Mobile phone blogs

Thursday, March 11th 2010

Orange has announced it has agreed a new deal to supply Derby City Council (DCC) with hundreds of BlackBerry devices.

The network operator revealed that the 24-month offer - which began on February 1st 2010 - will save the body an estimated £200,000 per year.

Under the deal, Orange will provide 1,500 voice connections to the council, as well as BlackBerry mobile phones which will enable employees to remain connected to the internet and emails when they are out of the office.

Orange offers three BlackBerry handsets - the Bold 9700, Curve 8520 and Curve 8900 - although it has not revealed which of the smartphones it will supply to the council.

Tuesday, March 9th 2010

Vodafone, Orange and O2 are all set to compete for the chance to sell the Apple iPad.

According to a report in the Times, executives at Apple will fly into the UK this week to decide which operator will be given the rights to sell the sought-after mobile internet browsing handset.

Sources familiar with the matter told the newspaper that preliminary talks have already been held between the manufacturer and Vodafone, Orange and O2, although nothing concrete has yet been agreed.

Rather than selecting a single network to sell the gadget – which Apple opted to do when it gave O2 exclusivity over the iPhone in 2007 – it is expected that multiple carriers will be chosen for the new device.

Thursday, March 4th 2010

Increasing demand for smartphones such as the BlackBerry Storm2 in recent years is placing more and more pressure on network capacity.

According to Rory O'Neill, the senior director of business marketing for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region at BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion, said this growth is leading to a "capacity crunch" in network availability.

"As there's more and more data on the networks you need more and more network capacity to service these data requests, as well as a better way to manage the increasing demand for that data," he explained.

But the manufacturer has said that its BlackBerry mobile phones help with the network data capacity issue by optimising data.

Tuesday, March 2nd 2010

Android mobile phones like the HTC Smart are far more likely to be used by men than women.

This is according to mobile advertising network AdMob's latest Mobile Metrics Report, which takes data from more than 15,000 mobile websites and applications.

Researchers at the US-based firm discovered that 73 per cent of the people who use Android mobile phones such as the HTC Smart are male, giving these handsets the strongest gender skew of any of the high-end devices surveyed.

In comparison, mobile phones running the WebOS operating system - such as the Palm Pre - had a user base comprised of 58 per cent men, while 57 per cent of Apple iPhone users were male.

Thursday, February 25th 2010

T-Mobile is aiming to encourage its subscribers to use the internet more while they are abroad by lowering its data roaming charges.

The UK network operator, which is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, will launch the new Euro Broadband Boosters service at the start of March 2010.

Its subscribers will be able to purchase one of the new bundles to use while travelling around the UK. The 3 MB, 20 MB and 50 MB packages will all give internet access at a discounted rate to standard roaming charges for a 24-hour period.

Furthermore, a 200 MB bundle is also available allowing access for a full month.

Tuesday, February 23rd 2010

Vodafone is looking to move into new international markets with the launch of two new ultra-low cost mobile phones.

The network operator's new 150 and 250 handsets will debut in India and Africa over the coming weeks, with the devices set to cost (£9.64) and respectively.

But the new Vodafone mobile phones will allow consumers to do more than simply call and text - the UK-based telecoms giant revealed that they will also support online mobile banking, such as Africa's M-Pesa service.

President of the Mobile Data Association Mike Short claimed that Vodafone will "quite rightly" be looking to target new customers with the launch of the handsets.

Thursday, February 18th 2010

iPhone maker Apple holds strong market dominance when it comes to smartphone apps, with the handset maker recently revealing that three billion apps have been downloaded from its App Store by iPod touch and iPhone users.

Chief executive officer Steve Jobs said of the announcement: "Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months - this is like nothing we've ever seen before. The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.

Thursday, February 18th 2010

HTC
may be known for being the maker behind Google's Nexus One but the manufacturer has come into its own this week and announced a number of product releases.

A recent IDC report asserted that HTC was one of the most successful smartphone vendors. And the handset maker has now introduced the HTC Sense experience that will be found on two new smartphones, the HTC Desire and the HTC Legend.

