Vodafone has started letting its customers upload content to Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and YouTube – direct from their handset.
The operator, finally facing up to what its customers want to be able to do on their handsets, has opened up its service so that users can upload pictures and videos to their online networking site.
To do this, users must click on My Communities on Vodafone Live! and download the app, choosing which of the four services they want to upload content for.
At the moment, only Nokia N95 8GB and Sony Ericsson W910i users can do so, but expect this list of handsets to get bigger.
It’s the first time Vodafone customers (Or indeed almost any mobile users) can do this, so expect a rash of rival operators all announcing similar services in the coming months.
[Via Pocket Lint]
Fed up with Vodafone and Nokia getting all the attention about their new music services like MusicStation and Music Store, 3’s launched its own unlimited music service.
3 does offer music downloads through MusicStore, but its Non Stop Music now offers 24-hour music streaming to your handset for a mere 49p a day. Unlike the above services, this is more of a mobile radio service but one that offers a dip-in-and-out user experience.
There are eight genre-based music streams (or ‘stations’) and each plays tracks on a four-hour loop. You can switch between stations at any time and new music will be updated every week.
It sounds like a neat idea but with only four-hour loops it could get a little repetitive very quickly if you listen to it a lot.
Online fraud and security is one of the media’s big issues at the moment what with credit card details being sold online and the Government losing all our personal data.
Luckily, Ukash is on hand to offer safe online purchase using your mobile phone. Until now Ukash has been aimed at online consumers who either don’t have - or don’t want to use - debit or credit cards.
Instead, users can pay for a unique Ukash numbers at ‘thousands of convenient locations’ on the high street, which they can then use at Ukash-affiliated websites to buy stuff.
Now Vodafone customers can get a Ukash number for a £10 voucher sent to their mobile. They’re then billed on their phone bill. All they have to do is go to the Ukash Mobile web page and incur a £1 charge for doing so.
We admit to never hearing of Ukash before, but you can find out more about this intriguing service here.
A German court has overturned its previous decision to break up the Apple-T-Mobile deal for selling locked iPhones in Germany.
Vodafone had had its hopes raised by the court’s decision two weeks ago to force T-Mobile to sell unlocked iPhones, which it did for a mere €999 (£720). Now it seems the German court has reconsidered its decision, no doubt much to Vodafone’s disappointment.
Vodafone had originally objected to the exclusivity of the Apple’s deal with T-Mobile, arguing that consumers should be able to buy unlocked iPhones.
Apple has so far resisted calls to sell unlocked iPhones and instead preferred to sign exclusive deals tying its handsets to particular operators (Like O2 in the UK). Vodafone’s court filing was one of several that have been lodged against Apple’s strategy (There are two cases outstanding in the US).
T-Mobile has now promised that it will unlock iPhones after two years free of charge (After it’s made its money back?). Considering Apple has warned people that unlocking iPhones will cause software troubles later on, it isn’t clear whether T-Mobile’s unlocked devices will have the same troubles.
[Via BBC Online]
T-Mobile and Vodafone will go head to head in a Hamburg court this week in their fight over marketing rights for Apple’s iPhone in Germany. A date for the hearing has been set for November 29.
Vodafone last week filed an injunction with German courts requesting a hearing over T-Mobile’s exclusive rights to sell iPhones in Germany. It questioned the legality of T-Mobile locking iPhones to its network and its binding contracts for users.
German laws are different to those in the UK, and the exclusive T-Mobile-Apple deal could be illegal. If the court finds in favour of Vodafone, iPhones will have to be available unlocked in Germany.
Since the injunction last week T-Mobile has already changed its iPhone offer and is now selling Sim-free iPhones for over £700.
German iPhone fans will be waiting with baited breath for the court’s decision this week, as will we.
Travelling overseas has always hit you where it hurts - in your wallet - and nothing hits you harder than GPRS roaming.
Thankfully, someone’s negotiated a low-cost GPRS roaming tariff with European operators.
