Mobile Phone News:

A recent survey carried out by the price comparison website Moneysupermarket.com questioned 2,000 UK adults about what they hate most about mobile phone usage. The top five pet hates are (in no particular order): people talking loudly on the phone; a person texting while talking to them; loud music being played on phones; using a phone in a restaurant; and swearing on the phone in public.

The conclusion to these annoying habits of others? Slapping an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) on them, that’s what! ASBOs are usually reserved for rowdy vandals who just generally want to cause mischief and upset, but one in ten Brits think the Anti-Social Behaviour Orders should be given to ‘inconsiderate’ mobile phone users.

An ASBO is, and I quote : “a binding agreement between a person or persons who have committed acts of anti-social behaviour and the police. The principle behind these orders is that they act as a legal and binding contract signed by all parties concerned in the hope that they will reduce the chances of the individual in receipt of the ASBO from causing any further acts of anti-social behaviour”. According to LawandParents.co.uk, two forms of activity which can see you being given an ASBO include: “using intimidating verbal language” and “causing excessive noise”. (So technically, three of the things mentioned in the list of bug-bears, above!!)

More than half of respondents said they believe that the thoughtless use of mobiles in public should be punished - with the most popular option being a 12-month ban on using their phone in public. But one in 10 respondents went further; suggesting offending mobile users should be given ASBOs.

So next time you’re out in public - let’s say on a train somewhere - and being a little too loud on your mobile, stop and think about others in the carriage around you - most of us don’t want to listen to how the plumber showed up 20minutes late, or how your colleague is a pain in the butt, or even what you are having for tea that night! We don’t want to listen to your fowl language and we certainly don’t want to listen to your music, most of us have iPods for that! So if you think you’re being clever and cocky doing any of the above, think again, cos we’ll be the ones having the last laugh when you are issued with an ASBO and your cheeks turn a slight shade of red. Ooooh, imagine the silence that will descend, closely followed by the titter of sniggers from the people around…

Leave us your thoughts about the use of ASBO’s for these inconsiderate phone users.

According to BoyGeniusReport.com by the end of the year, the iPhone will be available in Singapore, India, the Philippines, Australia and Canada. Apple seems to be shying away from exclusivity agreements; the SingTel version will be an exclusive launch in the Philippines and Singapore, however Vodafone is currently set to offer the iPhone in India and Australia. Optus is also set to provide Australian service while Rogers, a Canadian network operator has said they will pick up the iPhone later this year too.

The question on everyone’s lips, is will these countries opt for the current 2G iPhone, or the much awaited 3G version? My thought is, due to the lack of stock of the current model, it will be the next-gen 3G version of the handset.

Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. (the software provider for the iPhone) has announced their financial results for 2008 first quarter and stated that: “we have materially lowered our growth expectations for 2008 due in large part to reduced revenues associated with the iPhone”.

In saying that, Apple have really come up against it, with a recent report stating that in 2007 an Austrian discount chain was selling unlocked Apple iPhones, while T-Mobile sold unlocked handsets in Germany for a short time. Then in February this year, of the 3.7 million iPhones in operation in China, 10% were being operated unlocked. Only in France are unlocked iPhones officially sold, through Orange, as the law requires it there (French law dictates consumers must have the choice of choosing to buy an unlocked version). However, disappointing sales of the iPhone across Europe have recently seen Apple agree to let Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) sell unlocked iPhones without mandatory service contracts in Italy.

The sheer demand for the current iPhone is possible proof enough that the popularity of the new handset will be equally as huge… if not bigger! Unfortunately, with websites offering to unlock iPhones for as little as £29.00 (or even for free) the battle continues to make these handsets as ‘hack-free’ as possible.

Leave a comment and tell us your thoughts.

Has anyone noticed the cleverly worded adverts that appear to offer things like mobile games, ringtones and wallpapers for ‘free’, only to sting you with some indecipherable small print after you’ve signed up?

