Phones

T-Mobile admits importing iPhones

Whilst most of the networks currently offer the iPhone in the UK, one of the networks has been selling them, unofficially. T-mobile have been importing European iPhone to sell to UK customers. One dealer said, while support from T-Mobile had been “fantastic”, he faces losing customers to O2, Orange or Vodafone because of iPhone distribution.

T-Mobile area sales manager for the south Lee Wales said: “In the past we did buy some iPhones in Europe because we were concerned customers would leave if they didn’t get the iPhone.

“We took the decision and it might have backfired because Apple wasn’t very happy. But we decided that retaining those customers was important. But it’s not our policy, and it has been two quarters since we last did this.”

Nokia drops Symbian V2

Looks like Nokia is going to avoid Symbian version 2 and jump straight onto version 3 in the third quarter of 2010. To make thing more exciting Nokia states:

The Symbian version 4 is believed to be based on the Qt cross-platform application development framework developed by Trolltech, which Nokia acquired in June 2008, said industry sources. The Qt will allow software developers to develop application software supporting Symbian and Maemo platforms simultaneously, added the sources.

The multi-touch focused operating system will run alongside the Maemo-based devices, S60 smartphones and S40 feature phones.
Nokia also suggests they will launch Maemo 6-based devices in the second half of 2010.

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Fun rat game app for iPhone – free for limited time

Do you know that there are more rats in London than people? Anywho, iPhone developers sometimes reduce price of their apps to zero whenever Apple is featuring them, and the same happened with TerroRats – a fan iPhone game that you can get now for free for a limited time – just because the developers are celebrating being featured by Apple:

Nexus One gets multitouch and more

The new firmware update for Android 2.1 gives Nexus One has a whole bunch of added features and improvements. Check out this list of added functionality. Multitouch, Google Goggles, 3G fix, virtual keypad just got “smarter”, Android Mark II for the camera function, Chrome has html5 compatibility, merged inbox, speech to text box in everywhere, Gmail mobile client upgrade and more

Altogether this seems to be one top notch device now that can only get better.

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Motorola is working on the Google’s Nexus Two?

In an earnings call last week Samsung co-CEO and handset chief Sanjay Jha said the 20-strong line-up of a Samsung’s range of new smartphones this year would include "one direct-to-consumer device with Google".

The move will boost the troubled manufacturer’s fortunes. Motorola is looking to recover from poor performance in the final quarter of 2009 in the face of concerted competition from Nokia and Apple.

Motorola did, however, perform slightly better than analysts had predicted, with share prices looking stronger in late-2009 than they had during the same period in the previous year.

Motorola believes that in the first half of 2010 it will make a loss, although analysts are more upbeat and expect to see a return to profitability.

Jha commented: "We are just at the beginning stage of our transition to a smartphone company."

Dubbed Nexus Two the smartphone is expected to be distributed in a similar manner to Nexus One, made by HTC, which is sold via the Google online phone store, either unlocked or with a network contract and subsidy.

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Virgin Media allowing free landline calls to mobiles

Customers can call Virgin Mobiles at no extra cost Virgin Media has announced that it will allow its landline customers to make free calls to Virgin mobiles from 1 April The move is part of an initiative from the company to provide a variety of unlimited calls packages The telecoms provider claims that the move is continued part of its’quad-play’ strategy. Nearly 10% of Virgin’s customer base subscribes to all four services provided by the company.

As a result of the move, nearly half a million customers will be able to make free calls from their Virgin Phones to their Virgin Mobiles in addition to the free Virgin Mobile to Virgin Mobile calls they already benefit from.

Virgin Media executive director of mobile and telephony, Graeme Oxby said: ‘At a time when other providers seem keen on giving their customers less from their phone service, we are extremely their customers less from their phone service, we are extremely proud to be leading the way in this field, being the first to offer free home phone to mobile calls. proud to be leading the way in this field, being the first to offer free home phone to mobile calls. Our successful quadplay strategy has demonstrated customers are ooking for exceptional value by bundling more services together, and this move to include free calls to mobiles with our home phone service underlines our commitment to ensure Virgin Media customers get the best deals possible.’

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Zune Phone to Debut at MWC ?

According to Gizmodo and MuyComputer, the will they, won’t they shenanigans of Microsoft releasing a Zune Phone will come to end in Barcelona MWC 2010 next month when they will announce a Zune Phone running Windows Mobile 7.

According to them, it’s 100% confirmed. The Zune Phone will use Tegra, and Nvidia will team with Microsoft for the presentation.

MuyComputer says that the Zune Phone will have a 480 x 272 screen, HDMI out, weigh around 70 grams, and use Windows Mobile 7. This strong rumour seems to be inline with the mention of three phones in the Zune software last week

So what do you think, are Microsoft about to do the unthinkable and release a device ??

Via Gizmodo and MuyComputer

Met Office weather app for iPhone

Weather forecasts from the Met Office are now available on the iPhone and iPod Touch with the launch of the Met Office weather app. Users will be able to access up-to-date weather forecasts quickly from the UK’s national weather service while on the move.

The Met Office weather app will provide easy access to the latest weather information and warnings wherever you are. The app will allow users to save favourite locations so local weather information is available at their fingertips 24 hours a day. This new app is now available from the Apple App Store.

Gorillabox provided the Met Office with a full service, planning, managing and tracking for the iPhone weather application.

Mark Wakefield, founder and Chief Operations Officer of Gorillabox, said: “Gorillabox has worked closely with the Met Office to develop an application utilising a range of iPhone features and incorporating the Met Office weather alerts that will provide users with the latest and most accurate weather information wherever they are.”

You can download it here.

Sony Ericsson Vivaz appears

Here’s another new phone from Sony Ericsson. hopefully this one will last more than a week in the stores. The Vivaz. Having more of a budget feel than their flagship Satio the Vivaz’s focus seems to be mainly on media and net connectivity. Hitting the market at a modest £380 you can check out the video on play.com. It’s pretty darn cheesy and hardly shows off the potential of being a phone. Specs after the break:

China Mobile’s SIM card breakthrough

It seems China Mobile is going start releasing a new SIM card that allows for multi-numbers. A service I know a few folks would be most happy at. From the sounds of things user will be able to bind three numbers to their SIM card, at present the easiest way to have more than one number is to use a dual SIM card splitter or one of the few phones out there that accept dual SIM cards.

This sort of service will be a welcome release however I’m sure our networks will find a way to charge you for the privilege of having two numbers other than your normal bill.

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