On a day when the backlashes were aplenty, T-Mobile was forced to climb down on the data allowances. The decision to cut data usage to 500 MB a month would now be applicable only to new customers and those upgrading their phones.
This has come after the company has unilaterally announced its decision on the website. This was met with a lot of protests, threats of legal and regulatory action – leaving the company with no choice.
But late on Wednesday the vice-president of T-Mobile UK, Lysa Hardy announced that T-Mobile would be reducing its fair use policy (FUP) for data usage to 500MB a month for all mobile phone customers. According to Lysa, the decision has been taken to ensure an improved quality of service for all mobile internet users.
The decision was welcomed by campaigners who had been outraged by the company’s earlier announcement and the offhand tone of its comments. It also suggested that once people cross the 500MB barrier, they would be allowed to read email and do web browsing – but not other activities. Kenton Price, a developer for the Android platform at Little Fluffy Toys Lrd who wrote the Cycle Hire widget, said that he is happy to be part of the revolution that went against the decision and reversed it.
He added that the decision could be a blessing in disguise for the company and work towards boosting sales. A phone before 31st January would in fact fetch a 3GB data plan for the life of the contract. If the sales do spike in reality, it would be a perfect case of a misadventure coming good!
Orange has recently confirmed availability of most affordable and basic Nokia handsets over its network, which does not need any more attractive prices as its price itself is at the starting range of mobile phones.
Nokia’s two basic handsets Nokia C1-01 and Nokia C2-02, are its basic models with candybar design. They both have very traditional looks and basic features of any mobile phone. While one is really a basic phone, which even does not have 3G capability, other one C2-02 is basic 3G model from Nokia.
C1-01 has 1.8 inch display, interfaced through traditional keyboard. It is also fitted with VGA camera and is FM enabled with 3.5 mm audio jack and a slot for microSD card. It also has some basic games as its entertainment features.
C2-02 is a 3G enabled basic phone. With some advanced features when compared to C1-01. 2 inch screen, Bluetooth capability, music player, 3.2 mega pixel camera and memory slot, which enables the phone to load with 32 GB memory.
Orange has listed the prices on its website as €39 for C2-01 and €79 for C2-01. In fact it is claiming Nokia C2-01 to be most inexpensive phone currently available in the market.
As per news in the Market, Nokia has set all its cards ready to terminate its most popular plan, which allows its users to download music for free, across UK along with 26 other countries on the globe.
For many years now, Nokia has allowed its Mobile Phone users to download music with no limit for free through its Ovi Stores. This plan has not only increased sales of its musicexpress series of mobile handsets, it has also increased the popularity of its online Ovid Stores. As per the current plan, Nokia will discontinue this plan by the end of this year. This plan will be terminated across all countries except six countries.
Across South Africa, Brazil and Turkey countries, Nokia has made this service available with six month subscription plans. In countries like Indonesia, China and India, this will be available on 12 month subscription plans.
While a section of market analysts, foresee reduction in popularity of Ovi Stores with termination of this plan, Nokia sources are confident that will not happen, while they were actively looking out for more options through vendors and partners to offer other forms of music downloads.
Motorola has unveiled its Tablet, Motorola Xoom Tablet, in CES 2011. This announcement is successful in creating expected excitement among the users. This is going to be first ever tablet, going to be built on Android 3.0, which is also called as Honeycomb. This is again going to be first ever tablet to be built on Operating System, which is exclusively designed for Tablet devices.
Lot of hopes are pinned on this release, as this will let the users feel a tablet built on Operating System, exclusively designed for Tablet devices. During the same event Motorola has hinted that gadget is going to be available at £720, which makes it attractive from budget wise also.
This gadget is interfaced through 10.1 inches touch screen, fitted with Nvidia Tegra 2 Processor, which makes it really fastest gadget available in the market. This 3G enabled tablet is also WiFi enabled, which allows users to stay connected from anywhere anytime.
To make this gadget even more attractive, Motorola is presenting this gadget along with most attractive a package of accessories. Package of accessories include, speakers to dock the gadget, wireless keyboard and attractive case.
