Virgin Media unleashes sub £10 handset

VM560 to cost just £9.99

9 September 2011 11:56 GMT / By Paul Lamkin

  Virgin Media has announced what has to be one of the cheapest mobile phones of all time - the £9.99 VM560.
Manufactured by Alcatel One Touch, the VM560 is a candy bar handset that doens't have any of the hardware or features to worry the iOS or Android brigade, but comes in at a price that is less than some of the apps for those platforms.
The £9.99 price is available with a £10 PAYG top-up and for that you'll be getting 300 texts. You can also surf the web for 50p a day - that'll buy you 50MB.
As for the phone itself, it's not likely to hit any Top 10 lists, but for around the same price as a couple of pints in a West End bar then you can't really afford to be picky.
It's got a 2-megapixel camera, MP3 playback, an FM radio and is Wi-Fi enabled too. It can also handle a microSD up to 8GB. For less than a tenner, we say that's not half bad.
It's out now, available direct from Virgin Media in black chrome. A pink version will land on 19 September.
source: http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/42002/virgin-media-sub-10pound-phone

Nokia CEO says Google Motorola deal creates uncertainty for Android ecosystem

And rules out Microsoft takeover

9 September 2011 13:56 GMT / By Paul Lamkin

  Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has come out all guns blazing in defence of Nokia's decision to jump aboard the good ship Windows Phone 7, rather than taking the Android path.
Speaking in China, Elop said that the Google / Motorola deal has caused some big waves in the Andoid arena, saying that "it's only with time that we'll fully understand" the deal.
He said that for other manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung, there will no be concerns as to how the deal will affect their Android allegiances.
"It creates a great deal of uncertainty for the Android ecosystem," he said. "I'm sure it is of great concern for many of the Android participants."
Elop also dismissed suggestions that Nokia may end up making a similar move to Motorola, by becoming part of Microsoft.
"We see our future as a standalone company and we don't anticipate any chnages as it relates to Microsoft," he said.
The CEO,  who's proved that he's not afraid of making big calls already during his spell as Nokia boss, also indicated that he fully expects the company to bounce from its recent slump thanks to the Windows Phone move.
"We believe that the quality of the experience with the new Nokia devices will be attractive to existing Symbian customers, as well as to customers of other operating systems environments."
Elop said that testing for Nokia's Windows Phone 7 devices had gone well, resulting in positive feedback. He also statetd that current Symbian customers will be able to make use of certain measures to transfer "certain details" across to the new platform. Whether this means a dedicated app, we'll have to wait and see.
The first devices will land in Q4, he said, and the launch will be on a country by country basis.
source: http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/42005/nokia-ceo-predicts-android-uncertainty

Bada 2.0 adds a Wave of excitement for older Samsung phones

New OS arriving this year on all models

9 September 2011 9:45 GMT / By Paul Lamkin

  Do you now look at your Samsung Wave or Wave II device with contemptuousness hidden beneath your eyes, following the unveiling of the awesome looking, Bada 2.0 packing, Wave 3 over at IFA?
Do you long for some Bada 2.0 action to at least put you on an OS-par with your Wave based contemporaries?
Well look and long no longer (or actually, just for a bit more) as it has been announced that Bada 2.0 will be making its way to the older Wave models later this year.
The news was confirmed in a tweet from Samsung's Bada team, although they did warn that the features could differ slightly when it arrives in Q4, due to "device specification such as CPU, memory size, etc."
Bada may not be on a par with the likes of iOS or Android, but at the last count there were more than 4.5 million users worldwide and in Q2 it proved more popular than Windows Phone 7.
source: http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/41997/bada-2-for-older-wave