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Regulars – Gareth, James, Matt and Andy

Show Notes

James goes to Nokia World then goes back to Nokia World
James buys a dress of the HTC PARTY!!!!
James gets his hair done for the HTC PARTY!!!!
James has a manicure for the HTC PARTY!!!!
James buys new birth control for the HTC PARTY!!!! (just in case)
New iPhone 4 Jailbreak
Phones 4u in sale speculation
Sony Ericsson Zylo unboxing video
Blaq
Ericsson activates the 10,000th shared site in the MBNL consolidated network
Samsung Apollo
Vodafone Prohibits P2P Use for Broadband Customers
Vodafone has just announced that it will be accepting pre-order or the Blackberry Torch
Rebelsim card dual sim adapter for iphone 4

A BIG announcement!

Bargain corner

Monkey Island 2 59p on iPhone Here
Blackberry Curve only £10 a month for existing Virgin customers
10% off iPhone 4 on Vodafone – Code: nation10
T-Mobile Sim Only – 12 Months, 600mins, Unlimited Texts, Unlimited Data (3GB)

Listener corner

Hi Guys,
Love the show and have been a listener from show 1.
Could you answer a Blackberry related question for me as I have not found a suitable answer so far.
I currently use a Galaxy S and sync my work calendar and google calendar and view it in one list, while all the time the calendars are kept separate on the back end.
I also have a Bold 9700 setup against the office BES server (running 5.0 BES). I would like to see my google calendar alongside the corporate one but I can not seem to find an easy way.
Google Sync seems at first try to do the job but rather than adding an additional calendar on the blackberry it seems to load all your google entries into your one BB calendar. BAD as this then syncs back up to the corporate one Merging the two.
Any ideas, on my iPhone and my Galaxy this is simple stuff but Blackberry seem to make it hard.
Keep up the great work guys.
Thanks
Russ

Mickey

James’ Lymericks

——

Gareth Myles – twitter.com/garethmyles
Andy Lee – twitter.com/weirdshanghai
James Richardson – twitter.com/jpr7373
Matt and Tracy Davis – (and James the love child) twitter.com/tracyandmatt

Vodafone has just announced that it will be accepting pre-order or the Blackberry Torch from today. Seemingly it is going to be free on £40 a month contracts however a £20 a month contract will see you shelling out a whopping £400 and being roped into a 24 month contract. The Data bundles included only manage to hit 500mbs which is a paltry amount for a phone that relies so heavily on the internet.

Phones 4u could be sold after its private equity owner received a number of takeover offers.

The Sunday Times reports that ‘several suitors’ have made offers to Providence Equity. A source close to the company is quoted as saying: ‘There have been several unsolicited approaches and Providence is considering those. Discussions are at an early stage.’

The independent phone retailer was bought from founder John Caudwell in 2006. The business is estimated to be worth between £700m and £800m.

Mobile phone operators and DSGi are tipped as possible suitors.

Phones 4u already has a deal to put concessions in DSGI’s Curry stores and some PC World outlets.

[Source]

T-Mobile UK and 3 reached a milestone last Friday (9 September) when Ericsson activated the 10,000th shared site for Mobile Broadband Network Ltd (MBNL) – the two operators’ network consolidation company.

When the consolidation is complete, the MBNL network will consist of around 12,500 sites integrating the former T-Mobile UK and 3 networks, which previously numbered more than 18,000 2G and 3G sites in total.

Ericsson has a five year managed services contract announced last year for network design, deployment, the acquisition and building of sites, capacity management, equipment swaps and upgrades to transmission facilities.  Services activities commenced February 2009 and are scheduled to complete by 10 October 2010 resulting in close to 12,500 active consolidated sites.

T-Mobile and 3 say the consolidation gives MBNL one of the most advanced, high quality mobile networks, providing very high capacity mobile broadband and voice services across Britain. The consolidation will improve the environmental footprint of the network while at the same time reduced operating expenses due to less power consumption, fewer sites and smaller footprint on the sites.

Mobile revealed on 3 September that Orange sites will also be consolidated into MBNL, a process that is expected to take up to five years to complete.

