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28
Nov

Pink Jawbone Bluetooth Headset Available In UK…Why?

By Ernest Doku

Aliph has announced a new variation on their Jawbone Bluetooth headset will be available in the colour of “Rambling Rose” in the UK, at a cost of £79.99.

An interesting device, ultimately destined to failure due to a simple misunderstanding of two target demographics which will never cross paths.

Bluetooth headset owners = estate agents, minicab drivers, Playstation 3 owners, people deeply into gadgets.

Pink thing owners = girls, women, ladies, people deeply into pink things.

Do you see?

Friday, November 28th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile Phone News | 1 Comment »
28
Nov

Sony Ericsson Xperia Panels On The HTC Touch HD, HTC TouchFLO on the Xperia!

By Ernest Doku

I suppose, as we covered the fact that the exclusive Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 Panels could be modified to work on an HTC handset, that we should cover more recent developments in the crazy topsy-turvy world of XDA Developers!

Firstly, they managed to get the Xperia X1 running the slick TouchFLO user interface, popularised by its use on the HTC Touch Diamond and Touch Pro handsets. Check out the video below!

Then, they managed to get the Xperia’s Panel interface modded to run on the new humungous screen of the HTC Touch HD! Truth be told, it may be a tad buggy but the Panels seem to run a little bit smoother than on the Xperia itself! Looks pretty creamy on the super high resolution screen of the HD too. Watch the vid below!

Who would have thought that they could get Windows Mobile handsets to run Windows Mobile software? Not me, that Windows is a cruel mistress, wild and unpredictable…

Friday, November 28th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile Phone News | 3 Comments »
28
Nov

Apple Sale: Free iPhone Apps And Games Today Only!

By Ernest Doku

The Thanksgiving-inspired Apple Black Friday sale turned out to be a bit of a damp squib today, with £60 off a £900 MacBook and £11 off an iPod Touch leaving our world decidedly unrocked…

What is exciting though, is that for today only there are a lot of games and apps for the iPhone 3G on the official App Store which have seen prices slashed for only 24 hours!

Pangea Software, a big player on the App Store, has reduced the price of all of their games to only 59p, including popular titles like Billy Frontier and Cro Mag Rally.

Also, to commemorate 500 sales of his awesome title ‘2079,’ Eric Tong has made it a free download for today only! Be sure to get it, 2079 is an awesome shoot in the vein of XBox 360 classic Geometry Wars, where you steer with the accelerometer of the iPhone and shoot with an 8-way virtual pad!

It is awesome, and even better at the price of free! Quick, download 2079 for iPhone from here!

There is a bevy of other titles going cheap, so just type ’sale’ into the App Store search box, have a good rummage, and grab some bargains whilst you still can!

Source: MacWorld

Friday, November 28th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile Phone News | No Comments »
28
Nov

How To Make Free iPhone Ringtones!

By Ernest Doku

This may seem like a spontaneous post, but after hearing the same three tones from the many, many iPhones in the Omio office (damn your eyes ’sci-fi’ tone!), this is as much a public service announcement as anything…

With a little bit of clever fiddling in iTunes, you can make a ringtone out of any of your favourite (DRM-free) music!

Here we go:

1. Fire up iTunes and find the tune you want to convert into a ringtone. Right-click it and select ‘Get Info’ from the list of options.

2. On the song’s ‘Options’ tab, note the start time and end time boxes. Ringtones have to be 30 seconds or less, so listen to your tune and pick out your favourite bit! Make sure the start and end times (input by minutes and seconds) are under 30 seconds, and press ‘OK‘ when done.

3. Right click on the song we have just shortened, and select the ‘Create AAC’ option (Convert to AAC on Windows).

4. The new, shorter version of your song should now have appeared in iTunes, and be ready to turn into a ringtone! So find out where the file is on your computer, usually done by going to ‘Show in Finder/Computer’. You will then see the created file alongside the original, with an ‘m4a’ filetype extension. If you are unable to see it, uncheck the ‘hide file extensions’ option in Windows ‘Tools’.

