Mobile Phone News

Google Adds Voice Search and Location on BlackBerry

By Suzanne MorrowcloseAuthor: Suzanne Morrow Name: Suzanne Morrow
Email: suzannemorrow83@googlemail.com
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Google announced today that they’ll be adding two new features to their Google Mobile Application on all BlackBerry phones.

The first feature, Search By Voice, searches online for you and returns the results to your phone. All you need to do is hold down the green call button and speak into the handset.

Google have already made the software compatible with British English so it’ll be able to second guess colloquialisms and all those weird British accents, in theory anyway.

You can download the app from Google by pointing your web browser to http://m.google.com.

iPhone 3G one step closer to launching in China

By Suzanne MorrowcloseAuthor: Suzanne Morrow Name: Suzanne Morrow
Email: suzannemorrow83@googlemail.com
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The 3G iPhone took a step closer to being launched into the Chinese market today, Chinatechnews.com reported.

The development could see the world’s best selling smartphone move into the world’s biggest market as early as May 2009. Ovum, a British consultancy firm, have been quoted as saying that China Unicom, the nationwide GSM and CDMA mobile provider, and Apple are close to finalising the move.

Rumours have been bouncing back and forth about this for a while. Even though China Mobile started early on with their Apple negotiations, the two sides failed to reach an agreement and at the beginning of the month China Unicom even reportedly sent a negotiating team to the US to make some headway on developments.

But if this latest update is true, and it seems to be, iPhone domination isn’t far off.

Serving Soldiers Get No Network Breaks

By Suzanne MorrowcloseAuthor: Suzanne Morrow Name: Suzanne Morrow
Email: suzannemorrow83@googlemail.com
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Don’t take out a contract with O2 and Virgin if you’re planning on going to Iraq or Afgahnistan in the near future.

The two networks have had a very public ear bashing for their policies of not offering serving military contract suspensions. They really, really don’t want to give away free phone bills to anyone, not even those serving their country.

Just about every other UK operator offers some sort of set up for serving soldiers.

• T-Mobile are the most progressive of all the UK networks; offering suspended contracts indefinitely with the production of proof of employment.

• 3 – offers suspended contracts for up to 12 months and they have the option of cancelling your contract and returning the handset if you have a longer posting.

• Orange will suspend the contract of anyone serving abroad for six months.

• Vodaphone are almost there – they’ll credit the account of a serving soldier upon returning back to home soil but nothing while they’re over there.

In a recent Register article O2 tried to defend their principle of not letting military personnel suspend or defer their mobile contracts for the time they’re on the front line. They said:

members of the armed forces wishing to discuss their O2 contract are advised to contact O2 customer services, and a customer services representative will be able to advise them on their options

So, you’re about to board that big plane to the front line, you wave your loved ones goodbye, you clasp your hand to your heart and proclaim, “Oh my dear O2, I never called”. Even if you were able to, cancelling your phone contract would be the last thing on your mind before you were flown off to the armpit of nowhere.

The US networks have face similar criticism for how they billed military. One stand out case involved a combat medic in Iraq and a Cingular Wireless International plan.

The only way the medic could call home from Iraq was via the Cingular Wireless network. While he way away, doing his bit for Uncle Sam, his wife got a bill for $1,000 in roaming charges he had inadvertently picked up while texting and calling from the combat zone.

The UK networks havn’t received such bad press as their US equivalents they’ve got some while to go yet.

Omio has Landed

By Suzanne MorrowcloseAuthor: Suzanne Morrow Name: Suzanne Morrow
Email: suzannemorrow83@googlemail.com
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CES 2009 has set up camp in sin city, Las Vegas and Omio have flown into town to get the lowdown.

Like the shameless hacks that we are we’ve quaffed all the free champers we could get our hands on, got our fill of massages and heart attack inducing all-you-an eat buffets and it’s all for you dear Omio readers.

Gordon Ramsay was on our flight – exciting stuff. We managed to sneak a photo of him as he waited for his lift out of LAX Airport. No word on what type of phone he had but, since we’re in Vegas, I’d put my money on him being a Blackberry Bold type of guy.

It’s not going to be all debauchery and gambling, over the five days as we’ll be blogging about all the cool gadgets and gizmos we’ve seen over here in the Bright Light City. To follow what’s going on check out the Omio Twitter page.

We’ll also be filming anything, (phone related) that takes our fancy, with live streaming to Qik.

Study finds iPhone to be Twice as Reliable as BlackBerry

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate's interest in mobile phones began when she realised she was supernaturally adept at Snake 2. She was less good at Battleships and, frankly, we shouldn't even mention Pipes.See Authors Posts (212)

A compelling study by a “mobile-phone warranty firm” has found that the Apple iPhone has half the failure rate of RIM’s BlackBerry in the first year of use. The SquareTrade study included more than 15,000 handsets covered by the company’s policy. The study found that iPhones have a failure rate of 5.6% compared to 11.9% for the BlackBerry handsets. Bottom of the class was Palm’s Treo, with 16.2% malfunctioning in the first year of use.

The weakest part of the iPhone proved to be the touchscreen, which accounted for a third of all reported issues. 12% of users reported accidental damage to the handsets in the first year of use, a problem attributed to the fact that iPhones are “slippy”. This is in stark contrast to the BlackBerry, which comes with hand grips and a strap to attach it to your winter jacket, not unlike a pair of mittens.

