Caught this on thestar.com

With an updated version or, possibly, versions of Apple’s iPhone expected this summer, the rumour mill surrounding BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion Ltd.’s much-anticipated response has officially kicked into overdrive.

Waterloo-based RIM has said little about its upcoming wireless email devices, but there are nevertheless dozens of photos circulating on the Internet that purport to show everything from new BlackBerry designs to leaked technical documents about a new BlackBerry mobile operating system.

For example, a blog claimed yesterday to have photographs of a yet-to-be released BlackBerry dubbed “kickstart” that resembles the consumer-oriented Pearl model, but is designed as a flip or clamshell-style phone instead of RIM’s traditional candy bar shape.

While it’s possible the kickstart is nothing more than a speculative rendering, several observers said the concept was indeed plausible.

Hmmmmm….

Ewan sent me this link today.

Well, things are looking up for Rogers customers. Word on the street has it that the Nokia N95 is due to hit Rogers’ GSM network on May 2. The Canada-bound variant of the Nokia N95 should hit market sporting the same 5 megapixel camera, GPS receiver, WiFi, TV-out, and 3G HSDPA data connection that the US enjoys. And, with the help of Rogers, the Nokia N95 should be able to make use of its video call camera.

Pricing for the Nokia N95 on Rogers is reported to hit $699 without contract.

And, all you Canadian iPhone hopefuls (those of you that haven’t already jumped across the border for an unlocked iPhone) may soon be able to get your hands on a Rogers-locked Apple iPhone in the near future. The Toronto Star cites industry sources as indicating that Rogers is gearing up to launch a touchscreen-based handset campaign with the release of the master of touchscreen handsets, the Apple iPhone. The iPhone’s entry into Canada has been speculated to as being held up by the country’s costly GSM data plans. But, with the launch of the Rogers’ $20 unlimited data plan, the “Communicate Value Pack,” Rogers is believed to be preparing to receive the heralded iPhone.

Ok good, good. A year too late but hey. It’s about time someone clued in. Honestly, it’s getting to the point where if I see one more person with a RAZR and they think it’s top of the line I’m going to scream.

There is better out there people! SEE!

Ok so it’s not great, I know you’re sitting there going “ahh but we already have those and have had them forever” yes i know, but baby steps, right direction and all eh?

And they have to introduce the unlimited data, they have to. (Although $20/month is too much, hello! Bell is doing it for $7, although only with the Touch.) you can’t give someone a phone like this and not give them unlimited data.

“Here you go sir, here’s your top of the line BMW with power windows and GPS and leather and heated seats and this and that, but you’re only allowed to drive it and not touch anything. Yes that’s right, only drive, don’t touch any buttons. Roll the windows down by hand and oh, here’s a map.”

Fingers crossed.

I was chatting briefly with Bruce Renny about their spectacular arrival on the OTC Bulletin Board yesterday at around $1 billion. I was in and out of meetings the whole day (glued to my Nokia E61i — I think I walked from Euston to Charlotte Street without hardly looking up, knocking out the emails) so I didn’t get a chance to call in with ROK to congratulate them on their listing.

I was reduced to asking for a brief set of words by email from ROK CEO, Laurence Alexander, on the success and got this straight back from him.

“We’ve come a long way in a fairly short space of time - something you, Ewan, would know all about! Thanks for your mobile blog - it’s essential reading.”

Top man Laurence. Top man! Once again - congratulations everyone at ROK.

I got this email from Ewan this morning with this picture attached. At first I thought he was just taunting me, cause I’ve been bugging him forever to buy me an iPhone. (By the way, Christmas is coming! then I looked a little bit closer and saw what the article was really about. Someone has knitted themselves an iPhone.

Pure genius!

As someone who is ridiculously addicted to knitting, I will now have to spend hours staring down this tiny picture trying to figure out how they did it so I can make one of my own. It still doesn’t get you out of buying me one though Ewan

The credit for coming up with the woollen iPhone goes to Ann Orton of Salt Lake City, Utah. Nicely done Ann!

(Thanks to Mike for snapping this one in today’s Guardian newspaper — looks like it might have been from the G2 section).

Not a shocker here I don’t think, but Time has named the iPhone the invention of the year.

Read more here

(I just love how they call it touchy-feely :D)

Great news from the team at SpinVox, their new service has enabled Voice-Driven posts to popular social networking services such as Facebook, Jaiku and Twitter. Just speak your post into any mobile handset and Social Networks through SpinVox will create the text and post it for you. No need to send an email, SMS etc.

