To upgrade, or not to upgrade… that was my question. Looking at the spec of the iPhone 4S, there seemed to be no need to rush out and upgrade, and so, I’d decided not to go and queue for the 4S – but might upgrade when the rush had died down. That having been said, we’ve received a few emails asking for us to review the 4S for the next show, plus tweets from tech chums playing with Siri and the new camera, making me twitchy to upgrade.

Casually checking the o2 site to see how sales were going on Saturday, I did a stock check, and found that a store a couple of miles away from the town I was visiting… had stock. I thought it might be worth a look, so strolled past.

At the o2 store, there was no queue, but a sign saying “No stock”. I popped in anyway, to be told that they did actually have stock after a delivery this morning. So, I thought I’d upgrade.

Please may I upgrade, sir?

Sitting down with the “o2 Guru” at the Basildon store, my details were fed into the computer. I’m one month away from an upgrade. “No problem – I’ll pay the extra month to get out of my contract”. That’s where the problem lies, apparently.

o2 appears to have changed policy on its “Fast Track”, meaning that I couldn’t buy myself out of the contract. Neither could I take out a new contract now, and let the old one lapse – At least, not without losing my number.

o2 Fast Track

It seems that if you’re on a tariff of less than £40 a month, o2 don’t value you enough to let you “fast track” out of a contract. The store manager at o2 wasn’t interested in trying to sort anything out, and the floor staff, while sympathetic, couldn’t do anything. They suggested I call o2 Customer Services…

o2's online upgrade notice - Wait 5 weeks, or go to Vodafone, apparently

Shock 1 – Switch to Vodafone, says o2

A call to o2 Customer Services seemed fairly encouraging, but ultimately fruitless. I could switch to a £41 contract, then Fast Track, but I’d have to pay an extra £6 a month to get any data with that contract (more on that in a mo).

So, I’d go from £36 to £47 a month to be able to get an iPhone 4S. Even if I wanted to go ahead with this craziness, it would take anywhere between 12 hours and my next billing cycle for the tariff change to go through on the o2 system before the in-store team could see the change and flog me a phone.

“Are there any other options?” No, it seems. Then I worked it out… “Can I cancel my contract, and move networks?” Oh yes, that’s fine. Seems I’d have to pay a month’s fee to get out of my contract, but then I’d be free to take out a new (and cheaper) contract, and shift my number to another network operator.

The helpful chap at o2 Customer Services, and then the team instore, confirmed that the only way I’d be able to get an iPhone 4S would be to call for a PAC (the code needed to move to a new network), and shift to another provider. o2 agreed that my shifting to the Vodafone network was the way to go, and did nothing to try to keep me.

Shock 2 – No data on new tariffs

Something else that’s changed in o2′s iPhone policy. When you upgrade to a new iPhone, you have to take out a new contract – and the new contracts don’t include data. Our £35 a month contract with 500MB of data, would convert to a £36 a month contract with no data. A 500MB bolt-on is an extra £6 a month.

As you can’t use an iPhone without data, that’ll now be a £42 a month tariff. A little sneaky, o2?

So long and thanks o2

So, being loyal to o2 for nearly 15 years counts for nowt, and rather than taking my money to fast-track upgrade, tying me into a new long contract, and taking my cash for a new iShiny – I’m off to Vodafone. I can get a phone faster, and be paying less as their tariffs include data (unlike o2′s). Thanks a bucket o2!

We’re assuming that o2 is relying on customer’s lethary, and hoping that customers won’t mind paying more to stay with them, as the alternative is hard work. Which it isn’t.

To switch, call o2, free, on 202, and follow the “want to leave o2″ menu option. Ask for a PAC (Port Authorisation Code), then pop off to your local Vodafone store (or online at Vodafone or Carphone Warehouse)

Audio Update

If you’re interested, young Pete and Carl recorded some audio on the subject:

Fancy a cheap and collectible souvenir of April’s Royal Wedding? Well, here it is. A Limited Edition Wills and Kate Mobile Phone.

In patriotic Red White and Blue, with a picture of the happy couple as a screensaver, this exclusive handset will only cost you a quid, and in a few years, could well go for quite a bit more on eBay.

The phone is made by Alcatel, and for its price (£1), has a few handy features, such as a torch and an FM radio.

For the sheer heck of it, Alcatel has also pre-loaded the phone with a “God Save The Queen” ringtone, to make calls on Royal Wedding Day just that bit more topical and regal.

About the phone

According to the blurb provided to us, this is a one-of-a-kind collector’s item and comes in a commemorative box. On the back of the phone, there’s an inscription of Kate Middleton and Prince William’s initials joined together, as well as the date of the historic wedding. The phone also has a calculator, organiser, FM radio and alarm clock (We wonder if it has “Here comes the bride” as the wake-up tone?)

The Special Edition Royal Wedding Phone is available online exclusively at Carphone Warehouse, for a very limited time only.

Price – £1 for the phone. You have to top up with £10. Delivery is free. You can get it on Orange and Virgin.

If you fancy a collectible, get the souvenir Royal Wedding Phone quickly (before it’s too late) from the following link: Royal Wedding Phone at Carphone Warehouse

In this show, here’s a look at what we cover:

• News Updates: More YouView delays, Vodafone woes, iPlayer news and Channel 4 HD
• Focus: A look at media streaming – how to get audio, video and images around your home
• Hands-on: A first look at the new BT Home Hub, plus recorders, phones and a wireless laptop transmitter
• Your comments and questions on HomePlugs, Clean Nokias, Stoways and BT Vision

You can download Show 61 direct to your MP3 player or listen online at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html.

If you have an iPod, iPhone or iPad, get shows faster by signing up to FrequencyCast on iTunes.

Links:

• Show Notes for Show 61
• Transcript: Steaming Media Explored

We hope you enjoy our latest show. As always, we’d love your comments, in the space provided below!

We’d also like to remind you that without you, we’re nothing. Our shows are free, and we need to you to spread the word – Please mention us on  Facebook and Twitter, and tell your real-world friends too!

According to the BBC website burglars stole some vital computer equipment and network hardware. The Sun’s site talks of sledgehammers being used to gain access.

The break-in seems to have occured in the early hours of Monday the 28th February 2011, and services were out for most of the morning. As of Monday afternoon, we understand voice and data services are back up.

More on this story: BBC News Website

Why? Well, Android’s catching up, and given that Android phones are generally much cheaper with most (if not all) of the features on the iPhone handsets, it’s not surprising that cost-conscious UK mobile phone buyers are shopping around and falling for Android phones.

So, where does this data come from? Well, we found out that Apple’s not number one after being send a news story by one of our keen listeners. Comparison site uSwitch.com has started to publish the uSwitch Mobile Tracker, which lists the UK’s most popular handsets, based on popularity and sales, even showing a handy graph, pop pickers.

At the time of typing, HTC is leading the pack with the HTC Desire, HTC Desire HD and HTC Wildfire in the top, joined by the Nokia 1800 and BlackBerry Curve. iPhone 4 is just in 10th place.

To see the chart for yourself, go to uSwitch.com, click Mobile Phones  and scroll down for the uSwitch Mobile Tracker

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…

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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…

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:

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.

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

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.

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!

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 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

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

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