custom made MiFi case - @jamesbody we love it!

It’s not often you get the chance to see Avril Lavigne and Ziggy Stardust rubbing shoulders, so the rock star fancy dress theme at last week’s Spotify party certainly made sure that it was a night of heroes.

The theme was, of course, underlined by the presence of the much worshipped HTC Hero handset, but there was another heroic device also grabbing plenty of attention.

Mi-Fi has been at the centre of plenty of online chatter of late, and it was certainly drawing plenty of envious glances at the party last week, where it was charged with providing the connection to make sure all the nights Tweets came through on our big screen, a simple task it performed effectively.

The realization amongst a growing band of pro-Mi-Fi types is that the portable hotspot can do a similarly quiet yet effective job in a wider range of circumstances than first anticipated.

Steve O’Hear offers some thoughts on his blog last100.com. Initially a sceptic, Steve now says he ‘totally gets it’:

It’s not just about sharing a single 3G connection with others – though at times this could be a life saver – but the flexibility the MiFi offers through the ability to add mobile broadband to devices that aren’t compatible with a USB 3G dongle but that do have support for WiFi.

Steve also offers feedback, which has been echoed by others before him, regarding the lights on the device being overly simplistic. We have heard this from a few of our trialists and have duly fedback to 3, so rest assured, you are being listened to!

And finally, if you’re already a MiFi convert and a proud owner of the gadget, then what next to show your allegiance? Perhaps you can follow in our pal @jamesbody’s footsteps and have your own Mifi case made! Good effort James, we were truly impressed.

Have you ever gone the extra mile to look after your most prized piece of technology? Let us know on Twitter @3mobilebuzz….

Last night we gathered to celebrate Spotify on HTC Hero coming to 3, and the event was a great success.

But don’t just take my word for it – here’s a selection of the Twitter highlights:

James (@Jamesbody) got into rock character with a classic “John Lennon meets Elton John” wig – “Just tested my new party hair for #3UKSpotifyParty out in the office - it is so good to make people smile!”

As we soaked up the culture at Proud Galleries the HTC Hero was demonstrated for us by Emma Wells, 3’s Product Manager for HTC Hero. Naturally, the opportunity to play with a neat new handset was greeted with much enthusiasm, as Liam (@liamgh) testified: “At the 3uk spotify event! Just seen the HTC hero, nice. #3ukspotifyparty”

Cally and Liam have a "wig-off"

Much as we hated to drag everyone away from their drinks and gallery-gazing, a brief detour was taken as we went underground to demonstrate Spotify’s caching abilities. Desi (@cyberdees) snapped a great picture of Siobhan in all of her Ziggy Stardust glory: “#3ukspotifyparty underground troupe being led by @siobhanc http://twitpic.com/o9rpc”

Upon arrival at Bar Soho, Dan (@mled) thought “outside the box” when it came to our technology: “http://post.ly/BbxV - Hoping to create some kind of feedback loop by tweeting a pic of #3ukspotifyparty projection.” It didn’t work, but it was a nice idea.

We all enjoyed some drinks, rocked out to our Spotify Party Playlist, and made merry late into the night. Marc (@marcflores) was “having fun at the #3ukspotifyparty…I’ve ended up with a stick on moustache! LOL”

That stick on moustache was mine, Marc, and I want it back…

The whole gang - and a balloon, mid-flight

The HTC Hero, combined with Spotify, is available on 3 from today! You can pick it up online, or via telesales now, or in store from tomorrow. Monthly tariffs start at £35, plus an initial charge of £99. It’s already been endorsed by Fred (@wingdisk): “Had a great time at the #3UKSpotifyParty Loved the HTC Hero.”

What do you think of the prospect of this handset/music service combo?

As we’ve already been discussing, this week 3 embarked on a program of improvement work on it’s London network.

While your network service might be affected for short periods, when 3’s improvement work is finished you’ll be able to connect to the internet in more places, you’ll have better coverage for making calls and it’ll also give you a quicker service. The work currently being done in London is preparation for the final stage of improvement work which should all be completed by Summer 2010.

Jason at Onionbagblog posted his opinions on the subject (you can see the whole article here on his site), following on from an email that we sent to him about the upcoming work:

“I certainly hope it is a great story to tell. It can’t get any worse than the story I’ve been telling about the 3 network for the past eighteen months. I wouldn’t say I’m important at telling that story, but my 3 is the Tragic Number post consistently comes up high in my monthly archive stats.

