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Free Skype WiFi hits Ireland and the UK through Wicoms, steps up the quality of public hotspots
Let's face it: many free WiFi hotspots are tacked on as bullet point items to get customers into a shop or hotel, without much concern for quality high enough that it keeps visitors coming back. Wicoms is hoping that a strategy to offer free Skype WiFi in Ireland and the UK will reverse that neglect. Instead of leaving stores to go through carrier partnerships or devise their own solutions, the partnership has stores pick up a £49 Wicoms router and commit to either a £10 ($16) monthly rate or prepaid brackets of £49 ($79) for six months and £95 ($153) for a year. The aim isn't just to provide a more consistent level of performance -- the Skype deal also provides a ready-made sign-in process, whether or not visitors have Skype accounts, as well as someone to turn to for help. While temptations exist to go with earlier alternatives, Skype and Wicoms are giving away the router during October to help sweeten the pot, even for those outlets that drop the Skype WiFi solution later on. Let's hope the hotspots work well enough on the public-facing side; we could all use a few more shelters from low data caps and oversaturated access points.
Visa lets iPhone-toting NatWest and RBS customers pay with NFC cases, join the future
Two can play at the UK-banks-with-NFC-payments game. RBS (and by extension, NatWest) is partnering with Visa Europe to roll out TouchPay, a mobile payment system based around an iCarte case for the iPhone 4 and 4S -- sorry, early iPhone 5 owners. In tandem with a native app, the service allows paying for goods at British shops by tapping the phone at a Visa-capable NFC terminal without needing the short-range wireless built-in. Any purchases under £20 ($32) can even skip the PIN code, if you're just in that much of a hurry to get a Pret À Manger sandwich. Only 1,000 of the 9,000 who pre-registered for TouchPay are getting into Visa's wallet-free initiative at this stage, although all NatWest and RBS customers with one of Apple's semi-recent smartphones can participate once a trial run is over. We're just wondering if and when Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 8 owners get in on the action.
Acer CloudMobile available in the UK at long last, is priced at £290
Acer's sleek CloudMobile smartphone was slated to launch on September 5th in the United Kingdom, but unexpected delays caused the handset to be MIA for nearly a month. Today, however, the first-class, 4.3-inch device looks to finally be ready for UK prime time -- and, unlike in some cases, here it's still running Android behind that 720p, IPS display and the 1.5GHz, dual-core CPU. The Acer CloudMobile's priced at £290 (about $470) SIM-free, and retailers such as the one linked below appear to be taking orders as we speak. Better late than never, right?
O2 to sell upcoming HTC smartphone without a wall charger, says it's part of a 'simple vision'
In what could be considered a relatively strange move, O2 has announced that an upcoming, unannounced HTC smartphone won't come with a wall charger inside the box. According to the Euro carrier, this idea is part of a "simple vision" in which it wants "to take chargers out of boxes full stop," adding that research has shown more than 70 percent of UK customers don't have the need for such charger as they already own one with the same compatibility. The soon-to-be HTC device will, however, include a USB to micro-USB cable, so not everything will be completely lost. Now O2 didn't give any fruitful details about which HTC handset it'll be using to kick off the program, but we'll let you know as soon as we find out.
Barnes & Noble Nook lands in Currys, PC World and Sainsbury's stores, furthers the UK conquest
Barnes & Noble must want no corner of Britain untouched by Nooks. Following its planned bookstore invasion, the American company is bringing both the Nook Simple Touch and its GlowLight cousin to Sainsbury's and Waitrose supermarkets, as well as Dixons Retail-owned chains Currys and PC World. When the e-readers arrive at the outlets' respective online and retail stores from early October onwards, they'll bring the Nook's reach to nearly 2,000 UK sales points -- not quite ubiquitous coverage, but more than double what we saw in our most recent check. About all that's left is to offer the Android tablets that have been conspicuously missing from Barnes & Noble's initial expansion strategy.
Mach inks carrier billing deal with Everything Everywhere, O2, Vodafone and Three in the UK
Not a month after Mach's last carrier billing deal, UK network providers Vodafone, Three, O2 and Everything Everywhere are getting in on the action. The company's direct billing solutions will initially allow the networks to charge app and online purchases straight to your bill, with in-app sales joining them at a later date. Don't expect this to be implemented immediately, however, as the agreement covers the back-end processing -- the individual carriers will be responsible for turning it on customer-side. They'll likely inform you when they hit the switch and your phone bill becomes a monthly surprise.
