Mobile Phone News:

We’ve been waiting patiently for what seems like 3 years for it to be officially unveiled, but last night, the wraps finally came off the Nokia 5800 Xpress, that touchscreen Nokia that’s been known to us all throughout its development as the Tube.

You know the one. Batman had one…

So, now we finally get to see this bad boy in the flesh, decidedly tasty it is, too! The Nokia 5800 Xpress is the first mobile phone to use the brand new S60 touch interface, giving it the power of Symbian mobile phones, with the touchy-feely-goodness of something like the iPhone. But we knew all that before. What new features have come to light during the Nokia 5800 Xpress’s official launch event?

Well, here’s the official specs from the launch event, as reported by the Boy Genius Report:

Ooooh. Pretty damn cool, then! I have to say, though, my favourite bit is the imitation plectrum that comes attached to it!

The word is that the Nokia 5800 Xpress will go on sale before Christmas, so expect to see this in a lot of stockings, come Christmas Day. And between this and the Nokia N96, it’s going to be a very good Christmas indeed!

All that remains now is for Nokia to get their backsides in gear and make the Nseries version…

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As an ardent fan of sci-fi, I can’t quite believe it’s taken me this long to actually see Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, since it is, quite possibly, the finest spin-off from a famous franchise, ever.

Oh, and it has mobile phones in it. And the single worst bit of mobile phone selling in recorded history, as well.

Phones first… and I definitely made out two mobile phones in there: a Palm Treo 650, which I don’t like, and a Blackberry Curve 8310, which I do. The Blackberry Curve 8310 is an odd one, though, because both John and Sarah Connor were using one, despite the fact that not ONE episode previous, the phone Sarah Connor bought was a Palm Treo 750, meaning it magically morphed inbetween episodes.

Or, possibly, someone shot it.

But while we’re talking about he Treo 750… This was the bit that, with my professional head on, made me go, “You LIE!!”

By his description, this should be the top of the heap of all mobile phones in America, as he just seemed to pick specs out of the air. 4 megapixel camera… erm, what? 10 gajillion monstabytes to store your music… erm, you’re taking the mickey, now. 3G data connectivity… you- oh alright, I’ll let you have that one.

Still, they actually found a way to shoehorn in the GPS on Blackberry Curve 8310, so kudos to them.

As for the show itself (ignoring the mobile phones part)… whoa, that rocked! Lena Headey: awesome in 300, awesome as Sarah Connor, and better than Linda Hamilton, who I reckon can’t act. Summer Glau, what was in Firefly: note perfect as the mini-babe Terminator. Oh, and the writing…

Making the wise choice to ignore Terminator 3 (which was an awful, awful, awful film), The Sarah Connor Chronicles is incredibly respectful to the first two films, and is, basically, right up there with Heroes as the best thing on telly. The only thing missing is the liquid-y metal T1000 from Terminator II, and I live in hope for that.

So, get it watched. Now. Even if the mobile phone salesman in the series (who’s dead now), doesn’t actually know an awful lot about mobile phones…

And remember, you too could be the mother of a future human resistance leader (well, it could happen…), so be like Sarah Connor and grab yourself a Blackberry Curve 8310, today!

Time for a post answering a question I had come through in my email today. In their own words, “Is the S2 Skype Phone by 3 actually any good?”

Well, it’s an intriguing question, because this isn’t a mobile phone you can compare to, say, the Nokia N96. It’s not designed to be the ultimate multimedia powerhouse, or be a portable cinema.

What the Three Skypephone S2 is designed to do, though, is give you masses upon masses of communication options, and if you judge on its own terms, then it comes out as a superb mobile phone. First up is the killer feature, and the bit that should be obvious from the name: the Three Skypephone S2 has got Skype in it, straight out the box. Not only does this give you free calls to all of your Skype contacts, but it also gives you free SkypeOut minutes to call overseas numbers.

What, you may ask, does that amount to?

Basically, with the Three Skypephone S2, unlike just about all other mobile phones on the market, you’d get, effectively, free international calls straight out the box!

That’s rather good, that!

As with the first Skypephone, the Three Skypephone S2 also gives you instant access to Facebook, MSN Messenger and email. But it does more than that… you see, this beastie is almost unique amongst mobile phones, in that you can plug it in to your PC or your laptop, and use the Three Skypephone S2 as a USB modem.

In other words, it’s like getting mobile broadband AND a mobile phone in one device. And it’s got a 3 megapixel camera, a superb music player, HSDPA and a brilliantly intuitive interface.

So, if you hadn’t guessed the verdict: the Three Skypephone S2 is utterly, utterly brilliant! Grab yourself one today!