Graham Payne, MD of MBNL, said: ‘When we decided to merge the T-Mobile and 3 networks we had clear targets as to efficiency gains, cost achievements, quality enhancement and extended coverage of mobile data services. This network consolidation and the benefits it brings make a real difference to mobile consumers, many of whom for the first time now get access to the internet.’ 

Anders Runevad, president of Ericsson Region Western and Central Europe, added: ‘The success of this unprecedented consolidation process proves that new business models create win-win situations for all partners in our industry.’

[Source]

At a time where content producers are increasingly using peer-to-peer technology to distribute data, there are still Internet providers that wont allow such traffic on their networks. This type of discrimination is not limited to mobile or cellular networks either. In Ireland, Vodafone users are not permitted to use peer-to-peer services on their broadband connection.

For years the term peer-to-peer has been a synonym for piracy to most of the mainstream public. More recently, however, content distributers and websites such as Facebook and Twitter have become aware that it’s an ideal way to transfer data cheaply and efficiently.

One of the more notable usages of P2P-assisted downloads is that utilized by Blizzard’s hit game StarCraft 2 which went on sale a few weeks ago. All downloadable copies of this title have been distributed through Blizzard’s BitTorrent downloader. With the custom downloader gamers download the full game and subsequent patches.

This type of peer-to-peer distribution service benefits both the consumer who gets faster downloads, and the distributer who saves on bandwidth costs. Unfortunately, however, not all Internet providers are happy with these types of transfers.

In the United States both Verizon and AT&T prohibit the use of peer-to-peer services on their wireless networks. Despite the large Net Neutrality lobby, nobody calls them out for it. But across the pond there are even worse examples. In Ireland, for example, broadband users with a monthly download limit of 300GB are still not allowed to use peer-to-peer transfers.

In the tariffs and price list for Vodafone, the second largest ISP in the country, there’s an unusual sentence at the bottom that prohibits the use of all P2P transfers, legitimate or illegitimate.

“The service may not be used for peer to peer data usage,” it reads.

To find out why this limitation is in place and what purpose it serves, TorrentFreak contacted the Irish ISP a few days ago. Unfortunately, the company failed to respond to us before publication. Meanwhile, customers of Vodafone have also taken notice of this unusual limitation. One TorrentFreak reader who has a Vodafone subscription asked his ISP whether there are any penalties for those who dare to use P2P, but this inquiry went unanswered as well.

Without an official comment we can only guess at the true reason behind Vodafone’s decision to prohibit certain types of traffic. What we do know is that Vodafone is currently negotiating with the music industry to install a three-strikes policy for repeated copyright infringers. However, banning all peer-to-peer traffic at once seems to go a bit far. Even the music industry would agree with that.

There is hope for Irish Vodafone customers though. While researching the issue we noticed that references to its peer-to-peer prohibition started to disappear from some parts of the Vodafone website. The text is still listed at the bottom of this page, but was removed recently from another section (Google cache September 3rd).

Perhaps Vodafone has silently responded to our inquiries and those of worried customers? That would be good news.

Update: Apparently Vodafone banned P2P by mistake, they promised to fix it. An official statement has not been released.

Article from: TorrentFreak.

After a long break Andy sweeps back into the proceedings in tonight’s podcast. Archos launch 5 new Android tablets, the Dell Streak gets a 2.1 update briefly, Motorola get a bit of a bashing and Orange announce their new HD take on audio.

Direct Download
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Download the iPhone App
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Regulars – Gareth, James, Matt and Andy

Show Notes

HTC PARTY!!!!

Orange HD Voice

Motorola FlipOut Review
CPW 14 day coverage guarantee
Gareths final thoughts on Moto XT720
Motorola Milestone 2
Everything Everywhere
Huawei Ideos
Virgin Cut BB 8520 costs
Samsung Galaxy Tab Thoughts
BlackBerry Style

Archos taking over the world!

Dell Streak on O2 gets 2.1 update – just about works <got pulled back>

Bargain corner

HTC Wildfire Clearance

Giffgaff ends half price mania, introduces £20 bundleroonie

Tesco Mobile £6 online-only SIM-Only contract.

