Shout About Mobiles

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.

Nokia are now really starting to push the NFC technology. NFC stands for Near Field Technology, which means that devices can transfer information just by being near or ‘tapping’ each other. This is mainly expected to be used for ease of transferring pictures, videos and music, but it is hoped to use it for billing transactions, were you can swipe your phone to make a payment. For all those geeks out there, you may also like to know that the NFC technology is kinda like an upgrade of the RFID which is a already existing proximity card standard.

Nokia have released their third device that includes this technology, with the Nokia 6216 classic. But being the third isn’t that important, what is important about this device is the fact that it now uses SIM orientated information. This means that we are one step closer to being able to just pay for everything with only your mobiles. That means that when you forget your wallet, you can still buy lunch or fill the car with petrol – fewer things to take with you as you go about your day.

However, my phone bills are big enough as it is, without having the option to use it as a credit card! So I may have to restrict myself and not get a phone like this. (

The Nokia 6216 is a pretty basic, mid-range handset, with a 2MP camera and only the standard features – this new technology is the only thing that sets it apart.

The EU parliament has voted and agreed on reducing roaming charges, to take effect from July (shame on holiday in June!). The cuts will become active on July 1st and there are plans for more to come into effect over the next few years. So every network that resides in a EU member state, is having to cut down all charges related to roaming to the limit set by the EU parliament.
The new limit is meant to be a maximum incoming call charge of 0.19 euro per min, and a maximum outgoing charge of 0.43 euro per min.

At the moment the charges are about 10% higher, so it will not be a huge difference at first (unless you are a business customer or frequently go abroad), but still nice to have that price cut.
The big differences will be in the cost of SMS and packet data (internet, email, etc.), with SMS dropping from 0.28 Euros to only 0.11 per 160 characters, and a MB of packet data can be no more than 1 euro per MB.
From what I can see from the 2011 ‘predictions’, the cost will be even less, with outgoing calls down to 0.35 Euros and incoming calls of 0.11 Euros. So it’s getting to the point where it will not make a difference whether you are in UK or abroad, as mobile phone costs will be fairly similar.
And there are plans for a whole new money saving feature of international calls – the networks will have to cut off ALL calls that reach a cost of 50 Euros, so anyone making a long call will have to expect dropped lines, but it will prevent massive costs to those that forget to hang up when they finish speaking! These plans have not as yet been given a timescale for when it will be set up, but it seems that it will happen.
(all of the prices mentioned above are not inclusive of VAT)

Looking at the reports for the first quarter profits of the phone’s manufactures, it appears everyone is fairly firmly in the recession at the moment, and Nokia is really in it.Bu not LG! LG are happily looking out the window, and singing “lalalala”.

Sony Ericsson was the first manufacturer to release reports, and they made a loss of around 10% of their expected profits – that totals 385million euro loss. Ouch!

Nokia appears to be taking the full smack of the recession (not good at all – I like Nokia phones!), as they took a massive cut of 90% in profit. Big ouch! That equates to a drop from 1.2 billion euro, to only a mere 122 million euro.

I have also heard rumors (although nothing concrete), that Motorola are spending stupid amounts of money to try and save money (not sure how that works), and may be initiating job cuts costing about 256 million if the rumor is to be believed.

LG’s song of “lalala” is doing them the world of good though. Despite them shipping out a lower amount of phones (a 7% drop), they did make a good 2.8 billion dollars out of handset sales, which is a huge 22.6% better than last year – so they really aren’t looking like they are being affected too greatly.

I am not sure how they have managed to do this, but a few people believe it is due to them wining the mid range market. However, Nokia are selling loads of 5800’s which is in the mid-range market, so LG may be in for some competition in the next quarter. LG are confident that they can branch out into the top end of the market as well now, they have the S-class UI making its entrance with the likes of the LG Viewty smart and the LG Arena.

Believe or not, but the most expensive handset on the market at the moment (excluding the Sony Black Diamond), is not a new device, and it doesn’t have flashy camera or any up to date features.
It is in fact a Nokia 1110.

Yes, that is right – a Nokia 1110!

The reason appears to be because some hackers believe that by getting hold of this handset (which is no longer made or sold by Nokia), it has the ability to intercept SMS and calls. The crazy logic behind this is that these hackers think that the device is made in such a way that it can be easily used to clone another device, thereby giving them access to the info on the cloned device.

