Virgin Media have this week announced more details of their TiVo plans.  Although the roll out will start in mid-December, for most people you won’t actually get service until early 2011 (it’s not clear whether the rollout is location based, or just limited stocks).  However, I can confirm that although the box will ship with a two tuner capability, it will be enhanced early next year to have a three tuner capability.  Even better for early adopters, this will simply need a software upgrade to enable (ie the hardware is already there), and not an actual hardware upgrade.

The Virgin Media TiVo box will be provided with a dedicated 10mb connection via the fibre network, which will not impact the customer’s own broadband connection, and will not count towards any limits or throttles.  Virgin Media also confirmed:

“The service launches initially with apps from major web brands including catch-up TV from BBC iPlayer, videos from YouTube, shopping from the online marketplace eBay, Tweets from Twitter and photos from sites such as Facebook, and the app line up will expand over the next several months.

The service will be supported by a brand new set-top box offering 1 terabyte of storage – up to 500 hours of standard definition programming – as well as access to 4,600 hours of TV shows, movies and music on demand. In due course, there will also be the facility to set recordings remotely via online and mobile devices.

Featuring cutting edge hardware design, the Virgin Media TV powered by TiVo box will have three tuners [UKG: once the software update comes next year], allowing viewers to record two channels whilst watching a third so recording conflicts become a thing of the past. The future-proofed service will automatically be updated with new features and functionality as they become available.

Virgin Media TV powered by TiVo will begin to roll-out from mid-December. Standard price of £199 [UKG: plus £40 installation charge], plus £26.50 per month [UKG: when taken with a phone line too; else it's £32.50 per month] for the XL TiVo package which features over 160 channels, an unrivalled TV on demand library and access to all standard HD channels.”

For further information, or to register for interest in getting the new TiVo service, visit: www.virginmedia.com/TiVo.

This is a very interesting device, and one I had the fortune to get a sneak peek Hands On with last week.  This is a 5″ tablet phone, which I have to say is a little large to hold up to your ear when on a call, so you might want to budget for a Bluetooth Headset to not look quite so silly, or simply add this to your existing phone with a data only contract (more later).  However, it’s running Android, and features a very nice touchscreen, which can take the knocks of every day life (I saw the blunt end of a knife be punched into the screens of 2 devices and neither suffered any problems with the touchscreen still working fine straight afterwards).  Obviously Dell & O2 don’t condone this level of abuse, and do warn that there are still certain angles where a drop onto a hard floor will still cause serious damage, but at least it’s a little tougher than many, and features something called Gorilla Glass to provide that protection.

The device I saw had a range of additional Android applications installed onto them, so although I can’t comment on what comes as standard with the device, they seem to have full support of the Android Marketplace, and hence there is a whole raft of additional applications that can be installed.

Although I didn’t get long with the devices, they seemed to be coping with many demos without a major impact on battery life, although that obviously needs a longer trial to establish whether it can last more than the common single day of usage.

O2, however, are offering the phone on a whole host of tariff options, ranging from the 30-day rolling Simplicity contracts (the Dell Streak 32GB will cost £399 upfront on all Simplicity contracts) to the high end £60 per month “unlimited” everything 24-month contract (where the device will be free).

24 month smartphone tariffs

18 month smartphone tariffs

The Smartphone tariffs above offer unlimited texts, data and Wi-Fi at thousands of BT Openzone and The Cloud hotspots as well as a wide range of minutes.

12 month simplicity tariffs

30 day simplicity tariffs

Again, it’s nice to see Wi-Fi at hotspots included even on these tariffs.

However, maybe the biggest area of interest will be the Data Only options, where the device isn’t actually used as a phone at all, but instead, concentrates on it’s capabilities as an Internet Tablet…

* The 16GB Dell Streak is free on a £25 a month 24 month tariff until 30 June 2010, after which it’ll cost £49.

Although there’s quite a jump from the £15 per month 18-month contract to the £30 per month 24-month contract, with the smaller outlay of the phone itself, it works out roughly the same cost (within £10) over 24 months on both.

