It seems like forever ago that Google launched their Nexus One handset – it’s been available through Google themselves since January, but today Vodafone have begun promoting the handset, by announcing… not very much at all:

Not only are there no prices for Nexus One tariffs, there’s still no release date available (although reports suggest it will be April) – the best you can do is register for further information as and when it’s released.

Given that it was common knowledge Vodafone were suppliers for the Nexus One, we have in fact learnt nothing from today’s hollering and cheering. And while it must have looked like a must-have for Vodafone at the time, manufacturers HTC are already pushing out better-specced handsets that threaten to leave it standing. Gah.

I can’t decide whether Foursquare will rule the world or like most social media interaction conducted in public situations, completely destroy the fabric of society. Probably both.

Because there always comes a point during an evening at the pub when somebody pulls out their mobile to text or check email, giving permission for everybody else to do so. Then it’s Facebook, Twitter and pretty much any thumb-bothering exercise that doesn’t involve talking to each other in real life. You stand there in your circle, nobody speaking to anyone except avatars disconnected from your physical situation.

For the uninitiated, the year-old Foursquare has moved this principle onto location-based activity. It exists in the form of a mobile app (available across most handsets as a download or web application) that allows you to ‘check-in’ at shops, venues, restaurants, parks – anywhere. Certain types or numbers of check-ins you earn badges or become the ‘mayor’ of a particular venue – there’s a very strong gaming element to Foursquare, as people figure out how to acquire certain badges and race one another to do so.

What’s the point? Beyond the hollow satisfaction of becoming the major of Sainsbury’s and spoiling all social events by further titting about on your mobile, what does Foursquare achieve? Nothing much. Well, not yet. Slowly but surely, businesses are becoming increasingly interested in experimenting with Foursquare, because it has the potential to drive to their outlets. In return, there’s good news for consumers, if you’re prepared to invest a few seconds here and there by checking in.

Bars and restaurants are promoting official offers through Foursquare – if you check into one venue, you might be prompted about another venue nearby offering free drinks or meals to its mayor. Plenty of unofficial deals are popping up too, with signs appearing in shop windows offering money off purchases to anyone who can show they’re checked in at the store in question.

Yesterday, Foursquare announced a US-wide deal with Starbucks, which means customers can unlock a special Barista badge after five check-ins, but will also be able to access deals and invitations to exclusive events.

Real time, location-based deals have the potential to be huge, because while you wouldn’t leave the house for a half-price cheese roll, Foursquare could determine your choice of sandwich shop if you’re already in the vicinty. Of course, if the corporate suits get too involved, it’ll probably see them trying to ask more of consumers than they’re prepared to offer, and the road to collecting thousands of points for a tall latte is an easy one to stumble upon. Foursquare (and other similar serivces like Gowalla) offer the potential for consumers to benefit from local bargains, wherever they are, so long as you’re prepared to be permanently distracted by your mobile.

If you’re one of the old school who bought your iPhone on an O2 contract, a word of warning before you upgrade – check the small print.

Avid Bitterwallet reader Dominic has been in touch to let us know that you won’t get what you expect from O2’s new improved “unlimited text” tariffs:

As a subscriber of the old £35 a month tariff (600 mins and 500 texts) I thought it was a good deal to change to their £40 a month for 600 mins and ‘unlimited’ texts… but there’s a catch.

At the moment on the £35 a month tariff you can text an international number or send a picture message and it comes out of your 500 message allowance. With a new ‘unlimited text’ tariff you have to pay extra for picture messages and international texts. This wasn’t explained to me and so I cancelled my ‘upgrade’ on the subsequent phone call.

We’ve had a check and it’s now 20 pence per MMS and 16 pence per international text. Even if you stay on the same tariff, you’ll still find yourself with the new ‘unlimited texts’ alternative and having to pay for texts that were included in your allowance. Having said that, if you’ve finished your contract you might be better off looking at O2’s Simplicity deals – instead of £40 per month for two years, you pay half the price for half the contract length.

You might have picked up on the fact that we’re quite excited about the impending arrival of the Apple iPad next month, but it’s easy to see why some people think that it’s nothing more than a bigger version of the iPod Touch. Sort of the same way that a bus is just like a bigger version of a car.

Fortunately, some major companies are getting ready for the advent of touch-screen tablet computing (yes, other tablets will be available) and are doing some good hard imagineering about how the new format can be best used. Here’s a glimpse into the future courtesy of Penguin Books and it shows that the iPad will be so much more than an (already-obsolete) eReader.

There’s interactive games for little people that make use of the touch-screen and motion sensor capabilities along with educational books where you can chat live online with other students who are on the same page.

