Hi Ewan

The great thing about MIR is the cross range of subjects, personalities, entertainment and news, so it is a very sad loss that MIR is disappearing for the greater majority of viewers.

Graham Higginson and myself are putting together a MIR like (lite) site for mobile industry types to swap stories, news and comments. Called keemobile.com (that’s kee not key) It should be fully up and running by the end of the week. We’ll be a bit rough around the edges for a while but hopefully we’ll get the formula right in the end with the assistance of expert contributors and commentators.

If there is still time, and if you want to, we would be grateful if you could pop a comment on your site about us.

Thanks to you and the team for the dedication and fun you all put into smstextnews/MIR.

Good luck and cheers.

Tim

On that day that will go down the annals of history as BlackBerry’s move to prepaid services, or the day everyone on the planet announces their pay as you go BlackBerry handsets – Carphone Warehouse unveils the 8110 and 8210.

Those two phones are available from January 30^th at the princely sum of £149.95 each, whereas the Orange mobile still reads as ‘coming soon’ on their website. Meaning Carphone Warehouse will get there first, leaving egg or more appropriate, BlackBerry on their face.

Down to the nitty gritty, the full skinny, the complete low down, the full enchilada – everything you needed to know but were too afraid to ask.

These handsets will have unlimited emails to a chosen account, along with access to Facebook and MySpace and all for just £5 per month. Hurrah!

This is all, of course, on a fair usage policy of sorts which hits the ceiling at 50MB per month. After that limit has been reached, an excess can then be paid afterwards which all seems rather fair. Miscellaneous niceties, such as calls and text messaging will relate to the individual tariff as expected and rightly so.

We’ve been told the 8110 in silver and the 8210 in pink will be exclusive to Carphone Warehouse, just in case that tips your favour of hitting them up for a phone and not Orange. Sorry, ‘indigo’ as that’s its colouring.

The 8110 and the 8120 are more or less the same phone, only the latter has WIFI and will be only available on Orange. Whereas the other looks like it’ll be a free for all and dealers choice as to which network the customer wishes to use it on.

It’s a good move for the Carphone Warehouse and the likes of Orange to open up pay as you go BlackBerry handsets and its services to the mass market. Also it’s ideal for those who wouldn’t normally think twice about such a phone, meaning one day there’ll be more BlackBerryites everywhere.

BuddyMob caught my attention. I’ve been looking for an Android IM client — and it appears that is BuddyMob… and thensome.

The release states that:

BuddyMob is a single tool that enables continuous contact with friends via instant messaging, geo-tagged multimedia content sharing, micro-blogging, positioning on GoogleMaps, and a live instant feed to and from users’ friends’ social networks.

And..

The XMPP protocol also brings the BuddyMob application to life, enabling all activity to be streamed live to contacts and creating an interface with all other social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Well that’s me interested.

I’m going to see if I can download it.

The private beta went live today — and apparently we all might be able to experience it at www.buddymob.com. If you’re on Android, this should be worth a look…

UPDATE: Just filled in the private beta form and got an invite. So try it out!

We heard a while back that the Samsung Cleo was on its way, and and
now it’s arrived — well, if you’re lucky enough to live in Canada,
anyway. It’s not the only square flip phone on the planet, but it’s
definitely the most fashion-conscious. As far as we can tell, specs
are pretty much beside the point, but it’s got a QWERTY keyboard,
color LCD screen, 1.3-megapixel camera, MP3 playback, and expandable
memory up to 8GB (we’re guessing in microSD format). More importantly,
this attractive little devil (it’s just over 2.5-inches wide and
3-inches tall) comes in pink, blue, and (our personal favorite)
champagne. Though it’s been officially launched, the Cleo’s not for
sale quite yet, and there’s no word on price. We also don’t know when
or if it’ll strut its way to the US, but we’ve got our fingers
crossed. We really do.

Hmmm, I’ll have to see it in person I think. (But I like being thought of as sassy & stylish!)

Due to hit the stores on the 14th, the BlackBerry Storm comes to us as their first full touch screen phone as if you were weren’t already aware.

