Review: iPhone deals

It might be best to stay on hold for an iPhone deal, reports Adam Turner.

Apple's iPhone 3G has finally landed in Australia, but choosing which telco to buy it from can be a challenge.

Telstra, Optus and Vodafone are all selling the iPhone 3G. You can buy them from other stores, but you must sign up to one of these three networks. The 3 network is expected to offer the iPhone 3G in August. iPhone 3Gs are generally sold with a 12 or 24-month plan, although it is possible to buy a pre-paid iPhone 3G. It is, however, still locked to that network unless you download a hack from the internet or pay the telco yet another fee to have the phone "unlocked".

Like all smartphones, the iPhone 3G isn't cheap. Unfortunately the plans from the three networks are complicated, making it difficult to make direct comparisons. The iPhone is available with a choice of 8GB or 16GB of onboard storage.

While you're likely to have an idea of the monthly call and SMS allowance you require, choosing a data plan is more difficult. The data plan determines how much you can use the phone for checking email or surfing the web via the mobile phone network. If you go over your monthly allowance you'll get slugged with hefty excess data charges. Telstra and Vodafone didn't release full details of their iPhone 3G plans until less than a day before they went on sale.

The iPhone 3G's ease of use means you're more like to use the advanced features and chew through more data - especially because of the fast data speeds. The Google Maps feature is great for figuring out where you are, but downloading the maps uses data. It's also very easy to configure the iPhone 3G to check your email. The big screen and great web browser means you're more likely to use the internet while you're on the road. There's also a YouTube link on the iPhone's home screen, which can be a real data trap.

Even light users will struggle to keep their usage under 100MB a month. The iPhone offers the option of push email, which automatically forwards your email to the phone rather than waiting for you to check your inbox.

The iPhone 3G lets you connect to the internet via wifi, rather than the phone network, which is great when you're at home or near a public wifi hotspot as it doesn't count towards your monthly data limit. Unfortunately when the phone goes to sleep it disables its wifi adaptor to save power, which means it switches back to the expensive mobile phone network.

The iPhone 3G would chew through at least 5MB of data a month in the background, even before you use email or the web.

iPhone 3G owners using Optus and Vodafone won't get full 3G data speeds outside the cities.

The most dangerous thing about the iPhone 3G is that you can't disable the mobile data services. You can disable 3G, but this drops you back to 2G speeds rather than disabling mobile data completely.

If your phone is unlocked from your carrier, you might be able to disable data access in the advanced settings. If you change the APN setting to gibberish, you can still make calls and send SMS, but the phone can't access mobile data services. It's not elegant, but it works.

If your iPhone 3G is hacked to run applications that do not have Apple's blessing, a more elegant solution is to add a "DATA off" button to the menus. This can be done with applications such as services.app, iToggle and BossPrefs and - on our hacked first-generation iPhone - we got the best results from BossPrefs.

source : http://www.smh.com.au/

BlackBerry mixes it with Apple

We're going to be enjoying some titanic battles this summer: athletes will be pushing through the pain barrier in Beijing to come home with a gold medal; football teams from across Europe will be kicking lumps out of one another in Austria and Switzerland at Euro 2008; and Apple and Research in Motion, the Canadian company behind the wildly popular BlackBerry mobile email device, will be slugging it out for the hearts, minds and wallets of consumers.

With Apple widely expected to launch an updated model of the iPhone in June, featuring faster internet access as well as a host of new applications and programs, other mobile phone makers are pulling out all the stops to make sure they don't end up trailing in Apple's wake.

Research in Motion, in particular, is concious of this. Although it has more than 14 million global subscribers to its BlackBerry "push-email" service, whereby messages are automatically delivered to the phone rather than the user having to download them each time, almost two-thirds of these are "enterprise" subscriptions - essentially, businessmen and women.

