Exciting times from California this evening. Well, maybe. Well, probably. Sort of. Here’s the rundown of what Lord Jobs decreed moments ago:

iOS 4.1 will be released next week for iPhone and iPod Touch, to include:

• fixes to previous bugs, including a promised solution for long-suffering iPhone 3G users. Thank. Christ.

• the ability to take HDR photos – it automatically creates mosaics of photos taken at different exposures to produce images with more detail

• new Games Center functionality that’ll allow gamers to connect through apps, including shared gameplay and scoreboards

iOS4.2 will be released later in November for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch including iOS 4 improvements like multitasking, as well as wireless printing

The iPod range has been overhauled, from Shuffle to the iPod Touch:

• the new iPod Shuffle is based on the squarer second generation, but dinkier, and includes playlists and 15 hours battery time, and will be $49 for 2 GB.

• the iPod Nano loses the circular track-wheel, to be replaced with a multi-touch screen; it’s something of a comedy device – it’s almost too small to hold. The iPod Nano is $99 for 8 GB.

•the new iPod Touch will include Retina Display, both a front and rear camera, including FaceTime and HD video capability, and costs from $229 for the 8GB version

And then we were onto iTunes. Yes, it kept on coming and the audience took any excuse to holler like a pack of sycophantic banshees. iTunes 10 will include Ping, a new social network for iTunes users, allowing users to connect to friends and generate newsfeeds of music and events. “It’s not Facebook, it’s not Twitter.” Actually, yes it is, Steve. It’s Facebook.

Finally, onto Apple TV – a new teeny tiny box for rented tv shows and movies, costing just 99¢ per show to rent for 48 hours. No word yet on what shows will be available in the UK, except to say that there will be content available in this country. It’ll cost $99.

As promised, we’ve more advice for those looking to cancel their Vodafone contract over the new Out of Bundle charges to be introduced on 1 October. You can read about the issue in detail here, but essentially Vodafone is looking to impose hard caps on the amount of data some customers can use, instead of usage being subject to a Fair Usage Policy (FUP).

Vodafone has provided a route to cancellation without charge, so today we’re going to walk through that route and provide a letter template for those looking to cancel. We’re going to be direct about the matter; our letter template backs up your right to cancel with consumer law, and we’re going for the assumptive close.

What’s the issue?

Many of Vodafone’s contracts include a FUP in the general Price Plan Terms. A FUP means that charges for excessive data usage are discretionary, not mandatory:

27. All Vodafone services offered free or under unlimited subscription are subject to our Fair Use Policy. If, in the reasonable opinion of Vodafone, your use is excessive, we may ask you to moderate your usage. If, after we have asked you to moderate your usage, you fail to do so, we reserve the right to:

(a) charge you for the excessive element of your usage at your price plan’s standard rate;

(b) throttle your usage; or

(c) suspend or terminate your service in accordance with your airtime terms and conditions.

In their latest announcement, however, Vodafone has stated that from 1 October these charges will become mandatory for any and all usage above the contracted limit. This mandatory out-of-bundle charging means there can’t be a subjective element of “fair usage” if charges are imposed regardless:

On 1st October we are introducing out of bundle data charges. These charges will only affect the small proportion of customers who exceed their data allowance. These customers will be subject to the following charges:

– Customers without a data bundle will be charged 50p for every block of 25MB
– Customers with a data bundle (Value pack, flexi pack or as part of their tariff) will be charged £5 for every additional 500MB

Vodafone appear to recognise this is change to the Price Plan Terms that are part of many customer contracts, because they have outlined a route to cancellation without charge.

Are you eligible to cancel?

First, you need to check whether you’re eligible. As we understand it, some smartphone contracts already have a hard cap on data usage, in which case there is no change and you won’t be eligible. There may also an issue as to whether newer contracts are affected; check the Price Plan Terms that are relevant to your contract; if you contracted recently (from 7th June until now), you may have agreed to different terms.

