Orange has launched Orange Film Pulse, a new service that aims to collate information about films from across the internet into one, easily accessible place.

The Film Pulse tool will help fans of the movies see what films are generating the most interest, and easily find reviews of cinema goers.

The Film Pulse project is being launched as part of Orange's sponsorship of the Orange British Academy Film Awards. Film Pulse will analyse Tweets, posts made to Facebook as well as reviews posted on popular film websites and blogs, and based on the tone of the content will then indicate a positive or negative score from 100.

The film ratings are divided into four categories from the the 'love' being shown to each film, with the more 'love' generating a higher pulse. Currently Orange Film Pulse has over 35 films on site, including The Artist, My Week With Marilyn, War Horse and Hugo.

Additionally there is a search feature for nominated BAFTA-nominated films from the past and present, highlighting those that can be used with the the Orange Wednesday and Orange Film-To-Go services.

“The internet offers an incredible wealth of sources and opinion on film, but that also means the experience of searching for a definitive answer or opinion can be confusing and time consuming,” said Spencer McHugh, Brand Director at Orange UK. “With Orange Film Pulse, we are offering a simpl and easy way to see what the overall opinion from the web is, and encouraging film lovers to get involved and share their love for film, all of which contributes to that film's overall score.”

To see the Orange Film Pulse service, head to bafta.orange.co.uk

Orange has announced the Tahiti, an Orange-branded Android Tablet device, designed to compliment the existing range of Orange Android smartphones.

The device, made for Orange by Huawei, includes a 5.0 Megapixel camera, as well as 3G and WiFi connectivity, The Tahiti will retail for £69.99, with a £25 a month line rental, which offers a monthly 1 GB anytime data allowance, with a further 1 GB for Off-Peak usage, between Midnight and 4 am.

The device will be powered by a 1.2 GHz processor, and has a 7 inch multi touch LCD display. The Tablet runs on the Android 3.2 Honeycomb operating system, and weighs in at 390g, and is just 10.5mm thick. The Tahiti also supports Bluetooth and AGPS. Onboard memory storage is a generous 8 GB, with support for memory expansion via Micro SD memory cards, and the device will support Adobe Flash.

There is a wide range of content available for the Tahiti Tablet from the Android Market, as well as bespoke Orange apps such as Orange Wednesday, which lets you access two-for-the-price-of-one cinema tickets.

Paul Jevons, Director of Products and Devices at Everything Everywhere, the parent company of Orange, said: “We are pleased to be expanding our portfolio of our own-branded devices into Tablets for the first time. The Tahiti is a stylish, lightweight device with a great quality screen, which we believe really does offer great value innovation and will help customers to get the most out of their multimedia content whilst on the go.”

Via

New Year's Eve is one of the busiest nights of the year for mobile networks, and this year will be no exception, as millions of people call and text family and friends to ring in the New Year.

Orange in particular are set for a record breaking New Year's Eve, predicting that a staggering 78 million calls to family and friends will be made on that night alone.

Data usage is also set to reach new limits, with numbers up by 25% as users take to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, updating statuses, tweeting and uploading pictures to share. Orange expect the number of text messages to be sent will number around the 170 million mark, whilst around 1.8 million Picture messages will be sent.

A spokesman for Orange said: “This New Year is set to be another record breaker for Orange customers, as they use their mobiles to welcome in the New Year. This year we expect customers to celebrate with an increase in texts, pictures, calls and even data usage, while they send emails or tweets about their festivities.”

If you are planning to contact family and friends on New Year's Eve, the best advice is to send your text and make your calls in advance of midnight, to try and avoid the rush.

Via

Orange have felt the fury of their customers, after releasing details of planned price rises, that are due to come into force from the 8th January next year.

Blaming '20 year high inflation' as the cause of the price hike, Orange customers will see price increases of 4.34%. The news has led to angry Orange users venting their anger at the price hike via social networks.

The Orange Helpers Twitter feed has had a large number of complaints about the price increase, with many claiming the increase is a violation of contract Terms and Conditions. However, Orange are standing firm, claiming that inflation-linked price rises are allowed.

