More than most other phone makers, Sony Ericsson Quikr.com has used great multimedia capabilities as a way of branding their

Monday, September 11, 2006

Sub-Rs 2000 Nokia CDMA handset

As a CDMA user myself, I often rue the fact that there are so few options on CDMA phones compared to GSM phones.

Nokia has now just tied up with Reliance to offer a CDMA handset that is priced under Rs 2000: The Nokia 1255.

It's an entry-level phone (what else did you expect for 2 grand?). The black and white phone does, however, include hands-free speaker phone, a voice recorder, a calendar and an alarm clock.

Sliding beauty: Samsung D600

Like most Samsung mobile phones, the Samsung D600 is great to look at with a sliding design that creates extra space for a large 240X320 display. The phone is packed with great features as well.

With such a large screen, it’s not surprising that the D600 comes with an excellent 2 megapixel camera which shoots video as well. The phone also comes with an integrated image editor for modifying your photos as well as Pictbridge which lets you conveniently transfer photos to your printer. You can also display your photos on your television with the help of a TV output cable. To store all these photos, the D600 has 81 MB of internal memory, which can be expanded with micro SD cards.

All that memory comes in handy to store audio files as well and you can listen to your music on the inbuilt stereo speakers. The phone supports a number of communications formats: you can connect to the Internet through GPRS or the newer, more advanced EDGE. When it comes with to your basic phone needs, notable features include a speakerphone which lets you talk hands-free and a picture caller ID which lets you assign photos to individual callers.

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Samsung D600 | Samsung Mobile Phones

Games people play on the cellphones

Mobile phones fill a unique niche in your gaming needs: because you carry them around with you at most times, they are right there when you need to kill a few minutes at the bus stop or when you are waiting for an appointment. In recent years the number of mobile games, both freeware and commercial, has exploded.

Freeware games are easily available on many websites. The files are tiny making them convenient to download and install even if you don’t have much memory. The range of games is immense: but board games and puzzle games like Sudoku are especially common. There are often multiple versions of popular games like Chess allowing you to pick the one that suits you best.

Commercial games tend to have superior production values. The mobile versions of popular game franchises like Splinter Cell and The Sims are also available now. If you are interested in a phone built specially for gaming you might try Nokia’s NGage QD the successor to the earlier NGage. Compared to a regular phone the controls and layout are much better suited to gaming and there are a number of high-profile games available like Civilization and Call of Duty.

Download 100 MP3 files in 3 minutes on your mobile phone!

That's exactly what Samsung Electronics plans to deliver right into your hands by 2008.

The company gave a peek into the potential of 4G mobile technology at a 4G conference held in Korea.

The company claimed it can deliver multicell handovers at blinding speeds of 100 Mbps.

It also demonstrated roving 1 Gbps data transmission while delivering a 32-channel HD broadcast download, Internet access, and video telephony services. Samsung claimed the roving data transmission speed is 50 times faster than current mobile WiMAX technology.

3G and smartphones from Meridian

UK-based Meridian Mobile plans to launch its range of 3G mobile phones in India.

The handsets are expected to be priced between Rs 7000 and Rs 10,000.

Skype for the mobile phone?

Who doesn't love a freebie? A small British firm called Rok is, apparently, all set to launch a Skype-like service for mobile phones.
Using the firm's specialised software, you can make free VOIP/ Internet-based calls to other handsets that have the same software.

iPod's call may not make music

There is an increasing convergence between mobile phones and music players. But is that what consumers want? Perhaps not, says the annual Digital Music Survey

According to a report in the Guardian, London, on the study, Apple may have a tough job convincing consumers to pick its next-generation iPods that also makes phone calls.

The Digital Music Survey of 3000 British consumers found that 46% of people preferred a phone that also played media files; 21% would choose a stand-alone music player and more than a third would never want a mobile phone and a music player combined.

Mobile phones with anti-virus

Mobile phones these days face an increasing threat from virus and malicious bugs. As the number of people using smartphones to surf the internet and check mails increases, security of data becomes a big issue. Mobile manufacturers have, therefore, decided to load an anti virus software when the handset is manufactured.

Also, Symbian Series 60 OS, the operating system used by most smartphones around the world, is pretty vulnerable to virus attacks. Because of this, leading PC anti-virus vendors like Norton, McAfee, and Kaspersky have come out with the Symbian S60 version of their anti-virus programs.

Samsung's P200 UMA phone: Seamless connectivity

Samsung has launched the world's first Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) phone in Italy.

According to the report, UMA is a next-generation fixed-mobile convergence technology standard which allows for seamless handover between cellular networks and fixed IP networks (hot spots).

The UMA P200 mobile phone promises greater mobility than WiFi phones because you can switch between cellular networks such as GSM, GPRS, EDGE and wireless LAN networks (WiFi).

