I’ve had my iPhone 4 from 3 for 16 months and it’s on a 24-month contract. The new iPhone 4S is out. I want it.

What do I do?

Well, I walk into the 3 store yesterday and I ask for an iPhone 4S. I was quite prepared to pay some kind of early upgrade charge or .. whatever, really. I didn’t care. I just wanted the iPhone 4S and — like the good Apple consumer I am — I was prepared to pay. My expectation was that the whole experience will cost a bit of cash.

The chap in the store recommended that I take out a new line instead of upgrading the existing line and paying the upgrade charges. I’m sure that this makes his figures look better. It also saved me money.

“Just don’t phone up and cancel your current one immediately!” he said.

Here, then, is what I did with Three.

1. I took out a new contract for an iPhone 4S. I paid £279 up front as I wanted the 64GB version. It’s a 24 month contract. [Interestingly the chap in the shop never ONCE mentioned the contract length. <s>He didn't ask if I wanted 18 months</s>.]

2. I’ve got 8 months left on my iPhone 4 contract.

3. I called up to find out how much it would cost for me to kill this contract today. Answer = £240 charge.

4. I went on to envirofone’s website to see how much they’d pay me for the iPhone 4. Answer = £215.

That’s almost cost neutral.

(When, errrr, you ignore the £279 up front I paid for the 64GB — the 16GB would have been free, I think).

My point is this: Why didn’t 3 just take my old iPhone 4 from me, terminate the existing contract and establish a new one?

Instead we went through the rigmarole of establishing an entirely new line. Great, their figures will be enhanced. That’s another contract customer! Until, that is, I give their retentions team heartburn by phoning up and killing the old contract, adding a churn to the figures.

Still, I’m happy. I’ve got the 4S now and it’s nice and fast.

That image there highlights just how good the all new 3 MiFi (Model: E586) is when it comes to offering a usable internet connection. Indeed, this connection isn’t just usable, according to Speedtest.net, it’s actually better than 65% of the rest of the United Kingdom. Love it.

I’m using this at home in Ascot and anecdotally, the speed and responsiveness feels a lot better than your standard fixed-line broadband connection. It leaves the shared (i.e. slow) connections of BT Openzone and The Cloud in the dust — so once I’ve got my fixed line BT Infinity installed tomorrow, I’ll most definitely still be using the MiFi unit.

I’m particularly pleased with the updated model (I previously had the E585 — very good). The 586 has a nice little button on the side you can press to immediately get a reminder of the MiFi’s access code. Very handy. And it’s super, super fast.

I’ve used 700mb this morning already.

You can pick up one of these from 3 now from £71.99 — which includes 3GB of data to use right-away.

Update: As per the comments, just to be clear, the £71.99 model is the E585 — that’s about a year old now. You can pick up the new E586 that I’m talking about for £84.99 including 3GB of data.

You know the offending account I’m referring to? The one where I was stupid, STUPID enough to run up a £120 bill based on 58 megabytes of overage? (Read: An expensive example of Three’s stupid data policies)

I’ve been rather annoyed at how stupid I’ve been.

I paid £5 for the ‘internet max’ option years ago when I took out the contract — that gave me 2GB usage every month. I obviously ended up using 2,058 megabytes before 3′s billing system stepped in and stopped the spiralling costs.

Which reminded me — why am I even bothering? I’ve been paying £37/month for ages, which, I’m told by the chap I called in retentions, makes me a very valuable customer.

Ordinarily I’d think he was flattering me. But when you look at the amount of 16 pence ARPU customers that 3 is continually chasing, perhaps the guy had a point.

All told I think I spend about £100-150 a month with 3. I’ve got a broadband dongle account. I’ve also got an iPhone 4 account.

So I definitely don’t need to pay £37 a month for the SIM that I put in the MiFi unit — which ended up costing me a stupid amount of money.

It’s a fundamentally emotional response. It’s also steeped in fiscal logic. What’s the point in paying more than I need to?

The point was to be insured against this kind of aberration. For some reason — and I know it’s stupid — I was expecting the 3 billing system to do the equivalent of that stormtrooper in Star Wars and just wave me on. Come on, I’ve been paying you lots of money, for ages!

Of course it’s silly. The systems don’t work like that.

Humans do.

So here’s what I did: I phoned up Three and got put through to the cancellations team. The chap who answered was impressed that I’ve had the line since 2004.

I did my best to avoid mentioning the £120 charge. Yes it’s my fault. Yes it was stupid of me to not have monitored the billing. Yes it’s supremely annoying 3′s system didn’t suspend my usage a lot earlier to avoid the extra costs. Yes it’s highly emotional.

