LG and Prada also launched at the event the PRADA Link. It’s a fairly stylish leather strap based Bluetooth watch for use with the phone.

Once paired, the screen on the phone indicates the likes of an incoming call from the mobile, via sound or vibration. Where the call can be silenced or rejected from the wrists apparel. Only you can’t answer them in true Dick Tracy fashion; when will technology catch up with a 1930s cartoon?

It does however have the ability to view any incoming SMSs and also syncs with the phone’s calendar to remind you of appointments. So it’s half way there at least.

There’s even an alert generated on the watch when it’s out of range of the phone. A nice well thought out feature, which could even be totalled up to being a security related one too. If your mobile is in a bag or coat and you’ve breached those 10 allowed metres an alert goes off. And all just in time to see someone making off with all your worldly possessions too.

The watch does look like a nice time piece and even looks good without the onboard gadgetry. Obviously this accessory came from the studios of Prada, and to be honest does compliment the phone nicely and all for 300 Euros.

Sony Ericsson recently updated their series of Bluetooth watches that complement their phones. So it looks like this could be a winner in terms of pimping out your mobile.

For one it’s a lot more discrete and polite to occasionally glance at your wrist on an incoming SMS or a missed call, instead of rudely staring at your mobile every few seconds.

Although it might come across you’re bored of someone’s company and want to leave asap for another much more pressing engagement. As frequent watch checking could even be more socially unacceptable than phone checking.

I took an exclusive tour around the Nokia Handset Test Laboratory in Farnborough yesterday — see what you think. It really has given me a different viewpoint on (and a new-found respect for) Nokia handsets. I’ve always found them reliable and generally well-built, but when you take a look at the level of punishing tests they subject every revision of their handsets to, it really does demonstrate why they’re so well made.

(This is one of Nokia’s 11 handset test laboratories around the world).

I’ll be posting more shortly…

There are lots of neat mobile VoIP services out in the market – two of my favourites are Truphone and DeFi mobile because of the way they embed themselves into a Nokia S60 handset, provide an additional phone number and just work where there’s WiFi. However one provider that I’ve been taking another look at is Rebtel. Rebtel is aimed at people who call abroad using their mobiles (Rebtel does work just as well from landlines) and (not surprisingly!) don’t want to pay the extortionate rates charged by the mobile operators. Whilst Rebtel uses VoIP to carry the international leg of the call, the call to the local Rebtel number is made using your regular mobile minutes. Rebtel’s killer feature is that it works on any mobile phone; no software to install, no SIM cards to swap over. This can be a five quid or a five hundred quid handset – Rebtel just works.

There are several different ways to use Rebtel. First you need to set up an account online and add some credit. At a simple level, for ad hoc international calls, you call the local Rebtel operator number and follow the IVR. This is Rebtel ‘double dial’. However the easiest way to use Rebtel is via ‘direct call’. Login to your account and enter the phone number of a friend or colleague who lives abroad. Rebtel then provides you with a permanent virtual number for your friend. So if I want to call Annie in Australia, I’m given a local UK number to use instead of her Australian number. I save the local number in my phone and use this to call Annie in the future. Cost is zero to my mobile operator (for me) because the call comes out of inclusive minutes, plus £0.013 per minute to Rebtel. I could also make this call for free (assuming inclusive mobile minutes), using ‘smart call’, by asking Annie to call me back on the local Australian number displayed on her handset while I stay on the line. Not quite as seamless but a way to save even more money.

Rebtel has just launched ‘collect call’. If I, as a Rebtel user, call someone who isn’t on Rebtel, they will see a local number displayed on their phone. They can then use that local number to call me back on in the future and I pick up a small call charge from Rebtel. The online account management system lets you manage the settings for ‘collect call’ so you can choose whether to accept or decline calls.

Rebtel accounts and numbers can also be managed via SMS and mobile.rebtel.com.

Rebtel has just launched a great promotion – up to 50 percent off call rates to 23 countries around the world for the next 30 days. A nice gesture in these financially challenging times.

Never one to stand still, Rebtel has been taking a look at the iPhone and will have a Rebtel application in the iPhone AppStore in the next couple of months. They aren’t saying too much about it yet but sounds like one to watch out for. Knowing Apple’s somewhat ambiguous view of VoIP this’ll be interesting!

