Omio

The Mobile Phone Rip Off

By Peter RosscloseAuthor: Peter Ross Name: Peter Ross
Email: peter.ross@trafficbroker.co.uk
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Raised by wolves, in the darkest of woods, Pete eventually left the pack. He emerged into the world blinking and half feral with one true dream: to write about mobile phones on the Omio blog.See Authors Posts (37)

Tonight on channel 4, Dipatches has another scare-mongering documentary on. This time it’s about mobile phone charges (yikes). To look at the advert you’d think it was about some imminent global catastrophe, war, hunger, famine, plague but no it’s actually about being over charged on your mobile phone bill (horrifying). I guess they’ve actually exhausted the subjects that they can get the general public worked up about, so they’ve begun to scrape the bottom of the barrel.

I may disagree with the Dispatches promotion and their Daily Mail-esque scare tactics but they are usually pretty informative and well researched programmes. So check it out, if your interested, tonight at 8.

Source: Dispatches

Brand Spanking New LG Secret

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate's interest in mobile phones began when she realised she was supernaturally adept at Snake 2. She was less good at Battleships and, frankly, we shouldn't even mention Pipes.See Authors Posts (206)

LG have announced their new super-di-dooper handset, called “Secret”. The Secret is a carbon fibre-accented thing of beauty and, at just 4.1 inches tall and half an inch thick, packs a lot in. Here are the specs for your viewing pleasure:

2.4″ QVGA touchscreen display, 262k colors (boo), tempered glass, auto-rotation support
5 megapixel camera with flash, autofocus, face detection and image editing software
30 fps VGA and 120 fps QVGA video recording with SmartLight automatic lighting adjustments and Movie Maker software
Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
MicroSDHC support
Email client, Office document viewer, Google package and YouTube application
Included accelerometer-based game pack
Voice Clarity technology to minimize background noise for callers
800 mAh battery

Source: The Boy Genius Report

Six Mobile Phones that remind us of Music Artists

By Peter RosscloseAuthor: Peter Ross Name: Peter Ross
Email: peter.ross@trafficbroker.co.uk
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Raised by wolves, in the darkest of woods, Pete eventually left the pack. He emerged into the world blinking and half feral with one true dream: to write about mobile phones on the Omio blog.See Authors Posts (37)

1) The Velvet Underground

The iPhone

Apparently Brian Eno once said that, although only a few thousand people bought the first Velvet Underground record when it was released, almost every single one of them was inspired to start a band. The same rings true with the iPhone and almost every other phone manufacturer. Step forward LG (LG Prada) and Meizu (Meizu M8) in particular. How many other phones will an iPhone-esque operating system appear in? When will the phrase ‘iPhone Killer’ cease to haunt my dreams?

2) BlackBerry 8110

Nelly Furtado

What happened to Nelly Furtado? Once she was a sweet hippyish folk singer who penned such pop hits as ‘I’m Like a Bird’. Now, in her ‘Maneater’ guise, the Canadian singer has transformed herself into some sexually charged harlot. I’m not being cynical but I see this transformation as an attempt by the record bosses to make her more commercially viable. You can see it in her dead eyes as she grinds about a club in her R&B inspired videos. She doesn’t want to be there, she wants to be playing a guitar, barefoot, in a tepee. This brings us to the pink BlackBerry 8110. The BlackBerry is a dependable, sensible phone, beloved of business men and other solid types. Why have they made it pink?! Is it to suit the accountant who loves exotic derivatives and girlish hues? It just doesn’t fit and it is as untrue to BlackBerry’s image as Nelly Furtado’s new sexiness is to her old sweet self.

3) Pantech Concept Phones

Bjork

Just look at her, she’s as mad as a hatful of snakes. But you have to love Bjork, what with her crazy music, eccentric costumes and her penchant for beating up journalists. What phone could possibly match the personality of Iceland’s most famous (only?) export? Step forward Pantech, whose fresh, innovative attitude towards handsets has resulted in some groundbreaking designs. It’s Pantech’s collaboration with some Korean students that makes them eligible for the ‘most like Icelandic star Bjork’ award. Take a look at these beauties. I just wonder what they were on when they thought of them, and more importantly, where can I get some?

