We covered O2’s plans to add support for Twitter from 1st August via SMS last week, but O2 decided to go one better, and actually started their Twitter support from Monday this week.  Anyone who had previously signed up to Twitter SMS alerts may well have discovered SMSes coming in already this week, and for all others on O2, you simply need to head over to Twitter and setup SMS support for your O2 phone.  Remember, you’ll get 500 free twitter messages (tweets) sent to you, and SMSes you send to Twitter will come out of your inclusive bundle, or be chargeable at your standard rate.

After we informed you about a number of new Nokia devices available on Vodafone this year, it appears even more devices are coming…

Dan at World of Nokia reports that the Nokia E63 is coming out soon, and that Vodafone will also be stocking the new Nokia E52 (the replacement for the Nokia E51, and a similar design to the Nokia E55, but without the hybrid keyboard).

What’s also interesting is that Dan points out the Nokia E52 will be available for £225 on PAYG, but will not be SIM-locked, which makes it a good value high spec smartphone…

So, that’s the Nokia E63, Nokia E71, Nokia E72, Nokia E52 and the rumoured Nokia N97 Mini all being available on Vodafone over the next few months; it seems Vodafone is trying to make up for the various exclusive phones O2 have picked up by offering a greater range of form factors…

Nokia have this week released a new firmware for the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone (v30).  As this phone has UDP (User Data Preservation), normally no applications or data would be lost in installing a firmware update, but this firmware isn’t quite like that…

Along with a range of stability and bug fixes, Nokia have added the ability for Nokia Messaging to add email notifications onto the homescreen.  However, this additional feature requires a hard reset of the device to become activated, thereby losing all installed applications and data.  So, although we normally still recommend taking a backup before performing a firmware update, this particular firmware update will involve starting afresh to get the most out of it.

As always, this firmware update is not yet available to all branded firmwares, we’ll keep an eye on the situation and report back as to how quickly each UK network operator makes this firmware available…

Although we don’t usually speculate on rumours, a couple of interesting ones seem to be flying around at the moment.  Firstly, there’s the rumour that with the release of the Apple iPhone 3GS, O2 have lost their exclusivity on the old iPhone 3G, and we may well see it turning up on at least 2 networks in the next few months.  Although good for consumers and sales of the elder device, we’ll have to wait and see on this one.

However, another rumour, which seems much more likely, is that Amazon are working on releasing their latest Kindle ebook reader across Europe, and in particular, the UK.  They are looking for both WiFi and 3G connectivity options, which may well point to another device heading to O2’s networks.  It’s been known for somewhile that their latest Kindle device has a space on the motherboard for a GSM chipset, and with sales of other eBook readers (Sony devices at Waterstones, or the Elonex eBook Reader at Borders), it’s a logical step for Amazon UK.

These are both interesting rumours, and both would create significant sales for their manufacturers should they come true…

Over at “The Nokia Phone Blog“, Ang has put together a nice complete step by step process for how to encode video for best viewing on these devices, namely the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and the Nokia N97, and it’s well worth a read if you are looking to ensure you use the optimal settings for the correct quality to allow good video without taking more than necessary disk space.

Nimbuzz, a popular mobile client on Symbian, have announced they have released two new products.  Firstly, they have released a Mac version of their desktop client, which allows access to many IM networks (Facebook, AIM, MySpace, Google Talk (Orkut), Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger (MSN), ICQ) as well as voice calling to Nimbuzz, Windows Live Messenger (MSN), Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk users.

Their iPhone / iPod Touch client gains the ability to share photos, music and videos, and also supports Push Notifications for alerts of incoming calls or chats.  It also adds support for location sharing.

More details on both can be found on the Numbuzz website.

Nokia have announced a three year agreement with RoadPilot, whereby RoadPilot will be providing Nokia with speed camera / safety camera information to allow Ovi Maps to offer this as a subscription service.

With the move of many users away from a traditional SatNav device to using their phone for navigation, it’s key that Nokia feel they have a solution to offer, and this is quite possibly the first of a number of relationships to cover a range of services for their platform.

Of course, you can also use other camera data, such as the Pocket GPS World data if you install SpeedCam as a solution which sits on top of Nokia Maps / Ovi Maps which we’ve covered before here, or another option is to simply buy a dedicated speed device such as these.

A few weeks back, we carried an article about Devicescape’s plan to start charging for their app on S60.  Well, since they recently had their issues with the iPhone version (which we covered here and here), which ultimately lead them to returning to the iTunes App Store, but as a free app, they have taken the decision to apply the same logic to all their clients, and hence they plan to leave all clients as free clients for the time being.