Eventually upon questioning — the chap was very good — I revealed that, really, I was cancelling primarily as an emotional response. I was embarrassed that I ended up paying three times my standard line rental on Sunday because of the 58 megabytes of overage. Schoolboy error. Of course, I’m also reminded that I don’t really need the line either. I’ve got my iPhone 4 line — which has proper unlimited data.

I pointed out that I was rather frustrated to have run up a stupid additional bill on Sunday and that this had reminded me I didn’t need the line.

“But if you cancel, you’ll need to pay one more month,” the chap said.

“Yeah,” I replied.

That confused the chap.

“Cancel it please, I don’t need it.”

The guy went through a series of special offers. I listened politely and then declined. Three or four times he did this. He was very thorough. Then I confirmed I wanted him to cancel the line.

I could hear the poor chap deflate.

My biggest worry — strange word, that, but it was a worry in this particular context — was that he’d seize on the £120 charge and waive it, then offer me an HTC Sensation for free with a gazillion minutes (etc) on some contract. I’d have found that really difficult to ignore. I was adamant that when I phoned up, I’d just asked to cancel and not explain the motivations.

The chap didn’t pick up on this. I believe he mentioned it was unfortunate and then offered me another tenner-a-month-deal. It’s a strange one though — I think the £120 overages are highly, highly unfair. Yet I also understand I shouldn’t have allowed the additional overage. I think what I needed was some kind of recognition that it was a little unfortunate. For example, a credit of £60, plus a new phone (on some crazily long contract). Or something else to help erase my frustration. OR, more accurately, something cheap that I could latch on to that would allow me to do the forgetting myself.

I declined the tenner-a-month deal politely, but firmly.

Eventually the chap cancelled the account: It’s dead on the 7th of October.

“Is there anything else I can help you with today, sir?” he asked.

“Yes, I’d like to cancel my mobile broadband account too,” I said. I was on a roll. He couldn’t help me with this and transferred me to a nice lady called Seha in the mobile broadband team.

Seha was astonished at the length of time I’d been a 3 customer. We went through the same process, why do I want to cancel.

“It’s more or less an emotional response,” I explained — backed by a good dose of financial sensibility.

“I don’t need the line,” I said, “I can just use a pay-as-you-go SIM.”

Seha was appalled. Why would I do that, when she could make me a phenomenal offer?

She did her best.

I was firm, “No thanks,” I said. I complimented her on her professionalism. She was really good. She spoke of me being a valued customer, of 3 really, really appreciating by business. Combined with the ultra-special offer they were making, she pummelled home the deal.

“No thank you,” I said, “I’ll probably go ahead and pick up the new MiFi, but I’m fine. I’ll just use pay-as-you-go.”

She wasn’t giving up.

“The cancellation button is right here on my screen, sir,” she explained, “But let me just put you on hold for two minutes.”

She did so.

She’d noted a chink in the armour and went to confer with her supervisor.

Moments later she was back.

“We’d like to offer you a free MiFi 586, sir” — and she also went through a pretty good broadband data price plan.

“We really don’t offer this to anyone,” she said, “but you’ve been with us for so long and I really want to keep you as a customer.”

I could feel resistance crumbling.

All of a sudden I started making reasons up in my mind as to why I should agree. It makes sense. It’s a good deal. I won’t have to arse about with top-ups. Oh, and I don’t have to go to the 3 shop and buy the new MiFi either.

Seha then explained that she’d like to give me two days to think about it.

“I’m not working tomorrow or Friday, sir, so how about I call you on Saturday — and if you still like the offer, we could proceed, otherwise I can cancel you then?”

“Don’t bother,” I replied, “Go ahead and give me that deal then, you’ve won me over.”

She was delighted. I realised I was responding to the human, having been shafted (through my own fault) by the system on Sunday. I was pretty pleased with the deal too.

“It’s a shame I didn’t speak to you about the phone line earlier,” I said as she confirmed the terms of the arrangement.

Anyway job done. I’m looking forward to the new MiFi arriving.

3 from B-Reel & B-Reel Films on Vimeo.

I am now regularly based in Richmond-Upon-Thames.

And what a flipping nightmare it is from a mobile connectivity perspective.

Vodafone struggles to get anything more than Edge. And even when there’s an Edge signal, the 1.5k throughput is sufficient to query Google and nothing else.

Total unmitigated rubbish.

My solution was to refer to my Three handset and find that HSPA+ is rocking across the Richmond valley.

I went out on the second day of working in the town and bought a 3 MiFi unit — the new one, that I reviewed recently.

I patted myself on the back. Multiple times. Total genius, I was. I bougth a gig of data and used about 400mb of it across the week surfing away almost at broadband speeds.