T-Mobile PAYG £20 for 6 Months Unlimited Internet:

Simply text ’6 MONTH WEB’ to ’441′ on T-mobile PAYG and for £20 you can have 6 months unlimited internet access. (Fair use policy 1GB per month). Works out at only £3.33 per month.

6MONTHBB > 441  6 months bis blackberry service

Listener corner

Just listening to the dropped call podcast and andy said there is no refund process in iTunes. This is not correct. If you go into your account and purchase history you can report a problem and get a refund. I know this works as I’ve done I a few times
Thanks
Dave Lindsay

Question for the podcast, does anyone know of a ios twitter client that keeps your place in the timeline in sync on two devices

David

Hello from Canada

A limerick

There was an old lady from Upit

Who went to heaven in a bucket

When she got there

They asked for her fare

So she cocked up her leg and said  ( Transfer) fuck it.

Whichever version you like

Bob

James’ Lymericks

——

Gareth Myles – twitter.com/klonricket
Andy Lee – twitter.com/weirdshanghai
James Richardson – twitter.com/jpr7373
Matt and Tracy Davis – (and James the love child) twitter.com/tracyandmatt

Twitter @mtaddicts

Email : mobiletechaddicts@gmail.com

Many thanks to The Stetz for the music

Subscribe in iTunes to our weekly podcast

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Download the iPhone App

Whilst O2 seem to be removing rewards from it’s pay as you go customers Orange seems to be taking the opportunity to win some.

Orange reveals that it is enriching its popular Pay As You Go (PAYG) animal plans by offering even better value top-up rewards for its diverse customer base. Read on for extra details.

Monkey
Monkey is still the plan tailored to young music lovers. Now though, for the first time, Monkey customers will be rewarded for topping up by as little as £5 a month. As well as access to thousands of free music tracks either online or via their mobile phone, Monkey customers will now be given free texts and a daily internet pass** when they top up by £5.

Canary
Canary is still perfect for people who love to chat, with its free evening and weekend calls. However, now Canary comes with additional free evening and weekend texts and photo messages.
Specifically, when topping up £10 per month, Canary customers will now receive 100 free evening and weekend texts or photo messages – as well as the existing 100 free evening and weekend calls as part of their rewards package.

Racoon
Designed for people who like to keep things simple, the Racoon package has been updated to offer Orange’s lowest flat rate deal at just 12p per minute – no matter how much you top up.

Camel
Now, Camel PAYG customers will receive free international minutes just for topping up – ideal for people who make a lot of international calls such as those with families or friends abroad. Customers will now receive up to 240 international minutes to over 50 countries for free if they top up by £30. In addition, due to the popular demand for international minutes, there is now a Camel plan available for Pay Monthly customers.*

Additional value from the Extras
In addition to these new and improved top-up rewards, Orange recently launched a monthly bundle designed to allow customers to get even better value from their plans. For just £5 of credit per month, Monkey and Dolphin PAYG customers can purchase an Unlimited Text Extra bundle to message friends and family in the UK.

Pippa Dunn, Vice President of Orange Propositions said: “We have enhanced our Pay As You Go animal packages to ensure we meet our customers’ changing needs and continuously provide good value. We are committed to offering customers packages that are tailored to their specific lifestyles – from music to free international calls.”

The new Pay As You Go animal deals are out now, and for more information please visithttp://shop.orange.co.uk/

The Motorola XT720 is the latest super phone from Motorola that packages a hefty 8mp camera capable of capturing HD Widescreen video. So what is it? Does it have the beans to take on the iPhone 4 or is it just a feature phone with an extra lump on the side?

Working around the device, the top contains a power button and a connector for the HDMI cable, alongside  a 3.5mm headphone socket and on the corner is a hole for a charm or strap.

The right side has only a socket for the micro USB charger. Apologies for the use of a cropped stock shot, my camera had a really hard time focusing on the details with the almost mirrored surfaces.

The left has a volume rocker and on the bulge is a camera button and a button that takes you to the media gallery.

The bottom has a bit of a signature styling and a small hole for the microphone.

