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Orange UK's iPhone contract & pay as you go pricing plans detailed

by Tim Stevens posted Nov 2nd 2009 at 8:29AM

We're just about a week away from the Orange iPhone launch, and if you folks across the pond were wondering what the deal was going to cost you, you now have your answer thanks to a dizzying but thoroughly helpful series of tables that lay out the costs of the phones, plans, and the various accoutrement to be included. Those willing to sign up for 24 months can get an 8GB iPhone 3G for free for a minimum of £29.36 ($48) per month, but step up to the £122.34 ($200) monthly plan with unlimited everything and you'll get a 32GB 3GS gratis. Meanwhile, on a pay as you go plan that same 8GB 3G will cost you £343 ($561), while the 32GB 3GS is a rather more painful £539 ($881 -- haven't you figured out the conversion rate yet?). You know what that means: contract ahoy.

xpPhone teased with specs and pictures, makes Windows XP young again

by Richard Lai posted Oct 30th 2009 at 9:33PM

Don't panic, we haven't gone back in time. What we're looking at here is the world's first but still-yet-to-be-released phone that runs on Windows XP, and its Chinese maker has just released some juicy specs and interface images to tease us all. The ITG xpPhone will be blessed with the chutzpah-filled AMD "Super Mobile" CPU, coupled with either 512MB or 1GB RAM. Storage options range from 8GB SSD to 120GB HDD (probably 1.8-inch) and everything in between. While the sheet confirms both GSM and CDMA support, ITG's pre-order page -- which looks more like a newsletter sign-up page at the moment -- is still vague on the phone's availability and price. For now we'll just continue to gaze at the interface pictures until something happens.

[Via Gizmodo]

Gallery: xpPhone teased with specs and pictures, makes Windows XP young again

iPhone 3GS coming to Orange UK on November 10

by Vladislav Savov posted Oct 26th 2009 at 8:43AM

So you've been lusting after that spit-shined touchy-swipey device from Apple, huh? If you're in the UK, come November 10 you'll finally have a choice of iPhone provider (both for 3G and 3GS flavors), with The Guardian confirming the date as Orange's launch of the coveted handset. O2's exclusivity runs out on the ninth of that month, but we shouldn't be too quick to rejoice, as Orange will seek to "add value" rather than undercut O2's pricing. Independent retailers Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U are also expected to stock the iPhone on behalf of Orange, and lest we forget Vodafone will be joining in with its own offering in early 2010. The CEO of 3 has also indicated a strong desire to bring Cupertino's baby onboard, though that's unlikely to happen before the midpoint of next year. So it'll get cheaper, just very... very slowly.

LG GD910 Watch Phone review

by Vladislav Savov posted Oct 16th 2009 at 12:24PM

You're not how much money you have in the bank, you're not the car you drive, you're not the contents of your wallet, you are not your freaking khakis – oh, who are we kidding, if you're reading a site such as this, you're all about your khakis. To sate that "look good, feel good" need in all of us, LG has brought out the ultimate in techie chic: a watchphone. This is not just any watchphone though, this is a £500 ($808) droplet of Orange-tinted exclusivity that straddles your wrist and demands onlookers' attention. Do the consumer in you a favor and come along past the break where we have the full scoop on the GD910.

Gallery: LG GD910 Watch Phone review

Continue reading LG GD910 Watch Phone review

Motorola DEXT goes on sale in the UK tomorrow, maybe sneaking out today

by Nilay Patel posted Oct 6th 2009 at 11:57AM

Statesiders will have to wait another month before getting their hands on the Motorola CLIQ, but the party's getting started early in the UK: the DEXT, as it's called across the pond, goes on sale at Orange shops tomorrow and Phones4U stores the day after. Still not soon enough for you? We're also told that the Orange store in Milton Keynes will be having early sales today -- do let us know if you snag one, won't you?