As WiFi hotspots catch on in India, UMA phones may be something to keep a close watch on.

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UMA mobile phones | Samsung Mobile Phones | Unlicensed Mobile Access

Mobile phones for under Rs 1000 ($20)

A cell phone for under Rs 1000? If India's telecommunications minister Dayanidhi Maran has his way, you will be able to buy a sub-$20 phone in early 2007.

Not suprisingly, it will be a no-frills mobile phone with just voice and messaging features. Manufacturers have the option of adding features such as camera, MP3 player, radio etc -- for a higher price tag of course.

The reason for the phone's low cost? It will have just a single chip instead of the multiple chips embedded on a PCB (printed circuit board) that is the staple of the mobile phone you hold in your hand.

The walkman talk: Sony Ericsson K750i

The Sony Ericsson K750i isn’t the most advanced mobile out there but it may well be the best in its price range and it represents a sweet spot in terms of the features you get for the money.

Thought the K750i isn’t strictly speaking a walkman phone, it has an excellent stereo MP3 player which delivers quality sound and a number of sound options including a graphic equalizer. The phone comes with a handsfree which doubles up as an antenna for receiving FM radio. It also features voice-recording.

The 2MP camera, which can shoot video, is even more impressive. It comes with auto-focus which is important for snapping close-by objects making the phone especially good for photographing documents. The phone also comes with 3 pre-installed games of which Aero Mission 3, in particular, shows off the 3D graphic capabilities of today’s mobile phones. Of course you can also download and play countless Java 2.0 games.

Beyond all the multimedia goodies, the K750i delivers on the basics as well: phone calls are loud and clear, the interface is for the most part intuitive and elegant and the phone has standard functions like a calendar, contacts, a stopwatch and so on.

Java Applets for your Mobile

One of the best thing about today’s mobile phones is that you aren’t restricted to the applications that you get on purchase. Like a PC, your mobile is almost endlessly extendable through all sorts of neat applets a lot of which are freeware and can be easily found online.

If you want to run the latest applets make sure your phone is compatible with Java MIDP 2.0. This feature isn’t just for expensive phones; it’s available even on moderately priced phones like the Sony Ericsson K300i. Installing Java applets is very easy. Check your phone’s manuals for details but typically you download a .jar file to your desktop. Using a USB connection and your phone software you copy the file to your mobile memory and then open and install the file within your mobile. The whole process might take a couple of minutes.

The range of applets is immense and almost as diverse as the software available on a regular PC. Games are very popular and there is something for every taste: action games, card games, sudoku, chess etc. There are plenty of utilities as well: scientific calculators, money managers, calendars and lots more.

Boost your mobile memory: Memory cards, etc

Today’s mobile phones often come with rich multimedia features that require a lot of memory to use properly. Understanding the different kinds of memory is very important in choosing the right phone.

The most basic form of memory is the internal memory that comes built in to the phone. This doesn’t require any additional cards but is usually very small: only a few tens of MB. However there are some phones like the Sony Ericsson W600 which has 256 MB of internal memory which may be sufficient if your multimedia needs are moderate.

More typically your media files are stored in expandable memory through memory cards. You should check that your phone has an expandable memory slot and, if it does, what memory card format it accepts. There are a variety of formats: mini SD, MMC and so on. Several of these formats are used in other portable devices, so it might be possible to share a memory card between, say, your digital camera and mobile phone.

Finally a few high end models are now available with hard drives large enough to replace memory cards: for example the Nokia N91 which comes with a 4 GB hard drive.

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Memory Card | MMC | SD Card

Twist and shout: Nokia 3250 Twist Phone

As mobile phones cram in more and more features, a major problem is providing comfortable controls for all those extra functions. The Nokia 3250 twist phone provides an elegant solution: the keypad at the bottom of the unit can be twisted to activate various features. Twist it 90 degrees and activate the 2 megapixel camera. Twist it 180 degrees and you activate the controls for the music player.

The music player is compatible with a number of formats including MP3, Real Audio and WMA. Also included is a stereo headset which connects via a standard 3.5 mm jack which means that the phone is compatible with a wide range of audio accessories. The 3250 has extendable memory up to 1 GB in the form of very small and light microSD cards.

The 3250 is one of the first phones to feature the Symbian 9.1 OS and has a variety of useful software. The Nokia Audio Manager helps you organize your music files and transfer them from your PC. There is a diary application which lets you to combine your phone’s photos, video and text. Another nifty feature is a sound meter which measures noise levels around you.