World Mobile Congress is going to be taking place between 14th to 18th February, but its air has already been across the mobile market. News is that Nokia is planning to capitalize this event to do a grand release of its much awaited and super phone Nokia N9. If everything goes as per plan, the phone will hit the market by this April.
Nokia N9 is really a super Smartphone, which is supposed to turn round the fortune of Nokia. This is first phone to be built on MeeGoo mobile Operating System, which is being developed jointly by Nokia and Intel. MeeGoo is supposed to be the Operating System, which will help Nokia to come out its ailing Symbian Operating System.
This is also really super fast Smartphone with 1.2 GHz processor with more than a whiff of MacBook Air. The handset is also fitted with 12 Mega Pixel Camera, which it has inherited from Nokia N8. It is also equipped with a slide out QWERTY keypad with isolated keys, which makes the texting a very easy task.
Nokia has pinned many hopes on this super Smartphone.
Optimus 2X, is the handset which created waves in this season CES along with Sony Ericsson Arc. This Android based super handset has many firsts to its credits.
It is the first mobile handset with dual core technology going to hit the market. This dual core technology makes LG Optimus 2X to be first phone to support videos with a resolution of 1080 pixels, which any other single core based phone cannot support. Nvidia Tegra 2 AP20H is the chip with dual core technology, which makes the LG Optimus 2X so special with such a powerful graphic support.
This super phone supports video calling with two cameras fitted to it. The primary camera being 8 mega pixel one, while the front camera is of 1.3 megapixel. Its needless to say that primary rear camera with dual LED flash is basically used for photography purpose, while the front camera is used for video calling purpose.
LG Optimus 2X is built on Android 2.3, which is more popular as Gingerbread. This comes with internal memory of 8GB, which can anytime be extended. This is again first phone to come with HDMI output feature, which lets the video to be played through television.
Another news to conclude with regarding this great phone is, it is going to hit the UK customers in another month.
Nokia C3, recent from Nokia’s stable, a basic business phone has been doing ripples in the market. This economic range Smartphone has given yet another remarkable success to Nokia and naturally it has attracted attention of most of the service provider competing each other with most attractive offers with this handset.
Nokia has placed this phone under economic range of Basic Business phones. It has all fantastic features, which any Business phone users expect. Equipped with basic QERTY keypad, the handset provides best connectivity, but yet through 2G network only. This basic business phone has very good messaging and browsing features, which attracts many business users again fitting properly in their budgets.
Other flashy features of the phone being 2 Mega Pixel camera, with very good video quality of 1600 X 1200 pixels. It is interfaced through 2.4 inches TFT display, which can support 256K colors. It comes with internal memory of 55MB, which is scalable up to 8GB.
Best of the deals on this phone comes with Orange, which is ready to give the handset on contract of 24 months at £25.54 per month. This plan also bundles free calls and text messages into, which makes this cheapest offer even more beneficial.
Samsung has unveiled its new yet another Android based mobile, but with many more advanced features. This yet to be named Samsung’s 4G LTE phone, promises pretty high and is nothing less than a beast.
On the lines of Motorola Atrix 4G, Samsung’s 4G LTE is the biggest phone ever anyone has yet seen after Dell Streak. Yet it is not too heavy, when compared to that size of phones like HTC Desire HD. With 4.3 inches in size, it is enough big to encapsulate one of the speediest CPU and longest Capacious Battery.
Interfaced through 4.3 inches Super AMOLED screen, for which Samsung is known for, Samsung 4G LTE offers one of the sharpest images with WVGA resolutions. This power packed, features full phone runs Android 2.2 mobile Operating System. It sports Samsung’s TouchWiz QWERTY keypad, which got introduced through Samsung Galaxy S.
With its biggest selling point, speed, through its 4G capability, it is one of the speedier phones currently available in the market.
Usually January is supposed to be a quiet month for Mobile Handset market. Some time sales slow down for a while during this period and sometimes prices of handsets will be subjected to gravity and comes down. Same is happening with Nokia’s Symbian based handsets.
Prices of most of the mid tier Symbian based handsets from Nokia are being headed southwards. With this pressure, now Nokia C6-01 is available at £210 on Pay As You Go in UK and low end Symbian piece Nokia 5228 is made available at just £50 on Pay As You Go basis.