Well I have been caught out by something similar. I’m not 100% sure how it’s come about, but I’ve got a pretty good idea, and I’m quite cross. So I thought I’d warn you, as you may be getting ripped off in a similar fashion.

The last few months, I received two messages a week; the first was a little enticer - it said something along the lines of “answer the question in the following message correctly to be entered in to a prize draw to win a Wii / Apple iPhone / LCD TV” etc etc. basically dangling a carrot in front of your nose to generate interest and get people to reply. Then the second message would come through with the question and three possible answers. Now, I didn’t fall for this (as such) because the questions were so darn easy that the chances of winning were like a million to one! (And with Google etc you stood a pretty low chance of winning anyway, even if the question had been tricky!)

Anyway, I was getting these messages quite a lot, but I would simply delete them as soon as they arrived. I remember thinking “Ooo, a text message! Who’s this from? Oh… 81121″ and this feeling of disappointment would swoop over as I found it wasn’t a message from a friend haha. But one day I actually read one of the messages and the opening line was, and I quote: “FREE MESSAGE” and for some reason, that I really can’t put my finger on I immediately thought “Hmmmmmmm”. I got straight on the phone to my network operator and explained the story. She got my details up on screen and her reply was, again, I quote “Oh dear, you’re getting ripped off there Miss!”

It turns out these “free” messages were actually charging me! Despite me not doing anything with them other than deleting them!! In one month, I’d received EIGHT text messages and had been charge £6.00!! I was furious! The assistant was fantastic and advised me on what to do, which was to simply text the word “STOP” to the number. And like magic, they stopped. But even so, over the months I’d been receiving these messages I’d lost out on £15.00!!

The assistant and I got chatting and it turns out that my number may have been stored, after texting in to a TV show to vote for my favourite person to win. Now, I can’t say exactly which is one because I don’t want to point my finger and accuse wrongly but things such as reality TV shows are a classic example. Granted, this sort of thing has been going on for a long time, since certain shows were fined for still charging people for entering competitions etc after the closing times, but you don’t necessarily realise that you are a victim of it. Despite this being the case, industry regulator PhonepayPlus (the watchdog formerly known as ICSTIS) has only recently announced that it’ll be keeping a sharper eye on services.

I did a little scouting round the internet and according to The Register problems with this kind of complaint seem to have arisen from companies clearly breaking rules, for not ‘outlining clear and accurate pricing and honest advertising’, for which penalties have already been imposed in 2008. A formal review is underway that will look at how to deal with unsolicited texts and the wanton use of the word ‘free’.

According to The Register, teenagers are by far the largest target audience for these sorts of promotions, so you may want to have a little chat with kiddiewinks who have a mobile phone of their own and just advise them that there is a chance they are actually being charged for services they believe to be ‘free’.

So my advice to you is, anything that you think is suspicious and not as legit as it wants to claim, investigate with your network operator. You could be losing out on money too that you really didn’t want to give away to some sneaky company who want to cash in your vote. If you are texting for ‘free’ ringtones etc, just check the print, because you will more than likely find that you are being charged for every message you receive. It borders on exploitation if you are apathetic towards or unaware of the sorts of hidden costs you might encounter, and I’d hate to put a figure on how much they’ve managed to scam along the way…. I bet it’s along the lines of millions though!

Let me know your thoughts or share stories with us.

According to The Register a glitzy London hotel was the setting for the launch of HTC’s new handset, The Diamond. It’s the latest phone in a long line of heavyweight contenders to try and grab the crown from the iPhone - following a recent announcement from HTC, it seems as though Apple will have quite a fight on its hands.