You can also follow Rebtel on Twitter http://twitter.com/_rebtel

In case you’re wondering, I’m told that Rebtel is a corruption of Rebel Telecom, a fitting name for a market disrupting service provider!

—

Jonathan’s also at Sevendotzero.

Several notable points came to light in the press briefing. The first of which was the handset will also be known as the LG Prada phone, the exact same moniker the first phone went under.

Not LG Prada II, or LG Prada: The Next Generation. In fact nothing to separate it from the first phone which is confusing in itself. Not to mention screwing with people searching on info for the new mobile, which a CNET journo actually brought up and then added somewhat of awkward air to the conference.

How they’re getting around this issue is simple, they’re discontinuing the first phone. It’s as easy as that. The original LG Prada mobile has obviously out served its usefulness and it’s time to put it out to pasture, or put it out of its misery and out of their minds.

Initially they began selling the first phone in 4 countries and on the back of that success they expanded it to 44 more. This obviously proved to be a winner for them and not a bad strategy either.

They shifted over a million of the first generation mobiles, but oddly enough never touched down in America for any sales. This is a route they are duplicating with the new phone, and once again staying far far away from that market.

55% of the original LG Prada phone sales were in Europe alone, with the UK playing a key role within that success. Although we’re unsure what the figures were before the iPhone came out, or how many just bought the phone solely for the Prada name. Both of those stats would be of interest to see. If only to gauge if the phone really had an impact on early touch screen mobile sales and if a fashion name carries weight in Electronics.

This time around, they’re starting with 7 countries and are hitting up Asia in January. From all accounts that was a last minute play with the first LG Prada, from last year. So it’s good to know companies do learn from their success, beside from their failures.

Another point that came out that took us by surprise was the number of handsets LG launch in a year. They release 125 different mobiles on average, globally. Out of that figure, we were told typically only 25 of these phones will make it to the UK. Either proving that carriers are very choosey, we’re very picky as customers or a perhaps a bit of both. We suspect the latter is the case, which leads nicely into the first.

The original phone could be seen as being ahead of the game, which is a feeling jointly shared by both companies who are not shy in airing it either. In a previous piece we touched on the phone came out a good four months ahead of the initial Apple iPhone. Making it the first fully touch screen handset around, which could have led the way or even aided in Apples sales by making its play first.

With the new phone, they are aiming at attracting users who previously bought the first handset and are now looking for the latest and greatest. Although they didn’t actually say ‘repeat business is key to us’ but we could tell they wanted to.

They’re also going after the SMS or email driven users with the new addition of a keyboard. It doesn’t fully fall into the Smartphone category as do the likes of the HTC Touch Pro or Sony Ericsson X1, as it lacks decent business tools and associated features. It could however be seen as a stylish substitute or a fashionable alternative though.

Another point that came up during the briefing is that they’re selling the phone at the very same price as the first, 600 Euros SIM free. This can be seen several ways: either they’re addressing the market economy as it is today, or perhaps realising continuity is key in keeping the customer happy or just the times have moved on in technology on and what they’re included today is a fair and respectful price for what’s onboard.

Either way, we’ll just have to wait and see. With the competition for physical keyboard based phones being rather high at the moment. Especially with those current models already mentioned above are all baying for the same market share. LG are definitely hoping the Prada name will prove to be the deciding factor in sales. Time will tell.

After a short break earlier in the week the prize draw is back and now provides direct dual US and UK currency donations to the 2 good causes. Donate £5 / $10 (or more!) to get chances to win a great selection of prizes.

Please make a donation, help these excellent causes and enjoy some of our best ‘free stuff’ ever!

Alas there was no smoke and daggers and X-Files Cancerman-style shenanigans as per my post this morning. I got a little bit carried away.

I actually got a phone call from Ray Haddow, one of the chaps in Nokia’s Social Media/Communications team. Ray asked if I’d like to see round one of the company’s handset test labs (they’ve got 11 in total around the planet).

“Yes,” I said, “With bells on.”

And so I arrived shrouded in secrecy, joined by Steve Litchfield (All About Symbian) and the dudes from Pocket Lint. No one’s ever got to see round this lab before — and whilst Ray specifically pointed out that there wouldn’t be any new handsets or announcements — the opportunity to see what lengths Nokia goes in order to test their handsets.

They don’t just drop a few and stick them together with sellotape and try again to check out the designs. Oh no. They do a considerable amount of testing.

