Hopes that an end to O2′s exclusivity with the iPhone might lead to a drop in price have been dashed, with savings offered by Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone and Tesco amounting to little more than pocket change over the term of a contract. However, there is a way to grab a top-the-range iPhone at a much reduced cost – or even free.

O2 is currently offering a limited number of “reconditioned” iPhones to customers. In this scenario, “reconditioned” means phones returned by customers under their 14-day no quibble arrangement, and so crucially they are not repairs. They are essentially brand new, and come with the standard 12-month warranty. O2 have been offering the 8GB 3G, the 16GB 3GS and the 32GB 3GS, although stock levels fluctuate. (Yesterday, for example, they had no reconditioned 16GB models in stock.)

The reconditioned iPhones are being offered primarily to customers through retention and upgrades. Offers vary by customer (and, apparently, by O2 advisor) according to account status. For example, customers with higher monthly spends who threaten to leave O2 are likely to be offered a better deal. However, some customers on O2′s lowest-value Simplicity tariff have also been offered free iPhones.

The best deals centre around the O2 iPhone 35 tariff, which includes 600 minutes, 500 texts and unlimited internet for £35 per month. Some of the deals offered over the last few days include:

*18-month contract at £35 per month with iPhone 32GB 3GS free.
*18-month contract at discounted £29 per month with iPhone 32GB 3GS costing £179.
*24-month contract at discounted £29 per month with iPhone 32GB 3GS costing £96.

You can check reconditioned iPhone availability and order upgrades online here (select “Upgrade Online”).

The best way to secure a good deal is to call O2′s retention department, although that’s only possible if you’re approaching the end of your O2 contract.

However, it is possible to sign up to O2′s cheapest and shortest contract and get a retention or upgrade deal almost straight away. O2′s one-month Simplicity contract costs from just £10, and because it is renewed every month you can choose to leave or upgrade whenever you like. You can sign up for Simplicity here (select “Sim-only Simplicity”).

A reminder that reconditioned stock levels fluctuate, and that offers will vary. But the above offers were all offered to customers on the lowest Simplicity tariff over the last few days. So be prepared to haggle. Say you’ll leave O2 unless you get a good deal. If you have O2 broadband say you’ll cancel that too. There are great iPhone deals out there if you are prepared to dig for them.

O2 Mobile Phone and Broadband Deals
www.o2.co.uk Mobile phone, tariff, SIM only, broadband and laptop deals from O2.

Technology

This post originally appeared on Spotiguide.

Not got Spotify yet, or new to the streaming music service? Our beginner’s guide will help you get started and access Spotify’s huge catalogue of music.

What is Spotify?

Spotify is a music streaming service that provides instant access to a huge catalogue of music, allowing users to listen and share millions of tracks. It’s available on desktop computers and on many mobile devices. Developed in Sweden, Spotify launched in September 2008. The service is currently available in the UK and much of Europe, with availability in other territories, including the US, expected soon.

For a neat introduction to Spotify, watch this official video.

How can I get Spotify?

In order to use Spotify you need to sign up for a Free or Premium account and download the Spotify client software. Spotify Free is ad-supported. Spotify Premium is ad-free, allows offline and mobile usage, and provides higher sound quality.

Spotify Free is currently invite-only in the UK, meaning users must officially have an invitation in order to sign up. If you do not have an invitation, you can join the waiting list here, or alternatively keep checking Spotiguide over the next few days for a solution.

Spotify Premium costs £9.99 per month, and you do not need an invitation to sign up. Premium accounts are ad-free, allow streaming at a higher bit rate of 320kbps, and offer various previews and competitions. Crucially, if you wish to use Spotify Mobile and/or the offline mode, you will need a premium account. You can sign up for Spotify Premium here.

Spotify also offers an ad-free Day Pass, which costs 99p per day. Importantly, the day pass does not give access to any of the premium services other than making Spotify ad-free.

In addition, Spotify Premium is being bundled with some mobile phone packages. The first UK provider to offer Spotify inclusive deals is 3. The Spotify on 3 tariff includes 24 months of Spotify Premium, worth almost £240.

