Mobile Phone Blog:

Oh, I love it when I see stories like this, I really do. Anybody who’s ever used a mobile phone will know that the gadgets we’ve come to rely on have a few idiosyncrasies, and never has that been more apparent than with voice controls. I saw it myself, over the weekend, when we were having an argument about The Ipcress File (awesome film, incidentally), and decided to google it on my HTC One X, to see who was right. I believe the result it came back with was “It’s Chris Farley”…

And now, according to TheNextWeb, Apple’s Siri has gone one better in the outright bleedin’ funny stakes, because it was telling users that the Nokia Lumia 900 is the best smartphone ever. Are we witnessing the greatest bug ever? (more…)

Hmm, now then, this is an odd story. The new iPad (I’m not sure if this issue is confined to the iPad, or whether it also applies to the iPhone 4S… details are sketchy on that point) seems to be doing something odd, and according to IntoMobile, it might actually have been deliberately designed to do that odd thing.

Yup, as the title says, it’s that issue that’s popped up online, where people are reporting that their iPad is showing it’s 100% charged when it’s actually only at about 90% charge, in effect meaning that it ends up never being fully charged. So, users are reporting that their usage time is about an hour less than they expected. The question is, though: is this a design error or a deliberate design feature?  (more…)

The next iteration of the iPhone could see Apple moving away from the 3.5 inch display screen they have favoured over the last few years, and in its place will be a screen of super-sized proportion, which many of the handset’s Android competitors already boast.

This is according to an insider, of course, who spilled the beans to Reuters, and there was talk of a massive 4.6 inch display for the next iPhone model.

The same high-density retina display, as seen on the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S, will be present too, so there’s nothing to worry about there!

This larger handset, rumoured to be launching in Q2 of this year (yes, just 6 months after the launch of the iPhone 4S) will bring Apple in-line with the latest range of Android smartphones, some of which sport 5 inch displays, such as the Samsung Galaxy Note, and are more of a phone/tablet hybrid (or a ‘phablet’ if you will).

We’ll bring you more on this as and when it develops but, for now, stay tuned!

ComScore has released its regular report on mobile phones market in the US.

The Report shows a number of smartphones crossed the 100 million mark for the first time but there was no position shuffling in the top 5 phone makers.

Samsung remains at the top taking a quarter of the shares with LG, Motorola, Apple and RIM following behind. Apple was the only manufacturer to see a 2% point growth, RIM stayed the same while other manufactures saw a loss.

In terms of operating systems Android has nearly 50% of the market and has also grown the most. Apple’s iOS has also grown but Microsoft’s operating system has fallen from 5.4% to 4.4% despite the recent release of high-end Nokia smartphones running on Windows Phone.

There has being talk of a possible mini iPad but its only now that there seems to be any real evidence to back up these rumours.

Apparently a new Samsung document has being discovered that offers proof of a “new [Apple] seven-inch product temporarily referred to as the iPad mini”. Sources say the American giant is preparing a more compact version of the iPad to rival Amazon’s Kindle Fire.

Its expected the device will be released quarter three this year but hopefully we will get a preview at the launch of the iPad 3 this week.

Rumour has it Apple is in the process of testing a smaller version of the popular iPad device.

The American computer giant is apparently testing smaller screens from different manufacturers to see who will make the eight inch device. According to sources the device will feature a higher resolution than the iPad 2 and will also be compatible with 4G/LTE.

How likely these rumours are, is hard to tell as Steve Jobs once said your fingers are too fat for 7 inch tablets and Apple is not known for working on more than one version of the iPhone or iPad at one time.

These rumours come just before the iPad 3 is set to be announced on 7th March.

Well, that’s that sorted, then. I pretty much gave up referring to the Big Five (in terms of mobile phone manufacturers) ages ago, ‘cos it’s a list that’s in a constant state of flux, so who I say is the Big Five might not be the Big Five tomorrow. See, back when I first got into this trade, the Big Five was Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG and Motorola. And then it changed. And then it changed again.

But every now and then, I feel like doing a post about who the current top manufacturers are, ad now we have the results of the IDC study for 2011. And the top three?

In ascending order, it’s Apple, then Samsung, but to my surprise, Nokia still has the top spot… (more…)

Reports suggest that Samsung may be postponing the launch of the highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S3 until the second quarter of 2012 in an attempt to allow consumer demand for the iPhone 4S to subside.

It has been widely anticipated that the Korean giant would unveil its new flagship device at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) next month, which would be in keeping with the last two years which saw the release of the Galaxy S and the Galaxy S2 respectively.

But according to supply chain sources, a number of companies, such as Samsung, could be planning on holding back their new handsets to avoid a head-to-head battle with the iPhone 4S… still going strong after being released late last year.

A report claims that the group, which allegedly includes HTC, Nokia and LG, could postpone their phones until the second quarter of 2012, raising the prospect that the S3 won’t show until early April at the earliest.

So all you Android fans out there will just have to hold on a little bit longer… however I can imagine the reward will be well worth it!

If rumours are abound then you can be sure that Apple is never far away… and this time, it seems that a new iPad from the fruity manufacturer could be on the cards.

According to a Japanese website, Apple is to be holding a special event at the beginning of February where there is a strong possibility that the next iteration of the popular iPad tablet will be announced.

This would correspond with what has happened in previous years as the previous two iPad models have been announced on 27 January 2010 and 2 March 2011 respectively.

There have also been reports of the iPad 3 being ‘spotted’ at the recent CES event in Las Vegas, supposedly boasting a quad-core processor and a high-res display, but until we see hard photographic evidence, I’m afraid all we have is mere speculation!

Rumoured specs of the iPad 3 have being leaked online, indicating a higher res-screen, quad-core processor and LTE support.

Rumour has it Apple is likely double its screen resolution from previous 1024 by 768 pixels to a whopping 2048 by 1536 pixels. A source indicated LTE support will feature on the iPad before the iPhone as the bigger battery can support it better.

Apparently Apple’s third generation iPad has being in production since the start of this month and with a bump up in February; the UK could see a release as early as March.