There’s also travel guides that allow you to build your own holiday itinerary or email postcards to loved ones with some simple dragging and clicking. You’ll even be able to hold your iPad up to the heavens and get instant info on the stars in the sky.

All of that makes us feel a little bit tingly and if none of it dazzles you even a little bit then we don’t want to be your friend anymore. Seriously. Go and stand over there, next to the Luddites. You’re dead to us.

Ooh oooh, look! Tech Radar have revealed some iPhone 4G pictures, and there’s some radical changes afoot!

Look at it! Different coloured skins, a flash on the camera, porting of the iPad interface to the mobile phone side of things. There’s even a microSD expansion slot – cowabunga!

Oh, hold on, it’s just some bloke’s guesstimate of what the 4G might look like (if it even exists.) Shit – what a letdown.

Here’s our guesstimate of what the new Apple phone might look like and we think it’s just as pertinent.

Yes – it’s a frigging cake. Move along everyone, nothing to see here…

Although Google are still playing their cards close to their chests and saying that the Nexus One is due for a Spring launch, sources close to the Daily Telegraph say that April is going to be the month when the new smartphone hits the shops in the UK.

As in the United States, the phone will only be available directly from Google with the actual phone-type jiggery-pokery provided by their chosen partners, Vodafone.

Meanwhile, the Telegraph’s report seems to suggest that Google have an intriguing new insect-based strategy when it comes to promoting the Nexus One.

Yeah, because Bitterwallet REALLY has the high ground when it comes to spelling errors dosen’t it?

A possible new logo for the combined companies

They’ve both tried to shaft their customers in the past year by changing their terms and conditions detrimentally, and now it seems that an Orange/T-Mobile superpower is just days away from birth.

The EU have given them authority to fast-track a merger which could happen as soon as this week, in spite of concerns from the OFT and Ofcom. The merger will give the depressing duo a huge 37% share of the UK mobile market, making them comfortably the biggest operator around.

But if you’re an Orange or T-Mobile customer, what do you think it will mean for you? More competitive pricing for handsets and tariffs? Less choice in the marketplace and therefore worse value for money. A larger customer base for the new company to handle leading to out-and-out chaos and a string of unbelieveable fuck ups? Or no change whatsoever?

And what the hell are they going to call the new company? T-Orange? Orangemobile? The Orange Mob? Surely it can only end in horrible tears…

A iphone, yesterday. We could have illustrated the story with a Nexus One or a Blackberry but we didn't.

The BBC have announced they’ll be launching free, official mobile apps for iPhone, Blackberry and Google’s Android later in the year, in a move that is certain to annoy other news-carrying organisations. Especially Rupert Murdoch’s News International – which we’re sure you’ll agree is an enormous boon. And we’re always on the look out for enormous boons.

As traditional newspapers struggle to get to grips with a paper-less future, apps are being seen as a new way to direct traffic to their floundering websites, but only if there’s money in it. The Telegraph and Sky already have free apps but with limited content, while The Guardian have launched a paid-for iPhone app, but it costs £2.39 and is somewhat lacking when it comes to usability. The BBC News app could well be a significant kick in the chops for other newspapers with similar paid-for plans.

The News app, due in April will contain content from the BBC News website, including written stories, correspondent blogs as well as audio and video. It’ll be followed up by a BBC Sport app in time for the World Cup, which has got our app glands leaking all over the place.

The Beeb say it’ll focus on football from its launch, with content from the BBC Sport website and 5 Live radio, including live commentary, and, if events are screened live on the BBC Sport site, they’ll also be available to watch through the app.  No plans have been announced for the apps to be available on the most-popular Symbian platforms as yet.

You’ve gotta love Microsoft. They’ve come up with a very exciting mobile OS in Windows Phone 7, which was launched at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona yesterday. It’s bright, contemporary (three years in, the iPhone interface is beginning to look a little dated, don’t you think?) and it features the current Emperor’s New Clothes of mobile – multi-tasking.

So Microsoft have done it, they’ve got something that potentially puts them back in the game; if they can tie up some key handware deals, they’ll probably give the smartphone market a run for its money. And by smartphone we mean, iPhone, obviously – because that’s all Microsoft cares about. They introduced Windows Phone 7 with a promotional trailer that showed off the competition more than what their own OS can do:

Ignore that fact that Android and Palm Pre handsets multi-task, and gun for Apple. It’s a shame so any time at all is spent slating the iPhone, because the trailer doesn’t give you a sense of how great the new mobile OS looks. Apple are advertising the iPhone during Corrie for crying out loud – their target market really doesn’t care about multi-tasking, it’s not a deal breaker.

