Penny Mobiles – Mobile phone news, reviews & information

Vodafone’s mobile device offerings for April are several Android devices along with the Apple iPad tablet. The UK based mobile network operator’s official website is already promoting the devices for their upcoming launch.

Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA X10 is already confirmed for April and it looks like Vodafone might also offer the X10 Mini devices when they launch later this year. The XPERIA X10 may be the first Android smart phone from SE, but it looks like the joint venture have made a pretty good device for the open source OS. It has already been reported that despite the phone having only version 1.6 Donut installed, an update to the latest version will be made available within the next few weeks.

The HTC Desire and the HTC Legend are two of the Taiwanese manufacturer’s most anticipated devices. Both were first revealed last year when the HTC 2010 roadmap was leaked (along with several other devices). Both phones were showcased at the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, Spain.

The Desire is pretty much like the Nexus One in terms of specs, both phones have Snapdragon processors running at a full 1GHz, both use 5 mega pixel cameras and the two devices also have 3.7 inch AMOLED capacitive touch screen displays. Many are considering the Desire to be the perfect substitute to Nexus One.

The Legend on the other hand is a mid-range smart phone that may sell even more than the Desire. Despite the hardware advantage of the Desire, the Legend is expected to be priced at a more reasonable rate. It is also the successor to the HTC Hero. Both the Desire and the Legend will be using the Sense user interface.

Get to know more about HTC Legend, Desire and Vodafone UK’s other offerings at Know Your Mobile.

Many people were concerned last weekend that the Twitter account for Vodafone may have been hacked. This was after an offensive post from the account appeared online.

“Vodafone UK is fed up of dirty homos and is going after beaver”

The post was visible only momentarily as Vodafone’s employees were quick to respond by deleting the post and immediately addressing the concern. Amid the apologies, they also assured people that this is not a hacking incident.

Instead, the post was done by an employee of the company who has decided to break the rules. The employee is assigned to the customer service center in Stoke and is currently suspended indefinitely. As to why the individual was not immediately terminated, Vodafone has given no explanations other than stating that the matter is being handled and investigated internally.

Vodafone currently has over 8,000 subscribers on Twitter and the number is still growing. The account is used to handle customer inquiries and complaints and has served as a very important online hotline.

This misuse of social network tools is not an isolated case. This has already happened to other companies such as the Telegraph and Virgin Atlantic. While Twitter and Facebook does allow companies to connect directly with their clients, this also opens up a new channel that should be safeguarded carefully lest another errant employee decides to have some fun.

Several Virgin Atlantic cabin crew members have been fired for posting racist remarks and unfounded claims on Facebook -they were lucky that they were not slapped with libel. The Telegraph newspaper on the other hand was a victim to the lack of foresight in using tags without moderating the entries during April of last year.

For more details on the misuse of Twitter on the Vodafone account and other related news, head straight to the Guardian UK.

Vodafone’s internet-based 360 service gets launched in the UK markets this October 30^th with a couple of Samsung smartphones exclusively built for the UK carrier.  The Vodafone 360 H1 figures as the first smartphone in the lineup with 4 Nokia smartphones joining the service.   It now has 10 smartphones in its stable supporting the 360 service.

Smartphone meant for 360 Features.

Vodafone hopes to increase its subscriber base with the 360 which replaced the 7-year old Vodafone Live. The Samsung-built Vodafone 360 H1 does a perfect job maximizing the 360 service with its competent upscale features

The H1 runs on the stable Release 2.0 of Linux-based LiMo (Linux Mobile) OS that has been used by Motorola for its latter ROKR and RAZR smartphones.   No less capable than the Android OS that has since overwhelmed it, the H1 automatically links in one unique 3D interface your phone contacts with VOIP, IM and social networking sites like Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk and Facebook.  Twitter and other social networking sites will follow soon enough. It also makes sharing your multimedia content a breeze of the 360 service, provided your friends are on the same Vodafone network.

Hardware Features

The Vodafone 360 H1 is a full-featured touchscreen smartphone on a candybar that is fashionably slim and weighs just 134g.  It’s a quad band GSM and dual band 3G/UMTS with HSPA data connectivity for broadband internet speeds as well as WiFi that greatly complements the Vodafone 360 service in hotspots around the country.  It has a 3.5-inch AMOLED TFT touchscreen with Wide VGA resolution and 16 million colors. The usual accelerometer auto-rotate features are there. You get a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, GPS, FM stereo radio, Bluetooth with A2DP and 16 GB of internal memory which you can expand with its microSD slot.

Availability

The H1 handset is available now for pre-ordering at the Vodafone website.  Vodafone is offering it free on a tempting ₤35 24-month contract.  You have a choice of black or silver body color. If only for an elegantly sleek and full-featured handset you can get for free outright, it’s worth giving Vodafone your patronage this Christmas.

The M1 is going to be the second Vodafone 360 phones that will follow the release of the H1, and will be featuring a very easy to use 3D user interface that will offer the “Vodafone 360” experience, the latest attraction offered by the UK based telecommunication company. Surely, the mobile phone users in the UK will be watching the M1 closely.

The Vodafone 360 M1 device is provided by Samsung, and is run by the LiMo operating system, which is engineered for the phone to bring the user the Vodafone 360 experience, which is expected to add considerable value to how the phone’s users get to engage in various online activities. The Vodafone 360 M1 offers a 3.2” TFT touch screen, which is an integral part of the remarkable 3D interface, and has a vibrant display of 800 x 480 pixels resolution. The set also features a 3.2 mega pixels camera with 8x zoom and is no less than 23 grams lighter than the H1 handset.

The most amazing aspect of the interface will be the ease of connectivity and networking. The interface will allow you to bring together your contacts on different address books in to your phone contact list, so you can always access the contact you want with a simple touch of your finger instead of the irritation of accessing your accounts on different websites separately.

Vodafone 360 M1 provides you an easy access of a number of applications, which will keep you updated with news, weather, the status of your contacts on social networking sites and to allow you to share multimedia data with your friends. The interface is meant to make life easier for the modern mobile phone users, and since our activities on the internet have become an important part of our lives, they should also be an essential part of our phones.

If you want the Vodafone 360 M1 to make your life easier then be sure to stay on top of all the deals available so that you can pick the best one and not miss out.