By Rogers has officially launched its Social View line of Android phones, pooling the social-networking powers of several handsets that use consolidated info streams from the likes of Twitter and Facebook. The phones being promoted are the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, the oft-forgotten LG Eve, HTC Magic+, the Motorola Quench (better known as the CLIQ XT), and the upcoming Acer Liquid e.
The service isn’t its own set of applications, however. It instead is a larger branding that encompasses phones that already contain their own software such as Xperia’s Timespace, MOTOBLUR, and HTC Sense. Rogers is also offering data plans with “Unlimited Social Networking” along with the Social View promotion.
That’s not a bad selection of phones if you are looking for a solid Android handset with some real social networking power. Does grouping all of these phones together into one category help? It might make describing the features a little confusing. I can imagine it now: “I thought this phone had Social View but all I see is MOTOBLUR!”
[via Rogers RedBoard]
That’s a good line up but they could have gotten a Desire or a Legend or something similar.
You will see in the comments on RedBoard that their Social plan will allow you to use these social sites/widgets without being charged for the data (they call it being “0-rated”).
In order to do this, though, they will technically need to keep of record of which of these services you access and when to make sure you don’t get charged for it, as opposed to just general data usage. I wonder aloud if that might potentially be a privacy concern.
Also, importantly, it needs to be pointed out that they don’t allow for those on the Social plan to use _third-party_ social media apps without being charged for data-usage. That means you either have to use the manufacturers built-in widgets, or the mobile web sites.