Bluetooth Stereo headphones… only 10 quid!

Last year I thought i’d got a fantastic bargain… A pair of Jabra 320S bluetooth stereo headphones for £20.

 

This year you can go £10 better and get a pair of A2DP stereo earbuds (which you can plug your own headphones into) for only £10 including delivery.

Bluetooth compliance: Bluetooth 1.2 supporting A2DP and AVRCP profiles, headset (HSP) and hands-free (HFP) profiles Supported Bluetooth profiles: Handsfree (default) and Headset Bluetooth profiles.

 

• Supported special features: Pair with up to 8 devices, Answer calls, End calls, Reject calls, Voice dialing, Last number redialing, Call waiting, Place call on hold and Mute.
• Standard 3.5 mm plug to connect with your favourite headphones
• Phone and Music remote control in one clothing clip
• 2 different wearing styles: integrated clothing clip and lanyard carrying strap

Operating range: Up to 10 metres (30 feet)

• Talk time/music streaming: Up to 6h (subject to phone)
• Stand-by time: Up to 160h
• Charging time: Approximately 2 hour

For full details pop over to the Orange website

http://www.orangeaccessories.co.uk/bt320_stereo_bluetooth_headset.html

MWC: Orange and T-Mobile UK to Jointly Pilot New Mobile TV Broadcast Service in London using NextWave Wireless’ TDtvTSolution

Mobile Operators trial use of TDtv MBMS and Existing 3G Spectrum to Deliver Up to 24 Broadcast Channels and 10 Digital Radio Stations to Multimedia Enabled WCDMA Handsets

Orange and T-Mobile UK today announced they intend to jointly pilot a new mobile TV and multimedia broadcast service in London using NextWave Wireless’ (Nasdaq – WAVE) UMTS MBMS based TDtv solution. The pilot, scheduled for the second half of 2008, will be targeted at people living or working in West London and will demonstrate how the cost of providing high-quality, mass market mobile TV and multimedia broadcast services can be significantly reduced when mobile operators share widely-available unpaired 3G spectrum and a standards-based TDtv broadcast network. It will also showcase an innovative consortium model that can be easily replicated by mobile operators in more than 50 other countries where unpaired 3G spectrum is available.

During the six-month pilot Orange and T-Mobile UK customers will use TDtv-enabled WCDMA handsets to receive up to 24 high-resolution television channels along with 10 digital radio stations at a far lower delivery cost per channel than previously possible. By providing more channels with higher picture quality that are fully integrated with existing multimedia services, the pilot service is expected to conclusively prove customer demand for mobile broadcast TV and radio services. The channel lineup is expected to include many of the most popular broadcast and premium television channels in the UK.

[Read more]

Key Telecom Industry Players Join Forces To Speed Up The Introduction Of Interoperable Rich Communication Services

Today, a group of key operators, infrastucture and device vendors comprised of Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, TeliaSonera, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung, announced a joint effort to facilitate the evolution of mobile communication towards rich communication.

Together the participants have agreed upon a set of features originating from profiled IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) standards as well as implementation guidelines with the intention of having interoperable rich communication services available in 2008.

Consumers are now experiencing the power and the promise of converged and rich communication such as instant messaging, video sharing and buddy lists, which have introduced a new user experience.

Consumers expect that these capabilities are available on any type of devices and that there is open communication between devices and networks. With the Rich Communication Suite (RCS) these customer expectations can be fulfilled, and ever evolving services can be offered to enhance users’ experience. The core feature set of RCS includes the following services:

• Enhanced Phonebook, with service capabilities and presence enhanced contacts information
• Enhanced Messaging, which enables a large variety of messaging options including chat and messaging history
• Enriched Call, which enables multimedia content sharing during a voice call

[Read more]

Holy Shift!! The Shift is soon to land in the UK!

Back in March 2007, I got a chance to play with the HTC Shift at an exclusive dinner with HTC. Myself and the others in attendance were floored at this device. We weren’t allowed to take photos, etc… In the last few months though, the Shift has shifted into the hands of many to look at and all that I have seen has been positive.

Moving forward and almost a year later,  Reg Hardware is reporting that Expansys is set to ship these soon (Feb 17th) and that we might see it offered for sale through Orange as well.