If you’re unsure how to calculate the figures specified by Vodafone to see if you’re eligible, take a look at the letter template below – all the help for working out the numbers is in there.

Do you want to cancel?

It’s apparent that all mobile service providers have their faults and make changes to contracts that customers are unhappy with. You need to ask yourself whether Vodafone provides a service that suits you. Is the coverage right for you? Is the tariff? If these changes don’t affect you, please don’t try cancelling for the sake of it; it takes the focus away from customers with a valid concern. (more…)

Guess what? They’re at it again. And this time, they really are scrapping it.

In May we kicked up a fuss about Vodafone and their treatment of customers concerning out-of-bundle data (data not explicitly covered in the customer’s contract) and their attempted scrapping of the Fair Usage Policy (FUP). the clauses allowed customers flexibility to exceed their contracted data allowance but meant Vodafone could charge customers as and when they deemed it necessary – examples given by Vodafone included customers who used their mobiles for P2P file sharing.

But mandatory charges for exceeding a data allowance would have meant Vodafone making a significant change to their own terms and allowing customers to cancel their contract, so when Bitterwallet and customers called shenanigans on the whole affair, Vodafone repeatedly changed their story until everyone went away.

Vodafone eventually defined their Fair Use Policy as three-strikes-and-you’re-out; use more than 500 MB of data for more than two consecutive months, and you had the choice of either upgrading your contract or paying up to £5 per additional 500 MB. Their handling of customers and communications was, in a word, dreadful.

In the past couple of weeks, it’s all kicked off again. Vodafone are now intending to charge a fixed fee if a customer uses more than their data allowance. The full details are in Vodafone’s announcement here:

On 1st October we are introducing out of bundle data charges. These charges will only affect the small proportion of customers who exceed their data allowance. These customers will be subject to the following charges:

• Customers without a data bundle will be charged 50p for every block of 25MB
• Customers with a data bundle (Value pack, flexi pack or as part of their tariff) will be charged £5 for every additional 500MB

There’s now no mention of the three-strikes rule, meaning that any and all usage beyond a customer’s data allowance will be charged for. If the charge is mandatory, then it’s no longer a Fair Use Policy, and that represents a significant change in the terms of contract – instigated by Vodafone.

However, what they’re arguing – and only Vodafone have the detail to support this argument – is that only 3% of customers ever use more than their bundled data. Their terms mean they only have to contact customers who may be affected by the changes (a point backed up by clause 9.3 of Ofcom’s General Conditions); in other words, a major change to the majority of customer contracts is about to be made by the back door, because they don’t currently make full use of their data allowance.

What about those who do? Vodafone are at least admitting this is a change in their terms, even if they never once use that phrase. They’re not going to make it easy, though – you have to do all the work yourself. We’ll run you through the stages you need to follow (and add our own notes in italics):

1) Vodafone state that in order to qualify for cancellation, you need to receive one of three text messages before 15th September (details here).

This isn’t true. Vodafone are attempting to manage their customers so everyone doesn’t expect to cancel. However, Ofcom’s General Conditions make no reference to requiring permission from a service provider to cancel. That’s why it’s called your right to cancel. Therefore, if you haven’t received a text but think you’re still eligible, check your usage for yourself.

2) You need to prove you’re likely to exceed your data allowance and incur additional costs after 1 October. These costs must be likely to increase your future bills by 10% or more. What proof do you have to provide?

- That you’ve received the notification advising you’ll be charged from October if you go over the bundled allowance
- How much data you used last month and how much over your allowance that would be
- How much you’d be charged and whether that would be a 10% increase on the overall total of your most recent bill

Vodafone have essentially withdrawn all customer service in dealing with this matter. Presumably they’re hoping you won’t go to the lengths needed to fight your corner.

