News from the Mobile Phone world.

Remembering Steve Jobs

Dec26
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Kat Humphries

In October of this year, the world lost a leading light in the field of computing and technology. The loss of Steve Jobs to the pancreatic cancer that had been plaguing him for years came suddenly although it had been a risk for some time, and inspired a stunning level of mourning in those he left behind, so much so that Apple have a dedicated page on their website displaying the hundreds of thousands of message of sympathy submitted by fans and consumers. Aged just 56, Jobs died a hugely successful man – the co-founder and CEO of Apple, former chief executive of Pixar and prominent Disney board member was also a loving husband and father of four. The mark he made on the world with his persistent developments in personal computers, music players, phones and so much more. He passed away on October 5th, just one day after the launch of the iPhone 4S and Apple’s latest revolutionary piece of technology; a combination of voice recognition and artificial intelligence that forms “Siri”, a “digital assistant” to help manage and navigate your gadgets. That very same day he was on the phone to a fellow Apple executive, wishing to discuss plans for the company’s next big project, possibly even the iPhone 5. Jobs invested his all into the realisation of his innovative ideas right to the very end.

Apple was founded in 1976 when Jobs, at 21 years old, banded together with his friend Steve Wozniak to start a computer company. In order to get Apple off the ground Jobs was forced to sell his Volkswagen bus, whilst Wozniak parted with his scientific calculator. They started running the company out of the Jobs family garage. Sales of the Apple I earned them $774,000. The Apple II brought in $139 million. In 1984 they released the first Mac, marketing the computer as counter culture, a youthful and creative piece of technology that would subvert the industry, a reputation Apple maintained from then on. Unfortunately, Jobs was then phased out of the company and resigned as CEO, turning his attention to other projects. It was Apple’s loss; Jobs’ other projects included purchasing the animation studio that would later become Pixar. He returned to Apple after an 11 year hiatus to oversee the release of the iMac in 1998. The first iPod, a range of gadgets that changed the face of portable music players, was released in 2001.

Jobs and Wozniak founded Apple together and the pair are credited with totally revolutionising the computer industry.

In 2003, Jobs first learnt about his dangerous yet operable pancreatic cancer. As was typical of his character, Jobs kept the details of his condition mostly to himself from that day forth. He continued to focus his attention on contributing visionary ideas for the production of innovative new technology to his company for the next eight years, overseeing releases such as the iPod Shuffle, Nano and Touch, the iPhone and its sequels, the MacBook and just last year the tablet iPad. One blogger writing about Jobs’ death pointed out how very poignant it seems that most people probably read or heard the news on one of the devices the man himself helped to create. The legacy Steve Jobs left behind is an immense one indeed; the latest update of the iPhone, the 4S, features an improved screen, processor, and camera, and the iPhone 5, which it seems likely Jobs worked on before he died, is still on the horizon. Apple are rumoured to be working on the development of the iTV, a television utilising the AI of Siri to respond to voice activation and control. Jobs’ last words as he looked at his family, his living legacy, could be aptly applied to all the gifts he has given the world: He said, “Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.”

Steve Jobs’ biography, written by Walter Isaacson, is on sale now having sold more than 37,000 copies during the first five days of its launch in the UK. There are already rumours of the book being adapted into a biopic, and The Social Network screenwriter Aaron Sorkin is reportedly looking at working on the project.

Jobs and Wozniak founded Apple together and the pair are credited with totally revolutionising the computer industry.

- Kat Humphries

Sources and further information:

Remembering Steve – apple.com

Steve Jobs – guardian.co.uk

Steve Jobs was right about the iPhone 4S – news.ninemsn.com.au

Confirmed: Steve Jobs Worked on Apple Until His Last Day – pcmag.com

The Life and Time of Steve Jobs [INFOGRAPHIC] – thesocialmediatoday.com

Posted in General

New Comics App by ComiXology

Dec18
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Kat Humphries

For comic book fans all over the world, getting hold of the latest issues can be tricky. Even if you’re lucky enough to live in a comics friendly region in the US, making the physical journey to the nearest comic book store doesn’t always yield the best results. They may have sold out of the issue you want, there could be awkward queues, you may be busy on a Wednesday and not make it to the store in time. Now, however, these are problems of the past thanks to the Comics! App developed by digital comic book provider comiXology. Working with a wide range of comic book publishers including the big hitters Marvel and DC, comiXology have developed an application available on multiple formats; iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and any Android OS; which allows you to download thousands of comic book titles within minutes. You can read them from the palm of your hand, no trip to the comic book store necessary.

