Phones Category

In one of the worst-kept secrets, Apple today announced the next generation of iPhone, the iPhone 4.

Speaking today at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, Steve Jobs announced the slimmest smartphone ever. Here are the highlights:

• 24% thinner than the iPhone 3GS (9.33mm)
• Front facing camera – video calling (called FaceTime), but initially over wi-fi
• 4 times as many pixels (326 ppi)
• Uses a micro-SIM card as they “need the space”
• Onboard gyroscope for games (6-axis motion sensing)
• Camera upgraded to 5 Megapixels with LED flash
• Video editing on the iPhone – “iMovie”

Available in Black or White. In the US, pricing the same as 3GS – that’s $199 for 16GB model, $299 for 32GB model (on a 2 year contract)

The iPhone 4 ships in the UK on June 24th 2010.

Also covered by Jobs – the next release of the OS – renamed from iPhone OS to iOS.

iOS 4.0 has over 100 new features, including:

• Multitasking
• Message threading in email
• Folders for apps
• Addition of the Bing search engine
• iBooks (now on iPad) will be on iPhone

A Gold Master Candidate of iOS4.0 is ready – and the final version will be out on 21st June for existing iPhone users (free).

Apple also announced that on the 1st of July, they’ll enter the advertising market by launching iAds – mini-adverts that developers can add to their applications (and get 60% of the ad revenue). When you click on an ad, it opens within the application, not in the browser.

Some of Steve Jobs live demos failed – 570 people in the audience with an active wi-fi connection stealing all of the bandwidth. He asked the audience to shut down their laptops and stop live blogging.

So, the hype has started – and we’re three weeks away from queues of people desperate to get the iPhone 4…

Some months back we reported on the merger of the two UK mobile phone networks Orange and T-Mobile.

Today, the new name for the merged company has been announced:

Everything Everywhere

From what we understand, the brands Orange and T-Mobile, will continue as they are, at least for the foreseeable future. With 30 million combined customers, that will make them the largest network in the UK. In theory that reduces competition in the mobile phone marketplace, but could be good news for subscribers as eventually the mobile phone infrastructures merge, meaning greater coverage for customers.

Tom Alexander, the CEO of the new company: “We are Everything Everywhere – it’s our name, our vision, and our ambition – and we run two of the UK’s biggest brands Orange and T-Mobile. It’s our vision to give our customers instant access to everything everywhere, opening up a world of endless possibilities.”

The companies will be integrated on 1st July, where the 16,500 employees will be working together to supply over half the UK’s mobile phone users.

Doing a quick Google for the new name reveals that the web domain everything-everywhere.com is owned by travel blogger Gary Arndt, who’s been documenting his round-the-world exploits. Suspect his site will get a boost of traffic as a result of Orange / T-Mobile merger.

So, what do you think of “Everything Everywhere”? For the team here at FrequencyCast, it sounds like the new slogan for Tesco, rather than a company name for a phone company. Any thoughts? Let us know and we’ll read out some of your comments in our next tech podcast.

News of a new killer smartphone from Nokia, the Nokia N8.

What’s so exciting about the N8? This is a touchscreen device powered by the Symbian operating system, and it’ll have a whopping 12 megapixel camera.

The big selling point though, is likely to be video. The phone has an impressive lens, can record 720p HD video, and has an HDMI connector, for connection to an HD-Ready telly.

The Nokia N8 has 16 gigs of memory and will include the Nokia Ovi Maps navigation service, plus Facebook and Twitter apps. It’s expected to be out here in the UK this Summer. No price as yet.

For a sneak peek from hand freestyler Max Vlassenko, see the video below:

Impressive… but it’s not a hen.

Got a car and a smartphone? Your country needs you!

We’ve been trying out a rather nifty little application that has some serious potential… that’s if enough people get involved.

Waze is a social navigation application that’s available for a range of GPS-enabled smartphones including the iPhone, Android phones, Windows Mobile and Symbian OS devices.

Rather than your standard sat-nav app where you drive from A to B on a specified route, drive with this app, and the data gathered goes to build an accurate map of roads, junctions and average speeds. If you see a jam or a traffic cam, press a couple of buttons, and other drivers can see what’s going on in real-time.

A great idea, and it’s working well in the US, but over here, the road coverage is pretty thin. You can pick up points for “munching” your local roads, adding to the map and picking up bonus cupcakes… you have to try it to experience the full Waze proposition.

