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This week saw the last month of Q3 being heralded in with the beginning of September, along with the news that summer time is officially over as the weather started turning decidedly colder. All that a side, the mobile world saw some interesting news from the handset manufactures, mobile OS companies and a small fox.
The bank holiday in the UK started off the week, where the end of the previous week saw Orange apologising for the delay to Android 2.2 arriving to HTC Desires on their network. A new beta of the Firefox web browser came to Android, whilst Samsung unveiled at the start of the week a new phone running their own Bada OS.
We reported only one leak this week, which was an upcoming HTC handset that was ousted by T-Mobile in the USA. Motorola had a big week, by unveiling not one but two Android mobile phones.
Apple’s keynote speech mid-week was to unveil new products but they also announced an update to the iOS 4, where Microsoft signed off on Windows Phone 7 and released it to the handset manufactures. Rounding off the week was news that the rumoured Samsung Android Tablet was launched at Berlin’s IFA consumer electronics show.
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Orange was featured in the news twice this week, once with an apology and the second time with a new service arriving on the network.
At the tail end of last week, Orange apologised over twitter for the Android 2.2 delay arriving on their HTC Desires, with the fault being down to HTC.
Orange’s PR manager announced in a tweet - “Android fans there has been a delay in receiving the 2.2 Froyo update from HTC, & we now expect it to be available mid-Sep. Apologies”. This also confirms a rough arrival date for the update to be rolled out, to handsets on the Orange network.
A follow on tweet from Orange indicated the onus is firmly not on the network, but on another entity. The Twitter message reads “..would like to point out the delay on 2.2 Froyo is not related to Orange services on the device.”
What stamped home the buck was passed, was a tweet from the PR manger to a question from a Twitter user with the response being “we are waiting to receive the update from HTC..”.
Orange users were concerned by this issue, in which the Orange PR representative responded over twitter with “the delay is not related to Orange customisation on the handset”. He also added, “as far as I know there will be less Orange customisation on 2.2 than the existing 2.1?.
This could be a good sign, where there will be less qualifying time by Orange when HTC does eventually ship them the updated.
Orange also announced midweek its high definition voice service has gone live nationwide, which brings in a better quality of calls over the airwaves.
Orange is the first UK network to announce this service, which effectively reduces background noise and therefore improves the overall quality of a call. The Sony Ericsson Elm ‘Eco’ handset arrives with a similar feature, but its technology is built in to the phone and it’s not an over the air service.
This new feature from Orange is available on a number of handsets, such as the Nokia 5320, Nokia E5 and Samsung Omnia Pro. Other upcoming mobile phones will support the service too, where new devices will be shipped with an Orange HD Voice logo to identify the handset is compatible.
Orange has been successfully trialling out HD voice since June, where we first brought you news of the technology at the end of 2009.
The service is available now and at no extra cost to 3G based Orange customers, where we suspect more handsets will support this ability within the next few months
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Two new Motorola handsets were launched this week running Android, where that very OS could be seen as the saviour of the company who didn’t produce a single handset in a year.
Moto unveiled this week a sequel to their second ever Android mobile phone, the Milestone 2.
The new version arrives with a 3.7-inch touch screen, Android 2.2 and also features a slide out Qwerty keyboard, that has been improved since it’s the predecessor. Milestone 2 is now accompanied by Motorola’s overlay to the Google mobile OS known as MotoBlur, which was missing from the original phone.
MotoBlur brings full message notifications onto the home screen, from social networking feeds, text messaging and emails only in a much more seamless way that HTC’s Friendsteam, as it’s thoroughly integrated into Android.
Powering the Milestone 2 is a 1Ghz processor, where the original Milestone only ran from a 550Mhz chipset and Android 2.0. The new mobile now has the 802.11n specification, where the phone can also be run as a mobile WIFI hotspot thanks to the new OS.
The Motorola Milestone 2 will be available in the UK and the rest of Europe between October and December. No networks have been confirmed as yet to be carrying the handset, but last time around the online phone reseller Expansys exclusively sold the phone SIM free and unlocked.
The second phone Motorola launched this week was a DEath deFYing phone, named Defy that can cope with life’s little knocks and scrapes.
The Motorola Defy is water resistant and dust proof, where getting sand in the phone, spilling some drink or being in the rain won’t render the phone useless and unusable - according to the manufacturer.
The mobile has an IP rating of 67, which means it’s both dust tight and can be immersed in 1 metre of water whilst still being operable - where other mobiles that pride themselves on durability aren’t as invulnerable.
Defty is accompanied by a Corning Gorilla 3.7-inch touch screen display, which is also scratch resilient to a degree and aids in the handset’s toughness as a whole.
The phone is run from Google’s mobile Android 2.1 ‘Éclair’ OS, with their own MotoBlur overlay to the platform that brings in social networking, messaging and email feeds on to the home screen whilst offering up security measures too.
Motorola Defy is due out in Q4 this year, with no prices as yet announced or any networks mentioned that will be carrying the handset.
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HTC had a handset leaked this week, only this was by the very mobile phone network that will feature the phone exclusively in the USA.
Images have appeared on T-Mobile’s stateside website to the successor of the very first Android handset from 2008, the T-Mobile G1.
T-Mobile has yet to produce a webpage displaying these images, but sources linking to technology site Engadget have obtained the URLs to where the images reside on the actual T-Mobile website.
T-Mobile G2, or the HTC Desire Z has been reported to have all the trimmings of the original Desire only with a Qwerty keyboard. HTC has ventured down this route before, with the Touch Pro being a slide out keyboard version of the HTC Touch Diamond.
The original Android handset, the T-Mobile G1, was developed for T-Mobile in the USA as a Sidekick-esque mobile phone, only running the newest and most promising operating system for mobile phones at that time.
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Samsung unveiled two new handsets this week as well, one earlier on running their own mobile phone OS and another towards the end of the week running Android.
Samsung brought out a second Bada based mobile phone, the Samsung Wave 723.
The mobile phone manufacturer is bringing the OS and the phone to the masses, with a set of specifications to make it affordable. This latest handset from Samsung arrives with a 3.2-inch TFT LCD screen, instead of the Super AMOLED display that accompanied the first Samsung Wave S8500 Bada mobile - which keeps the costs down.
Samsung’s own open source Bada platform runs the phone, in which the company is hoping it will give Android a run for its money. Samsung has toyed with many operating systems in the past, where they’ve even used Symbian and after Nokia had acquired the company behind it.
The Wave 723 arrives with a leather flip cover and is just 11.8mm thin, with a 5 megapixel camera, the 802.11n WIFI specification as standard and access to Samsung’s own App Store.
Their second device was a 7-inch screen Android table entitled the Galaxy Tab, which is Samsung’s first tablet and a direct rival to the Apple iPad.
Samsung Galaxy Tab has been rumoured for some months where it’s now had its official launch, at Berlin’s IFA consumer electronics show.
The Galaxy Tab has 7-inch TFT LCD touch screen display, running the latest version of Google’s mobile OS with the Samsung TouchWIZ UI. The device is powered by the Cortex A8 1GHz application processor, with on board storage coming in the form of either 16GB or 32GB variants with a microSD slot. Other specs of the device range from front and rear facing cameras, 3G HSPA connectivity, along with 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0.
Video playback is one of the device’s strong points, as not only is it the world’s first DivX certified tablet but it also supports HD video in popular containers such as XviD, MPEG4, H.263 and H.264.