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Nokia 3250 | Mobile Phone | Twist Phone

Walk the talk: Sony Ericsson Walkman Phones

Sony’s original walkman is a legendary product in the history of consumer electronics so it’s not surprising that in 2005 Sony Ericsson announced plans to introduce a series of walkman phones. These phones are regular mobile phones of high quality but what they have in common is great stereo music and excellent multimedia capabilities.

For example the Sony Ericsson W810i comes with a stereo headset, dedicated music control buttons for convenient navigation and Disc2Phone: a music management programme for easily transferring your music from your PC. The phone also comes with an excellent 2 megapixel camera with auto-focus and a flash as well a 262K colour screen. Adequate memory is essential to properly use multimedia features and the W810 features expandable memory and comes with a 512 MB memory stick which can store a few hundred songs or photos.

When it comes to the top of the line W950, the most striking feature is the 4 GB hard drive which can store thousands of songs or photos and several hours of video. The model also features the new Symbian OS 9.2 and a touchscreen which is handy for navigating for all those multimedia files.

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Sony Ericsson | Walkman Phone | W810i

Making the most of your bluetooth headset

One of the inconveniences of mobile phones is the need to use one hand to hold the set to your ear while talking. Bluetooth wireless headsets solve this problem by allowing you to use your phone while keeping it in your pocket or on your table.

The Jabra BT800 is a popular model with some great innovations like a small, backlit LCD screen which displays caller ID information as well as the phone’s call list and menu options. In addition, the headset has three buttons for “mute”, “answer” and “end” and a jogwheel which can be used to adjust volume. It’s also possible to choose a ringtone and set the headset to vibrate. BT800 isn’t just about nifty controls; it also features noise cancellation technology which provides clear audio in a wide range of environments.

Stereo headsets like the HPM-70 from Sony Ericsson are also available; they are ideal if you like to use your phone to play stereo music. Some headsets are also quite elegant and can almost be considered fashion accessories. For instance Sony Ericsson’s Akono headsets come with changeable covers with different colours. Two covers are included with the headset and more can be purchased separately.

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Bluetooth Headset | Wireless Headset | Jabra BT800

Smooth as a pebble: Motorola Pebl U6

It’s easy to see where the Motorola Pebl gets its name. With its smooth, rounded clamshell design and graphite black colour it does indeed look a bit like a shiny pebble. It feels different from other phones as well: a bit like hard rubber. Equally striking is its opening mechanism. Clamshell phones are usually hard to open one-handed but it can be done easily and smoothly on the Pebl because of a series of custom hinges and magnets.

The unit comes with an outer display which provides basic information like battery state and signal strength as well as alerting the user about incoming calls and serving as a clock. The main display is also pretty good with 262,000 colours and a resolution of 176X220. The Pebl comes with a VGA camera and 5 MB of internal memory which can be used to store MP3’s, photos and ringtones as well as downloaded games and applications. The unit also features speaker-independent voice dialling and voice commands. The battery gives about 6.5 hours of talk time and ten days of standby. The Pebl can connect to the Internet through GPRS and also has Bluetooth for wireless connectivity to your PC.

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Motorala | Pebl U6 | Pebl

Nokia N91: Hard to beat!

The Nokia N91 is one of the top models in Nokia’s heavily promoted N series and has some of the best multimedia features ever seen on a mobile phone. There is a 2 megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss swivel-lens and a built-in flash effective for a distance of 1.5 metres.

The camera-phone can shoot video and record sound and also comes with a variety of shooting options like scene selection and anti-red eye effect. The bottom line is a camera-phone that can deliver pictures decent enough to be printed and quite close in quality to those of a point-and-shoot digital camera. The phone also has an excellent display with 256,000 colours and user-adjustable brightness.

The N91 comes with 10 MB of internal memory for running various applications but what makes it really special is the 4 GB hard drive which is capable of storing thousands of photos and more than a thousand songs. You can enjoy all that music on the included stereo headsets which come with a remote control. The N91 supports a wide variety of music formats including MP3 and WMA and provides several options for downloading and sharing music including wirelessly through Bluetooth.

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Nokia | Nokia N91 | Nokia N-Series

Buying Mobile Handsets — Camera Phones

Because you carry your cellphone with you much of the day, your phone camera is a great way for capturing those unexpected moments when you don’t have your regular camera ready.

Most phone cameras produce low resolution photos of around 0.3 megapixels which are suitable for small screenshots but not for prints. However 2 megapixel models which produce decent 4 by 6 prints are increasingly common as are models which shoot video. Samsung, for instance, has many 2 megapixel camera models. Some of them come with video as well as a 2X optical lens and flash.

Once you have clicked your pictures, you can download them to your PC wirelessly through Bluetooth or Infrared through a USB cord or through flash memory cards using a card-reader. Ideally you want multiple options like the Nokia 3650 which has Bluetooth, Infrared as well as memory slots.

