The guys are back together and manage to survive the podcast with no drops and having to resort to impersonations of each other to create a flawless illusion to disguise any technical errors they might be encountering. On this mesmerising journey James visits Nokia, Andy comments on the future of Phones 4U, Matt tests the Sony Ericsson Zylo and Gareth uncovers Vodafone’s pricing blunder on the Blackberry Torch.
RIM’s first slider phone, the Blackberry Torch 9800, is now available for pre-order on Vodafone. But it is going cost a small fortune! As for a £20 a month contract you will need to shell out £400 just for the phone! And the only way you can get out of the £400 is by paying £40 a month, and did I mention that all contracts are 24 months? Oh, and to top it off, the data cap is at a measly 500MB on all contracts. RIM and Vodafone really got you by the balls on this one!
But if you still want the Torch after the insane cost, you do get some nice features. Such as a 3.2″ capacitive touchscreen, OS 6 with a real browser and universal search, the famous Blackberry keyboard but in slide format this time and a 5MP camera.
Anyway, if you do pre-order today, you should expect it to ship by September 27th.
Posted by Patrick
[ Post Tags: RIM, Blackberry, Blackberry Torch, Blackberry 9800, OS 6, tracyandmatt.co.uk, Slider ]
Vodafone has just announced that it will be accepting pre-order or the Blackberry Torch from today. Seemingly it is going to be free on £40 a month contracts however a £20 a month contract will see you shelling out a whopping £400 and being roped into a 24 month contract. The Data bundles included only manage to hit 500mbs which is a paltry amount for a phone that relies so heavily on the internet.
Today at Nokia World in London the company have officially announced three new smartphones all powered by their Symbian platform to join the already announced Nokia N8.
Here is the official word from Nokia:
It’s been a while since we looked at a non-smartphone from Sony Ericsson. In the past we’ve reviewed several handsets within their Walkman range and we thought it was about time that we reviewed some more!
So we’re starting out with the new Zylo. The Zylo is available from around £120 SIM-free and from free with a contract. It represents pretty good value for money with 3G connectivity, Bluetooth 2.1, Google Maps, MP4 playback, 3MP camera supporting Geo-tagging and Twitter, Facebook and YouTube clients.
Over the next week or so we’ll be putting the Sony Ericsson Zylo to the test and we’ll have the full review for you soon. Until then have a look at the unboxing video below to see what’s on offer.
No Nokia haven’t fallen on such hard times that they are giving their latest handsets away, but three of the major operators (Vodafone, T-Mobile and O2) have confirmed you can walk out of their doors with a shiny new N8 without handing over a penny. The catch? Well, you’ll instead hand over £35 a month to them for the next 2 years so ok, it’s not quite the offer it first appears. In fact this is right in the mid to high-end handset sweet spot of £30-35 / 24, putting the N8 up against big Android players like the Galaxy S and Desire, but still representing better value than the year old iPhone 3GS. At that price, it may even have to defend it’s 12mp Symbian^3 OLED screen equipped self against a kicking from the soon-to-be-revealed Windows Phone 7 devices. This quarter is shaping up to be one of the most interesting in mobile tech for years.
Posted by: Ian
Phones 4u could be sold after its private equity owner received a number of takeover offers.
The Sunday Times reports that ‘several suitors’ have made offers to Providence Equity. A source close to the company is quoted as saying: ‘There have been several unsolicited approaches and Providence is considering those. Discussions are at an early stage.’
The independent phone retailer was bought from founder John Caudwell in 2006. The business is estimated to be worth between £700m and £800m.
Mobile phone operators and DSGi are tipped as possible suitors.
Phones 4u already has a deal to put concessions in DSGI’s Curry stores and some PC World outlets.
[Source]
T-Mobile UK and 3 reached a milestone last Friday (9 September) when Ericsson activated the 10,000th shared site for Mobile Broadband Network Ltd (MBNL) – the two operators’ network consolidation company.
When the consolidation is complete, the MBNL network will consist of around 12,500 sites integrating the former T-Mobile UK and 3 networks, which previously numbered more than 18,000 2G and 3G sites in total.
Ericsson has a five year managed services contract announced last year for network design, deployment, the acquisition and building of sites, capacity management, equipment swaps and upgrades to transmission facilities. Services activities commenced February 2009 and are scheduled to complete by 10 October 2010 resulting in close to 12,500 active consolidated sites.
T-Mobile and 3 say the consolidation gives MBNL one of the most advanced, high quality mobile networks, providing very high capacity mobile broadband and voice services across Britain. The consolidation will improve the environmental footprint of the network while at the same time reduced operating expenses due to less power consumption, fewer sites and smaller footprint on the sites.
Mobile revealed on 3 September that Orange sites will also be consolidated into MBNL, a process that is expected to take up to five years to complete.
Graham Payne, MD of MBNL, said: ‘When we decided to merge the T-Mobile and 3 networks we had clear targets as to efficiency gains, cost achievements, quality enhancement and extended coverage of mobile data services. This network consolidation and the benefits it brings make a real difference to mobile consumers, many of whom for the first time now get access to the internet.’
Anders Runevad, president of Ericsson Region Western and Central Europe, added: ‘The success of this unprecedented consolidation process proves that new business models create win-win situations for all partners in our industry.’
[Source]
Think you’ve had one of those Mondays? Well spare a thought for Japanese software dev Nocchisan. The programmer tweeted the at first innocuous “On November 20th, the 11 goods I designed for use with the 3DS will go on sale”, a sentence that admittedly isn’t too bad – unless, like Nocchisan, you add the word “simultaneously” on the end. Presuming he doesn’t mean simultaneously with something totally unrelated so simultaneously with the hardware the said goods are designed to work with seems more likely. I’m no expert but this is likely a tiny breach of any NDA he’ll be working under, and Nintendo are not likely to look favourably at his faux-pas. So, is the 3DS going to be this Xmas’s massive hit or will we in the West have to wait the customary long and drawn out months before we can join the autostereoscopy party? Not long until we find out. 3D Mario without glasses? Yes please Santa.
Posted by: Ian
Destined for only the USA at the moment, the Motorola Defy is one of those devices that are produced every so often to ‘Defy’ being broken. Yes, it is scratch proof, dust proof and water resistant.
Motorola, Inc. unveiled the Motorola DEFYT enhanced with MOTOBLURT on today’s 25th season premiere of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Slim and pocket-able, this smartphone powered by AndroidT, which is planned for exclusive U.S. availability to customers of T-Mobile USA, comes equipped with a 3.7-inch high-resolution and scratch-resistant touch screen display that provides edge-to-edge views of your favorite websites, photos and videos.
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