Author Archive: James Richardson

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 now available at Carphone Warehouse

If you saw our Galaxy Note 10.1 unboxing the other day and were tempted to pick one up the good news is you can now do so at the Carphone Warehouse. The WiFi only variant will set you back £399.99 or grab the 3G one for £499.99.

This revolutionary Samsung tablet runs on Android Ice Cream Sandwich and opens up a whole new category in the tablet market, through exciting tools that inspire the imagination. The S Pen allows users to create more, produce more, and learn more. It allows content to be created in the most natural way possible, by replicating the precision and versatility of pen and paper.

The innovative S Pen stylus re-writes the rulebook; allowing ease of creative express and bringing ideas to life. Users can draw, sketch, design or produce slick documents on a much larger 10.1″crystal clear screen.

Until this Thursday (24^th August) Carphone Warehouse is also offering the original 5.3″ Samsung Galaxy Note for the fantastic price of just £21 per month on T-Mobile. The handset is available in black, pink or white.

Both deals available now at Carphone Warehouse stores, online at www.carphonewarehouse.com or by calling 0800 925 925.

Posted by: James

JUMP is working for Phones 4U

Phones 4u today announces the success of its nationwide roll-out of JUMP (‘Just Update My Phone’), with one quarter of overall sales on the top selling handsets taken out on the flexible contract, which enables consumers to upgrade their mobile phone as often as every 6 months.

After an initial trial period, JUMP has been available in all 640 stores nationwide since 1^st June 2012. The response from consumers has been extremely positive: one quarter of all sales on the latest handsets are JUMP contracts; one in five eligible consumers have already ‘JUMP’ed and upgraded their handsets to newer devices; and 98% of these traded-in older devices at the time of upgrade.

Alistair Firth, Director of Customer Experience at Phones 4u, said: “We’re delighted at the initial response to JUMP. In some stores, JUMP contracts account for up to two-thirds of all contracts being sold, with uptake around London, Birmingham and the surrounding areas doing particularly well.”

So far the highest selling handsets on JUMP contracts are the newly launched Samsung Galaxy SIII (51%) and the iPhone 4s (40%) validating the research that indicated that for customers looking for the very latest devices on the market, flexibility around being able to upgrade to the next latest device when its available is very important.

Firth continues: “The initial results support research conducted prior to our trial, which found that some people have been frustrated by 18-24 month contracts and want to get their hands on the latest devices sooner. We’ve found this particularly true with early adopters from the younger age ranges, with results revealing a peak for customers aged around 21 taking out JUMP contracts.  We will continue to work hard to ensure that we always have the very latest smartphones available within our JUMP range for this particular audience”.

Differing from other flexible offerings on the market, JUMP doesn’t require any upfront fees at the point of upgrade and customers own their handsets rather than lease them. For the added flexibility of being able to upgrade as often as every six months, customers will only need to pay an average added monthly cost of £2.99 – £3.99, dependent on the original JUMP contract chosen.

Posted by: James

HTC One S named ‘European Media Phone of the Year’ by EISA

HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, today announced that its acclaimed HTC One S has been named ‘European Social Media Phone of 2012 – 2013’ by The European Imaging Sound Association (EISA). This is the second time that HTC has received this accolade after winning the same category last year with the HTC ChaCha.

Florian Seiche, President of HTC EMEA said, “Delivering the most personal consumer mobile experiences is a primary focus for us as at HTC – the ability to connect people and enable them to share content socially via their smartphones quickly and easily is something that consumers want to enjoy everyday. We’re delighted to be honoured with this award for a second time and would like to thank both EISA and our customers for their continued support of HTC.”

A unique association of 50 special interest magazines from 19 European countries, EISA is the world’s most prestigious multimedia magazine group. Every year, the editors-in-chief from all EISA members meet to decide which products analysed in their publications during the year deserve the coveted EISA Award.

The ‘European Social Media Phone 2012-2013’ recognises ingenuity in social media integration, networking and a handset’s ability to connect multiple social networks simply, while making sharing content and social interaction just as easy.

For more information on HTC One S please visit: http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/htc-one-s/. For more information on EISA and the award selection process please visit: http://www.eisa.eu/.

