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Posts Tagged ‘launch’

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A first look at O2’s new Joggler home appliance

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

O2 UK has unveiled it’s new family oriented Joggler device, a 7″ touchscreen photo frame based on Openpeak’s OpenFrame platform and I jogged along to take a first look.

The screen on the Joggler is incredibly bright and crisp and the device itself feels very solid and well-made with a fixed sturdy stand on the back. Also on the back of the unit is a power socket (No batteries here, this is a wired device), an ethernet port and an audio out jack. On the side is a USB socket and on top is an LED but I didn’t see any applications taking advantage of this. Inside the device is powered by an Intel Atom processor, has WiFi connectivity and runs an O2 branded version of the OpenFrame software (which appears to be based on Ubuntu linux with hacking opportunities aplenty!).

Overall I found the Joggler to be a bit of a disappointment. I’m familiar with the OpenFrame platform this is based on and was expecting to find the same Flickr, YouTube and RSS content included. Unfortunately the only place the Joggler can show photos from is the built-in 1GB of storage or a USB stick. O2 are definitely downplaying the photo frame aspect of the Joggler and concentrating on the O2 Calendar integration which itself has a few disappointing aspects such as not having any sync capabilities. I think it’s safe to assume that any family that’s tech-savvy enough to buy one of these on launch has someone in it that already uses an online calendar such as that provided by Exchange or Google and it would make sense to sync with that calendar. The kids might not need to know that Daddy is in a meeting with his boss but at least some availability information would be useful. The biggest disappointment of all is that I know the OpenFrame platform has a Dominos Pizza button and the Joggler does not!

I think the Joggler is a good start to what is essentially a new market for MNOs but I can’t help but think that an untouched OpenFrame device would be more appealing to a wider audience. I certainly know of some other MNOs that are working on similar device offerings so this should be a very interesting market to watch over the next 12 months.

Alongside the Joggler, O2 announced the O2 Calendar, a free family oriented web-based service that is available to anyone in the UK regardless of them being an O2 customer or not. For those users who are O2 customers the service provides free SMS reminders of appointments and integrates with the Joggler device. O2 also announced a family bolt-on for existing customers allowing one person to pay a monthly fee to add a number of other O2 customers to their family group. Once part of the group every family member can make calls or send SMS or MMS to other members of the group completely free of charge.

The O2 Joggler will be available in April from O2 stores and their website priced £149.99 or free if taken instead of a handset when upgrading or signing a new 18 or 24 month contract. Pricing for the O2 family bolt-on has yet to be announced.

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Posted in Feature, Mobile, News, Opinion, o2 | Comments

MIR Show – Rafe Blandford on the N86 8MP launch

Friday, February 20th, 2009

Ben and Dan were up at the crack of dawn to hit the Nokia stand for the N86 announcement. Whilst there, they simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity of chatting to Mr Nokia himself, Rafe Blandford (of All About Symbian) to find out what he thought of the new device.

Here’s the video:


Nokia N86 8MP Launch – Initial Opinion from Rafe Blandford from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

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Posted in Devices, mirshow, mobile world congress, nokia | Comments

MIR Show – Nokia N86 8MP – First look & opinion

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

We were invited to the launch of the new N86 8MP yesterday and were amongst a small group of blogs given first access to it.


N86 First Look At The Launch Event from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

Flickr Photo Download: N86 86 8MPDuring filming we noted the handset was labelled as ‘N85 8MP’ and speculated whether that was a late change in naming (extending the N85 range like the N95 did with several variants) or just a disguise or an error. Having spent some more time with the device and noted the ‘N85′ term cropping up in some of the software config (the Exif camera data – other areas use the anonymous ‘NXX’).
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We now think a late branding change is the most likely explanation – possibly to extend the life of the current N85 and highlight the sheer number of differences between the two devices (which go beyond just the imaging components).

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Posted in Ben Smith, Feature, mirshow, mobile world congress | Comments

Exclusive: Samsung to launch new phone on Monday

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

We’ve been tipped off that Samsung are set to launch a new phone on Monday, with a ‘big, big’ announcement to back ‘big, big’ news.

