Posts tagged mobile
LG BL40 “Chocolate” shows up in the Allphones catalogue
Feb 9th
LG’s newest addition to the “Black Label” line of handsets, the BL40, has shown up in Allphones Buyer’s Guide. Sporting that extra long 4″ HD screen and 21:9 aspect ratio, this has to be one of the strangest forms made by a mainstream company. With pricing and availability still to be confirmed, let’s hope it’s not another shocker for LG, much in the same vain as there other Chocolate handsets…. yes i’m talking to you KG800.
Nokia’s “Booklet” netbook and N900 not coming Down Under
Nov 28th
It has been heard that Nokia’s netbook, the “Booklet” and its Maemo touch handset, the N900 will not be making their way to Australian stores due to lukewarm support from networks. The major factor for the Booklet would have to have been lacklustre sales and poor public reception of the netbooks deals currently offered by carriers now, including Optus’ Samsung NC10 and Vodafone’s Dell Inspiron mini 9. If the networks could get the Booklet down to free, which at the moment is a big ask, considering Optus charge you extra for their premium modem which doubles your accessible speed from 3.6Mbps to 7.2Mbps with 2Mbps HSUPA, I certainly can’t see them providing a netbook at a free price. But this is what the market needs for these things to be viable. They can subsidise a $500 handset and give it away for free on a $30 plan, but can’t get a netbook for less than $20 on top of existing wireless broadband plans that start at $40. Crazy!
The N900 on the other hand, I have no clue as to why Australian networks don’t want it. This just seems absurd, it would run on both Vodafone’s and Optus’ dual band 3G networks without an issue, it’s a full touch handset with sliding keyboard in the same vain as the Motorola Droid, it runs Maemo 5 – Nokia’s platform of the future, 32GB internal memory with support for up to 16GB via MicroSD, 5 mega pixel camera with video. This thing is a beast, a far better handset then the current flagship, the N97. Maybe cost was an issue, maybe it had to be subsidised too heavily to appeal to the masses, either way, I’m still holding out for this to all be a dream and to hopefully wake up and be able to get one of these and the Booklet in Australia, guess we will have to wait and see.
Nokia N97 mini & 6760 Surge hitting Aussie shores…
Nov 26th
Nokia N97 mini is due to hit our shores in February of 2010. It has been approved for use by Australian networks and pricing as well as availibility should come closer to that date. I have had a play with a “mini” and the build quality is very nice, it seems to be a much more refined and robust product then its bigger brother. Size wise there isn’t a great deal of difference but the “mini” will seem to appeal to those who want a full featured handset like the N97 but without the price tag or the extra bulkiness. Sporting the same hardware as the N97 except for it having 8GB of internal memory rather then 32GB, it also has a smaller screen and no FM transmitter. With 3G operating frequencies of 850/900/1900/2100mHz, this handset will work on all networks in Australia including Telstra’s Next G. Whether that means it will be a different variant of the ”mini” we will just have to wait and see.
The Nokia 6760 Surge on the other hand is now starting to hit Australian shops, starting out on $29 Caps across a few carriers and for $399 AUD outright. This handset is quite pleasing to operate, although at first glance not the most pleasing to look at. The slide is of excellent quality with a nice fluent gentle motion unpon first use, running S60 and shipping with the standard range of Ovi apps such as Maps, Store and Email along with Facebook. Packing HSDPA 900/2100mHz which makes the handset suitable for Optus and Vodafone’s Dual Band 3G Network, 3.2 Megapixel camera with video, expandable memory upto 8GB and FM Radio.
iPhone 3G S shipping to Australian stores as we speak.
Jun 23rd
UPDATE: Vodafone just released pricing, check out both Optus and Vodafone’s below.
With Friday only a matter of days away, the biggest fear i had was a repeat of last year, where only flagship stores carried iPhones on launch day and others had to wait via raincheck processes. This year a different story is emerging, stores have already started to recieve stock and for stores that haven’t, they should have stock for Friday’s launch. This is good news for customers, as no pre-order was available to customers this time around in Oz. Optus have released pricing already, with the 32gb version avaiable free on their Timeless plans. Vodafone and Virgin are still yet to finalise pricing but it is expected today or tomorrow.