I even connected my Vodafone BlackBerry to the MiFi hotspot. I found that especially galling given the stupid amount of money I pay to Vodafone each month. [Vodafone, you're the subject of another post: Do you seriously mean to tell me that your engineers have spent 6 months trying to get the mast working beyond Edge?]

It’s not like I’m talking about an area located somewhere in North Wales. Richmond-Upon-Thames is 9.2 miles from the Houses of Parliament. It’s as urban as you get.

A few people around me noted the Three MiFi and actually popped down to the local Three shop and picked up one. We’ve all been having a super time. Three’s got some new customers (who otherwise wouldn’t have given a damn about them — after all, the company still suffers from a massive image problem, something I’ve done my best to counter).

Everything was good until yesterday. All of a sudden, the Three data network just stopped working.

Vodafone’s network carried on at a literal snail’s pace.

Three just said NO SIGNAL on my (new) Three iPhone 4 and my MiFi.

I gave it a few minutes.

Nothing.

I waited an hour or so.

Nothing.

A colleague phoned up Three and gave our postcode.

Apparently they knew about the issue.

The afternoon arrived. Nothing.

I recognised that I’d come to depend on Three.

What a mistake to make.

The network was non-existent for most of yesterday.

This morning, nothing.

Mid-way through the day, my MiFi unit suddenly found a signal, send/received 115k of data and … boom… promptly returned to zero signal.

It’s almost been 48-hours.

Again, it’s not like we’re in deepest darkest Wales, where it takes 11 hours via especially equipped Land Rover to reach the mast.

My expectation is that Three is running a carrier grade network.

Carrier grade means… well, let’s see what Wikipedia reckons:

In telecommunication, a “carrier grade” or “carrier class” refers to a system, or a hardware or software component that is extremely reliable, well tested and proven in its capabilities. Carrier grade systems are tested and engineered to meet or exceed “five nines” high availability standards, and provide very fast fault recovery through redundancy (normally less than 50 milliseconds).

To be clear, for most of today it’s been possible to make a telephone call with the Three network. And even send an SMS.

But data?

No.

Absolutely not: About a billion miles away from ‘carrier grade‘. More like ‘hamster grade‘.

If I get to Richmond tomorrow and find there is STILL no data connectivity in the area, I honestly don’t know what I’ll do.

I can’t quite imagine how I’d react to a mobile service provider that can’t provide basic functionality to a reasonable service level, let alone ‘carrier grade’.

If it doesn’t work tomorrow, I will:

- demand a refund of my Three WiFi
- cancel my newly initiated 24-month iPhone 4 contract on Three
- cancel my half-spent 18-month Nokia N86 on Three
- cancel my Three USB dongle

A back-of-the-fag-packet calculation reveals I spend about £1,400 a year with Three alone.

Fix it, Three. Fix it.

Update: Well, I’m pleased to say that Three picked up the post and discovered a fault with the local base station the next morning.  It was back and operational within a few hours.  Good news.

Have you been waiting to get an iPhone on 3? I know quite a few people who have been, especially after their rather attractive pricing.

Just a quick refresher… You can pick up an iPhone 4 16GB for just £99 quid based on a 900 minutes, 5,000 texts, 5,000 three-to-three minutes and 1GB internet plan (24-month contract).

You can pick up a totally free iPhone 4 16GB on their £45/month 24-month plan — gets the same as the above, only you get 2,000 inclusive minutes. If you’ve got your heart set on a 32GB iPhone 4, splash out £89 and you’ll get the same deal.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

Get thee to a 3 shop on Friday.

(You can of course get a free iPhone 3GS from Three right now on a £35 24-month contract)

I had another play with the next generation 3 MiFi unit (see yesterday’s post) and decided to check out just how usable it was. I’m pleased to report that the device performed perfectly. I checked out the speedtest iPhone app (running on the iPad) and also streamed an episode from the BBC’s iPlayer. Flawless.

Here’s the vid:

More information on the device at 3′s Mobile Broadband site.

I got hold of one of the new 3 Mobile WiFi units last week and I’ve been putting it through it’s paces. Regular readers will know that my opinion on MiFi was set to ‘ultra positive’ ever since I tested the Novatel Wireless device last year. Dongles are for dunces. A separate unit that enables multiple devices to share the mobile braodband connection is the way ahead.

I was a fan of 3′s first unit, manufactured by Huawei and although it did it’s job perfectly well at the genius price point of £49 Pay-as-you-go, there was room for improvement.

The first improvement is that you now just switch the device on. That’s it. Switch it on it’ll automatically setup a MiFi mobile broadband connection. On the old version, you had to specifically tell it to start/stop and whatnot. And you had to look at the little coloured flashing buttons to try and determine whether you had a 2G/3G connection. So, no messing around with multiple options or buttons any more. Just switch it on and you’re done.

