Mobile Phone Blog – Mobile phone reviews and news

Vodafone is proud (for good reason) to announce that all text donation made through the network operator’s special numbers will be given to charities 100% -no texting or transaction charges will be deducted from the amount that is transferred. In what is considered to be one of the most generous and ingenious ways of promoting the spirit of reaching out to others, mobile network operator Vodafone seems to have just hit the sweet spot.

In today’s society, there are plenty of people who are willing to help aid many important charities and causes –if only financially. Time and energy are resources that people are not always willing to share, and often, even the simple act of handing out a check may take plenty of time and effort.

This is what makes text donations so successful and basically what makes any drive successful too. Mobile phones provide convenience: and instant and easy way to help out without having to take an hour away from work or other activities.

The medium is already successful as it is. After all, almost everyone in the UK owns a mobile phone and the process is as simple as texting a single message. The effort and energy needed is minimal, and the only time lost is a little under a couple of minutes at best. The greatest and most rewarding part of the whole act is that people still know they got to help out too.

Now, Vodafone is encouraging more people to start or keep donating through their channels. With a promise that all the proceeds would go to charity, many more people will be inclined to make donations (after all, having several donation transactions would originally rack up on a monthly bill).

Of course, the biggest beneficiaries are the charities, volunteer groups, causes and relief centers that would be receiving the donations.

Bookmark It

Okay, so we know that things are not exactly rolling so smoothly for the biggest mobile network operator in the UK. With 6 stores just closed and 375 redundancies recently removed, the folks at the big V are not exactly jumping for joy at the moment.

But that does not mean that their device launches have been affected in anyway. In fact, everything they announced to be coming this April are still getting the green light which means that next month will be one of the most exciting ones for the mobile phone industry.

April will open with the release of the HTC Desire, Legend and the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10. These three impressive Android smart phones have been in the news reports quite a lot thanks to their high end hardware.

The XPERIA X10 may be Sony’s first attempt to make an Android device but considering the excellent mix of hardware they put in (the Snapdragon processor and the 8 mega pixel camera) along with the software (the new Timescape UI), it will certainly be a phone to watch out for.

The HTC Desire and Legend smart phones are currently the to-have devices for the Android fan community. The Desire is a perfect retail-accessible alternative to the Nexus One which can only be obtained online, while the Legend is the best mid range device available on the market.

Mid April will have Vodafone offering the Nexus One to their clients, but with Google still stern about its online-only rule, the Vodafone promotion may not do much for the smart phone.

The network will be finishing big with the launch of the Apple iPad by the end of April. Both the 3G and non-3G versions will be available and the tablet will be available on various plans.

For more info about Vodafone and their launch of the HTC Desire and Legend, go to Tech Radar.

Bookmark It

While it has yet to be determined whether the problem is a single isolated case or is a widespread matter, Vodafone owners of the HTC Magic might want to take the microSD card that comes with the phone to a computer with a properly set-up anti-virus software (or a technician if you doubt your tech skills).
Apparently, an employee of the Panda Research Blog has found a key-logger on the SD card that came with her HTC Magic. The problem was pretty specific; it was loaded with a “Lineage password stealer”. While this was the only malware reported, it may be possible that other malware may be hiding in the card as well –which is why you should have it checked.

In any case, this is a major problem that has to be sorted out by Vodafone. While no damages have been incurred by the malware, the fact that they have failed to run a thorough check of their hardware and accessories goes to show how much they can be held liable for. While it is not certain that Vodafone themselves are at fault, it could be a disgruntled employee, or from the supplier of the SD card itself.

In any case, this first generation Android is pretty much being left behind with newer Google Android smart phones being released this year –particularly from HTC itself. The HTC Desire and the HTC Legend are expected to be coming out this April (the Legend is currently confirmed to be available from Vodafone as well).

HTC has a couple more Android smart phones planned to arrive later this year. The HTC Supersonic is also a Snapdragon device like the Desire while the HTC Scorpion is expected to come with a very high speed processor (possibly a dual core CPU).

