Mobile Phone Blog:

The three-inch touchscreen LG KP500 Cookie phone reached a sales total of ten million earlier in December – so how many do you think will sell in 2010?

According to the manufacturer, ten million units of the handset have been bought by consumers since its launch. It previously announced in July 2009 that five million had been sold since its launch in October 2008, meaning a further five million were snapped up in the five months that followed.

The LG KP500 Cookie is currently available from £15 per month on contract from Vodafone, so it could be a valuable consideration should you be looking for a new phone this new year.

When it was announced in April of this year that the handset had chalked up two million sales, LG Electronics Mobile Communications CEO and president Dr Skott Ahn said: "LG Cookie’s strong sales and the subsequent launch of similar handsets from other manufacturers prove that LG continues to be an innovative leader in touch technology."

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The Nokia 6700 Silver is available from £15 per month on contract and could be a great handset to consider this new year.

In August 2009, it was given the once-over by technology website Trusted Reviews, which noted its value for money and design as plus points for the discerning buyer.

With a classic candybar shape and style, it comes with a 2.2-inch screen, five-megapixel camera and excellent battery life, the portal said.

And while there is nothing overly innovative or earth-shattering about the Nokia 6700 Silver, it "all works well enough", trusted reviews added.

"Good battery life and GPS are both a real boon, especially for those who want a phone primarily, but not purely, for voice calls."

The website also noted Bluetooth connectivity, mobile email support and an FM radio as other highlights that users are likely to find helpful.

Vodafone is the network of choice for those who want to take advantage of the £15 per month contract.

Visit the Mobileshop.com pay monthly page to see the full range of currently available fantastic Nokia deals

Cheap contract mobile phone deals are available across a wide range of networks this new year – and with some great handsets to boot.

With this in mind, the Nokia 5800 Xpress might be good for those looking for style, after a review by CNET said it offers an "attractive design".

The XpressMusic range is said to be great for those who want a multi-format media player as well as a high-spec phone.

Weighing a "compact" 109 grams, it comes with a 3.2-inch touchscreen display, 3.2-megapixel camera, eight-band graphic equaliser, Wi-Fi, 3G support, full and mini qwerty keyboards and stylus, among other features.

Via Virgin Mobile, it is available from £10 per month, meaning there is some spare cash leftover for downloading the latest music tracks and creating playlists.

"The 5800′s music player is comparable with most Nokia N-series models," CNET added. "The interface is simple and it offers album art."

Visit the Mobileshop.com pay monthly page to see the full range of currently available fantastic Nokia deals

I’ve raved about MyPhone, the online backup service for Windows phones, for some considerable time. But it can do so much more than just backing up your text messages and contacts; it seems it can even inspire the Christmas spirit in a New York resident’s heart. Our tale begins with CBS editor Natali Del Conte chucking her phone in a taxi, and then sending it off into New York city.

The plan worked quite well, at first, with MyPhone letting her track the phone (which seems to be an American version of an HTC Touch Diamond2), and see where it was.

And then the GPS dies… So, what will she do then? Watch and see:

Now, that’s a rather cool little feature in MyPhone, that is. I like the idea of being able to display a message onscreen, with a different contact number in, for whoever finds it to ring you up and let you know where it is. Or hold it hostage. But hey, it’s Christmas, we’ll assume the positive side of human nature wins out…

So, yes, I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, there are about three bits of software that are absolutely essential to all Windows phones, and MyPhone is most definitely one of ‘em (in case you’re wondering, the others are SPB Mobile Shell and the Swype keyboard). If you’ve got a Windows phone, then quite simply, you need MyPhone.

Or if you’ve got a WinMo 6.5 phone, like the HTC HD2, you already get it straight out the box. Which rocks.

More news as it happens! And be sure to subscribe now to get all the latest action from the world of mobile phones!

(Warning – the following blog posts contains massive, massive spoilers. Do not read until you’ve seen the Doctor Who Christmas 2009 Special. Now. Go and do it now!)

