Google and Nestle have announced a strange partnership today (Tuesday) which sees the next version of Google's Android operating system being named KitKat after the popular chocolatey wafer snack. It's been confirmed that there's no money involved in this deal but both companies will be advertising eachother.
Vodafone UK Announces it's 4G Offering
Vodafone in the UK have announced that their 4G services will launch in London on 29th August 2013, the same day as O2 switch on their 4G network in Leeds, Bradford and London. The network's plans will start at £26 although this is sim-only. Regular plans will be in three prices £34 (Regular), £39 (L) and £44 (XL) on 24 months contracts. There's no word yet on data apart from the £44 contract giving an 8GB monthly allowance. Vodafone Test Drive will give every 4G customer 3 months of unlimited data though so they can figure out how much they actually use each month.
Plus, customers on the L and XL plans will get Spotify Premium and Sky Sports Mobile TV included, that's around £15 of free services for two years.
Vodafone say other cities such as Birmingham, Bradford, Nottingham and Sheffield will get 4G by the end of the year while 98% of the population will get indoor coverage in a couple of years.
Mobile phone companies have recently been criticised by consumer groups for not offering unlimited data plans for 4G, especially given how much more data consumers are likely to use. Three will be the only network to offer unlimited data plans but they won't launch services until the end of the year.
With the competition starting to hot up let's see what happens over the coming months when all the networks services come online. Who will have the best deals and who will get the most customers?
Do you use 4G already? What are your experiences? Please leave comments below.
O2 Announces it's 4G Offering
Telefonica's UK arm, O2, have today released basic details of their upcoming 4G service which will launch at the end of August this year. For the last few months the only company to offer 4G services in the UK has been Everything Everywhere (EE). Since the auction of the 4G spectrum by ofcom earlier this year the UK has been waiting for the likes of O2, Vodafone and Three to announce details of their offerings. O2 are the first to do so.
Uptake of EE's 4G service has been quite slow with less than 1 million subscribers so far despite a large number of cities having 4G available. This could be due to their high prices and low data caps or people just waiting to see what others offer.
O2's cheapest contract will be £26 per month but they've yet to detail how much data you'll get for this (nobody cares about calls or texts). Hopefully they will learn from EE's mistake.
Importantly, the iPhone 5 will not be available on O2's 4G network unless Apple release version. This could effect uptake too as the iPhone 5 is hugely popular.
Have you been using EE's 4G service or are thinking of getting 4G now that O2 have an offering? Please comment below.
Samsung Hands Out 1 Million Jay-Z Albums
If you own a Samsung Galaxy S3, S4 or a Note 2 you can get your hands on one of a million copies of Jay-Z's new album entitled 'Magna Carta Holy Grail'. The album will be available to download via a special app on 1st July.
Google Buys Waze
Google has purchased the social sat-nav company Waze for a reported $1 billion. The app available on iOS and Android provides free sat-nav and real time traffic updates based on other users driving times. The company was founded in 2008 by Uri Levine and others in the upcoming tech capital of Israel.