Mobile Phone Blog:

Samsung celebrates an extremely successful 2011 as it breaks it’s own record!

The Korean manufacturer has broken its previous record with a total of $4.7bn profit for the last quarter of last year.

According to a recent report, the sale of the Galaxy range of smartphones which have really made Samsung’s year. The report by analysts estimates that Samsung shifted 36.5 million phones between October and December of last year.

But which phones are the hero earners? Well, obviously the hugely successful Samsung Galaxy SII is a clear winner and, with versions subsequently being released in White, and also Pink, it looks set to continue its supreme reign of popularity.

The phone/tablet hybrid, Samsung Galaxy Note, was another best-seller for the company.

[The opinions expressed in the blog post are entirely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mobileshop.com.]

Okay, here we go, another proclamation about technology, by Pope Benedict XVI, or as a certain circle of my friends calls him, Emperor Popeatine (or Darth Ratzinger, either’s good). Granted, this is only tangentially related to phones, but since he was having a pop at social media, and since social media thingies are a massive part of the modern mobile experience, I thought what the hell, and decided to blog about it anyway.

So, what’s the Pontiff been saying? Well, according to Yahoo News, he’s come out and said that he doesn’t think people should use the likes of Twitter and Facebook so much, and that people need to strike a balance between silence, words, images and sounds… (more…)

Right, I was reading an editorial on PocketNow earlier today (as one does), and it made a point that I think I may have mentioned before, on this blog, but that I’m pretty sure I’ve never gone into, in any kind of depth. So, I figured I’d devote a blog post to the topic, and tell you why I agree with the statement “Android is the spiritual successor to Windows Mobile”.

I’ll also add, for my own personal benefit, the clause “Because Windows Phone damn sure isn’t”…

The big thing that links the two platforms, old and new, is “tweakability“, and that’s the very same reason why I’m not a fan of Windows Phone. So, what do I mean by that? (more…)

Now then, this interests me. I’m a big fan of the HTC Sense interface, as you may well know, since I’ve made absolutely no secret of the fact; I like how it looks, I like how it works, and it’s a fairly substantial part of the reason why I want an HTC Android phone when I change my contract, later this year. It also means that I get a bit excited whenever a new version comes out, ‘cos I’m always dying to see what changes they’ve made to the interface.

And that brings us nicely onto the topic of this blog post, the fact that, courtesy of PocketNow, we may well now know what HTC Sense 4.0 is going to be like. So, what changes have HTC made in their flagship interface? (more…)

Nokia has published its annual interim report for 2011 and it reveals that the Finnish giant is losing out across the board.

Nokia’s operating profits are down a massive €1.4 billion, with Q4 seeing a 56% loss compared to the same quarter in 2010.

There are big losses in all of Nokia’s sectors year on year, with a 13% drop in mobile phone sales and a 27% drop in the amount of smart devices sold.

One positive point is that Nokia has reported sales of its Lumia devices, such as the Nokia Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710, now total more than 1 million units.

However Nokia intends to appear at the forthcoming Mobile World Congress event, in what will be its first appearance in three years… could this mean that things are finally on the up?

Now then, this one is quite a serious story, as reported on by Engadget. It seems that there’s been a bit of a problem with the setup of O2′s data network, in that when users have been browsing sites, their phones have sent out their mobile numbers to the sites in question. It’s all to do with the way the phone sends info to the site you’re browsing, you see, so it can tailor itself to your device (showing the mobile version, for example).

Basically, it all concerns that little titbit of info shown in the pic, “x-up-calling-line-id”, which is normally not sent to websites (except trusted sites and O2 partners), but due to an accidental error during routine maintenance on January 10th, something had gone awry… (more…)

Now then, I’ve done a few posts, in the past, about Chinese manufacturer Huawei, with the most recent one being about the unveiling of the Huawei Ascend P1 S (and with most of them, I’ll be honest, lamenting the fact that I couldn’t pronounce the name, at least until I finally figured out how to pronounce it). Huawei seem to be able to do no wrong at the minute, not least with the mid-range Huawei Blaze (a phone that really reminds me of the HTC Wildfire S) finally convincing my mate that Android was a viable operating system.

Anyway, the point is that, according to UberGizmo, they’re apparently planning to announce a new series of phones at the Mobile World Congress, called the Diamond Series… (more…)

It’s a well known fact (well, it’s well known if you’ve read this blog before, when I happened to have mentioned it… and if not, now you know, so all is good) that I have a bit of a thing for so-called “tough phones”. You know the ones I mean, the likes of the JCB Tough Phone, as well as every phone that Sonim has made, ever. I just like phones that are willing to sacrifice every single bit of style they have, in the pursuit of being able to nut their way through a mountain.

I especially love it when ye get a tough smartphone, though, and now, we have a new one to feast our eyes on, although it may just be a concept phone. According to G-ShockZone, it’s the Casio G-Shock and, well, just look at it… (more…)

New rumours suggest the next Samsung Galaxy flagship smartphone will be out on shelves come April.

Russian blogger Eldar Murtzain, who has got a reputation for his rather accurate predictions, has said the Samsung Galaxy S III will be announced at next month’s MWC and on sale in April.

Murtzain thinks the phone will feature a HD screen (larger than its predecessor), a 12 megapixel camera and a Quad-Core CPU at either 1.5 to 1.6GHz as well as operating on Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Samsung Galaxy S III will need to have some great specs if it’s to follow from the Galaxy S II which was launched a year ago in April and remains to be one of the best-selling handsets.

[The opinions expressed in the blog post are entirely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mobileshop.com.]

Here we go, this is my burning question for the day, and it’s inspired by the first review I read for the Blackberry Porsche Design P’9981 (from Engadget), a phone that is, let’s not beat about the bush, a Blackberry Bold 9900 in posh knickers. It also costs, according to the latest info I’m seeing, just shy of 1500 quid. So, my question, really, is simple: what in the name of Godzilla are RIM thinking?

At a time when they’re taking a pummelling in the market, and when they’re trying to turn it around with a new CEO, did they really think a 1500 quid, limited run phone was the answer? Well apparently, it seems like they did, but as you can probably guess, I remain highly sceptical, although “highly sceptical” is a tame way of putting it… (more…)