Apple are offering a new way to get your hands on the iPhone, selling Pay As You Go deals on unlocked handsets directly from the UK online store – but only until May 9th.
Deals on the Apple Store seem to be available across the 3GS, iPhone 4 and 4S on three of the UK’s leading mobile networks – Vodafone, Three and O2 – with them offering an unlocked handset and bundling your choice of 30-day SIM card pre-loaded with minutes, texts and data, making it ready for calling and Facepoking right out of the box.
Each network is offering a slightly different prepay deal:
Three – 300 minutes, 3000 texts, unlimited data – £15
Vodafone – 300 minutes, 3000 texts, 500MB data – £20
It’s also interesting to note that O2′s offer is not available on the ageing iPhone 3GS.
With prepay iPhones usually locked when purchased from providers, getting it straight from the Apple Store would be the best way to grab a handset, not stress about a credit check and still be free to use any network.
Obviously, the option to go it alone with a SIM-free deal is also available.
The prices are pretty much on a parity – with an iPhone 4S 16GB at £499, for example – then sticking a prepay top-up onto the cost.
Whilst the Apple Store prepay offer is a time-limited trial for a couple of weeks, it will be interesting to see if many consumers opt for an all-in-one solution over the popular pay monthly method…buying your iPhone up front is indeed the cheapest way to do it if you do the maths…
It could be that an end is in sight to the ongoing ugly legal fight between Apple and Samsung, a messy high profile battle that is part of the a wider ‘patent wars’ in the tech industry. The tech world has resembled something like pub brawl at kicking out time of late, with patent rights being bought and sold as weapons for the courtrooms. The Apple vs Samsung match up even saw Samsung’s flagship Galaxy Tab banned for a while in Europe after accusations of similarities with the iPad, and influenced a hardware re-design to the American version of the Samsung Galaxy S2.
Now Samsung and Apple representatives have been ordered to the office of Judge Joseph C Spero, who will no doubt to sit them down and give them a jolly good piece of his mind. Both Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung CEO will be attending, probably both looking at the floor, shuffling their feet nervously.
Twitter have even waved a white flag, calling for a patent truce and telling everyone to ‘just get along’. The Innovators Patent Agreement is a call for a non aggression pact, that would effectively mean that patents could only be invoked legally for defensive purposes.
But why the beef? Despite the bitter slug fest in the courts, Apple and Samsung do a remarkable amount of business together. Samsung not only provide the New Ipad’s high resolution ‘Retina Display’ but also the custom A4 and A5 microprocessors in the iPhone 4S and iPad. Most see this as being more to do with Steve Job’s vow to destroy Google’s Android mobile operating system.
Google and Apple used to be quite pally, but Google’s entry into the mobile market was seen as an arch betrayal by Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who had simultaneously sat on the Apple board of directors as Android was being developed in secret. Jobs afterwards vowed he was ‘willing to go thermonuclear war’ in order to sink Android, and his company since targeted high profile Android devices, such as Samsung’s also exceptionally popular handsets and tablets.
The court meeting, to be held within the next 90 days, should give us an idea about how much this vendetta lives on in the Post-Jobs Apple organisation, and hopefully draw to a close a messy chapter in the patent wars.
U.S. mobile networks Sprint and AT&T have garnered some real star power to convince folks of the virtues of Siri, getting Samuel L. Jackson and Zooey Deschanel to demonstrate the voice-activated service in an amusing pair of Apple iPhone 4S adverts.
With Samuel ready to rock screens as Nick Fury in the forthcoming Avengers movie and Zooey wowing with quirky charm in hit TV show ‘New Girl’, Apple giving the green light to having big names front and centre seems a bit of a change of tack…
It’s been some year in the world of mobile. And whilst looking forward is what us tech watchers and gadget fanatics love doing more than anyone, it seems the right time to take stock and reflect on what’s happened on planet mobile in the last 12 months…specifically, the five best phones to hit the shelves in 2011.
Here’s our pick of the bunch.
1. Apple iPhone 4S
A controversial inclusion? Maybe. But the iPhone 4S is still one of the best phones that money can buy, even if it did leave Apple fans cold when it was first announced. Look beyond the phone’s year-old design (which is still head and shoulders above the competition), and this is a phone crammed with the best modern mobiles can offer. Full HD camcorder, stunning 8 megapixel camera, Siri voice recognition and access to countless stunning apps. Apple might have big plans for the iPhone 5, but the Apple iPhone 4S is a mighty impressive iterative update.
