The company I Aint No Saint Paint are now producing custom back covers for the Nokia Lumia 710. Although right now they only have a limited range of flag based phone covers at £19.99 each, I’m sure in time they will expand to have an even wider range. These are replacement back covers for the Nokia Lumia 710, as opposed to additional hard cases, but I think they offer a unique way to customise your phone.

I was fortunate to be invited to the Gadget Show Preview / Professional Trade Show event yesterday, and it’s nice to see The Gadget Show Live even bigger and better than last year. Whilst last year everything was iPhone / iPad related, this year it was nice to see a wider range of devices supported by the various accessories manufacturers at the show, with Kindle and Samsung Galaxy Tablets also getting a look in.

Even better; if you haven’t already bought a ticket, I understand from the organisers that a limited number of tickets are still available for today (Wednesday) and tomorrow (Thursday), although the rest of the week is now fully booked, so don’t travel unless you already have tickets.

Along with the main Gadget Show Live Super Theatre (featuring a massive 360 degrees viewing screen), there are a number of smaller seminar type presentation areas, and a few stands are running their own presentations too. In terms of exhibitors, there are the big guys (LG, Samsung, Sony, Canon, Kenwood, Philips and Pioneer), the larger retailers (PC World, Scan), and even a couple of mobile networks (Orange and O2), both of whom are running Show special deals during the event. As always, there are smaller companies (such as OrbitSound and Bicygnals) who are often worth a look at their slightly more specialised items.

There’s lot of food facilities (though a little expensive), including Subway and Starbucks, and even a chance to try the new Volkswagen Up! car in the driving experience; equally, for gamers, there are plenty of XBox consoles to try out, and a fair few Kinect installations on various stands. If you have children, look out for LeapFrog for younger ones, or something more fun such as the Parrot AR.drone for the older children.

Although The Gadget Show have announced that as from the new series (soon to start) only Jason and Polly will be presenting, all 5 of the “current” presenters will be appearing at the Gadget Show Live this year. For details of the shows and a full exhibitor list, head off to the Gadget Show Live website for more details.

If you want to attend, head over to the Gadget Show Live website and buy your tickets in advance of travelling (if any are left!); also don’t forget NEC charge £8 per car for parking.

Three have announced a refresh of their price plans as from tomorrow. Although The One Plan remains, all other plans seem to have been modified. However, the big news is that Three have abolished all out of bundle data charges, although this looks to be at the expense of newer lower limits.

The plans come in two flavours, Essential and Ultimate; all plans come with data, although the Essential plans only have 250Mb included for free. Should you run out of data (and you’ll get a text to tell you this), we assume your data will get cut off, instead of automatically incurring fees, but you can then add either another 250Mb (for £2) or add All You Can Eat data for £5, with both of these options lasting up to 30 days, and without any commitment to pay again in the next month.  This idea of allowing more data on an occasional basis seems a good move to me, although I would personally have preferred to see a slightly higher data bundle.

However, all the Ultimate plans have All You Can Eat data, so no worries there over your data usage. Again, I assume that The One Plan remains the only new plan available where you can tether (connect your PC to your handset and access data).

The plans are (with example handset prices; some handsets will cost a higher monthly charge, and all plans are for 24 months):

It’s been a few days since the end of this year’s Mobile Web Congress, where many (but not all) device manufacturers announce their new products for the next few months. Of course, many are well into planning future products, but right now, there’s been a lot of products announced (ie launched, not yet actually available), and I thought I’d summarise the devices that caught my attention the most…

So, in no particular order…

Nokia PureView 808

This device can’t be ignored. Yes, it’s running Symbian (but the newest version of the OS, which makes it much closer to Android), yes, people still feel Symbian is past it’s best, but this device has a major selling feature; that 41MP camera!  One of the best features is to use all those megapixels not to produce a very hi res photo, but to reduce the resolution of the end picture.  This can either be because it’s a low light situation, and having much bigger groups of pixels collecting the light will make for a better picture. The other reason is to allow for a decent quality digital zoom without any interpolation going on. As the successor to the Nokia N8, I believe this phone will sell well. Nokia have indicated that this is not a one-off device, and we will see future devices with equally high megapixel counts. For some, this may be good enough to actually replace a low to mid range camera too…

New Nokia Lumia devices

On top of the Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 710 launched last year, we now have the Nokia Lumia 900 and the base model, the Nokia Lumia 610. The Lumia 900 was expected (as the US version was already launched), but I suspect this will be popular as it’s the current top of the range model, with a slightly larger screen than the Lumia 800. Personally, I don’t feel WP7 needs such a large screen, and many people will cope much better with the rest of the range. The Lumia 900 should ship around May time.