Acer Iconia Tab A110 comes to Europe this fall with Jelly Bean, £180 UK price
Acer missed its summer launch target for the Iconia Tab A110, but it's making amends for its timing. The 7-inch, quad-core tablet is now reaching Europe in the fall, but it's also carrying that rumored upgrade to Jelly Bean -- including the same mini-tablet interface that we know best from the A110's arch-rival, the Nexus 7. Hardware hasn't moved on since then, however, so you'll still have to cope with a lower 1,024 x 600 resolution and likely the same 8GB of storage, even with a 2-megapixel front camera offering a slight upgrade. That feature loadout may make the sales prospects difficult, at least in the UK: Brits will have to pay £180 ($292) versus the £159 ($258) Nexus 7. Let's hope that any US plans involve a price slash.
Uros' Goodspeed hotspot packs 10 SIM cards, says roaming is for chumps (update: fee differences)
Snagging international data service usually involves either special agreements or steep roaming costs. Not Uros and its new Goodspeed hotspot. The pocketable, 21Mbps HSPA+ router carries a staggering 10 SIM cards and simply uses a local SIM for whichever destination country you visit. The brute force strategy helps Uros offer a relatively low flat rate for 1GB of data per day, no matter where you are on the coverage map: while the Goodspeed itself costs €273 ($352), Uros asks just €5.90 ($8) a day for occasional visits and €9.90 ($13) a month for frequent fliers. It's a very sizable bargain for the jetset, even with a current scope limited to Finland, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the UK. A number of "important" countries are due before Christmas, which could make Uros' hotspot a go-to choice for those who just can't stay settled in one place. [Thanks, Antti] Update: Uros has gotten in touch with us to clarify the pricing beyond what we've seen so far. The €9.90 fee covers account details and doesn't "yet" reflect data -- you'll still need to pay €5.90 per day . There's also a chance the rate could go up in future countries, although all the existing countries abide by that rate.
Nintendo Wii U now available to pre-order in the UK from Amazon
People here in the US of A have been able to pre-order Nintendo's latest gaming console since shortly after the Japanese company wrapped up its NYC event yesterday, and now it's time for UK folks to do the same -- at least through Amazon. The online retail giant's now offering both the Basic and Premium units on its site for £249 and £299, respectively, or there is also a top-of-the-line bundle which includes ZombieU that's priced at £329. Regardless of the Wii U route you choose to take, be sure to mark November 30th on your calendar as the date to expect that trademark brown box to show up at your doorstep.
Ergo Electronics outs trio of budget-friendly GoTab GTi slates in the UK
It would appear that a handful of tablet manufacturers want to take a piece of Apple's marketshare pie by tempting consumers with low-priced slabs. And, well, such is the case with small UK company Ergo Electronics. The Euro outfit recently introduced a trifecta of relatively economical GoTab GTi tablets; two of which come pre-loaded with Ice Cream Sandwich and one with Google's 4.1 treat. For starters, the top-of-the-line, Jelly Bean-loaded GTi97 boasts a 9.7-inch, IPS display alongside a dual-core, 1.6GHz RK3066 CPU and 1GB of RAM. Meanwhile, the GTi8 (8-inch) and GTi7 (7-inch) are both designed to be "super portable and lightweight," though the GTi8 packs a heavier punch thanks to a "high resolution" 160 ppi screen, same amount of RAM as its GTi97 cousin and a single-core, 1.2GHz CPU. Ergo Electronics is pricing these starting at £79 (around $128), with availability expected to be later this holiday season across the United Kingdom.
