Sooner or later someone was going to challenge the way tariff pricing has been formulated and revolutionise the industry with a new and simplified pricing method that makes sense. So, it should be no surprise to most that it is the 3 network that has taken the initiative and created The One Plan.

The One Plan offers peace of mind and freedom of use by removing the so-called ‘unlimited packages’ that are capped with a fair usage policy that can often cripple users with large and unexpected bills. Instead, The One Plan brings a huge amount of clearly defined free usage that comprises of 1GB of data, 5000 text messages, 2000 minutes to any network any time and 5000 minutes for calling other mobiles on 3.

If you’re thinking about an iPhone 4 then you’ll be delighted to see a SIM only option with The One Plan at a low price of £25pm on a 12 month contract. Pick up a SIM free iPhone 4 direct from Apple for £499 and it works out cheaper than any of the deals available on Orange, O2 or Vodafone.

If you prefer a new phone on The One Plan then 24 month contracts are available. The cost of line rental depends on which phone you choose, it starts at £28 per month for phones such as the Nokia E63 or the LG Viewty GT. The HTC Desire is available for £35 per month.

The The One Plan has placed 3 at the forefront of the UK networks with probably the most attractive and easy to understand price plan that simply makes sense.

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Outstanding optics, refined looks, on-demand TV for channels like CNN and National Geo, and a huge array of features take the Nokia N8 straight to the head of the pack. The 12 megapixel camera records 720p video and professional optics from Carl Zeiss combine with a xenon flash, face recognition and geo-tagging to bring possibly the best camera and video package available. The multimedia story doesn’t end here though, with thoughtful inclusion like an HDMI interface for TV or projector connectivity and Dolby Digital Plus technology for compatibility with home theatre systems.

The Nokia N8 has a 3.5 inch OLED capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 640×360 pixels. Your own widgets can be added to the three customisable home screens which can be accessed with a simple finer swipe. The home screen shows live updates from social networking sites and there’s a dedicated widget for Facebook and Twitter, bringing them into one application.

The N8 can download applications from the Ovi store via the 3G HSDPA web browser. For music addicts there’s an FM radio and Nokia’s Music Player. There’s 16GB internal memory (expandable up to 48GB) for storing your music files and the N8 can play back an impressive 50 hours from one battery charge, you can listen to music all day long.

Connectivity options are also varied with quad-band roaming, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Emails are handled by a unified email client whilst instant messaging capability and SMS in a conversational view perfectly round off any users communication needs. Nokia are also offering navigation for free with GPS and Ovi Maps providing turn-by-turn, on foot or by car, voice guided instructions. The Nokia N8 is a tremendous smartphone package with too many features to mention.

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Google have released fantastic news for smartphone users who have the Android 1.6 operating system or above with the launch of Google Maps voice guided navigation software available FREE of charge for users in the UK and Ireland. Popular smartphone models such as the Desire, Xperia X10 and the Milestone can all take advantage of this great offering from Google.

The features included rival those available on dedicated navigation devices. Searches can be made via text input, voice command and by double tapping on contacts with address information. Knowing the address of desired destinations is of no consequence, guided navigation can be activated with either a business name or type of business.

When nearing a destination the display changes to the highly publicised Street View. Handy additions also include traffic awareness as the road ahead is highlighted in green, yellow or red to give forewarning of traffic congestion. Multiple levels of information layering can also be added with the 3D-satellite view and optional icons for petrol stations, restaurants and parking, etc.

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Time to get excited? Well maybe if the rumours of specifications and pictures of the new 2010, Apple iPhone are correct. The latest engineering marvel from Apple appears to have a high-resolution touch-screen display (640×960 pixels) that indicates a possible name change to the iPhone HD. The camera has been upgraded and a much-needed flash has been included. The front face of the handset also includes a camera to support video calling.

The call quality should be excellent with the addition of a second mic and longer use between charges can be achieved with the new battery that is 18% larger than the previous model. The new iPhone also utilises the latest technology by using a MicroSIM card and with SIM card readers available or by using wireless Bluetooth, transferring information from an old SIM card shouldn’t cause too much of a problem.

