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Network operator Orange launches ‘smartnumbers’ service to give patients access to the correct healthcare staff and services, and the healthcare profession better management of patient time
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Posts Tagged “service”
Survey finds internet listening is on the up thanks to mobile devices Radio audience measurement body Rajar says new figures show that 20% of smart phone users have a radio app installed on their device. Its most recent survey also shows that 31% of listeners listen to the radio online and 16% have downloaded a podcast. It appears that radio habits are adapting well the arrival of not just streaming internet but catchup services. 13% of the adults questioned have listened to radio by a mobile phone, with the majority using a specific FM preset on the app, with a only small proportion running a station-centric app. Out of those 20% with a radio app, more than half use their apps at least once a week. On the internet radio front, 25% use time-shifted services to catch up on programmes they have missed. The vast majority said that the “listen again” services had no impact on the amount of live radio they listen to, with the average listener just the services twice a week. The awareness of personalised online radio services has increased to 14%, with frequent users up to 11%. Personalised radio services (such as Last.fm) create a streaming radio station based on your listening habits and artists you enjoy. Podcast listening figures are also on the up, with 15% of the adult population listen to a podcast once a week but only 25% of the users listen to the entire recording. The typical listener subscribes to less than five podcasts, mostly in the comedy and music genres. Those surveyed listen to podcasts home and on the way to work, with 36% claiming that podcasts have introduced them to new radio shows. Have you listened on a mobile device or do you fancy the internet over the air? Check out TuneIn Radio for the iPhone, Android Online Radio or iheartradio for BlackBerry to tune into your favourite station. Be aware that unless you are on Wi-Fi, radio stream over the air will zap up your data usage faster than you can say Radio 2.
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The government says there is not enough money for a minimum service speed of 2Mbps broadband to be in place throughout the UK by 2012. Read Full Story…
Jul
14
2010
 
Apple shares dip amid iPhone 4 recall uncertaintyPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Growing speculation on the future of Apple’s iPhone 4 has hit the company where it hurts – and its reputation is also on the line Apple shares dived by 4% last night, cutting $9.9bn (£6.5bn) off its $230bn value after speculation grew that the company would have to recall or issue hardware fixes for the new iPhone 4. The fall follows a report by the independent American testing organisation Consumer Reports which said reception problems meant it could not recommend the device. Apple was accused of censorship by removing discussions about the negative Consumer Reports evaluation from its official message boards over the weekend, though it seems now to have relented. A number of PR experts contacted by Cult of Mac blog yesterday said a recall of the iPhone 4 was “inevitable,” comparing the situation to Toyota’s global recall of its hybrid cars earlier this year. Yet others including Marco Arment, lead developer of Tumblr and Instapaper, say that a wholesale recall would be a step too far, but that Apple needs to “replace, redesign, or relocate the proximity sensor” – which tells the phone when it is close to the user’s head or hand and changes its radio output and screen brightness accordingly. UK consumer watchdog Which? told the Guardian that although it had done initial tests on the iPhone 4 proximity sensor – finding that the screen is “disabled” the closer to your head the phone is held – it would carry out a “more comprehensive” review of the device in the near future. Others have suggested that Apple should give owners free rubber “bumpers” – sold for $29 (£25 in the UK) – which fit around the edge of the phone, ostensibly to protect it from damage, but which also cut the signal loss that is at the core of the dispute. But for Apple to do that would be tantamount to admitting that the device has a design problem, which could open it up to class action lawsuits from aggrieved buyers. Apple has tended to decline recalling products that have had design issues, preferring to deal on a limited basis where people complain. Earlier this week it quietly announced that it would replace faulty versions of its Time Capsule backup product, after thousands of them failed after just 18 months. When a number of its iBook computers were found to have faulty soldering in 2007 by a Danish consumer investigation, it did not issue a recall. Apple UK had no comment this morning on whether it will be making any announcements about the iPhone. UK Consumers’ Association magazine Which? said that it intended to test the phone “soon”. Despite the fall in the technology company’s share price, it remains the largest on the US stock market, ahead of long-term rival Microsoft. And although Consumer Reports did not “recommend” the iPhone 4, other commentators have pointed out that it still ranks it highest among the smartphones it has tested – and that its second-ranked smartphone is the iPhone 3GS, the predecessor to the latest version. Even with a growing clamour from users and testers who have discovered that the phone’s reception seems to drop off abruptly when they position their hand around the left side, the company has remained almost silent – except for a statement on Friday 2 July, when it put out a “letter” a week after the phone’s release in which it said that the dropoff in reception was due to a “simple and surprising” mistake in every iPhone’s software which meant that it overstated signal strength in weak reception. Although the launch on 28 June saw 1.7m iPhone 4s sold in the first three days, the most successful yet of the annual refreshments to the model, it has proved to be a continual headache for Apple. But the major woe for consumers has been the signal issues. Testers at Consumer Reports said that holding the iPhone at the bottom left-hand corner causes the signal to decay significantly. Despite Apple’s low-key suggestion that there is nothing wrong with the phone, it is understood that staff on its warranty service AppleCare have been advising customers to buy a case or hold the phone in a different way. Consumer Reports has held off recommending the iPhone 4, despite it gaining a higher rating than all other smart phones they have evaluated.