The front sees a few sensors on the top left. There is a grill for a speaker and to the right is a large Motorola emblem. The 3.7” screen is generous enough but when you consider there is a bezel around the outside measuring a whopping 0.4mm each side you can’t help but wonder why there wasn’t a larger screen on here.
Under the screen are the soft buttons for Android. Each manufacturer seems to lay these out differently and it’s kind of annoying, especially for a reviewer. I am used to HTC’s Nexus One arrangement of Home, Menu, Back and Search. Here it switches to Menu, Home, Back and Search. Not the worst thing in the world but if you are going to this from a long time with a different Android device you’ll find yourself unnecessarily exiting apps by accident.
At the bottom right are a few little indicators to assist you with the media side of the phone. Each indictor will illuminate depending on what function you are using, media gallery, stills camera or video camera.

The back is oddly blue and looks a little… industrial. There is a larger xenon flash and a 8 megapixel camera in the corner. The silver edge around the camera is raised ever so slightly to protect the clear plastic lens cover from light scrapes.

Under the solid back cover is the 1390mAh battery. The sim card and SD card slip in here however the SD card has a rather cumbersome method of securing it. A piece of rotating plastic swings around 180 degrees allowing access to the slot.

The Motorola XT720 is a pretty hefty device but this is by no means a bad thing. Many of the Android flagships we have seen of late have been a bit flimsy or as solid as this. The XT720 looses no marks on build quality. It’s heavy and durable. Many devices with moving parts can squeak after a while, thankfully the XT720 only has a couple of little port covers, that whilst fiddly, don’t feel as though the next time you use them it will be their last.

The screen doesn’t occupy as much space as one might expect given the overall footprint of the handset. There is a bezel that surrounds the screen and whilst hardly an obtrusive frame it covers a large percentage of the total area. It’s also a glossy silver plastic that is just waiting for your finger prints. You WILL need a polish cloth at the ready.

One of the biggest attractions to this phone is the camera and it really does disappoint. Whilst the camera function does take a few seconds too long to boot the photos are generally crisp and pleasing to the eye providing you are not moving. Turning the image capture settings to the 8mp Wide settings, which will be the preferable setting, will result in blur. The shots below are all taken on the 8mp Wide setting. The most pleasing is the low level light shot of my old Megadrive. At close range the flash bounce off the shiny black plastic is minimal and the picture is easily the best I have managed to capture. In the ideal lighting conditions, a sunny day in the forest, the camera struggles to produce a stable image even when I was completely static. Movement from the hounds was easily noticeable.

Video is a different story. I would never expect a phone to produce superb quality video to rival a video camera. Of all the video I took I think the video below is the most ideal display of the phone capabilities. In the forest I panned across a number of different light intensities to show how well the camera adjusts to the different light conditions. There is quite a bit of grain and as the image flare blends in and out you can see the video becomes a little choppy. Whilst the output is a little disappointing it has to be said that video cameras on phone have come a long way and even though this really isn’t the HD video some customers will be expecting it’s still a cut above the rest.

The phone’s processor speed might be the route of all evil here. Maybe the 2.1 version of Android. An upgrade to 2.2 may help the grease the wheels the camera runs on. The HDMI out allows for some handy playback on a home TV however I’m not sure how often it would be used other than a one off to see it working. The playback is fine, didn’t seem to be really suffer from any hardware problems, only those generated during the initial shooting of video.

One of my favourite features on the phone is the Moto Phone Portal. A software solution so handy I’m searching for a similar piece of software for my Nexus One. The clicking of the application, starts a client on the phone that operates over wifi or wire and it lets you interact with your phone without picking it up. You can transfer media, update contacts, send SMS and there are some shortcuts to Motorola’s website to find accessories.  As you can see from the above screenshot it isn’t entirely compatible with Google Chrome.

There has been much said by others about the look of the device. I am in the smaller community of lovers. For me the look is stylish, oddly retro and modern whilst combing design aspects of other recent Motorola handsets. From bulging in one corner to proudly pronounce it’s camera facilities to the back which looks much like compact camera ought to. This typical slab setup of the XT720 is that little bit different. The lines make the device very easy to handle. All buttons are accessible aside from the top power button that really feels like it should be on the other side of the top.