The Tab complements Samsung’s Galaxy existing series of products, where the previous largest display was seen on their recent Android 2.1 Galaxy S mobile phone - with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen.
Vodafone announced at the same time as the launch event it will be selling the Tab from October onwards, where this move can be seen as competition to O2 exclusively selling the Dell Streak - a similar Android product.
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Apple’s press conference midweek was to unveil a new range of products where they also unveiled a new version of the iOS.
This release first and foremost fixes a lot of issues that many have experienced with the OS. Apple listed the fixes at their keynote speech, which ranged from proximity sensor issues being resolved, to Bluetooth problems also being fixed in iOS 4.1.
Apple claimed that iPhone 3G performance issues will be resolved too, whilst they announced there are additions to the new platform and not just the resolution of problems.
Apple has added HDR photos, which stands for High Dynamic Rage where three pictures can be taken at the same time, one over exposed, one under exposed and another normal one - where they are combined to produce the best possible photo.
Added to iOS 4.1 is the ability to upload HD video content over WIFI, which was apparently absent from previous versions of 4. Other improvements are relating to iTunes, where it’s now possible to rent TV shows and not just purchase them from Apple.
Game centre is a new addition to the latest Apple OS release, where essentially there are now multiplayer games on their devices that are even being developed in great 3D detail.
A few of these features feel as if they should have been a part of the iPhone 4 at launch, whilst the others just relate to teething problems that early adopters have encountered and Apple are being very apologetic for.
iOS 4.1 will be available free from next week and downloadable through iTunes, as per usual
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Around the midweek point Microsoft announced Window Phone 7 had been finally signed off and released to manufactures.
The Windows Phone team announced in a blog post they’ve just reached this milestone in the development of the platform, where the OS is now with the companies responsible for the hardware in which the final version of the OS will be rolled out upon.
Mobile phone makers will now start testing this final build of the mobile phone OS on their hardware, just as they have done since every build was passed to them - only now the platform is complete and is ready for the launch around November time.
Microsoft has already been testing the OS on a reported 10,000 devices, with over 8,500,000 hours of testing already logged. MS has also had thousands of software companies and early adopters testing out Windows Phone 7 to arrive at the stage.
Windows Phone 7 is now ready to roll, where mobile phone manufactures such as LG, HTC and Samsung will be announcing their handsets any time soon.
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At the very start of the week we reported that a small fox has arrived on Android, in the form of Fennec - which is the name of the mobile version of Firefox.
Mozilla released the latest beta of their mobile phone browser for Android, which is built from the same technology found in their desktop browser.
Firefox mobile, codenamed Fennec, has gone into the latter stages of beta testing with this ‘alpha’ release that’s ready to download and use.
The browser is said to have access to similar adds-ons from its desktop based big brother, as it has the same overall design with a lot of the background features being ported across for continuity.
It’s been noted the desktop Firefox and Fennec has reportedly been developed with a seamless browsing experience in mind, where the mobile phone based version has no learning curve needed if the computer one has been used.
There are even features in Fennec that solely benefits users of the desktop version. These are the likes of the built-in sync option, which provides over the air access to bookmarks, browser history and form data of the desktop iteration of Firefox.
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And finally, Steve Jobs caused a bit of a faux pas this week in his keynote speech - by announcing the Apple App Store has 6.5 billion apps.
The head of Apple clearly stated at the 6mins and 34second mark of the Apple press conference “there are over 6.5 billion apps on the Apps Store”, seen here.
He obviously misspoke, as moments later he said there are 200,000 apps being downloaded every second - when he actually meant over 6.5 billion apps have been downloaded in total, not that there are 6.5 billion apps in the store.
Steve Jobs mentioned later in the key note the App Store actually has 250,000 apps, where 25,000 of them are for the iPad.
This seems more of a realistic figure and one we can live with, although it appears none of the media caught this or brought him to task on the blunder - apart from One Mobile Ring.
One Mobile Ring began a feature last week about the mobile phone operating system with where it’s come from, how it’s evolved to what it is today, which includes all the various platforms found on different handsets.
Once upon a time the mobile OS was just there to facility dialling someone, messaging someone and holding the contact details, of those someones needing to be messaged or called. Now, the OS has evolved into something else, with functionality that could very well rival the desktop PC - if not at least be comparable with the way it operates.
The operating system plays a vital part in delivering all this goodness to the end user, along with what they want to achieve with the mobile. This is in addition to what they can now do with the phone, with the plethora of applications available today. All of which is a far cry from just dialling, messaging or using an address book on a mobile.
Last week we started with the Symbian operating system, with its ties to Nokia and its history dating back to the late 1980s with Psion handled devices. We also covered the many versions and iterations the platform has been through, along with the success other phone manufacturers such as Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung’s have had with the OS.
This week we turn our attention to one of the youngest phone operating systems around, which only celebrates its two year anniversary on a mobile phone in October this year.
Android
The Android OS is synonymous with Google, ever since the Internet search engine giant acquired the company behind it back in 2005. The OS is now used by many different mobile manufactures, although its link to HTC is more significant since they have produced more than 12 different handsets worldwide running the platform. HTC also has the claim to have produced the very first Android mobile phone to go on sale in late 2008, with the T-Mobile G1.
The people initially behind Android were also responsible for the T-Mobile Sidekick device, where it’s no coincidence that when T-Mobile wanted another sidekick device and they approached Google and HTC who developed the T-Mobile G1 running Android OS.
Android can have its roots traced back to 2003, where the people behind Android were reportedly developing software for mobiles and not hardware. Google acquired the company behind Android in 2005, rumours then begun of a Google phone being on the horizon with their services brought into play as a significant part in a mobile phone.
The team behind Android, now as a part of Google, was known to be working on a platform with Linux at its core - which is still true today. Linux has been the basis of Android with each and every release, with new Kernels in most versions. There was a view from the start to make an operating system with an open set of standards, which wasn’t closed off and could have applications easily developed for the platform.
In 2007, the Open Handset Alliance was founded and led by Google, with over 34 different companies becoming members with that figure now reaching 78. OHA is made up with bodies such as HTC, Dell, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm - in a business alliance with a view to develop open standards for mobile devices.
The first public outing of Android was on a prototype Texas Instruments handset, at a mobile phone industry conference in 2008. Later on in the same year the T-Mobile branded HTC device came out in the USA, with the Touch G1 being the replacement to the bestselling sidekick.
The Android operating system has been open source since it first begun to appear on mobile phones, with the software development kit being offered for developing applications that can be found on the Android Market App store.
There have been a number of Android variants over the past few years with a touch screen being a firm fixture of the OS and its hardware. Android ‘Froyo’ 2.2 is the most recent version of the platform, and is currently being rolled out on handsets that can support it. Android has undergone 4 revisions to date, with another two already planned and that are currently in the works.
The Google OS Android ‘Cupcake’ 1.5 was run from the Linux Kernel 2.6.27, and was launched in April 2009. This notably brought in a better virtual keyboard, customisable home screen with widgets, along with the ability to record and watch video. HTC launched their second Android handset around this time running Android 1.5, the HTC Magic.
