Showing posts with label market. Show all posts
Showing posts with label market. Show all posts

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Netatmo's smart thermostat joins the crowded UK market

blogger-avatarbyJamie Rigg|@jmerigg| 1 hour ago

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Over the short space of a year, Brits have gone from fiddling with mechanical boiler dials to having a glut of smart thermostat options to choose from. Today we can add yet another to that list with the launch of the Netatmo Thermostat in the UK (and a couple other European markets). Better known for its connected weather station, Netatmo's Philippe Starck-designed thermostat boasts many features common to fancy, smart heating systems. You can control temperature using Android, iOS, Windows Phone and web apps, for example, as well as set up heating schedules with military precision.

Through the apps, you can also track energy consumption, and from sometime in autumn users will start receiving monthly reports including tips on being more efficient. Another feature uses the outside temperature and information on how quickly your home heats up to make sure as little energy as possible is expended reaching a scheduled temperature. The smart thermostat is now available on Amazon for £149 (or it will be shortly when the listing is updated with the correct price), making it marginally cheaper than its closest price competitor Nest. Now all Netatmo needs is an energy supplier or retail partner to put it on a level playing field with its more established rivals.

Source: Netatmo, Amazon

Origin:Engadget UK

Tags: netatmo, netatmothermostat, SmartThermostat, thermostat  Hide Comments 0Comments

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Sunday, May 11, 2014

With Free, France shows the US what an open mobile market should be

If you hadn't noticed, T-Mobile has been on a rampage lately in the US. It has offered cheaper contract-free plans, paid users cold hard cash to switch, and generally crashed other carriers' parties. The result has been a wave of new customers for T-Mobile and cheaper, me-too plans from AT&T and Verizon -- all a boon to US consumers. But over in France, an alternate-reality version of this scenario has been playing out. Until recently, old guard carriers like Orange and SFR have trundled along, milking customers while stifling innovation. Then, trampling over them on a white horse, came a Bizarro T-Mobile carrier called Free Mobile. It's been a far greater competitive threat than T-Mo in the US and, thanks to its radical plans, France has become a wireless utopia with some of the cheapest rates in the world.

Let's backtrack a bit to the bad old days of mobile in France, circa late 2011. The market was lorded over by Orange (the largest carrier with a 41 percent share), SFR and Bouygues Telecom. At that time, it was hard to find a plan under 40 euros (about $55) with 1GB of data or more. As shown here, when the iPhone 4S came out, a SIM-only contract could be had on SFR for 37 euros ($50) with 1GB of data, or 39 euros on Orange ($53). Calls weren't unlimited on any of those plans, and tethering was strictly a non-non. 4G was nowhere in sight.



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Monday, April 14, 2014

The UK's stolen phone market is as healthy as ever

It may be easy to report and track stolen smartphones in the UK, but that's not preventing some of the country's shops from selling these ill-gotten handsets. A BBC undercover operation has revealed that at least eight stores in London are willing to buy stolen phones, even when the hardware is obviously locked down. One of the locations was only willing to make an exchange outdoors, but none of them were seriously concerned about a run-in with the law.

It's not hard to understand why retailers would be so brazen. As forensics experts will tell you, it's easy to stop tracking if you can restore a phone's software. You can also change a device's unique IMEI number to get around attempted service blocks. It's uncertain what will happen to the stores caught by the BBC op, but they're likely just the tip of the iceberg -- until kill switches and other more serious anti-theft measures come into play, you'll want to be careful about using your phone on the street. 0 Comments Share

Source: BBC

Origin: Engadget UK

Tags: blackmarket, imei, smartphone, stolen, theft, uk Next: T-Mobile is killing overages on all plans starting this June .fyre .fyre-comment-divider

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