MWC 2009: O2 to pay customers to test apps on its app store

O2 announced this morning on the forum of its application store – Litmus – that it would soon be paying customers to test out applications, thanks to a partnership with a company called Mob4Hire.

O2 has 19 million customers, and the ones eligible for the Litmus project will be invited to participate in testing out applications. Customers who help to test an application will receive a free copy once it becomes commercially available, but they’ll also have the opportunity to earn hard cash.

It’s a bit of a complex system that involves bidding for applications. You put a figure on what you think your time is worth, and developers decide whether they think you’re worth it, and if both sides agree, then trialists get paid the pre-agreed amount.

Frequent and helpful testers will increase their “O2 Litmus tester reputation”, though it’s unclear if that’s going to be some sort of rating system, or just a more traditional, ethereal, reputation based on those things we used to have called “feelings”. Remember them?

O2 Litmus is available on the Motorola V3, Nokia N95, O2 Xda Orbit II, Samsung U600 and the Sony Ericsson W910, among others. Nearly 150 apps are available, and you can sign up at the O2 Litmus website.

MWC 2009: Nokia takes the wraps off the 6710 Navigator and 6720 Classic

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This is the Nokia 6710 Navigator, newly announced at MWC 2009 in Barcelona. It’s almost more of a satnav than a handset, because it’s packed with all sorts of mapping technology.

It comes with ‘drive and walk’ navigation, as well as full regional maps, a dedicated navigator button on the front of the phone, a touch area for zooming in and out, and a large display tuned to daylight viewing conditions.

Maps with Ovi will allow users to plan a journey on their PC and then sync it with their device, and the inclusion of a compass will mean that you won’t get lost when you fly south for the winter. In the box comes a car holder, and there’s also a car-mounted speakerphone available.

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As for the 6720 Classic, it’s got noise cancellation and a curved design that Nokia claims will significantly improve call quality. Good battery life, “high-speed” internet, which I’m presuming means HSDPA, and TV-out capability.

No more specs than that yet, I’m afraid, but we do have prices and release dates.The 6720 Classic will show up in Q2 at an estimated price of €245 (£220) and the 6710 Navigator will appear shortly after in Q3 for not much more – just €300 (£270).

Sky HD boxes self-destructing, getting replaced

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Sky HD customer? Have you heard from your provider lately? The company is allegedly recalling thousands of digiboxes due to a design fault that will gradually corrupt hard drives, ultimately causing disk failure.

The problem affects Pace-made units (Thomson, Samsung and Amstrad models are fine) and subscribers are getting three months of free HD subscription to compensate them for any data stored on their boxes.

Have you had your box replaced? Get in touch in the comments below and let us know what happened.

(via TrustedReviews)

Five announcements that won't be made at MWC

Mobile World Congress is just round 2009, which means that the dead spell between CES and MWC is nearly over. Next week the trickle of new handsets and mobile announcements will become a veritable flood, so before that begins, let’s talk about five announcements that simply won’t happen at MWC this year.

One: All handsets will henceforth come with a 3.5mm headphone jack
The headphones you get with a new phone ALWAYS suck – they’re flimsy, cheap, tinny, and generally last all of twenty minutes when used in the wild. That’s why it’s possible, indeed desirable, to buy alternative earbuds from the likes of Klipsch, Sennheiser or Jays Headphones.

But the vast majority of handsets won’t let you use them. Some come with an adapter the bulkily attaches to the bottom of your phone, but many simply don’t offer the option. The idea being, of course, that you’ll shell out for the ‘premium’ earbud accessories that don’t sound much better, even if they do stay in your ear for more than ten seconds.

At MWC 2009, expect this trend to continue. Manufacturers, with the exception of a few music-based handsets like the Nokia 5800, have absolutely no interest in helping out consumers with this one.

Two: Battery life will be doubled, not halved
Each year, as handsets get more and more powerful, it seems like my phone’s battery lasts fewer and fewer hours before giving up the ghost. I charge my N95 once a day, and even then it’s usually struggling by the evening. In the old days, my phone could last weeks without a charge.

So it seems that battery technology simply isn’t advancing as fast as phone feature technology. Next year, expect to charge your phone twice a day. The year after it’ll be every hour. The year after that, we’ll all be charging our phones through the movement of our clothes.

But this year, at MWC 2009, don’t expect to hear announcements of dramatically improved battery lift. Marketers know that GPS, more megapixels on the cameras, and more memory are all sexier than a few extra hours’ juice.

Three: A decent handset running Android
The G1 is great, don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind its ‘chin’, the irritating need to switch from portrait to landscape whenever you want to enter text, and the rubbish camera. But it’s not the uber-phone that it needs to be to be the true iPhone killer that everyone wants it to be.

And neither are any of the other handsets announced for 2009. Android has so much potential as a platform, but its devices are really letting it down. For our shopping list of what the perfect handset would comprise of, see Dan’s top 10 things to look for in a phone.

So unless someone’s keeping something exceptionally well-hidden from the world, which is rare in the mobile phone space, then we’re not going to see the mother of all handsets for Android announced at MWC this year. Pity.

