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The forum moderator for Vodafone is likely to be unemployed and sacked from the moderator throne. Having just made some startling new announcements regarding what’s to be featured in the Vodafone line up regarding the new Nokia releases. The first of the revelations say that Vodafone will not be carrying the new Nokia N97 because it is priced so high. Wonder if Nokia can hear this? Hello out there? Nokia, Your N97 is priced too high! What’s interesting is that the Mod goes on to say that Vodafone will be taking on the Nokia N97 mini for its competitive pricing. Here that one Nokia? Competitive pricing. The mod goes on to say that Vodafone will offer the BlackBerry Storm 2 later this year. And in the end he bid farewell with the news that due to some exclusivity with a competitor deal Vodafone will not be carrying the Palm Pre. Of course this will all be classified under “rumor” and we will begin searching the rivers and seas for anything dumped recently in a big plastic bag.

Nokia and Vodafone have just exclusively launched the new Nokia 6730 classic. This is a mid-level S60 3^rd Edition handset in the ever simple yet classy candy bar form. Features include quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, dual-band UMTS/HSPA, 2.2-inch QVGA display, 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera, GPS/aGPS, FM radio, Bluetooth 2.0, 48MB of internal memory and microSD expansion. Vodafone will be the exclusive carrier, and the handset is available as of this month. Pricing is unknown as of yet, but from the looks of it, this little fella’ is going for free on most contracts.

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HTC’s to-die-for Windows Mobile professional device, the Touch Pro2 has just debuted on Vodafone UK’s website. Vodafone has labeled the handset ‘Touch Pro 2’ instead of ‘Touch Pro2’ like HTC likes it, but the gorgeous QWERTY packing touchscreen device is listed as ‘coming son’ in all its glory. No pricing details yet, but we know how much European carriers love to subsidize their handsets, especially if the user opts for a higher tariff plan.

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Vodafone UK will do away with European roaming charges during the months of June through August, Pay As You Go and Pay Monthly customers from June 1st until the end of August, and applies to over 35 European countries. But customers who want to enjoy local rates for their calls, SMS and MMS, have to sign up for Vodafone Passport. The offer covers about 35 countries in the EU including; Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Channel Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroes, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Isle of Man, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madeira, Malta, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Vatican City, as well as non-EU destinations New Zealand and Australia. To subscribe, text “Passport” to 97888 if you are a Pay Monthly customer or 2345 if you are on Pay as you Go.

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Glad tidings for those in the UK. If you’ve been counting the days till you could get your hands on the Cupcake powered Android HTC Magic, you’ll be pleased as pie to know Vodafone says those who pre-ordered can expect to get their Magic on May 5th. This is official people, Vodafone has put the news up on its website. And there’s more, the Magic will be offered for free on all tariffs greater than £ 30. Good for the English, now what about the Yanks? Are the freedom loving people of USA supposed to put down wallets full of money to get their Magic/G2? T-Mobile, do something.

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(Feeling very green while writing this), Nokia’s Flagship N97 is headed for Europe, to Vodafone this July. So not only will the European crowd be getting the HTC Magic next month, probably for free too, but they will also get this hot Nokia Flagship. All this while the good folks in the US get locked out of the Android Market for poking around with the Cupcake before official release. Sighs! In case you can’t figure out the reason, just imagine not getting your hands on a 3.5″ touchscreen display, sliding full-QWERTY keypad, 5 megapixel camera, GPS, Wi-Fi, 32GB of internal memory, 7.2Mbps HSDPA connectivity, S60 5th Edition and that too, subsidized from a carrier. And we have a $700+ N97 to look forward too. I repeat, sighs!

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As they say in business, if you can’t beat em, join ‘em, which is what then leads to mergers and acquisitions. Vodafone and Telefónica, after many years of trying to get the upes hand in the global telecommunications and wireless market, have finally decided to shake hands. The two carrier giants will aim at providing better services in select European markets. The new deal involves sharing mobile network assets, providing transmission services and building new sites. The main focus behind this new collaboration, in addition to providing customers better service, is to reduce costs. Both companies will be able to save millions of pounds by helping each other out, a very good way to weather the recession. Customers can look forward to better signal quality and mobile broadband across a wider coverage area at lower network operating costs. So far, the countries that will benefit are Germany, Ireland, Spain and UK. Hang tight rest of Europe, your turn will come too.

A day or so ago we told you that Europe was getting dibbs on the G2 known to them as the HTC Magic. Well now the news all official; Vodafone is going to be the exclusive carrier for UK, Spain, France and Germany. As for Italy, enthusiasts there will be able to purchase the world’s first touchscreen-only Android phone as no-exclusive buyers. Though a definite release date isn’t out yet, Vodafone’s website says the Magic will be “Arriving in April.” As for the United States, let’s just hope we get some Magic sooner than later.

Now the HTC Magic is a definite improvement on the tub of plastic that was the G1, especially on the appearance side. Here are the specs;

1.      Android OS

2.      Quad-band EDGE / dual-band 7.2Mbps HSDPA (900/2100 MHz)

3.      512MHz Qualcomm® MSM7201a

4.      512MB ROM / 192MB RAM

5.      3.2″ HVGA touchscreen display (though the press and Vodafone say QVGA, but we all know Android does not play nice with QVGA displays)

6.      Virtual QWERTY keypad, trackball

7.      3.2 megapixel camear w/ AF (no flash)

8.      WiFi 802.11 b/g

9.      GPS

10.  Bluetooth 2.0

11.  microSD

12.  1340 mAh battery

13.  Talktime: 400 min 3G / 450 min GSM

14.  Standby: 660 hours 3G / 420 hours GSM

15.  113mm x 55mm x 13.65mm, 118.5g

16.  Available in black and/or white depending on market

Yes, you noticed right, no 3.5mm audio jack or LED flash. Major bummer.  And here’s the full press release if you want to gobble up more details.

The Palm Pre will be coming to UK, but we were all in the dark about who would get to be the lucky carrier. Well it seems that there’s finally some light on that area, and looks like Vodafone has been successful in bagging itself a touchscreen smartphone.

Recent history certainly supports Vodafone as being the better of the two major European carriers, the other being Orange. Having the Pre as part of its lineup will give Vodafone a definite edge. But Palm will need to tweak its Pre a bit before it becomes all set and go on Vodafone, specifically, they will need to add a GSM radio to it, since the U.S. version of the smartphone will run on the EV-DO rev. A CDMA network belonging to Sprint.

Well good news all! The much awaited software update to the Blackberry Storm is here at last. Yes the leaked OS update had been available and many Verizon users had been taking full advantage of it, but now the legit stuff is here for those in Europe.

Vodafone Germany has made the official launch of the software update for the Storm (9500). The new OS 4.7.0.78 improves the lagging accelerometer to a great extent as well as enhances the touch screen accuracy. You can get our hands on the OS here.

And for those in the United States, Verizon has launched the OS update too. The version is the 4.7.0.75 and is available both over the counter as well through Desktop Manager.  The updates work only for BIS users and are not supported on BES. If you want to update your operating system through the Desktop Manager, here’s where you get your update. For the OTA upgrade, as you probably know, you go to Options > Advanced Options > Wireless Upgrade.

BES users will be getting their updates straight from their network administrators, according to Verizon.