Omio

HTC Touch HD To Be T-Mobile G2?

By Ernest DokucloseAuthor: Ernest Doku Name: Ernest Doku
Email: ernest.doku@omio.com
Site: http://blog.omio.com
About: I like gadgets, loads! I like talking about them, writing about them, using them, watching other people use them though binoculars... Some would say it was an unhealthy fascination, but then I'd be all like, "Shh...," and go back to doing gadget-related things. Hit me up on Xbox Live or PSN, I'm EJStyleS. I promise to give you a good match as well as talk about things that aren't gadgets. A bit.See Authors Posts (450)

This voracious blogosphere rumour has just begun to gather enough weight to make it plausible… G1 News reports that T-Mobile and Google are interested in making the HTC Touch HD their second Android-powered handset.

The 3G device has a huge 3.8″ touchscreen, built in GPS, Wi-Fi and Pocket Office, everything to make it a competitive handset to the iPhone 3G in the right hands.  The 1.5 million preorders for the T-Mobile G1 is just the confidence boost for Google and HTC that is needed to prove that they can compete with the big boys, provided their device is appealing enough to the general public.

Oh, and is this the real reason why we won’t be seeing the HTC Touch HD making it to US shores? Could T-Mobile have already claimed it for their own nefarious purposes? Stranger things have happened…

Apple iPhone: Over 10 Million Served…Three Months Early

By Ernest DokucloseAuthor: Ernest Doku Name: Ernest Doku
Email: ernest.doku@omio.com
Site: http://blog.omio.com
About: I like gadgets, loads! I like talking about them, writing about them, using them, watching other people use them though binoculars... Some would say it was an unhealthy fascination, but then I'd be all like, "Shh...," and go back to doing gadget-related things. Hit me up on Xbox Live or PSN, I'm EJStyleS. I promise to give you a good match as well as talk about things that aren't gadgets. A bit.See Authors Posts (450)

At an Apple conference early last year, when Steve Jobs announced their new entry into the mobile phone market and a lofty goal of 10 million sales in 2008, many were very sceptical.

This was an industry with established titans like Nokia and Samsung, dedicated sellers who would not let such an unconventional device go unchallenged for long.

Despite the legions of iPhone killers, the flood of touch-based challengers that have been released or announced like the Samsung Tocco, the Samsung Omnia, the HTC Touch Diamond, the LG Viewty, the LG Renoir, the Samsung Pixon…none have had close to the same impact.

Even Nokia and BlackBerry have reluctantly entered the touchscreen domain, and whilst the 5800 and Storm 9500 seem like the most well equipped to dethrone the champ, is it too late to stop the charge?

With help from the revamped iPhone 3G, Apple have managed the unthinkable and reached their goal…three months early.

Looking at individual IMEI codes (a unique 15-digit handset identifier given to every single mobile phone made), the Apple Finance Board have tracked and logged 8 million handsets manufactured by early September, and all of those and many more have since been sold through. Wow.

The double whammy of the iPhone 3G and the new firmware and App Store (which I correctly predicted to be a game changer, thank you!) has worked wonders for the iPhone, breathing new life into what was considered a fad and technologically underwhelming device.

Apple performed what can now be officically coined as “doing a Nintendo,” perplexing the industry and consumers alike whilst selling lots of units through innovative ideas and application, despite what many would consider to be an inferior product. Wii Golf, anyone?

Champagne and cigars all round for Apple, methinks! As impressed as we all are with their success the big question, as ever, is “What next?”

iPhone 3G Goes Corporate With Japanese Sign Up

By Ernest DokucloseAuthor: Ernest Doku Name: Ernest Doku
Email: ernest.doku@omio.com
Site: http://blog.omio.com
About: I like gadgets, loads! I like talking about them, writing about them, using them, watching other people use them though binoculars... Some would say it was an unhealthy fascination, but then I'd be all like, "Shh...," and go back to doing gadget-related things. Hit me up on Xbox Live or PSN, I'm EJStyleS. I promise to give you a good match as well as talk about things that aren't gadgets. A bit.See Authors Posts (450)

The Japanese arm of management consultancy firm BearingPoint has made history, by being the first company to sign up for the iPhone 3G.

