Omio

T-Mobile January Sales: Even Cheaper G1 Deals Coming!

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 (565)

T-Mobile UK are planning to reduce the cost of the T-Mobile G1 for the second time since the Android-powered handset’s October release.

T-Mobile’s January sale (the first of its kind, credit crunch maybe?) will see the G1’s Combi 30 monthly charge reduced from £35 month to just £31.50.

That’s a free G1 with an 8GB memory card, 700 cross network minutes and unlimited texts for only £31.50, pretty impressive!

Only last month T-Mobile announced their first set of G1 price cuts and freebies, and this new reduction must be a last ditch effort to drive sales before the new batch of Android handsets from Sony Ericsson, HTC and Australian entrepeneurs come along…

The G1 isn’t the only handset to reach bargain status on T-Mobile, there are other mobile phone deals coming our way in January:

• Samsung i900 Omnia - down from £90 to FREE on Combi 30 tariff
• Samsung U900 Soul - down from £69.99 to FREE ON Combi 30 tariff
• Sony Ericsson C902 - down from £107.65 to FREE ON Combi 20 tariff

Source: IntoMobile

Google Ramps Up Mobile Adverts With iPhone/T-Mobile G1 Adwords Support

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 (565)

As the more perceptive of you may have noticed, this humble blog is merely flotsam riding on the back of the whacking great mobile phone comparison behemoth that is Omio.com.

And whilst doing our proper job, we noticed this morning that Google’s advertising system Adwords has added support for mobile devices with full (HTML) internet browsers. This means that canny advertisers can now use the same desktop adverts on both platforms, as well as specifically target only those that surf the web using mobile phones like Apple’s iPhone 3G and the T-Mobile G1 with relevant campaigns.

What does this mean? Mobile browsing is becoming kind of a big deal.

Let the nice lady explain things to you using easy words!

VERY clever. Did you see her distinct lack of mobile phone bias?

The Android / mobile advertising crossover is certainly well underway! This is definitely a contributing factor as to why the G1’s browsing experience is so slick…they want to transfer the quality of Google’s relevant and useful advertising as well as everything else onto mobile phones.

As long as the end user benefits, it’s all good we say!

Source: Google Mobile Blog

HTC Purchases Design Company Responsible For Touch Diamond

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 (565)

Those ‘magical elves’ that helped HTC come up with the Touch Diamond’s unique bevelled back? Seems like HTC were so impressed that they bought the whole company!

San Francisco design firm One & Co., who has developed products for such high-profile companies as Nike and Microsoft has been scooped up by the Taiwanese manufacturer for an undisclosed sum, with One & Co continuing to work with other companies.

The design of the Touch Diamond has been a watershed moment for HTC, with the great success of that handset being mirrored by the keyboard-toting sequel, the Touch Pro as well as the recently released Touch HD.

In such a competitive market, the way a phone looks or feels to use as just as important as the technology under the hood, just look at the success of the Apple iPhone!

HTC themselves are often the go-to guy for designing handsets for other manufacturers, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 (classy looker) and T-Mobile G1 (’nice personality’) were both theirs, and the acquisition of One and Co. can only cement their position as creator as some of the most aesthetically pleasing handsets on the market.

HTC Chief Innovation Officer Horace Luke said of the buyout:

“Design is key, it is why you love or hate something. Integrating iconic design into HTC products is an inspiring and dynamic challenge that requires a unique combination of consumer insight, creativity, innovation and an appetite to take risks; attributes that embody One & Co.”

Let’s just hope they don’t keep the best designs for themselves…

Source: CoolSmartPhone

Nokia N97 vs. Apple iPhone 3G - Clash Of The Touchscreen Titans!

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 (565)

With the announcement of the new Nokia N97, it is inevitable to compare it to the current undisputed champ, the Apple iPhone 3G.

Using our Omio phone comparison widget, we have put the two great handsets side-by-side, flanked by recent releases the T-Mobile G1 and the BlackBerry Storm 9500.

Far from making up the numbers, these touchscreen handsets all pose the most real threat to the latest Nokia dream, proving more than a match on paper…

Let’s break down exactly which wins what:

Size: The N97’s dimensions are a svelte 117 x 55 x 16mm, making it a hair longer, but also narrower than the iPhone’s 116 x 62 x 12mm frame.

That 16:9 screen results in a far thinner face than the stocky iPhone, but that 16mm depth is the thing to notice. This makes the N97 a far sexier proposition than the N95’s horrendous shape, showing that Nokia have realised the importance of both form and function.

Weight: The iPhone 3G is positively waif-like, as it tips the scales at a mere 133g. Yes, that’s a lot, but a relative lettuce muncher in smartphone terms. The N97 comes a close second at 150g, with the Storm at 155g and the G1 at 158g.

More follows!

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The Mobile Phone Keyboard Olympics

By Robin LandycloseAuthor: Robin Landy Name: Robin Landy
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: See Authors Posts (19)

Apparently there’s something going on in London in 2012 that’s costing a whole bunch of money and has got a lot of people all excited.

Alas, the Omio budget doesn’t stretch to Olympic sponsorship, let-alone building our own velodrome. Anyhow, who wants to watch a bunch of men chase each other round-and-round on bicycles, when you could stay in and watch our own Ernest Doku go thumb-to-button with greatest phones on the planet?

We lined up 6 of the best smartphones: the Apple iphone; the Samsung Omnia; the T-Mobile G1; the HTC Touch HD; the HTC Touch Pro (win this in our Touch Pro give-away) and the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. We gave Ernest a set text to type - twice on each handset - so that we could take an average time.