London, UK. - October 25 2007
The power of social networking and microblogging increased significantly today with the announcement from SpinVox, the global leader in Voice-to-Screen messaging, that posting on Facebook, Jaiku and Twitter can be now achieved simply by using your voice. `Social Networks through SpinVox` enables voice-driven social networking from any mobile phone.

“The use of social networks and micro-blogging sites has exploded in the past few years, but, so far, they’ve lacked true mobility and so are not achieving their full potential. Whether you’ve just walked out of a concert or have discovered a great new place to eat, your voice can now be used in place of the keyboard to tell the world the news and capture your thoughts, emotions and experiences `in the moment` as and when they happen.”

Well *that* explains why James Whatley’s status updates on Facebook started appearing in quotation marks!

Check out more info here

With the end of the year getting closer and closer, SMS Text News wants to know…

What do you think was the one biggest thing in the mobile industry this past year?

and

What are your predictions for the biggest thing to come next year?

ROK Entertainment Group, the specialist mobile technology and applications developer, today announced ROK Talk, its new and wholly unique mobile conference-calling application, with an invitation for 500 people worldwide to join a BETA trial.

ROK Talk enables simple and affordable group calling, all managed directly from the user’s mobile phone. In just a few seconds, subscribers an instantly create or schedule conference calls with up to 30 people simultaneously using the familiar ‘contacts’ list already on their handset.

The ROK Talk solution manages invitations and introductions on the users behalf, and even allows in-call control of the conference directly from the handset - a first in the industry. Call costs are substantially lower than traditional conferencing solutions – and far more immediately actionable – making the product attractive for personal use. It’s free to receive a ROK Talk call too.

“ROK Talk connects families and other social groups as easily as it connects  a businessman with his colleagues around the world. This is our first step into giving businesses and the socially networked generation the tools they need to communicate more effectively, and we believe that there is massive potential here to not only revolutionise group calling, but to make it as seamless and ultimately as ubiquitous as person-to-person calling is now.” said Lawrence Alexander, CEO of ROK.

If you’re interested in joining the free trial of ROK Talk - you;ll need a Symbian 3rd Edition device such as the Nokia N73, E65, E61, E61i - you can register at www.roktalk.com.

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/

To all iPhone customers:

I have received hundreds of emails from iPhone customers who are upset about Apple dropping the price of iPhone by $200 two months after it went on sale. After reading every one of these emails, I have some observations and conclusions.

First, I am sure that we are making the correct decision to lower the price of the 8GB iPhone from $599 to $399, and that now is the right time to do it. iPhone is a breakthrough product, and we have the chance to ‘go for it’ this holiday season. iPhone is so far ahead of the competition, and now it will be affordable by even more customers. It benefits both Apple and every iPhone user to get as many new customers as possible in the iPhone ‘tent’. We strongly believe the $399 price will help us do just that this holiday season.

Second, being in technology for 30+ years I can attest to the fact that the technology road is bumpy. There is always change and improvement, and there is always someone who bought a product before a particular cutoff date and misses the new price or the new operating system or the new whatever. This is life in the technology lane. If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you’ll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon. The good news is that if you buy products from companies that support them well, like Apple tries to do, you will receive years of useful and satisfying service from them even as newer models are introduced.

Third, even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.

Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple’s website next week. Stay tuned.

We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple.

Steve Jobs
Apple CEO

http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/05/technology/apple_announcement/index.htm?postversion=2007090513

Well there you go. Now that I’m now twitching with my typical “ooh it’s pretty I want one” that seems to come over me with all Apple products, *Looks lovingly at her iMac, MacBook and first generation iPod Mini in pink, of course.* Apple has unveiled the new iPod touch, and the ability to buy customizable ringtones from iTunes for 99 cents.

SAN FRANCISCO (Business 2.0) — Apple announced Wednesday the first major overhaul of its popular iPod music digital players in nearly two years.

The company also announced a new version of its iTunes music store that will allow users to buy songs wirelessly. iTunes will also sell customizable 99-cent ringtones for the iPhone

It’s pretty, I want one

UPDATE: Apparently they’ve dropped the price of the iPhone by $200 too. Ewan will you buy me one now? Pleaaaaase?

We’re putting together a promotional piece for SMS Text News and could use your help.

We’re looking for what you think about us and how SMS Text News is beneficial for you. You know, your typical quote or testimonial type thing.