That have placed an order of 1,000 handsets from Japanese carrier Softbank, with their business analysts and workers to then use them for work across the nation.

That being said, Bearing Point is not a Japanese firm, merely a US company pitching big business abroad. Could staff out there just not get the hang of local kanji-filled Tamagotchi phones?

Nevertheless, this marks an important shift in Japanese sentiment as the smartphone (in the conventional sense) has been a tough sell in the country, due to relying on very insular technological conventions regarding mobile phones. Preferring to stick with home grown devices, business focused devices, including those sporting Windows Mobile, have been largely overlooked.

With the first 3G service for the BlackBerry launching last year and high consumer interest prior to the iPhone 3G going on sale in July, it looks like opinions might be changing. iPhone sales have not been to maintain their high initial sales, but could the future be bright for high tech exports to the land of the rising sun?

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Adds A Facebook Feed “Human Interface”

By Ernest DokucloseAuthor: Ernest Doku Name: Ernest Doku
Email: ernest.doku@omio.com
Site: http://blog.omio.com
About: I like gadgets, loads! I like talking about them, writing about them, using them, watching other people use them though binoculars... Some would say it was an unhealthy fascination, but then I'd be all like, "Shh...," and go back to doing gadget-related things. Hit me up on Xbox Live or PSN, I'm EJStyleS. I promise to give you a good match as well as talk about things that aren't gadgets. A bit.See Authors Posts (450)

Nokia’s first touchscreen device is certainly one for the people, and they have completely capitalised on this fact by adding an RSS-feed style update for your contacts on the Home screen of the 5800 XpressMusic.

The smartphone’s Contacts menu smacks of a social networking site, allowing a one touch method to access details of any stored names and numbers.

“We have used touch technology where it really adds value such as the Contacts Bar, Media Bar, and clever shortcuts from the home screen to menu items such as calendar, profiles and clock,” crowed Nokia’s Senior VP Jo Harlow, triumphantly. “Users can highlight up to four favorite contacts on their home screen and, through a single touch, track a digital history of recent text messages, e-mails, phone logs, photos and blog updates.”

The Nokia 5800 is a handset poised to tackle Apple’s iPhone 3G in the competitive savvy youngster market. Perhaps this kind of always connected messaging system is what the kids are into these days…

Two tin cans and some string, I was happy.

T-Mobile Pulls Plug On 5,000 Base Stations, Upgrading To 3G

By Ernest DokucloseAuthor: Ernest Doku Name: Ernest Doku
Email: ernest.doku@omio.com
Site: http://blog.omio.com
About: I like gadgets, loads! I like talking about them, writing about them, using them, watching other people use them though binoculars... Some would say it was an unhealthy fascination, but then I'd be all like, "Shh...," and go back to doing gadget-related things. Hit me up on Xbox Live or PSN, I'm EJStyleS. I promise to give you a good match as well as talk about things that aren't gadgets. A bit.See Authors Posts (450)

T-Mobile seem to be eager to make the move into 3G, by taking down 5,000 of their masts and beginning to share resources with the 3 network.

The 3 network claim to have the best 3G network in the country, bathing 98% of the UK in lovely high-speed access glow.

This is certainly beneficial for T-Mobile, as their levels of 3G reception will increase greatly, as well as themselves and Hutchinson 3G reaping combined savings of approximately £2 billion over the next ten years.

Cashback!

LG KP500 Brings Touchscreen Joy To The Masses

By Ernest DokucloseAuthor: Ernest Doku Name: Ernest Doku
Email: ernest.doku@omio.com
Site: http://blog.omio.com
About: I like gadgets, loads! I like talking about them, writing about them, using them, watching other people use them though binoculars... Some would say it was an unhealthy fascination, but then I'd be all like, "Shh...," and go back to doing gadget-related things. Hit me up on Xbox Live or PSN, I'm EJStyleS. I promise to give you a good match as well as talk about things that aren't gadgets. A bit.See Authors Posts (450)

Apple may have innovated as far as touch screen phones are concerned, but with us at Omio drowning in our free phones often forget that they are all pretty expensive! The Samsung Omnia, iPhone 3G and M8800 Pixon are all targeting the gadgetophile, leaving the market without a mid-range handset to sway the casual consumers.

