The Apple iPhone today sheds £100, with the 8Gig version dropping from £269 to £169. Tariff includes 600 minutes and 500 texts a month, plus unlimited data. Details at http://shop.o2.co.uk/iPhone or on the
Carphone Warehouse site

If you’re interested in the iPhone, check out our 30 minute audio review at frequencycast.co.uk/iphone.html

As requested by one of our listeners, we’ve taken a look at some of the ways you can access Mobile Internet, and taken a look at the packages on offer from the likes of 3, T-Mobile and Vodafone.

Just at the moment, there are some good deals to be had on the little USB modems that are used to get your laptop online to the mobile Internet, including a £15-a-month-for-life deal, half-price mobile Broadband, and Pay-as-you-Go access.

We’ve added a special page on the various options at www.frequencycast.co.uk/mobilebroadband.html

The BBC’s 7 day catch-up TV service is now available on Apple’s iPhone.

 The service is currently a beta. You can access the iPlayer from an iPhone by typing in the URL http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer from the iPhone’s browser (a little pink triange stating “Beta BBC iPlayer for iPhone” pops up.

You can only watch video when you’re connected via wi-fi - there’s not enough bandwidth over GPRS or EDGE for video.

On the subject of the BBC’s catch-up TV service - this will apparently be available to Virgin Media customers from April. It’s already available on the free BT Vision set-top box.

The seven-day catch-up service from the BBC will soon be available to Virgin Media customers, and we’ve heard that from March, you’ll be able to watch BBC catch-up TV on Apple iPhones and iTouch devices.

On the 31st January, the TV-over-DAB service, provided by BT Movio, was finally discontinued.

Users of Virgin Mobile’s Lobster 700TV handset, the only UK handset to offer TV-over-DAB, are now greeted by the message “this channel is not currently broadcasting” when they try to tune to a telly station. The phone still works perfectly well as a phone, and a pretty decent portable DAB radio

Shame to see this piece of history come to an end. Any comments? Was the world not ready for TV on a mobile, or was Movio flawed from the start?

Apple has issued a software update for the iPhone. The new version, v1.1.3, can be installed via iTunes.

New features include:

• New Maps application - Find location by mobile phone cell site
• Send SMS text messages to multiple recipients
• Customize Home Screen - Rearrange icons and add browser bookmarks to Home Screen
• IMAP support for Gmail
• Support for iTunes Store movie rentals
• Enhanced Video Player (Chapters, Subtitles, Alternate language tracks)
• Lyrics support in iPod

The two videophones we reviewed in Show 08 have had massive price reductions. The BT Broadband Videophone 2000 with wi-fi is now less than £50 (previously £200). More at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/voip.html#bbv

The FrequencyCast team has been busy with Apple’s much-hyped iPhone. Launched in the UK on the 9th of November 2007, the iPhone boasts an amazing user interface, a full web browsing experience, seamless integration with iTunes, and powerful iPod media playback. However, the iPhone’s not cheap, and lacks the features found on other much cheaper phones. So, is the iPhone a hit, or a miss?

On the day of the iPhone’s UK release, FrequencyCast presenters Carl and Pete got together to put the iPhone through its paces, and we’ve produced a special iPhone show.

In this 33 minute “Unofficial Guide”, the lads cut through the hype and go through each application, one by one. They then explain how to activate one (it’s different to how you get connected with other mobiles), and finally, compare Apple’s UK iPhone with two of the other leading handsets out on the market.

If you’re interested in this new phone, take a listen to our iPhone special and let us know your views. You can download the show as an MP3 file from http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/iphone.html

We hope you enjoy our iPhone special. We had fun putting it together… Thanks for listening!

 

 iPhone UK Audio Guide [33:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Lobster 700TV, the TV and DAB radio phone reviewed in Show 07 is to be discontinued.

According to reports in The Register, Virgin has discontinued the DAB TV phone following service provider BT Movio’s decision to scrap the mobile TV service.

The Lobster became available in October 2006, and the mobile TV service is reportedly to set to end in January 2008.

Virgin’s just halved the price of the Lobster 700TV phone. This means that for under £50, you can get a DAB radio and a phone (plus 5 channels of TV), on Pay-as-you-go (no contract). A bargain well worth nabbing, while stocks last. More on our Lobster 700TV page