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…
Finally, members of the magenta network get to find out what the fuss is about with the iPhone, as registration and pricing have arrived for Apple’s iconic device on the T-Mobile UK site.
Offering the8GB iPhone 3GSas well as both the 16 and 32GB models of the iPhone 4, T-Mobile’s pricing is a little better than Orange’s on the whole, but stops short of Three’s text bounty and Tesco Mobile’s 12 month contracts.
An iPhone 3GS is free from £35 per month on a 24 month contract, whilst an iPhone 4 isn’t gratis until you hit a whopping £60 per month. With 3000 minutes and only 500 texts, as well as 1GB of data and the choice of a flexible booster (more info on those here), this tariff gets you a 16GB iPhone 4 whilst another £99 on top gets a 32GB model.
The £35 tariff is better value for money, with the iPhone 4 available for £189 or £269 respectively whilst the 3GS is free. With 600 minutes, 500 texts and 500MB of data in the deal, it is however between £40 and £70 more for the handset when compared with Orange.
A couple of tiers up from this is the £45 monthly tariff, with a whopping 1200 minutes and 500 texts (not forgetting a bump up to 750MB of data and that booster) and the iPhone 4 for either £59 or £159.
A full list of pricing is above, but the all important release date is yet to be confirmed. It should also be noted that all of the pay monthly deals are for 24 months, with no shorter contracts present.
Purchasing the iPhone on prepay is also an option on T-Mobile, with a far more straightforward pricing strategy to boot. An iPhone 3GS 8GB is £399, plus a compulsory tenner top-up, whilst the 16GB iPhone 4 is £499 before the £10 of credit is added on and the 32GB iPhone 4 is nowhere to be seen.
If the Apple Store is all sold out, then this is certainly an alternative method to get your hands on one…we suggest signing up to the T-Mobile site (or to ours) to know the moment that iPhone deals are available!
Last night Apple released their iOS 4 update, bringing over 100 new features to the iPhone 3G, 3GS and late-model iPod touch devices.
Whilst some changes are immediately apparent, here’s a run-down of a few new additions that this software upgrade gives to the world’s hottest handset.
Multi-tasking
The big one for iPhone critics and devotees alike, multitasking is finally here. Switching between applications and features of the iPhone is swift and seamless, as the device is now able to run multiple functions concurrently.
It has apparently taken this long to implement due to the concerns that multitasking places a huge strain on battery life, but Apple insists that this is not the case with iOS 4.
Now the need is for current applications to take advantage of this new update, with streaming solutions like Spotify to see a new lease of life by being able to run in the background.
Folders
In an effort to curb the sprawl of icons that most iPhone users’ home screens have become, iOS 4 enables folders to be created, allowing you to organise all of your apps in a far more appealing fashion. Folders also give plenty more space to place all of those impulse purchases than ever before, now with room for a whopping 2160 apps.
Unified Inbox
Access multiple e-mail accounts from a single location on your iPhone, thanks to iOS 4. No longer switching between inboxes to view new messages makes life a lot easier for those textaholics using their mobile as a mobile office.
Improved Camera – digital zoom, touch focus
One of the less well-known additions that iOS 4 has delivered is to the camera. Whilst you can’t up the megapixels with a software update, it brings a 5x digital zoom to the iPhone, as well as a quicker shutter speed and manual touch-to-focus functionality for video recording.
iBooks
Time to mothball that Kindle, Apple’s iBooks brings both an eBook reader (with support for PDF documents) and a digital book store to the iPhone, offering easy access to hundreds of magazines, tomes and periodicals.
Home screen wallpaper
It’s taken three years and four iterations, but finally Apple have allowed us a little bit of customisation to their beloved smartphone by giving an option to change the home screen background.
Spellchecker
iOS 4 has enhanced predictive text when writing messages and e-mails to offer a selection of words, rather than the single suggestion offered by the original.
Image tagging, custom playlists and the ability to ‘gift’ apps to other iDevice owners are some of the smaller changes brought by iOS 4, all coming together to give the iPhone a much needed shot in the arm.
Whilst the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 enjoy the benefits of iOS 4, we should also take a moment to mourn the original iPhone 2G which does not support this update, and the iPhone 3G, for whom multi-tasking is one step too far for the device.
How do I get iOS 4?
