Vodafone has become the first carrier to say that it'll sell Dell's newly announced Inspiron Mini 9 little laptop.

And it'll be the only carrier to do so. It has the European carrier exclusive on sales of the Small, Cheap(ish) Computer with a built-in HSDPA modem.

That's an accessory notably absent from Dell's own website this morning, despite the fact that the vendor's own support site reveals the SCC has a user-accessible slot for just such a device.

Dell said this afternoon that it too will sell the HSDPA-enabled Mini, presumably with Vodafone airtime.

Dell's been working with Vodafone for years to offer a range or regular laptops with integrated 3G and, later, HSDPA network connectivity.

Unfortunately, that long-running partnership hasn't enabled the two to work out yet what the carrier is going to charge for the 9 - if, indeed, it doesn't entirely subsidise the £299 the Dell wants punters to pay for the machine.

It's not hard to imagine the 9 being offered for free on top-of-the-range monthly airtime packages, for example.

Vodafone said it will spill the beans in the "coming weeks". It'll sell the HSDPA-equipped Mini from "late September".

Unlimited Texts With Vodafone UK's New Deal For Pay As You Talk Customers

From September 1st 2008 Vodafone pay as you talk customers will get even more value when they top-up from as little as £5 a month with the launch of ‘Text Unlimited’.

Text Unlimited is a new pay as you talk price plan that rewards customers with unlimited texts according to how much they top up each month.

Text Unlimited is free to opt-in to for new and existing PAYT customers and can be activated by calling 2345. A customer’s total top-up value is calculated each month and a customer’s account is credited the corresponding text reward to use in the following month. There are three tiers to the plan and the more a customer tops up the more they will gain:

• Top up £5 during the month and receive unlimited texts weekday evenings in the following month*
• Top up £10 and receive unlimited evening and weekend texts the following month
• Top up £30 or more and receive unlimited texts to use at any time the following month

Text Unlimited is the first plan in the UK mobile market to give rewards to customers who top up as little as £5 each month. With the launch of Text Unlimited, Vodafone is simplifying its price plan and introducing Vodafone Simply, a new 20p flat rate for standard calls, reducing the cost of a peak rate call from 30p to 20p.

To mark the launch of Text Unlimited Vodafone UK will also be launching the Sony Ericsson K770i available in two exclusive colours, ‘Star Heaven Silver’ and ‘Touch of Pink’. The K770i comes with a 3.2 mp Cybershot camera and as it’s a 3G mobile it’s ideal for accessing the internet, updating social networks like Facebook and keeping up to date with emails. PAYT customers can have unlimited access to the internet and email for just £1 per day.

Text Unlimited follows other value initiatives for Vodafone customers including Vodafone Free Weekends and Vodafone Family. Free Weekends gives PAYT customers free texts at weekends when they spend £2.50 or free calls and texts at weekends when they spend £5 of their top-up during the week. Vodafone Family lets four Vodafone customers, PAYT or pay monthly, make unlimited free calls to one another when one person in the ‘Family’ pays £5. A plan for six people for £7 is also available.

The new Motorola Sidekick Slide is said to be ideal for deaf users. Jamie Trounce tried it out.

My first impression of the Motorola Sidekick Slide was that it looks like the Nokia N-Gage, or even a hand-held games console. It’s designed to be held horizontally (landscape), rather than vertically (portrait), and it slides open to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard – hence the name.

It is a really well-built handset, and feels strong and solid in the hand, and the slider itself is strong without being overly resistant.

The keyboard buttons are small but not too small, while the main buttons are quite big and easy to use. The menus are navigated by use of a rolling “trackball”, making it very accessible for most people.

Size: 3.7 x 1.9 x 0.69 inches, Weight: 3.4 ounces
Talk Time: Up to 9.5 hours GSM; up to 3.5 hours UMTS (approx.)
Standby Time: Up to 250 hours GSM, up to 250 hours UMTS (approx.)
2.0 Megapixel Camera
Media Center
aGPS Built-in
TeleNav Navigator
RSS Feeds
MyFaves-enabled
Audio Postcard
Quicksend
Mobile Backup (T-Mobile Address Book)
Bluetooth 2.0 / A2DP / Stereo streaming
Tri-Band GSM (850/1800/1900)
Dual-Band UMTS (1700/2100)
GSM/GRPS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA

Emergency workers searching for next-of-kin information for an injured person now have a globally recognised way of doing so, through a new standard from the ITU. Simply prefixing 01, 02, 03 and so on to a nominated contact, such as '01father', '02wife' or '03husband' written in any script in the mobile telephone directory will enable emergency workers in any part of the world to identify contacts in order of priority and notify them

In some English-speaking countries , 'In Case of Emergency' - or ICE - has emerged, encouraging the public to list emergency contact numbers in their mobile phone in the form of 'ICE father', for example, or 'ICE doctor'. However, helpers who do not use or recognize the Roman script may not recognize the term.Now the ITU will work with the non-profit organization ICE4SAFETY to promote the new method of identifying emergency contacts.

The new standard, which is a clause to the ITU-T Recommendation E.123, internationalizes the ICE concept and recommends the use of Arabic numerals (0 to 9) to denote emergency contact numbers in a handsets directory. It exploits the fact that even though written scripts differ around the world these digits are universally recognized, making it usable by anyone, regardless of language or script.

For more information see www.ice4safety.com

T-Mobile will be the first carrier to offer a mobile phone powered by Google’s Android software, according to people briefed on the company’s plans. The phone will be made by HTC, one of the largest makers of mobile phones in the world, and is expected to go on sale in the United States before Christmas, perhaps as early as October.

3 Pay As You Go Mobile Broadband

Product Features

· Broadband without a fixed line
· Get online at home or on the move
· Plug the dongle into your USB port in your PC or laptop, and you''ll be online in a matter of minutes
· USB self-installing dongle (for PC)
· Compatible with PCs and Macs
· 91% population coverage (and more every month)
· True download speeds of up to 2.8Mbps in HSPDA areas (3G+)
· Typical download speeds of 1Mbps to 1.5Mbps
· No contract required, simply top up when you need mobile broadband
· Top up online - access to the 3 website is zero rated

Getting online with Pay As You Go Mobile Broadband is easy. Just buy a Top-up, convert it to the Add-on of your choice, and you can surf the net almost anywhere.