Omio

fonolo Rubs Soothing Balm Over Phone Menu Burn

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate is one of Omio's resident mobile experts.See Authors Posts (196)

Automated menus are annoying. I think it’s fair to say that no one would choose to experience an automated menu if they had a choice. Thank the lord for the exciting new, free service, fonolo! fonolo’s website describes its service thusly:

“Pick the company you need, scan through their phone menu visually, then just click the spot you need to call. fonolo will automatically dial, navigate their menu and then dial your phone. When you answer, you will be connected to the right spot in the menu. We call that “Deep Dialing”. You’ll call it smart.”

Actually I’ll call it pig lazy, but I’m not here to argue semantics. Deep dialing (insert immature comment here)? That don’t impress me much. Luckily that’s not all fonolo offers:

“fonolo’s Intelligent Call History takes things to another level:
* It automatically organizes all of your calls to a given company, regardless of which phone you used or which number was dialed.
* It stores recordings of all the calls that you can review at any time or forward to someone by email. (Coming Soon: transcriptions.)
* It allows you to write text notes during a call that get stored with the history. You can later search and review those notes.”

fonolo won Best New Product at ECommm 2008, which is no mean feat. I’m not 100% sure about this, but I think fonolo is only available to North Americans at the moment. It’s also still in closed beta (full service launches in September), but you can register for the service here.

Official Site: fonolo

Source: DataZilla

BIC Hates the Environment, Loves Lung Disease.

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate is one of Omio's resident mobile experts.See Authors Posts (196)

Ignoring the current trend for recycling, the pen/lighter manufacturer BIC has joined forces with US company Hop-On (remember them?) to bring disposable mobile phones to Europe. The phones will initially only be available in France, where they’ll be released on 7th August. The handsets will cost around £40.

The battery is already charged so the phone can be used as soon as it’s purchased. The battery can be recharged using a USB connector. The BIC phone is disposable in the loosest sense of the word: although talk time can be extended, the phone number is only valid for one year. Users will have to register their phone with Orange after the first ten minutes of talk time. So what distinguishes this handset from usual pay-as-you-go phones? It’s the fact that the battery is charged from the get-go, and that you can only use the phone number for a year. Great…

Source: Mobile Burn

Sony Ericsson’s Latest Concept Handset

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate is one of Omio's resident mobile experts.See Authors Posts (196)

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve beaten a wall with my fists/face whilst shouting, “WHY?! Why won’t you make this beautiful concept phone a reality?!” Why do I have to look at things like this (no offence, Nokia 1650) when designers are creating things like this?:

That’s Ammunition’s concept handset for Samsung. They’re the company who are rumoured to be designing the Gphone.

Sony Ericsson have just released this image of their concept Walkman handset, called the W1000. It has a full HD OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) touchscreen display, 16GB of memory, 5-megapixel camera, 3.5mm jack and Walkman v.4. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: make me this phone, bitches.

Source: Toys and Gadgets

The Worst iPhone App?

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
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Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate is one of Omio's resident mobile experts.See Authors Posts (196)

The good news is it only costs 99 cents…

Mobile Phones Make Finding a Parking Space Easier

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate is one of Omio's resident mobile experts.See Authors Posts (196)

Good news for the US: smartphones will soon be helping to ease the pain of finding a parking space in busy cities. In a few months, San Francisco will see 6,000 of its 24,000 metered parking spaces fitted with wireless sensors. These sensors will be connected to a network that will alert drivers when a space becomes free. The “I’m free!” alerts will be displayed on street signs, and drivers will also be able to check whether a space is free on their smartphone.

The plastic sensors may even save people’s lives because, in San Francisco, arguments over parking spaces make people stabby. In 2006, 19-year-old Boris Albinder was stabbed to death in an argument over a parking space. Parking spaces are definitely high up on the “pathetic reasons to murder someone” list.

A dozen other major US cities are discussing implementing the alert scheme, but New York isn’t one of them. This is despite a study showing that 28-45 % of traffic in the city is caused by people circling the blocks, looking for somewhere to park. Also, drivers searching for metered parking in a 15 block area around Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side drove an average of 366,000 miles a year. Sorry New Yorkers; as San Franciscans smile benevolently at their phone screens before pulling into an empty space, you’ll still be driving in circles and swearing up a storm.

Source: New York Times

Will the BlackBerry Thunder have a Higher Res Screen than the iPhone?

