6 posts tagged “hutchison whampoa”

Spotify, the music streaming service from Sweden, has signed a deal with 3 Mobile to bring said service to the UK operator's handsets.

The first handset to feature Spotify will be HTC's Android-rocking Hero - which is due to be launched in time for Christmas.  Other handsets on 3 will follow next year.

The announcement comes as no great surprise as 3's parent company, Hutchison Whampoa, bought a stake in Spotify earlier this year - with 3's sister company, INQ Mobile, now having their CEO, Frank Meehan, on Spotify's board.

Disclaimer: Frank has helped me out in the past - so bear that in mind when I write about INQ or Spotify (not that I'm easily swayed or anything!)

3 Mobile (Hutchison 3G) got the ball rolling back in 2007 with the launch of the world's very first Skypephone.  From the plucky young cellular network an idea so revolutionary that many doubted how it could work.. to the world's biggest mobile maker.  I guess it won't be long before all handsets have it built-in.

Found via snoyt's post on Darla Mack's blog

Sorry, I'm out of puns that are remotely funny or relevant.  Anyway, below you'll find some hastily edited videos from the guys that were behind the new INQ1 handset that's now out to buy in the shops right now (or at least it should be).

Why so hastily edited and why so long after the launch event?  The footage was on the Toshiba Tecra M9 that the kind folk of talkToshiba loaned me (for a very generous amount of time, I might add... cheers guys!)  And er, that was going back today.  As for why I hadn't already edited and upped the videos... I'm terrible at getting things done when they should be done!

All videos captured on a Canon DV camcorder (the model I forget) and edited with Windows Movie Maker on a Toshiba Tecra M9.  Nice and simple, if I can do it anyone can!  Oh, and I was able to transfer files and use Firefox without a hiccup during the video authoring/conversion process.  Excellent stuff!

Talking about being frank, I've got INQ Mobile's CEO Frank Meehan's speech already to upload to YouTube.  He's quite a cool guy, I spoke a little to him at the end.  Might see if I can grab him for a video later.

I've got plenty to blog about, bar pictures!  I'll do more blogging later but I'm in the middle of a Maccy D's and it's already kinda cold. :o(

Just a quick note.  Last.fm are on board with INQ.  This was an unexpected, yet welcome, surprise. Unfortunately due to 'licencing issues' it can only scrobble the tunes you are playing, not stream them.  I got my hopes up earlier!  I'll see if I can get to the bottom of these issues later.  Is this a problem with the recording industry or CBS?  If it's the BPI, why?  What makes a phone different to a PC?

Under a shroud of secrecy and mystery 3 UK are about to launch a Facebook phone.  Lots of speculation on the interweb that it'll be the INQ1 from 3's parent company Hutchison Whampoa's new INQ Mobile handset divison.

This is actually old news but for some reason it's all over the tech sites today and as I hadn't mentioned it before I'll chime in with no information of my own to add...

...I just don't know enough about the thing and my detective skills and uncanny ability to read between the lines (often unintentionally and sometimes with hilarious consequences) have gotten me nowhere.

INQ Mobile - just love those big colourful squares, how about designing a phone with them on?  Same goes for that BlackBerry that's covered in picture tiles in those ads, I want one that looks like that!  Am I alone in having this desire for a funky looking modern art-astic handset?

If and when a proper branded Facebook phone hits the market, wouldn't a more catchy name be Facefone?  Or has that been taken already?

It's a good job I'm not holding my breath as I'd be well and truly dead by now.  I might give 'em a ring, I've got cheap international calls so it should be cheaper calling Plano, Texas than it would to call them on their UK number: 0871-223-0000 (the number victims are told to use when contacting the company.  The press, for what it's worth, get a regular number to call).

The interesting thing is why PhonepayPlus hasn't put a warning up on their pages about this shortcode.  I mean, if this

kind of thing happens so rarely, it would be big - no?  Even if you put the shortcode 84566 into their number checker, the results are the same as they were before.  Surely when it's know there are serious "irregularities" regarding the company running that number, they'll at least flag this as being the case.

Muppets!

Now off to find out who best to contact at T-Mobile and Three.  I don't want to waste any time talking to someone who doesn't have a clue or wants to fob me off.