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Samsung Galaxy Pro combines 2.8-inch touchscreen with a portrait QWERTY keyboard, modest specs
Samsung has just taken the veils off yet another Android handset in its rapidly expanding portfolio, this one targeting those BlackBerry-addicted portrait QWERTY keyboard lovers. The Galaxy Pro squeezes a four-row button array beneath a set of Android keys and a 2.8-inch touchscreen, while its insides are filled with an 800MHz processor of an unspecified variety and a 3 megapixel cam with autofocus skills. UK carrier Three has already confirmed it'll be offering this Froyo handset -- via an unlisted YouTube video we've embedded for you after the break -- and others should soon be coming out with their own announcements and, eventually, pricing. Update: Samsung has sent along its official press release and a full spec sheet. See them after the break. [Thanks, GeForce]
Dear Aunt TUAW: Is Ireland's 3 carrier blocking Cydia?
Dear Aunt TUAW, It looks like 3 Ireland, the one of the Irish iPhone carriers, has blocked Cydia's servers from their network. I'm experiencing errors refreshing data from apt.saurik.com and can't get Cydia to work at all. Can you suggest a work-around for those of us on 3? Help a jailbroken Irish iPhone user out! Love, Your Irish Nephew Stevie-boy Dear Stevie-boy, Auntie is happy to report that the Irish Cydia Blackout of 2010 was, in fact, a mistake. 3 spokesperson Chris Jones told TUAW that Cydia was blocked in error. Jones stated that 3 uses third-party company Bluecoat to filter their internet connection for adult content and other objectionable material. "Cydia has been caught in this filter in error," he told TUAW, "and we are working to resolve this." The Irish Times tech team got the same explanation. Auntie doesn't have a specific time as to when 3 will resolve the issue, but is happy to report that 3 is working on the problem. Love & kissies, Auntie T.
UK and French carriers working on cellular coverage for Channel Tunnel, aim to finish by 2012 Olympics
If you live in a technophile city like Taipei, you'll have been enjoying underground 4G for a long time now, but in London the rule is that you have to bid adieu to your mobile connectivity when diving into a tunnel. The city's Mayor has been active in encouraging (forcing?) the major British carriers to install the necessary equipment to provide coverage on the Tube, and now we're hearing that ambition has stretched beyond the nation's borders as well. The Daily Telegraph reports that Vodafone, O2, Everything Everywhere, and Three from the UK along with Orange, SFR and Bouygues from France have agreed to share the cost of putting together a £20 million ($30.8m) project for making cellular coverage possible while traveling through the 31.4-mile Channel Tunnel between the two countries. The goal is to get things up and running by the Olympics in 2012, though we've no indication as to what speeds those wireless data transfers will reach. Still, having some bars is better than none, right?
Three's The One Plan serves up all-you-can-eat data in the UK
Unlimited data. No, for real this time. While US carriers are tripping over each other to claim the death of uncapped data allowances, the UK's 3G-only network operator is bringing them back like a pair of retro sneakers. Three's grandly titled The One Plan takes all limits and fair usage gotchas away and just lets you suckle bandwidth to your heart's content. And that explicitly includes tethering your phone to your laptop and using it as a 3G modem -- very classy. New and old customers will benefit from this, meaning that if you're already on this plan you're in line for a free upgrade. The offer's effective now and contracts start at £25 a month with a minimum term of one year. We'll be highly impressed if Three's network, never mind this deal, survives a full year of being bashed over the head by iPlayer streams and YouTube uploads, but here's hoping, eh?
UK telecoms Three, Orange and T-Mobile launch subsidized iPad plans
Following up on the announcement made a few weeks ago, UK telecom providers Three, Orange and T-Mobile formally launched their iPad subsidies today. Those of us in the United States are used to having our cellphone prices subsidized by signing contracts, but so far we don't have anyone subsidizing our iPad purchases as well. The discount plan offers shoppers who enter a two-year service contract money off the price of a new iPad, bringing the price of the 16GB with Wi-Fi + 3G unit down to £199 (plus VAT - Edited: VAT is included thanks @ crisss1205) or the equivalent of US $313 -- a steep discount from the normal price of $629.00 in the U.S.. While the price of the iPad is the same for each provider after the subsidy, each offers their own monthly plan and cost: Three offers 15GB of data per month for £25/month (US $39), with no Wi-Fi coverage included. Orange offers 1GB of data at peak times and 1GB between midnight and 4pm for between £25 and £27. This includes 3GB of Wi-Fi usage using BT Openzone. T-Mobile offers the same data limits as Orange but without any Wi-Fi coverage for between £25 and £27. Three is definitely offering the best plan for users, especially when compared to the caps that AT&T has in place on their 3G plans at 50MB/month for $14.99 or 2GB/month for $25. Granted there are no contracts in place with AT&T, but iPad buyers in the UK who don't mind signing a contract are seemingly getting a pretty good deal with these new subsidies. Of course, if you were willing to move to Japan you could get an iPad 3G for free after signing a contract, but it would probably be more cost-effective to stay right where you are and pay full price near home.
