Best Phone Blog

It’s the Samsung Genio QWERTY, it comes with various interchangeable covers -perfect for people who are fickle with their color choices, a full QWERTY keyboard which is great for messaging obviously), a built in camera for taking snap shots and of course, email and instant messaging functions.

The nice thing about this phone is that it shows how good Samsung is when it comes to targeting a specific market. Young adults and teens who spend a lot of time using their mobile devices for messaging are the key demographic here. After all, the hip, fresh colors, FM radio and media playback features and the messaging specialization functions really shine when used by younger mobile phone owners.

Device Specs and Features

The Genio QWERTY is a messaging based device that lacks 3G and WiFi features, This means that anyone who like staying connected online will either have to make do with EDGE or take a pass on this device. It’s an odd compromise of hardware considering that it targets a market that focuses heavily on messaging and more importantly connectivity.

The lack of 3G probably explains why the phone focuses more on text messaging and email than anything else. It also provides good media playback capabilities as well as a 2 mega pixel camera for taking photos and short videos.

The 2.2 inch TFT LCD has decent resolution of 176 x 144 pixels. The phone also has 40 MB of internal storage and the microSD card reader can support up to 8GB cards.

Buying the QWERTY

The phone is available on pay as you go deals, which is a good choice for those on a budget. Those who are looking to invest a little more time on the phone will appreciate some of the Samsung Genio QWERTY contracts available on Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange as the device is free on some plans.

Ashley Town, 21-year-old creator of the iPhone Ikee worm, today announced that he had taken up the job of an app developer with Australian company.

The company ‘Mogeneration’, is Australia’s leading iPhone development company and has decided to employ the hacker who developed the Ikee worm that was targeted at jail-broken iPhones and substitutes the victims’ iPhone wallpaper to that of a celebrity ‘Rick Astley’.

The code was indeed full of bugs as earlier versions of the worm usually copied wall paper of previous victim before juxtaposing it with that of Astley. Despite his pranks, Rick Astley has not been arrested neither has he been accused of the said offence.

The hullaballoo surrounding Towns’ worm actually focused on gaping hole in jail-broken iPhones and this was ex post facto exploited by the far more dangerous duh worm, which turns infected devices to mobile botnet drones.

As anticipated, the security world isn’t too satisfied with the new development. Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos, Graham Cluley, commented on his blog “There are plenty of young coders out there who would not have acted so stupidly, are just as worthy of an opportunity inside a software development company, and are actually quite likely to be better coders than Towns who made a series of blunders with his code.”

He also said “I don’t think virus writers shouldn’t be allowed to rehabilitate and do something worthwhile with their lives,” Cluley said. “But it jars with me that Towns has shown no regret for what he did, and that now his utterly irresponsible behaviour appears to have been rewarded. Will Towns be offering a token $5 compensation to all those he infected for the inconvenience he caused? I doubt it.”

Tom Tom has replied to all the allegations surrounding its iPhone app and have corroborated the fact that the cradle and app bundle represent real value for money and that Google’s insistence to add turn by turn navigation isn’t any cause for concern.

All the answers to the questions poised to Tom Tom were comprehensively compiled by MacFormat and put on the Question & Answer part of the website. All the rumblings about the cost of the app have really caused the sat-nav giant to have a re-think on the £100 cradle and £60 Apple iPhone app.

Based on the information obtained from the website, comments left on MacFormat were virtually unanimous in their criticism:

“I would like to see why they think that £160 all in is a fair price! A TomTom is cheaper!”

“Why is the cradle so damn expensive? It’s put me off buying the App and cradle. Can buy a stand alone unit for a lot less.”

The reply from TomTom was “We price our application competitively and also feel that with the existing technologies and our frequent, free updates, we offer a sat nav solution that is value for money.”

One of the major bones of contention in the sat-nav world is actually Google’s decision to navigate into turn-by-turn navigation through its Google Maps and street view but Tom Tom has reiterated that it would cope and that it wasn’t a problem.

A spokesman from TomTom further added, “TomTom strives to provide the best navigation experience. Through technologies, such as IQ Routes, we believe we can provide the best in routing and maps.”

A quick look at the new Pixi will not suffice, the phone just looks too good. It does not matter what angle you come in at, this is one very astounding phone. Sideways, you will not see much of the phone’s features. In fact, sideways, you will hardly see the device at all, the 0.43 inches thinness is incredible; a much slimmer device than the iPhone in fact.

The External

Up front, this device is a beauty, from the neat and shiny keys, to the glossy touch screen to the hard black finish, the colors and texture are very elegant and stylish, meanwhile the form and lines add a sense of depth and trendiness to the phone. Being so small, this little device feels rather cute.

The back of the Pixi is the tradition Palm soft textured backing. The width of the phone also slopes a little inward creating a solid yet comfortable grip.