Well, LG are about to fix all that with the KP500, a full touchscreen phone which is affordable, but not at the expense of technology or style. Weighing only 89g and at a thickness just shy of 12mm, the phone is certainly a nice looker, with the 3 inch screen making it look like a facsimile of the recently announced LG Renoir.

Focusing on what it has got as opposed to what it lacks, the KP500 has a 3 megapixel camera, accelerometer based gaming, an FM radio with RDS and a microSD slot to expand the memory to 8GB.

Features getting the chop to keep costs down are all around connectivity. It unfortunately lost a G in a freak boating accident to make it a 2G quad-band phone, also ‘missing’ are GPS and Wi-Fi support, with it does have 2.1 Bluetooth support, which is nice.

If you still think that cheap equates to not being good, this brief promo video might change your mind about the KP500…

Coming out in an increasingly crowded October, the phone has not been given a concrete price, but we can guarantee that it will be affordable, or so their press release is so eager to reiterate…

Check out Omio’s LG KP500 features page to get a look under the hood of this wallet friendly winner!

T-Mobile G1 Data Cap ‘Will Be 3GB In UK’

By Ernest DokucloseAuthor: Ernest Doku Name: Ernest Doku
Email: ernest.doku@omio.com
Site: http://blog.omio.com
About: I like gadgets, loads! I like talking about them, writing about them, using them, watching other people use them though binoculars... Some would say it was an unhealthy fascination, but then I'd be all like, "Shh...," and go back to doing gadget-related things. Hit me up on Xbox Live or PSN, I'm EJStyleS. I promise to give you a good match as well as talk about things that aren't gadgets. A bit.See Authors Posts (450)

T-Mobile’s G1 handset has gone down pretty well amongst the industry, but one factor that really divided opinion was the 1GB data limit placed upon contracts.

Any overzealous downloaders would then face a shuddering crawl down to 50Kbits/sec, not far off the bad old days of dial-up modems.

Before too long, the US market were up in arms at this hobbling of a service touted to revolutionise the mobile internet, and as such T-Mobile reconsidered, and the cap was lifted. What they were going to put in it’s place, however, was not mentioned explicitly…

The British contingent of T-Mobile have been far more forthcoming with information, as well as far more generous, promising a fair usage limit of 3GB of data when the G1 releases over here in November.

“If you exceed that you exceed that you won’t be charged initially, but if you continue the heavy usage you may get a call from a T-Mobile representative suggesting that you upgrade your account,” a spokesman told VNUNet.

Sounds fair to me, and it puts the G1 back on a more level playing field with the web-friendly iPhone 3G. Even the Pay As You Go handsets offer unlimited mobile internet and wi-fi for a small fee, with a generous fair use limit.

At least T-Mobile seem quick to react to keep the public on their good side. The G1 is certainly their most important release to date, it has to go off without a hitch!

Unlocked iPhone 3Gs For Sale…In A Land Far Far Away

By Ernest DokucloseAuthor: Ernest Doku Name: Ernest Doku
Email: ernest.doku@omio.com
Site: http://blog.omio.com
About: I like gadgets, loads! I like talking about them, writing about them, using them, watching other people use them though binoculars... Some would say it was an unhealthy fascination, but then I'd be all like, "Shh...," and go back to doing gadget-related things. Hit me up on Xbox Live or PSN, I'm EJStyleS. I promise to give you a good match as well as talk about things that aren't gadgets. A bit.See Authors Posts (450)

Rejoice! Apple has seen sense and begun to offer unlocked, SIM-free iPhone 3Gs! Oh, make sure you’ve packed a lunch though, as you’ll have to make a trip to Hong Kong to get one.

The Hong Kong iPhone 3G site has pinged up an unlocked model of the handset without any fanfare, and have some decent price points too.

They are obviously a lot more pricey than getting a subsidised contract deal, with the 8GB model selling for 5,400 HK dollars (£370 or thereabouts) and the 16GB costing 6,200 HK dollars (just over £430).

