Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Yet another carrier that has added the BlackBerry Bold to its lineup. With their announcement comes immediate availability and also a pretty fair pricing structure. The Bold will be available for free when customers choose the Anytime 600 data plan for £35 (about $62 US), which also comes with a 24-month agreement. Certainly not a bad price for a handset like the Bold, the Anytime 600 plan includes 600 talk-time minutes and 500MB of data transfer. In addition to the regular consumer plans the BlackBerry Bold will also be available with the Vodafone Total Business price plans. Sadly the US is still waiting for AT&T to get their Bold on the market, which the latest rumored launch date is October 2, however with all the false dates in the past we are certainly not holding our breath.

Read [Vodafone]

Vodafone and Dell have announced a partnership that will make a special broadband ready version of the newly released Dell Inspiron Mini 9 available. The 3G-equipped Mini 9 will be sold in Vodafone retail stores, online and directly from Dell, and allow users to connect anywhere they may be.

Availability is expected to come in late September, however an exact release date has not yet been announced, but that along with pricing is expected to be announced in the coming weeks. Sounds like Vodafone has a winner on its hands.

Its still early to tell, but so far it seems Dell is really pushing their Mini 9 in the right direction, they needed something to set them apart from the rest of the netbook crowd. I can only hope that a US carrier, possibly AT&T will pick up the netbook with a similar offering for those of us in the US.

Read [CNN Money]

Palm, once again has announced the Treo Pro, of course it seems this time it was made official, as they have released a press release, promo video and also added the newly designed Treo to their website.

This release is actually pretty exciting for a Treo, not only does the Pro have a nice clean design and decent features it will also be sold unlocked for $549 here in the US. Palm has yet to announce a specific date of release, however they have stated it will hit the market in September. Aside from the US, the Treo Pro will also be available through Vodafone and O2 in Europe and through Telstra in Australia. 

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The Blackberry Thunder which we reported before as RIM’s newest Blackberry device now has an official name, the Blackberry 9500. And like we told you, it shall be officially carried with Verizon as a lifetime exclusive offering which will support high-speed HSPA and EV-DO networks. In addition to Verizon, reports had it that it will also hit the Vodafone network.

Now for some exciting new information, we also found out that the Blackberry 9500 will have a touchscreen LCD display at 360x480 resolution. What makes this LCD special? It is surprisingly bigger than the LCD display of iPhone. So, you can safely say that it is also being geared up to compete with the iPhone 3G. In addition, the Blackberry 9500 is said to come with OS 4.7.0.

We’ll definitely keep an eye for more updates on the new Blackberry 9500.

Via [Blackberry News]

I’ve been waiting for some kind of response from the big manufacturers to the iPhone.  Sure they’ve thrown some clones our way but nothing that puts them on the path to a true “iPhone killer”.  Today, they’ve shown they mean business by uniting the Symbian OS. 

Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and NTT DoCoMo have all joined forces to open up Symbian and work to encourage developers on the common platform.  By bringing together Symbian OS, S60, UIQ and MOAP(S) they will create one open mobile platform.  And they are working with carriers and other telecom giants like AT&T, LG, Samsung, STMicro, Texas Instruments and Vodafone to widen the net of users and developers.

This is a relatively big deal.  To me, it says, “we get the idea that software is king.” To the world, it says, “this is how we move forward.” And a lot of weight moving forward it is.  Going open source and royalty free they hope to attract all the developers who have iPhones royalties in their eyes right now.

This is definitely a step in the right direction.  As my Econ professors used to say, “competition is a good thing.”

Read [Sony Ericsson]

The idea of mixing music with mobile phones isn’t new, but it still is a relatively untapped opportunity for most mobile phone makers and network carriers. The latest announcement from Vodafone and Verizon, meanwhile, has us and most other Madonna and Justin Timberlake fans looking forward to April 28. Why? Because they are now offering an underground remix version of Madonna’s upcoming single 4 Minutes from the album Hard Candy. And with an offer like this, it’s hard to say this would be a hard sell.

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The Samsung SGH-F490 is the latest device to land on Vodafone UK’s handset lineup, and promises to add yet another great option for those looking for a multimedia-centric phone. It has a lot of similarities to the recently introduced Samsung Instinct, but know that the SGH-F490 has some interesting features of its own.

The Samsung SGH-F490 is a touch-enabled device with a 3.2-inch display capable of showing up to 262k colors. It sports a very minimalist design with only a few hot keys on its front face and a lone speaker for voice calls. And unlike the iPhone, the SGH-F490 is 3G enabled. Chew on it Apple.

Other features of the Samsung SGH-F490 include a built-in 5-megapixel camera, support for A2DP Bluetooth stereo, UMTS/HSDPA connectivity, and Samsung’s very own Croix user interface. Visit Vodafone’s web site for region availability and local pricing.

Via [Mobile Burn]

In yet another great example of an artist using the power of the web and technology, Madonna has chosen to offer seven of the eleven tracks from her upcoming album Hard Candy early. While I wish this offer was available for anyone, or even a larger audience, she has decided to offer the access to Vodafone customers. The album is set to be in stores beginning on April 28, 2008 but these lucky fans will have access to the tracks up to one week before the general release.

The tracks will be released one at a time and each will be available for a 24 hour time period, they can each be downloaded for 99p (around $1.98), and the first single “4 Minutes” will be offered at a slightly lower price of 75p (around $1.50). Vodafone, while popular across Europe, are not a US carrier, which means US fans will have to wait till April 28, or until the tracks are leaked.

Via [geek sugar]

Some good news to report for a change in regards to Facebook in the UK with news that they are going to enable Vodafone users to install a application on the phone that will allow them to receive newsfeeds, messages, status updates, ‘pokes’ and other features from the site.

Vodafone has been chosen to partner Facebook with this new offering, which will improve on the current mobile offering by removing the need to go to a browser first and type in the URL. Now users will be able to click on a widget on the phone and directly access Facebook. This isn’t a first for Vodafone who already have similar offerings with MySpace and Bebo. Currently no other providers have been announced, but Facebook is expected to partner with others on a similar offer.

Via [The Times]

UK mobile phone users are getting the option of a free 8GB Nokia N95 from either Vodafone or 3. While you do technically get the phone for free, there is a small catch. In order to get that low price of nothing you must be willing to sign an 18-month contract. Nice, only an 18-month contract, the monthly rates do vary in price though. Vodafone will run you £35.00 (around $70 US) a month for 500 anytime minutes and 500 text messages. The offer from 3 is a little cheaper at £30.00 (around $60 US) a month, but you only get 300 minutes or texts (or any mix of the two). Sounds like a good deal to us, check ‘em out for yourself, Vodafone and 3.

Via [IntoMobile]