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About Ben

Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.

Brief: Avenir Telecom and O2 get ‘Joined Up’

By Ben Robinson on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 3:15 PM PST
In O2, Services

Avenir Telecom (a business-to- business telecoms distributor in the UK), has announced a partnership with O2 (NYSE: TEF) to provide its new Joined Up communications service to the UK channel. ??Avenir is O2’s leading distribution partner, and Joined Up is a fixed line service which will enable businesses to have one single converged solution for their telecoms requirements.  ??Sorry, not much more info that – what you should take away though is that O2 is active in all market segments, including businesses, and they are willing to partner to go after market share. That’s probably why they are leading the pack in the UK at the moment!

avenir telecom logo2 Brief: Avenir Telecom and O2 get Joined UpAvenir Telecom (a business-to-business telecoms distributor in the UK), has announced a partnership with O2 to provide its new Joined Up communications service to the UK channel.

Avenir is O2’s leading distribution partner, and Joined Up is a fixed line service which will enable businesses to have one single converged solution for their telecoms requirements.

Sorry, not much more info that at the moment (more when it comes) – what you should take away though is that O2 is active in all market segments, including businesses, and they are willing to partner to go after market share. That’s probably why they are leading the pack in the UK at the moment!

Video: Toshiba TG01 vs HTC Hero vs Apple iPhone 3GS

By Ben Robinson on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 6:35 PM PST
In Apple, HTC, Toshiba

Yep, it’s a video shootout between three heavyweights in the touchscreen smartphone arena…

In the black corner: the Toshiba (OTCPK: TOSBF) TG01

In the white corner: the HTC Hero

In the black, with silver bezel, corner: the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone 3GS

It’s a fight to the death – kinda… :-)

Hands-on with the HTC Tattoo hardware…

By Ben Robinson on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 3:12 PM PST
In HTC, Reviews

tattoo1 Hands on with the HTC Tattoo hardware...

HTC were kind enough to loan me their newest model, the Tattoo, the other day – and very nice it was too!

Like has been the case recently a few times, I am talking a look at the final “release candidate” – for those of your unfamiliar with the handset development process, there are typically a small series of ‘release candidate’ handsets, which are taken out for field testing, used as demo handsets etc – in other words, they are very close to the retail-quality device. My unit felt so polished, I’m pretty sure it was good to go in to shops!

Read on to see what I made of the device….

Read the full article »

Video – Samsung C6625v tour!

By Ben Robinson on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 1:37 PM PST
In Hardware, Samsung

Ben gets hands-on with the Samsung C6625V – a qwerty keyboard-packing, candybar device, running WinMo 6.1:

Video – Toshiba TG01 unboxing

By Ben Robinson on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 1:24 PM PST
In Reviews, Toshiba

Ben gets his hands on the Toshiba (OTCPK: TOSBF) TG01, in it’s Orange UK livery, and unboxes it:

Video: Toshiba TG01 – a brief overview

By Ben Robinson on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 1:18 PM PST
In Apple, HTC, Toshiba

Another video for ya – this time the Toshiba (OTCPK: TOSBF) TG01 gets the once-over:

I-play Launches Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet for iPhone and iPod Touch

By Ben Robinson on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 1:05 PM PST
In Announcements, Applications

I-play has announced Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet is the first Women’s Murder Club game to be available for iPhone and iPod touch. The game puts players in the role of the Women’s Murder Club characters to study murder scenes, perform forensic analysis and find evidence to solve a series of ‘ghastly’ murders in San Francisco.
Based on James Patterson’s best-selling mystery novels, and created by award-winning game designer Jane Jensen, the Women’s Murder Club series translates perfectly to the iPhone with flawless touch screen controls, strikingly beautiful artwork and the option for players to listen to their own iTunes® library while playing.  Through 28 investigations and 15 unique locations, players will experience the thrill like never before, and can use the games integrated Facebook Connect feature to share game acheivements. As an exlusive bonus, players who purchase Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet will receive and audiobook bonus that includes the first 10 chapters of The 8th Confession, James Patterson’s newest installment in the Women’s Murder Club series.
If you are wondering who James Patterson is, he has sold over 170 million books worldwide and has more New York Times #1 best sellers than any other author in history!
Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet is now available in the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)® App Store for $3.99 here.
http://bit.ly/wmcdis
If that isn’t exciting enough already, check out the trailer for the game here.
wmc deathin scarlet I play Launches Womens Murder Club: Death in Scarlet for iPhone and iPod Touch