The Diamond is roughly the same size as Apple’s iPhone, the display’s resolution is a much larger (480 x 640), although the HTC device has a smaller, 2.8in touchscreen. Again, similar to the iPhone, users can view the album covers of their music and flick across from image to image - the phone’s internal accelerometer (I feel like I should say that in a deep manly voice!) allows images to be viewed either horizontally or vertically with a flick of the wrist (sound familiar….?). Other features to mention are the built in A-GPS that you can use with your choice of satnav software and 3.5G data allowing speeds up to 7.2MBps accompanying high upload speeds via HSUPA (where’s Technical Markus when you need him hey?). There’s also built in WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, an FM radio and 3.2MP camera.

In addition to this impressive range of specifications we think it looks great as well. The back of The Diamond is very much like another big seller; Nokia’s 7900 Prism, but you could argue that this is simply a “coincidence”, call it a play on a theme - the zigzag effect is similar to that of a diamond… but then I am a girl so possibly looking in to this a little too much! Haha.

Now, I don’t get excited about a new handset very often, but the vid below shows that it IS a goooorgeous phone!! As is very similar to the Apple model, and after playing around with friends iPhones and having endless fun just flicking through the album covers, I have to say I’m rather impressed with this phone. Although, that being said, as marvellous as this all sounds, what I reeeeeeeally want to know is; will it come with a real diamond to boot? We offer gifts with our deals, granted they’re along the lines of a free wii etc but the ultimate gift with this little beauty would be a diamond necklace… or diamond earrings…. or a diamond ring…. or….

Canadian phone makers, Research in Motion (RIM) have developed a clamshell Blackberry - a flip-phone Blackberry - and pictures of the new email handset have been leaked all over the web!

RIM, the mobile phone manufacturer who is known for making the business style Blackberry range has decided to take a step closer to a more customer friendly style. According to The Register, the handset, codenamed ‘Kickstart’, uses the SureType keyboard that’s already used on the Blackberry Pearl, along with the central TrackBall for navigation.

Boygeniusreport.com are behind the leakage of this new handset, along with the photos as proof of it’s existence. BGR states: “This isn’t fake, this isn’t a hoax. We’ve known RIM is planning to launch a flip phone within the year, and we now have the pictures to prove it!”. RIM are yet to actually confirm the rumours surrounding this new Blackberry but considering the pictures that have been flying around cyber space, I would say that this is a genuine story from BGR.

Pictures indicate MP3 abilities, along with a camera, which possibly shows that RIM are targeting consumers rather than corporate types… I sometimes consider a Blackberry myself, but I’m just not sure about this. Browsing through the initial set of pics that have been leaked, it’s not exactly an attractive phone. I much prefer the Blackberry 8110 GPS Pink - to quote Melanie, it’s a “gorgeous little device”! I whole-heartedly agree!! Or for the more masculine readers amongst you, there’s always the Blackberry 8310 Curve (it comes in two colours!) with its metallic finish.

Rumour has it they are planning to release the BlackBerry “Kickstart” by the end of the year, although we’re yet to get any information on pricing or regional availability etc.

So if you’re a BlackBerry fan and you happen to have always wanted a flip-phone, looks like your wish will soon come true. Now… considering the time of year this may be launched, a certain song by Mariah springs to mind! However… I’m no karaoke queen and seeing as the sun has finally decided to show itself, I won’t spoil it!!

Let us know your thoughts about the flip-phone Blackberry. Will it be appearing on your Christmas list this year?

Following on from last week’s story about Phorm and Webwise, some more info’s come to my attention in this whole debacle. I told you all last week about how we are all sleepwalking our way into a world where we have no freedoms, no liberties, and no right to privacy. Today, I’m going to expand that argument further, and show you, beyond reasonable doubt, that what Phorm and Webwise are doing is morally wrong, ethically bad, and very probably illegal under British and European law.

First, we need to get into the legality (or lack of it, which seems more appropriate… ex-spyware-peddlers, don’t forget…) of Phorm and Webwise. Part of the massive furore over the system has been down to whether or not it will be illegal. And this is where the government got involved, specifically the Home Office, by completely turning a blind eye to it. We’ll forget for a second that the government actively WANT the ability to spy on people legitimately, and that it’s entirely likely they’ll force ISP’s to install something similar to Webwise in their own networks (which, by the way, we’ll never be told about).

