One Mobile Ring
Consumers hanker after cool gadgets and the market is eager to supply them. When a product starts to look redundant, alarm bells ring and the manufacturers scramble to innovate and show us new ways to make their offerings indispensible again.
Footage taken at a London trade show and I apologise for the background noise. The video gives a good first impression of the Linux-based sexy user interface that Emblaze have developed for their Else. The company dumb the thumb navigation ‘sPlaying’. Although Linux powers the phone, the overall operating platform may not be open source. It’s still developmental and will be interesting to watch it grow.
O2 launch giffgaff in a puff of viral advertising. The MVNO is using a crowd sourcing business model, where tasks traditionally done by employees are incentivised to subscribers. Customers answer each others service queries via the community forum. For example recruiting a new subscriber will net the original member £5.
A second Sony Ericsson smartphone is causing the wrong kind of publicity in the UK, Reuters report this evening. Part of SE’s Christmas line-up, the Aino is causing users problems with its touchscreen interface.
The sequel to Nokia’s best selling E71, the E72 begins life with a secured following. Visually similar, pimped with a bit more chrome and a sleeker finish, you have to look inside to fully appreciate it’s beefier than it’s younger brother.
Two candy bar sliders announced by Nokia this week. Available from Q1 next year, both support fast 3G access and have been optimised for social applications. The 6700 slide will cost about £150 and the 7230 around £95.
After months of bargaining, legislation has been approved by a broad majority of the European parliament aimed at boosting the rights of mobile phone and internet users. The new laws give citizens greater protection against access restrictions.
Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U stores have suspend all sales of the Sony Ericsson Satio, in response to critically high customer returns and complains. Both chains will offer alternative phones to unhappy customers, living up to their responsibilities under the Sale of Goods Act. Goods must be fit for purpose and it is the seller, not the manufacturer who has to sort it out.
A femtocell is a mini cellular base station designed for use in a home or small business environment. It’s plugged into local power and a broadband connection, piggy-backing a local wireless signal over the internet to your carrier. Suddenly 3 or 4 mobile phones can function in an area where there was previously no signal.