Orange and T Mobile team up for telly on the go

MWC has provided its fair share of big news so far this week. And things don’t look like slowing down, with Orange and T Mobile announcing they’re teaming up to bring mobile telly to London.

The pilot, which will kick off in the second half of this year, will see punters use phones tooled up with TDtv, tech which will allow them to receive 24 channels and ten digital radio stations.

TDtv uses the 3G spectrum, allowing networks to deliver multiple media services to all their customers at the same time. They say this will be ideal for serving up shows and events with big demand, such as the World Cup or Olympics.

The move comes after a similar trial in Bristol in 2006, although this time there’ll be more channels available.

T and Orange reckon that by using the existing 3G system, their pilot will conclude that there really is a demand for TV on the move.

In a joint statement, the mobile players said: “By providing more channels with higher picture quality that are fully integrated with existing multimedia services, the pilot service is expected to conclusively prove customer demand for mobile broadcast TV and radio services.”

No news on whether any other providers are lining up to get involved, but as soon as we know, you will too.

Thompson Top Up TV+ 250GB

Top Up TV has been upgraded with more memory and a sleek new look. We played with the first version but does the upgrade in memory make us want to watch more of our big black box?

Setting up is simple: plug your aerial into your TV, plug the box into the wall and scan for channels. It’s fast and easy. We reckon your techno-phobe mum would whizz through it. Programmes are set up automatically so you can just plug and go. We managed to get a plethora of programmes including the standard terrestrial channels and the “I’m so bored I’ll watch anything” channels such as Living and Challenge. We all love a bit of Takeshi’s Castle.

Scrolling through channels is also a breeze, with a clear and simple TV guide, a planner for the hard core couch potatoes, and recording reminders. Recording on the other hand is a little bit fiddly. Even though you can snaffle two channels at once there’s no easy way to record your daily dose of ‘Enders whilst watching your Corrie.

Top Up TV does what its meant to do, even if you read the box upside down. The extra storage is useful, especially for film buffs and the Phil Mitchell/Harold Bishop/OB fans. We’re happy with the original storage but if you fancy having your weekend’s entertainment stored in a magical digital form then take a punt on this.

IRiver 80GB X20

With 22 hours battery life, 8GB capacity, a micro SD slot, wide audio and video support, the X20 sprints ahead of the competition, like a hare on steroids.

From the rotating menu to the terrific 2.2inch screen for movie playback, it’s a pleasure to use, although new earphones are a must if you want your audio of a similarly high quality.

The X20 can’t match the like of the Samsung T10 for hep and groovy style, lumbered as it is with an awful white click wheel that looks and creaks. Apart from that though it’s a fantastic wee player.

Video: The Samsung pocket projector

With all the furore of Monday’s mobile madness, this potential pocket gem passed us by. When we finally greeted the MBP-100 projector it gave us a well-deserved boot in the pills for our folly.

We’ve kissed and made up now, and as you can see from our video footage of Samsung’s latest gizmo, it could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

Upon it’s forthcoming release in Korea, Sammy predict this mini-marvel – which fits comfortably in your average-sized jacket pocket – will be the smallest projector on the planet at just 7cm (top left to bottom right) and just 2.6cm thick.

The projector pumps out VGA content from your mobile phone at 10 ANSI Luminem, to a maximum screen size of 50″, making it ideal for taking your movies on the road and projecting them wherever you can find a nice white space. We could have done with one of these babies in our Barcelona hotel to relieve us of all these Spanish sitcoms.

It has the added bonus of an AV input socket, meaning you can hook the MBP-100 up to any media playing device with an AV port. DVD players, portable media players, camcorders and of course mobile phones – the choice is yours.

The little ripper boasts a 2-3 hour battery life and a tiny 0.5 watt speaker built in, as well as a headphone/speaker jack for some surround sound awesomeness.

It’s out in March or April in the Far East, it will cost between £100 and £150 and it kicks bottom.

Video: A look into Samsung’s Soul

Not only was one of the most anticipated handsets to be unleashed at WMC, it also spawned a million rubbish headlines like the one above. But is it any good? We made a beeline for the Samsung stand to find out.

The immediate eye-catcher is the gorgeous and original Magic Touch navigational mouse pad, which alters depending on which application the handset you are using. Pretty neat, huh?

The sleek 12.9mm sliding metallic shell gives it unquestionable style, but what about the nitty gritty? Well, the Soul’s 5mp camera boasts face recognition, auto focus, image stabiliser and an impressive x4 digital zoom.

Need a fast internet connection? Well the Soul soothes as you can search google with HSDPA at 7.2mbps. It also plays multi-format music through the banging Bang & Olufsen ICEpower pre-amp.

Sammy say they’ve gone all out for the perfect combination of ‘highly styled design and functionality’ You know the specs, now check out the design in our video and judge for yourselves.

Tech Blog by Ezra Hill