The price rise will affect Orange customers who have signed on to a pay monthly contract before mid-September, as all contracts started after that point already have the higher prices factored in to their tariff.

In a statement, an Spokesperson for Orange said: “Unfortunately, we have had to re-evaluate prices for the first time and are sorry to say there will be a 4.34% increase in monthly plan prices from 8th January 2012. Out of plan charges, such as calls, text and data outside any monthly bundle will not be changing.”

An example of a change will see users who currently pay £30 per month for their line rental, see an increase to £31.28.

The price rise of 4.34% is lower than the current Retail Price Index ox 5.4%, and under the terms and conditions of consumer contracts, Orange can increase charges by up to the RPI in a 12-month period.

Orange has confirmed the release of the Orange San Francisco II, the follow up device to the surprise hit budget San Francisco phone.

In terms of looks the successor device does not differ hugely from the original, instead most of the updates are internal.

The phone will launch running on Android 2.3, and is powered by an 800 MHz processor. The device has an internal memory capacity of 512 MB, which can be expanded with Micro SD memory cards.

The main display is a 3.5 inch WVGA display, and the phone measures in at 117 x 58.5 x 10.6mm, weighing in at 120g.

The San Francisco II supports the HD Voice enhancement that Orange offer to users with compatible devices for superior voice quality, and has a signal booster for enhanced indoor signal quality.

The phone comes with all the usual features you would expect from an Android phone, with support for WiFi, high speed data, GPS and Bluetooth. Onboard is a full media player with support for multiple audio and video formats, and the phone also offers a 5.0 Megapixel camera with video recording facility.

Being an Orange branded phone, the device will also come with a range of Orange software, including Orange Maps, Your Orange account app, Contact Back up application, Mobile Mail and an Orange App Store application.

Paul Jevons, Director of Products and Devices at Orange UK, said: “The Orange San Francisco II is a fitting successor to the award-winning first model, and offers the latest developments in data, voice and design. We are delighted to be following up on the success of the award winning original with such a full-featured product we expect it to be really popular with consumers in the run up to Christmas.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Virgin has announced that customers of the Virgin Mobile network can now gain access to the Orange network, when in areas of poor coverage.

The deal comes as part of the combining of T-Mobile and Orange into Everything Everywhere. Virgin Mobile operates as a virtual network, using T-Mobile coverage.

Initially the Orange network is available for calls, text messages and 3G data, using GPRS, with 3G connectivity set to come online sometime next year.

The additional coverage is available to all Virgin customers, whether on contract or Pay As You Go, and is available at no additional charge. The name on the display of some handsets may change to Orange when 'roaming', but for most customers it will remain as Virgin.

Executive Director of Home Phone and Mobile at Virgin Media, Graeme Oxby, said: “Virgin Media customers already enjoy the UK's fastest broadband and most advanced TV services, now thy will benefit from enhanced mobile coverage too. With our combination of fixed and mobile serices, we are uniquely positioned to cater for a new era of 'always on' connectivity.”

The service will be rolled out to all Virgin customers during October, with customers receiving a text message when they have been set up. For customers who want to access the service straight away, simply text YES from your Virgin Mobile handset to 789777, or register online by visiting www.virginmedia.com/coverage

Mobile network operator Three leads the way with customer complaints within the UK, topping a recent survey by network regulator OfCom.

Following Three come T-Mobile and Orange, although T-Mobile's level of complaints have improved significantly from Q1 to Q2 2011, whereas Three have been getting progressively worse from Q4 2010. The largest proportion of complaints received about Three related to disputed charges, and customer service issues.

Vodafone came next in the list, only just beaten by Virgin Mobile, who have a large enough percentage of the mobile market to be considered for the survey.

Leading the pack was O2, who have consistently had the lowest number of complaints registered from its customers from Q4 2010 to Q2 2011.

A Three spokesman said: “We are not happy with the figures but we know what is behind them and we are working hard to make improvements.”

