New Blogger at Mobiles.co.uk

August 8, 2008 at 6:55 am by Jack | In Mobile News, Just for fun

Hi,

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

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Free Pay As You Go Nokia on all O2 contracts: Christmas comes early at Mobiles.co.uk!

August 6, 2008 at 10:32 am by Dan | In Mobile News

nokia-1650.jpgHere at Mobiles.co.uk we like to think we’re unsurpassed when it comes to free gifts on contract mobile phones. So it should be of little surprise that our successful “Free Pay as you go” campaign is making a return. For a limited time, all orders for an O2 contract mobile phone from our extensive range will get a free Nokia 1650, a Virgin Pay as you go sim card and £10 worth of airtime credit. Yes i know, we do spoil you!

The Nokia 1650 is ideal as a first mobile phone or for those who just need a phone for making and receiving calls (yes, they do exist!). Inside the compact black 80g phone you’ll find three pre-loaded games, an FM radio, built-in hands free and a flashlight. Plus the battery life makes for good reading too; you can expect up to 420 hours on standby and 8 hours of talk-time. And when you take out any contract on O2, you’ll get this cracking little phone absolutely free! And no, we haven’t gone mad during last weeks heatwave, we just like to go that extra mile!

Running for a limited time, click here to bag yourself a summer holidays bargain!

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007 Gets a Titanium Sony Ericsson C902

August 5, 2008 at 12:54 pm by Jay | In Mobile News

James Bond 007If there is one thing we can be sure about James Bond, it’s that the man likes his gadgets. It is a bit of a surprise to learn, therefore, that 007 has only been using a mobile phone in films since 1997, when he used the Ericsson JB988 in Tomorrow Never Dies.

r380The JB988 was a concept design by Ericsson, (Ericsson didn’t become Sony Ericsson until 2001) and a phone of that style was never actually released to the public. Clearly Ericsson had dropped the ball, the ‘James Bond’ phone became the most requested handset in mobile retail, product placement for a product that doesn’t exist was a bit of a blunder! In 2000 Ericsson released a handset called the r380, which many assumed to be the JB988, although there are significant design differences.

jb988The JB988 was a very advanced handset for its time. Features of the phone included a stun gun, a fingerprint reader, a removable antenna (mobile phones still had external antenna in those days) which doubled as a lock pick, and an option to remotely control Bond’s BMW. The Ericsson JB988 played a prominent role in the first part of Tomorrow Never Dies, helping Bond to escape from Dr Kaufman using the stun gun setting, open a secure safe using the fingerprint scanner and of course, the famous car chase where Bond controlled his BMW, driving via remote control from the back seat.

p800t68iFor his next outing The World is Not Enough, Bond had apparently run out of inclusive minutes as there weren’t any notable appearances from Sony Ericsson to speak of. But by Die Another Day, it appears Sony Ericsson (as they were now known) had learnt from their mistake of not using an actual phone available to purchase in Tomorrow Never Dies, and used the Sony Ericsson T68i and Sony Ericsson P800 in the film. At the beginning of the film a P800 is used to take a picture of Bond whilst he is undercover posing as a diamond dealer. Information is sent back to the handset revealing his true identity. Later in the film a T68i is used by agent Giacinta ‘Jinx’ Johnson as a countdown timer and detonator to blow up the gene therapy clinic. Finally a phone for all us budding 007’s!

casino royale k800Most recently in the latest Bond film, Casino Royale, 007 is seen using a Sony Ericsson K800i. In the film he uses a silver K800i which was released exclusively in the UK on the O2 network. The handset in the film was shown to support GPS, although in real life the K800i did not have this feature. m600.gifBut did Bond use Facewarp between missions? We’ll never know! There were also other Sony Ericsson mobile phones in the film, as text messaging played a significant part of the early plot, with the word ELLIPSIS being sent via text. ELLIPSIS turned out to be the password for entering the secure area at Miami airport, typed into an alpha-numeric keypad, corresponding to the numbers 35541141. Later on in the movie treasury official Vesper Lynd is seen sending and receiving email on a Sony Ericsson M600. A message is left on the M600 for Bond, giving the name of Mr White, and his mobile number.

c902 titanium silverAnd for his latest adventure, entitled The Quantum of Solace, once again 007 will be equipped with a Sony Ericsson mobile phone, a limited edition titanium silver Sony Ericsson C902, which we got the scoop on back in March. The C902 is one of the most feature packed handsets released from Sony Ericsson to date, including a superb 5.0 megapixel camera, large internal memory capacity and high speed mobile broadband connectivity. There is no word yet on any enhancements Q will add to the phone!

