Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

We could tell by the press shots that Cowon wasn’t taking the extravagant route with its O2 PMP, and these hands-on images really prove it. The touchscreen-heavy media player can digest enough formats to make your head spin, and considering that there aren’t any front panel buttons to catch your attention, it’s a good thing the screen quality was deemed “excellent.” Thirsty for more? Head on down to the read link, and tell ‘em Joe the Plumber sent ya.

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Goodie! The long, excruciating wait for more information on Cowon’s exceptionally sleek O2 PMP is finally over, and two of the more important tidbits you could ever want to know have been revealed. The PMP, which supports a gaggle of file types including MP3, OGG FLAC, AAC, WMA, DivX, MPEG4 and WMV (just to fire off a few), will arrive with a 4.3-inch touchscreen, SDHC card slot, 8GB / 16GB / 32GB of internal capacity, an internal speaker, TV output (up to 720p), 10-band custom equalizer, 18-hours of battery life for audio playback (8-hours for video), optional T-DMB TV tuner / e-dictionary functionality and your choice of pink, black or white motifs. The real news? An October 13th ship date in South Korea along with prices ranging from ₩294,000 ($224) for the stripped-down 8GB edition to ₩399,000 ($305) for the 32GB edition with a DMB tuner. Yanks, sadly, will have to wait.

[Via iAudiophile, thanks Ang]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Sony Ericsson finally came clean with that September 30 launch date for the XPERIA X1 this morning, and now the carrier situation is starting to resolve itself — as previously hinted, Vodafone will launch the sleek WinMo slider in the UK, and both Voda and O2 will have it in Germany. O2 UK hasn’t confirmed anything yet, and we still haven’t heard from any carriers in the third launch country of Sweden, but we’ll keep you posted over on Engadget Mobile as soon as we hear anything.

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Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Vodafone just went public with the information you already knew, New Zealand will see the world’s first iPhone launch at 00:01 local time on the 11th. That’s almost a full day before any New York, propaganda farmer gets his. In the UK, O2 is now taking pre-orders (one per customer) on a first come, first serve basis. Better yet, your new slab of 3G will be delivered to your home on the 11th of July by courier where you can activate it from the digital comforts of iTunes. So civilized.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read — O2 UK
Read — Vodafone NZ

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Filed under: Cellphones

Motorola so had this down pat last year, but we suppose O2 is just showcasing its pedal-powered charging system now that such devices are all the rage. Just days after we had a look at two unorthodox chargers from Orange, along comes rival O2 with a bicycle-related alternative. Reportedly, the eco-friendly device will be demonstrated at the O2 Wireless Festival in London’s Hyde Park, but unfortunately, each of the demo bikes will be stationary. Still no word on whether O2 has a mind to take this thing commercial, but for cyclists the world over, here’s to hoping it does.

[Thanks, Adam]

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Filed under: Cellphones

The headline kind of says it all, but if you weren’t already sure enough that the first gen iPhone’s stint in the UK was coming to a close, O2’s pushing to make things crystal clear. It’s hard to imagine both companies are going to just stop selling such a high profile device for too long, but clearly we’re all still in the dark as to when its 3G replacement will officially be out.

[Thanks, Keith]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Conspiracy theorists and Mac rumor-mongerers, start your engines. According to an internal O2 memo we’ve received, stock of both the 8GB iPod touch and iPhone have run their courses, and have been EOL’d (at least in the UK). The brief letter sent out yesterday evening states that, “Due to the highly successful sales of the Apple 8GB I-Phone [sic], supply chain have today run out of stock & will not be replenishing stock of this product as it has now gone to end of life.” Whether this is due to the recent price cuts, the rumored upcoming 2nd generation iPhone, or just a sign that Apple is moving towards higher capacity devices is anyone’s guess. All we know is that soon the 8GB iPhone — at least in the UK — will become as rare and precious as the Pygmy Three-toed Sloth.

[Via The Register; Thanks Callum M.]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

As we expected, Apple just loosed the iPhone into Ireland and Austria. €399 nabs the 8GB model while €499 takes the 16GB unit home. T-Mobile has the honors for Austria as it does in Germany while O2 carries the flag in Ireland as it does in the UK. Interestingly, Irish subscribers are not entitled to Visual Voicemail or free WiFi even though they are offered by O2 UK — neither country offers an unlimited data plan. Tsk tsk. Regardless, early adopters from those countries already had their unlocked iPhones months ago which makes the launch just a formality at this point.