Posted by:James

LG Optimus 4X HD available to pre-order from Phones 4U

If you have been waiting for the LG Optimus 4X HD it is now time to get your orders in with Phones 4U. In addition the first 50 people to preorder the 4X HD from Phones 4u, including upgrades, will also be given a pair of tickets worth £100 to see Cheryl perform live this Autumn

The 8.9mm slim Optimus 4X HD includes 16 GB internal memory, runs on the latest version of Android OS, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and comes in both black and white. Besides the smooth and fast performance, the Optimus 4X HD boasts an 8 megapixel BSI (Backside Illumination) Sensor camera with LED flash.

Advanced multimedia features are delivered with  LG’s new User Experience (UX), Optimus UI 3.0, which includes QuickMemo.  QuickMemo allows users the ability to jot their thoughts and ideas on any screen and share it instantly with friends and family, without having to open a separate application. The Optimus 4X HD comes with Media Plex, which combines a range of functions to enhance image and video playback such as Fingertip Seek and Live Zooming. Media PlexT also includes Time Catch Shot this allows the user to select and save the best shot among the images taken just before the shutter button is pressed.

Available to preorder from Phones 4u today, the LG Optimus 4X HD will available in black at Phones 4u stores and online from 27^th August, FREE from £26 a month on a choice of networks.  The white colour variant will follow shortly after.

Samsung confirm the launch of the Galaxy Note 10.1

Samsung today announced the launch of the Galaxy Note 10.1, an extension of the Galaxy Note category. The Galaxy Note 10.1 offers the functionality and precision of a pen and paper on a 10.1-inch large display, which will enable people to amplify their creativity, productivity, and learning ability.

Providing an intuitive experience and armed with a 1.4 GHz quad-core processor and 2GB RAM for enhanced performance, the Galaxy Note 10.1 is designed to simplify the process of capturing ideas, accessing information and multi-tasking, making each easier and faster and allowing people to express their ideas in an efficient way.

Simon Stanford, Vice President, UK & IRE Telecommunications & Networks Division, Samsung UK and Ireland said: “Following the success of the very first Galaxy Note which we launched at the end of last year, we’re delighted that our UK customers will now be able to experience the evolution of this device for themselves. The Galaxy Note 10.1 is a product we are very excited about and will offer our customers a new way to use and experience a tablet device. As well as being able to consume content such as videos, photos, document and the Internet, the Galaxy Note 10.1 also gives them the power to produce, create and customise that same content – something they won’t get from any other product on the market.”

The Galaxy Note 10.1 incorporates key intuitive features and capabilities such as side-by-side multitasking. This is thanks to its ‘Multiscreen’ on a 10.1-inch large screen; unique S Pen with a variety of S Note templates and productive tools (Shape Match and Formula Match); Learning Hub* for accessing educational curricula and Adobe’s premium creative application Photoshop® Touch.

Everything Everywhere gear up for the Olympics

With the Olympic Games starting in just a week and a half it seems that Everything Everywhere have been planning for the extra mobile traffic for quite some time. With Ofcom’s recent report showing that over the past 18 months mobile data traffic has doubled there may be some speculation as to how the UK networks will cope.

Everything Everywhere have sent us over the following statement. As you will see, they have anticipated the Olympic surge and have acted accordingly. I wonder if the the other networks have done similar?

“We’ve been preparing for London 2012 since before Orange and T-Mobile merged to become Everything Everywhere, investing millions of pounds to ensure a good experience for both British and international visitors to the Olympics – who will benefit from our integrated networks which provide the UK’s largest 2 and 3G coverage.

Our network specialists have looked to previous global and national events, and analysed sites around the UK where we expect additional demand over the course of the Summer – including tourist attractions, transport hubs and sporting venues, and upgraded hundreds of key sites to cope with additional demand.

We’ve also increased measures in place to maintain service and operational stability during the games. Additional field maintenance resource in the areas of the country most affected are in place, alongside dedicated incident managers to ensure a very rapid response time to any service affecting incidents.

The Joint Operators Olympic Group (JOOG) is also providing as much capacity as possible using external mobile base stations in the Olympic Park to support the number of visitors expected each day. The operators have built 30 sites across the Olympic Park including 14 in-building solution.  At off park venues a further 17 temporary sites are being provided to add additional capacity.”

Posted by: James