18/11/11 Vodafone outage in HP5 areas

We have had reports that Vodafone service has been affected in the HP5 postcode (and some surrounding areas). A large number of cell sites have been affected and some customers have reported a loss of voice and data coverage. The outage has a high priority and Vodafone engineers are on site working on the resolution.

Two new BlackBerry Smartphones announced

RIM today announced two new additions to their product range – the 9790 a new Bold touchscreen and the 9380 which is a full touchscreen Curve.

The Bold 9790 runs BlackBerry 7.0 OS and sports a powerful 1 GHz processor, 8 GB of memory and a 5 MP auto-focus camera. This updated Bold also has Near Field Communication (NFC). NFC technology allows you to read smart tags on signs and posters, and connect with other NFC enabled devices – all with a simple tap.

The new 9380 Curve is the first Curve to have a 3.2″ full touchscreen and also has a 5MP camera. It features a features an integrated Social Feeds application, which ties all of your social networks together into one place. The Curve also features NFC (Near Field Communications) and Augmented Reality (driven by the digital compass). The AR functionality allows you to hold up your device and, using the camera, explore the world around you. Standing in front of an important landmark? Just point your BlackBerry Curve 9380 at it and let Wikitude tell you all about it. The AR is also integrated with BBM in virtually real-time so that you can find your BBM contacts in a crowd.

Availability and price has not yet been confirmed for the UK.

Vodafone gives rural mobile coverage a boost

Vodafone are calling for rural communities to get involved in trials of an ‘open’ version of the technology which powers their Vodafone Sure Signal boxes. This latest innovation could help provide vital local connectivity and mobile internet access. They have taken the ‘femtocell’ technology from Vodafone Sure Signal and turned it into a mini mobile phone mast that any Vodafone customer can use for calls and data.

These ‘open femto’ devices have the potential to offer rural areas an affordable way of getting 3G coverage, filling in network ‘not spots’ in small towns and villages. 12 new trials, which will start early in 2012, build on the experience Vodafone have gained from their successful ongoing pilot in East Garston, near Newbury. The extension of this pioneering work is an opportunity for other rural communities to get involved in improving mobile coverage where they live and benefit from the growing smartphone revolution.

Communications Minister Ed Vaizey this morning welcomed news of the plans saying: “It is good to see Vodafone looking for innovative ways to bring mobile coverage to rural areas. I urge areas without mobile coverage to get involved and see if this trial is suitable for them.”
The East Garston trial began after the parish council and local MP asked for help to improve coverage. Working closely with the community, as well as BT and Alcatel-Lucent on the supporting infrastructure, ‘open femto’ devices have been installed in the local pub, outside the village hall, social club and post office and even in the roof of an old red telephone box! Early results have been encouraging and Vodafone will be trialling the use of femtocells on Openreach telephone poles in the village.
East Garston parish council clerk Alan Breadmore can really see the benefits locally: “The bar in the social club is open most evenings and I’m sure it’s helped boost their business because people now go down there in the evening to use their phones. There’s not a week goes by without someone tapping me on the shoulder when I’m walking through the village and asking when they’re going to get coverage in their area.”

Ofcom’s latest ‘State of the Communications Nation’ report published this week, also highlights the issue, saying that 3G coverage is very much “concentrated in urban areas” and that ‘not spots’ in outlying areas may be “technically and commercially challenging to resolve”. Vodafone is currently the only UK network offering an ‘open femto’ solution to tackle this problem for rural communities.

Nokia introduce their first Windows Phone devices

Nokia have announced their first, long-awaited Windows Phone  handsets – the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710. Both handsets are running Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango).

LUMIA 800

The Lumia 800 has a uni-body design, which means that it does not have a user-removable battery. Set inside the shell is a gorgeous 3.7-inch AMOLED ClearBlack display ( the term ClearBlack means it has a built-in polarizing filter that helps it look good under bright sunlight). Interestingly, the display is actually curved outward slightly this resulting in a smooth side-to-side swiping motion. Other specs of the phone include 1.4Ghz processor and 16GB of internal memory; however, users will get 25GB of free cloud-based storage courtesy of Microsoft’s SkyDrive service.

Nokia has always been known for its excellent cameras, and we’re happy to report that the Lumia 800 does have an 8-megapixel camera with an f/2.2 Carl Zeiss Tessar lens and dual LED flash. It can record 720p HD video at 30fps and the camera app offers a few extra features like red-eye reduction, motion blur reduction, and more.

NOKIA LUMIA 710

Nokia’s Lumia 710 is a lower-cost sibling to the Lumia 800. It has less flash memory at 8GB but will ship in more colours. With a 3.7-inch LCD screen which also also employs Nokia’s ClearBlack display technology. While not nearly as stunning as the Lumia 800′s AMOLED display of the same size, it still looks nice and bright and colourful. Itcomes with the same  1.4GHz processor butswaps the 8-megapixel camera for a 5-megapixel version. The camera still supports 720p HD video capture at 30 frames per second.