What you might not be aware of is that instead of the phone being a RIM handset exclusive to Vodafone in Blightly and Verizon in the US of A, it was purposely built for them both.

Jointly, both carriers approached what appears to be a number of handset manufactures with a set of ideas for a phone exclusively for them.

When the norm, from our understanding is the reverse in nearly all the cases that we are aware of. With the possible exceptions being phones designed as an OEM venture, we’re thinking here of the SPV range on Orange from HTC. Still, in that case the phones manufacture loses its naming rights on the product but here you can clearly see it’s BlackBerry.

The remit we were told at the Storms event by Vodafone was that it needed to be a killer multimedia device, with an intuitive interface and that it ‘just works’.

Oddly enough the press launch was at the rear of the largest Apple store in Europe. Do we read something into that ? Yes, why not.

RIM wanted to move away from the old style resistant touch screens seen on the average touch screen phone seen around today, to a much more newer approach with this handset.

They also wanted, to quote RIM here ‘the navigation and confirmation associated with a mouse on a PC, where you move the mouse for navigation and click on a button for the confirmation’. This they began to introduce with the tracker ball found in the Pearl series and have now appeared to incorporate this philosophy in the Storm.

On board there is what’s known as a capacitive touch screen. This in its basic terms it means that no pressure is needed on the screen for an action to register – but this will only highlight the icon, for an example. This is coupled with a mechanically suspended screen, in which you do actually need to press down upon to action said icon. So there is resistance felt in each and every case, from typing to running an application to really anything really that needs to be done. Collectively these two are known as SurePress, RIM’s trademarked technology name for the both together.

Honestly, to see this in action and to use is a breath of fresh air for touch screen phones. It’s a shame that this deal is a life time exclusive to Vodafone and Verizon. All we can hope for is that this will transpire into another BlackBerry series at a later date.

On board they’ve bundled in 6 of the most popular instant message clients, with access to 10 of the most commonly used email services. Their Facebook client is a nice concept, which works along the lines of a push email based service. Here the user is notified on various activities and updates when they happen, a good feature for those of us who live life via FB status updates.

They’ve opened up the OS to have applications developed for them, which was first aired at the recent RIM developer’s conference. Here they are expecting many applications to be worked upon for the phone and others too. Think of Apple app store and you’ll have some idea of where they’re going with this.

There has been some criticism of late over the Storms battery life in the press, with its 6 hours talktime and 15 days in standby. We can see how many can be bothered by this by saying it won’t last a single day in use. Although we’re sure they’ll be benchmarks soon on how long it lasts in a real life situation, so stay tuned folks.

It’s missing WIFI, as we’re sure you’re all aware by now. As Vodafone are proud boys over their HSDPA network and wanted that to be the focus instead. A killer function we’ve always considered for good high speed networks is video calling and something we’re getting more and more into. So when we noticed there wasn’t a camera on its front we were puzzled. Vodafone’s response was “the iPhone doesn’t have one either”, which came out quite churlish.

Of course it’s going to be compared to the iPhone and who are we to disappoint by not bringing you some comparisons. In dimensions it’s 112.5 x 62.2 x 13.95 mm and 155g, with the Apple offering being 115.5 x 62.1 x12.3 mm and 133 grams. All of which means there isn’t too much of a muchness in physical difference.

The screen however is a different matter. We’ve already mentioned one part, and now how it looks. RIM’s offering is 480 x 360 and the iPhone, 480 x 320 with much lesser pixels per inch. Overall making the Apple handset appear to be less distinct in how you see a lot of the content. This is especially when viewing video as compared to the Storm, which does really shine here.

On the subject of content, there’s of course the Vodafone online music store which is adequate. Where they’re sadly lacking, and almost admitted by their silence on the matter is video. For us, the screen that size excels in displaying video and it’s just a shame Vodafone doesn’t have much of a content portal for that offering.

However, the desktop manager for the BlackBerry does have a form of Roxio built in. Meaning that you’ll be able to convert content for the Storm, which will just show up Vodafone’s lack of style in this matter.

