Author Archive: James Richardson

Barcelona from Orange available now

We mentioned a few weeks ago that the Orange Barcelona was coming soon. The front facing QWERTY Android device made by Huawei looks to follow hot on the heels on the San Francisco in terms of value for money. Priced at just £99.99 plus a £10 top up on PAYG the Barcelona will be joining the likes of the HTC ChaCha and Motorola Droid Pro at trying to grab a chunk of the BlackBerry market.

Running 2.2, supporting HD voice and with a touch screen this one could be another huge hit for the network.

We should have an unboxing video up on the site soon followed by the full review.

You can see a reminder of the Orange Barcelona’s specs below:

LG Optimus 3D now available at The Carphone Warehouse

Hopefully you saw our Optimus 3D hands on video last week with LG’s latest and greatest, the Optimus 3D. If the device is what you have been waiting for you can now get one at the Carphone Warehouse. The LG Optimus 3D is available both on contract and sim free for £499.99 plus a £10 top up.

With the recent announcement of the HTC Evo 3D heading our way soon the Optimus 3D will soon get some competition. But if you want a 3D phone at the moment here in the UK then the LG is currently your only choice.

Watch out for our full review in the coming weeks and you can see a reminder of the devices full specs below:

Roaming Data Costs in EU to be Slashed

The average cost of using smartphones and tablets in the EU is to be more than halved under plans from Brussels to introduce price caps.

The EU wants to abolish premium charges for roaming data services – and is set to extend caps on mobile phone call roaming charges for a further four years to 2016.

It will be announced that from next year new price caps will be imposed on data downloads.

Surfing the internet or receiving emails while abroad will cost no more than 81p per megabyte from July 2012, falling to around 40p by 2014, compared with a current average of around £1.80.

It comes after an EU directive was introduced to force down the cost of making and receiving mobile phone calls while in Europe.

The proposals are part of a series of measures by Neelie Kroes, the EU commissioner responsible for telecommunications, to cut down on roaming charges by 2015.

Operators had hoped that special offers on roaming tariffs, including day passes and passport deals for offers while in other countries, would be enough to convince Brussels to drop price controls.

They were originally due to expire next July, five years after they were imposed despite industry objections.

Source: Sky News

Posted by: James

Sony Ericsson Xperia neo in Red – available now exclusively on Vodafone

Exclusively available to Vodafone in red, the brand new Sony Ericsson Xperia neo is powered by the latest version of Android, Gingerbread (2.3). With refined technology for easy use and a 3.7 inch touchscreen -  the quality is top notch.

The neo combines Sony BRAVIA image quality technology with HD video capabilities and an 8.1 megapixel camera. In addition, the device boasts a 2-megapixel front facing camera with face recognition, making it great for video calling.

Plus, with access to the thousands of apps available on the Android Market, you can improve everything on your handset from how you text and email through to how you like to receive the latest news and views.

The neo is available now, free on £26, 24 month price plans including 300 minutes, unlimited texts and 500MB of data. For more information, visit the Vodafone online shop.

If you missed our unboxing video you can see it here.

Posted by: James

BlackBerry stands at UK rail stations

The UK BlackBerry team will be hanging out at a selection of major railway stations over the next week or so. If you fancy a free coffee on them as well as a chat about your BlackBerry device, or if you are thinking of switching over to BlackBerry then why not pop along and have a chin-wag. You will also get a chance to win tickets to see Tinie Tempah as well as pick up a goodie bag!

You can find the BlackBerry stands at the following locations:

• Free coffee at BlackBerry Stand (London St Pancras) – Monday 4th July
• Free coffee at BlackBerry Stand (London Waterloo) – Tuesday 5th July
• Free coffee at BlackBerry Stand (London Liverpool Street) – Wednesday 6th July
• Free coffee at BlackBerry Stand (London Victoria) – Thursday 7th July
• Free coffee at BlackBerry Stand (London Paddington) – Friday 8th July
• Free coffee at BlackBerry Stand (Leeds Train Station)- Monday 11th July
• Free coffee at BlackBerry Stand (Manchester Piccadilly) – Tuesday 12th July 

Posted by: James

The Samsung Galaxy Z

This one is not available here in the UK yet and has only recently become ready for pre order on the Three network in Sweden. To sum the device up it is clearly a cheaper and not quite so well specced version of its big brother the Samsung Galaxy S II.

So how is the Galaxy Z different.  To start with it is a smaller device with a 4.2 inch screen as opposed to the 4.5 on the SGSII. We also lose the Super AMOLED Plus screen and in place we get a S-LCD. The camera has been downgraded to a 5MP but is capable of recording video in 720P HD. It is not quite as sleek and slender but still packs a punch when it comes to specs. Running Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread this new Galaxy could well be what many people have been looking for that could not afford or justify splashing the cash on a SGSII.

Lets just hope we get a UK announcement for this one. If the price is right I see it doing real well.

More specs can be seen below:

HTC UK gets a new boss

With the announcement of a new European office in Slough this week HTC has appointed Everything Everywhere director of devices Phil Roberson as its UK head.

The move follows former HTC UK & Ireland country manager Jon French’s promotion to a global role. In his new role, Roberson will be accountable for HTC UK’s performance, reporting to French.

During the last year Roberson is credited with brokering deals to get the iPad and iPhone on the T-Mobile network in his role as director of devices. He has also been championing the benefits of a multi-OS strategy within Everything Everywhere.

Prior to that he was head of terminals at T-Mobile. As well as overseeing the company’s handset portfolio his scope of influence extended to purchasing, trading, stock control and more.

I am pretty sure I sat next to Phil last year on a train and he was a very nice chap!

Posted by: James