Mobile
Top Mobile Phones for Christmas 2009
As the Christmas season approaches the mobile phone industry gears up to release the latest handsets. If you are looking for a low-cost stocking filler or a more financially draining mobile phone, this top 10, which is in no particular order, should contain the perfect phone for you.
Samsung Genio
Perfect for the teens and young adults, the Genio is a low-cost touch screen phone with a variety of interchangeable battery covers to allow for personalisation and attitude. Though it lacks 3G connectivity and the camera is pretty basic, the touch screen and media player make it a decent choice.
Apple iPhone 3Gs
This is the smartphone that everyone wants to get their hands on, though you will have to pay quite a lot for the privilege of owning this must-have mobile. With up to 32GB of on board space, a large multi-touch sensitive screen and access to thousands of useful applications via the App Store, the iPhone 3Gs is easy to use and oozes style.
Nokia N97 Mini
This touch screen phone also has a full QWERTY keypad hidden beneath the top half and the new Mini version is smaller, lighter and easier to use without skimping on the versatile functionality. Despite the slightly bland design of the interface, there is a lot going on here.
LG BL40 Chocolate
With its ridiculous widescreen touch sensitive display and full cinematic aspect ratio, the long, monolithic BL40 could put of those with a weak constitution. However, the 5 megapixel camera and snappy interface make it smarter than the average fashion phone.
HTC Hero
With HTC`s own Sense interface allowing for you to customise and swap between multiple home screens for when you are at home, out and about or in a working environment, this smartphone is a bit of a chameleon and all the better for it.
Vodafone 360 H1
This Samsung handset is exclusively designed to work in tandem with the Vodafone 360 services and interface, allowing for online backup of your contacts, a 3D interface and social networking widgets which draw all of your messages and feeds into a single unified environment.
Sony Ericsson Satio
With a 12.1 megapixel camera sitting on the back of this touch screen smartphone few other mobiles can touch the Satio in terms of picture taking capabilities. It is also a good media phone, with access to the Play Now online store for applications and music downloads.
BlackBerry Storm2
The second touch screen BlackBerry mobile improves the display technology to make typing messages easier and built-in Wi-Fi enables you to send emails and browse at high speeds.
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
This has been an incredibly popular mid-ranged touch screen phone, thanks to its 3.2 megapixel camera with flash, an excellent bit of software for media playback and its 3.2 inch screen.
Motorola Dext
If you are looking for the best mobile internet experience then this new Motorola handset might be the answer. The MotoBLUR software complies all of your social networking profiles and feeds into a single space for ease of use.
Cell Phone Payments – A Look Into the Future
We’ve all been there. You’re waiting in line when suddenly you reach for your back pocket…and realize your wallet isn’t there. Well, good news, fellow geeks: The days of needing cash or even a credit card to pay for purchases are almost behind us. The cell phone is gaining new power in the world of payment and can actually connect you to cash right now – if you know how to make it happen.
Highlighting a variety of existing technologies, Jason Raphael of geeksaresexy.net has this to say about Cell Phone Payment:
Let’s start with what’s in the works. A developing technology called NFC, or near field communication, is growing closer to our pockets by the day. NFC lets your cell talk to other receive sites – kind of like BlueTooth, but quicker. With NFC, you can wave your phone in front of a receiver and have a connection within a second. NFC also works in a shorter range – about four inches max – and uses two-way communication, so the connection’s more secure.
As you can imagine, the possibilities with this thing are endless. The hope is that NFC will eventually act as a virtual credit card, letting you simply wave your phone in front of a panel to make a purchase. It’s also being tested for public transportation – hold your phone up to send your fare and board the bus – as well as eventually for identification, storing your official documents to send to anyone in a split second. In the future, NFC could even let your phone act as your car or house key, connecting with a panel on the door to transmit your identification and let you in.
History of the Mobile Phone
Mobiletor brings us a quick narrative of the history of the Mobile Phone.
If you have gotten used to your sleek and compact phone, imagine our grandfathers carrying a huge box which they called as a ‘Cell phone’, which weighed approximately 4 times more as compared to the newer sleek phones. Mobile phones have seen a vast amount of changes in the last few decades.