The next thing they’ve sorted is a screen. And goodness me it’s useful. Here’s a close-up:

You’ve got the signal strength indicator, a connection type indicator (e.g. 3G/HSPA), a WiFi indicator, a connected globe indicator and the battery level. Everything you need. My absolute favourite is the WiFi indicator — do you see the number 1 next to it? That indicates you have one device connected. Connect another device and it increments to 2. This is really, really REALLY useful for me. I sometimes want to know whether or not my laptop/desktop/iPad/whatever is still connected — so a quick glance to that indicator is super. Battery is important too. And if you’re on a train or in the back of a car, you’ll also want to know what kind of signal quality you’ve got.

And I like the black sleek look — attractive, functional, definitely the way ahead.

If you’d like to see the unboxing and demo, here’s the vid I made on Friday:

Inside the box, I’d like to draw your attention to the whizzy cheat cards. It’s a feature they’ve been using over at sister firm, INQ, to avoid having to stick stupidly annoying massive manuals in with their phones. Have a look:

The MiFi comes with 9 of these little pocket cards offering quick guides to setting up the device, getting it started, connecting to it from your computer, that sort of things. The attention to detail is excellent. And, if you’re someone like me who positively does not read the manual (unless the device simply won’t start), they’re a welcome addition.

In terms of cost, here’s where it gets crazy. £49 for the device. You do need to pay a tenner for 1GB as well, so the full walk-out-the-shop price is a minimum of £59.99. But I’d recommend taking a look at the £69.99 PAYG option which includes the MiFi unit and 3GB of data.

If you’ve got an iPad, an iPod Touch, or frankly any device that benefits from WiFi (like a Nintendo DS, laptop), you really should look at getting a MiFi when you’re on the move. The ability to switch on a mobile broadband cloud for all your devices is something I find very valuable, almost every day of the week. I use mine on the train, in meetings, wherever I need data service.

A lot of people I speak to still have a built-in negative perspective on 3. That viewpoint is really out of date now. The company has some of the best and fastest data connectivity in the UK. You will find yourself, on occasion, out of signal. But it’s broadly the same with any of the other network operators. You also benefit from the fact that 3′s network is generally under utilised (in my opinion) by their subscribers so I usually find it super fast. You can use the coverage checker on 3′s site to determine if you’ve got connectivity in your work/home areas.

I’ll post some video of the 3 MiFi unit working with different devices. I haven’t yet used the device long enough to see how long the battery lasts in ‘live’ conditions.

Here’s the set of MiFi photos I took:

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Samsung’s candy bar phone the B2700, also known as Samsung Rugby in its flip format to our American cousins has just been announced for the 3 network.

The B2700 is in the same league as SGH-A837, AKA Rugby and is joining the union of tough phones on the market such as the Sonim handsets XP1 and XP3.

They’ve propped up the announcement with claims along the lines of: ‘resistant to being dropped, shaken, splashed with water, covered in dirt, sand and dust or even run over by a car . It’s encased in shock-proof urethane to protect itself from demanding environments, on and off the pitch.

Samsung’s phone comes along the inside centre with an Ingress Protection rating of 54, for its durability. The 5 stands for ‘Protection from the amount of dust that would interfere with the operation of the equipment’ and the 4 just means ‘Protection from splashed water.’

Coincidentally it has the same rating as the very first Sonim XP1 handset, but not the latest incarnation – which has an IP57 score. In this case, the 7 stands for ‘Protection against immersion’ and to a depth of 1 metre; scrumming it down against the B2700 wouldn’t be fair with that IP mark.

However, they have locked it down with an almost Number 8 set of decent tools, with a built-in torch, compass, pedometer, altimeter, built-in FM radio player, 2megapixel camera and an MP3 player.

The B2700 is winging its way to you now on one of 3′s business tariffs, with Quad Band, 3G, 350 standby and 5 massive hours of talktime.

Here’s hoping for a grand slam with the handset, before 3 has to full back on other mobiles as we’re not entirety sold, hook, line and sinker.

News has reached us from the colonies that Hutchinson and Vodafone in Australia are set to merge. Will this set a precedent for pairing up elsewhere in the world?

In a public statement issued on Hutchinson Whampoa’s website those two telecoms giants announced their intentions of merging, in an equal 50:50 joint venture. When this takes place, the enterprise will henceforth be trading solely under the ’3′ brand name.

Vodafone’s website was absent of any such news, not surprising when the header of the operation is now Hutchinson. Although it could come across to some as they were acting like a jilted lover too close to Valentine’s Day, by their silence.

Vodafone Australia Limited and Hutchinson 3G Australia Pty, will be run under the new name of VHA Pty Limited. It will still carry on using the Vodafone brand name, building on the success of the business already in place. Whilst at the same time adopting a new lease of life, with the joint foundations of bringing both companies together.