The Comics! App itself is entirely free to download from iTunes or the Android market. You can then pick and choose from over 7100 comics, and over 520 titles which are completely free. Even the paid comics may offer taster issues, whilst main issues cost somewhere between £2 and £3 each. You can search the comiXology store for your favourite titles, by publisher, writer, or artist, and once a title has downloaded it will be safe in your library, ready to read whenever you wish. You can view your downloaded comics in different ways; in traditional upright mode you can view most or all of a full page of the comic, although you may find the text too small to read. Turning your device sideways allows you to zoom in to specific areas, whilst double tapping on the screen accesses comiXology’s patented Guided View feature. This zooms in to your chosen panel, and will then take you through the comic panel by panel with each tap on the screen.

The ComiXology App acts as a comics store and digital reader all in one.

Although there are other comics viewing apps on the market, Comics! By comiXology is the only one to incorporate all of the major comic book publishers. Leading titles from DC and Marvel fill the online shelves of the comiXology library, as well as hugely popular titles such as The Walking Dead, currently number one in the app’s top purchases. Earlier versions of the app may have had minor glitches, but these have been solved with the latest update, and the current version is rated 4.5 stars in over 400 customer reviews. The app itself was the top-grossing application in the iTunes store for almost two months earlier this year, proving that this new method of reading comics is a sure fire hit. You can find out more by visiting the comiXology website, and watch the video below for a demonstration of how the Comics! App works for the iPhone.

 

- Kat Humphries

Sources and further information:

DC digital comics and ComiXology iPad app review – crave.cnet.co.uk

Comics by ComiXology – comics.comixology.com

ComiXology – facebook.com

Marvel ComiXology iPad App Revealed – ifanboy.com

Comics by ComiXology – itunes.apple.com

COMICS by comiXology Top Grossing iOS App 7 Weeks in a Row! – newsarama.com

ComiXology – twitter.com

ComiXology – wikipedia.org

Posted in General

Best Selling Smartphones of 2011

Oct21
2011 Leave a Comment Written by admin

It seems the more technology we have, the less time we have to use it. The smartphone is an ideal gadget as it can fit your entire life in those memory banks but remain small enough to slip into your pocket. Or play games under the table at boring meetings… We’ve all done it. Much of the smartphone’s appeal is due to the user being able to access the internet at any time, as well as the social networking sites that everyone seems to be on.
The best selling smartphones aren’t necessarily the cheapest available but they all appeal to the business person, geek or just people who want to keep in contact in every way without being tied in one place. Here’s a rundown of some of the best selling for this year:

Samsung Galaxy S II
Samsung have consistently produced quality handsets since they entered the market, and the Galaxy is no exception.

Motorola Droid Bionic
This 4G phone is more like a tiny, powerful computer with it’s 4G capability and the ability to stream movies and music to it from your desktop. Never be bored again!

LG G2X
The dual core 1GHz processor makes this one of the most powerful smartphones out there, but the mere 512 MB of ram may prove a problem for chronic downloaders.

Apple iPhone4
No list would be complete without it. You know the story, unless you’ve been hiding in a cave for the last year or so.

HTC EVO 3D
3D technology in a phone? You may wonder, what’s the point… But this phone is for the gamers and photographers out there. A new depth will be added to these experiences and they’ll be very viewable on the 4.3 inch screen.

HTC Thunderbolt
The 8 megapixel camera and dual LED flash certainly make the photos look great, and you will love the clean and clear display.

Posted in General

The best pay as you go smartphone

Sep12
2011 Leave a Comment Written by admin

Pay as you go mobile phones can be better than contracts for a number of reasons. Firstly you are more in charge of your phone bills and you do not have to worry about clocking up unaffordable ones even if somebody else gets hold of your phone without your knowledge. Also pay as you go phones do not need credit checks, which can also be an advantage. The only disadvantage though is that you need to find a chunk of cash up-front as with pay-as-you-go you have to actually buy your phone, and some of today’s smartphones can be quite expensive, that being said there are some great offers at Phones 4 U online.

There are three major choices of pay as you go smartphones. These are the Apple i-Phone 4 (and the iPhone 5 is on its way), Blackberry phones, and a range of Android phones. Of course there are also Windows Maple phones which are just around the corner, but at the time of writing they are still a bit of an unknown quantity so we will ignore them for now.

The best pay as you go smartphone depends to a large extent what you want from it. If you want the ultimate in style and posing value then you can’t do better than an iPhone and certainly being an early user of the iPhone 5 will give you oodles of street credibility.

