16GB internal memory (expandable up to 48GB) for storing your music files and the N8 can play back an impressive 50 hours from one battery charge, you can listen to music all day long.
Connectivity options are also varied with quad-band roaming, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Emails are handled by a unified email client whilst instant messaging capability and SMS in a conversational view perfectly round off any users communication needs. Nokia are also offering navigation for free with GPS and Ovi Maps providing turn-by-turn, on foot or by car, voice guided instructions. The Nokia N8 is a tremendous smartphone package with too many features to mention.
Free on T-Mobile or Vodafone, choice of deals from £25 per month.
The Samsung Wave S8500 incorporates the latest LED and LCD TV screen technology to bring a display that is sharper, brighter and less reflective. The 3.3 inch capacitive AMOLED display is ideal for video streaming, video capture and for taking pictures on the 5-megapixel camera that boasts blink detection, smile shot, flash and geo-tagging. Access to the Internet opens up a world of entertainment and HSDPA technology brings mobile broadband speeds. Web pages are easy to view in either landscape or portrait modes and the one-touch 10x zoom allows you to see the finest of details. Users first port of call should be Samsung application shop to customise their handset with the latest and most relevant services.
Samsung’s new Bada operating system and powerful 1GHz processor make phone operations lightening quick whether its accessing the social networking hub or customising the home page with pictures and widgets. Entertainment options include a music player with 5.1 surround sound and FM radio. Storage of files onto the 2GB memory is easy and anyone who wants to download their whole music collection can upgrade the memory to 32GB with a microSD card. The digital compass points you in the right direction, GPS will guide you through unfamiliar places and quad-band roaming keeps you connected over all 5 continents. Overall the Samsung Wave is definitely a leader of the pack and users will be hard pushed to find a more comprehensive high-end package.
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Holidaymakers are being milked by extortortionate charges to access the internet on their mobile phones
We are planning to go on holiday next month to France. Which is nice. I am also planning to take my phone now that the mobile internet is exploding. Which is also nice. The trouble is that I am actually planning to use my phone in order to access the web (email, Twitter, Flickr etc), and that’s where the problems start. I have been ranting about excessive data charges abroad for years so I was interested to see how things had changed now that “unlimited” data packages are widely available in the UK.
The man in the T-Mobile shop said they charged £1.50 a megabyte in data charges for mobile phones accessing the internet in France. To give some idea of what that means, I recently uploaded a three-minute video to YouTube, which was over 80MB. For nothing. If I had done that on T-Mobile’s tariff, it would have cost me £120. A single song these day could be 10MB, which would cost £15 to download.
I decided to ring my current provider, O2, to get a comparison. An extremely helpful assistant quoted me £3 a megabyte for France – twice the rate of T-Mobile, which was starting to look cheap. She pointed out that “bolt-ons” to my existing tariff were available offering a package of 10MB for £20 or 50MB for £50. A bit better, but still crap.
My final port of call was Vodafone, which used to be my operator of choice until they tried to charge me £250 for the privilege of staying loyal to them when I upgraded my phone. I wondered whether they had changed their spots. The man in the shop quoted me £4.25 a megabyte – which would have pushed the cost of uploading that video to £340 and a single track to £42.50, with no special bolt-ons to bring down the price.
So what is going on here? This is not something happening in a computer game, it is the real world. Unsuspecting people going abroad regularly get milked by those extortionate charges. And savvy people get caught as well. I know someone in the business who checked before he left for eastern Europe that he was not going to be exposed to these charges only to find out he had run up a £600 bill the first morning.
It is happening because the operators have treated their customers with scarcely concealed contempt for years. Not only did they build walled gardens around their phones, thereby shutting out rival products but they also paid content providers a pittance to create games and other stuff for their sites. This was not only bad manners but bad business. If they had paid content providers decent prices and had cheaper data charges they could have built up a market for apps years before Apple came on to the scene. But it took Apple to break their monopoly by popularising “all you can eat” data charges and letting developers keep 70% of the income (before VAT).
But where is the white knight who will ride to the rescue over data charges abroad? The European commission has done much to improve roaming charges, but hasn’t so far made much impact on data. It would be called daylight robbery except that it goes on through the night as well. It is not even in the interests of business because if international charges were capped it would lead to an explosion of data traffic, which would more than make up for the willful exploitation of their so-called customers.
There is an alternative – to use free Wi-Fi hotspots – but not everyone has access to them. The other possibility is that I may have missed something and there is actually a sensible argument for high data charges. Is there anyone out there from the operators who would care to put the argument for the defence? If not, then they should immediately put a stop to this outrageous scandal.
Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)
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Despite pressure on networks to drop roaming rates, MVNO Truphone is convinced of its business model, and the potential of a 125m global market
Read Full Story…
(Source Mobile News CWP)
The Samsung Monte has a 3 inch capacitive touchscreen to bring messaging, photos, videos and the Internet to life. The TouchWiz user interface employs intuitive graphics to guide the user from menu to application with ease. Social network integration with live updates ensures the latest gossip and pictures are only a touch away, while texts, emails and Palringo instant messaging provide a complete communication package. Access to the Internet is fast and seamless with HSDPA, Wi-Fi and a full HTML web browser. In addition to browsing, multiple applications can be downloaded to personalise and expand the functionality of the Monte.
With operation in either landscape or portrait views the 3.2 megapixel camera offers quality imaging. The use of the camera is further expanded with smile detection, geo-tagging, self timer, night mode, image editor and QVGA video capture at 15 frames per second. Once your media has been captured it can be stored onto the 200MB memory, that can be expanded up to 16GB with a microSD card. The media player handles all popular music and video formats, and can be enjoyed using the built-in speakers, via a Bluetooth headset or on your own headphones connected to the standard 3.5mm audio jack. The audio quality is exceptional and boasts 3D sound effects and DNSe (digital natural sound engine). Live music 24 hours a day can also be obtained using the built-in stereo FM radio with RDS.
Further notable features include Google Maps 3.0, A-GPS support, Wi-Fi, a document viewer and quad-band international roaming. The Monte weighs only 92g and has dimensions of 109×54x12mm. The battery standby of up to 760 hours is superb and matched by the talk-time of almost six hours. The Samsung Monte S5620 is almost unsurpassed for functionality and has a sporty design with its visually striking colour stripe.
BBC Tech News
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