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.

Now no more hassles of cumbersome Calling Cards where one has to enter PIN and then punch-in phone numbers. DialSimple.com has launched an innovative way to call international numbers by dialing them directly.

DialSimple charges only for the minutes used and their call rates are cheaper then the calling cards, for e.g. to call India it is just 5.9 cents a minute. To call UK its 1.6 cents, to call Canada 1.6 cents, to call China 1.9 cents, to call Mexico 2.49, to call Philippines 14.3 cents! and for other countries too, the call rates are really cheap! Customers usually saves 20% to 90% on their international phone bills by switching to DialSimple.com

DialSimple also gives their customer the free 10 minutes to call anywhere in the world to first try the service, no purchase required to get the free minutes!

DialSimple also has a very cool feature, unlimited free Voice Messaging, to send voice messages from phone to anyone in the world! Customer can record voice message via phone and it get automatically emailed to recipient. This can be used by students to leave messages for free to their family and friends abroad. This feature can also be used to send Voice Messages to friends or group of friends within US.

DialSimple is mentioned as the preferred call service by calling cards rating site top-callingcards.com. Keep in mind the Calling Cards charge huge maintenance and connection fee, one has to use up the minutes within limited time and call quality may not be that good. But DialSimple charges only for the minutes used, the bought credit never expires and the Call quality is awesome! And their billing is very transparent.

All in all this is how it works:

1) For every international number DialSimple gives their customers a local number.
2) Now to call international number customers just dial the corresponding local number from their phone. Thats it!

And all this comes for absolutely FREE, there are no charges and customers can map as many numbers as they want.

As per Business Development Manager Ritesh Ranjan :

“You do not have to remember your friends and family numbers abroad anymore. You just store the corresponding local numbers in your phone book and dial them directly. I am really excited about this technology!”

Many devices can access corporate e-mail if a company has Microsoft Exchange server and Exchange ActiveSync, a synchronization protocol that works with high-latency and low-bandwidth networks. ActiveSync is based on HTTP and XML, and it enables devices such as browser-enabled mobile phones to access a business’ information on a server that’s running Microsoft Exchange.

Setting up corporate e-mail on consumer-grade devices isn’t a long or difficult process. An employee can buy a phone at a retail outlet and set it to access corporate e-mail with little or no assistance from the IT department. For example, the Instinct, among other phones, has an e-mail icon on the home screen that lets users connect to almost any e-mail system, and includes all major Internet service providers as well as work accounts. Users enter the same URL they would use for Web mail, input their logon information into the provisioning screen and the device automatically configures itself.

Sprint offers the Sprint Mobile Email Work, backed by software from seven, a mobile messaging software provider. E-mail is pushed from the Exchange mailbox to the end user via Seven’s network operations center and a signaling channel.

Sprint Mobile Email Work does not cost extra if users already subscribe to Everything plans, which start at $69.99, and the $30 Sprint Pro Pack data plan. Sprint Mobile Email Work is priced at $9.99 per month, in addition to voice and data charges, under other plans from Sprint. Handsets that support this service include the Rumor and Fusic by LG; Motorola’s Razr, Razr2, and KRZR; Samsung’s Instinct, A900, A900M, and M50; and the Katana, Katana II, and 8400 by Sanyo.

Similar service is available for Verizon Wireless users in two options. The first, Wireless Sync, can access POP3, IMAP, and corporate e-mail using technology from Intellisync. Wireless Sync offers e-mail retrieval at timed intervals, although it doesn’t offer direct push. Wireless Sync is priced at $20 per month through Verizon’s Get It Now services, plus data plan charges. Wireless Sync suffers from some limitations: With this software, users can’t, for example, accept or decline meeting invitations sent via Outlook.

Verizon’s second e-mail service, RemoSync, may be a better corporate fit. RemoSync uses technology from Remoba to push Exchange e-mail in real time to consumer-grade phones. E-mail goes to the handset and RemoSync notifies the user, who can accept or decline meeting invitations, sync contacts, and update calendar information.

RemoSync is priced at $10 per month, plus a data plan. Users can choose to pay $1.99 per megabyte or subscribe to an unlimited data plan for $15; tacking on the $10 charge for mobile e-mail brings the total to $25 per month.

According to the report, the majority of users — 73% in the United States and 57% in Europe — accessed mobile maps via the handset’s browser. Less than a third of customers in these markets used a downloaded application.

The study found that Apple’s iPhone was the leading device for U.S. customers to access maps. This can be attributed to the integrated Google Maps, and this is expected to continue now that the iPhone 3G has built-in GPS.

Meanwhile, European users preferred Nokia’s N95 and N70. The report said the vast majority of mobile map users are seeking driving directions, even in Europe, where public transportation options are more popular.

