Best Phone Blog

It has been announced that several iPhone owners have reported that they are being charged with high data roaming charges on their accounts despite the fact that they have already disabled the function on their mobile phones.

As most of you already know, travelling outside of the UK can result in really high roaming charges –especially for data. This is the reason why so many people opt to disable their roaming capabilities prior to leaving the country. Also, a data cap has been implemented on all accounts (unless specifically requested by users). This are among the several measures that have been implemented in order to prevent excess charging costs for users.

Smart phone owners often know well ahead of time to manually disable roaming features on their mobile phones, but it appears that for those using an iPhone, that step is hardly enough.

According to various iPhone owners, their monthly bills have been increased by a sudden surge of data roaming charges. Fortunately, most networks understand the situation easily enough to offer to refund excess payments or in cases of unpaid charges, the excess amounts can be canceled from the bill. Such direct action is always appreciated, but it also implies that networks are already well aware of the problem.

Currently, Apple is already facing plenty of criticism for the way it handled the whole situation with the antenna on the Apple iPhone 4. To admit that the iOS has issues with roaming is going to cost the Cupertino based company plenty, and further ruin their already struggling reputation in the mobile industry.

Anyway, for those who have recently travelled outside of the UK with an iPhone handset and found themselves with a large bill with data roaming charges, it would be a good idea to have a quick talk with a representative from your mobile network.

For many years, Research in Motion has been catering specifically to business clients and smart phone users who heavily use email and texting features. BlackBerry handsets are primarily known for their physical keyboards –this actually explains why the term CrackBerry was coined several years ago.

For those who are not familiar with the term, Crackberry was used to refer to a form of smart phone addiction that was obtained because it was the first time that users had been able to send, receive and reply to emails instantly –like a supersized form of severe text messaging habits.

Anyway, going back to the topic at hand; RIM has decided to take the BlackBerry user experience to a whole new direction –with media. Media playback was always a side feature for BlackBerry handsets and never a main feature. BlackBerry’s OS 6 aims to change that, by delivering video and music content in a whole new way.

The first things we noticed with the new layout: how closely it resembles Apple’s iOS color schemes -from the heavy use of gray tones to the slight gradients. Thankfully, RIM brought in enough of their own elements to make the design their own. Users will certainly enjoy being able to see the album art embedded in music files, and how video playback controls have been streamlined.

Of course, no matter how much RIM improves the media playback experience on the operating system, the real issue still lies with the hardware. One of the main reasons why BlackBerry handsets are not the first choice for video playback is because most BB handsets come with small screens. This is due to the portrait oriented physical keyboard that the brand is most known for.

As impressed as we are with the media improvements on the BlackBerry OS 6, it will be a while before RIM is able to change their brands’ market range. At the same time, it is unlikely that any other company could take away their existing share of users.

HTML5 is considered to be one of the newest and most promising features of the internet today. It is bringing together media and interactive content to users in lieu of the much slower and less stable Flash format.

Apple has been backing HTML5 heavily and has been keen on making Flash obsolete. While they are a long way from being able to phase out the old format, they are certainly doing great by establishing the HTML5 format as the new platform that designers should use.

According to a recent report, YouTube Mobile is now running in HTML5. This makes the website accessible from the iPhone, iPod and iPad devices from Apple. The iOS can only support HTML5 and not Flash –which has rendered many website inaccessible to Apple users.

Despite this, Apple still stands behind many other mobile phone makers in terms of format compatibility. It is expected that by next year, most platforms would be able to support both Flash and HTML5, while Apple would only have access to HTML5. This is because Apple had chosen not to support Flash –which caused a major falling out between the Adobe and Apple.

In the meanwhile, Apple is still dealing with the issue regarding the iPhone 4’s antenna. The problem began when users noticed that the device had a tendency to lose signal power when the antenna on the side was touched. With the number of complaints regarding dropped calls increasing, it was only a matter of time before Apple sprung into action. However, their solution was something that users did not expect; Apple released a patch that corrected the signal meter to show a proper strength.

While the patch did help identify areas with weak receptions better, many felt that the patch was not a real solution and only served to divert the attention of users from the real hardware issue that they were complaining about.

If you just recently bought a smart phone, then chances are you are new to apps. While the technicality behind it may not be so unfamiliar, there is still a significant degree of difference to the mentality behind getting apps for a mobile phone and apps for other electronic devices like a computer or a laptop.

Unlike desktop computers, laptops and other hardware, the smart phone is an in-pocket tool that people carry around almost the whole day, every day. While fitting it in with plenty of apps is tempting, that would prove to be very counterproductive, what is important is determining what apps are needed and what are not. And there are plenty available, whether you choose the Bada operating system (as seen in the new Samsung Wave 2), the Google Android OS (with it’s flagship phone, the Nexus One) or the latest iPhone.

For new users, the best thing to do is to avoid “tool” apps that are meant to enhance, change or alter the current performance of your phone or mobile operating system. The reason for this is that despite the fact that many experts would recommend such tweaks, the smart phone is a personal tool, and what might be convenient and effective for one person does not necessarily apply to you. Give the handset several months of use before you learn what kind of adjustments you would like to see and get the appropriate tool apps if available.

Games a major type of apps that people go for, and this is something that one should try out. Playing games will make a user more familiar with the control and response of a handset. Just be sure to download content in moderation and avoid storing too many rarely used games that would clog up your menu.

Lastly, check your interests. Be it personal or professional, there are plenty of apps for people have different interests. From media to travelling to food to clothing, these apps can range from simple reference guides to real-time internet based apps that provide you with the latest news, updates and even location based services.