Phones

Microsoft showing off two new phones at CES

It isn’t really our area of expertise, but we’ve gotten word that Microsoft will unleash two new Smartphones, probably at CES in January 2010.  Developed under the project "Pink" moniker, these two slider phones stem from the aquisition of Dangerand will continue to use Sharp as the manufacturing partner (not HTC as previously rumored by the WSJ).  In fact, they’ll be co-branded as "Microsoft+Sharp" products.

One device is "squircle" in shape like the past Zune’s buttons.  The slide out keyboard houses the mic at the bottom and it is meant to be open when being used as a phone.  This device is code-named "Turtle" and looks like a dressed up Motorola QA1.

Vodafone’s twitter exploits

  With O2 customers receiving free SMS alerts from Twitter, it’s understandable that Vodafone wants to offer a perk for Twitter users. We’re not sure that the "first interactive real time top 40 for music lovers" is the way forward, however.

Vodafone commissioned developer Ben Marsh to "create a live top 40 chart of what people are listening to on Twitter, to promote the Vodafone Music store", he wrote on his blog. Using the #RealTimeTop40 hashtag, Twitter users can enter the artist and song they’re listening to and then check out www.realtimetop40.com to view what the most listened-to songs are right now.

It’s not exclusive to Vodafone customers, however if you want to purchase one of the songs currently riding high on the chart, you’ll have to be a paid-up customer to do so.

If Vodafone created an app for mobile phones we can see more use out of this scheme, but for now it’s just another way for Twitter users to pat themselves on the back that they all have such terrific musical taste. If Patrick Swayze’s ‘She’s Like The Wind’ can be considered taste.

Link: Real Time Top 40

[Source T3]

B2B dealers slam O2 delays

B2B dealers connecting O2 are experiencing "unacceptable" delays of up to a week to action dealer requests, including new contracts. A number of dealers claim the current SLA (service level agreement) for O2, is experiencing delays of between four to five days, from the standard 24 hours  stated by O2, with all actions requested via email.The delays are affecting new connections being processed, upgrades and tariff changes, which are typically completed within 24 hours.Dealers claim the delays are unacceptable as the standard of the O2 customer experience from their customers is being put in to question,  with customers being left frustrated and inconvenienced by the network.
It is understood the situation will be resolved over the weekend. One O2 dealer said: "I am having to apologise to my customers, particularly those who are signing up for new connections. The delays don’t reflect well on the network, but it’s us that look bad. Another said: "Some of my requests made last week are only now going  
through. That is not acceptable. I appreciate they may be busy, but that’s not any fault of ours."
O2 was unavailable for comment.

[Source Mobilenews]

Palm publishes Q1 revenue

Palm just announced revenues in the first quarter of fiscal year 2010, ended Aug. 28, 2009, were $68.0 million. Gross profit was ($2.8) million, and gross margin was (4.1) percent. These results include the effects of subscription accounting applied to Palm webOS products as required by GAAP. In accordance with this methodology, revenues and direct cost of revenues for Palm webOS products (currently Palm Pre smartphone) are deferred and recognized over the product’s estimated economic life.
Later in the announcement, they explain that "Non-GAAP Adjusted Revenues in the first quarter totaled $360.7 million, non-GAAP Adjusted Gross Profit was $100.6 million and non-GAAP Adjusted Gross Margin was 27.9 percent."
What does this mean?

Palm leaving Windows Mobile behind

Agh. More bullets for Windows Mobile. Today Jon Rubinstein, CEO at Palm, confirmed in a financial resultsconference call that Windows Mobile was no longer part of their future line-up. He stated that…
"Due to importance of webOS to our overall strategy, we’ve made the decision to dedicate all future develoment resources to the evolution of webOS. Which means that going forward, our roadmap will include only Palm webOS-based devices"
PreCentral reckons that the Treo line will still continue, but with the advent of the Palm Pre they’re heading in a whole new webOS direction.
Hmm. It looks like the 1000 people working on Windows Mobile 7 have an even steeper hill to climb.

[Source PreCentral.net via Coolsmartphone]

3D iPlane Pro for iPhone released

Here comes low budget flight simulator that costs just one buck and is also available in a limited free version.

T-Mobile increases roaming rates outside EU

T-Mobile has announced it will be increasing roaming charges for all customers outside the EU from 26 October.
The operator sent a text message to its customers to inform them of the changes last week, which will affect all pay as you go, contract and some business customers.
A steep increase in prices will take effect for calls made and received in Andorra, the Faroe Islands and Switzerland, where the price will rise from 55p per minute to £1 per minute.
The operator blamed the price increase on the fees paid to local service providers and the weak pound.
In June, the network increased prices for roaming in the EU by 6p per minute, to 44p per minute. At the time, the operator justified the change by saying it had to reduce the price of sending text messages on the Continent, in line with price caps issued by the EU.

[Source: mobiletoday]

Palm Pre, Sim Free, £450

Here is an article from Mypre.com that’ll get some excited. Seems you’ll be able to pre-order a Palm Pre for £450, sim-free. That’s an attractive price I must say. However, I’m wondering were these sim free phones are fitting into the limited stock levels Palm are talking about.

Nokia running out of stock?

Dealers and distributors have been struggling to source Nokia handsets for the past month and have complained of particular difficulties with the 6700.
The phone has been in short supply throughout August and is only just beginning to be available again.
Dealers and distributors cited a number of reasons for difficulties in sourcing the 6700. 
One distributor said: ‘There has been a shortage of Nokia handsets and we have been told there have been some component issues, but that they have now been resolved.’
One dealer said: ‘We waited eight weeks for some 6700s and received a delivery a few days ago, but only 10.’
Some believe the market has been ‘under forecast’ and there is a global shortage.
Nokia said: ‘The N97, 6700, 6303 and 5800 are currently selling strongly across all channels. On some occasions, there has been a short delay in supply arriving from our factories into the UK and being distributed to our customers.

[Source: Mobiletoday]

T3 review Motorola DEXT

T3 have gotten their hands on the Motorola DEXT from Orange. This highly anticipated Android phone looks the biz and seems to actually BE the biz. Packing the first qwerty keyboard on an Android device since the G1 read on for the complete review.