Caption contest: publicity stunt generating publicity
We do hate to play into wily PR folks' attention-grabbing campaigns, but when they're quite so nutty, we can't help but admire them. UK network Three is trying to promote its hotspots (we think) by having dudes wearing full-body underwear running around with "Human Hotspot" signs and what looks like part of the Engadget logo throughout London. We don't get it, but we do love it. Thomas: "I can look up your WEP." Vlad: "Please note, dressing up as a Trojan won't protect you from actual trojans." Nilay: "Touch my junk and I'll have you arrested." Darren: "I'm probably working... even if the tube drivers aren't." Richard Lai: "My SSID is quite well hidden, if I may say so." Carlos: "I'm hot... or not?" Tim: "I knew that Fantastic Four movie was a bad career move. Time for a new agent." Ross: "Ask about where I keep my SIM card." Myriam: "Spot the hotness." Sam: "The Blue Man Group member that never was." Josh T.: "Due to his drug habit and carousing, the Invisible Man had been forced into a number of demeaning jobs."
UK carriers say 'thanks but no thanks' to the Palm Pre 2
Although the Palm Pre 2 -- the first device to sport WebOS 2.0 -- is set to go on sale in the United Kingdom sans SIM for £399 (that's roughly $645) on November 12th, it looks like a lot of the major carriers will not be carrying the device. Pocket-lint personally contacted Orange, Vodafone, Three and O2 (a company which carried the Pre, Pre Plus, Pixi and Pixi Plus) and all had essentially the same thing to say: there are no plans to carry the device at this time. This isn't great news for Palm lovers across the way, and it's certainly not making anyone at the newly merged HP / Palm happy. Of course, none of the statements save O2's are definitive, so we'll keep our eyes peeled for any changes. We can always hope.
UK carrier's roadmap points to October 21 release for Windows Phone 7, over 2,000 apps at launch
The whole world and his neighbor's dog may already know when Windows Phone 7 will be announced, but when are the actual phones going to hit actual shelves? If you're in the US, that time still looks to be a month away, but the UK release window has just been narrowed down from late October to a single, albeit still speculative, date: October 21. Our tipster forwards the above snapshot from a Three UK document showing a "Windows 7Phone" nestled in between the BlackBerry Torch and Samsung Europa. Its Super AMOLED display tells us we're definitely looking at a Samsung handset, while the 4-inch diagonal suggests it'll be the Cetus (SGH-i916/7). This sheet of revelation also finally gives us a hint as to the number of apps WP7 will start off with, enumerating them at "over 2,000 at launch." We don't know why Microsoft's been so shy about that number -- 2,000 good apps are more than enough.
Windows Phone 7 confirmed for all five major UK mobile operators
This will hardly be the most surprising thing you'll hear today, but Microsoft has officially confirmed that all five major operators in the United Kingdom -- Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile, Orange, and Three -- have signed up to offer its Windows Phone 7 handsets when they make their long-awaited debut in the coming weeks. Additionally, the Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U will also be stocking WP7 devices.