There was a private press pre briefing today in London all under embargo that we weren’t invited to, but we’re hearing good things are afoot.

We’d like to bring you more details, but there just aren’t any to offer – sorry.

Stay tuned and we’ll bring you any ground breaking news that arrives.

Who knows what it could be; it might even be the 16GB Samsung Omnia we’re all hearing news of *cough*

Or even the 12megapixel camera phone they’re bringing out *cough* *cough*

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Posted in Mobile | Comments

Nokia 5800 ‘The Tube’ Launch Event

Monday, January 26th, 2009

As promised, James and I braved the rain on Friday to attend the launch event for Nokia’s first Symbian touch-driven device, the Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic – also often still known by its pre-launch name ‘The Tube’.  Available exclusively via Nokia’s two flagship stores in London’s Regent Street and Heathrow Terminal 5 plus the Nokia online store (at least that’s what the press release says – the online store is still only offering a ‘pre-order’ option right now), it will also be available from all of the major UK network operators (with the exception of Three) starting Friday 30th.

Priced at £249 SIM-free, it’s expected to be free with contract on most tariffs and – we’re all agreed – is pretty exceptional value, although some are dissappointed it’s not a ‘Comes With Music‘ handset yet.  Nokia shifted 500,000 of these things in 30 days of sales, with over a million sold even before the UK launch.

At the event James reprised his ‘normob walkabout’ role in the queue of eager first-customers, we spoke to Mark Loughran (Managing Director, Nokia UK and Ireland), got a demo of the device and even managed to get ten minutes with friend-of-the-show Rafe Blandford from the excellent AllAboutSymbian.com.

A 5 minute extract of the Mark Loughran is available on YouTube or the full show is embedded below and hitting the podcast feeds right now.  Take a look:


Nokia 5800 ‘Tube’ Launch at Nokia’s Regent St flagship store from Ben Smith on Vimeo.

‘Just for fun’ there’s also a brief outtakes reel for the people who have drunkenly told me ‘they were the best bit’.  Feel free to ignore it if you’re a sensible person…


Nokia 5800 Launch – Out Takes from Ben Smith on Vimeo.

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Posted in Ben Smith, Devices, Feature, mirshow, nokia | Comments

The Nokia 5800 ‘Tube’ launches today

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

Smith and Whatley at Regent St Nokia Shop 5800 launchFrom a distinctly soggy Regent Street we were delighted to jump the queue of the hundred or so keen customers at Nokia’s flagship retail store in central London this morning to attend the launch of the 5800 – Nokia’s first S60 Touch handset which, unusually, Nokia is still refering to by its internal code name, the ‘Tube’.  Perhaps they’re getting a sense of humour about all the leaks…?

Anyway, there was a load of dancing and loud music there which we ignored, but you can read more about (remixes, dance floors, music tours, some ‘fella called ‘Bimbo Jones’) at www.nokiatubedance.com.  But we did manage to chat to a few early customers, interview Mark Loughran (UK and Ireland Nokia, Managing Director) and do a live unboxing with friend of the show Rafe Blandford from the excellent AllAboutSymbian.

Watch out for our video footage and write-up coming tonight… In the meantime you can get a SIM-free 5800 for an impressively low £249 from Nokia’s online shop (yes, we know it still says ‘February’ there right now, but their press release says it’s today… honest!) or its stores in Regent Street or Heathrow Terminal 5.  All the major UK networks except Three will have it from Friday 30th.  Personally, I’d recommend waiting (if you can) for the ‘Comes With Music’ version which, although not announced yet, is as pretty much a certainty and will add a year’s free downloads from the Nokia Music Store for a small premium.

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Posted in Ben Smith, nokia | Comments

GoSpoken launch deal with 3

Thursday, January 15th, 2009

Andy McNab, the SAS expert and wicked action author has done a deal with 3 to launch audio books on mobile. To be precise, Andy’s company, GoSpoken (we’ve talked about them before here on MIR) have done the deal.

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.

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Posted in Mobile Applications, Three | Comments

We’re at the new LG PRADA Phone launch!

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

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.

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Posted in Mobile | Comments

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