With Canalys announcing last week that Apple have overtaken RIM in the global smartphones sales stakes, it’s now only a matter of time before an iPhone is voted the next US President.

You can download the report as a PDF here

Source: CNET News

Sony Ericsson GreenHeart Concept Phone

By Peter RosscloseAuthor: Peter Ross Name: Peter Ross
Email: peter.ross@trafficbroker.co.uk
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Raised by wolves, in the darkest of woods, Pete eventually left the pack. He emerged into the world blinking and half-feral with one true dream: to write about mobile phones on the Omio blog.See Authors Posts (82)

As concept phones go, the Sony Ericsson GreenHeart isn’t out there in terms of design or functionality. However what makes the GreenHeart so special is that it’s ‘meant to be environmentally sustainable’. It’s made of bio plastic, the keyboards are recycled, it’s charger packs a mere 3.5mW.

If you are worried about the environmental impact of your mobile phone use, you won’t have to wait till the GreenHeart is released. Omio has launched a new page where you can sell your old mobile for recycling or resale.

Recycling an old phone saves vital resources and cutsdown the environmental cost of manufacturing new phones from scratch. Many old phones work perfectly fine but as they are out of date or no longer fashionable people discard them. If you sell your mobile to a company for resale, you can save the environmental cost of having to manufacture phones that are not really needed. Plus a lot of phones that are resold get sent to developing countries where new phones are prohibitively expense for the majority

You can get a quote instantly for your old mobile and they guarantee fast payment.These companies buy all phones, regardless of their condition. Some even take broken or damaged phones So if you want to be as responsible as Sony Ericsson and make a bit of cash in the process, you should definitely think about trading in your old phone.

Source: Ubergizmo

Tom Waits iPhone is Big in Japan

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate's interest in mobile phones began when she realised she was supernaturally adept at Snake 2. She was less good at Battleships and, frankly, we shouldn't even mention Pipes.See Authors Posts (212)

The iPhone has been surprisingly popular in Japan despite the fact that many other mobile phones have all the features the iPhone lacks, and then some. Japan is ridiculously far ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to mobile technology. They were using 3G networks when most of us were still trying to figure out predictive text. Their phones can scan barcodes, pay for things in shops and at vending machines and use the mind-screwingly complex system of “emoji” for messaging.

One reason why the iPhone has succeeded is that Japanese phones are built around the i-mode system, which is a stripped down version of the “real” Internet we all know and love. The good thing about the i-mode system is that it’s speedy and easily transmitted over mobile networks. The bad thing is that isn’t the “real” Internet we all know and love. The iPhone isn’t tied to any carrier’s specifications (Apple definitely wears the trousers in its relationships with third parties) so Apple was free to develop an innovative interface. Tsuyoshi Natsuno, former head of the i-mode division at DoCoMo, said that he, “Believe[s] the iPhone is closer to the mobile phone of the future, compared with the latest Japanese mobile phones.”

Will the iPhone will encourage Japanese handset manufacturers to up their game? Will Apple respond to Japanese consumers’ clamour for more iPhone features? Tune in next week for another exciting episode of Rhetorical Questions From Space.

Source: Arstechnica

Will the US get Google’s Android Phone in September?

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate's interest in mobile phones began when she realised she was supernaturally adept at Snake 2. She was less good at Battleships and, frankly, we shouldn't even mention Pipes.See Authors Posts (212)

TMONews is reporting that T-Mobile USA could put the new HTC Android phone on sale for select customers as early as the 17th of September. Apparently they’ve heard this from a very reliable source, but the news contradicts other rumours that Android phones could be delayed into 2009. In this crazy world of unconfirmed internet rumours, who can we trust?

The phone will cost $399 at full retail price or around $150 for a subsidised phone on a two-year contract. Only existing T-Mobile customers will be able to buy the handset during the presale timescale. Other customers will have to wait a few weeks until the start of October to get their hands on one.

The best part of the source article is CNET’s claim that Sprint Nextel have lost 901,000 subscribers but still managed to retain 51.9 subscribers. I think they might be rounding up.

Source: CNET News

You can see the latest video of the HTC Android phone here

Sony Ericsson’s Latest Concept Handset

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate's interest in mobile phones began when she realised she was supernaturally adept at Snake 2. She was less good at Battleships and, frankly, we shouldn't even mention Pipes.See Authors Posts (212)

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve beaten a wall with my fists/face whilst shouting, “WHY?! Why won’t you make this beautiful concept phone a reality?!” Why do I have to look at things like this (no offence, Nokia 1650) when designers are creating things like this?:

That’s Ammunition’s concept handset for Samsung. They’re the company who are rumoured to be designing the Gphone.

Sony Ericsson have just released this image of their concept Walkman handset, called the W1000. It has a full HD OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) touchscreen display, 16GB of memory, 5-megapixel camera, 3.5mm jack and Walkman v.4. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: make me this phone, bitches.

Source: Toys and Gadgets

The Worst iPhone App?

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate's interest in mobile phones began when she realised she was supernaturally adept at Snake 2. She was less good at Battleships and, frankly, we shouldn't even mention Pipes.See Authors Posts (212)

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