The limited edition C902 will be available to purchase exclusively on the O2 network, and is expected to be released in October, before the film release which is on the 31st October.

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HTC Touch Diamond review: The Jewel in HTC’s Crown!

August 4, 2008 at 2:38 pm by Dan | In Mobile News

HTC Touch DiamondThe HTC Touch Diamond has been gathering massive popularity since its launch so I decided to have a little one on one time with the Touch Screen Smartphone to see what all the fuss is about. Having never previously owned a Windows Mobile based phone and with a few fleeting experiences with previous HTC models (the TyTN very nearly made me put my money where my mouth was) I was going into this as a novice.

On taking delivery of the phone, you certainly get the impression you’ve got something special thanks to the Diamond’s elegant packaging. The design of the phone itself certainly doesn’t fail to win you over either; the focal point on the front is that delicious 2.8″ Touchscreen which takes up the most real estate, 4 face buttons and a navigation key, and in the top right corner the phone’s secondary video calling camera. The back is the aspect that gives the HTC Touch its name owing to the Diamond effect similar to that found on the Nokia 7500 Prism. It must be pointed out it looks far nicer on the Diamond due to the black, highly polished materials used. Now call me childish but my favourite feature in this department is the magnetic stylus which is pulled back in to the slot magnetically. Sorry but there’s no other word for this but cool!

HTC touch screenThe Touch Screen found on the Diamond features the HTC TouchFLO 3D navigation meaning flicking through menus with a swipe of your finger is possible. Precision is the name of the game here; it can be tricky at first but after a while will become second nature. The aforementioned stylus comes in useful when running more intricate programmes and various methods of input make this easy too. Alpha-numeric, compact QWERTY and full QWERTY keypad are all available as is handwriting recognition which I was particularly impressed with, though I found it amusing that HTC haven’t added the word “stylus” to the predictive dictionary!

The phone operates on Windows Mobile 6.1 meaning you get a lot of the same perks as your home PC. The home screen has the familiar Start menu plus quick access to your call logs and calendar entries. Pocket office includes mobile versions of Excel, PowerPoint and Word plus Windows favourites Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player and Windows Live Messenger. And because it’s Windows, after a while I felt I could have used this phone blindfolded, every thing is where you would expect it to be and if you can’t find the file or folder you’re looking for, just search for it!

The camera on the HTC Diamond is 3.2 Megapixel and shoots to a good level of quality (sample image righthtc diamond sample pic) but unfortunately lacks a flash of any kind. The Zoom is controlled with the touchscreen which feels quite intuitive and the large vivid display is great for budding David Bailey’s out there! Other features include an array of colour effect, contrast, white balance and a self-timer. Hardly the jewel in its crown (excuse the pun!), the camera is never the less competent and a welcome upgrade from the bog standard 2.0 Megapixel camera that gets lazily thrown in on most smart phones. Video recording is also adequately covered in CIF at 30 fps though it’s nothing to shout about.

Thanks to the 4Gb internal memory found on the Touch Diamond, multimedia is well covered too. All the major file formats are supported including MP3, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA and play through Windows Media Player with a host of equalizer options. Video also plays nicely on the large display. The real draw in this department is an application called MP3 Trimmer which allows you to crop MP3 tracks to effectively make your own ringtones. Sound a bit unexciting? Think again, now you can have that sweet guitar solo as your ringtone, or your favourite movie quote or catchphrase as your text message alert. Trust me, 5 minutes playing around with this and you’ve already justifiedHTC diamond touch your new purchase, it’s that much fun!

Additional features include a built in GPS receiver for SatNav and Google maps support, 3.5G HSDPA connectivity for super fast downloads and web browsing, a weather forecast application (see my previous post on mobile weather reports, proof that I’m psychic!), YouTube support and a wealth of customization options.

Obvious comparisons will be drawn between the HTC Touch Diamond and the new Apple iPhone. But in my honest opinion, the more pocketable size and familiar user interface, plus that ingenious magnetic stylus, sets the Diamond apart and proves you don’t have to have a piece of fruit as your logo to make a great touchscreen mobile phone!

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Nokia N78 Mobile Phone Review: Hidden Gem

July 29, 2008 at 11:21 am by Dan | In Mobile News

nokia n78 The Nokia N78 raised a few eyebrows in the office when it was first announced as no one could quite put their finger on where exactly it fits in the Nokia range. First things first; the design: it’s hardly going to revolutionise mobile phones as we know them but it is an attractive piece of kit. Build quality, as you would expect from Nokia’s Nseries, is excellent with a nice weight to the phone (despite its diminutive size) and a nice polished effect that does manage to avoid getting completely covered with grubby fingerprints. What first strikes you is the keypad which is fully backlit meaning that when the phone is switched off or not in use then the keys are invisible. The only exception being the four raised strips that are the part that you actually press to enter a number/text etc.

While pleasing to the eye, this definitely takes a bit of getting used to even for those text-aholics out there. After spending some time playing around with the handset however, I did find you do become quite accustomed to this new style of keypad. One aspect that failed to win me over was the silver strip which forms the side of the phone as I prefer a phone as all one colour, though you can put that down to personal preference. On the back we find a nice textured effect and the N78’s camera and the absence of a lens cover which is also a cause for concern.

This leads us nicely onto the camera. Featuring a 3.2 megapixel camera sporting auto-focus and an LED flash, the interesting feature of the camera is the support for Geo tagging which uses the in-built GPS to tag where a photo was taken - this information is then stored with the image and can be used with other software such as Flickr and Google Maps. Aside from this the N78 offers extensive settings starting from manual white balance and ISO sensitivityn78 and sharpness and contrast settings as well as various effects. Resulting picture quality is quite good though not likely to trouble Nokia’s flagship camera phones the N95 8GB and N82. Colours are precise and natural as is the sharpness (sample picture right). The N78 is equipped with a 2.4″ 16 million colour display of QVGA resolution improving the experience further. Video is also covered, shooting in VGA resolution at 15 fps which works quite well.

In terms of music the N78 is well covered from the off thanks to a 2GB memory card and stereo headphones with a remote control for ease of use. Plus thanks to the 3.5mm audio output jack, you’re not limited to which headphones you want to use. All the major file formats are supported including MP3, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA and navigating your music once it’s on the phone is made easy thanks to Nokia’s user friendly menus. The real crowning glory in this area and to be honest, the stand out feature of the N78, is the FM Transmitter. Put simply, activating this in the phone menu means the N78 will search for a blank radio frequency then all you have to do is tune into that station on a radio and everythinUnboxed N78g you play on your phone will play back through the radio. EVERYTHING!

Maybe I’m getting over excited about this but as a previous owner of an iTrip for my old iPod, this feature is awesome! Tuning in to the corresponding radio station on your stereo means all that music on your phone is now playing through those nice big speakers. No wires, no docking station, just some sort of magic! This is a brilliant feature that also appears in the upcoming Sony Ericsson W980 and that is sure to become a regular feature among Walkman and other multimedia orientated devices.

n78 in handAway from the media side, the N78 is a capable Symbian handset running on series 60, has a built in GPS receiver with A-GPS support working with the Nokia Maps application. The N78 is one of the best GPS handsets Nokia have released to date and is very quick to get a lock on a GPS signal.

To conclude, the adage don’t judge a book by its cover springs to mind. The N78 is a great all rounder with something to appeal to everyone but isn’t going to break the bank if you take the plunge. Yes the keypad takes a little getting used to and the subtle understated design may not be to everyone’s tastes. Look past these minor issues and you will discover a world of fun with the FM transmitter, a capable camera with a healthy list of options and an excellent GPS device.

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Sony Ericsson announce Z780

July 28, 2008 at 1:52 pm by Jay | In Mobile News, Coming Soon Handsets

Sony Ericsson Z780The Sony Ericsson Z780 is a quad band GSM handset, with support for 3G and Mobile Broadband HSDPA. It also includes a GPS chip and support for a-GPS.

The clamshell design on the Z780 suggests nothing special. In many ways the Z780 looks like one of any number of mobile phones currently available but underneath the simple looking design we find a phone that is packed with top end features. Pre-installed on the handset is Google Maps for Mobile which can be used in conjunction with the built in GPS receiver, offering the end user the option of satellite navigation capabilities on their mobile phone. The addition of a-GPS support allows for a quicker GPS lock to give you a faster fix on your location.

The compact Z780 measures in 92mm x 49mm x 16mm and weighs just 100g. The main screen is a QVGA TFT screen measuring in at 2.2 inches and supporting up to 256,000 colours. The external screen is a 36 x 128 pixel monochrome display.

The Sony Ericsson Z780 includes a 2.0 megapixel camera with video record capability and is compatible with the Sony Ericsson blogger service. This means you can quickly and easily upload your pictures to your favourite blog, instantly sharing your images with friends and family. The Z780 has a built in MP3 player, an FM radio and also includes the excellent Track ID feature.

The clamshell design Z780 is expected to release sometime during Q2 2008 and is expected in both black and silver colour variants. Register your interest here to be kept informed on when we have more details.

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Samsung Omnia Preview: is there anything it can’t do?

July 22, 2008 at 10:09 am by Dan | In Mobile News, Coming Soon Handsets

samsung omnia i900Korean electronics conglomerate Samsung has announced some interesting launch related information for their Windows Mobile based touch screen powerhouse; the Samsung Omnia. Firstly the concrete information; Samsung has announced that the Omnia, also known as the i900, will be available in Italy from the 22nd of July. Why is this newsworthy you ask? Well, those generous chaps over at Samsung HQ have decided that everyone in Italy who pre-orders the device will get a free Xbox 360. Free games consoles are offered on various different pay monthly contracts but to offer it on a sim free pre-order is as baffling as it is brilliant!

The second bit of information and the bit that should have the rest of us waiting with baited breath is that the Omnia will be dropping in the rest of Europe by late August. As to why the world cup holders are getting this special treatment (answers anyone???) and if anyone else can expect the same Xbox treatment is unknown and unlikely respectively.

Omnia, the Latin word for everything is just that, managing to cram in more features than you can shake a stick at! Are you ready? Ok, deep breath here goes, let’s start with the camera; the Omnia packs in an amazing 5.0 megapixel camera with auto focus, face detection, smile detection (waiting for all the faces in the shot to smile before capturing!), image stabiliser, flash and QVGA video recording at 30 fps. Reads like the spec list of a standalone digital camera doesn’t it?

And we’re not finished there, oh no! Being a smartphone, the Omnia runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 meaning pocket versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, a built in GPS receiver so wandering around lost will become a thing of the past, HSDPA mobile broadband connectivity, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Handwriting recognition. Apologies if this has turned into a bit of a list of what a mobile could and should do. That’s what it feels like Samsung have done with the Omnia. They weren’t kidding with that “everything” moniker.

Almost done. Now just the small matter of multimedia. Think you’re going be short of things to do on that stunning 3.2″ TFT touchscreen? Well with up to 16Gb of onboard memory, expandable memory up to a further 8Gb and support for DivX, Xvid, MP3/4 and AAC plus a whole host of others, think again! Quite simply, if Samsung pull this off the Omnia could be the most complete mobile phone ever!

Look out for our hands on review in the weeks leading up to its late August launch and register your interest here if you want to be emailed once we have more details.

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Brown Samsung Tocco now available at Mobiles.co.uk!

July 18, 2008 at 2:14 pm by Dan | In Mobile News

brown samsung toccoThe newest member of the Samsung Tocco family has now launched at Mobiles.co.uk sporting a stylish new rich Brown look. Though from the front the Brown Tocco appears almost identical to the original, round the back is where the action really is. Rather than lazily just colouring the back of the phone brown, Samsung have opted for a quality leather finish giving a real sense of style and texture to this top notch mobile phone and that’s not to say that the original Tocco wasn’t a handsome customer to begin with.

In terms of the feature list, no change to the Tocco from its first incarnation means we get an excellent 5.0 Megapixel camera with video, autofocus, face detection, flash and arguably the best camera interface of all the touchscreen mobile phones to date. 3G HSDPA mobile broadband connectivity means using the phones excellent web browser is lightning fast. Then onto the obvious stuff, we find Bluetooth v2.0, MP3/AAC/AAC+ player and a memory card slot supporting microSD cards up to 8Gb. (See our mobile phone definitions page if some of these terms seem to be in a foreign language to you!)brown tocco

Samsung, clearly a firm believer in the saying variety is the spice of life, have been incredibly quick to pounce on consumers demand for assortment of options when choosing a mobile phone. Recent releases saw the Samsung Soul launching in Graphite and Silver, followed shortly by the new Pink Soul and soon to be joined in the range by the latest Midnight edition. Looking further back, the hugely popular U600 had a number of colour variations with some still coming (Black and Gold U600 anyone?).

No other colours have been confirmed for the Tocco (it has only been out for a month) but it would be foolish to bet against a Pink Tocco in the pipeline. What is clear is that Samsung, more than any other major manufacturer, have capitalised on the demand for diversity!

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Apple iPhone 3G: short on stock, but short of competition?

July 17, 2008 at 3:31 pm by Dan | In Mobile News

Apple iPhone 3GApple’s new iPhone 3G is now with us having launched just over a week ago and while stock shortages mean it’s as elusive as the Loch Ness monster, people cannot stop talking about it. With the internet rife with stories of queues outside stores and many customers heading home empty handed, have Apple slipped up with the supply of the hotly anticipated 3G incarnation of the iPhone?

After the original iPhone failed to meet targets, leaving retailers with large quantities of stock without a home, it appears this time round Apple have tried to play it safe and in turn underestimated the demand, which may come back to haunt them.

The original 2G iPhone initially suffered from over supply and again went off the boil in past months as rumours circulated over talk of a possible 3G successor. Now with the iPhone 3G, have Apple shot themselves in the foot with over cautiousness? The new iPhone features various improvements over the original phone; all important 3G connectivity, a slimmer more compact body, both 8 and 16Gb flavours and also supports a host of different applications, crucially from 3rd parties. Apple also know a thing or two about how to create some excitement around the launch of a new product but what good is excitement if you don’t have the stock to back it up?Samsung Tocco

With no shortage of contenders for the iPhone’s multimedia crown, the last thing they need is a lack of hardware to meet with customer demand. Recent months have already seen the launch of the Samsung Tocco, a slick, touch screen, multimedia phone with notable advantages such as the vastly superior 5 Megapixel camera featuring auto-focus and face detection and the fact that you can actually buy one! An excellent selling point I think you will agree! Add to the mix expandable memory up to 8Gb, an excellent 2.8″ touch screen and support for major file formats, the Samsung Tocco and its new brown edition is a worthy contender.

nokia n96And the future looks just as troubling for the California based company, as Nokia are expected to launch their Nokia N96 in September. Again with an impressive 5 megapixel digital camera built in and Symbian OS which means a whole host of third party apps, the real feature that should have Steve Jobs quaking in his boots is the N96’s 16 GB internal memory, matching that of the top spec 3G iPhone. Optimized as a multimedia handset, the N96 carries over the innovative dual slide design from the Nokia N95. GPS and Wi-Fi complete the spec list.

From Sony Ericsson we eagerly await the launch of the latest handset in the Walkman range, the W980. A flip phone with a smooth black finish, the W980 has a whopping 8Gb of onboard memory to back up Sony Ericsson’s sony ericsson w980iexcellent Walkman player and most interestingly, an FM radio transmitter meaning you can play your music through a radio/ stereo without the fuss of wires or docking units. A 3.2 Megapixel camera and HSDPA mobile broadband connectivity beef up the W980’s spec sheet.

What cannot be dismissed is the simple fact that Apple’s new mobile phone will sell like hot cakes, what remains to be seen is whether the cautious approach they have opted for will cost them in the long term.

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Chinese company announces new mobile phone watches

July 11, 2008 at 4:59 pm by Dan | In Mobile News

mobile phone wrist watchBeam me up Scotty! In an announcement expected to go hand in hand with hover cars and robot servants, Chinese electronics company C-Sky Industrial limited has announced that it will be producing a range of mobile phone wrist watches.

Though not a new idea (see the Samsung GPRS watch phone), these new models (from the pictures at least) stand out from previous failed attempts at converging a watch and a mobile phone due to the sleek design and excellent spec list. Apparently, if these products do ever see the light of day, we can expect Bluetooth, a 1.3 megapixel camera and mp3 playback.

As with many Chinese companies, innovation is the name of the game and what once would have seemed laughable, today seems entirely feasible.

Though many of you will be looking at the watch phone with a large degree of scepticism, what this undoubtedly does go to prove is how far mobile phone technology has come in the pursuit of integrating multiple devices.sony_ericsson-btooth-watch.jpg

Past products which spring to mind in this vein include the Sony Ericsson MBW-100 Bluetooth watch, an incredibly attractive watch which provided owners with excellent features such as caller id and text message alerts on the watch face itself as well as the ability to pair it with an accompanying Bluetooth headset and answer and end calls directly on the watch.

Bluetooth has always been an area of innovation with hundreds of unique applications, from the useful to the downright daft. Now an increase in the amount of fashion orientated products, including Bluetooth wristbands and even a jabra1.jpgBluetooth headset styled as dog tags are becoming ever more popular.

Where past ventures have seen mobile phones partnered with fashion houses such as the giants of Prada and Armani, perhaps the manufacturers are now directing the fashion themselves with the products likening themselves more to jewellery. Should we expect a phone co-launched with a major watch brand?

Whether mobile phone earrings, necklaces or bracelets will materialize in the future remains to be seen, but the future design of mobile phones can be viewed with excitement (and a large pinch of salt!). While for the time being watch phones are still niche and viewed with a hint of negativity it is wise to remember how we all scoffed at camera phones!

So hang on to your jewellery and your fashion phones for the meantime, just don’t be surprised if your next handset ends up replacing that Rolex!

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