Vodafone 360 services and handsets announced

New LiMo-based, Samsung-made, Vodafone 360 H1 and M1 incoming

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24 September 2009 9:34 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Vodafone has announced the launch of "Vodafone 360", describing it as "a new suite of innovative internet services for the mobile and PC".

To be implemented initially on two new handsets made by Samsung, the phones will offer the LiMo operating system, a high profile launch for the platform.

Vodafone says with 360, which will replace Live! going forward, all of a customer's contacts, status updates and messaging services are brought together in one place.

"Customers will have integrated contacts, music, photos and mapping services and can share things such as music choices and location, how and when they choose, with their chosen groups of friends", says the operator.

With auto PC or Mac backup and synchronisation, 360 will offer the ability to chat through Windows Live Messenger - and Google Talk. Apps will also be available to download.

At launch the full Vodafone 360 experience will be available on two exclusive handsets said to be built to Vodafone's specification by Samsung.

The Vodafone 360 H1 by Samsung gets a 3.5-inch touchscreen, high definition OLED screen, 720p video recording, 16GB memory, Wi-Fi and a 5-megapixel camera.

Vodafone says it will be followed soon after by a second Samsung handset, the M1, "offering customers a range of colours and price points".

The HSDPA M1 is also a touchscreen device, with a "crisp", 16 million colour 3.2-inch display.

It will offer integrated GPS, push email, audio and video playback, up to ten hours talk time, 1GB memory expandable with microSD card, Bluetooth 2.0 and a 3-megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom.

In addition, four Nokia Symbian smartphones will come pre-loaded with Vodafone 360 and part or all of the service will be downloadable to over one hundred phones.