With a sim locked version selling for £350 and £400 respectively in the UK, it isn’t too much more to pay for a version which accepts any SIM card. The only thing required is that the SIM be installed before the iTunes sync and activation.

Apple seems to be very agile in responding to consumers and networks. The iPhone was doing decent business whilst tied into specific carriers, but the move across to an unlocked structure must have been one which was market driven.

Locked contract iPhones are still currently on sale in Hong Kong, however, through the 3 network’s Asian arm.

The rest of China has recently been offered a 3G-less iPhone 3G, a model without any broadband connectivity (including Wi-Fi) as a consequence of the Chinese government’s preference of the TD-SCDMA network standard, as opposed to the more common HSDPA.

With these unlocked iPhone 3Gs being sold in Hong Kong without any official word or press release, could Apple be offering choice to China under the radar? The two countries aren’t that far apart…

Source: MacNN

HTC Goes Handset Crazy With Touch HD, Viva and 3G

By Ernest DokucloseAuthor: Ernest Doku Name: Ernest Doku
Email: ernest.doku@omio.com
Site: http://blog.omio.com
About: I like gadgets, loads! I like talking about them, writing about them, using them, watching other people use them though binoculars... Some would say it was an unhealthy fascination, but then I'd be all like, "Shh...," and go back to doing gadget-related things. Hit me up on Xbox Live or PSN, I'm EJStyleS. I promise to give you a good match as well as talk about things that aren't gadgets. A bit.See Authors Posts (450)

Well played HTC. No fanfare, no leaked shaky-cam footage, they just calmly updated their official site with a triumvirate of touchscreen handsets, sat back and watched the blogosphere implode.

The HTC brand has been doing very well redoubling their efforts to penetrate the market, and these three new phones bring their range up to date in fine fashion.

The HTC Touch Viva seems to be the new entry level handset for HTC, a clean and simple design whilst providing a slight variation on TouchFLO 3D for the user interface. It is a 2G quadband handset, and whilst not having the horsepower of the other two, is still an impressive looking device.

The HTC Touch 3G is…well, just like it sounds. A truer successor to the original Touch than the Viva, the Touch 3G offers HSDPA connectivity as well as a 3.15 megapixel camera. The 2.8 inch touchscreen has handwriting recognition and the TouchFLO interface, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as well as GPS, and comes in at a svelte 96g.

The HTC Touch HD seems to be the jewel in the crown, with specs which take the device on a direct collision course with recent successes like the Samsung Omnia.

A huge 3.8 inch WVGA touchscreen, auto-rotate to work in widescreen as well as upright, a 5 megapixel autofocus camera, and the inherited TouchFLO 3D experience from the Touch Diamond and Pro give this phone an impressive pedigree.

Flourishes like the slim design, a second videocall camera, and the Xperia-matching resolution of 800×480 pixels make this a real handset to watch in the coming weeks.

The only problem is no word about pricing and availability of the trio of touchscreen lovelies, but with spy shots of the HD already out and about, they could be here sooner than you think…

iPhone 2.1 Jailbroken, It Works.

By Ernest DokucloseAuthor: Ernest Doku Name: Ernest Doku
Email: ernest.doku@omio.com
Site: http://blog.omio.com
About: I like gadgets, loads! I like talking about them, writing about them, using them, watching other people use them though binoculars... Some would say it was an unhealthy fascination, but then I'd be all like, "Shh...," and go back to doing gadget-related things. Hit me up on Xbox Live or PSN, I'm EJStyleS. I promise to give you a good match as well as talk about things that aren't gadgets. A bit.See Authors Posts (450)

Not a huge surprise anymore, but the iPhone Dev Team have already broken the new 2.1 uber-firmware for the iPhone/3G, with both QuickPwn and Pwnage updates to be used by the “network challenged” amongst us.

Firmware 2.1, jailbroken or not, is definitely A Good Thing. Where to start?

Everything is faster. Everything. The keyboard lag? Gone. Taking 20+ seconds to access texts or e-mails? Not any more! The iPhone is back to being a joy to use.

If you know what you’re doing, do it again and upgrade to the new firmware!

Almost feel bad about dropping it on the unforgiving concrete last night. Me and the iPhone have a love/hate relationship…but I can’t stay mad at her!