Vodafone and Research in Motion(RIM) have officially announced the BlackBerry Storm2, a touchscreen smartphone device. The BlackBerry Storm2 is a thinner and sleeker device with new technology and new features to let customers stay easily connected. Customers in the UK will be able to get the new smartphone first through Vodafone. It is also expected to be offered in Ireland, followed by Germany, Netherlands, Spain, France, Italy and South Africa in November or December.

Storm2 Basic Features:

• 3.25-inch 360 x 480 resolution
• 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera
• Video recording
• 1400mAh battery that provides approximately 6 hours of talk time on 3G networks and 280 hours of standby time
• 3.5mm stereo headset jack
• 2GB of internal memory
• 256 MB of Flash memory
• dedicated volume controls
• Bluetooth (2.1) and Wi-FI 802.11 b/g
• High speed 3G
• Games,IM
• microSD card slot

Notable Features:

• Inertial Scrolling w/Snap Back
• Faster JavaScript and CSS processing as well as support for Gears and BlackBerry Widgets
• BlackBerry Handheld Software v5.0
• Enhanced SMS UI – notifications, emoticons, threaded chats
• Updated spin boxes
• Built-in GPS for maps and other location-based applications, as well as photo geotagging

Major Features:

• RIM’s Storm2 features improved SurePress technology, which gives a tactile response when pressing on the phone’s capacitive touchscreen(INFO) display. The technology responds equally to pressure placed on the screen. Typing-speed response has also been enhanced. It allows the user to type a letter with one thumb even while their other thumb may still be touching or resting on another letter, enabling faster typing and multi-key actions such as Shift or Alt -key combinations.

• Users can enjoy their music with standard headphones that utilize a 3.5mm stereo headset jack or Bluetooth for use with stereo headphones after synchronizing the music to the device from iTunes using BlackBerry Media Sync,.

• More responsive experience and includes usability and visual enhancements such as inertial scrolling, spin boxes that make it easier to set dates and times, gradient shading on buttons and more use of animation.

• Manage Microsoft Exchange email folders (Add, Rename, Move, Delete) on the handset. Allows users to access remote files shares (Windows Shares), Save, View, Edit, and Email documents from remote file shares, Forward appointments and view calendar attachments on the handset.

• Features a proximity sensor that powers down the display when the phone is next to your ear on a call. As soon as you pull the phone away from your ear the screen powers on and you can enable calling feature.

Pricing is said to depend on each country’s operating company. Vodafone UK will be offering the BlackBerry Storm2 free from £35 per month on a 24-month contract that includes 600 minutes talk-time, unlimited BlackBerry Internet Service, unlimited text messaging, as well as unlimited access to VMI (Vodafone Mobile Internet) and broadband.

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After the immense success of Tata Docomo’s per second pulse plan which made it the top operator in terms of user additions, TRAI is now considering the idea of introducing the same throughout all the operators now.

According to TRAI, all the telecom operators may be soon forced to give the option of paying based on the usage per second pulse instead of the current per minute pulse.

JS Sarma, Chairman of TRAI said that they will soon come out with a paper on this subject and invite suggestions on making this plan mandatory or not.

TRAI is also reconsidering the clause in current regulations which allow the mobile phone operators decide the tariffs and plans.

Some of the major Mobile Operators like BSNL and Aircel have already started offering per second pulse in select states like Karnataka, AP, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal etc and other operators like Airtel, Vodafone and Idea are expected to follow suit soon.

What do you think? Would you prefer to pay by the new per second pulse or are you happy with your existent per minute pulse rates? Do Pass on your comments.

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These are the pictures of a LIMO powered Samsung phone under the Vodafone network. This phone has been leaked ahead of the Vodafone release schedule. Rumours say that this might be the Samsung Riedel i8305.

The handset is powered by LIMO which is Vodafone’s own Linux variant. The handset has a great brushed metal finish which houses an OLED Touchscreen. The touchscreen size and design looks similar to the Samsung i8910 OMNIA HD. It may even turn out to be a region specific OMNIA HD variant. The handset appears to be quite slim and is rumoured to sport an 8 Megapixel camera.

