germany

LG Germany announces new firmware for unlocked devices with Internet Sharing

January 27, 2012 | By Surur

lgoptimus

LG Germany has announced on their Facebook page that they have now made new firmware available for unlocked LG Optimus 7 handsets which enable Internet Sharing. Many uses from numerous devices have been complaining the 8107 update does not enable this feature on their current handsets.

The firmware in version V11h (1.1.8.10), with the current version being V11g (means: 1.1.7.10) .

Hopefully we will see this update roll out to carrier devices soon also.

Thanks Manu for the tip.

10

German 1&1 carrier offering the Nokia Lumia 800 with fully unlimited plan for only € 39.99 per month

January 2, 2012 | By Surur

1and1

The German 1&1 carrier is offering the Nokia Lumia 800, which it calls one of its Best Sellers, on its 1&1 All-Net-Flat plan, which offers unlimited mobile, landline and data calls for only €39.99 Euro per month on a 24 month plan.

A €199.99 contribution does however need to be made ahead of time for the handset. The HTC Titan is also available on the carrier, but is even more upfront, costing €299.99.

With unlimited data plans increasingly rare the Lumia 800 deal sounds pretty good. The deal is only available to new subscribers. See 1&1’s selection here.

Via AreaMobile.de

2

HTC may ignore German patent ban, risks 250,000 euro per phone fine

November 29, 2011 | By Surur

nrd2151-i2 HTC has said it will ignore the IPCom patent complaint which was decided against the company, and which would ultimately lead to a ban in the sale of HTC handsets, including their Windows Phones ones, in Germany.

HTC said that Ipcom’s intellectual property claim had already been ruled invalid by the German Federal Patents court in December 2010, but notable experts disagree. The patents relate to how phones connect to 3G base stations.

HTC has dropped its appeal case against an earlier decision which favoured IPCom, leaving the company with a default judgement.

"Since HTC has never come up with an offer that adequately reflects the value of these patents, Ipcom has been left with no choice – we will use the right awarded by the courts, likely resulting in HTC devices disappearing from shops during the crucial Christmas season," said Ipcom’s managing director, Bernhard Frohwitter.

He added that if HTC ignored the order Ipcom would ask for the phone maker to be fined.

"It’s up to the court and could go up to 250,000 euro (£213,000) per violation per phone," Mr Frohwitter said.

Ipcom said it has now told HTC that it intends to enforce the ban.

What IPCom is however after is ultimately license fees. He added that Ipcom was still willing to settle, providing HTC agreed to pay a "fair" licence fee.

HTC only sold 1.43 million phones into Germany in the last 9 months, making it an important but not vital market. It remains to be seen if HTC is willing to deal or not.

Carrier billing now being offered for Marketplace purchases in Germany

November 24, 2011 | By Surur

carrierbilling

Carrier billing is a pretty big deal, as it makes it frictionless to purchase applications, and removes the need to have a credit card registered with Marketplace, or having a credit card at all.

Having carrier billing was one of the key requirements for Nokia to implement on their Windows Phone, but it seems smartphones from other OEMs, like this Samsung Omnia 7 in Germany, will also benefit from these deals.

Do our readers prefer keeping their app purchases separated from their phone calls, or do you look forward to the convenience? Let us know below.

Thanks David for the tip.

12

Exclusive: 02/Telefonica has a Nokia game plan after all, calls the Lumia their "major holiday season strategy".

November 11, 2011 | By Surur

We have heard that O2 in UK, owned by Telefonica, will not be providing the Nokia Lumia 800 due to excessive demands from Nokia.

It seems the two companies have now reached an agreement, as an email providing details of their deal, at least in Germany, has been leaked to us.

Firstly Nokia will be incentivising O2 stores over the holiday season to sell their handsets, with the stores that do the best receiving several thousand euros.

Secondly all O2 Direct stores in Germany will have working Lumia displays, right next to the iPhones.

Telefonica will be widely promoting the phone, putting it on the front page of all their literature. They will also be running promotions on television, printed media and at universities, train stations and other public venues.

Also every shop manager has had mandatory training on the Nokia windows phone.

Devices will be available from the 15th in Black, and from December in all three colours, with another major push.

Apparently O2 is all in, and calls the Lumia their "major holiday season strategy".

It seems there is a reason why Germany has a higher Windows Phone 7 Market share than any other region in the world.

The Nokia Lumia 800 (SeaRay) is an upcoming Windows Phone with a 3.7” ClearBlack AMOLED screen, HSPA+ data speeds, and a 1.4 GHz single-core processor. It has an 8-megapixel rear camera, no front-facing camera, and 16 GB of storage. It is coming to many countries like Germany around November 16, 2011. United States release date is currently unknown. Full specs…

Thanks Danny for the tip.

