26 posts tagged “skypephone”
My nephew, and fellow blogger, Chill Kid (aka Milky98, aka Ben10) has probably just been wheeled in to theatre (or O.R. to you guys in the States). A short while ago he was on the phone to his nan and myself, just after he had his pre-med!
I've got to hand it to Southampton General, allowing the use of mobiles makes a huge difference especially for a new generation that's used to being connected all the time. I can only imagine what my hospital experiences would've be like had I been able to stay in touch with friends and family at such scary times.
Earlier today, Chill Kid was happily playing away on his new DS game, Professor Layton and the Curious Village and getting tips for the more challenging puzzles from YouTube! ..on his phone! How cool is that?!?
Anyway, good luck to him. We've got about a 6 hour wait until the surgery ends and then however long it'll be before he wakes up. I may speak to him later if he is up to it. If not, then I'll see him tomorrow.
By simply topping up you can make unlimited Skype-to-Skype calls, Skype-to-Skype messages. It doesn't matter how much you top up, you only have to top up four times a year to use Skype (if you don't, you don't get to use Skype).
I highly recommend these despite the current issues I have with 3 UK, which says something. Want to know more about these issues? Of course you do...
In a nutshell, they are as follows: I can't access the internet half the time, can't send or receive MMS half the time, can't make (or, presumably) receive calls half the time and this is despite being in a good coverage area. 3's CS have known about this for nearly two months now and haven't rectified the problem. They haven't given me a time frame as to when the problem will be solved. They've offered me a less than generous £5 for my inconvienence and that was only after I spoken to numerous call centre folk for hours on end. FWIW I declined. I don't want credit on my account, I simply want a service that works again and, as a goodwill gesture, be allowed to change my tariff to one that's far more suitable than the one I'm on now (yet costs the same per month).
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
The 3mobilebuzz guys are perhaps a little disappointed I've not blogged even half as much about the INQ1 they generously loaned me as I did when I received a pair of the original Skypephones last November. It's not because I don't like the phone and it's not because I haven't been using it... On the contrary, I've been using it almost exclusively since I received it just over two weeks ago. I'm hardly missing my N95 8GB to be honest.
When something works well you just forget about it, it blends into the background of one's life and that's kinda what it's like using it. Sure it's not perfect, I'm not a fan of its own browser and the camera isn't all that (it's next to useless in low light so don't rely on it for party snaps) but I'm able to get past that be using Opera Mini and um, not taking pictures!
Anyway, they'll be more on my experiences with it next year and in the meantime check out this random Christmas Day picture...
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!
Over the weekend I've obliterated all my voice minutes, texts, mms and just have video mins left. Now I'm on out-of-bundle prices, which isn't good! I've got unlimited Skype, but those I want to call or message, don't (some still don't know or understand what it is).
Anyway, Sunday night I thought I might as well see if there was an add-on that would give me more minutes and texts until my next billing cycle. Well, there was an add-on that could give me 75 texts for £5 but knowing how much it costs for the network, I thought that was way too steep and passed on it. No add-on for voice minutes unfortunately. I did get to spend 30 minutes on the craziest call centre call yet (that's a whole other blog post right there!)
Here's the thing, I'm willing to upgrade my plan - but I don't want to have to wait until my next billing cycle for the extra minutes and texts to be added. It doesn't even look like I can retro-actively pay extra for this month and use 'em now.
Damnit, I wouldn't have this problem if the whole world got a Skypephone!
Can't wait until the Lumix is charged and primed to go as some camera phones aren't suited for close-up shots...
I was trying to take pictures of my newly acquired Sony Ericsson W595 with a 'proper' camera but it ran out of battery after just one shot. So out came a bunch of handsets and I used those instead. Not ideal, but will do until the camera is charged.
Anyway, I've just hooked up the Skypephone to the laptop and stumbled across this picture from long ago...
Above the candle there appears to be some entity. Conclusive proof that ghosts exist? No, of course not!
My sister is halfway through a business trip to China, Hong Kong and Vietnam. Right now she's in HK and I'm kicking myself that I didn't loan her a Skypephone. That's the second time I've forgotten since getting my hands on a pair of 3's Skypephones last year.