Android ‘Donut’ 1.6 was run from the updated Linux Kernel 2.6.29, and was launched in September of 2009. A better Android Market experience accompanied this new OS, where applications were easier to find and download. Users also noted that taking pictures were faster inside 1.6, with quicker switching between photo and camera modes. The lower end HTC Tattoo and Acer’s Liquid A1 shipped a short time after this update arrived, with them both running Android ‘Donut’.
The first handset to arrive in the UK with the next version of Android was the Motorola Milestone, in late 2009. Android ‘Éclair’ 2.0 was run from same Linux Kernel 2.6.29 as version 1.6, and was launched in October of 2009. The new version was a significant update, as the numbering alone displays. 2.0 brought in Microsoft Exchange support for the first time in Android, along with a new user interface and support for flash in cameras.
Google’s Android ‘Froyo’ 2.2 runs from the updated Linux Kernel 2.6.32, and was launched in May this year. This is the most current platform and is being made available to recent phones that shipped with an older OS, which is a trait of the Android platform. This brought a number of changes that were notable, just as in the last update where Google now appears to be releasing major changes and not just slight revisions. Improved support for Microsoft Exchange server is now a part of the platform, along with Adobe Flash 10.1 for viewing native flash content on webpages. There is also the ability to turn the phone into a WIFI ‘MIFI’ hotspot for 5 devices, which isn’t on any other platform worldwide.
Froyo is now being rolled out to HTC Desires, along with HTC Wildfire handsets on various networks - with Vodafone being the most recent carrier to deliver Android 2.2.
Other devices have been using Android, besides just mobile phones. Tablet style devices are also known to run the platform, with companies such as Archos retailing devices running the OS. More recently, Dell has produced a tablet computer with cellular access for both data, voice and video calling which is sold exclusively by O2. Samsung has just announced their iPad 7-inch screen rival, the Galaxy Tab. This will be on sale in October with Vodafone, with similar abilities to the Dell Streak.
The next reported version of Android is ‘Gingerbread’ 3.0, due out later in the year. This will be based around the Linux Kernel 2.6.33. New features for this version have been noted as access to an Android Market music store, media streaming from the computer and a larger screen support of 1366×768 - ideal for tablet computers. The version after ‘Gingerbread’ is only known as ‘Honeycomb’ at this time, with no further details available at present.
The App Store on Android isn’t as vast as the iPhone’s, which has a reported 250,000 items to be downloaded. Google has confirmed to One Mobile Ring there are over 70,000 apps available on the Android Market, with 50,000 more announced at their developer’s conference in May. There are now over 60 compatible Android powered devices, with 21 OEMs and 59 carries in 49 countries supporting the platform, according to Google.
In a very short space of time Android has achieved great success, whilst embracing the trend for a touch screen mobile phone and access to a good repository of applications. A recent report by Gartner places the Google OS at third place in the market share of the sheer number of smartphones sold in Q2 of this year, behind Symbian and RIM.
A mobile phone’s operating system is a necessary evil when it comes to the handset. The OS is needed in order to provide the vital link between the handset’s hardware and the other hardware the phone has to contend with - its owner.
Once upon a time the mobile OS was just there to facility dialling someone, messaging someone and holding the contact details, of those someones needing to be messaged or called. Now, the OS has evolved into something else, with functionality that could very well rival the desktop PC - if not at least be comparable with the way it operates.
The hardware behind the OS is also key, especially in the developments the phone has seen over recent years. These advances are in the data speeds, processor technology, touch screen abilities, and the graphical prowess of the more higher-end smartphones.
The operating system plays a vital part in delivering all this goodness to the end user, along with what they want to achieve with the mobile. This is in addition to what they can now do with the phone, with the plethora of applications available today. All of which is a far cry from just dialling, messaging or using an address book on a mobile.
One Mobile Ring is taking a look at the mobile phone OS, with where it’s come from, how it’s evolved to what it is today and with all the various platforms found on different handsets.
Symbian
The Symbian OS is synonymous with Nokia, none more so than after the Finnish phone manufacture acquired the company behind it back in 2008. That OS has been used by many other mobile manufactures over the years besides just Nokia, where even Samsung and Sony Ericsson have been using the platform and in more recent times too.
Symbian can have its roots traced back as far as the late 1980s, with the Psion series of devices where the OS was then under the guise of EPOC. Back then, Symbian was made up from assembly code and the programming language C. Even today, C can still be seen as a core part of the OS and applications being developed for the platform.
Psion was still using Symbian in the late 90s, with their popular handheld series of lite-netbooks known as the Psion Series 5 and 7. That very company also coined the phrase ‘netbook’, although it’s more popularly associated with Asus since the year 2008.
Nokia notably began using the platform with their Communicator series of smart phones from 2001, with the Nokia 9210 - which in itself was almost a Psion looking device. Since then, Nokia’s Communicators could be seen as pioneering the use of the smart phones today. Those very handset might even be a contributing factor to the ushering in of everything from the Apple iPhone, to the HTC Desires of this world.
There have been a number of Symbian variants over the past decade, with the Series 60 being the most commonly seen and still used today. S60, as it’s been abbreviated to, has now undergone around 12 revisions that include feature packs and versions.
Another notable version of Symbian was known as User Interface Quartz or UIQ, which appeared in version 7.0 of the platform. This found its way with a new graphical user interface on to Sony Ericsson P series handsets, such as the P910 and the full touch screen Motorola A1000. This was very successful as a variant to the OS from 2003 onwards, where there was even a revision of the UIQ on the Motorola RIZR Z10 in 2008.
The S60 5th Edition, or Symbian^1 is where we are today in shipping mobile phones. This operating system is found on Nokia handsets dating back to 2008, with the Nokia 5800 and is featured on the recent Nokia C6 Qwerty keyboard phone. Symbian ^1 is also seen on other manufactures mobiles, from the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD, to the Sony Ericsson Satio and Vivaz handsets of late.
There has always been a constant in the Symbian S60 evolution, and that’s the screen sizes supported by each new version. The first edition only supported 176×208, where the 5th edition brought in 640×360 touch screens - as a comparison.
The Nokia application repository was a turning point for the OS, where in May 2009 the Finnish phone company introduced the Ovi Store. Now, there are more than 13,000 applications and items to be downloaded from the Nokia app store with the numbers increasing all the time.
Symbian^3 was announced earlier on in the year, whilst at the same time Nokia unveiled that platform was now completely open source. This new version, which is strictly S60 5th edition 5.2 or version 11 of Symbian, brings in the likes of 3D and HDMI support. Some of these feature will be seen in the upcoming Nokia N8 handset, and the rumoured N9 Qwerty keyboard version of that handset.
A report from Analyst company Gartner earlier in the year stated that Symbian accounted for 41.2-percent of all smartphone sales, in the second quarter of 2010. This was the highest figure within the various platforms, with RIM following on second, with Android third and the Apple iOS last.
The flagship N series mobile phones by Nokia are the high end models, with all the trims, bells and whistles expected on the leading smartphones of today. The future of Symbian in these devices could be bleak, as it’s been reported that Nokia is said to be dropping the platform on these handsets. Instead, it’s been noted they will be switching to the joint Intel and Nokia platform MeeGo on those devices.
Next week One Mobile Ring will be addressing Android, following on from that BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and finally, Bada.
Research In Motion launched their first ever BlackBerry Torch slider handset last week at an event in New York on the AT&T network, where RIM held a similar event in the UK in which One Mobile Ring attended.