FrequencyCast is doing its bit – three of our team have the Waze app installed and have already added over 80 miles of new roads… and we’re urging our loyal listeners to get involved.

Get the app from your phone’s App Store (iPhone users: Waze in iTunes)

Come on gang… get driving!

Got a phone powered by the Android Operating System? Congratulations – there’s an app for you to install!

The FrequencyCast podcast now has its very own Android app. With our app, you can listen to the latest show, see our latest news stories, read Pete and Carl’s Random Words blog, and see our new TV and Tech guide entries as we add them.

Here’s us, holding a Google phone running our app…

The FrequencyCast UK application is now available for Android phones. In the UK, this includes the following Google Android devices: HTC Dream, HTC Hero, HTC Magic, HTC Sapphire, Motorola DEXT, Motorola Milestone, Samsung Moment, T-Mobile G1 , T-Mobile G2 Touch, T-Mobile myTouch and T-Mobile Pulse. With more to follow!

If you have an Android phone, select the “Market” application from your phone’s menu, press search, and search for “FrequencyCast” in the Android Market store.

The app is free! If you try it, we’d love to hear what you think!

Welcome to March 2010, and to a new podcast. In this show, we get all Interactive at you  – hope you enjoy and get involved…

Here’s what we look at in Show 49:

• News Updates: More Freeview HD, the end of 6 Music and a new phone from Puma.
• Focus: Getting more from your Mobile – Apps, Maps and Gadgets
• Hands-on: The latest mobile phone watch, plus the Olympus Tough
• Your podline and email questions on Freeview and Sky signal, archiving video and buying a new telly

You can download Show 49 direct to your MP3 player or listen online at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html.

If you have an iPod or iPhone, get shows faster by signing up via iTunes.

In this show, we want some interaction, so get texting on 07882 043 521!

Links:

• Show Notes
• Mobile Phone Interaction
• Focus Transcript
• Become a Facebook Fan

Share and Enjoy!

 FrequencyCast UK Show 49 [30:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Vodafone has just relaunched their “Access Gateway” product as “Vodafone Sure Signal”… but what is it?

Well, it’s something called a Femtocell.

No clearer? Thought not. It’s actually a little box that you plug into your broadband router, and what it does is clever. For those living in a valley, basement, mine shaft, or miles from a mobile phone cell tower, a Femtocell acts as your own mobile phone base station, allowing you to make and receive calls on your mobile, as well as surf the mobile web. It works by using your Broadband connection to relay 3G connectivity to Vodafone, ending the reliance on a radio signal from a local mast.

As well as rebranding the service, Vodafone Sure Signal now has an attractive price point. A one-off £50 for the box if you spend £25 a month with Voda, otherwise a one-off £120 a month. Or you can opt for a less attractive £5 month contract.

Vodafone is the only UK provider offering a Femtocell at the moment, meaning that Voda may be able to grab a slice of the miles-from-anywhere market before the other net ops catch up.

Here’s a short video clip showing how Femtocells work:

More details: vodafone.co.uk/suresignal

Let us know if you’d be interested in a review…

iPhone users – you can now watch 11 Freeview channels live on your phone.

The service from TVCatchup.com allows you to watch the following channels:

BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, ITV1, ITV2, Channe 4, Five, Film 4, e4, More 4 and 4 Music.

To watch, point your iPhone web browser to http://iphone.tvcatchup.com/ – No subscription, no sign-up, no app to install. Nice!

Update. One commenter below doesn’t believe that this actually works, or is some kind of viral application. To clarify, this is not an installable app – it’s all done using the native iPhone browser and media player. Here’s a screen grab of TVcatchup in action on an iPhone:

At last – barcode scanning on a mobile phone that actually works. Despite some glowing reviews for the application RedLaser on iTunes, I must admit our hopes weren’t high.

We’ve tried barcode scanning apps for mobiles in the past, notably on Nokia Series 60 handsets, and the results have been dreadful – lots of faffing about to get the phone’s camera to capture the image of the barcode, then a wait while the code was decoded and sent to a database, followed by a “nothing found” type message.

Given that our iPhone 3G doesn’t have a flash or auto-focussing camera, we expected the results to be dreadful…

But it’s not! This is an amazingly well done application. Even without auto-focus, the app is able to get a pretty quick and accurate result. Here’s a shot of Pete scanning in a book’s barcode (and failing to scan his feet)…

It captures UPC, EAN and UPC-E barcodes (no, we didn’t know either), and then look up the prices on Amazon (UK, US, DE, etc) as well as via Google Product Search.