The Nokia Lumia 610 is the new base model, and will need the slightly updated Tango version of WP7 to operate. With a slightly lower spec than current WP7 models, there may be the odd application which will need some tweaks between now and June to work fine on this device, but it’s going to allow the networks to sell an even cheaper WP7 device (this could be very popular on PAYG). Microsoft and Nokia’s aim is to get WP devices below £100, which I don’t quite think they’ll manage with the Lumia 610, but given in all other respects it’s got the same capabilities as devices like the Lumia 710, it should sell well.

Nokia Application Updates

Nokia Drive will be updated in the next few weeks to v2. This will add speed camera warnings and full offline searching and routing, functions critical to anyone who travels abroad and wants to minimise data roaming bills by turning off data completely. The current version allows you to download maps for multiple regions, but needs an online connection for routing, re-routing and searching. By allowing the data stored within the maps to be used, this nearly brings Nokia Drive inline with the functionality of the Symbian version. What’s missing? Traffic data and automatic re-routing, although I’ve heard this will be coming in v3, but I have no knowledge of a release date for that version.

Nokia Public Transport will also be released. Back at Nokia World last year, I was very impressed by this application (at that time running on Symbian, but as I reported at the time, it would come to WP7), and the new WP7 version does seem to be well thought out. Two minor issues with it; firstly, it’s an online application (which in the future will allow real time data to be included within the information presented), and currently I understand that although it includes Tubes, Busses, DLR and possibly even Trams, for some reason the various London train lines are still not included. Of course, within Central London, this is not a major problem, and the app in fact looks like it could shine in the suburbs when the train lines break, and only non-train options remain available!

Asus Padfone

Finally, a non-Nokia device; the Asus Padfone was first shown off last year, but is now ready for production. It’s an Android phone (ICS, 4.3″ screen) which can be placed inside a screen dock to create a tablet device. By only using one device it means you can have both a phone and a tablet, but only need one mobile phone contract, and you won’t suffer annoying sync issues between the devices (although Android is good at syncing contacts and calendar, most other apps have no sync capabilities). By placing the phone in the 10.1″ screen dock (Station), you’ll benefit from the battery within the dock to recharge and keep the two devices going for much longer than the phone would last on it’s own. There’s also a keyboard dock (very similar to the Asus Transformer tablet keyboard dock) which has another additional battery which will increase battery life even further.  The keyboard dock also adds a memory card slot and a USB port, which really does give the impression (like the Asus Transformer) that it could replace your laptop.

This is due to be made available in April, although prices are not yet available. I suspect the keyboard dock will be an optional accessory, but I suspect (and hope) most networks will offer the phone with the main Station dock as standard.

Overall, this was a good year for MWC, and I think we’re going to see some very nice devices released and available over the next few months. I’m putting together a separate post on the HTC devices that have been released this week.

Last night Olympus launched a new range of digital cameras; the OM-D range (although right now, it’s only one model, in Black or Silver). The Olympus E-M5 is a Micro Four Thirds MILC (Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camera) which harks back to the styling of the OM film range of twenty odd years ago. That slightly large hump above the camera doesn’t contain a prism (like an SLR would), but instead features an EVF (Electronic ViewFinder), and the same accessory mount Olympus use on their PEN range allowing a range of devices to be attached (Macro lights, Microphones, Bluetooth Transfer device).  Fuji has had success with it’s retro styling digital cameras, and I think this particular model comes with a high enough specification to be able to carry it off.

This is a semi-professional camera, with dust and splash proof seals, and also like many professional cameras, comes with the option of a vertical grip (also weather sealed). Actually it’s a two part grip, firstly providing an additional landscape shutter button and grip (making the small camera easier to hold for those with big hands), and then the vertical grip element, with shutter button, two customisable buttons, a main control dial and storage for a second battery.