4) Virgin Lobster 700TV

Amy Winehouse

What on earth do the Virgin Lobster 700TV and Amy Winehouse have in common? Well, they’re both extremely good at what they do, and they both look like a sack o’ crap. The lobster is plastic, cheap looking and really retro, but is a very good concept. It has an unsightly lump on the side which is actually a TV application (not a tumour) that lets you stream TV through to the unwieldy handset, or any suitably equipped receiver.

Ms Winehouse has a beautiful voice and has produced brilliant music but unfortunately looks like something the cat has puked up; some half digested crow, a touch of pond scum and a lot of hair.. Like Amy Winehouse, the 700TV has some shortcomings, but these are more to do with unreliable reception and clunky design than hardcore drug abuse.

5) LG Chocolate

Fischerspooner

All style no substance is the phrase that best sums up both the LG Chocolate and Fischerspooner, the much derided Electroclash duo. Fischerspooner’s exuberant and over the stop stage shows were a weak attempt to hide the fact that their music was formulaic, heartless and unoriginal. In fact, in their first London performance, one plucky Brit was so incensed by them that his response was to start lobbing the only thing he had to hand at the stage. Not rotten tomatoes, not bottles of piss, but sandwiches. Likewise the LG is quite a diverting spectacle but it is an utter nightmare to use. With a crap interface and basic features, if Fischerspooner ever play London again I might be tempted to lob this poor handset at them instead of some ham and cheese granary baps.

6) Motorola V100

Gazza

If you melted a personal organiser, a mobile phone and a turd down in a pot, then poured the resulting mess into a Tupperware to harden, you’d end up with the Motorola V100. This thing is so bad that it doesn’t have a built in speaker and microphone, forcing you to use a hands free device when you want to make a call. Why is this telephonic-offal like Gazza? If Dante had created a Tenth Circle of Hell, it would be packed to the gunnels with the Motorola V100 and Gazza singing Fog on the Tyne. The Motorola V100 and Gazza’s musical career were two of the worst ideas anyone has ever had. Watch the video below and you will understand.

Hello, is Rotting Corpse There?

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate's interest in mobile phones began when she realised she was supernaturally adept at Snake 2. She was less good at Battleships and, frankly, we shouldn't even mention Pipes.See Authors Posts (206)

I know this story is over three years old but, like a fine wine, I think stories like these only improve with age.

Back in 2005, Jürgen Bröther from Osnabrück, Germany created the “Phone Angel”. The idea is that you can keep in touch with a dead person through the power of the mobile phone. It is a “long-life battery powered cell phone device” and allows you to have contact with the deceased after they have shuffled off this mortal coil. If personal pain, distance, disability or sheer laziness is keeping you from visiting your loved one’s final resting place then this could well be the product for you.

Before you get the wrong idea, Bröther is not a mentalist. The Phone Angel is not a Ouija board, and it’s not a séance. It won’t provide a link to the spirit world, but it will provide comfort for those who want to keep in touch with a corpse. It’s just a mobile phone, a super strength battery and a small loudspeaker encased in a waterproof container. This is placed in the earth about 30 centimetres above the grave. The battery will allow almost a year of contact. What a dark, dark idea. Bröther sold three of these devices in 2005. At €1,500, they don’t come cheap.

Automatic call response means that your loved one can never pretend to be too busy to talk to you. The Phone Angel receives communication, as if the person on the other end had answered the call. “I’m sorry I can’t come to the phone right now, I’m dead”.

Source: DW-World

What’s that coming over the hill, is it the Motorola ZN5?

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate's interest in mobile phones began when she realised she was supernaturally adept at Snake 2. She was less good at Battleships and, frankly, we shouldn't even mention Pipes.See Authors Posts (206)

Another Motorola ZN5 leak has sprung out of China, complete with snazzy photos. You can see the Kodak 5 megapixel camera winking at you like a brazen hussy. The camera will be enhanced by Xenon flash for low-light photo shooting and, usefully, has a sliding cover to protect it.

Digitimes said back in March that we can expect the handset in the second half of this year. Terrifying anthropomorphic penguin not included, but the ZN5 does have GPS. May I never type a sentence like that again.

Source: SlashPhone

Nokia N82 – “Best Mobile Imaging Device in Europe”

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate's interest in mobile phones began when she realised she was supernaturally adept at Snake 2. She was less good at Battleships and, frankly, we shouldn't even mention Pipes.See Authors Posts (206)

The Nokia N82 has been awarded the ‘Best Mobile Imaging Device in Europe 2008’ by the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA). Thanks to its integrated A-GPS functionality, the Nokia N82 automatically geotags images with capture location metadata. This makes it possible to view the capture location on a map either on t’internet, or on the device itself. You can also upload your pictures or videos directly from the N82 to services such as Flickr or YouTube.

