Orange have launched a new range of mobile plans designed to make life easier for small and medium businesses by letting them personalise their plans to cope with the everyday challenges of running a business. Orange is responding to customers who want flexibility to keep pace with the fast moving nature of their business and may need to make changes depending on their focus that month – for instance they might want unlimited texts if they are finalising a fast moving project, or calls abroad if they are trying to strike a deal. The new plans will be supported by a simple four step process to help customers to choose a plan that really meets their needs, as well as the freedom to personalise the services to their requirements.
Step 1. choose a ‘talk benefit’ from unlimited landline calls or unlimited Orange to Orange calls Step 2. choose a core business plan depending on the number of users and the amount of time they expect to spend making calls (Business SIM Only, Business Solo or Business Sense) Step 3. choose one extra benefit from a range including email, 1GB internet browsing, extra texts, international calling and calling while abroad, which can be swapped on a monthly basis Step 4. In addition, customers can purchase add-ons, including Orange World for Business data bundles, BlackBerry Internet Service, BES Express, and MMS bundles to make sure they always have access to the services they need most
Shown here in this brief video are the different parts making up the housing of the upcoming iPhone which is expected to be announced early next month at WWDC 2010. The guy then proceeds to piece together the 4G iPhone’s digitizer LCD and its middle metal plate. For those doubting its make, if you listen closely to the video, you can actually hear that it’s really metal and not just some cheap plastic made to look like it. Missing here, however, is the backplate to complete the case iPhone 4G (HD), but we’re not exactly that disappointed given that we’ve seen it as a whole already thanks to Gizmodo’s controversial posting and video of the leaked iPhone 4G.
Apart from its redesigned aesthetics, the iPhone 4G (HD) is expected to come equipped with a front-facing camera, flash for the rear camera, support for 720p video recording, high-resolution display, and will ship with iPhone OS 4.0 on-board.
boygeniusreport have once again got some exclusive news on the BlackBerry Slider that we have mentioned once or twice over the past weeks. This time on video!
Although the video is only 13 seconds long it’s a true indication that the BlackBerry Slider is in fact real. After seeing the initial leaked photos I quite liked the look of the slider and now on video it looks even better.
Phonearena has put together a nice review and comparison of the Microsoft Kin One and Kin Two. The honest seem to be quite tight devices with a pleasant user interface. Whilst they do seem to be somewhat unremarkable the Windows Phone operating system gives us a nice insight into the working of this cut down version of what to expect later this year. After watching the video I’m a lot more excited about these devices and will look forward to having a play with this at some point in the future. Check out the video after the break:
They originally planned on releasing a Android based tablet by the end of this year but decided instead to base it on the BlackBerry 6 OS they showed of at WES
This decision to use BlackBerry 6 has pushed off its release date to early next year
RIM will market the tablet to the consumer market instead of their usual enterprise approach
The device will supposedly use the Marvell Armada processor instead of Intel or other offerings
Take all of this with a grain of salt since it is coming from analysts who are paid to speculate. Still its disheartening to see that once again RIM is playing the catch up game with Apple.
Some interesting news which was just found tonight and is sending shockwaves through gadget fans in the UK is that from 1st June 2010, Vodafone will change the conditions on charging for data use on mobile phones.
At present all phones with exception to the iPhone and Nexus One can have a data package of 500MB Fair Use added for £5 a month but until now you could go over that mark without fear of running up a bill. This will change from June with Vodafone charging another £5 for 500MB of internet use which has had people on Moneysaving Expert & Vodafone eForum fuming.
To compare, T-Mobile offer 3GB data with ALL Android phones as a free part of your package, the same 3GB on Vodafone will now cost you £30!
Update:
Our roving report Chris hassled Vodafone and they confirmed it all:
Orange today announced that it is extending its partnership with Apple to offer new iPad plans for customers in the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Switzerland. The partnership between Orange and Apple, which has already seen iPhone launch with Orange in 30 countries across Europe, Middle East and Africa, will extend later in 2010 with the launch of iPad in additional Orange markets.
Orange UK will offer tailored 3G data plans for iPad Wi-Fi + 3G, from 10th May, and will launch a pre-registration site for SIM’s at Orange.co.uk/iPad. Pay-as-you-consume, daily, weekly and monthly data plans will be available, providing the freedom to choose a type of plan depending on usage.
We mentioned earlier that the iPad is coming to UK shores very shortly, May 28th will be the UK release date, and we now have had the prices confirmed. They are as follows:
£429 (inc. VAT) for 16GB Wi-Fi iPad £499 (inc. VAT) for 32GB Wi-Fi iPad £599 (inc. VAT) for 64GB Wi-Fi iPad £529 (inc. VAT) for 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad £599 (inc. VAT) for 32GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad £699 (inc. VAT) for 64GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad
As expected we are getting charged a lot more here in the UK than our friends over in the States.
To compare: The 16GB Wi-Fi pad in the States is $499 which equates to £330. Yet we are being charged £429!
The 64GB 3G iPad in the States is $829 which equates to £549. We pay £699.
So I am afraid that if you want an iPad here in the UK you will be ripped off! Why are Apple doing this? I think the answer is because they can.
Well it looks like the wait is almost over. As you can tell from the headline above, Apple have announced the release date for nine extra countries, including the UK, with pre-orders beginning on May 10th.
The full list of nine is Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.
We still don’t have any idea on prices quite yet, but I’m guessing that that will be obvious in a couple of days.
The below is a statement released by Sony Ericsson regarding when the X10 will be eligible for an upgrade to Android 2.1
“Thanks for your patience concerning more information about software upgrades. UXP (UX platform) is the strategic framework for the core of Sony Ericsson’s portfolio. The XperiaT X10 family of phones (XperiaT X10, XperiaT X10 mini and XperiaT X10 mini pro) are the first products to deliver this unique user interface layer to the market. UXP builds on top of the Android OS and brings together a rich graphical user interface, unrivalled service plug-ins and content from external partners to deliver unique consumer propositions such as Sony Ericsson’s signature applications Mediascape and TimescapeT. Through UXP consumers get the best of two worlds, leveraging Sony Ericsson heritage as a leader in communication entertainment and the benefits that the generic Android OS delivers. With UXP Sony Ericsson gives consumers additional value in comparison to generic Android handsets. Sony Ericsson’s strategy is to continue to enrich the UXP layer through software updates.
Some examples of user benefits that will be included in the UXP upgrade for XperiaT X10 in Q4 2010 are: – Upgrade to Android OS version 2.1 – HD video recording as per the same execution as Sony Ericsson VivazT – Wireless home connectivity via DLNA – Improvements to signature applications TimescapeT and Mediascape to make them even smarter and richer
The upgrade will be made available to consumers through the update service at www.sonyericsson.com
I do appreciate that the timing for the upgrade above might not meet some of your expectations and that you will have further detailed questions. I will take them onboard reading your comments and address questions as soon as it is possible for me to share further details.
I would also like to emphasise that there will be an additional smaller software update, already in the next couple of weeks aiming to enhance the usability and performance of XperiaT X10. In the next post, I will share more details and precise timings for when this update will be released.
We can also confirm that the XperiaT X10 mini and XperiaT X10 mini pro will be upgraded to Android version 2.1, during Q4 2010.
More details with regards to the specific components of the UXP upgrade will be shared over time through official Sony Ericsson channels including this blog.
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