[...]
The Mobile phones have traveled right from the old green or blue background screens to the latest color widescreens which can be controlled by a mere touch on the screen. While we are getting ready to welcome the 4G generation of mobiles, the mobile phones have already started displaying mobile TV’S proudly and they even guide one through a road with the GPS maps and real time traffic information.
VoIP and Video-Conferencing in Sight for the iPhone?
Christian Zibreg wites an interesting article on the future of the iPhone:
The upcoming iPhone 2.0 software is just around the corner and we all may be surprised how Apple’s unified communication solution could merge mobile communication with VoIP, PCs, Macs, iPhones and even Apple TVs. We took a hard, long look at the information that is available right now from reports as well as patent filings to give you an outlook what Apple might be up to, why we are quite certain that VoIP and videoconferencing will be the iPhone’s new killer applications.
Although the 3G iPhone has yet to be confirmed by Apple, we are receiving more information about iPhone 2.0 software update on an everyday basis. When Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone software road map on March 6, he also announced that, by the end of June, all existing iPhone users will get a major software update that will greatly enhance the iPhone’s capabilities.
What everyone seems to hope for at this time is some kind of VoIP solution, such as Skype, that will enable iPhone users to place free phone calls over Wi-Fi network. The prospects for a VoIP iPhone app looked grim when we learned that the iPhone SDK doesn’t allow third party applications to run in the background: The SDK also specifically prohibits developers from accessing the iPod portion of an iPhone, leading many to believe that Apple created the same barrier for VoIP capabilities.
Read the rest of the article at TG Daily
Mobile Ads Become More Acceptable in the Marketplace
Erica DeWolf of DeWolf eMarketing & Design put together an interesting report about statistics surrounding mobile ads. In it, she writes:
According to a March 2008 Nielsen Company study, Nielsen’s Mobile Advertising Report, 58 million mobile phone users have been exposed to advertising on their phones in the past 30 days. That’s 23% of all United States mobile subscribers. Over half, or 28 million of these subscribers have responded to the mobile ad they were exposed to.
[...]
Mobile Ad Acceptance
- 51% of those who received mobile ads responded.
- 26% responded by sending an SMS text-message
- 9% responded by using “click-to-call”
- 32% of mobile phone users would be open to mobile advertising if it would lower their monthly cell phone bill.
- 14% say they care currently open to mobile advertising so long as the ads are relevant to their interests.
- 23% say they expect to see more mobile ads in the future.
- Only 10% of mobile phone users said mobile ads are acceptable, although an increasing number of individuals seem to be understanding the value proposition that will soon be associated with mobile advertising.
Some of the stats are a little surprising, but the overall message is that mobile advertising is becoming more and more acceptable in the marketplace, as long as the ads relevant or provide a tangible benefit to the recipient.
Get the Best Deal on Mobile Phones
Not so many years ago, mobile phones were almost exclusively the preserve of the wealthy or the spivvy. Most people swore that they would never need one, and even as prices came down and their popularity exploded, many were slow converts to the revolution.
Today, even the hardest cynics seem to own one, and many families now shell out hundreds of pounds a month on their bills – a cost that they simply regard as a necessity, not a luxury. Children as young as three and pensioners as old as 90 are all in on the game, and most people would now tell you they simply can’t be without their phone.
The good news is that, amidst this huge increase in popularity, the mobile phone market has become more competitive than ever. Free handsets, free gifts and even cashback are all on offer for the canny phone shopper. Unfortunately, however, for the average consumer, hunting for the best deal can prove rather a daunting task.
It’s well worth the time and effort to shop around, though. Switching provider or playing hard ball with your existing network could save you hundreds of pounds a year.
Want a flashy handset and a low-cost contract? James Daley explains how to get your hands on the best mobile phone deals around.
Samsung Omnia i900 packs abundant features, with a solid built looks. It's more balanced than the iPhone. 
I use the Blackberry media sync and find it really useful. It's much faster then the drag and drop ...
thanks for sharing the review. 
Thanks for mentioning my review!