Mobile Phone Blog:

Xpal Power has announced the only mobile phone in the world that runs on a single AA battery which can hold its charge for an astonishing 15 years!

SpareOne is designed to offer a worry free situation by keeping costs down, keep the device simple and extend battery life. The phone is ideal for emergencies, worldwide travels and situations when accessing power is not an option.

Featuring a built in emergency flashlight, the ability to automatically transmit its location via the cell ID plus three re-settable speed dial buttons makes the SpareOne the ultimate emergency phone.

The device will be available in the US in Q1 2012 for $49.99. Different versions for the Unites States, Europe and Asia will be available with WCDMA frequency options for selected regions.

Okay, this is just a brilliant idea, this is, especially for someone who’s known to be a clumsy old berk (i.e. me). Y’see, here’s the thing about mobile phones; unless they’re designed to withstand impacts, like the Motorola Defy, your average phone ain’t gonna like being dropped. They get all sulky, and decide not to work, or if they get really mardy, they smash their own screens up. Y’know, ‘cos they’re spiteful little things, really.

So, I am prepared to state, right now, that this is the best invention ever. I read about it on The Register, it’s in the form of a patent filed with the US Patent Office, by Jeff Bezos, and it outlines two systems for protecting phones. One involves springs, but the other? Mini airbags… (more…)

It looks like Nokia is trying to compete with Apple’s iMessage and RIM’s BBM, with its new instant messaging service called IM for Nokia.

The rather unimaginative name sounds a bit dull but the app itself sounds quite the opposite, pulling in several instant messaging services such as Google Talk, Ovi Mail, Yahoo, Messenger and My Space IM all into one app.

The app is free to download from the Ovi Store and is available for the Nokia X6, E7,5230 and the N8. Nokia says the app will be pre-installed in future handsets.

Are there more phones than people in the world?

With 6.92 billion phone connections worldwide a research company, The Mobile World has reported that global tele-density is more than 100%. In other words there is more than one phone connected for each individual person in the world.

The research company based their findings with US Census Bureaus report which showed mobile phones covered 5.6 billion of the total 6.92 billion and 1.32 billion on fixed.

It doesn’t look like Nokia has had a very good start to the year as new market share figures surface.

Research figures from Gartner research company, shows that the Finnish phone manufacturer has seen its lowest market share since 1997 in this year’s quarter one. The company’s global market share fell down to 25.1%.

Nokia sold 107.6 million units in this year’s Q1 as compared to last year’s Q1 sales of 110.1 million which is 5.5% decrease year-on-year market share.

Apple and HTC however managed to dramatically increase their market shares, with Apple nearly doubling its share from 2.3% in 2010 Q1 to 3.9% this year. And HTC managed to triple from 3.6% to 9.6% selling 36.6 million units as compared to 5 million last year.

The overall mobile phone sales from 2011 Q1 were an incredible 427.8 million which is a massive 19% increase from last year. Android continued to dominate the market with 36% shares whereas Windows Phone 7 had a “modest” 3.6% share this year.

Perhaps Nokia’s and Microsoft’s WP7 partnership could help pick things up for both companies.

Apple’s old products are still managing to outsell Android’s latest smartphones in the USA!

Across the pond, Apple’s older generation of the iPhone and iPad are still in high demand according to Canaccord Genuity, whose findings show that the iPhone 3GS sold more units than the new Android powered Motorola Atrix 4G and the HTC Inspire 4G on the AT&T network.

The report author, Michael Walkley, said: “April checks indicated continued strong demand for the iPhone 3GS at AT&T and iPad as the older Apple generation products with reduced prices often outsold new Android products.”

O2 is almost ready to release the PlayStation phone, just weeks after the rest of the world got hold of it!

O2, who will exclusively offer a white edition of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, decided not to sell it alongside the other networks on release day, following the discovery of several bugs while testing.

However, a recent update on the company’s blog has revealed they are nearly ready to release the legendary handset.

Stuart Hibberd, the head of O2’s testing team, commented: “… after a period of intense testing, we’d found bugs with the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY that meant we couldn’t launch the phone on April 1st as we originally planned.”

“Since then we’ve received new software from Sony Ericsson which we’ve been testing here and, I’m happy to report, it has fixed a lot of the bugs.”

So it’s coming, and soon!

A flashy white Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY emerged just moments after the standard black version was announced.

The white edition will be exclusive to 02 in the UK. The network posted on Twitter the news “Great news: not only will we be selling Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, we’ll have an exclusive white version”.

There are no changes in the specifications and is expected to hit shelves the same day as the black version.

When the T-Mobile G1 came out, everyone raved about Google Android and quite rightly noted that it’s a game-changer, with Android itself doing things differently to other mobile phones on the market. And on the other side of the coin, when the HTC Touch HD came out, everyone raved about it, and shouting about how powerful Windows Mobile is. Both operating systems do different their own things brilliantly, but when you look at some of the key areas of the two, it’s always been a case of never the twain shall meet.