Hardware and Features

The Palm Pixi comes packed with a full QWERTY  keyboard on the face of the phone. It may seem cramped at first, but a close look reveals that each key has ample spacing in between. A marvel when you consider the width of the device. Even more astounding is its usability. The Pixi’s keyboard is not only responsive, but it can easily be used by one or both hands without much trouble.

The capacitive touch screen may be small at 2.63 inches, but that is all that the Palm needs for all the functions and features you will have. Speaking of functions; applications, files and media can be stored in the 8GB of internal storage. It’s a lot, but considering the lack of a micro SD card slot, it is important to have lots of internal space. The good thing is, it has a micro USB slot for backing up and transferring new media.

The BlackBerry’s Storm 2 is RIM’s second BlackBerry touch screen phone. The Storm series is new and has had a rough start, quite becoming of its name. In this light, RIM has taken the time and effort to create a BlackBerry phone that would still carry the brand name proudly. While their efforts in fixing the problems that plagued the old Storm are excellent (all the previous problems have been fixed), the new Storm 2 still lacks some of the features that make BlackBerry phones unique –namely, messaging capabilities. While the lack of a physical keyboard is understandable, an on screen keyboard on a transmissive touch screen is difficult to use.

Changes from the Original

The Storm 2 9520 features an improved SurePress screen. The contact portion of the old Storm used a central focal point. This meant that tapping the screen near the edges required a stronger push and moving over the center even lightly would accidentally register as a tap. The device uses four focal points that are spread evenly on the edges of the screen (more or less the four corners). This allows users to tap anywhere and it would be recognized. The screen also allowed for multi touch, using the onscreen keyboard now feels more natural because of this by allowing an alternating left right rhythm as compared to a tap-pause-tap rhythm required for the old Storm.

Aside from the screen, this mobile phone also features a better built casing and parts. The buttons no longer easily fall off and the casing no longer has the old gaps that cause dirt build-up.

In Conclusion

The BlackBerry Storm 2 9520 is a nice touch screen phone, but considering that it is a BlackBerry, it still fails to live up to expectations. The fact that it lacks one of the key selling points for other BlackBerry devices (easy messaging) means that this device still has a long way to go. Interested buyers can get this phone from Vodafone on individual or business plans.

The Bold 9700 combines a decent screen, an excellent physical keyboard and an innovative track pad in a single messaging device. No fancy touch screens or high mega pixel cameras here, just straightforward messaging and browsing functionalities.

The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is not a phone for everyone. Considering that it centers mostly on messaging functions, users who rarely need to write long messages will not find much use for this phone. On the other hand, people who heavily rely on instant messaging, text, email and more would find the Bold 9700 as a godsend.

Nice Messaging Features

It all starts with the BlackBerry operating system. This proprietary OS is straightforward and instantly lets you access features with few easy slides on the track pad. The track pad input is very responsive and much less stressful on the fingers as compared to clicking a button.

The keyboard is truly the main gem of the Bold 9700 with all of the buttons nicely aligned and formed in such a way that precision typing is possible. You only need a few moments and you will get used to typing with the buttons. The button design and size allows users to accurately press the right keys despite the close proximity of the keys to each other.

The device also features a 2.44 inch display with a resolution of 480 x 360 pixels. The 3 mega pixel camera provides decent quality images. The internal memory is a scant 256MB but it’s a good thing that the phone also supports microSD cards for extra storage.

Carrier Availability of the Bold 9700

Vodafone and T-Mobile are offering the Bold 9700 this November while Orange Mobile UK still has the device listed as soon to come. The device is free at 35 Pound per month plans on Vodafone and T-Mobile.

The Maemo marketing team disclosed with fellow tech reporters that Nokia is nursing plans to build all their N-series smart phones around the Maemo Operating System. After successfully completing designs of their new smart phones, they will ensure that Maemo becomes their primary Operating System of choice for these high-end multimedia phones.

The marketing team behind the mobile Operating System confirmed this at a Maemo event held in London yesterday. They further disclosed that the Nokia hopes to jettison the use of Symbian in their N-series lineup.

Also, based on the euphoria surrounding the release of Nokia N900, Nokia top shots have concluded that by the year 2012 Maemo Operating System will be the official face of the Nokia high-end family although all Symbian N-series devices already in the development phase will be released as planned.

Despite the positives, It may not too good a news for E or X series users as there are still no plans for bringing Maemo Operating System to this mobile devices. Nokia is equally perplexed by the wide acceptance of Nokia N900 and its Operating system so the adoption of Maemo as the Operating System of choice for all Nokia mobile phones is not completely ruled out.

Below is an excerpt from thereallymobileproject.com, “Although there has been much speculation about the future of Symbian and Maemo and the relationship between the two – Nokia intends to retain both, producing development tools that will work across the two – this is the first official confirmation I am aware of that Symbian is to be relegated from the symbolic N-Series brand.  It’s a bold move by Nokia, but a smart one… Recently Symbian’s greatest strength, its legacy and maturity, has begun to look like an Achilles heel as newer platforms have captured consumers’ imaginations with faster development and better user experience.  A fresh-start was needed at the top-end and it’s come just in time…”

In related news, Nokia has promised to continue supporting both Maemo and Symbian and will hope to enlarge their official apps store – Maemo Select and Ovi Store with increasing applications. They hope to develop enough applications to make the Maemo Operating System a mainstream hit by the year 2012.

Windows Mobile 6.5 on the GM750 sounds a little discouraging for many people who have grown wary of the WinMo interface. LG has helped alleviate this little problem by using their S-Class user interface that would allow users to easily access Windows Mobile features, without having to deal with the awkwardly designed interface. While the S-Class still pales in comparison with the HTC sense; on its own, it is a well made user interface that is easy to use.

The GM750 is the successor of the nice LG device known as the GM730 (well, obviously). The newer GM750 brings slightly better specifications in terms of hardware and also uses the new WinMo 6.5. The GM730 still serves as a good cheap alternative for users who do not need the extra specs. This phone uses Windows Mobile 6.1, but it is upgradeable to version 6.5.

Windows and GM750 Hardware

The Windows Mobile operating system delivers excellent functionality in the form of mobile versions of their desktop applications. These include the Office for Mobile and Windows Media Player 10. The Office for mobile supports Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. The new Media Player supports many media file formats. For additional functionality, the Windows Marketplace allows the purchase and download of various applications to add deeper and a more personalized functionality to the operating system.

The GM750 sports a touch screen with a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels. Images are nicely detailed onscreen. For its size, it delivers good video playback and decent brightness. In direct sunlight, it is a little hard to see the screen – but that is to be expected on all phones.

Vodafone Only

The GM750 will be exclusive to Vodafone until the end of December. As such, they will be the only carrier offering this phone throughout the holiday season; this phone is free on some of their plans. The only other way to get this phone is through retail, SIM-free.

While having unlimited access to 3G network sounds fun (think of all the huge downloads). There is a limit to where you can access the feature and just exactly how large you can download.

What many users are not aware of, (yes, there are plenty) is that the unlimited 3G refers strictly to the amount of time you may be connected to the internet. What is not unlimited is how much you can download. The average limit for all 3G plans is 1GB, once a user downloads more the 1GB worth of data to their phone, the rest of the bytes are metered and billed to the customer.

With many people using their 3G connections for Facebook applications, Twitter and various other social networking websites, the 1GB limit is rarely ever reached. Hundreds of email message will only account for as high as a couple of megabytes at most (provided no images are attached). 10 page document files are around 50-70KB only. Uploaded images on Facebook and similar sites are resized to small downloadable chunks no bigger than 200Kb.

This is why it comes as to no surprise that Jean Spadaro, a doctor from Fontainebleau, found his bill amassing up to 160 thousand Euros pretty staggering. No questions have been raised as to what he was downloading (streaming a lot of HHD videos perhaps), but he is not alone.

Two other Frenchmen have also made public their complaints about their bills from Orange Mobile UK. They claim that Orange have not only failed to clarify the details of the subscriptions, but have also failed to inform them of the slowly increasing bill. However, Orange Mobile has released a statement that they have, in their own power, informed the individuals regarding the bills. Worse, one of the complainants has taken their device outside of France which further increased the bill thanks to roaming charges.

At long last, users of Windows Mobile are finally enjoying access to an application store. An application store is basically an official e-commerce site for specific operating systems that allows users to purchase and download applications for their mobile devices. These downloaded applications offer a broad range of functionality and allows users to customize their mobile phone experience by having the programs and capabilities they need. This freedom however, has not been available to Windows Mobile user for quite some time. It was not until early October of this year (last month) that Microsoft finally launched the Windows Mobile Marketplace –an application store for the Windows Mobile operating system. The launch was done alongside the release of the latest version of Windows mobile, version 6.5

However, at that point, only the new version 6.5 of the operating system had access to the application store and users of older versions of Windows Mobile were still not able to access the Marketplace. Last week’s update announcement regarding the Marketplace gave hope to all users as Microsoft confirmed that they are finally bringing the Marketplace to version 6.0 and 6.1. Along with last week’s announcement is the news that the Marketplace will also be accessible through the computer and that better security features such as anti-piracy will be added.

Microsoft’s anti-piracy update comes as a large boon for many independent application developers who have lost large profits from their hard work being distributed illegally. While Microsoft has not formally disclosed about the processes through which they will be protecting the applications and software, developers are advised to read the white-paper information from Windows Mobile.

With access to older versions, improved security features and even PC access, the Windows Marketplace is quickly trying to catch up with the times and its long delay. There has been no word as to why it has taken them this long to develop the Marketplace and it is unlikely that they will explain why the feature has not been introduced earlier.