Having taken a detailed look at the pictures it is apparent that the iPhone 4 commands a high quality finish. With no sharp edges the metal frame and ceramic or glass fascias blend seamlessly together. The slimmer frame includes a power button and audio jack on the top and volume keys on the side.

A full news release is expected from Apple on the 22nd June to confirm full specifications.

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The new iPhone OS v4.0 is set for release in the summer and offers over 100 new features for iPhone owners. Important additions include homescreen wallpapers, spell checker, tap to focus on video, playlist creation, geo-tagging of photos, Bluetooth keyboard compatibility and gift apps, a great new way to give gifts to friends and family. Apple has cleverly developed the operating system to handle the latest apps in an intelligent manner to provide a performance far above the rest. The new developments fall into 7 categories and the highlights of each are discussed below.

Multitasking: By far the most important development that has been available on other operating systems but Apple have added their own unique perspective and engineered a service that doesn’t drain battery life or slow down the system. Users can for example listen to the Pandora Internet radio whilst playing games or using Tom Tom for turn-by-turn navigation. Voice over IP services can be used whilst multitasking and Skype whom connect 1 in 9 of all International calls in the World can now be left silently running in the background to ensure calls are never missed. Apps that take time to complete tasks like uploading photos to Flickr can also be left running in the background freeing the user to continue using other services.

Folders: Applications can now be moved into folders via drag and drop to simplify the 11 page menu screens. Additionally restrictions to only 180 apps have been hugely increased with the aid of folders to a massive 2160 apps.

Mail: A unified inbox now handles all email accounts in one location. Streamlining the service further, ongoing messaging can be organised into threads and if desired fast inbox switching can be used to return to a specific email account.

iBooks: With tens of thousands of books available from the iBookstore, many of which are free, making this a great addition. Books can be searched for by author, title or genre and displayed on a virtual bookshelf. Sample pages can also be viewed for many of the books available for purchase.

Enterprise: With a growing number of companies using iPhones, security has been enhanced. Lots of useful features have been developed including wireless application distribution.

Game Centre: Access is provided to over 50,000 games and entertainment titles that now have enhanced features. Social gaming networks allow the user to challenge friends and view leaderboards. The matchmaking service will also connect similar users together for multiplayer games.

iAd: Mobile advertising is not to be shied away from here as the App Store (now boasting over 185,000 apps) can bring more free apps by utilising ad revenues. The true power of interactive ads was nicely displayed at the iPhone OS 4 launch using Toy Story 3 as a demonstration model. Banners at the base of the apps store can be clicked, and instead of being guided away from the app the interactive ad services run from within it where access to free games, game downloads, video clips, wallpapers, character info and cinema locations are provided.

The new iPhone OS will be available on the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS (new services are model dependant) from summer and on the iPad from autumn.

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Yet to be officially announced, the hotly anticipated Nokia N8 (previously known as Nokia N98) will be a powerful smartphone with an amazing 12 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera. Sporting the Symbian 3 OS the N8 will offer improved networking making it ideal for streaming high definition multimedia files. It’s also rumoured to have HDMI support for an enhanced television playback experience. The 1GHz processor coupled with multi-touch input offers a new level of interaction.

The 3.5 inch touchscreen boasts a nHD resolution of 360 x 640 pixels for amazing clarity with 16 million colours. The fantastic screen should make web browsing with 3G HSDPA a dream and with GPRS/EDGE and Wi-Fi also included you can be sure to get online quickly wherever you are.

Photos taken with the N8 should have fantastic detail, with the 12 megapixel camera that features Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus and LED flash to give picture perfect results every time. The camera can also capture live action with HD video recording at 30fps and HDMI support (to be confirmed) allows you to view the results on your HDTV.

Every entertainment option you could ever want and more is included with the multimedia player, FM Radio with RDS, document viewer and photo/video editor. The super sharp screen, superior 12 megapixel camera and fluid OS make the Nokia N8 the ultimate multimedia device, in a sleek and tantalising form.

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