he O2 XDA Flint - All the function of a PDA with a 5-inch touch-screen.
The "Grand Opening" of the "O2 World" Berlin interior gives a strong sense of exclusive entertainment business, tourists and investors in the city should consider. The reaction of the night ranged from yawning boredom, to compare with the celebrations for the 40th Anniversary of the GDR. | |
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O2, one of the UK's leading mobile phone operators, today announced it will dramatically expand its presence in Scotland through the creation of a new Customer Service centre in Glasgow, creating 1500 new permanent O2 jobs in Scotland. The facility which will open in the Autumn will be based in Glasgow's Skypark business complex at Finnieston. The announcement underlines O2's commitment to the UK and Scotland in particular. Over the next 2 years, O2 will invest £18 million. The Scottish Executive has supported the project with an offer of Regional Selective Assistance worth around £7 million.
Francesca Rea, General Manager, Customer Service for O2 UK said: "This is a major vote of confidence in our business and the UK market. This is now the most competitive mobile phone market in Europe. That means great value for consumers and huge choice. We believe we can differentiate and have more customers choosing O2 by investing in the people and resources to deliver an overall experience that customers will find superior. That is what today's announcement is all about."
Deputy First Minister and Enterprise Minister Jim Wallace said: "This is a significant announcement for Scotland and a ringing endorsement of what we can offer to companies across the world.
"O2's decision to locate here confirms yet again that Scotland is a first class location to do business, with a reputation for offering a skilled and motivated workforce. Excellent customer services is something we do well in Scotland. And that is one of the many reasons why we continue to attract contact centre jobs to Scotland.
"The fact that a globally recognised household name like O2 has chosen to expand in Scotland in the face of competition from other locations does credit to our reputation. O2 chose to locate here, not elsewhere. This shows that, although global competition is tough, Scotland remains an attractive option for growing an international business and can compete with the best in the world. I am delighted that we have been able to support O2's plans with an offer of up to £7 million in Regional Selective Assistance."
Glasgow's Skypark business complex was chosen following a review of several UK and Irish sites. Glasgow offers a large, experienced, customer-focused workforce and therefore an employment pool that closely matches O2's requirements. The Skypark complex provides excellent working facilities, local amenities and transport links. O2's operation will cover 3 floors of the complex comprising a total floor area of around 100,000 sq feet.
The new Customer Service centre and 1500 new jobs are part of O2's wider plans to strengthen customer loyalty. O2 has already announced that it will be hiring an additional 500 people as it expands its base of UK retail stores. The company has 26 retail stores in Scotland which will increase to 30 over the next 6 months.
O2 already has a technology office in Motherwell which has responsibility for the development of O2's mobile phone network north of the border. Over 1 million Scottish customers use O2's mobile phone network which is one of the largest mobile phone customer bases in Scotland.
The Glasgow site will be O2's fourth major Customer Service centre in the UK. The others are based in Leeds, Bury and Warrington. Since July 2004, the number of O2 Customer Service employees has increased by 20%. The additional investment in the new centre and the 1500 additional jobs will provide the company with even more resources to deliver excellent levels of customer service including shorter call waiting times and more flexibility and resilience in dealing with changing customer needs. O2 has already introduced a service for business customers that ensures they speak to an O2 employee not a machine when they call. This service is being evaluated for other customers.
Recruitment for the new Customer Service centre will commence within the next few weeks. Along with the opportunity to work for one of the leading UK mobile phone brands, prospective team members will be offered superb employment packages, comprehensive training and a working environment that encourages career development. Reflecting modern lifestyles, O2 is able to offer great flexible working options with numerous shift patterns and part time positions. For more information on employment see.
About O2 UK
O2 is a leading provider of mobile services to consumers and businesses in the UK. It is the leader in non-voice services, including text, media messaging, games, music and video, as well as always on data connections via GPRS, 3G and WLAN. Every day, O2's 14 million customers send more than 30 million text messages. O2 (UK) is a subsidiary of O2 plc which also owns O2 branded mobile operators in Ireland and Germany as well as the O2 Airwave emergency services network in the UK.
About Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) & Scottish Enterprise
Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) is the main national scheme of financial assistance to industry. It provides discretionary grants for investment projects that will create or safeguard jobs in Assisted Areas - areas designated for regional aid under European community law. The scheme is administered by the RSA Scotland unit of the Scottish Executive. For further information on the scheme.
Scottish Enterprise is the main economic development agency for Scotland covering 93% of the population from Grampian to the Borders. The Scottish Enterprise Network consists of Scottish Enterprise and 12 Local Enterprise Companies. Working in partnership with the private and public sectors the Network aims to build more and better businesses, to develop the skills and knowledge of Scottish people, and to encourage innovation to make Scottish business internationally competitive. Further information on Scottish Enterprise is available.
The XDA Exec is the latest in a long line of XDAs from O2, and it is real state of the art stuff. It isn't small and it isn't all that pretty, but if you are looking for a PDA that does just about everything a PDA can at the moment, and you don't mind paying a hefty price for the privilege, it is worth a look.The immediately striking thing about the XDA Exec is its size: it is larger than usual because it incorporates a (relatively) big keyboard inside a clamshell design. Just like a Tablet PC you can swivel the screen and lay it flat, facing outermost, if you don't want to use the keyboard.
When you rotate the 640 x 480 pixel, 3.6 diagonal inch screen it automatically reorients from landscape format to portrait, though you can easily change the orientation manually using an icon on the Today screen
This is the first PDA from O2 to support 3G communications, and a camera next to the screen lets you make video calls, while a second camera on the back will shoot stills at up to 1,280 x 960 pixels and capture video.
Both Bluetooth and 802.11b are included, so you can hop onto wireless networks when in range and use a Bluetooth headset for voice calls. A wireless headset is probably the best option for voice communications, in fact, the others being the supplied wired headset and holding the hardware to your ear - a job for which it is rather too bulky.
The XDA Exec runs Windows Mobile 5, an updated version of Microsoft's handheld operating system. Many of the changes from the previous version are under the hood, with the general look and feel remaining familiar. Notable changes include some enhancements to the built-in software Word Mobile and Excel Mobile (renamed from Pocket Word and Pocket Excel), the introduction of a PowerPoint viewer and two new soft-menu buttons on the touch-sensitive screen whose roles change depending on what application you are using at the time.
Our review unit was not quite the final model, and we didn't have the full memory quota installed, but it looks as though the XDA Exec will be up there with the most memory-rich PDAs available as the final specification is for 128MB of flash memory and 64MB of RAM, with an SD card slot so you can expand on what's available if necessary.
Modes umts/gsm 850/gsm 900/gsm 1800/gsm 1900
Weight 160 g
Dimensions 113 x 58 x 22 mm
Form factor slider
Internal antenna
Battery life talk:5 hours (300 minutes)
Standby:300 hours (12.5 days)
Battery type lipolymer
1350 mah
Display type: Lcd (color tft/tfd)
Colors:65k
Size:240 x 320 pixels
Platform/os windows mobile 5.0 (400mhz processor)
Memory 64 mb ram
128 mb rom
Phone book yes
Features
Alarm yes
Bluetooth yes
Calculator yes
Calendar yes
Custom graphics yes
Custom ringtones yes
Data-capable yes
E-mail client yes
Expansion card card type: Minisd
Games yes
High-speed data technology: Edge, umts
Infrared (ir) yes
Integrated pda yes
Java (j2me) version: Midp 2.0
Mms yes
Keyboard yes, qwertz
Mp3/aac player yes
Multiple numbers per name yes
Pc sync yes
Picture id yes
Polyphonic ringtones chords:40
Predictive text entry technology: T9
Ringer id yes
Ringer profiles yes
Speaker phone type: Full-duplex
Streaming multimedia yes
Text messaging 2-way: Yes
Plus im
To-do list yes
Usb supports storage mode
Vibrate yes
Video calling yes
Video capture yes
Voice dialing yes
Voice memo yes
Wi-fi yes,802.11b/g
Wireless internet supports wap 1.2.1, wap 2.0, xhtml, html (pocket internet explorer)
O2 has officially announced the newest member to the Xda line of devices with the O2 Xda Atmos candybar slider smartphone. The Atmos features a standard alpha keypad, as well as a sliding QWERTY pad for easier texting, aimed at those who want the design of a typical handset with PDA-like features. Powered by Windows Mobile 6.0, the Atmos supports connectivity with GPRS, EDGE, 3G, WiFi, HSDPA and quad-band GSM, allowing the phone to be networked almost anywhere. The O2 Xda Atmos is available now at varying prices depending on your countries tariff charges, through O2 directly and their subsidiaries.
