It seems certain that Palm will announce sometime next week that it has sealed an agreement with the 02 network to become their exclusive UK partners for their eagerly anticipated Palm Pre handset.

The new Palm Pre went on sale in the US last month and has been getting rave reviews as a possible alternative to the iPhone.

02 already have an exclusive deal in place with Apple to stock the iPhone in the UK and it’s a major coup to also have the exclusive deal for the Palm Pre. This deal will further reinforce their position as the UK’s largest mobile phone network. It’s believed that 02 had to fight off stiff opposition from Orange before finally securing the exclusive deal.

Unofficial sales figures in the US indicate that the Palm Pre has sold around 300,000 units and analysts see the device having a major role in reversing the fortunes of the company who have seen their market share decline over recent years.

Earlier this year, Palm’s chairman, Jon Rubinstein, said that launching a hit device was the vital first step on the road to recovery. “We’ve been fighting the battle with basically both hands tied behind our back for the past year and half,” he said. “Now we’re getting on the playing field, and we’re going to be extremely competitive. But it’s the beginning.”

The arrival of the iPhone a couple of years ago radically changed the handset market with its touchscreen and innovative features. Like many other handset manufacturers Palm had to do a rethink on their mobile phone strategy to compete with a device like the iPhone. While other touchscreen devices like the blackberry, the Nokia 5800 and the Google G1 phone appeared in the marketplace as alternatives it has taken until now for Palm to launch what they see as a serious rival to the Apple device.

In the US the Palm Pre was launched in an exclusive deal with Sprint and has been receiving complimentary reviews. The touchscreen on the Pre is reckoned to favour comparably with the iPhone and the full slide out QWERTY keyboard on the Pal Pre has been seen as a distinct advantage over the iPhone when typing emails.

It’s unclear exactly when 02 expect to launch the Pre in the UK but sometime in late August/September looks to be a fair bet. We’re looking forward to it already.

T-Mobile UK-who provide mobile phone services for 16.7 million customers in the UK- have just announced two new price plans which have been added to the extremely popular Sim only price plan which the company offers.

The two new plans on offer are the “Solo” and the “Solo International” with these plans aimed at providing customers with better value and added benefits such as International calls.

The Solo 12 month and the Solo International tariffs both offer customers more inclusive minutes while still giving users the total flexibility of a Sim only plan. For a limited period only there is also a bonus for anyone who signs up to the £20 per month Solo plan as they will also receive internet on their phone.

Solo International is the first Sim only plan T-Mobile have offered where international calls are offered as part of the users inclusive minutes. This package offers customers who -may have family or friends who live abroad- the chance to keep in touch without having to worry about being hit with additional costs. A £20 per month International plan will give users 200 minutes to use on International calls as well as 600 minutes of call time in the UK.

Steve Mitchell, head of post pay at T-Mobile said we realise that customers are demanding more and more from their mobile phone price plans, so we’ve added extra value and international calls to our Solo deals. We introduced Solo in May last year to appeal to the growing SIM only market, and have listened to the feedback from our customers to bring new benefits and levels of flexibility through our Solo International and Solo 12 month offers

Launched back in May 2008 T-Mobile’s original Sim only plan offered customers an inclusive number of minutes of calls and texts on a 30 day rolling contract. With the new tariff structure Solo 12 month customers receive more minutes for signing up for 12 months. For £20 per month customers on the 12 month Solo package receive 800 minutes of calls which is 200 more minutes than customers who sign up for the 30 day rolling contract and for a limited period new signups to the 12 month plan will also receive unlimited texts and internet access.

If you don’t want to commit to a 12 month contract the original 30 day Sim only rolling contract option is still available which gives customers unlimited texts and 1400 minutes of calls for £30 per month, while being able to keep their original handset.

These two new price plans offer something a little different and will no doubt attract customers who want a little flexibility.

The European Commission has announced that an initiative they launched to standardise chargers throughout the EC has been embraced by the mobile industry.