New iPhone 3G S to hit Australia on the 26th of June
Jun 10th
It’s been a while since i last posted but i thought this was well worth it. The new iPhone 3G S, announced on Monday will be hitting Australia on the 26th of June. At this stage both Optus and Vodafone have taken the handset, but in usual Apple style nothing in regards to pricing or availability has been released. Vodafone has also now released visual voicemail for the iPhone, which correct me if I’m wrong is the first carrier in Australia to do so. Stay tuned, we will get more word on pricing and stock as i find out.
Nokia 5800 launching at $49/month on Virgin
Mar 3rd
Allphones have released their monthly “Buyers Guide” and in this month edition is the pricing for the new Nokia 5800 on the Virgin network. Advertised as coming soon, with a date of offical release being the 20th of March, the 5800 is priced at $4 per month for the handset, on a Your Cap 45 plan, which gives customers a total of $320 of standard talk, txt and more plus 50MB of data every month. So total cost of $49 a month, which the handset being free on plans above the 45. Pricing for Optus is yet to be confirmed but i wouldn’t think i would stray far from Virgin’s pricing.
Note: You can pre-register for the handset at Allphones site.
UPDATE: Nokia 5800 to launch March/April in Australia
Feb 19th
UPDATE: The 9th of March is now the lucky date of launch, a month ahead of the information recieved earlier. I suppose this is what happens when you get information from a number of different sources. As this date is only 2 week away, i will definatley have an unboxing video and hands on for you as soon as i can get my hands on one.
Following on from my previous post regarding launch dates for the 5800, I have been able to get ahold of information confirming that it will launch end of March, start of April on Optus, Virgin and Three networks, with Optus having 18 months of “Comes with Music” downloads and the other having the standard 12 months.
Nokia is believed to be making this annoucment official on Feb 25th according to itnews.com.au
HTC Dream unboxed in a short quick vid.
Feb 15th
The Dream launched today in Australia, making it’s debut on the Optus network. We were able to get a hold of one and do a short and sweet unboxing video for you all. In a nutshell the Dream ships with the following items:
- Handset
- AC Charger
- Data Cable
- Stereo Handsfree (ExtUSB, and doesn’t include a 3.5mm adapter as per US version)
- 1150 mAh Battery
- Case
- 1GB microSD card plus SD Adapter
Video after the break.
Windows Mobile 6.5 takes a ride on YouTube
Feb 14th
This week has been a good week for WinMo 6.5, with images popping up everywhere, of it’s new interface and look. Now someone has decided to give everyone the video tour. Running on a HTC Touch HD, the 9 minute video demonstrates many of the new features including the new IE Mobile, the “honeycomb” launcher, new tabs and skins for dialogue boxes, the new home screen. It’s definitely still not ready and as Engadget said it seems very much beta.
I think this is a step in the right direction, it’s becoming more finger friendly but still has some ways to go. The interface looks much nicer, more appealing to a wider audience but it’s not without it’s issue in this form, the portrait mode ran painful slow and unresponsive at times, given it’s probably in beta this should get fixed, IE Mobile still has a long way to go if it wants to catch up to the likes of Opera or the iPhone’s Safari, but as i said earlier it does looks very nice, a damn site better then 6.1 does, the new features and new interface do look very good and when a nice device is released with 6.5 running the show (Omnia HD anyone???) it would make me seriously consider purchasing it.
Screens – GadgetMix
Screens 2 – pocketpc.ch (some images were broken for me)
Video after the break.
Vodafone and 3 hold hands…
Feb 8th
Vodafone Australia and Hutchison 3G Australia (3) have today announced plans to merge and create a new telco in Australia. According to news reports the new telco – VHA Pty Ltd will be a 50/50 joint venture and will operate under the Vodafone brand and retain the rights to the “3″ brand through the transitional period and beyond.
So what does this mean for the Australia people? Will they use 3’s call centres which are based in India? What will they do with there duplicate 3G networks? Does this mean there handset will be further butchered with their custom software? And what does this mean for the 3’s deal to use Telstra’s Next G network for customer outside of 3’s network? Hopefully we should get answers to all these question later on, especially seeing it still needs to be approved by regulators and shareholders from Hutchison.
It also seems that jobs will be lost and stores will be closed due to the merger, but Hutchison Australian chief executive Nigel Dews said “we’ll be dealing with those as we get our plans more fully into place” during a teleconference this morning.
We have linked to Vodafone’s Merger Press Release PDF sent out this morning if you wish to have a look.
Vodafone Merger Press Release PDF
[Story from ninemsn]
