It’s a while since we’ve mentioned the 3 USB Mobile Broadband deals, and 3 have quietly updated these, so we thought we would recap these new deals.

There are still 3 levels (Lite, Plus and Max), but the cost and amount of data allowance per month varies based on the length of contract you sign.

• For Broadband Lite, the figures are fixed; £10 per month with 1Gb of data allowance, irrespective of whether you take a 12, 18 or 24 month contract.
• Broadband Plus costs £15 per month, and comes with 3Gb of data allowance on a 12 month contract, but gives you 5Gb of data for a 18 or 24 month contract.
• Finally, Broadband Max offers some of the best deals for high usage customers. A 12 month contract will cost £25 per month and give 7Gb of data allowance, but 18 and 24 month contracts cost slightly more at £30 per month, but give a massive 15Gb of data allowance per month.

In most cases, the USB Modem is free (the exception being the 12 month Broadband Lite contract, although the £49.99 charge for the device is waived if you are an existing 3 customer). Another option for existing customers is to take the 18 month Broadband Max contract, where 3 will halve the monthly charge (ie you get 15Gb of data allowance for £15 per month).

These deals are all laid out in the 3 Store, and of course the PAYG options still exist if you don’t want the ongoing commitment of paying every month (although you may want to do the sums, as we reckon it’s worth it for many people).

Whilst we’re still waiting for UK stocks, here’s an in depth review from the US of the Garmin Oregon from GPS Tracklog, which covers a lot of the user interface, which is the same across the world. Probably the biggest area of concern is the readability of the touchscreen whilst outside in the sunshine…

Head here to read the review.

In Germany, it appears, according to Pocket GPS World, that using your mobile phone whilst driving is illegal. However, a court has now taken that a step further, and decreed that using the mobile phone for SatNav is classed as “using” your mobile phone (even if no call is taking place), and hence ruled that using one as a SatNav is also illegal. We’ve clarified the article with Pocket GPS World, and they have confirmed that this applies even if the phone is mounted in a holder.  So, if you are heading off to Germany in the next few months, and use a phone based SatNav, think twice…

Courtesy of Navigadget, we can see above the new Ford Nuvi mount, which is compatible with the Nuvi 760, and designed for Focus, C-Max, Kuga, Fiesta, and Transit models.  The custom mount also provides power, removing the need for a trailing cable across the dash.

As well as the standard edition, there is a premium edition which includes the Garmin Traffic Receiver as well.

This is a very good custom mount, and removes the need for wiring, as well as mounting the device in a better location than using a standard windscreen mount (with all the tell tale rubber ring marks that can attract thieves).  Two downsides right now, firstly it’s for LHD cars, and there’s no information as to whether a RHD version is being released, and secondly there is no pricing information; if it’s priced too high then people simply won’t buy it.

Well, it appears there are shortages of the Linux variant of the Asus Eee 901 in the UK at present. What’s caused this you might ask…? Despite the rumours that it’s Microsoft putting pressure on Asus, Asus have revealed it’s caused by Intel not being able to supply enough Atom chips, which is limiting supply. Why is it only affecting the Linux variant? Simply these are more popular, and hence selling faster!

In other Asus news, Asus have revealed the pricing of all of the new variants; the 901 is £299 (20Gb SSD Linux or 12Gb SSD Windows XP variants), the 904 (basically a 900 in the 1000 case) is £269 (80Gb HDD Windows XP), and the 1000H is £349 (80Gb HDD Windows XP) or £369 (40Gb SSD Linux).

Finally, Asus have produced this chart (above) which compares the different units.

Some content courtesy of Register Hardware and Mobile Computer Magazine.

SatMap have released another update for their SatMap Active 10 unit. This is available for download, unlike previous versions, which were sent out on CD. You do need to have v1.16 or above to be able to install this new version, v1.2, but hopefully SatMap will continue to provide downloads from now on.

The enhancements with the new software include:

• Charger Control
• SDHC Support
• Improved map zoom handling
• UTM and MRGS Coordinate schemes
• Improved memory handling

Information courtesy of Pocket GPS World.

Over at Symbian Guru, Dotsisx has written a comprehensive article on how to transfer your data from your old Symbian phone onto a new Symbian phone. This covers much more than just Contacts, and it even covers details like SportsTracker data, and how to move your user entered T9 dictionary words. It doesn’t quite cover everything (although it does list the areas which aren’t covered). Head over to Symbian Guru to read the article.

Despite TomTom having a version of their SatNav application working on an iPhone last month, it appears, according to Gizmodo, that Telenav will be the first to release a full SatNav application for the iPhone. They have said their application app include colour 3D moving maps and the turn-by-turn voice guidance and traffic aware routing, fucntions the iPhone Maps program itself is missing.

