Mobile Phone Blog:

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

And here we go again; another day, another bit of advertising designed not to show how good someone’s own product is, but instead, to slag off the opposition. Well, actually, in this case, it’s to slag off the opposition’s users. Yes, it’s a new ad for the Nokia Lumia 920 that… well, see for yourself…

Riiiiiiiiight. You remember how I did a post a couple of months ago about how Windows Phone has some really overzealous fans, and that it’s Microsoft’s own fault? Yeah, adverts like that are why… (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’m quite sure that I’ve had a good old mither about companies deciding to market themselves by slagging off the competition. You see it all the time, and it gets right up my nose, so it does; every time I see it, I can’t help but think that the parents of whoever’s doing the slagging off didn’t raise their kids properly. Apple does it all the time, even HTC has done it, and now, apparently, it’s time for Microsoft to have another pop at their arch-nemesis.

The guy’s name is Terry Myerson, he’s the Microsoft VP in charge of Windows Phone, and he’s been interviewed by AllThingsD.

So, what’s he been saying? (more…)

Blimey, there’s a name I’ve not heard in chuffing ages! If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you may remember me going all squiffy over a little phone called the i-mate Centurion, waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the mists of prehistory (well, 2009 actually); it was a gorgeous, credit card-sized Windows Mobile phone, and I wanted one badly. However, I never got the chance to play with one, because basically, i-mate went down the swanny.

Except they didn’t, and there’s a rumour going about right now (as reported on by Engadget), saying that i-mate are back!

Oh, and if it’s true, the rumour’s actually a lot more intriguing than ye might think… (more…)

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

Right then, I was reading an article on PocketNow earlier today, wherein the author theorised that Microsoft’s fans are killing Windows Phone. An intriguing topic for an editorial, I thought, but I have to admit that he does have a point. Reading through comments round the intertubes, I see a lot of Windows Phone fans (although I should note it’s not limited to them; Android and iOS fans do the same thing) going properly mental over what I can only imagine must be some perceived slight in whatever article they’re commenting on.

But why? That’s the big question, right there. Why are some Microsoft fans (and, if it comes down to it, Android and iOS fans) so overzealous? Well, I reckon I might know… (more…)

Right then. Ebooks. I love ‘em. I love ‘em because I can carry my phone about, with an entire library of reading material stored inside. I love ‘em because I can get books that are quite often cheaper than their paper counterparts, and which aren’t going to get ripped (I think I’m haunted by an annoyingly philistine poltergeist). I love ‘em because there’s a whole ton of free ebooks on Amazon, by unknown writers, some of which are really quite good.

And I love ‘em because I’m one of those unknown writers on Amazon. So, I’m all for more people having access to ebooks, and according to Engadget, that’s now become the case, ‘cos Amazon’s Kindle app has now been updated to support Windows Phone 8… (more…)

Right then, we all know that Nokia and Microsoft have got a special relationship, don’t we? It’s well known that they pledged to use Windows Phone on all their smartphones, and in return, they get an unprecedented level of autonomy over what they can do with the platform. So, basically, they can make Windows phones that offer a lot more than every other Windows phone.

And now, according to WPCentral, Nokia’s got a whole new way of differentiating their phones from the competition, ‘cos apparently, they’ve now got an exclusive game, that’s only available on their Lumia range.

So, what’s the crack? (more…)

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I love the idea of phablets (although it’s possible that it’s simply because I like my phones big). I also love HTC, so the idea of HTC making a phablet is really rather appealing to me, although obviously, I’d prefer it to be running on Android than Windows Phone (‘cos I don’t love Windows Phone).

Some people, though, prefer Windows Phone to Android, and would therefore undoubtedly prefer one running on Microsoft’s baby. It’s rather a shame for those folks, therefore, that according to Bloomberg, HTC ain’t going to be making a Windows-powered phablet.

So, why’s that, then? (more…)

I’ve mentioned many times, before today, that the big reason I went with Android (instead of Windows Phone) was the immense customisability of Google mobile OS; basically, I’m completely addicted to fiddling about with my phone, when I get bored, and completely changing the look of it, often purely on a whim. Ye simply can’t do that with Windows Phone, but one thing you can now do is make your own ringtones, directly in the device (provided you’re running a Nokia phone, with Windows Phone 8).

Yes, according to WMPoweruser, Nokia’s just released their new Ringtone Maker app, and it’s destined to let you make your own custom ringtones… (more…)

Right then, here’s an interesting bit of potential news. According to WPCentral, Microsoft did a survey on Xbox, recently, and one of the questions in it was about how excited people’d be to get one of the phones on the list. Ye can see the question in that piccie over there, to the right, but the eagle-eyed among you may notice that there’s something a bit out of place on that image. Yup, in amongst big superstar phones like the iPhone 5, that question includes the HTC Titan III. And what’s the problem with that?

The HTC Titan III doesn’t actually exist…

The question is this: is it a case of not existing at all, or is it a case of not existing yet? (more…)

Right then, here’s a bit of a minor brouhaha that happened over the weekend, and it’s one that had an absolute ton of people talking about it. Mind you, that’s hardly surprising, because if it were true, it would’ve been very big news indeed. Y’see, there was a posting put online last week, for a job at Nokia, with this as the job title: Principal Software Engineer, Embedded Linux Middleware.

Linux is, of course, what Android is based on…

So, naturally, people went mental, taking it to mean that Nokia were about to start using Android on their phones, which prompted Nokia’s Doug Dawson to jump on his Twitter feed, and shoot the rumour down. So what’s going on? (more…)