And I got to see more or less all of their major tests — and film it. The footage is ripping off the camera at the moment and I’ll have some stuff up shortly. If you’re anywhere near describing yourself as a Nokia fan, you will want to see this…

For fun, let’s remind ourselves of the definition of ‘unlimited’:

un-lim-it-ed [adjective]

1. not limited; unrestricted; unconfined: unlimited trade.
2. boundless; infinite; vast: the unlimited skies.
3. without any qualification or exception; unconditional.

Wow… Infinite, unrestricted data… no conditions?  For 30p a day?  That’s not bad.

But let’s check the small print:

Fair Use Policy: [snip] …subject to a fair use allowance of 25MB per day. If your usage exceeds this amount then we reserve the right to charge you for the excessive element of your usage at the per MB data rate for your tariff outlined in our Tariff Table. Unlimited use is within the UK and is for your personal, non-commercial use only. It doesn’t include making internet phone or video calls, peer to peer file sharing, using your phone as a modem… [snip]

So let’s recap:

1. It’s 25MB per day.
2. You won’t be warned if you exceed ‘fair use’ and may be charged immediately at full price (about £2 per MB).
3. You can’t use it for any commercial use - so no work-related e-mail.

That feels pretty limited to me.  The 25MB alone is a disgrace…. Forget uploading more than a few pictures to Flickr, forget last.fm streaming or BBC iPlayer, don’t even try to sync a large e-mail inbox…  Normobs will easily exceed this.  And how is restricting all commercial use fair?  Does a business e-mail have a greater impact on Virgin’s network than a personal one?

Rubbish!

In my opinion this is deliberately misleading - I’m off to see if this is covered by the ASA and make a formal complaint.

The service consists of a tiny £99 black box that gets it’s own location using A-GPS and reports it back to ZoomBak’s servers using Vodafone’s UK network. From there you can track your car, bike, bag or dog (or spouse, child, enemy or anything else you manage to attach the ZoomBak locator to) via a website or SMS. The site also let you setup “safe zones” and you receive e-mail and SMS alerts when the ZoomBak enters or leaves those zones.

Some thought it was a bit pricey but for the peace of mind I actually thought it was reasonable value at £99 for the unit and £10/month service (with a £20 discount for a year’s service in advance) but that doesn’t really matter now as ZoomBak have announced that they are closing down their UK service. Everyone who bought a ZoomBak will be refunded their £99 purchase price and any service they had pre-paid for.

We were planning a big MIR Show feature (no, really. We’d lined up special guests and everything!) that revolved around the ZoomBak that we still might do if the service is still up when the date we’d booked comes around.

Firstly, I call for originality.

I personally think originality should be the first aspect of any design; and one would imagine that being original with design would be high if not on top of the list of things to do when making a new product… But I don’t see it a lot.

Most mobile phones are pretty much the same thing with a slight difference, and upgraded something-or-another; and it doesn’t hold interest. I don’t need a mobile that is only slightly different from the one I own now, so please, don’t try and sell it to me!

I’m not one full of ideas (and I will never claim to be), however, there are thousands of younger people in the UK, and millions around the world who I’m sure have at least a single idea on how to improve mobile phones, and come up with an original idea.

It is due to that, that I find no excuse for what many manufacturers are doing now; and when I look in the Carphone Warehouse, Phones4U or any other mobile-phone shop, and I see the same design specifications and in some cases even just the same physical design, I’m annoyed!

Secondly, a good deal!

Now this is where you get the “student” side to me; the side where I source out the cheapest possible deal. Going back to my first point, do something original at the same time (if you can), like Nokia and their “Comes With Music” – I said it when it came out, and I’ll say it now – BRILLIANT! That’s the kind of thing I love to see.

When I walk around the shops, complaining of the cold, wishing I had a Hot Chocolate, or even that Christmas would end, I want to be tempted to fall back in love with Christmas again. Give me something I can get excited about; a price that is so outrageously competitive that I will part with my cash there and then.

The Mobile networks? Well, couldn’t you give me a Christmas present too? How about a nice reward of getting say half of whatever I top up in the month of December free? (So I top up £10, and I actually get £15?)

And finally…

And this goes to pay-as-you-go more than anything else; bring me some good news about tariffs!

I’ve noticed more than ever my addiction to Facebook, and I’ll admit I spend far too much of my time thinking about Facebook and being on it. It’s edging on the slightly crazy spectrum, but I’ll survive.