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Jul
13
2010
Ballmer admits mobile failures but promises ‘devices to be proud of’Posted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Microsoft ‘missed a generation’ on the mobile side, but chief executive Steve Ballmer insists that the company’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 will ‘give you a set of Windows-based devices which people will be proud to carry’ Steve Ballmer has admitted that Microsoft “missed a generation” on the mobile side but insisted that the company’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 – which has garnered “really quite nice reviews” – “give you a set of Windows-based devices which people will be proud to carry at home, and which will really fit and support the kinds of scenarios that enterprise IT is trying to make happen with the phone form factor.” In his speech to the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference, which brings together companies that sell, develop and use Microsoft products, Ballmer, head of the company for the past 10 years, said that slates devices and mobiles are “certainly an area where, how do I say it, we feel all of the energy and vigor and push that we have ever felt to innovate, to drive hard, to compete.” But without naming any of the rivals who have overtaken Microsoft’s mobile sales – such as the iPhone, launched in 2007, which Ballmer initially dismissed, or Android, the Linux-based mobile platform from Google which now outsells both Windows Mobile (soon to be superseded by the incompatible Windows Phone) and Apple’s iPhone – Ballmer insisted that Microsoft is focussed on getting the IT functions within organisations to offer Microsoft solutions to staff: “So, I encourage you, and certainly we’re going to reach out vigorously to work together with you, and to drive enterprise IT, as well as the consumer, the people who work for the businesses we serve, they’ve got to come into IT and say, I want a Windows 7 slate. I want a Windows Phone 7. And we’re absolutely hell-bent and determined to drive that volume with IT as well as with the end consumer.” Ballmer made no mention of the abrupt cancellation last month of the KIN social networking phones, which were meant to be the result of its billion-dollar acquisition of the Danger mobile company. Now the company has unveiled a number of services to go with Windows Phone – whose release date is still not set. Windows Phone Live, a companion online service, was announced today. Pitched in the same territory as Apple’s paid-for MobileMe, used for over-the-air synchronisation of iPhone contacts and calendars, it is intended to provide remote synchronisation, remote wipe, and a central location for pictures, contacts, calendar and notes within 25GB of storage. But unlike MobileMe, Microsoft will provide the service free to all Windows Phone customers – apparently for the duration of the phone contract. Beta versions of the Windows Phone development tools were made available: the new API is nearly feature-complete, with updated push notifications and accelerometer interfaces. The Community Technology Preview back in March allowed for feedback from the development community and Microsoft have said it has been “blown away by the early apps”. Pre-productions devices will be shipped later this month to selected developers, as well as deployment and testing labs in major cities. And earlier this week a group of Polish students were the first non-developers to get pre-production Windows Phone devices. Appreciating that having applications ready for the launch of the devices later this year is essential to success, Microsoft is running a virtual live class for interested developers in the platform. There are rumours that HTC – which used to be the biggest licensee of Windows Mobile, but has recently turned towards Android – will launch the first Windows Phone 7 handset in the UK, to be called the HTC Gold, though there is no confirmation from mobile networks or from HTC. There are also “leaks” claiming there will be models called the HTC Mondrian and Mozart, also running Windows Phone 7 on 800 x 480 screens without a QWERTY keyboard, with Internet Explorer Mobile 7.
