Ovivo update their plans, now get more for £0 per month

You lot are great, so I’m having a good ‘ole dig around for some bargain deals at the moment. Christmas seems to be the “crazy time” where we spend huge chunks of money, so I’m on a mission to get some cheap deals.

Ovivo are an MVNO using the Vodafone network and, as we’ve shown before, they charge a big fat ..

..per month. Yes, nothing. Mental huh? How does that work?

Well, they get a bit of money back by showing you an advert every now and then when you’re using mobile data. Their Freedom 0 plan now has more call-time added – 200 minutes per month. This is up from 150 minutes, and 200 minutes is around 3 an a bit hours – enough for many. There’s also 300 texts and 500MB of data.

If you want a bit more, you can get the same amount of calls and texts, but 1GB of data for a fiver a month. There’s a couple of other tariffs for £10 and £20 respectively (see more on those below), which adds more call time and texts.

There’s no contracts or ties to worry about, but you do need to spend a bit for the SIM itself. For example, the “Freedom 0? plan you’ll need to spend £20 for the SIM, and Ovivo will stick in £15 of credit for you. Not bad eh? Have a look at the small print for more, check their website, or watch the video here to explain how they do this..

Verizon customers can customize their Moto X starting on November 11th

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Good news, Verizon customers: Soon you’ll be able to buy the same wood-patterned Moto X that AT&T customers have enjoyed for months. Droid Life’s sources claim that Verizon customers will get access to the Moto Maker system starting on November 11th, which will let them custom-design their Moto X smartphones and choose from features such as colors, engravings and signature wallpapers. Like AT&T, Verizon will probably sell the customizable Moto X for just $99 with a two-year contract.

The Moto X, which Motorola released this past summer and marketed as the world’s first customizable smartphone, features a 4.7-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels (316 pixels per inch), a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.7GHz dual-core processor, a quad-core GPU, a 10-megapixel Clear Pixel rear-facing camera, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of memory and a 2200mAh battery.

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GiffGaff make up for their recent outage

 

Recently GiffGaff experienced an outage which knocked out calls and texts on their network. Customers, for a number of hours, couldn’t make or receive calls or texts and there were a number of irate posts on Twitter and the GiffGaff forums.

After fixing the issue and telling their customers what caused it, decided to ask their entire customer base what they’d like to happen next. Some £350,000 was put aside and customers were asked whether they’d like their portion of the goodwill cash put into their account or spent on improving the GiffGaff systems. The cash was separate to the money already added to their upgrade plans.

The survey, which was sent out via text, closed on October 14th after 167,819 customers responded. A large chunk of them, some 81%, opted for a goodwill credit in their account. They’ll receive £2.09 each. The other 19% of members were obviously a bit better off, and chose for their share of the budget (worth £66,023) to be invested in improving the “member experience”.

Well, I don’t know about you but this sounds like a good way of resolving an issue. There’s more details in their blog, with customers receiving messages like this to confirm their decision..

Thanks for taking the time to vote, £350k set aside has been split evenly between those that voted. £2.09 will be credited to your account soon.

LifeProof now includes the Galaxy S3 and S4 in their range of cases

LifeProof have until now just focused on the Apple market with cases for the iPad, iPad mini, iPhone 4/4S, iPhone 5 and a few iPods but now they have extended their range to include the Samsung Galaxy S3 and S4.

There are two types of case available for each device, the nüüd and the fré.

The nüüd lets you still use the phones actual touchscreen and just relies on sealing all open ports and buttons to protect the phone against liquid whilst providing a solid shock resistant outside.

The fréon the other hand also has a screen protector built into the case so the screen has an extra layer of protection against scratches and knocks.

If you are in America you also have the option of buying LifeProof’s Total Water Protection Plan which allows you to claim for a replacement device if yours is liquid damaged whilst in a LifeProof case. There is a small charge for this replacement ($50 for phones, $75 for tablets) but cheaper than shelling out for a new device, they’ll even replace the case as well for you.

Ian was impressed by the durability of the iPad mini case when he tested one, which you can read here.

LifeProof Expands Total Water Protection Program to Include Samsung GALAXY S III, GALAXY S4

– Award-winning case-maker brings device protection program to Samsung GALAXY devices –

SAN DIEGO – October 8, 2013 – LifeProof®, the award-winning maker of waterproof solutions for smartphones announced today the expansion of the LifeProof Total Water Protection Program to Samsung® GALAXY S® III and GALAXY S4 users.