The point is though; I can’t feed my addiction well enough. I want to browse on my mobile for a reasonable price, and at the same time I don’t want to be on a contract.
I know some networks (Orange are all of who I can think of right now), offer little bundle systems for browsing, which is a step in the right direction; but I want this on all networks; so that no matter who I am with, I can browse away on my mobile endlessly updating my status, and poking people. Or even check my e-mail; for a good price!

I know it’s too early to be discussing Christmas, but with any luck someone might take notice before the Christmas Eve rush, and this Christmas could be full of lots of mobile delights!

Samantha@mobileindustryreview.com

All in an effort to wet your appetite on what’s around the corner, also it’s unfair to keep you waiting around

LG Prada - main screen

LG Prada - options screen

LG Prada - other main screen

LG Prada - communications screen

LG Prada - entertainment screen

LG Prada - settings screen

LG Prada - utilities screen

LG Prada - on the side

A chap in an overcoat was standing by the car’s open door and as I pulled up, he walked over to me and passed an unmarked padded envelope in through my opened window.

“Your instructions for the visit,” he said, before turning smartly away.

Within seconds the car was gone and I was alone.

I ripped open the envelope as my pulse rate quickened. Inside there was a single A4 sheet.

From the like of my N95, I saw the page was completely blank except for this:

0870 521 3232. 8am. 19-11-08. 112345-998407.

So, I’m going to phone that number tomorrow (Wednesday) at precisely 8am to get my next set of instructions.

If there’s phone signal, I’ll try and update you via Ping.fm, provided they don’t take my Blackberry off me when I arrive.

AV230XL

We were at a lunch and the launch last week of the new personal video Vuzix iWear products, the OLED based AV230XL and the widescreen AV310. Effectively turning your mobile device into a 44-inch and 52-inch screen, respectively, and as if my magic. Tadarr!

These two new models update their range to offer their first, and the actual very first fully, 16:9 widescreen viewable headset in addition to the first OLED display too.

Fitting like a normal pair of glasses, if not a tad bulkier than normal but not uncomfortable, they connect to a mobile source and deliver an image to the onboard screen. If we do say so ourselves, it’s a rather cool and funky accessory to any mobile.

Although the AV230XL isn’t widescreen it makes up for it by offering the OLED display, whilst replicating a 44-inch screen. We were told on the day that a widescreen version is around 18 months away, seeing as they’ve only just introduced this tech in to their range.

As for the AV310, it is widescreen but doesn’t have a stunning image like the V230XL glasses – it’s still quite something to behold. It offers up a 52-inch screen as if viewed from 9 feet away, with Stereo 3D capable headphones.

Both of these new products have connectors for devices with TV Out such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG, Samsung and HTC. It’s here for our dollars worth they really gain their usefulness. The sets are even bundled with an approved “Made for iPod” cable, besides leads for the likes of the Nokia N96 and N96.

Less not forget other devices such as Apple iPod range, MP4 players and games consoles like Wii. All of which are supported.

The usual retailers have them in stock: Firebox.com, Play.com, Applestore.com, Amazon.com or direct from www.vuzix.co.uk.

The AV230XL pitches up £129.99, whilst the AV310 Widescreen comes along at £149.99.

Having tried these out for a while, they do show off their usefulness and deliver a sharp image. What better way to get away from the family at Christmas, stick a movie on the phone and sit back whilst the arguments ensue all around you.

See more on the AV230XL and AV310 here and here

Getting a bit technical for a moment, I got a bit of news through from Sagem Orga, the chaps who make a lot of sim card and sim card related systems.

They’ve partnered with BlueSky Positioning to bring the world’s first Assisted-GPS Sim card to market.

Interesting.

Enter Francois Blanchard, Global Account Marketing Manager at Sagem Orga:

“The SIM is entering a new era where it can now be considered as a real service platform and a valuable device; the A-GPS enabled SIM card will reshape the way SIM cards are perceived by MNOs and end-users.”

I picked up this release as it points to a possible change in the marketplace: With this kind of offering, you won’t necessarily need to be sporting a 500 quid handset to get A-GPS related services.

The primary purpose of A-GPS SIM is to provide accurate positioning information of the phone to emergency services in case of an emergency call as required by E112 and E911 legislation in the EU and the U.S. respectively. In addition to this, it can support generic location-based services such as navigation, ‘find a place or person’ services, location-aware games, and many more.