One downside to the camera is that it does not feature a built in flash, but Olympus are shipping the camera with a small external flash (also weather sealed), so at least it’s not an additional expense, which used to be true of many film SLRs until built in flashes became common. Although not fully articulated, the rear touchscreen will tilt up or down allowing you some freedom in taking pictures above your head or at waist height; you can’t tell from the pictures, but at 121 x 90 x 42mm (without the grip or lens attached), this is quite a small device and could be popular for street photography.

This is a camera I like. With the 12-50mm weather sealed lens kit, it’s going to retail in the UK for around £1150, but with the added bonus that if you pre-order the camera (it’s due to be released in April), official UK dealers will be offering the HLD-6 grip for free as part of the deal (between the lens and the grip and all key components being weather sealed, this makes the package well worthy of consideration when compared to the price of other MILC devices).

If you want to read the full technical specifications, then Olympus has created a special microsite at olympusomd.com where you can see more pictures and the full specs.

Although the MiFi is a fantastic device, it’s designed for use on the go, and anything with a battery risks damage if left permanently on charge. So, for people who want the benefit of the MiFi (3G available to up to 5 devices via WiFi), but want a more permanent solution, this may well be the solution you’ve been waiting for.  3UK also suggest it’s useful for students or people renting where committing to a new landline contract (often 18 months nowadays) is either not an option or not worthwhile.

Although it’s been available in other countries (such as Ireland) for a while now, 3UK seem to be the first UK Mobile Network to offer a realistic “Broadband in a box” solution with the Web Cube.

The Web Cube comes on a Mobile Broadband tariff, and the SIM is already inserted, so it really is a case of plugging into the mains and you’re ready to go. That’s one of the key points about the Web Cube; it’s powered from the mains, so for some people that’s a downside (and for those a MiFi is a better option), but for others that want a permanently on option or can live with only having access whilst near a mains power socket, then this is for you. To show that’s it’s a little bit less convenient than a MiFi, it’s also a little cheaper per month for the same amount of data.

Data? Lots! You have two contract options:

• For a rolling 1 month contract (ie no long tie in period), you can get 10GB of data each month for £15 per month, but there is a £60 upfront charge for the device.
• Alternatively, and what I suspect will be the more popular option, you can get 15GB of data each month for £15.99 per month, with no upfront charge, but instead you will commit to a 24 month contract.

15GB is a lot of data; that’s approximately 500MB per day, which is the limit many network place on handset tariffs for the whole month. Of course, the main reason for the extra amount is things like Security Patches and viewing full web pages, but even so, 15GB is a lot of data. The device is HSPA+ compatible, so (where it’s available), 3UK could provide speeds upto 21.6Mbps download and 5.76Mbps up; even at a quarter of those speeds that’s more than many of us can currently achieve on our landlines; in fact, 3UK carefully market their network as “in excess of 10 Mbps, with typical speeds of 2-5 Mbps”.

Of course, with all good things, there has to be a downside, and I’m afraid this device does have a downside; for many people it’s simply not available 3UK are launching it in 3 cities to begin with; Leeds, Glasgow and Edinburgh – if you are outside of those cities, it’s not yet available, but you can put your name down to be informed once it is available.

I expect as the year goes on and the device becomes available across the whole of the UK, and especially as students set off in September, this is going to become a well selling solution.

Although 3UK have also talked about adding a Mobile WiFi docking station for existing Mobile Broadband dongle customers (see here), I think this is a nicer cleaner solution.

Head to 3UK‘s website for more information on the Web Cube.

I’ve recently got a Nokia Lumia 800, and for all the nice features the phone and Windows Phone 7 has, one annoying feature was the lack of multi Google Calendar support; when you add a Google Account to the phone, it only syncs the primary calendar associated with the account; I have 4 or 5 main Google Calendars, and subscribe to a number of iCal feeds too, so this really didn’t provide me with the full Google experience I need.

I discovered there was a way of getting multi calendar support, involving a desktop PC, mucking around with browser settings (and user agent settings), which allowed you to access a Google sync configuration page where you could add multiple calendars.  This worked, and I was really happy.

However, Google have now confirmed that if you access the m.google.com/sync page direct from your Windows Phone (using IE9 on the phone), it will allow you to select your WP7 device, and then add multi calendars to be included with the next sync.