There is a bit of debate about the actual speed of the processor. Initially it seems snappy enough but when you hit the camera button you do have to wait a few seconds longer than most other devices. During the load time if feels almost criminal and that antic you are looking to capture will probably have lost it’s moment.

The price of the unit is roughly £340, for what you are getting, this is a pretty good price.

Overall the XT720 is a fine handset. If you are one of the few who see it as sexy instead of ugly and are happy enough with the somewhat lacklustre processor then the phone is a joy. The job this phone sets out to do well it fails at, namely, photos and videos. However, this is a phone, not a camera and when judging it on its main feature the handset is a success. Every Android handset continues in the tradition of having something to stop it from excelling and the XT720 is no exception to this rule.

Thanks go out to Clove who have supplied us this review device

Network – GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900, HSDPA 1700 / 2100
Data – GPRS, EDGE,  3G, HSDPA, 10.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps
WLAN – Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, DLNA
Bluetooth – Yes, v2.1 with A2DP
Size – 116 x 60.9 x 10.9 mm
Weight – 139 g
Display – TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors, 480 x 854 pixels, 3.7 inches
Memory – 150 MB storage, 256 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM, microSD, up to 32GB, 8GB card included
USB -  microUSB v2.0
Camera – 8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, Xenon flash, Video 720p@24fps
OS – Android OS, v2.1 (Eclair)
CPU – ARM Cortex A8 720 MHz processor
GPS -  with A-GPS support
- Java
- Touch-sensitive navigation controls
- 3.5 mm audio jack
- Multi-touch input method
- Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate
- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
- Digital compass
- MP3/WAV/WMA/AAC+ player
- MP4/WMV/H.263/H.264 player
- TV-out (720p video) via HDMI port
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- Google Search, Maps, Gmail,
- YouTube, Google Talk
- Document viewer
- Photo viewer/editor
- Face tagging
- Organizer
- Voice memo
- T9
Battery – Li-Po 1390 mAh
Stand-by – Up to 320h (2G) / Up to 320h (3G)
Talk time – Up to 4h 30 min (2G) / Up to 9h (3G)

According to Apple’s UK website , iOS 4.1 will hit devices on September 8th. Which will probably mean that the brand new iPods announced on Wednesday along side iOS 4.1 will be released on that day.

iOS 4.1 brings many bug fixes to do with ?proximity sensor issue, Bluetooth, and iPhone 3G performance but it also brings many new features such as HDR photos, TV show rentals, HD video uploads over WiFi and Game Center.

Source

It seems like since the iPad was released, every single tech company in the world is manufacturing an Android tablet to rival Apple’s. And the first one to try and take down the iPad from it’s throne is the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Announced this morning in Berlin, the Galaxy Tab is a 7″ Android tablet running Froyo. Other specs include a 1GHz Cortex A8 processor, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, Flash 10.1, a 4,000 mAh battery, quad-band GSM, a 3MP rear facing camera, 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, full HD video playback at 1080p, microSD slot for upto 32 GB cards and all of that weighs only 380g!

Now what makes this different from the iPad is that it makes phone calls. The Galaxy Tab uses a HSUPA 5.76 Mbps / HSDPA 7.2 Mbps radio on the 900, 1900, 2100 MHz bands. The Galaxy Tab is set to launch later this month in Europe and here in the UK. Then later on this year Korea, the US and the rest of Asia will get it. There is no word on pricing or carriers, but could this be the iPad killer?

Source

Update:

It turns out Vodafone is the carrier that the Galaxy Tab is going to be on. DJ Lee, Senior Vice President and Head of Sales and Marketing Team of Mobile Communications Business at Samsung (Yes Long Title) said this:

I am very excited to introduce Samsung GALAXY Tab with Vodafone. Thanks to Vodafone’s strong promotion and co-marketing with us, Samsung GALAXY Tab can be an outstanding smart media device to lead a new media revolution. With GALAXY Tab, users enjoy full web browsing with flash 10.1 support, reading eBooks, newspapers, or magazines, and watching HD videos on the large enough 7-inch display while on the move. Furthermore, it is still compact enough to carry everywhere.

Still no word on pricing though.