A screenshot from "Women's Murder Club: Death in Scarlet"

I-play has announced Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet is the first Women’s Murder Club game to be available for iPhone and iPod touch. The game puts players in the role of the Women’s Murder Club characters to study murder scenes, perform forensic analysis and find evidence to solve a series of ‘ghastly’ murders in San Francisco.

Based on James Patterson’s best-selling mystery novels, and created by award-winning game designer Jane Jensen, the Women’s Murder Club series translates perfectly to the iPhone with flawless touch screen controls, strikingly beautiful artwork and the option for players to listen to their own iTunes® library while playing.  Through 28 investigations and 15 unique locations, players will experience the thrill like never before, and can use the games integrated Facebook Connect feature to share game acheivements. As an exlusive bonus, players who purchase Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet will receive and audiobook bonus that includes the first 10 chapters of The 8th Confession, James Patterson’s newest installment in the Women’s Murder Club series.

If you are wondering who James Patterson is, he has sold over 170 million books worldwide and has more New York Times #1 best sellers than any other author in history!

Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet is now available in the Apple® App Store for $3.99/£2.39 here.

If that isn’t exciting enough already, check out the trailer for the game here.

Video: Hands-on with the Power pack for iPhone 3G & 3GS

By Ben Robinson on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 12:09 PM PST
In Accessories, Hardware

Just last week I got my hands on the Power pack for iPhone 3G and 3GS – which is both a case (of sorts) and external battery (1900 mAh) for your iPhone 3G/3GS. Anyway, check it all out on the video:

You can get the Power pack from maximobileshop.com.

Video: Hands-on the Plantronics Discovery 975 Bluetooth Headset

By Ben Robinson on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 12:07 PM PST
In Accessories, Reviews

A little while back, I got my hands on the Plantronics Discovery 975 Bluetooth Headset – packing some innovative features like dual-mics, 20-band equaliser, and also a case that doubles as a charger! Schweet! Check out my video here:

Mobango reaches five million members

By Ben Robinson on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 12:06 PM PST
In Announcements, Services

Mobango, which calls itself “the first social mobile application store”, has announced that its global community (read: users) has reached over five million members – who, between them, have downloaded more than 550 million pieces of mobile content so far! Crumbs that’s a good stat attack!
The Mobango community is primarily made up of the important and hard to reach, ‘young’ (18-25) and ‘young adult’ (26-34) demographic. Around the world very strong local communities of these age ranges have been built up –the largest currently being in the US, India, UK and Italy, but with Germany and Spain coming up fast. Mobango’s unique strength lies in not only being a mobile site to just download apps, but also being somewhere that members can share apps and personal content with their friends – and interact via their phones.
Either way round, those are extremely impressive stats – not quite in the league of the App store, but certainly well on the way!
You can read more about Mobango here.

mobango logo Mobango reaches five million membersMobango, which calls itself “the first social mobile application store”, has announced that its global community (read: users) has reached over five million members – who, between them, have downloaded more than 550 million pieces of mobile content so far!

The Mobango community is primarily made up of the important and hard to reach, ‘young’ (18-25) and ‘young adult’ (26-34) demographic. Around the world very strong local communities of these age ranges have been built up –the largest currently being in the US, India, UK and Italy, but with Germany and Spain coming up fast. Mobango’s unique strength lies in not only being a mobile site to just download apps, but also being somewhere that members can share apps and personal content with their friends – and interact via their phones.

Either way round, those are extremely impressive stats – not quite in the league of the App store, but certainly well on the way!

You can read more about Mobango here.