Vodafone 2008 Lineup Leaked In Entirety: Palm Wanda, Nokia Dora, BlackBerry "9000", More

HP's Oak is just the beginning: the rest of Vodafone's apparent lineup for the coming year also found its way to Boy Genius Report, which proudly presents.

The Palm Wanda is "high-tier," runs Windows Mobile 6.1, and will be launched in September 2008 as the successor to the Treo 500v. A tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE handset with 3.6 Mbps HSDPA, it has a 320x240 display, a 2 megapixel camera and GPS

The Nokia Dora is an e65-like sliderphone with Wifi and GPS, a UK280 price tag, a 3.2 megapixel camera, and 3.6 Mbps HSDPA. It has a 320x320 display, microSD card slot and quad-band GSM.
RIM's Blackberry Pearl 2, the 8110, isn't priced yet, but will have quad-band GSM, a 240x260 display, a 2 megapixel digicam and bluetooth. It also has trackball navigation and Blackberry's distinctive 2-letters-per-number keypad. It will appear immediately (and we'll almost certainly be getting a look at this on Monday)

The ODM v16xx is a slab-like QWERTY smartphone with a budget price ($250 or so), 2.5G data and a 1.3 megapixel camera: it looks kind of like a Moto Q but a year late. Or two years late, since it won't appear until September 2008.
The HP Silver, to be offered in July for about $500, is a 7.2 Mbps HSDPA phone featuring Windows Mobile 6, a 320x240 display, RIM-style "suretype" keys, GPS and WiFi.

The Nokia Liam replaces the E61i, being "narrower and more stylish," according to the spec sheet. Specs are what you'd expect of a next-gen MOR smartphone: QWERTY keyboard, 3.6 Mbps HSDPA, 320x320 display, GPS and WiFi. The 3.2 megapixel camera offers a third more pixels than Nokia could have gotten away with offering, but no price has been determined for this Q2 model yet.

The rumored BlackBerry 9000 turns out to be "merely" another entry in the 8000 series, albeit one that's "built on a brand new platform utilising the Tavor chipset providing blazing performance." It'll be sold in the UK from May 2008, sporting quad-band GSM and 3.6 Mbps HSDPA, a 624 Mhz CPU, super-high rest 480x320 display, a full QWERTY Keyboard and a 2 megapixel camera.
Source:http://blog.wired.com/

Family's shock £3,000 phone bill

A mother is having to find extra cash to pay a mobile phone bill after her son ran up a £3,000 debt
Oliver Jenkins, 17, of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, used a Vodafone phone to connect a computer to the internet.

His mother, Shirley, who pays his £40 a month bill, said they thought internet connection was included in the cost.

Vodafone has agreed to reduce her bill by about 25% but stressed that she was given information about internet usage when the phone was purchased.

Shortly before Christmas another customer from the North East ran up a £27,000 bill by doing the same thing.

'Stunned'

Oliver, an engineering student, said he connected his laptop to his phone for about one hour per day to run up the bill.

Ms Jenkins, a chef, said she was stunned when she saw the bill.

"I was stunned beyond belief. I felt like collapsing in a heap," she said.

"I did not realise there would be a limit (on internet use).

"I thought that as it was internet enabled it was unlimited."

Even though she has come to an agreement with Vodafone she said she will still struggle to pay the bill.
Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk

Vodafone roaming cut slammed

A hickup in Vodafone's international cellphone roaming service in Australia for the past week needs to be taken more seriously, according to the Telecommunications Users Association.

New Zealand customers roaming on the Vodafone Australia network have been unable to make or receive calls during the past week, because of a sharp rise in international cellphone use.

Vodafone said that meant the issue was out of its hands.

Telecommunications Users Association chief executive Ernie Newman said that was "unconvincing, unprofessional and unacceptable".

Roaming was not a luxury but a core service. "For Vodafone New Zealand to distance itself from what appears to be a disastrous mis-forecast of traffic by its Australian sister company just won't do."

Vodafone NZ spokesman Paul Brislen said phones could be quickly switched to use another network in Australia. Customers needed to go into their settings function, search for a list of alternative networks and select one.

He said prices for texts and calls were the same for most customers regardless of the network.

Source:http://www.stuff.co.nz