Omio News Blog

Proporta x Barbour Accessories Bring Sartorial Style To Smartphones, Tablets

Stately fashion house Barbour have lent their iconic tailoring chops to accessory maker Proporta, combining to create a slick line of cases, shells and folios for a selection of smart devices.

A range of hardy covers from the British manufacturer are infused by Barbour’s trademark textiles and quilting, combining to offer a fine finish to top-end gadgets including the Samsung Galaxy S4, iPhone 5, as well as both the mini and maxi iPads.

The way Proporta’s Lynette Prigmore tells it, the high-end hook-up was down to when they made the first move:

“It was [us] who initially approached Barbour, but coincidentally it had already been in their thoughts of future product offering, so it was a very mutual discussion point…there is an obvious synergy between the protective materials that Barbour is so well known for and the type of accessory a consumer wishes to use in order to protect their smartphone or tablet.”

Currently available online directly from Proporta, but with a view to occupying the upmarket shelves of John Lewis as well as Barbour’s own flagship stores ‘soon’, it’s open season on giving your phone the Royal Seal (well, the Royal Warrant) of approval.

BBC Launches Mobile News App

Who says the licence fee doesn’t deliver? Today sees the launch of the BBC News app, initially on the Apple iPhone and iPad, with versions for other platforms due later in the year.

In a blog post the Beeb’s app director, David Madden, outlined the functionality that users can expect from the new apps which aim to put the latest news from BBC journos into the palm of your hand.

The app includes the BBC’s top Stories, UK & International news, Business, Politics, Health, Education, Science and Environment, Technology and Entertainment stories as well as Features and Analysis from correspondents around the world.

Scroll sideways through each news category and move up/down to access more content. Pulling down on the interface allows you to refresh the stories. A neat personalisation feature then lets you re-order the categories to your preference.

The app also has a latest news banner to keep you up to date with breaking headlines and the BBC News Channel streams live to your phone to keep up with the latest news items.

Of course there’s the usual array of sharing functionality, so that you can pass on anything that interests you to friends on social networks such as Facebook or Twitter, or even just via email.

Finally landscape view gives you a handy way to skim through headlines without drilling down into the actual article.

iPad users will be pleased to hear that the iPhone app has been replicated for their tablet-based enjoyment. Click here to see the Beeb’s video demo of the BBC News iPad app.

Users of other platforms might be feeling left out after all that, but the Beeb assures us that versions for Android and Blackberry will follow later this year.

In the meantime, we’ll take this opportunity to remind you that a while ago the BBC developed a series of launcher apps to give you quick access to the BBC News BBC Sport and BBC Mobile websites on Blackberry series 4.3 and above phone.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/bbapps/

Crackberry addicts might do well to check those out while you wait for the new app. Additionally, if you own a BB Bold 2 (9700) or a Storm 2, then you can download a short cut app for BBC iPlayer from that page as well.

Colourway Lets You Customize Your iPhone 4

Fans of personalised chattels can rejoice as Colorware the company who specialise in user-created colourways for gadgets have now added suport for the iPhone 4 on their services.

The service works pretty much like Nike ID does, but with gadgets, so you pick colours, send in your handset and prepare to shell out a couple hundred dollars. Customisation of your iPhone 4 will set you back $250 and for that you get to decide the colour of the phone’s frame, back, button, SIM card tray and even earbuds.

$250? Some people must be carrying on like there’s no recession! Nevermind, customising one’s stuff has never been too cheap and $250 is just the starting point: if you want to specify a particular colour, then simply enter the Pantone PMS number and expect to pay even more.

Intrigued as to how the service works? See below for the video from Colourwar themselves:

Via IntoMobile.com

Road SMS – Text While You Walk

Too busy to stop while texting? Road SMS is an Android app available form the Samsung App store that lets you peer through your smartphone whilst tapping out a message.The app uses the phone’s camera to project and image of what lies ahead and renders it across the background of your keypad whilst you tap away.

Earlier this year we saw a text to walk app for Android, Blackberry, iPhone and Symbian with a teeny tiny window to help you see where to tread. Road SMS is a vast improvement on this, however, and the size of the image makes the app infinitely more practical.

Samsung Galaxy S users are pleased to find that the app comes as standard with the spectacular new smartphone and coupled with it’s huge 4″ Super AMOLED display, works extremely well.

Still, this app might do well to come with a health warning and we wouldn’t recommend crossing the road whilst texting in any event. Perhaps “Pavement SMS” would have been a better name?

Source: ilikecool.com

Free iPhone 4 Case Giveaway

Everyone was so hyped about the iPhone 4 coming, but when it turned out that Apple’s new handset lost signal when held a certain way, we couldn’t help but be a little bit disappointed.

So while Apple take their time to come up with a solution for the iPhone 4′s tricky aerial problem, retailer Mobile Fun are offering a free iPhone 4 case which helps cure the signal loss problem.

