Vodafone users in the UK can today download five bestselling eBooks for free to their handsets as part of a series of Free Friday campaigns being run by the operator.

In a partnership with digital ebook provider Mobcast, the books, which include titles such as the classic "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll, award winning Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo", Alex Preston's "This Bleeding City" and James Patterson's "The Murder of King Tut" are being made available in partnership with digital ebook providers Mobcast.

Customers who download the ebooks through Vodafones dedicated mini site also have a chance of winning a provate film screening of the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Videos showing customers how to download the ebooks are also on the website.

Tags: Offers, Ebooks

Traditionally, the SIM-only approach has been used for prepaid plans of various sorts, which do not involve an handset subsidy or contract. In other cases a ìprepaid hybridî approach has been used, which combines the pay in advance scheme with unlimited, rather than metered usage.

The latest wrinkles are SIM only contracts for the traditional postpaid market. The most popular seem to be the 30-day postpaid plan with no handset subsidies, or the contract plan that typically does subsidise a handset.

Traditional prepaid and postpaid tariffs alone are not sufficient for operators to cater for all the needs of the mass market. There are now six different manifestations of mobile subscriptions: pay as you go; prepaid hybrid; prepaid bundles; postpaid SIM only over 30 days; postpaid SIM-only over 12/18/24 months and postpaid bundles.

Postpaid SIM-only tariffs make most sense in mobile markets that are saturated, primarily using postpaid plans, where handset subsidies are feasible and where high competition exists. SIM-only plans combine the advantages of predictable revenues with lower subscriber acquisition costs, as well as the ability to retain price-sensitive postpaid customers.

SIM-only plans will hurt handset sales, however, and that will lead handset providers to incorporate more value in their handsets, and offer more services on their own. That wont help mobile service providers ìmprove up the value chain.

So far this approach has not been common in Europe in large part because use of ìunlocked phonesî has not been encouraged by mobile service providers, who have relied largely on the subsidized handset model. SIM only assumes easy and affordable access to unlocked phones.

Tags: SIM only contracts, Vodafone

The 3 most popular phones on this website are currently (at the time of writing this review) the LG Cookie, Samsung Tocco Lite and the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. What makes these phones so popular? They are all affordable touchscreen phones. Judging by these facts, the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic looks set to be a stonking success!

The 5530 can be regarded as a stripped-down version of the 5800. The 5530 is more compact, with a smaller screen, no 3G, no Carl Zeiss optics in the camera, and costs about £50 less than the 5800. Alternatively, you can look at the 5530 as a souped-up Cookie / Tocco Lite. The 5530 has a higher resolution screen, a flash on the camera, WiFi, a 3.5mm audio jack, and costs about £70 more than the Cookie or the Tocco Lite on Pay as you Go. You can see that the 5530 is positioned right in the middle ground, both in terms of features and price.

So much for comparisons with other phones, let's take a good look at the 5530 in its own right. The first thing to say is that Nokia's implementation of a touchscreen interface is very good. You can use the 5530 either with your fingers, or with the stylus provided. Either way, it's responsive and easy to use. The display is a good size, at 2.9 inches, and has a phenomenally high resolution of 640 x 320 pixels and 16 million colours, making it easily the best screen in its class.

And when you're talking touchscreen, the quality of the screen really matters! The home screen is customisable, giving one-touch access to Facebook, emails, music, etc. The new Contacts Bar is also quite fun, letting you put your 20 best friends & family on the home screen. We also need to mention that the screen auto rotates when you turn the phone on its side.

In portrait mode you can enter numbers and text using a virtual alphanumeric keypad with predictive text or regular text input. In landscape mode, a full QWERTY keypad becomes available, which is ideal for people like us who like to use punctuation in their text messages! Watch the demo video below for more.

Tags: Nokia

If you are considering getting a brand new phone contract, you will be faced with two major options, pay as you go phone contract or you could choose from alternative mobile phone contracts. One of the major reasons why most people choose a mobile phone contract is the privilege of owning a hi-tech free phone, which would not be available to you, if you choose a pay as you go offer. But, should you really allow a free phone to lock you into a binding contract?

A contract can be a good idea, so long as you invest quality time choosing a suitable contract. However, some people will be better off choosing a pay as you mobile phone.

Contract Mobile Phones
A mobile contract phone can be described as a system where you have signed to an agreement with a mobile service provider and concur to remain with the firm for a particular period of time, as stipulated on the contract, as well as making a minimum payment. This system can be beneficial to you as you will be able to maintain your mobile number for an extended period of time, as well as, it will allow you to transfer to a different handset easily and timely.

You may not want to choose a contract phone, because when you want to change your number it may prove to be difficult and you will be forced to wait until the end of the contract in order to change your number. However, with a contract phone you will better able to keep a record of all your spending, as you will receive prior notice as to what your outstanding bill payment will be. But, do remember that you will be charged extra if you exceed your allocated free minutes.

Once you are eighteen and over a contract mobile phone will be available to you. Also, you will be subjected to credit checks.

Unless the phone contract gives you the privilege to terminate a contract upon dissatisfaction of any sort, you will be bound by the stipulations of the phone contract. Additionally, you will have to stay in the contract despite of any problems.

Pay As You Go Mobile Phones
If you would love to change your number easily and quickly, then these phones are a good option for you. However, you will be liable to pay only when you use the service, so if you are without money, you will be unable to use your phone. You will not be bound in any contractual agreement and you will be able to change your mobile number at your convenience. Students who may want to avoid the strain of monthly payments will consider these phones to be highly suitable.

There are no age restrictions for credit checks, because anybody can purchase a pay as you go phone and pay the upfront fee.

So, which option is better? This is not a right or wrong question, as you may want to experience a pay as you go phone on a specific network, but then choose a contract phone, after you have discovered that you like their service.

If you search the internet, you will find inexpensive pay as you go phones and cheap phone contract offers. You will also get the chance to keep tabs on the best phone contract offers and the least expensive pay as you do deals. Remember that to get the best deals; you will have to carefully check all the details of each deal.

In just a few weeks time, Vodafone users will soon be able to get their hands on the Sony Ericsson multimedia-focused Vivaz.

Users can now pre-order the handset - whose older brother the Vivaz Pro was announced just last week at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.

Vodafone is offering the handset for free on 18-month contracts with 600 and 900 minutes for £35 and £40 a month respectively.

The Vivaz was first announced as part of Sony's new communications entertainment family - which includes the X10 - last month. It features an 8.1 megapixel camera, autofocus and video recording capabilities among other multimedia features.

“User-generated content, especially video, is exploding on the web,” Lennard Hoornik, head of marketing at Sony Ericsson, said in a statement at the time.

“With Sony Ericsson Vivaz, we have created a mobile phone that makes it easy to catch life in high quality video and upload that self expression onto the web to share with the world. Sony Ericsson Vivaz offers beauty inside and out with an open and intuitive user experience allowing consumers to capture, view and share their lives and spontaneity in HD quality.”

Tags: Sony Ericsson