Latest Mobile News

There have been a good number of mobile phones announced, released and rumoured recently. New phones, new styles, new technologies, we love it, however, as we cast our eyes over the recent rumour and announcements, we are going to start not with a mobile phone, but with an operating system.

For a lot of people, operating systems on mobile phones mean little, if anything at all. But as the market develops and phones become more capable of offering a higher level of services, the OS is becoming all the more important. Without the aid of a crystal ball it is not easy to predict what the future will bring, but it is with a certain amount of surety that we can state the OS will become a more important option in the buying decision for a new mobile phone. Over time, the purchase of a device will be based as much as on the OS and the apps that platform offers, as it will be on the built in handset features. Some apps are available on multiple platforms, whilst others on just a few, or only one. So the development of a major platform like Windows Mobile is of deep significance to the mobile industry, as one of the more established names looks to do battle with the new boys from Android and Apple.

One of the good things about the new Windows Mobile 6.5 which will be of interest to all existing WinMo handset owners, is if you are running Windows Mobile 6.1 you should be able to upgrade your device to the latest OS, and if possible, it is recommended you do so. The benefits it will bring definitely make it worth while.

One of the new features Windows Mobile brings is a new homescreen, which lays out access to various options via rows of bright, colourful icons. Ironically, this is one feature some users may never see, given that a customised manufacturer UI will overlay this with their own homescreen option. The latest Windows Mobile also offers an improved, updated Internet Explorer web browser, with support for kinetic scrolling and flash, too. Whilst this update is welcome, it is fair to say that when given a choice, Opera still provides a better web browsing experience.

One of the more important changes to Windows Mobile comes with the Windows Marketplace – Apple have shown the way in making the process of buying, downloading and installing apps, that the simpler it is the more likely the end user is to do it. Given the huge amount of apps that are around for Windows Mobile, it makes sense to offer a simple to use front end store for purchases. The number of apps currently available in the marketplace is still fairly low, but this will soon increase.

Another new handset announced was the much rumoured HTC HD2, officially announced to coincide with the release of Windows Mobile 6.5. This smart looking device is expected to find its way onto both T-Mobile and O2, and is crammed with the latest in mobile technology. Apart from running Windows Mobile 6.5, the HTC HD2 is the first Windows device to utilise the HTC Sense UI. With a large capacitive touchscreen, 5.0 Megapixel camera, GPS, WiFi, full featured media player and more, the HD2 looks set to show just what a device running WinMo 6.5 is capable of.

Also, the launch of the Motorola DEXT on Orange, a welcome return to form from Motorola with a quality, Android powered mobile device. Sporting a 5.0 Megapixel camera, WiFi and GPS, the DEXT has a slide out QWERTY keyboard for easy data entry. In addition another Android device that made an appearance last week was a special edition of the T-Mobile MyTouch, this one being a Fender edition. Better known as a manufacturer of classic quality guitars, the T-Mobile myTouch 3G Fender Special Edition has a smart looking wood grain style finish on the bodywork, and comes with a high capacity MicroSD memory card, preloaded with exclusive music content.

Now available after a long wait is the Sony Ericsson Satio. This is the device that was previously named the Idou when details first started to emerge of a flagship, Symbian powered 12.0 Megapixel camera device from Sony Ericsson. Complete with Xenon flash, the camera on the Satio is amazing, and the phone looks great too, with a few soft blue LED lights around the camera capture key and bottom of the camera slide. The Satio wasn’t the only recently announced Sony Ericsson device to hit the shops, with the Aino, also making a popular debut.

And we end our round up with even more handset news, this time with the rumoured Storm II and Bold II from BlackBerry. The Storm II will hopefully resolve many of the software and usability issues that has been the downfall of many original Storm users, bringing the reliability and dependability of BlackBerry devices into question.

The BlackBerry Bold II is the handset that has been known so far as the Onyx. This will be the flagship BlackBerry handset, which will finally offer the top of the range in every department, with WiFi, HSDPA and GPS all onboard a single BlackBerry device for the first time. We will post full feature reviews of these devices very soon.