Shout About Mobiles

Before the release of the HD2, I was lucky enough to get a play on it, and I loved it! You could actually see the effect that the 1 GHz Snapdragon processor had on making Windows mobile 6.5 run like it should do. Everything on it ran smoothly, but it made me feel very annoyed because I had only recently got the Touch Diamond 2. GRR! Although my Diamond 2 looked nicer (in my eyes anyhow), the HD2 had the power that just made the OS run effortlessly, plus it had the better specs to back it up and would make the recently announced WM7 run like a dream.

So, you HD2 users where happy, smugly sat waiting for their new OS to be officially announced and made available for them to enjoy and show off.

It seems with every new announcement about Windows Mobile 7, that this would still be the case until, as it turned out, that the HD2 had too many hardware buttons to make it work! Apparently, 5 buttons is just too many, and Microsoft is aiming at 3 buttons and no more it seems.

All the rumours before the announcement were stating that WM7 phones would need to have a home key, a Windows key, a back key, plus the call and end call keys. However, this just shows how you can’t put too much faith into rumours - they are just rumours after all.

Looking at some of the Windows Mobile 7 phones that have just been announced, they do just have the home, Windows and back keys, so it shouldn’t be that hard to attach the call functions from the screen to the hardware buttons on the device.

However I’m sure that certain Windows fans out there will hack the WM7 OS to make it work on the HD2 (this is not an encouragement to you lot, just an understanding that it will probably happen). And it’s just not the same to have a hacked version as it is to have the official product.

After a spate of sleep and tiny phones a few years ago, phones then got big and bulky again as manufacturers tried to pack it with feature after feature. But it now looks like Phone Style has come full circle, as we seem to have a wave of new “mini phones” making their way onto the market.

The release of the N97 Mini pretty much killed off the N97 straight after its launch, and now Sony Ericsson are releasing Mini versions for its X10 and its X10 Pro, we can probably expect a similar effect on this range. So it seems that phones are going to start heading back down towards the Samsung Ultra range…

Don’t get me wrong, I loved my Samsung X820, the fact that I had to actually put my hand into my pocket to check the phone was still there, rather than just patting my pockets, did get annoying after a while. The trend seems to be that manufactures are making large phones, and then just when people start to buy them, its little brother comes out from the gym having burnt off lots of millimetres!

But it will be interesting to see what people find more important: that all important screen size (if you see how little space you get after the keyboard pops up on your touch screen phone, you will understand why HTC have put a 4inch screen on their HD2), or the sleek style a small phone?

Oh how the mighty have fallen!

I find it amusing that every Windows fan (I include myself in this group by the way!) will have (probably) teased an iPhone fan at some point, because of the iPhone’s lack of multitasking (this was the one feature that Windows had the upper hand with when comparing products to Apple) – but it now seems that we Window users don’t even have that to boast about.

Although Windows may have been ugly and stylus based, it worked as a business phone, as it could do everything a business phone needed to do. It could even do a lot of it at the same time, making working ‘from your phone’ much easier.

However, it now seems that, with the release of Windows 7, we have to hold our heads in shame as Microsoft is blatantly following in Apple’s footsteps by reducing the options of what the phone can actually do.

BOO!

There are rumours that Windows updates will be unleashed later down the line, once they know that the software is stable enough to cope with what is hoped for the new OS, but what good is a rumour when choosing your next phone? Contracts these days last longer than some marriages, so I want to make sure I always get a good one, that will last!

When you look at the specs of what the OS needs as a minimum to run (1 GHz processor, 512mb ram), and think that this is for NONE multitasking usage, you’ve got to be asking yourself how much processing power will it need to run two programs at the same time?

I can see a future with people with burnt ears from having to use their phones to make calls…

My current phone is the HTC Magic (a.k.a. the G2). I love it! (Despite some teething problems with my thumbs not making the “space” button work, but I got around that soon enough!) It can do everything I need, although I do miss bluetooth for transferring pictures, but hey ho.

We’ve also had the internet put to excellent use - my friend managed to mess up his internet connection at home, and he needed to find some companies that does CD Mastering for a uni project (he’s doing a music management degree, and he needed to source companies that could put his “tunes” onto CDs, and make them sound gooooood!).

Well, without his home internet, we “Googled” until we found enough companies that offered this service, and he got his project done and finished.

The G2 made things very simple – nice QWERTY keyboard, speedy connections (mainly down to the good O2 reception I had at the time!), and fast loading browser. Emailing the sites over to his email account meant he could access them all when he got into uni the next morning, and get the examples put into his project work properly.

The G2 sprang to the rescue, and saved my mate from having to waffle through excuses about why he hadn’t got it done in time.

As we approach the end of O2’s grip of the various forms of the Apple iPhone (we currently have the iPhone, iPhone 3g and the recently released iPhone 3GS), Apple has just announce that they have a good hold on the next all singing, all dancing phone - the Palm Pre.

Apple have now announced that they will be releasing it before Christmas -  so all us geeks will have a new toy to play with come Christmas morning! I have personally been waiting for this phone for ages, and will be glad when I get to try it out.

Now, the big question is; will everybody jump ship back to their preferred network now that everyone can sell the iPhone, or will it be a case of “Pre” fever hitting the UK and keeping O2’s sales up?

I know that in the USA upon release of the Pre, there were people queuing overnight to get hold of one. Reports were flooding America that Spirit and Palm knew they couldn’t keep up with the demand.