We managed to spend a good deal of time with the BlackBerry Torch 9800 at the launch event, whilst at the same time obtained a detailed briefing from RIM in order to provide a first looks review of the device from our experiences alone.
The BlackBerry Torch 9800 is a full capacitive touch screen handset, with a physical Qwerty keyboard that slides out vertically in the same way as the Palm Pre Plus also functions. The keyboard has the look and feel of the same one accompanying the latest Bold 9700 handset. It has curved rows of keys and fairly identical size, where the sliding out process to expose the keyboard is very smooth and feels similar to the way the Pre Plus also operates.
The Torch stands 4.37-inches tall or 5.83-inches when opened, where their BlackBerry Storm 2 as a comparison is just 4.43-inches tall. Both devices have the same width of 62mm, where the 9800 is 14.6mm thick and the Storm 2 is slightly thinner at 13.9mm. It’s a comfortable BlackBerry to use, with the width providing a good size for holding and also typing upon with a very similar feel to the Storm 2 only with the physical keyboard of the 9700.
BlackBerry Torch’s 3.2-inch 480×360 capacitive touch screen has the same size display as that Storm 2 handset, where instead of pushing the screen inwards to action a task - the touch screen now operates in the same way as every other touch screen device. We found this is a much more preferable way of operating a phone than the way the Storms work. This venture for RIM could attract more buyers that were put off with the Storm phones and even lure those who didn’t make the leap to its sequel.
The touch screen is very responsive and handles touch requests fairly well, where in the time we used the device we never saw a misinterpreted incident. Its new operating system really takes advantage of the new screen and in a way the previous OS never could, nor could any other RIM platforms. The colours and images on the Torch 9800 are the sharpest we’ve seen on a BlackBerry handset, with one of the highest reported DPI on any of their phones.
The slide-out keyboard does appear to be a fairly exact replica to the one that accompanies the Bold 9700, if compared side by side most people would be hard pushed to tell any differences. Besides the keyboard that’s easy and familiar to use, the call, menu, optical touchpad and end call button have also been brought across from the 9700 and the Curve 8250 which stamps home continuity within the brand and entire range as a whole.
RIM’s Torch runs with 512MB of RAM, where in the past BlackBerry’s have only reached the lofty heights of 256MB. Applications now respond faster as a result, with better multitasking possibilities and switching between the apps. The native storage has also reached new heights as there is now 4GB built into the phone, with a further 4GB microSD card bundled in as part and parcel of the shipping product.
Other notable hardware implementations on the 9800 come from the WIFI 802.11n specification, which has only been seen before in the Pearl 3G where the phone also has Tri-band UMTS and Quad-band GSM connectivity. The camera in the Torch 9800 is of the 5 megapixel variety - the highest MP count in any BlackBerry to date, where other phone manufactures have hit 12MP and are still pushing the boundaries.
At the heart of the new BlackBerry slider phone is the new operating system - the BlackBerry 6 OS. The new user interface is very touch screen centric, where RIM has certainly taken note of Android and other touch screen based operating systems with the way they function. Research In Motion has almost taken the best of those worlds and included them in the new platform, with elements of a traditional BlackBerry UI.
The home screen on the BlackBerry 6 OS has the same initial look to version 5, with a few quick access icons to applications at the base of the screen. Instead of pressing the physical BlackBerry icon menu button to see all the applications - the quick access icon bar can be swiped up the screen, to show all the software on the phone. The screen can then be swiped across to the left, to show the individual category’s of the apps, favourites and weblinks in a similar way to other touch screen handsets. The icon bar at the top of the screen shows notifications, which can be simply touched upon to show all the new messages in a fast, friendly and easy manor. All of which is very unlike the BlackBerry business centric operating systems of the past and much more like Android than anything else.
The new universal search tool is one of the most notable inclusions in the BlackBerry 6 OS. The search tool can be run from anywhere by typing on the keyboard, and not even in a specific application. The search is performed on the fly when typing, then brings back results not only relating to emails, IM’s, text messages, but also music, RSS feeds and even from social networking sites. It’s fast and the results are very thoroughly, where the task we found takes little time in running.
Lastly, the web browser has been greatly improved in this version of the BlackBerry OS. RIM acquired a company called Torch Mobile in 2009, for their webkit web browser technology. Incidentally, it’s where the name of this new BlackBerry handset originates, as it’s their first device to show the fruits of that acquisition. Torch previously developed the Iris browser for Windows Mobile devices, where the switch to BlackBerry handsets have brought in pinch-to-zoon-in abilities and an altogether much better browsing experience on the handset - as compared with past BlackBerrys.
The Bottom Line
From the outset, the BlackBerry Torch 9800 does appear to be the best of both worlds - a touch screen device and also a handset with an actual physical Qwerty keyboard. It does appear as if the Storm2 and BlackBerry Bold 9700 have visited a chop-shop and the Torch 9800 is the result.
We’re glad RIM has switched from the push-in-screen-to-action-a-task touch screen display of the Storm handsets, as the 9800 now works much better than any of those two previous devices. The Qwerty keyboard is a little on the small side for our liking, although the learning curve and adjustment process was nothing like what was seen with the Storm phones touch screens - we were used to the actual physical keyboard in no time at all.
The OS is a vast improvement over any RIM platform we’ve seen before, with a very consumer friendly feel along with managing to still retain the business elements needed to succeed elsewhere. Over all, we were fairly impressed with the BlackBerry Torch 9800 and we’re keen to see if it wins over BlackBerry keyboard based users and also those who have come from a traditional touch screen environment.
Recently, we began a feature that surrounded £15 a month tariffs, comprising of what exactly they can offer within minutes, texts and data allowances. This also takes into account the free handsets accompanying those deals, in addition to SIM Only offers from the same networks.
Previously, we brought you news of the tariff details from the mobile phone networks Three, T-Mobile and Orange. This week we will wrap up with Vodafone and O2, followed by a break-down and what’s best within certain criteria’s.
Vodafone
Vodafone offers a few different contracts over 24 months and an 18 month period with numerous handsets, along with a few SIM only deals.
What Vodafone presented to One Mobile Ring as their “Option One” is a 24-month contract that comes with 100 minutes, with 500 texts and a 500MB data allowance.
There are 12 phones on this deal, which are the Samsung Monte, Samsung Monte Pink, Nokia 5230, LG Viewty Smile, Nokia 6303, Sony Ericsson Elm, Samsung Genio slide, LG Viewty Lite, Nokia E63, Samsung Solid Extreme, Samsung Vodafone 360 M1 and rebranded Huawei Vodafone 845 phone.
There is also a variation to “Option One”, which tips up with 300 minutes at any time of the day and to any networks, with an unlimited text message allowance.
There are 9 phones available on this deal, which are the Samsung Monte, Samsung Monte Pink, Nokia 5230, LG Viewty Smile, Nokia 6303, Sony Ericsson Elm, Samsung Genio slide, LG Viewty Lite, Nokia E63, and the Samsung Solid Extreme.
Another Option One is a 24 month contract too, and comes with 100 minutes, 500 text messages where the only phones on offer are the Nokia 6700 Slide Purple and Nokia 6700 Slide Silver.
What Vodafone presented to OMR as Option Two is a 18-month plan, that comes with 100 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with 500 text messages.
