After the successful launch of the Revo Ikon (released last year), Revo have now added another touchscreen DAB radio to their portfolio, and have released this unit as the first “under £200 colour touchscreen digital radio with multi-format reception”. What does that really mean? It means DAB radio (and DAB+), FM radio, Internet radio, ability to play Last.fm music streams, ability to play music from a PC, ability to play music from an iPhone / iPod attached via it’s dock, and if that’s not enough, it’s got an AUX socket and stereo RCA sockets for piping other music to the device.

The radio features a 3.5″ TFT colour touchscreen, with a similar user interface as that used on the Revo Ikon, and has an 8W amplifier and NXT’s Balanced Radiator loudspeaker technology.

I like the range of technologies that Revo put into their DAB radios, and expanded their touchscreen range makes sense, especially by introducing a cheaper device (although with a less powerful amplifier and it appears to not have the stereo speakers of the Revo Ikon).  As with the Revo Ikon and the PURE Sensia, the device only comes with a limited trial subscription to Last.fm (in this case, 31 days), so to continue to use the streaming facilities you’ll need to pay £3 per month.

The Revo AXiS will be available from 1st October 2010, and be sold at £199.95.

Future Checkin, a third party Apple iPhone application that utilises the FourSquare API provides an interesting feature.  If you provide it with a list of your favourite places, then it sits in the background (now that iOS4 allows background tasks), and when you arrive at your destination, it will check in for you!  However, to save battery, it’s not instantaneous, and checks the GPS on a configurable basis, and then (to prevent it being used to cheat your way to mayorship status), it only checks you in once every four hours, and never to the same place twice in a row (plus you need to have been at the location for over 3 minutes).

Apparently the author is planning to add Gowalla support too (once they release their API).

If you are interested in the (non-free) application, then search for Future Checkin in the Apple App Store.

If you are an Android user and feeling left out, then try a search for HopScotch, which claims to offer a similar automated checkin facility for Android devices (and although maybe not quite so feature rich as Future Checkin, is free).

Symbian users, of course, are left out in the cold For you, it’s manual checkin only (using either the free SociallyApp, the very powerful and useful Gravity application, or there is a new beta of a FourSquare touch only client we covered earlier this week).

Some information courtesy of TechCrunch.

On Friday, the Barclays London Cycle Hire scheme was launched, with many of the sites and bicycles now available for those who have pre-registered their details, and have been supplied a personal key for accessing the bikes.  Over time, the ability to walk up and purchase hire with a credit card will be added, but right now, users need to be registered with a hardware key.

I think this is a brilliant scheme; if you take the £45 annual access option (plus £3 for the hardware key), then for less than £50 you can hire a bike for up to 30 minutes for free, and that sounds a more interesting option than the overcrowded and hot (although air conditioning is slowly coming over the next few decades) tube lines in central London.  In fact, if you put the bike back and wait at least 5 minutes (go get yourself a coffee, and drink it), then you can hire another bike for another 30 minutes for free.

To support the scheme, a number of clever individuals / companies have developed mobile apps for the London Cycle Hire scheme.  I have to stress none of these apps are directly sponsored or supported by Transport for London, although much of the functionality of these apps comes from published APIs, although some isn’t…

These mobile apps don’t just show you the places where the bikes can be hired from; they are often taking data from the Cycle Hire website and also including how many bikes are available (and equally how many empty slots there are for returning your bike).  In fact, this area is one where I’m glad to say they have thought about the problem of a full cycle rack and come up with a solution; if you arrive at your destination bike rack and it’s full, you can select on the touchscreen terminal an option to see where there are available slots nearby, and if needed, you will also get an additional 15 minutes of free extra hire time to get the bike to that location.

Firstly, there’s an iPhone app from London Cycle App, which includes the information on the numbers of bikes / slots available, and I also note it uses the OpenStreetMap data for the mapping, which is a nice touch too (screenshot above). In fact, they have also included the ability to plan a cycle route through London too, which is a nice extra feature.  The app is available to download here.

Cycle Hire App is another option, which also uses OpenStreetMap maps, and like the London Cycle App, has these maps available when offline (or for use on an iPod Touch).  One nice feature is the ability to request a search for bikes available near London attractions, as well as tube and train stations, and general locations (postcode based).

Another alternative is Bixou (for the iPhone), which although originally developed for the BIXI bicycle hire scheme in Montreal, now has support for the London scheme too (in fact it also supports the Melbourne and Minneapolis schemes too).

For Android, there’s a widget, which has been produced by Little Fluffy Toys.  When first touched, the widget will display the details of the 3 nearest hire locations, with their status (Ok, not enough bikes, not enough spare slots, closed), and when touched again, provides a detailed view of the information.  This app is interesting though; instead of as well as taking the bike / slots details from the TfL website, it uses crowdsourcing to collect the information; as a nice touch, if you open the details screen within 50 metres of a hire location, you are asked to provide an updated status for all other users.

Update: Thanks to Kevin for pointing out Bixou as an alternative option.

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).

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 launched a new phone tariff, The One Plan.  This is a very interesting move by 3UK.  It’s available on all their phones, and they claim it should be big enough for everyone!

