The European Union has been trying to put a tight lid on roaming charges between its member nations for some time (just imagine if you paid roaming fees on interstate travel, Americans!), but it’s been slow going — though there are new per-minute caps in place this year, the fact that the concept of roaming exists at all, particularly when only a handful of companies control all of Europe’s wireless landscape, is a little crazy. Well, Europeans, we might recommend using your friends in Spain and Portugal as shining examples of how you can live in a roaming-free future, because the friendly neighbors have agreed in principle to eliminate roaming charges as part of a broader plan to improve Spanish-Portuguese trade. Details have yet to be hammered out — and therefore, affected carriers aren’t yet commenting — but if this works well, we can only hope the love will spread Europe-wide on the double.
The European Union has been trying to put a tight lid on roaming charges between its member nations for some time (just imagine if you paid roaming fees on interstate travel, Americans!), but it’s been slow going — though there are new per-minute caps in place this year, the fact that the concept of roaming exists at all, particularly when only a handful of companies control all of Europe’s wireless landscape, is a little crazy. Well, Europeans, we might recommend using your friends in Spain and Portugal as shining examples of how you can live in a roaming-free future, because the friendly neighbors have agreed in principle to eliminate roaming charges as part of a broader plan to improve Spanish-Portuguese trade. Details have yet to be hammered out — and therefore, affected carriers aren’t yet commenting — but if this works well, we can only hope the love will spread Europe-wide on the double.
LG was naturally expected to show up for today’s announcement seeing how the company has been a longtime “strategic” partner of Microsoft’s — and indeed, they’re bringing two models into the fold. First up is the Quantum (known as the Optimus 7Q in markets outside the US, pictured right) that we broke as the C900 back in August, a landscape slider equipped with quadband EDGE and triband HSPA (850 / 1900 / 2100MHz), 16GB of storage, a 5 megapixel camera with 720p video capture, a 3.5-inch WVGA display, and an all-too-familiar 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon core; as you might have guessed from the 3G bands, this puppy will be coming to AT&T. Next, the Optimus 7 (pictured left) will be seeing a much wider international release on Telus in Canada, America Movil in Mexico, Movistar and Vodafone in Europe, and SingTel in Singapore. What is it, you ask? Well, it’s exactly what you’d figured by now from the leaks — a 3.8-inch WVGA slate at 11.5mm thick with specs that largely mirror the Quantum’s otherwise: 1GHz Snapdragon and 5 megapixel cam, notably. Both models will support “Play To,” the brand name for the DLNA features LG touted back at IFA, allowing users to fling media to DLNA-compatible TVs, set-top boxes, and the like. Expect both the Optimus 7 and 7Q to start rolling out on October 21, eventually deploying in over 35 countries; on AT&T, the Quantum will run $199.99 when it hits in the next few weeks. Follow the break for LG’s full press release.
Samsung’s i8910 HD-based Windows Phone 7 prototype has probably been the single most publicly-recognizable face of the platform this year, so it should come as little surprise that the Korean giant has come out swinging with production hardware today — and fortunately, the pair of retail models look nothing (well, very little) like the proto. The Focus is the phone we’ve been calling the i917 Cetus in leaks, a curvy, glossy slate with a 4-inch WVGA Super AMOLED display (presumably ripped right out of the Galaxy S line), a 5 megapixel camera, and support for microSD expansion up to 32GB; it’ll be hitting AT&T in the States. The Omnia 7 is the second model, launching on Orange, SFR, Movistar, and T-Mobile across Europe with the same Super AMOLED display, Snapdragon processor (rare for a Samsung, by the way), 5 megapixel cam, and either 8GB or 16GB on board. Expect both of these to launch in time for the holidays; in fact, the Focus can be yours on AT&T come November 8 for $199.99. Follow the break for Samsung’s Omnia 7 press release.
Samsung’s indicated in the past that all versions of its ubiquitous Galaxy S would be getting Froyo upgrades in harmony (more or less) — and it had also indicated that those updates would be happening in September. Well, you know how these things tend to go: plans change, bugs crop up, engineers go on vacation at inopportune times, and delays happen. On that note, Samsung Mobile’s Spanish division is now saying that the Galaxy S will be getting Froyo in “late October” through the Kies desktop app, though we don’t know whether España speaks for the rest of the world — it’s entirely possible that this is a Spain-specific announcement. More on this one as we get it, but for now, we wouldn’t count on many (if any) of these bad boys getting official updates in the next few days.
It looks like Samsung might be getting ready to do something that Apple’s having an awful time with: produce a white version of its latest, greatest smartphone. GSMArena happened across a tiny, blurry image of a particularly pale Galaxy S on the website of Spain’s The Phone House — a Carphone Warehouse company — where it’s identified as an exclusive. In our experience, full-touch handsets almost always look dashing in white, and we’d expect no different of the Super AMOLED-equipped Galaxy; unfortunately, there’s no indication (yet, anyway) that this’ll launch anywhere else. Anyone care to fly to Spain with €500 in hand?
Virtually all of the MeeGo buzz since Intel and Nokia’s tie-up back in February has been focused on high-end smartphones, tablets, and netbooks, but Telefonica reminds us that there’s another potential target for the platform, too — connected TVs. The Spanish wireless, fixed internet, and cable operator has thrown its weight behind MeeGo this week (which is a pretty big deal considering that the company has global reach across 25 countries and about a quarter billion subscribers), hinting that “services could potentially include content and applications that can be accessed from devices such as smartphones, netbooks, tablets, and internet connected TVs for Telefonica’s wireline and wireless operations.” We’ve yet to see any set-top box announcements in the MeeGo space, but with Google trying to light fires under the connected TV market, we imagine some competitors are bound to emerge — and it’s probably a good sign that they’ve got the backing of a cable company.
Wherever the Pre goes, the Pixi typically likes to follow, which makes it pretty interesting to see that Vodafone Spain will be launching Palm’s new GSM flavor of the Pixi Plus on the 10th of this month without any sign of its Pre Plus sibling. That’s a marked departure from the line Vodafone and O2 have both been taking in other markets, so it makes you wonder: does Vodafone think that the Pre Plus won’t sell well here (it already offers the Pre), is there some firmware issue holding back the localized version, or is there some other mysterious conspiracy brewing altogether? At any rate, follow the break for Palm’s press release.
It looks like the virus-strewn HTC Magic that was recently purchased from Vodafone UK is only the tip of the iceberg. According to Vodafone Spain, some 3,000 users in all may have been exposed to Mariposa malware — which used the handset’s storage to make its way to customer’s PCs via USB, leading the company to replace the microSD cards for infected customers. The company also says that the incident is “isolated and local,” but with the number of infections rising from one in the UK to 3,000 in Spain in just over a week we wouldn’t be surprised this story was just heating up.
Here’s another thing the Desire has that the Nexus One doesn’t: a second color option. We’re told our Dutch buddies will soon be able to skip the default gunmetal paintjob that’s shared by HTC’s twin brothers and opt into the silvery casing you see above. The pictures are captioned with a note saying the silver Desire will be exclusive to BelCompany in the Netherlands, but we’ve found a few other retailers claiming their own exclusief. Either way, we still don’t know how things will shake out elsewhere, but at least there won’t be too long to wait. We’ve got video of the very slightly altered handset after the break.