With many people either picking up their new iPhone today, or upgrading their old iPhone to the new v2.0 firmware, plus updating iTunes to v7.7, we wondered what Nokia Symbian users would be doing.  Well, if you are keen on social networking, or location based services, then we suspect you’ll be installing the new Nokia Chat beta from Nokia Beta Labs.  It combines chat facilities with presence and location information, and nicely integrates it into the phone itself.  The only downside is that it uses a “Nokia account” for login, which means another new account, and another new set of friends to find and connect with.  This, we can only expect, was well through development when Nokia bought Plazes, and we hope in time Nokia link these two together; the client looks very good and is powerful, but it doesn’t need it’s own social network when it could use the existing Plazes network, or the existing Ovi networks.

If you want more information, and to download it to try out, head over to the Nokia Beta Labs website.

With this, some of Nokia’s recent company purchases, and with their slow roll out of Ovi services, it looks like Nokia may be in a position to rival Apple and Google for the provision of content as well as devices, although we suspect they’ve still got a way to go before they have all of the services neatly tied up and integrated together.

Whilst everyone is covering the iPhone story in greater detail than we could do it justice, we’re going to cover the formal announcement of the Garmin Oregon.  We covered much of the spec earlier in the week here, but here’s some more formal information from Garmin, including some comparisons with the Garmin Colorado range.

The 200 (above left) will just have the basemap, whereas the 300 (above right) has the shaded relief worldwide basemap.  The 400 series adds particular US maps (just like the Colorado), so will not hit the UK.  Neither the 200 or 300 have detailed maps preloaded, but both have a microSD card, as well as their internal memory for storing those additional maps.

The 300 also includes the wireless support, for the exchange of tracks, waypoints and geocaches between other Oregon units and Colorado models. It’s also equipped with a barometric altimeter and electronic compass and is compatible with Garmin’s heart-rate monitors and speed/cadence sensors (all of these features are missing on the 200, so we suspect the 300 will be the biggest seller).

Geocaching is even easier with the Oregon, which quickly downloads online information for every cache, such as location, terrain, difficulty, hints and description, so that you don’t have to take printouts with you. Oregon users can experience Wherigo™, the newest GPS-based activity from Groundspeak, the people who made geocaching a worldwide phenomenon. Wherigo (pronounced “where I go”) is a toolset for creating and completing adventure games, historical tours or other innovative activities in the real world.

With the 3″ touchscreen, we think this is going to be a big seller in the coming months.  All models should be available in the US by the end of the month, although we’re still waiting to hear when they’ll be on sale in the UK.

With mixed opinions, it appears that to protect customers from roaming charges into the thousands of phones, 3 has taken the decision to remove data roaming from it’s Mobile Broadband by default.  What this means is that if you buy a Mobile Broadband device, or have previously bought one (even if you’ve used it abroad before), you are likely to find that it now will only work in the UK and on other 3 networks around the world, but not on any other network.

On the plus side, this protects you from large unwelcome bills, and if you are willing to accept the risk of large bills, you can still contact 3 and ask for data roaming to be re-enabled on the account, although this is likely to still have a limit placed on the account to minimise your spend.  With the “3 Like Home” policy, when you roam on other 3 networks, you are treated as being at home, and your inclusive minutes, text and data can be used, and hence on these networks there is no need for any limits.

On the down side, we’re not sure if this is receiving sufficient publicity from 3, and could leave some business customers stranded, or even if they are willing to foot the bill, they may find the roaming limits too strict to allow the device to be useful at all.  It’s also said that the number of “I’ve just received a bill for thousands of pounds” situations is very small, so 3 may have over protected their customers.

3 already have low roaming prices across the EU (25p/min to make a call to landlines and mobiles anywhere in the EU, and 10p/min to receive calls); we remember when it costs more than that to use a mobile in the UK! With rates like these, people are encouraged to use their phones abroad, and hopefully 3’s decision will limit the number of people coming back from holiday this year complaining about their high roaming bills.

Overall, we feel it’s a sensible default position (we believe 3 don’t enable roaming on mobile phones by default either), but that low usage limit may be too low for many who are happy to pay the bill.

Story courtesy of ZDNet [Via Pat Phelan]

Nokia have recently released v1.4.49 of their Software Updater, allowing you to upgrade the firmware in your mobile phone.  There’s very little information about the new version, except for that key OS support; Vista.  Vista support was dropped back in May due to compatibility problems.

Ironically, the website hasn’t been updated to list Vista as a supported OS yet, but you can still download the new version here.

We’ve already covered the Asus Eee Box PC a couple of times before, including listing out the specs of the device. However, Asus have now confirmed the UK price.  It looks like the UK price will be £199, which will include the device with the 80Gb Hard Disk, Windows XP, a keyboard and mouse, but no monitor.  For that price, we expect it’ll be the 1Gb RAM version, and probably without the optional Bluetooth module.

Sony have doubled the capacity of their Memory Stick Micro (M2) cards from 4Gb to 8Gb. Although no pricing information is available direct from Sony, Sony have also stated that from now on, all M2 cards will also ship with a USB reader for easy transfer of data. If nothing else, this should help reduce the price of the 4Gb cards…

Story courtesy of Tech Digest.

