Tag: vodafone
This week's top five tech movers – Giffgaff, Voda and a surprise at #1
Well we have a surprise at number one and a very interesting start up doing well. And see if you can guess which mobile phone network is this week's biggest loser?
Vodafone 360 adds Facebook/Windows Live Messenger connectivity
From Vodafone comes a new suite of internet services for mobile phone and PC that will enable users to access communities, entertainment and personal favourites (music, games, photos and videos etc.) all in one place.
Similar to services already offered by other mobile phone operators, such as Orange’s Social Life package, Vodafone 360 works across a range of mobile phones, including the new, exclusive Vodafone 360 phones and syncs automatically with your PC.
At its heart, Vodafone 360 offers a personal address book – Vodafone People – which brings together all your contacts from the mobile phone, social networks and other internet accounts. At launch Vodafone 360 will work with Facebook, Windows Live Messager and Google Talk. It will also soon be compatible with Twitter, Hyves and studiVZ.
Two tailor-made Vodafone 360 mobile handsets, manufactured by Samsung, have been designed to give the best customer experience of the services including the unique 3D contacts display, driven by Vodafone’s ‘proximity algorithm’ which brings the most frequently contacted people closer to the front.
The Vodafone 360 H1 by Samsung boasts a 3.5inch multi-touch, high definition OLED screen, 16GB memory, WiFi, a maximum talk time of over 400 minutes (3G) and a 5 megapixel camera. It will be followed shortly by a second Samsung handset, offering customers a range of colours and price points.
At launch four Nokia Symbian smartphones will also come pre-loaded with Vodafone 360 and part or all of the service will be available to over one hundred popular phones via download.
At its heart Vodafone 360 has the most personal address book available, bringing together all of the contacts from the mobile phone, social networks and other internet accounts. It works across a range of mobile phones, including the new, exclusive Vodafone 360 phones, and synchs automatically with the PC
The 2009 launch in Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK will be followed by launches in a number of other countries in 2010, including India, Turkey, South Africa, New Zealand and Romania and in France through SFR. through MTS in Russia, and through Vodafone Hutchison Australia.
Vodafone confirms Nokia N97 mini launch for October
The most interesting bit of news it gives is that the phone will go on sale in October. You can't obviously buy it or preorder it yet, but Voda does give people the chance to register their interest in owning one.
LG and Vodafone team up to launch the GM750 Windows smartphone
The handset itself is a 3.0 inch touch screen model which packs a 5.0 mega pixel camera, GPS, Wi-Fi and LG's S Class interface so users can add apps and widgets to the phone and its screen.
Vodafone goes phone crazy with eight new mobiles
I doubt that there's much here to worry Apple, Palm and other smartphone makers but at least Voda customers will have plenty of choice of cheapo mobiles in their local store.
Onyx announces a trio of dual-SIM mobiles- the Flip, Slider and Nero
The trio, the Flip, Slider and Nero, are also innovative in that they all boast twin SIM card holders, the theory being that savvy users can choose which SIM they use thereby saving money on text calls. Alternatively they can combine a business number and a personal number with different networks and tariffs yet use the same handset.
BlackBerry Storm 2 does have Wi-Fi after all
Now a German website has got some crafty pics of the new handset, which have picked up by Crackberry and other sites, that definitely prove it has Wi-Fi on board.
Datawind UbiSurfer netbook – free internet wherever, whenever
Canadian company Datawind, the guys behind the Pocket Surfer, has entered the netbook market with the UbiSurfer.
Spec wise I’m afraid it gets absolutely blown out of the water compared to other netbooks available. An Arm processor with just 128GB of RAM is pretty poor. As is the SSD of just 1GB. But it does have a few features going for it that make it an attractive proposition.
Firstly, it’s tiny. If you’re looking for a really compact netbook you’ll struggle to get more compact that this. The screen is just 7-inches and it weighs just 700g. Secondly it’s only £159.99. Lastly, and by far the most crucial aspect of the UbiSufer is that it comes with a pre-installed Vodafone SIM that will allow 30 hours of GPRS web surfing a month. It’s not 3G but it’s better than a poke in the eye.
If more than 30 hours are needed a £5.99 a month fee will allow unlimited usage. The 30 hours a month deal lasts for a year, and then it’s just £29.99 a year after that. Roaming charges are pretty cheap too – just 5p a minute in Europe and the States.
30 hours should be more than enough for most surfers – the netbook has Wi-Fi as well so it wouldn’t be totally dependent on the Vodafone connection.
So overall, fairly poor netbook, fairly good data deal. For £159.99 it might be worth a punt. Get it online from Maplin.
Palm Pre UK announcement next week
A briefing for the UK press has been arranged by Palm for next week – fuelling rumours that they will be announcing release details for the much anticipated Palm Pre smartphone.
The phone was released in the first week of June in the US but us poor old Brits have had to wait with baited breath for launch details. As of yet we’ve heard nothing.
But this could all be set to change on 7th July. Hopefully, Palm will not only provide a release date but they’ll also give us network and price information. Rumours have circulated that the Pre will be exclusive to O2, although Vodafone has also been touted as a possible carrier.
I’m going to stick my neck out and say it will be available on O2 with the same contracts available as with the iPhone 3GS. This is purely a guess though. Just a bit of fun. Don’t come complaining if I’m wrong.
(via T3)
Vodafone interested in buying T-Mobile
Last month we told you that T-Mobile may well be on the verge of a sell out or merger since a spokesman from their parent company, Deutsche Telekom, expressed disappointment at their results in the UK market.
The FT is reporting this morning that it could be Vodafone who is in pole-position to mount a takeover.
If a buy-out was to go ahead it would make Vodafone the largest mobile phone operator in the UK. Currently O2 is the biggest, with a 27% share but if Vodafone’s 25% share was supplemented by T-Mobile’s 15% then they’d have a whopping 40% share.
This might be the proposed moves downfall though. Competition regulators may veto the takeover in the interests of market fairness.
Both Vodafone and T-Mobile have refused to comment so far although shares in both companies have risen in the market this morning.
(via The FT)