If it is email and messaging that is the most important factor, then you should be looking at the latest range of Blackberry phones such as the Torch.

On the other hand if you love technology and you want the very best in terms of functionality and computing power, then it will be an Android phone that fits the bill and the most sophisticated phone of all is the Android powered Samsung Galaxy S 2 which has a twin 1GHz duel core processor, making it as powerful as a laptop computer.

Posted in General

Top 3 Mobile Phone Networks

Jul26
2011 Leave a Comment Written by admin

When getting a new mobile phone it can seem confusing as there are simply so many networks on offer so which one should you go for? Here is our guide to the top three mobile phone networks in the UK.

O2
O2 was founded in 1985 and was originally owned by BT – the network was then called BT Cellnet.

However, in 2001 it demerged from BT and rebranded as O2 the following year and is now owned by Telefonica.

In the Which? mobile phone network customer satisfaction survey O2 came second to Tesco, which uses O2′s network, in the best pay monthly mobile operator category. While in the best pay as you go category it came third. O2 is undoubtedly a heavyweight in the mobile phone network market, with most cities and large towns having a least a one O2 shop.

Vodafone

Alongside BT Vodafone was one of the first UK mobile phone operators. It started out life as Racal Vodafone in the early 1980s.

Since then Vodafone has reached a number of mobile phone operator licences as it was the first to sign an international roaming agreement, the first to launch SMS messages and the first to offer pre-pay deals and ‘bundled’ minutes in 1996.

The company is now the largest mobile telecommunications company in the world by revenue and the second largest by subscribers.

In the Which? mobile phone network customer satisfaction came fifth in the best pay monthly mobile operator category and fifth in the pay as you go category.

Everything Everywhere

This is a relatively new network on the mobile map as it was formed when T-Mobile and Orange merged in 2010. The network now has 28 million customers and T-Mobile and Orange customers can share each other’s signals to provide better coverage.

At the moment the two networks are in the main separately branded with different shops and price plans. However, they have opened up five Everything Everywhere branded stores and now plan to open up another 30. This means that the Orange and T-Mobile brand could eventually disappear.

In the Which? mobile phone network customer satisfaction survey T-Mobile came third in the best pay monthly mobile operator category while Orange came in at six. In the best pay as you go category Orange came sixth and T-Mobile came eighth.

Posted in General

Review of LG Optimus One

Jul05
2011 Leave a Comment Written by admin

LG touch screens are nothing new. A successful LG touch screen on Android, is something we have yet to see. Does the LG Optimus One have what it takes?

The Optimus one is an improvement on the previous Optimus GT540 as it is both cheaper and offers a newer version of the Android operating system. Specifications wise however it is more of the same, with both models offering a 3.2 inch display, and 3 megapixel camera, which is hardly anything worth writing home about.

Nevertheless, the selling point of the Optimus One is definitely its affordability; available for around £200 sim free, or free with a £20 a month contract. For an entry level device though, it is packed full of smart phone features, all thanks to running on Android. Whether it is access to a number of email accounts that you might have, or if you’re simply lost and need to boot up Google maps; which come with advanced features such as layering and ‘My Maps’, the Optimus one can do it. Also take into consideration the release of plenty of good apps on the Android Market and you have an entry level smart phone that can cater to most of your daily needs.

However, with all the cheap and cheery fun the phone has to offer, there are some drawbacks. The biggest of which, would have to be the low resolution screen. Although Android does web browsing well, it is tarnished by the low resolution screen the Optimus One offers, which makes reading text when viewing a web page, difficult. This low resolution also prevents the phone from supporting Flash Player.

Aesthetically the phone is bland, and LG’s user interface can look clumsy, especially in comparison to other devices on the market. If you can look past this though, you definitely have a cheap and powerful smart phone in your hands, that is ideal for users new to either Android or Smart phones.

Posted in Devices, General

HTC ChaCha

Jun22
2011 Leave a Comment Written by admin

The HTC ChaCha has been eagerly anticipated ever since it was first announced. It has been dubbed the ‘Facebook Phone’, as it promises to deliver an unparalleled experience when accessing the prolific social networking website.

The phone has received approval from Facebook’s head honcho, Mark Zuckerberg, who recently gave a talk about HTC’s new offering at the launch of the phone. Facebook is one of the first things that anybody who picks up the new handset will notice, given the fact that there is a big blue ‘f’ button at the bottom of the device.