But hang on a second. That means more than a third of BlackBerry users aren't "enterprise" customers. They are people like you and me who simply want to be able to access their emails on the go. Phones are becoming more like pocket-sized computers, capable of carrying out multiple tasks, and email has become absolutely critical to the way we live our daily lives.

Even for those people who aren't captains of industry, the ability to check messages quickly and easily on their phone is fast becoming a "must have" feature, rather than simply an optional extra. And let's face it, no-one does mobile email like BlackBerry.

Reaching out to a new audience is crucial to Research in Motion's ongoing success. Apple plans to launch new software that will give its iPhone BlackBerry-like push-email capabilities ideal for the workplace, and it has already won plaudits from consumers for the design and interface of its phone-cum-iPod-cum-internet browser.

That's why Research in Motion has launched its most consumer-friendly handset yet: the Bold. It's not due in shops until later this summer, but expect it to start a fruity turf war between Apple and BlackBerry. The Bold is BlackBerry's attempt to cast off its business suit and don some casual clothes for a change.

It maintains the email capabilities so beloved by BlackBerry users and builds a swathe of really great features into the device that you might find on a "normal" phone.

Bold owners will be able to watch videos on the go; surf the internet at faster speeds than they currently can on an iPhone, using the 3G mobile phone network and super-slick HSDPA as well as Wi-Fi; find a nice local restaurant or cosy pub using the built-in GPS and mapping software; take pictures using the two-megapixel camera (the same resolution camera used on the iPhone); and - this is the crucial bit - download their music collection to the device from their iTunes library. Take that, Apple!

Even the design of the Bold is a nod to the iPhone, with its piano-black finish, rounded corners and silver flashes. Unlike the iPhone, however, there's no touchscreen. Instead BlackBerry is sticking with its tried, trusted and adored qwerty keyboard layout, which allows dedicated CrackBerry addicts to speedily touch-type emails. Rumour has it, however, that a touchscreen BlackBerry, dubbed "Thunder", is in the works and could hit stores by the end of the year.

The screen, with its 480 by 320 resolution, is bright, crisp and clear, albeit smaller than on an iPhone. The Bold's processor is also slightly faster than that used by the Apple device, which should keep programs running smoothly. And, unlike the iPhone, the Bold allows users to multi-task: you'll be able to use the mapping software, surf the web or write an email while making a phone call.

While there's only 1GB of memory built into the Bold - compared to the 8GB and 16GB versions of the iPhone currently offered by Apple - you can simply add a memory card to bump that up to 16GB, which is more than enough for a couple of movies and a lengthy playlist of songs.

Of course, the Bold, like all BlackBerrys, has a major downside: the possibility of addiction. The ability compulsively to check emails every five minutes is just too tempting. Even if you resolve not to check it at weekends or in the evening, the blinking light that signals an unread message will be impossible to resist. Madonna recently admitted that she and husband Guy Ritchie take their BlackBerrys to bed with them, and sleep with them under their pillows.

BlackBerry users over on the forums at CrackBerry.com proudly swap stories of just how big a role the device plays in their life. Many talk about their being three people in their relationships, while another writes of how he used his BlackBerry to email family and friends that he was having a heart attack while being rushed to hospital by ambulance.

Don't say we didn't warn you.

source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Nokia’s new mobile music model takes on Apple’s iPhone

Apple’s iPhone may reign over the fledgling mobile music market in the United States, but in the rest of the world Nokia is No. 1 on the hit parade.

Last year alone, Nokia (NOK) sold 147 million music-playing phones worldwide, while Apple’s (AAPL) sleek touchscreen has sold 5.7 million units so far this year. And although the iPhone is now the top-selling music phone in the U.S. market, it doesn’t even make the top five in Europe where three of Nokia’s music-playing handsets are best-sellers. Now the Finnish phonemaker plans to launch a new service later this year that will let people download as many songs as they want for a limited time.