Will the same happen here in the UK or will it just be the Smartphone lovers that get caught in the headlights?
Palm has never been seen in a great light in the UK, and this maybe their day, but I have a bad feeling that I will be part of the minority, and not the majority, when I spend my Christmas wirelessly charging my Pre on its charging dock.

We all know that mobile phones have become affected by the fashion craze now, so we are seeing people with must have phones. Step up the IPhone, but what we also see every now and then is fashion only handsets, phones such as the Samsung Armani. These phones, aren’t too bad for a simple phone, they often comes with some random gimmick thrown in as well, like the fore mentioned Armani phone from Samsung, which comes with a SOS service, but is it really worth shelling out the extra pennies for a brand name on your handset? There use to be a ‘Bang and Ousten’ range of handsets that were great to use, perfect for music, but there were that expensive that it was cheaper to buy a Nokia 8000 series handset. so you have to wonder how many people are out there buying phones just for the name? True, dropping an expensive name in, while showing off your new phone, can make you woo your friends, but i feel there are phones out there which are like designer radiators, they will impress your friends, but means that you have to go out of your way to make your friends notice, rather than spend forever waiting for someone to notice.

I have to admit i am someone who who doesn’t like clutter, things need to be as simple as they should be for the job at hand. When i look round at all the accessories available for mobile phones today, it really does make me wonder, do people spend more on the phone or the extras that they have attached to it. Okay so i admit some things are useful like a strap to go around you hand, I see the logic in this - reduce the chance of it being dropped. I don’t however see the point of having a neck lanyard attached to your phone. Do people not know how heavy their phone is? having it on show! being attached to you by a piece of cotton that is designed to break, when pulled! isn’t doing much for reducing the chances of it being stolen. Other ‘brilliant’ ideas that people have for their handset are the ‘little gems’ to glue onto your phone to make it all shiny, this is as bad as having your phone plated in a fake gold/silver/metal of your choice. Yes it makes your phone sparkle and look special, but it also reduces the effectiveness of the built in antenna. With the amount of different things that people can buy for their handset I am still in wonder as to why there isn’t a person out there selling an attachment where you can turn your phone into electronic cigarettes, although i have seen a picture of a phone from china that is designed to look like a pack of Marlborough lights, so who knows, maybe i just need to look deeper.

With the release of the new Star Trek movie (coming soon!), Nokia have jumped on to their Trekkie band wagon!  Hoping to attract the attention of trekkies/geeks everywhere, Nokia have released a special version of the Nokia 5800 (named, believe it or not, Nokia 5800 Star Trek edition - original eh?!). It comes with loads of goodies preloaded on it to make even the most hardcore of Trekkies excitable.

It still comes in the same colours as the normal 5800, which area bit basic - we have the engineer’s red, scientific blue and a silver one (as far as I can remember these are the poor chaps that are nameless and normally end up in a better place…).
It includes some cool ringtones like the ‘phazer’ sound and an ‘red alert’ noise, plus it is meant to have around 8 klingon noises!! (not sure what noises that are, maybe war cries?) But you should expect an angry outcry if the klingon, isn’t correct (yes there is an language dictionary). So plenty there to annoy your non-educated friends with.

I was hoping for some kind of logo on the back, but I have not found any evidence yet to satisfy my weird fascination with this phone. The handsets are meant to be released on Friday, so start annoying your network now! (I have heard rumours that it may be only available through Phones4u.)

So boldly go where man has not been before (apart from Mexico where the film isn’t being showcased due to worries about the swine flu), and get your hands on the Nokia 5800 Star Trek edition.

At least with this little gimik, Nokia’s major profit drop (90 percent in Q1) may seem some increase, but is does seem that Nokia are relying on the 5800 for all there revenue now - and this should help it along brilliantly.

Now that the SDK for Android 1.5 is out, a few people have taken that and used it to get Android 1.5 loaded onto their G1’s - yay for them because this brilliant piece of software gives users the cupcake application onto your phone, meaning you don’t have to get your QWERTY out (although I like the way it opens, most people don’t).

Apparently Google has seen this happening, and isn’t too happy. Google have now blocked the devices that are running around with the newer version from accessing the app store.

I would say this was due to the app store not being combatable but my mate has the G2 (or the Magic as called by Vodafone) and he is having no issues at all with using the app store (and yes he is a lucky lucky person!).

To be fair though Google should of known people would be eager for this software, because everyone I know with the G1 is downloading everything that says “cupcake” in it, only to be let down by yet another fake application.

So, if any of you have upgraded and are hoping to buy anything off the app store then, you have a choice (as far as I can see) - either wait till the start of may when the G2 is being unleashed by Vodafone and get that, or downgrade the software for the time being.

Mobile phones are not cheap. Buying one (outside of a contract) can cost anywhere from £20 for a basic Nokia up to £400 for a Blackberry Storm (there are more expensive phones out there, but I do not want to talk about them!).

Why do we pay so much for them?

How do we get them cheaper?

The most common option is the internet, shop around, find the best deal, get your phone, go home happy. Then realise you missed checking a shop or site somewhere, and later get told by a smug friend that you could have saved more money.

ARGH!!

Well, my next bright idea is discount vouchers. I’ve often seen coupons and what not in papers and magazines for money off stuff , and I always cut the vouchers out, but never got to use them (with my luck, they were never for anything I bought!). I offered them to people and one or two friends and family members took a couple off my hands, but not them all.

Wondering what to do with them, I had a look online. Not only did I find a site that would take them off my hands, I also discovered I can get vouchers and codes (free of charge!) to use to buy electrical items and all sorts of other useful stuff (not just 10p off a washing powder I would never use!).

Beating the credit crunch has never been easier!