If you’d like to lend us a few of your words, drop me a line and we may just get your name in lights.

Mobile entertainment company ROK have just unveiled their brand new ‘iPod killer’ mobile music service - ROK Media Store.

The service is a free web-based application which lets you upload your music collection to your PC and transfer - or ’sideload’ it - to your mobile phones memory card. In addition, you can also purchase music and video content online from a shop on the website.

“More than 100 million iPods have been sold worldwide in the past five years, which clearly shows the enormous demand for music on the move” said Laurence Alexander, CEO of ROK . “Mobile entertainment is a proven market which stretches back more than 25 years from the days of the Sony Walkman, but when you look at the far bigger scale of the mobile phone market, with  3 billion handsets in use, being upgraded at the rate of 1 billion new handsets every year, ROK Media Store is designed to allow millions more people the opportunity, right now, to upload, manage and listen to music on their mobiles, in the same way those with an iPod have been able to do.”
 
“Most handsets are now sold with a removable memory card and while the cost of memory cards has fallen considerable in the past year or so, their capacity is increasing all the time” added Alexander “so we see people building a library of memory cards containing their favourite music, managed via Media Store.”
 
ROK believes Media Store is an “iPod killer” not because it competes with the iPod as another device like Microsoft’s Zune, but because it offers a real and viable alternative designed for a device you already own - your mobile phone.
 
“We’re not aiming to kill the iPod by simply offering yet another iPod-type device” said Alexander “we’re offering an easy-to-use and free-to-use, mass-market alternative to having to buy an iPod.”
 
ROK intend to monetise Media Store through a combination of online advertising and through offering people the chance to purchase additional content via the website for side-loading to their mobile phones, in a similar manner as iTunes.

There’s a really hot announcement in the field of mobile music brewing. It’s so hot, in fact, it’s got potential to completely kill off a certain device that we all know and love, and totally change the whole entertainment arena.

I should be able to spill the beans tomorrow - in the meantime keep watching this space..

Link: Truphone press office

Literally just popped into my inbox, is the news that Truphone have won their court injunction against T-Mobile. The judge in the case has instructed T-Mobile to stop blocking calls to Truphone.

An electronic version of the judgement is expected tomorrow - in the meantime you can read the Truphone blog entry for more details.

Congratulations to James Tagg and all at Truphone!

Link: Euro iPhone launch will reveal 3G handset for Vodafone, T-Mobile | Reg Hardware

I like rumours and gossip. They keep the industry interesting - although they don’t always come true.

Veteran tech and mobile journo Guy Kewney has reported that Apple are about to announce the launch of the European version of the iPhone. It’ll be 3G, available from the Carphone Warehouse, and hooks into deals with operators T-Mobile and Vodafone.

The announcement is due today, so watch this space.

I can’t tell you how long I have been waiting for this sort of thing to be implemented.

FINALLY.

It makes SO much sense:

Link: St. Michael’s School in Kent gets SMS text system to contact parents :: PublicTechnology.net :: e-Government & public sector IT news + job vacancies:

St. Michael’s School, an independent school in Otford, Kent, is engaging parents and safeguarding pupils with Call Parents, an automatic parent notification system from Truancy Call Ltd. The service enables staff at the school to send messages on school closures, upcoming events and school trips to parents via text message. (The system can also send messages via e-mail and automated phone calls).

It’s about time. I’m delighted to read news of this being implemented.

Kudos to everyone at Truancy Call Ltd. The sort of service should be in every school.

Kudos to Chris Young, Bursar at St. Michael’s School, who, I assume, played a key part in getting the system installed. He comments:

Chris Young, Bursar at St. Michael’s School, comments: “Installing Call Parents has allowed us to send quick text messages to parents at the click of a mouse. We wanted a method of getting in contact with parents effectively and Call Parents has gone beyond our expectations.”

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

More of the same, please!

If you’re a British school Governor, please make sure someone in the school implements a text update system.

Link: MusicStation…the future of mobile music!

Omnifone have today launched a brand new all-you-can-eat mobile music service, called MusicStation. In an attempt to steal some of the thunder from iTunes and the forthcoming iPhone, MusicStation allows mobile phone users to gain unlimited access to full music tracks on industry-standard mobiles for a small weekly fee.