Also, if you weren’t aware there is such a beast as a BlackBerry Media Sync for getting your iTunes on to the device. It first came to light we believe with the Bold and will be available for the Storm too.

It also appears there’s only going to be a 1GB microSD card accompanying the device, where we’ve been told that Verizon will be shipping 4GB. This is despite Vodafone highlighting that video content can be put on to the device as their own portal is inadequate. OK, then where Vodafone? With only 1GB to play with.

There will be a plethora of tariffs to suit all pockets, range from £25 with the phone costing £99 and starting from £35 with the phone being free.

Watch out for more of our thoughts on the handset as we get our grubby little hands on it soon, but for the time being we’re fairly happy with the consumer device.

QIK, probably the best mobile video streaming platform has hit the Blackberry platform this morning. The system is alpha and they’ve got it working on almost every modern Blackberry — including the Pearl, the Bold, the Curve and the new Pearl Flip (which is a piece of goodness in itself).

Founder Bhaskar is radiating sheer excitement on the QIK blog about this news. It’s understandable. A lot of folk simply can’t operate without their Blackberry and it’s often the primary device choice for many, so this should help grow the QIK user base even faster.

If you’re already a Qikker, get the Blackberry alpha here. Otherwise you can download and install QIK by signing-up as normal.

If you’d like to see how it works on a Bold, Bhaskar’s made this vid for your viewing pleasure:

3UK has done a deal with 4th Screen (the single point of contact for mobile advertising that’s part of MIG) and Mobix Interactive (the technical supplier).

Later this year, when you download/stream a video from the 3 portal, you’ll get a targeted ad in front of it.

I think that’s rather swish provided you’re not paying out cash for the privilege.

I’m pleased to see this kind of innovation going on. I’d really like to see operators deploy this a little bit more — I perceive it as a much fairer transaction when I don’t have to pay out cash for something but have to watch an ad. Provided the ad is pretty good.

I don’t think mobile operators have quite got a handle on the existing information they own, inherent in their customer records. For example, my location, my age, my average spend. The industry is very much still stuck on the ‘if you watch a sport video, you are, er, interested in sport’ record. That isn’t good enough.

But it seems it’s the main alternative…

Apart from Blyk, has anyone else seen examples of mobile operators using their billing information to help profile customers during their portal sessions?

I had a note in from Jaun Mouton of Touchwork — the people who boosted feedback at Cape Town airport by 3000% with text messaging.

I’m pleased to report that they’re doing similar at Manchester Airport. The key reason for doing so is to measure customer experience at international arrivals.

And let’s be clear, this stuff is shit hot. You see we don’t give feedback. Americans are good at it. But Brits in particular… Brits just put up with it and get on with their day.

Meanwhile the management of the service — in this case, Manchester Airport — are often oblivious of annoying niggly issues.

Not any more. Touchwork graph results in real time for management — and, what’s more, duty managers get immediate text messages to their handsets outlining problems, so that service recovery can be instant.

Love it.

Bring it on. I’ll hopefully have some stats from Touchwork at the end of this campaign.

- – - —

I am the web designer for www.readytosms.com.au. We have launched our website recently, and thought you may be interested in writing an article and/or review of it on your news site.

Ready to SMS is an online SMS-sending application aimed primarily at business and organisations, from small privately-owned businesses to large corporations. We offer competitive rates and a very reliable service based on high quality infrastructure, with a range of features such as Excel spreadsheet upload and integrated error-checking.

Ready to SMS is the latest offering from Informatel (www.informatel.com). Informatel was founded in Australia in 1987, and since then we have been consistently delivering innovative interactive communication services to businesses in Australia and around the world. As an inaugural Premium Rate service provider, we have helped to bring to our clients new and effective ways of communicating with their customers across many communication mediums; SMS, MMS, telephony, mobile, e-mail and the web.

Thank you for your time,

David Bleja

- – - – -

Every success to you and the Ready To SMS team, David.

Part of the new roll-out — including this whizzy new client I saw — includes offering Trutap users the ability to subscribe to and receive content.

Carl’s got some news about this:

- – - – -

Hi Ewan,

How’s things?