Ten mobile phone companies(including Apple, Sony Ericsson, Rim, LG and Nokia among others) and chip manufacturers have signed up to the initiative and agreed to an EU norm that would see a standard micro-usb connector to provide compatibility. It’s a bit of a surprise that Apple have agreed to the pact, as they were missing from the original list of participating companies when the scheme was first announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona back in February. An Apple spokesman explained that the reason for the discrepancy between the lists is that Apple is not a member of the GSMA, but is a member of Digital Europe, whose members are supporting the MoU. Some companies who were on the first list-Vodafone,3, T-Mobile and Orange-are noticeably absent from the current list and it would appear they have decided not to sign up to the initiative.

“As we’ve said in the past, we are committed to the Apple dock connector, and this initiative will not require us to change it. Today’s memorandum gives manufacturers the option to provide an adapter that connects with the universal charger,” he said

Hopefully the introduction of the standardised charger will mean mobile users will no longer have to trawl through a drawer full of various chargers to find one that fits their new phone or mobile device.

Not only is this news of a standard charger great for consumers, but it is also beneficial to the environment. It’s estimated that unwanted phone accessories like chargers account for thousands of tonnes of electronic waste every year. The new chargers are also expected to have improved energy efficiency so reducing electricity consumption.

The European Commission say the new generation of inter changeable chargers are expected to start appearing in the High Street sometime in 2010 and it’s expected that they will take around 2 hours to fully charge a phone.

This new deal will only apply to the EU and will apply to “data enabled” phones that can be hooked up to a computer to exchange files and pictures.

While the news of standardisation for mobile chargers has been welcomed by the majority of consumer groups, there is still a feeling that it didn’t go far enough and should have included other portable electronic equipment such as MP3 players.

What do you think? A good idea? Or do you think chargers for all portable electronic equipment should be standardised?

O2 have announced a new deal with BT that will let their mobile broadband customers have access to thousands of BT Wi-Fi hotspots all across the UK. The new deal will let 02 account users access an additional 3000 Bt Openzone Wi-Fi hotspot locations including the majority of Starbuck outlets throughout the UK (Where BT have just won the contract to supply Wi-Fi) , as well as restaurants and telephone boxes.

The new partnership came into effect yesterday for existing 02 customers and coincided with an upgrade to 02’s Mobile Broadband Connection Manager Software, which contained the new software needed to connect to the BT hotspots. For new customers just signing up for a mobile broadband package from 02 the service will be available sometime in July.

The upgrade to the Connection Manager software will now copy existing Wi-Fi profiles from a customer’s laptop into Connection Manager automatically during the initial installation process. This will seamlessly connect users to their home or business broadband wireless networks, without the need to manually enter security codes.

The new Connection Manager Software will also let users keep closer tabs on their data usage. A data counter has been added which provides users with accurate rates of data consumption including figures for each individual session as well as overall figures.

The software will also automatically alert customers when 75%, 90% and 100% of their data allowance has been reached. This added data counter has been put in place to give customers peace of mind regarding their usage and ensures it is not exceeded. The company hopes this addition to the software will prove useful in reducing the usual number of summer holiday complaints they receive regarding large data roaming bills.

The new data counter now makes everyone responsible for monitoring their own usage and there’s now no excuse for not knowing if you have exceeded your data allowance.

Jonathan Earle, Head of Pay Monthly, said: “We appreciate that our customers want to get the most from their mobile broadband service and we continually look to provide value-added services for them. We are introducing two key changes. Firstly, expanding our Unlimited Wi-Fi proposition by introducing BT Openzone Wi-Fi hotspots allowing our customers to stay connected to the people and things that matter to them most. Secondly, we know that customers want to be able to track how much data they have used. Our simple data counter gives the control that our customers want.

Orange have announced they will be adding their first Android phone to their range here in the UK with the release of the HTC Hero which will see a Graphite finish exclusively on offer from Orange.

It’s about time Orange got themselves a nice exclusive deal as most of their rivals have had something in the Android field to offer customers while Orange have had the popular Samsung i8910 HD but not much else.

The HTC Hero will be available from all Orange retail outlets early July-probably next week-and will be available free on selected price plans as well as being available in an exclusive “Graphite” colour only from Orange.

