People from Vodafone New Zealand, I can't wait for you to do other classics, like:

[Engadget]

The Blackberry, seated in his breast pocket, added the extra bit of thickness that made the difference between plummeting another 700 feet and waiting 2 hours for a rescue chopper.

While Fitzherbert hardly walked away unscathed—he suffered hypothermia, a broken jaw, nearly "ripped off" nose among other ailments—he was able to call his wife from the hospital...on the very phone that saved his life. [The Sun Thanks gitemstevedave!]

The service, called "Passport", will be available as a three-month summer trial for UK subscribers, and can be activated for free. Customers will be able to travel to just about any country that Vodafone operates in and tap into the minute and text allocations from their regular plan, or in the case of pay-as-you-go customers, call and text at their usual domestic rate. Data roaming still applies, but come July it'll be capped at about $1.40 per megabyte as per new EU regulations.

As someone who's stuck in concurrent T-Mobile contracts in two separate countries, I take this news kind of personally. Steep roaming charges make some sense when you're jumping between carriers, but they're stupidly frustrating when you're paying way more for services from a different arm of the same company.

This obviously doesn't mean much for Americans (although Voda does own a 45% stake in Verizon), but it does represent a precedent we should all push for. Aside from steep taxes (as in the UK), it's mainly plain old price gouging—of carriers by other carriers, or of customers by their carriers—that keeps prices so high. [Telegraph]

There are no other details about the delay or even if this will effect the launch of the handset on other carriers, but we can only speculate that the delays now could ultimately lead up to many more delays later. May 1st, eh? I'll see your Pre and raise you a new iPhone. [Engadget]

Though AT&T seems to be talking excitedly about its own LTE network—a technology that derives from the GSM networks that AT&T and T-Mobile run, and not the CDMA networks of Sprint and Verizon—Verizon really will be first, and at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, Verizon CTO Dick Lynch made a point of letting the world know it. Most of the chatter was stuff we'd published before, but the coolest part of the released statement, about the current and upcoming trials, was new:

Utilizing their existing spectrum, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone have been field testing 4G LTE networks in Minneapolis, Columbus, Ohio, and Northern New Jersey in the United States, as well as in Budapest, Düsseldorf, and Madrid in Europe, with a variety of network infrastructure providers. These field trials have demonstrated download rates of 50 to 60 Mbps peak speeds, though actual average download results will not be determined until the commercial launch of the new Verizon Wireless LTE network. Utilizing its recently acquired 700 MHz spectrum, Verizon Wireless will expand trials this summer, and Lynch said the company will commercially launch its LTE network in 2010. Once the initial rollout is complete, plans are in place for aggressive deployment throughout Verizon Wireless' entire network, including areas not currently covered by the existing Verizon Wireless footprint.

WiMax is already here, and Sprint has proven to be adept at rolling out next-generation data services, but still, I can't help but think that between Verizon and AT&T, LTE will definitely be the 4G technology of choice in America. [More Mobile World Congress 2009 Coverage]

LTWHO??? CDMWHAT?? Drowning in mobile-terminology alphabet soup? Have a quick look at our Giz Explains entry on the various mobile technologies.

According to HTC: Personality. The Androids are like people, they have chins, they have personality. The other reason: They also have protruding nippleballs: Having a chin allows the HTC engineers to pull the trackballs out more than competing devices, making them easier to use while protecting them with the chin.

There you have it. Now you'll be able to sleep tonight.

The bad news first: Apart from my gripes about the user interface—which are still there—there is one but. A big BUT, bigger than Ramona's, the planetary lady with accidental moustache who serves the bocadillos down at one of the fair's restaurants: The software keyboard. On this first touch, the keyboard felt cramped, probably a result of the screen size, which is smaller than the iPhone's—which is the obvious soft keyboard reference, since it was the first one to implement a finger-touch software keyboard.

In addition to that, there's an additional user interface problem, this time having to do with perception: Instead of popping up above your finger—like in the iPhone so you can clearly see what you pressed—the keys appear on the sides. They flash quickly as you press them, and I found it extremely distracting. They said that they put them on the sides not to obstruct the view, but knowing the over-the-key implementation in the iPhone's software keyboard, it doesn't make much sense. Furthermore, when you are typing with one finger only—like I often do—you will be obstructing the view of the flashing key with your finger. The reason: When you type on the right side of the keyboard, the flashing keys appear on the left. When you click on the right, they pop out on the left.