As more cell phones sport built-in GPS chips, wireless operators and handset manufacturers are increasingly offering data-heavy navigation services. To counter this increase in competition, Garmin  will enter the mobile phone market later this year with the Nuvifone.

Mark Donovan, senior analyst at ComScore, in a statement said:

“The mobile phone as a personal navigation device makes tremendous sense, With the influx of devices, such as the iPhone with GPS, entering the market, Nokia purchase of Navteq, and the growing popularity of downloadable navigation applications, you don’t need a map to see where this sector is going.”

Vonage Pro features five components that specifically accommodate the lifestyle of “prosumers,” or professional consumers who are comfortable with and understand the benefits of using technology to improve their personal and professional lives.

Announced recently, the $35-a-month service can also automatically transcribe voice mails to e-mail or SMS text. Customers can read, store, search, and respond to voice mail messages on their PCs or smartphones with the service.

Incoming Vonage Pro calls ring at both the customer’s home number and at a companion number chosen by the customer. The Vonage Companion feature is provided by mobile VoIP software company CounterPath. Customers can initiate outgoing calls on both phones simultaneously.

Here are the main features of the service:

• The offering includes a next generation Vonage SoftPhone client, Vonage Companion, that allows the residential or home office user to access their home number from any desktop or laptop PC connected to a high speed Internet connection, enabling them to communicate as if they are at home.
• Incoming calls ring both the customer’s home phone and their Companion, and customers can make outgoing calls on both devices simultaneously — essentially providing a second phone line.
• Vonage Companion also offers customer requested features such as selective call block, conference calling, personalized ringtones and call recording.
• Customers can use their PC’s built-in microphone and speakers or plug in a headset with microphone to make and receive calls.
• Vonage Companion automatically synchronizes with Vonage Contact Center(TM)*
• Home office users will never miss an important call when away on vacation or on a business trip.

Patrick Monaghan, Senior Analyst in Consumer Research at Yankee Group said:

“In a competitive communications landscape, VoIP services need to differentiate themselves on more than price, advanced, flexible features that allow consumers to communicate anywhere will continue to grab market share.”

Haenggi, Vonage chief marketing officer, in a statement said:

“Vonage Pro is the VoIP offering that (consumers) have been asking for to help them stay connected while on the go”.

The study finds that overall satisfaction among prepaid wireless customers that subscribe to flat-rate pricing plans with unlimited minutes is 764 on a 1,000-point scale, which is considerably higher than that of subscribers of traditional per-minute pricing plans (717, on average). This gap in satisfaction is primarily driven by differences in the cost of service, as well as by the benefit of unlimited minutes available in flat-rate plans. In particular, unlimited-plan customers report higher satisfaction levels with the amount of airtime minutes offered for the price paid, the overall cost-per-minute charges and the cost per transaction to refill minutes in their account.

The study also finds that satisfaction ratings for the initial activation process also vary greatly between customers that subscribe to, flat-rate prepaid plans with unlimited minutes and subscribers of traditional, per-minute plans. Specifically, customer satisfaction scores with plans that have unlimited minutes average 862, compared with only 756 among traditional prepaid calling plans. The ease of initially subscribing to the plan and activating the phone are the two areas driving the gap in satisfaction.

MetroPCS ranks highest in prepaid wireless satisfaction for the first time since the inception of the study and performs particularly well in five out of seven factors that drive overall satisfaction: cost of service, account management, initial activation, brand image, and service plan options. Also ranking above the industry average are TracFone, Cricket, Virgin Mobile and T-Mobile To Go, respectively.

The study also finds the following key prepaid wireless usage patterns:

• Prepaid users spend $40 on average when purchasing additional airtime — an increase of $2 from 2007. In comparison, the average monthly service cost for postpaid customers in 2008 is $76.
• Prepaid customers report using 233 minutes per month. Conversely, postpaid customers average 543 minutes per month.
• Approximately 63 percent of prepaid phones that are prepackaged with minutes are purchased from retail stores, while an additional 20 percent of customers report purchasing a prepackaged phone via the Internet. Approximately 17 percent of customers purchase activated minute cards separately from their cell phones.
• Twenty-six percent of prepaid customers refill minutes approximately once per month, marking a decrease from 29 percent in 2007. An additional 14 percent refill their plan minutes at least twice a month.

The 2008 Wireless Prepaid Customer Satisfaction Study is based on responses from 3,316 wireless customers who currently subscribe to prepaid service plans.

