Shout About Mobiles

Whilst at work today, I have had about 4 different conversations with the opening line “my contact is up for renewal and I need a new phone, what should I get?”.

I always ask, what do you want it to do – and 3 times out of today’s 4, they have said, “exactly what my old one does”.

ARGH!!!!

“Why change the phone if it still does what you need it to?” I ask. “Erm…” they say.

I like shiney new things, and a phone is one of the coolest new toys you can have, but why try to fix what is not broke??

Remeber the early days of mobile phones, when the “upgrades” included which handset had more options for changable covers?! Tigger or cars or patterns or naked ladies – whatever cover you could get decided what phone you chose.

And I quite liked that choice. I don’t think there is a new phone on the market you can customise (case wise) these days.

But the internal customisation seems limitless! I love the little spirit level on the iPod – I don’t need it in any way, shape or form, but it’s nifty.

But my inner chav sometimes says I should get a phone that I can put a Tigger case on…

With the release of the Toshiba TG01 this month in the UK, we will be subjected to the power of the Snapdragon hidden within its 10mm thin casing.
A snapdragon?
Yes, it’s the 1 GHz processer that rages within the three new super phones that Toshiba are releasing shortly.

This is big and new and scary – to think that my little netbook that I am typing this up on only has a 1.1ghz processor…. and the previous Smartphone’s all have around 500mhz or less with the odd one or two powerhouses storming around with a mere 600mhz… WOW!

We have to ask, why?

I know I’m not the biggest fan of Windows Mobile but I have to say I have never moaned about how slow to load they are. So why make it faster?
True, as a Smartphone the speed in which to turn one on is never great, but the general usage has never made me think, “hmm, could do with a good GHz of processor in here to make it work like a dream”. Don’t get me wrong, as soon as I get to have a play on the TG01 or any of its brothers, I will be loading as many applications as I can to see what it can take before it gives up the ghost, but I don’t think it would be needed too much in a general day to day use.

Windows 6.5 is coming soon!

With its release, most new phones that are currently running Windows Mobile are announcing whether or not they are going to come out of the box with the shiny new platform already installed, or if they are going to come with the option for their users to be able to get a free upgrade.

The new 6.5 software is meant to come with a new and better set up user interface. However, I think that it will just be a brand new face, rather than a good overhaul that the dying software needs to bring in new users.

As we see more and more companies are starting to use Google’s Android operating system (with Samsung expected to release theirs shortly, and LG and Sony Ericson having already announced that they are going to be releasing android powered handsets), the end may indeed be nigh for Windows Mobile.

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.

Well, my first response to this news article was “WHAT THE HECK?! I do not want my number given out to anyone!” I got very annoyed at the idea that anyone can get hold of my number – a name and address is not tricky to find, and from that they then have my mobile number, which is always on and always with me.

Very scary! It just adds to this feeling that Big Brother is watching you – not a fan at all.

I make sure all boxes on the ridiculous online forms are not selected or ticked to be excluded, so noone but those I give my number to should have it. Now though, it appears that if I missed one little box, or marketers have my number from places, then I could be “at risk”.

Freaky…

I had a look to see how easy it was to take yourself off the list, and I’m still no clearer on how to do it.

I went to www.mobile118.co.u, and then to www.118optout.co.uk and finally to the remove me inner pages of www.118800.co.uk- and I still do not know if my number is on the dratted service!

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 Networks pushing for phones to be more related to Internet. Email is starting to take over from SMS. i know that being able to send out a load of information out to people is more annoying on a small text that can only handle around 160 characters, don’t get me wrong, that is great for a quick note saying ‘I’m on my way home, put the kettle on’ but when it comes to work related tasks, having to reduce your message by using words as ‘ur’ instead or ‘your’ isn’t going to make anyone look professional. However with some of the new upcoming phones, like the world famous IPhone and the new android series of handsets they both are trying to aim for all markets and are hoping to reach out to business customers. They will fail in this task until they can sort out the business mailing lists. I know for a fact that android hasn’t got any built-in function to allow it to send or receive contacts via bluetooth, this is one easy way of quickly transferring contacts off your old handset onto your new hardware. Phones companies need to talk more with users about how they use their phones and adapt them to suit the needs of the business rather than to just offer blank canvases, expecting a third party vendor to do all the hard work.

With the release of 3G/HSDPA, and smart phones actually becoming smart, it is amazing what you can do with mobile phones. I have seen software on the market where you can use you phone as a web cam using 3G video calling, which is quite good to do, but will kill your battery life and make your network very happy with your high bills. What i am looking for is where you can use your phone to wireless hook in to your home/business intruder alarm system. Think about it, all you would need to do is to dial a number that is attached to your system and it will be able to stream the video up link direct to your mobile. I’m sure there is more than one mother, that would love to be able to do that, to keep a reassuring eye over there young ones while they are away. It would allow security guards to still keep an eye on who is entering and leaving the buildings while they inspect the property on their rounds. With 3G coverage improving all over the country it will soon not be a problem having to worry about the coverage.

I admit, I am one of these people, who are always on the mobile, no matter where i am or what i am doing, I’m using my mobile phone. If you are one of these people like me who, always is connected to the electronic world, then you must suffer the same fate as me, with battery life. When i look at my usage, i can see why i run out of battery so much, I’m using a push email service, this means there is an always on Internet connection, due to using Internet based products, I must have 3g turned on (hsdpa when i can get it). This plus my extensive use of calls and texts on a daily basis, often leaves me having to charge my phone each night. After my friends haggled me into joining last.fm, i have downloaded a piece of software onto my phone, allowing me to scrobble music on the move, my battery life has dropped to just 9 hours. This is on the E71 which can handle up-to 10hrs of talk-time. Battery life is the only thing letting phones down in today electronic age. the first manufacturer that can provide a brilliant battery supply for their phones, will be the company that will owns the market, HTC seem yet to know, this after trailing the HTC Diamond out previously. I know switching back to using removable batteries like AA’s isn’t going to be good for anyone, but having them to use as a back up would be useful, rather than hunting around for a charger and plug socket while on the move.