Get to know more about the malware found on the HTC Magic from Vodafone at Know Your Mobile.

Bookmark It

It has recently come to our attention that Vodafone has already begun the removal of over 300 employees from their positions at the mobile network operator. It was announced that the jobs to be removed were redundant and that the action was part of a major cost cutting plan in order to streamline company processes.

While all this may sound like understandable news, reports of how many employees were removed paint a very bleak and dismal picture. According to certain reports, employees from within Vodafone have voiced their complaints and disapproval at how their colleagues were treated.

One comment even stated that the personal belongings of the staff were taken to a reception area without their prior knowledge. This was done while they were being told in a different room that they were being let go of –certainly, there would be some serious problems by Vodafone’s methods here, and touching their employee’s properties without prior permission is bound to cause troubles.

Details of the whole event are still sketchy without any official statements, but many have testified that the employees who were fired were “escorted” out of the building premises and that the offices were full of teary eyed employees who have spent many years working loyally in the company.

Union representatives have already begun a move to help support the employees who were removed. They have also expressed dissatisfaction at the way Vodafone handled the process and the simple fact that the company failed to consult with the employees prior to the job removal. Many claim that Vodafone should have warned the employees in advance to allow them enough time to adjust and find new jobs prior to losing their work.

Read more about the major job cut for mobile network operator Vodafone UK at Mobile Today UK.

Bookmark It

The major concern about Vodafone’s little Twitter incident made people worry as to whether the company’s account had been hacked.

With information theft on the rise, such concerns are natural and valid. Fortunately, the actual problem is a lot simpler and is not a major issue at all. Apparently, an employee of Vodafone had posted an offensive post on Twitter which promptly got re-tweeted before the original post had been deleted. The offending post apparently had discriminating remarks against the gay community and had sexist connotations towards women.

Vodafone employees had posted several other tweets to apologize and clarify the events. According to the posts, the operator already identified the offending employee and suspended the person indefinitely. The matter is being handled internally and it is probable that the employee would be terminated for the misconduct –which makes perfect sense.

The main assurance that Vodafone representatives gave was that “this is not a hack”, showing that security was the real issue in the event.

Despite this little problem, the rest of 2010 has been good to Vodafone. The company started the year by taking out the HTC HD2 and the XPERIA X2 from its 2010 lineup of mobile devices. It was later announced by Google that Vodafone will be a partner of the company in distributing the Nexus One in the UK.

The latter half of January saw the launch of the Apple iPhone –Vodafone UK sold 100,000 units in the first week alone. The number of subscribers is continuing to grow as iPhone subscribers from rival O2 are reportedly switching over to the Vodafone network. With the larger, faster and more stable 3G network offered by the company, it is easy to understand why.

Read the full article on the Tweet and Vodafone’s reaction to the event at Thinq UK.

Bookmark It

Korean mobile phone giant Samsung has created and released two touchscreen smartphones exclusively for Vodafone when the network launched its Vodafone 360 service last October 30^th.  Meant to replace the 7-year old Vodafone Live, the new service promises to facilitate the integration of various phone and desktop communication, online social networking and multimedia features in one place.

The Samsung smartphones looks like they were fashioned and updated from the earlier S8300 UltraTouch and rebadged Vodafone 360 M1 and a more upscale H1 variant.

Social Networking Integration

With the network’s 360 service behind it, the Vodafone 360 M1 and H1 can maximize its features set running on the revitalized LiMo or Linux Mobile operating system.  Earlier used in the popular Motorola ROKR and RAZR series, the new Release 2.0 is as stable as rock and if Vodafone plays its cards right, could easily give Android phones a run for the money.

Social Networking and messaging integration with your phone contact in one 3D user interface as well as automatic sync capabilities of your multimedia files between your handset and desktop computers are nothing new these days. But it does help when the network is fully behind these features.