5. Move the file to the desktop, then rename the extension from ‘m4a’ to ‘m4r,’ which is the format iTunes likes for ringtones! Also keep the name of the ringtone as simple as possible, no hyphens or funny symbols, iTunes is not a fan of that sort of thing…

6. In iTunes, delete the m4a version of your ringtone from the Library. Then go to File, Add to Library. Move the new m4r in there and it should appear in the ringtones section! If you can’t see Ringtones on the Library of iTunes, go into Preferences and turn it on there.

7. Sync your iPhone with iTunes and your newly created ringtone should get transferred over. If it doesn’t be sure to check the Ringtones tab in the iPhone configuration section of iTunes to verify that it is set up to sync your ringtones.

8. That’s it! Enjoy your new, free musical ringtone!

Friday, November 28th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile Phone Guides | No Comments »
28
Nov

Best Christmas PrePay Mobile Phone Deals!

By Ernest Doku

With Christmas around the corner, it’s important to get your loved ones something nice to go under the tree. Why not make it an affordable mobile phone?

Omio has made a list (and checked it twice) of Pay As You Go handsets currently available, all of which are cool enough to be caught under the mistletoe with!

Luxury at a low price

Nokia 6500 Classic – £79.99 on Play.com

Available for prepay on the Vodafone network, the Nokia 6500 Classic has the lightweight feel and executive style of phones at twice the price. With 3G connectivity, a 2 megapixel digital camera, 1GB of internal memory and an MP3 player, the 6500 Classic offers a smart, sexy and sophisticated option without breaking the bank!

Check out the Nokia 6500 Classic here!


Touchscreen bargain

LG Cookie KP500 – £109.95 on e2save (includes £10 airtime top-up)

Available on Orange and T-Mobile, the LG Cookie is the first affordable full touchscreen handset, offering high-spec technology but not at the expense of style. The user interface is specialised for use by directly pressing the screen but the Cookie is bundled with a stylus for handwriting recognition also. The Cookie is also equipped with a 3.15 megapixel camera, making it a cheap and capable alternative to the iPhone.

Check out the LG Cookie on Prepay here!

Cheap and cheerful

Samsung B130 – £9.99 on Play.com

Great little phone equipped with more than enough features to get by. As an emergency handset, a gift for a younger member of the family or for someone who wants little more than a phone to make calls and texts with, you can’t go wrong with the Samsung B130!

Check out the Samsung B130 here!

Great for girls

Samsung J700 – £39.99 on Carphone Warehouse (incl. £10 airtime on T-Mobile/Orange)

The Samsung J700 is a great combination of style and function, with a sleek glossy sheen and a slider design that looks even prettier in pink!
A built in MP3 player and radio mean music on the move, with the freedom to  download more with Mobile Jukebox support.
Mums and dads? Have peace of mind with special features like SOS one-button calling and Mobile Tracker, making the J700 an ideal first mobile phone gift!

Catch a glimpse of the gorgeous Samsung J700 here!

Quality music phone

Sony Ericsson W350i – £49.99 on Play.com

The Sony Ericsson W350i manages to incorporate the feel of an MP3 player into a mobile phone, at an amazing price. Simply press the keys on the outside flip to access songs, play tracks and skip, just like a dedicated device.
It is also a great phone, with a 1.3 megapixel camera and ample space for music and images on the included 512MB memory card. Weighing only 80g, the W350i has up to 7 hours of talktime and up to 300 hours standby.

Pump up the volume with the Sony Ericsson W350i here!

Friday, November 28th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile Phone Guides | No Comments »
28
Nov

Thank You, WallSwaps!

By Ernest Doku

In a pleasant web deisgn/cool company cultural exchange, we sent our ’roundy’ Omio business cards and some inflatable toast (don’t ask) to WallSwaps, and now we are up on their amazing digital cork board!