If you are thinking about getting an iPhone 3GS 8GB or iPhone 4, good news! Your device will be already by packing iOS 4, straight out of the box.
If you have an iPhone 2G (with the metal rear), or an older iPod touch, bad news! They aren’t supported by the new iOS 4 update.
All the rest of you:
1. Connect your device to your computer.
2. Fire up iTunes (ensuring you are on the latest version – 9.2) and click on the ‘check for update’ button once your device appears on the screen.
3. Whilst we suggest backing up your data before jumping in with iOS 4, the update denotes that all of the important stuff on your handset – including apps, contacts and messages – will be stored before bringing your iPhone up to date.
4. Be patient, but after around 45 minutes your iPhone will be enjoying the multi-tasking joys of iOS 4!
Do you love it, or do you miss the simpler joys of the original iPhone? Do let us know in the comments section below!
Vodafone has followed O2 and Orange in the procession of iPhone 4 pricing reveals, showing off what pay monthly consumers should expect to pay a week from today.
The network is also offering the three new flavours of iPhone – 16 and 32GB models of the iPhone 4 and a new, more affordable 8GB iPhone 3GS.
Handset pricing is a little more expensive than those leaked pages from a few days back, but are still pretty competitive against O2 and Orange offerings.
The iPhone 4 16GB is free on a £60 per month 24-month contract, whilst prices go from £29 for a handset on a £45 contract (with 900 minutes and unlimited texts), up to £219 on the cheapest £25 per month deal.
Interestingly, rather than raising the handset costs on 18-month deals, Vodafone tack on an extra fiver to the line rental, making a 16GB iPhone 4 free on a £65 per month deal whilst the cheapest contract steps up to £30 and a handset goes for the same price of £219.
The cheapest contract is a little lean on the minutes, however, with only 75 as opposed to 100 from O2 and the 150 minutes offered on Orange.
The iPhone 4 32GBis £59 on the 3000 minutes, unlimited texts deal for £65 per month, £139 on a £50 per month contract, and £309 on an 18-month £30 plan. Once again, 24-month deals drop the monthly cost by a fiver in each case, with the handset cost remaining the same.
The new iPhone 3GS 8GB takes the sting of handset cost out of any deal from £40 per month on an 18-month tariff, costing £119 on a £30 deal and £59 for £35 per month, with 300 minutes and unlimited texts.
One again, the 24-month deals see the monthly cost fall by a fiver, offering a free iPhone 3GS from £35 per month.
Pay as you go pricing has not been revealed at this point.
Extras include a 1GB data limit (more than both O2 and Orange with 500MB and 750MB respectively), 5MB of free European data roaming a day on deals over £40 per month (over £45 in the case of 18-month plans), and tethering packages of £5 for 500MB, 1.5GB for £10 and £15 for 3GB of data.
One offer missing from these is an appealing pre-order bonus of free Vodafone calls for the limetime of a contract, an extra that was present on the original leaked pricing page.
Was it just a placeholder, has Vodafone scrapped the offer, or does it mean that there won’t be any pre-orders ahead of the iPhone 4′s June 24th release?
We are currently waiting for more details from Vodafone regarding this, and will let you know what they have to say!
Whilst the world went mental with excitement over advancements like custom wallpapers and multitasking at Apple’s announcement of OS 4.0, one point that was duly noted was the absence of support for the original iPhone 2G.
Whilst Apple admitted that the plucky iPhone 3G and original iPod touch will not be up to the task of certain features like multitasking, the question of whether the original iPhone was to be taken round to the back of the barn was answered in a succinct fashion, in reply to an email from a customer named ‘Niko’:
Hey Steve!
Is Apple supporting/updating the iPhone 2G in the Future?
Cheers Niko
Sent from my iPhone
The reply came soon enough, directly from Jobs himself atop Mount Infinite Loop:
Sorry, no.
Sent from my iPhone
Well, it seems like the ride is finally over for the metallic-backed beauty, with Apple leaving it by the wayside as the 2010 model comes around the corner…call it a heavy incentive to upgrade. As Jobs stated at the OS 4.0 launch, “…there was no decision to make as far as multitasking. Some of the earlier hardware can’t support multitasking at all.”
We’re sure that the necessity to upgrade to the shiny new iPhone is a happy side effect of OS 4.0′s impending awesomeness…roll on Summer.
