My name is Jack Bailey; I’m 20 and currently taking up the opportunity to join Mobiles.co.uk on my placement year at university. I’ve always been interested in anything technological and having owned my fair share of mobiles stretching from the very basic to the very unreliable and eventually to a few that have impressed me enough to want to share some of the more interesting offers and products that I have recently learnt about since joining the team.

Somewhat off the subject, I enjoy anything with a controller, remote or on switch… slightly addicted to Xbox live I have to confess, in particular Fifa 08 with my beloved Tottenham Hotspurs (season ticket holder… Park Lane! for anyone that knows what that means) and bit of a film/cinema enthusiast. I like to think my opinion will be unbiased due to my short time in the mobile field; therefore my aim will be to give the fairest view on any new mobile phones along with the important info.

Looking forward to sharing the facts and my thoughts,

Jack

My name is Dan Morris, 23, having spent just over three and a half years in the mobile phones industry with mobiles.co.uk and considerably longer as a mobile phone enthusiast (yes, I too owned a Philips Savvy!), I have a dedicated interest in all things mobile related! Most of my experience within the company has been in sales which has helped me build up excellent product knowledge and a keen eye for the good, the bad and the down right shoddy.

Further afield, I enjoy most areas of technology including games consoles, personal music players and generally anything electronic plus I class myself as a lover of the beautiful game (that’s football), come on you Bolton Wanderers! I like to think I offer a fair and unbiased opinion though will admit to currently using a black Nokia N82 which is quite frankly awesome!

Look forward to sharing my thoughts and opinions on all things mobile phone!

Dan

Thank you to everyone who has sent us in a review on their mobile phone. If you would like to enter in the next prize draw in September for the opportunity to win a free Canon photo printer then just send us a review of your phone. Let us know what you think of its look, design, features, performance and its good and bad points. Don’t forget to leave your name, email, and location so that we can contact you if you are successful in the draw.

Good luck everyone!

Once the picture has been taken, the choice then is what to do with it. A picture can mean so much too so many, if it is shared. There are many services available to you to enable you to share your pictures with as many people as possible.

On a simple level, you can send a picture captured on your phone by MMS picture messaging, to a handset of a friend or family member. MMS can also be sent to an email address. Sending via MMS rescales the picture so it can be sent via the network servers. Therefore if you are going to send a captured picture to an email address it is much better sent via your handsets email client. Sending this way has two advantages;
1: The picture is sent in its full size
2: It is most likely the cost will be cheaper than sending directly via MMS. Depending on which data plan you use, the cost of sending an email will often be cheaper than the flat rate fee charged for MMS.

Another way of sharing your pictures is via your own blog. You can send pictures from your phone directly to your blog via email; the subject of the email will be the title of your blogpost, the picture will be stored as per your preset defaults and the body of the email text will be the main text on your blog. This is an excellent way for posting pictures online quickly and simply. If you have many pictures you want to share then you can take advantage of one of the online portals, such as OVI from Nokia.

OVI is Finnish for door. Nokia are arranging the OVI portal as a door to their online services. So you will find links to Nokia maps, Nokia Music Store and for online photo storage, which is located under the Share banner. The OVI Share site is Twango from old, Nokia bought out Twango and it is being listed now on OVI as Share.

Through OVI, you can group your photos together on one main page, and also arrange them into different channels. So you can have a channel for your best friend’s wedding, a channel for your holiday, a channel for family pictures, the work’s Christmas party, etc. Once all of your photos have been tagged and arranged into their respective channels you can share them with the world, or if the pictures are personal, just choose to share the channels with people whom you authorise to view them. With OVI you can add friends to your profile, much as you can on many social networking sites, which allows them to see your latest updates, and also you will see all new public photos they post, or private channels to which they have authorised you to view. Much more than just a photo sharing site, OVI allows you to network with your friends and see their latest uploads.

The channels you create on OVI can be embedded into your blog, and presented as a slideshow or thumbnails, with code that is created for you on the OVI site. Alternatively you can link to individual photos from your channels into your blog or forums, again using embed code provided by OVI.

Much like using a Nokia mobile phone is simple and straightforward, so is using OVI. Everything is logically laid out and simple to navigate. If you use a Nokia NSeries phone you can also download the share application to your handset, which integrates the online service with the gallery and camera application on your handset.

The magic of a photo is best enjoyed when shared, the only question to answer is which way works for you?

In a future blog post I’ll talk about how good or bad different handsets are for the mobile web so if you have an opinion on your own mobile experience then please do leave some feedback on our mobile phone reviews page.

The mobile websites available today are a step above what used to be available, so here, in no particular order, is a list of 10 of my favourite sites:

Yahoo
Yahoo is one of the original websites and to be fair was always one of the best. For ages the goal of many mobile users was to have access to Instant messaging on their phones. Thing is, most people used MSN messenger, which is a shame because if they used Yahoo they could have had access to Yahoo Messenger on their mobiles. Also available via the Yahoo website is access to your Yahoo Mail. Two of the most wanted mobile services ever since the idea of the ‘mobile internet’ was pushed, and Yahoo had it from the start. The new Yahoo mobile site is very slick and well laid out, easy to navigate and find what you are looking for. Point your phone’s browser to uk.m.yahoo.com/ for Yahoo Mobile.

BBC
The BBC is always there or there abouts with new technology. They have one of the best websites available for news and resource, and their mobile website is none too shabby either. It has recently been given a facelift, reflecting the improved functionality of web browsing on a phone. Easy to use and search, the BBC mobile website comes highly recommended, for keeping up to date with the latest news to finding out the latest score. BBC mobile can be found at bbc.co.uk/mobile.