No, what we need to concentrate on is the FIPR (Foundation for Information Policy Research) response to the Home Office’s turning of a blind eye. On that link you’ll find a couple of open letters, regarding the technical aspects, and more importantly, the legal aspects. However, I’ll sum up the important point for anyone who doesn’t like long-winded mumbo-jumbo and legalese (ie/ normal people like you and me)

Conclusion, drawn from the FIPR legal analysis
PHORM AND WEBWISE ARE TOTALLY, 100% ILLEGAL UNDER UK LAW. THEY ARE IN BREACH OF DATA PROTECTION LAW, RIPA LEGISLATION AND TRADING STANDARDS/FRAUD LAW.

I’d call that pretty categorical. If one can cite the specific sections of the specific acts Phorm and Webwise are in breach of, one must conclude there are some specific illegalities going on.

Of course, if that’s the case, we all KNOW the government will make amends to data protection law and RIPA to make it not be illegal. They do, after all, want it to happen…

But there’s another aspect to Phorm and Webwise that a forum contributor thought of on BadPhorm (and it’s something I’d never even considered, so my heartfelt thanks go to that guy… well, male or female, and their name, I don’t know, because unlike certain ISP’s I could mention, I respect privacy…), and that’s the very, VERY real possibility that Phorm could put YOUR company out of business.

Let me explain… Say you own an online shop that sells, for sake of argument, mobile phones. A user goes on your site, and Webwise sees (and profiles) that you’re interested in mobile phones. But then, they bombard that user with adverts for mobile phones, and this is the crucial part, FROM SHOPS OTHER THAN YOURS.

So, that user goes off and buys a mobile phone from them, and you lose the sale. Keep that up with every user who visits your site, and very soon, you’ll find that Webwise has turned your profit into loss, and has killed your business.

It’s kind of poignant that this story goes on our blog today, as today is officially the 15th birthday of the internet. 15 years ago today, the first code was laid down in the CERN lab, that would eventually flourish and evolve into the web we have today. Dubbed the creator of the internet, Sir Tim Berners-Lee put down that code 15 years ago, and today, he’s still involved in the web. What does he think of Phorm and Webwise?

No surprise, really, he hates it! And yet Kent Ertugrul, CEO of Phorm, has gone on record to imply Berners-Lee doesn’t understand the technical issues! Erm, hang on, he created the internet, I would imagine he knows a fair bit about it, Kent.

Still, what would you expect from ex-spyware-peddlers? The truth? No, I can’t see that happening.

There are ways to stop Phorm and Webwise (’Section 10 and Section 11 DPA notices served on your ISP’ springs to mind), outlined in some details over at BadPhorm, and the fight to get this illegal (according to the extensive and well-thought-out FIPR research) system stopped for good will go on. If you like your privacy, you’ll stand up and be counted.

And if not, then have fun when every single one of your communications are wiretapped and spied on, and your business has gone bankrupt, because of Phorm and Webwise…

Well, folks, Winston will be back with another hard-hitting story about Phorm and Webwise later this week (seriously, I’ve seen it. It takes no prisoners), but for today, it’s time for one of those ‘calm before the storm’ stories…

I was a-flickin’ through the internet t’other day, when I came across a story on Pocket Gamer. Now, being a massive fan of Doctor Who (and Saturday’s episode rocked, by the way), and being someone who can remember sitting in a bus shelter playing Top Trumps with his mates, you can imagine I was a tad excited when I saw that they’re making a Doctor Who Top Trumps game for mobile phones.

Yes, I’m aware of the fact I am a 30 year old boy, and I’m comfortable with that.

Even more exciting is that it’s being made by Eidos, producers of an incredible amount of top games, including the Tomb Raider series. I would imagine that most people of a certain age remember playing Top Trumps when they were kids. It was one of those things you had to do, like playing football in your dinner break, getting chased by the kids from the rough school up the road, and calling someone a Joey.

