Posts by ATM:
- Instant emergency notification
- Real time location detection
- Ability to request immediate assistance
Puma phone to launch in 19 countries
July 5th, 2010Looks like you're new here, subscribe to my RSS feed. if you want! Thanks for visiting!
Europe and Africa deals for intriguing sport-oriented touchscreen (Just not South Africa…)
France’s Sagem, which co-designed and manufactured the phone, confirmed it is to go on sale in Germany, UK, Italy, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Romania, Macedonia and Slovenia.
The African roll-out takes in operators in Uganda, Madagascar, Kenya, Mauritius, Cameroon, Botswana, Tunisia and Senegal.
The Puma phone was unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2010, and lauded for a design concept that combines sports lifestyle features and a cute user interface. It even has a solar charging component.
Thierry Buffenoir, CEO, Sagem Wireless, said: “This step into connected lifestyle devices and services is a strategic move for both PUMA and Sagem Wireless, which is reflected in the quality of our operator partners who are joining with us to deliver the PUMA Phone.”
The phone is also available SIM-free for around €399. (sourced from Mobile Entertainment)
Nokia and Yahoo! to bring integrated web services to millions of consumers around the world
May 25th, 2010Yahoo! and Nokia announced a worldwide strategic alliance to extend the reach of their industry leading online services and offer people rich experiences that keep them connected to their world and the world around them.
Building on more than five years of collaboration, Nokia and Yahoo! ® will leverage each others’ strengths in e-mail, instant messaging and maps and navigation services, to provide consumers with access to world-class experiences on both PC and mobile devices.
As part of the alliance:
- Nokia will be the exclusive, global provider of Yahoo!’s maps and navigation services, integrating Ovi Maps across Yahoo! properties, branded as “powered by Ovi.”
- Yahoo! will become the exclusive, global provider of Nokia’s Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat services branded as “Ovi Mail / Ovi Chat powered by Yahoo!”
- Nokia and Yahoo! plan to work on ID federation between their services, beginning by making it easy for people to use their Ovi user IDs across select Yahoo! properties to easily access the online content and services they need.
“Delivering great user experiences — both online and on your mobile – is what this alliance is all about,” said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO, Nokia. “We’re enabling millions of Yahoo! customers in key markets including North America to discover the unique capabilities that Ovi Maps brings. Similarly, Yahoo!’s online expertise will bring exciting mail and messaging enhancements to millions of Ovi Mail customers across almost every country around the world, many of whom will have their first Internet experience on their mobile.”
“What a combination,” said Carol Bartz, CEO, Yahoo!. “We’re excited to expand the reach of our best-in-class Mail and Messenger services, bringing personalized experiences to more people across the mobile web, particularly in emerging markets where we are seeding the next generation of Yahoo! users. At the same time, we believe Nokia’s strength and continued investment in maps and navigation will greatly enhance our existing products, enabling us to focus on areas that are core to our business.”
Together, Yahoo! and Nokia will continue to deliver compelling Internet experiences that address the core needs of consumers, developers, operators and advertisers. The companies will utilize their respective global distribution advantages and brand recognition across consumer audiences.
Select, co-branded service offerings are expected to become available from the second half of 2010, with global availability expected in 2011.
Nokia is the world’s largest mobile device manufacturer, with hundreds of millions of devices sold each year and a leader in digital mapping, with continuing investment and innovation focused on developing comprehensive digital mapping and navigation services, now covering 77 countries in 46 languages. With more than 600 million users of Yahoo!-branded sites per month, Yahoo! is a global Internet powerhouse, a one-stop web destination enabling consumers to enjoy their online life anywhere and everywhere – all customized for their interests. As one of the leading Internet brands, Yahoo! is focused on growing its audience by providing seamless web experiences across PC and mobile devices.
ShareFREE minutes for Vodacom Contract customers
April 13th, 2010
Vodacom has just released the following press release allowing Vodacom contract customers to either receive free weekend minutes or to choose a weekday evening – see below for full press release:
Vodacom is pleased to announce that it is giving its contract customers free weekend or weekday evening minutes from the 1st of May 2010.
Vodacom Contract customers will receive up to 3 hours free calls to use over weekends / weekday nights to call other Vodacom customers.
Most customers on Contract packages will now get a MORE MINUTES bundle to use during weekends or weekday nights (8:00pm-7:00am). The allocated FREE minutes are based on the Contract package the customer subscribes to and can be used to call other Vodacom customers.
“We are giving our customers more value without increasing their monthly subscription charges” says Shameel Joosub, Managing Director, Vodacom South Africa. “For Example – a customer who subscribes to a Talk 240 Contract package can choose to receive 60 free minutes to use over weekends or 30 free minutes to use during weekday evenings, to call other Vodacom customers – at no additional cost to them.”