Kirk Parsons, Senior Director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates said:

“Prepaid customers are clearly responding favorably to these unique service plan options, as they provide a cost-effective alternative to traditional price-per-minute plans that are typically offered and allow customers freedom from worrying about being charged extra fees for making too many calls within a given time period, although plans with unlimited minutes typically have geographic restrictions for placing and receiving wireless calls, they still fulfill customer expectations and tend to meet a specific service need better than other wireless plans. In fact, 46 percent of unlimited plan customers have completely replaced their traditional landline phone with wireless service, compared with only 13 percent of traditional pay-as-you-go customers.”

VoIP - Telecommunications costs used to be significant for small business. Now that’s a thing of the past, thanks to the prevalence of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP). Providers like Skype have made it possible to talk, teleconference, and even videolink with people around the world for nothing! If you’re not using VoIP everyday, you’re missing out.

Online services - With an increasingly mobile workforce and a proliferation of remote workers, the software industry is changing rapidly. Online software, like Google docs and Xero online accounting software for small business, enable people in different locations to collaborate on documents and share information, all accessing the latest version in real time. As well as making life easier, many of these services are very affordable or even free.  In comparison to old-style software that you install on your desktop, you don’t need to worry about updates as that happens automatically. And because the services are run by big companies your data is securely stored and automatically backed up – arguably it is safer than it would be on your premises.

Mobility - The days when being “mobile” meant lugging along your laptop are gone. Today there are a plethora of small devices that enable you to really stay connected at all times. Blackberries and iPhones have the capability to offer easy to use email, view documents and access the internet. Online software providers are all getting on board with versions of their software suitable for mobile devices. For example we’ve optimised Xero for the iPhone , so you can even access your accounts information, anywhere, anytime. That’s a real advantage.  Xero provides small businesses and their advisers with one, up to date, easy to use, instantly accessible set of accounts and business information.

Users call (267) 759-3425 from either a cell phone or a land line, and are prompted to enter another person’s cell phone number. After playing a short advertisement – unless users pay a subscription fee or 15 cents per call to skip ads – Slydial puts callers directly into their target’s voice mail. Recipients should then get a voice mail notification, and sometimes they will see a caller’s number show up as a missed call, too.

The company rolled out a private test phase of Slydial in March, and has added about 5,000 users since. The service opened to the general public in a beta testing phase a week ago.

The ability to call straight into someone’s voice mail is not new. Most major cell phone carriers offer subscribers the option of sending voice messages to other people, but usually only to customers of the same wireless company. What’s different here is that Slydial makes it possible to do it with any major wireless carrier’s customer.

There are constraints to this service. It can only be used in the United States right now, and generally won’t work with prepaid cell phones. Also, sly dialers must have the caller ID feature activated on their phones, which Macomber said is meant, in part, to prevent people from using it to harass people undetected.

Indeed, Nora Rubinoff, 45, who runs an administrative support company, At Your Service Cincinnati Ltd., has found Slydial helpful both for business and personal situations. She has left reminder messages for people one of her clients intends to interview. And when her husband travels to a different time zone for work, she can leave him a Slydial message without disturbing him at an odd time of day, she said. “It’s been really handy,” she said.

Gavin Macomber, co-founder of MobileSphere Ltd., the Boston communications company behind Slydial, thinks it can be useful not only in the dating scene, but also in the hectic business world.  He said,”Everybody has gone through the scenario where they’ve called somebody and just hoped they got voice mail so they didn’t have to have a conversation.   The idea for Slydial came up while MobileSphere developed the voice mail routing component of a service meant to lower the cost of international roaming on cell phones”.

The introduction of BlackBerry Media Sync shows RIM’s latest foray into the consumer dominion, and its most recent attempt to level the playing field in that space between its BlackBerry and Apple’s iPhone.

BlackBerry Media Sync is available for free download from RIM’s site, and it works with PCs running Windows XP (32-bit) with service pack 2 or higher or Windows Vista (32-bit). Unfortunately, support for 64-bit operating systems and/or Mac OS is not currently available, RIM says. The software also only works with BlackBerry Pearl, Curve and 8800 series smartphones, though the company’s upcoming Bold 9000 device will also likely be supported when it’s released in the coming months.

Syncing music from iTunes libraries using the new BlackBerry Media Sync software is simple, though the program only transfers files in wav, mp3, aac, and m4a formats and without any digital right management (DRM) protection. The vast majority of songs purchased through the iTunes store are protected by Apple’s FairPlay DRM, though some tracks are available without it for $1.29 — $0.30 more than FairPlay-protected files. For iTunes files without DRM, BlackBerry Media Sync also transfers any associated album artwork. Songs imported into iTunes from any source without DRM, a store-bought CD for instance, can be synced to BlackBerrys using the new software.