The specs of the device (taken from Dell) include:

• A sharp 5-inch capacitive multi-touch WVGA (800×480) display for a great full-screen experience watching video or browsing the web
• Fast 1GHz Snapdragon ARM-based mobile processor from Qualcomm
• 5 MP autofocus camera with dual LED flash that offers easy point & shoot capability and quick uploads to YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and more
• VGA front-facing camera enables video chat functionality down the road
• A user-removable (and replaceable) battery
• A 3.5mm headphone jack means many of you can use the Dell Streak as the music source (and more) in your car
• Integrated 3G + Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + Bluetooth 2.1 (think headsets, external keyboards, stereo headsets, etc.)
• UMTS / GPRS / EDGE class 12 GSM radio with link speeds of HSDPA 7.2 Mbps / HSUPA
• A user-accessible Micro SD slot expandable up to 32GB. That means you can store  lots of movies, music, photos or other kinds of files.

On the software side, here’s what you can expect:

• A customized multi-touch version of the Google Android operating system that features Dell user interface enhancements
• Access to over 38,000  apps (and growing) via the Android Marketplace
• Microsoft Exchange connectivity and integration through TouchDown
• Google Voice support
• Integrated Google Maps with voice-activated search, turn-by-turn navigation, street and satellite views
• Quick access to activity streams via integrated social network app widgets like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube

The only downside I can see to the device right now, is that I believe it ships with Android 1.6, although it’s likely that Android 2.1 or 2.2 will become available as an update, but not until later in the year (we’re hearing September).  The device as it stands, though, will be available tomorrow from O2 Stores and the O2 website.

I should point out as part of our “Not Unlimited” campaign, that I doubt that any of these “unlimited” references actually get you unlimited service, but O2 have not yet provided the detail behind what the actual unlimited limits are.

Would you believe it, just hours before a nice 4 day break, and lots of companies choose today, April’s Fools day of all days, to release interesting gadget news.  I don’t have time to write up each and every story, so here’s a short summary and links to more information…

3UK have announced their HTC Desire prices and timescales.  Interestingly, they will initially launch an unbranded handset (although it’s still likely to be locked to 3UK) from 20th April, with the branded handset following around the 3rd May.  This unbranded handset will still be able to download the 3UK specific applications from the Android Market, so early adopters won’t miss out.

In pricing terms, for new customers it will be £35 per month (presumably an 18-month contract now confirmed as 24 months) for unlimited 3000 texts, unlimited 1GB internet, unlimited 2000 minutes of 3-to-3 calls, and 750 minutes of other calls; to buy the phone on PAYG will cost £350.

Further details (although it states the original unlimited information, not the true “fair usage limits”), see here.

A quick comparison to Vodafone, shows that £35 per month (18-month contract) will get you unlimited 3000 texts, 500MB internet, and 600 minutes of calls, which shows the 3UK to be slightly better value (even more so if your friends are on 3UK!)

Update: It’s been confirmed that the 3UK contract is for 24 months, so although it may offer more minutes than Vodafone each month, by being tied in for an additional 6 months makes any form of comparison less valid.

Of course, if you are looking to make calls abroad, especially to loved ones this Easter (*), then maybe you should look at Truphone. As well as being fans of this service, we’re always happy to promote their free offers, and this weekend they are offering free calls to landlines in 10 countries (the countries were chosen and voted for by Truphone customers; it’s nice to see a company offering it’s customers this ability). For some of those countries, it’s also free to call mobiles, but you’ll need to check the Truphone offers page to make sure before you start making those calls.

(*) We should point out that the free calls are only available on Saturday and Sunday, and are based on GMT (remember the UK is now on BST), so please check.

Even more interesting, Truphone have put together a short video allowing you to spot the minor differences between the ringtones they use to denote whether a call will be free or not.  To access the video, please click  here.