The allocation of the monthly MORE MINUTES bundle will default to weekend minutes; however customers have the option to change their weekend minutes to weekday evening minutes, by calling 111, free from their Vodacom cellphone.
Vodacom has also reduced selected peak call rates and simplified out-of-bundle call rates on Contract packages, to include 2 rates that apply all day – one rate for calling Vodacom customers and another for calling customers on other networks.
From 1 May 2010, Contract customers will receive a MORE MINUTES bundle for FREE every month to call their family and friends on the Vodacom network. A MORE MINUTES bundle ranges from 20 FREE minutes to 180 FREE minutes per month – depending on the Contract package the customer subscribes to.
Customers can choose when they want to use their allocated FREE MORE MINUTES:
Option 1: Use over weekends, Saturday 00:00am to Sunday 11:59pm; or
Option 2: Use during weekday evening, Monday to Friday from 08:00pm to 06:59am.
Customers can call 111, free from a Vodacom cellphone, to change the default weekend minutes to weekday evening minutes.
Who will get a MORE MINUTES bundle?
All Contract customers, except for customers on Weekend Everyday, Weekend Everyday s, Weekend 500 and iPhone Weekend s Contract packages will receive a MORE MINUTES bundle. This means that customers who subscribe to Business Call, Business Call s, Talk 75 s, Talk 120 s, iPhone 120 s, Smart Talk 120 s, BlackBerry Talk 120 s, Talk 130, Talk 200 s, Talk 240, iPhone 240, BlackBerry Talk 240, Talk 350 s, Talk 500 s, iPhone 500 s, BlackBerry Talk 500 s and Talk 1000 s Contract packages, will each receive a MORE MINUTES bundle every month.
MTN slashes out-of-bundle data rates
March 25th, 2010Carrying on with the spirit of broadband price cuts this week MTN has to come to the party with some good deals on the out-of-bundle rates. See their press release below:
MTN South Africa has introduced time-based data packages and will be reducing its out-of-bundle data rates by up to 84% with effect from 28 March.
The South African broadband market is competitive with several companies offering different packages and deals to their customers. MTN is keeping these conditions through time-based packages. This will ensure that MTN customers experience the fastest speeds at the most competitive rates available that cater for their different browsing patterns at MTN South Africa.
Once activated, the new 1-Day Unlimited bundle lasts for 24 hours and is available at R50. A fair-use policy of 150MB will apply after which the connectivity will be throttled to 128Kbps for the remainder of the time.
To cater for people who want to manage their data usage over the course of a month, MTN is also launching a 90-minute data bundle at R25. The speed will be limited to 128Kbps and is valid for 30 days with an additional 30-day carry-over of unused minutes.
In addition to the new offerings, MTN is also significantly reducing out-of-bundle data rates. Data bundle subscribers will also now benefit from a flat-rate tariff meaning out-of-bundle rates will be the same as in-bundle rates.
MTN Extended Data and TopUp price plans:
| Price plan | Subscription (inc VAT) | Out-of-bundle rate (inc VAT) | |
| Old pricing | New pricing | ||
| Extended Data 40MB TopUp | R89 | R1.5 | R0.65 |
| Extended Data 150MB TopUp | R129 | R1.5 | R0.65 |
| Extended Data 350MB TopUp | R209 | R1.5 | R0.50 |
| Extended Data 500MB TopUp | R249 | R1.2 | R0.38 |
| Extended Data 1GB TopUp | R349 | R1.2 | R0.29 |
| Extended Data 2GB TopUp | R449 | R1.2 | R0.19 |
| Extended Data 3GB TopUp | R649 | R1.2 | R0.19 |
MTN Broadband Bolt-on Data Bundles:
| Bolt-on Bundles | Subscription (inc VAT) | Prepaid & TopUp | Postpaid | ||
| Out-of-bundle rate (inc VAT) per MB | Out-of-bundle rate (ex VAT) per MB | ||||
| Old | New | Old | New | ||
| 10MB | R10 | R2 | R1 | R1.75 | R0.88 |
| 100MB | R80 | R1.50 | R0.65 | R1.32 | R0.57 |
| 350MB | R169 | R1.50 | R0.50 | R1.32 | R0.44 |
| 500MB | R189 | R1.20 | R0.38 | R1.05 | R0.33 |
| 1GB | R289 | R1.20 | R0.29 | R1.05 | R0.25 |
| 2GB | R389 | R1.20 | R0.19 | R1.05 | R0.17 |
| 75MB (New) | R49 | N/A | R0.65 | N/A | N/A |
| 300MB (New) | R149 | N/A | R0.50 | N/A | N/A |
| 1-Day Unlimited (New) | R50 | N/A | R0.00 | N/A | N/A |
| 90 minutes (New) | R25 | N/A | R0.25/min | N/A | N/A |
HTC Hero wins best 2010 mobile handset
February 24th, 2010
I just received this press release from HTC as I was just discussing with Rafiq how good the HTC Hero is and also wondering when the HTC Legend is coming to South Africa – I’ll update you soon on when its arriving!