“…in the same way that giving up smoking is a positive move to make. If you start from a poor position, the only way is up.”

Others have been talking positively about this activity – earlier this week we linked to UK Gadgeteer, who had this to say:

“These upgrades are all part of 3UK’s plans to build their “Monster Network”, which I first covered briefly when I met with 3UK last month…at the end of these works, we should all see a lot less areas of no 3G coverage, and improved capacity in key areas too.”

What’s our role in this? Well, we’re here to listen and to engage with you on the good and the bad. That’s why 3 sponsors us – they want to know what’s being said so that they know what’s working well and what they could make better.

We’ve been pulling together the questions you’ve put to 3 and we’ll post a response from the team there on 3MobileBuzz.  They might not be able to respond to every single question individually, but the team will address the most common questions and concerns being voiced.  We’ll let you know when we have their feedback.

Stephen at UK Gadgeteer has posted about 3’s network improvement works, which started today.

“Already hitting capacity in certain areas, it makes sense to me to start with London to roll out what should end up as a faster, better network, which is one of the two areas 3UK really still need to work on (the other being Customer Services, but that’s not unique to 3UK).”

You can access all the information about these works on 3’s dedicated page, as Stephen explains:

“…from that page, you can enter your postcode (or town name) and it will tell you about any planned outages in your area; for the area around my home, for example, it tells me they… have more planned for today, which might result in an outage for me”

Outages – a dreaded word for any mobile network. They’re a necessary evil, however, and:

“…if they improve my home 3UK network signal, that’s no bad thing as far as I’m concerned, and well worthy of a few hours of no signal.”

Our Spotify Party Playlist currently stands at an impressive 152 songs – over 9 solid hours of musical joy.

Party details are Located Here, and you can add to the party playlist to your heart’s content. Let us know what you’ve added and why!

I’m listening to it right now, and thought I’d pull out a few highlights so far:

“I Want You Back” by the Jackson Five – This is probably the greatest Jackson Five song ever recorded, and is a perennial party classic. I’ve never seen anyone dance to this song and look bad.

“YMCA” by The Village People – Laugh all you like at their outlandish outfits, you can’t argue with that funky bass line.

And let’s not forget “Dance the Night Away” by The Mavericks – Country music doesn’t often make it onto a party playlist, but this song literally states the intent of every party goer – “I just want to dance the night away”. Does exactly what it says on the tin.

Cally (@califer) was very modest in her song additions, only selecting one tune to share with the rest of the group – however, it’s a belter: “Give It To Me Baby” by Rick James. And why does she like this song so much? In her own words, “It makes me want to shake my hips like a belly dancer”. We can all look forward to seeing that, then.

My personal addition to the playlist was “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder. I discovered this song at University, and realised that it was the easiest song in the world to dance to. If you come along, you’ll get to see what I mean first hand.

And just this morning our Michelle has added a song very dear to her heart – “Procura” by Jandy Feliz – a song that reminds her of “partying in Venezuela”. Soon it will remind us all of partying in Soho…

3 has asked us to share some important information with you, which will affect coverage in the London area in the short term, but will benefit the wider network of UK customers in the long term.

The improvement work is scheduled on 3’s London network, and is due to start on November the 2^nd.

The work is part of 3’s ongoing drive to keep network standards as high as possible across the UK.

3 already have the UK’s biggest 3G network, and clearly this is a position that it wishes not only to maintain, but to improve upon still further.

The work is due to be completed by Christmas, and disruption to customers should be minimal. As the work is carried out, each site being worked on will be out of action for up to 8 hours. During that time:

• Mobile Broadband users won’t be able to connect
• Phone customers may notice an increase in the number of dropped calls

To minimise any disruption, 3 has provided a service where you can sign up for free text alerts about engineering taking place in your area. Just go to www.three.co.uk/london and follow the on page instructions.

If you need any further advice then we’re happy to help. We’ll also be compiling questions for the 3 team, so let us know if there’s any additional info you’d like to know – just drop us a line in the comments or email phil@3mobilebuzz.com

3 have snapped up the Sony Ericsson Satio, a phone that packs a whopping 12 megapixel camera.

Not only that, but this top-end handset also has a full touch screen, a range of multimedia playback options, and full HTML internet browsing capabilities.

Yourserbase has a thorough set of video reviews of the handset. You can check out the first instalment here.

