o2

U.K. carrier O2 is making a push for smartphone companies to stop bundling chargers in the box.

Earlier this week, O2 released a study that found that 82 percent of customers who bought the HTC One X+ over the last three months walked out of the store without buying a charger, despite the fact that a charger didn't come in the box. The company's test has led it to continue its mission of phasing out chargers in mobile phones it sells by 2015 and to urge its competitors to do the same.

"The results of the … Read more

LAS VEGAS--The iSpO2 by Masimo ports the hospital checkup experience to iPhones and iPads and makes on-the-spot pulse readings available to active types wherever they are.

iSpO2 is a consumer pulse oximeter that connects to most Apple i-devices and comes with a sensor that you slip on to your ring finger for immediate oxygen, pulse rate, and perfusion index readings.

While not intended for home use, the idea behind iSpO2 is to help fitness fanatics, aviators, skiers, and extreme sports enthusiasts find out crucial information on their vitals without the need for a physician. Max Safai, senior vice president of … Read more

EU regulators are looking into competition concerns surrounding a joint venture in mobile payments by Everything Everywhere, Vodafone and O2.

The UK's biggest cellular operators said in June that they were creating a clearing house for mobile payments, which would act as an intermediary between advertisers, banks and retailers. However, Three complained to the European Commission that it had been shut out of the deal.

Although the commission did not cite Three's complaint, it did say in its announcement of the investigation late on Friday that there are "potential competition concerns in the nascent markets of mobile … Read more

British wireless carrier O2 has fixed the issue that causes customers' mobile numbers to be shared with Web sites they visit from their phones.

In a post on its own site, the network admitted that between January 10 and 2 p.m. today, customers' phone numbers could have been accessed by sites that don't belong to the network's roster of "trusted partners."

The problem was sparked by technical changes during routine maintenance that "had the unintended effect" of letting website owners see the digits of people accessing their site.

Read more of "O2 fixes phone number leak, explains muck-up&… Read more

As O2 customers are getting riled up over news that the U.K. network has been sharing your mobile number with Web sites you visit from your phone, a security expert reckons networks leaking your information is nothing new.

Sophos' Graham Cluley cites a paper presented in 2010 by Berlin student Collin Mulliner entitled "Privacy Leaks in Mobile Phone Internet Access."

Mulliner set up a test page you can visit to see what -- if any -- information your phone is betraying. We tried the page using one of the O2 SIMs we tested earlier today, and our … Read more

Three of the top wireless providers in the U.K. are joining forces to speed up the deployment of mobile payments that will allow shoppers to pay for things with their cell phones, according to Reuters.

Thursday the news service reported that Everything Everywhere, the joint venture between Orange and T-Mobile, Vodafone and Telefonica's O2 have agreed to create a mobile commerce system that would bring together retailers, banks and advertisers.

For years, there's been talk that consumers would be able to use their phones to buy things using a technology called Near Field Communications, which allows very … Read more

Today is the first time customers in the U.K. can walk into a store and buy Research In Motion's new tablet, the PlayBook. Turns out, not every wireless carrier in the country is enthusiastic about offering it to customers.

U.K. carrier O2 made waves today when it sent e-mails to customers who had previously inquired about the PlayBook saying it "would not be selling" RIM's tablet. The reason, O2 said, is "unfortunately there are some issues with the end to end customer experience," according to an e-mail seen by Engadget.

An O2 … Read more

Tiered pricing for wireless plans could mean mobile apps are going to get squeezed down to size by their developers.

As unlimited mobile data plans become a thing of the past for many wireless smartphone subscribers, developers will have to think more carefully about how efficiently their apps use network resources. For the past couple of years app developers haven't had to worry too much about whether their applications consumed a lot of data resources on wireless networks. Cell phone carriers, such as AT&T and others around the world like O2 in the U.K., offered smartphone … Read more

AT&T isn't the only wireless operator that is doing away with unlimited data plans for smartphones. Telefonica's O2 in the United Kingdom is also dumping its unlimited data offering, the company announced Thursday.

O2, the second-biggest mobile operator in the U.K., said in a press release that the change in pricing will give customers "a more transparent pricing model tied to usage."

Here's what has changed: Customers on plans costing 25 pounds, 30 pounds or 35 pounds a month will get 500 megabytes of data downloads. Plans costing 40 pounds or 45 … Read more