Time for a story, now, that started out being a silly one, in my mind, until I thought about it, and went, “Actually, that’s a really good idea.” It seems that a familiar branding is about to appear on mobile phones.

It seems that soon we may well be seeing Red Bull mobile phones (translation from Google) in the shops!

At the moment, they’ve only gone live with services in their homeland of Austria, but if everything goes to plan, I could quite easily see them launching Red Bull mobile phones worldwide. A quick glance over their website (translated from Google, since it’s all in German) shows that they promise unique mobile phones (including the hotly-anticipated Nokia N96), hassle-free tariffs, Mobile TV and exclusive Red Bull content.

And the reason I suggest it could be a good idea is because, whilst they already offer some VERY cool stuff… I say why stop there! Just imagine if you bought a Red Bull mobile phone and got the chance to get tickets to the Red Bull air race, or the opportunity to get flown round the course.

Plus, Red Bull has their certain cool factor, that’s bound to entice people when they do launch their mobile phones. So, I say go full steam ahead, Red Bull, and get some really stuff out there!

Although, I have to wonder whether Red Bull mobile phones are like Red Bull the drink: you go off your face for an hour, then have a worse come-down than if you’d been on morphine…

It’s one of their flagship mobile phones, but YOU can get it right now in the UK; grab yourself the gorgeous Nokia N96 today!

You know how it is when you’re reading through your newsfeeds, and you find an article that makes you go, “Ohhhh yes, I have to blog about that”? Well, so it was with me and a story today from Australian newspaper, The Age.

Apparently, scientists down under are harnessing the power of the humble mobile phone to help them work out exactly what koalas are saying to each other, when they bellow, a sound that echoes through Australian forests, in springtime.

You may be wondering how they’re going to use mobile phones for that, but basically, as far as I can work out, they use a network of audio sensors, that pick up and record the sounds of koalas bellowing. Those sensors have basically got bits of mobile phones built into them, so they then fire the recordings back to the scientists’ research station (which I like to think of as Koala Central), for analysis.

So, using the technology from mobile phones, researchers will finally be able to answer the question of whether the bellows are male koalas yelling “get off my gum tree” to other male koalas, or going “hey baby, how you doin’?” at female koalas.

With the help of mobile phones, koala research has hit the 21st century!

But that’s not why I did this blog post.

I did this blog post because (and I challenge you not to find this image funny), when I read the original story, I couldn’t get the image of a koala using a Nokia N96 out of my head, and I laughed about it for about 25 minutes…

Oh, and as a public service announcement, remember folks, koalas may look fuzzy, but they’re vicious little blighters. And they’re nothing compared to dropbears……

You may not be able to eavesdrop on koalas with it, but if you want to see koalas in glorious, crisp video, you need the Nokia N96 multimedia phone.

With all the excitement and anticipation that’s being directed toward the Sony Ericsson X1 (and fair play to it, since it IS going to be stunning), it occurred to me today that just maybe, its little brothers might want a bit of love, too, since, because of the X1’s popularity, they’re sat all alone in the corner, not getting their fair share of attention.

So, let’s hear it for the little guy, and give some love to the X1’s baby brother, the Sony Ericsson G502, which in its own way, is probably as important as the X1…

No, you’re not going mad, and yes, I did just say that. Allow me to explain.

You see, with top-end mobile phones like the Sony Ericsson X1, you expect them to do more. You expect them to have an awesome web browser, and super-fast data speeds, and more high-tech gubbins than the average shuttle launch. But, be honest, do you really expect to see top-end features like that on dirt cheap, entry-level mobile phones?

Well, that, right there is the point, isn’t it… and it’s also the reason that the Sony Ericsson G502 is important, and I haven’t gone mental in suggesting it. Put simply, despite being a dirt cheap, entry-level mobile phone, the Sony Ericsson G502 does have top-end internet access, running HSDPA at up to 3.6Mbps. Not as fast as the X1, but then, it costs a fraction of what the X1 does!

And that’s important, because it means the mobile internet is available to every mobile phone user, not just your high-end, anal-retentive power users, like me. With the Sony Ericsson G502, everyone gets online, without being a relentless phone fanboy, and going for top-end mobile phones, like I do.

So, if you want the perfect mobile phone to get yourself online with, while saving yourself a boatload of cash, you NEED to get yourself the Sony Ericsson G502, today!

By all accounts the Nokia 5800 is finally due to be officially unveiled this week (tomorrow, in fact), so as a bit of a warm-up to the announcement of the first-Nokia-touchscreen-phone-that-isn’t-actually-their-first, I’ve been inspired by an article on Mobile Gazette. Let’s take a look at some of their previous touchscreen mobile phones.