There are 9 phones on this deal, which are the Samsung Monte, Samsung Monte Pink, Nokia 5230, LG Viewty Smile, Nokia 6303, Sony Ericsson Elm, Samsung Genio slide, LG Viewty Lite and the Samsung Solid Extreme.
Vodafone’s SIM only deals start with 200 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, with 3,000 text messages on a 30-day contract.
Vodafone also has a SIM only deal that comes with 300 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, with unlimited text messages and a time limited offer of unlimited Vodafone to Vodafone calls
Vodafone does retail a yearlong SIM only deal too, which comes with 600 minutes with unlimited text messages and a time limited offer of unlimited Vodafone to Vodafone calls.
O2
O2 has both 12 and 24 month contracts on offer with free handsets as well, along with SIM only on-line deals.
The offer O2 presented to One Mobile Ring as their 24 month Handset tariff is accompanied by 100 minutes, with an unlimited text allowance.
There are 17 phones available on this deal, which are the HTC Smart White, HTC Smart Black, Samsung Jet Ultra, Samsung Monte, Samsung Solid Extreme, Samsung Genio Touch, Sony Ericsson C903 Black, Sony Ericsson W995 Pink, Sony Ericsson Elm, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia X6, Nokia 6700, Nokia 6700 Slide Silver, Nokia 6700 Slide Pink, Nokia 6303i, Nokia 2330 Classic and LG POP.
Also on offer with O2 is their 18-month Handset tariff, which is accompanied by a 50 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, with an unlimited text allowance.
There are 14 phones available on this deal, which are the HTC Smart White, HTC Smart Black, Samsung Monte, Samsung Solid Extreme, Samsung Genio Touch, Sony Ericsson W995 Pink, Sony Ericsson Elm, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia 6700 Slide Silver, Nokia 6700 Slide Pink, Nokia 6303i, Nokia 2330 Classic and LG POP.
O2’s SIM only deals come in three varieties, one with no contract, another with a 30-days and there’s also a 12-month contract.
O2 has a Pay & Go you Simplicity SIM with 100 any time any network minutes, unlimited UK texts, with 500MB of Internet browsing.
The Simplicity SIM only, 30-day contract offers 300 any time any network minutes, unlimited UK texts and unlimited O2 to O2 calls or UK landline calls.
An O2 Simplicity SIM 12-month contract comes with 600 any time any network minutes, unlimited UK texts and unlimited O2 to O2 calls or UK landline calls.
The Break Down
Breaking down all that’s on offer in the £15 tariff market place is a mean feat in itself, with close to 30 tariff deals from the various mobile phone networks. Taking into account the minutes on offer isn’t enough in choosing a tariff any more, it’s the text limits and more importantly these days - the data allowance. The most important question too is sometimes over looked, what handset accompanies the tariff, or what choices do I have.
After collating all of the details from companies such as T-Mobile, Orange, Three, Vodafone and O2 we have made some One Mobile Ring Editors choices as to what tariffs stand out. The following decisions do take into account the tariffs minutes, text and data allowance along with the handsets they have on offer.
The tariff with the highest range of phones has to go to O2, with 17 handsets to choose from on their standard 24-month tariff with 100 minutes and an unlimited text allowance.
The majority of the networks did actually offer an almost identical range of phones in their £15 tariffs, where the diversity across all the carriers weren’t as varied as we initially thought they would be. They were mostly budget models and non-popular handsets, where one network stood out by offering refurbished higher-end models and that was Three.
The tariff that came on top by providing the most minutes per month was Three, with their Internet Talker 500 24-month plan. This tariff comes with 500 minutes a month to any network, which beats even its closest rivals in minutes alone by 200 on Vodafone and T-Mobile.
There is a slight covet for the Internet Talker 500, where the minutes are traded off against the number of text messages sent in a month. That 500 figure is therefore taken down by 1 minute for every text message sent, whilst every minute used in calling takes the 500 text messages allowance down by 1.
We still believe this is an outstanding tariff, as although an unlimited text allowance offering sounds attractive on paper - 500 minutes in practice is a lot more useful.
Thrown in with the Internet Talker 500 is 5,000 minutes to any other Three mobile phone numbers, a 500MB data allowance a month where you also get free voicemail, Skype-to-Skype calls and Windows Live Messenger use.
Whilst we were writing this piece Three reduced this tariff from £15 a month, to £13 and therefore undercut the remit of the “So, what can you offer me for £15 a month?” feature. At the same time we believe they rejigged their handset deals, where most of the phones accompanying the deal now come in it at £17 and £18 - also slightly over the feature’s remit.
Three also offers the best SIM Only ‘30-day’ contract, which comes with 300 minutes, 3,000 texts, 2,000 Three-to-Three minutes and a 1GB data allowance with free voicemail, Skype-to-Skype calls and messages with free Windows Live Messenger use.
T-Mobile came close with their ‘30-day’ offering but they did come out on top with a 12-month SIM only deal, on minutes alone. This offer comprises of 600 minutes, 500 texts, with their flexible booster package of either unlimited texts, unlimited internet or unlimited T-Mobile calling.
A week has passed since the world was holding its collective breath, waiting for the news of what Apple would say in their impromptu press conference over the iPhone 4’s signal issues. This was closely followed by the rest of the week spent scratching our collective heads, wandering around muttering - “a free case? That will resolve the signal problems?”.
The week began with the news of the much awaited Motorola handset arriving in the UK, which was closely followed by the news of Google’s own Nexus One about to run out of supplies. BlackBerry was featured in the news this week quite a lot, with the latest Pearl 3G arriving on Vodafone, the Storm 3 being leaked along with the multimedia features of the upcoming new OS being previewed.
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Last week ended with the Apple press conference, where it was expected they would address the issues over signal problems with the iPhone 4. The results of which was the offer of a free case, to all purchasers of their latest handset.
The free bumper that usually costs £25 is wrapped around the sides of the phone, which therefore prevents the “death grip” or where the handset holder makes contact between the break in two parts of the iPhone 4’s antenna - which reportedly results in the loss of signal.
Although the case will not resolve the issue entirely, it could effectively put a fairly literal plaster over the problem in the meantime.
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Google hit the news at the start of the week with the announcement of the HTC made Nexus One handset was about to make its last shipment, where after those supplies run out they will no longer be stocking the phone on their webstore.
Google has stated recently the Nexus One venture for them was a success, where they will continue to support the handset. They will also continue to sell the current stock of these handsets elsewhere in the world too, with their partners such as Vodafone in the UK.
The Android based handset was the first to be updated to Froyo, or version 2.2 of the Google mobile platform and is still a much sort after handset where it’s popular by developers.
At the very end of the week Google did actually run out of the Nexus One mobile phone, where the webstore selling the handset also closed up shop.
However, HTC Desire is still a good alternative and it is more or less the same phone.
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On Tuesday details of the new BlackBerry Storm 3 were leaked from a training presentation, where its features were captured on somewhat of a blurry picture. Listed are the features and functionality of the new device, along with how it differs from the Storm 2 launched last year.
The training presentation slide noted the new BlackBerry handset will only have a minor hardware overhaul, with no major differences in appearance between the Storm 2 and 3.
Brought in from the recent BlackBerry Perl 3G is the ability to access a 802.11n WIFI network, which was first seen in that candy bar designed phone. The RAM appears to have been doubled, from 256 to 512MB that will serve the applications running on the handset and the camera has gone from 3.1 megapixel camera, to a 5MP.