6

Now Germany thinks the HTC Titan runs Android

November 9, 2011 | By Surur

titan

We saw yesterday a shot of the HTC Radar being sold as running Windows Mobile 2003 (not even SE).

Now here is a shot from a TV Magazine in Germany showing iPhone competitors, and once again the HTC Titan Windows Phone is getting the short shrift.

While the HTC Titan running Windows Phone 7.5 has a pretty iconic interface, it would certainly not be mistaken for what showed up in that magazine, which clearly shows some random Android handset.

The details are also of course all wrong, claiming the handset has 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of expandable storage and best of all a 1.5 Ghz Dual-core processor.

While Microsoft is now in the process of a massive advertising push for Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, it is clear, in terms of mindshare, they still have a long way to go to making sure mistakes like this will not happen again.

Thanks Sebastian for the tip and pictures.

13

O2 Germany now offering the HTC Titan and Radar online

October 7, 2011 | By Surur

If you are yearning for a 4.7 inch Windows Phone and you are an German O2 subscriber yearn no more, as the HTC Titan and HTC Radar are now available on the German network.

The handsets, which are available from 15 to 25 Euro per month (excluding service) can be found on O2’s Handy-shop here.

Thanks M. Braun for the tip.

9

LG Jil Sander Windows Phone 7 handset detailed

September 28, 2011 | By Surur

The LG Jil Sander is basically an LG Optimus 7 recast into a new casing. The handset retains the same specs, with a 5 megapixel camera and 3.8 inch screen, but now comes with exclusive Jil Sander content, including fashion news and previews of upcoming collections.

Jil Sander is a German designer, and this and the handset’s European-only HSDPA frequencies indicate the continent is the final destination.

Long time readers will recall HTC went down the same route with the Ted Baker HTC Touch, and like the Touch it is not clear if this will have an appreciable effect on sales or not.

Via Pocketnow.com

8

Deutsche Telekom in Germany also ready for Mango, says its coming mid-October

September 15, 2011 | By Surur

Another report of a carrier ready for the Mango update has just rolled in. This time its from Deutsche Telekom in Germany where we have a rep on Facebook responding to a question regarding the update, checking and declaring that they are ready and just waiting for the green light from Microsoft.

Uniquely however this rep does give a time frame, saying mid-October. I suspect however he may be talking about the launch of Mango hardware, which is expected to be mid-October.

Either way it is not too long to wait.

Via Windows-smartphones.de.

Thanks Daniel for the tip.

13

LG E906 gets GCF certification

September 8, 2011 | By Surur

The LG E906, which has been previously revealed to be the Jil Sander Design House-branded Windows Phone Mango, has now passed through Global GSM Certification.

The Quadband GSM handset has mainly European and Asian 3G bands (900, 1900 and 2100), marking it for European release (if the German fashion house branding did not confirm that enough).

Normally GCF certification precedes release quite closely, but 2-3 weeks, so this slightly tweaked handset should hit the market shortly.

Via Pocketnow.com

5

A look at HTC’s IFA stand and the HTC Titan and Radar

September 6, 2011 | By Surur

Our last video from IFA concludes with the high point (for Windows phone 7 at least) of the event – HTC’s stand and the HTC Titan and HTC Radar being demoed.

ifa-2011-htc-stand-1 HTC’s stand was a lot busier that Microsoft’s and actually showed off HTC’s new handsets, the HTC Titan and Radar. In real life the HTC Radar does not look that bad, but could really do without the chin. The HTC Titan is of course the star of the show, and interestingly, according the rep, comes with text reflowing – a mistake I suspect.

The HTC custom apps include Dock Mode, Location (HTC Footprints) , Connected Media (their DLNA app) and interestingly the HTC Radar comes with Internet Sharing enabled by default.

The HTC Radar will retail for 399 Euro and the HTC Titan for 610 Euro and will be available in Germany in early October.

22

IFA 2011: A look at Microsoft’s “Summer Garden”

September 5, 2011 | By Surur

Microsoft had a pretty low-key presence at IFA 2011 in Berlin, Germany, consisting mainly of this “Summer Garden” which was not inside the hall and which our correspondent had some difficulty finding. microsoft-photo-1

As mentioned earlier they were showing off mainly HTC Mozart’s running Windows phone 7.5, but one staff member was showing off a HTC Titan running Windows Phone 7.5.

While there the stand was visited by N-TV, Germany’s equivalent of CNN, so at least there was some national coverage of Windows Phone 7.5.

Germany is one of Windows Phone 7’s best markets, and one wonders if blowing it out a bit further would have been useful to keep it that way.

22

HTC Omega/ HTC Radar hands-on video

September 1, 2011 | By Surur

Greek blog techblog.gr have published this hands-on video of the HTC Omega. The handset is appearentl heading to T-Mobile Germany and will come with Navigon Select Telekom Edition. The poster confirms the handset to be branded as the HTC Radar, and the About screen confirms only 8 GB storage.