You see, the Nokia 5800 isn’t the first of Nokia’s mobile phones to have a touchscreen, contrary to what some people might be saying. But (and it’s a big but), as you’re about to see, it’s first one that actually looks like you’d want to own it…

Nokia 7700

Ok, granted, this one never made it into full production, but this was Nokia’s very first ever attempt at a touchscreen mobile phone. It was announced at a time when Nokia mobile phones were going through what can only be described as a mad phase. So, we got mobile phones like the teardrop-shaped Nokia 7600 (which was rubbish), the Nokia 3650 (which had a mental keypad), and the NGage (which at least looked weird for a reason). Nokia mobile phones, at the time, weren’t exactly looking sensible.

So, you shouldn’t be surprised when you see the Nokia 7700, since it looks, as many people here have pointed out, like it was designed by someone who couldn’t tell the difference between vertical and horizontal. As we know, though, looks can be deceptive…

It’s a shame, though, that they weren’t with the Nokia 7700, because as mobile phones go, it was ludicrously low-spec, slow as all hell, and god-awful to use!

Nokia 7710

So, Nokia being Nokia, they redesigned it, to try and make it a bestseller. The result was the Nokia 7710, and this mobile phone DID go out to retailers, who promptly sold about 3 of them…

The big problem with both these early touchscreen mobile phones from Nokia was the interface, Symbian Series 90, a completely experimental operating system that was packed full of bugs new features. The problem with being experimental and new was that it, at the same time, wasn’t very good. Oh, and the lack of 3G and WiFi in both these Nokia mobile phones was a massive, massive oversight.

Hard to be a multimedia device when it takes 3 weeks for any media to actually download onto the phone. A Nokia N96, this ain’t!

Nokia 6708

So, with Series 90 placed firmly in the bin, what did Nokia do next? Simple, they got somebody else to make a mobile phone for them, branded it as a Nokia, and sold it in China.

Erm…

Actually made by BenQ, the Nokia 6708 was the first, and only, Nokia mobile phone to use the Symbian UIQ operating system. So, it was a proper touchscreen interface, not the Series 90 abomination. It’s just a shame it only ever saw he light of day in China, since it actually looks like quite a nice mobile phone.

Actually, what it looks like is a primitive version of a Sony Ericsson W960i, and with very good reason, because as we all know, Symbian UIQ is what Sony Ericsson used in all their top-end smartphones, until recently. UIQ have now gone on to join the Symbian Foundation, so who knows…

We may actually see a new version of the Nokia 6708 when Symbian Foundation mobile phones start appearing!

Nokia 770

Finally on this list is a Nokia device that isn’t a mobile phone at all…

Nope, what we have here is the Nokia 770, and it’s not a phone, but an ‘internet tablet’. Or, in other words, it’s a mini palmtop PC-type thing, running on Linux, that doesn’t have a mobile phone antenna in it, and connects up to the web through WiFi. And although there’s no way the Nokia 770 can be considered a mobile phone, it is important, since it brought us the Nokia N800 and N810 tablets, it was their first dabble with open source software (which leads nicely to the Symbian Foundation), and it helped to showcase Linux as a platform for mobile devices.

All of this brings us back up to date with the Nokia 5800, with its brand new operating system, a brand new interface, and its sights set firmly on giving the iPhone a kicking… and whilst it may not be Nokia’s first touchscreen mobile phone, it looks like it will definitely the first one you want to own.

But hey, I guess we’ll find out tomorrow, if, as planned, the Nokia 5800 is officially unveiled…

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Well, they were first to announce an 8 megapixel mobile phone in the UK (the Sony Ericsson C905), and if rumours are to be believed, it won’t be long before they’re dropping what I’d like to call the double-figure bombshell on us.

Put simply, it’s rumoured on Mobile Mentalism that Sony Ericsson are in the process of designing a mobile phone with a HUGE 12 megapixel camera in it!

(Just to point out, before anyone gets excited, that pic just to the right, ISN’T it…)

Hmmm, let’s analyse that, shall we? Certainly it’s true that Sony Ericsson are on a mission to push the boundaries of camera phones with their cyber-Shot series, and let’s not forget, it came as a bit of a surprise when they announced an 8 megapixel mobile phone. 12 megapixels is certainly do-able, but it’ll all depend on how big the sensor is… basically, if it’s too vast, then the mobile phone itself will be immense.

Mind you, it does tie in with rumours earlier in the year that Sony Ericsson weren’t going to push the megapixel barrier much past 12, anyway, since when you get to that figure, there’s not much point, unless the camera’s lenses and whatnots are up to snuff. So, the plan was to hit about 12 megapixels, then focus on making the other bits better. From that point of view, this new rumour does seem to fit in.