Neil told me about a little trial you were doing regarding PR and press releases, so i thought i’d drop you a quick email to tell you about our new content subscription system, HORNET!

Firstly, what do you think of the name?

We built Hornet because it was a great way for us to supply our users across the world with the kind of content they’ve been asking us for. We’ve been working away behind the scenes to sign deals with a load of major content publishers around the globe. Hornet will let those partners plug in text, images and advertising into their content for free and off-deck – cool eh!

The first publisher we’re rolling out on Hornet is Goal.com. Users who subscribe to the Goal.com free alerts will get breaking news stories and scores from the English Premiership at least three times a day. Goal.com is live across the service right now and it won’t cost the user a penny to subscribe – remember the world loves the english footie!

I don’t want to give too much away but along with rolling out additional content providers, we’re going to be announcing some more fantastic stuff in the near future, I will be sure to let you know when we’re ready… also, when you get time, we should catch up on our new version, the UI has come a long way since we met in SF, not long till launch.

Stay tuned

Carl.

- – - – -

Carl, thanks for writing — and thank you to Neil and yourself for giving this new format a try. I think it’s a lot more useful and relevant for our readers.

To answer your point, Carl, I reckon HORNET is a wicked name. Good choice. I like the energetic connotations!

If you’ve got content (RSSable) that you think might be relevant to the Trutap audience, I definitely recommend you talk to Carl. Mail me and I can connect you.

What really struck me about DeFi is that in a single service it addresses a number of the gaps in existing VoIP propositions – simple user experience, call expenditure predictability, all inclusive pricing and worldwide in-country numbers.

You keep your existing mobile phone, mobile number and SIM card and use DeFi when in range of a WiFi access point to make calls out of your flat rate package. DeFi is currently compatible with Nokia S60 WiFi handsets with more platform compatibility on the way – BlackBerry, iPhone and Windows Mobile. Installation is via a simple SMS download that auto configures the handset with your personal DeFi settings. The only thing you need to change on your existing mobile service is to downgrade the package to a cheaper one because you won’t need to make as many calls using it! As well as using your home and office WiFi you have automatic access to over 50 global WiFi networks in more than 75 countries included in the monthly service charge. The hotspot network also provides email and Internet access via your handset. Any calls that DeFi cannot include in the flat rate subscription, like premium rate calls, are barred, to maintain the simple tariff.

The proposition is aimed both at mobile roamers who are fed up receiving extortionate bills after overseas trips and regular mobile users who just make lots of calls. Current customers include both consumers and businesses that are looking to reduce their mobile bills.

Quick summary of the key features:
• Single flat rate tariff for all calls worldwide – wherever you are your calls are included in your monthly service charge
• Geographic number for inbound calls in your home country
• Full inbound and outbound CLI
• Call forwarding to your GSM/3G number when out of WiFi coverage
• Voicemail–to-email service with handset message alert
• Service and account management via the web

What does it cost? In the UK the DeFi Global Access monthly subscription charge is £25 (US$ equivalent) per month. The only additional charge is for upgrading to Global Access+ which gives you three geographic numbers in the countries of your choice for an additional £5 per month. Global Access+ is great if you have friends or colleagues in other countries and want to give them a cheap local number to call you on.

DeFi has invested time and money in building a carrier grade platform with the call quality and reliability you’d expect from a serious player and I’ll be checking this out when I test the service.

My DeFi account will be up and running shortly and I’ll be writing a full review on my experiences using the service.

—

Jonathan’s also at Sevendotzero.

Ostensibly the network is a pilot — aimed at connecting students, teaching staff, business and local residents. The network launches on the 29th of September (the day, by the way, when I turn 31).

WiMAX is a dirty word here on Mobile Industry Review after our industry columnist, Mr Operator, went to town on it. Here’s a reminder of just how scathing Mr Operator was:

If WiMax had come along 5 years ago, it would have been a lighthouse for Mobile operators struggling to right the shipwreck of 3G’s launch. But WiMax – and critically its mobile version – just didn’t arrive in time. HSPA and the roadmapped HSPA+ / LTE have stolen the show.