The figures are calculated with the number of complaints in proportion to the customer base of each network provider, enabling a fair assessment to be made across all networks.

Orange and Barclaycard have announced that the next handset in the Quick Tap range, the Samsung Wave 578.

The contactless payment service was launched earlier in the year, and the Samsung Wave 578 joins the Samsung Tocco in the Quick Tap range of devices.

The Wave 578 runs on bada, Samsung's proprietary smartphone operating system, and has a 3.2 inch WQVGA TFT touchscreen display, and as well as NFC support the handset includes WiFi, HSDPA, aGPS and Bluetooth. A Micro SD memory card slot allows ample storage space for images, video and music. The device also offers a 3.2 Megapixel camera, as well as SNS software that offers tight integration with online social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

The Samsung Wave 578 will launch in the next few weeks, and will be offered on both contract and pay as you go options, bringing contactless payments to a wider audience. With the Quick Tap enabled Wave 578, it is simple and easy to make secure payments via NFC enabled terminals. These terminals are appearing in more and more retail locations across the country, including Wilkinson, McDonalds, Subway, Little Chef, Pret a Manger and Wembley Arena. Payments are restricted to £15 or less and a maximum of £100 can be loaded onto the phone account at any one time. To aid the launch of the Samsung Wave 578 Quick Tap, Orange customers will be given a £10 credit to their account upon activation, and receive 10% cash back on all purchases made from the phone within the first 90 days.

Simeon Bird, Director of Propositions at Orange, said: “We are pleased to be offering the Samsung Wave 578 which is the next in a range of Quick Tap enabled mobiles we have planned for the UK. Only on Orange will customers benefit from the greater convenience and control over their high street purchases which Quick Tap provides them with.”

To register your details for news of offers available on the Wave 578 when it launches, head on over to our Samsung Wave 578 deals page.

Everything Everywhere has announced a partnership with Red Bee Media, which will develop the mobile TV platform for Orange and T-Mobile in the UK.

The joint venture will use Red Bee Media's RedPlayer, which will stream video content from multiple channels, including ITV1, ITV2, ITN, SKY News, CNN, National Geographic and SKY Sports 1.

The new service will also allow tablet users to access and view the TV service, and will optimise content for individual mobile handsets. It is possible the service will also cater for 3D, when the service launches for mobile devices.

Director of Products for Everything Everywhere, Paul Jevons, said: “We are evolving our mobile TV service to ensure we offer our customers a best in class viewing experience. The new delivery platform is just the start, and we have several significant developments planned for our service over the next 12 months that will really transform the way consumers view mobile TV. We will also be looking at new technologies as they become available, including the ability to stream 3D content to handsets with 3D Capable screens – so our customers will only continue to receive the best services we are able to offer them.”

“This is an important new business win for Red Bee Media that demonstrates our ability to deliver an industry-leading multi-platform offering using our RedPlayer solution set for a leading content rights holder,” said Red Bee Media CEO Bill Patrizio. “We are excited to be at the forefront of this evolution and are proud to work with Everything Everywhere, our first RedPlayer customer, as the enabler to their next generation mobile TV service.”

Orange is set to agree a deal with French music streaming service Deezer, that will see the service offer music streaming services to Orange customers in the UK.

The deal will allow Orange to offer the music service for free to customers on certain suitable tariffs.

The report, from The Independent, suggests that Deezer had already announced its intentions to enter into the UK market, and attempt to go head to head with Spotify.

Deezer currently has around 20 million users worldwide, and already operates with Orange in France. The standard package that Deezer will offer to UK customers will cost £4.99 a month to access the service via a PC, or £9.99 a month to access via a mobile and to access the offline service.

Orange currently offer a range of entertainment deals to its customers, including the popular Orange Wednesdays and the recent Orange Film To Go service which gives users the chance to download a free film every Thursday from the Apple Store. The music packages have not been quite so popular with customers, so Orange are hoping the deal with Deezer will give them a decent offering which will entice customers to their network.