Elsewhere, Mobile Mentalism has posted a review starting with a crucial piece of detail:

“Before beginning this Sony Ericsson Satio review, we need to clear something up – Satio is pronounced Sah-tee-oh, apparently!”

Glad we’ve clarified that.

Moving beyond pronunciation the review goes on to claim that “…the stunning camera performance combined with the superb list of features makes the Satio the best camera phone in the world today”

So this handset would make a particularly snazzy stocking filler if you fancied spoiling a budding mobile photographer in your life, for example.

The Satio is available in 3 stores, online, or via their telesales team. Plans start at £30 a month for mix and match, and you can add on unlimited internet access for an extra fiver.

UPDATE: Thanks to @stephenwing for pointing out that our picture of the Satio was wrong - we’ve corrected it.

Started by BT and 3UK earlier this year, Terminate the Rate is aiming to reduce Mobile Termination Rates (MTRs) to reflect their actual cost. If you’re unsure when it comes to your MTRs, have a look at this post which sums it all up.

The campaign to date has been a great success. Since starting in May the petition has gained over 114,000 signatures, been joined by 258 Members of Parliament and gained the support of over 60 organisations, businesses and councils.

And today, Terminate the Rate will be handing in their petition to regulatory body Ofcom, a significant landmark for the campaign. The news has been covered by the BBC and The Independent, both of which feature the reaction of John Petter, MD Consumer, BT Retail:

“This petition is only the first stage in an ongoing campaign to show how MTRs stifle competition and increase the cost of calling mobiles - our goal remains for them to be set according to what they actually cost.”

Everyone here at 3mobilebuzz are keen supporters of the initiative – after all, it’s all about giving consumers a fair deal - and we’re very much looking forward to seeing the outcome of the support the campaign has gathered.

As we recently mentioned, 3 have announced a partnership with Spotify and HTC Hero bringing together the two award-winning pieces of technology in one package.

To celebrate this we’re throwing a party!

We’ve set up a Page With all the Details for your convenience.

Dressing up is encouraged – the theme being “Rock Stars Through the Ages”. Here at 3mobilebuzz we’re already thinking hard about what to wear. Rumours of Cher wigs, plastic guitars and spandex are in abundance.

We’re also going to be playing (Possibly) The Greatest Spotify Playlist in the World throughout the night. You can contribute by following the link on the event page. Whether it’s a favourite dance track, an air-guitar smasher, or a tune that brings back memories of a great night out, we want to listen to your songs and know your reasons for choosing them!

If you’d like to come along then please let us know – either by signing up on the event page, or by emailing phil@3mobilebuzz.com or cally@3mobilebuzz.com

According to Chris,

“The first INQ handset…though wouldn’t probably hold itself against the iPhones, Blackberries or the N-Series of the mobile world, had proven to be a very good contender for the middle to low market, and the INQ Mini has promised to bring some improvement to its Big Brother.”

This was a common topic of discussion on the night itself – where in the market does the INQ Mini sit? General consensus was that INQ is carving an interesting niche for itself as a kind of “Smartphone Lite”, one for users who want some online features, but don’t want to get involved in installing apps.

During the meetup we took some videos of the guys discussing their first impressions of the handset. Chris has embedded his contribution on his posting, so check it out.

“Not just does this help the end user in getting answers to their questions, it can also offer useful information over and above what the mobile network operator may tell you.”

When it comes to UKGadgeteer’s first tip however, it is all about hooking your browser up to m.inq.getjar.com and having a delve through the many applications, a lot of which are free, meaning,

“It offers easy access to Java / Brew specific applications which are pretty much guaranteed to run fine on the phone. So, there’s the tip; if you are looking for additional applications for your INQ Mini, head to m.inq.getjar.com and see what’s available.”

Let us know if you discover a gem…

This week to herald the launch of their new T715 phone Sony created a new Twitter presence, Twentertain Me, in association with 3.

The concept is simple: Twentertain Me brings together a host of entertaining Tweets in one place so you can instantly browse some of the most interesting, cool, funny or odd stuff being tweeted about. Think of it as an off the shelf way to separate the entertainment wheat from the dull chaff.

