Hurrah – the holiday season is well and truly upon us!
And @richardmackney has been updating us on his Three MiFi experience whilst on a caravanning trip in North Devon (the cool kids are calling these staycations!).
#ThreeMiFi Staycation
Hurrah – the holiday season is well and truly upon us!
And @richardmackney has been updating us on his Three MiFi experience whilst on a caravanning trip in North Devon (the cool kids are calling these staycations!).
#ThreeMiFi Staycation
Yet again this week we’ve had MiFis in the hands of avid internet users who don’t want to entertain the idea of being offline and they’ve all been using the MiFis for different things.
@adonisdemon has been using his to test Three’s network at the seaside, @liamgh was relying on it at a conference where he used it to follow up on links and store his notes in Dropbox, @richardmackney has taken it on holiday with him to use in his caravan at the beach and @marbelle has explained how he uses it to help him to run his blog Director’s Notes.
So how did MiFi help @Marbelle with his blog?
“I blogged on the bus, on the train and didn’t have to hunt down a Starbucks every time I came to a rest[…]It’s a forgone conclusion that I’ll be adding a MiFi to my on the go set up.”
Of using the MiFi at his conference Liam said:
“The MiFi 2 coped with this task without any issues. I switched on the device and left it in my pocket and connected up to it. The five hour battery life is enough to get you through a typical conference day”
Abul took the MiFi on his trip to The Isle of Sheppy, Maidstone and Southend and reported that:
“I can’t really say I noticed much of any dropped signal nor any poorer speeds around those areas. Even at the beaches and in town. This is down to Three’s recent upgrades across their network nationwide. It’s done a good job”
And Richard has been using his whilst caravanning to keep in touch with people by Skype and FaceTime when he couldn’t get signal on his iPhone and to watch the Grand Prix and upload videos to YouTube
What have you used the #ThreeMiFi for…?
Three announced yesterday that the iPhone 4 will be available direct from their stores and online from this Friday 30th July.
Since its launch it has been possible to buy the iPhone 4 unlocked from Apple and use a Micro-SIM from Three, but from Friday you can do it all in a Three store.
A lot of people have been talking about the price plans that Three have for the iPhone 4.
Ewan at Mobile Industry Review asked the Q:
“Have you been waiting to get an iPhone 4 on 3? I know quite a few people who have been, especially after their rather attractive pricing.”
Three has published a price comparison between their plans and those of Orange, O2 and Vodafone so you can compare them directly.
Stephen from UKGadgeteer also suggested that getting the iPhone 4 on The One Plan would be another good price option for customers.
Gadget Venue, Gaj-IT, and GeekComputers have all discussed the announcement. Gaj-It asked:
“Are you thinking of buying an iPhone 4? What do you think of Three’s pricing? Would it tempt you to move to Three? Or have you already got your iPhone 4?”
Pop over and let them know!
The lovely Lucy from Snippetsofshinythoughts has recently bought the HTC Wildfire on Three and has agreed to write a guest post for us on your thoughts. So sit back, relax and have a read of what fashion-lover Lucy thinks of the new HTC on Three…
I have never had a new and cool phone in my life, as if it’s cool to be different (read adverse to technology) But all has changed! I’ve finally got myself a phone where I can do the things that I really should be able to do on the move.
My interests lie in Fashion and I run a blog, so I need to be on twitter for free and need to be able to be notified each time I get an email. I need a big, clear screen to view net pages and I need to be able to text quickly because that’s my main means of communication. Luckily I’ve chosen a phone that not only does that very well but, thank goodness, looks stylish doing it!
The Wildfire boasts a sleek shape (I really wasn’t keen on the earlier legend), has minimal buttons and has a stylish, modern colour scheme. (Not to mention the essential little hole to hang my phone charms. ahem.)
Apart from having to re-learn how to text on a flat surface, remember those days?!, I find the messaging style greatly convenient. You can see all your communications with different people so you won’t forget what you’ve said and there’s no faffing with outbox emptying. Another cool trick is tipping the phone on its side to widen the keyboard so fat fingers can be happy!
Ok, what about the more techy things? The Wildfire allows me to scroll sideways to view my emails, weather, rss feeds, messages and bookmarks. There couldn’t be a much easier way of getting information. From the main page I can access Twitter with a touch as well as other apps which I can get on the Android market.
Starting up the phone was made a breeze too *sigh of relief.* I could Bluetooth all my contacts from old phone to new and if you accessed a tool on the HTC site, your contacts were automatically linked to Facebook and Twitter accounts. The Wildfire features a scrolling button at the bottom but I don’t think to use it. Maybe some people find it useful but for me it’s pointless really.