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate is one of Omio's resident mobile experts.See Authors Posts (196)

It’s still unconfirmed, but the news leaked from the House of RIM is that the BlackBerry Thunder will have a 360×480 screen, compared to the iPhone’s 320×480. More news: the official model number is the BlackBerry 9500 and it’ll be running OS 4.7.0 (the BlackBerry Bold runs OS 4.6). Feel free to print off the above picture (from Boy Genius Report) and put it on your wall next to that poster of Megan Fox.

Source: BlackBerry News

Thank You, Sony Ericsson

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate is one of Omio's resident mobile experts.See Authors Posts (196)

I’ll admit that, with the exception of the hefty but impressive Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1, I have been less than complimentary about Sony Ericsson. Yes their business sense may leave something to be desired but I cannot fault their generosity. At yesterday’s British Grand Prix they donated their spare boxes of chicken and chips to Team Omio. Thank you SE; may your profits increase every day. If you want to send us a few XPERIA handsets too, that’d be great.

Man Downloads “Prison Break”, Gets Billed £31,500

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
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Ian Dobsyn loves Prison Break so much that while he was on holiday in Portugal he hooked up his laptop to the internet using his phone and downloaded the series finale. Silly Mr Dobsyn didn’t check the small print of his contract, which said that it did not include unlimited internet use abroad. When he got home he faced a bill for £31,500.

Apparently Mr Dobsyn had “expected [the bill] to be just £150”. I hope he used his phone for other things because paying £150 for an episode of Prison Break doesn’t strike me as being good value. Apparently he also downloaded a few music tracks too. Yep… still not seeing why he’d be content to pay £150 for this.

Don’t worry though – Mr Dobsyn had his solicitors look into the bill, sent by Yes Telecom, and the charge was cut to £229. Seeing as a large percentage of his bill was what the Portuguese telecommunication network charged his network, this doesn’t seem entirely fair. Of course, his company then avoids having to fight a legal battle (and condemnation from other people who also don’t read contracts before they sign), but Mr Dobysn now thinks he’s in the right and will no doubt continue to behave like a plank. Is there no justice?

Source: Metro

The Texts Are a Lie

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate is one of Omio's resident mobile experts.See Authors Posts (196)

It’s one of the worst things about having an email address; the unbelievably unbelievable scam email. Your email provider will shut down your account if you don’t forward this to 20 people, a petition will be sent to the US President to save the whales, someone wants to transfer $30 million to your bank account. Who falls for this crap? Being duped into forwarding an email (and risking the ire of your less e-challenged friends) isn’t nearly as bad as losing money. According to this source;  (be warned, it’s a PDF) in 2005, 24% of internet scams were initiated by email, compared to just 6% in 2003. Seems like there are a lot of idiots in cyberspace.

I’m sure you’ll all be pleased to know that scams have spread to text messages, or at least they have in Australia. Scammers are pretending to be hired hitmen and are trying to extort thousands of Aussie dollars from their victims. Here’s an example of one of the messages: “Someone paid me to kill you. If you want me to spare you, I’ll give you two days to pay $5000. If you inform the police or anybody, you will die, I am monitoring you.” The “hitmen” also provide payment details and an email address to their victims. Do people believe the messages? The police won’t provide any details, which suggests that they might. Oh dear.

What should you do if you receive one of these texts? The police advise the following: “These SMS messages to mobiles should be ignored and (we) stress that money should not be sent nor contact made with the scammers.” Another PSA: your bank doesn’t have a Hotmail account.

Source: Mercury

Nokia Announces Brand Spankin’ New Supernova Range

By Kate CrowleycloseAuthor: Kate Crowley Name: Kate Crowley
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: Kate is one of Omio's resident mobile experts.See Authors Posts (196)

The Nokia 7210

The Nokia Supernova range includes the 7610, 7510, 7310 and 7210. Clearly aimed at the ladies (although Nokia claim they are also suitable for “style conscious men”), the Nokia 7610, 7510 and 7310 devices feature Xpress-On covers in a variety of hues and textures. The 7210 lacks the Xpress-On covers, but you can get it in ‘bubble gum pink’ or ‘vivid blue’. Which is nice.

Does the Nokia Supernova range live up to its name? Yes, the phones are comparatively bright, but will they unleash a burst of radiation capable of briefly outshining a whole galaxy? Let’s hope so.

You can read more about the features of each handset in Nokia’s press release. More images after ze jump.

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