First, as discussed, you don’t need to have received any text to cancel your contract. Secondly, nothing in Ofcom’s General Conditions states the comparison must be made solely against the previous month. Ofcom states only that the change must be of ‘material detriment’ and we know from talking to Ofcom in the past, they consider it acceptable to review three months of usage, not one. You may have been on holiday last month and so used no data – hardly a fair basis for comparison. So don’t just consider your previous bill; review the previous three.

When you work out whether your bill would increase by 10% because of the new charges, don’t include VAT (that’s not Vodafone’s revenue). If your monthly bills are usually lower than £50 per month and you usually exceed your data allowance, you have a case.

3) You need to include your proof along with written notification of cancellation and post it to Vodafone at the address given.

Welcome to 2010, Vodafone.

If you’d like us to, we’re happy to work on a letter template you can use; any previous letters er provided are now out-of-date. Let us know in the comments if that’d be useful.

There’s an Apple “special event” coming in less than a week’s time, and Bitterwallet will be there live! At our desks! In the UK! Watching everyone else report it! There’s been no shortage of rumours of the last few weeks, but what do we think will be revealed by Steve Jobs on stage?

We haven’t bothered talked to a single expert or any of the UK’s leading tech journalists, but we’ve taken a stab at what you may or may not see 1st September:

1) The invite is clearly all about music, so will Apple’s iTunes Cloud service finally be revealed? This is expected to allow users to upload their music collection to a dedicated space on Apple’s servers, so you can access it from wherever you are in the world, on any computer or device.

2) Updates to the iPod devices are almost a certainty – this is the traditional time for Jobs to announce tweaks and changes. It’s possible there’ll be a new iPod Touch with front and rear cameras, capable of running Facetime across WiFi, as well as some mandatory but undoubtedly pointless fiddling with smaller iPod devices.

3) There’s been a lot of noise around Apple TV, or iTV, and a service that’ll actually be of some consequence to the mainstream consumer. Rumours include a smaller box that’ll allow iPhone apps to be ran on your TV, presumably controlled in a similar way to how this Star Wars app allows your iPhone to control actions occurring on a computer screen.

4) The iPad could get the nod on the iOS 4 firmware update, and the iPhone may well get a shiny iOS 4.1.

5) A real wildcard – the arrival of Game Center. This was announced back in April as part of the iOS 4 event and was due for a Autumn release, which would fit with next week’s event. It’s a social gaming network that’ll connect players around the world and allow them to interact through gaming.

Stick a fork in us, we’re done – but what do you think we’ll see next week? Answers and the usual Apple-related bile in the comments, please.

Vodafone, who we went toe-to-toe with not too long ago, have launched their own MiFi device called the R201. A crap but ultimately loveable droid from Star Wars? Nope.

As the more savvy but no-less avid readers of Bitterwallet will know, MiFi is the term used for wireless mobile broadband modems. Instead of plugging a dongle into your laptop, a MiFi creates a localised Wi-Fi hotspot for multiple devices to connect to.

3 already have one out, but Vodafone are now weighing in with a media touch with the inclusion of Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) technology. The device will enable you to store music, videos and photos on an SD card of up to 32GB in size, which can then be accessed via the R201 on their other devices. Thanks to shitty DRM, this means that content will only work on DLNA-certified devices.

The R201 will be made available in ‘various countries’ this year and you can buy it in the UK, as of now, on a £25 monthly price plan, which includes 5GB of data.

“By adding DLNA compatibility to the device, it becomes much more than a connection to the internet, by enabling users to connect to their other WiFi enabled DLNA devices and wirelessly share and enjoy their digital content, no matter where they are,” says Vodafone’s director of mobile broadband Huw Medcraft.

A handy little gadget for those who don’t have the willpower to not get blind drunk whilst working away from home using a pub’s free WiFi. That said, have a look at what 3 can offer before signing up to Vodafone, especially as 3 offers tariffs with far more generous plans.