2. Nokia Lumia 800
Nokia’s had yet another tough year. Yet having started it with boardroom upheaval, it ended 2011 releasing its best smartphone ever and its first to use Windows Phone. TheNokia Lumia 800 is a glorious piece of engineering, with an operating system that remains vastly underrated and sadly lacking in a vast app ecosystem. But with Nokia Drive and Mix Radio, this is a device that’s well worth investing in. A welcome return to form.
3. Samsung Galaxy Nexus
The best Android phone ever? Possibly. Samsung’s latest ‘pure Google’ device is the most cutting edge smartphone out there, using Android Ice Cream Sandwich in conjunction with the kind of tech that rival handsets can only dream of. NFC, Full HD video and a gorgeous 4.65-inch super AMOLED screen make the Samsung Galaxy Nexus an all round winner. 2011’s finest Google phone, no question. Except…
4. Samsung Galaxy S II
TheSamsung Galaxy S II runs its stablemate a close second. While not using the latest Android OS, it can be forgiven seeing as it landed months beforehand. This device really saw Sammy move into the big leagues and prove that Android has helped put it well ahead of the pack. The phone has become the choice, not just of Android fanatics, but also mainstream phone users not keen on Apple’s “walled garden”. A great piece of kit.
5. HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio
It’s been a hard year for HTC. After an all-conquering start, its spluttered to a halt, with profit warnings and falling sales. But the HTC Sensation XE is one of its finest ever phones. A rebrand of the Sensation, it uses Beats Audio tech to make it the most musically-focused phone ever. That means improved audio tech under the hood, as well as bundled iBeats headphones, which are better than any other buds we’ve ever used out of the box with a mobile. One for music lovers everywhere.
A casually clad CEO, a hand-picked captive audience and lengthy self-congratulations before showing off a few new devices…yesterday’s announcement certainly captured some of the essence of an epic Apple reveal, but the new Apple iPhone 4S has truly divided early opinion.
The Apple iPhone 4S (due on the 14th of October) is not the iPhone 5, but once again Apple never acknowledged the maelstrom of rumours that always surrounds their gadget launches, and the blogosphere simply whipped itself into a frenzy of hype…one that perhaps the Cupertino company could never have lived up to.
Extremely high levels secrecy and a desire to control every aspect of the unveiling has only seen intrepid bloggers and journalists become more creative in an effort to leak the year’s biggest tech story…
First things first, the iPhone 4S is a dramatically different smartphone underneath the overly familiar shell, updates include a new A5 dual-core processor (currently starring in the Apple iPad 2), a camera sporting an 8-megapixel lens – also with the ability to film video in 1080p – and an ‘intelligent assistant’ in the form of voice-driven application Siri, all making for an improved handset in the arena that it current shines brightest – user features and functions.
The fact that it looks near identical is unavoidable. Placing the handsets side-by-side makes the 4S a tough sell over its precursor at face value, as does the incremental naming change – seemingly a bunny-hop rather than the hardware leap between the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4, and at a standstill in aesthetic terms.
The marvel is what they’ve managed to contain in the same package. An improved battery life, touting 8 hours of 3G talktime and 40 as a mobile music player. The ability to download data at 4G speeds (as long as the network supports it) is another string in its next-gen bow.
An all-new pair of antennas (hopefully less error-prone!) enables the iPhone 4S to act as a ‘world phone’, operating on both GSM and CDMA networks – perhaps a bullet-point more for those on the other side of the pond, but still impressive.
Feature fiends may claim that many of these specifications have already debuted on Android handsets from the likes of HTC and Samsung, also touting larger displays and more affordable price-points – an incredibly valid point.
However, even though the Nokia N95 won the tale of the tape against the original Apple iPhone, we all know how that story turned out…and it’s important to note that the iPhone 3GS hasn’t quite been put out to pasture just yet, enabling some real mid-range options for price-conscious shoppers.
Consumers are all about the user experience, and the iPhone 4S continues the intuitive touchscreen experience Apple’s devices have become famous for, replete with flourishes of the new iOS 5 software (due to arrive on iThings from the 3GS upward on the 12th of October).
iOS 5 upgrades include a notification centre which is home to the latest events on your device (shades of Android…), free texts to iPod, iPad and other iPhone users with iMessage (more than a little of the BlackBerry Messenger in there) and the ability to finally sever the iPhone’s constant need to connect to a computer with wireless updates as well as data storage on the new web-based iCloud service.