For highlights of this award-winning phone, go here.

Source:SlashPhone

Sony Ericsson Z780 and G502 – Flailing and Failing

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate's interest in mobile phones began when she realised she was supernaturally adept at Snake 2. She was less good at Battleships and, frankly, we shouldn't even mention Pipes.See Authors Posts (206)

Sony Ericsson have just announced two new mid-range handsets, neither of which managed to raise more than a half-interested “oh?” from Omio. Sony Ericsson’s profits are down 38% from Q1 of 2007, and lacklustre phones are hardly going to help.

The Z780 clamshell is the global, sister handset to the European-only Z770. Its got the usual suspects: UMTS, HSDPA 850/1900/2100 and quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE radios. Sure, it has Google Maps and aGPS navigation, but how good is that on a 128x 160 pixel display? At least, that’s the resolution Sony Ericsson gives on the product page. The press release says the Z780 has a 2.2 inch display with a 320×240 resolution. No no no no, Sony Ericsson, don’t funk with our hearts.

The G502 candybar has Google Maps but not aGPS. It’s unlikely to venture out of Europe with its UMTS/HSDPA 2100 and GSM/GPRS/EDGE 900/1800/1900 radios.

Both handsets feature M2 memory expansion, Bluetooth and 2 megapixel cameras. Wooo!

Unlocked iPhones to Run Amok?

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate's interest in mobile phones began when she realised she was supernaturally adept at Snake 2. She was less good at Battleships and, frankly, we shouldn't even mention Pipes.See Authors Posts (206)

This morning I had a bad attack of the shakes. My mouth felt dry, my skin had turned an unattractive shade of yellow, and I had an unsavoury series of hallucinations. I hadn’t quit heroin, so I wasn’t sure what was going on. Then it hit me – I hadn’t written about the iPhone in ages!

A few days ago, it was announced that Italy will be getting a non-exclusive 3G iPhone, which means that there won’t be any revenue-sharing with a network. The iPhone hasn’t been doing as well in Europe as was hoped, but would Apple change their business plan so drastically to appeal to the market? La Repubblica claim that Jobs is willing to trade in the revenue sharing for a higher purchase price. The article argues that the mobile market is changing, and that revenue will come from three areas: infrastructure revenue for voice and internet access will be paid to the telecos, premium services and content will be paid to the content providers, and social networking and search functions will be ad-supported.

Now it’s been reported that Belgium will be following suit. Astel.be (translated link – check out the poetry of the first sentence) reckon that a 3G unlocked iPhone will appear in May/June and will work on any carrier. It’s unlikely that Apple has given up on revenue-sharing, but they do need to loosen Nokia and Sony Ericsson’s vice-like grip on the European market.

Source: MacRumours

Smartphones – Not Yours

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate's interest in mobile phones began when she realised she was supernaturally adept at Snake 2. She was less good at Battleships and, frankly, we shouldn't even mention Pipes.See Authors Posts (206)

Looking to buy a smartphone? You might be out of luck. According to Tavis McCourt, an analyst at Morgan Keegan, there are “an increased number of Out of Stock (OOS) situations involving Palm, RIM and Apple”. I can’t believe that the phrase ‘Out of Stock’ has an acronym.

You’d think that the handset manufacturers would be raking it in; their products must be leaping off the shelves. Not so. The shortages appear to be related to product transitions. For example, the Treo 755p has been out of stock for two weeks on Sprint’s website, and is almost impossible to find in shops. The 755p will shortly be replaced by the 800w. Trouble is, the 800w is twice as expensive as the 755p. Substituting a $200 for a $99 one is not going to win your customers’ hearts.

Thumbs Free Set….Is It?

By Peter RosscloseAuthor: Peter Ross Name: Peter Ross
Email: peter.ross@trafficbroker.co.uk
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Raised by wolves, in the darkest of woods, Pete eventually left the pack. He emerged into the world blinking and half feral with one true dream: to write about mobile phones on the Omio blog.See Authors Posts (37)

Here’s a clip from E4’s excellent Phone Jacker series. Here the nation’s favourite phone pest rings up a mobile phone shop, in what sounds like South Wales. To be fair to the assistant, he’s got some good advice