I wonder how you get the A-GPS location off the sim card and into the handset? We shall see.

It’d be rather good if an operator, say 3UK (who already use USIMs) picked up this and began offering it to their consumers — they’d theoretically be able to offer all sorts of wickedly cool services.

We shall see…

Late today we’re at the launch of the new LG PRADA phone, set to be the next exclusive designer mobile from the joint partnership of those two industry players.

It’s their second handset from the venture, with the first arriving on the scene like a sex machine in mid 2007.

The new model almost mimics the first, and why mess with perfection which is why American Football should go back to its roots of Rugby.

Only this time around it has a slide out keyboard, with the thinness of a size zero model making it look almost like it freshly purged that morning ready for the catwalk.

It’s an often forgotten fact that the original Prada phone made a wee bit of history by being the first full touchscreen phone hitting the market, beating Apple and HTC by months. With more than 1 million sales beneath its designer belt, the successor is bound to be highly awaited with its expensive look.

This time around it’s capable of 3G with video calling, where the previous was only a Tri-band EDGE at its best. There’s also a 5 mega pixel camera lens by Schneider-Kreuznach onboard, the best the last phone could muster was just a poor 2MP at the time.

We’ve been informed the new Prada mobile will hit the stores at a starting price of 600 Euros, although we’ll confirm that later today.

Once again, if there’s anything you wish to ask LG or Prada but were too afraid to ask please fire them away in the comments below. We’ll endeavour to have them answered.

Apple accessory company Incase has just announced a new extended battery for the 3G Apple iPhone, doubling its longevity whilst providing a USB port too.

Arriving at the end of the month, the Power Slider will also be available from the Apple store online at just $99.95.

Only a few weeks back we brought you news of the FastMac iV that extends iPhone talk time by a factor of three. Although only doubling the battery life, the Power Slider does look a lot neater than the iV, fitting in more with its initial look.

The case’s built in battery is chargeable by a normal USB that doubles up as the data port. No more carrying around dire bespoke cables. Hurrah!

Seeing as the iPhone battery’s life isn’t the best in the world, this looks like a must for all Apple phone users. Thinking ahead, it could even be an ideal gift for Christmas, as those shopping weeks are running out fast.

It’s all based around a 1330mAh lithium-ion polymer battery, which looks to be of a very slim design. It works with the iPhone by first using the Power Slider’s battery until fully depleted, before hitting on the internal battery of the actual handset.

This keeps the phone fully charged at all times and can be removed from the Slider at anytime too. Whilst at the same time providing a hard outer casing to the phone, which rivals its own durability *cough*

Overall the Power Slider provides 330hrs of standby, 5 hrs of talk time, 26hrs of audio playback, 7hrs of video playback and 5hrs of internet usage with 6 over WIFI. This is exactly double of what the iPhone offers by default, how wonderful.

To see more on the Power Slide click here

I want a phone that works when I need it to.

I want a phone that people can hear me speak on, unless my signal strength is shot to shreds. If I have more than 2-3 bars out of 5, I expect the other person to hear me properly. The fact that most folk can’t hear me speaking on my vodafone Blackberry Bold is rather worrying.

But by far the biggest arse with being me is that I like to buy new stuff. Bleeding edge stuff. That runs down batteries like no tomorrow.

Case in point today at Future of Mobile. I left the house with the following devices fully charged:

- Vodafone Blackberry Bold
- T-Mobile Blackberry 8800
- T-Mobile UK G1
- T-Mobile N95 8GB (that doesn’t ‘do’ data)

By 8pm the Bold was screaming red. BATTERY LOW was constantly flashing up. It was so annoyed with me for using it, it decided to flash yellow every few seconds to remind me how shit the battery is. That’s not even a full sodding day’s usage.

Not to worry. I’ve got the G1 handy.

But that’s a world of pain. Despite NOT Using it at ALL today, I took it out at 830pm to find that it had 21% battery left.

To be clear: I have not used it. I have not DONE anything with it. Sitting idling with the odd email update has flocked the majority of the battery.

Shite.

My 8800 Blackberry is on 95% power. So at least I still have a handset that I can use.

I think I need a rethink.

I either need to take a leaf out of the books of other MIR contributors such as James Whatley, Dan Lane and Ben Smith, and carry a Proporta or other such mobile charger around.

That really annoys me.