HTC Sense makes handsets work in a more natural way by mirroring the way in which people live and communicate.

Facebook, Flickr and Twitter are "seamlessly" aggregated through a new HTC widget called Friend Stream, while individuals can be organised into groups such as colleagues, family and friends.

Tuesday, February 16th 2010

A new T-Mobile report has revealed that many Britons believe that all the information they need is at their fingertips via their mobile phones.

The study by T-Mobile and The Future Laboratory found that 47 per cent of men and 53 per cent of women feel that the information they require can be accessed through their handsets, keeping them informed on the move.

When it comes to shopping, smartphones can allow individuals to check product reviews and compare prices before making a purchase.

One application which can help with the shopping needs of mobile phone users is the Android-based ShopSavvy, which allows consumers to use the handset's camera to scan barcodes and compare prices online.

Tuesday, February 16th 2010

Motorola has revealed new mobile phone the QUENCH with MOTOBLUR, its Android-powered content delivery service.

The QUENCH comes with Adobe Flash Lite to help users browse the internet on the 3.1-inch high-resolution display, while messaging is made more convenient because of its pocket and palm friendly design.

QUENCH customers can enjoy access to Gmail, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter via Motorola's MOTOBLUR and contact information is automatically synced when details change online.

This could take the hassle out of manually updating information.

Thursday, February 11th 2010

The billionth minute of usage of 3's free Skype has been made by Britain's digital minister Stephen Timms, who rang the chief executive officer of medical aid charity Merlin, which is working in Haiti.

Five Skypephones were donated to the charity by 3 so Merlin's UK-based staff could keep in touch with colleagues, something which has proved difficult because of the damaged telecommunications infrastructure.

As well as helping out with the relief efforts, Skype on 3 has saved more than £120 million in phone call costs for UK customers.

Every day three million minutes of free Skype calls are made between 3 mobile phone customers.

Tuesday, February 9th 2010

Users of the Apple iPhone could find that they receive targeted marketing messages depending on their location.

Apple announced that it will allow iPhone app developers to use the GPS technology found in the smartphone to insert location-based advertising in their apps.

This may mean that if an iPhone customer was walking past a restaurant then they could receive vouchers and discount coupons through their handset for that particular establishment.

But Apple has stated that only "beneficial information" can be sent in this way.

Thursday, February 4th 2010

The new version of Nokia Ovi Maps was launched on January 21st 2010 and since then, there have been over 1.4 million downloads.

A week after the launch the one million mark was reached and by the end of the month, China, Spain, the UK, Germany and Italy were the top five countries which downloaded the new Nokia Ovi Maps the most.

It has also been revealed that the Nokia E72, 5800 XpressMusic, 5230, N97 mini and the N97 are the most popular devices which the maps were downloaded to.

Executive vice-president of Nokia Anssi Vanjoki said that an average of a download a second has been achieved, 24 hours a day.

"When we announced free walk and drive navigation we knew it would be a game-changer.

Tuesday, February 2nd 2010

Innovation in the mobile phone sector does not necessarily mean cutting-edge smartphones, a claim on Nokia Conversations has suggested.

Nokia often puts a twist on innovation which can be found in even its most basic handsets, author JCB stated.

They take the example of the Nokia 1280, which is 15.3 mm thick and with a black and white screen. While these appear to be basic features of a handset compared to the recent smartphones, the Nokia 1280 has a speaking alarm clock and multiple phonebooks for five users.

It also has a flashlight and FM radio. However, JCB then comments on the price of this handset - around €20 - (£17.50).

Thursday, January 28th 2010

Network operator O2 has announced that Azzurri Communications will become a strategic partner to help deliver services to customers including additional support for iPhone, BlackBerry and Palm Pre users.

Under the O2 Centre of Excellence Programme, Azzurri will manage a base of O2 customers and focus its mobile phone operations almost solely on 02, giving up its other direct network relationships in the process.

Commenting on the new partnership, Ben Dowd, O2 business sales director, claims that the network operator continues to move away from being seen as a mobile phone-related brand to a "leading connectivity service brand".