As journalists run out of steam across the land, it’s time for top 10 lists of everything!
Whilst we have stopped short of doing a top 10 list of the best top 10s from other sites (although it’s still top of our ‘ideas’ pile), we have rather decided to round up some of the best mobile phone tales from the last twelve months.
Some are funny, others heartwarming, but all are quite literally mobile phone related in some way, shape or form. Hold on for an exciting ride!
1. Nokia N97 mini leaked early…by Vodafone forum?!
We loves us some mobile phone leakage here on Omio, where grainy pictures of unannounced phones and whispers from anonymous tipsters get our hearts racing on a daily basis.
However, when the diminutive pseudo-sequel to the Nokia N97 was unwittingly revealed by a Vodafone Ireland forum moderator of all people, we were beside ourselves!
Loose-lipped ‘Ev from Vodafone’ claimed that the network was holding off on snapping up the N97, instead opting for the attractively priced Nokia N97 Mini…which was unannounced at the time. Uh-oh!
Not only that, but he also revealed that Vodafone was not getting the Palm Pre (which ended up an O2 exclusive), and the arrival of the equally nebulous (at the time) BlackBerry Storm 2. This was back in June, months before either handset had seen the light of day…
Overzealous official mouthpieces privy to sensitive information – more of them please!
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2. Palm Pre released in US and UK.
What many believed to be the first legitimate competition for the iPhone launched this year, with smart phone manufacturer Palm planning an ascension into the ranks with the sleek and sexy Pre, which went into stores this June.
Network spokesman Mark Elliott told The New York Times that neither Sprint nor Palm not only didn’t expect long lines for the Pre at its 1,100 stores, neither did they want them.
There may not have been queues round the block or tech geeks whipped into a frenzy by the Pre’s relatively muted launch, but critical acclaim was significant.
The Palm Pre sold steadily thanks to its appealing form factor, an intuitive user interface, and the addition of a full QWERTY keyboard offering the choice of touch and physical typing – one over the iPhone!
Arriving as an O2 exclusive in the UK might have done the curvaceous device as much harm and good, jostling for shelf space in the same shop that Apple’s iPhone was dominating made it a tough choice for consumers…
Still, it was a great phone, and a sign that iPhone’s lead was not unassailable. Sure, if you look at the facts then the Pre sold a mere 50,000 on it’s launch weekend against the 3GS’ one million plus – but what are you, the FBI?
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3. Google Phone becomes a reality.
Rumour has it that every time a mega-corporation does the exact opposite of what they state in official channels, a PR executive gets their wings.
With almost two years of constant chatter reinforcing the fact that Google would not be making a handset (given so many other manufacturers are on board with Android and are members of the Open Handset Alliance), the last thing we expected was a phone completely of their own.
Which they promptly went and did.
The Google Nexus One takes the Android name to a new level with a clever Blade Runner reference, tapping up HTC’s extensive mobile knowledge to build a handset that will showcase their operating system to its fullest.
Features are rumoured to include a super-fast processor, 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen display, 3D-graphics chip, Wi-Fi and a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash.
One thing is clear – this iPhone botherer means business.
What of the other companies that adopted Android to their bosom? A freshly resurrected Motorola will be shaken when Google gets into the hardware game, as they are staunch supporters relying on the Android technology for the DEXT and Droid/Milestone.
If Google’s Nexus One outspecs and undercuts offerings from phone manufacturers that were friends just five minutes ago, the Android landscape in 2010 might not be as lush and verdant for everyone as first thought…
Still, we’re waiting on Google for an official word (apparently a January launch is likely) and the Nexus One looks pretty awesome, so let battle commence!
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4. Apple iPhone 3GS.
Apparently a new iPhone came out at some point this year. July, we think. It was pretty good.
Apple have changed the mobile phone hardware, software and developer landscape forever with the iPhone, and the 3GS simply continues to stretch the lead.
With more powerful performance, an improved camera, video recording capabilities and voice control, Apple got away with simply tweaking brilliance rather than reinventing the wheel.
If you think apps are silly and pointless, you may be right. But this advert for some of the winter warmers in the App Store will make non-iPhone owners mistletoe green with envy.
2009 also marked the end of 18 months of O2 exclusivity enabling Orange, Vodafone and Tesco Mobile owners to get in on the iPhone action. Even more customers than ever will get their chance to bow down at the Altar of Apple come January…
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5. Nokia N900 changes the game.
This device almost slipped by us due to the choice of an entirely different operating system – Linux-based Maemo as opposed to the stalwart Symbian platform – as well as frequent protestations from Nokia that it was a computer rather than a mobile phone, which is (sort of) true.
Nevertheless, the Nokia N900 is the most exciting device to come out of Espoo for years.
Leaving S60 behind and opting for Maemo for their flagship phones makes the N900 a marked departure, finally offering a real contender to the swipe-happy mobiles other manufacturers have been wheeling out for some time.
The Nokia N900′s design credentials are far more in line with their internet tablet range, an solidly built slider with a 3-row QWERTY keyboard and little by way of flash and glamour…at least on the surface.
The mechanism is simple, and the 5-megapixel camera is almost identical in both feature and form to their current offering on the Nokia N97, but a lot of the N900′s grunt is below the surface…
The N900 bears all of the hallmarks of a Nokia device dragged willingly into the 21st Century with a cool minimalist interface, and awesome visual flourishes like overlaying current menu options whilst ‘frosting’ the screen behind.
Eschewing the shortcomings whilst evoking the spirit of S60, Maemo offers menu options in a structured fashion without the need for scrolling through a myriad of options, all selections are visible in a clear and concise fashion.
The ‘secret’ weapon in the N900′s armoury, however, is the Mozilla browser. For the those unfamiliar with the sub-category of internet tablets, the slickest mobile browsing experience they would have had is likely to be Safari on the iPhone. We certainly can’t knock it as the kinetic scrolling, the functionality and rendering speed on Apple’s device are all top notch.
This, however, is on another level. The size of the screen and speed of connectivity thanks to both Wi-Fi and HSDPA 3G means the Nokia N900 deals with this capably, but the full Flash 9.4 support and smooth scrolling on that native landscape display quickly reminds that you have never seen desktop-quality browsing on a mobile, until now.
If the Nokia N900 is any indication of the Finnish manufacturer’s intentions to recapture market share in 2010, we are on board.
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6. March of the Androids.
Android completed its transition from smart phone operating system to, well, any phone operating system this year, with a bevy of low-cost handsets that made the most of the online connectivity Google’s platform has to offer.
The HTC Tattoo went all old-school Nokia with changeable covers and extreme customisation, whilst the T-Mobile Pulse gave Android a once-over and came up with a novel user interface.
The Samsung Galaxy proved the Korean manufacturer was making its first tentative steps into the fray, whilst Motorola (see below) jumped in with both feet into Android’s open (source) waters.
With Sony Ericsson pinning their smartphone hopes on the XPERIA X10 next year, a host of new handsets from favourite son HTC and Google throwing their own hat into the ring with the Nexus One, it’s safe to say that Android has forced the competition to up their operating system game.
Thankfully they are doing, as Nokia promises a revamped Symbian interface and Samsung are showing off their new app-friendly ‘bada’ platform. As consumers expect more from their phones at every price point, manufacturers are being forced to meet those demands.
Arguably, it was Android’s availablility in the prepay sector and in the sub-£100 mobile phone category that has forced this.
Kudos to Google, but we are yet to see what their end-game is…sink Windows Mobile, perhaps?
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7. Hello again, Moto!
Just as we thought we’d seen the end of the American phone maker, Motorola bounces back with two great handsets powered by Google’s Android operating system.
Flying headlong into this new platform with great aplomb paid off handsomely as the Motorola Dext became part of the social networking zeitgeist, with the ability to tweet and update to your heart’s content, directly from the phone’s home screen.
The DROID (known to answer to ‘Milestone‘ in Europe, depending on who’s asking…) was the heavy hitter in Moto’s ’09 arsenal, a hulking monolith of black, gold and touchscreen testosterone.
Combined with a refreshingly aggressive anti-iPhone stance and the latest build of Google’s OS under the hood, the DROID turned heads, was well received by the press and sold pretty handsomely.
As an aside, check out the difference in adverts for the DROID in the US compared to those for our refined European sensibilities…
Whilst currently available SIM-free in the UK from eXpansys, we wait with baited breath to see what the carriers make of Moto’s phone with a cardiac muscle hewn from Fort Knox bullion…
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8. T-Mobile merges with Orange to create mobile network super group.
A few months on, and we still cannot fathom the enormity of the merger between T-Mobile and Orange.
With German firm Deutsche Telekom effectively offloading their UK arm to Orange’s owner France Telecom, this is set to create a carrier with almost 29 million customers and generating over £8 billion in sales.
This is a big deal.
Imagine Nintendo buying Sega (well, the old Sega), and you get some idea of the scale of what’s going on between the two corporations. Although, seeing Mario and Sonic on the same game box today still turns my stomach.
With changes remaining superficial at present, the ramifications of the shift will become apparent when the merger’s ‘efficiencies’ come into play…
More Orange stores popping up, price changes due to decreased competition – the UK mobile phone landscape is bound to change significantly as time goes on.
How it affects consumers currently residing on these networks remains to be seen.
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9. HTC Hero takes home the silverware.
Winner of Phone of the Year awards from both Mobile Choice and Pocket-Lint, Gadgetof the Year according to Stuff Magazine and an Editor’s Choice plaudit from CNET UK.
The HTC Hero took the Android operating system, buffed it up to a sheen, performing hardware miracles all the while.
Presenting itself as a customisable, connected and indie alternative to the white earbud brigade, the HTC Hero was the perfect handset to epitomise the iPhone backlash.
Distinctive without aping Apple’s operating system at every turn, fun and functional with both Microsoft Exchange and Twitter support, and with a host of applications to download from the Android Market, the Hero was the perfect antidote to the touchscreen ennui that was beginning to pervade the market.
Unique in terms of design too, the Hero managed to be cool, and build its own niche in HTC’s soon-to-be burgeoning range of successful handsets.
All eyes are now on the ‘HTC Bravo,’ a smartphone sequel rumoured for a Q2 2010 launch, said to continue the Hero’s Google alliance but married to the HD2′s expansive display and minimalist looks.
A recipe for a winner we say. Time to clear the mantlepiece for some ’10 awards, perhaps?
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10. Omio tariff comparison.
Had to sneak in some Omio product placement somewhere!
If you haven’t noticed, Omio now has tariff data for all 500,000 + deals, meaning if you’re looking for unlimited data, text deals or some decent cross-network minute offers, you’re now able to sort through and find them easier than ever before.
It’s small, but significant changes like these that make us the number one mobile phone comparison website!
Everyone expecting Vodafone to be throwing free iPhone 3Gs from the rooftops can calm down…
The fourth network to garner rights to sell the iPhone has just announced a release date, with Vodafone to start selling the handset from 14th January 2010, albeitat some pretty familiar prices.
The original iPhone 3G is available for free from £35 on a 24-month plan (and £40 on an 18 month deal), whilst the 16GB 3GS’ pricing is the usual affair of being free on a 24-month £45 tariff, and gratis if you shell out £50 on an 18 month offering.
12 month and pay-as-you-go iPhone deals are currently off the menu, but the side orders of 1GB of mobile internet, unlimited wi-fi and unlimited Vodafone-to-Vodafone calls are still pretty appetising. With Orange offering a fair usage limit of 750MB, Vodafone come off as almost generous.
Pre-orders are open now on the Vodafone site, and compare pretty favorably with deals currently available from Orange and O2. Check back on our iPhone deals page very soon to compare Apple offerings from all the big networks!
Perhaps the iPhone arriving on Tesco Mobile might finally throw the price point cat amongst the pigeons… Oh. It didn’t.
Can the DROID (as it is known in the US) back up its angular styling and Android pedigree by putting Motorola firmly back on the map, or will the Cupertino cutie claim another scalp with that gorgeous user interface and licence to print money that is the App Store?
Let’s find out!
The first category, and the MILESTONE compares surprisingly favourably to the svelte iPhone 3GS, despite sharp features and a black and gold finish that gives Motorola’s comeback caller a distinctly 80′s vibe.
A touch longer than the 3GS, the MILESTONE is narrower at only 60mm against the 62.1mm of the iPhone.
Given that it packs a 4-row full QWERTY keyboard, it’s miraculous that the MILESTONE only gives away 1.5mm in depth to the curvaceous rear of the latest iPhone.
A far closer round than predicted, the MILESTONE gets an honourable mention but Jonathon Ive certainly earned his money in designing a near perfect form in the iPhone, with the 3GS looking just as good as ever.
Winner: iPhone 3GS
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Weight:
Ah. Not so close here.
The Motorola MILESTONE might look good but it is carrying a lot of extra baggage, tipping the scales at a hefty 166g. The iPhone 3GS might have gained 2 grams over the 3G model, but is an entire 30 grams lighter than the boxy Google phone at 135g.
Whilst the iPhone attempted to erase the memory of the unwieldy smart phone with rounded edges and shiny metal, the MILESTONE drags us back into pocket-bursting PDA territory. The addition of the keyboard gives Motorola’s device the best of touch and physical type, but at the expense of a lot of additional weight.
Travelling light is definitely the way forward.
Winner: Apple iPhone 3GS
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Screen:
The additional height of the Android-toting MILESTONE pays off as it houses a glorious 3.7″ TFT capacitive touchscreen, displaying at a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels. This places the iPhone’s otherwise impressive 3.5″ effort into the shade, with the 3GS outputting a more modest 320 x 480 pixels.
This means that Android really shines on the MILESTONE, with text and web browsing looking rich and crisp, as well as videos giving a smoothnes, a level of clarity and an absence of blurring during faster scenes which we haven’t seen since, well, the iPhone!
Both may support multi-touch, but this doesn’t mean pinching to zoom with abandon as Android 2.0 doesn’t support it, however both do have auto-rotate for landscape use, and a proximity sensor to prevent accidental ear-dialling.
The MILESTONE manages to surpass the iPhone on one of its most alluring points, then throws in another input method – a full keyboard with 5 way navigation key to seal the deal.
A convincing win on some entrenched territory.
Winner: Motorola MILESTONE
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Camera:
The iPhone 3GS still suffers from Apple’s “well, it’s good enough” mentality, a 3.15 megapixel effort which is indeed good enough. Enhancements over earlier models include touch and auto-focusing, 30 frames per second video recording and a mini-editing suite.
Whilst these are additions which would hardly deserve mention on a mid-range handset, these graduate the iPhone’s previously disappointing camera into being useful. After dark is still a no-go, as a flash is still painfully absent.
The MILESTONE has a standard camera by smart phone standards – a 5 megapixel snapper with autofocus and dual-LED flash – still performing far beyond the iPhone’s workmanlike effort.
Without even mentioning the MILESTONE’s higher resolution D1 video recording, Motorola romps home on yet another category!
Winner: Motorola MILESTONE
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Battery:
All about the numbers here, and whilst Apple states 5 hours of 3G talktime and 300 of standby for the 3GS, the MILESTONE is talking a lengthy 6.5 hours talktime with 350 hours of standby. Both run on standard Lithium Ion affairs, but you don’t care, you just need to know that the MILESTONE seems to stick around longer than the iPhone.
The less said about battery-guzzling apps, the better…
Winner: Motorola MILESTONE
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Memory:
Whilst fixed to either 16GB or 32GB depending on the model of iPhone opted for, the Motorola MILESTONE comes with an 8GB card out of the gate, but with support for up to 32GB microSD cards. Removable memory offers the opportunity for swappable cards and tons more media-filled fun than the iPhone’s rather rigid effort.
Winner: Motorola MILESTONE
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Connectivity:
Both are linked up to the nines for connectivity, GPS, USB ports and Bluetooth come as standard, but the iPhone hits a stumbling block as the latter is only for headphone connection as opposed to the transfer of data between handsets.
Also, the 3GS is supposedly all about speed, and yet the 3G connectivity is slower than the MILESTONE’s 10.2 Mbps connection.
This is a little moot as just like home broadband speeds, mobile 3G connections never hit their zenith, but it is interesting to know that the MILESTONE has more potential than the 3GS…
Both devices have great browsers, but the lack of Flash support on both is conspicuous in its absence on the 3GS and the MILESTONE, but they both work around this pretty well.
The lack of a pinch-to-zoom on the MILESTONE puts the iPhone experience ahead, yet the huge 3.7″ display on the Moto-phone means more of the web to see at one time, and the high resolution screen makes it crystal clear. It’s a close thing, but personal preference might be the best judge on the surfing front.
E-Mail and messaging is capably handled by both, with support for push and Microsoft Exchange meaning both are as comfortable in the bistro as the boardroom.
Cute touches like Voice Search and YouTube integration show that Google knows their internet pretty well, and it shows in the quality of the Android experience.
Might have to call yet another one in favour of the DROID!
Winner: Motorola MILESTONE
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Media:
Apple’s heartland.
iTunes. The App Store. Downloading podcasts, making playlists, buying music and watching movies – the experience is certainly not without fault, but it is beyond compare as far as phones go.
The iTunes desktop application provides seamless syncing of music and media, the degree of customisation that apps deliver to the experience means that you can immediately get a sense of a user just by what they have on their homescreen…
The Android Market is a noble effort with many cool applications, and the MILESTONE has a perfectly serviceable media player, but nothing comes close to the pointless and beautiful CoverFlow, the brilliantly laid out menus or the ease of obtaining new music on an iPhone.
A resounding return to form at the end of the iconic Apple device.
Winner: Apple iPhone 3GS
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Verdict:
Whilst the iPhone has a seemingly unassailable position in the mobile market, Motorola has seen an almost phoenix-like resurrection by embracing a new operating system and delivering a truly strong handset on all fronts. The Motorola MILESTONE is hard lines, a brash and bold device that makes a confident stance against the androgynous iPhone.
Surpassing the iconic handset in almost all departments on paper, and with the speedy internal architecture to provide a great user experience, the MILESTONE may well be an alternative to the HTC Hero for the anti-iPhone brigade. A handset that provides a different experience, and one that is better in a lot of ways, but most importantly one that doesn’t make one feel as though they are missing something by not having an iPhone.
In this day and age, that’s possibly the biggest compliment against Apple’s behemoth that you’re going to get, so take it and celebrate, Motorola MILESTONE!
Whilst some accessories can be classed as useless, others fulfill a need that we are sure was never there in the first place.
Princeton Japan have introduced a lens that turns your humble iPhone into a fully fledged, paparazzi-grade snapper with an 8x optical zoom.
Not only that, but a custom tripod, case and dirty, weather-beaten overcoat (perhaps not that last one) are also available for the iZoom, turning your iPhone 3G/3GS into a 3 megapixel camera with tons of pointless yet pretty equipment bolted onto it.
The worst part? Akihabara News insists that this product already exists, which means someone had this alarming idea before…
The iZoom will be available from December from all good opportunists. How much? They haven’t said, but you can rest assured that it’s too much.
Whilst it’s easy to wax lyrical about capacitive touch screens and twelve megapixel lenses today, time was once that this technology was uncommon in homes, let alone the pockets of most people a mere ten years ago.
We at Omio have decided to pit today’s hottest mobile phone – the Apple iPhone 3GS – against the biggest handset from 1999 (both literally and figuratively…), the Nokia 3210.
From form factor to battery life, gaming and durability to the all important text-off – we compare the new iPhone 3GS to the classic Nokia device in the most thorough, detailed and most importantly fairmobile phone comparison of all time.
We used laboratory conditions to ensure accurate results (I wore a lab coat), and undertook every precaution to keep the Nokia 3210 feeling comfortable with an authentically retro setting.
Now, in the interests of a fair test, we did charge the battery of the iPhone for twelve hours beforehand, to ensure it would last the duration of our exercise.
The results can be seen for themselves in the below footage.
What many believed to be the first legitimate competition for the iPhone launched this year, with smart phone manufacturer Palm planning an ascension into the ranks with the sleek and sexy Pre, which went into stores this June.
Rumour has it that every time a mega-corporation does the exact opposite of what they state in official channels, a PR executive gets their wings. 
This device almost slipped by us due to the choice of an entirely different operating system – Linux-based Maemo as opposed to the stalwart Symbian platform – as well as frequent protestations from Nokia that it was a computer rather than a mobile phone, which is (sort of) true.
Android completed its transition from smart phone operating system to, well, any phone operating system this year, with a bevy of low-cost handsets that made the most of the online connectivity Google’s platform has to offer.
Just as we thought we’d seen the end of the American phone maker, Motorola bounces back with two great handsets powered by Google’s Android operating system. 
Winner of Phone of the Year awards from both 
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