They’ve got a stackload of licensing deals too, including Universal Music Group, SONY BMG, EMI Music, Warner Music International and many major independent labels such as Beggars Group, Vital:PIAS Digital and leading global mobile distributor VidZone Digital Media. This’ll mean that you’re not just limited to a handful of artists, or only have access to unsigned bands. We’re talking major artists here, and songs you’ve definitely heard of.

Rob Lewis, CEO of Omnifone, said: “MusicStation’s launch today heralds the beginning of the next generation of mobile music. Hundreds of millions of mobile phone subscribers worldwide will soon gain the ultimate music freedom - the ability to download and play unlimited amounts of music, wherever they are, through a fantastic easy-to-use digital music experience, which works on almost any phone. Consumers will have the ability to legally access, download and enjoy an unlimited amount of music, from an international and localised music catalogue, supported by the whole music industry, all for a small weekly fee. MusicStation users can download music, wherever they are, at any time and with no charge for data.”

The first network to offer Omnifone services to their customers is Sweden’s Telenor, with handsets pre-installed with MusicStation hitting stores in the country today. As well as Sweden, Omnifone confirms it has now entered into partnerships with 30 mobile operators with networks in the following territories: Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK.

Link: Mac Rumors: iPhone Details from AT&T’s Sales Training Workbook

Apple news website Mac Rumours has got hold of a copy of the full iPhone Training manual provided to AT&T employees - and a quick scan through reveals some interesting details about Apple’s new long awaited product.

Here’s some interesting highlights:

• No MMS messaging support for photos or videos
• SMS messages can be threaded, conversation style
• You can sync it with your iTunes as if it was an iPod
• Doesn’t support mobile TV or streaming video
• Email support for POP3, IMAP, and Yahoo! Push Mail
• GPS is not part of the iPhone feature set

Plenty more info - and scans from the manual - here.

Link: nuTsie

Now this *is* cool. Been itching to post about this since the press release came in yesterday, but it was embargoed until Tuesday.. and now that it is indeed Tuesday, let me spill the beans..

Built on top of Meledeo’s mobile streaming technology, nuTsie allows you to get your whole iTunes library on your mobile. No faffing around with syncing, splashing out on a huge memory card, or downloading tracks to your mobile. All you have to do is visit the nuTsie site, upload your iTunes library, get a link sent by text to your mobile and off you go.

Another cool feature is you can share playlists with your mates. You don’t have to have your PC running all the time either to get to your tunes from your phone, which is quite neat.

Will try and do a full review later in the week.. in the meantime give it a go for yourself, and let me know what you think!

Link: BBC NEWS | Business | Deutsche Telekom backs VoIP firm

Deutsche Telekom is backing the internet telephone company Jajah, becoming the first major phone company to support such technology.

T-Online Venture Fund chairman Andreas Kindt said in a company statement: “By investing in companies like Jajah, we will be able to continue to bring users around the world the innovative solutions they are looking for.”

Curious and curiouser. So on one hand you’ve got Vodafone and Orange, in the ‘VOIP is bad for business as people won’t use our network to make voice calls, so let’s block it every way we can’ camp - and on the other T-Mobile’s parent company who’ve just pumped a load of cash into a VOIP related company.

This one will be interesting to watch…

Link: fring » Twitter inside!

I’ve been waxing lyrically about Fring to my mates after finding it a couple of weeks ago. If you don’t know about Fring, go to their website and check it out - or alternatively wait a day or two longer til I get my arse in gear and finish off the review I’ve been slaving over for this very blog

Anyway, some great news - Fring have just added Twitter support. This means I can use just one application for Twitter, MSN, Skype, SIP, and Google Talk. If you’ve already got Fring, you don’t have to upgrade the software - just go to Settings > Configure Services and scroll down, where you should see Twitter.

Fring have even made a nice video and put it on their blog to show you how to add Twitter.

There’s been a few postings recently on here about Nuance, who are a leader in the speech recognition arena. Dave at Schwartz PR has just been in touch with the rather hot piece of news that Nuance has just bought VoiceSignal, another company in the same arena.

According to Nuance’s chairman and CEO, Paul Ricci:

“Today, more than two billion people worldwide rely on mobile phones to stay connected, informed and productive. We see an expanding opportunity in helping consumers to use the powerful capabilities of their phones and to access the array of content and services available on the mobile Web”.

“We understand how to unlock the extraordinary potential of the mobile experience with speech. VoiceSignal’s roster of solutions, language experience, relationships and talented employees will help Nuance deliver on the promise of the mobile lifestyle for consumers, device manufacturers, carriers and mobile Web content providers.”