Finally, and by no means least, the O2 Joggler has suddenly got interesting…

Firstly, O2 have reduced the price down to £49.99, available online or in your local O2 Store, but only until 15th April. However, as from today a new firmware has become available which will allow support for the O2 App Store to be accessed from the O2 Joggler.  Normally this wouldn’t be so exciting, with the ability to access a few games, but O2 are also releasing 3 useful apps for the device..

• YouTube support; very useful I guess if you are an avid fan of YouTube
• Google Maps; now this is useful; the ability to look and find information on the map whilst using the device
• Google Calendar; when I first talked about this device, this was a key area I said they should support; having Google Calendar support suddenly means you can access the same data as on your mobile phone, your computer, and now your O2 Joggler too.

Although I’m still waiting to hear exactly how this works, and what is and isn’t accessible, at £50, it’s a much more interesting proposition!

I hope you find these stories interesting, and UK Gadgeteer will be back next week; Happy Easter!

Nokia have released the first major firmware update for the Nokia E75 (v201).  Weighing in at 153MB, it may never be available using the Over-The-Air option, but is available via PC using NSU.  All About Symbian have said the changelog includes:

T-Mobile have just announced that as from now, if a Pay As You Go (PAYG) user tops up with £10 of credit per month, as well as getting “unlimited” texts for life (or until they change the T&Cs again), users will now also get “unlimited” internet access.  This has been launched with statements like “customers only need to top up £10 a month to use the internet as much as they like, and it doesn’t eat in to their credit” and “enjoy unlimited free access to the mobile internet for life”.

Unfortunately, you then get the small print, hidden away, without asterisks, without warning, which says:

“A fair usage policy of 40 MB per day will apply to the unlimited internet offer. To get unlimited free internet and texts for life, customers need to join T-Mobile by 31^st January 2010. In order to keep receiving free texts and internet for life, customers need to top up just £10 each month.”

So, that’s very different then.  You only get 40MB per day, and you need to join T-Mobile within the next couple of months (fair enough), and they have re-iterated the requirement to regularly topup (again, fair enough).  However, here at UK Gadgeteer we are not happy about the actual service on offer…

Is this 40MB even more limited? T-Mobile state it’s only for accessing “the mobile internet”, so is accessing using applications ok? Is streaming music or video okay? They also quote it’s suitable for the new T-Mobile Pulse (an Android device, shown above) including “pre-loaded Google services”; I wonder as the Pulse has Google’s YouTube support pre-loaded, what would happen if a user went over the limit watching YouTube videos, which would seem in line with the marketing material…

The key point here is that although we fully support the provision of internet access automatically with PAYG TopUps (3UK give you 150Mb with every TopUp that lasts upto 90 days), at least others (such as 3UK) are honest about the limit and don’t hide it in the small print; if unlimited means 40Mb per day, then just be man enough to say that; after all 40MB a day is still a lot of data, but not enough to allow someone to “use the internet as much as they like”…

Ironically, in the two Press Releases we’ve seen talking about the “unlimited” texts, neither mentioned a fair use limit of any sort about the texts, so maybe, just maybe, that actually is truly unlimited (please don’t rely upon a lack of limit in a press release before using this service!)

This is an interesting phone, and shows that both the main mobile phone companies and the mobile networks can work together to produce a phone capable of more than just calls!  The phone (as we mentioned before) has Twitter and Facebook support, as well as the usual 3UK features (Skype on 3, Email on 3, Windows Live Messenger etc) and the phone also has some RSS support too.

Some features were well integrated, eg if you take a picture, the menu then offers to Send the photo to Twitter or Facebook as well as the more usual options.  However, others, such as the Social Networking apps themselves, weren’t so easy to find; Facebook wasn’t too bad, as it’s available from Menu / Messaging, but Twitter was only found in Menu / Entertainment / Applications, whereas, it would have made more sense in the Messaging area alongside Facebook.

However, in that app list, there were a number of other useful applications, including AccuWeather, YouTube, Yell, as well as the 3UK specific apps.  Also, was a Permier Football Scores app (although this requires you to pay a subscription to use it at all).

