News

Vodafone 1231 pops up over at FCC

A Vodafone exclusive Windows Mobile OS smartphone leaked yesterday over at the FCC website, sporting a full QWERTY keyboard and GPS.

The full QWERTY keyboard and the built-in GPS receiver that the Vodafone 1231 harnesses seem quite nice but there’s no Wi-Fi or 3G support in sight so we guess it won’t be a high-end device.

Vodafone 1231

Manufactured by ZTE, the Vodafone 1231 is a tri-band GPRS/EDGE smartphone with a large 2.5-inch landscape-oriented QVGA TFT display, capable of showing up to 65K colours. The 64 MB user available memory, microSD card slot and a 1.3 MP camera are among the confirmed data.

Vodafone 1231 measures 113 x 65.4 x 14.5 mm, weighs 130 grams and draws its juice from a 1100 mAh Li-Ion battery. There is no information on the device pricing and availability, but we guess it would be a relatively affordable piece of kit.

Posted by: John

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Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 IN STOCK!

Yes you did read the title of the post correctly. The folks at Clove just dropped me a line to let me know that they’ve taken delivery of the X1 and you can buy now!

The Sony X1 has received a great deal of interest since its launch and we are pleased to say we now have these available for order.  So if you have been waiting for this day, head on over to HERE

If you have missed all the fuss and excitement surrounding this device, just take a look at some of the features:

• Arc Slider QWERTY Keyboard
• Stylish Design
• Windows Mobile
• 3" Wide VGA Dispaly
• 3G/HSDPA
• WiFi
• Bluetooth (A2DP)
• MicroSDHC
• GPS
• 3.2 megapixel camera

Order your Xperia X1 now to avoid disappointment!

Posted by: Matt

Rumour – O2 and T-Mobile block upgrades until January

Now then, not sure just how much of this is true but if it is then I think there will be massive backlash on this considering the G1 is due for release before January in the UK and the upcoming handsets due for release before January on o2.

Customers are offered discount incentives as operators run out of cash
O2 and T-Mobile are telling customers to wait up to three months for their upgrades in a bid to save cash.
The parent companies of both networks – Telefónica and Deutsche Telekom respectively – appear to be looking to pull cash out of the UK businesses.
Since Monday 13 October, O2 customers wishing to upgrade are being assuaged with a £15-per-month discount on their monthly bill if they hold out on upgrades until January (after the financial year).
Manufacturers have had to review their sales forecasts at O2 in light of the drive for ‘non-hardware’ contract sales between now and Christmas.
Dealers have similar frustrations, and have said that they have no option but to churn O2 customers on to other networks.
Jonathan Earle, O2’s head of consumer postpay acquisitions, said: ‘The enormous success of our simplicity tariff has shown us that some customers are happy with their existing handsets and would rather take an option that allows them to save money, particularly in these credit crunch days.’
O2 only has real appetite for three mobile products: 3G iPhone, Sim-only, and mobile broadband. The latter two incur no major up-front cost for the operator, while achieving high iPhone sales is critical for O2 to secure further exclusivity with Apple.
O2’s advertising is understood to focus largely on Sim-only deals and broadband between now and Christmas with little to no promotions for contract handsets.
Meanwhile, T-Mobile is understood to be offering customers a similar deal if they wait until January for their upgrade, but is offering a £5 discount off bills instead of £15. It is a familiar story for all connected with T-Mobile, as the operator has seen its acquisition budget drained as it approaches the final three months of the financial quarter for the last three years.

Please let us know if you have been affected by this in any way.

Posted by: John

Touch HD and LG Renoir coming soon to Orange

Big thank you goes out to our reader Harv for the information and scan from the Orange catalogue below. Looks like the information we posted about the Touch HD exclusive to Orange was wrong – sorry about that guys but as you can see it is coming to Orange soon along with the LG Renoir and the Blackberry Pearl 8220.