Perhaps some of these ideas were cribbed from the competition, but the enduring march of the Android phones helped Apple realise the iPhone was far from operating in a vacuum, and needed to step up in a few key areas, which they have done.
Much time during the announcement was spent explaining the improvements in image fidelity from the camera’s new 8-megapixel lens, as well as the graphical grunt and ’7x’ improved gaming experiences that the A5 chip will deliver, proving to many that hardware steps had indeed been taken.
Needless to say, Gears of War developer Epic’s Infinity Blade II more than served its purpose as technical showcase, much as the original title did for the iPhone 4 (had to chuckle at the ‘RIP battery life’ comment on YouTube though!).
This portion seemed to serve as Apple’s most overt rebuttal, which smacked of ‘we know the 4S doesn’t look different, but trust us that there’s a lot more going on here’.
As for what the world has in store with voice-driven mobile marvel Siri…well, I went into a bit of detail on that exciting bit of tech on the uSwitch Tech site, alongside constantly pressing F5 in an eternal quest for Apple iPhone 4S deals.
As stale as the ‘evolution, not revolution’ line might be – aside from the gear change from the 3GS to 4 – that seems to have been the mantra that Apple has stuck to for the iPhone since the original device back in 2007.
So maybe we shouldn’t be too disappointed with another ‘S’ model…and Siri truly has the potential to change the way we use all technology, not just mobiles. Check it out.
Pretty conclusive proof that the tablet business – more specifically, the AppleiPad business – is here to stay with recent stats announced by NetMarketShare, as the device apparently claimed 1% of all web browsing in the world this June.
Climbing up to a whopping 2.1% when talking about US browsing numbers, the Apple iPad has undoubtedly become a fixture in people’s general surfing habits.
Taking mobile and tablet numbers together, portable browsing reached a pretty substantial 5% worldwide (8.2% in the United States) as of last month.
With word that the iPad 2 hasfinally been jailbroken, in the last couple of days, it may well open the floodgates for iOS fans to freely fill their boots with their favourite devices!
In related – if slightly obvious news – YouGov’s TabletTrack survey has shown that the competition in the tablet market is deemed too pricey in the face of the iPad, and that a massive 77% of the 3,000-odd gadget fans surveyed are looking to purchase an Apple-flavoured tablet.
Looks like both the new category of device in tablets, as well as the banner-waving iPad will be around for some time to come…
The BlackBerry Playbook tablet launched amid loads of media-friendly pizazz at Selfridge’s earlier this month, and despite being a device that essentially requires tethering to a Blackberry handset to tether to in order to do most interesting things, they still saw fit to push a pretty aggressive ad campaign in the UK:
This is not a good way to market a new tablet device, just let me count the ways:
1) Many normal people neither know nor care about Flash support.
“What? That thing that my PC keeps telling me to install, and I ignore? Yeah, I don’t want Flash.” That was my girlfriend’s reaction when I tried to explain what Flash was, after first witnessing this advert on TV.
Guess what? Those photogenic, aspirational, under-25, skateboarding, DJing, parkouring and breakdancing BlackBerry customers you’ve been trying so hard to target (including by sponsoring the Black Eyed Peas on tour)? They have little time to fret over what Flash is, nor do they care about this in the slightest.
The Flash argument is one generated and propagated mainly by super techie folks and BlackBerry fanboys, so preaching to the converted with your ad by bigging up Flash is not the greatest way to spread the word about a new device…if people can check their mail, go on Facebook and maybe play an app or 100,000, they’re golden.
Show off that Quake demo if you really want to get some geek juice flowing!
Don’t try and blind me with animation from slow-loading sites that will likely rinse my mobile bill to view over 3G anyway…checked out Heavy.com lately? Us neither.
2) Smacks of trying too hard to compete with the Apple iPad.
“Unlike some tablets we could mention…” You just did.
Why not try and promote the Playbook in isolation? Don’t tell me in your ads why I don’t want an iPad, now I’m just thinking about an iPad!
The Apple iPad 2 doesn’t try to compete with you. It doesn’t compete with anything. Check it:
Apple adverts are brilliant in their execution by suggesting that an iPad is becoming an essential device.
Doctors use it to check out sonograms now. Businessmen show their revenue projections on it now. Kids do their homework on it now. If you don’t have one, you are using outmoded technology…apparently.
Remember the ‘Retina Display’ with the iPhone 4? Thanks to Apple, now everyone does. A technical term referring to the screen’s resolution, wrapped beautifully in common PR lingo, and is now becoming common parlance.