They now have 6 million customers all together, with ongoing investments VHA Pty is aiming to bring 3G coverage to 95% of Australia. As it stands, only 63% currently have that level of 3G access.

More can be read on the finer points of the deal here, in a pdf document.

Could this deal lead the way to other mergers elsewhere for the two companies?

Are we set to see these two come together in the UK?

We’ve heard no such rumours in blighty, although if we were twittering about it now it would fall under #RumourMill.

If we do hear of anything, you’ll be the first to know, after us of course as we’ll be writing it up.

Today Sony Ericsson is announcing a deal to pre-load the Fun Text application onto one of its new handsets –  the new C905 Plus on 3 UK, which is to launch in Q2 this year. Fun Text will enable easy access from the handset to online galleries of animation and video content designed for messaging. The application also integrates with the address book on the handset.

 

“With 8.1 megapixels, the C905 already enables the best in user generated content and we are delighted to complement this with the best in professionally generated content”, said James Pycock, business development director at Fun Text.

At that very same ‘small (but select) gathering at INQ HQ last night, we were informed there will be no new INQ phone unveiled in Barcelona in a few weeks time.

INQ’s marketing director Jeff Taylor said in a semi private briefing to MIR there will be no product announcements at MWC. Where many of us traveled the several hundred miles to the event, for such an insider scoop – journalistic instinct FAIL.

We then raised the bar and posed another question in light of the recent news of INQ touting their phone(s) *cough* around to other networks. All with a view to improve the profile of the fledgling ’3′ venture and expand their market dominance, by bringing INQies to the little people.

We have it on good authority, even from Jeff himself they have been traveling far and wide talking to other networks. We’re guessing by the amount of air miles discussed, INQ’s carbon footprint is so vast they’d have to replant the forest moon of Endor to balance things out.

Back to the most difficult of difficult questions raised – are INQ going to announce the INQ1 on another network, at Mobile World Congress?

Jeff’s reply was along the lines of he could not confirm or deny there will be any news of this nature, only there will be no product announcements in Barcelona.

Companies such as INQ will be there to make deals of this ilk,  for journalists their presence there falls into two camps, product or carrier news.

As there isn’t a new INQies (noun: a word describing any phones by INQ) being taken and shown off to all their splendor at the event, then it’s a network being announced to carry the phone.

We’ll bring you more news at the time, of that exact announcement.

The INQ 1 is available on 3 for free on one of their lower contracts at £15 per month, or for £80 on pay as you go. It has been dubbed the ‘Facebook phone’ due to its tight integration with online social networks, including Skype, last fm, MSN to name just a few. EBay integration is expected to come soon in the form of software update.

The Facebook element of this phone got me very excited, as a student I live on the website it is a one of my primary methods of communication, and my online calendar of events I am attending.

The phone arrived on the 23^rd December and it was like Christmas had come early I was that excited!

I opened up all the packaging and my sim, the contents including the phone some cards explaining the basics and headphones. The phone is well-built for the £80 price bracket; in fact I feel it is much better built then my N95. So I was ready to pop my sim in and this is where I strike my first problem.

How the flip do you get the battery cover off?

I have used and reviewed a lot of phones over the last 7 years and I have never had an issue getting the back cover off.I must have spent ten minutes trying to no success, so I swallowed my male pride and read the cards sent in the box to help. Do they help, nope not a mention anywhere. I even resorted totwitterto see if anyone can help, eventually I manage to get it off.

Now at the time the INQ site was appalling, a very basic flash site with no manuals etc. Since checking back for this review it seems like it is fully updated, kudos to INQ to sorting that out. In the end I figured out the button on top of the phone opens to the battery cover, yes that button on every Nokia that is the on/ off button. For those of you who are thinking what sort of people has Ewan got writing on the site, it was not just me that struggled with this.

Normob Chris White purchased the device for his son, and I will quote him from his email to me;

I had loads fun ‘cracking’ the case puzzle for the first time (20 minutes actually, any jobs going?). It doesn’t help that the catch is exactly where Nokia put the on/off switch. It’s little things like this that turn people against products. This is a cleverly conceived little package, very attractively priced, but the guys who were trusted with handing it over to us were having a laugh, or more likely, a self-indulgent snigger.

I agree with him, why put something where your major competitors put something else? Remember this device is supposed to be a Normob friendly device.

Chris also raises some very interesting issues, again I will quote him:

Particularly, take your expert reviewer hat off for a moment and put yourself in the position of a first time user who hasn’t used a Skype phone or similar device before and see how long it takes you to:
- work out how to correctly insert the MicroSD card – is it supposed to stay sticking out and jammed under the battery like that? Why doesn’t it slide in flat? Am I breaking this?