ZTE Racer review
In a battlefield now abundant with Android handsets, there's only one easy way for a young smartphone brand to grab our attention: make a seriously dirt cheap handset. And we're not just talking about a free phone chained to a pricey 18-month contract (like the Vodafone 845); we're looking for a Pay & Go smartphone tagged with a standalone dumbphone price, so even the £200+ ($316+) "budget" HTC Wildfire and Sony Ericsson X10 Mini / Mini Pro are out of the question. This is where Three UK's ZTE Racer comes in: priced at just £99.99 ($158) or for free on various contracts, this Android 2.1 handset has quite rightly stolen the paper crown from the 845. But don't let that price tag fool you -- this 14.5mm-thick device still comes with a fairly modern 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 chipset (as featured on the Aria and X10 Mini / Mini Pro), garnished with a 3.2 megapixel camera (sans flash), HSDPA 7.2Mbps connectivity, 2GB microSD card, FM radio, GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, and a Skype app for free Skype calls within the UK. There is just one caveat: you'll have to live with a 2.8-inch QVGA resistive touchscreen. So, is this an immediate deal-breaker? Can the other features make up for this flaw? Read on to find out.%Gallery-98528%
Three will carry iPhone 4 in the UK, O2 cuts off unlimited data
While American iPhone users are limited to a single carrier, the UK offers plenty of choice to customers. Three has announced that they will carry iPhone 4, with pre-orders beginning on June 15th. O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone were all confirmed on the 7th. Even poor math students will notice that UK iPhone customers now have five carriers to choose from. Of course, all of the UK's carriers are GSM. We only have two of those here in the States (AT&T and T-Mobile). Three is the first to announce a pre-order date (the same as in the US) and, as Engadget notes, typically undercut the competition when it comes to price. It all adds up to a bevy of choice -- and a potential price war -- for UK customers. In another adjustment, O2 just announced a new pricing model, citing "clarity" and "sustainability" as key advantages. It's caught the attention of our UK readers (thanks everyone!) as it removes the unlimited option for data usage, much as AT&T did last week. The top plan now maxes out at 1GB of data, with buy-up options for 500MB or 1 GB coming in the fall. Of course, like AT&T, O2 is framing these changes as optimizations to the real data needs of its customers. As of now, the lowest O2 bundle (500MB) provides at least 2.5 times what the 'average O2 smartphone customer' uses. In fact, O2 claims 97% of their smartphone customers won't need to buy additional data allowances under the new arrangement. "With the wide range of Internet based services now available on mobile devices we're providing customers with generous clear data bundles that give customers freedom," said O2's CEO Ronan Dunne in the company's press release. We're not sure what was so opaque and ungenerous about "unlimited data." In June, O2 will introduce three inclusive data bundles for new and upgrading smartphone customers. You'll find their latest information here. Have fun on release day, folks, and may the best provider (for you) win your business.
iPhone 4 coming to Three UK, pre-orders starting June 15
And just like that, the UK has turned into a veritable treasure trove of carrier choice. Three has just announced that it too will be carrying Apple's latest iPhone starting from June 24, expanding on the options to be provided by O2, Orange, Vodafone and, most recently, T-Mobile. That's now the complete set of five UK networks all ready to take your name and credit card number on launch day, while Three is also the first to announce its pre-order start date -- which it places at June 15, the same time that Americans will be able to pre-order. Three's strategy in the UK has usually been to undercut the big dogs with alluring pricing, so next week should be a very interesting time for British iPhone lovers indeed. [Thanks, Yusuf]
Huawei E5830 MiFi / i-Mo gets free unlock tool, parties outside the USA
Nope, this isn't the MiFi that you guys are familiar with in the States; everyone else -- mainly 3 / Hutchison customers -- are given this cute-looking Huawei E5830 HSPA modem instead. If you want to join this exotic MiFi party but would rather boogie with a different carrier, then fear not, as ex-iPhone hacker Zibri's just released a free unlock tool. Sadly, it's a bit of a hunting game -- plug in your MiFi (with its preloaded SIM card inside) into a Windows machine, launch the program, find Zibri's blog post that matches the random date picked by the program, type in the title and you'll get the unlock button. Of course, using this hack may invalidate your warranty, so proceed with caution.
Hutchison Austria to offer discounted iPad with 2-year contract for i-Mo 3G modem
Coveting an iPad, but not willing to pay full price? If you happen to live in Austria and don't mind committing to a two-year data contract, Hutchison's got you covered. The carrier's offering a 333 Euro (approximately US $455) discount if you sign up for a 29.90 Euro, 5GB monthly data contract. Sounds great, but frankly we still don't know how much it's gonna cost outside of the US -- the foreign sites still list American prices, as far as we can tell. The other catch is that instead of offering the integrated 3G version, you're getting a Huawei i-Mo 3G modem to create a personal WiFi cloud with the iPad. Elegant? Not really, but it's still quite the deal (short-term, at any rate). No indication when Apple's device will hit Austria, but we gotta imagine they wouldn't set up such an offer without a short-term plan.
