iPhone 3g owners received the preceding sms message yesterday afternoon. Turns out “that under certain conditions the new ultracompact Apple USB power adapter’s metal prongs can break off and remain in a power outlet, creating a risk of electric shock.” Apple is offering replacement via orders on their website at http://www.apple.com/support/usbadapter/exchangeprogram/ or through their retail stores starting Oct. 10.
Last Friday, Virgin Mobile announced their intentions to buy off Helio, the mobile handset provider, from SK Telecom for 13 million shares in Virgin Mobile USA class A stock, the equivalent of about $39 million. This, combined with their launch of an $80 unlimited flat rate calling plan with no contract, shows the company setting its sights on a more professional class of consumers, a clear contrast from their current youthful customer base.
In acquiring Helio, Virgin Mobile USA will not only get over 170,000 subscribers (who spend more that 3 times more per month than the average Virgin subscriber), but will also get Helio’s stylish handsets and access into the emerging 3G market. Cellular-News reports that the typical Virgin customer spends only about $20 a month on pre-paid plans, but the purchase of Helio will allow the company to target consumers who spend between $40 and $70 a month.
Hopefully this step towards a new market will pay off and Virgin Mobile will be able to capture more US customers. The acquisition of Helio will most definitely be a step in the right direction, but the risk remains very high, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to steal market share from such dominant national carriers in the US. Either way, more competition in our mobile service can’t hurt right?
A lot people have been coming to our blog looking for info on the Blackberry Thunder. With the new iPhone 3G being just around the corner, I have been wanting to do a iphone 3G vs. Blackberry Thunder comparison for a while. Unfortunately, the data (especially for the Blackberry Thunder) is rather limited. This is what we know so far.
The Blackberry Thunder is running on Verizon in the US. The iPhone 3G is for AT&T of course.
Both have a full touch screen.
Both support mp3s.
Hmm… both of them are black?
See, that’s how little info we have on the Blackberry Thunder. But we do have a possible picture of the Blackberry Thunder / Verizon Thunder / Vodafone Thunder / Blackberry 9500 / or Blackberry Storm (the old nickname before Blackberry said that it’s not true). Again, all the pictures of the Thunder were made by BoyGeniusReport. Click here to read all the background info here:
Now take a look at the iPhone 3G. Click on the image to see the specs on Apple:
So what’s the conclusion? I have no idea. I think it’s too early to tell what the Thunder has so far. Maybe we can get a better comparision once Blackberry releases more data on the phone.
I was out at lunch today and saw that another sign that mobile payments is becoming more popular, which is great since mobile payment is obviously the core of Obopay. Anyway, I took a picture of it:
I am surprised that paying for parking with your phone is not a bigger deal here in the Bay Area. I mean, if you have been to (or live in) the Bay Area should know how much we end up spending on parking meters, especially in San Francisco. It’s such a hassle finding coins to feed the meter too.
This paying by phone thing is great. I read somewhere a while back that they were trying to implement this for BART too. Not sure how that’s going, but can you imagine if you can just swipe your phone across the subway in New York? That’d be awesome!
I don’t know about you guys, but I usually use Google mobile whenever I want to search on my phone. I’ve seriously been wondering why it’s been loading up a lot faster recently.
According to the Google Mobile blog, they just updated their mobile homepage. I know it doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it’s actually really fast given that you are trying to load up pages on your phone.
For people like me that doesn’t have a GPS on my phone, Google Maps saves my life all the time. I can’t tell you how many times I have almost gotten lost in those crazy one way streets in downtown.
Well, Google announced on the Google blog that they just launched transit directions and schedules on the new Google Maps for mobile. The Google Mobile blog said that “This version (2.2) allows you to get transit directions in all the same places as the web version of Google Maps, including Chicago, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Vancouver, and over 40 other cities in North America.”
That’s pretty convenient, especially for a city like San Francisco where public transportation is rather popular.
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