[Via Boy Genius Report]

iPhone 3G and 3GS to be offered by Orange UK -- official

by Vladislav Savov posted Sep 28th 2009 at 4:07AM

Well well, turns out rumors sometimes do come true. The widely speculated end to O2's exclusivity of the iPhone is now upon us and Orange is the first competitor to throw its hat into the ring. The company has not yet released tariff pricing, but there's a tantalizingly small release window, as availability is promised "later this year." At least there's finally some competition when it comes to the iPhone in the UK, and we can also probably look forward to T-Mobile joining in on the fun. Let the price war begin!

[Via iPhone Bang; Thanks, Gears]

ITG's Windows XP-loving xpPhone now accepting pre-orders worldwide

by Tim Stevens posted Sep 17th 2009 at 7:21AM

It's been awhile since we last saw the xpPhone, a quick, quiet demonstration at Computex that left us doubting whether the thing would ever see the light of day outside a packed showroom floor. It seems our doubts are about to be put to rest as ITG, creator of the thing, has thrown up a pre-order page on the phone's website. There's no mention of a price, and indeed you won't be asked to plunk down any cash right now (it's not much of a pre-order), but what's interesting is that it asks you to choose between 3G modules for Vodafone, Orange, or AT&T. That means ITG seemingly has aspirations of a global release for this thing, and while we're not sure how many people are going to want to lug around a MID-sized monster celly with a "super big" 4.8-inch LCD and a weight of nearly a pound, surely some nation in the world has pockets big enough for this.

[Via Pocketables]

Motorola DEXT promised to Orange UK in early October, free on contract

by Ross Miller posted Sep 15th 2009 at 11:01PM

While the US release date is still in question, Motorola CLIQ's brother across the pond DEXT has gotten itself an official an early October window from UK's exclusive carrier Orange. Best of all, it's expected to be free for those who commit to a two-year, £34.26 per month ($56.43) contract. With any luck, Americans with a penchant for Android and physical keyboards will get their own "free on contract and launching in October" deal, but we've still got nothing confirmed.

Orange introduces 'HD Voice' calls -- 3G, Moldovian citizenship required

by Donald Melanson posted Sep 11th 2009 at 6:38PM

You may not have realized it, but all of the cellphone calls you've been making have totally not been HD. While we may still be stuck with our old standard def calls for a while yet over here, it looks like the good citizens of Moldova have now finally vaulted into the future courtesy of Orange, which recently made the very first "HD Voice" call in the country (on 09/09/09, of course). Overused acronyms aside, the calls do indeed appear to be of noticeably better quality (at least if the web demo is any indication), which is mostly due to their use of the new Adaptive Multi Rate - Wide Band (or AMR-WB) codec that takes advantage of the greater bandwidth afforded by 3G. Unfortunately, it looks like the HD Voice-ready handset options are a bit limited to start with (just an Orange Moldova-exclusive version of the Nokia 6720), but it looks like more phones are expected to become available as Orange expands the service throughout Europe over the course of 2010.

[Via GSM Arena, thanks Sathish]

Motorola CLIQ runs Android, headed to T-Mobile

by Nilay Patel posted Sep 10th 2009 at 1:19PM

Motorola just announced its first Android handset, the CLIQ, which is headed to T-Mobile by the fourth quarter, or in time for the holidays. As you'd expect, it runs the new MOTOBLUR Android skin, and Moto's calling it "the first phone with social skills" to highlight the social networking integration. It'll come in two colors, Winter White and Titanium, and have a 3.1-inch 320 x 480 screen, 3G, WiFi, and a five megapixel camera that'll also shoots 24fps video. Internationally, the CLIQ will be known as the DEXT, and it'll be on Orange, Telefonica, and America Movil. It will also be far less ugly than we all expected from those Morisson leaks.