The basic premise (and it is basic) is that you and your opponent have cards, each with something on, like, for example, a Nokia N95 8Gb (and yes, I think I have seen mobile phone Top Trumps…) Then, you have different values for things like top speed, 0-60 time, and when you pick a category, whoever has the highest value wins. Then the loser throws a wobbler, slings the cards across the playing field, and starts violently attacking the other player. Who calls him a Joey.

Or, maybe that was just my childhood…

With this new computerified, mobilified version, there are three modes of play, with single player (where you face off against your mobile phone’s AI), multi-player (where you face off against your friends, and oh how ace it will be if it’s through Bluetooth) annnnnnnnnd adventure mode. I have no idea what that is, but it sounds intriguing.

Look, it does to a Doctor Who fan, ok?

Finally, after years of debating, we get to see who is tougher, the Daleks or the Master; who is sneakier, the Slitheen, or the Sontarans; and which companion is most likely to be anybody’s after a Babycham.

Ok, probably not that last one, but we can dream, can’t we??

Are you a Who fan who thinks this will rock? Are you chomping at the bit to know why Rose is back this series? Or do you think Technical Markus needs to act his age? Whichever it is, leave us a comment and have your say!

[This blog post is the sole contribution of WinstonSmith, and all views expressed are those of the contributor, and not necessarily the views of MobileShop.com. However, Technical Markus agrees with him, 100%…]

By now, you’ve probably heard about an advertising system called Phorm, a system, that profiles web browsing, in order to deliver people ‘targeted advertising’ (and if not, you NEED to read about it… for full info, check out BadPhorm). But why do I think it’s wrong? And why do I think that Britain, as a nation, is sleepwalking into a state where personal liberties and freedoms mean precisely nothing? By now, people should be aware of the company Phorm and their Open Internet Exchange/Webwise advertising system. But you know what? A lot of people aren’t. And one has to wonder whether this is down to people burying their heads in the sand, or people not understanding the implications, and if it’s the second, is someone deliberately misleading them? Let’s look at the evidence…

Well, first of all, there’s little doubt that people, when they do know the issues involved in something, are smart enough to make an informed choice. Just look at the storm of protest that’s rightly been sweeping across the internet in the wake of the Phorm news. People are saying they don’t want it on their broadband connection, and it’s eminently clear that when it’s explained to them, even people who don’t fully understand it soon go, “Hang on, what the hell are you doing with my internet??”

Which leaves us with the nasty possibility that people are deliberately trying to mislead the entire country, to get it active and watching us, without people having a say in the matter. The worrying thing with that idea is that, quite frankly, it’s the most convincing explanation of what we’ve seen. The companies involved, most notably Phorm and BT, clearly don’t want to give us the chance to say no without a lot of hassle, because Phorm’s whole business model falls down if we do! Only the criminally insane, and irredeemably stupid would say yes to a system THAT ACTIVELY SPIES ON THEM.

I’ll say that again, in case anyone’s missed the point. With the Phorm system, they are spying on us. Plain and simple, no weasel words, no marketing speak, they are taking OUR privacy, gleefully tearing it up, and wiping their nose on it. They don’t care about what we think, because human beings like us are just a commodity to them. And frankly, it makes me sick.

“Oh, but we anonymise it, no-one can tell who you are,” they always say. Well, as dubious as that claim is, I couldn’t give two flying figs whether it’s anonymised or not. You, Phorm, BT and anyone else involved, if you’re reading this, are destroying our freedom, our essential liberty. You seem to think you’re above the law and can do what the hell you like. Your arrogance is both galling and astounding. And then, then, you have the bare-faced nerve to say that you’re spying on us for our own good!

And if you want an easier-to-understand example of the implications, here, imagine it’s not your broadband connection, but your phone, and someone is listening in, without your consent, to every single phone call you make. Once they’ve made notes on everything you talk about, they try to sell you things. All using a unique, non-identifiable ID code, of course. Surely I can’t be the only person who can see that ‘unique’ and ‘non-identifiable’ are completely contradictory?