Practical upshot – when you’re out shopping, pick up something you’re considering purchasing, say a book or DVD, scan it, and 5 seconds later, you’ll see how much cheaper the product is online.

Searches are saved for later viewing, or you can order direct from your iPhone browser. We tried it on all sorts of things – books, DVDs, water filters, teabag boxes, Maltesers and a top end over recorder that we’ll be reviewing in a future show – all with positive results.

Yup – we’re impressed. This is one of those must-have apps for the iPhone, and could save you a fortune when shopping.

Update: RedLaser featured in our 15 Oct Audio Update. Transcript available

RedLaser, from Occipital, available for the iPhone, now out, and hot, on iTunes.

Hot off the press, over 16 minutes of tech and TV news from the team at FrequencyCast.

In this update we look at the merging of two mobile networks, what Apple’s been up to this month, Freeview HD testing, BT Vision updates, a Sky offer, the latest on iPhone sat nav applications, and a new DVD release.

The show is attached to this blog entry, or you can listen at www.frequencycast.co.uk/update.html

 FrequencyCast Update 16 Sept 2009 1597790 [16:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Got an iPhone? Turn it into a Sat Nav for £27.

If you listen to Show 43, you’ll have heard us review the Co-Pilot Live satellite navigation application, comparing it with the TomTom and Mobile Navigator applications. CoPilot came out very well, especially given it’s half the price of the TomTom equivalent.

In our review, we had two issues with the CoPilot – the lack of speed cameras and the fact that it lost your route if you answered an incoming voice call.

Good news is… a free update has been released to address this. Well done to the team at ALK Technologies.

CoPilot, is now available from the App Store. Click the icon to open iTunes on the Co-Pilot Live page:

For a comparison of the three iPhone Sat Nat apps, see the FileSaveAs iPhone Satnav Apps Compared page.

Lots for fan of Apple products to sink their teeth into as Apple has released a new set of iPods, a new version of firmware for the iPhone, and an updated iTunes. Here’s a summary:

New iPods:

A new iPod Nano has been released, sporting a video camera and a slightly larger screen. 8 Gig version is £115 and 16 Gig model is £135. At last, an FM radio has been added, as has voiceover, Genius mixes and a pedometer.

There has also been an update to the screen and button-less iPod shuffle, which now comes in Pink, Green and Blue.

There’s also a 64 Gig iPod Touch, for just under £300

iPhone OS3.1

The new iPhone OS adds support for Genius mixes, and will recommend applications that you may be interested in downloading, based on your previous purchases. There are a number of fixes too, including better Wi-Fi performance when using Bluetooth, a phishing alert in the browser, and improved Exchange calendar sync.

iTunes 9

An improved user interface and a new feature called Home Sharing that will let up to 5 authorised computers share music, TV shows and applications.

There’s also iTunes LP, which will supply extra goodies with purchased albums, including song lyrics, photos and video clips.

You can also organise the layout of your iPhone and iPod Touch screens from within iTunes, and there is now more control over what you decide you want to sync to your device.

Lots of new toys to play with. Enjoy!

It’s just been announced that UK network Operators T-Mobile and Orange are set to merge into one company.

This will make the new combined network operator the largest in the UK, with 37% of the mobile phone market, knocking the current number one, o2, off the top spot.

Although the merger will mean less competition in the UK, there are a number of benefits. By pooling resources, it will result in stronger network coverage as rationalisation of the cellbases takes place, Orange will bring their Broadband offering to the mix, and High Street stores will be rationalised. The company will also be able to make cost savings by removing duplicated cellbases and stores, and consolidating departments. This will doubtless mean job cuts.

The merger won’t happen for at least 18 months, and is subject to due diligence checks and UK regulator approval. No new name for the super-network has yet been proposed.

The long-awaited LG Watchphone, the LG-GD910, is now available from Orange.

The Watchphone is 3G, with touchscreen and VGA camera. It also has Bluetooth, eight different watch faces, MP3 playback and a scratch-resistant screen.

The LG Watchphone is a steep £500 at at launch is only available by turning up in person at the Orange Store on London’s Bond Street. From mid-September it will be available online via the Orange Shop.

If you fancy a fully-featured mobile phone watch for half that price, consider the SWAP Phone

We’ve just released an audio update. Here’s what we cover:

Quest Take 2, Freeview retune, ESPN latest, iTunes Chart, a Welsh apology and the best deals for your old mobile.