Unlike the iPhone’s pay-per-track model, Nokia’s new “Comes With Music” plan will offer several handsets that include a year’s worth of unlimited music in the cost of the phone. Once the year is over, subscribers will be able to keep their existing tracks on their phone or PC, and Nokia says they’ll have several options of extending their “Comes With Music” membership without necessarily having to upgrade to a new device. The company is still mum on what those other options may be, though it’s likely customers will have to start paying a subscription fee to keep the unlimited downloads service.

“The track-by-track purchase methodology was cumbersome to people,” says Liz Schimel, head of Nokia’s music business. “Consumers were looking for a more seamless way to access a lot of content.”

Subscription-based, all-you-can-listen-to digital music models have been around for a while. Companies like U.K.-based Omnifone and Rhapsody offer similar services and for years rumors have circulated that Apple itself will launch a flat-rate, unlimited version of iTunes. But Nokia is the first mobile giant to turn away from the a-la-carte model of selling mobile music, and, unlike other existing subscription-based services, its will allow people to keep their tunes on their phone and PC even after their subscription expires.

Of course, while customers won’t have to worry about losing their music library, they also won’t be able to transfer their songs to a new device unless that new device is another “Comes With Music” Nokia phone.

The company plans to launch several compatible handsets, as current Nokia music phones won’t work with the upcoming service. It’s not clear how much built-in memory those new phones will have, but one of Nokia’s most popular multimedia phones on the market today is the N95, which, like the iPhone, comes in an 8-gigabyte version.

Lucky for the Finnish phonemaker, analysts say content providers are eager to experiment with new ways of getting their music onto cell phones.

“They [content providers] want to at least try to shift the center of gravity away from iTunes and Apple,” says Mark Donovan, a senior analyst with mobile research firm M:Metrics.

Two of the world’s largest music labels - Universal Music Group and Sony BMG - have already committed to “Comes with Music,” and the company expects more will sign on before the new service launches in the second half of this year.

Nokia won’t disclose the details of the new business model, or say how much the “Comes With Music” devices will cost. Some media reports have suggested the phonemaker is paying $35 to Universal alone for each handset it sells. With more labels expected to join the partnership, that could end up cutting into Nokia’s profit margins, though M:Metrics’ Donovan says he believes the company has figured out a model “that has legs.”

“The idea that they would pay Universal $35 a handset doesn’t smell good to me at all,” says Donovan. “But of course the devil will be in the details.”

Schimel, head of Nokia’s music business, says the company put a lot of energy into crafting a model that makes sense for everyone involved - the music labels, customers, carriers and Nokia itself. The result, she says, will be able to compete with lots of players on the marketplace, including Apple.

“The mobile industry as a whole has enormous potential in digital music but up until now it’s only been unlocked to a limited extent,” says Schimel, who would not disclose the specifics of the “Comes With Music” business model.

One thing Nokia has been clear about is that music and other services are an important part of its overall strategy. In 2006 the company acquired digital music player Loudeye, which enabled it to launch a pay-per-track mobile music store (similar to what’s currently available on the iPhone), now available in nine countries.

But it’s Nokia’s “Comes With Music” service that has the potential to disrupt the prevalent iTunes way of selling digital music - at least when it comes to mobile downloads.

Despite Apple’s dominance in MP3 player sales, Nokia’s got a global headstart when it comes to the mobile phone market. It’s got 40% of the global handset market and is especially strong in regions that have been quick to embrace mobile content, including China and Europe.

Of course, providing a viable competitor to Apple’s iTunes means succeeding in the U.S. market as well. Currently, Nokia has just 7% market share in the United States, and its total North America sales accounted for only 2.6% of its overall, global revenues.

Nokia’s Schimel says although it won’t be one of the launch markets Nokia has every intention of eventually bringing its “Comes With Music” service to the United States.

But it’s possible Apple will be pressured into change its tune — and offering a subscription-based iTunes service — long before that happens.

source : http://techland.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/