Unfortunately I did not have Micro SD card, I could not see what this is like. It’s worrying that Chris thought he may be breaking the device though.

Let’s move on.

I fired up the phone. The operating system is BREW and the device is capable of running BREW and java applications. The first thing I would recommend anyone to do is to download Opera Mini, it is so much better than the the supplied browser.

The home screen has the ability to have three widgets, ie Google Search, RSS Feed or World Clock. There is a wide range to choose from and the bottom there is essentially a dock. For those of you who are Mac users, you will be familiar with it. From here you can quick launch many of the phones applications. There is a also a switcher button at the side of the phone which lets you cycle through and launch another application or go to the home screen, the phone allows multiple applications to be minimised and run in the background.

Let’s look to the media and music player; it had no issues with playing my mp3′s and some small video clips I chucked at it. My biggest gripe is the headphone socket. INQ has tried to be clever and use the micro USB to connect to your computer, to charge the phone and as a headphone socket. The problem is this means that you have to use the supplied headphones which are cheap and the sound quality is poor.

Sony Ericsson do this as well — their supplied headphones are brilliant. It needs to be clear to Mobile Phone manufactures that they need to put a normal headphone socket on their phones: Stop forcing people to use your cheap and nasty headphones.

Check back on Wednesday when, the next and final part of my review will be published. I will be covering all the social networking applications and the camera. In the mean time check out Jonathan Jensen’s mini review and normob feedback on the INQ 1.

The network ’3′ has just launched downloadable audio books for their customers, with a free preview service and a decent range of titles on hand.

They’ve teamed up with ex-SAS founder of the GoSpoken.com website Andy McNab, to deliver 100s of new spoken word or viewable text based books each and every month. These fall under 3′s new ‘Books on the Go’ service, with over 1000 books already in the back catalogue from the get go.

There’s already established and well known publishers onboard from the likes of HarperCollins and Penguin, with authors ranging from Stephen King to Jane Austen to name but a few all being available.

On offer are free samples of the books before you buy, where the goods can then be downloaded in parts ranging from £1 to £3, or as a whole from £5 to £10. All this will be accessible from the network’s customer portal on the handsets, Planet 3.

Downloading these audio books are fairly fast over their 3G network we’ve been told, or even quicker if you opt out for the text eBook version instead. Hurrah!

There’s no doubt the likes of podcasts have facilitated as a stepping stone the success of audio books, in the public’s eye. As with hardware such as the Sony eBook reader and iRex’s iLiad devices have spurned on the recent success of eBooks within mass adoption. We’ve even recently seen one of the iRex eBook readers, with an embedded Orange SIM card delivering content straight to the device.

With this new 3 service no longer will you be alone with dark, dark thoughts on the way to work first thing in the morning. Now you can have someone else’s piped straight into your head instead.

Trust 3 to be right there on the innovation curve. Each audio book costs around 5 pounds and is billed directly to your 3 account. Genius. I’m going to dig out my 3 sim and give this a go.

The delightful Jemima Kiss from The Guardian has the details.

SAS soldier turned best-selling author Andy McNab is extending his reach further into the mobile market through a deal with phone operator 3.

McNab founded the audiobook-for-mobile firm GoSpoken in April last year and has been working on a series of deals to increase the number of distribution outlets and titles on offer.

The latest deal with 3 will add GoSpoken’s inventory to Planet 3, the free entertainment and information service available on all the operator’s handsets.

I phoned them on Friday, received a prepaid Royal Mail Special Delivery returns envelope on Tuesday, posted the handset on Wednesday and received a brand new handset by Royal Mail Special Delivery on Saturday.

Top marks to 3 – great customer service!

Coming after the variable performance of the INQ1′s applications this hardware failure has confirmed my view of the INQ1 as a disappointing mobile device.

Addressing the economy’s issues and quicker than our own government is the network 3, who has just announced a sub-tenner tariff.

In days that feel like the end of days, it’s always good to see someone’s looking out for the common man, by offering them a great deal.

The deal that comes along in the form of a free 3G phone, 100minutes/texts on any network, 300minutes of calls to fellow 3 users, free voicemail access and also unlimited windows live messenger and Skype usage.

Available from December 23rd, this Mix & Match 100 tariff seems to be the bee’s knees. How does it match up to others around? It doesn’t even have a single competitor out there that we can see.

It’s available both in-store and online, great for avoiding everyone else that’s out shopping at this time of year. And no one likes a crowd, unless you’re a pick pocket.

The way this particular tariff works, is that you can mix and match (hence the name) between 100 minutes and 100 texts, with 1 minute = 1text. Previously their best deal was Mix and Match 300 for £15, with the same mobile phone being thrown in, seen in the Sony Ericsson K660i.