And this is what Rich Geruson, CEO of VoiceSignal, had to say:

“By combining forces with Nuance, we can accelerate the realization of our common vision for mobile handsets: to eliminate the input bottleneck from small, mobile device keypads and make accessible to users the full power of mobile devices”.

“Joining Nuance’s assets with our capabilities in mobile positions the company well in the exciting, dynamic market of mobile search, where a voice interface will be the key to unlock its potential.”

The combined company has got some big plans in the world of voice synthesis and recognition, including voice-based mobile search, speech to SMS/MMS, voice-activated dialing, and all sorts of other goodies. Definitely one to watch in the coming months!
 

In another first for SMS Text News, we bought you this story earlier today (see this post). As promised, here’s some more info.

ROK Entertainment Group, UK-based developer of mobile entertainment services and technologies, today announced the provision of the worlds first video-on-demand (VOD) mobile TV service streamed over mass market 2.5G GPRS. The up-graded VOD mobile TV service is available now on ROK TV.

Fantastic news for a great UK company! I’ve been watching ROK’s service expand with interest - and this is even more confirmation that they’re poised to set the industry alight.

“This is a massive technological breakthrough with regards to mobile TV, going forward” said Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman and CEO, ROK Entertainment Group “as we are now able to offer true on-demand mobile TV over mass-market 2.5G via GPRS to the ever-growing number of people with a GPRS data package included in their mobile tariff”.

Another reason for the mobile operators to sort out their data pricing. T-Mobile get it, Three get it, but why don’t companies like O2 and Orange (see here and here)? Anyway, back to Jonathan..

“Given that viewers only have the opportunity to watch TV on their mobiles for a few minutes at a time, we believe most people will be reluctant to pay anything more than a token amount to receive full-length broadcast TV on their mobiles” Kendrick went on to say “and that’s why we have not only made mobile TV available over mass-market 2.5G GPRS, rather than just over 3G networks, but have also enhanced the viewing experience by making the non-live channels truly VOD”.

Well done that man. Having travelled extensively with a 3G phone in the past year or so, I’m still disappointed to report that even recently, in some pretty urban areas, 3G data is a no-no. Until the networks get their networks upgraded, GPRS is sometimes the only option available.

If you’re interested in having a play, you’ll find the new VOD facility on the non-live channels over at the ROK website - and at just 99p per channel or £9.99 for the whole bouquet of 22 channels (with the first two months free), it’s a pretty good deal - especially if your mobile operator doesn’t provide their own TV-over-data offering, or insist on charging the earth for a load of pants content you don’t want.

 

Just had a brief note from Bruce over at ROK, to let me know they’ve just launched a world first - true video on demand (VOD) over 2.5G GPRS. This means that ROK TV viewers are now able to forward, reverse and pause the non-live channels on ROK TV. Wicked!

More details and a press release coming later today, so watch this space!

Remember that company that I blogged about a few days ago? The one that the first part of the word rhymes with ‘yoda’, and the second part is a misspelling of ‘phone’? With me? Good. Well, I’ve just heard something interesting on the anonymous tips grapevine. And sod it, in the interest of free speech I’m going to name them.

A while back, in November 2006 to be precise, Vodafone had a little problem with overcharging their customers for premium SMS. It wasn’t a huge amount of overcharging - an additional 12p per premium SMS to be precise - but all those 12p’s added up. Quite a bit of press coverage later, and a rather embarrasing Vodafone press office initially denying all reports, and they admitted their was a problem. A few weeks later of refunding and wiping egg off their face, it all went quiet.

Roll forward to April 2007. My source indicates that Vodafone have been at it again for at least two weeks, but this time we’re talking a huge amount of overcharging. Apparently, due to a ‘malfunction’ in one of their billing engines, thousands of Vodafone customers were being charged £5 for *every* premium SMS they received - whatever the tariff. So 25p plus normal network charges would end up costing you over a fiver. Text your favourite radio station a handful of times in one day and you could easily be £20-£30 out of pocket.

Of course everythings fine and dandy in the land of Vodafone as they claim to have fixed the problem and refunded everybody at the end of April. With interest, compensation for inconvenience, and a nice goodwill gesture for being so utterly crap? I doubt it somehow.

It’s yet another nail in coffin for the world of premium SMS - and what with consumer awareness of premium sms and voice ‘rip-offs’ at an all time high of late, no wonder they want to keep it quiet.