Further details are not known. Announcement should be on 24th September if sources are right.

Source

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iPhone 3.0 Software update is coming out on June 17th . We could not wait till then, so we decided to take the plunge and get the 3.0 firmware running on our 1st Gen iPhone and we were pleased to find a a lot of changes to the iPhone OS. Here’s the proof that the Phone is running the v3 of the OS.

Carrier is shown as Vodafone India 4.0 !

Some exciting features in the update are.

1. Cut , Copy, Paste

2. SMS Forwarding and Deleting

3.Voice Memo

4. Email Search

5.Spotlight Search

6.LandScape keyboard in Email

The news was first hit the web in march with screenshots

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We will contact Vodafone and Airtel this week and get more info about the india launch for sure

thx to folks at Gizmodo for the shot

But its sad that this new iphone is shipping on June 19th in USA and its shipping only in August in India.(no exact date known)

Hope Apple will get the pricing right atleast this time

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Showing its love towards rural customers, Vodafone have recently announced ‘GappaGoshti’ scheme under its prepaid mobile services only for its rural customers in Goa and Maharashtra.

Customers under GappaGoshti can create their own groups or market place/ community with the same gappagoshti scheme cards and call each other for just 30 paise a minute. GappaGoshti is a scheme like CUG what we call in post paid connections.

Initially a customer will have to either recharge his mobile worth Rs. 101 paper voucher or get a GappaGoshti Start up kit which comes with a life time validity.

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Vodafone have just introduced a couple of Bonus cards for its customers in Punjab. Here are the details

• Prepaid bonus card 25
• Prepaid Bonus card 49

In prepaid bonus card 25 a customer can send unlimited national sms at the rate of 20 paise doesn’t matter which network or at what time you are sending the SMS.

Under the prepaid bonus card 49, customer can make STD calls at a reduced price of just Rs. 0.75 per minute. Remember the similar plan announced by Airtel a few days back and we posted about it “Special STD Voucher Launched for Airtel Delhi NCR Customers”?

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You must have heard about Vodafone Zoozoos that’s creating a buzz across the blogosphere. And, presently, it is not only the bloggers talking about the Zoozoo ads.

If you are a Zoozoo fan, then you will be happy to know that the Zoozoo Ads have won the PETA award (People for Ethical Treatment for Animals).

An article in The Hindu states:

The awards are given to businesses that take advantage of humane alternatives to the use of real animals in their advertisements, PETA said in a press release here

Well, by now you must have understood that this award is usually given to business houses promoting to save lives of Animals. I think, in future, many more companies will clone the Vodafone Zoozoo ads.

Its interesting to see why Vodafone (formerly Hutch ) got an award . Is it because they replaced the dog – pug with ZooZoo ?

Via

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So here’s a quick video featured on CNN IBN featuring the making of Zoozoos:

If you can understand Hindi then consider viewing this video too, wherein the making of Zoozoo has been explained in detail

Related: Zoozoo makes you laugh

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ZooZoos are characters featured in the advertisements showing the various services provided by Vodafone. The characters were created by O&M for Vodafone. Explaining the idea behind the campaign, Rajiv Rao, executive creative director, O&M says, “We created a special world in which all the product stories get told. A world which is real yet different, strange yet simple, warm and lovable. All the specific product stories and services get told in this world of Zoozoos, making the messages more charming.”

They are wowing audiences, and ZooZoo merchandise, bags, keychains, T-shirts will be available soon. Fans on Facebook are rising by the day. “Day before it was 8,000, yesterday I am told there were 14,000 fans,” says Mr Harit Nagpal, Marketing & New Business Director, Vodafone Essar. It crossed 28,000 on Thursday.

The advertisements were shot in about 10 days. Even though ZooZoos look animated, they are actually people dressed in white. A dozen more ads are expected to come out during this IPL season.

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