Once you have a Spotify account, you will need to download and install the Spotify client software. you can download the software, for Windows and Mac, here.

How do I use Spotify?

The first time you run Spotify you will need to log in with your username and password. You can tick the “Remember me” box to prevent the log in box from appearing next time.

The Spotify user interface is very well designed and easy to use. You’ll find a menu, navigation buttons and a search box at the top of the screen. Playback controls, including shuffle and repeat, are at the bottom. The sidebar on the left has links to the home page, plus your play queue and playlists, and displays now playing details and cover art.

On start up, the main window shows the home page, with what’s new and top lists tabs. What’s new shows latest releases, and top lists shows Spotify charts. You can use the drop down buttons to view the most popular artists, albums and tracks in the UK, in other territories, and specifically for you.

Playing music in Spotify is easy. Search for or select any artist, album or track and your search results or chosen selection will appear in the main window. To play any track, just highlight it and click play, or double click on the title.

Right-clicking on a title allows you to queue, add to playlists, share via Facebook or Twitter, and more. You can also purchase downloads of many tracks via Spotify’s download partner 7Digital by clicking the Buy icon next to the track you want.

To create a playlist, click the + icon under the search box, or New playlist on the sidebar. You can drag and drop tracks to the playlist, share playlists, or make them collaborative, allowing other users to add and remove tracks.

We’ll look more closely at playlists, the Spotify menu, search options, offline mode, and Spotify Mobile in future posts, offering more tips and tools to help you get more from Spotify.

Music, Technology Spotify

Voddler is a much-talked-about video on demand service that launched in beta testing mode in Sweden last year. The service allows registered users to stream movies and TV shows either on a free ad-supported basis, or premium pay-as-you-go or subscription options.

So far Voddler has attracted at least £10 million of investment, and has signed deals with Disney and Paramount. It’s been labelled as a Spotify for movies, but can it live up to the hype?

Voddler beta is currently only (officially) available by invitation in Sweden, but I’ve had the opportunity to try it here in the UK. (It’s possible to register for an invitation at www.voddler.com, and on receipt sign up using a Swedish zip code – thanks Andy.)

The initial impressions of the Voddler client are poor. Navigation is via the keyboard arrow keys, with no mouse or QWERTY use, and username and password entry is incredibly laborious. Setting up the screen resolution size is a similarly annoying process. It seems to have been optimised for wide screens – great for TVs, but not so good when viewing on most computer monitors.

Once logged in, you’re presented with a very underwhelming menu screen – essentially a load of movie poster thumbnails that can be sorted into recommended, free, premium and genre categories. Highlighting a thumbnail brings up (very) brief details, such as director, runtime, and year of release. Again, navigation is annoyingly slow. But what’s available?

The free-to-view movies include the likes of Chinatown, Crash, Chopper, Bridge To Terabithia, The Italian Job, Lucky Number Slevin, and Saws I-IV. So there’s plenty to keep you occupied, although perhaps nothing to really excite.

Premium movies, costing around 24 to 37 Swedish Krona (£2 to £3.25) each, include titles such as Angels and Demons, The Proposal, The Wrestler, Watchmen, Hanna Montana, and Saw V.

The TV show category is home to a forgettable selection of cheap documentaries of the type that play on unwatched Sky channels.

The actual viewing experience is more impressive. After a brief period of buffering, your chosen movie is preceded by a couple of (Swedish) ads, and a trailer. Movie playback is very good, certainly comparable with the BBC iPlayer, although again the clunky controls let Voddler down.

Overall, Voddler seems to have the under-the-hood technology in place, but needs to work on its user interface. One of the real joys of Spotify was how instantly and easily it worked. Voddler, in contrast, is slow and difficult to use. The movie selection isn’t great, but this will no doubt expand as it moves out of beta and into other territories.

For the time being there is enough here to make it worth installing on your laptop for long train journeys, but, unlike Spotify, Voddler is far from essential.

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Film, Technology