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TomTom have now released the v7 software update for the x10 devices (510, 710, 910) providing the new functions that have been available on the x20 devices (520, 720) for a while now. To get this update, you may need to first update your TomTom HOME application, and then you should be able to get the update for your device.
This is also available for some of the TomTom ONE range too.
Earlier this year, TomTom announed it was going to make an offer for TeleAtlas. A few months later, Nokia announced it was actually making an offer for Navteq. This prompted TomTom to firm up it’s offer for TeleAtlas.
Today, Garmin has joined in and has also made an offer for TeleAtlas, which is an interesting move from Garmin, who have traditionally used Navteq maps worldwide.
There are other rumours flying around about companies wanting to buy TomTom, but nothing is confirmed yet.
Story from PocketGPSWorld.com
Nokia have released the new version of the Nokia Search tool, v4.0. This is the version which ships with the N95 8Gb, but is now available for download for other S60 FP1 phones.
If you are upgrading from a previous version, Steve Litchfield notes:
You’ll have to go into App Mgr and delete EVERY instance of ‘Search’ – if your N95 is like mine, there will be several entries! After this, Search v4 will finally install
As expected, the 3 SkypePhone has a fair use policy, which is 4000 Skype minutes per month. This doesn’t sound too bad, until you remember that a normal phone, such as the N95 on 3, when purchased with a £5 X-Series Silver option, has 5000 Skype minutes per month.
Although the 3 SkypePhone is a very interesting proposition, you may be better looking at the X-Series range, albeit with a higher monthly charge (but more facilities and minutes thrown in too).
Right on cue, the 3 SkypePhone was announced this morning. Skype-Skype calls and Skype Instant Messages will both be free as long as you remain on contract, or you topup your PAYG (Pay As You Go) account (*). It will also be able to access the rest of 3’s Internet Services.
(*) Minimum topup of £10 every 30 days will keep Skype services running.
Although we originally said it would be available in 4 countries, it’s actually going to be available in the UK, Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Macau and Sweden. For the UK, it’s £49.99 on PAYG, and free as part of a new contract, and should be available on 2nd November (this Friday) in 3Stores, with other countries following in due course. It is available for Pre-Order from tomorrow.
One thing few people are reporting on – it’s rumoured the phone will not support SkypeOut…
More details and full specifications in the rest of the article.
WidSets, originally developed by a group of Nokia employees, have moved from a beta product into a mainstream, launched product. WidSets uses little graphical widgets to allow you to access content from a huge variety of websites directly on your mobile phone. For example, you can access the latest BBC News Headlines. WidSets is compatible with a wide range of phones, and hence is a nice example of Java application that provides good access to a lot of information on the internet. Many websites have created (or their users have created) widgets, which often connect to the RSS feed of the site – in essence WidSets offers you an easy to use RSS feed reader for your mobile, without the normal real estate problems of the desktop apps; there are very few phones where Google Reader is actually a practical option – for all the rest WidSets could well be the solution.
To encourage you all to download WidSets (it’s free after all), we’ve even created a UK Gadgeteer WidSet Widget for you to add to your WidSets application. Even before this post was created, we have had a healthy number of people add the widget to their WidSet – well done, and welcome to all our new readers!
It appears in advance of being launched on Monday, a few details of the SkypePhone are starting to leak out….
Also interesting is the news it will be available on a new £12 Mix’n'Match 100 Tariff (and this will be the only phone allowed to use this tariff).
Photo courtesy of Skype-watch.com
If a number of mobile sites are to be believed, this is the new Nokia N82, which is likely to get launched in the next few weeks, possibly even sooner than that. It’s basically a non-slide version of the N95, so it packs a 5-megapixel camera with a Xenon Flash, GPS, WiFi etc.
GooSync, well known for it’s ability to sync your mobile device’s Calendar with Google Calendar, has now launched it’s Google Contacts Sync support, which has been in beta for a few months. Due to limitations in the Google Contacts API, they cannot sync directly between the mobile device and Google, but instead offer a facility to sync your mobile device to their website, and then offer a manual import / export export which is compatible with both Google and other apps, such as Outlook.
It appears (potentially due to the built in Nokia Ovi music store support) that the UK mobile phone network operators have not been too keen on the N81, with The UK Mobile Report reporting that instead of the usual fight between operators to be granted an exclusive for a particular phone (eg Vodafone have the exclusive on the Nokia 6110 Navigator at the moment), Vodafone were the only operator interested in the N81, and then only in N81 8Gb format.
This is interesting – with Nokia pushing Ovi, MOSH, and other new services direct to its customers, the network operators are either going to have to embrace this and accept it, continue to demand phones with features removed (and I think Nokia has stood it’s ground with the N81), or start losing control of the handset market, and moving towards the mobile phone manufacturers selling direct.
This is happening in the US – you can buy Nokia and some Motorola phones direct from the companies, without involvement of your operator, and it appears the US may well move much closer to this model for all phones. In the UK (and Europe), we are used to being able to buy “SIM-Free” phones, but the cost is much higher.