And let’s be honest, who can’t see Sony Ericsson making 12 megapixel mobile phones??

The other bit of the rumour is that Sony Ericsson will be giving this mystery 12 megapixel mobile phone an iPhone-esque touchscreen, based around the touch version of Symbian S60. Hmmm, that one I’m not so sure about. They still have UIQ, for the time being, until the Symbian Foundation kicks off properly, and UIQ have a new version (as on the Sony Ericsson G900) all prepped and ready to go. Seems a bit odd they’d jump ship to making S60 mobile phones this early in the game, especially since that’d mean licensing it from Nokia, their arch-enemies.

And as for the second mobile phone rumoured to be on its way, a Sony Ericsson Cyber-Shot, aimed at the text-happy youth market, with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, that seems a bit more of a jump. If anything, I would’ve guessed the Walkman range would get QWERTY keyboards before their Cyber-Shot mobile phones did… and if I’m honest, I can see Sony Ericsson keeping QWERTY keyboards just for their Xperia mobile phones.

So, what are we to believe?

Well, given that the Sony Ericsson C905 is only just due to go on sale, soon, they’re not officially going to announce anything yet, I reckon. And although I reckon it’s a fairly safe bet Sony Ericsson will make a 12 megapixel mobile phone in future, I’m not convinced this is it…

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A few days ago, I reported on a story about an upcoming 8 megapixel Samsung mobile phone, complete with full touchscreen interface, called the Bresson. Well, it turns out it’s not the Bresson. The others rumours appear to have been correct.

It is, as reported on Engadget Mobile, the brand new, ultra-sexy Samsung M8800 Pixon.

Gorgeous, ain’t she!

So, what can we expect from the Samsung M8800 Pixon? Well, first up, it’s apparently powered by the same interface seen in the F480 Tocco. That’s in a no way a bad thing, because the Samsung F480 Tocco is one of the nicest mobile phones on the planet to use, at the mo. I had a fiddle with one the other, and the interface really is very, very nice.

Of course, the big bit you’re all going to be bothered about, if you’re getting the Samsung M8800 Pixon, is the camera. Stands to reason, really, since the whole phone is built around the camera. That’s its reason for being, is that (similar to other mobile phones, like the Sony Ericsson C905).

Yep, what we’ve got here is another 8 megapixel mobile phone, but the Samsung M8800 Pixon goes way further, since it includes (Ready? This is a long list):

8 megapixels… autofocus… 16x digital zoom… dual power LED flash… face detection… smile detection… face-tagging of recognised faces… ASR (Advanced Shake Reduction)… photo browser (Accelerometer Sensor)… geo-tagging… auto panorama shot… photo memo… video recording at 30fps… and 120fps for slow-motion shot (just like the LG KC910)…

Gawd, I’m out of breath just listing that lot, and that’s just on the camera on the Samsung M8800 Pixon. Suffice to say it stuff just about all other mobile phones in terms of the camera. But what about other features? Well, with a damn fine music player, HSDPA internet speeds, and GPS (which it must have to do geo-tagging), the Samsung M8800 Pixon can hold its own against any mobile phones you’d care to chuck against it.

In other words, the Samsung M8800 Pixon is flat-out, pick-your-tongue-up-off-the-floor stunning…

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Honestly, you wait ages for famous mobile phones to crop up, and then three come along at once! After seeing the iPhone in The Happening (rubbish film, not worth the effort), someone told me about not one, but TWO Blackberry mobile phones turning up in the video for No Air, by Jordan Sparks feat. Chris Brown.

I think ‘turning up’ doesn’t really sum it up, though. I reckon ‘appearing 7 seconds in, and then no shots without the phone till the 29 seconds mark!’ about sums it up.

See for yourself, courtesy of Youtube:

See? I have no idea how much Blackberry paid to get in there, but that, right there, is some serious product placement! That in mind, then, let’s assume they chucked their top flagship (at the time, anyway) mobile phones at the project. Well, one of ‘em’s clearly in the Pearl series, so I’m saying it’s a silver Blackberry 8110 GPS. Most advanced, see?

As for the second phone, that’s quite clearly a Blackberry Curve 8310 (the QWERTY keyboard’s a dead giveaway). Nice to see some rather good mobile phones being used, I have to say, but as for the song…

Well, the song is, it’s fair to say, nowhere near being my cup of tea, but then, it was good of the director to stick the mobile phones right at the start so I didn’t have to sit through it all!

They’re powerful, and they’re cool enough to be seen in music videos. Grab yourself the stunning Blackberry 8110 GPS today!