Communications Technology

T-Mobile said it will begin selling the Cliq, Motorola’s first Google phone, on October 19 for $200.

The Bellevue, Wash.-based carrier said existing customers can pre-order the Cliq online before the smartphone becomes widely available in stores on November 2.

Motorola reorganized its entire handset unit around the development of Google’s Android phones, betting that smartphones will help it regain lost market share from rivals Apple’s iPhone and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry devices in the fast-growing smartphone market.

The highlight of the Cliq is Motorola’s new “MotoBlur” software — an interface that pushes updates from contacts, messages and emails, along with postings and photos from social networking portals like Facebook and Twitter into one combined view.

Stored information is backed up on a secure server, so users can retrieve, or erase, data from a lost or stolen handset remotely.

“T-Mobile customers text message and access social messaging on mobile devices more than those of any other carrier,” said Wendy Pinero DePencier, T-Mobile’s vice president of brand marketing. “That’s why we’re excited to give them the first opportunity to purchase the Cliq.”

T-Mobile said the Motorola Cliq will be able for pre-order online on October 19 and in stores on November 2, costing $200 with a two-year contract.

No Tags

The wireless industry is gearing up to fight new Net neutrality rules that the Federal Communications Commission is formulating to keep the Internet open.

On Monday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski gave a speech at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C., outlining plans to turn the agency’s principles for open Internet access into official regulation.

In addition to making sure that network operators cannot prevent users from accessing lawful Internet content, applications, and services of their choice, or attaching unharmful devices to the network, Genachowski wants to add two more rules.

The first would prevent Internet access providers from discriminating against particular Internet content or applications, while allowing for reasonable network management. The second principle would ensure that Internet access providers are transparent about the network management practices they implement.

Broadband providers such as AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon Communications have opposed regulation or new laws that would dictate how they could run their networks. Up until this point, the Internet has been free of any regulation. And these companies would like to keep it that way.

No Tags

Wireless carrier Vodafone has announced today the launch of a new suite of Internet services for its subscribers, called Vodafone 360, along with two new devices that support them, both coming from Samsung and running under LiMo, H1 and M1. According to the company, its users who will opt for Vodafone 360 mobile devices will also enjoy a proprietary UI from the carrier.

Vodafone 360, the carrier states, is set to bring together contacts, status updates and messaging services in a single place so as to enhance their connectivity experience. The new suite of services has been designed to work on a wide range of handsets, including the Vodafone 360 ones, as well as to offer synchronization options with a user’s PC.

“The beauty of Vodafone 360 is that all the services work together and they are easy to use. Vodafone 360 enables customers’ digital lives. Customers can stay in touch and share experiences through social networks, instant messaging, email, apps, maps, music and buying digital content on their mobile bill, with the personalised address book at its heart,” Pieter Knook, director of internet services at Vodafone Group says. “Vodafone 360 is the first service of its kind to offer customers the benefits of a truly integrated mobile internet experience that gathers all their contacts and content, all around them, in one place,” he continues.

Among the benefits the new services will be able to deliver to users, we can count: all contacts and content is delivered in a single place, fast connectivity on various networking sites, options to create contact groups across social media networks, location sharing, picture tagging and sharing, synchronization between a handset and web, access to the service via various devices, a wide range of applications available at launch, as well as the availability of some of the services for non-Vodafone users.

As stated above, the new services also come with new handsets from Samsung. The Vodafone 360 H1 by Samsung is the first of them, and should land with a 3.5-inch display, as well as with Wi-Fi connectivity options, a 5-megapixel photo snapper, and 16 GB of memory. The new services and handsets will reach Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK in 2009, with India, Turkey, South Africa, New Zealand and Romania, as well as France through SFR, Russia through MTS and Australia through Vodafone Hutchison, to follow in 2010.

No Tags