July 2008

A short post to direct you to those currently throwing up the details of the new Skypephone S2 and the comments they’ve put beside them.

Giving the most on the phone is Mobile Phone Reviews who, despite feeling the original Skypephone was fairly basic, appreciated its credentials and the genrous 3 tariffs available. Their reaction to the second incarnation is positive; looking forward to, amongst other aspects, the disappearance of the “dreaded robot voice” on VoIP calls.

Other sites giving it a mention include High Download Internet News List, iTech News Net and Gear Live.

Any thoughts on the imminent arrival? Let them know…

Mobiles4net has given a brief outline about one of 3’s latest laptop deals; the one featuring the HP 530 Notebook.

The deal costs £30 a month and for that you get the laptop, a dongle, 5GB limit and 150 texts per month. This fellow is at the lower price point of their current laptop menagerie. There are also £35 and £40 month options. At the mid-level the laptop is a HP 2133 mini-note UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PC), with the 5GB data allowance, dongle and 200 texts. Then the daddy of the family is the HP dv6910 Pavillion, again with the dongle, 5GB allowance and 250 lots of 140 characters to pester your friends with. The Pavilion also needs a £49.99 fee up front.

Currently the mobile broadband technology hasn’t yet integrated, but 3 are doing their best to take steps toward it. And this is a healthy stride in the right direction.

3 love mobile broadband and it appears they are keen for the consumer to start feeling the same way.

Alison Geiser reports on the latest move from the brand as they up the top end of their monthly download limits from 7GB to a beastly 15GB. This is available to existing customers at half-price and £30 for those yet to join the family 3.

Alison’s reaction to the move, “They [3] already have the cheapest deal out there at the moment; why not steal the crown for the largest usage allowance too?” Indeed, and that’s exactly what they have done.

Another of our guests at the recent Skypephone S2 event has written up his thoughts on the day, namely one Neville Hobson, who tried out the first Skypephone last year. He found it “a great product” which “introduced the benefits of Skype to many people in a package that really is pretty affordable”.

As well as linking to Chris Dawson’s post on the event, Neville offers his thoughts on the Skypephone S2’s position in the ever-changing marketplace – the fact that the new model will come with HSDPA is its “biggest appeal”, something that was “sorely lacking” in the original model. Neville also thinks the design has been improved; the larger, high-res screen gets the thumbs up, though he doesn’t think the 3.2MP camera is a big enough leap, though “it’s better” than the 2MP camera on the original Skypephone.

Though Neville thinks he won’t buy a Skypephone S2, he does think they will “fly off the shelves from next month” due to the mere £70 cost of the PAYG version as it’s much more affordable than other, higher spec phones. Head over to read the full article at Neville’s blog.

A couple of days ago, Tamebay’s Chris Dawson placed together in blog post form, his list of essential applications for running an eBay business.

As you can probably foresee, one such must-have was 3 mobile broadband! “There are few locations that a mobile phone signal can’t be accessed in the UK, and 3G broadband enables you to connect to the Internet when you’re away from home or office.” The advantages of this are fairly obvious, and Chris hooks up utilising both his original Skypephone and dongle.

Also included in his list were CutePDF, uConnect USB Skype Adapter, Google Store Connector and Fluid Mask, it is these five apps that keep Chris’s eBay business “running smoothly”. Got any of your own essentials? Then let Chris know, plenty of others already have.

Over at Open (finds, minds, conversations) Antony has been saying adieu to his 3 mobile broadband dongle.

This has placed him in a reflective mood, and his overriding thought on the experience is: “no one should be without a dongle in this day and age - especially in the UK.”

This is something his dongle-sharing amigo will undoubtedly testify to. In a moment reminiscent of Gandalf’s attempts to prise the ring from an oversized hairy-foot named Bilbo Baggins, Antony thanked his pal for returning the dongle and went to step from the train they were riding. Only a second before his departure did he realise that his pal still had it! ‘Tis a powerful thing that dongle. As Antony suggests, “I swear my soon-to-be-3G-cold-turkey colleague was a beat away from calling it his ‘precious’…”

That Antony’s dongle is the object at the centre of all tyranny, is, I’m fairly certain a fallacy. What is for sure though, is with WiFi being sporadically available and often expensive, 3’s dongle is more convenient than if Mount Doom had been at the bottom of Frodo’s garden.

This news has percolated fairly well by now, in the lively sense of the word obviously, no slow brewing here. So what do we know? It’s out on the 18th of August around the price point of £69.99, and is the blockbusting continuation of the franchise started by the original 3 Skypephone device. It looks like this:

And is comprised of plenty of upgrades from the the previous model.

