Tag: orange
Orange customer wins no phone signal lawsuit
An Orange customer named Tom Prescott is now £500 richer than a week ago, thanks to a court ruling in his favour.
He took out an 18-month contract with Orange, but found that he couldn’t get signal in either his home or his office. He then tried to cancel, but Orange told him it was his problem, not theirs. As you can imagine, he wasn’t too happy.
The court’s now ruled in his favour – saying that if you sell an 18-month contract to someone who doesn’t live or work in a place where you can provide coverage, then it damn well is your problem.
It could end up being a massive headache for the big phone networks as they suddenly become inundated with lawsuits. It also means that manufacturers of mini phone masts that exist in your home – called Femtocells – are suddenly rubbing their hands with glee.
(via News Wireless)
Orange adds HP Compaq Mini 700 and Toshiba L300 to its 'connected' product line
Since November, Orange has been offering the Eee PC 901, complete with a 3G module, for £25 a month on a two-year contract. It’s an interesting blend of the mobile phone and PC business models, and has presumably proved successful, because the company is rolling out more laptops.
The HP Compaq Mini 700 and the Toshiba L300 have been added to the available range. You’ll get the former for £30 a month, and the latter for £35. They both come with the ‘internet everywhere’ service – meaning ‘everywhere you can get a phone signal’, anyway. That gives 3GB of monthly data allowance – not a great deal for heavy users.
First PAYG BlackBerry in UK coming to Orange
Orange has announced they’re to be the first provider in the UK to launch a BlackBerry on PAYG.
It’s a surprisingly progressive move from a company I accused of showing no ambition just the other day and it’ll see the popular BlackBerry Pearl 8120 for sale at £145 with internet access at £5 per month. Hard to tell how long…
Lenovo launches new slim, pretty Y-series of laptops
This machine is one of three Y-series laptops announced this morning by Lenovo, and it’s certainly a looker. The Y650, Y550, and Y450 machines (it’s not clear which one is pictured above) only differ in screen size, ranging from 16″ to 14″, via 15″, all at a 16:9 aspect ratio.
Inside, they’re rather attractive, too – boasting upto 4GB of RAM, upto 500GB hard disk space, and an optional NVidia GFX graphics card. The trackpad’s multi-touch, too, which might make it a good candidate to turn into a hackintosh. Can’t wait to get one into my hands, and see if it’s as lovely in person as in that picture above.
Lenovo (via Akihabaranews)
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Retrieva GPS Pet Collar could help you find your lost pooch
As someone who has had to search the local woods for a runaway dog, I know how frustrating and worrying it can be when it’s getting dark and the dog is nowhere to be seen.
As a whistle and dog treats don’t always cut it, particularly if the worse happens and your dog is stolen, along comes a technological solution – put a GPS tag on your dog’s collar so you can always find him.
Retrieva has teamed up with Orange to develop the Tracking and Anti-theft collar which is both waterproof and tamperproof.
Whenever the dog leaves home without the owner’s knowledge, or someone tampers with the collar, a text message is sent to the owner’s mobile phone. Similarly, if the dog goes missing while on a walk, the owner can request that the dog’s location is transmitted to a mobile phone for plotting on a map.
The collar contains an Orange SIM card and uses a combination of GPS, GSM, and radio frequency to accurately track the dog. That, coupled with Orange’s claimed 99% UK coverage, means that the dog should never be out of signal range.
The collar has to be charged at the ICYou base station, so just hope that your dog doesn’t go missing when it’s not wearing it.
There’s even a panic button (for the owner to use, naturally) which can send a message to predetermined numbers should it be required when out and about.
Launching soon, the unit will cost £250 plus £9.99 per month to operate. Quite a hefty investment, at one level, but one that many dog owners would probably be prepared to pay. Pet insurance is all very well, but money doesn’t cover the distress of losing a much-loved pet. This solution could.
Of course the system could also be used to track any other living creatures or inanimate objects. Visit the Retrieva Tracking web site for more details…
UPDATE: Orange not blocking the Pirate Bay after all
Turns out that all the fuss over Orange blocking the Pirate Bay was a simple internet error. Orange has just got in touch with us, claiming innocence while awkwardly avoiding naming the site in question:
“We can confirm that we have not actively stopped customers accessing the web sites reportedly affected. However, following investigation by our network partners, a small section of our internet traffic was rerouted by one of them which has now restored access to the sites concerned.
As has always been the case, it is Orange UK’s policy to not block customer access to websites, other than to those containing images of child abuse as identified by the IWF.”
Good to know. If you’re on Orange and were affected, let us know in the comments whether you can get to the site now. Here’s a handy link.
I’ll also rescind my actually rather ranty promise to never subscribe to Orange again. I was with them for several years. They’re actually very good. If they offer me a good phone at a good price point when my contract’s up in March, then I’ll take it.
Related posts: On Orange? Blocked from the Pirate Bay? Here’s a solution | Orange to offer Eee 901 with 3G for £25 a month
On Orange? Blocked from the Pirate Bay? Here's a solution.
There’s no official confirmation yet, but it appears that Orange has blocked its customers from accessing the world’s biggest Bittorrent tracker – the Pirate Bay. Orange subscribers first starting reporting problems accessing the site last Friday, and since then Orange has been very vague – not providing any solutions to customers, and not confirming or denying the block.
Orange’s PR company state:
“Our understanding is that Orange doesn’t block access to any sites other than those identified by the Internet Watch Foundation, that relate to illegal child abuse imagery. However, we’re looking into this and will update you again as soon as we can.”
However, French customers are also reporting the same block, so it seems unlikely that this is a technical problem, especially as people can access the site fine when viewed with a proxy. If you’re an Orange customer, click over the jump to find out how to get onto the site in this way.
Orange to offer Eee 901 with 3G for £25 a month
Cautiously speaking, this looks like a good deal. If you’ve been thinking about getting a netbook then you’re probably familiar with the Eee 901, which is one of the best on the market. Well, Orange are poised to start selling the Eee for £25 a month on a two year contract with a 3GB-a-month data cap.
It’ll only be available in black and pink, but you also get the ability to send 100 texts from the device, too. The only problem? The device will probably be looking very long in the tooth in two year’s time, given that it’s nearly a year old already, and data will be considerably cheaper by then, too. Plus £25 a month over 24 months is £600. That’s a lot of cash for a machine that Asus are phasing out.
Orange (via Electric Pig)
LG KF300 launches on Orange
Up there is the LG KF300, which is launching today on Orange. It’s a flip phone, but it’s only 16.2 mm thick, which I’m sure you’ll agree is rather on the anorexic side. It’s got an extra-large keypad, and dedicated hotkeys for features like the phonebook, message inbox, calendar and alarm clock.
Specs-wise, there’s a paltry 14MB of internal memory, but support for upto 2GB of microSD card-age. It also has a 2 megapixel camera, 2.2″ screen, stereo Bluetooth, and FM radio. It’ll play MP3s, like just about every phone ever, but there’s no sign of a 3.5″ headphone jack.
This phone won’t win any awards for its features, but it’s a reasonably attractive flip phone at a budget price point. It’s available now, for free on a £15 a month, two year contract. If you want it, go see Orange. They’ve got it.
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