Samsung NC10 being offered by UK carriers, Vodafone's pricing surprisingly good
Laptops bundled with mobile telephony contracts rarely arouse our penny-pinching passions, but UK carriers are getting pretty aggressive with pricing for the Samsung NC10. Vodafone takes the lead by offering the extraordinarily well-reviewed netbook for free with a £25 ($40) monthly tariff over two years, which makes for a total contract cost of £600 ($972), or just over twice the retail price of the device -- that, dear friends, is a good deal. Packages from the other carriers are similarly stonking, coalescing around the £30 ($48) per month mark, with Three standing out by asking for only an 18-month commitment. We'd prefer even shorter contracts, but can't quibble too much with the value on offer.Read - O2 (£29.38/month for 24 months, 3GB limit)Read - Three (£30/month for 18 months, 5GB limit)Read - T-Mobile (£30/month for 24 months, 5GB limit) Read - Vodafone (£25/month for 24 months, 1GB limit)
RoBe:Do's newest 'just add netbook' robot kit for sale
Looks like the RoBe:Do gang, who recently blew our minds (well, filled our tummies) with their Twitteriffic Popcorn Poppin' Bot, are back on the scene with another one of those modular robot chassis designed for those of you looking to get into the robot game with nothing more than a spare netbook, some serious programming chops, and a few hundred bucks burning a hole in your pocket. The newest creature, named "Three," features a simplified design, faster motors, and a larger base for those six-plus-pound laptops of yours. Just dig into the supplied high level software libraries and code yourself a robot! And if you're feeling frisky, check out the various options -- including infrared sensor and webcam. Order now and it's yours for $399, or hold off until July 1st and pay the full $439. Peep the gallery below for a closer look.%Gallery-65852%[Via SlashGear]
3 UK promises free mobile Skype calls until the end of time
While most carriers are having quite a tift about Skype intruding on their territory, UK-based 3 is letting customers use unlimited Skype-to-Skype calls and messages without any extra fees. The new rules start May 1st for any compatible 3 headset, and later this summer it'll expand to every 3G phone on the network. The company says it sees the initiative as a win to everyone, not just the customers, as the hope is it'll lessen calls to people on other networks, which carries a hefty Mobile Termination Rate fee. Whatever the reasons, we're just happy to see at least one company embracing the VoIP service. We (and Nokia) can only hope this move is somehow contagious.[Via GigaOM]
Mass Effect, Too Human devs justify their trilogies
Dear developer, does your game need to be a trilogy? MTV's Multiplayer blog decided to make two developers -- Too Human's Denis Dyack and Mass Effect's Ray Muzyka -- justify their trilogy ambitions. Dyack responds that their three-part epic is already mapped out, story-wise, and that each iteration has a specific theme: discovery, revenge and enlightenment, respectively.As for Mass Effect, BioWare co-founder Muzyka was more vague in his reasoning, citing how "great science fiction arcs often occur in trilogies" and that they allow for a different pacing. The feeling we get is that BioWare isn't as interested in the story aspect so much as it is in the building of a virtual world, akin to what Will Wright discussed at this year's GDC.
Rumor: Smash Bros and Metroid Prime press conference coming soon?
The clues are beginning to come together: there's a countdown on the official site of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and some rumblings of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption news coming around May 20th. In this month once reserved for the mighty E3, it's been quite some time since Nintendo has held a major press conference. Finally, good 'ol Matt has made it perfectly clear in a recent IGN Mailbag: he's on his way to Seattle next week for some mysterious reason, and it's not for Starbucks.About freakin' time, Nintendo. For a company still claiming that the big three will release in 2007, they've been awfully tight-lipped about the impending trio. We look forward to bringing you some surely awesome news coming next week ... uh, you know, assuming that this actually happens.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI Wii-ward
Must ... resist ... urge to use "Thwii" pun ...Now that we've sufficiently girded, here's the news: the PS2 Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI is getting an enhanced port on the Wii, to be released in Japan on March 21st with the enhanced title Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI with Power-Up Kit. Along with the obvious Wiimote functionality, the game will be getting some new gameplay modes and scenarios.After trying to figure out the first NES Romance, we swore the series off forever. Kudos to those of you who managed to play these things.[Via GAME Watch]