For Orange customers who take out a 24 month contract at a cost of £39.15p per month the HTC Hero will be free. This package will include 1200 any network calls minutes, unlimited texts, plus inclusive anytime internet browsing so customers can enjoy a full mobile experience.

Francois Mahieu, Director of Devices, Orange UK said, “We’re really pleased to be launching our first Android handset in conjunction with HTC. The first of several Android devices you can expect from us this year, we believe the Hero is a great all round device which will allow consumers to get to grips with all the things they love about the internet, whilst on the move. We expect it to be extremely popular when it hits shelves this summer.”

The HTC Hero offers a 3.2 inch touchscreen, a 5 megapixel auto focus camera complete with camcorder capability a gravity sensor, Wi-Fi, AGPS and 512 MB of memory that can be further expanded up to a mammoth 16GB with a MicroSD card. The 3.2 inch touchscreen with its HGVA display also has an anti fingerprint coating designed to keep the display screen cleaner and resist smudges for longer.

Offering seven new uniquely designed user interfaces the Hero offers intuitive browsing and provides easy access to Google’s most popular services. The Android operating system also means users will be able to gain access to thousands of open source applications and tools. These applications can be downloaded directly to the handset making it possible to enhance the already outstanding capabilities of the HTC Hero even further.

We’re positive the phone will be a big hit with Orange customers when it becomes available soon and they can expect plenty of takers for their 24 month contact which will see users get the phone for free.

It can be pretty frustrating if you don’t get a decent signal for your mobile phone in your own home. Even if you do have a good signal, sometimes the strength of the signal varies considerably from room to room making it difficult- or in some cases impossible- to receive or send calls.

Vodafone may have come up with a solution with their Vodafone Access Gateway. The Access Gateway is actually a “Femtocell” which is really a small cellular base station that looks pretty similar to a router in design.

The router like device plugs directly into your broadband connection and creates a mini network boosting your mobile signal and allowing better coverage throughout the home.

The Vodafone Access Gateway will be launched on 1st July and is believed to be the first fully commercial 3G femtocell to be launched in Europe. Alcatel Lucent are believed to have built the device femtocell specialist picoChip.

Dean Bubley of Disruptive Analysis who is a Femtocell expert said “This is very much an early stage rollout, specifically aimed at coverage, and focusing on voice, not data”

“It’s certainly the first of its kind in Europe, and I see Vodafone says it will work over every home broadband line,” said Bubley. “But are all the broadband lines good enough? And it means they are at the mercy of ISP’s usage policies.”

Ian Shepherd, consumer director, Vodafone UK said, “We are committed to delivering the best, most reliable network and this is another step towards maintaining a seamless service.” he added, “The Vodafone Access Gateway will boost indoor mobile phone coverage for customers who today, find they need to move around the rooms in their home to get a consistent signal strength.”

The operator has stated that the device will be free on certain tariffs with it also being available as part of an inclusive price plan from £15 per month. The device is also available for a one-off fee of £160 or for a monthly charge of £5.

Apparently the Vodafone Access Gateway will be easy to install and will work with any 3G handset. It will also support up to four voice calls at any one time, and customers will no longer have to worry about missing call on their mobiles due to poor signal coverage indoors.

This might not be a device that everybody wants or needs but for those who have trouble getting a signal it may mean you can now stop having to go to the loo and stand upside down in the shower to get a signal.

A new Mobile phone aimed at children as young as four years of age is due to be launched shortly in the UK. The phone has been available in Ireland for a short time and has already sold more than 7000 units and is expected to be available here in the UK before the end of the year.

It’s pretty obvious from the outset that this phone is aimed at a children’s market. The Firefly is, brightly coloured, has lots of flashing lights, and incorporates fun sounds and animations. The outer casing of the phone is seeing - through and there is a small display screen that shows date and time.

The Firefly phone has been designed specifically with children in mind. It has extremely simplistic controls and offers users limited functions. There are only five function keys on the phne an on switch an off switch, a phone book key icon that can hols up to 20 numbers, and a button with a female figure (The Mum Key) and one with a male figure (The Dad key), that give direct access to mum and dad with just one press of the button.