Have a look! We are amongst such luminaries as Clearleft, TCD Design and Relentless Clothing!

Better yet, we got our Erskine birdie badge through the post today, which we will all be wearing around the office with pride (via some sort of badge-time share arrangement, the details are still being thrashed out)!

Thanks to the guys for their lovely gift, and thanks to our super design lady San for having such a cool idea in the first place!

Friday, November 28th, 2008 | Posted in Site News | 1 Comment »
27
Nov

BlackBerry Storm Unboxing!

By Ernest Doku

We could not hope to be quite as entertaining as this man’s unboxing of the BlackBerry Storm 9500. Possibly the most realistic, not to mention the most honest unboxing ever.

“Very nice. Very nice.”

That’s how the British do an unboxing! One hand, with no help from the missus. Just like the war.

Brilliant.

Source: Boy Genius Report

Thursday, November 27th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile Phone Handset News | No Comments »
27
Nov

Orange Offer VAT Savings To Customers Early

By Ernest Doku

Orange has announced that they will steal a march on next week’s 2.5% VAT cut by offering savings on all handsets from the 29th of November.

Available on both prepay and contract deals, Orange will pass on the savings on new contracts where phones come in at an initial cost. The savings will obviously not extend to contracts on which handsets are already free.

The savings will be available in store, over the phone, and online (which means that we will be reflecting them on Omio as soon as possible). Reductions on the bills of current Orange customers will occur immediately from the December 1st VAT cut date.

Sian Doyle, director of Orange Retail said; “This is great for our customers, as they don’t need to wait until next week to get the benefit of the 2.5% VAT reduction. This weekend is a very important trading weekend for Orange Retail, as it is the last pay cheque before Christmas so customers will want to do their Christmas shopping now.”

In a time where other networks and retailers are dragging their heels regarding the logistics of passing on the VAT savings to existing subscribers, Orange are the first to come out and just do it.

Let’s see how the others react to this…

Source: Mobile Today

Thursday, November 27th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile Phone News | No Comments »
27
Nov

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Released In Europe

By Ernest Doku

Well, the wait is over (if you are a Spaniard).

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, the touchscreen Nokia touted as the Tube for many moons is now shipping to retail stores throughout Europe, ahead of a December 1st release date.

The phone is set to be the flagship “Comes With Music” handset for audiophiles, and also comes with a 3.2″ TFT display, a 3 megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus camera, built-in GPS and 8GB of memory via an SD card included.

The device is set to be unleashed amid the Nokia World convention, which occurs over the 2nd and 3rd of December in Barcelona, offering all manner of Finnish phone-related insight and innovation.

Perhaps Nokia were wise to allow some breathing space for the UK launch of the 5800, let it stand out for 2009 instead of being trampled in the Christmas rush…

The only sticking point is the distinctly high-end price for their supposedly mid-range handset, €429 (£358) on their online Nokia store. Let’s hope the networks can subsidise that a little for our yuletide-bruised pockets in the new year…

Thursday, November 27th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile Phone Handset News | No Comments »
27
Nov

LG KB770: Digital TV Goes Mobile

By Ernest Doku

The latest handset from LG Europe is the KB770, a superb touchscreen phone with a 3″ WQVGA display, 3 megapixel autofocus camera and microSD card support.

The impressive part is that the KB770 has DVB-T support, allowing it to show digital programmes on the move! The only downside is that it does require extending an embarrassingly uncool aerial from the phone’s body…

The LG KB770 is available now in Germany and France, with the rest of Europe to follow in December. Except the UK still cannot receive these DVB-T signals, so that functionality is pretty much useless at the moment, much like in the Nokia N96.

So a UK release may still be some ways off, hopefully our digital switchover will include support for mobile phones!

Funny point made in the GSMArena forums, the KB770 has a TV-out port, so technically you could hook it up to your TV…and watch TV.

Thursday, November 27th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile Phone Handset News | No Comments »