Geeksphone and Mozilla announced today that they will be teaming up to release smartphones featuring Mozilla’s Firefox OS, offering two developer preview handsets that will assist developers in prepping for the release of the new platform. The units are expected to be available in February, and the cost of the units have yet to be revealed.…
Telefónica teams-up with Aurasma to bring augmented reality to mainstream consumers
Telefónica Digital is teaming-up with augmented reality platform Aurasma. Under the deal — which BTW is a major milestone for an augmented reality platform — the Spanish carrier group will integrate Aurasma’s technology into the range of media services it offers brands and advertisers. The AR capability will be offered alongside other technologies such as…
Telefonica unveils 2 EUR/day EU data access
Telefonica has unveiled a pan-European data roaming tariff for smartphone subscribers, offering 25MB of data usage for 2 EUR a day. The Spanish-owned operator group said the new tariff protects customers from “bill shock” and is also significantly below the new price caps announced by the European Union last week. As a reminder, EU ruled…
TU Me by Telefónica enters the crowded VoIP and mobile messaging space
Telefónica, better known as O2 in the UK, has just launched an iOS application called “TU Me”. If you know what Skype does, then you know what TU Me does. It has free voice over IP calling, it has instant messaging, photo sharing, and you’ll even be able to share your location. The catch? It…
EU approves preliminary deal that will overhaul roaming agreements
Cellular customers in Europe will soon be paying less for roaming charges incurred while roaming in other European countries. A preliminary deal has been struck between the European Parliament and representatives of the Council and the European Commission that will set EU roaming rules that carriers must abide by starting July 1st. The agreement will…
Telefonica sees first net quarterly loss in nine years
Telefonica, known best as being one of the world’s largest wireless service providers, has just published its quarterly results, and it’s their first net loss in nine years. From July to September, they lost 429 million Euros, versus making 5.1 billion Euros in the same timeframe last year. Operating income sat at at 348 million…
Telefónica unveils ZTE Light Pro, a 7-inch Android 2.2-runin’ tablet
Telefónica thinks there’s money to be made in the Spanish tablet market. Hence they’ve teamed-up with ZTE to launch the low-cost ZTE Light Pro, offering it for free to anyone who agrees to commit on a two-year contract. The device runs Android 2.2 Froyo, while boasting specs that include 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity, GPS, 3-megapixel…
Telefónica to invest $14.6 billion in Brazil
After taking controlling stake of Brazil’s Vivo from Portugal Telecom in a deal worth 7.5 billion EUR, Telefónica proceeded with the plan to integrate the mobile operator with its fixed-line business – Telasp. As part of the strategy to conquer the Brazilian telecommunications market, the Spanish group said it plans to invest 24.3 billion BRL…
Orange, Telefónica Movistar and Vodafone to work together in Spain to make NFC take off
In much the same way that America had to standardize their track gauges in order to build a railway system that stretched from the east coast to the west coast, something similar has to happen for Near Field Communication (NFC) to take off. Some operators are giving customers NFC stickers they can place on the…
eBay scores first mobile pre-load deal with Telefónica
eBay scored its first mobile pre-load deal with a carrier. Their “partner in crime” is the Spanish group Telefónica, which will pre-install eBay’s mobile app on an array of devices it offers through O2 UK. The deal includes both feature phones and smartphones, spanning multiple platforms like Android, Windows Phone 7, Symbian and Bada. Telefónica…