Preview: Lastminute Labs ‘Nru’ Andoid App

News just in from the clever-types at Lastminute Labs (the team behind FoneFood, which we rather like) – they’ve also been trying out development on the Android platform and have released this video preview of their forthcoming application ‘Nru’ (pronounced ‘near you’).

Building on the search feature of FoneFood this application takes advantage of the magnetometer (compass to you and me) and GPS built into the G1 to locate entertainment venues, restaurants, landmarks and other stuff on a radar-like interface.  At last!  A way to find the nearest Pizza Express wherever you are without relying on Ewan’s legendary instinct.

We’re going to try it out as soon as we can.

Check it out:

G1 to be available unlocked?

Play.com are already showing the ‘HTC G1′ (that’s the T-Mobile G1 to the rest of us) available SIM-free, available from mid-November.  The details and pictures look right, with a prominent HTC logo on the side in lieu of the T-Mobile one,  but this seems a bit soon after the launch to be officially sanctioned…

At £599.99 you’re still better-off buying a T-Mobile unit and unlocking (if you’re into that kind of thing).  As we posted earlier, the cheapest tariff including service from T-Mobile offers the handset for £490.

G1 tariff update

This is by no means exhaustive – the information had to be extracted from reluctant shop staff over the phone today, but for those looking for cheaper or shorter tariffs with the G1 than the £40 per month option advertised here’s the best bits of what you need to know as promised:

Combi 25 (150 mins / 150 SMS per month) for 12 months:

£129.99 device  and £30 per month = £489.99

Combi 30 (300 mins / 200 SMS per month) for 12 months:

£100 device and £35 per month = £520

Combi 35 (500 mins / 375 SMS per month) for 12 months:

£50 device and £40 per month = £530

Flext 30 (up to 700 mins / 1400 texts or any mix ) for 18 months:

£70 device and £30 per month = £610

Flext 35 (up to 1000 mins / 2000 texts or any mix) for 18 months:

£39.99 device and £35 per month = £669.99

Flext 40 (Up to 1250 mins  / 2500 texts or any mix) for 18 months:

Free device and £40 per month = £720

Note: Combi prices include mandatory £5 per months ‘unlimited’ data bundle.  Flext prices include data bundle free under current promotion (this month).  Combi 18 month options are also available at similar price points to Flext tariffs.  Flext is not available on 12 month tariffs.

Ahhh… facts…

Buying a G1? Ask about the tariffs

If you look at T-Mobile’s website or their marketing material you’d think the G1 was only available as a free phone on a choice of two £40 per month (over 18 months) contracts.

However, it’s not… and if you ask in-store there’s a range of tariffs available including a number of 12 month ones.  For instance, I got mine on Combi 25 which (with the data add-on) is £30 per month over 12 months and £129.99 for the handset.  That’s the lowest total cost I could find (I wasn’t bothered about calling and text bundles), but there are plenty of others that may suit you better – particularly the 12 month ones!

For reference, the total cost of my option was £490, the heavily advertised 18 month tariff is £720… wonder why they’re pushing that!

We’ll try to publish the full selection of tariffs here tomorrow.

Oh… and decline that insurance they insist you need.  It can be removed despite what the sales people tell you.

Nokia isn’t releasing a touch-screen smartphone

Well, not yet…. It’s just a music phone people.

The fresh round of leaked photos of the device we’ve all been calling the ‘Tube’ which first made it’s fleeting public appearance in that Batman movie has got everyone (including the usually-calm Financial Times on Tuesday) talking about Nokia’s new ‘smartphone’.  Some of the more breathless coverage is already referring to it in the same league as T-Mobile’s Google-powered G1 and the Xperia X1, in ‘three new iPhone killer’ terms.

But look at it [photo credit: MobileCruch].

Nokia are singing to their own hymn sheet here.  Sure, it will be the first ever S60 Touch device, but it’s on a 5xxx-series music phone and that’s all it will be.  When the music and video party-tricks are done reviewers expecting ‘the next big thing’ are going to left scratching their backsides wondering what to write about next.

It’s not an N-series device – the camera will be so-so and the processor won’t be up to the toughest jobs -  and it certainly won’t have the enhanced PIM features of recent E-series devices… The most recently released E71 and E66 didn’t event make it to the expected FP2 release of S60 3rd edition in the interests of platform stability (probably wise given the ‘missing VoIP stack‘ issues with the N96 / N78).

Why aren’t Nokia going hell-for-leather and slapping this new S60 edition in a N-series ‘king of the smartphones’ unit?  Well, I think they probably will and fairly soon too, but right now either the need to focus on ‘comes with music‘ in the run up to Christmas or the desire to knock a few rough edges off this young interface (or both) means it’s going in a music phone.

It might be good, but flagship smartphone it won’t be.