So, why isn’t the government stepping in and stopping this obvious breach of our human rights? Why are they turning a blind eye to you and me and everyone in the UK being spied on?

Has it never occurred to people that just maybe they want the system to go live as much as Phorm do? Imagine politicians rubbing their hands together in glee at the thought of always knowing exactly what we’re saying, seeing, doing and thinking. Even if they don’t use that power to abuse our essential freedoms, do you really trust a group that seems to lose some more critical and private data every other week?? That’s why we’re sleepwalking into a state where we, as humans, become less than human, become a commodity to be bought and sold. This is the thin end of the wedge, if it happens, and if it’s not stopped, we will have no freedom, no rights, no privacy. We will lose everything that makes us human. The right to free speech will go pretty quickly, I would imagine, so good luck posting articles like this in future.

Of course, another standard argument that Phorm and the ISP’s involved uses is that Google already profiles us, to deliver targetted marketing, as if 2 wrongs somehow make a right. Besides, there is a crucial difference. With Google, if we use it, it’s a free service, and it provides a VERY definite service. We as consumers know not to expect a free lunch. We search on Google, Google monitor what we search for. Fair enough, we have the option of using a different search engine if we don’t like that. At least Google aren’t charging users a monthly fee, then trying to tell them it’s a good idea to sell their details and their entire browsing history onto a marketing company with dubious backgrounds (and whose product is formally classed as Spyware by security vendors, despite the mewling protestations Phorm make to the contrary). And with Google, at least they’re looking at ways to ensue users DO have some privacy, in a clear cut way, according to the Financial Times, using ‘crumbled cookies’ and so on.

Phorm don’t even have the common courtesy to do that.

“Oh, your data is anonymised,” they say. “We can’t see everything online, we can’t see encrypted pages.”

And then, not 3 seconds later, their representative in America smugly boasts that they CAN in fact, see everything online, and steal your bank details and all your passwords if they want. In an age where the government are constantly warning people about the dangers of identity theft, the fact that they themselves have buried their heads in the sand, when a company formally sets up a system that will make it EASIER to steal identities, indicates that maybe, just maybe, the government and Her Majesty’s police force actually want this to happen. They want people to willingly give up their freedoms, to bring round the clock surveillance that little bit closer.

And what, you may ask, has this got to do with mobile phones? Well, come on, do you really think they won’t be next? They’re aiming for our broadband at home first. That’ll be Phase 1 in the grand master plan. Phase 2 will be mobile broadband. Phase 3 will be mobile phones. You want evidence? Look at the Blue Book system run by O2, a system that automatically stores all your messages, contacts and so on online, in a database, so that you can access them later. It may have been set up for the best intentions, but you KNOW it’ll store all our calls, next, and it won’t be so WE can access them later…

In conclusion, our very future is under threat. First, from Phorm (a company who, despite their assertions otherwise, were classified as generating Spyware, by security firms such as F-Secure. To my mind, that makes them Spyware-peddlers, no matter what PR-rubbish they spin. You made Adware? Fair enough, I’ll go with the security companies who say you actually made Spyware, thanks very much).

And then one day, we’re going to wake up, with the secret police banging on our door, and wonder where our freedom went…

Join the debate, and say what YOU think about Phorm, before it’s too late!

Well, it’s taken its sweet time getting over to the shores, but American series Bionic Woman is finally here. Well, in fact, it’s nearly over, never mind finally here, due to the fact that it’s been cancelled in America, a casualty of the exceedingly annoying and hateful writers’ strike (I’ll tell you my opinion of those writers in a bit, but trust me, it’s not very nice). It’s a true shame, because Bionic Woman is proper compelling TV, well-written, incredibly well-shot, and stars Michelle Ryan, ex-Eastenders actress who is, let’s not beat about the bush, one of the best acting talents to emerge from ANYWHERE in the last few years.