A handset that comes along with a 2MP camera, obviously with 3G with HSDPA and in a choice of silver on black or lime on white – an exclusive colour for 3.

If there’s ever a time for £9 tariff, with a phone like this it’s now. Hurrah for 3!

Isn’t it about time others step up to the plate with their offerings too?

My reservations about the handset user interface were maybe a reflection on my love of quality mobile devices because my Normob panel were fairly happy with the design and interface. We moved on to the social networking applications where I was looking for feedback on whether the INQ1 appealed to people who enjoyed using Facebook, Live Messenger and Skype on their PCs.

Facebook was universally criticised for being slow and not particularly easy to read. This mirrored my experience where the application seemed to spend most of its time ‘refreshing’ and ‘loading’. This was a disappointment as it’s one of the unique features of the handset but it seems that this key social networking application is a big miss on the INQ1. One comment I received was that updating Facebook once a day is enough so having it on a handset is not particularly important.

It’s in the less unique applications that the INQ1 seemed to score. Feedback on Live Messenger was much more positive. This worked well and everyone liked it. Being able to carry on instant messaging when out and about is clearly a popular activity. Teenagers don’t seem to be big Skype users so this application didn’t engender as much interest, although adults did show some interest in it. I think from a Normob perspective Skype is still seen as a PC based communications tool.

Another area where the INQ1 seems to fail is in the area of delivering predictability of costs to users. Feedback suggested it’s not clear when the user is generating additional data costs and the prepay balance seemed to disappear remarkably quickly even with fairly limited use. 3 needs to be much clearer about what’s included and what isn’t, to avoid ‘bill shock’.

The Messages application was popular because of the way it displays inboxes for SMS, Facebook (mail, pokes and messages), Live Messenger, Skype and email on a single screen. This is a reasonable attempt at integrating all received messages in one place which users seem to like and plays to the social networking theme.

The rebooting problem I experienced initially seems to have settled down – maybe I’m a bit hard on my handsets!

So, overall a more positive verdict than I was expecting. The INQ1 does have some rough edges and the disappointment with the Facebook application reduces its credibility as a social networking device. However the handset does appeal to users who want to be able to add instant messaging to calling and texting on the move and it achieves this at a reasonable price.

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Jonathan’s also at Sevendotzero.

When you take the INQ1 out of the box it feels like a quality device with its solid metal and plastic construction. However that illusion was shattered when I switched it on, as the display looks like a low end device and the icons and menus have a basic appearance. Instead of a user guide in the box there are a series of ‘flash’ cards which explain the principle applications. Although I thought the info was a bit thin it probably reflects the fact that non geeks rarely read user guides and just dive straight in! The full user guide is on the CD along with the PC Suite software for copying contacts, photos etc to your PC. Overall the handset’s performance is sluggish and the software seems fairly buggy as the it rebooted several times when I was trying out applications. Not a good start and may mean it has to go back.

Now to move on to the INQ1 as a social networking device.

The Facebook application looks good when you load it and has icons at the top for the key Facebook features – Profile, Inbox, Friends, Photos. The rest of the screen shows your News Feed. Reading and updating Facebook from the application is very easy, although you have to wait a while when you refresh to get your latest Facebook info or select an item to read. Not surprisingly, this is much slower than on a PC. I’ve also noticed that even when refreshed, the News Feed lags behind my PC. So, Facebook on the INQ1 versus Facebook via my E51 browser? I definitely prefer the browser version – it’s more responsive, up to date and I think easier to read. However, from a usability perspective, as an application that is easily available from the home screen, then Facebook on the INQ1 probably works better for Normobs.

The Skype application is very simple to use and incorporates Skype Out for calling ‘real’ phone numbers. Several times when I tried to use Skype, the handset rebooted. Live Messenger works well, with the long and frequently bizarre user names that some people use fully displayed!

In theory the browser provides web access but more often than not it returns an ‘unable to contact the website’ message! When it does work it’s horribly slow to load pages. I wouldn’t have the patience to use it on a regular basis.

Unfortunately there’s no Twitter application. For me that’s a big miss but as Twitter is still niche compared to Facebook I guess that forgivable!

Next I’ll be letting some Normobs in the family have a play with the INQ1 to see whether easy access to Facebook, Skype and Live Messenger holds appeal or whether they’d prefer to stick with their PC.

One very neat feature is the way Facebook, Live Messenger and Skype contacts are imported into the Contacts application on the handset so you can contact people directly from their and view their status. Effectively the INQ1 has presence enabled the Contacts application – something every handset should have.