Other than this, the rest is great. There's a new Google Mail feature to delete or classify mail in bulk, as well as a faster camera, which now can take video—which obviously means you can play back video as well. The rest of the interface and features is what you already have in the Android G1. However, what really steals the show here is the hardware itself.

HTC has got a very smooth phone, which feels great on your hands and in your pants' pockets. While it's sightly thicker than the iPhone, the narrower, rounded body, and weight makes it feel the same size. For sure, a lot less bulky than the G1, which looks like a brick next to this. And as you have seen in the shots, the final HTC Magic is quite pretty. Have no doubt: This thing alone will make many consumers put up with the less-than-ideal software keyboard.

Overall, the first feeling is that we got a potential winner here. If they can manage to make the software keyboard better, Apple will definitely have a formidable enemy in the Android G2.

For sure, it is lot prettier that T-Mobile's G1. Here are the specs:

Processor
Qualcomm® MSM7201a™, 528 MHz

Operating System
Android

Memory ROM: 512 MB
RAM: 192 MB

Dimensions 113 x 55 x 13.65 mm ( 4.45 x 2.17 x 0.54 inches)
Weight 118.5 grams ( 4.18 ounces) with battery
Display 3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 320x480 HVGA resolution
Network HSDPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz, Up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
(Band frequency and data speed are operator dependent.)

Device Control Trackball with Enter button

GPS Internal GPS antenna

Connectivity Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate
Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)

Camera
3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus

Audio supported formats AAC, AAC+, AMR-NB, MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC-LC, MIDI, OGG
Video supported formats MP4, 3GP

Battery Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
Capacity: 1340 mAh

Talk time:
Up to 400 minutes for WCDMA
Up to 450 minutes for GSM

Standby time:
Up to 660 hours for WCDMA
Up to 420 hours for GSM
(The above are subject to network and phone usage.)

Expansion Slot microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
AC Adapter Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 47/63 Hz
DC output: 5V and 1A
Special Features G-sensor
Digital Compass

While there's no reason (yet) to think the delay will be nearly as egregious as the Bold, Boy Genius points out that Vodafone has already gently nudged its Nov. 14 date back to the 18th for pre-orders, and their forums are lit up with whispers of a delay. These aren't new rumors either. If at all possible, Verizon will launch the Storm by Black Friday, and we think there's a good chance they will. Just don't expect it too long before then. [Boy Genius]

• 7.2 mbps HSDPA/UMTS (2100/1900/850 MHz)
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
• 1GB of memory, 192MB RAM
• 1400 mAhr battery. Standby time: 528 hours
• MicroUSB port
• MicroSD and MicroSDHC expandable up to 8GB
• 3.2 megapixel camera, flash, 2.5x digital zoom, auto focus, and image stabilization
• Video capture. Normal mode (480×320) and MMS mode (176×144)
• Assisted GPS - Enhanced version of GPS that performs at a faster speed

[BlackBerry News]

(As the headline suggests, this doesn't end well.)

When the man arrived back home, Vodafone actually called his firm to alert him of the huge data charge coming in the mail—all £11,000 of it—based upon some sort of punishing out-of-network rate from the Germany portion of the downloads (despite the fact that Germans using Vodafone don't pay £11,000 phone bills every month).

Given that this isn't the first time mobile carriers have exploited their Europe-trotting customers, the European Union commissioner is giving wireless companies until July 1st to justify exorbitant cross-boundary charges.

We wish Vodafone the best of luck in their great time of difficulty. [telegraphuk]

McAdam dismisses the idea that being a "founding" member of the OHA would have been anything more than a press-release opportunity for the carrier. Once the dev kit went out, though, he says his engineers were impressed.

"Clearly the Android system gives a lot of developers the opportunity to develop applications for a wide range of handsets."

