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Orange to start UK iPhone sales on November 10
Update: Orange has announced pricing for the iPhone, in a dizzying matrix of subscription & pay-as-you-go plans (Monkey, Dolphin, Canary, Racoon & Camel? Really?) matched with varying purchase costs. All plans include free unlimited WiFi access; wireless data is 250MB/mo on the PAYG plans and 'unlimited' (meaning 750MB/mo) on the subscription plans. Tethering is only available on the subscription plans. The wait for a new carrier for the iPhone in the UK appears to be nearly over. The Times Online out of the UK says Orange will add Apple's thrice-super phone to its stable on November 10, one day after O2's exclusivity for the device ends. Orange announced in late September that it would be carrying the iPhone, though it only said then that it would have the phone later in the year. At least 200,000 people may want to circle the date on their calendars, since at least that many have reportedly pre-registered to buy the phone on the new carrier, despite not knowing how much the phone will cost nor how much the monthly plans will run them. November 10 may be a bittersweet day for Vodafone. While it has announced its own deal to sell the iPhone in the UK starting in 2010, pent up demand from people who want the device but don't want O2 as a carrier may be lost to the new Orange option. Vodafone reports interim results on November 10, though it'll likely face as many questions about the phone it doesn't yet have as it will about its own numbers. O2 will still carry the iPhone, though it's also got its mind on the Palm Pre, which it began offering as a UK-exclusive last week. [via TimesOnline]
Times Online examines WoW's zombies and the connection to real life
Forget Fox News -- the Times Online has an analysis up of Blizzard's zombies event, and their main point seems to be that you can't compare a plague outbreak in the World of Warcraft to one in real life. Risk is what defines real outbreaks, and since there was really no risk in whether you became a zombie or not, players didn't necessarily act as they would in the real world. Some players even willingly submitted to infection, which of course presumably wouldn't happen with a real widespread fatal disease.But there are parallels to be drawn, and professors say that the zombie plague worked a little closer to real life than Hakkar's corrupted blood did (no coincidence, I'm sure, that the zombie plague was designed to be spread, while the Corrupted Blood was basically a bug). While the plague never did really infect everyone in the world, it did spread pretty quickly -- apparently there's a number you can use to track how quickly a disease spreads, and the zombie plague landed in the arena of a normal outbreak of smallpox (given, of course, that we don't know exactly how fast or how widely it spread).Very interesting. There is still more to say about this plague, I think (and though things have slowed down on the realms, hopefully the event itself isn't completely over). But it is fascinating how Blizzard turned emergent gameplay into an official event, and how they mimicked the real-life qualities of a spreading disease (the more of it around, the more likely you were to pick it up) while still leaving the idea firmly grounded in the in-game lore. Very cool indeed.
U.K. Times covers BlizzCon
One of the Technology writers, Murad Ahmed, from the U.K. Times went to BlizzCon this past week and apparently had a pretty good time. I'm positive he doesn't actually play the game, and he admits to being a little lost, especially when it comes to the frenetic action of the professional arena tournament (although, truthfully, I often have a hard time following it too). But he did seem to hit upon the major draw of the convention -- namely, getting to hang with your fellow gamers, and hopefully guildies if you're lucky, and enjoying a giant get-together where the person next to you is virtually certain to get a WoW-related joke. As a bonus, Mr. Ahmed got to interview James Taplin, one of our readers (BlizzCon attendees will know him as one of the people at the WoW Insider meet-up, and later the 3rd place winner in the /silly competition), who confirmed that the social aspect of both the game and convention are really the big attraction. I think it's precisely that aspect that has a tendency to be somewhat overlooked by the mainstream media (although let's face it; it's probably not something you'll pick up on unless you've played the game with people you genuinely like), but the Times also covered the WorldWide Invitational here, so they're no strangers to Blizzard events. While there's no information in the article that's really new, it's an interesting and generally positive perspective on the convention.Thanks to James and Rhys for writing in!
TimesOnline: Why you'll be paying a lot for iPhone 3G roaming
Remember when the first generation iPhone was released and people found themselves traveling overseas only to return to a large bill from AT&T? Well, TimesOnline is weighing in on the possible problems of data roaming and the iPhone 3G. As it turns out, 3G bandwidth is, shall we say, expensive. TimesOnline said O2's (Apple's iPhone carrier in the UK) 3G data roaming charges go up to almost £3 (~ $6 US) per megabyte when downloaded from a country within the EU; worldwide roaming is almost £6 (~ $12 US) per Mb.So, to put things into perspective, if you go overseas and download a 50MB file via your phone (such as audio or a short movie) then you will be spending over $600 US for that file. TUAW would like to take a moment and remind everyone about the Data Roaming Off switch in your settings. This can save you an expensive mistake (i.e. having to sell your kidney to pay your iPhone's roaming bill).[via MacRumors]
Cinemassively: Sunday Times conference on business in Second Life
Apparently a conference went on, and some very big companies attended. Put on by the PA Consulting Group and the Sunday Times Online, it was about the future of business in Second Life. I can't really tell if it was, in their words, the largest business conference in SL, but it did look well-attended.While these videos are certainly informative, they're also out of order on YouTube. Part One deals with an introduction to the series, an overview of virtual worlds, and talks a bit about Cisco. Part Two goes into detail about the sponsors of the conference. Part Three discusses video conferencing, business partnerships, and communication methods. Part Four wraps it up by talking about recruiting, confidentiality, and focus groups.