This is, in our opinion, good news for Devicescape, as we’ve already seen a lot of people move away from ShoZu since their decision to start charging for downloading their client.

We should point out that selecting Devicescape from the Nokia Download! client will still incur a fee, but their client will be free from the Ovi Store.

IBM announced last week that there are two new third party plugins, or widgets, for Lotus Notes.  These are from TripIt and from LinkedIN, both popular websites both with ourselves, but also many other corporate users.

The TripIt widget (above) looks very interesting, with the ability to see your upcoming trips (including trips shared by others) within your Notes environment.  TripIt have also included information on how to get Notes to directly import your TripIt calendar via iCal, something I find very useful as a way of getting data out of TripIt into both into my personal calendar, but also as a method of feeding data into Dopplr.

The second widget is for LinkedIN, which allows people to access their network, updates within their network, search and access to professional profiles directly within Notes.

These are the first two third party widgets for Notes, although more are likely in time, but both of these seem to offer enough extra that I suspect many Lotus Notes users would be wise to install them right away…

Back in March when Vodafone announced their support for twitter, they stated that the ability to send tweets via SMS would be free “for the first few weeks”.  Well, finally, that is coming to an end (18th August), and soon those sent SMSes will come out of your inclusive SMS bundle, or failing that will be chargeable.  However, you will still be able to receive up to 500 tweets as SMS a month for free.

This is also pretty much exactly the same offer that O2 will have from 1st August; receive up to 600 tweets for free via SMS, and pay (via inclusive SMS / normal charges) for sending tweets via SMS.

Of course, with both networks starting to bundle internet access into their higher monthly contracts, many people will be able to use apps like Gravity (S60) or TwitterFon (iPhone) and not need to use SMS at all, although a lot of people seem to like to be notified via SMS of their favourite friends.

With 3UK and INQ planning to release a “Twitter Phone” later this year, it’s interesting to see that 3UK aren’t yet offering this sort of arrangement….

Last Friday we mentioned that we hoped the Nokia E72 would be coming to Vodafone in September (the approximate launch date from Nokia).  Well, if the rumours on the Internet are true, not just will we see the Nokia E72 on Vodafone (although it may be more like October / November), but we should also see a rumoured device called the Nokia N97 Mini.  Little is known of this device, and it’s expected to be announced at Nokia World, however, we suspect that the device below (which we first mentioned here) will definitely be announced at Nokia World, but whether it’s the Nokia N97 Mini, or an ESeries device we’re not sure…

We first covered the Vodafone Access Gateway here, basically this femtocell allows you to connect selected Vodafone UK phones to it via 3G and it will transmit back to Vodafone using your Home Broadband connection (minimum 1Mbps required), allowing you to provide yourself with decent 3G coverage at home (or work) if the coverage provided by Vodafone is not as good as you would like.

Well, Andrew Grill over at London Calling decided to buy one the week of release to provide a better Vodafone signal in his basement flat, and he has published his review here.  Although it shows a few teething troubles with the stores, he reports that it works “as advertised and the calls made on it seem clear”.

After we covered some options for sharing your 3G connection a couple of weeks back (here), Solwise have informed us they have another device available which can also act as a 3G WiFi router; the Aztech 3.5G 11n Router.  This device brings together 802.11N WiFi technology with 3G (not this device does not seem to act as an ADSL router like the previous device we featured, but can be added into an existing wired network).

At only £53.66 this is a nice cheap device for sharing your 3G USB Modem with other users, and it seems to support the majority of USB Modems in use today (with support for various Huawei, Option and ZTE devices).  An interesting device for when away from home and looking to provide multiple devices with internet access.

More details available direct from Solwise here.

Here’s Dopplr’s first mobile application; their Dopplr iPhone application.  This allows you to use the majority of the services available on the Dopplr website, but directly from your mobile phone.  These include:

• 1. Install the application

  Download Dopplr – The Social Atlas from the iTunes App store to your desktop computer or directly to your iPhone. Then sync your iPhone. If you’ve got an account on Dopplr, the app will ask you to log in to Dopplr when appropriate. You will only have to do this once.

• 2. Find a place

  The app opens the city map of the city you’re currently in, and shows your location as a blue dot. You can zoom in and out with standard pinch gestures. Wherever there’s a marked place, you’ll see a square marker. Places are sorted into categories: Eat, Stay, Explore and My Places. Switch between each category by tapping the icons on the map corners. Tap the list icon to see a list of places sorted by their distance from your current location.

• 3. Indicate you have been to a place

  Tap on the marker for that place. A popup will open; tap on the green plus symbol to say you’ve been to the place – it will change to a checkmark. Tap the star to say that you’ve been there and you liked it. Tap the checkmark to undo.

• 4. Get more information about a place

  Tap on the place marker. Tap on “more” and you’ll see all the information Dopplr knows about that place, such as phone number, address and website. You can also open the location in your iPhone’s Maps app, view the Dopplr page for the place in Safari, or create an email message containing the details.

• 5. Add a new place

  You can add a new place from your current location at any time, by tapping on the blue location dot. Tap the green plus symbol to say you’ve been to that place, or the “more” link to add more details. The new place will be stored on your phone but won’t be added to Dopplr’s database until you’ve confirmed the addition (and added more details, if you wish) at dopplr.com.

• 6. View a different city

  Tap on the Cities tab. An alphabetical list of the top 250 cities on Dopplr opens. Choose the one you want.

• 7. See your planned trips

  Tap on the Trips tab. All your upcoming trips are listed. By tapping one of them, you’ll see the trip details such as its description and coincidences with fellow travellers. Tap “See places in this city” to see related places in the map view.

• 8. View your fellow travellers’ trips

  Tap on the People tab. You can choose from an alphabetical list or a “Nearby” view, which sorts your fellow travellers by their proximity to your current location. Tap on a name to see a list of that person’s planned trips. Tap a trip to see more details about it. If we can match the person to a name in your iPhone’s Address Book, you’ll also see their phone number and email address. You can also contact people not listed in your Address Book by sending them a direct message through Dopplr.

What’s even better is that Dopplr have stated that although they have released for the iPhone first, they intend to release similar apps for Symbian, BlackBerry and Android devices before the end of 2009.  For users of those OSes who want to access Dopplr from their mobile before a dedicated app is available, there is still the m.dopplr.com website, which offers most of the features of the main website.

Back when the Nokia E71 was launched, and in the months afterwards when it was becoming a very popular handset, we commented that it was not available on Vodafone to personal customers (it was classed as a business phone, and only available on business contracts).  Well, we notice that the Vodafone Nokia E71 is now available for personal customers.

Hopefully, this will be a successful phone for Vodafone, and they will be one of the leading suppliers of the Nokia E72 in September when it becomes available…

Whilst we’re talking about Vodafone, we understand from Vodafone that the Nokia N97 is currently their best selling handset.

3UK have announced today that they are looking for a small number of exclusive ad partners who will be able to display ads within the Mobile Broadband dashboard, the software used to connect their USB Modems to their network.  They have stated they have over 1 million users, and hence there will be over 30 million advertising impressions every month.  As they state each advertiser will be getting 1 to 3 million impressions, it would appear they are looking for around 10 advertising partners.

Apparently brands such as VW, Suzuki, Kia, Peugeot, Mazda, Honda and Land Rover have placed adverts on 3Austria’s dashboard in the past.

This presumably will bring in additional revenue to 3UK, but we see no mention of plans to reduce costs, or offer the consumer anything in return for being presented with ads…

If you have a Nokia N97, there are lots of potential updates out there for you.  Firstly, there’s the new v11 firmware, and now in the last day, Nokia has released some additional software updates available for download directly on the device.  These updates are:

• Maps v3.1
• N97 C: Phone memory update
• N-Gage application v1.3
• Nokia Messaging v10
• Ovi Contacts v1.2

It’s good to see Nokia releasing both major firmware udpates, and minor software updates directly for the device (it’s also nice it’s possible to get notified and update Nokia apps without having to do it manually, or wait for the next firmware upgrade either).  However, there’s a small problem with all of this; firstly the v11 firmware isn’t yet available for UK Nokia N97 devices, and secondly, we’re hearing that not all of these updates are available to all devices either.  Although many people won’t find or become aware of these updates for some while, it’s a shame people are being trickle fed these updates without any consistency…

For those waiting, we’re hearing the v11 firmware should be out shortly for UK devices.

A week or two back, 3UK informed us they were cutting their data roaming charges to just £1.25/MB, claiming that was the lowest rate available in the UK.  It may well have been, but I’m afraid it seems to me that Vodafone’s new rates make that look pretty poor…

If you are using a Handset (as opposed to a Mobile Broadband USB Modem), then in Zone 1 (roughly the bigger countries in Europe) you will pay £4.99 for each block of 25MB (ie go 100k over 25MB and you will pay £9.98).  Outside of Zone 1, you would pay £14.99 per block of 25MB.

