Best Phone Blog

Vodafone UK and O2 UK have announced that the Nokia C6 Symbian smart phone is now available on their official sites. The device is free on 25 Pound monthly tariffs, making it one of our most recommended budget handsets. Finnish manufacturer Nokia is also offering the device on their main UK online store; the C6 is available SIM free at a retail price of 289 Pounds.

The Nokia C6 is a practical smart phone. While it is not the handset of choice for users who are more interested in experiencing the complete modern operating system with Android handsets and next generation platforms –like the Symbian^3 and the MeeGo OS, this device is meant to serve users who need a decent reliable smart phone that has more features than the average low end handset.

In terms of overall performance, the C6 is decent. It is good enough to run a vast range of apps and features, but it will definitely bog down when faced with huge file loads and successive command inputs. At 434 MHz, the ARM 11 CPU’s speed is nowhere as near as high end devices –but for the average smart phone user, this is usually more than enough.

The slide out QWERTY keyboard feels a lot like the 4 row layouts that Nokia uses for their N series devices. The top row tends to sneak just a little under the upper face, but it is not that hard to use when held properly. The buttons are responsive and provide a resounding feedback that allows users to type fast on this device. Expect to see happy grins on text messaging and email heavy users on this device.

The phone also comes with a 3.2 inch TFT resistive touch screen display (with an accelerometer and a scratch resistant surface), a 5 mega pixel snapper (with autofocus, geotagging and face detection) and the Symbian S60 OS.

The hardest part of Vodafone’s cost cutting processes was the removal of 375 redundancies. While the term “redundancies” explain why so many people lost their jobs the term is pretty dissociative of the fact that over 300 hardworking people have lost their work and source of income in just a single day.

Reports states that many teary eyed former employees were escorted out of the offices. Even current employees could not help but express disappointment in the way the event was handled by their own company as many of the employees affected were “loyal”, “hardworking” and have “spent many years of their lives” in the service of Vodafone.

Also affected are 6 Vodafone stores that had to be shut down as part of the cost cutting effort –employees in the affected stores are part of the 375 redundancies.

On a slightly lesser scale, employees of the Warrington call centre took a solid hit from the cost cutting as their monthly 30% sales bonus was removed. One of the staffers describes their office as “not a happy place” as a significant portion of their monthly income has been removed.

According to a spokeswoman from Vodafone, the decision to remove the bonus was done in order to implement a “reward structure that is fair and consistent”.

With cost cuttings occurring despite the apparent financial success of the mobile network operator –they opened up 50 new stores just last year, many are wondering what exactly is going on behind the scenes.

In other Vodafone related news, the operator is going to launch several new devices this coming April with the launch of several new devices. Expected to hit Vodafone’s offerings are the HTC Desire and Legend, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 and in late April, the Apple iPad.

Get to know more about the Warrington price cut at Mobile Today UK.

There is no doubt that Vodafone’s 3G network is already superior to other networks in the UK. Considering that the company has only had to deal with iPhone users from just last month, the 3G network and bandwidth are pretty much easy to access for many people.

Vodafone had a very successful launch of the Apple iPhone. On the first week of sales, they managed to sell over 100,000 units of the device (more than 5 times the number of Nexus One devices Google managed to sell in the first week). Recent reports indicate that Vodafone’s iPhone market is constantly growing with pervious O2 iPhone users switching over to greener 3G fields.

Now, it looks like Vodafone is no longer relying on people to make the switch, they have not introduced a new set of Sim-only plans for existing iPhone users on other operators to consider switching.

While it is obvious that Vodafone’s 3G network is still pretty much free from congestion, this is not only due to the small number of iPhone users, but also because of the fact that the mobile network operator spent a good deal of time (a year) preparing for the launch of the iPhone. Preparations came in the form of expanding and strengthening the network.

Vodafone UK recently re-released the Femtocell sure signal technology in order to deliver better 3G service to people living in areas with weak or no 3G signals. Femtocell has been priced at less than half the original price with the monthly subscription removed.

In other news, Vodafone recently had a little Twitter incident that got a little media buzz. The situation was quickly settled and the offending individual has reportedly been suspended indefinitely.

Read more about Vodafone UK’s new Sim-only plans at Mobile Today.

Last weekend, this was posted on the Vodafone Twitter page: “Vodafone UK is fed up of dirty homos and is going after beaver”. So goes the recently removed post of an obviously disturbed employee of Vodafone UK. According to reports, the employee has been caught is currently suspended.