Microsoft have a real chance to be a big player in mobile once more. Windows Phone 7 looks the shizzle, so hopefully we’ll see adverts like the trailer below, instead of seeing Steve ‘Crazy Horse’ Ballmer spending his money trying to run down the iPhone like a piss-drinking slag:

If you’re faced with that conundrum and you’re in South Korea, you’ve probably bought an individually-wrapped snack sausage. Sales are soaring of these tasty little false fingers after it was discovered that they replicate the size and texture of the average human digit.

Shouldn’t be long before Apple bring out the iSausage then – only £49.99 a bang.

[BuzzFeed]

Believe it or not, but we’ve checked the records and apparently we haven’t ran a story about the iPhone since 2008, so here’s one now. It’s a preview of the new iPhone 4G model that is said to be on its way later in the year, and widespread changes are afoot!

The source of the rumour is iResQ, a complicatedly-named iPhone repair shop who we’ve never heard of, but their findings are sweeping The Internet so we’re happy to report them as hardcore facts.

iResQ claim to have in their possession a front panel component of what may or may not become the iPhone 4G and the great news is that it will be one fourth of an inch of taller than its current incarnation!

They also speak in hushed tones of a “reflective, mirror-like surface” near the top of the phone’s front panel, and word is that this is almost certainly a relocated proximity sensor, which could mean that the sensor could be used for other, brand new functions. Blimey.

With all of that in mind, here are some new rumours that we’d like to introduce to the global conversation regarding the 4G iPhone…

• The 4 in 4G represents the additional fourth of an inch in height that the phone will have.

• The added space in the iPhone’s casing will house a tiny container filled with brandy for the owner to use in an emergency.

• The newly-positioned proximity sensor at the top of the iPhone will act as a dream catcher – swipe at the air with the phone and it will detect dreams that you can then watch at your leisure via its iPod feature.

• The proximity sensor will also be able to detect animal faeces from a distance of up to twenty metres, making it invaluable whenever you’re trying to sniff out bullshit.

Google’s HTC-made smartphone the Nexus One (pictured), faces stiff, cheaper competition in the coming months – from HTC.

They’re bringing out a phone that has been codenamed Bravo – it’ll be remarkably similar in spec to the Google phone apart from in pricing, as it is expected to be about $100 cheaper.

Better still for customers, they’ll be able to get the Bravo over the counter from mobile retailers as opposed to direct from Google, who have been criticised by the poor customer support available for the Nexus One.

The Bravo is expected to be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona next week, and should appear in the shops shortly after the UK launch of Google’s phone. If you’re eyeing up a Nexus One, you’d be well advised to do your homework on its cheaper cousin.

[Guardian]

What the devil has got into Vodafone this afternoon? They’re one of the many companies using Twitter to provide personable customer service on the web, yet all they’ve done for the past hour is apologise profusely to individuals:

What’s all the hubbub about? It seems somebody might have updated the corporate Twitter account instead of their personal account. Or maybe they thought a little light humour was in order for a Friday afternoon:

Expect a four-page special in the Guardian tomorrow.

Vodafone have already confirmed they’ll be carrying Google’s Nexus One smartphone in the UK, but it looks as though T-Mobile will be getting a piece of the Google pie as well – if the indiscreet tweetings of their head of corporate affairs are to be believed.

Robin O’Kelly is the man who can’t keep a secret and yesterday he blabbed “T-mobile in talks to range Nexus one also. Happy landing” to anyone who would listen. He later added: “We’re talking to Google re nexus and hope we can come up with something very soon. Will let you know as soon as.”

So it looks as though Google won’t be following the iPhone route of using just one preferred carrier at launch and customers will probably have at least two choices of network when the Nexus One launches at some point later in the year.

[Inquirer]

Of course it’s in the interests of a major Wi-Fi network to claim mobile service providers are in £G 3G meltdown, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. Techcrunch reports that The Cloud are actively scaremongering, reporting that data services are at breaking point due to ‘the rise in smartphone usage and the accompanying ‘unlimited’ data plans, along with social networking, online video and music streaming, all of which encourage data usage’.

Even if The Cloud are pushing the story to suit their own agenda, it won’t come as a surprise to anybody – it wasn’t so long ago that O2 admitted their data network was falling down in the face of increasing 3G usage, with traffic across the UK doubling every four months causing prolonged network failures in London.

And while the service providers pump more and more money into strengthening their service – O2 claims to have pumped £30 million into improving infrastructure at the end of last year -it seems unlikely operators will continue providing unlimited or overly generous data plans. Not only is there a whole slew of brand new, data-hungry smartphones on the way, but continuing sales of netbooks and the likelihood of 3G tablets becoming mainstream products in the next two years – it’s all likely to force providers to rethink their data deals with consumers.

[Techcrunch]