Phones

3UK prices on payg set to rocket

I don’t think this has hit their main website yet but I received a text from 3 with a link to their mobile portal (which unfortunately I can’t link to as you need to be connected via 3’s 3G to view it) which details a raft of price increases as of April 22.

I won’t list them all, but here are the main ones:
* Voicemail access is going from free to 15p/min
* Calls to other networks and landlines increasing from 20p/min to 25p/min
* Picture messages increasing from 25p to 30p
* Calling other countries in band 0,1,2 increasing by 5p/min 
* Calls while roaming in band 0 increasing 4p/min
* Receiving calls in band 1 countries increasing 9p/min, band 2 increasing 25p/min
* Calling most 084 and 087 numbers increasing 5p/min or per call

Free texts, data, and 3 to 3 minutes when topping up remain unchanged, and data prices also seem to remain unchanged.

I’m quite disappointed that they’ve decided to start charging for voicemail when they were the only network not charging for it (it was a selling point for me when joining them) – and that they decided to go with per minute charges for voicemail instead of per call as some of the networks.
This gives the ridiculous situation where you could ring someone also on the 3 network to make use of free 3 to 3 calls, and if you get through to them it is free to talk to them, but if you leave a message, it will now cost them to play that message back…

I’m struggling to see the rationale behind them raising calling prices pretty much across the board without an obvious precedent, and when you have MVNO’s like Asda offering rates as cheap as 8p/min, 3 increasing their off network calls from 20p to 25p/min just makes them look silly.

Stephen Fry gets it out

He’s got an iPad and he’s put together a very short unpacking video. He doesn’t unbox but shows off a handsome array of accessories to compliment. Obviously he is going to have a productive day.

When is iPad coming to Europe? Where to get microSIM from?

Americans will be getting iPads via UPS on Saturday and also in several retail outlets some iPads will be available. Generally iPad is sold out in USA and if you would like to order one now, you would have to wait 2-4 weeks.

But what about Europe?

New untethered iPhone 3.1.3 jailbreak video

This is a web-based untethered jailbreak solution for both the iPhone and iPod Touch, and similar to what Geohot is working on, could also serve as an iPad jailbreak as well. The video demo above proves that it addresses the tethering issue, but if you compare it with the Geohot untethered iPhone 3.1.3 jailbreak tool, we’re not quite sure how this new one differs from latter as they’re almost identical with each other.

[blogsdna via redmondpie]

Mobile Monday in Belfast

Since the launch of the iPhone that shook the smartphone world, the mobile device value chain has seen more changes in two years than in the preceding twenty. The mobile device landscape has evolved with such a magnitude that we could not ignore it so we have called upon experts to explain to us how it is reshaping:

From London: Salvatore Rinaldo, Apps & Services Technology Specialist at SYMBIAN,

From Dublin: Stephen Sharkey, Director Telecom Business at LIONBRIDGE,

From Belfast: Jim O’Neill, Bus. Dev. Director & Andrew McCartney, Technical Director at SPEECHBUBBLE.

Register today for securing your place and your name badge at this not-to-be missed event, at the BlackBox Cafe, Cathedral Quarter, on MONDAY 19 APRIL 2010, start your dose of networking at 5:15pm.

http://mobilemondaybelfast.org/

It’s not an iPad

PMP Today have come across this little gizmo. A ten-inch touchscreen tops this tablet that runs Google Android and is powered by a 600MHz ARM SoC processor. No word on pricing yet and that homescreen looks like something only fools would believe. We’re not saying this is an official iPad clone just yet, not until they provide us with a video.

[Main Source]

Opera mini rejected by Apple

We are not here to tell you fairytales about unicorns and butterflies. The reality is: Apple has rejected Opera mini.

Gifting Apps – a New Promotional Tool for Developers?

By now the only way for bloggers like us to get app for testing was to get promo code for iTunes USA. Recently Apple enabled gifting of apps – so that you or anybody can give you an app as gift… but this can be also used for developers to give us, bloggers, apps for testing also if you we don’t have iTunes USA account!

Interestingly gifting cannot influence ranking of apps:

Orange is offering a range of new price plans

London, 29th March 2010: In a move to help customers get the most out of their mobile phones, Orange is offering a range of new price plans to make multimedia services such as email, Orange Maps and the mobile internet more accessible and even better value for money from 1^st April.

There has been huge growth in mobile internet usage with more and more customers realising the great services that are available on their phone, such as access to social networking sites, with Orange seeing on average nearly 1,900,000 unique users using these per month. 

To meet this demand, Orange is introducing re-vitalised packages, with a range of multimedia services now included on Dolphin and Panther tariffs. New and upgrading customers will also be offered the chance to experience a free 30 day trial of one of Orange’s entertaining mobile services. 

The changes include:-