Shout About Mobiles

I’ll confess it now – I love having the internet on my C902! Do I use it for anything important? Well, yes! Social media is very much in the “now”, and I try to keep up to date.

However, I do have a lessening addiction with Facebook; all the hoops it makes us jump through to use the “just for fun” applications… why do 15 of my friends have to be pestered or tagged into something before I can find out “what my colour is”? Grr!!

But when my Techno-phobic sister started asking about social media sites to keep in touch with the family, I knew it was getting pretty big! I recommended Facebook, and got her using it on her phone, the N95.

One cool thing about Facebook is that it got my sister into online tarot cards. She has always gone to see Spiritualists and Mediums, seeing numerous Advisors to see what different things they say. She tended to visit the ones that offer the free readings as an introductory offer, and only went back if they got things right. But from Facebook, she decided to look around for what the internet could offer, so after a bit of a Google search, she found an amazing amount of sites that can do readings and stuff over the phone! She’s pleased she can now pester people from all over the UK – but still get a free psychic reading!

What will your mobile can lead you to next?!

The iPhone: you either have one, or know someone with one, because these phones are everywhere!

Despite teir popularity, they do have their problems, and as soon as someone tries to dazzle wme with their new iPhone, I immediately start thinking of all of their classic faults: no copy and paste, no mms…

Well now all you iPhone owners can argue back!

The new software update, Apple 3.0, is all going to change the way teh iPhone runs. The new version of software comes with loads of improvements, which will allow it to do what so many other phones have been doing for years now. (The iPhone still misses out on the video recording, but not many people use that on their phones, so not much of a loss.)

BUT, if you have shelled out your hundreds of pennies for the 3G version, you’ll be sad to know that you still wont be able to send MMS or use A2DP Bluetooth on it (so you will still be wiring it to headphones for now).

Some of the extras that have been slipped into the upgraded software are things that you don’t really think about when buying a phone, but can be useful once you’ve got it. Features such as being able to shake the phone to make your media player go into shuffle mode, the ability to create itune store accounts so you can do everything off your phone without needing to touch a computer. Also (for all you worried parents),
there is an increased amount of parental controls available, so if your young ones are playing with your phone you dont have to worry about them doing naughty things with it.

I know its a laptop, but it does come with a built in modem, so technically it has phone-like parts. So I’m going to blog about it! )

So, you may have heard the hype going round about Dell’s new Adamo range of laptops. These laptops are meant to be the up most example of style and good looks – that explains the price as the specs sure don’t add up!

The Dell Adamo, billed as the ‘world’s thinest laptop’, comes in with a 1.2ghz core 2 duo processor, 2GB
RAM running Windows Vista.

Erm…. so what power does it have left to do anything?

Yes it could be great for the Windows users out there to have a thin laptop, but at what cost? It will barely be able to do anything! All this laptop has going for it is the battery life (which isn’t even that great compared to the Mac alternative).

(I’m sorry about that random rant, I’ll now talk about its mobile phone qualitites)

Now that UK networks are making data cheaper and cheaper (even PAYT have offers now – 1GB usage for £15), laptop makers has started to capitasle on it and shoved inbuilt modems and SIM slots in to most new laptops. And of course the recent out breaks of netbooks (little baby laptops) show how popular ‘data on the move’ is beoming.

I still remember the initial days of mobile internet. When it first came out, phone users were using the good old PMCAII data cards plugged in to their machines. I enjoyed the mobility of it, but the style left little to be desired.  Now we have the sleek dongles that give 3G speeds (in certain areas), and the especially sleek in-built modems. Looking good people!
With the rumours that Japan are testing 4G technology (which will give us 100mb/s downloads whilst on the move and up to 1gb/s whilst stationary), the future of mobile broadband is looking pretty successful.

Sony Ericsson have appeared to have chosen Vodafone as the network set to release the all dancing all singing Walkman masterpiece, the W995.

Although nothing has been confirmed, Sony Ericson sent off one of the devices to GSM Arena to review (and yes I am jealous I didn’t get one to play with!) and it seems that the phone that they sent had the Vodafone ‘find and go’ SatNav software on it.

We have yet to see any confirmation from Vodafone (or any of the other networks) about prices or release dates though.
So apart from this brief glimmer of the phone to wet our whistles with, info is coming up empty. From what we can see (mainly due to the great guys at GSM) the phone seems to be Sony Ericsson’s new flagship phone.

Sony Ericson tend to use their smartphones as the flagship device. Although with poor sales of both the P990i and its replacement the P1i, Sony Ericson must have decided to move the prestigeous title to the Walkman series.

The W995 comes packed a 8MP camera, Walkman 4.0, GPS and WI-Fi.

Sony Ericson do seem to be throwing out all the stops to make this device stand out from the compition – and we like it!

We have always known that Sony Ericsson have managed to double their phone releases by having a walkman version of all their phones (ie, they had their flagship phone, the P1i, and the walkman version was called the W960). True the devices weren’t excatly the same but a minor difference doesnt really count.

Now Nokia have seen the logic in this idea and have jumped on board with their new buisness smartphone the E75 having its xpress music sibling, the 5730. The only difference is the quick music buttons on the side.

So, does this mean that all designs are slowly dying out?

Motorola repeatedy uses the RAZR design; Nokia  are slowly merging all their phones to the new (horrid) N-series stlye; and with Samsung and LG pretty much copying each others designs at every opportunity (but with minimal differences so that they are different enough that they can get away with it), there seems to be very little originality out there.

