News

BBM Music rolling out

Today BlackBerry users in North America, Canada and Australia can download the official BBM Music app from BlackBerry App World. Here in the UK we do not have a confirmed date or pricing but I am pretty sure that the subscription based service will be pretty popular.

if you have not heard of BBM Music then I will explain simply. With your subscription you will have access to 50 songs to listen to. Each of your BBM Music friends will also have 50 songs and you will be able to listen to their music tracks too. So the more friends you have, the more music you will be able to access.

You can see a video detailing how it works below and of course as soon as we get some UK news we will let you know.

No Mobile Tech Addicts podcast this week

Due to a combination of unforeseen circumstances and technical hitches I am afraid there will not be a podcast this week.

Now I know you will all be bitterly disappointed, and so are we, but please wipe away the tears of sadness. We will be back next week for more fun and frolics and hopefully Matt will be back from his tour of the country with a full range of air pressure logs from our county towns! (sorry Matt)

Thanks for your patience.

Posted by: James

HTC Sensation XL available now on contract and sim free

As phones go the HTC Sensation XL is a monster with a 4.7 inch touch screen. Combined with its 1.5Ghz processor and packing Beats Audio this one could be the perfect device for you Android music lovers.

The new device is now available here in the UK. If you are looking to get it sim free both Clove and The Smartphone Centre have the handset in stock.

If you are after a contract then you may want to head over to Three. Remember that they have the One Plan with unlimited data.

In the box:
• HTC Sensation XL
• Rechargeable Battery
• Charger & USB Cable
• Beats in-ear headphones
• Quick Start Guide
• User manual

Posted by: James

The Vodafone Tech Team

Vodafone have today launched a new service called Tech Team aimed at assisting customers with any smartphone, tablet or mobile internet technical enquiries. Tech Team members will be available to help existing customers with any issues they have in selected stores, on the phone and online. They will also be able to assist any new customers making purchasing decisions and give them a run through of the features of their new device.

Customers wishing to meet with a Tech Team advisers, who have been trained to focus on customer service and use simple, easy to understand language can either book an appointment or meet them at a Vodafone store. The team will also offer its services via e-mail, on the Vodafone e-forum, Twitter and Facebook. There will also be a series of demonstrations and “how to” videos on a dedicated YouTube channel.

The new offering to Vodafone customers will bring it into line with O2, which offers similar in store and online services through its ‘ O2 Guru’ services. As well as the Tech Team, Vodafone has equipped all of its retail stores with its RED Box feature which is able to transfer contacts, texts, pictures, videos and music from between devices. Vodafone claims the RED Box is able to connect to over 3,500 different types of handsets including some models that are over 10 years old. It can also back up phone data onto an SD card or USB hard drive.

Samsung Galaxy W available now on Three

Are you looking for a new high end Android device without the high cost and size that comes with the Samsung Galaxy SII? Well meet its little brother, the Galaxy W which is now available from Three for £249.99 on PAYG or from £22.00 per month with a contract. The best deal by far would be Three’s One Plan which gives you unlimited data, 2000 minutes and 5000 SMS all for £32.00 per month. Sounds good to me.

Behind the sleek and stylish design of the Samsung Galaxy W is a powerhouse; the phone features a huge 1.4GHz processor for a super-fast experience. With a 3.7, WVGA Super-LCD touchscreen, crisp and clear viewing and the phone also features a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus.

We will of course have this one in for review in the near future. In the meantime head on over to Three for more information.

Posted by: James

Nokia Lumia 800 coming soon to Orange and Vodafone

Fresh from last weeks Nokia World I noticed this morning that both Orange and Vodafone are now showing the Nokia Lumia 800 as coming soon on their sites. Prices are not yet confirmed but Orange are showing the device as ‘from free’ although this of course will be dependant on the amount you want to spend and also the contract length.

If you are looking to get a Windows Mango device then this one could well be worth waiting for. The hardware is glorious and with the added bonus of having Nokia turn by turn navigation built in you cant really go wrong.

