Launched last week, this is the Vodafone Mobile WiFi R201, which is designed to rival 3UK’s MiFi device (or Novatel’s Intelligent Mobile Hotspot (also called MiFi, but outside of the UK).  The Vodafone offering, being brand new to the market is currently only available on a contract, but I suspect it will be released as a PAYG option in due course to provide true rivalry to the 3UK MiFi.

The unit will currently cost you £15-£25 per month on an 18 month contract (with most tariffs having a small upfront charge too), offering 3-5GB of data per month, although unless the Vodafone network is key to you, the 3UK MiFi has more competitive pricing (you could nearly buy the 3UK unit on PAYG for less than the upfront charge on the cheapest contract, so if you don’t need a lot of data every month, it can work out a lot cheaper!).

The Really Mobile Project have managed to get their hands on one of the devices, and have written up their opinion (especially useful as it compares it directly to the 3UK MiFi v2), so head here to read it.

Overall, it’s interesting to see true competition in this market with a choice of 3 key units now, and all offering a similar one button experience to use.

I’ve already covered many of the key benefits to the new 3 MiFi unit (in my first looks), although I will restate that it’s a joy to use now it’s a single power button to set everything up, and the wireless encryption key being only numbers makes it easier to quote to people to share the connection.  For the full review, click on the full article below.

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Some people are BlackBerry fans, and others aren’t (personally, after using one for 15 months I fall into the latter category), but the new BlackBerry 9800 Torch seems to be trying to turn that round, and offer a solution for everyone.  As well as the traditional QWERTY keyboard (although now provided on a slider), it also features a touchscreen featured on some of the newer BlackBerry devices, and it also has the optical trackpad now common to most new BlackBerry devices too.  Add in the obligatory GPS, WiFi, 3G, 5 megapixel camera and 8GB of memory, and the latest BlackBerry OS6 featuring some inbuilt social networking functions, and it seems to be a nice all round device.

I’ll admit my main problem with BlackBerry devices is the limitations enterprise companies place on the device (normally preventing the installation of applications, which also prevents other things such as themes), but of course if you buy it as an individual, you won’t have that restriction, and will be able to customise the device with the correct apps needed to enjoy the experience.

Even better, despite the device only being launched last week, 3UK have already announced they will be selling the device later this year.

Last week Amazon released (a little earlier than everyone was expecting) a new Kindle model, the Kindle 3.  Not just is the device better in many ways (and cheaper!), but Amazon have also launched a UK Kindle Store, and a UK Kindle 3 directly using a UK mobile SIM.  Currently, a Kindle 2 International or Kindle DX International will have a US mobile SIM built into the device, and hence will roam onto the UK networks (although it could roam onto multiple networks, the Kindle does seem keen to stick with O2), whereas the Kindle 3 will have a UK Vodafone mobile SIM built into the device (which is still sealed, so there’s no access to the SIM or the battery).  What’s interesting is that with the release of the v2.5 firmware, all International Kindles in the UK have had access to the “full” internet experience (as opposed to the launch wikipedia-only access), so actually this internet access isn’t that different to the experience available to existing users.

So, what’s new and different with the new device…

• Firstly, it’s available (from 27th August)
• 21% smaller and 15% lighter, and has a 20% faster refresh of the e-Ink screen
• There are two models, the Kindle 3 WiFi, and the Kindle 3 3G/WiFi, which uses Vodafone as already mentioned
• The Kindle 3 WiFi will only come in Graphite, whereas the Kindle 3 3G will come in White or Graphite
• The same 6″ screen size of the existing Kindle 2, but with the better contrast of the Kindle DX screen
• Storage up to 4GB
• Prices are £109 for Kindle WiFi and £149 for Kindle 3G, with neither having any ongoing costs
• Minor changes to the keyboard (improving the 5 way cursor), and providing “previous page” buttons on both sides of the device
• The buttons (especially the next / previous page buttons) are quieter
• Updated web browser technology, to make every element faster
• Whereas before numbers were accessible from the top row of keys, you can now use the Symbol feature (which doesn’t turn off after the selection of the first symbol).  There are rumours that you can also use Alt-Q (for 1) etc., although the numbers are not marked on the keys
• Battery life now listed as 10 days for 3G version, and a month for the WiFi version
• There’s a microphone at the bottom, marked as “for future use”

Another interesting feature; a light for reading at night! No, not included with the Kindle 3, but the all new leather cover from Amazon includes a built in light (and what’s more, it gets powered directly from the Kindle via contacts in the hinge mechanism); personally on my Kindle 2, I have an M-Edge case with the M-Edge e-Luminator light which works well, but building it into the case is even nicer (and cheaper).