So downfalls, hmm well there are very few. I still haven’t worked out if I can link my emails to the main hotmail system so that if I view or delete an email at home, it will update that info on my phone. Maybe there’s no way of doing this, in which case that’s terribly annoying. I’ve also had a little difficulty in setting the default phone number for my favourite contacts, but again its probably me.
I’m afraid I don’t get more technical than that, by why would I need to? It does everything I need very easily and I am kindly informed of every touch I make with a gentle and rather comforting vibration. I have as much signal as my old providers and my 3mobile plan is very good value.
So if you’re like me and are only just waking up from real-world-hibernation and are not really sure what phone to get, I would recommend this baby. Dubbed as the ‘cooler version of the iPhone’, but ‘quietly brilliant’, you can’t go wrong.
Lucy Nicholls
www.Snippetsofshinythoughts.blogspot.com
@Shinythoughts
Last week @bensmithuk and @rafeblandford went along to a briefing from Three’s Chief Executive Kevin Russell and Sales and Marketing Director Marc Allera to discuss how the surge in mobile internet use, regulatory change and consolidation are reshaping the UK mobile industry.
At this briefing, Three’s new One Plan was also announced and the scraping of the term “unlimited” was discussed.
Rafe has discussed his thoughts from the morning in an All About Symbian podcast, Insight #125.
He talks about The One Plan and how it’s a big step forward for the market; combining a competitive rate with a clear and fair way of selling, by not using the term “unlimited”.
For more of his opinion on what was discussed, pop over and listen – he begins at min 24.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 36 hours, it won’t have escaped your notice that the iPhone4 has launched to incredible fanfare, and a lot of people have been discussing which operator to go with.
Three UK joined the rest and yesterday announced their tariffs which were available to buy from Apple stores from yesterday. For all info on Three’s price plans and how to get your hands on an iPhone4 on Three, visit their site.
@bensmithuk was glad to see iPhone4s running on the Three network in the Apple store:
“There was a sight to gladden many people’s hearts though – the display devices were running on the Three network (at last)”
@Hands0n also saw a lot of Three iPhone4s about:
“All of the iPhone 4 handsets on display at the Apple store in Bluewater were sporting a working Three SIM”
If you have an iPhone4 on Three, @ us with a video of yourself with your new iPhone4 telling us why you got it on Three and you could win yourself a bottle of bubbly to celebrate : )
This week Three has announced two new phones that are to hit their shelves: the BlackBerry Pearl 3G and the HTC Wildfire.
The Blackberry Pearl now combines 3G with its traditional phone keypad for those who prefer the candybar phones over the qwerty keypads more common in smartphones.
Sylvia Chind Head of Branded Devices at Three said:
“The slim-line BlackBerry Pearl 3G is the first Pearl to offer 3G connectivity, making it perfect for our high speed 3G network.
The addition of another Android phone, the HTC Wildfire, is also likely to be a popular choice and welcomed to the 3 family. It has caused a bit of a stir already with the guys over at the PhonesLimited blog who are looking forward to this:
“great new and affordable alternative to the HTC Desire”
And techradar see it as a perfect fir for the Three network:
“With social networking and data access central to the phone, Three was always a likely perfect fit with the phone”
Dates have not been announced for either phone as yet.
As I’m sure most of you are aware, Three have had a brand refresh recently – if you haven’t seen it yet, go and take a look at their new look website and get a detailed run through of their new site by Ash Roots on their blog.
Along with this, they’ve launched a new TV advert which has had some people rolling around on the floor in mirth and left others rolling their eyes.
The ad depicts the effort going into the growth of Three’s 100% 3G network. It is continuing to grow from 92.5% of the UK population in 2009, to over 98% by the end of 2010, so the work should be improving the connection of a lot of people very soon.
You can go and find out more about Three’s network, as well as check your coverage and rate the Network in your area on their evenbetternetwork page.
So, what do you think of the new ad? Does the new brand do it for you? Let us know what you think?
Since Three announced that Twitter would join Skype and WLM as a free service on their network, we’ve seen lots of people talking about it.
Seems like it’s not such good news for some poeple…!
Over the past few weeks, Three has been sponsoring Such Tweet Sorrow, their offering of Free Twitter meaning they could make the production accessible to all their users. We’ve had some people getting involved in the excitement around the production using the free service. There’s been a mixed reaction to the use of Twitter for storytelling, but overall the reaction seems to be positive:
Last week 3 announced that it would be ranging the generic HTC Desire from the 20th April due to demand from people commenting on the blog.