Or maybe I should faff about with multiple device batteries?

Hugely disappointing, given the cash I’m blowing on these devices.

Maybe I should chuck everything else and just use the Blackberry 8800?

[ Written using the rather limited keyboard on my Vodafone Netbook connected via Voda GPRS on the 2245 to Southend Victoria... so there might be quite a few stupid tpyos. ]

Future of Mobile - Preview from Ben Smith on Vimeo.

There’s an excellent range of speakers - Rich Miner is currently on stage presenting on Android and Google Gears, but Doug Richards of Trutap also impressed earlier with an thoughtful discussion of emerging markets… the killer quote “if you read the web you’d think everyone in India was using using a $50 handset to check the price of cereals… they’re not.  If you went to a cocktail party in Mumbai they’d be quite indignant about that…”  He also announced a new version of their IM application.

Jemima Kiss from the Guardian and our own Ewan Macleod told it like it is in the first blogger session alongside James Whatley, Vero and Andrew Gill - there’s more to come later in the day.  It’s nice to see such a mix on stage.

Right now David Wood, Executive Vice President of Symbian, is asking the man from Google about handset compatability… where else can you see that?

ASUS have just released a mobile phone with an 800Mhz processor inside, beating hands down the current spate of the 500+ MHz powered variety around today.

Just as your face lights up with delight, we’re sorry to bring you the sad news that no prices have been set as yet for the ASUS P565, ETA or even an interested network.

Although, only recently we brought you news of O2 running with an ASUSTeK in their Xda range, which could be another good fit here. Seeing as ASUS aren’t known to stand on their own two feet yet as a distinguished brand like HTC are, perhaps the OEM route is still best for them, for now.

Still running from Windows mobile 6.1, it’s a 2.8-inch 480 x 640 touch screen PDA based on their GLIDE UI that has apparently established a score twice as high as others on the Vsbenchmark. Which is a test suite that’s used to gauge the hardware performance of a phone, in graphics and otherwise.

Pitching up as a 3G phone, with Tri-band GSM and WIFI, it’s geared towards the business world as expected with this series of phones by ASUS. This is confirmed by their bundling with the likes of push mail, business card recognition and Microsoft Office Mobile.

The Marvell TavorP 800 MHz powered phone has been given the standby time of 250-300hrs on 3G, 200-250hrs with 2G by Asus. And the talk time of 3hrs on 3G, and 4hrs with 2G. This is comparable with other handsets around and an expected time too.

Is a phone with a processor this powerful really needed, or is it just that time for something new to push the boundaries?

Please discuss below in the comments, as it would be of interest to hear your thoughts on the matter.

- - - - -
I must hear the fireworks
- - - - -

I’m not sure what to respond to this one…
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Posted by email from MIR Live (posterous)

- - - - -
Happy Monday! (Re: published numbers)
- - - - -

Thank you!

If you’d like to send me some weird and wonderful texts… +447769658104. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Posted by email from MIR Live (posterous)

Shutters have come down on the latest CMOS image sensor by Sony, with an all new highest megapixel snap coming into focus.

Ahhh, camera puns – there’s no better way to waste a word count. Seriously though, Sony has just put the wraps on a 12.25 megapixel CMOS Image Sensor named ‘Exmor’ for their upcoming mobile phones.

Also going under the moniker IMX060PQ, and has the industry’s current highest pixel count which is the equivalent to a 12.25 megapixel resolution capable of 4040 x 3032 images.

It’s been designed to not add any unnecessary bulk to the phone, as it only measures up to being 7.5mm in size.

Although no phones have been mentioned as yet in which it might feature, or even a time table for said handsets, it is due to roll off production lines March 2009. Expect them to be seen in phones late next year or just in time for CES 2010.

Especially if you take into account 8megapixals have only just been seen in phones, despite an announcement of a similar nature in 2004

Well that’s what Dan Lane did, hands shaking, whilst handset owner Ben Smith watched.

Originally we set out to film an OTA update happening — working on the basis that this itself would be of reasonable interest to most folk. When you’re used to zapping your Nokia into oblivion every time you do a firmware update, I was keen to see just what was involved.

Mid-way through the update, Dan has the bright idea (”What happens if we take the battery out?”). By the time he got Ben’s approval and fumbled with the battery cover, we *think* the update might have already completed.

Suffice to say:

1. Do not do this at home

and

2. Watch the video to see what occurred…