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Airwave better in a heatwaveA Health and Safety report into the London Ambulance Service has raised concerns about its radio comms network and vehicle panic buttons.… Read Full Story…
Jul
12
2010
RIM announces BlackBerry Protect security appPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
RIM has unveiled BlackBerry Protect, a service that provides what the firm Read Full Story…
Jul
10
2010
Mobile provider Giffgaff makes first customer payoutsPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Giffgaff has rewarded its customers with their first payout – for acting as its sales and technical staff A new “community-run” mobile phone company, which is offering the chance to earn hundreds of pounds a year by spreading the word about it, has announced its first payments to customers. One Giffgaff user received £654, and more than 40 others earned at least £200 apiece. Payouts are earned by recruiting and by helping other customers with their technical problems. Giffgaff, which went live in November as a “sim-only” service (you use your existing handset), is the latest example of a web-based business that gives people the opportunity to make money by, in effect, becoming a salesperson or troubleshooter. The scheme therefore allows the company to save on advertising and call centre costs. Who’s behind the company?Giffgaff – an ancient Scottish word that means “mutual giving”, apparently – describes itself as a mobile phone company “where the community is at the heart of it”, and which does things differently to the “faceless” big networks. It is online only, with “no wasteful shops or excessive call centres”. So some might be surprised to discover Giffgaff is wholly owned by 02 – and runs on its network. While some potential customers might be disappointed that this isn’t a truly mutual, member-owned organisation, others may feel more comfortable signing up with a company backed by a big name. Mike Fairman, the chief executive, says that while 02 provided the capital for the business to start up, Giffgaff operates independently, with its own offices and staff. “It’s very much an arms-length arrangement … this is very different from 02.” The company declined to divulge its customer numbers, but says it has a 6,000-strong online community. Is it worth signing up as a customer?If you are looking for a cheap pay-as-you-go service, Giffgaff’s pricing is quite competitive. UK calls are 8p and texts 4p – this matches Asda Mobile’s pricing – with free UK web browsing on your handset until 1 October. After that, mobile internet will be charged at up to 50p a day for most people, says a spokesman. Customers can get free calls to one another. As the company points out on its website, 02 charges 25p for calls to other networks and 10p for texts. It is offering a range of “goodybags” – a mix of UK minutes, texts and mobile internet that last for a month. You can order a free sim card online and top up by card or voucher. What about those payments to customers?Promoting the company and helping out other customers in Giffgaff’s online forum earns rewards. Promoting the company could include giving sim cards to friends or even making your own video and putting it on YouTube. One point equals one pence. Sending your friend an email about Giffgaff would earn you 50p. If you send Giffgaff sims to several people, you get £5 for each one that is activated. The rewards for helping with customer queries vary depending on criteria, such as how the person who asked the question rated the answer. How is the money paid?The points earned are converted into pounds, and the cash paid out twice a year – in June and December. You can have the cash paid into a PayPal account (you can’t have it paid direct into your bank account), get it as airtime credit for your phone, or donate it to Cancer Research, the charity chosen by members. How much can people make?Giffgaff claims the amounts people can earn are “limitless”. It says more than 40% of members were rewarded last month. The average user received £14, while 42 people earned more than £200. One 19-year-old Londoner received £206 for spreading the word among his friends and helping on the community forum. He is putting the cash towards a new laptop for when he starts university in September. Liam Salomone (pictured), 30, of Northolt, Middlesex, earned £654 for sending emails to contacts, answering queries on the forum, and encouraging friends to sign up. “It’s much better that a mobile firm pays its customers to market their product than to waste money on advertising,” he says, adding: “I’m saving the money for a trip to South Africa with my mum. We’ve both spoken about visiting there for years, and now we have an opportunity to do it.” Does anyone else do this sort of thing?Mobile network 3 runs the “Free Agent” scheme, where £5 is paid into your PayPal account every time a friend with a 3G phone orders a sim from you and tops it up by £10 or more. You don’t have to be a 3 customer to sign up to the scheme, and the company is offering a number of online tools to help people promote the offer.