Right, here we go folks, it’s a momentous, historic day in the history of the Mobileshop blog: my first ever post on Christmas Day! And as I suspected (and hinted at), I’ve decided not to do the alternative Queen’s speech, because Doctor Who was on, and… just oh my lord god! Yes, this was only part one of Tennant’s last two episodes, but by crikey was it properly awesome.

Yes, there were mobile phones in it, I’d best get those out the way first, because as soon as I start talking about the plot, I think my brain will explode.

So, phones. Well Donna had one. And Wilf (played by genuine national treasure Bernard “Womble” Cribbins), too. Er, and probably June Whitfield’s character, too. Of course, the only one I could actually identify (I think) was Wilf’s, ‘cos I think it was a Nokia 6300. I think so, anyway. Hardly a Nokia N900, but then, this is one of those moments when I don’t care about seeing the latest technology. I was ever so slightly distracted, y’see. Because I have been consciously avoiding spoilers about this year’s Doctor Who Christmas Special, and thus, did not see any of the things that happened during the course of the episode coming. Especially not the ending. That ending. Oh god, that ending…

Basically, I shall try to summarise the plot, and as I said at the start, do not read this if you haven’t seen the episode yet, because I am far too excited to worry about giving spoilers away. So I will be giving massive spoilers away, here. So if you haven’t seen it, stop reading. Now. I’m not kidding…

Right, the plot. The Master’s back. That about sums up the bulk of the episode. And he’s more mental than ever. Oh, and of course, tie in the plot with the whole “immortality gate”, and you have a recipe for one of the most mind-bending endings of a Doctor Who episode ever.

Ah, except the whole planet, and the entire human race, being turned into clones of The Master wasn’t the actual ending. That was the mental bit. And then, round the nation, thousands upon thousands of sci-fi nerds, just like me, all cried out in unison, as the narrator (played by Timothy Dalton) was shown in full. On Gallifrey. With the entire Time Lord council.

Cue every nerd in the country passing out from sheer euphoric delirium…

So there you go. There’s still one episode to go, but the next one is going to be heart-wrenching, as we bid farewell to Mr David Tennant. I’m going to be sad to see him go, but I’ll say this: with The End Of Time (the collective name for the two specials), Russell T. Davies is giving him one hell of a send-off…

Merry Christmas to one and all, from everyone at Mobileshop! Join us again on Monday, as we finish off the last of the turkey, sit scoffing Cadbury’s Roses, and get back to the world of mobile phones!

Here we go, folks, final post of the day, and then vast quantities of mince pie will be taking up residence in my belly. Much ale (well, alright, coca-cola, ‘cos I don’t drink) will be quaffed, and you can guarantee more than one person will make a complete numpty of themselves in the pub tonight. And I’ll probably get shouted at for putting Judas Priest on the jukebox. But before then, we come to the final post on this fine, chilly (well, alright, chuffing freezing) Christmas Eve, and like much of the news this past week, it’s about the Nexus One.

Y’see, according to Engadget Mobile, we now know the full specs and release date for what some people are calling the ‘honest, it really is the Googlephone, this time’…

January 5th, apparently. Although, as many other people have predicted, it’s not going on general release on that date. Nope, it’s going on sale ‘by invitation only’. You have to get a proper, official invite from Google themselves, to buy one. So, why would a phone go on sale, but not really go on sale, except to a select few?

*cough* dev-phone *coughcough* told ya so *cough*…

I’m still maintaining this is a phone that’s going out to developers, and I’d put money on them being the first people to get an invitation to buy one, on January 5th. The question is, will we see a general release after that? Well, I reckon we might, but I also reckon we won’t see it hit the mass market as the Nexus One. Consider that it’s made by HTC, and that it’s also known as the HTC Passion, and you can probably work out what I reckon will happen.