Oh, and it has mobile phones in it…

Although, if I’m honest, it suffers from the same phone-related problem Heroes suffered from. In terms of mobile phones, America is waaaaaaaaay behind the times. Which is why us plucky Brits can feel justified in pointing the finger and sniggering…

Mind you, it had an Apple iPhone in it last night. Noticeably, though, the main character’s phone isn’t that great. From the small glimpses of it that we get, it looks like it’s one of Nokia’s L’Amour series. Which is appropriately girly, I suppose. Plus, since the main character, Jaime Sommers, has cybernetic bits inside her, she probably doesn’t need a top-end phone, when you think about it…

So, yes, the mobile phones in it are a bit backwards. Still, never mind, eh, it’s incredibly well-made, and the leading lady is not only one of the most shining new (well, not that new, to us over here, since she was in Eastenders) talents in the acting world, but she’s also a genuinely sweet lass, from interviews I’ve seen, and she can punch a man’s kidneys out through his nose.

I admire that quality in a woman. Plus, unlike the original show, she can run super-fast without inexplicably going into super-slo-mo. Seriously, that’s her in the pic at the top. Watch her, because she deserves to be a MASSIVE star.

Oh, and to top it off, her boss is played by Miguel Ferrer, the man who made me want to be an evil yuppie-with-teeth when he played Bob Morton in Robocop. That’s him third from the right, next to the guy who played the Korean villain in Die Another Day.

What? Need to get out more? Me?! Never!

Shame the writer’s strike killed the show off, then, really. And you know why they were on strike? Because (and I base this opinion on the screen-writers I knew at university) they are, in my sincere opinion, greedy, self-serving, money-grabbing, arrogant little wasters, who should try doing a proper job for a change, instead of living off the royalties.

The post ends here, as Technical Markus is now sitting in his chair, foaming at the mouth, despairing that the actions of an incredibly stupid Union system killed off one of his favourite shows. Leave messages of sympathy, and any other comments you have, and have your say!

People are going Mobile Broadband craaaaaaaaaaaaaazy. The world of advertising is obsessed with the must have dongle gadget that is taking over everyone’s laptops!

For example:

Just the other day I was in Surrey on business and everywhere we looked there was a mobile broadband advertisement…. whether it was a 20 foot advertisement at the train station, a P4U ad going up/down the underground escalators or simply information on the paddles of the tube. There’s no escaping the new obsession when you’re darn saaarf.

Also, I went to le cinema a couple of times last weekend (to see a different film I will add!) and although it was like déjà-vu watching the same ads again, the one that stood out was the Vodafone ad, with the little dude flying through space trying to race the dongle as it sped past at 7.2Mbps (14 times faster than standard 3G I will say!) Then I’ve seen that ad a million times since!

Aaaand finally, I listen to good old Galaxy Radio every morning on my way to work, and Hirsty, Danny & JoJo have been giving away a 3 dongle every day this week! What made me chuckle the most though was the examples they gave of where you can use this “amazing… thing” (that’s a quote btw) and some of them I can’t really publish!

Now if you haven’t heard of Mobile Broadband (or MBB as it’s called in the industry) WHERE’VE YOU BEEN?!?! But for those of you who may not know…. Mobile Broadband for laptops is a sophisticated new technology that allows you to access the internet on your laptop almost anywhere, even when you’re abroad.

So go on, take a look at the Mobile Broadband options we offer, with a USB Modem, and you will have to agree that it does what it says on the tin - they give you fully-mobile full-internet, wherever you are, at speeds so fast that it’s quicker than Speedy Gonzales himself!!

Oooooh dear, I think the advertising has gone to my head!!!! Time for the weekend I think….

Keep an eye out over the weekend for MBB adverts and let us know where you’ve seen them. Whether it’s in a magazine or a poster on the side of a bus, let us know!