The most surprising addition is at the base of the captured image, which is the inclusion of a mobile hotspot application and is another term for MIFI.
Midweek, details were sent to the media over the BlackBerry 6 OS new multimedia features, where RIM listed in a blog post those abilities whilst at the same time mentioning in passing it will soon be releasing the platform.
RIM has worked on aspects of the way photos can be grouped together by event or date on the handset, where there is even a pinch-to-zoom-in feature in the upcoming operating system release for the BlackBerry handsets.
Also new to the OS 6 is the ability to share videos taken by the phone, with an integrated YouTube client that provides uploading straight to the video sharing website for all and sundry to see.
The emails opening line stated, “as you know RIM will soon be launching the eagerly awaited BlackBerry 6″ - although no firm dates have been established yet but a new OS usually ties in with a handset release.
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Around the middle of the week details emerged from an email that the Vodafone Google Nexus One will be getting Android 2.2 this or next week, according to the technology website Android Central.
The update being rolled out brings in the ability to natively view flash video content on the Nexus One, which has been with the USA Google handset owners for some time could be arriving in the UK anytime now.
However, it appears some of the States side version of Froyo on the HTC phone made for Google won’t be available. Stripped from the UK roll out of Android 2.2 is access to the Amazon MP3 store, along with Google Goggles that allows users to take pictures with their phone and then search the web with those images.
No mentioned of whether WIFI or USB tethering have been taken out, but we suspect they will be in tact along with the Flash video ability which effectively brings the handset on par with the HTC Desire.
Vodafone also announced this week they are now selling the BlackBerry Pearl 3G, Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro and LG Optimus. The latter of which is the start of a new range of Lucky Goldstar manufactured handsets, in which this is the first of 10 to appear under the Optimus brand name.
The Research In Motion BlackBerry Pearl 3G is their latest candy bar style of phone to arrive in the UK, which will be free on a £25 tariff, over 24 months which includes 300 minutes, unlimited texts and a 500MB data allowance.
The LG Optimus is only the South Korean phone maker’s second Android handset, which tips up with a 3-inch screen capable of displaying DivX/XviD video.
Sony Ericsson’s 2.6-inch screen based X10 Mini Pro is effectively the cut down version of their 4-inch screen Xperia X10 Google OS handset, where the Mini Pro just has a physical Qwerty keyboard bolted on to that smaller mobile phone.
Both the LG Optimus and SE X10 Mini Pro arrive gratis on a £20 tariff, over a 24 month period where 100 minutes are included within that deal, with 500 texts and a 500MB data allowance.
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At the end of the week Skype unveiled its latest iPhone 4 application, which takes advantage of the multitasking abilities. At the same time they announced they’re dropping the surcharge for 3G calling, which has been in place since May this year.
The iPhone 4 version of Skype will also be available to other devices that now run iOS 4, such as the iPhone 3GS and the more recent iPod Touch devices as the application uses the multitasking environment of the new operating system.
All of which means the communications software can be run in the background, waiting for a call or a message whilst the phone is used for other tasks and even when the phone is locked, the app is still active.
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Motorola’s Milestone XT720 Android handset arrived in the UK early on in the week, where the phone is the sequel to their keyboard based Android Milestone mobile phone only with HD recording and an HDMI socket.
The XT720 is an 8-megapixel camera capable of 720p recording and arrives with a miniHDMI socket, a 550Mhz processor and runs Android 2.1.
Based on the Moto Roi launched in South Korea early this year, it’s the first handset to arrive on our shores with this high definition socket built-in where the accompanying miniHDMI to HDMI cable is used to play all types of HD video content straight to a compatible screen.
The Moto phone started selling from around £360 to £380, although the much beefier 1Ghz processor, 4.3-inch screen Motorola Droid X is due later on this year where the Droid was the Milestone’s brand name in the States.
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And finally, an American company has produced a set of plasters or Band-aids for the iPhone 4 that cures the signal problems, by covering up the gap in-between the two parts of the case that if connected results in a signal loss.
Antenn-aid.com sells these band-aids in 6 different colours, all for $4.95 + packaging just in case you can no longer wait for your free case from Apple themselves.
The website states these Antenn-aids are precision engineered and when placed over the lower corner may improve performance, with a disclaimer mentioning it’s really only made for entertainment purposes.
When we first found out about the cases on offer as a result of Apple’s admission over the signal issues, we said these cases “effectively put a fairly literal plaster over the problem” - Antenn-aid is literally that plaster for the problem.
Visit the site for more info - http://antenn-aid.com/
It has been a busy week in the mobile world, which makes for a much welcomed change from last in which it appeared the world had a quiet one following on from Independence day in the States.
This week’s news mostly surrounded BlackBerry, companies mentioning upcoming features in their OS that BlackBerry will have soon. The iPhone 4 maker scheduled an impromptu press conference, along with releasing a possible signal fix to their mobile OS.
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The week started with an analyst report from the company Rodman and Renshaw, detailing there is an iPad-esque tablet on the way from Research In Motion. This report had specifics that seemed to be backed up in a video of the new upcoming OS, later on in the week.
A 7-inch BlackBerry tablet device by Research In Motion was apparently scheduled to be released next year, with the analyst company detailing that it has now been changed. The report goes on to mention the BlackBerry will be powered by a 1Ghz Marvell processor with abilities such as full HD 1080p playback, advanced 3D graphics, 16 megapixel image capture, front facing and rear cameras.
Midweek, BlackBerry’s new OS 6 was officially demoed on video, ahead of its unveiling later on this year. The preview of the OS 6 highlighted exactly what features will be in the new platform, where the video appears to be very touch screen centric. Some more astute observers will note the BlackBerry’s screen dimensions and not a single physical keyboard was seen in the footage.
All of this could just highlight RIM are now focussing heavily on large touch screen devices, with more of a tablet style screen - as the dimensions alone of the device’s screen denotes a BlackBerry Tablet.
Another BlackBerry new’s item came across our desks this week, in the form of an invite to try out a new piece of software for the device. BlackBerry Protect is an upcoming app from RIM, where someone will be able to locate a misplaced phone easily or remotely wipe the phones’ contents if permanently lost.
The free application for BlackBerry mobiles will provide access to a webportal, where all of the features listed above are accessible. It will even be possible to triangulate the missing phone’s position by surrounding cell towers, or actually remotely power-on the GPS to aid in the handset’s recovery.
Not to be outdone by this, Microsoft also made public on the same day their upcoming mobile OS will also have these features. Windows Phone 7 will have a similar set of abilities as BlackBerry Protect, only natively inside the OS.
These features are comparable to Apple’s FindMe, only they differ in the cost as apparently this will be free and part and parcel of the Microsoft mobile OS where FindMe does carry a price.
Microsoft has a web based portal known as SkyDrive for accessing these security features, which also allows for 25GB of data to be stored. Services such as locating of the missing phone, locking the device or remotely wiping all the data will be possible in much the same way as BlackBerry will offer.
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On Thursday it came to light that Apple will be holding an unscheduled press conference on Friday, all in order to talk about the iPhone 4 with the possibility of the signal dropping issue on the agenda that has plagued the handset since day one.
Speculation has been rife over whether they will recall the new fourth generation Apple mobile, which will be a vast operations seeing as they sold 1.7 million iPhone 4 handsets in just 3 days.