After her recent trip to New York, where she carried three handsets that didn't work, I don't think I could've persuaded her anyway. Why did she bring three handsets to the Big Apple? Let me explain with bullet points:
- her jailbroken iPhone on Vodafone couldn't receive texts for some bizarre reason
- her replacement iPhone 3G on O2 wasn't enabled for roaming (no one in the O2 store warned her of this)
- the Motorola on AT&T's prepaid service that I loaned her was cut off because it hadn't been used in a couple of months
I believe the current trend for one word summaries could sum it up best as: FAIL
In theory, I could've lent her my N73 (for the Far East, not NY) and we could've had 25 mins of video-telephony for free (or thereabouts - I have those included each month and never use 'em!)
...and reading listening between the lines.
Excuse the pun but I think Ewan at SMStextnews has done a stirling job covering 3's pre-pre-Xmas preview (all handsets and devices are out a good while before Santa has made final judgement '08 stylie) If anyone wants the run down on what's coming up, I recommend going there. I didn't Qik anything or take photos (I was going to ask nicely but forgot!)
Usually I'm useless at the smaller things, the minor details, that kinda thing but having a good read through of the press pack and remembering (another thing I'm not all that good at!) what was said yesterday I can think of a bunch of things that I don't think I've seen reported anywhere else or, if they are, I can add a bit more info to:
- In the Autumn, 3 will start transcoding websites for all handsets - making them look like they normally look on a PC. How will this work exactly? I'm not quite sure - there's a variety of different ways this can be achieved. Many of us are doing something similar at the moment... using the excellent Opera Mini.
- Mobile push-email will be on all 3's handsets in future - It'll simultaneously work with numerous email accounts, won't be a huge battery drain (due to some amazing trickery, well I was impressed!) and is unlimited on any internet package (they start at £2.50 p/m)
- Email attachments will be downloadable, won't come out of the user's internet allowance - I presume there'll be some fair-use thing in the small print, otherwise I'll be having mp3 mixes emailed to myself!
- 3 really like their Nokia E71 - I can't stress that enough. They're happy to have RIM on board with their BlackBerry Bold and everything, but they're smitten with their exclusive white paint-job E71. It's kinda weird as my love is for the Bold, not the E71.
- Bold, 3 in one device?* Yes, the BlackBerry Bold has all the usual fruitiness plus some 3 on top. It won't, however, clean and condition your smalls. The one on display was a vanilla Bold, the 3-ified version isn't ready yet. The Bold will be, if I understand correctly, a unique effort for 3 due to the way RIM's devices work (most stuff going in and out of a Blackberry is via RIM's servers**)
- Upcoming USB modems will not be Linux-friendly - I got the impression that 3 understand the ever-increasing importance of Linux sub-notebooks (note the Mini-Note) but that Huawei don't. Whatever the case may be it's a huge oversight in my opinion as the smaller and cheaper the laptop, the more important cheap mobile internet is ...and laptops are cheaper without Windows!
- Nice new UI for dongles on Windows - Connection, account and usage all there in dashboard-stylie, nice and clear and now looking fit for the 21st Century
- HSDPA router on display - they've not decided whether to go with it or not. The one I saw doesn't actually have 3G built-in, it accepts a USB dongle instead. It's also mains powered, so no WiFi hotspot on the go.
- The new Skypephone is noticeably heavier than it's predecessor and... my own view is that it doesn't look or feel as good. The screen is bigger and better, I liked the menus and they did a good job with Facebook but... those keys and the shiny back. Horrible. That's more personal taste than fact, of course. The keys however, might pose a problem for anyone that likes Skype chatting or texting lots. Only available in black. White not gonna happen, people didn't like the original in white. They weren't 100% certain but they believed it would be usable in the US (as a normal phone, the Skype part will, like the original, only work in countries where 3 have sister networks.)
- There was talk of pink devices in the future - I don't know any female that likes pink consumer electronics, I don't know any blokes that like (or will admit to liking) 'em either. And the Skypephone wasn't well received in white. What are 3 considering bringing out in pink? Damned if I can remember (this is what happens when I don't do Brain Training everyday!)
- They're happy to get Samsung on board at last! - Not touched on this yet so throwing it at the end.
Thanks to the folk at 3 and Sam at 3mobilebuzz for the invite. They treat bloggers, both big and small, the same as they treat the mainstream journos. Which is nice.
*I tried but failed to come up with a Bold 3-in-1 pun that would make sense, that was the best I could do!
**I won't pretend to be an expert on BlackBerrys. Hell, I've only just learnt that the second 'B' in the name is capitalised and that the plural of BlackBerry isn't BlackBerries - it's BlackBerrys.
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