This optional protection program, already offered for Apple® iPhone® and iPad® users, takes device protection to new heights, offering a one-time device repair or replacement if it sustains accidental water damage while properly installed in a LifeProof case.

LifeProof nüüd and fre cases offer peace of mind, bringing waterproof, drop proof, dirt proof, and snow proof protection to a variety of Apple and Samsung devices. The Total Water Protection Program provides an additional line of defense against damage from these mobile device killers, allowing consumers even more confidence to go about their day-to-day lives. The program offers protection against water damage for up to one full year after purchase and registration on lifeproof.com.

LifeProof was the first case manufacturer to offer a waterproof case with a device protection program. The company developed the Total Water Protection Program after extensive consumer research indicated that consumers wanted an added level of assurance when using their devices around water.

“As we have expanded our product lineup, our customers wanted the option to enjoy our Total Water Protection Program on a wider range of devices,” said EVP of Global Sales, Fredrik Torstensson. “With the growing popularity of our Samsung GALAXY cases, we’re pleased to offer this full device protection program, giving LifeProof case users added confidence, wherever they may be.”

The Total Water Protection Program is available as an option when purchasing a case on the LifeProof website at lifeproof.com and will be available for additional devices later this month. The program is limited to a one-time use and includes a nominal upfront fee and a service fee. It also requires the case be registered with LifeProof and used in accordance with all of the provided instructions. For full terms and conditions, visit www.lifeproof.com/twpp.

LifeProof Resources

Facebook: www.facebook.com/LifeProofCases

Twitter: www.twitter.com/lifeproof

YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/LifeProofCases

About LifeProof

LifeProof’s company mantra is Freedom; LifeProof designs, manufactures and markets an entirely new category of products designed to give people more freedom from environmental constraints. Based in San Diego, LifeProof offers elegant and protective cases for Smartphones and Tablet PCs that enable full functionality and interactivity under any condition encountered in daily life. The registered brand name ‘LifeProof’ is inspired by the protection and fully functional convenient operation of the device in water, mud, dirt, or snow. For more information, visitwww.lifeproof.com.

©2013 Treefrog Developments, Inc. All rights reserved. The LifeProof name and LifeProof trademarks are the property of Treefrog Developments, Inc. registered in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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AnTuTu release a new (non fraudulent) version of their benchmarking app

As part of my role here at Coolsmartphone I get a lot of devices to review and more often than not I’ll run some benchmark tests just to see how it compares to the competition. Recently we heard that manufacturers have been able to trick some benchmarking apps into giving a higher score.

The developers for popular benchmark app AnTuTu decided they wanted to do something about this and they’ve released a newer version of their app. Called AnTuTu X which supposedly stops manufacturers cheating. It hasn’t made a huge difference on my Note 3. See below.

Original AnTuTu

AnTuTu X

So we can see that the new app scores my Galaxy Note 3 slightly lower. Then what? How long before the new apps results can be faked?

The app description doesn’t really explain how it’s going to remain reliable either.

Description
A special edition of AnTuTu Benchmark to prevent fraud and cheating!
The X editor for the Ainol & Ramos device!!
AnTuTu Benchmark X Edition is free benchmarking app that helps users to know deeper to their Android devices, without fraud and cheating!

Google Play Store Link – Antutu

NSA admits that analysts spied on their love interests

 

8:45 PM

When Sting wrote “Every Breath You Take,” he probably never imagined that someone in the future could literally act out the song word for word. But then again, Sting also never knew what analysts at the National Security Agency would be capable of doing. The Hill reports that the NSA has admitted in a letter to Senator Chuck Grassley (R — Iowa) that it’s “identified 12 incidents since 2003 in which analysts intentionally misused their intelligence gathering powers” to spy on love interests. What’s more, the NSA said that it has two open investigations into similar intelligence abuses and that it’s reviewing a third possible incident for investigation.

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Vodafone to sell their share of Verizon Wireless

Vodafone UK has owned a big chunk (45 percent) of American carrier Verizon Wireless since 1999, but that is now about to change.

Verizon has confirmed the rumour that they will be buying all of the Vodafone stake in the wireless division of the company. The cost? A cool $130 (£84) billion, paid in cash and stock. It should close by Q1 2014.

The deal was unanimously approved by the board of both companies, but still has to be approved by the government and company shareholders.

Wonder what Vodafone will do with this new wealth ?

My Name is Ian Furlong and I am 40 something husband to Lisa and dad to Seth
I’ve been a member of this site from its very beginnings, when i first had the original Orange SPV
My current crop of devices are Samsung Galaxy SIII, Nexus 7, Ipad 3rd Gen, Sensation XE.