What could be a more likely scenario would be that Apple will put the world at ease by openly discussing the issue relating to the signal problem, as their open letter last month did not go down as well as they expected where its contents surrounded the miscalculation of the signal reception only.
Later on in the same day, an update to the iPhone’s operating system was made available from the usual source of iTunes, for all those iPhone 4 users along with the older iPhone 3G/3GS owners that have upgraded to iOS 4.
iOS 4.0.1 was released way ahead of their press conference, all with a view to resolve the issues that have surrounded the handsets signal problems.
It has already been noted by early adopters of the update that Apple has increased the size of the bars in displaying the signal, just to make the reception visually clearer with its recalibration already firmly in place.
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Two new handset announcements hit the wires this week, with one appearing on Three and another being the smallest and lightest Guinness Book of Records holding mobile phone with cases that add functionality.
An Israeli mobile phone company launched in the UK the Modu 1, which is a small phone that can be placed in a number of different fascia or cases to offer up different functionality.
The Modu 1 is only 72.1mm in height, 37.6mm in width, whilst it’s only 7.8mm thick with a weight of 40.1 grams where an actual credit card comes in around 53.9mm in height and 85.6mm in length.
There are 12 different cases currently available for the Modu 1, which dramatically changes the whole look of the handset and its functions. These range from sporty designs with a pedometer, to a night fascia with a 3.2MP camera.
Natively, the phone has a 1.3-inch OLED screen, with tri-band connectivity and has features such as 2GB of memory, an mp3 player, Bluetooth 1.2 with a proprietary OS and a 7-key pad design.
Three jointly unveiled a sub £100 Android handset, running version 2.1 of the Google OS. ZTE’s Racer is a 2.8-inch QVGA resistive touch screen mobile, with 2GB of storage from an accompanying microSD card along with a 3.2 megapixel camera - all running from the same 600Mhz chipset as the HTC Legend.
The £99 Racer handset is co-branded by Three, in much the same way as two other joint venture mobile phones that are on Three by ZTE, the MF112 and F930.
The phone is free from as little as £13 a month on Three’s Internet Talker 300 tariff, or costing £99 plus a £10 credit on pay as you go - which makes for one of the cheapest 2.1 Android handsets around today.
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So, what can you offer me for £15 a month?
At the end of the week we begun a feature to aid people in the minefield of choosing a tariff and along with their handset deals, by starting at £15 a month and what that consists of on each major network.
In this week’s break down we highlighted what Three, T-Mobile and Orange all have to offer in their £15 a month bracket along with what phones are available too and also the network’s ‘SIM Only’ offering.
Each of the networks have competitive deals in this price range, all with a good range of phones on offer to suit all tastes and styles.
Three’s £15 ‘SIM Only’ tariff appears to be a strong contender, if you just want a contact and not a phone too.
This deal offers up 300 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with 2,000 minutes to any Three based phone numbers, with 3,000 texts, a 1GB data allowance and free voicemail. This comes with free Windows Live Messenger chats and free Skype-to-Skype calls which does not encroach on that 1GB data allowance - all on a one month rolling contract.
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Samsung Galaxy S review
The review of the week came from Samsung’s flagship Android handset, the Galaxy S. This new model arrives with a much larger screen than ever seen before on an Android mobile phone in the UK, with Samsung’s own familiar tweak to the OS. Samsung’s Galaxy S runs from a 1Ghz processor, but not the Qualcomm version that’s in the HTC Desire only this is Samsung’s own mobile chipset that also features in their Wave phone.
The Galaxy S’ display has the brightest and most vivid screen we’ve seen, with a 4-inch Super AMOLED 800×480 display that is really the handset’s most outstanding feature. The screen actually puts the Desire’s version to shame, with its colours and sharpness that are beyond belief and are not even washed out in bright sunlight, where AMOLED screens usually are.
Samsung has tweaked the 2.1 Android OS, to have a familiar overlay called TouchWiz. This new version of 3.0 also appears on their Wave phone, which has a different OS altogether. This does feel very similar to their other handset overlays, from the Jet to Toco mobiles that all have early versions but this really is just a Samsung theme running on Android and nothing major.
Bottom Line
This surprisingly light 118gram Android handset has a bit of a cheap feel to it, where some might assume it’s a budget model due the plastic casing only it’s far from that. The Samsung Galaxy S is a fast mobile, with a truly outstanding screen where movie playback, web browsing and writing are exemplary on the large screen with lots of storage capabilities too.
Tariffs, deals and choosing a handset can be a minefield for anyone - even for the most knowledgeable and thoroughly researched of consumer. We thought we would ease the headache and bring you what each major mobile phone network can offer, starting with £15 a month tariff and what that consists of along with what handsets are currently offered on that deal.
In no particular order or ranking, we will start with the network Three.
There are two £15 tariffs on offer, with different setups but also a few similarities too. These two plans are known as Internet Texter 100 and Internet Talker 500.
Internet Texter 100 is a 24 month contract, which offers up 100 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with 5,000 minutes to any Three based phone numbers, with 5,000 texts, a 500MB data allowance and free voicemail. This comes with free Windows Live Messenger chats and free Skype-to-Skype calls that does not encroach on that data allowance.
Internet Talker 500 is also a 24 month contract, which offers up 500 minutes at any time of the day and to any network or 500 texts, or a mixture of both minutes and texts, along with 5,000 minutes to any Three based phone numbers, with a 500MB data allowance and free voicemail. This comes with free Windows Live Messenger chats and free Skype-to-Skype calls that also does not encroach on the data allowance.
The handsets available on these £15 tariffs are: Sony Ericsson T715, Sony Ericsson Zylo, INQ 1, INQ Chat, INQ Mini 3G, Samsung S5600, Samsung S3370, Nokia 5230, Nokia 2730, Nokia E63, LG GW520, LG Viewty GT, 3 Skypephone S2x, Huawei U7510 and ZTE Racer.
There is also a £15 ‘SIM Only’ tariff from Three, which offers up 300 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with 2,000 minutes to any Three based phone numbers, with 3,000 texts, a 1GB data allowance and free voicemail. This comes with free Windows Live Messenger chats and free Skype-to-Skype calls which does not encroach on that data allowance - all on a one month rolling contract.
There are also two £15 tariffs on offer with T-Mobile, also with different setups but also a few similarities too. These two plans were presented to us as Option One and Option Two, which vary in contract length.
Option One is an 18 month contract, which offers up 100 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with 100 texts and a flexible booster. The latter of which is a bolt on to the package that’s a part of the plan for free, which includes one of the following: unlimited texts, unlimited internet access, unlimited landline calls, unlimited T-Mobile calling and various international calling offers.
Option One can be accompanied by one of these handsets, Samsung Tocco Lite, LG Pop (GD510), Nokia C5, Samsung Monte (S5620) or LG Viewty Snap.
Option Two is a 24 month contract, which offers up 300 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with 300 texts and a flexible booster. The latter of which is a bolt on to the package that’s a part of the plan for free, which includes one of the following: unlimited texts, unlimited internet access, unlimited landline calls, unlimited T-Mobile calling and various international calling offers.
Option Two can be accompanied by a slightly better handset, which include: BlackBerry Curve 8520, LG InTouch Max (GW620), Samsung, Tocco Lite, LG Pop (GD510) and T-Mobile Pulse.
