And in slightly less unhappy Nexus One news, it’s now available for pre-order on Vodafone in the U.K. — free if you shell out for a monthly plan that costs at least £35. We’re also being told that unlike in the U.S., you’re actually going to be able to buy it in stores. Will that signal a change for procedure in the U.S.? Let’s hope so. [Vodafone] Thanks, Dave!
Last week Vodafone Spain announced it had determined the microSD card to be the cause of some crazy activity on their HTC Magic. When this had first surfaced, Vodafone Spain said that it was an isolated incident and only affected the one device in the UK. (And we might have even scoffed a bit at Panda Security possibly crying wolf.)
But over a rather short period of time we have seen that number jump from 1 card to 3,000 cards now. While they have admitted that they are replacing these due to infection, and not just as a precaution, other details around this have been kept rather secret. Is it really just 3,000 cards, or will we be posting an update next week that it has grown to over 10,000? [Engadet via Movil Zona]
HTC has made available the user guide for the Legend, which now appears to be exclusive on Vodafone for the time being. And for your guys and gals in the U.S., this user guide may be as close as you get to the phone for a little while, so read slowly. It’ll last longer. [HTC]
Vodafone, like AT&T, has decided to join the Android Market a little bit late, but we have reports that they have their first Android device getting ready for release. The Vodafone 845 is rumored to be ready for a May launch, but don’t get your hopes up too high if you are looking for a high end Android device. The Vodafone 845 will run the Vodafone 360 services on a 2.8inch QVGA touchscreen, along with a 3.2 megapixel camera. This device will also have the basics, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS, with 512mb of internal memory. While the specs of the device are on the lower side, they have compensated for this with the pricing of the device, which is believed to be €150. One of the highlights of this device, is that it will be showcased with Android 2.1 on it, while many other higher end devices still await their turn at an official release. [via All About Phones]
Good news for those of you in the UK who are waiting for the HTC Desire and HTC Legend to be released on Vodafone: It’s now "Coming soon," as in April. We know that, ’cause, well, the site says so. Stay tuned for exact release date and pricing. But go ahead and admit it: You’d give up your firstborn for this thing, wouldn’t you … [Vodafone] Thanks, Dave!
Stories have been going around that a botnet was being spread by the HTC Magic on Vodafone. Specifically, it was Panda Security that sounded the alarm after they plugged in said Android phone and had all kinds of alarms go off. However, it turns out it was an infected memory card that was the culprit, and not a bad batch of phones, as original post author Pedro Bustamante later points out in the comments.
It’s the memory card for sure, not the actual Android filesystem. It could be a malicious employee, a bad batch, provided by the manufacturer, lack of QA or a returned and refurbished unit. But as you said, either way Vodafone needs to better QA these before shipping out to customers.
Pedro’s right, there should be better Q&A to keep this from happening. But there also should be a little more discretion used before we see headlines such as "Vodafone distributes Mariposa botnet." (And the post itself hasn’t been updated?) An infected memory card is bad, but one bad apple does not an outbreak make. The sky’s not falling, folks.
Not satisified with Google’s "coming soon" label, Vodafone UK has said it will start selling the Nexus One "in a few short weeks."
"No detail on pricing and precise timing has yet been made, but that will come in a few weeks."
Coming up after that is France, Germany and Spain. The N1 also will be sold directly through Google, as it is in the U.S., as well. [via Yahoo]