[ME]

If you’re too posh for Clubcard points because your middle-class pretensions demand you shop with a Nectar card, then good news. There’s a new iPhone app that offers users exclusive deals across all retailers that offer Nectar points. It’s very basic, and we’re not too sure why you have to tell the app you want an offer before purchasing it – presumably that’s for data-capture and targetting rather than providing more meaningful functionality to the user. There’s also a Sainsbury app offering similar features.

According to the promotional video, all you have to do now is bother with a full shop and a car hire every day, and you’ll be enjoying that economy flight to Luton Airport in no time. And we’re always suspicious of a woman who buys a man’s Gilette razor – it usually means the circus is in town.

ESPN is going to give football fans a mobile phone service that is actually really good. It’s one that will bring us video footage of every Premier League goal, “usually within minutes” of the ball bulging the onion bag.

ESPN Goals will offer the bog-standard news and live scores, which you can get for free. If you want the videos, then you’ll have to cough up £3.99 a month or £29.99 for the season.

The best news is that it’s going to be available on both iPhone and Android and you buy it through ESPN’s mobile site. Sky are probably wishing they’d thought of this no doubt.

The Guardian report that ESPN has the rights to 23 Premier League matches this season, but UK mobile highlights rights for all the league’s games for the next three years.

Goal highlights will be available before we Match of the Day Football First transmits.

“Mobile media has seen dramatic growth in recent years and has proven to be a significant and important part of the way people connect to the sport they love,” said Tom Gleeson, the vice-president of digital media for ESPN International. “ESPN Goals will serve as a fantastic complement to our television business in the UK.”

This certainly looks like an app that is worth a punt.

Our 41 year old Prime Minister may know the secret location of the country’s cheap booze stash, but we’ve stumbled across a dirt-cheap mobile. And unlike Dave ‘I’ve got a lot of hair for a bald guy’ Cameron, we’re happy to share.

Tesco have just battered the cost of monthly tariffs into submission with what they’re claiming is the UK’s cheapest mobile phone contract. The SIM-only contract costs just £6 a month, will be available online and will give customers unlimited texts and 100 minutes a month. It’s a one-month rolling contract, and Clubcard points are available on the monthly bill. Yay.

According to the guff, research from Tesco shows that 16 to 24 year olds are text maniacs but also the highest spending age group for mobile contracts, with just under a third spending more than £30 a month on their mobile bills. Of course the same age group may talk for more than 100 minutes a month, meaning that plenty of monthly bills will no doubt be in excess of £6 a month. It’s worth pointing out that local and national calls with Tesco Mobile will cost you 20p per minute, but they don’t mention that in their press release. And there’s no data bundled in with this tariff, which would be an additional cost on top.

It’s a useful tariff if you have enlarged thumbs, just ensure texting is your primary use of your mobile before signing up; paying £15 a month will get you a one-month rolling tariff, but with 500 minutes and inclusive data.

Gaming on the Android hasn’t been great thus far in comparison with iPhone offerings. Unless of course, you count the MegaDrive and SNES emulators which have kept this writer off street corners and out of bother for the past couple of months.

However, that’s all about to change as Sony Ericsson (who haven’t even given us an Android phone as yet) is working on something that is very exciting indeed.

Basically, they’re making a smartphone that is, the words of engadget, a cross between the Samsung Captivate and the PSP Go. Basically, that means you have a phone that has a D-Pad  and PSP buttons and shoulder buttons.

The phone is likely to carry PlayStation branding, and those who have seen it think that it looks pretty smart.

The games you’ll be eventually able to buy will be, graphically-speaking, akin to PSP games, which is great news indeed. This means you can kill people on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on your phone. This phone could be hitting the shelves as early as this October.

Mobile phone recycling has become an easy way of both clearing out the kitchen drawer of crapola we all have, and earning a few extra bob. Except when the website you sent your mobiles to goes to the wall before you’re paid – welcome to the world of Earth Mobile.