It is a very lenient punishment for the post which was obviously meant to offend members of the gay community and to objectify women (if you did not catch the slang, then you are a very non-malicious person). In any case, the post did cause quite a stir when it got put on Vodafone’s official Twitter page. While some expressed offense at the statement, many raised concerns that the account may have been the target of a malicious hack.

Employees were quick to apologize about the content of the post and assured the public that all is well and that the mobile network operator has not been hacked –the post was the result of a severe breach of rules by staff. Vodafone should really screen their employees more thoroughly.

In any case, this is hardly anything that can be blamed on Vodafone, internal problems like these do occasionally happen regardless of one’s vigilance. At the very least, we should be proud that the company has been quick to solve the issue before the sensitive matter became out of hand.

Aside from this little incident, Vodafone has been having a very great start this year. January ended with a successful launch of the Apple iPhone for the network giant. During the very first week of launch, Vodafone sold over 100,000 units of the iPhone. Talks of the company’s 3G network superiority over other services have attracted other iPhone subscribers to switch.

Get the full details and the news article on the offensive Tweet from a Vodafone employee at CNET.

Promising the pinnacle of messaging and social networking integration, the Vodafone 360 internet-based mobile telephone service works hand-in-glove with the upscale features of the Samsung H1 handset to bring seamless people-centric functionality into the smartphone as well as your PC or MAC workstations.  Samsung made the handset exclusive to Vodafone and now get rebadged as the Vodafone 360 H1that was launched in the UK together with the new 360 service replacing the Vodafone Live.  The service now has 10 smartphones to choose from.

Availability

Vodafone’s Samsung H1 handset can be had free with a 24-month contract starting on a ₤35/month plan.  It can now be pre-ordered from Vodafone’s online site where you have a choice of either black or silver body color.  While Vodafone isn’t exactly the best carrier out there, it may be a good idea to give its new 360 service a try this Christmas, if only for its marvelous H1 smartphone exclusive to the serve.

Bang for the Buck Features at a Glance

What’s so marvelous about the Vodafone 360 H1?  For a start, it’s 3G with HSDPA/HSUPA so you can truly max out the Vodafone 360 social networking experience over the internet. It has WiFi, Bluetooth with A2DP, GPS, FM radio, 3.5mm headphone hack and 16GB of internal memory that has microSD expandability as well.  A couple of stand-outs include its gorgeous 3.5” AMLOED touchscreen with wide VGA resolution and 16 million colors.  Then there’s a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash.

The Vodafone 360 H1 runs on the nearly forgotten LiMo OS (Linux Mobile) that got serious following in the Motorola RAZR and ROKR models.  Eclipsed by the equally open-sourced Android, the LiMo Release 2 gets resurrected in the Vodafone 360 H1 with a slew of apps that has the right features to integrate your phonebook contacts with online VOIP, Windows Live Messenger and Facebook sites.  It’s integrated with the default Opera browser as well as WebKit widgets.  All that for free on the Vodafone 360 contract.

Along with the announcement of the Vodafone 360 H1 Smartphone, another one in the Vodafone 360 series was confirmed to be released soon. The second smartphone was announced to be named Vodafone 360 M1. The Samsung manufactured M1 is slightly smaller and lighter than its sister smartphone H1. There is little difference in design otherwise, but H1 is superior in a number of features. The M1 features a 3.2” TFT touch screen in comparison to the 3.5” OLED touch screen of the H1. The M1 only comes with 1GB internal memory as compared to the 16 GB internal memory of the H1, while the M1 also lacks Wi-Fi connectivity. Furthermore, the M1 features a 3.0 mega pixel camera in comparison to the 5.0 mega pixel camera of the Vodafone 360 H1.

This surely gives you an idea that Vodafone 360 M1 would be a cheaper and smaller version of the H1 smartphone. But the most important feature that the users will look forward to is the Vodafone 360 experience, which is equally featured in both the smartphones. This newly launched platform to be featured on both of these smartphones by Vodafone will help users integrate all their contacts into their phone address book and to synchronize with the websites to receive regular updates from their friends and other online news sources into their phone, which can make life a lot easier for the users, and will add immense value to their online experience. The Vodafone 360 also enables users to maintain their photo albums

Both the phones are promising users a very smooth and easy-to-use interface, which will be useful for them to be in control of the activities they want to engage on their phones and to manage their online social networking and email accounts in a much efficient manner. If the phone tickles your fancy then be sure to be on the lookout for Vodafone 360 M1 on contract or Pay As You Go, if thats what you prefer.