You’ve probably seen that Tesco have announced the availability and pricing of the iPhone on Tesco Mobile. You’ll be able to pick it up from any Tesco store that sells phones Tesco Stores that contain Phone Shops (there’s a list here) from December 14th. PAYG iPhones are available online from Tesco Phone Shop, and from from Customer Services on 0845 600 4411.

There are a few things that their iPhone page doesn’t mention, such as whether tethering or an unlock will be allowed. I’ve been in touch with the very helpful Jo at Tesco Mobile PR, and here is some info that may swing your decision to chuck an iPhone into the basket with your Christmas turkey.

Read the full story

Are you all upgraded to iPhone OS 3.0 now? Good. Then you’re probably aware that the new firmware allows you to tether; that is, use your iPhone’s data connection to provide internet access to a computer (via Bluetooth or USB). It’s been possible to do this for quite a while on jailbroken iPhones, using apps such as PDANet, but to be honest the experience has always been slow and flaky. Having it built into the iPhone’s own operating system makes a lot more sense.

What doesn’t make sense is O2’s pricing. If you want to tether, O2 would like £15/month for 3GB or £30 for 10GB. That’s a lot of money, especially when you compare it to say Three’s offer of £15 for 15GB/month. And also when other phones can effectively tether for free without having to pay O2 extra.

Wouldn’t it be nicer to tether easily for free? Of course it would, and you can. But be aware – I believe O2 are able to monitor unofficial tethering with little effort.
Read the full story

It’s time for a round-up of info I’ve gleaned from recent posts on Twitter. O2 have an official presence on Twitter, and recently asked for suggestions for iPhone apps. Giving away some apps specific to their network would be a good move for the carrier – they could add some real value to the iPhone customer experience.

Some of the most requested included:

• Integration with Bluebook
  Bluebook is a great free service from O2, storing all you texts, picture messages and contacts, but iPhones cannot use the service yet. A workaround is to install Synthesis SyncML, which at least enables you to sync contacts. But why you’d use this over Google Mobile sync, I’m not sure (unless you’re Google-phobic).

Read the full story