Author Archive: Gareth

Orange 3G Blackouts

Orange customers have complained of being unable to receive 3G coverage in locations where signal was previously good.

Most customers said their handsets would not automatically switch to 2G in those areas, and had to manually shift onto the slower connection.  Areas affected include parts of Hatfield, Ipswich, Colchester, North Lanarkshire, Glasgow, Dumbarton, Alexandria and London, customers claimed.

Orange was unable to confirm 3G problems in all sites, but admitted to problems in London, Colchester and Ipswich.

An Orange spokesperson said: “Unfortunately [EC1Y 2BJ] lies half way between two mast sites of our current [locations]. We are currently in the process of updating these sites to improve coverage and also looking at opportunities for new masts in this area to ensure customers in this area receive an improved service.

O2 are the BEST (according to O2)

O2 last week defended its UK 3G network, going so far as to suggest it provided a superior customer experience in much of the UK, and in London in particular.

Tension is high among operators over network quality, and O2, considered by many watchers to have the weakest 3G network in the land, was asked to respond to claims by Vodafone in recent advertising that its 3G network offered the best quality of service.

O2 UK chief technology officer Derek McManus said: “Is Vodafone best for 3G quality? Not in my opinion, no. Overall, O2 has a better network – although, there are also parts of the country where we don’t. But we’d rather be honest, and talk to customers in a language they understand.”

iPhone HD (4G)in pieces

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.

The Microsoft Kins get reviewed

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:

Blackberry tablet thoughts

Here are some interesting points from Berryreview regarding the recent rumblings about RIM considering a Blackberry based pad.

Scott Moritz of The Street had the following to say (summarized):

• RIM is rethinking its tablet strategy
• 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.

Updated: Vodafone are about to rip you off.

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:

iPad UK price announced

Techradar have stolen a march on the rest of us and got the official word from Apple on the iPad price and availability here in the UK.

We already know that it will be available to pre-order on the 10th May but added to this we now know the release date is the 28th May:-

iPad UK pricing

Apple’s suggested retail prices 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

iPad will be sold through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorised Resellers. The iBooks app for iPad including Apple’s iBookstore will be available as a free download from the App Store on 28 May. Full Press Release is here.

Via Tech Radar

£350 cashback this Bank Holiday at Phone4U with horrible deals

Independent retailer Phones 4u has launched its biggest instant cashback deal ahead of the bank holiday weekend. However, I wouldn’t get too excited.
Customers are being offered instant cashback or trade in up to the value of £350 from 29 April until the end of the bank holiday weekend when they sign up to one of the bank holiday special deals on offer.
The offer is available on the Nokia 5230 and Samsung Tocco Lite when taken out on a massive 24 month contract.
The Nokia 5230 is being offered for £25 a month with 200 cashback and 300 minutes and 3000 texts. The Samsung Tocco Lite is being offered for £35 a month with 300 cashback, 900 minutes and 3000 texts. The amount of cashback on both offers increases when a handset is traded in.
Phones 4u spokesperson, Russell Braterman said: ‘This is a really significant promotion for Phones 4u as its the biggest instant cash back deal we have ever run. We constantly strive to provide the best deals for our customers and are delighted to offer such incredible cash back value for everyone to enjoy this bank holiday weekend!’

It doesn’t take a bargain hunter to realise you are probably better off keeping whatever phone you have and staying far, far away from contracts that last over 2 years with a phone that might last 12 months.

Tesco Mobile Phone shops to pop up on every High Street

Tesco has launched an all-out assault on Carphone Warehouse, with plans to open Tesco ‘Phone Shops’ on every high street and a major push into the contracts market.
The supermarket giant is speeding up the rollout of 500 new phone shops. From this week, it will open three phone stores each week to deliver at least 100 per year. With 107 Phone Shops already open, Tesco Mobile should hit its target of 500 shops by the end of 2013. Tesco anticipates it will create around 750 jobs this year through the rollout, made up of both Tesco staff and external recruitment.

It is estimated up to 3,000 jobs will be created over a three-year period. The first 200 Phone Shops will be in Tesco’s larger Extra stores. A further 300 phone stores will open in Tesco’s superstores and its high street Metro shops. Each will be customised to fit the store’s profile. In an exclusive interview, Tesco Telecoms chief Lance Batchelor told Mobile: ‘We are working out how to put a full service Phone Shop in our Metro stores and we are trialling different ways of doing this. This will give us the ability to be on every high street in the country.’

Tesco is also targeting the contracts market, adding 28 new handsets to its contract range this month. Batchelor forecasts at least 333,000 contract sales in Tesco Phone Shops this year. Batchelor said: ‘With prepay, we were only playing in half the market. Now, with our Phone Shops and the addition of 28 new handsets in our contracts range, we have moved into the whole of the consumer market.’ No commissions are on offer to Phone Shop staff in order to discourage ‘hard sell’ tactics. Tesco is also wooing the networks, with plans to deliver operator upgrades later this year.