TariffMan has negotiated a single European-wide tariff covering the EU (including the UK), costing only £4 a month, plus a flat-rate £1.50 per MB, billed by the kb.
This might sound a lot, but considering you can pay up to £12 per MB when travelling, it’s a steal. Not only this but TariffMan claims you won’t pay no session charges for logging on and no unexpected costs arising from using overseas networks that charge different rates for data access.
TariffMan had previously offered GPRS roaming via a Vodafone MVNO, aimed at business users, who had to buy a Sim card and pay to use it. Now TariffMan has launched it for consumers as well.
This summer the EU forced a cap on operators’ roaming charges with the Eurotariff so it was only a matter of time before someone capitalised.
Similar roaming tariffs are already in use covering the US, Canada and Mexico, but now, finally, we have the same in Europe.
Now this is just too deliciously geeky for words. Vodafone has launched a new service called InsideOut that allows you to take a real mobile in the real world and call or message someone using a virtual one in Second Life, which if it continues to grow and absorb the world at the rate that it is just now will soon have to be re-named First Life.
Texts cost L$300 (which is apparently somewhere around $1) and voice calls cost L$300 per minute which isn’t exactly cheap but hey, that’s the price of living out a full blown Matrix fantasy.
The service will continue to run in beta form until the end of November so for the meantime it’s free to try. We have dibs on pretending to be Neo, you can be Morpheus.
(Via Engadget)
There’s developing news in T-Mobile’s spat with Vodafone in Germany, after the latter won a court injunction to prevent T-Mobile from selling the iPhone on an exclusive contract there. T-Mobile has now announced that it will also now sell an unlocked version of the iPhone, but at a price.
How much? It’ll set you back a whopping 999 Euros. That’s about £720! Although for Brits who really really want an iPhone on an operator other than O2, it might be a price worth swallowing (plus travel costs to go and get one, of course). T-Mobile will continue selling the iPhone for 399 Euros (£287).
It’s the implications elsewhere in the world (and specifically the UK) that I’m interested in, though. It’s unclear if this kind of legal challenge could be mounted in the UK, due to differing trade laws, but with the principle of selling a legally unlocked iPhone established elsewhere in Europe, Apple may come under pressure to follow suit here and in the US too.
(via MobileCrunch)
Continue reading ‘T-Mobile to sell unlocked iPhone in Germany… for 999 Euros!’
Vodafone’s certainly been stirring controversy, speculation and rumour about 3G iPhones this week.
First, on Monday, Vodafone got an injunction against T-Mobile in Germany, demanding that German iPhones be sold unlocked without two-year contracts. This is going to be reviewed in two weeks.
The German court decision came after Vodafone Germany filed a motion for the courts to review T-Mobile’s exclusive rights to sell the iPhone, which are apparently in breach of German commercial laws.
This was the same argument that saw Bouygues Telecom and Virgin Mobile sell iPhones in France, alongside Orange, which was stopped from selling it exclusively.
Now, Vodafone is playing down rumours it’s going to sell 3G iPhones next year.
A spokesman has told Tech.co.uk that although Vodafone has said before it was interested in selling 3G iPhones, this is ‘rubbish’.
However, he did say: “We have said in the past we’re interested in selling a 3G iPhone and that may have been misinterpreted.”
Hmm. Telefonica’s already been linked with 3G iPhones as early as May next year. Having seen O2 sell thousands of iPhones already, what’s the betting Vodafone’s lining itself up to get at the forefront of negotiations for the 3G iPhone contract from Apple?
This month has seen the launch of two mobile music services, competing for the ears of the mobile-equipped music fan.
Nokia’s Music Store and Vodafone’s MusicStation both offer DRM-laden music downloads, on a per-track or per-album basis (Music Store) or by paying a fixed monthly fee for unlimited access to their music libraries (Both services).
The two services appear quite similar at first glance - how do they compare?
Continue reading ‘Hands on: Vodafone MusicStation versus Nokia Music Store’
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