Evolution, not revolution. Why tear apart what you have, when you can just bolt on some new cards? Why give customers ‘orphan’ handsets when they can have devices that are backward-compatible with legacy networks?

…

For nations where 3G mobile broadband with its high QoS and device choice is already commoditised, WiMax has no place to play. Not because it’s inherently inferior, but because it doesn’t have anything to differentiate it except less choice in vendor/device, premature mobility & QoS standards, poorer performance in approved bands and the same cost base for infrastructure.

All it can do is play catch-up. And there’s precious little profit in being last to the party.

I’ve been meaning to head up to Manchester to check out the Freedom4 WiMAX network there — and now I need to add Nottingham to my list.

More news about the Nottingham roll-out at http://www.ingenuitygateway.com/programme/.

Voice and messaging provider, AQL, are staging a developer competition to both celebrate their 10th anniversary and to stimulate development across the industry. Always good news.

Dr Adam Beaumont, top chap at AQL, comments:

We’re seeing a host of applications crop up start to use our interfaces, from twitter-like applications and facebook plug-ins through to integration with legal software and CRM systems

Aye. There’s actually a lot of innovation going on in the marketplace — but it’s always useful to stimulate it. So if you think you’ve got a good idea that could make use of multiple APIs (e.g. SMS, MMS, Voice, Fax and Email), then you really should give a bit of attention to the AQL Developer Competition.

Stuart, their Biz Dev chap explains:

We’re specifically looking for clever use of multiple APIs together so any combination of SMS/MMS/Voice/Fax/Email. These can be either “self-contained” applications or websites, or they can be interfaces which “enable” third party applications (such as facebook) access to aql functionality. The winners will be notified on the 15th of November. It only remains for me to wish you all the best of luck and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to send me a private message [via the AQL developer forum].

The developer rules are right here.

I’m going to be judging along with Dr Mike Short of o2, Jay Daley (CTO of Nominet), Victor Keegan of The Guardian and Dr Adam himself.

I’m thinking of a few applications already. You’ve got a lot to play with there. Lots of APIs and possibilities. Conveniently, AQL will also provide text-in numbers free of charge to developers for the duration of the competition.

Although, as we saw earlier, because of their ridiculous .co.uk website design, you’ll need to arse about clicking on their website and be very, very lucky to hit the relevant pages first-time.

The order pages are here, if you can’t be bothered hunting.

Here, then, is what Orange say about their new laptops:

Orange today launches its new mobile broadband and laptop offer targeted specifically at the business market. Small and medium business customers can now sign up to a new Orange Business Everywhere mobile broadband package and come away with a laptop as well.

Laptop and dongle. Nice. Not especially innovative but at least they’re following 3 and the mobile phone retailers and getting an offering to market.

Anything new or different? Yes.

The three new Business Everywhere with Laptop bundles each include an unlimited data allowance and a whopping 500 WiFi minutes per month, which can be used at over 10,000 UK hotspots*.

I don’t think I’d have described 500 minutes as ‘whopping’ but still, reasonably useful stuff.

On top of this, customers will receive a business-spec HP laptop with Microsoft Windows Vista Business. Depending on the package chosen, the laptop will come either embedded with an Orange SIM or with an Option ICON 225 USB dongle, meaning customers can get online instantly without the need for a fixed line internet connection. The new packages range from GBP35 – GBP45 per month for a 24 month contract, with the price varying according to the choice of laptop.

24-months is preeeeety steep. I’d have liked to have seen at least an 18-monther in there, but fine. I like the integrated broadband option.

Following the announcement of its consumer offer in July, Orange is working with HP, one of the world’s leading laptop manufacturers, for its first connected business laptop offering.

I must have missed the consumer offer completely. Unless they’re meaning a consumer-broadband offering. I didn’t catch an Orange consumer laptop range. And their site is especially useless at advertising that? Who knows.

Business Everywhere with Laptop is available direct from Orange through the Online Shop, telesales and the business sales team.

Ah. So you can’t actually buy these in the shops. Slightly annoying, that.

*via the partnerships with BT Openzone and The Cloud

I could have guessed. British Telecom and their sodding WiFi minutes on BT Openzone. How depressing. Are we STILL billing by the minute?