The plan (a 24-month contract) comprises:

• 2000 cross network minutes
• 5000 3UK-3UK minutes
• 5000 texts
• 1GB Internet access

Having 2000 cross network minutes was something we first saw on the Apple iPhone 4 plans launched last week, and although none of these values are being stated as “unlimited” (for which we are very supportive), it’s also fair to say that most people will actually have a challenge getting through any of this limits, except maybe the 1GB Internet data, but even that is more generous that many of their competitors (Vodafone offer 500MB with most phones, as does Orange).

This plan will cost from £25 per month (*), depending which phone you get it with, so, for example, the iPhone 4 will be between £35 and £45 depending on the model and how much you pay upfront for the phone.

3UK have also announced that as from July, they will no longer use the word “unlimited”, something Vodafone announced last year (but only for data), and let’s hope this is the catalyst to encourage all networks to remove this misleading term from their marketing and actually compete with each other on quality and measurable quantity.

On top of that, they have massively clarified their old Internet tariffs too.  Since the introduction of the 24month contracts, they offered “unlimited” internet, which was really “only” 500MB.  To start, they will be converting that 500MB into 1GB for all existing customers on Internet Texter 500 or 900 plans and the Internet Talker 900 plan (over the next few months; you’ll get a text telling you what’s happening).  For elder contracts, although occasionally bundled into a deal, the majority of people pay £5 per month to get 2GB of data (at times it was sold as “unlimted” or 1GB, but in most cases it was actually 2GB); now this option still exists today, so people who were on 2GB per month will remain on that; no sly reductions here, and even better, 3UK have confirmed that the customers who are getting 500MB or 1GB free with their new contracts can still pay the £5 per month to add an additional 2GB of data to their contract.

So, it would appear you could take the new One Plan, and for £30, get all those minutes listed above and have a total of 3GB Internet allowance per month too!

Yet again, 3UK are leading on their tariff options, and these internet options make 3UK a very realistic option for many.

(*) We should point out that at the time of writing, the One Plan seems to cost at least £28 buying the cheapest phone, so although in time it will be offered for £25 with certain mobiles, it seems to cost a little more right now. The £25 per month option is for the SIM only 12 month option, offering the same level of contract, but for just £25 per month, and only on a 12-month contract.

So, looking at some popular phones right now, these are all free on a 24-month One Plan contract, with a monthly cost:

• INQ Chat 3G – £28 per month
• Nokia E63 – £28 per month
• Nokia 5230 – £30 per month
• HTC Wildfire – £31 per month
• HTC Hero – £34 per month
• Nokia E72 – £35 per month
• HTC Desire – £35 per month

Given the phone is free, these are all very good value, especially given the amount of service you are buying.  The Internet Texter and Internet Talker plans still exist for those who don’t need this amount of minutes / texts.

As always, these offers are available from the 3Store.

Android does it (directly on the phone), and iPhone can do it too, but up until now, a Nokia phone could not tell you that there were updates for your installed application available.  Well, it’s starting to happen finally; although not yet directly on the phone through the Ovi Store, but hopefully that will come in time (there’s limited support already, but it needs further work to be properly useful).  Although being able to provide firmware updates is now built into the main Ovi Suite on your PC, Nokia still have the standard Nokia Software Updater, and a new version of this has been released by the Nokia Beta Labs team, which now supports providing application updates too.

It’s also not clear whether this will only provide updates to Nokia / Ovi application on your mobile phone, or all applications installed via Ovi Store, but it’s a start.  The beta is due to run until the end of August, so it’s possible we’ll see (assuming all goes well) some formal announcement on the way forward at the Nokia World event in September.

Yesterday I mentioned that the 3UK Apple iPhone 4 tariffs didn’t come with the 500Mb – 1GB of BT Openzone WiFi access of their competitors, and suggested you needed to take that into consideration when choosing the best tariff.  Well, BT have gone and changed the whole marketplace now…

BT have said that those BT Total Broadband users who used to have a limited number of minutes on BT FON and BT Openzone access points can now have unlimited access to all 1.5 million hotspots, in fact, BT went further and said that this change was the result of networks like O2 limiting the 3G data usage.  BT also make a point that you’ll be able to use this access on your phone, iPad and other tablet devices.

So, although your 3UK iPhone doesn’t come with any WiFi access, if you are a BT Total Broadband customer, you actually have more access to those hotspots than an O2 iPhone / Broadband customer does, and this, for some, might make this a better combination.

Also, BT announced that they will shortly be offering a downloadable application that will help locate the BT FON and BT Openzone hotspots.

They may have been one of the last to declare their tariffs, but as always, 3UK have come out rather competitive with their offerings, to the extent that even non-iPhone users may want to consider their Apple iPhone 3GS SIM-Only tariffs for any phone (obviously avoid the iPhone 4 tariffs as they, although identical, come with a microSIM, which is more hassle using in a normal phone).