The phone has PIN protected features so parents can have control of calls being received and block any calls from unrecognised numbers.

The Firefly mobile looks very much like the kids toy mobile phones that can be found in well known children’s educational toy stores although with a price tag in the UK believed to be around the £85 mark the Firefly is a lot more expensive.

As you might expect with a mobile phone that is being marketed for children, there has been some concerns raised on health issues that might arise from phones being used by children, with certain groups calling for primary school children not to have phones at all.

Parental groups have also raised concerns about a mobile phone that appears to be directly marketed at children

Aine Lynch, the chief executive of the National Parents Council, in Ireland told The Times: “Targeting a phone at a four-year-old causes us concern.

“It gives rise to questions as to where parental responsibility is going. Why would kids need to be contacted by mobile phone? Why are they not in the care of their parents, teachers or supervisors?”

The Dublin based couple Kevin and Frances Crean who are marketing the phone say it is not being directly marketed at children, but is being pitched at their parents.

Mrs Frean said: “They are not designed to encourage children to spend time chatting. Nor can you take photographs or send texts; though on one of our models children can receive them.”

The Firefly display flashes when making and receiving calls, during standby and when charging.

The user also has:
• 12 ringtones
• 5 animations
• 7 LCD screen backlight colours
• A huge range of accessories to choose from.
• PIN Protected
• SIM free – You choose your network and call plan
• No Texting or Downloading
• Call Screening (allowing the guardian restrict access to the phone to only the contacts stored in the phone)
• Removable emergency call button with accidental call prevention feature
• Key-lock option
• Web Wizard for downloading numbers allowing ease of use

A dedicated customer care service to help you with your queries

We always struggle to understand why children so young need a mobile phone at all and can’t see any reason a parent would want to spend £85 on this particular phone.

We realise that many parents like their children to be able to contact them in an emergency, but there are plenty of cheaper mobile phone options than this available.

What do you think should young children have their own mobile phone? Is this phone a good idea or not? Let’s hear your comments.

It has been the case sometimes when a new phone is released or is about to be released that some sneak into the marketplace before the official launch (usually at inflated prices).It has appeared in the past that some suppliers have seemed to turn a blind eye to this practice, but Nokia have got tough with some distributors after their new N97 phone was released before its official launch date.

It’s believed that Nokia warned some of their major distributors and some retailers for being too eager to get the new N97 and Nokia 6700 handsets on the shelves for their customers.

Carphone Warehouse are believed to have been rapped by Nokia for distributing the N97 phone to retailers Play.com and Mobilefun.co.uk over the past few weeks, who were both offering the phone for sale for £500 Sim free. Sources have also reveled that another distributor was also warned after they released over 300 units of the Nokia 6700 through their channels too early.

One distributor said: ‘You can sell the devices at a high price before they hit the streets due to the demand, but you risk damaging the relationship with Nokia. There is a very attractive pre-release premium for a lot of people holding the stock.’

With the release of the N97 and the 6700 over the next few weeks -the 6700 due in the shops this Friday and the N97 due for release next Wednesday July 1st- Nokia are expecting their biggest increase in market share for over 12 months which will be a welcome upturn in business. The increase in market share to just over 23% over the past couple of months has been in part due to the success of the Nokia 5800 touchscreen

The N97 has been the subject of considerable hype that has seen a tremendous amount of interest generated in the phone, which has been compared by some independent websites to the newly released Apple iPhone 3G S, which is a similar price. .The Nokia Regent Street Store and website have both been inundated with queries and people interested in both the new handsets.

Retailers are expecting the 6700 to be popular with the public as its predecessor the 6300 sold in large numbers and was hugely popular.

Phones4U has started taking deposits and pre orders for the white model of the N97 which they have exclusive sales rights for at present.

With news that the new Apple iPhone 3GS has sold one million units in three days you would think there would be no other phone selling in large numbers as all the interest seems to be with the new iPhone.

This doesn’t seem to be the case however as Samsung have announced that their new Jet S8000 smartphone has reached the 2 million mark in pre orders (although it’s not known if these figures actually include markets like the UK where the phone is already available).