Yup, just like the G1 and the Magic, which also had pretty much identical dev-phones that did go on sale, but for big bucks, and not to the mass market, the actual release version won’t be the Nexus One, but the HTC version that corresponds to the Nexus One. S’what I reckon will happen. I still say that if Google were to mass-release their own phone, it’d really annoy their hardware partners, since you know it’d make life difficult for third party Android phones, like the upcoming Sony Ericsson X10 and Motorola Milestone (both of which look like stunners).

So, yes. I still say dev-phone. I also say all the people who are driving mental shouting “Googlephone, Googlephone, I tells ya” need to calm down a bit. Oh, and before I forget, these are the main specs:

- Android 2.1
- 11.5mm thick
- 512MB RAM, 512MB ROM, 4GB microSD in-box expandable to 32GB
- 5 megapixel camera with mechanical AF and LED flash
- HSPA 900 / 1700 / 2100, 7.2Mbps down and 2Mbps up
- 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED display

And that’s it for Christmas Eve! Time to go and stuff myself silly! However, if you get fed up of the family tomorrow (I know I will, at some point), then wander over to the blog, as I have a special surprise. Yes, for the first time in the recorded history of Mobileshop, I am going to do a blog post on Christmas Day.

After all, the Queen does a speech every Christmas Day. And how hard can it be?

I’ll probably just end up screaming about Doctor Who, though. S’what usually happens on Christmas Day…

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Right, second post of the day, and another quick one, as those mince pies are really starting to call my name now. Honestly, they’re like Greek sirens, and… well, I’m just too weak to resist…

There’s been a flurry of reports about the next phone that’s due to be unleashed from Cupertino, recently. I am, of course, talking about the next iPhone, the successor to the iPhone 3GS, or as it’s being called in journalistic circles, the ‘iPhone 4′. The most obvious one is when the next Apple baby will be announced, and there seems to be no surprises there, as according to The Register, it looks like it’s going to be officially unveiled in June.

Just like every iPhone, ever…

However, what is more intriguing is the rumour that Apple have put in a ginormous great big order for 5 megapixel camera units, in the region of 40-45 million of ‘em. If that’s true, and if those cameras are destined for the iPhone 4, that’s double the amount of 3.2MP camera units that Apple bought for their iPhone 3GS. So, either they’re incredibly confident that the sales of the iPhone 4 will be double those of its predecessor, or they’ve got a second device coming out with a 5MP camera.

Naturally, that’s led many to wonder whether they’re finally going to get round to making the tablet PC that gets mithered every single year by people watching what the house of Mac does, but since that doesn’t involve mobile phones, I couldn’t give a monkey’s. Unless their tablet PC (if it exists) has a sim card slot in it for mobile broadband, then I might have to talk about it.

Either way, it looks like Apple fans can expect the next iteration of their favourite phone to appear, as it has done with every version so far, in June.

More news as it happens! And be sure to subscribe now to get all the latest action from the world of mobile phones!

Right, just a couple of quick posts, today, ‘cos it’s Christmas Eve, and there are several very, very large mince pies with my name on ‘em. First up is news from Engadget Mobile, about a new Sony Ericsson phone that’s gone through testing, that no-one seems to know any actual details of.

Well, other than the fact it’s called the Sony Ericsson U5i, that is.

However, we can draw some conclusions from the name, given that the U1 is the 12MP Sony Ericsson Satio, and the U10 is the Sony Ericsson Aino. So, the new phone’ll be an Entertainment Unlimited device. At first glance, it’s seem logical to suggest it’s the new Sony Ericsson Kurara, a phone that’s been popping up in spy shots online for a while, and which is best described as an 8MP version of the Satio, only with HD video capture, as well, and which has been mentioned to have the model number ‘U5′.

Ah, but there’s a problem with that hypothesis…

Y’see, somebody did some digging, and found a user agent string (sort of technical terminology for the internal spec sheet a phone has) for a phone that goes by the model number ‘U5i’, and the spec listed on that ain’t the same as the Kurara. For a start, it’s only got a 2MP camera, and the screen resolution is listed as 640×360 pixels, which is, again, different to what we’d heard f0r the Kurara.

