Who’d have thought that O2 would be offering a legitamte unlocking service for the iPhone after all. This should please a fair few folks out there as they will slip in their Vodafone/Orange sims and see the signal rise. You obviously have to ride out the O2 contracts and who knows, this may ease conjestion on O2’s network as some may opt for a different carrier most of the time. Details after the break:
O2 announces the iPhone Total Connectivity Bolt On, which allows new and existing iPhone customers to purchase the iPhone Internet Tethering bolt-on and receive the standard O2 Home Broadband package completely free.
Pay Monthly iPhone customers who purchase the discounted £9.79 per month 3GB Internet Tethering Bolt On before 31 December 2009 will be entitled to the O2 Home Broadband standard package for free. The service means users can stay totally connected and get the best connection possible, whether at home or out and about on their phone or laptop.
The 3GB Internet Tethering and O2 Home Broadband package is available for just £9.79 per month and will be compatible with all versions of the Apple iPhone 3G. Alternatively, customers can claim a £7.34pm discount against any other O2 Home Broadband product including Premium, Pro or O2 Home Broadband Access.
Peter Rampling, Head of Consumer Mobile at O2 said, “This is a brilliant deal for people who want tethering and home internet. Effectively you get both for just £9.79 a month. Total Connectivity means our customers will always be connected, at home and on the move”
Terms apply, see o2.co.uk/iPhone
Offer available from 10 November 2009.
Source – Press Release
Vodafone is going to be doing a new phone called the Apple iPhone 3Gs. This is a phone that has made a bit of noise over the last couple of years, but no one could blame you if you haven’t heard of it before.
In this press release oddly hosted by Cheetahmail.com you can read but not pre-order. Instead there is a link to the Vodafone Access Gateway and you can give Vodafone some ideas about their approach to the iPhone.
O2 has confirmed to TechRadar that iPhone users will be able to unlock their iPhone for free and use it on any network they wish at the end of their contract term.
“The Apple iPhone has been available in the UK exclusively on O2 since November 2007. Once the iPhone becomes available on other UK networks, Pay Monthly customers on a consumer or business account will be able to unlock their iPhone without charge at any point during their contract.
“This also applies to BlackBerry and Xda. All other devices are unlocked on o2 automatically. Customers will still have to honour the remainder of the minimum term on their contract even if they place a non-O2 SIM into it.
“Pay & Go customers can unlock their iPhone or any other device on Pay & Go, after twelve months with O2, for a £14.69 one-off fee, which is deducted from their airtime balance.”
Freedom
CEO Matthew Key was quoted in The Times as confirming the network would be allowing customers to unlock the iPhone after it was rumoured the network would be blocking it.
“At the end of their contract period, they are entirely free to move to another operator – though naturally we hope they won’t want to!”
Smart
This is a smart move by O2 to protect revenue and reduce churn as more carriers are due to offer the iPhone this year. By allowing customers to unlock without penalty means those who are out of contract may choose to test Orange and Vodafone’s network before signing up for a 2 year tie in and decide they want to stay with O2. If you’re using a Samsung you should also know how to S10 network unlock.
To compete with O2, the other carriers may feel compelled to do the same, which can only be a good thing for consumers. O2 link here.
Tracyandmatt.co.uk are doing some paralleled coverage of the HTC HD2. Packing the site with videos, pictures and commentary it’s porbably the closest you are going to get to the device without buying it. Check out these two links below for the heads up on the HTC HD2.
We are watching the newly released apps in iPhone app store every day and when we notice something of interest we are reporting here. While there are many apps that let you excercise muscles in your fingers, or even tongue, with this app, that was released to the app store merely few hours ago, you can excercise muscles in your eyes:
Using the Acer s200 at the moment I’m suitably impressed by the snappy Snapdragon processor. The idea of phones using this processor as a standard is tremendous. LG’s new device caught my attention over at Slashgear. Android and a slide out qwerty keyboard look like a winning combination.
LG have announced that they will be offering a Snapdragon-based Android smartphone in Q2 2010. The device – which will initially be available in the Korean market – has not yet been named, and LG are keeping full specifications close to their chest, but according to the company’s VP of electronics, it will be a “more mature” device than the LG GW620 Eve which went on sale in Canada this week.
The first iPhone app store revolution was the launch of the app store – the first one that provided automatic updates and global distribution and very good conditions for developers – 70% of sales goes to developers. Everybody had to rethink everything then. Now second time such moment of rethinking has arrived.
Now Apple has done it again and the second app store revolution has just begun. Think about it: how it is possible that an app that is FREE is among top grossing apps, i.e. apps that earn the most money:
Last night I picked up our HTC HD2 review unit. Having played with a pre release model earlier I was pleased to get my hands on one of these puppies at last.
When you first see the HD2, chances are you’ll think that it’s a beast of a handset, and to be honest it is but using it for just a few minutes you soon forget about how big it is and start loving the fantastic and responsive 4.3″ CAPACITIVE touch screen – this is what all Windows Mobile should be like!
There’s plenty of horsepower under the hood and the OS runs smoothly. Granted I’ve only been using it in anger for a few hours but haven’t noticed any slow-downs.
The only significant negative that I have to say about the HD2 at the moment is in the battery department. While I’ve only been playing with this handset for a short period of time it seems clear that the battery life isn’t the best and it looks like I’d only be getting about a days worth of use out of it. It could be that the battery life will improve with a couple of proper charges and once I stop using so intensely or even that a later ROM update will extend the battery live but as it stands the battery seems a little weak in the HD2. Could it be that the huge screen it too much of a drain?
I don’t want to go ahead and spoil the full review too much and we’ll have an HD2 unboxing and tour video online for you shortly so let me leave you with a few screen shots of the HTC HD2 to whet your appetite!
Please do submit your questions about the HTC HT2 to me via the forum or via the comments link below and I’ll either answer you right away or else I’ll ensure that the answers are included in the HTC HD2 review.
EDIT: Our extensive HTC HD2 review is now live on site.
Posted by: Matt
Another day, another Android phone. Here’s a snap shot and article I noticed over at PMPtoday of a new device that might just turn some heads next year.
The last time we talked about the Dell Mini 3i Android phone was way back in August when it debuted in China. That particular model was only limited to the Asian country and sadly lacked bothWiFi and 3G connectivity. That was 3 months ago, but today, a Dell Mini 3iX Android phone was spotted over in Brazil.
While it looks every bit the same externally as the one in China, you’ll be happy to know that this Dell Android phone finally comes with WiFi and 3G UMTS/HSDPA as well as tri-band (850/1900/2100MHz) network support. Its other specs were specifically detailed out, but we’re guessing it’ll pretty much retained most of its features although we’re not ruling out the possibility that other enhancements could have been added to this latest version of the Dell Mini 3i. The price and release date of the Mini 3iX likewise wasn’t available.
[PMP today via unwiredview]
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