The cost to you? Absolutely free! Well, almost… all you have to do is pay for delivery (£2.50), but it’s a pretty decent offer we’re sure you’ll agree.

How to get your free iPhone 4 case:

1. Add the Mobile Fun iPhone 4 case to your basket.

2. Enter the Promo Code DEATHGRIP

3. Proceed to checkout and make payment for delivery.

It’s that simple!

To get your iPhone 4 case visit Mobile Fun.

Orange Giving Away Adaptors with iPhone 4 Micro-Sims

Orange will be giving out SIM adaptors with the new iPhone 4 Micro-Sims, solving the conundrum for serial phone-switchers who were keen to buy an iPhone 4, but worried that they might not be able to switch back to their old handset.

Affordable Mobiles Offer Free England Supporters Kit With Every Purchase

Affordable Mobiles, one of the many retailers who we compare deals from, has just started offering deals from Vodafone. To celebrate the fact Affordable Mobiles are offering free England supporter packs with every deal purchased through their site.

With England’s huge game just one day away, people up and down the country are showing their support for our boys as they face up to the mighty Algeria (and we’re not kidding, Zidane is Algerian, remember!). Have you got the right kit though?

The pack contains a T-Shirt, glasses, hat, horn, mug, flag, key rings, wrist bands and car flag. With all that you could look like this patriotic fellow seen below. Admittedly, the pack doesn’t include a vuvuzela, but that’s no bad thing, let’s face it.

Visit Affordable Mobiles

World Cup Special: Free TV Mobile Phone Deals!

With less than 8 weeks remaining before the 2010 FIFA World Cup kicks off in South Africa, sports fans the world over will be looking forward to a glut of top-class football action. But are you sure that your TV is up to scratch? Will you even be able to get all your mates around it at once? Maybe it’s time you updated from that old cathod etube model you inherited from your parents!

In recent months, retailers have been giving away more and more amazing free gifts to help clinch your custom. So, a mobile phone deal that bundles a free TV might be just the ticket to getting your World Cup summer off to the start that you need!

We put a list together of the top 5 mobile phone deals that included large, flat screen TVs – killing two bird with one stone never looked so amazing!

World Cup Deal 1:

Samsung Omnia 2 i8000 + FREE LG 32” LCD TV

500 mins / Unlimited texts / Unlimited Internet

£30 per month on a  24 month contract.

- – - – -

World Cup Deal 2

Free Nokia 2730 Classic (Silver)

+ Free Toshiba Regza 32” TV + £30 Cash!

600 mins / 500 Texts  / Unlimited Internet

£25 per month on a 24 month contract.

- – - – -

World Cup Deal 3

Sony Ericsson T715 (Silver) – £139.99

500 mins / 500 texts /

£20 per month / 24 months

Toshiba Regza 32” TV + £30 Cash

- – - – -

World Cup Deal 4

Similar to Deal 3 – a Silver Sony Ericsson T715 but with a 32” HD LCD TV worth £379.99

500 mins / 500 mins / Unlimited Internet

The package also includes Free Skype to Skype Calls / Unlimited 3 – 3 calls / Free Windows Live Messenger

£20 per month for 24 months

- – - – -

World Cup Deal 5

INQ Chat 3G (Black) – £99.99

+ 26” HD Ready TV

500 Mins / 500 Texts / Unlimited Internet / Free Skype TO Skype Calls / Unlimited 3 – 3 calls / Free Windows Live Messenger

£20 monthly for 24 months.

YourPebbles Universal Cradles Are Colourful, Versatile, Awesome

They might not look like much, but these rather odd-looking blobs are a state-of-the-art versatile storage solution.

YouPebbles can be stacked for to elevating devices such as laptops, or netbooks or flipped over for storing small objects – anything from change to paperclips, keys to flash drives.

The quirky inventions are made of platinum silicon and are heat-resistant, so they won’t degrade when used with a hot laptop – perfect then for jacking up your computer and letting some much needed airflow get in there. For smartphones too they make excellent desk props and can be stacked to the desired height and angle(see picture).

Right now these are only available in Korea, but hopefully at some point they’ll be available in the UK. We’ll let you know just as soon as they are!

[Via Geeky Gadgets.com]

Babel Rising For iPhone – Free Today Only

To celebrate the latest update to the game, developer Bullypix is offering Babel Rising free, for today only. So if you fancy taking your seat in the heavens and distributing some of your divine powers, check out Babel Rising.

Stopping humans from building the tower with the use of six powers is the aim of the game. Lightning, cyclone, earthquake, fire and brimstone and more. Combinations of wrath equals even more devastation  each can be combined for added devastation.

In the latest update, two new modes can be purchased. Campaign Mode sees you stopping humans building towers all over the country, and Fury Mode is a faster and more violent variant of the usual game.

Additional features in this latest version include being able to listen to your own music during gameplay, plus rankings are now compared with friends on Facebook and Twitter via OpenFeint.

Get Babel Rising for your iPhone from the App Store.