The Shift, which first appeared almost a year ago and was due to go on sale in November 2007, will be available from online retailer Expansys on 19 February, for a device-only price of £885 (€1185/$1720).

Separately, bloggers Tracy and Matt claim to have seen a copy of Orange’s retailer-oriented February pricebook, which apparently reveals that the network operator will offer an own-brand version of the UMPC in March.

Orange Confirms HTC Touch to be Released in the UK

From Modaco :

Orange has confirmed that the Touch Duals to be used on their UK network will have the 16-key “phone” pad, rather than the quasi-qwerty 20-key flavour also available.

 

This raises some interesting thoughts as to which devices are viewed as competition to the Dual. Its clear that there is no love lost between Microsoft and RIM, however by chosing to avoid a qwerty layout it seems that between Orange and HTC a decision has been made to target other manufacturers.

 

Perhaps Nokia’s N95? The inclusion of wifi and GPS makes this seem a strong competitor, although this could be offset by the Dual’s touchscreen interface. Sony Ericsson’s smartphones are equipped with qwerty keypads, however Orange UK is currently only stocking the ageing M600i, with no sign of the better equipped P1i. Both these devices also pack a touchscreen, however the M600i is wifi free.

Source: Modaco

Orange Announces Christmas line-up

Following on from Vodafone’s similar recent announcement, Orange has revealed their Christmas handset line-up.

The phones include the following:

• LG Shine
• Samsung F210
• Sony Ericsson W580i
• Sony Ericsson W200i
• Samsung U600
• Sony Ericsson W910

Also similar to Vodafone, Orange’s Christmas offerings will see the new own-branded “Berlin” range from Orange. A “value for money” proposition, the handsets apparently feature 3G, 2MP camera, MP3 player and Bluetooth.

Source:engadget mobile

The Best Phone Ever (to take to the Pub)

We’re a fickle lot at Mobiltysite when it comes to shiny new phones. Jack is busy dreaming of the day he can have a PSP phone, Johno is busy working out what he can buy from Sprint, Chris is thinking about Google Phones , and a large chunk of the news team are working out how they are going to manage to wait for the TyTn II.

But all of these phones have a major design flaw… Not one of them is Beer proof. In fact any ‘beer related incident’ isn’t likely to be covered by the standard warranty and may cost a bundle of cash to fix.

Enter the Alcatel E201… the best phone in the world to take to the pub. It’s range of features is impressive.

• No touch screen to get scratched
• No stylus to loose in bowls of peanuts
• No expensive electronics to break when you bounce it off the floor
• No Internet to stop you purchasing expensive junk from eBay while under the influence
• No camera to provide incriminating evidence the next day

Pretty much all you can do with it is talk and text.

But it’s killer feature is the price.. £8 from Woolworths.. on a PAYG tariff.

So if you loose it/break it/get it stolen/drop it in a pint of Guinness/Throw it at the annoying karaoke singers.. It doesn’t matter. 

This could be the future of Mobility

Source t3

Words you didn’t know you needed - Smexting

Every day there are new words being added to the English language, some of them are needed and serve a genuine purpose, Others of them are made up by evil marketing minions and are as useful and long lived as an iPhone smeared with honey and thrown into a black hole.

Anyway, Today’s word is smexting  can you guess which group this one falls into?????

According to Orange Smexting is Sending a text message while you would have been smoking if the smoking ban hadn’t have stopped you smoking in a public building or place of work

Which is another way of saying that since the Smoking ban was introduced in July there have been another 7.5 million text messages sent in the UK.

 

The sharp increase has been attributed to smokers keeping themselves occupied as they’re forced outdoors and away from their mates. Many are also turning to their phones as a distraction and a way to avoid temptation.

Nick Bonney, Director of Market Insight, commented; “We see smexting as a halfway house for ostracized smokers - they can enjoy a cigarette and stay in touch with their mates at the same time. Many people are also texting friends for support as they try to give up.”

So that’s proves it’s a load of PR Smollox then…

Source: The Grauniad

Orange and Disney sign VOD deal

Mobile and broadband operator Orange UK and Disney-ABC International Televison have signed a multi-year video-on-demand deal for digital TV and the internet. 

The deal will allow Orange customers to watch a selection of movies from The Walt Disney Company including the Pirates of the Caribbean, on Orange’s new digital TV service. 