Everything Everywhere, Explained: the UK gets LTE
Following the recent regulatory approval, UK telecoms operator Everything Everywhere today announced its new LTE service under the new EE brand name. The network is currently running in engineer testing mode in four cities (Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff and London). With few users to congest the network, EE are demonstrating speeds of as much as 35 Mbps downstream and 21 Mbps upstream, about five times faster than existing 3G services can manage on a really good day. With a tail wind. Downhill. Before the end of the year, the company is promising a further 12 cities will be live -- Belfast, Derby, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and Southampton. In all, as many as 20 million people could be sending their "Happy New Year!" messages through EE this year. Which would almost certainly collapse the new-born network, of course, but let's not rain on its parade just yet. Initial devices that will go on sale "in the coming weeks" include the Samsung Galaxy S III, the HTC One XL, a couple from Huawei, the Nokia 820, and an exclusive on Nokia's not-actually-out-yet Lumia 920. There's also going to be Mifi-style devices and USB dongles, to get older devices online through the new network. EE also teased that "more devices will be announced shortly"; I wonder what hot new LTE enabled device it could be hinting at? EE will also offer fibre home broadband; it promised to cover 11 million households initally, but didn't share any details about where this would be. It hasn't shared any information about tariffs yet, but I wouldn't imagine either LTE or fibre service is going to be cheap. The company isn't offering pay-as-you-go plans and is advising that existing Orange or T-Mobile customers moving to LTE will need to "agree to a new minimum term on EE." Everything Everywhere was formed back in 2010 as a holding company following the merger of two existing cellular operators, Orange and T-Mobile. Slightly confusingly, the announcements today form a new customer-facing brand, EE, which will sell only high speed services: LTE cellular and fibre optic home connectivity. The existing T-Mobile and Orange brands will remain in place for the time being. Customers moving from 3G to 4G service will upgrade from the older brands onto the EE infrastructure. Ofcom's recent decision to approve EE's existing 1800 MHz spectrum for LTE use has effectively handed EE a monopoly on 4G cellular networking within the UK for the time being; everyone else has to wait for a spectrum auction later this year before they can begin constructing networks for rollouts expected in 2013. This first-mover advantage could prove to be a huge competitive edge for EE, particularly if the iPhone 5 turns out to be, as widely expected, A) LTE capable and B) more popular then puppies and kittens combined. That would position EE as the de facto best network for the iPhone 5. EE's competitors aren't at all happy about this situation; Vodafone said that "(Ofcom) has shown a careless disregard for the best interests of consumers, businesses and the wider economy through its refusal to properly regard the competitive distortion created by allowing one operator to run services before the ground has been laid for a fully competitive 4G market." EE is accepting pre-release signups now via its website.
Amazon's Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD arriving in the UK October 25th, starting at £129
In case you haven't heard, Amazon happily took the wraps off of its new Kindle Fire lineup during today's earlier event in Santa Monica, California. And, for those living in the UK, you, too, can have the online retail giant take your money for one of these slates pretty soon -- well, at least for a couple of the fresh models. As far as pricing goes, the entry-level Kindle Fire will cost a mere £129 (around $205), while the 7-inch Fire HD takes on the slightly heftier price of £159 and £199 for the 16 and 32GB, respectively. Obviously, this leaves out that 8.9-incher Fire HD, though it looks like Amazon's only bringing the smaller Fires to the United Kingdom, as there's no mention of the company's larger tablet anywhere on the site. Still, folks looking to pre-order can do so now at the source link below, but better hurry, since Amazon does note they're all being fulfilled on a "first come, first served" basis.
Virgin Media unveils quartet of new SIM Only plans for data-focused Brits
It was only in June that we saw Virgin Media shaking up its regular mobile plans for UK residents. The carrier is back for another round, this time to serve the SIM Only customers who thrive on unlocked phones. Four plans starting from £12 ($19) a month all provide unlimited data and text messaging for bring-your-own-phone subscribers, with voice as the only real separating factor: the thriftiest callers get 150 minutes per month, while higher £15, £17 and £25 ($24, $27 and $40) tiers ramp up to a respective 250, 1,200 and 2,500 minutes for chattier customers. The chief gotcha is a lack of bundled landline calling for all but the priciest plan, although existing Virgin Media subscribers can knock an extra £5 off of that rate. If you're the sort who can't bear the thought of a contract, Virgin now has you better covered.
Flash for Android briefly returns to Google Play Store in UK, zombie-style
Adobe was last seen burying mobile Flash and moving on with its life. Like the stars of George Romero movies, however, Flash is back to walk amongst the living -- if just temporarily. The developer tells the BBC that Flash for Android is back in the UK's Google Play Store for a short while after "strategic partners" pushed it into action, including the British broadcaster. While the link isn't explicitly confirmed, it's strongly implied that the BBC and others want a little more time to wean Android apps like iPlayer off of their Flash dependency and toward web technologies like HTML5. Adobe is quashing any hopes of a permanent revival with a disclaimer that there's no support for the download; any bugs will remain there forever. Those attached to their dearly departed plugin may still appreciate one last look before the code is once more put six feet under. [Thanks, Kevin]
Google Maps for Android adds turn-by-turn biking navigation, helps pedal-pushers in 10 more countries
Google's cycling directions have been slowly expanding their reach to the mobile world and other countries, but the only option for navigation so far has been to memorize the route. As of today, you won't have to stop every five minutes to get your bearings. Google Maps for Android has received a low-key update that adds spoken, turn-by-turn Google Maps Navigation for riders in every country where biking directions exist -- if you can clamp your phone to your handlebars, you can find your way. Many more riders are just seeing mobile support of any kind in the process. Both navigation and regular directions should now be live in the Android app for 10 more countries, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Cyclists just need to swing by Google Play to keep their two-wheeled adventures on track.