I saw the HTC Touch HD coming soon in the orange Business October.
Also.. it is coming to Vodafone, as the manager of Birmingham Bull Ring store wrote down for me (acting a little dumb I was…) the phones coming soon are…

• Motorola C905
• Sony X1
• HTC Touch HD

So.. All points to.. it’s not Orange only…. maybe they will have one with more internal memory again.. like Omnia.. but not exclusive.
O2 also have a dummy X1 in store (bull ring middle mall.) so they are also getting the X1.

Thanks again for the info. Harv and if any of you have news to share please do get in touch!

Posted by: Matt

More HTC bargains from Devicewire

What does £1 get you these days? Not much more than a hamburger from your local fast food restaurant? Well Devicewire have some excellent offers on some of the latest HTC devices.

£1 extra that’s all! Just £1 extra gets you the HTC International Charger and a Screen Protector when purchasing a HTC Touch Pro, HTC Touch Diamond or HTC TyTN II from Devicewire over the next few days. This saves you £32!!

Further information can be found on the Devicewire business bundle page.

They’ve also taken delivery of the brand new CoPilot Live 7 Software so you can head over to the CoPilot page for more on that too.

Posted by: Matt

Smartphone Show 2008 starts today

The annual Smartphone Show starts today at London’s Earls Court and runs both today and tomorrow.

As you may already know we are supporting the 10th annual Smartphone Show as an official partner and will, therefore, be in attendance today. If you are going to the event and would like to come and say hello to us please do drop me a line.

Although the show starts today you can still visit the website to register for your show pass.

4000 delegates, 120 exhibitors, 60 seminars, 10 keynotes – one show
FREE to attend

Symbian is pleased to announce that the 10th annual Smartphone Show will take place 21-22 October 2008. This year the event is moving to the larger, central London location of Earls Court 2. This free to attend event is a must for anyone involved in the handset industry.

Now in its tenth year, this year’s show promises to be the best ever with more opportunities to see innovative technology in action and meet the key personnel driving it.

Smartphone Show at a glance:

Visit www.smartphoneshow.com for more information and to register.

See you there!

Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Smartphone Show 2008, Tracy & Matt]

Features to look forward to in Fennec

A while ago I posted a review of Google Chrome and have to admit I was and still am rather impressed with it as a browser but in my heart and mind I know that Mozilla still come number one for browsers which is why when I seen the comments below posted by Tyler Earman on Tilt Mobility my excitement level rose.

One of the wonderful things about open source software, is that even though there aren’t any binaries available to install the software with, the product is still available.  Mozilla in and of itself is a foundation dedicated to open source software (Firefox, Camino, Thunderbird, and the like are distributed under the Mozilla Public License), meaning that Mozilla releases the source code for current projects, one of which is Fennec, the open source browser for Mobile (looks to be available for Windows Mobile and Google Android, there are DEB packages available on their FTP site).

So I recently got into their SVN server (SVN = Subversion, a popular program used to aid in collaboration and version tracking of software, very important for open source projects, they typically all have a SVN server or it’s predecessor CVS, or one of the other available packages like GIT) to have a look around at things to see if I could figure anything out.

And it seems I have stumbled upon a nice list of extensions in the SVN server.  Keep in mind that a lot of these extensions may not be sent with Fennec from the get go (they may be early development), but here are a few things to get excited about.

• Gecko/Trident rendering options (I found Manticore, a .Net plugin to allow Fennec to interface with the Trident rendering engine, which is used by IE, essentially allowing you to choose Firefox style rendering or IE style)
• Canvas3D support (hardware rendering support for the <canvas> html tag, a speed enhancement, now if only we could get the Tilt’s driver issue fixed)
• Java support (at least basic, it seems as if there’s a Java interpreter built directly into the system)
• IRC (seems to be an IRC client as well)
• SSH (looks to be support for a Java based SSH client)
• WebDAV support (very nice, WebDAV is essentially allows you to interact with files over HTTP, meaning you can send files from your Tilt to your desktop or elsewhere, possibly wireless sync options?)
• Venkman (Javascript debugger, not really a surprise but still kind of nice for debugging support for mobile systems)
• Wallet (not clearly sure on what this is, but looking at the source code, this seems to be something related to password storage, could be a password application but also could just be a source library to hold passwords whenever you hit the “remember my login” on Fennec)
• Spellcheck (like it’s older brother, Fennec apparently has spell checking capabilities as well)
• Calendar (there seems to be a ground foundation laid for a calendar application, but it doesn’t look like it’ll be included with the first couple versions)

Again, this is basic extrapolation of things I saw within the server.  None of these or only parts of these may come to fruition, but it’s a least a little look into things we have to look forward to in Fennec.

