O2 launch i-Mode

smokingman

Hi all,

i-Mode seems to get rave reviews in every country it's launched in and o2 are launching soon. Anyone heard much about the technology and it's benefits?

I heard that the Japanese pay for flights/parking/gigs etc just by waving their phone past a scanner of sorts and the reason it's so successful is that it's incredibly secure...is this true?

I'm usually what marketing people call an "early tech adopter" and I need a new phone anyway so I'm thinking of going for it...whatchez think?

The Corinthian

Oddly enough, this topic has been discussed here recently:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=304108

smokingman

ah, my bad,

cheers dude!

jonny2005

Do you do this for a living?

I saw some stuff in the papers yesterday about i-mode. It sounds good. Does anyone know what the story is with the i-mail? It said in the paper it was free. That could be pretty handy.

jonny2005

Hey guys,

I just had a look at the new i-mode on the website. It looks pretty cool, you are able to go to paddypower.com and place a bet on tomorrow's game. I reckon i would bet on it being 2-0 tomorrow.

Zulu

free i-Mail. Fact.

smokingman

....until March 2006...

Got my phone today and yeah, the i-mail is brill!
It's like having a blackberry (not having to connect and check your mail every time) - mail just arrives.

There's a cool thing on the NEC one I got that lets you record some voice/whatever and send it in a mail as an attachment.
Haven't tried to send any huge files yet tho, going to play around with it over the weekend if I can pry myself away from my DS and Nintendogs...

jonny2005

What other facts do you know? What else can you use i-mode/i-mail for?

smokingman

...tell ya after the weekend play...

just playing with it there for a bit and the web-sites are pretty quick to load up, F1-live is on there so I'm happy!

Blaster99

PaddyPower has a WAP site and have had for a long time, so you don't need an i-mode handset to access them. I think they do a J2ME Java app as well.

O2 has certainly done a good job getting a lot of content providers together for this. I had a look at F1-Live earlier. The site's a bit basic. I'd say Setanta might be better, but I haven't looked at it in great detail. They're all free until the new year so you may as well check them out.

kazzer

I was told by a store assistant that you can select a mobile number as the recipient when using I-mail, and if this person does not have an I-mode compatible handset, then it will be delivered via sms. So, if you have free I-mail until march '06 does this effectively mean free sms until march '06???????

Can someone verify?

Blaster99

It's actually delivered as an MMS. Not sure about the charges, but I think you might be right. You can't tell if the receiver is an i-mode user or not, so it would seem a bit strange to charge you for sending it to non-imode users.

Headshot

do o2 have new phones for this i-mode ?

Random

Yes they do headshot - http://web.o2.ie/personal/services/i-mode/phones.jsp

woody

Is I-Mode Phone specific or can we use the phones currently on offer as I have a Nokia 6680

Random

phone specific as far as I know.

The Corinthian

woody wrote:

Is I-Mode Phone specific or can we use the phones currently on offer as I have a Nokia 6680

It is phone specific. Read ciaranfo's link for further information.

woody

ah bugger and I have only got the nokia 6680, suppose I will have to wait for the 3G services and stick to the GPRS

Headshot

ciaranfo wrote:

Yes they do headshot - http://web.o2.ie/personal/services/i-mode/phones.jsp

only 2 phones

im thinking of getting the samsung one the Samsung s500i

i never had a samsung phone
what are they like for txting etc

http://flash.o2.co.uk/imode/imode_phones.html
englands o2 have more i mode phones then irelands o2

and are they bringing out any sony ericsson or nokia i mode phone

datsright1

I've been using an i-mode phone for just over 2 weeks and compared to previous WAP/GPRS offerings I reckon it's much better.

The main differences are that there is far more content available, download and page load times are quicker and there is a standard charge (1c/kb pre-pay and post-pay).

The i-mail is handy as well - you get a new i-mail address when you activate and mail gets delivered in a similar fashion to a blackberry.

As it's only new the amount of content can surely only increase and there's a lot there already so it should be a great new product.

As previous posters have said it's free at the moment - as far as I can tell the i-mode subscriptions are free until 31/12/2005 (can depend on the content provider) and i-mail is free until 03/2006.

Ref the post 'free SMS?' - i-mail to a 'normal' handset would be delivered as MMS - if the recipient doesn't have MMS they will get an SMS advising them to log on to the website to view the MMS they were just sent. Depending on what way you look at it - it could be viewed as free SMS if the person you are sending to definitely has MMS set up - they will receive the text as an MMS but as it has been sent via i-mail from the i-mail handset it is free until 03/2006.

gravytown

its free for while, sometime early next year, not permanently. Don't know how much it will cost though. All these posts sniff of propoganda by the way.

datsright1

Having reviewed my original post I can kinda see why theres a "sniff of propaganda".

I got my i-mode phone as part of the pre-release trials so I've had it over 2 weeks now.
I had a list of sites to access and tasks to complete and I had to keep a log of the results.

Based on this I'm impressed and I'll continue to use the service after the trial has ended.

Pricing is 1c/kb with monthly subscriptions available to content providers depending on what floats your boat.
Subs are free till 31/12/05 with most providers and i-mail is free till March 2006.

gravytown

I had a mess on a gadget freak friendon of mine's one last night. It showed promise I suppose, quicker than WAP etc anyway. What do you think of the phone?

datsright1

I'm using the NEC 343i and the phone works well enough although it's not overloaded with extras (no bluetooth, no IR). All the standard stuff works well (good call quality, easy to use SMS etc.).

The camera is good and sends pics quick enough.

The main difference is the i-mode/i-mail itself which all looks good. More content and a better look and feel than previous WAP (sites look better for a start).

It can only improve from what seems to be a good start as more providers come on line I reckon.

gravytown

Bigger screen size would be nicer. Any other hand sets on the way?

datsright1

Only the NEC 343i and Samsung s500i are available now - both have similar screen sizes.

I suppose they were trying to get the balance right - any bigger and maybe the phone would have been too big.
Screen size is just about big enough for me - but a bigger screen would [obviously] be better - only if the overall handset size didn't increase by too much though.

gravytown

datsright1 wrote:

Only the NEC 343i and Samsung s500i are available now - both have similar screen sizes.

I suppose they were trying to get the balance right - any bigger and maybe the phone would have been too big.
Screen size is just about big enough for me - but a bigger screen would [obviously] be better - only if the overall handset size didn't increase by too much though.

Thanks Mr./Ms. incredibly knowledgable i-mode person!!!!!!!!!!!

jonny2005

datsright1 you sure know your stuff when it comes to i-mode...

I thought the Samsung wasn't available yet, i just looked up on the O2 website and you can't buy it yet...

datsright1

Blushing now.

I got the NEC as part of the pre-release trials and had to access the i-mode/i-mail regularly so I saw it from pre-release when it had not much content and quite a few issues till now and it already looks miles better

Blaster99

There's supposed to be three i-mode phones, but the NEC is the only one that currently works right. I think O2 is waiting for firmware fixes for the other two before releasing them.

Headshot

lads when is the Samsung s500i available in the shops