Articles tagged with: o2

A mere six years on from the original Xda, the O2 smartphone brand has finally made it onto pre-pay. Remarkably, the Zest is the first Xda on O2's Pay & Go - designed to "encourage first time PDA users to swap from conventional handsets".

Temping them over from their Series 40 Nokias will be a 2.8in touchscreen, complete with "finger-friendly touch interface", a 3mp camera, Wi-Fi, HSDPA and Windows Mobile 6.1.

As an extra bonus enticement it'll also come with a month's worth of free CoPilot Live sat nav. Click through for more details and the full press release.

We've been able to get our hands on the shiny new Xperia X1 since the end of last month - for a price. But if sim-free isn't your style, you'll be pleased to learn that it's now available on Vodafone.

The touchscreen Sony Ericsson is free on the red network's 18-month contracts above £45 (which'll get you 900 minutes, unlimited texts and iPhone-matching unlimited data). If you only want to be tied for a year then you'll have to stump up an eye-watering £80 a month to get it for nowt, with none of the unlimited data and text privileges but a frankly rude 3000 minutes of talk.

Following on from Orange and T-Mobile, Vodafone has now launched its own version of the RIM BlackBerry Bold. As on Orange and T-Mobile, it's available for free - as long as you don't mind signing up for a 24 month contract (ouch!) at £35 a month.

Still, that's £10 a month cheaper than free BlackBerry Bolds available on 18 month deals with the other two networks.

It just leaves O2 and 3 as the only operators not to have launched RIM's shiniest new smartphone. 3 said it'll have it from November, and O2 is no doubt busy crippling optimising it with its own software for launch sometime soon.

[Vodafone]

If you’ve been keeping up, you’ll know that Apple has no compunction about removing programs from its App Store without warning or explanation. However, has Apple also engineered in an ability to make the iPhone in your pocket turn off any apps the company deems undesirable?

Jonathan Zdziarski thinks so. If you’ve not heard of Zdziarski then we’ll remind you that that he’s the clever chap who used his own ‘forensic toolkit’ to discover that Apple had been sending out refurbished iPhones that contained data from previous owners. Well, now he’s been picking apart latest (2.x) version of the iPhone OS – and his findings make for uncomfortable reading. More after the cut.

Apple's been touting the enterprise friendly features of its new iPhone 2.0 firmware but a new report's concluded that while its business-oriented features may be fine for small companies and eager prosumers, they may not cut the mustard with large corporations and their IT departments.

After putting iPhone 3G through its paces for three weeks, the analyst firm, Gartner, concluded that: "Enterprises should approach expanded use of the iPhone slowly and with close examination." More details after the cut.

For a fleeting moment one of the iPhone’s most-wanted features – tethering to a PC to function as a wireless modem – was a reality.

At some point yesterday a program called NetShare pitched up in the App Store. Published by Nullriver, a few folks coughed up the $9.99 asking price, downloaded NetShare and found that they were able to turn their iPhones into a mobile hotspot. Big w00ts all round.

Well, for about 30 minutes – before Apple saw fit to pull NetShare from the App Store. According to MacRumours, the reason for its removal is a complete mystery to the developer. Nullriver’s quote is pasted after the cut.

O2's come up with an attractive offer for mobile broadband users. It's giving customers who sign up to its £20 a month mobile broadband tariff free home broadband for a year.

For that you'll get 3GB of HSDPA data per month, unlimited access to O2's Wi-Fi hotspots (which includes BT's Openzone network) and O2's standard 8meg home broadband package. As a sweetener it's also throwing in a Wi-Fi router.

The offer's available from tomorrow till 31st October.

[O2]

Daytime TV whore and self-proclaimed money-saving expert, Martin Lewis, has posted some curious iPhone tariff calculations on his own-brand website (go on then – it’s Money Saving Expert, and correct hyphenation be damned).

The breakdown pinpoints apparent savings to be made by exploiting O2’s willingness to allow subscribers to switch tariffs after 9 months.

So, taking the 8GB iPhone as an example, plump for the £45 tariff and then downgrade to the £35 plan halfway through the 18-month term, it’s possible to save £9 over the term. This is because the £35 tariff has a £99 upfront fee for the iPhone, where the £45 plan has none. Simple maths and £9 saved, thank you very much Money[-]Saving Expert. But Lewis overlooks a much simpler way to save rather more money when bagging an iPhone. You’ll find our real money-saving tip after the cut.

There's been nothing official on this but two separate but interesting stories are pointing to the fact that O2 might not have the iPhone 3G as an exclusive for much longer.

Firstly the online mobile store Omio is reporting on its blog that they, "have word from a very, very credible source on the inside that the iPhone 3G will be available on Orange in the UK, possibly as soon as October."

After the panic of launch day, fresh iPhone 3G stock is starting to arrive. O2 says its stores have 'limited' supplies but the good news is that pallet loads of the Apple handsets have arrived at Carphone Warehouse's, er, warehouse.

They'll be going out to stores today, with 800 of its shops expecting a delivery by 2pm. It'll be its largest delivery since the phones went on sale on 11th July so get in quick if you want one.

Alternatively CW is accepting orders via its website - if you trust that following O2's online launch-week woes.

[Carphone Warehouse]