[Via MacRumors]

Read — Austria
Read — Ireland

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Filed under: Cellphones

Looks like the iPhone is launching in Ireland with O2 on March 14th, according to Pocket-lint. It’s supposed to go for the low, low price of €399 (including VAT) on the 8GB and €499 for the 16GB; we haven’t heard anything solid either way, but we’ll let you know if we do (and you do the same, would ya?).

[Thanks, John and Ronan]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

The Inquirer is reporting that Vodafone UK’s customer service line used for defecting customers is down. In fact, it’s been down the entire weekend since the iPhone’s Friday launch. Instead, Vodafone customers looking to change their status to O2 customers are being greeted with an automated voice response asking them to try again later. Coincidence? Maybe. It’s certainly timely having already witnessed the carrier defection rate following the US launch.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones

Now why, dear readers, would the Apple store at the Eaton Centre in Ontario, Canada, be hosting an iPhone workshop? Could it be that the iPhone is headed to colder climes in time enough for the holidays? Or is it just a simple mistake? Judge for yourself. We just hope this little mishap doesn’t get that Eaton Centre Apple events coordinator fired.

Oh, and that not-so-”unlimited” data the iPhone was getting in the UK on O2? Turns out that apparently the carrier’s reversed its decision to cap iPhone users’ data at a mere 100-200MB, apparently stating, “There is no limit on the monthly network usage. However if we feel that your activities are so excessive that other customers are detrimentally affected, we may give you a written warning (by email or otherwise).” We’re not really sure what the fuss is about, O2’s rolling out a legacy EDGE network specifically for the use of iPhone users, why fuss over a device that can’t be (easily) tethered to a laptop and has slow-ass EDGE data and quick WiFi?

Read - Apple schedules iPhone workshop in Canada [Thanks, Ethan]
Read - O2 scraps limited-unlimited data [Via TUAW]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

When we first got our hands on the UK iPhone back in September, it was already running the 1.1.1 firmware. The same firmware which helpfully bricked a number of hacked iPhones Stateside upon later release. Now T3 is claiming that the UK iPhone — set for release on November 9th — is kicking 1.1.2 under the glass. Besides support for French and German keyboard layouts and characters, the other notable change is the shuttering of the TIFF exploit used to jailbreak and then install (and unlock) third party applications on the 1.1.1 iPhone and iPod touch. With the possibility that Apple might release 1.1.2 globally with the UK launch on Friday, consider yourselves warned. It’s not like there’s a lot of incentive for you to update anyway (remember, it’s optional) what with the latest jailbreak simultaneously exploiting and then plugging the TIFF exploit to keep your browsing safe. For whatever it’s worth, the February SDK isn’t too far away — perhaps you should wait ’till then to get right with The Steve.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones

Europeans are pretty used to paying through the nose for usage charges, whether it be by-the-minute charges for local calls in the landline days of yore, or per-KB charges for wireless data. The up side is that there are usually some pretty sweet prices on phones, since wireless companies know they can make it up on the back end, but for heavy users things can get expensive fast. And unfortunately, the glorious promises of “unlimited” data usage tacked onto iPhone plans offered by T-Mobile, O2 and Orange in their respective iPhone-exclusive markets aren’t quite the revolution we might’ve hoped for. T-Mobile just posted its rate plans for the November 9th iPhone launch, though it quickly pulled them from the site. Eagle-eyed observers grabbed a screenshot of the rates (pictured), but what’s notable is the fine print: depending on which plan you select — M, L or XL — you’re limited to 200MB, 1GB or 5GB of data, after which your data speeds are limited to 64Kbps, instead of EDGE’s traditional 220Kbps max. O2, whose rates have been up since day one, has a slightly vaguer “fair usage policy” that gives O2 the right to slap you with extra charges or change your rate plan if you exceed 200MB of use, though they claim this rarely happens. Details on Orange’s rate plans for the iPhone haven’t emerged yet, but Orange France has historically some of the priciest unlimited data rates, and has a standing policy to just go ahead and slap per-KB charges once the limit is crossed. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

[Thanks, Patrick]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!