Businesses go bust all the time, but that’s not what’s irritating customers in the MSE forums, as well as avid Bitterwallet reader Alasdair:

“The obvious problem is that there are a lot of people out there who had sent in their mobiles and haven’t been paid. Most of these mobiles were sent in a long time ago, and as the company promised to pay “within 7 days” and haven’t paid for months or so… clearly they knew that this was coming but still accepted phones and offered to pay for them.”

According to these reports, Earth Mobile were whipping up plenty of interest by offering the best prices on used mobiles, swaying consumers from choosing more established services. After seemingly stringing many customers along for weeks with promises of payment, all the while accepting handsets from new customers, the Earth Mobile site disappeared on Monday to be replaced with a message stating the company has ceased trading.

The company operated through a rented PO Box number, but a dig through the details at Companies House (which still shows Earth Mobile Ltd as trading) and other websites show Earth Mobile was operated by Russell Malcolm Tilbury, and numerous searches reveal several addresses in the Windsor area. He certainly cast his business net far and wide; Earth Mobile appears to have been trading on eBay in both China and France.

Since Monday, Tilbury has gone to ground, taken his customers money and their mobiles with him. We’ve tried to call all the numbers littered about the internet, but all resolve in recorded messages or full mailboxes. There seems to be no footprint outside Earth Mobile for Tilbury or the company’s other director, Katie Iliffe. MSE members have reported recording the issue with Trading Standards; in the meantime, we’ll keep hunting for the elusive Mister Tilbury.

Vodafone are a pain in the arse sometimes aren’t they? We’ve had our run-ins with them in the past,  and now they’re annoying customers by trying to foist the network’s own software on HTC Desire owners. Mercifully, they’ve backed down.

Lasst week, they sent out an over-the-air update that installed a whole bunch of irremovable Vodafone 360 apps on the Desire, which of course, is more irritating than being stuck in a lift with Kriss Akabusi and Ainsley Harriot. The update included a Vodafone-branded start-up screen and added bookmarks to the device which including links to some dodgy looking dating site.

As such, Vodafone customers went mental and complained of being hoodwinked into installing software they didn’t want in the first place whilst being under the impression of getting the latest version of the Android OS. At first, Vodafone refused to budge, but now, in an message posted on the Vodafone forums, the company has backed down.

“We’ve listened to feedback from customers on a number of points around the recent 360 Android 2.1 update and made some changes to the rollout plan. The Android 2.2 update for Vodafone HTC Desire users will be based on the HTC open market version of the software and we will customise it to ensure our network settings are installed.

For customers who have downloaded the recent 360 update for Android 2.1, we can confirm that the Android 2.2 update will remove the 360 applications and will leave the homepage and bookmarks on your current settings.”

[PcPro]

Finding the perfect flatmate is always tricky – there are bound to be habits you both have that wind the other up. Owning an iPhone is apparently one of them, according to this post on Craigslist. Our friend will only take a room with you if you don’t have an iPhone or iPad, and he’ll be checking you’re not trying to scam him, too. He’s also insistent his future landlord is proficient at Starcraft 2. How long before he turns on you for watching the wrong television show, or expressing an interest in girls? A box in the gutter would be too good for this one:

[New York Observer]

This isn’t the definitive article as far as we’re concerned, but it’s certainly a step towards a future where social networks like Facebook are central to every aspect of our lives; in this case, talking on the dog and bone. This new app from Vonage allows owners of iPhones, iPod Touches, iPads and Android-based handsets to call their Facebook contacts – without knowing their phone number. The only condition is that both parties must have downloaded the Vonage app:

So assuming you’re on WiFi or have an unlimited data tariff (not as likely as it use to be), you can make free calls – that’s nothing new, of course.

Turning your Facebook account into your phonebook throws up two issues; one concerns traction – take the percentage of Facebook users who have a handset-compatible device, are aware of the app and actually download it – and there probably aren’t many Facebook friends you can call.

The second is that if your connections on Facebook were really your friends or even individuals you had the slightest interest in talking to, you’d already have their phone number.