You may wonder why I get excited over a browser well let me just explain a little. Everyone who uses the internet uses a browser of some sort and everyone who surfs from their mobile also needs one of these so given that we use it so much it needs to be robust, look good and come with lots of features starting from the basic user use right up to programmer, app developers and super techy people. For the past god knows how many years Microsoft Internet Explorer was the choice of so many and the hatred of all others. There are other browsers out there like Opera and Safari but none have even come close to Firefox in my eyes either on a mobile or desktop solution.

Like the desktop and laptop markets there has been a great choice of browser out there and to my knowledge (I can be stood corrected) there is only Mobile Internet Explorer, Opera and manufacturers own browsers out there just now so wanting something new with funky stuff isn’t always easy. The features seen above will give you everything the current browsers have to offer and a whole lot more.

I am looking forward to the day when I can download this browser straight onto my Windows Mobile device and get rid of Internet Explorer once and for all.

Posted by: John

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Windows Mobile 6.1 SMTP error fixed!

You may have read my post about the ongoing SMTP issues within Windows Mobile 6.1. We’re still waiting for the official fix from Microsoft which we expect to come in the form of a CAB file that you’ll need to install.

However, today once of the talented guys over XDA-Developers came up with the following fix that seems to work:

1. Add the reg key “Operator” to \\HKLM\System\Inbox\Settings
2. Add the reg key "OutgoingServer" below Operator key.
3. Add the reg val (reg_str) "OutgoingServer" below Operator key- “ButtonBoy rules”
4. Soft reset

However, not everyone is so happy modifying the registry so together with Muff from Alien Invention we’ve come up with a CAB file that you can run that does the job for you.

There are two versions of the CAB: One for Windows Mobile Professional and one for Windows Mobile Standard devices . Please be aware, I’ve tested on several devices that I’ve have here but please apply this fix at your own risk, this isn’t the official MS fix for the problem. Once you’ve installed the CAB (run it on your phone) just turn the phone off and back on and you should be able to send mail!

Thanks, to Buttonboy for the original reg settings that need to be altered!

Posted by: Matt

eXpansys voucher offer extended!

As you may be aware, our eXpansys £10 voucher offer was due to end on the 12th October 2008 but it’s been so successful that we’ve decided to extend the offer through to the 30th November 2008!!

If you don’t know what this is all about all you have to do is request your £10 voucher which you can then redeem when you spend £20 or more at eXpansys. It couldn’t be easier!

Please see the original voucher offer post for the full T&C’s and to find out how to register. Don’t forget, you can also get your family and friends to request a voucher, I’m sure they’ll thank you for it!

If you requested your voucher between the 12th October and today I will get your vouchers out to you later on, just as soon as a receive the new batch of voucher codes (ones that are valid until the end of November).

Happy shopping!

Posted by: Matt

LG announce Prada II

Yes folks that’s right, LG have announced the second coming of the Prada handset. This time around LG have decided to throw in a QWERTY keyboard which will slide to the left and make the screen orientation change to landscape.

LG Prada 2 – Angled View

LG have not yet announce the full specs of the handset however we can tell you that it will have a 5 MP camera with a Schneider-Kreuznach certified lens. Not the best on the market by a long way but it does go along way replace the not so great 2 MP camera on the original Prada.

LG have also included 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity in the KF900 Prada II and we know that HSDPA is also on board, improving data transfer rates even further.

LG Prada 2 – Front View

The new Prada mobile will be available though in Italy, UK, France, Germany, Spain and Netherlands in the 4Q of 2008. The price will be around 600 euro (810 US dollars).

Posted by: John

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