The HTC ChaCha carries the latest iteration of Android (Gingerbread 2.3.3), and features one of the best looking QWERTY keyboards released to date – HTC are undoubtedly attempting to give their rivals RIM and their Blackberry series a run for their money. There is also a slight angle to the body of the ChaCha, which harks back to the “chin” of other HTC handsets; despite this, one of the best things about this feature is the fact that users are able to thump away at the handset’s keyboard whilst also easily viewing what’s going on on its screen at the same time.

The HTC ChaCha features a 480×320 2.6-inch screen; it offers a pixel density of 221ppi, meaning that the device is capable of offering some fairly impressive images for its size. It offers crisp, refined graphics and is more than capable of rendering fine detail in a sharp manner.

The handset’s homepage can be filled with the usual widgets that are available on HTC’s Sense, however, everything has been miniaturised which enables it to be much more efficient with its use of space.

All in all, the HTC ChaCha is undoubtedly going to impress fans of Facebook; and it has enough functionality and personality of its own to give it some appeal to those who want a funkier alternative to a Blackberry. This phone can be found at any orange shop or online right now!

Posted in Devices, General - Tagged , , ,

Sony Ericsson

Apr27
2011 Leave a Comment Written by admin

Sony Ericsson have released several phone models in conjunction with the Walkman brand with great success. It seems that music playability is central to some consumer’s decisions when buying a phone and now, with the release of the Yendo, Ericsson hope to consolidate their hold on this area of the market.

The phone itself is not particularly large with dimensions measuring 93.5x52x15.5mm making it a fairly neat and a reasonably compact device. Weighing 81g it is also not a particularly heavy phone compared with other available devices.

Surprisingly Sony Ericsson have opted to include a stylus option alongside touch screen. The stylus format seemed to many to be somewhat of a gimmick at its initial release but since has become an aspect enjoyed by many who prefer it to both touch screen ad physical buttons.

As mentioned in the previous paragraph the Yendo is highly tuned towards music playability. There are several features that enhance the music listening experience on the device. USB connectivity is a must and Walkman Media have produced their own archiving and organization software to work on a pc or laptop in conjunction with the phones 16GB potential memory. The interface for controlling track listing and playlist selection etc are highly intuitive making the device somewhat more of an MP3 player with a built in phone rather than a phone with a built in MP3 player.

Whilst media format capabilities are a defining characteristic of Walkman phones the Yendo also harbours a few more surprises bringing it back under the fold of the mobile phone market. There is access to basic apps through the phone as well as social networking feeds and the handset takes advantage of the latest developments in connectivity technology.

The Yendo is somewhat basic when it comes to its functionality but these basic features are of high quality and easily navigated making it the subject of much discussion and many mobile phone deals that are available on the web. The whole package is supported by an intuitive music player that makes it the perfect phone for those who love music on the move.

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Motorola Atrix

Mar27
2011 Leave a Comment Written by admin

Mobile phone technology has, over the last few years, been accelerating at an incredible rate. He have seen huge leaps forward just in the last two or three years, not least from companies such as Apple, who’s iPhone has introduced great hardware and software into the market, and companies such as Sony Ericsson and Nokia who have created some of the most innovative cameras and media software out there. One of the most eagerly anticipated handsets that is to come out soon however is from the American giants Motorola and this phone is the Atrix. The Atrix has a dual core processor, one of the first Android phones, and indeed mobiles to boast such technology and this should mean impressive multi tasking but in terms of advancements from this phone, it that there is another that eclipses even this.

The Atrix is the only phone that will feature the new Webtop software. This amazingly allows you to attach your phone to a kkeyboard and multimedia dock so you can effectively use your mobile phones as a netbook. This is an indication of just how powerful smart phones are becoming, surpassing processing speeds that would have not been achievable on computers just a few years back. Once you have plugged your phone in you are away, not having to deal with any annoying installation or driver set up and you can play around so much more with this phone, in this mode than you can with just a normal smart phone.

The phone also has other great technological advances such as biometric finger print scanning so that you can add extra security that, of course only you can bypass! Pretty futuristic stuff! The phone also has a 5 megapixel camera which is as good as most other smart phones and has an impressive amount of memory, boasting 16GB internal storage upgradeable with 32GB microSD cards. Mobile phones are available to buy online from dialaphone who offer contracts from a range of the most popular mobile phone suppliers.

Posted in Devices - Tagged ,

O2 to restrict iPhone 4 selling to existing customers only

Jun21
2010 Leave a Comment Written by admin

Mobile giant O2 have announced that they will only be selling the new iPhone 4 to existing customers for the first month, due to lack of handsets and high demand.

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Talk Talk allows you to choose from a diverse range of business phones to get exactly what your company needs.