Once done, go to the Settings / Accounts, press and hold the Google account, and select Synchronise.  If this does not bring down the additional calendars, you may need to remove the Google account and add it back again.  Also, once you have done this, you can go into the Calendar settings and change the colours of each calendar to bring them closer to the colours you have adopted within Google Calendar directly; that way a quick glance at your calendar, and you should know what’s going on.

So far this has been the only “showstopper” that has stopped me enjoying the device; yes, it’s not perfect, and there are still lots of little things for Microsoft / Nokia to sort out, but now allowing multiple Google Calendar support is a good start (for me!).

Update: I’ve removed a minor comment regarding Nokia Drive, as Nokia are kindly in contact with me around my comments with the app.

Now this is an interesting device, launched in the US at CES this week.  It’s not a phone, but rather an Android camera, so it’s got better optics than a phone would have, with a 3x optical zoom lens (36-108mm equivalent) and has 18 scene modes to take advantage of the 16 megapixel sensor. It has a Smart Album facility which will store pictures by date, location and people. With built in WiFi, Bluetooth (and “optional cellular data”), it can upload the pictures for you, saving you the need to connect the camera to a PC to share the pictures; there’s even some simple editing capabilities in the camera (cropping, red-eye removal, resizing and color correction).

Like many cameras, it uses a memory card, and like many phones, it uses the microSD card format, allowing upto 32GB of pictures to be stored on the device.

No price was announced for the Polaroid SC1630 Smart Camera, and Polaroid only stated it would be available “in 2012″; also no confirmed availability for the UK, but we believe it should be available in the UK at some point.

This is an interesting camera for lots of reasons, beyond the actual technical specification. Canon hinted last year that people didn’t always want interchangeable lens on cameras, and with more camera companies releasing MILC (Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camera) devices (especially after Nikon’s launch last year of the Nikon 1 Series), Canon seemed to be behind the times in this area.  In the short term then, the PowerShot G1 X is designed to be their equivalent; I guess Canon’s thinking is that most people buy a MILC and stick with the standard lens, so why make it removable…?

What’s also interesting is that Canon have put quite a large (in physical size) sensor in the camera, allowing it to compete well against it’s competitors, even if it’s not got the highest megapixel value (in fact, a number of camera companies are saying the megapixel war is over for a while, and the numbers of pixels does not need to increase to increase quality; something we’ve seen from the likes of Canon before).

The camera has a 1.5-inch (18.7 x 14mm) 14.3 megapixel High-Sensitivity Canon CMOS sensor, with a 4x zoom lens (28-112mm 35mm film lens equivalent), Full HD recording, and has the DIGIC 5 processor as seen in previous Canon DSLRs.  What’s also interesting is that at the wide end, the lens has an aperture of f/2.8, which will help get even more light into that new sensor.  Also, it’s worth noting that the sensor is roughly the same size as the Micro Four Thirds sensor used by Olympus and Panasonic, both of which are bigger than the Nikon 1 Series sensor.

Although no UK price is yet confirmed, the camera will cost $800 in the US, where it goes on sale in February, so it shouldn’t be long before it’s available in the UK.  Pricing could be just under £550, although I would suspect it’ll settle a little lower than this once it’s been available for a few months.

Having said that Canon have been making noises about whether people actually need interchangeable lenses on these compact sized cameras, the rumours are that if Canon do decide to release a MILC device, it will be in 2012.  Obviously it won’t be well suited to the existing EF and EF-S lenses (although an adaptor is likely to allow people to slowly migrate across), so would need a new range of lenses to work with it.

My only concern; last month, Panasonic started selling the DMC-GX1, which is commonly called the GX1, so we now have the GX1 competing with the G1X; that’s bound to lead to some confusion…

When launched back at the end of November, the Pure Highway 300Di car DAB adaptor was due to be available within a week or so.  Just to let you know, it’s now available at Halfords (and I’m not sure they have the Exclusive any more either, so you maybe able to find it elsewhere too).  It’s still £180 (plus £25 fitting if you need the service, and most will), but I think that’s good value for a fitted additional DAB radio that’s nicely styled, and will allow a level of future proofing existing cars (if the old FM radio signals are ever turned off, which still isn’t definite).

In my original article, I mentioned a free fitting offer during the “initial launch”; I can only conclude this period has already finished, as the free fitting doesn’t appear to be available anymore.