Mobile Phone Deals, Latest Mobile Phone News and Reviews

The HTC Touch Diamond is already making waves in the Smartphone market, as it goes head to head with the likes of the iPhone and the Samsung F480. Undoubtedly one of the sexiest looking phones to hit the market in recent years, the HTC Touch Diamond has a 2.8 inch LCD touchscreen with VGA resolution ensuring that the picture is nice and crisp.

This powerhouse of a phone features the latest version of Windows Mobile (6.1 Professional), which makes it easy to write documents, send and receive emails and connect to the internet on the go. The Touch Diamond also features WiFi and HSDPA connectivity for internet speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps.

The TouchFLO 3D software allows the user to navigate through the applications, pictures, music and internet using the touchscreen and is similar in some respects to the iPhone system. An integrated 4GB hard drive has enough space for your files, audio and video and the 3.2 megapixel camera captures those memorable moments.

A secondary camera is mounted on the front for video calls and GPS, A-GPS and Bluetooth are all included. Talk time is good as well, 4.5 hours for WCDMA and 5.5 hours for GMS. All in all the HTC Touch Diamond is set to take the Smartphone market by storm; time will tell if it can knock the iPhone off top spot.

Coming within the next couple of weeks with many of the mobile networks stocking it, prices and contracts vary.

Nokia have announced that they will be buying out software firm Symbian for £209m. The mobile phone giant already owns 48% of the UK based firm and intends to buy out the remaining Symbian shareholders.

Symbian produce the Symbian Operating System, which is the leading Smartphone operating system and is featured on over 110 million Smartphone’s worldwide. Nokia plans to develop this software to rival Google’s Android operating system.

Sony Ericsson, Siemens and Panasonic have all agreed to sell their shares in Symbian, with Samsung expected to accept the offer as well. Symbian has welcomed the takeover stating that it was a fundamental step towards establishing Symbian Foundation, which is due to start operating early 2009.

The Symbian Foundation will bring together the top mobile device firms including: Nokia, AT&T, Sony Ericsson, Texas Instruments and Vodafone to work on a new, royalty free open source software platform for Smartphone’s.

The aim is to bring together several existing Smartphone operating systems, Symbian OS, UIQ, S60 and MOAP.

Orange has announced that a new eco-friendly mobile phone charger will be demoed at Glastonbury Festival this weekend. The prototype called the Dance Charge is an armband that will charge your mobile phone using the kinetic energy generated by the user. This is the result of months of research and design into alternative energy sources to power mobile phones.

Orange worked closely with renewable energy company GotWind to develop the device. GotWind is also responsible for Orange’s ReCharge Pod, a seven meter high tent which features a wind turbine and solar panels on the top that generates enough power to recharge 100 mobile phones an hour. The ReCharge Pod will also be featuring at the Festival.

The Dance Charge prototype is fashioned like a runner’s armband used to hold mp3 players. As the user moves their arms the special system of weights and magnets provides an electrical current that charges the reservoir battery stored in the armband. The user would then just plug their phone into the armband to charge it; simple.

The Samsung F480 or the Tocco as it is also known has been touted as an alternative to the iPhone. The Samsung F480 is stunning to look at and has obviously taken inspiration from Apple’s iPhone. Due to its smaller size (which can only be a good thing) the F480 has a 2.8 inch QVGA touchscreen with a resolution of 240×320 pixels, and is ample big enough to see everything.

One of the main plus points of the Samsung F480 is it has 3G connectivity with HSDPA for lightning fast download speeds. The phone also includes a 5 megapixel camera with face detection, LED flash and a stabiliser to capture those unforgettable moments.

The F480 supports Mpeg4 playback along with H263 and H264 video formats and includes a video editing program, allowing the users video to be edited on the go. The phone also plays mp3’s, which is fast becoming a standard feature with new phones and the microSD card slot can support up to 8GB; plenty of space to put you’re music on.

If you’re looking for an alternative for the iPhone you can’t go far wrong with the Samsung F480. Out now prices and contracts vary from network to network.