Four: LTE or WiMax arriving for consumers
Perhaps I’m being unfair here, but it feels like LTE and WiMax have been ‘competing’ for ages as to which will be the next generation of mobile broadband. Well, I’ve had enough competition – can’t we just crown a winner already? All this delay is doing is keeping my mobile internet slow.

I don’t mind which it is, but let’s get whichever into every handset as fast as we can please, without any of the crawling slowness that’s characterised the switch from GPRS to 3G. Even today handsets are coming out without 3G. That’s ridiculous.

At MWC this year, there won’t be an announcement that next-generation mobile broadband will be available to more than a handful of consumers. That’s a pity, especially as the iPhone has shown how much people want mobile internet.

Five: Some decent mobile games
For far too long, ‘mobile game’ has directly translated into ‘tired gaming concept combined with bad movie franchise, shoehorned into an awkward control system on a tiny screen’. There are very very few mobile games that are worth the money they cost, although I’m sure Stuart Dredge over at Pocket Gamer would disagree.

The iPhone has helped matters by upping the quality standards, but it’s also meant that there are few games where accelerometer control hasn’t joined the shopping list above. What’s really needed is for proper developers to make serious – hardcore – games. Games with great narrative, excellent humour and thrilling moments.

It’s possible, even with the limitations of the device. But good games won’t be announced at CES this year – no, it’ll be yet another version of Worms, Deal or No Deal and awful racing games. Sigh. I hope that eventually developers will realise that mobile doesn’t have to mean “rubbish”.

Shiny Video Reivew: iMu Vibrating Speaker

Yes, it looks like a stunted dildo. But this isn’t a dildo. It’s the previously reported-upon iMu “Singing Table” that’ll turn any surface you place it on into a speaker. Awesome, right? Shame it costs £50.

I know! £50! I couldn’t believe it either. Seriously, what are you going to use this thing for? Especially as it plugs in to mains power. If you can think of a situation where this would be a lifesaver, and a cheap pair of travel speakers wouldn’t, then let us know in the comments.

Two Nokia touchscreen phones leaked by… er… Nokia

In the video above, Nokia N97 designer, Axel Meyer, is interviewed, but also appearing completely unnannounced are a couple of new touchscreen phones. Sources are suggesting that these might be Ivalo and Madeleine – codenames for upcoming smartphones that emerged in a leaked roadmap last year.

Ivalo will have 32GB of storage, GPS, FM radiio, 5-megapixel camera, 3.5″ touchscreen and Wi-Fi. High spec, but no QWERTY keyboard like the N97. The Madeleine is more mid-range, with Wi-Fi and GPS, a 3.2 megapixel camera, and N-Gage functionality. No official info on either yet, but perhaps we’ll see them at MWC next week.

(via GSMArena)

SPY SHOT: New iPhone back cover black and matte?

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If these leaked spy shots, supposedly from China, are to be believed, then the back cover of the next version of the iPhone 3G will be black and matte. If you’re the kind of person with greasy fingers, then that’ll make you very happy.

The same source leaked an accurate back cover of last year’s iPhone months before its release, so there’s every reason to believe that this is real. On the other hand, though, it’s rather early to be seeing an Apple product that’s widely expected to show up in June.

Samsung launches "Blue Earth" solar-powered phone

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Many tech companies seem insistent on just using “green” as a marketing gimmick, and Samsung is the latest to launch an ‘eco phone’ rather than just integrating green principles into all its handsets.

The company has come up with the “Blue Earth” phone, which is made of recycled plastic, free of Brominated Flame Retardants, Beryllium and Phthalate, and has a great big solar panel on the back for charging purposes.

The integrated solar charger is excellent news, but why isn’t the company planning that for all its future handsets? Why aren’t ALL Samsung phones made with recycled plastic and free of harmful substances? Why don’t they ALL come in recycled, minimum-mass packaging with an energy efficient charger? Why don’t they ALL come with a low-power “eco mode”?

Confining all those things to one model, especially one that looks as garish as “Blue Earth” does, won’t have any real ecological benefit. All it does is let Samsung say to its critics “look how green we are!”. Well, I’m afraid that’s not going to wash with us. Sorry Samsung – come back when your intentions lie in saving the planet, rather than your marketing department.

Samsung at MWC

RUMOUR: Apple to launch streaming film and TV service

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There’s a rumour going around that Apple’s building a service for streaming film and TV shows, called iTunes Replay. It would give users the option to either download or stream a video once it’s been purchased. Apple could, obviously, charge different amounts for a stream vs a download.

But if Spotify’s popularity is anything to go by, then always-on broadband internet connections mean that the only reason you’d ever need to download something these days is if you wanted to stick it onto a portable player. Even those are increasingly delivering more and more data services.

So this is essentially “RUMOUR: The sun will rise tomorrow”. Maybe that’s a little on the mean side, but I’d be very surprised if Apple isn’t watching iPlayer and Spotify very closely, ready to follow suit whenever it can. .

In the meantime, we’ll stick with UKNova, 101 Great Goals, The Pirate Bay and iPlayer, thanks.

(via Trusted Reviews)