We will of course have an unboxing video and full review in due course. Watch this space.

You can see more details of the handset below.

The BlackBerry P9981 designed by Porsche – Video

Remember recently when we mentioned the weird looking BlackBerry that had hit the interwebs? Well we told you last week that the device was in fact a Porsche designed special addition which is essentially a Bold 9900.

The device has officially been launched in Dubai and TBreak Technology have had some hands on time.

If you can afford to drive a Porsche you can probably afford the BlackBerry P9981 as it will set you back in the region of 2000 dollars!

I think it still looks blooming ugly!

You can see the video below:

The Nokia Lumia 710

As well as the Lumia 800 Nokia also today announced the Lumia 710, also a Windows Mango device. The purposely built, no-nonsense Nokia Lumia 710 can be personalized with exchangeable back covers and thousands of apps to bring the Lumia experience to more people around the world. The Nokia Lumia 710 is designed for instant social & image sharing, and the best browsing experience with IE9. It is available in black and white with black, white, cyan, fuchsia and yellow back covers. With the same 1.4 GHz processor, hardware acceleration and graphics processor as the Nokia Lumia 800, the Nokia Lumia 710 delivers high performance at an affordable price. The estimated retail price for the Nokia Lumia 710 will be approximately 270 EUR, excluding taxes and subsidies.

Both the Lumia 800 and 710 include signature Nokia experiences optimized for Windows Phone, including Nokia Drive, which delivers a full-fledged personal navigation device (PND) with free, turn-by-turn navigation and dedicated in-car-user-interface; and Nokia Music introducing MixRadio, a free, global, mobile music-streaming application that delivers hundreds of channels of locally-relevant music. In an update delivered later this year, Nokia Lumia users will also gain the ability to create personalized channels from a global catalogue of millions of tracks. Also integrated in Nokia Music is Gigfinder, providing the ability to search for live local music for a complete end-to-end music experience, as well as the ability to share discoveries on social networks and buy concert tickets also coming in the Nokia Music software update delivered later this year.

BlackBerry Bold 9900 and Curve 9360 get MasterCard PayPass certification

Research In Motion (RIM) today announced the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and BlackBerry Curve 9360 smartphones are the first SIM-based NFC smartphones to be certified by MasterCard Worldwide as PayPass-approved devices.

The certification was granted on the basis of the BlackBerry smartphones meeting the functionality, interoperability and security requirements of MasterCard.  With this certification, any MasterCard PayPass-issuing bank globally will be able to deploy MasterCard PayPass-enabled accounts to the SIM card of these smartphones. 

The ecosystem to allow customers to take advantage of the certified BlackBerry smartphones for NFC payments is already growing. France Telecom – Orange believes that mobile NFC has the potential to enable a new revolution in mobile by further connecting people’s mobile digital world with the physical world around them. France Telecom – Orange is the first operator worldwide to have commercial NFC launches in two countries, UK and France, with trials in several European markets.

Nokia Lumia 800 full specification

With Nokia announcing the Lumia 800 Windows Mango Phone today at Nokia World in London I thought we had better get the full specs up on the site for those of you that may consider this to be your next handset.

The stunningly social Nokia Lumia 800 features head-turning design, vivid colors (cyan, magenta and black) and the best social and Internet performance, with one-touch social network access, easy grouping of contacts, integrated communication threads and Internet Explorer 9. It features a 3.7 inch AMOLED ClearBlack curved display blending seamlessly into the reduced body design, and a 1.4 GHz processor with hardware acceleration and a graphics processor. The Nokia Lumia 800 contains an instant-share camera experience based on leading Carl Zeiss optics, HD video playback, 16GB of internal user memory and 25GB of free SkyDrive storage for storing images and music. The estimated retail price for the Nokia Lumia 800 will be approximately 420 EUR, excluding taxes and subsidies.

Sounds pretty good doesn’t it? You can see the full specs below: