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There is definitely a growth in text-based answering services. You know the deal: you text your question - for a quid or so they send you an answer a little while later after their army of googlers have done their work. Here's a pic of the rebranded 82Ask getting its message across guerrilla-style on the Battersea power station. They also did one on the MI6 building - very naughty!
O2 is to sell the iPhone in the UK, according to the FT. More later.
There are hundreds of places to buy or browse phones online. Here are the main locations.
1. Operators
3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone
2. Virtual operators (also known as MVNOs)
3. The large independent retailers
4. Online Retailers
e2Save (Carphone owned), Dialaphone, Directphoneshop, In2Mobiles, The Link, Mobiles.co.uk(Carphone), MobileExpress, Mobileshop, Simply3G.co.uk, OneStopPhoneShop (Carphone), OnlineMobilePhoneShop, Phones2Udirect, UKPhoneShop
5. Handheld Retailers
Clove Technology www.clove.co.uk, Devicewire www.devicewire.co.uk, EasyDevices www.easydevices.co.uk, Expansys www.expansys.com, Handtec www.handtec.co.uk, PowerupMobile www.powerupmobile.com, TotalPDA www.totalpda.co.uk
6. Accessory Retailers
MyMemory www.mymemory.co.uk, Picstop www.picstop.co.uk, Portable Power www.portable-power.co.uk
7. Vendor specific
Nokia for Business, Scancom (BlackBerry)
These details are enhanced and ammended regularly and appear permanently in the left hand column as a site 'page'. All contributions gratefully accepted.
LimeWire, the top peer-to-peer company and bane of record industry bigwigs, is to launch a digital music store.
The company has signed deals with IRIS Distribution, who supply content to major mobile operators including AT&T and T-Mobile, and Network Productions to provide their music databases.
LimeWire plans to eventually give customers the option of sharing and buying off their main site - a prudent solution to the digital dilemma of how to encourage legal downloads whilst P2P usage increases.
The questions we’re interested in are: With a music supplier involved that has dealings with mobile operators, when will mobiles be brought into this equation, and could there ever be a sharing / buying service the size of LimeWire available available on mobile?
The recently launched phling! (see earlier post) has gone for this duel approach, but if LimeWire followed suit, interest in mobile music could skyrocket. (Beren Neale)
A music mobile milestone has occurred across the pond, as mobile entertainment publisher and radio DJ joined forces to offer ‘mobile mixtapes’.
Cellfish Media and New York
They haven’t disclosed the download fee yet, but as far as injecting interest in mobile music this is genuinely appealing. Let’s hope British radio stations pick up on it. (Beren Neale)
Nokia has announced a distinctive 3G mobile phone which features a rather large external analog clock, presumably for those who want a phone with a snazzy clock thrown in.
The Nokia 6555 is the first WCDMA phone with a cleverly designed fold design with recessed hinge - creating a seamless line when open. Available next month at around £120 depending on contract.
Endgadget seems to think so. No wonder T-Mobile was talking it down last week.
Mobile phone operator, 3 UK, is in final preparations to launch its 3G HSDPA mobile network which has been branded 3Turbo. It will be accessible initially to those with a 3G HSDPA compatible handset connected to 3 UK. There will also be a new USB laptop modem dongle enabled for 3Turbo.
3 claims it will offer data speeds of up to 2.8Mbps - which is currently faster than HSDPA speeds claimed by both Vodafone and T-Mobile.
Launch is scheduled for the first week of September, 2007. 3G HSDPA will firstly be launched in Scotland, N Ireland, the North of England and Greater London. The service will be rapidly expanded across the UK so that up to 90% of the UK will be able to access 3 UK’s 3G HSDPA by the end of 2007.
For 3G HSDPA Mobile Phones
3Turbo Broadband light ( 1GB of data per month costs £10 )
3Turbo Broadband Plus ( 3GB of data per month costs £15 )
3 Turbo Broadband Max ( 7GB of data per month costs £25 )
A USB dongle will also be available costing from free to £80 per month depending on contract deal.
HSDPA significantly improves the data speeds that can be delivered over a mobile data network. It is just the first of a number of technological advances that are within the 3G standard which can be rolled out incrementally over 3's existing 3G network. HSDPA will give customers a greater quality and range of communication, and information services. As well as delivering much higher data speeds, HSDPA also makes more efficient use of radio spectrum, delivering capacity more cost effectively.
Orange is promising to spend squillions improving its customer service, fully aware that it is ranking way off the 'simpy horrible' scale for legions of customers.
It's a bit like Gordon Brown promising to building millions of new homes. Sounds good but how will such a plan be executed, and how will we really know if things have improved?
Let's hope they really mean it. Someone to speak to at the end of a phone line would be a nice start.
A few weeks ago Orange and PC World announced a tempting deal: A free laptop worth £300 in return for signing up for a two-year broadband deal with Orange.
Now, according to Pocket-Lint, the deal has mysteriously disappeared from view. Orange hasn't quite done a Hoover (which famously gave free flights to America in return for buying a Hoover) because it cleverly takes online registration before deciding how many to give the deal to.
Could it be that it was overwhelmed with takers? This strikes me as a very good way of locking up customers at zero cost, as many may wait months to know if they are eligable for the deal or not.
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