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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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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.

HP’s other Smartphone, the iPAQ 150 Voice Messenger was announced with the iPAQ Data Messenger. HP has had a long relationship with Microsoft and its Windows Mobile. It was on e of the first companies that used the Windows Mobile back in 2000. But as far as Smartphones were concerned, HP didn’t enter this terrain until it acquired its biggest competitor Compaq. With the acquisition of Compaq came the pocket PC, iPAQ series. HP kept this name and abandoned its own Jornada. But the real venture into Smartphones came with the two releases this year; one of the iPAQ Data Messenger and the other of the iPAQ Voice Messenger. According to HP’s website, they carrier will be AT&T.  

The iPAQ Voice Messenger is a Windows Mobile Smartphone. This Smartphone is aimed at users who want cell phone features to be more dominant in their Smartphone/PDA. The iPAQ Voice Messenger features a full QWERTY keypad and makes professional life easier with Voice Command. You get your email read to you, you can reply just as easily without having to type. The same ease is available with appointments, tasks and dialing contacts of your list. The 2.4 inch LED backlit screen has a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. It also has support for storage expansion with a microSD card slot. There’s also a 1.3 megapixel camera for both photo capture and video recording.

The iPAQ Voice Messenger is available as an unlocked set as well, just in case you don’t want to switch carriers. The cell provides support for Wi-Fi and has VoIP (Voice over IP), a feature that lets you save wireless airtime by allowing you to use your company’s wireless Wi-Fi (LAN) as well as PBX phone systems. The battery gives 6.5 hours of talk time. The warranty period is a year long in most regions and there is 90 days of technical support for the software. In Europe, the iPAQ Voice Messenger is set for release in November and its carriers will be Vodafone. Dates for other markets are not available but they won’t keep you waiting long.

Not to be left behind by the competition, HP has announced the release of its very own Smartphone the iPAQ Data Messenger.

Apple has long ruled the Smartphone world with its iPhone. The perfect competitor for the iPhone is still a debatable issue. Research In Motion (RIM) and their gorgeous BlackBerry certainly have given the iPhone competition, and now HTC has jumped in with the Google Phone, it seemed only befitting that HP should make an entry too. Not one, HP has brought out two Smartphones. There’s also the iPAQ Voice Messenger.

The iPAQ Data Messenger fully supports 3G network connectivity. It has a spacious 2.8 inch touch screen display that supports 65 thousand colors and a 320 x 240 pixel resolution. In addition there is a slide out, full QWERTY alphanumeric keypad. Doesn’t weight a lot either, 160 grams of pure technology and ease is what you will be carrying around with yourself. It also comes with built in GPS navigation. You can communicate easily and smartly using email, phone and the internet. Wi-Fi connectivity means you’re in touch with the web no matter where you go, and in most countries it may even be free. In any case, the more hotspots you can connect to the better. Typing emails and text messages is a sheer joy with the QWERTY keypad. And the generous display screen doesn’t leave your squinting for a peek at your own work.

The iPAQ Data Messenger runs Windows Mobile Professional 6.1 which also brings Microsoft Office Outlook Mobile, Microsoft Office Mobile and is fully capable of synchronizing contacts, appointments and tasks with your PC. Unlike the Google Phone, which only shows Microsoft Office in read-only view, you can also edit your files in Word, PowerPoint or Excel.

There’s a 3.1 megapixel digital camera with autofocus, 5x digital zoom, LED flash, and you have support for storage expansion up to 8GB with a microSD card slot.

Specs in a snapshot: Integrated WLAN 802.11b/g, with WPA2 security, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, 3G wireless broadband connectivity for voice and data, Tri-band UMTS (900/1900/2100 MHz), HSDPA Category 8 (up to 7.2Mbps downlink) and HSUPA Category 5 (up to 2Mbps uplink), Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), 128 MB SDRAM main memory for running applications, 256 MB flash ROM, and Full alphanumeric slide-out keyboard, 5-way optical navigation, 2 soft keys, ringer/sound switch, send/end buttons, keyguard button, volume control, camera button, 2 quick access keys.

The iPAQ Data Messenger will launch in Europe first through Vodafone. But it’s expected that HP resellers will offer them at a contract for $677.