Just imagine, though, if there was a mobile phone that could both, that could do the whole open source thing and do the whole power user thing. In fact, imagine a phone that’s got both Google Android and Windows Mobile on it, and you’ve got there a spot on description of what the new Compulab exeda is.

Yep, what we have here is a mobile phone that uses both of those two top-end operating systems, making the exeda the phone equivalent of a PC that’ll dual-boot from either Windows or Linux. As it happens, that’s not a bad description since you just have to look at it to see it’s angling to be a handheld-PC-smartphone-type beastie, designed to give you the best of both worlds, depending on the situation.

As ideas go, it’s really rather clever, and although it’s been done in the ol’ PC arena for a while, I’ve never seen any mobile phones that could dual-boot before. Oh, and picking from what are possibly the two most powerful OSes out there has to be a smart move, as well. Add in a touchpad, like you get on laptops, and a proper Ethernet port (and no, I’ve never seen one of those on a mobile phone before) to link the phone into a LAN network, and it’s pretty apparent that this is designed to be the enterprise solution for the world.

As always, though, whenever you see one of these out-of-leftfield mobile phones, there are a few issues. By this point, I’d be surprised if any new, not-big-name phones didn’t have a few issues, but there you go…

First, is the sheer size of the thing. Sure, at 126mm long, it’s not that much bigger than its smartphone rivals like the Touch HD, but it’s also 96mm wide. And that’s just huge. Don’t believe me, here’s a rough comparison shot between the sizes of the HTC Touch HD, the T-Mobile G1 (neither of them what you’d call small phones) and the Compulab exeda:

Big boy, isn’t he. Imagine carrying that round all day with you, you’ll put your back out. Oh, and let’s not forget something else about it. 

It’s hideous, too. Like properly ‘poke your own eyes out’ bad.

The other big issue, and you just know this is going to affect its sales, is the name. Compulab. No-one’s ever heard of them. Can anyone actually see it taking no the Nokias and Sony Ericssons of the world.

Although, having said that, didn’t we used to say that about HTC…? More importantly, though, this shows that it is possible to stick both operating systems on one device, and that, my friends, is something you may very well see pop up on mobile phones from the big names in future…

Do you want Android and Windows Mobile on one phone? Or would you rather have a phone that doesn’t need a fifteen-foot pocket? Leave us a comment, and have your say!

(Note: all views expressed are SOLELY those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of Mobileshop.com)

News from across the pond, now, courtesy of The Register. We all know how, over here in Blighty, it’s illegal to use mobile phones when you’re driving, unless you’re using a handsfree kit, a law I agree with for a change, since some daft motorist yakking on his phone nearly killed me on a roundabout.

The National Safety Council over in the USA, however, are proposing something much more stringent. You see, their proposals say very clearly they want an all-out ban on mobile phones in cars, even when a handsfree kit’s used. It turns out that it’s not just holding your mobile phone in your hand, and trying to steer with your knees that’s dangerous, but apparently, even talking can kill you. Or, as Janet Froetscher, the NSC’s president and CEO says, “Studies show that driving while talking on a cell phone is extremely dangerous and puts drivers at a four times greater risk of a crash.”

What I find quite interesting, though, is that their sources aren’t always so equivocal about how dangerous the mere thought of mobile phones is. One such study by the Harvard Centre for Risk Analysis, cited by the NSC, states that “the risks appear to be small compared to other daily risks but are uncertain” and then there’s a University of Utah study which concluded “people are as impaired when they drive and talk on a cell phone as they are when they drive intoxicated.”

I can’t help but notice that neither of those mention using a handsfree kit on your mobile phone…

Now, before every cyclist in the country rises up to lynch me to death with big, heavy rocks and bike chains, let me make it perfectly clear: I agree with banning mobile phone use in cars, unless you use a handsfree kit, having nearly been wiped out myself. I agree with the law as it stands. But having used a handsfree kit in the car, my driving was no different than it is when I’m driving and not yakking away, or when I’m driving, and talking to my passenger. I mean, seriously, if they get their way, what’s next? No sneezing while driving, because you close your eyes? No blinking?

Maybe, just maybe, one shouldn’t look exclusively to mobile phones as being the culprit. Maybe there’s an outside chance, and I know this may sound unorthodox, but maybe the person behind the wheel shouldn’t be allowed on the roads, anyway. If someone’s not bright enough to get their shoes on the right feet without a second attempt, then it’s probably fair to say they shouldn’t be in charge of a vehicle. or maybe the driving test’s at fault, since in Finland, they have some of the best drivers in the world, and their driving tests are some of the hardest, and involve mandatory skidpan training.

Now that’d make for good drivers. I should point out that this only being proposed in America, not in Blighty yet, but surely it’s only a matter of time since, well, mobile phones make such a good scapegoat, don’t they?

As for me, I’d rather not live in a world where something like the Nokia 5800 is regarded as being a bigger killer than the black death was…

Do you agree with Technical Markus? Are the new proposals a step to far? Or are they the absolute only way to make our roads safe? Leave us a comment and have your say!