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Jul
09
2010
Orange to launch Telepresence Community with CiscoPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Orange is preparing to launch a Telepresence Community service which will Read Full Story…
It’s all about the ‘benefits’Apple has filed a sweeping patent application for a technology suite designed to provide iPhone users with a broad range of real-time product information, special offers, sales opportunities, and related services in stores, restaurants, and other retail establishments.…
Free On-Demand Webcast – Virtualizing the Hard Stuff Read Full Story…
RIM has introduced several updates to its BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) Read Full Story…
Jul
06
2010
From fertility to football: Ten mobile apps to tryPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Finding a good app is sorting the wheat from the chaff. With new releases appearing all the time, it can be difficult to know where to begin. Here is a selection of genuinely useful applications to try out on your mobile. iPhone ● LifeForceTeam Fertility (Back Door Productions, £3.99) A unique application which provides fertility advice straight to couples, without the hassle of lengthy waiting lists. With advice from Harley Street expert Dr Lawrence Shaw, this application provides a comprehensive knowledge of everything you need to know through videos and text. ● PolyTune (TC Electronics, £5.99) Polyphonic guitar tuning allows you to tune all your guitar strings at once, instead of plucking one at a time. Available within a pedal for a smooth £75.00, this app provides the same functionality for a fraction of the cost. iPad ● Brushes (Steve Sprang, £4.99) This week’s internet hit has been the artistic work of David Kassan who has created stunningly realistic portraits with an iPad and easel. Even if your skills do not match the level of his, you can certainly have fun with this easy to use painting application. ● Live Pitch (Mint Digital, free) The best iPad apps are designed from the ground up to take advantage of the huge screen. One such example is Live Pitch – which provides real time information with from each World Cup match. A must have for any football fan, provides an entirely new way to experience football. Blackberry ● UNO (Gameloft, $4.99) Relive summers of the playing this classic card, number and colour game, UNO is a realistic interpretation of the original game and ideal for those morning commutes. ● Player for YouTube (Smarter Apps, free) Simple, yet extremely useful, this handy application allows you to watch high quality videos straight from YouTube. Be sure to make sure your WiFi is turned on, or watch your data costs soar with each passing second. Android ● Pocket IKEA (Go2mobile, free) Ever tried to remember the name of that BILLY bookcase in the corner? Pocket IKEA allows you to browse thousands of items from everyone’s favourite do-it-yourself furniture store. Avoid the crowds and spend your time somewhere leisurely than trailing around a warehouse. ● National Rail (ATOC, £4.99) The official application from the all the rail operators, National Rail provides the latest service updates, journey planning, fare information, platforms as well as live departures and arrivals. Essential for any commuter, and more reliable than the train services too. Java ● iSpyCams (Warelex, free) Fancy spotting what is happening at Abbey Road? Watch boats floating down the Seine? Check if someone is parked outside your garage? iSpyCams allows you to connect to thousands of free web cams around the world, as well as your own at home. ● UrbanDaddy (UrbanDaddy, free) Whether you are stumbling around for some fried chicken at midnight or looking for a cocktail bar at lunch time, UrbanDaddy will help you find the best locations. Providing comprehensive guides and articles to the major cities, this is an essential companion to exploring.
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Both N900 owners in uproarUsers of Nokia’s N900 tablet are outraged at the news that the latest OS update automatically collects details and signs them up to services, without the option to opt out or cancel.… Read Full Story…
Jun
30
2010
Microsoft kills new Kin mobile following slow salesPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Introduced in April as the result of the Danger acquisition, the Kin phones are already history and will not be sold in Europe. Now everything hinges on Windows Phone Microsoft has taken the Kin – a shell-shaped mobile that emerged from its purchase of the Danger brand – out to the back and shot it. Slow sales in the US mean that it’s not going to be released in Europe (sorry, Windows Mobile fans) and that instead Microsoft is going to focus on Windows Phone 7, its upcoming revision to its entire mobile operating system. In a statement to CNet News, which got the story first, Microsoft said “We have made the decision to focus exclusively on Windows Phone 7 and we will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned… Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones.” The Kin had a lot of advertising behind it in the US, including TV, web, print and radio ads. But it didn’t make any difference. The Kin was unveiled only in April, to be sold through Verizon in the US and slated for Vodafone in the UK in Europe in the autumn. Among the elements that were being pushed by Microsoft as putting the Kin ahead of the pack were “deep social networking integration”. However, it was never part of the main thrust of Microsoft’s mobile strategy, which now revolves around the as-yet unreleased Windows Phone. Michael Gartenberg, a consumer analyst, said he suspected part of the reason for the poor sales was Verizon’s data pricing plans. The Kin was part of a project being run within Microsoft called Pink, which was developed in parallel to the Windows Phone 7 project, whose products are scheduled to be released later this year. However Microsoft’s decision to kill the Kin means that for now it will struggle even further to maintain market share in the smartphone market, where it has been losing out to Apple’s iPhone and especially to Google’s Android platform, while Nokia has maintained its lead, with RIM, maker of the BlackBerry, holding its own in second place. The Kin devices, which had a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, were made by Sharp, but Microsoft determined the software, online services and hardware. At the unveiling in April, Patrick Chomet, group director of terminals at Vodafone, said “Kin has a unique and intuitive way of engaging with the user, enabling them easily to share experiences and stay in touch with their friends.”