So, most importantly, you can’t actually buy an iPhone 4 from them today, although it’s coming soon (and they have declared their tariffs).  You can buy a SIM free iPhone 4 from Apple and order and use one of their iPhone 4 SIM only tariffs though (technically you can’t order the iPhone SIM Only tariff until tomorrow).

So, what are the options? Well, let’s start with the iPhone 3GS, available in 8GB Black or 32GB White, and will cost somewhere between nothing and £129 upfront to purchase, and then they are a range of tariffs at different prices (as always) ranging from £25 to currently £35, although there will be a £40 per month option from 1st July.  Of course, all these contracts are 24 months, although they do all include 1GB Internet, 5000 texts and 5000 3UK-3UK minutes, and:

• For £25 you get 500 cross network minutes
• For £30 you still get 500 cross network minutes, but pay less for the phone
• For £35 you get 900 cross network minutes and the phone for free (although there will be an option on 1st July to pay more for the phone and get 2000 cross network minutes instead)
• When that option arrives on 1st July, you’ll also have the option of £40 per month for 2000 cross network minutes and getting the phone for free.

In a similar way, there will be multiple price options for the iPhone 4 (when available); again, all tariffs include 1GB Internet, 5000 texts and 5000 3UK-3UK minutes, and then:

• For £99 (16GB) or £189 (32GB) upfront & £30 per month you’ll get 500 cross network minutes
• For £99 (16GB) or £189 (32GB) upfront & £35 per month you’ll get 900 cross network minutes
• For £169 (16GB) or £259 (32GB) upfront & £35 per month you’ll get 2000 cross network minutes
• For £59 (16GB) or £149 (32GB) upfront & £40 per month you’ll get 2000 cross network minutes
• Finally, for £0 (16GB) or £89 (32GB) upfront & £45 per month you’ll get 2000 cross network minutes

I will say a couple of things about these offers; firstly, 3UK have avoided the use of the work “unlimited” anywhere in their marketing, and for that I congratulate them for being open clear and honest about their options.  Secondly, it’s nice to see a range of options where in essence you can pay less for the phone upfront and 3UK will recoup that cost across the life of the contract with a higher monthly premium, although I would advise you to do the sums to work out the total costs over the 24 months as to whether it’s the right way to go…

However, 3UK’s SIM only plans look even better value.  Okay, you need to buy the phone upfront and SIM Free direct from Apple, but in that case the options are:

• For £15 per month and a 1 month rolling contract, you’ll get 300 cross network minutes, 3000 texts, 2000 3UK-3UK minutes and 1GB Internet
• For £25 per month and a 12 month contract, you’ll get 2000 cross network minutes, 5000 texts, 5000 3UK-3UK minutes and 1GB Internet

As stated before, the 3UK SIM only options will (from tomorrow) come available for the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4, so in essence in either normal or microSIM sizes; the £15 per month option is similar to the old SIM Only 15 plan 3UK used to have, although it comes with more Internet that most other options today (although not as much as you could have got last year, when the fair usage limit was 2GB).

Finally, if you already have an iPhone 4, you can ring 333 and 3UK will supply a microSIM to replace your existing SIM to allow you to use your current tariff with the iPhone.

Although all these deals seem better value than the other networks, at this stage it appears the 3UK tariffs don’t include any WiFi access when out and about (with 3UK feeling their network is able to cope and therefore there’s no need to use WiFi instead), which may be a factor for you.

UPDATE: 3UK have confirmed that you can get these iPhone plans direct from Apple Stores today.

Here’s the new 3UK MiFi (v2) that was launched last night.  The device features a number of minor updates on the previous unit, and really does address many of the issues and concerns that have been raised against the original unit.  In particular:

• The device now turns on, powers on all radios, and auto-connects to 3UK, instead of needing 3 button presses.
• The device now features an OLED screen, with information on data usage (from that session), WiFi status (including number of connected clients), SMS messages.  When the screen turns off, the green power light on the power button still lit for immediate visibility of the fact the device is turned on.
• The management is now all performed from a web browser interface (the old Windows management tool which only worked when connected via a cable is no more); this means Mac, Linux, iPad / iPhone support is all there and working out the box.  This also now allows access to the microSD card reader from all devices.
• 3UK / Huawei have improved the battery life of the device, but due to the screen needing more power than 4 lights it has roughly the same usage time, although battery charging has been reduced by around 20%.
• Also, you can use it whilst charging (as opposed to the old unit), and 3UK have moved from miniUSB to microUSB in line with most (but not all) mobile phone manufacturers.
• In terms of the new device, it will go on sale on 2 July for the same price as the current unit.  As stocks of the old unit run out, the In Car MiFi and iPod Touch bundles will update to the new unit too.

For existing users of the current device, there are no upgrade plans, although you can simply buy the device on PAYG and move your current SIM across to the new unit. One thing though; 3UK are considering releasing a firmware update for the current device which would enable the 1 button startup (ie basically it turns on the auto-connect feature).  Experiments with this though have indicated this may reduce battery life a little.

Overall, this device has resolved the concerns of the old unit, is styled more in keeping with tech nowadays, and is well worth considering.

Finally, thanks to @3MobileBuzz for arranging the event, and even providing cupcakes…

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