Mobile internet use on the increase

January 30, 2007 at 9:59 am by Jay | In Mobile News

UK mobile users accessed the internet from their phones almost 16 million times in December 2006, figures from the Mobile Data Association show.

The report shows an increase of over one million on figures for November 2006, which was the previous record. In the past three months the internet was accessed 45.6 million times from a mobile phone, and the trend is expected to continue upwards. Initiatives such as T-mobile Web n Walk allow users to access the mobile internet for a fixed rate monthly fee, taking away many of the cost concerns users had in the past.

Despite the impressive numbers, mobile data usage is still relatively small in the UK. A fair majority of mobile web use is acccounted for by the download of mobile ringtones, screen savers and wallpaper as users look to personalise their phones. True web usage, such as browsing websites and search engines for news and information is still relatively minor in comparison.

As newer phones are released in 2007, with larger screens, built in RSS readers and faster browsing speeds, mobile web usage is expected to increase significantly in 2007.

Further information can be found here

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LG Shine

January 29, 2007 at 5:18 pm by Jay | In Mobile Phones

lg-shine-wince.jpg The LG shine is the latest handset from LG that places the emphasis more on looks than features. The handset weighs in at 115g, and measures 94×51x14mm. The handset is encased in a metallic body and the screen has a smooth mirrored effect once the backlight fades away.

The handset incorporates a 2.0 megapixel camera, with flash, a media player, Bluetooth, and has an impressive 2.2 inch 240×320 QVGA screen. The Shine has an internal memory capacity of 45MB, which can be expanded by adding an additional memory card. The Shine supports Micro SD transflash cards, which currently offer memory up to 2GB, for storing pictures and MP3 files.

One of the navigation features of the Shine is the scroll wheel situated on the front of the phone. The LG Shine is the first phone since the Nokia 7110 way back to offer this option, which is a surprise seeing how comfortable the scroll wheel is to use.

The Shine is due to market shortly, and is expected to outsell it’s popular predecessor, the LG Chocolate.

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LG Prada

January 18, 2007 at 1:25 pm by Jay | In Mobile News

lg-prada (WinCE).jpgLG have announced the LG KE830 Prada phone. Due to be released across Europe in February 2007, the Prada is a complete touchscreen phone. LG claim the Prada will be the first product to market with this function, months ahead of the recently announced iPhone.

As well as the touchscreen interface the LG Prada boasts an impressive range of features, including a 2.0 megapixel camera with flash, built in MP3 player, EDGE and WiFi for fast data connectivity and an email client with built in document viewers for viewing word and .pdf attachments.

The touchscreen itself is 240×400 pixels. The icons on the screen fade from view when not in use to show a nice black finish to the screen, in keeping with the rest of the design of the phone.

More information from release can be found here: lgpradaphone.com/

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Apple confirm the iPhone

January 11, 2007 at 5:08 pm by Jay | In Mobile News

iPhone III (Small).jpg
So after all the rumour, photoshop pictures, Apple have finally confirmed the iPhone. Originally planned for release to the American market in June, the iPhone is scheduled to make it’s appearance in the UK before Christmas ‘07.

The iPhone has a lot of interesting features. It will automatically sense if the phone is in landscape or portrait mode for video playback. The 3.5 inch, 320 x 480 pixels screen is multi touch. There is no keypad, as such. All input is done via the screen. the iPhone supports a ‘multi touch’ input method. There is a built in 2.0 megapixel camera.
For storage the iPhone will offer two options, either 4GB or 8GB. The iPhone is a quad band GSM phone (850, 900, 1800 & 1900 mhz) there is also support for EDGE, WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0 (but no 3G)

Battery life promises up to 5 hours talk/video/web browsing, or up to 16 hours audio playback. All in all, the iPhone is an interesting proposition; Whether it lives up to the promise of being 5 years ahead of the competition remains to be seen.

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Nokia 6131 NFC

January 8, 2007 at 4:07 pm by Jay | In Mobile News

nokia-6131-wince.JPGIt looks familiar. It is, after all, the Nokia 6131. Nice clamshell handset, excellent quality QVGA internal screen with 16 million colours. The difference is with the NFC technology.

The idea with NFC (Near Field Communication) is to allow you to store information on the handset that you can share with compatible equipment (not necessarily another mobile phone) So you can have travel card, store loyalty card and even credit card information stored on the phone. Use the phone to make payments for tickets, buy items from vending machines, as an alternative to an ID badge, there literally is an endless amount of options. Extra credit for payment options can automatically be downloaded to the handset.

The 6131 NFC is due to launch in Q2 2007

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New NSeries handsets announced at CES

January 8, 2007 at 3:49 pm by Jay | In Mobile News

Today Nokia have announced the launch of three new NSeries handsets at CES (Consumer Electronic Show) which is held in Las Vegas. First of the handsets is the N76:

The Nokia N76 is a very slim clamshell phone, running Symbian Series 60 software. The specification is now quite standard for a phone of this type; QVGA screen, Bluetooth, Tri band GSM and 3G connectivity, 2.0 megapixel camera and expandable memory up to 2GB:

N76 (WinCE).jpg
N76 + speaker (WinCE).jpg

N93i

The N93i has been rumoured for a while, with pictures leaked onto the internet a few weeks ago. In basic terms the N93i takes the feature set of the N93 and give it an aesthetic makeover, offering the features and functionality of the N93 in a nice new shiny silver body

N93i 1 (WinCE).jpg

N93i 2 (WinCE).jpg

Finally we have the Nokia N800. The N800 is a linux based tablet, with no telephony features built in. You can use the N800 to connect to the internet via WiFi, or make calls via the internet, similar to using skype. Play back music, watch videos, use as a satnav device. Send and receive emails, communicate via instant messaging, use the built in camera as a web cam.

N800 1 (WinCE).jpg

N800 2 (WinCE).jpg

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Nokia E65

January 5, 2007 at 4:30 pm by Jay | In Mobile News

Spotted over on http://www.slashphone.com/87/6200.html pictures rumoured to be the Nokia E65. With CES (Consumer Electronic Show) and 3GSM due in the next few weeks it’s very likely most of the major manufacturers have some new phones for us to see. Expect this to be the one of many rumours between now and then. Topline spec of the E65 include:

Quadband GSM & 3G
352 x 416 16m colour display (Same display as the current E60)
70MB internal memory
Expandable memory with Micro SD card
Connectivity with IrDA, Bluetooth, WiFi, Pop port (Connecting to USB)
Series 60v3
2.0 megapixel camera with auto focus

Most importantly, it seems Nokia learnt from the mistake they made with the N80 and have given the E65 a decent battery. It appears it is the same as the N73 battery. The E65 is expected to release in Q2/Q3 this year. Pictures from mobilmania.sk below:

E65.jpg

E65 side view.jpg

E65 back view.jpg

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