O2 announced the launch of a special offer on the 8GB iPhone which can now be purchased for just £169 until 1 June 2008. The offer is available from tomorrow on all O2 iPhone tariffs and will create additional momentum for what has been O2’s fastest-selling device. The 16GB iPhone remains priced at £329.
Once purchased, customers will continue to be able to choose from one of O2’s three great value iPhone tariffs, starting at £35 per month. Each tariff includes unlimited data browsing and free access to The Cloud’s 7,500 Wi-Fi hotspots.

With the highest customer satisfaction of any device on O2 and unparalleled mobile Web access, the iPhone offers the best mobile experience in the market. Through introducing this special offer, O2 aims to expand the iPhone’s reach, bringing its benefits to an even greater number of customers.

via 3g.co.uk

What good is having 3G data access if you can't actually get to use that data connection to its full extent? Not much good.

O2 is apparently down-throttling many of their 3G customer's data speeds. According to the Register, unless the customer is paying more than £35 a month or is a business customer, O2 is capping 3G data access to 128kbps. The highest data speeds (386kbps) will only be given to qualified customers. On the upside, all customers can call in to O2 and request to have their 3G data speeds ramped back up to the full 386kbps that they are entitled.

It should be interesting to see how O2 handles access to their 3G network once the 3G iPhone launches. With speeds restricted to a paltry 128kbps, 3G iPhone customers on O2's network may find that their EDGE-only iPhone counterparts are speeding along the internet just as, if not faster, than their 3G-capable iPhones.

via intomobile.com

O2 UK's customers will be able to search, browse, preview and purchase full-length tracks from Napster's immense catalog of over 5 million tracks and play them on their mobile handsets and PCs.

The Napster Mobile service contains several sophisticated features, including a recommendation engine that makes content recommendations based upon each consumer's musical taste, and dual delivery, a feature that sends a copy of the content purchased on the handset to the customer's PC.

Under the hosting agreement Ericsson's responsibilities include systems integration, operations, maintenance and content management of the Napster Mobile service for O2 UK. Hosting is a part of Ericsson's Managed Services offering. It is a business model that ensures easy and cost-efficient launches of end user appealing services.

via 3g.co.uk

O2's latest addition to its Xda range provides business users with the Windows experience on a mobile device.

Powered by Windows Mobile 6.0, the new Xda Atmos combines a standard mobile keypad, along with a full QWERTY keyboard making it far more convenient for writing emails or editing documents. The device is fully connected with GPRS, EDGE, 3G, Wi-Fi, HSDPA and quad-band GSM network capabilities.

With Microsoft Office included in the O2 Xda Atmos, users can open, edit and send documents in Excel Mobile and Word Mobile, while PowerPoint Mobile documents can also be viewed on the device.

via mobilechoiceuk.com

Sure, the iPhone is expensive, everyone knows that. I actually paid a significant premium to be one of the first few iPhone adopters, and I'm sure there are a lot of people in Ireland that will be just as eager to own an iPhone.

However, the problem with the iPhone plans on O2 Ireland are that they're ridiculously expensive for what you get. On top of the price of the iPhone itself - €399 for the 8GB model ($605) or €499 for the 16GB model ($757) - O2 Ireland will require at least an 18 month contract for a plan that offers only 175 minutes, 1GB of data, and no Visual Voicemail. There are bound to be people that have a problem with that ridiculous pricing schedule, but, as O2 Ireland's Ireland's CEO Danuta Gray put it, "

via intomobile.com

In 2007 O2 conducted a trial using around 500,000 customers to test a mobile advertising system for devices. O2 plans to delve into the world of mobile advertising with a new service which will allow brands to take advantage of the opportunities presented by mobile advertising, and bring relevant, targeted and informative advertising to its customers.

The O2 service reminds us a bit of Google's AdSense / AdWords service for companies. Based on demographics and keywords, ads will be displayed at opportunistic times on the O2 Active mobile portal.

via uberphones.com

So we've got to ask -- if the iPhone is allegedly O2's best selling device ever, why is fat already getting trimmed out of the carrier's plan offerings? No bother; we've always found that when a carrier wants to give us more for our hard-earned quid, we're best off blindly accepting the offer and asking questions later. A tariff restructuring currently underway now gives £35 / month subscribers 600 voice minutes and 500 texts -- up from 200 of both -- while current £55 / month subscribers will see £10 shaved off their bills and the current £45 plan goes away.

via engadgetmobile.com

Despite other sites trying to contradict our earlier story, the o2 XDA Orbit 2 did indeed go live yesterday and is now showing on the o2 Business Shop. Priced from free, o2 says that it includes a 2 megapixel camera (actually it's a 3 megapixel one) and Windows Mobile 5 (ah, that should be Windows Mobile 6 actually).

The handset is the o2-branded version of the HTC Touch Cruise we reviewed some time back and features the HTC TouchFLO system, quadband GSM, 3G+HSDPA, built-in GPS, 128Mb RAM, 256Mb ROM, 400Mhz Qualcomm CPU, WiFi and Bluetooth.

via coolsmartphone.com

This is the O2 Xda Orbit, the first Xda to bring you built-in GPS with seamless door-to-door navigation packed inside a streamline classy and portable mobile phone. The O2 Xda Orbit is crammed with great features like an MP3 player and radio for the lovers of music on the move, a 2 megapixel camera for the snap happy...

via phonesreview.co.uk

This is the O2 XDA Trion mobile phone a sharp and stylishly designed mobile in stunning silver with one of the best brains you can find and backed by Windows Mobile 5.0 which allows you to view and edit Microsoft Word and Excel documents and check out PowerPoint presentations, and the use of WiFi and 3G keeps you in control...

via phonesreview.co.uk

Samsung's new M110 "Solid" cell phone will soon be available in the UK. It has a rugged exterior, which only makes the phone look durable, but besides the design the M110 has nothing special to offer...

via cellaz.com

Turns out that O2’s claims of the iPhone being the fastest selling device in the carrier’s history wasn’t all marketing-talk. O2’s head honcho recently paid his Jobs-ness a visit in Cupertino, California to presumably give each other their “high-fives” over how well the iPhone is doing in the UK...

via intomobile.com

Now, let’s start this one off with a little disclaimer - the US iPhone launch did not go as smoothly as it could have gone. Don’t get us wrong, the US iPhone launch was in incredible example of Apple’s logistical prowess, but AT&T seemed to have largely underestimated the stress that more than a hundred thousand eager-beaver iPhone customers would place on their network...

via intomobile.com

Seems like a pretty egregious error on O2's part to throw up a promotional image of its upcoming HTC Kaiser variant with a big, fat typo up top -- but at the same time, we have an easier time believing that they're coining it the "Xda Stellar," not the "Xda Stella."...

via engadgetmobile.com

Some highlights about this phone:

* built-in GPS
* cellular network support: UMTS with HSDPA up to 3.6 Mbit/second
* interfaces: Bluetooth, WiFi, miniUSB, microSD card slot
* display: 240x320 pixels
* processor: Qualcomm MSM7200 400 MHz...

via msmobiles.com