For example, this morning I found these jewels:

“Forearm of The Day. Skinny guy is arm wrestling world champ. Is his arm photoshopped? http://bit.ly/NfvpG (via @aplusk)”

“This guy just blogs what he overhears on the Tube. Brillinatly [sic] random: http://tiny.cc/G2F0a”

“Amazing sand animation from Ukraine. Beautiful. http://tiny.cc/uegje”

“Spice up your daily / weekly hygiene ritual with the oddest collection of rubber duckies ever. http://bit.ly/1P84vp”

Now I don’t know about you, but a Mr T Rubber Duck has gone straight to the top of my Christmas list.

As well as highlighting a lot of good content, Twentertain Me is also holding a competition. To enter, simply follow Twentertain Me, and Re-Tweet them. Every Re-Tweet counts as an entry – it couldn’t be simpler!

Prizes include a VIP trip to Monte Carlo, a Red Carpet Film Premiere, or your very own World Cup screening with champagne buffet and celebrity speaker.

Last night we held a meet up to kick off a trial of the new INQ Mini handset.

We were joined by Chris (@mahadewa), Cristiano (@cbetta), Spencer (@holtaway) and Mauricio (@reyes) who were all eagerly anticipating getting their hands on one of the new phones.

Experts from INQ and 3 also came along to help the guys familiarise themselves with the device, and to field any questions that came up. David Moore is 3’s Product Manager for INQ devices, and Martin Monteiro works at INQ. Both were extremely helpful in telling the story of the INQ Mini, and giving everyone more insight into the handset

Mauricio was one of the first to get his INQ Mini out of the box and start playing with it – he posted this photo about 10 minutes into the session

And indeed, he’s already been using it – this tweet popped up this morning:

“INQ mini called into action already, am working from home and reliant on the skype connectivity”

Spencer was particularly impressed by the phone’s design, tweeting:

“Picked up an INQ Mini on trial last night. Great build quality and ind. design compared to the original INQ1. Feels like a solid phone now!”

Cristiano echoed his comments on the night, saying that “people will definitely buy the different coloured covers”. Indeed, all present commented on how the new look was a positive progression from the INQ1’s.

We shot some videos during the event too, with the guy’s initial comments – they’ll be up on YouTube shortly so watch this space.

All in all, the device was well received and we’re looking forward to seeing how the trials progress. Be sure to check in here, and on the triallist’s blogs, to find out more.

If you want to get involved in trials yourself then drop me a line at phil@3mobilebuzz.com or Cally at cally@3mobilebuzz.com

Ian Miller has posted a review of 3’s Mobile WiFi device, complete with videos. As well as an unboxing Ian also shows us the simple connecting procedure and the capabilities of the connection for browsing, using chat software, and so on.

“The killer for me was being able to use Skype on the go. Those who use iPhones know that its Skype app has quashed the ability to make Skype Calls over 3G, it will only allow it on wifi. Well, now my iPhone had wifi, albeit mobile connection from inside my bag, but crucially, its still wifi. So I was able to walk around making Skype calls.”

He’s also thought of another useful application of the technology,

“I am considering reccomending [sic] the school I work at invests in one to allow groups to use offsite on trips, so that updates can be communicated back to base and students with wifi devices can get a few free minutes to catch up.”

Ian ends his review with a positive comparison against standard mobile broadband dongles. Whilst their software can sometimes be difficult to set up, “MIFI has no software, just a wifi, which makes it a product that’s instantly a thousand times more preferable.”

Mike Butcher at TechCrunch posts that this “is a pretty good deal”, and goes on to ask:

“How long before we start seeing handsets with “Comes with Spotify” stickers?”

That post has generated 13 comments so far, including scpanza’s neat summary – “great phone + great app + great tariff…glad to see 3…+ Spotify bringing services with users in mind”.

Elsewhere, at Social Media Mashup the news is greeted with mixed feelings:

“Mobile operator 3 UK has announced plans to include Spotify Premium for mobile on their first Android handset, the HTC Hero. Thats the good news, the bad news is you have to have a 24 month contract to secure it.”

Meanwhile, Ewan at Mobile Industry Review has only positive things to say:

“…a flippin’ wicked deal. A really, really good deal…Compelling, relevant and very fair. This is the kind of deal that is likely to get a lot of people wondering why they’re sticking with their existing operator.”

Twitter has also been buzzing with the news. @maltloaf_df is pleased with the announcement:

“Timing is impeccable. My upgrade due next month!”

Isn’t it nice when things fall into place like that?

Overall it seems that there is a genuine appetite for this hardware/software combo.  We’re already looking forward to seeing it in action come November.