The Kindle Case should be available in Black, Orange, Brown, Pink, Blue, Green and Red (do watch out, the case will also be available without the light!) for £49.99 in the UK.

So, what about the pricing?  The Kindle 2 was roughly £200 last Christmas, so the price of the WiFi version is nearly half that, and I think that will make the Kindle 3 WiFi a plausible Christmas present, and with devices like the 3 MiFi, there’s no need to pay extra for the 3G version.

Don’t forget that you can now get the Apple iPhone 4 from 3UK and T-Mobile, who have both released the phone for sale today.  If you are thinking about getting an iPhone 4 on either network I wouldn’t hang around; O2 are still reporting having supply problems even now, so I suspect both these networks will have limited allocations, and those are going to go very fast!

I’ve already stated my opinions of the fact that 3UK have been able to carry this phone, but it’s nice to see that instead of being months after all the other networks, they are now considered “important” enough to have the same release date as one of the original big four networks.

Update: In fact, 3UK have stated they will be removing the iPhone 4 from sale from 5pm this evening due to stocks starting to run low.  Depending exactly how many devices get sold in the next few hours will determine whether it comes back on sale on Monday (however briefly until stocks run out completely).

As of Friday this week (30th July), the Apple iPhone 4 will be available on 3UK, both in stores and online at the 3Store. 3UK have already announced all their tariffs details (which we covered here).  It’s good to see 3UK finally being able to release this phone, and it will be interesting to see how successful it is (the iPhone 3GS is already proving a best seller since launch on the network).

Of course, another option is to buy the phone outright from Apple, and then put a 3UK microSIM on an iPhone tariff into the phone, and their One Plan option (£25 per month, 12 month contract, 2000 cross network minutes, 5000 texts, 5000 3UK-3UK minutes and 1GB Internet) looks a nice compromise between a lengthy contract and not getting enough to stretch the phone…

One of the more popular SIM Only packages that 3UK offer, SIM 15, is back available on special offer in the 3Store again.  This offers 300 cross network minutes, 3000 texts, 2000 3UK-3UK minutes, 1GB Internet data, free voicemail, Skype and Windows Live Messenger, and all for £15 per month with a 1 month rolling contract.

Of course, the One Plan is still available as another option; at £25 per month it offers 2000 cross network minutes, 5000 texts, 5000 3UK-3UK minutes, 1GB Internet data, and the free voicemail, Skype and WLM, and although at first glance it’s offering much more value, it’s also a 12 month contract, which shows how good value the SIM 15 option is if you don’t want to commit to a contract.

As we commented a couple of weeks back, it’s nice to see 3UK formally drop the use of the word “unlimited”, and also nice to see the SIM 15 offering the 1GB Internet data which is common to their higher tariffs, and well worthy of promotion compared to the other networks who are mainly aiming at 500MB as the data limit.

Although we’ve already covered a First Looks of the updated 3UK MiFi when it launched (see here), 3UK (and 3MobileBuzz) have kindly sent me a unit for review.  Although things like the dot matrix screen are very useful to see more detail (especially the signal strength and whether you are getting HSDPA), I have to say the single biggest benefit of the new unit is actually the fact that it only needs one button to turn it on and set it up; such a minor thing, but this one thing has made trialling the device so much easier.

I’ve yet to (need to) use the web administration interface, but just the knowledge it’s there and available (unlike the old unit) again makes it a better device. I’ll continue to trial the device, especially to look at battery life and how well it performs in a marginal signal area, but first impressions of using the device are that it’s well worthy of purchasing.

After a good few weeks of using an Android phone for the majority of tasks I perform (except receiving calls), how have I found the phone? Thanks to 3MobileBuzz, I’ve had an HTC Hero on loan, and although not the newest of phones, it’s still interesting to see whether it can handle all my needs.  In fact, just before the phone I wrote down the 30 most important tasks I currently use my Symbian for just to remind me the sorts of applications and tasks I needed the phone to perform.

So, a small caveat; as the phone came preconfigured with a SIM, Google Account and Spotify Premium account, I haven’t used the phone with my Google Acount (ie Mail, Calendar etc.) and I haven’t used it for receiving calls (as none of my friends know this phone’s number). Finally, as a loan phone, I have limited myself to *free* Android apps.

