Remember 808 PureView, that 41-megapixel smartphone Nokia has unveiled at this year’s Mobile World Congress? Well, it’s finally coming to the U.S. through Amazon.
The device will be available unlocked and unsubsidized, which brings us to the price — a hefty $699.
As far as specs go, Nokia 808 PureView’s claim to fame is its 41-megapixel sensor, still unmatched (in terms of resolution) in the world of mobile phones.
The device also sports a single core 1.3 GHz CPU, a 4-inch, 360 x 640 pixel screen, 512 MB of RAM and 16 GB of storage. It will play nice with AT&T’s 3G network, and it’ll also work on T-Mobile’s network, but only 2G will be supported.
The exact date of availability is unknown at this point, but pre-sales on Amazon start later this week.
T-Mobile cuts roaming rates for Europe - zdnet.co.uk
The new bolt-ons, called 'Internet Travel Boosters' and 'Broadband Travel Boosters' will allow a customer to add them to their package on arrival at their destination. The user is simply redirected to a page where they can buy the add-ons when they first connect to a mobile network, T-Mobile said.
"Once the purchase is complete, they can immediately continue to browse the internet, update Facebook, email or download apps and documents without the worry of paying more than they expect when they return from their travels," T-Mobile said in a statement.
The internet booster allows smartphone-only usage while the Broadband booster can be used with "all mobile broadband devices", such as dongles and tablets.
Pricing for the boosters starts from £1, T-Mobile said. The amount of data allocated for each booster depends on the country being visited. For example, within Europe a £1 internet or booster plan would provide 3MB of data usage. To get the same amount of data use while on holiday in the US would require a £5 booster.
However, visiting places further afield, such as Hong Kong, still attracts significant commitments, with 3MB of data costing £20. Currently, and without the bolt-on, T-Mobile customers visiting Hong Kong are charged £7.50 per MB for data. Increasing the amount of the bolt-on does provide some economy of scale, but 20MB of data, even with the bolt-on, will still cost £75.
The decision to reduce costs, albeit primarily within Europe, makes T-Mobile the fourth of the five major UK operators to announce reduced roaming rates before the new EU roaming regulations come into effect on 1 July. Only Orange is yet to announce new rates.– Ernest Doku, uSwitch.com
It's still down to consumers to protect themselves and make bill shock a thing of the past.
Earlier in June, Vodafone also announced it was cutting its prices for roaming within the EU. The EuroTraveller add-on costs £3 per day and allows contract customers to use their normal monthly call time and data allowance. Out of bundle charges are then charged at UK rates.
Despite the clampdown from regulators on roaming rates within the EU, Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at price-comparison site uSwitch.com, doesn't think some of the new measures go far enough.
"We have now seen four of the five major providers take steps to protect their customers. However, with Orange still to show its cards and some of the packages not going quite far enough, it's still down to consumers to protect themselves and make bill shock a thing of the past," Doku said in a statement.
T-Mobile slashes data roaming prices for EU - The Guardian
T-Mobile has unveiled details of a market-leading tariff for consumers who want access to the internet through mobile phones while overseas, and announced plans that will prevent customers experiencing "bill shock" when they return from travelling.
The cost of using your mobile phone to access the internet is set to fall dramatically across Europe from 1 July following implementation of rules to stop UK mobile providers setting excessive charges.
It means holidaymakers may finally be able to chat to friends on Facebook or watch YouTube on the beach without breaking the bank.
Some consumers have suffered bill shock after unwittingly running-up charges amounting to thousands of pounds while on holiday, after leaving data-hungry smartphone apps running in the background.
Source: consumerchoices.co.uk However, mobile providers are introducing lower roaming charges and deals on data allowances in anticipation of tighter pricing controls.
T-Mobile will allow customers to buy "booster" deals, based on how much data they wish to use, and will completely block overseas internet usage until customers purchase one of the new packages (available from 19 June).
Comparison site Broadband Choices said T-Mobile was the best option for consumers wishing to use the internet briefly, buying 3MB worth of data for just £1 or 33p per MB.
However heavy internet users might find other tariffs cheaper than T-mobile's larger bundles, which are priced at £5 for 20MB and £10 for 50MB (both have time limits).
Three is offering an "all-you-can-eat" tariff, the Euro Internet Pass, for £5, while Vodafone will allow customers to use their existing UK plan overseas for an extra £3 a day.
However Three's Euro Internet Pass will not allow streaming or tethering – where a mobile is linked to a laptop to enable internet access.
For frequent travellers Virgin Mobile's new data passes, available from 25 June2012, are valid for three months or until the data is used up, so there is no need to use all the data allowance within 24 hours. This makes the £3 charge for 5MB or £5 for 10MB reasonably cost effective.
A megabyte of data is equivalent to accessing eight normal web pages or 200 emails without attachments, according to Which?. You would need 10MB to download one music track.
The Guardian has reported on several cases of mobile bill shock in recent weeks, including that of Alexandra Xanthaki, who faced a £2,600 bill after using an iPhone app to find restaurants on a short trip abroad.
Consumers can also end up considerably out of pocket if their phone is stolen. Johan Potgieter, was landed with a £9,000 bill from Orange after thieves stole his phone while he was on holiday in South Africa.
The EU ruling caps charges imposed by UK network providers for overseas roaming.
From 1 July, the cost of data can be no more than €0.70 per MB, plus VAT, which is around 69p. This will then fall to 45 cents plus VAT, around 36p, in July 2013 and 20 cents plus VAT (around 16p) in July 2014 – vastly cheaper than some UK providers' current European rates.
Orange, for example, charges £3.07 per MB if you want to surf the net in Europe, while Three's pre-EU ruling fee is £1.28 per MB.
But some of the new pricing plans are not straightforward , with some only available to contract customers, leaving pay-as-you-go users facing higher costs, while others penalise light internet users.
Dominic Baliszewski from Broadband Choices said: "Even with these new lower costs, charges can quickly rack up. A £3 charge is still a lot if you're only using 1MB to quickly check your emails. A £3 data charge per day will cost £42 if used daily over a two week trip."
The EU rule does not affect the prices providers can charge for data roaming outside the European Union but from 1 July, people travelling further afield will at least get a warning text message, email or pop-up window from their mobile provider when they are nearing €50 of data downloads, or their pre-agreed level. Consumers will then have to confirm they are happy to go over this level in order to continue their data roaming.
Nokia 808 PureView makes US debut, still no word on UK availability - mobot.net
Look, we understand Nokia's pretty busy right now trying to make a success of the Windows Phone thing, but surely it hasn't escaped its notice that in the Nokia 808 PureView it has probably the most interesting new device announced this year?
The reason we ask is that Nokia has just made the 808 PureView official in the US, effectively upgrading it from “coming ever?” to “coming soon”.
The 41-megapixel mobile snapper was unveiled for the first time back at Mobile World Congress in February, and it's no exaggeration to say that it stole the whole Show, something just about nobody would have thought possible from a device running everyone's favourite OS whipping boy Symbian.
Since then, however, the 808 PureView has largely been a homage to how Nokia used to launch phones all too regularly: make a big deal about it, do nothing for months than finally start selling it just when everyone has completely forgotten about it.
That last part probably won't happen with the 808 considering just how unique it really is, but Nokia seems to be doing its best anyway. We've had pre-order pages and about five or six different supposed launch dates, yet here we are running down the clock to the second half of the year and we still have no idea when we'll be seeing it.
June 21 – as in Thursday – seemed a good bet for a long while, but that's now looking unlikely and it seems those who said the 808 PureView will only arrive in July are going to be proved right.
That's unless it only arrives in August, of course...
No comments:
Post a Comment