- Size: 103 x 45 x 14mm

- Display: 2.2in QVGA screen

- Battery: 1150 mAh

- Memory on board: 50mb

- Memory card type: Micro SD up to 4GB

- HSDPA: 3.6

- Camera: 3.2MP

It has also got built in drivers, so hooking it up to your laptop and dongle-izing it is a breeze and, intriguingly, you’ll be able to get your email on it, with 3’s new facility to have consumer mail pushed to your handset, whatever its spec. And naturally there is the integrated functionality of Skype.

So what does everyone think? As I said, there is plenty of ‘buzz’ and what follows are links to some of it. Phones Review, Pocket-Lint, The 3G blog, Xeo-Tech (nice comparison to Ford’s Model-T), Sipy who quotes Tamebay’s Chris Dawson, Stuff.tv, Skype Journal also goes with a Dawson quote and finally we’ll finish with Fudzilla. So, with those out of the way, what are your thoughts on the prospect of the Skypephone S2? Let us know.

Let us just say 3 currently have it going on and there is a lot of it. There seems to be little value in beating around the bush, a phrase that suits the chosen setting for 3’s Crimbo in summer event, seeing as it was set in a faux park, resplendent with benches, blankets, picnic and, a topiary bush crafted into the brand logo.

As for the attendees, there were plenty of interested parties, among whom were some of the more regular names featured in our own pages. Already to have written up some thoughts is Chris Dawson of Tamebay, an avid fan of the original Skypephone. The prospect of the S2, complete with email capabilities, has him seeing the new incarnation as even more desirable than the first. Ant UK from Fresh Plastic was feeling a little jaded after a long hot day in London, but did post about his hamper, Pimms and the Strawberry and Cream sweets.

Also there was Ewan from SMS Text News who was enthused by much of what was on show as this post from the event demonstrates. Needless to say, when Ewan means more, he means a lot more. By the end of the day, SMS Text News was littered with posts about the upcoming options on what’s coming your way from 3 this autumn. Naturally there is the Skypephone S2, and in Ewan’s words, it is looking “shit hot”. Hot on the heels of this will be the Nokia N96 on the 3 network, be sure to have a look at the Qik vid to see what could be yours come September. As part of 3’s new initiative of consumer email available on all handsets there is the addition to the 3 stable of the Nokia E71 White and the BlackBerry Bold.

And that isn’t all. 3 have also set up a deal on laptops in collaboration with HP meaning you get the PC, data allowance, a number of texts and a dongle for anywhere between £30 and £40 a month, dependent on the specifics. Very nice indeed.

For a succinct list of what is in the offing, head to WhatMobile forum, who have done superb job of nailing the important bits down.

It seems appropriate to finish in part with Ewan’s views of the event as a whole, as well as his thoughts on the greater good behind the efforts involved to engage with those that’ll be passing on 3’s brand message to the consumer. It is well worth a read and some consideration.

They’ll be more to come from us on all the details involved with the products mentioned above, and to all those I spoke to yesterday, it was a pleasure to meet you and look forward to seeing you again.

Word has been getting out on 3’s plan to release special laptops with dongles included and a few blogs have picked up the story.

Mobile Today report “3 is poised to roll out a range of 24-month deals by the beginning of August”, which will see free laptops distributed to customers who take up the contract, with deals of “£30, £35 and £40 per month, including 5GB of data access”. Mobile Today also include details of which laptops will be available: three Hewlett Packards including the Pavilion DV6000.

Broadband Genie have picked up on the story from Mobile Today, who report the same details, mentioning that it “is hoped to encourage customers to sign up to the lengthy two year deal”, and that 3 “has become the first UK operator to follow in Carphone Warehouse’s footsteps” in selling the bundle.

The Irish Times have a slightly different story in which they report the Carphone Warehouse has bundled 1000 EeePC notebooks with 3’s mobile broadband, priced at €329 with CW spokesperson stating “This is us putting our toe in the water in terms of laptops in general”.

So, if successful, it looks as if the future may involve dongles coming with a large percentage of laptops, leading to the greater mobility of broadband for many laptop owners.

It has been at least 48 hours since we dedicated a post to the new Skypephone and now seems a sensible time to return to the topic.

Cell and Smart Phones apparently seem rather happy that Skype wasn’t simply an “experiment for 3″ and that it looks like it’ll be Stateside bound. Make note of that brushed metal back, and the naming… SP1 or IM2, could it still go either way?

