News

A fine selection of devices available now on Vodafone PAYG with Freedom Freebees

All of Vodafones pay as you go phones come ready for customers to take advantage of great value Freebees, which include a choice of free minutes, text and web access or international calls www.vodafone.co.uk/freebees. Every pay as you go customer is also automatically opted-in to Freebee Rewardz.

Every time a pay as you go customer tops up as little as £5, they’ll receive a text giving them a voucher code. They can then go online to ‘grab’ an instant reward or bank them as ‘grow’ points, to save up for something bigger. www.vodafone.co.uk/rewardz

Customers can choose from a wide selection of rewards including big name discounts from brands such as Thorntons and BLOCKBUSTER, music downloads and free minutes or choose to take a mystery reward, which could be anything from a smoothie maker to an iPhone. Alternatively, customers can collect points towards vouchers and experience days.

HTC Edge to boast Tegra 3?

New details about HTC’s first quad-core powered phone, the HTC Edge, have surfaced. Rumour has it may launch in April or May of 2012. The new release timeframe falls in line with HTC’s typical spring product cycle for handsets which make their debut at Mobile World Congress in February.

Most competitors are planning Quad-core phones for 2012 like Motorola, LG and Samsung. We speculate at least one next-gen phone at CES. Even if the HTC Edge is not the first quad-core Tegra 3 phone to hit the market, there’s no denying that it will be a game changer for HTC. In the past HTC has partnered closely with Qualcomm, but the late launch of Qualcomm’s dual-core S3 chip forced HTC to be one of the last Android manufacturers to release dual-core powered devices.  Recent numbers show that HTC performed very well over this year, but we expect HTC wants to stay in step with the competition next year in order to improve its market share even more.

Most of the HTC Edge’s rumoured specs are still holding up, but some new details point out that the phone’s thickness could be reduced to 8.8mm and the 4.7-inch 720p S-LCD 2 display will be optically laminated, which bonds the panel to the fascia glass to improve visibility.

Posted by: Gareth

Three taking pre orders of the Nokia Lumia 800

If you are thinking of getting the Nokia Lumia 800 with a contract then you should really give Three some consideration. The device is available free from £30 per month on a 24 month contract, however if you are prepared to pay £37 per month you will be able to take advantage of the One Plan with unlimited date, 2000 minutes and 5000 texts, more than enough for even hardcore users. Deliveries of the Lumia 800 are expected around the 18th November.

The Nokia Lumia 800 is a Windows Phone unlike any other. It’s good-looking with a slick, scratch-resistant casing and the curved 3.7" AMOLED display makes colours really rich and vivid – perfect for internet and apps. The mega-fast 1.4GHz processor makes gaming, browsing and streaming a smooth experience and there’s a whopping 16GB internal memory, giving you loads of space for all your music, pictures and videos. On top of this, the Lumia 800 has a fantastic 8 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera with a wide-angle lens and flash which is ideal for taking photos and uploading them instantly to your free 25GB SkyDrive. And with Microsoft’s latest Windows Phone 7.5 software (known as Mango) you get everything built in – from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, to a brand new multi-tasking tool that lets you do everything at once and quickly switch between apps and webpages. You also get Nokia Drive for unbeatable turn-by-turn navigation, Nokia Music with Mix Radio – which let’s you stream music radio stations for free – and access to all the Windows Phone apps in Marketplace.

Order your Nokia Lumia 800 here.

Posted by: James

BlackBerry 5.0 sounds available to download

If you have upgraded from a BlackBerry 5.0 device to 6 or 7, one of the things you may have noticed is that the notification tones are different and there is a smaller range to choose from. Now although the 5.0 sounds could be installed onto your BlackBerry 6 or 7 device’s microSD card it was not common knowledge and non geeks probably wouldn’t know where to find them.

The 5.0 sounds are now available to download from BlackBerry App World so everyone can enjoy the notification sounds they were used to in the good old days.

Do a search in App World and enjoy.

Posted by: James

Sky News app released for BlackBerry

I have been waiting for this one for so long. Great news as the Sky News app appeared recently in BlackBerry App World and much like on other platforms you not only have the ability to read news articles but also watch video too.

The app is free to download and one of the features I love is that you can set the application to auto refresh and the news feeds will be integrated into your message inbox. BBM integration is also supported!

You can see more details below along with a selection of pictures of the main features.

If you own a BlackBerry downloading this app is a must.

Mobile Tech Addicts Podcast 143: Take 2

James gets a decent internet connection this week for a wickedly exciting tech fest. This week is review central with the boys looking at the Motorola Defy+, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray, the Samsung Galaxy Note, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro. That should make up for last week!

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Orange PAYG customers to get free premium headphones

From 7 November to 24 December 2011, Orange is rewarding new and upgrading Pay As You Go customers who purchase a new phone for £30 or over with a free Christmas gift box. Filled with free festive treats, the offer is available to customers who buy directly with Orange in-store, online or via telesales.

The Christmas gift box offers customers a selection of seasonal goodies including stylish Angle & Curve headphones (RRP £60). Offering superior sound quality and sophisticated design, these new headphones are perfect for listening to music or playing games on a new Christmas handset – all with crystal clear sound.

The box also includes some fun festive treats:

· A headphone splitter to share the Christmas entertainment with friends and family

· An Orange piggy bank to keep your Christmas shopping kitty in check

· A screen cloth to keep your phone screen pristine while sharing Yuletide photos and videos

Pippa Dunn, Chief Marketing Officer, Consumer, at Orange UK said: “This year’s Christmas gift box is our best yet – offering Orange Pay As You Go customers a top quality pair of Angle & Curve headphones, as well as some other brilliant added extras, all of which will no doubt add to the excitement of the festive season”.

Pay As You Go devices available to customers include the Orange RIO, Orange San Francisco, Orange Stockholm and Samsung Galaxy Mini.

Posted by: James

giffgaff to support BlackBerry

As from the 24th November giffgaff will offer Blackberry services, which have not been possible on the MVNO previously.  These include Blackberry Messenger, Blackberry (push) e-mails and Blackberry Internet.

So you will soon all be able to purchase a Blackberry Add on when purchasing a goodybag.

As giffgaff aim to provide fantastic value for money the BlackBerry add on will only cost £3 (in addition to the cost of the goodybag).

In the same way as current goodybags, the Blackberry add on will last for a month.  As the goodybag and Blackberry add will have to be bought at the same time, they will expire on the same date as well.

Nokia Lumia 800 delayed sim free

Bad news I am afraid if you were waiting to pick up the Nokia Lumia 800 sim free. Clove have today confirmed that the device will now be available in January and not November 16th as expected.

I’m pretty sure this news will not affect new contracts that you may take out from the high street stores. It is however bitterly disappointing if you were holding out for the Lumia 800 sim free.

Roll on the New Year.

Posted by: James

Best Buy to close stores in the UK

Carphone Warehouse has confirmed plans to close its eleven Best Buy stores here in the UK due to a lack of profit. Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy initially planned to open 200 Best Buy stores across the UK and continental Europe. Sadly that will not now happen.

Carphone Warehouse said the focus would now be on selling more electronics goods from Best Buy Europe’s 805 Carphone Warehouse stores in the UK, and 1,648 Phone House shops in continental Europe.

“Best Buy believes that there is a significant untapped opportunity as connections migrate from phones to other connectable devices such as tablets, laptops, TVs and eReaders. This transaction will enable Best Buy Mobile to accelerate the deployment of operational and connectivity expertise to these devices and for Best Buy to fully capture the profit potential of these opportunities” Best Buy

Posted by: James