Facebook
It’s the mobile social network that everyone seems to use. Sure, there are others, but Facebook appears to be the one that everyone has an account on by default. As expected, the site is simple to use and well designed. Mobile Facebook gives access to the most popular features, such as the ever annoying poke and wall messages, plus the option to browse through photos and profile details of all your friends. In a recent article, Vodafone said that Facebook is the most visited mobile site by their subscribers. For Facebook mobile go to m.facebook.com.

Weather.com
If the English didn’t have the weather to talk about, conversation levels would drop by 50%, at least. With Mobile Weather.com you can ensure that you are up to date with the latest information on the most important topic of the day. As well as giving forecasts for your local area, you can also search out weather reports for destinations around the world, ideal for research before you head off on holiday, meaning you don’t need to take that sweater, just in case. Weather.com mobile can be found at wap.weather.co.uk.

Google
Google offer a range of very useful services and most of these have been ported successfully to the mobile site too. The trademark design of the Google website, with the minimalist design and plain white background works well on a mobile phone, meaning the page loads quickly and is easy to view in most situations. From the main Google mobile page you can access Web Search, Gmail, even Google maps. Google’s main mobile portal is m.google.com

Google Reader
I’ve kept this separate from the main Google detail, because I think it deserves a mention in its own right. Google reader is simply a news reader, that collects information from various news services and presents them in a simple easy to navigate way. As easy to view on mobile as it is on PC, Google Reader offers probably the best method of keeping up to date with your favourite news items. For Google Reader go to www.google.com/reader/m.

Twitter
Social networking is the buzz of the moment on the net, and we have already looked at Facebook. Twitter is a popular site for mobile users, mainly because users can send updates on their current ’status’ via SMS. And that is pretty much what you do with Twitter. You can choose to follow people and every time they update their status you will see this reflected in your main feed. Simple, for sure, but very effective. Twitter mobile can be found at m.twitter.com.

Amazon
I like to buy books. I also like a good bargain. These two details are matched together perfectly with the Amazon mobile site. When I go book shopping, very often I am happy to pay the shop price for the advantage of being able to take the book home with me there and then. Sometimes, though, if I think an item is overpriced all I need to do is take my phone to Amazon and type in the ISBN into the search box to see if that item is being sold at a cheaper price. For a couple of pounds it probably isn’t worth the wait, and when you add in postage the saving is negligible. There have been occasions though when I have found books at almost a 50% price discount to what is being charged in the shop, and that is a saving definitely worth having. To check the best book deals go to m.amazon.com.

CNN
When you are looking for news coverage, it is very hard to get past the spin and into the meat of the real story. CNN have developed a reputation for delivering fast, accurate news. The site has a slight bias towards American news but that can be useful for finding out what is going on with our American cousins across the water. Balanced out between the BBC and CNN most major news stories tend to be covered. Also useful for keeping up to date with the latest American sports news. The mobile URL for CNN is m.cnn.com.

MSN
Microsoft never really took to the mobile web scene in the early years. Users of one of the most popular free email services of the time, Hotmail, were crying out for mobile access to their email but it was slow in coming. The MSN mobile site now links to Hotmail, and also offers access to messenger plus gives a useful run down on the latest news stories. In the mobile arena at least, Yahoo have always been a step or three ahead of MSN. For MSN on your phone go to m.msn.com.

The free Nintendo Wii Fit is a promotion on many of our mobile phone deals; as part of a bundle with the free Nintendo Wii or on its own which is great if you already own a Wii.

The Wii Fit can change the way you exercise, the way you balance and even the way you move through Yoga, Balance activities, stretches and other activities. Combine fun with fitness! There’s also many games coming out in the future that use the board, including Skater Pro and Namco Skiier.

To see all the phones with a free Wii Fit click here or alternatively take a look at our Nintendo Wii with Wii Fit deals.

The offer coincides with the launch of the Orange exclusive colour variants on the W910i – exclusive to Orange in red and the W590i in pink. There is a leaflet in the box that explains how to redeem your 50 free tracks.

MobileAct Unsigned airs every Sunday on T4 at 12.35 and is a nationwide search to find the best of Britain’s talent. It’s hosted by Alex Zane and features some of the industries leading players, including Radio 1’s Jo Whiley, Alex James the bassist from Blur and Simon Gavin, the head of A&M Records. The winner gets a record deal worth 1 million pounds. See www.mobileact.co.uk or visit the Orange WAP site for more information and downloads.

How so? Well, Visa Delta is a popular debit card, and Delta is a huge American airline - so guess which one 3 went for?

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The increase in popularity of text messaging has had some unfortunate side effects, however. As you can see from the picture, some mobile keypads are not as strong as others. The pictured phone belongs to a colleague here at mobiles.co.uk and she has only had it for 9 months!

So, with this in mind, here are Mobiles.co.uk top three tips for increasing the life of your mobile phone keypad:

1. Cut your nails – Seriously, ladies, do they really have to be so long?
2. Wear gloves – The soft cotton kind are found to be best
3. Don’t text, call – Unlimited texts are great, but do you really need to hold a whole conversation by SMS?

My name is Daniella EL Magowry, I work in the marketing department of Mobiles.co.uk and will be posting articles now and again for the blog. I am a placement student from the University of Hertfordshire where I am taking a Business Studies degree. Previously I have worked in a mobile phone wholesale company called Elite Mobile.

I love all girly, funky phones and accessories. I currently have the LG Chocolate and Motorola V3 in pink. The latest handsets I am interested in at the moment are the Sony Ericsson W580i in pink and the new funky coloured Mandarina Duck collection. When I’m not busy in the marketing department I like listening to music and love belly dancing! I also enjoy going out to clubs, concerts and the theatre.

I hope you enjoy reading the articles that I post and find the information useful.

Daniella