Gareth, James and Donkey meet up to see what’s happening in the mobile tech world on this Monday night podcast. Blackberry dominates with the announcement that they have, for the second year running, come out tops in the smartphone sales list. T-Mobile launch a new unlimited plan and Samsung revamp an old favourite with the Galaxy S Advance. Oh, and Donkey says “hee-haw”
Samsung Electronics today announces the latest addition to its Android powered Galaxy portfolio, the Galaxy S Advance, which features a sleek curved design with dual-core performance.
The Galaxy S Advance strikes the perfect balance of style and performance. Powered by a dual-core 1.0 GHz processor and HSPA 14.4 Mbps connectivity, the Galaxy S Advance delivers great versatility and a highly responsive interface for easy multitasking – allowing smoother screen transitions, faster image processing, plus enhanced Web download and browsing.
The Galaxy S Advance features a 4.0″ Super AMOLED display which provides the stunning visuals Samsung Galaxy smartphones are renowned for, displaying photos and videos captured with the device’s 5MP camera in unparalleled colour and vivid clarity.
Running on Android Gingerbread and featuring Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface, the Galaxy S Advance enables users to stay connected through Samsung’s Hubs range, including Music, Reader and Game Hubs. Samsung’s cross platform communication service, ChatON, is also provided, bringing together into a single community by using phone numbers instead of usernames and passwords, allowing for easy instant messaging, group chatting and sharing content in multiple formats to make messaging simpler and more intuitive than ever.
We all know that over the last couple of years Blackberry sales have declined in some parts of the world, in particular North America. RIM have been under constant critism but here in the UK things couldn’t be more different.
In 2010 the BlackBerry was the UK’s best selling smartphone and once gain the Canadian company have done it again in 2011.
Nearly every teenager I see out on the street is using a BlackBerry and with the Blackberry Internet Service only costing £5 per month it is obvious why they choose BlackBerry. For your £5 you get unlimited BBM, email and web access. With the Blackberry Curve 8520 available from a little over £100 on PAYG this fits perfectly into the social networking lifestyle that most of us have now adopted and take for granted.
With RIM releasing new devices on a pretty regular basis and now with the choice of Touchscreen handsets, wonderful QWERTY keyboards and a combination of both on the Torch 9800 and 9810 I’m frankly not surprised that the ‘sensible’ UK people have adopted BlackBerry as the platform of choice.
You can see the official press release below:
T-Mobile today announces the launch of The Full Monty, a ground-breaking new mobile phone plan that offers consumers the freedom to make unlimited calls, send unlimited texts, and use as much mobile internet as they want – with no fair use restrictions. The first of its kind for the UK, The Full Monty plan offers unbeatable value and is available from 1 February through T-Mobile stores, online shop, telesales and in-direct partners.
Customers signing up to The Full Monty 24 month plan will not only have the reassurance that there are no caps on their calls, texts and internet, they will also have access to unlimited WiFi, and can use their mobile internet for whatever they like – including tethering (using a smartphone as an internet connection for a laptop or tablet), streaming and downloading.
The Full Monty plan offers four simple price brackets, each of which offer a great range of free high-end smartphones:
Congratulations to the winner of our iCrado Neo Neo competition that Clove kindly donated to us. The lucky winner is @guitardeejay from the land of Twitter. Please get in touch with us so we can send you the prize.
The cradle is made from metal and is very rigid, and feels solid and well made. The colour finish is too of a high standard and rubber feet on the base of the cradle avoid it slipping on a desktop.
Rubber grips provide a soft and protective resting place for the phone on the stylish cradle and because of the cradles design it means you can dock a phone even if it is in a protective case.how many others offer such a feature? What about docking it in portrait and landscape mode? Not many cradles offer this, the iCrado Neo does. Holes within the cradle itself give it a unique design but also help with cable management, keeping them neat and tidy.
If you fancy picking one up for yourself you can do so here.
You can see a video of me picking the winner below, just to show we are fair.
If you are into keeping fit and like the idea of tracking your performance, distance calories burned etc then the MotoACTV may be just what you need.
You can see our unboxing video below:
The BlackBerry® Rapid Charging Pod may be the most convenient and attractive way to charge your BlackBerry® PlayBook tablet. Offering a rapid charge rate that’s up to two times faster than the standard BlackBerry tablet charger, it keeps it sitting upright on the perfect angle for watching videos, photo slideshows, or browsing the web. Use it where wherever you are-it comes with a convenient six-foot power cable and country-specific adapters, and is BlackBerry® Protect Safety Certified.
. Optimizing viewing angle
. Access multimedia or browse web while charging at home or the office
. Charges the BlackBerry® PlayBook two-times faster than the standard charger
You can see the unboxing video below:
Here’s a quickie to round of the end of the working week.
Three has just announced a last minute January sale promotion for the iPhone 4 8GB. Anyone that goes into a Three store before the end of the month will not have to pay the upfront charge for the handset, a saving of £49.
The iPhone 4 8GB is available on £30 price plans, including 500 minutes, 5000 texts and 1GB of data.
Sounds pretty good value of you ask me.
Posted by: James
Following on from BGR’s leaked RIM roadmap the other day further, slides have appeared over on the site detailing the specs of a few devices. As I pointed out then the Curve 9220 was of particular interest to me. You may think that a bit strange as it is an Edge only handset but I shall explain why.
With the BlackBerry Curve 8520 being massively popular here in the UK we have a huge market for a low spec and low cost BlackBerry. The 8520 was announced in mid 2009 so could this new 9220 be a natural upgrade for the 8520? If it can be offered at a similar price then RIM are set to retain their BlackBerry customers that use the 8520.
Of course, at this stage there are no guarantees the Curve 9220 will even be sold in the UK. You must remember that these details are leaked and although more than likely true the specs and exact details of the device may well change.
On a personal note I think Research in Motion would be mad not to launch the 9220 into the UK market. You hear me RIM?
You can see the specs below:
The easy to use BlackBerry Bold 9790, featuring a fantastic full QWERTY keypad and crystal clear 2.45 inch touchscreen, is now available to buy from Vodafone.
Running on the latest BlackBerry software – BlackBerry 7 – and powered by a fast 1Ghz processor, the 9790 meets all your essential mobile needs, and provides razor-sharp graphics and a smoother, faster browser. 8GB of on board memory (expandable to 32GB) means there’s plenty of room for all your music, photos and videos.
The BlackBerry Bold 9790 is available free on £31, 24 month price plans, including 600 mins, unlimited texts and 500MB of mobile data.
New and upgrading pay monthly customers will benefit from Vodafone Data Test Drive which lets them use as much data as they like, for whatever they like, for three months so they can fully explore what their brand new BlackBerry Bold 9790 has to offer. They can also get up to £270 for their old phone with Vodafone Buyback.
We know our customers lead busy lives and may not wish to wait for their phone to arrive at their home. They can choose to collect their new BlackBerry Bold 9790 in a store convenient to them – we’ll let them know when it’s there. When they come to collect it, customers can have all the contents of their old mobile transferred to their new BlackBerry Bold 9790 using Vodafone’s innovative RED Box.
For more information on pricing, please visit the Vodafone online shop.
Our full and extensive review will be live in the next few days so keep your eye peeled.
Posted by: James
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