HTC Hero wins best 2010 mobile handset at Global Mobile Awards
Johannesburg, South Africa, 24 February 2010 HTC’s Hero handset has won the prestigious 2010 Best Mobile Handset prize at the15th annual Global Mobile Awards.
The GSMA announced the winners of the Global Mobile Awards at the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week.
“A remarkable 500 entries from across the global mobile ecosystem were submitted this year, all of an extremely high calibre, and the winners should be incredibly proud of their achievements,” said Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board, GSMA.
Quinton Leigh, MD of Leaf International Communications, the sole distributors of HTC in South Africa says, “It is magnificent to receive global mobile industry acknowledgement in the mobile handset category. It reinforces the positive feedback from our growing South African user base, who love the customisation and design of the handset.”
The Hero has been designed to optimise Web and multimedia content. It also features a unique Scenes function, allowing the user to switch between seven customisable screens, depending on the occasion, be it work or play.
“The award independently recognises HTC’s commitment to innovation and driving the growth and capabilities of smartphone technology,’’ says Peter Blantanis, HTC Brand Manager for South Africa. “The buzz in the office has been electric since the win of this coveted award and we look forward to bringing more exciting handsets to the South African public during 2010”.
Released in South Africa during September 2009, the HTC Hero handset combines the customisation of HTC Sense with the Android operating system to deliver an enhanced user experience.
“HTC Sense is a user interface that allows for a level of customisation never before experienced on a mobile phone. With the HTC Hero, you’re not getting a phone – you’re choosing a phone that gets you,” continues Leigh.
The HTC Hero handset is packaged with GPS, a digital compass, gravity sensor, 5 megapixel auto focus camera and 3.2 inch (8.1cm) HVGA display.
The Nokia E72
February 15th, 2010
Nokia just sent us this press release for the new and highly anticipated Nokia E72, I’m busy trying to get my hands on copy as I write this…
The highly-anticipated Nokia E72, a device tailor-made for business and personal messaging is now available in stores. The Nokia E72 is also compatible with Nokia’s Ovi Maps which can be easily downloaded for free from the Ovi Store at http://www.ovi.com/services/ – the service includes voice-guide turn-by-turn navigation for 76 countries in 46 languages and maps for 180 countries – all available for FREE to E72 users.
According to Patrick Henchie, product manager at Nokia South Africa, recent research has shown that people are spending an average of five full days per year, equivalent to a full work week, responding to emails. “Half of us (46 percent) choose email over voice or text to send and receive important information,” says Henchie, “The Nokia E72 was designed exactly with this kind of person in mind as it allows the owner to be more responsive and communicate how they want, whenever they want and wherever they are.”
The Nokia E72 builds on the formula from Nokia’s most successful full QWERTY keyboard device, the Nokia E71, and adds important new functionality such as desktop-like email and chat experiences. Morevoer, the latest version of Ovi Maps with A-GPS navigation and compass, an optical navi key and 5 megapixel camera are all packed into the sleek, beautifully-designed handset.
The Nokia E72 also comes with Nokia’s push consumer email service, Nokia Messaging, and now for the first time people can set up instant messaging (IM) directly from the homescreen, accessing communities such as Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk and Ovi Chat. Just like chatting via the desktop, people can respond to friends and colleagues across multiple communities in real-time.
The Nokia E72 can also accommodate multiple work and personal email accounts and with separate profiles for work and play, allows people to be flexible when it comes to choosing how, when, where and who to respond to. While work emails rank as the most important messages to receive, they are not necessarily the most urgent messages to respond to. According to Nokia’s research, half of respondents (49 percent) prioritise their partners ahead of their bosses or managers (29 percent), colleagues (23 percent) and even customers (31 percent).
Nokia releases Qt 4.6
December 1st, 2009Now easier than ever for developers to create great applications for Symbian, Maemo, and other platforms
Nokia today released Qt 4.6, the latest version of the cross-platform application and UI framework. Featuring new platform support, powerful new graphical capabilities and support for multi-touch and gestures, Qt 4.6 makes developing advanced applications and devices easier and more enjoyable.
“Qt 4.6 marks an exciting time for developers, regardless of their target form factor or platform,” said Sebastian Nyström, Vice President, Application Services and Frameworks at Nokia.
“Developers can easily create visually appealing and web-connected applications for desktops or devices, including targeting the hundreds of millions of Symbian and Maemo-based devices,”
“The community will enjoy using Qt’s intuitive programming interface to quickly create powerful, appealing applications.” Nyström added.