T-Mobile also has a SIM Only offering on a 12 Month contract, which offers up 600 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with 500 texts and a flexible booster. The latter of which is a bolt on to the package that’s a part of the plan for free, which includes one of the following: unlimited texts, unlimited internet access, unlimited landline calls, unlimited T-Mobile calling and various international calling offers.
There is also a SIM Only offering on a 30 day contract, which offers up 350 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with 300 texts and a flexible booster. The latter of which is a bolt on to the package that’s a part of the plan for free, which includes one of the following: unlimited texts, unlimited internet access, unlimited landline calls, unlimited T-Mobile calling and various international calling offers.
Orange has three key £15 pay monthly contracts, all surrounding various requirements and needs for the individual user whether they need a good data allowance, higher minutes a month or just text a lot.
Their Dolphin 15 is a 24 month contract, which offers up 50 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with unlimited texts and a 250MB data allowance.
The Canary 15 is also a 24 month contract, which offers up 100 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with unlimited texts.
The Racoon 15 is a 24 month contract, which offers up 100 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with 300 texts and unlimited anytime calls to UK landlines.
Orange has mentioned there are various handsets such as the Samsung Monte, LG Pop and the Sony Ericsson W595 that are all available on these tariffs although there are many more.
Next week, we will finish off the rest of the major network tariffs and their specific details. We will also include our own conclusion, and summary of the best £15 deals around with what they have to offer.
The company HTC has been around since the late 1990s, producing devices and handsets for many companies, although you might not have been aware you were using their products as they didn’t carry the HTC name. Instead, those devices carried names such as iPaq under first Compaq, and then Hewlett-Packard when the companies merged.
HTC has been synonymous with the PDA and mobile phone market for all those years. Many may have used their smartphones on the Orange network under the rebranded SPV handset range, or Xda with O2 all throughout the last decade.
In 2007, they stood up on their own two feet and came out from under the shadows of their OEM clients, to produce the first HTC Touch handset that beat Apple’s iPhone to market for some time in the UK.
Since then they have gradually grown to the market presence they now have and with a distinctive quality of devices, with their latest flagship HTC Desire being a testament to that very fact.
These days, many associate HTC with the Google Android OS for mobile phones, where they produced the first handset running the platform in 2008 with the HTC Dream or T-Mobile G1. To date, HTC has produced a dozen different Android models worldwide and the majority of them in use today.
Their origins can be traced back to Microsoft Windows Mobile run devices, with the iPaq’s and SPV handsets all running versions of that very operating system. HTC has had a lot of ‘firsts’ in its history from the first colour screen palm sized PC in 1999 to more recently, the first 4G Android phone in the USA with the HTC Evo.
Windows Mobile has featured heavily in their success along with their OEM partnerships. This was first seen with the original colour screen palm sized PC running the Microsoft Palm-size PC 1.2 Color OS, on a device for Compaq known as the Aero 2100 that launched January of 1999.
Their partnership with Compaq and subsequently HP went on from there to the first PDA running the Microsoft Pocket OS in 2000, with the Compaq iPAQ H3630 and then progressing to the first Microsoft Wireless Pocket PC device with the Hewlett-Packard iPAQ H1910, only two years later.
From then on a number of the HTC phones were found in the UK under the Orange SPV series or the O2 Xda range, with the first Microsoft powered Smartphones arriving as the initial O2 Xda and Orange SPV models. Some notable milestones within those rebranded handsets came from the first 2.8-inch LCD screen model with the O2 XDA II mini and Orange SPV M500. Then came along the very first 3G Microsoft Windows 5.0 phone, with the Qwerty keyboard based Orange SPV M5000 and O2 XDA Exec.
HTC has also made phones for other well-known companies such as the Treo 750 for Palm in 2006, where HTC produced a few handsets for them around that time. More recently, HTC made the Xperia X1 for Sony Ericsson although that partnership bore little more fruit after that phone.
2007 saw the first phone of theirs under the HTC name with the HTC Touch, a full touch screen handset running Windows Mobile 6 and their own TouchFlo overlay on top of that OS. Since then HTC haven’t looked back and have gone on to produce a veritable range of touch screen devices running Windows and Android, all to suit many markets from budget to the more ‘flagship’ expensive handsets.
There are two major factors when considering coverage: the phone itself and the nearest mast.
A phone’s antenna is crucial. The bigger it is, the better it is at picking up a signal. The ongoing battle to fit more gadgetry into mobiles of a smaller size means there is often little room left for the single most important part. Not all phones are equal and I have seen a 50% difference in the signal two adjacent phones pick up purely because of the quality of the antenna. Unfortunately there is little way to tell this before you get the phone home but a general rule of thumb is that a small phone with lots of features (5mp+ camera, satnav, wifi) will not have much room for a decent antenna. If you are in a marginal area, get a simple business orientated phone (such as the Nokia E series).
Mobile phones are just complex radios. If anything is blocking the signal from the mast they are connected to they will not work. Over time a number of things can change including new buildings, trees and masts from other companies conflicting with existing signals. This means that just because you had a good signal a few months ago, you won’t necessarily have one now.
Most masts do not operate at full power. For example, where I live the two closest Orange masts are showing as working at 27.2 dBW out of a licensed maximum of 32 dBW and 28 out of 32, both of which are normal. There are lots of reasons for running under power. Mainly that it saves electricity but also because it will reduce interference with other masts in the area. Mast tuning is a black art and is very difficult to get right because of constantly changing environmental conditions.
If you are suffering changeable reception in the same area you may be suffering from ‘ping-ponging’ where the phone is switching between two equidistant masts, especially when moving about the local area. Another aspect is saturation. Masts only have a finite capacity and so the more users connecting to that mast, the less of the signal you get to use. Too many people and you won’t get a signal which is why it is always difficult to make a call during big events unless the operators lay on temporary ‘masts on wheels’ to provide additional capacity. This is usually the case only for voice calls. Text messages were invented for technicians and they use the ‘carrier’ wave which is why they will often get through when a voice call will not.
Different companies use different wavelengths. At 900 MHz Vodafone and O2 use a longer wavelength than Orange, T-Mobile and Virgin at 1800 Mhz. 3 operate in the 2100 Mhz range and use masts from Orange where there is no 3G coverage. This means that Vodafone and O2’s masts can transmit further but they are less likely to work in small valleys surrounded by big hills (such as a coombe). It is also why Orange can boast to have more masts than anyone else. It is a marketing gimmick - the reason is that they have a lower power than Vodafone and O2 and so you need more masts just to get the same area of coverage.
To find out where your nearest mast is or to identify known masts go to http://www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/ and enter either the postcode or the nearest town. Bear in mind that most operators do not want you to know where their masts are so they put some pretty heavy constraints on the use of the information they supply to Ofcom, the result of which makes finding unknown masts difficult. The trick is to zoom out no more than 500m in order to find the masts and zoom in to 100m to get the detail. If you zoom out more than 500m you won’t see a thing - just as the operators would like it!
If you want to test out coverage from various suppliers, you’ll either need an unlocked phone and some PAYG Sim cards from the various operators or friends who use the companies you are interested in. Bear in mind what I said about the antenna though as it is by far the most underrated consideration when buying a phone.
If you are with Vodafone you can get their Sure Signal which is a femtocell that acts like a mini-mast (this is different to a signal booster) which uses your ADSL line to carry voice and data.
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