So, at the minute, it’s anybody’s guess what the U5i is. I guess we’ll have to wait for official confirmation, before we’ll know for certain…

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Ooh, time for me to get excited. I’ve been saying, for ages, that although Opera is by far and away my favourite mobile browser, I do reckon there’s one mobile browser that, when it’s released, will be able to top it. You know the one I mean. Well, you should, it’s in the title of this blog post. I mean, of course, Firefox.

Well, it turns out we won’t have to wait much longer to find out, because according to the BBC, Mozilla say that Firefox for mobile is apparently only days away from being launched.

I believe the word is woohoo.

However, I probably shouldn’t get too excited just yet, because it’s not going to be released on Windows Mobile in the first place, which means I’m still going to have to wait to try the full version. Nope, the versions for WinMo and Android are still in development, and the first one to go live is, in fact, going to be the Maemo version, which means it’ll be out on the Nokia N900 first.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, I want me some Firefox action, dammit!

Not that I’m feeling particularly jealous, or petty, or anything, but I would like to point out you lucky people already have a Mozilla-based browser on your phone. Of course, that’s probably why it’s heading onto the N900 first, since I’d put a fair amount of money on the finalised version of Firefox being built on the same tech as the N900′s default browser. Which means less work for them.

However, it does also mean jealousy from me, but hey (I lied about not being jealous in that last paragraph)…

One of the key reasons I’m excited is that Mozilla want to make Firefox on mobile phones have a similar ethos to their desktop browser. And that means add-ons. Okay, granted, it won’t mean exactly the same add-ons as you get on the desktop version, but being able to stick your own add-ons into your browser is going to rock.

The WinMo (ooh, do I want to see it running on an HTC HD2) and Android versions will be appearing at some point after it comes out on the N900, but curiously, there’s no word on a Symbian version yet. Still, I shall keep my ear to the ground. Oh, and as soon as they get round to releasing the Windows Mobile version, I will be reviewing it.

I’ve been waiting a year for them to get round to making it. I hope it ends up as good as I hope it will…

More news as it happens! And be sure to subscribe now to get all the latest action from the world of mobile phones!

I’ll be perfectly honest, I feel a bit sorry for anyone who’s releasing an Android phone in the next couple of months (Sony Ericsson X10, I’m looking at you). Not only are they going to be going up against the Motorola Milestone (which I reckon could easily take the crown of Android phone of the year), but they’re also going to be going up, in the hearts and minds of Android fans, against the Nexus One.

And that’s even when you take into account the fact that the Nexus One might not even get a general release to the public…

Y’see, there’s something about it that’s caught the public’s imagination, and it’s probably got a fair bit to do with the whole hoopla over it being the official ‘Googlephone’, something I’m not actually convinced it is, at all.

I still stand by my opinion that it’s a dev-phone, for use by developers, and Google’s internal coders. If it gets a general retail release, I will eat my own knees. However, that doesn’t change the fact that in the minds of the public, the Nexus One has become something special, something that upcoming Android phones are going to get compared to, at least spiritually, whether they like it or not.

Well, today, we’ve got a new (but very jerky and low-res) video that shows off one aspect of why the Nexus One is being talked about: the brand new version of Android, version 2.1, that it’s running:

Yes, basically, it’s not massively dissimilar to current version of Android that are appearing on phones like the Motorola Milestone, but it does have a couple of changes, most notably with the tab that brings up the app menu, because it’s, er, different. Oh, and the whole thing seems to run a lot more smoothly (but then, the Nexus One is said to have a Snapdragon processor, so it’s hardly surprising).

So, we shall await with interests to see what the Nexus One actually ends up being. My money’s still on a dev-phone, but… I do expect to see the tech used to build it in other HTC phones.

And I am never wrong about these things, except, of course, when I am…

More news as it happens! And be sure to subscribe now to get all the latest action from the world of mobile phones!