If you are using a USB Dongle (actually Vodafone’s terms are “on phone” and “on laptop”, not explaining where a laptop or PDA tethered to a phone comes) then it’s £9.99 for each block of 50MB in Zone 1 (so the same rate per MB, just only available in bigger chunks) and £29.99 in Zone 2.

All these charges are per day, and end at midnight *UK* time (although Vodafone will send you texts when you get close to the end of a block of data and when it’s close to midnight), and Vodafone do state the charges are based on browsing and emails, and not file sharing, downloading music or video or streaming media either (as these will quickly eat up those blocks of data).

So, if we do our sums properly, it looks to us like Vodafone works out a lot cheaper per MB than 3UK are when roaming, but of course if you use a really really small of data per day, then 3UK will be cheaper, but where’s the fun in that…

With the aide of a handy calculator, we think the following would apply:

• Using 1MB a day for 7 days on 3UK in France: £8.75
• Using 1MB a day for 7 days on Vodafone in France: £34.93

So, 3UK comes out best, until you start using more data…

• Using 4MB a day for 7 days on 3UK in France: £35.00
• Using 4MB a day for 7 days on Vodafone in France: £34.93

Of course, as the numbers go up, it still starts to add up for both…

• Using 15MB a day for 7 days on 3UK in France: £131.25
• Using 15MB a day for 7 days on Vodafone in France: £104.79

Now, 15MB a day for 7 days is only 105MB, and, to be honest, with both networks offering over 500MB (3UK offering 1-2GB) for £5 per month, all these charges still look ridiculously high, but let’s hope the price war between the networks continues to drive down data charges before the EU has to act and set limits on roaming, like it has for calls and texts.

Although we update the UK Gadgeteer Offers page most weeks with new deals we have found / agreed with companies, we thought we would draw your attention to the last update, which added a couple of exclusive 3UK offers.  Both offers include a white USB Mobile Broadband Dongle, which are currently very rare on 3UK, to the extent that if you head off to the 3Store website, you will only be offered the black ZTE modem.  However, we can provide you access to the white Huawei modem with two options; either a 24month 15GB contract for just the USB dongle or with an Acer laptop.  Head off to the UK Gadgeteer Offers page to see these two offers and links to the offers direct at 3UK.

Please note these are time limited offers, and will be removed once they are no longer available from 3UK.

We try to provide access to deals such as these (ie not available to the general public) as often as possible; if this deal does not interest you, please keep an eye on the UK Gadgeteer Offers page in case something else catches your fancy.

If the new Pocket Surfer 3 from yesterday was not your cup of tea, then maybe the new UbiSurfer is more your thing…

This is a small form factor laptop sized device, running Linux, but benefitting from both Datawind’s GPRS web compression technology, and their experience with the Pocket Surfer to bring an interesting, and well priced device to our shelves (and it’s available in Maplin already here at £149.99 until 4th August when the price goes back up to £159.99).

Just like the Pocket Surfer 3, the device comes with an embedded Vodafone SIM, and offers 30 hours of internet access per month for 12 months, and just like the Pocket Surfer 3, costs £29.99 for an additional 12 months, and can additionally have unlimited browsing for £5.99 per month.  It also benefits from the same 5p/25p per minute roaming data charges.  It, however, is not eligible for the lifetime unlimited browsing option at this time.

As well as featuring built in GPRS, it has built in Ethernet support and Wi-Fi (to allow connection via Hotspots, although it’s not clear whether you are limited to free hotspots, or whether Datawind have some agreement in place for wider access), a 7″ 800×480 screen and features local storage of 1GB, with access to a free 50GB online storage account.  At 222 x 165 x 29.5mm and 700g, it’s bigger and heavier than the Pocket Surfer 3, but it does also support video playback and audio too (and even has a microphone, which makes us wonder if VOIP could ever be made an option…).  As well as mic and headphone sockets, it also features 3 USB ports and an SD card slot.

As well as a web browser, it features Calendar, Media Player, XIP Office (Word processor, Spreadsheet and    Presentation), PDF Viewer, Email, IM support, Paint, and finally even a few Games.  Just like the Pocket Surfer 3, it features a QWERTY keyboard and touchpad (although it’s much larger than the Pocket Surfer version), yet still offers 4 hours active usage or 4 days standby, and because the device is Linux/GPE based, it even offers built in software updating capability.

This makes for another interesting device, although it does seem to offer a conundrum; do you go for the smaller, lighter audioless Pocket Surfer 3, or have the fuller multimedia experience of the UbiSurfer at the expense of size and weight…