More platforms
Qt 4.6 includes support for the Symbian platform for the first time, and also adds Windows 7, Apple Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and the upcoming Maemo 6 to the list of Qt supported platforms. Also available is community support for real-time operating systems QNX and VxWorks. Support for Maemo 5 is also currently in development, with the second technology preview being released today.
Qt support for Symbian and Maemo creates the first opportunity for developers to target both of these platforms from the same codebase. Being able to share code across platforms means that the applications they create will reach the market faster and reach a broader audience of device users.
Also released today is a technology preview of new Qt APIs from the Qt Mobility project. These cross-platform APIs provide developers with functionality such as location for navigation-type devices, as well as messaging, contacts, and bearer management.
More eye candy
Qt 4.6 builds upon the graphical improvements of 4.5 and enhances them with the addition of new Animation Framework – including intuitive state machine functionality – plus new advanced graphics effects like opacity, drop shadows, glow, and filtering.
More fingers
One of the most exciting new features in Qt 4.6 is the ability to create multi-touch applications. New multi-touch and gesture based input methods such as flicking and kinetic scrolling make Qt 4.6 a powerful framework for creating dynamic, tactile ways for users to interact with applications and devices.
More horsepower
Qt 4.6 challenges the conventional development notion that advanced UI capabilities normally come with a significant performance cost. Extensive work has been done to deliver the best possible performance while enabling developers to deliver the “wow” effect that is demanded by users.
Key performance improvements come in the form of a highly optimized, re-written Qt GraphicsView rendering algorithm, a new OpenGL paint engine, WebKit, 2D vector graphic support using OpenVG, and new DirectFB support.
Updated tools
Complimenting the release of Qt 4.6 is an updated release of Qt Creator, a cross-platform IDE for Qt development. Qt Creator 1.3 and Qt 4.6 form the Qt SDK which contains everything developers need to create cross-platform applications.
To learn more about Qt 4.6, Qt Creator 1.3 and to download the packages, please visit http://qt.nokia.com/whatsnew.
Samsung Corby S3653
November 20th, 2009Samsung has just launched the much anticipated Samsung Corby (S3653) to their mobile range.
Aside from being the hottest item to hit the market the phone features and capabilities exceed all expectation such as social networking services Facebook , YouTube , Twitter available and to be the first mobile phone ever to have Mxit embedded.
Corby comes standard with 2 interchangeable jackets 1 being a basic black jacket and the other being a fashion print jacket which is a great self expressive tool.
The full touchscreen capability with finger zoom option allows images to be viewed clearer.
Samsung are giving away 3 Nintendo Wii’s and the 3 Samsung Corby,s to stand a chance to win these amazing prizes go to www.samsungcorby.co.za . As a true trend setter Samsung Corby are throwing huge parties all over South Africa, the parties will include the exclusive Corby dancers know as the Flash Mob, dj’s, music and awesome atmosphere.
Courtesty from the SamsungBlog for the above article.
Nokia recalls 14million faulty chargers
November 9th, 2009Global announcement from Nokia - Nokia identified a potential product quality issue with certain chargers manufactured by one of its third-party suppliers and as a result has initiated a charger exchange program for a limited number of chargers of certain model types manufactured by a single third-party supplier during a specific time period are within the scope of the exchange program.
For more information, including how consumers can check to see if their chargers are part of this exchange program, Nokia has established a website. Consumers are asked to visit http://chargerexchange.nokia.com.
Please see the PDF attached which explains how one would identify an affected charger, click here.
Vodacom launches LiveTrack
November 5th, 2009You now have the ability to keep track of your mobile device via GPRS on your PC/WAP-enabled cellular phone courtesy of Vodacom.
This is the exert from their website:
Keep track of people and valuable possessions with LiveTrack, exclusively from Vodacom.
Designed on superior GPS tracking technology, Vodacom LiveTrack Personal tracking, available on Contract, uses the GPRS cellular network to display your tracking devices’ movements on your computer every 60 seconds in real-time. Comprehensive mapping software allows movement to be tracked via the Internet on a PC or through a WAP-enabled cellphone. To ensure the highest level of secure communication, each user account is created with a unique password and username and each device is manufactured with a unique encrypted unit code.
When people and possessions are out of sight, don’t be out of reach.Experience Vodacom LiveTrack or find out more about Vodacom’s selection of LiveTrack Personal Trackers with:
It will be interesting to see what the uptake of this is like, I’m pretty sure companies like ‘Tracker’ can’t be too happy about it. But this was just a matter of time until something like this was released, I’m pretty sure it could be done by anyone if the cellular phone was connected 24/7. What Vodacom is doing is probably negating the data cost but just adding that in the monthly fee you’ll probably have to pay.
Still I’m sure this will be very useful to some peeps. Now lets just hope they drop the inter-connect fees sometime.