It is really amazing news from Asia!!! The O2 Xda Flame is coming and his specs are boosted to the top.
For years savvy entrepreneurs have offered revitalizing Oxygen treatments along with massages, pedicures, and facials. Now O2 PLANET® is offering the perfect combination of relaxation and revitilization: A Shiatsu Massage AND Aroma O2™ Oxygen Maker, complete with Audio/Video Therapy! The latest trend in salons, spas, massage parlors, hotels and nightclubs -- The O2 Lounge!Entertainment Oxygen Lounge Comes With:
# Multimedia DVD player with loudspeaker and hi-fi
earphones.
# Music massage transfer with various massage
techniques that can recognize and match the rhythm of
different music styles.
# Aroma O2 Oxygen Maker + Aroma O2 Headset
One of the dilemmas for anyone looking to buy a PDA these days is whether to go for something that is GSM / GPRS connected. If you decide you do want the kind of device which can act as your phone as well as your PDA, then the next thing to do is decide whether you want something that leans more towards the phone or the PDA in terms of screen size, features and functionality.For the PDA side of things, the tri-band XDA II from O2 would be a very compelling choice. Priced at £349 including the cost of a contract (it isn't available on pay-as-you-go yet), you get a lot of value for your money in comparison with other hardware sharing similar features.
The design is pretty functional in terms of looks, and its silver casing isn't exactly innovative, but with this second version of the XDA, O2 has managed to bury the antenna within the main body of the hardware, making it slightly tall for a PDA, but not unwieldy.
There is a digital stills and movie camera built into the back of the XDA II, which captures still images at 640 x 480, 320 x 240 and 160 x 160 pixels, and video at 176 x 144 and 128 x 96 pixels. Using the camera is easy thanks to a dedicated button on the side of the casing, which both starts the software, turning the whole screen into a viewfinder, and captures images.
The internal specifications are top-notch. The processor, Intel's PXA 263, runs at 400MHz, and there is 128MB of RAM available, with a further 14MB of flash memory for backing up data that absolutely must survive battery failure. An SD card slot lets you add even more memory.
The battery is removable so a spare can be swapped in if needed and there is space for charging a spare in the cradle. O2 says the supplied battery is good for 15 hours of PDA type functionality, or 3 hours 30 minutes talk-time / 150 hours on standby. When we looped MP3s through it we got 4 hours 30 minutes of life - far from O2's claims, but enough, probably, to get you through a working day.
Irritatingly, the docking cradle holds the hardware at a rather more upright angle than usual, which means that to properly see the screen it has to be further away from you on the desk.
The standard Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Phone Edition applications are all here, and O2 augments them with a few of its own located in the ROM of the device, so you don't need to reinstall them if the power does fail you. Most notable among the suite provided is ClearVue PDF reader and ClearVue PPT for reading PowerPoint documents, plus PhotoContacts for attaching images to your contacts, and a backup tool.
There is also the O2 Active Today Screen, which provides one or two tap access to a range of Internet-based and other features, and there is an e-mail client which can be used to help you stay in touch while you are out and about. Bluetooth is present too, so thankfully you can use a headset if you'd rather not hold a PDA to your ear to make calls, Of course you can also use O2's hands-free kit for this purpose.