DRM-Free iTunes File on BlackBerry Media Player

BlackBerry owners have already been able to sync music from their iTunes library with their smartphones, but the process involved digging through various folders with the Roxio Media Manager that’s part of RIM’s BlackBerry Desktop Manager software. BlackBerry Media Sync simplifies that process and allows users to transfer specific iTunes playlists or collections of songs to their devices instead of only individual files.

Traditionally, RIM has targeted enterprise users with its wireless wares, while Apple has largely focused on the consumer sect. However, with the introduction of Apple’s uber popular iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry Pearl, Curve and Bold smartphones, both companies have started to wade into each others’ waters — the iPhone recently made gains in the business world with its support of Microsoft Exchange and the Pearl, Curve and Bold feature consumer-oriented features like media players, digital cameras, GPS, Wi-Fi and sleek and attractive exteriors.

Currently, RIM is the number one smartphone manufacturer in the United States based on sales, with 44.5 percent of the market in first quarter of 2008, followed by Apple (19.2 percent) and struggling handset maker Palm (13.4), according to research company IDC . It’s worth noting, however, that those numbers can be deceptive, as RIM offers a much larger lineup of devices than Apple, and the iPhone 3G had not been released when IDC collected its numbers.

• Size & Dimensions – The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is blessed with the most ultra-stylish looks and slim shape. Its dimensions of 110.5 x 52.6 x 17 mm clearly suggest that. In addition to its slim shape it also has got a very light weight of only 158 grams. On the other hand Samsung G600 is a widget that can be termed as the style icon because of its excellent shape which is evident from its vital stats of 101 x 47.8 x 14.9 mm. Not only that the phone has a weight of only 104 grams. Thus it is very clear that both the phones are an icon of all sorts in this field.
• Display Screen – Samsung G600 TFT display screen that ca support around 16 million colours. Also the screen has got the reasonably big size of 2.2 inches that allows proper viewing for the users. The display screen has the resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. Thus in all sense it is a display screen that can prove to be an eye catching feature of all sorts. While talking about the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 display screen, the users will not be disappointed with it. It has a TFT touchscreen display screen that can support around 65 thousand colours and has the resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. The size of display is 3 inches and it has got a Full QWERTY keyboard which allows the users to operate a keypad that runs on the lines of normal computer keyboard. It also has the Optical joystick navigation feature in it.
• Memory – Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 has got an internal memory of 400 mega bytes. The memory can also be expanded courtesy to microSD card. It has the 256 mega bytes of RAM and 512 mega bytes of storage memory. It also has the Qualcomm MSM7200 528MHz processor which is a main reason of its fast processing speed. It can keep practically unlimited entries of phone numbers and gives the feature of Photocall. It can also keep the call records of practically unlimited number of calls. Samsung G600 comes with 55 mega bytes of embedded memory. It can also store 1000 different phone number entries and can keep the call records of last 30 dialled, 30 received and 30 missed calls. Also users can employ microSD card for the extension of memory.
• Data – Samsung G600 comes with a GPRS of class 10 and also has the EDGE technology of class 10 that operates at a 236.8 kbps. It also has a built-in Bluetooth and USB port. The phone from Samsung allows the users to send and receive SMS, MMS and Email. While Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 has got the GPRS technology of class 10, it also has EDGE and at the same time is 3G HSDPA network enabled phone that again operates at an exceptional speed of 7.2 Mbps. It also has WLAN – Wi-Fi 802.11b/g and built-in Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP which are guarantee of better connectivity every time. It also has the Operating System of Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 which makes it stand out from others. It also allows the users to send and receive text messaging, picture messaging, Email, Push E-Mail and even Instant Messaging.
• Camera – Samsung G600 has a built-in camera of 5 mega pixels that can click photos of 2592х1944 pixels. It also has the feature of autofocus, image stabiliser and flash feature. On the other hand Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 comes with a built-in camera of 3.15 mega pixels and at the same time can capture images of 2048×1536 pixels. Its camera also has the feature of autofocus and flash. It even has the secondary videocall camera.
• Other Features – Samsung G600 has got Java MIDP 2.0, MP3/AAC/AAC+/e-AAC+/WMA player, Stereo FM radio and Document viewer (Word, Excel, Power Point, PDF). While Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 comes with A-GPS function, Java MIDP 2.0, FM radio with RDS, MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player, Motion sensor (with UI auto-rotate), Pocket Office(Word, Excel, Outlook, PDF viewer), TrackID music recognition. The TrackID music recognition feature gives all information about the playing track. The sound output quality is also very tremendous. It also has the Picture editor/blogging feature.
• Battery – The standby time of Samsung G600’s battery is around 300 hours while Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 battery of has the standby time of 833 hours approximately.