Orange’s upcoming launch of digital TV in the UK builds upon its existing TV provision in France, Spain, Mauritius, Senegal and Poland.

Under this new agreement, Orange UK will be able to offer rental video-on-demand movies from Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films including Déjà Vu, Wild Hogs and Venus.  

Source: mad.co.uk

BlackBerry 8820 Smartphone in the UK

Last week RIM announced the Blackberry 8820. Today RIM and Orange UK today introduced the BlackBerry 8820 smartphone to the UK market., The new smartphone features RIM’s thinnest handset design with a full and  highly tactile QWERTY keyboard, large ultra bright landscape display, user-friendly trackball navigation system and best-in-class voice and data functionality. The BlackBerry 8820 also includes built-in GPS (Global Positioning System), RIM’s latest media player enhancements, and a microSD / microSDHC (microSD High Capacity) expandable memory slot that can support the current and future generations of microSD memory up to 32GB.  

The BlackBerry 8820 is the first dual-mode BlackBerry handset   combining EDGE/GPRS/GSM cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity for data access and voice support through UMA (unlicensed mobile access) for fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) offerings, making it fully compatible with Unique, the innovative converged service for business customers from Orange.  By offering a single handset that switches seamlessly between Wi-Fi and GSM networks, Unique offers users a solution to make use of home office Wi-Fi network coverage and allows business customers to use one device for all their calls - whether at home, on the road or in the office.

The BlackBerry 8820 smartphone supports the 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi standards to enable data access over Wi-Fi connections in the enterprise, as well as through public hotspots and wireless home networks. The smartphone can seamlessly switch between cellular coverage and a Wi-Fi network to deliver any BlackBerry data service to the user - email, Instant Messaging, organiser, web browsing and other mobile data applications.

To meet various security requirements for users accessing a Wi-Fi connection, the BlackBerry 8820 is compliant with Wi-Fi security protocols including WEP (Wireless Equivalency Protocol), WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) and WPA2, as well as Cisco Compatible Extensions for simple, secure connectivity with Cisco wireless solutions.  For enterprises that require Wi-Fi users to access the corporate network through a VPN (Virtual Private Network), the BlackBerry 8820 includes IPSec-based software that supports the most commonly deployed VPN gateways from vendors including Cisco, Check Point and others.

The BlackBerry 8820 includes a microSD expansion memory slot memory that can support both microSD (up to 2GB) and microSDHC (4GB to 32GB) memory cards. 4GB memory cards are available today, and 8GB cards are expected to be available later this year.

Source: Blackberry

The Carphone Warehouse to offer BlackBerry smartphones directly to customers in the UK

The Carphone Warehouse and Research In Motion announced a strategic relationship to offer the latest range of BlackBerry smartphones directly through its strong network of The Carphone Warehouse outlets located throughout the UK and online through Carphone Warehouse.com . Launching across the UK’s 780 stores, The Carphone Warehouse is the only supplier to sell the BlackBerry solution.

Activations available on - O2, Orange, and T-Mobile networks

Available smartphones - 

• BlackBerry Curve- smallest and lightest full-QWERTY BlackBerry smartphone, which comes packed with a comprehensive multimedia suite and integrated camera; offers a unique blend of communications, multimedia and web features to provide users with an exceptional mobile companion for both work and leisure.
• BlackBerry 8800- packed with powerful communications capabilities and yet it is incredibly compact, slim and stylish. The BlackBerry 8800 also includes built-in GPS, BlackBerry Maps, a media player, expandable memory slot, and intuitive trackball navigation system.
• BlackBerry Pearl - smallest BlackBerry handset yet at a mere 107mm x 50mm x 14.5mm and weighing just 89 grams. In addition to supporting phone, email, messaging, organizer, web browser and other mobile applications,  it incorporates a digital camera, MP3 player, video player and an expandable memory slot

The Carphone Warehouse has a presence in over ten countries in mainland Europe under the brand Phone House. The Phone House has an intent to work with local country network operators in France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland to mirror the retail strategy in the UK.

The Carphone Warehouse customers can take advantage of renowned BlackBerry functionality which includes push-email, phone, SMS and MMS messaging, web browsing, multimedia, calendar & organizer capabilities as well as access to thousands of business and lifestyle applications.