RIM to offer free Apps as compensation

RIM is to offer free premium apps following days of disruption caused by fault at data centre in Slough.  It is offering BlackBerry owners 12 free premium apps in a bid to appease customers upset by last week’s widespread data service outages.
12 Apps from BlackBerry App World worth a total of $100 (£63) will be made available over four weeks starting from October 19 which customers can download until the end of December. The apps that will be available for free are: SIMS 3, Bejeweled, N.O.V.A., Texas Hold’em Poker 2, Bubble Bash 2, Photo Editor Ultimate, DriveSafe.ly Pro, iSpeech Translator Pro, Drive Safe.ly Enterprise, Nobex Radio™ Premium, Shazam Encore and Vlingo Plus: Virtual Assistant.

BlackBerry Service problems 10/10/11

We have been advised of a major service issue that has occurred on the RIM / BlackBerry network which is affecting a range of customers globally.

Subscribers may experiencing delays in sending or receiving messages, roaming in another location, or using other services such as Internet browsing or instant messaging. Subscribers may also be unable to create new accounts, integrate third-party email accounts, or use BlackBerry subscriber web sites. Devices may not receive new service books. BlackBerry-enabled devices that request a new PIN may not receive a PIN. BlackBerry Enterprise Servers may be unable to connect to the BlackBerry Infrastructure.

Other effects include Subscribers may experiencing delays in receiving updates from content push applications (such as news, weather, Facebook, Twitter, eBay, Myspace, podcasts, etc.) or may be unable to add new content push applications.

RIM are working on the problem and we advise affected customers to try a hard reset on their handsets from time to time. A hard reset can be performed by pulling the battery from the handset without first switching off the device, waiting for a few moments then re-inserting the battery.

Apple announce iPhone 4S

Apple’s new CEO Tim Cook announced the launch of its new iPhone 4S, at this evening’s ‘let’s talk iPhone’ conference at Apple’sCupertino campus. Whilst the new version looks much the same as the iPhone 4, Apple insist it is “all new” inside.

There will be 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions, in both black and white.

Features on the device include a dual core processor, an 8-megapixel camera and HD video capture. The battery has also been improved to offer 8 hours of talk time on 3G or 14 hours of 2G talk time.

The camera also includes an A5 chip which provides additional features such as face detection. The device will also include Apple’s latest operating system, iOS 5, which can also be downloaded to previous models, the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3GS.

Details on tariffs and price are expected in the next few days.

Amazon launch Android Tablet

Amazon has moved into the tablet computer market with a touchscreen Android-based colour tablet device called the Kindle Fire.
The Fire will be available in the US for £127, making it less than half the price of the cheapest iPad. As yet Amazon hasn’t indicated when the device will be available globally. It has a dual-core processor, has a 7-inch screen and weighs 414 grams. It runs a customised version of Android, and uses a new web browser, “Amazon Silk”.
The Fire will be a rival to Apple as Amazon can offer 100,000 films and TV shows, 17 million songs and 1 million books from its existing services and also already has a huge number of registered users.

Visa to launch new mobile services

Visa Europe is launching two new mobile services in October.The first is a person-to-person payments service which has been developed in partnership with mobile money firm Monetise. The service allows a visa customer to use an app to send money to an address book contact, mobile number or a visa account.Visa claims that the service is as secure as a normal visa transaction and will be useful for making payments to individuals. A typical example might be splitting a restaurant bill between friends.

Visa is also launching an alert service called Visa Alerts. The service sends real-time notifications to a person when their card has been used.The alerts can be sent by either SMS or email and can be triggered when a person makes an overseas transaction, withdraws money from an ATM or buys something online, Visa said.

Most UK SMBs unclear about mobile device security

The majority (93%) of directors in UK SMBs believe that mobile working is either a continuing or rising trend, according to the ‘Mobile Working Report’ from business ISP Timico. OnePoll questioned 200 directors of UK SMBs from the public to the private sector and found that 40 percent of employees at small businesses (fewer than 300 staff) work away from the office; rising to 75 percent in medium-sized businesses (over 300 staff).
Despite the increasing trend, 61 percent of respondents said that data on company business devices was either not protected or that they didn’t know whether it was and 76 percent of businesses had to deal with lost or stolen devices each year.
In addition, 42.5 percent of directors had to spend some time every week resolving problems caused by lost or stolen devices or by employees’ own devices causing issues with work IT. Almost three quarters (72%) were concerned about employees bringing their own devices to work, with security being the main area of concern. A large majority (81.5%) of directors would probably allow own devices if there was a Mobile Device Management service that offered protection of company data held on an employee’s own device.