This morning I ordered the INQ1 handset from 3. Why, you may ask? Surely it’s just a 3 branded handset from an unknown manufacturer that doesn’t allow you to download extra applications because it isn’t running any of the usual operating systems – S60, Apple, Android etc. And you’d be right. But …

3 claims the INQ1 is optimised for social networking. It comes configured for out-of-the-box access to Facebook, Skype and Windows Live Messenger. Plus, the contacts application shows you which of your contacts are online. I want to understand what this means for social networking Normobs. All these applications are available on many other handsets via downloads or web browsers and in some cases ready-to-go on high end smartphones. But the INQ1 delivers this functionality in a low cost device. My experience of many Normobs is that they aren’t interested in looking for and downloading extra apps or paying more for data tariffs to support web browsing. But they use Facebook, Skype, Live Messenger on their laptops and I think would use it on their mobile if it was there and just worked, with no additional charges.

Ewan mentioned yesterday how poor (he used slightly more colourful language!) the S60 download experience is & he’s right. For mobile geeks it’s great fun hunting down cool apps but Normobs just want to use their handsets. The iPhone delivers a simple user experience plus the ability to download new stuff for those that want it but at a price point that is out of reach of many Normobs. I think the INQ1 could be making a reasonable stab at filling this gap. I’ll be testing it out with a selection of Normobs and reporting back shortly.

Meanwhile I’ll get back to my E51 and see what new apps I can find to download to it!

First up, Orange put into play their cuts starting from today and way ahead of the new tax initiative being launched next week.

These ideally are for new customers to Orange who will benefit from a full two days worth of buying, both on prepay and contract deals.

We’ve been told these will appear in their actual stores, online stores and even over the phone through their telesales, in fact in every possible avenue they sell.

Existing Orange customers will see their bills affected from December the 1st, which is a decent enough start date and not at the end of the month which some were predicting.

To a lot of people we’ve just reached the very last payment day before Christmas. Seeing as these have been introduced on this very day, it could benefit the muggles out there who believe they are getting a better deal.

Next up, 3 has introduced their cuts too but to their tariffs as well starting from today, on both prepay and contract customers.

Orange really are only hitting up new customers and leaving the rest out in the cold this weekend.

Although in saying that, 3 will still display the old tax rates online and in store with the figure being introduced at the point of sale.

We believe this is only the case as a wide scale price mark down of this magnitude would have been a big big issue to introduce, which is why Orange perhaps have stayed clear of this.

Carphone Warehouse has introduced a similar policy on hardware only, leaving the carriers to fight it out amongst themselves. How very wise, diplomatic and astute of them.

Others we’re sure will make their initiatives clear very soon we believe. It just goes to show who stands head and shoulders over the rest and have decided to help those out in these troubled times.

See more on the Orange announcement here, the 3 details are here and the Carphone Warehouse
here.

The INQ1 or ‘The Facebook Phone’ is launched today. Our man RobK is on the scene. We’ll have more from you shortly — plus I’m hoping to be able to meet with one of their top executives tomorrow for a sit-down interview on camera.

We’ll bring you more on the handset shortly — but I’d like to highlight the shockingly good tariffs:

You’ve got a choice of two.

Tariff A: £15 per month

That includes: -

- Unlimited email, data, Skype etc.,
- Unlimited 3-3 on-net calls
- Unlimited cross network UK texts
- 75 cross network UK minutes

Tariff B: £20 per month

The extra fiver gets you an upgrade to 200 cross network UK minutes.

The handset itself? £79.99 PAYG.

We’ll have more on this shortly…

This Thursday we’re at the launch event by the network 3 of their latest handset the INQ 1 – a purpose built phone by their parent company Hutchison Whampoa.

Supposedly this handset has great Facebook and social networking integration; some are calling this the very first Facebook phone.

Pronounced ‘INK’, the phone is set to be the first in a series of handsets within this new range. Reports have come out so far it will have a plethora of data facilities built in, such as instant messaging, mobile email and Skype, all out of the box too.

It’s also been said that it’ll arrive on prepay contracts, all hoping to mightily surge forward business for 3 in an effort to improve its subscriber base.

Prices have yet to be fully confirmed, but we believe from sources the first handset will be in the range of £50 to £80. With another six phones due out next year. All with the same theme of being aimed at users who don’t want to pay the high prices associated with the iPhone or BlackBerrys.

Apparently the idea for the phone came from their Skypephone, where Hutchison decided to develop a range of handsets for the mass market all with data services in mind.

We’ll tell you more when we get the full skinny, the complete low down, the full enchilada – everything you needed to know but were too afraid to ask about the INQ on the day.

On that very note, if there’s any questions you have about the phone ask away in the comments below. We’ll endeavour to have them answered at the event and more successfully than we did over the Storm, grrrrrrr!

For more details checkout their Facebook Page.

Once again it is great to see companies like 3 embracing Social Networking Tools to promote their brand!