Apart from PAYG plans, Carphone Warehouse has brought down the ownership of these Symbian based handsets on contract model too. Now through Carphone Warehouse one can own C7-00 and N8-00 for free with £20.42 and £25.53 per month contracts respectively.
These price slashes has broken the record of previous years. While last year £100 was the benchmark for the cheapest, this year brought the benchmark even down. This year Nokia 5228 is made available £49.55 through Orange, Virgin and Vodafone, which is the lowest till now.
Samsung has confirmed a little modified version of its Samsung Galaxy in CES 2011. Currently a version of Samsung Galaxy with a slight change from earlier declared features, the gadget minus 3G capabilities is confirmed in the conference. Another change is in version of Android Operating System. As per earlier announcement, the gadget was supposed to be built over Android 3.0 version of Operating System, but current version is built on Android 2.2.
Without 3G capability, this Samsung Galaxy will be almost all equivalent to Apple’s iPad. Samsung Galaxy Tab will be having certain shortfall of features. The reason for the same can be mainly attributed to its version of Android. As Android 2.2 operating system is not meant for Tablet gadget, instead it is basically Smartphone Operating System and thus may not be able to build certain features into Samsung Galaxy Tab.
Samsung Galaxy Tab is fitted with 7 inch TFT LCD screen with 3 mega pixel rear camera and 1.3 mega pixel front cameras with internal memory of 16 GB, which can be extended. Absence of 3G features of the Gadget has reduced its price to £400.
Nokia E7 is going to be first handset from Nokia, which is going to be first UK launch in New Year. Last updates during ending of 2010 have confirmed the launch date in US to be mid of January 2011, but there was no news regarding it launch in UK. Current news confirms its availability in UK by February and few retailers already started taking Pre Order bookings.
UK retailers have started listing Nokia E7, latest Nokia’s Smartphone based on Symbian^3 mobile operating system, on their websites and in fact started taking per order bookings with February 1st as expected shipping date.
Launch of this business oriented Symbian based handset has been delayed many times till now, similar to launch of many of the Symbian based handsets. This Handset is a real mobile office with mail Exchange facility providing almost real time email access. The handset is powered with office applications to view and edit office documents and pdf viewing capability and access to faster intranet access within built in VPN.
With all these powerful office supporting features, this has been most awaited launch in this New Year and especially SMB users.
Since launch of Samsung’s another popular Smartphone, Samsung Omnia 7, it has been most popular in the Mobile Handset market comprising both users and network providers.
Samsung Omnia 7 is another advanced handset from Samsung, which is built on Windows 7 Mobile Operating System. Samsung Omnia 7 is a package of feature that is most commonly expected from a Smartphone. This Handset, built on Microsoft Operating System, is encasing processor from Qualcomm, Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 1 GHZ processor.
Handset has networking capabilities with applications like facebook, twitter etc. It is equipped with other network connectivity capabilities like 3G, WiFi, Class 12 GPRS, Class 12 EDGE and Wireless LAN connectivity. It comes with default Microsoft web browser to browse through all the websites. Samsung Omnia 7 comes fitted with a 5 megapixel camera with all advanced photography features like Geo Tagging and image stabilization.
Omnia 7 comes with a bundle of entertainment features. With Windows 7 operating system, Omnia 7 allows users to connect to Xbox Live, which lets users to connect and play games with their friends. It also allows users to don Avatars and log their scores and achievements.
Overall Samsung Omnia 7 is a bundle of break through, entertainment and Life in Motion features.
Banking on Samsung’s credibility and to cash the popularity of most recent launch of Samsung, Samsung Omnia 7, almost all the network providers in UK has come up with very popular and attractive plans. Most lucrative among these plans is of T-Mobile. T-Mobile has come up with a monthly rental contract, where in user can get 300 free text messages, 300 minutes of free talk time and 1 GB of data at £69.99. Another contract from the same provider is a free handset along with one month free line rentals at cost of £25.00 per month.
