Mobile Phone Blog:

Well, now, there’s a thing. Honestly, you think you’ve seen everything in this business, and then one day, a story like this pops up, and you realise that, in fact, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Well, assuming that the story really is completely genuine, and not one massive, massive hoax of course; it’s always possible that the entire thing is made up, and is designed to feed into people’s existing perceptions of iPhone owners. Assuming it is genuine, though, all I can say is, “Wait, what? Really?”

Y’see, according to RocketNews, there’s been a spate of people in Japan buying an iPhone 5, and then going on to, erm, microwave it. Oh, it gets worse, believe me… (more…)

Voice control systems are the thing that’s in, right now, with the two biggest smartphone platforms on the market each having their own, and in fact, there’s a couple on Android, depending on which phone you get. On Jelly Bean phones, you’ve got Google Voice Search/Google Now, and if you happen to own a Samsung phone like the Samsung Galaxy S3, you also get S-Voice (although S-Voice isn’t exactly what you’d call, well, good). The granddaddy of them all, though, is Siri, currently strutting its stuff on the iPhone 5.

But where did Siri come from? Where did Siri’s whole character arc begin (okay, enough with the film metaphors)? Thanks to an article in the Huffington Post, we now know… (more…)

For all the years I’ve been using smartphones, one of the go-to apps that I’ve always considered as being pretty damn essential, right, was Opera. Whether it was full fat Opera Mobile, or Opera Mini, I always loved using their browsers. Well, in February, a new browser is coming from Opera, and this time, it’s a little bit different. Say hello to Opera Ice…

That’s pretty chuffing cool, that is, and it’s really quite different to any other mobile browser on the market, browsers that Opera (according to Pocket-Lint) describes as being shrunken down PC browsers. So, what makes it so cool? (more…)

Now then, here’s an interesting little story, from the pages of business site Forbes., and it’s about the popularity of the iPhone. Y’know how one of the iPhone’s big selling points has always been that ineffable ‘cool factor’? And y’know how zealots constantly say that the same ‘cool factor’ is lacking from other smartphones (usually before saying that other phones continually copy the iPhone, even when that’s patently not true, in most cases)? You’ve seen that before, right?

Yeah, well, apparently, there’s some talk going round, stating that the iPhone brand might not be as popular these days, amongst the teen demographic, and it’s because it might no longer have that cool factor… (more…)

Right then, as you may well know, I’ve been a musician (a drummer, in fact) ever since I was 11 years old, so it’s fair to say that music, and music creation, is an important part of my life. So, when an app turns up that lets you remix music on your phone, especially when it’s one made in collaboration with Peter Gabriel…

Well, given that Peter Gabriel’s involved, I shouldn’t be surprised that the track they’re using to show it off is Sledgehammer, should I? That’s a bit disappointing (I’ll tell ye why in a minute), as is the fact it’s only available on iOS devices like the iPhone 5, but still, I remain reasonably excited, and I shall tell you why… (more…)

Consider Bluetooth watches; we’ve seen a few come and (rather quickly) go, over the years, but I have to be honest, and say that they’ve never really interested me. I always sum up my interest in any given gadget by how tempted I am to actually buy one (hence why I tend not to shut up about things like the new Sailfish OS, or the meteoric rise of phablets like the Samsung Galaxy Note II), and you may well have noticed that I’ve barely, if at all, talked about Bluetooth watches.

Today, though, one’s popped up that I actually, genuinely, like the look of. It’s called the Pebble Smartwatch, and according to Engadget, it’s actually really rather nice. So, why has this particular one caught my eye? (more…)

I’m not saying that I find it funny when something of Apple’s goes wrong, but I find it funny when something of Apple’s goes wrong. And, well, something of Apple’s went wrong over the New Year, even if it was a really tiny little thing, that was really easily solved. Y’see, the iPhone 5 (and as far as I know, any other iPhone running iOS 6) has this little feature called Do Not Disturb; in the spirit of being magnanimous, and all that, it actually is a cool little feature. It basically stops people bothering you when active, while still allowing you to make phone calls (so it’s unlike Flight Mode).

Well, except for during the jump from 2012 to 2013, that is (according to iMore), when Do Not Disturb stopped working altogether… (more…)

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

Y’know, I love it when I see people coming up with tech ideas that would blatantly obviously benefit consumers. You can often tell, just by looking at something, that it’s palpably a good idea, and it’s something that will benefit people; such was the case with the POP universal charging station, a gizmo that saw the light of day on Kickstarter around September, and which raised $139,000 in funds, presumably since people clearly agreed with me about it being a bleedin’ good idea.

Yeah, well, apparently, it’s now not happening, according to GigaOM. It’s a fairly long tale, but it basically amounts to this: it’s not happening, because Apple spit the dummy out and stamped it out of existence… (more…)

Well now, there’s a thing, eh? I really don’t need to even say anything on this particular topic, ‘cos it’s reached the levels of meme. I merely need to say two words, and those two words are ‘Apple Maps’. Yeah, you know exactly what story I’m referring to there, don’t you? Anyway, back when the original story broke, there was talk of Google maaaaaaaaybe making a third party mapping app, to let iPhone 5 users have free maps that, well, actually work.

Well, now, according to Engadget, Google Maps is back on iOS, by way of a free app on the App Store. That ain’t all, though, because in the short length of time it’s been available, Google Maps has become the number 1 Top Free App on the whole App Store… (more…)

Well, that’s it, folks; I hope you’ve enjoyed your time on Earth, ‘cos humans are about to become an endangered species. When people talked about the 2012 Armageddon thingie, little did they know that it would be caused by foxes…

That terrifying, chilling (but bleedin’ funny) video was captured in Norway, and it’s the first concrete evidence we’ve seen that the imminent vulpine apocalypse. Granted, it could’ve been worse (it could’ve been an iPhone 5, instead of an older model, which would’ve cost a hell of a lot more to replace), but that’s not the point. Truly the end times are upon us… (more…)