And since the Orange.co.uk site doesn’t have a decent screenshot of a price table, here is the rubbish text-only-version from their press release.

Seriously, this is how they went to market with it. Amazing.

It is going to cost you £350 for the 8GB version, and £400 for 16GB. This will include unlimited browsing and Wi-Fi for the first 12 months. It launches Sept 16th.

Who is the prepay version of the iPhone aimed at? I would at a guess estimate at someone being under the age of 24, who does not want or cannot get a postpay account. They would also be looking for a new mp3 player and a phone because £350 is a lot of money to spend. O2 have also been very clever by including the unlimited browsing and Wi-Fi as people are much less likely to unlock the device and use their own contract or pay as you go sim, the reason is that the value of the sim alone according to O2′s prices is £120.

When the iPhone was launched I was tempted, very tempted but as I still in contract I could not even consider it, now my contract is nearly over I have been looking at the figures. The cost on contract was too much, however I did have hope that the prepay version may be more affordable. I was very wrong.
I honestly believe in this instance having an all in one device is not the best way forward, especially with the issues the iPhone has with its rubbish battery and keeping a decent 3G signal. It’s not just me thinking this either, Orange UK ran a promotion between the 18th to 21st August 2008 where they gave a free iPod touch (8Gb) to all new and upgrading customers who upgraded between these two dates on a 18 or 24 month tariff over £35 a month. I reckon you can guarantee similar offers from orange and the all the major networks in the future. So my advice to you if you are considering an iPhone on prepay don’t bother, get an iPod Touch instead.

And my question to O2 is;

Who is the prepay version of the iPhone aimed at?

I’m always, always pleased to hear about people taking the entrepreneurial step so good luck and every success, Stephen!

They will, for example, give you line rental for 11 quid a month (plus VAT, everything on the business site is, obviously, plus-vat) and then charge you 6p a minute to a landline, 6p a minute to other 3 handsets and 20p a minute to other mobiles. It’s a brilliant deal if you’d like to keep costs low and proportional to your business usage. (One imagines that if you make more calls, you’re going to make more money… right?)

Or if you’d like inclusive minutes, stump up 21 quid and you’ll get 1,125 minutes a month (that’s 750 standard, with an extra 50% for the length of your plan).

I’m particularly pleased to report that 3 business customers on Mix and Match service plans now automatically get 300 free inclusive minutes to other 3 customers; free Skype to Skpye calls, free voicemail and free instant messenger. This is beginning to get really compelling, eh?

Here’s some more meat:

Customers can now select from five plans of flexible minutes or texts they need – for example GBP12.77 a month for 300 minutes or texts right through to GBP22.98 a month for 1100 minutes or texts. Depending on the package selected customers also receive further bonus extras including 2000 3-to-3 minutes, 1000 UK texts or 2000 UK landline minutes.

Business Mix and Match also offers customers significant flexibility when choosing handsets. Customers will be able to select new handsets such as Nokia’s N95 or the HTC TyTN II, alongside established handsets such as Nokia’s E61 and 6500 slider.

3 Business has also boosted the value of its Business 600, Business 900 and Flat Rate tariffs, giving customers on these price plans 2000 free 3-to-3 minutes. In addition new customers signing up for 18-months will also receive a 10% discount and those on 24-month contracts will get 25% off their recurring charge (discount applies to sharer member not access fee).

I’m pleased to see that, as per The Register’s report, CrimeStoppers has launched an anonymous text service for crime tips. Here’s hoping this will be of value. I think people are far more likely to give a tip by text message rather than phone up. Even though CrimeStoppers guarantees anonymity, ‘speaking’ to someone is still quite a big ask. Texting a tip from a pay as you go sim card is, I reckon, a lot simpler and easier.

CrimeStoppers UK, the anonymous snitching service, has begun a trial allowing suspicious members of the public to text in their crime tips. The intention is to get kids to report knife-carrying compatriots.
The trial will launch at three schools in Tower Hamlets, with a view to a rollout across London and the rest of the country pretty quickly.