The result has been what we have reported over the past week: Verizon declared its network open to all phones and devices that share its network technology, following an easy security and functionality verification process. Furthermore, Verizon will migrate to the 4G standard co-developed in Europe by its parent company Vodafone, Nokia and the 3GPP, a standard that would be in line with much of the world's wireless data network.

Though this could be showboating for the FCC in the period leading up to the 700MHz spectrum auction, BusinessWeek points out the same impression that we've had, that the openness model is inevitable, and that "market demand for open networks would be impossible to hold back indefinitely." You hear that, AT&T? [BusinessWeek]

VERIZON SELECTS LTE AS 4G WIRELESS BROADBAND DIRECTION

Technology Platform to be Trialed in 2008

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - Verizon today announced plans to develop and deploy its fourth generation mobile broadband network using LTE - Long Term Evolution - the technology developed within the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards organization. The selection of LTE provides Verizon and Vodafone - joint owners of U.S.-based Verizon Wireless - with a unique opportunity to adopt a common access platform with true global scale and compatibility with existing technologies of both companies.

Verizon and Vodafone have a coordinated trial plan for LTE that begins in 2008. Trial suppliers include Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia-Siemens, and Nortel. These suppliers, along with others in the world community, have contributed significantly towards development of the standards in 3GPP. Discussions with device suppliers have expanded beyond traditional suppliers such as LG, Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson, as consumer electronics companies anticipate embedded wireless functionality in their future products.

Working within 3GPP, Verizon and Vodafone, as well as a broad group of infrastructure suppliers, device suppliers, and technology companies from around the globe, have advanced the standards to enable a technology that will deliver unprecedented wireless broadband service for high performance mobile computing, multimedia, and consumer electronic devices and applications. The technology is designed to deliver mobile data networks with higher speed and throughput performance, lower latency, global roaming, and improved efficiencies.

Today's LTE announcement builds on Verizon Wireless' technology leadership as the first company to launch high-speed wireless broadband service in the United States using CDMA Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) technology. Its data innovation and leadership have been marked by the introduction of new multimedia handsets and innovative applications such as V CAST Music, V CAST Video, VZ NavigatorSM, V CAST games, e-mail, Internet access, and picture and video messaging on a variety of devices, including handsets, PDAs and laptops.

Richard Lynch, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Verizon Communications observed that "while this next generation technology will be exciting to develop and deploy, it comes at a time when we are adding record numbers of customers to our existing CDMA2000 1x and EV-DO networks. We relish the challenge of preparing for the time when our customers start demanding such 4G capabilities, while continuing the expansion and operation of our existing technologies for many years to come."

"The company's move toward a 4G network is driven by our vision of pervasive wireless Internet connectivity and mobility," said Lynch. "Customers want to be truly untethered with advanced communication devices that provide functionality comparable to today's wired networks - whether it's downloading or uploading video, gaming, downloading their favorite music, or social networking. They want to be able to communicate in new and innovative ways whenever and wherever they choose around the globe. A number of factors are setting the stage for our 4G network migration; most importantly, our view of customers' evolving appetite for more information, entertainment, and functionality, combined with an increasing customer expectation for easy access, high speed, easy handling, and seamless mobility. With a host of new devices and applications, and a particular focus on embedded wireless in virtually every piece of electronics you buy in any store, we believe LTE is the best technology with global scale to deliver on the promise."

"Vodafone is delighted to be working alongside Verizon in the development of LTE technology, and we're looking forward to assessing the results of the joint engineering trials. We fully support Verizon's decision to select LTE as their next generation wireless broadband solution," said Steve Pusey, Vodafone's global chief technology officer. "We expect LTE to form a key part of Vodafone's future technology strategy, and the prospect of moving towards a common platform with Verizon Wireless is an attractive long-term goal. LTE will build on the capabilities of Vodafone's 3G broadband High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) network technology, which is available across the entire Vodafone 3G footprint."

"Today's 4G announcement, coupled with our Open Development initiative announced earlier this week present a major growth opportunity for Verizon Wireless," said Doreen Toben, chief financial officer of Verizon. "Fourth generation's higher data speeds will usher in a new era of wireless applications and appliances, all of which can benefit from connecting to the nation's premier wireless network."