Tag: O2

How To: Disable iPhone Balance Notifications

iPhone balance notifications are probably the only downside to having an iPhone on Pay As You Go, every time you send a message, make a phone call or use data without having a data package in place, you will have to dismiss your balance every time. It may be nice to sometimes see your balance, but if you send a lot of SMS messages like me then it soon gets frustrating.

I decided to research the subject a few months ago to see if there was any way of removing it, a few threads on some forums but no conclusive answer. I got in touch with O2 to get it removed but back then they told me that you couldn’t remove it. There was nothing in Cydia to get rid of it either. But yesterday I got in touch with O2 again, after reading that the carrier can turn it off at their end and I woke up this morning without having to see the balance notification screen. So to remove the balance screen just get in touch with your carrier, whether it be O2 or any other carrier worldwide and they should be able to disable it for you. I hope this has helped and leave your success stories in the comments.

FaceTime uses 3MB of Data/Minute

The folks over at 9to5mac have found that FaceTime uses just under 3MB of data per minute. To be able to use FaceTime over 3G you need to jailbreak your iPhone 4 and then download the My3G app from Cydia. Then you can ‘trick’ the iOS into thinking it’s on WiFi when it’s actually using the 3G cellular network. Obviously this has it’s upsides such as using FaceTime where ever you like or watching high quality YouTube videos on the go. Bear in mind if your using FaceTime on 3G then take into your bandwidth cap into consideration. On O2 in the UK currently most iPhone 4 users have a 500MB+ cap. So if your on the 500MB plan then you can use FaceTime on 3G for a total of around 2 1/2 hours a month, that’s just on FaceTime. So make sure if you are using FaceTime on 3G that you don’t use it too much.

O2 Imposes 3G Data Limits for iPhone 4 Users

Similar to AT&T in the US, O2 has now put a data limit on pay monthly users. O2 had already put a 750MB limit of Pay As You Go users but have now changed there unlimited plans to have limited data caps. The cost for additional data isn’t that steap and for those who need it shouldn’t be that much of an issue but it opens up a competitive advantage to any of the multiple UK carriers who offer true unlimited data.

iPhone 4 Coming To O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone And Three in the UK

It began with O2 exclusivity but now most of the major UK carriers sell the iPhone, Three has just been added to that list of carriers which is an intresting move. Three usually offer very good deals and make the devices very cheap so we could possibly see a cheaper iPhone 4 from Three.

All the carries have confirmed that they will be selling the iPhone 4 from June 24th so it’s going to be an interesting launch and a strong amount of competition.

Vodafone iPhone Now On Sale in UK

An email was sent out today to all Vodafone customers about the release of the iPhone on their network today. Vodafone has joined the other 3 carriers of the iPhone in the UK (O2, Orange and Tesco Mobile.)

According to Vodafone, they estimate they will be able to sell 50,000 iPhones by the end of the day. If they achieve this they will beat Orange’s launch record of 30,000 and outsell the Google Nexus One, which only sold 20,000 in it’s first week.

Related:
Vodafone UK To Offer iPhone January 14th

iPhone 3GS Coming To Tesco Mobile December 14th

As I spoke about before, Tesco said how they were hoping to release the iPhone 3GS before Christmas. Now the date has been set for December 14th, just in time for Christmas. Tesco gave some further details on their offerings of the iPhone. It has free unlimited 3G (fair use policy applies) and BT Openzone WiFi access, which is free for a year to Pay As You Go customers and for the life of your contract if your on Pay Monthly, the same as O2 offers.

The cheapest contract is £20 per month for their one-year contract, but that gets you only £60 calls and texts allowance and you have to pay £320 for the 16GB device itself. They also offer an unlimited calls and texts plan for £60 per month, cheaper than what Orange offer. Last of all they offer half-price calling to your favourite five numbers. The Pay As You Go costs will be the same as what O2 and Orange offer.

BBC iPlayer App Finally Becoming Reality?

If you re-call my article from months ago, I suggested how the BBC need to make a native BBC iPlayer app and their latest press pack hints that this has finally begun.

The image shows the native app running on Wi-Fi, much like the website, which restricts you to only WiFi. It will be up to O2, Orange and Vodafone whether or not they will allow it to run on their 3G network. Little is known about the app, except what we can see from the images.

It appears to show a downloads section, meaning the possibility of downloading radio and TV to listen to when your not in WiFi, much like on the computer. This will probably have the same DRM which will delete it after so many days. The DRM on the media could have been the reason it’s took the BBC so long to develop the app as last time it was put on a portable device it wasn’t long until someone worked around it.

There still no confirmation of the native iPhone application but from these images we know that something is in the works.

Related:
iPhone Idea: BBC iPlayer App

O2 Will Unlock iPhones For £15

O2 will now unlock your iPhone if your contract has expired or you’ve been had a Pay As You Go iPhone for 12 months.

Sine O2 lost exclusively of the iPhone to Orange and Vodafone early next year. O2 have said they will unlock the device.

However it comes with a price, customers will have to pay £15 to get the code to unlock the device.

This makes me believe there must be a similar method, as used on other phones to unlock the device via a code which will be calculated by O2.

Related:
Tesco To Sell iPhone’s Before Christmas
O2 Will Allow Unlock For UK iPhone’s
Orange Release UK iPhone Details
Reports Suggest iPhone 3G Could Be Coming To T-Mobile UK

Tesco To Sell iPhone’s Before Christmas

UK supermarket giant, Tesco, has unveiled that they will start to sell iPhone’s this year. Offering ‘competivie contract prices’. A spokesman for the firm said that it hoped to offer the phone “in time for Christmas”. They have not yet revealed tariffs but are offering “competitive prices”.

Tesco has now joined the iPhone party: O2, Orange, Vodafone and now Tesco will sell both the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. Orange said that they had sold more than 30,000 handsets on its first day of release.

The phone will still be running on O2 as Tesco Mobile and O2 are in a joint venture. You will be able to get the phones both on contract and pay as you go.

The End Of Unlocking Coming Soon?

After today’s announcement from Telefonica Europe that O2 will unlock their iPhones to every network once the Apple iPhone 3G WWDC 2009iPhone is released on other networks means that perhaps other countries will have to follow suit and therefore perhaps the end of hacking to unlock the iPhone. Blacksn0w is the latest unlocking tool from GeoHot which unlocks the latest baseband, however I’m wondering as if to how they will roll out the unlock, either by a carrier update or software update I assume. But if so it won’t take a hacker too long to work out how it’s being unlocked and simply apply it to other phones making it harder for Apple to play the cat and mouse game.

The CEO stated that iPhones will be unlocked once the contract is up, but on Pay As You Go there is no contract so surly they should be sold unlocked, however the way it was started it seems that you have to go to get it unlocked and it won’t just be rolled out. And although I’m going to keep using O2 if they roll this out I’m going to unlock my 8GB iPhone 3G before I sell it to upgrade to a 3GS. Hopefully the rest of the world follows suit and the iPhone becomes a network free device.