Author Archive: Gareth

Play.com selling the X10 for £500

Sony Ericsson’s next ambitious device is the lovely looking X10. Bit of an odd place for it to show up and a rather high price tag. Specs and summary after the break.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Sim Free / Unlocked 8 Megapixel Mobile Phone (Sensuous Black) £499.99 delivered.

The VX1i Party Phone hits big!

The VX1i Party Phone was one of Tesco’s best selling mobiles in the two weeks leading up to Christmas, shifting over 10,000 units

The VX1i Party Phone was one of Tesco’s best selling handsets in the two weeks leading up to Christmas.
The retailer sold over 10,000 in that period and said it continues to be one of its best selling gadgets.
The pocket-sized phone, which is available for £18.99, is a SIM-free device that is unlocked to work with any SIM card (excluding 3), meaning users can keep their own number and make and take calls.
Tesco Telecoms CEO Lance Batchelor said: "Our handset was developed as an affordable replacement, temporary phone or alternative to a more expensive phone, but its popularity really has taken us by surprise.
"The start of a new year is the perfect time to cut costs and we are amazed to see how many shoppers want a plucky little alterative to the smartphone back – or they want both. The affordable phone is designed to be perfect for forgetful partygoers all year round."
The launch of the phone came following Tesco Telecoms research, conducted by OnePoll.com, surveying 2,000 adults across the UK in December. It found that eight out of 10 women find it annoying to carry a handbag on a night out. It also found that 69 per cent of Brits find it uncomfortable to have a large mobile phone in their pocket.

[Source Mobilenews]

Fake Mobile Banking App Discovered in Android Marketplace

A selection of applications written and uploaded by an Android Marketplace user/developer have been found to contain malicious code that attempts to compromise banking information stored on the device in order to commit bank/credit card fraud.

Droid09 launched this phishing attack from the Android Marketplace and it’s since been removed. It’s called phishing because scammers go fishing for information about you or your financial account that may be used for identity theft.

If you did download the Droid09 app, please remove it from your phone and we advise you to hard reset your device.

iPhone app revolution – documentary Planet of Apps by CNBC

Yes, iPhone was always a great smartphone, but it was app store that has brought the breakthrough and practically speaking a revolution – some people say that app store revolution is comparable in significance to introduction of personal computer and emergence of World Wide Web…

Here is this massive documentary from CNBC – for your viewing pleasure:

Apple introduces friendly URL/links to iPhone apps

This announcement is made by Apple for iPhone developers but you, as iPhone user, might be interested too – as it simplifies searching for and finding apps.

So, 4 days ago (on January 6, 2010), Apple has announced:

Mobile World Congress for iPhone – released

It has been released merely 2 weeks ago and we have just tested it:

Sony Ericsson X10 to be on time

Sony Ericsson have gone on the record to say that the Sony Ericsson X10 has not been delayed. A spokesman has reinforced the Q1 release date, “If anything appeared (on the Sony Ericsson website) saying otherwise, then it was incorrect.”

So we can look at it in one of two ways. Sony Ericsson has focused their attention and applied all resources on the device, ignoring the X2 and Satio to produce something special. Or, Sony Ericsson don’t have any phones selling at the moment since the bad press of the X2 and Satio has killed their rep and are desperate to get something out by hook or by crook.

220 Palm Pre’s sold in Ireland

That little country to the South of my own tiny little land doesn’t really seem to be loving the Palm Pre too much. Whilst, it is a country that has been through recession and almost all have been hit in some way by it it appears Palm on one of the biggest casualties. Read on for the full article:

You know things aren’t going too well for Palm when a heavyweight industry source gives you a call to say ‘you’ll never believe this’.

I always have to steady myself just in case it’s something shocking. You know, like ‘Larry Page has just bought Vodafone — he reckons it’ll be quicker’.

Today, though, the call was about the Palm Pre’s performance in Ireland. It seems the Irish haven’t taken to the old Pre. My source reckons that a whopping 220 units have been sold since launch. Now, the launch date was October 16. So it’s been out for roughly 85 days or about 12 weeks. So on that basis, o2 Ireland have sold about 16 Palm Pre devices per week since launch. Or 2.3 Palm Pre units per day.

My source tells me that the Pre is equally as successful at o2 UK. Surely not? Can this be accurate? Does anyone know differently?

[Source Mobile Industry Review]

Palm unveils new phones, new carriers, developer programs, and video capabilities at CES

Today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Palm and Verizon Wireless introduced Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus, two new phones combining the power of the Palm webOS platform with several new enhancements. Palm Pre Plus sports a streamlined design that simplifies navigation, 16GB of storage (15GB user available storage), and a Touchstone Back Cover. The incredibly thin and lightweight Palm Pixi Plus adds Wi-Fi along with an optional splash of color, thanks to new Touchstone Back Coversavailable in pink, blue, green, orange and black for all Palm Pixi phones. Both Verizon Wireless phones will be available January 25.

The companies also introduced Palm mobile hotspot, a Palm webOS app that turns your Palm Pre Plus or Palm Pixi Plus into a mobile Wi-Fi router. The app provides wireless broadband access for up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices. Palm mobile hotspot will be available in the Palm App Catalog for Verizon Wireless customers.

Another carrier will soon be bringing webOS phones to its customers: Palm and SFR announced the availability of Palm webOS phones in France in the second quarter of 2010.

Current and future Palm webOS customers can also look forward to an even broader range of powerful apps for their phones. The Palm developer program is now officially open to all. Any developer can sign up at the Palm Developer Center and immediately start developing and distributing applications for Palm webOS devices. Developers have the option of distributing apps through the Palm App Catalog or over the web. Palm also unveiled a $1 million developer Hot Apps bonus program to encourage continued innovation in the rapidly growing Palm webOS developer community.

At today’s event, Palm also demonstrated some of the additional options that developers will be able to leverage, including Flash content in the browser on a Palm Pre. Palm expects a free Adobe Flash Player 10.1 plug-in to be posted to the Palm App Catalog in the coming months and expects Palm webOS to be one of the first mobile platforms to include the full Flash Player in the web browser.

Finally, Palm demonstrated a new feature that all Palm webOS customers can look forward to: the ability to capture, edit, and share video. This functionality will be available via a free over-the-air software update.

For more details on today’s announcements, click here.

via Palm Blog

3D gaming has landed on the Palm webOS platform!

3D gaming has landed on the Palm webOS platform! Seven 3D games are being introduced today in the Palm App Catalog for Palm Pre customers:

• Need for Speed Undercover (EA Mobile)
• The Sims 3 (EA Mobile)
• MONOPOLY (EA Mobile)
• Asphalt 5: Elite Racing (Gameloft)
• Let’s Golf! (Gameloft)
• Glyder 2 (Glu Mobile)
• X-Plane (Laminar Research)

Five other mobile games are also being introduced: EA Mobile’s Tetris, Sudoku, and SCRABBLE, and Gameloft’s The Oregon Trail and Brain Challenge. 

Thanks to some new capabilities offered by the Palm webOS Plug-in Development Kit (PDK), the seven 3D games feature graphics-intensive gameplay. The PDK extends the Palm webOS Software Development Kit (SDK) with a set of tools that enable the functionality needed for immersive 3D gaming. A public beta version of the webOS PDK is scheduled to be available to all developers in March.

More information about the webOS PDK is available at the newly updated Palm Developer Center. And if you’ve got the need for speed, check out the new games at www.palm.com/applications or in the Palm App Catalog on your Palm Pre.

Via Palm Blog