Shout About Mobiles

Social networking is going one step better; not only can we tell our mates what we are doing and where we’ll be doing it via IM or SMS,  we can now show them!

GPS is starting to become common place in all top end and smart devices. Sony Ericsson are bringing out phones in their 7 series (with 1-3 being budget phones, 4-7 good all rounders and 8-9 as in all singing all dancing), so the GPS feature is now starting to sliding through the ranges of phones, becoming a prevailing characteristic of day-to-day phones.

Software developers are starting to take advantage of GPS features and of course Google is first up. It allows you to track your mates and see where they are (brilliant when out lost on a night out after a few drinks); the most well known method is through vehicle tracking. Another is through a co-operation of ‘Vodafone’ and ‘Mapmates’ to bring you Pocket Life. Sadly, this is only for the Austrailan market at the moment, but it will soon spread, and the possibilites of this kind of software are endless.
Parents can track their kids (so im afraid no more bunking off school when a new game comes out), and most importantly, what im waiting for the most (which was seen to a poor extent in the nokia 6110), a way of sending a GPS location of where you are – greatfor when you’re arranging a party or after moving house. I’m not sure about you but ive kinda gotten lost once of twice when going to a friends party!

So, stay tuned and watch out, because very soon you can send your mates your GPS location, and with their Remote Asset Management device, they can come find you without getting lost!

What? I hear you ask!
Well, dual SIM devices allow you to have two SIMs in one phone.

Why? I hear you ask!
Well, it lets people use their business and personal numbers on one device – no constant swapping of the SIMs, or having to carry around two phones. One phone, two SIMs – ingeius!

Samsung are now releasing photos of the new B5702 (their 5th dual SIM handset), which will be a nice upgrade to their previous handset the Samsung D880.

Should I get one?
Well,  they may not ever become a mainstream device as not everyone needs two numbers, but for those that do, they’re a pretty nice little device.

Are they worth it?
Well,  at between £130-£190 for the D880, it’s not as expensive as the N95 (around £400) when it was first released, and thousands of people bought that!

Any other choices?
The only other major phone manufacture to produce dual SIM phones is LG although they have only released the KS660.

The phones seems to targeted mainly to the Eastern Europe and Far Eastern markets, few adverts are found over here in the west. But they do have a lot of uses when compared to ‘normal’ phones.
Their main advantages are the ability for users to be contacted on different networks (ie, your Vodafone and O2 numbers in one phone, so when coverage drops on one network, you have the other to still recieve calls/SMS on). As well as allowing a user to have both their work and personal SIM’s in the same handset to save on carry arouns seperate devices (however, they aren’t the thinnest handsets on the market).

So, it appears that these Dual SIM devices are starting appear more and more on the Western market.  Samsung are now renaming their dual SIM phones as “B” for business rather than “D” for dual SIM, so it is likely that for the ‘normal’consumers, we wont be seeing these devices for a while, and we will probably face the prospect of having to pay for them (business devices are rarely FOC on a Consumber contract and very costly when buying as a PAYT/SIM-free device).

Baring all this in mind, it’s a device worth keeping in mind…

It is not something most of us think about as most of us use Windows PC’s; so if we want to hook our phones up to the computer, all we need to do is to install the PC Suite Software CD that is supplied with the phone and plug in the USB cable from phone to PC, or use the Bluetooth software. Easy!

Our mac using comrades, however, are restricted to spending their time surfing through the vastness of the internet looking for a third party piece of software, which may or may not do the above job – it’s third party, so the manufacturers won’t help them out, the networds won’t help them out… Who will?!

Well, a few entrepreneurial developers out there saw the gap in the market and have helped us with such software as iSync and PocketMac (for Blackberry users).

Now it seems that, for what ever reason, the phone manufactures have accepted that people do use Apple Mac’s! Woohoo! And now the manufacturers are starting to release software for their devices, so that the Mac users out there can get their phone talking to their Mac.
Examples of this are:
Blackberry actually offering PocketMac software on their website (http://eu.blackberry.com/eng/services/desktop/mac.jsp);
Nokia have also jumped on the band wagon and are offering apple software (http://www.nokia.co.uk/A4630759).

The Mac users out there with Sony Ericson, Samsung or any other manufacturers devices, just need to be a little bit more patient, and they should be getting the software from their manufaturer to make their phones talk to their Mac’s.

With the launch of the Nokia 5800, Nokia have finally dipped their feet into the warming water of touch-screen phones, joining manufactures such as Apple, LG, Samsung and of course HTC (who well established in the touch-screen world).

Nokia has very cleverly introduced the 5800 as their first touch-screen phone rather than the eagerly awaited N97. This clever little move allows Nokia time to find any issues that may arise in the 5800, and fix it before releasing their flagship handset, the N97.

The release of the N97 is happening at around the same time as Nokia complete the purchase of the S60 operating system, and are then opening it up to all. This will unleash a lot of possibilities for the software, especially what with the recent influx of new popular OS’s such as Mac OSX and Android.

The questions remains: will the software will do well in touch-screen format?
The software has been quite happy without the touch interface for so long – why fix what ain’t broke?!

However, I have high hopes for it and I can see it taking some of the UIQ3 fans under it’s wing, especially now that that particular OS is no longer with us.

Looking at the adaption of the S60 software into the touchscreen format, we have to wonder if it is needed? And will the new touchscreen usage restrict the S60′s ease of use? Especially as the existing S60 software has had a lot of time to develop and evolve over five generations.

Only time will tell…

With the credit crunch firmly here and not appearing to be going anywhere anytime soon, it seems that the future of the mobile phone is changing. A mobile device that can be utilised in all sorts of ways, from keeping touch with all the family to running a business on the go, is a device that few can afford to do without. 

However, comsumers are becoming more reluctant to part with their cash. HTC sales have dropped, Nokia has also confirmed a drop in of smart-phone sales compared to the amount of non smart-phones sold, and Nokia have also noticed a drop in sales of their “business in mind” e-series phones.
Added to this downturn, is Sony Ericssons decision to ditch their smart-phone operating system (OS), UIQ3, with no word on what they expect to replace it. However, the release of the X1, which has the Windows Mobile 6.1 OS, suggests where they may be heading. Some could argue that SE are just following the trend started by the iPhone success; it’s easy to use.

So, looking to the future of what our mobiles can do for us, the manufacturers need to think about what consumers want and need the devices to do; ease of use, packed with features, and not too big a dent to the bank balance. Can the manufacturers develop the software to live up to the market demands?

The answer is all in the operating system. If they get this right, they will claim a decent chunk of the market as their own. If they don’t, they’ll lose sales in a time when no company can afford a major setback.