Scary stuff huh? I keep everything on my phone – if it went walkies, someone could have everything about me (it’s all password protected, but…)

It’s a bizarre rumor, especially because we know that all the information sent via SMS is encoded and only readable by the recipient – cloned phones don’t get the real info being sent as they don’t have the right SIM details for the CTN (Cellular Telephone Number). So as far as I can see, the people who fork out all the cash for the 1110 still will not have the SIM card to grab the information, and the codes are normally stuck to a time limit as well (so if it’s not on the correct CTN/CIM in a certain time, bye-bye message).

Nokia have confirmed there is no option to be able to do this. And the mobile watchdog is looking into it – just to be on the safe side.

The Nokia 1110 is currently selling for 11 (yes, that’s ELEVEN) times its weight in gold, which is at a cost of around 25,000 euro.

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.

At the moment, I am trying to make myself a guide about Nokia’s push email (that I am currently running on my lovely E71). It is almost complete, just need the pictures to make it look oh so brilliant (and give me a visual reminder of what I am talking about!).

However there is a little snag – at the moment, my phone keeps crashing and I am not sure if it is the Nokia messaging that is doing it, or if it is the updated software (you see, I very cleverly installed them onto the device at the same time, so I am not sure which one is causing the problem now).

I know, I know – if I go without Nokia messaging for a week I can simply wait to see if it crashes. Great idea! But I am a gadget freak and I cannot go for a whole week without push email.

I suppose I could get the Blackberry Connect set up on the phone, but then I have the issue of it not being able to deal with large emails (anything over 0.5mb).

Oh, for those of you that haven’t read some of my previous blogs, then you may not know of Nokia messaging – it is Nokia’s answer to push emails.

As Blackberry Connect is currently the king of push email, the connect version for Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones, does leave users lacking quite a bit of its functionality.

I have recently twittered on quite a bit about the Google-phones.
Why?
Because I like them!

Google has come a long way from its search engine beginnings; it is now everywhere! Emails, SatNav, phones… It’s getting to be a lot like Microsoft – when you think of computers, you think of Microsoft. And now when you think of the internet, you think of Google. With its fingers in increasing amounts of pie, this company is the way forward. And now it’s had a nibble at the phone market and found it very tasty, it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere soon!

So, let me explain the Google-phone numbers. So far, we have three: the G1, the G2 and near-confirmed whispers of the G3. Each of these devices has had the software designed by Google, but the hardware is designed by the manufacturer – HTC for the G1 & G2, and apparently Huawei for the G3.

With the rumor mill rife with talk of the G3, Google must be happy that their “little” operating system is doing so very well. They have just released an SDK (software developer’s kit) for OS version 1.5, and it seems that it won’t be long before we get a new version of this ‘always on the up’ OS.
The main difference, so I have heard, is that the new version 1.5 is based on the cupcake branch of the OS (cupcake being the jargon name for their on screen keyboard), which promises to deliver various improvements over the current version. The OS version 1.5 is meant to be released with the G2 when it comes out in April.

The G2 is on its way – and I think I want one!

This little phone is exclusive to  Vodafone, and they are are reporting that they will be releasing the HTC Magic (the name given to the G2) in April – so it’ll be in our pockets really soon!

This phone has it all – it is sleek and stylish and oh so sexy (for a phone!), and is powered by cutting edge technology.
It has web essentials like Google Maps™ and Google Search™, and they work brilliantly. Just like your computer’s browser, you can create shortcuts to your favorite sites, then download ace games, news feeds and widgets. Then you can “file it” anyway you want – so you can get to it all easily.
The HTC Magic comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera (not the best camera out there, but it is a sound little camera), and with the extra large high-resolution screen you can view your pics beautifully. Or upload your photos to your choice of social media and have a giggle with your friends – because with its superfast internet, they’ll upload like Magic!

I want one, I want one, I want one!

A UK programmer by the name of Jamie Fuller has created a new piece of software for the Nokia 5800 and other S60 5th edition phones. Although the software is still in the trial stage, the software is available to download free of charge from his website.

The software is called Space Dancer and the great thing about this game is the fact that it uses multi-touch technology.

What is that I hear you ask?

Well, normally we only hear about fun stuff happening on phones that have the standard “push a button” keypads, not the new touch screens – so when there’s something we want for our touch screen phones, we can’t have it. Boo!

But now the wonderful Jamie has created a nice little game just for the touch screen users – how brilliant is that?!

The game itself is a bit like guitar hero – the game that has swept (and still is sweeping) the game console market. All you need to do with this little game is to hit the music notes at the right time (something that I am shockingly bad at I’m afraid).

I suggest having a look – then letting me know what you think!