I wonder if we’ll start to see the manufacturers subsidising the phones, based on services they provide, instead of the operator subsidising the phone…
Although many of the mobile phone network operators shy away from Skype, 3 have happily supported Skype on some of their handsets for a while now. On top of that, with the X-Series, they even bundle in 5,000 Skype minutes per month.
Well, now it appears Skype and 3 have worked even closer together, and will launch a Skype mobile phone next week. Details are a little scarce right now, but it appears the phone will have a monthly charge (on top of Skype charges), but will also support web browsing.
It should be launched in 3’s 4 strongest countries; UK, Italy, Hong Kong and Australia.
A coup for 3…
Earlier this month BT announced a joint venture with FON called BTFON. This allows BT Total Broadband users to share a little of their home broadband in return for having access to all other FON wifi spots across the world, and BT OpenZone access.
Also, McDonald’s have announced free wifi at 1200 restaurants by the end of the year. This will be provided by The Cloud, although the chargeable BT Openzone access will continue to exist.
A few points about BTFON:
So, sign up to FON and purchase a FON router, or sign up to BTFON and enable the FON support in your Home Hub (depending on your current ISP), and sign up to Boingo or Boingo Mobile / Boingo Mobile for Nokia (depending on your chosen mobile device), and for a minimal outlay you will have access to thousands of UK wireless hotspots with unlimited access, including, of all places, McDonald’s.
Boingo has launched Boingo Mobile for Nokia, which, for £3.95 gives your Nokia wifi-enabled phone, or Nokia Internet Tablet access to the whole Boingo wifi network (and partners). This compares to the normal Boingo worldwide unlimited option which is roughly three times as much.
The Boingo Mobile website also includes software to install to your device to support your Boingo account.
Between this and FON, maybe the idea of ubiquitous wireless is starting to happen…
I see the Boingo Mobile website already has a picture of the (launched today) N810 – nice going Boingo.
Nokia will later today announce their 3rd Internet Tablet, the N810. This is likely to run alongside the N800, but adds a built in GPS, Navigation software, and a sliding keyboard.
More pictures available at the Linux for Home Automation website.
Specs also now available at the Linux for Home Automation website.
Picture courtesy of Nokia.
Ricky, from Symbian Guru, has posted that Google Maps has been updated for Symbian phones, and is now a dedicated Series 60 application. This boasts both GPS support, including support for internal GPS units, such as the N95, 6110 Navigator, and the E90.
Ricky also reports that one nice feature is the ability for a search result to be saved directly into a Contacts entry.
It can be downloaded from here.
Image courtesy of Symbian Guru.
Nokia Beta Labs have released a beta of the new version of Share Online 3.0
This adds some nice functionality from Nokia, and looks a good way to go in terms of uploading content to various websites.
Although not mentioned on the website, Nokia have confirmed to me that they plan for the final released version to support geotagging the pictures (for phones like the N95) so that once uploaded to places like Flickr they will be able to appear on the photo map. This can be done today via ShoZu, but that app isn’t particularly N95-friendly. However, it’s nice to see Nokia responded with their own apps to achieve this integration.
Although apparently not yet in the shops, TomTom are now shipping out replacement TMC traffic data receivers to people in the UK who have complained about performance problems (ie the previous ones didn’t work). These seem to being well received, and actually work in the UK.
So, with that sorted out, and with the new MapShare feature in their newer products, one has to wonder what Garmin will do next to try to ensure they hold their market share.
Picture courtesy of PocketGPSWorld
Not just have 3 matched T-Mobile’s Flext tariffs, but they’ve done some other interesting things. Take the N95, for example – even if you select the cheapest (£15 per month) tariff, the N95 remains free! One small point, you can only get the N95 with 120 video calling minutes, which costs £12 per month, so in essence there is an element of a payment for having a top spec phone. Even adding X-Series Silver to this results in a combined monthly cost of £32 per month, no one-off cost for the N95, and you are getting 300 minutes or texts, 120 video calling minutes, and 1Gb of data, plus a load of Skype minutes, MSN messages (both on top of the 1Gb of data). The only missing information on the 3 website is either those 120 video minutes are cross network…
Compare that to T-Mobile’s cheapest tariff: On the cheapest Web’n'Walk (which doesn’t allow instant messaging), the monthly cost is £22.50, but the phone costs £220. Over the 18 months of the contract that’s £625 compared to £576 on 3.
Leave the contract running for 2 years though, and T-Mobile is £760 compared to £768, so there’s some logic in changing plan / tariff / company before 2 years is up to keep ahead financially (plus, you’ll be fed up with the limited battery life of the N95 well before then). Of course, if you want IMs, then you need to pay a higher monthly charge to T-Mobile (although it does raise the monthly data limit too), which changes the figures.
Two final points – that £22.50 from T-Mobile gets you 170 minutes or 340 texts, so if you use the phone more than you text, 3 are giving you nearly twice the number of minutes, a better data plan, and no upfront cost. Secondly, 3 will also throw in an additional 300 3 to 3 minutes per month (my partner isn’t on 3, so this is less useful to me, hence I’ve not majored on it, but it could easily swing it for others).
Coo.