The Good – In nearly every task I’ve thrown at it (including a few extra ones), it’s excelled, and the phone has worked well.  Applications have been available to help with the task at hand.  Spotify (in both online and offline mode) proved to be a useful application (although quite why, when you have a track in the local cache, it continues to consume online data I don’t know).  In the majority of tasks I wanted to perform, there was a free app to help out (something that’s not true of Symbian, although it’s close), and in many cases, the best app appeared to be the free app too.  Apps were available to integrate into the phone; although it’s against the T&Cs to export phone numbers from the Facebook site, the Facebook widget was at least able to offer to dial numbers direct for you.  The phone was not too heavy, and easy to use one-handed as well as with two (and not suffering from the way I held the phone   Many options were configurable, or 3rd party tools are available to help achieve a little tweak here or there.

The Bad – Not every app though performed well; a few have crashed regularly, making it feel a little like when you beta test software; some of the apps that crashed had 1 or 2 updates during the time, yet still continued to crash.  Whether or not this is a result of the phone still being on Android v1.5 I don’t know, but this is at least being fixed (hopefully) this month.  Another thing missing (not that Symbian is any better, but the iPhone is) was that there was little consistency in the UI between the different programs from different authors, and little consistency between the widgets available too.  Also, although everyone berates Symbian for constantly asking you which connection you want to use, there were a few times when I actively wanted to use 3G over Wi-Fi (accessing 3UK’s Planet 3 website or knowing that I was too far from the Wi-Fi for it to work reliably), and this level of control is not available.

So, overall, I enjoyed the phone, and the Capacitive screen made me realise what an impact this has on the whole UI, and whether even the newest phones from Nokia which continue with Resistive screens can be as much as a success (of course, the new Nokia N8 is Capacitive).  Having said I enjoyed it, the third party apps crashing regularly did put me off a little.

The ugly? It may have been this particular phone, but it struggled to hold a connection to my Wi-Fi.  Whenever it lost it (even when in the same room), it brought home that the 3G radio signal was equally awful (The HTC Hero seems to have a reputation for having a poor 3G antenna design especially in poor signal areas), meaning I was often left without net access at home (although in many other areas where the 3G was stronger it performed well).

Would I buy an Android phone? Yes, but more likely the HTC Desire (also available from 3UK), which offers a later OS version and is more powerful, but I would like to see some improvements in the overall experience.

Thanks again to 3MobileBuzz for the loan of the phone.

3UK have announced this week that they now have two new Android smartphones that you can purchase on 3UK, and not just that, but you can get them on the new One Plan we covered here which offers fantastic value for money if you are a heavy mobile user.

Firstly, they are now offering the HTC Wildfire, which is a cut down version of the HTC Desire.  Although cut down might imply “cheap”, and it’s fair to say it doesn’t have the spec (or the price) of the HTC Desire, but it’s actually still a very capable Android device; in fact the only compliant I’ve heard about it is that moving forward over the next year or two, the screen maybe too small to allow major OS upgrades, as Google has now specified a minimum spec (including display resolution) for the future, and the HTC Wildfire falls a little short.

Having said that, it still rivals many other phones, and is still a better display than many other phones of last year! The 3.2″ screen is still a good size, and the 5 megapixel camera is still better than many, and it offers Android v2.1 with HTC’s Sense UI too.  All the usual Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc. are there too.  Also interestingly, although it’s available now in “Metal Mocha” colour, it will also be available on 3UK in Red from August, and the Red colour will be exclusive to 3UK.

If you aren’t an HTC fan, then there’s always the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro, which again, is a smaller smartphone (the “X10 Mini” part), but features quite a key differentiator; the “Pro” means it also features a QWERTY keyboard!  This is a slide out keyboard (in the same way as the Nokia E75, Nokia C6 or Nokia N900), and although it blatantly doesn’t feature the HTC Sense UI, it does feature some key Sony Ericsson UI customisations instead.  These include the ability to specify 4 corner navigation and 3 homescreens, and it also features Sony Ericsson’s Timescape, which brings together your Facebook, Twitter, email, text messages and calls into one place.  This sounds an interesting feature, although with many of these manufacturer applications, it may be a little limiting to the “serious” social networker, especially if it can’t be expanded to support other social networks.

The Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro is available in Black from 3UK, and also in White, which will (like the Red HTC Wildfire) be a colour exclusive to 3UK.

If you want either of these phones on the new One Plan, they are available for £30 per month (24-month contract), and remember that comes with 2000 cross network minutes, 5000 3UK-3UK minutes, 5000 texts and 1GB data; if you want to buy them on PAYG, the HTC Wildfire is £199 and the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro is £249, both very competitive prices in their own right!

I like the way that whilst historically 3UK were not able to arrange model exclusivity agreements, they are now sufficiently recognised by the manufacturers to at least able to negotiate colour exclusives, and you never know, maybe this time next year, we’ll see a worthy smartphone launch exclusively on 3UK…