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Operator reports success after implementing mobile services for MVNO partners to drive customer acquisitions and increase ARPU Read Full Story…
Jun
28
2010
Eric Schmidt: smartphones are the future for Google and the worldPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
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
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Jun
25
2010
Google vanishes Android apps from citizen phonesPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
‘Kill switch’ in actionGoogle has reached out over the airwaves and removed a pair of applications from users’ Android phones, saying the two apps violated its terms of service.… Read Full Story…
Jun
24
2010
iPhone 4 snapped up as it hits British shoresPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Apple aficionados have been queuing for days to get their hands on the iPhone, described as ‘an object of rare beauty’ People used to queue like this to make a call from a red telephone box. Now there were 600, mostly under 30, taking pictures on their mobiles of other people queueing for a mobile to replace the mobile they had just taken a picture with. Some had been in line for nearly two days waiting to fork out on yet another must-have product from a company that at present can only offer its UK customers its new product in black just like Henry Ford once did for the first in line for his new car. And, however cool its new iPhone 4 may be, Apple’s first day pizzazz chimes into a much older British tradition. We queue for the first day of sales, we queue for shop openings, we queue for Wimbledon. Here there were some people who had pre-ordered their new phone online but felt they needed to queue to pick it up. It is 7am at the company’s store in Regent Street, London, one of 27 in the UK, one of the favoured five countries – the others being Japan, Germany, France and the US – for the launch of a phone described by Stephen Fry in today’s Guardian as “an object of rare beauty”. The doors open and the first customers are ushered in to be greeted by a whooping, clapping and a-hollering gaggle of store staff, all dressed in company blue T-shirts . The honoured vanguard, enter as in an airport arrivals hall, with smiles and waves of varying gusto, rucksacks on their backs and pulling suitcases on trolleys. The England football team can only dream of such greetings when they return to Heathrow from the World Cup. The early nerds go upstairs to the sales floor for one-to-one advice before making their purchases, which cost £599 for the 32GB handset, £499 for the 16GB but much, much less up-front if tied in to long term contracts with service providers. Later, they return down the steps like minor royalty, waving their newest prize possessions and giving the thumbs-up to another whooping and a-hollering. First in the queue, although not apparently first to buy, was Alex Lee, 27, a business consultant, who had flown in from Dubai with his sister Priscilla, for four 32GB handsets. That was a cool £2,400, so by the time hotel accommodation, before his near two days on a pavement, is taken into account, his bill for the trip will have cost £4,000. One will go to his sister, at least one will be put up for auction for a charity in his home city of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada with the proceeds probably going to a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender group. “Canada doesn’t have it yet and I am sure I can get a pretty penny for it”, he predicts. “I am no stranger to the launch of Apple products. It’s fairly standards. It’s standing in line … But you get to meet lots of great people”, he added more enthusiastically, as befitted a man who had been waiting since 11.45 on Tuesday to buy four phones. And what about the phone? “It is what it is”, he said, in only a way true aficionados can. “I love it.” Perhaps he hadn’t got over the disappointment of some pre-ordering customers getting first go, a glitch in this stage-managed event. Asked why he was not first to enter the store, Lee said: “I don’t have an answer because I’ve been queuing here for a lot longer than everybody else. I can’t do anything about it.” Ben Paton, 23, just graduated from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, with a 2:1 in computer network management and design, was more expansive. “It is easy to hold, the screen is incredible. It IS an incredible phone.” He is paying £219 plus £35 a month for two years with provider O2. He already has an older iPhone 3G. “I am giving that to my 80-year-old aunt”, he said. He had queued 16 hours to be 17th or 18th in line for the new product. “It is a once in a lifetime experience. How often do you get the chance to sleep in Regent Street with like-minded people. It was incredible. I was sitting next to someone from Poland, someone from Australia, someone from Italy. I would describe myself as a geek. I like technology. I get enthusiastic about it. If people call me a geek, why not embrace it?” Suman Roy, from Perivale, London, a software engineer, had waited about 20 hours. At 40, his was a rare middle-aged presence. “It was more like camping out at Glastonbury. There was a lot of camaraderie. I am going to treat myself, I don’t need it. I just wanted it. I think it is going to be a fun device. I am looking forward to playing with it over the next couple of days and I really hope it lives up to the hype.” And Apple has good news for those who prefer their products white. The new iPhone will be available in that colour at the end of next month.
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