Archive for: Vodafone
Vodafone customers in the UK can finally rejoice as Samsung’s latest high-end Android phone has now joined their favourite network. The Ice Cream Sandwich riding smartphone was originally only found on the O2 network from high street retailer Phones4U since mid November.
With a free handset setting you back at least £41 monthly over a 24 month plan, which is on par with O2′s offering yet with a higher text allowance, Vodafone’s offering proves a very prominent offer. Pair the great tariff with a great phone packing a 4.6 inch 720p AMOLED display, dual-core 1.2 GHz processor, 1Gb of ram and a 5 megapixel camera capable of recording in 1080p, and any Brit can pick up a piece of technology paradise in time for Christmas.
The Samsung Galaxy Nexus can be purchased on O2, Vodafone, T-mobile and Orange in phones4u and the respective network stores today.
If you had any hopes that Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao was one the consumers’ side when it game to a hands-off approach in which the government stays out of the one great thing on this planet — the internet — you were sorely mistaken. In a self addressed letter to the Financial Times, Colao says that despite claims by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg, the internet is not self regulating efficiently enough or quickly enough to keep up with the dangers of piracy, IP theft, and consumer privacy.
Ironically, Colao believes that a government body — any government body mind you — can efficiently regulate something as global and fast paced as the internet. It goes without saying Calao is either incredibly naive and doesn’t understand the very basics of the internet or is completely incompetent…
Beginning today, Sony Xperia Arc and Xperia owners on Vodafone UK should take a minute to hook up to their computer and initiate the latest Android 2.3.3 update. Besides the usual bug fixes, stability improvements and improved voice quality as well as exchange tweaks have made the cut in the latest OS release. Most exciting, however, is the revamped Facebook UI — “Facebook Inside Xperia” — that ties Facebook actions into various aspects of Android’s core. Users will now be able to share various things on Facebook with simple taps within the address book, media apps, music player, and camera.
As mentioned before, this is a manual update that will not alert you for OTA install. With that said, we here in the U.S. will have to wait a little longer before we get our own version of both Android 2.3.3 and the Facebook Inside Xperia app.
It’s embarrassing to admit, but we’ve been duped. Yesterday we posted about a claim by Vodafone New Zealand that the launch of the Sony Xperia PLAY was to be delayed due to the initial launch shipment being stolen by some rather clever thieves. Yesterday evening we received a response from Vodafone PR regarding the story, though the response was typical PR jargon (read: useless). Today, however, the truth has come out — it was all a big marketing ploy. And we fell for it. Though judging by the number of sites that picked up the “story”, we’d say their little marketing ploy worked.
There is a positive ending, however. The whole stolen phone ploy was the grand kick-off for a new contest the carrier is running with the winner receiving — surprise! — a new Sony Xperia PLAY. Excuse us while we hold our heads in shame…
Hearing that a brand new, potentially top-tier phone has been delayed because of some software bug/hardware problem — typical. Finding out your entire country’s supply has been delayed because it was stolen — wait…what? Vodafone New Zealand customers are facing that very scenario today after the entire shipment (claimed though unconfirmed) designated for the country was stolen. Announced via Twitter and Facebook, the revelation is rather surprising in that it signals a fairly sophisticated act to be able to get away with such a large number of phones undetected (for now).
While the full number of stolen handsets that were stolen as well has how someone managed to pull of such a feat are not currently known, we’ve reached out to Vodafone Global for any and all information they can share. Stay tuned…
The constantly delayed white iPhone 4 may finally be seeing the light of day months after it was originally slated for sale. A “weiß” (that’s “white” in German) iPhone has popped up in a Vodafone Germany inventory system signaling our wait may finally be coming to a close. Though honestly, Vodafone themselves may not even know if/when the white iPhone is coming, and these newly revealed markers are nothing more than place holders.
Of course, those who really wanted a white iPhone 4 by now have mostly gotten it in some form or another. Not to mention, with the iPhone 5 summer release approaching with each passing day, does the luster of a white iPhone 4 hold as much weight any more?
While Verizon is leading the charge out of the four major wireless carriers in regards to LTE here in the States, overseas things are a bit different. For starters, there are two major carriers gifting the LTE love. Second, they’re taking a drastically different roll out approach. Here in the States, Verizon is targeting 38 major cities for their LTE network release rumored to be December 5th. German carriers T-Mobile and Vodafone are instead focusing on rural areas and areas in which people have limited access to broadband, and then expanding inwards towards big cities. A noble effort and one that rural inhabitants enjoy I’m sure.
With that said, T-Mobile Germany’s plans will start at 39.95 EUR, though no hard information on data allotment or bandwidth speeds was mentioned. I’ve seen a few instances in particular (one such instance here) claiming T-Mobile Germany’s LTE plan will allow 3GB of transfer and Vodafone on the other hand will have several tiered options for LTE hopefuls. The most generous of which will give users 30GB of data transfer per month, and download speeds topping 50Mbps while costing a 72.50 EUR per month. However, Voda’s LTE plans will actually start quite a bit lower at a mere 42.50 EUR per month. On that note, Vodafone in particular will kick off their LTE roll out in Rammenau (east of Dresden) and eventually reach 1,500 total locations by next spring.
Both T-Mobile Germany and Vodafone as well as all other German carriers will be using the 800MHz spectrum for LTE.
- November 29, 2010 7:06 am
Vodafone users do a lot of traveling will be pleased to know that their carrier of choice recently revamped the popular “Vodafone Day Traveler” data plan. Instead of the laughingly low 5MB allotment of roaming data, EU users can now make use of up to 25MB of data whilst abroad. Granted, it’s still ridiculously low considering the scope of mobile technologies today. Though an increase of 5MB to 25MB is certainly appreciated nonetheless. According to the company, 25MB is good for roughly 250 emails, 25 minutes of SD YouTube video, or viewing 65 different maps.
Pricing is set at £2/day or £10/month. Look for the new plans to go live on December 1st.
LiMo may not be one of the most popular mobile OS’s in town, but I’m sure with it’s Linux roots it has a loyal following. With that, the LiMo loyalists can add another new device to their coffers by way of the Samsung i8330-H2. (Samsung is movin’, aren’t they?)
On paper we’ve got a 1GHz Cortex A8 processor, 800 x 480 WVGA Super AMOLED display, HSDPA/Wi-Fi/GPS, 8megapixel camera w/ auto-focus and flash.
The device is set to launch in June on Vodafone with the whole smorgishboard of voda-based services in tow. Interested U.S. readers might like to know that rumors peg a version of the i8330 coming stateside for Verizon sometime later in the year. Anyone crossing their fingers?