Supporting Hardware

The handsets are basically dual band 3G/UMTS with HSPA broadband data connectivity that makes social networking and messaging online a no-wait activity.  The Vodafone 360 M1 features a 3.2” OLED touchscreen with wide VGA resolution and 16 million colors, same with the H1 except for its slightly larger 3/5” display.

Then you have 3.15 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash on the M1 and 5 megapixel resolution on the H2.  The Vodafone 360 M1 doesn’t have WiFi but both have Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP.  They also have GPS, FM radio, 3.5mm headphone jack and multimedia players supporting the popular media formats.  The M1 has a more modest internal memory at 1GB while the H1 has 16BG with both expandable with an added 16GB form their microSD slots.  The M1 enjoys a longer 10 hours of talk time while the H1 has 8 hours on the same 1500 mAh lithium ion battery.

Bookmark It

Replacing the older version called Vodafone Live!, the Vodafone 360 has been unveiled in the Samsung mobile devices, which converges a users’ contacts and social networks accounts. It was recently made available to eight European countries, and currently tops the market when it comes to putting together the contacts from the mobile device, for SMS messages and those from the social networking services like Google Talk and Facebook. Such address book is called the Vodafone People.

While Vodafone reported it is on its last stages of developing a preloaded version for four Nokia handsets, industry analysts were quick to say that Vodafone 360 has made communication through the internet a much easier means using mobile phones.

Forrester Research analyst Ian Fogg told BBC news that the Vodafone should prove a tough competitor for Apple, Motorola, HTC and Palm which have dominated the handsets offering social networking features. Particularly because it is not limited to Vodafone customers alone; instead, the services can be used by once Vodafone users after they have switched providers.

Also, the elements of the service can work well with customers using a PC or a Mac, and the service opens use for over 1,000 applications as well.

This move by Vodafone was seen by the industry as a timely and smart decision, considering that smartphones are purchased for the applications they offer. In fact, Apple’s App Store with over 65,000 applications reports close to 2 billion downloads since it was released. Google, Nokia and Blackberry quickly followed suit by opening their applications store using their operating systems, while the Microsoft product is in its last stages of development.

Vodafone is seen to be evolving as a network operator now offering applications, particularly because a large part of its 315 million subscribers will no doubt purchase the Vodafone 360.

For related posts, click here: news.bbc.co.uk

Bookmark It

Mobile phone users on the Vodafone network are keeping a close eye on the latest innovation the telecommunication company is bringing in its services. The Vodafone 360 sounds very good to them as it is being promoted, but it will not be until the users can get their hands on one of the phones which would actually offer the kind of experience that Vodafone 360 promises. The first of those phones is going to be Vodafone 360 H1, and it is being highly anticipated by potential consumers.

The Vodafone 360 H1 has an attractive design and a 3.5” OLED touch screen, which looks spectacular in the preview photographs and videos. The touch screen promises a sharp resolution with 800 x 480 pixels, and the LiMo operating system is also expected to be providing a rich touch screen user interface experience. It may not be the lightest and thinnest of the sets around, but it has sufficiently convenient dimension, not being larger than four and a half inches, and being exactly half an inch thick. But it would not be producing a huge bulge in your pocket.

The kind of experience that Vodafone 360 is expected to deliver is what most of the mobile manufacturing companies and networks are focusing about these days, and that is, providing a convenient way to manage and synchronize your online activity. The interface users will experience in Vodafone 360 will place them just a touch of their fingers away from updating their status on different social networking sites, to access any contact information they need, to read their latest email messages or to chat live with their friends. The interface also allows users to compile an integrated contact list on their phone, bringing together all the scattered information on different websites. The rich display promises an enhanced experience in viewing your photographs in conveniently organized albums, some of which you could also take from the 5.0 mega pixel camera featured on the phone. Let’s hope the phone really lives up to its promise.

Make sure you have a look through all the Vodafone 360 H1 contracts if you are intrested in owning this phone.

Bookmark It