Mobile Phone Blog:

There’s been rumblings, for absolutely yonks, that Apple would eventually release a budget iPhone, presumably to try and take on the likes of the mid-range, Android-powered Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini. The same rumour seems to get trotted out every single year, and up until now, it’s been complete cobblers. Every single time.

Today’s rumour, courtesy of Tactus, is a bit different, however. This time, the rumour comes with a photo attached, which purports to actually show the body shell of this possibly mythical, unicorn-like budget iPhone, in the flesh.

So, therefore, it’s time once again to ask that question: is this real or cobblers? (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 can remember the days of yore, when the Mobile World Congress was literally the most exciting event of the entire year for people like me. I can still remember the old days, like the first MWC I did coverage on, where Sony Ericsson first unveiled the phone that I later went on to buy, the Xperia X1. I was agape with wonder, at the massive raft of phones that got released in Barcelona, during MWC.

Cut to the present day, five years later, and it’s sadly a very different story.

I’m sad to say it, but I reckon that MWC’s days as the premier mobile industry event of the year are, basically, pretty much over. That may seem harsh, but I shall explain why I think that… (more…)

I really love the look of Sailfish OS. I’ve made no secret of this fact, but yeah, I’m going to say it again: Sailfish OS looks like it’s made of win. I’ve been saying that ever since I first clapped eyes on it, and I’m still saying it today, now that PocketNow’s published another video of it in action…

Sooooo cool! Sure, I want to see it running on more phones besides that Nokia test unit, but daaaaaaaaaamn, every time I see it, I fall a little bit more in love… (more…)

Well folks, the time is nearly upon us again! Another year has passed, and it’s time for the mobile industry to descend upon Barcelona once again, for the annual pilgrimage that is the Mobile World Congress. It’s for the best and the brightest to wheel out their latest superphones, and for all of us to go oooh and ahhh as they punt their wares.

There’s a teeeeeeeny bit of a difference this year, though.

Y’see, this year, there’s a new venue (the Fira Gran Via conference centre), but there’s also a distinct lack of any excitement from big names like Samsung.

So, what can we expect? (more…)

Now then, this is an interesting story and no mistake, and it’s not just because it’s a story about my favourite manufacturer (i.e. HTC, as if I need to say it again). We’ve heard a ton of rumours about the upcoming HTC M7 (or whatever it ends up being called), but the most intriguing rumours have been the ones about its camera. Y’see, it’s said to use a new type of camera setup, using three image sensors instead of just one, and it’s said that the resulting 4.3MP pictures will be really rather sharp and lovely.

Oh, and the other thing, the thing that’s been hinted at today, by HTC’s own Twitter feed?

Canon might be helping ‘em with it… (more…)

Right then, I can’t be the only one who’s been glued to the news today, specifically the story about the meteor that exploded over Russia. Sure, it was only a little one, in the grand scheme of things, but the point is that even then, the shockwave it chucked out when it went WHOMPF was enough to injure 950 people (injured by flying glass from the windows it blew out, y’see).

However, in addition to being oh my god utterly scary as hell, this whole story has been another reminder about the rise of the mobile phone, ‘cos some of the most striking footage came, as is de rigeur these days, from camera phones. The guy on the street, with mobile in hand, once again brings us the news… (more…)

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I really like the look of the upcoming Sailfish OS; there’s a good few new operating systems due to hit the market this year, from the already released Blackberry 10 to Canonical’s Ubuntu for mobile, and of them all, Sailfish is the one that’s most caught my eye. In fact, it’s been catching my eye ever since we saw it appear on that Nokia dev phone, the one where it made its first big splash. Basically, as far as I’m concerned, it looks to be made of pure, weapons grade win, but that’s the ethos behind the new OS? What led developer Jolla to make the choices they’ve made?

Well, thanks to a new interview done by PocketNow, we now know… (more…)

Well, there ye go, folks; we now know which phones were the top sellers here in Blighty, at the start of 2013. Thanks to an article I saw on IntoMobile, we’ve now got the top ten list for January, and it’s probably not a big surprise to say that Samsung utterly dominated it, taking not just the top spot, but position two and three, as well. Yes, the top three biggest selling phone in the UK, last month, were all Samsung phones.

Blimey…

So, who were the other winners, last month? Now that we’ve got the run-down of the top ten, which other phones were in that bestsellers list? The results may surprise you… (more…)

Ahhh, the ever entertaining world of mobile phone advertising. It always gets especially interesting when you know that someone’s about to unveil a new phone, ‘cos they’re guaranteed to bring out some kind of teaser before the event. Usually, it’ll be some little sneak peek of a one corner of the new phone, or an extreme close-up of the camera lens, but occasionally, just occasionally mind you, you’ll see something like this.

According to BestBoyz (Google-translated link), what we’ve got here is an official teaser created by HTC, although no-one knows for certain what it’s teasing (‘cos, y’know, it’s a teaser; that’s sort of par for the course, really). All anyone knows is that, well, it’s a bit weird, innit? (more…)

I did a post, yesterday, about the upcoming HTC M7, and how it’s rumoured to use ‘ultrapixels‘ in its camera (long story short, it’s said to have three image sensors instead of one, which combine their image-y magic into one picture, that’s three times sharper… well, more or less, anyway). I wondered, as I wrote that post, how accurate the rumour was, but this latest nugget of info from the official HTC blog seems to suggest that yes, it really was true.

Well, alright, that specific rumour may not be true, ‘cos that source link doesn’t comment directly on that one, but HTC is definitely cooking something up. Y’see, the source link contains an infographic, only it’s not really an infographic, ‘cos it’s a (not so) cunningly hidden sales ploy by HTC… (more…)