The above phone, another Amoi device, has recently gained FCC approval (one route used by manufacturers to get fairly worldwide approval for a device without having to gain approval in each country; the irony being 3 has no US network, and so the phone is not actually sold there), and is believed to be the next version of the 3 SkypePhone.

The key improvements over the existing phone are believed to include a 3.2megapixel camera and WiFi. Maximus at Just Another Mobile Phone Blog claims the device is targetted at 2G networks, and does not include 3G / UMTS support at all, but 3 have rebuked that stating “as a 3G-only network we’d suggest this report is best taken with a generous pinch of salt”.

The addition of WiFi will make the device even more useful, and potentially allow use of the device at home, but given 3 currently only allow access to the Skype application if you have the phone on contract, or regularly topup your PAYG account, this potentially will need some changes to their T&Cs. We’ve no date for release, but we’ll bring you the news as soon as we have it.

Story courtesy of 3mobilebuzz.

We’ve covered fring before, but the latest version of the client has a new feature; add-ons. This allows connections and data from systems to be integrated into the one application. The key add-ons so far are facebook, Orkut and a GMail notifier, with more due over time. This facility could make fring even more appealing to new customers; not just the ability for free chat and calls, but now the ability to interact with those same friends through a variety of online social networking sites.

If you want to try these add-ons out, get the latest fring client, and then select Options / Select / Manage add-ons.

Well, after we covered the upcoming PS3 firmware update, v2.40, we hope you weren’t one of the unfortunate people who had problems with the new firmware, which Sony soon pulled. We’re hearing that it’s likely v2.41 will be released this week, which should be what v2.40 claimed to be.

Of course, many people won’t care about their PS3 this week, as they continue to try to get the O2 website to accept their iPhone 3G upgrade order, which has failed for many people.  Some people are claiming that it’s deliberate marketing ploy by Apple to keep stocks limited to add to the hype.

We’re not sure if we would say these are wonderfully good value, but SMS Text News has reported that Orange are in the process of upgrading all customers on their latest animal tariffs of £35 and above to now include 500Mb of data automatically. Now, this isn’t unlimited (*), and there doesn’t appear to be any option for increasing this limit, without paying Orange’s standard out of allowance data charges, but it’s certainly a start, and moving existing customers onto these new deals automatically must be applauded.

The migration should take place on your July bill date, and you should receive an SMS from Orange confirming it too. If you want the data bundle before then, you can try ringing up Orange to ask them to add it to your tariff, but SMS Text News report that it appears not all Orange Customer Service staff are aware of this new deal.

In other news, some Racoon plans are getting more minutes, and some Canary plans are getting more texts.

(*) It’s actually being advertised by Orange as unlimited, with a fair usage limit of 500Mb.  We’re sorry Orange, 500Mb is not unlimited, by any definition of the word…

The current rumours flying around the internet are that Garmin is going to release a new range of GPS devices in the next few weeks. The Oregon range will be a similar device to the Garmin Colorado although it will be slightly smaller, and feature a touchscreen. One colleague we recently spoke with said he was always trying to use the Colorado screen as a touchscreen, so welcomed a true touchscreen unit.

Although Garmin are usually tight lipped about new devices, it appears that somehow these devices made it onto both Amazon and Buy.com before being removed. As such, a fairly reliable spec has been obtained, and this includes:

• High sensitivity GPS receiver for improved performance and reception
• Easy to use, touchscreen interface
• microSD card slot for optional mapping and data storage
• Electronic compass, barometric altimeter, temperature sensor
• Built in 3D Basemap /Digital Elevation Model
• 3D elevation view
• Wireless exchange of user routes, tracks, waypoints, geocaches and images
• Unit dimensions: 4.5 in x 2.3 in x 1.4 in
• Display size: 3 in color, touch screen
• Pixels / H x W: 240 x 400
• Waterproof standard: IEC 60529 IPX7
• Battery type: two high capacity or lithium ion AA batteries
• Weight: 6.8 oz with batteries

The specs above are for the 200 unit, with a 300, and a range of 400 units (similar to the Colorado 400 range) will also be available in the US. Given the main difference between the Colorado 300 and 400 models is the amount of memory to fit in the included US maps on the 400 range, we suspect that again the 400 range may not make it to the UK, leaving us with the 200 and 300 though. The main missing feature from the Colorado will be the Naviwheel, which isn’t needed due to the touchscreen.

Story via the Groundspeak Geocaching.com forums (no registration required to view).

Roberts, who we have featured before, have now released a solar powered DAB radio, a first in the UK. The SolarDAB can be solar, battery, or mains powered, and the built in rechargeable battery pack is being recharged whenever the unit is in the sunshine. Once charged, Roberts claim it will last 27 hours before needing another recharge. It comes it green, pink, red, white or black, includes a headphone socket and an mp3/iPod line-in socket. At a price around £79.99, it also seems good value for a device that won’t need charging too often.

More information at Roberts [Via Tech Digest]