Both are issues are likely to be resolved over time; if not through this app, then there’s no doubt this functionality will become native to the official Facebook app, and may become a native feature of handsets – Facebook has the sort of reach amongst consumers that makes it viable. And the continuing erosion of personal boundries will invariably mean that collectively we won’t worry if distant strangers have more immediate access to us; for some, collecting friends on Facebook is a game, and throwing away access to the minutaie of our lives will continue to occur without giving the matter a second thought.

Thanks to avid Bitterwallet reader Ben for the tip-off

Where to start with this one. Well, it’s Vodafone, so we didn’t bat an eyelid; they really can’t help themselves when it comes to helping themselves – to the detriment of their customers. Surely they can’t screw up again so soon after the last time?

Yes, yes they can.

What is it now? It appears that Vodafone have found a way to charge customers for sending texts – even if those customers have a contract with inclusive and unlimited texts. How are they getting away with it? In the words of avid Bitterwallet reader Chris:

I took out a new contract with Vodafone (unlimited texts, 300 mins, £25 pm) and noticed that I was being charged for MMS messages that I didn’t send – and on the bill they were marked as ‘Long text’.

After a bit of digging and querying, I found out that the Nokia N97mini that I had got as part of the contract treated messages over 160 characters as MMS. All my other phones simply took the text message and split it into two or more parts, than stuck them back together at the other end – so counted as a series of SMS messages, which form part of the contract.

The contract does state that long texts will be charged for – but doesn’t explain what that means. I get charged 15p (inc VAT) for each one – not a great deal but, if you didn’t check, it could mount up if across all of their users.

Chris tackled Vodafone’s customer services on Twitter, who told him it was nothing to do with them:

Ah yes, one of those ‘features’ that can’t be turned off and has no discernible benefit to the end user. Regardless, Vodafone’s explanation doesn’t quite ring true, because it isn’t a feature of the handset as far as the manufacturer is concerned; Chris took his complaint to Nokia, who told him the phone has been set by Vodafone to count longer texts as MMS messages.

Somebody appears to be lying to their customer – either the manufacturer or the service provider – while Vodafone are raking in the cash for a service the majorty of users might assume is bundled into their contract. Which, if we’re honest about it, it is.

Software updates are the way of the world in the age of smartphones. We recently covered Apple’s successful attempts at bricking the iPhone 3G with their new iOS 4 operating system, and today it’s the turn of Android. Sort of. It seems the real villain of the piece are our friends at Vodafone.

Yesterday, Vodafone released a software update for owners of the HTC Legend, which promised a handful of improvements and enhanced features. Unfortunately, some customers downloading the update, including avid Bitterwallet reader Nick, found there was a bug with the way SMS messages were displayed – new texts were displayed last in the folder, not first, meaning users had to scroll through all their old messages every time they received an SMS. It’s an error that rendered the SMS functionality “almost useless” according to one customer on Vodafone’s forums.

The thing is, a similar bug had cropped up in an update released just a week before by HTC themselves – an update Vodafone didn’t pass on to customers and denied any knowledge of – and that update was then pulled by the manufacturer. So somewhat inexplicably, it seems Vodafone have released a new software update to HTC Legend customers that’s based on a version pulled because of bugs.

How did that happen then? Vodafone customer ac75 summarises the possibilities:

Either VF have turned around the testing on this update much quicker than the last one (in that we never actually got it), or it’s not been as thorough. Also, the bugs in this release have been clearly documented in several places so surely that’s something to check before actually releasing to the public?

According to customers in the forums, the faulty update was pulled by Vodafone this morning, but none of the staff have yet explained to these customers how to correct the issues or rollback to a previous version of the OS. Brilliant.

Still, it’s only their first screw-up of the week; this morning Vodafone also released an update for HTC Desire owners – but not the Froyo update everyone was expecting. Instead it updated Vodafone’s own branding, added Vodafone apps and their own bookmarks. Vodafone – putting Vodafone first. Again.