In other terms, the phone, and 3UK‘s integration was good (personally I don’t like 3UK taking over both softkeys on the homescreen, but this is a minor point).  I did like the way that 3UK recognised I had moved my 3 SIM into a different phone, and automatically sent the latest 3UK settings to the phone (including sending an SMS in advance telling me what was happening, and how to accept the settings).

However, all was not perfect; I didn’t like the back cover, which is held on with 2 clips at the top and 2 more at the bottom, therefore needing some force to remove it; no nice buttons / slide to remove here.  Okay, the rear cover only gives access to the battery, SIM and microSD card slot, so probably does not need to come off often, but it still detracted from the phone.  Also, the phone uses a proprietary connection for both the handset and charging; given the general move by the other manufacturers towards microUSB, this was a shame (some, like LG, are already shipping phones with microUSB).

In a normal week, I would be saying that this is a really good, all round phone, but I’ve just had the new INQ Mini delivered, and that seems to offer a similar package that’s easier to use, and has less negatives, but that’s for another article…

The Sony Ericsson T715 is available from 3UK in Pink and Silver, and thanks to 3mobilebuzz for the loan of the phone.

This is the new Sony Ericsson T715, which launched on 3UK yesterday.  In one respect, it’s just an ordinary phone, which will cost £99 on PAYG or is available for free on the £15 Texter tariff (18-month contract), but in another way, it’s an interesting device with the level of software included within it.

As a 3UK phone, it has Skype and Windows Live Messenger, both free to use, and also has the “Email on 3″ email client installed.  As with many other phones, it has a YouTube uploader too.

But, it has two Social Networking apps too!  It has an integrated Facebook client, and it also has a built in Twitter client, which doesn’t just do the basics of accessing Twitter (reading and writing tweets), but also supports searches, viewing user profiles, and you can even upload photos for Twitter via TwitPic.  All this is available with one click access!

In other specs, it’s a mid range unit; 2.2″ display, sliding form factor, large keypad, “smart desktop”, birthday reminders, and a 3.2 megapixel camera.  Finally, it comes in a few colours; galaxy silver, rouge pink and petrous grey.

We’re hoping to get hold of a device for review sometime soon, but in the meantime, if you are interested in this phone, there will be more details in the 3Store.

It’s nice to see Social Networking apps such as Twitter and Facebook start to become mainstream, but we worry about how well these apps will be supported by the manufacturer in 6 or 12 months time, and how easy it will be to get hold of updated clients if the need arises.

Although not a big shock to the world, given the rumours, and early released third party cases which gave the game away, Apple have confirmed the 5th Generation of the iPod Nano features some new hardware…

Firstly, it now features a larger 2.2″ screen, and to take advantage of that, it now features a microphone, speaker and a video camera (640×480 resolution), allowing you to record photos and video directly on the device.  You need to sync it with your PC to upload them to places such as YouTube, but that’s mainly due to the lack of direct connectivity on the device itself.  Also, Apple have added an FM radio into the picture.

Along with this, Apple announced a new version of iTunes (v9) with a host of new features (improved syncing, better app management for the iPhone and iPod Touch, iTunes LP, Genius Mixes, and Ringtones), new iPhone and iPod Touch software (v3.1), and has refreshed the iPod Touch line too (with higher capacity devices, but no new camera).  In other news, the iPod Classic receives a larger hard disk (which was interesting, as some rumours indicated it would be dropped), and the iPod Shuffle was refreshed too.  However, with theiPod Nano the only device to gain a camera, this is likely to be one of the more popular iPod models for the foreseeable future.

The 8GB version of the iPod Nano is currently on sale at £115 (slightly up on the old iPod Nano 4G), and the 16GB for £135.  If you want to buy one, head over to the Apple Store to see the full tech specs for yourself.

We first covered pixelpipe a few weeks ago, but we have even more news to report about them.  Firstly, they have released a beta of their latest Android application (available here for download via your PC , or direct from your phone).  As you can see from the picture above they have produced a new feature rich client designed to ease your uploading of photos and videos (and audio) to various websites of your choosing (and of course, it also features the ability to provide status updates to many sites too.