To be fair I would be happy to have some designs kept. I like the M600 by Sony Ericsson and was delighted that the upgrade of (the P1) came looking the same but supporting better features.

Increasing what the phone can do but keeping a familiar face is great for a user who has a phone they love to use but just want it livened up once it’s reached its sell by date.
But then again, it can take the thrill out of having a new phone; what’s the point in getting something shiney and new, if it looks like your last phone?

Just the other day I was talking about how well Motorola were doing in the China market; trying to release the first 3G phone on the Chinese network is not an easy task.

However, they have now just let themselves down in my eyes!

Motorola have just announced two new smartphones, the MC55 and the MC5590… which are just plain ugly!

When we see how nice PDA phones can be, like the Nokia E71 or even the HTC Diamond, it astounds me that Motorola (who are normally known for making good looking devices) think they can get away with releasing such a telephonic aberation! What’s going on Moto?!

Both phones look like childrens walkie-talkie’s, and to add insult to injury, both phones are running Windows Mobile 6.1.
** shudder **
Although I am sure Motorola will argue that these devices are part of their Enterprise Digital Assistants range (abbreviated to EDA), and are designed for purpose rather than looks. These devices do include such features as 1D laser scanner and a 2D imager but it’s certainly nothing to write home about.

The rumors have begun to appear again about phone manufacturers producing ways of allowing customers to pay for items via their mobile phones. At the moment, you have to call a number and pay by your card, or set up a standing order.

That is all expected to change.

Yes, previous rumors have disappeared as quickly as they arose without trace, leaving nothing behind to show there was actually anything in the pipeline.

But now we have heard that Orange is meant to be in talks with Barcley Card about producing a device with NFC technology (Near Field Communication).

The idea is that when you go to buy certain items, like a train ticket or your weekly shopping, all you need to do is to swipe your phone over a scanner and it will take your details and charge your account. Easy! Whether or not this idea catches on is yet to be seen, but I feel it could be a great idea.

The question I am asking though, is would this technology need to be agreed by all the networks and manufacturers? If one network said no, would phones using their SIMs still be able to facilitate this service?

Hmm…

But, it is only early days for this idea, so let us hope that the idea takes off and helps us reduce the amount of things we need to carry in our pockets and bags.

Following on from the success of the LG Cookie KP500 (and Samsung’s brave attempts to challenge LG’s title of having the ‘best mid range touch screen’), LG have announced a new device in this range: the LG Cookie KP501.

The KP501 now comes with 3G, and a new 2D accelerator interface, making this phone belong to their ‘S-class’ range of devices.

The new devices looks are similar to the previous Cookie phone, which is good – I always find it annoying how manufacturers make a great looking phone, and when they create the upgrade they take away the looks.  True, sometimes they make the device look better, but it can go horribly wrong – like the Sony Ericsson P910 to the P990.  **shudder** After such a loooooooong wait, the P990 did not live up to my expectations that everyone had for it.

But getting back to the LG Cookie KP501…
I am, so far, pleasantly surprised with its appearance. And I like the name too!
But I think that LG still have to change one thing about the phone, and that is to make the stylus external (like it is on the Viewty), which is going to help make the device stand out more as being something sensible to use.

We used to see QWERTY keyboards all over the place; from Blackberries to the Sony Ericson P-series, from Nokia communicators to Palm Treo’s. But they’re slowing dying out now…

Ever since Sony Ericsson dropped the P-series in favour of the XPERIA range, the QWERTY keyboard has been fast disappearing from our phone shops. And Nokia now seems to be retiring their Communicator range.

Nokia’s new smart-phones that they have just released are the E55 and the E75, both of which have QWERTY keyboards however the E55 is supporting a dual QWERTY keyboard. No idea what this will look like, it might be like the Sony Ericsson P1 and M600 or it might be like the Blackberry Pearl phones, I’m not sure yet – but I am hoping it will be more like the former (Sony Ericson) but by the look of the device I am expecting it to be in the Pearl format. Boo!

The E75 is going with the slide out QWERTY keyboard, but it will be in keeping with the standard phone keypad, much like the HTC S710.

But what is replacing the QWERTY?

Their replacement is the slide out keyboard and the touch screen (but not the ill-fated 7280 which didn’t have a keyboard as such). So it now appears that style is overtaking ease of use. Don’t get me wrong, having a keyboard on the front of the phone can make it look fairly ugly, but at least when you are typing emails or a text, having a keyboard makes things a lot faster.

I’d rather use the Nokia E71 than the Apple iPhone.

After seeing how well apple are doing with the ‘app store’, RIM have decided to do the same for their Blackberry’s and are releasing ‘app world’. There have been a few concerns about this as RIM has set limits on pricing and have formed them into four categories, so the lowest price a piece of software can be, will be around $3′s.

No sooner have RIM released (had their information leaked) this information, Acer have come out of the woodwork and announced that they are trying to develop their application store for Windows Mobile devices.

Now we have to wonder, are application stores the way forward or not?

They do have some amazing “plus points”: they give phone users a vast variety of applications to use, and even allows phone users to see what their mates are using and go get it themselves (if they want it)!

But will this exclusivity to a brand stop the small developers and new developers in from making cool pieces of third party software?

I hope not!

If phone users are wanting to try something different (price wise) to the application stores, then these “little developers” need to keep the new ideas flowing – we all know that the best ideas are not always made by the big names.