3 always customise the handsets they bring to market with Favourites, Planet3, Skype and Windows Live Messenger. However in this case, they have decided to firstly range the Desire without this customisation in order to get it out to customers as soon as possible. Sylvia Chind from 3:
“This is the non-3 branded version of the phone. Once again, based on your comments on the blog, we’ve decided to launch this version. You’re making us revisit the way we do business.”
This move has been positively received by consumers waiting anxiously to get their hands on the HTC Desire.
However, this commenter goes on to replicate the view of quite a few on the blog, concerning the lack of flexibility on the tariff choices with the phone at the moment.
If you do opt to buy the generic version of this phone, all the special 3 features will still be available to download yourself onto it, so no one will go without.
So, last night the #FreeTwitteron3 Mission was well and truly accomplished! : )
@adonisdemon, @Bucky366, @reyes, @Godfrey_G2da3, @TarikF, @shinythoughts, @wishwishwish, @kisandie @RandomProdInc and @Dan_Vivian made the perfect spies last night.
Agent T briefed the group before they set out on their mission and armed with HTC Heros, INQ Chat 3Gs and INQ Mini 3Gs they received clues via Twitter and had to twitpic the answers in order to get the next clue.
The teams worked hard to solve the clues and find all the birds. The Agents’ Twitter followers were also called into action to help find all the birds.
The team that worked the hardest and our overall winners were @Godfrey_G2da3 and @TarikF!
Take a look at the pictures from the evening on flickr and search #FreeTwitteron3 to see what the Agents were getting up to last night.
Mission complete agents…over and out.
There has been a lot of news flying around t’internet recently about 3 and its handset plans.
3’s announcement of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz with Spotify got dissected by Techradar earlier this week – and retweeted multiple times since! Techradar spoke to 3 and found out that:
“there may be something announced in the next few weeks to bring the Vivaz – and other Sony Ericsson phones (likely the Satio) – with a Spotify contract.”
Mobilenews reported last week that David Kerrigan announced 3’s plans to get 6 more Android phones on their books in the next three months.
You can see a video demo by Brendan Arndt on the 3blog, of the next Android phone to launch on 3, the Samsung Galaxy Portal with the new Android Eclair OS. Pop over and see what you think…and let Brendan know too!
Craig (@geekcomputers) has recently been trialling the INQ Chat 3G and has posted his thoughts on his blog.
His first comment was that the INQ Chat 3G seemed to be a ‘cool kid’s blackberry’, but that it could also aim to target a broader spectrum of consumers wanting a smart phone.
Fred of tekimage (@wingdisk) who trialled the INQ Mini 3G and posted his review last week made similar noises about the INQ phones being another option for those who wanted the capabilities of a smart phone but in a simpler form.
In his post on geekcomputers Craig covers the camera, battery life, widgets and social networking apps that come preinstalled on the phone, amongst other things. For more detail jump over to his blog to read more.
Fred (@wingdisk) of tekimage has been trialling the INQ Mini 3G and has gone as far as to compare it to Superman!
He has been putting it through its paces testing out the Skype and Twitter apps and uploading photos straight to facebook.
Fred also talks us through his experience with 3’s 3G network and the improvements he’s seen over the months, due to the work that 3 has been doing to enhance and expand its network.
So, who does Fred see using the INQ Mini 3G? Not just the youths of today – pop over to his blog post and find out. Do you agree?
As reported over the past couple of weeks, we provided 8 fashion addicts with HTC Heros and INQ Chat 3Gs so they could report from the catwalk for free to celebrate 3 offering free Twitter throughout February & March.
The girls took full advantage of the offer and tweeted profusely all day long. Check out #FreeTwitteron3 for a review of the day, from what’s on trend in Spring / Summer 2010 to who bought what (and a lot of buying was done!)
The girls really enjoyed the phones they were using, Natasha (@natashabailie) said of the Hero:
“I was given a HTC Hero phone, which took some getting used to, but if you like gadgets and nifty handheld devices then you will love the (super) Hero phone on 3mobile.”
Whilst half the girls had HTC Heros, the other half had INQ Chat 3Gs which went down a storm with Fiona of SaveOurShoes, a self-confessed technophobe:
“I got to play around with an INQ Mobile for a bit. And now, I am addicted to tweeting, twitpicing and being a general nuisance.”
Check out Ellie (PrettyMuchPenniless) & Frankie (SwellVintage)’s blogs for their round up of the day and have a look at #FreeTwitteron3 to see what Lindsey (@Be_Gorgeous), Katie (@katietheunicorn), Carrie (@wishwishwish) and Amy (@wolfwhistle) also made of it – I’ve been told more blog posts will be coming soon so keep an eye out for them also.
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