On the subject of supported sites, pixelpipe have announced they now support over 95 sites, including:

Photo/Video: Flickr, Picasa,  Photobucket, Nokia Ovi, MobileMe, Phanfare, Smugmug, vimeo, ImageShack, pikeo, webshots,  FotoTime, Zooomr, Fotki, Zoom.in, 23hq, Photoservice.com, 72 photos, ipernity,  Shutterfly, photobox, Kodak Gallery, Snapfish, Zenfolio,  Gallery Menalto, DropShots,  SnapMyLife, tinypic, radar.net,  Windows Live Spaces, pikchur, Viewbook, OurDoings

Video: YouTube, blip.tv, 12seconds.tv, Viddler, Dailymotion, kewego, kyte.tv, Revver,  Vimeo, Seesmic

Status/Micro-Blog: Twitter, TwitVid, brightkite, FriendFeed, TwitPic, kwippy, Rejaw, , Plurk, identi.ca, youare.com, plerb, twitgoo, yfrog, pix.im, Jaiku, Google Talk, pic.im, TwitVid.io, Tweetphoto, koornk, TwitrPix, Utterli

Social Networks: MySpace, Facebook, hi5, Friendster, imeem, Vox, Bebo, Hyves, Xanga

Blogs: Blogger, TypePad, WordPress, tumbler, LiveJournal, Atom, MetaWeblog, MovableType, Drupal, Squarespace

Gateways: Posterous, ping.fm, Mobypicture

Online storage: box.net, drop.io, Acrobat.com

Widget: Picturtrail, imageloop

Other: FTP, Email, qipit, Scribd, Evernote

Now, that’s a fairly comprehensive list, and the list continues to grow week on week, although we’re struggling to think of many well known sites that aren’t already on that list.  Obviously you won’t publish to all 95, but the ability to select the one or more key sites you do use and then action a single upload is key to saving power and data charges.

This is the new HTC Hero, similar to the HTC Magic already available on Vodafone, but enhanced by a number of HTC customisations on top of the base Android OS, in a similar way to the TouchFlo interface that HTC add to their Windows Mobile devices.

The spec includes a 3.2″ 320×480 display, 5 megapixel camera, 512MB ROM, 288MB RAM, HSPA, WiFi, GPS, compass and microSD slot.  It features a fairly powerful 1350mAh battery, weighs 135 grams and is 112×56.2×14.4mm, and features a Teflon coating to help keep it clean.

In a similar way to Nokia E-Series devices which feature two theme profiles, the HTC Hero will have a Scenes profile feature to allow you to swap between business and personal modes (although we don’t believe it’s limited to 2 profiles like the Nokia solution).  It looks like it will have the ability to integrate some social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter into the Contacts, and the phone features a dedicated search button that provides “you with a more natural, contextual search experience that enables you to search through Twitter, locate people in your contact list, find emails in your inbox or search in any other area in Hero”.

Best of all, HTC are talking about a July availability date in Europe, and to back that up, Orange UK have already announced they will be selling the HTC Hero, and T-Mobile have stated this is the phone dubbed the G1Touch.

The G1Touch will be available from mid-July and will be free on T-Mobile on a £40 per month contract (no contract term stated by T-Mobile, so that might be 24 months) on a Flext tariff offering £225 of credit to spend each month, and that tariff will also include “unlimited” internet browsing (likely to be 3GB per month).

Orange have stated the HTC Hero will be free for customers to take out the £39.15 per month (24 month contract), which will offer 1200 cross-network / landline minutes, “unlimited” texts, and “inclusive anytime” internet browsing (which means 500MB); which looks to us to be the Dolphin 40 tariff.  It will also be exclusively available in ‘Graphite’ (dark grey) from early July.

It’s nice to see Orange finally starting to offer half-decent internet access deals, and we note that the Dolphin 40 tariff has no “out of bundle” charge for texts, so maybe they actually mean unlimited texts… <later> Oh no, it actually means 3,000 texts, just like the other networks….