Samsung Omnia 7 is living up to the expectations of the users from Korean handset manufacturer. Samsung has increasingly trying to come up with new applications and working on handsets based on variety of Mobile Operating Systems. This feature is typical to Samsung, while most of other manufacturers build their handsets on single operating systems, Samsung trying to manufacture handsets based on multiple operating systems like Android, Window Mobile Operating System and Samsung’s own operating system, called Bada Operating System. This is a perfect example of diversity of investment.
Samsung reached astronomic heights as it sold out more than 10 million Galaxy S Smartphones powered by Android OS within seven months of the handset’s launch.
The technology major consistently sold more than 1.4 million handsets every month and succeeded in reaching the milestone. Just to put things in perspective, Apple sold 1.7 million iPhone 4 handsets in the first week after the launch of the handset.
As per technology blog, DigiTimes Apple has upped its shipment goal and wants to sell another 20 million phones in the first quarter of the year. As per Finnish research firm, Inderes Oy 4 million handsets of the Nokia flagship phone N8 were sold in the Q4 of 2010.
If you are interested to know more about the Galaxy S, do read below.
Samsung’s most successful Smartphone Samsung Galaxy S was selected as the best Smartphone of 2010 by awards announced by FoneHome mobile awards. It received twice the number of votes as the Smartphone in second place HTC Desire HD has received.
Samsung Galaxy’s attractive features made it reach this place in the survey. Its 4 inch super AMOLED screen, which gives it a gorgeous look and super good touch sensitivity, is the most evident appealing feature. Its flash support to enhance its media skills makes it to play virtually everything it has downloaded. It is one among the rarest breeds to support flash over handsets.
Samsung’s monoblock touch screen phone is very light and thin, which makes it body a really appealing structure. It is 9.9 mm thin, which can slip into tightest pockets. Keeping its thinness, its 4 inch screen makes it look broader and taller among its comparables.
These days Android, Mobile Operating System, is leaving no space on all sorts of News media for any other Operating System to make headlines. Yet another such news is Motorola’s announcement on plan to unveil 4G HTC Thunderbolt at CES.
Few other such headlines on Android Market are number of applications available on Android Mobile Operating system has reached record 20,000 applications milestone and Sony Ericsson has announced Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini MK II, another advanced Smartphone based on Android’s Gingerbread version.
But current major news making waves in Android market is Motorola’s announcement of its Motorola Cliq 2. Motorola is already ready with an alternate name, incase if the name Motorola Cliq 2 does not hit in market. Alternate name being considered is Motorola Dext.
Cliq 2 inherits few of Motorola’s most popular and patented features. It is equipped with Motorola’s successful QWERTY sliding keyboard and is interfaced and covered by Motorola’s patented MotoBlur UI technology. It is supposed to be packed with 5 mega pixel Camera with LED flash. It is also packed with networking features like WiFi, which enables users to stay connected from everywhere and anytime. It is also packed with Bluetooth 2.1, aGPS and possible HSPA+ connectivity.
On the similar lines of Apple iPod Touch, Samsung has released its Samsung Galaxy Player. Samsung Galaxy Player is pretty much similar to Apple’s iPod touch, which has all kinds of entertainment features like music, apps and other kind of functionalities available on Samsung Galaxy S smart phone minus ability to make calls.
Samsung’s Galaxy Player has hit the virtual shelves of Amazon UK declaring its war with Apple iPod touch. Its expected launch date is estimated to be January 7th, but Amazon has already started taking pre-orders. Cost of the gadget as displayed on Amazon’s site is £150 for 8 GB version and 16GB version of this Samsung’s Galaxy Player is available at £180. 8GB version of the gadget is available at £40 cheaper price than its Apple’s equivalent.
The Galaxy Player flaunts all features of Samsung’s most successful Smartphone like its 3.2 inch WQVGA LCD Screen, supportability of up to 32GB of external storage, a microphone and 2 Megapixel camera. It supports almost all formats of Media like FLAC, DivX and XviD, so that users can get their entertainment without bothering about conversion of file formats. It sports all the features of the Smartphone except, the ability to make calls. But that does not mean there is no way to make calls through this gadget. This is possible via Voice IP applications that can be downloaded over this gadget.