Connection through the BlackBerry Internet Service supports up to 10 personal email accounts, including popular ISP email accounts such as TalkTalk, AOL, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, NTL and Virgin Media. Customers can also connect through their corporate email server with BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which integrates with IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange, and Novell GroupWise.

For more information, visit Carphone Warehouse

Source: Blackberry press release

Free Teenager mobile network delayed

  As previously mentioned on Mobiltysite the UK launch of the free mobile phone network for Teenagers, Blyk is going to be on the Orange Network. 

The deal appears to be that teenagers will get free phone calls in exchange for listening to brainwashing propaganda advertising from the likes of L’oreal and Coca-Cola.

Well in the grand tradition of such schemes, it’s running… er late by what’s described as ’several’ months.

Many people were dubious about the business model, but Blyk founder and ex Nokia man Pekka Ala-Pietila, was confident that fizzy drinks merchants and shampoo sellers would be enough to bankroll the project.  Will it happen, will it fail, will anyone try it again? nobody is sure at the moment… but it’s going to be interesting finding out.

Source: The Guardian via  SMS Text News

Top Ten of Whatevers…… The Failed Future of Mobile Technology Part I

With news stories breaking so fast on Mobilitysite it’s inevitable that sometimes  some things tend to get forgotten.   Combine that with the fact that there’s only so many arguments you can have about iPhones, Windows Mobile Upgrades yet another memory card format and it’s perhaps time to take a step back and look around to see what’s been going on.

So here’s the first in an occasional series, the Top Ten of Whatevers..

This week, The Top ten things that were going to be the future of  mobility. and then err weren’t. Bonus points to those ideas that were so great they sank the company.

10) Push to talk

This was great idea,,, Phones as walkie talkies.. short instant voice messages wherever you go. Now I know this is still available in the some bits of the world, but as soon as Orange had finished explaining what it was in the UK, they killed it to new customers and phased it out.

9) Wildfire

Want a complete voice activated mobile phone, that would allow you to send emails, book appointments, and do everything just by speaking to it? That was the proud boast of of Wildfire. A premier service that would give you a virtual PA on the other end of the phone. Launched in 1999 () it became very popular with the people who used it to run their lives. Despite huge advertising (shown before the phantom menace) Orange never really did seem to want people to actually use it, and when in 2005 it was withdrawn despite huge protests from wildfire fans, Orange blamed the failure on a lack of new members joining up in the last 18 months of the service.. despite the fact that they’d been preventing new members signing up since 2003

[Read more]

Vodafone… We took your N95 VOIP away from you… for your own benefit.

The Nokia N95 is (until the iphone shows up) the top of the tree phone in the UK this year. However if you buy it from Nokia you’ll find it rather different from the version you buy from say, Vodafone and Orange. And the missing thing is VOIP.

All the networks got to tweak the firmware on the N95, but Voda and Orange actually got the VOIP hooks taken out. Now the cynical amongst you might be thinking that this is to make more money for Vodafone. But aparently you would be wrong. Vodafone did it to help you… and the fact that it safeguards their huge profits is purely co-incidental ;)

An official told the Pocket Lint website

"Vodafone works to ensure its handset  range provides a consistent and good  experience for customers. In line with other operators we do not always take the ‘vanilla’ version of a device. Vodafone continually assesses customer feedback as to which applications or features should be incorporated into future devices."

and also

that it needs to do "in-depth testing, a solid end-to-end customer experience, billing integration and customer service support which is not currently available"

So there you have it.. the features are disabled to make you feel better….. yeah right.

Source: Pocket Lint

BLYK… Teenage freeloaders Mobile Phone network is Orange

As previously mentioned on Mobilitysite, Blyk the proposed Virtual Mobile phone network for teenagers in the UK has found a network. And it’s those crazy guys at Orange who are going to provide the backend.

For teenagers prepared to be spammed to death by the big advertising companies, they’ll get free calls to moan at each other about how their parents hate them, and how nobody understands them anyway…

Or maybe that’s me being cynical…  at the least it should shake up the UK mobile phone market a bit..  It will be interesting to see how it effects Orange’s PAYG business.. which would seem to suffer from the deal.

Source: The Register