There is a thorough preview at Stuff.tv that takes into account the breeding of the new handset. Being positive in their assessment of the original Skypephone incarnation, their speculation on the new version is in a similar vein, tempered mildly by the smaller than average screen size and quality of the camera. However, the prospect of using the device as a dongle makes them suggest that, “If 3 offers unlimited data with the Skypephone S2, it could turn out to be a better deal than the iPhone”.

To finish off there are a couple minor mentions at Cell Phone News 2.0 and Mobile88.com too.

To the joyous tones of Soulja Boy comes a brief but enlightening review of the original 3 Skypephone courtesy of PSPro1337 on YouTube. All we see of PSPro1337 (or ‘1337’ to his friends) is his left ear, but luckily his narration more than makes up for the lack of face.

He mentions the fact that the Skypephone is 3G, has Skype and is able to send MSN messages, but the video really comes alive when 1337 recommends the phone “If you love playing music really loud”, hopefully not at the back of a bus on the way to Lidl. 1337 is also fascinated by the multitasking button spending a fair amount of the review showing how to use it. The Skypephone’s 2MP camera “ain’t bad”, as 1337 reckons that quality of it “is good for 2 megapixels”. Head over to listen to 1337’s dulcet-toned review.

I’m sure many of you 3 mobile broadband owners are budding artists and one thing that’s on your ‘things to do before I die’ list is “create a photo realistic picture of the 3 dongle in Photoshop”. Well my fellow creatives, the time has come to rejoice as Tutnow have provided a step by step guide on how to do exactly that! Beginning with the sage advice of starting with a new document, Tutnow tells you what you need to do and how you do it every step of the way. There are easy to follow instructions, diagrams of the settings you’ll need, advice on blending options, shading…the word ‘comprehensive’ does not do the tutorial justice. If you fancy a go post the results online and send us a link. We could have a competition to see which is the best!

Yet another news article on the Skypephone S2 has popped up, this time from giants of tech blogging Engadget Mobile. They mention that it hasn’t even been a year since the first Skypephone “made a minor splash across the pond” and now “comes word that the second iteration is nearly ready to be removed from the oven”.

Engadget Mobile also have some juicy tech specs to report on the Skypephone S2; reporting that the handset will “reportedly boast HSDPA connectivity”, 2.2″ QVGA display, the camera will be a step up at 3.2MP, and the integrated Skype will still be there of course. Engadget’s favourite new function is the built-in modem drivers, enabling usage of the phone as a dongle for PCs or Macs: “We’re particularly fond of that… are any of you other carriers listening here?” There’s no mooted release date or price as of yet, but we’ll let you know as soon as there is.

Of course we can. As the news ebbs further from the original source, the details seem to become less concrete by the moment.

Straight down the line is the 3 Skypephone forum thread started by sopasteve, with contributors looking forward to getting their mitts on the new arrival.

Things get a little more interesting at SkypeBot. They suggest that all the required software will be on board the phone. This means plug and play all the way, simply hook it up to your PC or Mac and Robert is your Ma’s brother. IndianBytes has syndicated this report and continues the trend of referring to it as the S2 rather than IM2.

GeekPill have done a bit of a round up after spotting the above forum thread that links to Tamebay. The reaction to the collected posts concentrates on the possibility of WiFi and what this may mean for the SkypeIN/OUT features on the device.

Needless to say, it’s a bit of rumour mill out there, but we’ll continue to wade our way through it and bring back anything we find.

Another quick post updating you on where the conversation and reaction to the release of the IM2, or Skypephone 2 is happening.

We have UK Gadgeteer considering the possibilities and suggesting that the addition of WIFI may require some T&Cs re-jigging.

Chris Dawson of Tamebay is talking about the release enthusiastically. Although disappointed that, with no sign of a camera on the front of the handset, those Skype video calls will be remaining elusive, he says “[he’ll] be first in line to grab one when it becomes available”.

At TechRadar they’ve got Adam Hartley on the case, though he is confused by the mention of 2G by Just Another Mobile Phone Blog. He needs to check the 3 response that involved the words “generous pinch of salt”.

ElectricPig have got their news from Stuff.tv, but seem to have grabbed the wrong end of the proverbial stick believing the device to be arriving at the end of this month. As I read it, I thought Stuff.tv suggested that the release date and price were due to be arriving on the 21st July, not the handset itself.

More discussion of the 2g issue at Voip News and Jeb Brilliant joins in by spilling into the outskirts of a debate on roaming charges.

Got any thoughts to go with these? Let us know.