Gallery: Motorola CLIQ

T-Mobile UK and Orange to merge, still clash

by Thomas Ricker posted Sep 8th 2009 at 2:36AM

Step aside O2 and Vodafone, there's a new sheriff in town. At least there will be if the announced 50:50 merger between T-Mobile UK and Orange can be signed into existence by November as planned. The new venture would give France Telecom and Deutsch Telekom units a 37% share of the UK mobile marketplace leaving O2 with 27% and the once mighty Vodafone with 25%. Let's hope that the corporate cultures mix better than orange and magenta.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

LG GD910 gets UK pricing, arrives August 27

by Vladislav Savov posted Aug 20th 2009 at 7:55AM

Orange, the exclusive UK carrier for the eagerly anticipated GD910 watch / wrist / just plain cool phone, has this morning announced the date, cost and location of availability. After plenty of talk of meteoric prices, it turns out the GD910 will be even cheaper than we thought, coming in at £500 ($825) on Orange's Pay As You Go service, meaning no contract tie-ins to worry about. Limited time availability and only one device per customer don't suggest an overwhelming amount of stock -- or that the price will hold -- so if you must jump on the cool train, the place to be is the Orange shop at Bond Street Station, London, 9am sharp. If you really can't make it, there will be another limited batch of handsets to be had via the Orange online shop at some point in September -- and we've snagged a video for you as well, just past the break.

[Via Slashgear]

Gallery: LG GD910 gets UK pricing, arrives August 27

Continue reading LG GD910 gets UK pricing, arrives August 27

LG's GD910 watchphone cheaper than expected, still worth more than your Dick Tracy collection

by Tim Stevens posted Aug 7th 2009 at 7:44AM

We've been tracking LG's G910 pretty closely since it was announced late last year, because as you can clearly see it's a videophone in a watch and if that concept doesn't get your gadget senses tingling you're probably dead inside. But, we were somewhat afraid when early reports indicated that the couture-phone's exclusive partner in Europe, Orange, was going to be engaging in a bit of price gouging, selling the thing at a whopping £1,000 / €1,144 (about $1,500 at the time -- now well over $1,600 thanks to our flimsy currency). The official price has finally been confirmed, and it's an ever so slightly more palatable figure of €899 ($1,290) when signing up for a 12 or 24 month contract. That's still too rich for our blood, or wrists, but hopefully you fabulously wealthy commenters will give us some real-world impressions free of marketing inanity.

LG GD910 used for cringe-worthy demo video call

by Vladislav Savov posted Jul 28th 2009 at 11:14AM

The LG wristphone has already experienced quite a bit of exposure ahead of its August UK release, but the diligent team at Orange just couldn't leave us without some extra titillation in the shape of a demo video. If you'll excuse the marketing inanity from the two reps, there's a pretty good exhibition of the GD910's video chat capabilities to be seen. Disappointingly, the audio sounds somewhat tinny, there was one glitch in the video stream, and a particularly uncharitable conclusion might be that LG is bringing 90s-era webcam technology to your 21st century wrist. Of course, this is still the phone to use for playing out latent James Bond fantasies, so we're willing to overlook a few foibles if LG is willing to price this device at a point somewhere south of "stratospheric." Mosey on past the break to see the long-awaited hand-mounted communicator in action.

[Via Slashgear]

Continue reading LG GD910 used for cringe-worthy demo video call

HTC Hero on sale tomorrow at Orange UK

by Darren Murph posted Jul 21st 2009 at 3:02PM

We may have scored HTC's latest Android-infused device for a brief window of time, but if you're hoping to snag one for keeps, you'll need to jet over to the UK and sign away your cellular soul to Orange. Based on a brief but pointed tweet from a carrier representative, the HTC Hero will be "available from Orange UK retail stores [starting] tomorrow." The phone is already up on the operator's website in a delightful graphite hue, and the price of £0.00 on a pay monthly contract sure is luscious. So much for T-Mobile Germany getting a jump on everyone, huh?

[Via Twitter, thanks to everyone who sent this in]