Considering it has been up against the new iPhone these are pretty impressive figures and has made the Samsung jet the highest pre order phone Samsung have produced. With pre orders placed in such large numbers it’s expected that the Jet will become Samsung’s biggest ever seller, surpassing the sales levels recorded by the massively popular Samsung Tocco and Omnia ranges.

So just what is the reason that so many people seem to want this new smartphone?

Well it has been touted by Samsung as “Smarter than a Smartphone” and is the fastest full touchscreen smartphone currently available on the market anywhere in the world with its 800 MHz processor.

The new handset also has some impressive features which include multi-task manager and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync Email system, making extremely user-friendly menu navigations available to users. In addition, the multiple background download, multi purpose address field and ad-blocker and their innovative one-finger zoom that lets users zoom in and out of web pages using only one hand, all add to the ease of use for the owner.

Running on Windows Mobile Pro 6.1 the Jet S8000 has a 3.1 inch WVGA AMOLED display that is superior to the iPhone, providing a resolution four times higher than a WQVGA screen giving users vivid, vibrant colours.

The Samsung jet is also extremely stylish phone and has a sleek design. When you take into consideration the host of multimedia features like, a five-megapixel camera, built-in GPS, DNSe and SRS Sound Effect technology for superior sound quality, and DivX and XviD video support making for simple video downloading and viewing it’s no wonder so many people are interested in getting their hands on one.

Whether the Samsung Jet will be a serious rival to the iPhone over the longer term remains to be seen, but it’s certainly made a good start.

It’s a stylish smartphone with lots of nice features and one we’d be interested in owning.

Network operator O2 are threatening to disconnect any of their customers who they find using a workaround that allows them to share their iPhone’s web connection with their laptop for free.

So what exactly is it that has got O2 throwing a complete wobbly? Well the new iPhone 3GS and the version 3.0 iPhone software allows iPhone users to share the signal they receive on their mobile phone with their computer to browse the web over 3G networks, which is also known as tethering. At the moment O2 charge their customers £15 per month to use this service on top of their normal monthly tariff. But it has now emerged that someone has figured out how to enable free tethering on the iPhone without having to hack the phone.

This can be done by accessing a website using the phone and installing the necessary carrier browser and profile onto the phone and then the user’s device is ready to share its internet connection via USB or Bluetooth with your laptop.

02 say this workaround breaches their terms and conditions of service and anyone using it could be disconnected.

In a statement 02 Said, “Internet rumours suggest that some customers have modified their iPhone to enable Internet Tethering without the purchase of the Internet Tethering Bolt On, Any use of this particular feature without the purchase of the Bolt On is specifically prohibited under our terms of service.

Under those terms, we reserve the right to charge customers making modem use of their iPhone, or disconnect them. If customers wish to use the Internet Tethering feature on their iPhone 3G or iPhone 3G S, we recommend taking the Bolt On.”

It’s unclear just how 02 would be able to monitor who is using the workaround and who isn’t but Steve Alder, general manager of devices for the network provider, says that using the tethering cheat rather than paying for the service will not be tolerated.

“Laptops and computers are far more data intensive than a mobile phone and tethering an iPhone to a laptop will consume a considerable amount more bandwidth on our network, which has a cost implication to us,” he told gadget website TechRadar.

“We have ways of monitoring the data our iPhone users are consuming. There’s no limit on our mobile browsing fair use policy, but as [unpaid tethering] might affect the experience of other customers then we’ll contact them first [to alert them of the terms and conditions of their deal with O2] and if it continues then we may have to disconnect them.

“However, it’s on a case-by-case basis, and as yet we’ve never had to ring anyone. We’ll see how it goes, but hopefully people realise they would be doing something we don’t recommend.”

The £15 charge for 3Gb of data tethering that 02 charge their customers who have an iPhone has been widely critiscised with many users feeling it’s a charge that shouldn’t be made.

What do you think? Should 02 iPhone owners be paying an extra £15 for something that is freely available? Feel free to leave us your comments.