Mobile Phone Blog:

Keeping your mobile fully-powered could soon be made easier as manufacturers back common standards for phone chargers.

Technical specifications for smartphone chargers drawn up by the European Commission have won the backing of 14 phone firms, including Nokia, Research In Motion, Apple and Samsung, and will see chargers based around micro-USB technology and could put an end to proprietary power ports on handsets.

The process to create common chargers for smartphones began in June 2009 when the Commission won pledges from phone firms to back any standards it drew up, and specifications have now been completed and sent out to handset makers, with the first chargers produced expected to be available in early 2011.

Not only will charging a smartphone become more convenient, the move will also eliminate the need to purchase a new charger when a phone is replaced. This has benefits for the consumer and also environmental benefits as it reduces the need to dispose of an old, but probably fully functional, charger.

The specifications only cover chargers for smartphones because,these are likely to be the most widely used type of phone in Europe within the next two years, reported the Commission.

I’ve spoken about the Nokia N8 before, and said that although it is a nice phone, it’s not mind-bogglingly brilliant, mainly because although Symbian is a very powerful OS, it doesn’t feel like it is, ‘cos of that slightly long-in-the-tooth UI. However, if there’s one area where the N8 beats every other phone on the market, hands down, it’s the camera.

Seriously, when it comes to the camera, the N8 ain’t messing about. It’s got 12 megapixels, and it gives every other camera on every other phone a solid kicking. It’s so good, in fact, that South African magazine PiX were able to use it to shoot the cover image for their mag. Which means that the N8 produces print quality photos… (more…)

Right then, if you want proof that Windows Phone 7 has the potential to be a really big player in the mobile world, look no further than this bit of news from IntoMobile; devs (and we’re talking proper commercial devs, here) have started porting iOS apps over to Windows Phone 7. The trio of apps this bit of news is about are all previous iPhone thingies that have made the jump to Windows Phone 7, and that fact alone is significant.

Put simply, the developers have already built up a portfolio on iOS and Android, so the reasoning goes thusly: they wouldn’t invest in developing for WP7 unless they saw that it was worth their time doing so. Which means they think WP7 is going places. Which is a good thing… (more…)

HP’s iPad rivals, the PalmPad series, is set to be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show next month.

The PalmPad will be a range of four tablets that will run on webOS version 2.5.1, according to FoxNews.com, which claims to have seen a spec sheet. (more…)

First we heard about the PlayStation phone, then we read about the Sony Ericsson X12 rumours and now there are reports that a 16-megapixel Cyber-shot camera phone is on the way.

The Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot S006 has apparently been cleared by the FCC in the US indicating a release early next year – although it’s only appearing on a Japanese carrier’s website with a spring release date at the moment.

It has a 16-megapixel camera with a backlight and Exmor CMOS camera sensors, 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, inbuilt Wi-Fi connectivity, 3.3-inch touchscreen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard. (more…)

Owners of Motorola smartphones may have a wait for Android 2.2 updates – with some waiting forever.

Motorola Milestone A853 owners are the luckiest with updates expected to be rolled out across the UK and Europe early next year. (more…)

In the world of cars, if you want passion and sheer automotive idiocy, you go to the Italians, or the Swedes (‘cos of the Koenigseggeggeggegg). If you want ludicrously over the top noise and bluster, you go to the Americans. If you want style, you either go back to the Italians, or you go to the French.

And if you want sheer engineering brilliance, you go to the Germans, because there is nothing in this world that beats German engineering.

In the world of phones, if you want passion you go to… er, well I’m not sure where you go to for that, but the point of this little diatribe is this: it turns out that if you want unmatched engineering brilliance, you still go to the Germans…

That’s because, according to New Scientist, the Fraunhofer Institute in Jena has developed the world’s thinnest camera ever, and they’ve done it by nicking how trilobite eyes worked. (more…)

I have to hand it to Moine-Garde: they’ve got cojones. In fact, I would suggest they not only have cojones but a bleedin’ cheek, as well. They must have, to be selling Android clock widgets (sorry, not clock widgets, “fine virtual timepieces”) at 15 dollars a pop.

Makes you wonder, really, what kind of person would spend 15 bucks on a virtual watch for their phone. But then, you read Moine-Garde’s website, and you see that they’re not just selling clock widgets fine virtual timepieces, they’re selling a whole kind of aspirational lifestyle thing. What Moine-Garde have done is stumble upon the perfect business plan: find someone with more money than sense, and milk them till they go moo. (more…)

You may remember, the other day, how I had a bit of a whinge about LG taking ages to finally release a proper top-end monster of a superphone (theoretically, since it looks like that’s precisely what the Optimus 2X will be, hopefully), but this bit of news, today, has put LG right back in my good books. Because, for someone as steeped in film history as yours truly, it’s properly awesome news.

Yes, according to the LG UK blog, LG have hired Ennio Morricone to make ringtones for them.

Ennio chuffin’ Morricone! The bloke what did the music for The Untouchables. And The Thing. And Cinema Paradiso. And The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. That Ennio Morricone. (more…)

The Nexus S from Google is now on sale through Carphone Warehouse in the UK and it will set you back either £30-a-month or £429.99.

The Android 2.3 packing phone was meant to launch on Monday but faced a last minute delay and price drop.

As well as running Android 2.3, the phone has a four-inch curved Super AMOLED display, 1GHz processor, a dedicated Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), 16GB of internal memory, a five-megapixel camera with LED flash and Google Maps.

(more…)