Links from the show:

• ESPN help: http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/espn.html
• Best deal for your old mobile: http://www.sellyouroldphone.co.uk
• iTunes Review: https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/addUserReview?type=Podcast&id=142899029

Today’s update is a 10 minute mp3 file. Download it or listen online at frequencycast.co.uk/update.html

Feed details: iTunes Feed | RSS Feed

 FrequencyCast Update 12 August 2009 [10:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If you were watching the BBC show “Dragon’s Den” tonight, you may have seen a pitch for a product called “TrueCall” – a gadget that plugs into your phone line and screens out unwanted calls.

All of the Dragons were hot for this product, and it’s not surprising. The Truecall works by looking at the caller display number of incoming calls. You can whitelist or blacklist numbers. For calls with no caller ID, the Truecall asks for a name, giving you the choice of accepting or rejecting the call.

What wasn’t mentioned in the feature on Dragon’s Den tonight, is that the trueCall unit can be turned into an answerphone, and a phone call recorder. Fancy recording your calls for “training purposes”? The trueCall can do that, with a £25 add-on.

We’ve found an online supplier for TrueCall: To find out more about the product, go to http://www.dabs.com/products/truecall-nuisance-call-blocker-5KB7.html.

Anyone interested in us reviewing this for an upcoming tech podcast? Add a comment

Woo-hoo! This has been a great week for those that like their phones shiny with a picture of an apple on.

Two days ago, the new version of operating system OS 3 came out offering cut-and-paste, MMS and a lot of under-the-hood tweaks.

Today, Friday the 19th of June 2009, the iPhone 3GS went on sale at o2 and Carphone Warehouse stores across the land.

The 3GS (the “S” standing for Speed) offers a faster processor, improved battery life, video recording, a uninspiring 3 Meg camera and a digital compass.

The new 32Gig variant is likely to be a popular choice, but boy it’s not cheap – £890. (Assuming £275 for the phone, and £35 a month for 18 months). Those with an iPhone 3G will have to buy out their old contract to upgrade – for many, £245 or more…

Queues at a local o2 store at 8:30am today

Still, you have to hand it to Apple, the iPhone is revolutionary, and for many, including our presenter Pete, this is the must have phone, and it’s still hard to fault (if not afford!)

More on the iPhone: UK iPhone details

It’s been in the press over the last few days, so we thought we’d give this a mention.

When you use your mobile to call a mobile on a different network, you’re charged an MTR (Mobile Termination rate) for the priviledge. This is typically 4.7p a minute. The same is true when you call a mobile from a landline, and the costs can mount up.

Organisations including BT, 3 and Moneysupermarket have kicked off the “Terminate The Rate” campaign, aiming to collect signatures to convince regulators OfCom to be fairer to UK consumers.

If you feel you’re paying too much, sign the petition at http://www.terminatetherate.org , which will be presented to UK regulator Ofcom. You’ can also fire off a quick electronic message of the subject to your local MP, using the provided template.

In San Francisco at Apple’s Worldwide Developer conference within the last hour, Apple’s been presenting all that’s new iPhone-wise:

First off, we can expect a new iPhone later this month in the UK. Launch date on o2 is 19th June for the iPhone 3GS. The “S” stands for Speed – the phone has a faster CPU, a 3 meg camera with autofocus and video capture, better battery life, a digital compass, and voice control. Two models will be available in 16GB and 32GB models. Prices £184 and £273 respectively.

Also, existing iPhone users will be getting a free upgrade to OS 3.0 on 17th June – this adds cut-and-paste, bluetooth gaming, push notification and MMS.

No doubt we’ll be covering iPhone 3GS in the next show!

If you’re planning to get away this Summer – you might want to consider grabbing a Vodafone SIM card before you go.

This June, July and August, Vodafone will be dropping International roaming charges for over 35 countries. Mostly this affects European countries, but Australia and New Zealand are also included.

This three month offer is open to Pay-As-You-Go as well as contract customers, and covers calls, texts and picture messaging abroad. Unfortunately, data roaming charges aren’t covered in this offer (shame!)

The offer runs from 1 June to 31 August 2009, and you have to opt in to Vodafone Passport (which is free).

Countries included are:

Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Channel Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroes, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Isle of Man, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madeira, Malta, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, and Vatican City. Australia and New Zealand are also included.

Full details of how to opt-in to roaming-free voice and text messaging at vodafone.co.uk/roaming

Data roaming is excluded. Listen to Show 38 for some tips on roaming with data on your mobile.