Want to see what happened when Ernest got typing? Check out the video…

More details of the contest after the jump

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T-Mobile G1: Interview With Head Of Corporate Affairs, Robin O’Kelly

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 (565)

Well, the dust has settled on the T-Mobile G1’s launch and with a Saatchi-designed marketing drive, things are well underway. Omio had the opportunity to talk to Robin O’Kelly, Head of Corporate Affairs for T-Mobile. We discuss the handset at length, as well as T-Mobile’s plans for the future.

OMIO: I suppose we should start at the beginning. How did the partnership between the three companies involved in the G1 (HTC, T-Mobile and Google) come about?

O’Kelly: T-Mobile has been part of the Android Open Handset Alliance since its inception. We share Google’s view with regards to mobile internet, in that we want to provide freedom to the customer and we were the first to break the “walled garden” when using mobile internet with web ‘n’ walk back in 2005.

Other networks preferred to control what customers saw and where they clicked as soon as they entered the web, pushing their own services and products. We came at it from the other direction, we thought: ‘if we make the user experience comparable to the one they are familiar with on a PC, they will readily come back and use it more frequently.’ Which they did.

Now you see this as standard practice from the other networks, but it began with T-Mobile.

The G1 is a natural extension of that concept of fast, open and easy mobile internet usage, as is Android.

OMIO: And how was it working with HTC?

They are an excellent manufacturer, and one that has come so far in the last three years or so. They used to make high-end, technically very proficient Windows Mobile driven handsets, including the MDA III for T-Mobile. Now they are entering the mass market place, designing handsets for themselves and others. They are very happy to work alongside many manufacturers, but we think the chance to work with an entirely new operating system was the allure for them with the G1.

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Android Error Turns G1 Users Into Mobile Phone Hackers!

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 (565)

Yeah, we’ve all wanted to be Zero Cool in the awesome movie ‘Hackers,’ fighting the system with DOS prompts and dial-up connections whilst dreaming about Angelina Jolie…well the T-Mobile G1 lets us all become operating system renegades with an unfortunate bug.

This glitch in the Matrix means that the G1 has an invisible pathway to the root functionality of the handset, which means that anything typed can, and will, be interpreted as a valid system command.

So..if someone was to send a text reminiscing about the 1994-2001 computer generated animated television series ReBoot for example, their G1 would…reboot!

Obviously this is not good, so T-Mobile has been quick to patch up the exploit, thus prevent people from wreaking all sorts of G1-related havoc on their phones.

Just imagine if you were to type rm -rf as a root command in a text message! Ha ha! Get it? No? Just me, then. (Note to self: Linux-based humour = not very funny.)

NB: Oh, and DO NOT run the above command, it might sort of delete everything…

Source: ZDNet blog post

T-Mobile G1 Becomes Laptop Modem With New App

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 (565)

A big tick in the ‘reasons to buy a T-Mobile G1‘ column this morning with the announcement that it can be used as a wireless broadband modem, albeit with a little bit of jerry-rigging…

The solution allows lucky G1 owners to share their data connection with a laptop over a USB port. It is a tad complicated, but the net result is broadband on the go by turning the phone into a wireless dongle. Reading the creator’s own notes, it is not a full blown tethering solution as it only provides web access, but it is certainly a step in the right direction!

Be warned, it’s a tad complicated so you could wait for more elegant solutions down the line, but this one works. Now.

Check out the T-Mobile G1 tethering instructions here.

Source: Product Reviews

Android On The HTC Touch Diamond!

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 (565)

Gawd bless those guys at XDA Developers. Whilst we sleep or watch Strictly Come Dancing of an evening (Rachel Stevens to win!) those guys are working hard to make great things happen, including getting Xperia panels running on regular phones and the like.

This time, they have managed to shoehorn Google’s new operating system Android (premiered on the T-Mobile G1) onto the touchscreen of an HTC Touch Diamond, usually staunch Windows Mobile territory!

Granted, there are some teething troubles which the following video depicts in unintentionally amusing fashion, but it is a great proof of concept and Android looks as impressive as ever on the Diamond’s high resolution screen!

How long before they get this running on the 3.8 inch jumbotron screen of the HTC Touch HD and beat T-Mobile to the G2 everyone’s been clamouring for? We give it about a week.

Source: CoolSmartPhone / XDA Developers

Sony Ericsson Mobile Phone Range To Be Cut, Yet They Manage To Leak New Handset Info!

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 (565)

Following on from Sony Ericsson posting their first quarterly loss in the last five years, they are to take drastic steps in order to wrestle the situation back under control.

Despite the world’s economy going into financial meltdown, Sony managed to sell almost 26 million phones in Q3 of 2008, and yet they lost €25 million in the process. That is almost certainly a bad thing, and worse when compared to the €267 million profit made this time last year.

Aggressive moves including cutting the range of handsets by a fifth and the consolidation of their three handset research labs into one were the first to be announced by Sony Ericsson president Dick Koriyama.

The downturn means that less people are buying phones, particularly those that may not have such strong unique selling points as the T-Mobile G1 or the iPhone. Trimming the range and drawing the focus onto ‘hero’ handsets such as the Xperia X1 and the 8 megapixel C905 may well be a step in the right direction for the beleaguered manufacturer.

Enough with all that doom and gloom, info on some more new Sony handsets has leaked!

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