Sky Sports TV app for Android now available, brings live events to the UK and Ireland
Not to be outdone by The Worldwide Leader in Sports, Sky's just released its own application to keep football enthusiasts entertained while on the go -- at least Premier League fans using Android slabs. Unlike the ESPN app, however, Sky Sports is charging £5 (around $8) per month for its offering, though it will -- with the help of ESPN, no less -- stream over 100 EPL matches live, so you're not limited to only highlights and previews. That being said, Sky Sports TV also lets UK and Ireland folks watch other sporting events, including F1 races, PGA Golf and tennis events like the US Open. The bad news is the app currently doesn't support Jelly Bean-loaded devices, which, for now, will most likely only affect a tiny section of Mountain View's user base -- if that's not you, though, the link to download is down below.
Acer CloudMobile now available for pre-order in the UK, expected to be released on September 5th
Acer took the gadget world by surprise with its award-winning CloudMobile handset, and now it looks like the company's finally ready to let consumers get their eager palms on that 4.3-inch, 720p slab. Per online retailer Expansys, Acer's CloudMobile will be released in the United Kingdom on September 5th, with the site already taking pre-orders for the SIM-free smartphone at £285 -- or about $447 in Yankee currency. Speaking of which, Expansys' also taking early orders for the unlocked device on its US site, though it's not listing a specific release date or even pricing info on that front. At any rate, parties interested can check out our hands-on, and see if it's enough to get you to shell out some cash.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 hits the UK on August 22nd, starts at £300 for WiFi-only model
It's 'bout time, right? Having been up for grabs here in the US since way back in May, it's now looking like Sammy's second-gen Tab 10.1 is finally ready to make its official retail debut across the pond. According to Carphone Warehouse, the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1's "expected" to be in stock as early as next week -- or, August 22nd to be exact -- in the United Kingdom, with the base 16GB, WiFi-only flavor set to be priced at a mere £300, while £100 more gets you the model that's also sporting 3G connectivity. Better yet, the retailer's taking pre-orders as we speak, so click on either of the source links below and choose the Tab 2 10.1 variant best suited for your slate needs.
Apple may become the new sponsor of the UK's Orange Prize for Fiction
The Orange Prize for Fiction is a prestigious literary award in the UK that goes to one outstanding female writer every year. Until this past May the award, officially called the Women's Prize for Fiction, has been sponsored by UK telecoms provider Orange. However, after T-Mobile's merger with Orange earlier this year, the company decided to drop its sponsorship of the prize. Now, according to The Sunday Telegraph, Apple is looking to take over sponsorship of the literary award. The Telegraph story points out that UK sponsorship by Apple is a rare thing. The Cupertino company has only lent its "iTunes" name to a music festival and an iTV2 music show. But the paper speculates that Apple's presumed interest in the literary prize is to drum up more interest in reading ebooks from its iBookstore. In fact, instead of just switching fruit names from Orange to Apple, should it win the sponsorship, Apple might forgo the "Apple Prize for Fiction" name all together and could presumably call it the "iBooks Prize for Fiction." The company could then also promote the prize through the iBookstore. The Sunday Telegraph doesn't provide many more details besides their sources confirming that "Apple has had talks with the award organisers" and that also "a number of companies, including Kobo, the ebook producer, had also indicated their interest but that discussions with Apple were the most advanced." The Orange Prize for Fiction originated in 1996. You can see a full list of winners here.
T-Mobile UK confirms unlimited tethering won't be available to new Full Monty customers
Well, well, so much for being "truly unlimited," right? As TechRadar adequately reports, T-Mobile UK's confirmed that any new customer looking to snag the Full Monty data plan won't be offered an unlimited tethering feature on their all-you-can-have bundle. Effective immediately, the change is a sudden move from the carrier and it wasn't quite clear as to what made it backpedal on its initial "unlimited" promise, only saying, "From 8th August, tethering is not permitted for new customers under the terms and conditions of the Full Monty." Surely this is a small blow to UKers hoping to grab the Full Monty for the all-out tethering alone -- but hey, at least you've still got the data, texts and calls.