Okay, they also chatted about ‘oleophobic coatings‘ with that one and the iPhone 3GS, but my mobile gets just as greased up as any other…
The point is that they’ve laid all the groundwork! Apple spent ages, and also billions of dollars, convincing the world that these flat slabs – iPad included – were better in some ways than our phones and netbooks, and had the potential to change the portable gadget landscape forever.
So what does BlackBerry do? Iterate on the strengths of the iPad and advertise the Playbook’s myriad advancements as such? Nope.
“Ours is better than that one! We got Flash!” (*slide trombone* *tapdances on stage* *sound of crickets*)
The specs arms race is all but finished in terms of consumer-facing marketing, the iPhone’s camera should have told you that (“Megapixels? Don’t care. Does it work? Awesome.”).
Unless it’s a feature that can impress both friends and family at the local watering hole (Dual-Core anyone? No? Okay…), then don’t try to make it a bullet-point for the box.
Hate to harp on, but to make Flash not just a bullet-point but the only point in your opening salvo on UK audiences was wide of the mark. Dazzle with true pluses, not attempts at point scoring.
3) That song.
How much that Queen song set you back for clearance? Whoo, that much?
Kind of like the double meaning, the BlackBerry Playbook is the saviour of the tablet scene…with Flash.
But you do know it’s 30 years old, right? Anyone with any kind of nostalgic attachment to Flash’s Theme is on their second or third job now, not the trendy bike courier or rollerskating masseuse you’ve been trying to attract with your devices all this time…kind of a mixed message.
It seems to be a reference that would easily sail over the heads of kids that RIM wants to be way into BlackBerry now, reaffirming this tablet’s – and the firm’s – grown-up leanings they just can’t shake.
The comments upon the PlayBook’s launch regarding it ‘lacking the cool factor’ seem to be almost endorsed by this anachronistic choice of song in the advert…simply not suited to the hip Diplo, Henry Holland and Ernest Doku-endorsed BlackBerry line we’ve witnessed for the past few years.
The PlayBook needs to have a distinct voice in the tablet space, and also needs to promote what it actually can and can’t do in and of itself, rather than playing a petty game of one upmanship against the iPad with the aid of circa 1981 Freddie Mercury and his cohorts.
Apple’s iOS 5 update to their iPhone operating system has been launched at their developers conference, with Twitter integration, iMessage, notification center, newsstand, iCloud and arrives later on this year.
Twitter is now built in to the platform and directly into the Photos, Camera, Safari, YouTube and Maps apps. iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices running iOS 5 can tweet straight from these twitter enabled pieces of software.
The iCloud is an internet service from Apple with 5GB of storage space that seamlessly and automatically keeps all of the mail, contacts, calendars, photos, apps, books, music up-to-date across devices without ever having to connect to a computer.
Apple’s new iMessage is set to rival BlackBerrry messenger, with a single app that allows sending of text messages, photos and videos between iOS run devices.
There is also a new notification center, which offers a much easier way to view and manage notifications in one place without any interruption – amongst 200 new features appearing in iOS 5.
Missing from Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference this year was a new iPhone, as for the past four years there has always been a new model brought to the event.
I know it’s easy to file under ‘obvious,’ but some stats about iPad owner predilections recently revealed by the Association of Publishing Agencies tell us some interesting things about Apple tablet fans…
The study found that 73% of those surveyed would rather opt for a free app plastered with logos than a pricey one sans branding, whilst 61% of the 952 iPad wielders also had an iPhone and 39% had a MacBook. Think that says more about the mentality of Apple cultists users rather than their preference for branded apps…
So, are people actually willing to pay for stuff when it comes to mobile content? Try telling that to Rupert Murdoch…
Apple’s updated tablet costs have officially been converted to pounds sterling, with prices starting from £399 for the 16GB WIFI only iPad 2.
The iPad 2 comes with a new design that is 33 per cent thinner and up to 15 per cent lighter than the original iPad, with the same 9.7-inch LED-backlit LCD screen that runs from a new dual-core A5 processor with two cameras – a front-facing VGA camera for FaceTime, along with a rear-facing camera that captures 720p HD video.
Apple turfed out the USA costs of the iPad 2 when they announced the new tablet on March 2nd. These are $499, $599 and $699 for the 16, 32 and 64GB WIFI only models. The 3G and WIFI version came in at $629, $729 and $829 – all for the same capacities.
Apple’s iPad 2 in the UK costs £399, £479 and £559 for the 16, 32 and 64 WIFI only, with the 3G and WIFI models coming in at £499, £579 and £659.
Follow us:
