Phones

Nokia N900 dual booting Android!

Just a quick post this. As many of you know I’ve been using the Nokia N900 for a while and quite like it so have been keeping my eyes on the web for news of new apps or updates for the N900.

So here’s something pretty cool that might turn out to be great new for anyone that likes the N900 hardware but is not a fan of Maemo.

Nokia N900 fan Brandon Roberts has managed to get the N900 dual booting Maemo and Android! Head on over to Slashgear for the full news item and video to see the proof of concept!

I’d love to see this move forward!

 

Posted by: Matt

Review: Samsung Omnia Pro

Samsung are no stranger to Windows Mobile and given that the Omnia was a bit of a hit Samsung have taken the name and produced a whole rake of mobiles that cover all form factors. We take a look at the Executive model, the Omnia Pro.

Motorola Deploys OTA Android 2.0.1 update for Milestone

Great news if you own a French Motorola Milestone for today Motorola made Android 2.0.1 available to French Milestone’s via an over-the-air update.

The update promises to not only bring the French MILESTONEs up to Android 2.0.1 status but also introduce all the bug-fixes that build contains. American DROID owners have had this update for quite some time, which, according to Eurodroid, fixes the embarrassing camera lag and glitches, beefs up Exchange email support and apparently enhances audio quality of calls.

If you select “France” as your region you can see the update on Motorola’s support site.

Let’s just hope that Motorola make this update available here in the UK soon!

 

Posted by: Matt

HTC HD2 updated AGAIN!

Since its launch late last year there have been countless and frequent updates for the HTC HD2, I suspect that the HD2 is one of the most frequently updated handsets, it’s impressive how quickly HTC are responding to customer feedback in terms of problems they are experiencing.

So HTC released another ROM update for the HD2 yesterday which according to their site ‘this update delivers fast and reliable SMS messaging.’ Which makes this the 3rd update for SMS issues with the HD2?

This is a full ROM update so will wipe any content you already have on your device so make sure that you back up all the important stuff you have on your handset before performing the update.

You can find the update here on the HTC HD2 support page.

 

Posted by: Matt

The fight for a 12 month contract

A consumer watchdog has called for more customer choice, after news that T-Mobile will stop offering 12 month contracts from February.

Government watchdog, Consumer Focus telecommunications expert, Nick Hutton said: ‘We need to see mobile-phone companies offering a range of contract-lengths, which suit consumers’ needs, rather than the existing trend towards longer contracts. Longer contracts may limit consumer choice and could potentially lead to higher prices for consumers.

He added: ‘Longer contracts suit some customers and allow providers to offer discounts on handsets. However customers who find they need to leave their contract may face high termination charges. If consumers are tied into such contracts and rarely switch it may also give less incentive for suppliers to offer the best price deal.’

There are now a limited number of 12 month contracts available, with one of the remaining being through offered through MVNO Tesco Mobile, for the iPhone.Others are available through Orange and Vodafone.

One industry source said: ‘Operators are concerned about churn and one of the ways to diminish opportunities for customers to move is if they are tied in. There is a definite trend towards longer contracts.’

Vodafone sells 100,000

Vodafone sold its 100,000th iPhone [yesterday], just eight days after it went on sale

Vodafone today sold its 100,000 Apple iPhone, just over a week after the operator launched it.
The iPhone went on sale at Vodafone last Thursday (January 14). Vodafone followed Tesco Mobile and Orange in selling the iPhone, breaking O2’s two-year exclusivity on it.
Vodafone UK CEO Guy Laurence said: "The demand from both consumer and business customers has been phenomenal. They want an outstanding phone on an outstanding network and we’re delivering that."

[Source mobilenews]

Nokia makes walk and drive navigation free on its smartphones

Espoo, Finland – Nokia has today announced plans to release a new version of Ovi Maps for its smartphones that includes high-end walk and drive navigation at no extra cost, available for download at www.nokia.com/maps. This move has the potential to nearly double the size of the current mobile navigation market. The new version of Ovi Maps includes high-end car and pedestrian navigation features, such as turn-by-turn voice guidance for 74 countries, in 46 languages, and traffic information for more than 10 countries, as well as detailed maps for more than 180 countries.

“Why have multiple devices that work that work in only one country or region? Put it all together, make it free, make it global and you almost double the potential size of the mobile navigation market ,” explained Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Nokia. “Nokia is the only company with a mobile navigation service for both drivers and pedestrians that works across the world. Unlike the legacy car navigation manufacturers, we don’t make you buy maps for different countries or regions even if you’re only visiting for a few days. We offer both navigation and maps free of charge, with all the high-end functionality and features that people now expect.”

“The large-scale availability of free-of-charge mobile phone navigation offerings using high-quality map data will be a game changer for the navigation industry,” said Thilo Koslowski, Vice President Automotive and Vehicle ICT at Gartner. “Such offerings will accelerate mass market adoption for navigation solutions and shift innovation focus to location-based services that go beyond traditional routing benefits.”

Cry Translator for iPhone released

The Cry Translator is an easy to use iPhone app that quickly identifies the five distinct cries made by infants: hungry, sleepy, annoyed, stressed or bored. These five cries are universal to all babies regardless of culture or language.

The Cry Translator technology has been tested in Spain and North America with impressive results. Based on the degree of accuracy evidenced in the studies, Biloop Technologies developed an iPhone application for consumer use. For more information on the clinical trials, please visit www.biloop.com or read a recent article in Spain’s Paediatric Medical Journal.

Key Benefits

Identifies a cry within ten seconds.

Eases the anxiety associated with calming a crying infant.

Builds confidence in understanding and comforting your infant.

Helps reduce overall infant crying.

Get it here   

Now if only they could develop an app that can understand women they could really be onto a winner 😉

Grand Theft Auto (GTA) for iPhone released

Undoubtedly the biggest release in app store this week is an iPhone version, original porting, of Grand Theft Auto game, the “Chinatown Wars” edition. Why biggest? Well, the console version of this game is huge hit, and also in app store this app has reached, merely in 2 days (!), top sales positions in several countries + Apple is promoting this new release heavily everywhere in iTunes.

Arrival of big game studios to iPhone probably means that soon no longer indy game developers will have any chances to compete…

Dailymotion launches iPhone app

Dailymotion is the only online video upload service that is located in European Union (in France to be precise) so we are happy to report that they have released an iPhone app recently: