Mobile Phone Deals, Latest Mobile Phone News and Reviews

A new survey has shown that mobile phones have overtaken Wi-Fi as the most popular way of using mobile broadband when on the move. The number of users using mobile phones has jumped to 47% from around 30% last year, compared with Wi-Fi which has 42% up from 40% for the previous year.

The results also show that O2 has the biggest markets share with 26%, both Vodafone and Orange have around 20% of the markets each, with 3 and T-Mobile having just 12% and 14%.

Although it is cheaper to send and receive data over Wi-Fi, it is thought that the new results are due to the fact that Wi-Fi hotspots are relatively small, and do not cover vast amounts of space or locations like the mobile phone networks can.

With many new mobile phones now offering integrated Wi-Fi access there is a growing trend to use both systems, with the user mainly using the phones mobile broadband to gain internet access, but switching to Wi-Fi where it is available.

Viviane Reding, the European Telecoms Commissioner has outlined a new proposal to cut the price of using mobile phones aboard. The plan will include cutting the cost of voice calls, as well as data and text messages and could be implemented as early as next July.

The European Parliament is due to vote on the new proposal in the new year, which could see the price that holiday makers pay for using their mobile phones drop by up to 60%. This would lower the price of a voice call from 36p to around 27p, the price of a text message from 23p to 9p and would allow customers to set limits on their data usage.

This is not the first time that the mobile phone operators have had roaming charge limits imposed on them; in September 2007 the EU limited mobile phone operators to charging 34p per minute for making calls and 17p for receiving calls. However, this only covered voice calls; the new proposal will take into account text messages and data usage charges as well.

The wait is over, T-Mobile and Google have announced the long awaited Android Smartphone this week. The phone, which is simply called the G1 is the first device to use the open source Android operating system and bids to become the must have Smartphone.

The G1 will be exclusive to T-Mobile and is manufactured by Smartphone maker HTC. The G1 is quad-band and features a 3.2 inch touch sensitive screen, Wi-Fi and 3G connections, Bluetooth and a microSD card slot for expandable memory. The device also features a full QWERTY keyboard and trackball for alternative navigation through the phone and will have direct access to Android Market, so you can download new applications and games.

The T-Mobile G1 will synchronise with Google apps like Gmail and Google Calendar, but won’t include desktop synchronisation software; but expect the third party developers to make one soon. The device will support PDF, Word and Excel files and comes with an MP3 player to listen to music on the go.

The device also includes a 3 megapixel camera with autofocus for capturing those spontaneous pictures, and has access to GPS navigation and Google Maps.

The G1 will be released in the US first; on the 22nd October and priced at $179 on selected tariffs. UK is expected to follow in November, with the rest of Europe expecting a first quarter 2009 release. There is no word on UK and Europe prices yet.

Leaked specs and pictures of a new Asus Smartphone have been published on the internet. The new device is rumoured to be called the Galaxy 7 and will run the Windows Mobile operating system.

The Asus Galaxy 7 is set to rival Samsung’s Omnia i900 and features a large 3.5 inch WVGA touchscreen display combined with Asus’s Glide User Interface. Other features include a 5 megapixel camera, a trackball similar to the BlackBerry Pearl and a stainless steel body.

The user can navigate through the device using either the touchscreen or the trackball and the phone is quad-band so calls can be made and received anywhere in the world. Also crammed into the Galaxy 7 is Wi-Fi, A-GPS, Bluetooth and 4GB of internal storage for your media and data files.

3G is also supported and a microSD card slot is integrated for expanding the storage capacity. A full spec list hasn’t been released yet, nor has a release date, but several sources on the internet hint that it might be available as soon as the end of October.

Even before the new Samsung Innov8 has been released, we are already hearing a rumour of another 8 megapixel camera phone is nearing completion from the large mobile phone manufacturer.

Reports suggest the device will be called the Samsung Bresson M8800 and will feature a massive 16 million colour 3.2 inch touchscreen display and an 8 megapixel camera. The Bresson M8800 will be only 15.5 millimetres thick and is widely expected to include HSDPA and 3G connectivity.

Samsung haven’t released a statement yet and no other specifications have been leaked, but don’t expect it to hit the stores anytime soon as the latest offering from Samsung, the Innov8 hasn’t even been released yet.

There will be more information on the Samsung Bresson M8800 as we get it, so keep watching this space.

The new mobile phone operating system Google Android will get its first outing next week. Reports say that the new Android OS will be showcased at a press conference in New York on September the 23rd.

It is widely believed that the first phone to run Google Android will be manufactured by Smartphone maker HTC and feature a touchscreen display and slide out QWERTY keyboard. The showcase will be in collaboration with T-Mobile, who will be the first network operator to offer the device.

Google Android is set to take on the likes of Windows Mobile, Apple and Symbian as a mobile phone operating system. The Android OS is also open-source, meaning that anyone can write applications for it.

Google is hoping that the Android system will encourage people to browse the internet more often from their mobile phone. The rumoured HTC Dream device will rival the iPhone, which is currently Google’s biggest source of mobile traffic.

HTC yesterday announced a new touch device for their Smartphone range called the Touch HD. Sporting the now familiar sleek black exterior of new HTC devices; the Touch HD features a huge 3.8 inch WVGA touchscreen with a resolution of up to 480×800 pixels.

The Touch HD has all the features that you would expect from a HTC Smartphone including, Wi-Fi and HSPDA connectivity, Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system, GPS and A-GPS and Google Maps. The Touch HD also features an impressive 5 megapixel camera for capturing photos and videos.

HTC’s TouchFLO 3D user interface is also included to navigate through the device, as well as a media player capable of playing various audio and video files. A 3.5mm headphone sockets is also featured, making the Touch HD compatible with a wide range of headphones.

As stated above the operating system is Windows Mobile 6.1, which will keep you up to date with your emails and let you browse the internet effortlessly, and the Touch HD has a microSD card slot to store your data and media files.

HTC say the Touch HD will be released in Q4 of 2008; price and availability are to be confirmed.

Research In Motion (RIM) have announced their first flip phone, the Blackberry Pearl Flip 8220. The Pearl Flip 8220 has most of the features you would expect from a Pearl device, but has two noticeable omissions; 3G and GPS are not supported which may put some people off.

This quad-band clamshell Smartphone does however have Wi-Fi connectivity, a 2 megapixel camera and all of the functionality that you would expect from a Blackberry device. Also included is the easy to use trackball system, SureType QWERTY keyboard and two displays; an internal 2 inch LCD display and a slightly smaller external LCD display.

The Pearl Flip also features a multimedia player to play audio and video files and now includes iTunes support. The device has a 3.5mm headphone socket so you can use a wide range of standard headphones to your preferences.

RIM says that the Blackberry Pearl Flip 8220 will be out in the next couple of months; there is no information on availability or pricing yet.

Apple has released their latest update for the iPhone that fixes lots of bugs, as well as adding other improvements to the device. The new 2.1 software update can’t come soon enough for many users of the iPhone and aims to fix call failures and improve battery life.

Apple state that the new update will lower dropped and failed call rates, improve battery life and make it easier to email and text. Other updates include fixes to stop the iPhone crashing when using third party applications, faster searching through contacts and the integration of the new Genius playlist application.

To get the update you must have the latest version of iTunes (iTunes 8), then simply connect your iPhone to your computer, click on the iPhone icon and the Check for Update button.

Although mobile phone technology now allows you to send emails and browse the internet, sending long emails or browsing the internet for long periods of time on the move is still best on a laptop.

With many of the mobile network operators now offering USB modems that use the 3G phone network; it has never been easier to stay in touch when you’re on the move.

Vodafone has added to their range of USB modems by releasing the Stick Pro. Being the first company to offer their modems with Mac compatibility, the new Stick Pro modem installs the drivers straight from the device meaning you can plug it in to any laptop without the need of an installation disc.

The new modem is small and sleek and easily fits into a pocket or laptop bag and offers one of the fastest speeds of a mobile broadband modem.  Download speeds are up to an impressive 7.2Mbps with up to 2Mbps upload speed.

There is also a usage meter that tells you how much data you have used; useful when you have a limited tariff. The Vodafone USB modem stick pro is free when you sign up for a 18 month contract and there are two different tariffs to choose from. The 5GB mobile plan is £25 per month, while the 3GB plan is £15 per month.

The Vodafone mobile broadband packages may not take over your home broadband packages just yet, but are very handy if you do a lot of travelling and have to use the internet at the same time.