Phone cameras vary a great deal when it comes to features so you should always check if a particular feature is available. Examples of features available on some phones but not others include a flash, a self-timer and special colour options (like sepia and black and white).

Next: Advanced Buying Guide

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Mobile Phone | Cellphones | Nokia 3650 | Samsung | Memory Card

Buying Mobile Handsets — Device Connectivity

The primary purpose of a phone is to connect with other phones but cell-phones offer a range of other options from connecting to the Internet to connecting wirelessly with other devices.

Modern cell phones can do many of the online activities that your PC can like web-browsing, e-mail and fax. An obvious constraint is the small screen size. The Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) has been specially designed for convenient online access for cell-phones. Browsing is done through microbrowsers like Opera Mobile and Pocket Internet Explorer. Some mobiles can also be used as modems for your PC or to send faxes.

Technologies like Bluetooth and Infrared enable cell-phones to connect wirelessly to nearby devices like your PC or PDA. Bluetooth is great for connecting to multiple devices and doesn’t require line-of-sight. Bluetooth headsets which allow you to speak and listen wirelessly to your mobile are also available. Infrared is used for one-to-one connections between two devices; its main advantage is low interference so that your message goes to the intended device regardless of other devices in the room. Ideally, opt for a mobile that packs in both technologies such as the Nokia 6600.

Next post: Phone Cameras

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Mobile Phone | Cellphones | Nokia 6600 | Bluetooth | Infrared

Buying Mobile Handsets — Multimedia Features

In recent years, mobile phones have ceased to be devices for just making phone calls and have instead become versatile multimedia phones that act as powerhouses for video, music and gaming.

The most important feature for a multimedia phone is the quality of the screen; for instance the LG MM-535 comes with a bright, 2-inch, 262,000 colour screen for viewing video. Audio can be in the form of stereo speakers or included headphones (which fit in both ears unlike the usual cellular headphones). You can listen to MP3 files stored on your phone’s memory and some phones can also receive FM radio.

Cell phones can also be used for gaming and while the graphics are relatively basic, the games can be an enjoyable way of spending a few spare minutes. Some phones come with pre-loaded games like Snake and new games can also be downloaded from the Internet.

Note that multimedia consumes a lot of energy so make sure you buy a model with plenty of battery life if you intend to use multimedia features a lot.. Also check out the button layout for special multimedia buttons for, say, playing and stopping music or controlling game-play.

Next post: Connecting your mobile

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Mobile Phone | Multimedia Phone | LG Mobile

Buying Mobile Handsets — Batteries

Your mobile phone battery may not be the most exciting feature on your mobile but it is one of the most important in ensuring that your phone is a reliable communication tool.

There are two main types of phone batteries: NiMH and lithium ion. NiMH batteries are more affordable while offering a decent battery life. Lithium ion batteries, while more expensive, weigh less making them ideal for cell phones and are also environmentally friendly since they don’t contain mercury or cadmium.

When buying a phone, check out both how much talk time and standby time (when the mobile is switched on but not in use) you obtain on a fully-charged battery. These range from 3 hours of talk and 150 hours of standby to around 9 hours of talk and 400 hours of standby on phones like the Sony Ericsson Z520a. If you like to talk for a long time, obviously talk time is important. If you travel a lot and regular recharging is inconvenient you might worry more about standby time.

Another factor that you should check out is how long the battery takes to recharge and whether a rapid charger is available.

Next post: Multimedia capabilities

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Mobile Phone | Cellphones | Nokia | Sony Ericsson | Mobile Charger

Buying Mobile Handsets -- Design

In this, the first in a series on how to buy mobile phones, we look at what you should consider in terms of design of a handset.

Your cell-phone is probably the electronic gadget that you carry with you the most so it’s important to make sure you are comfortable with its physical design and overall feel.

There are two basic cell-phone designs: the clamshell phones which can be flipped open and non-flip, candy-bar phones. The flip phones offer more space and better protection for the screen. Non-flip phones are easier to use with one hand and have a simpler design with fewer moving parts. If you do buy a non-flip make sure it has a keypad lock to prevent accidental dialling when it’s in your pocket or bag.

Whichever type of phone you buy, you should check out the way it handles. Make sure it’s comfortable against your ear and that you can hear calls properly. The controls should be intuitive and the buttons themselves should be easy to identify and press. The navigating buttons are especially important and some phones come with a knob which makes for easier navigation.

Size and weight are also important and some recent phones like the Motorola V3, which is only half an inch thick, are small and still have decent features.

Some Popular Brands

Nokia | Sony Ericsson | Motorola | Samsung

Next post: Phone batteries

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Mobile Phone | Cellphones | Motorola | Nokia | Samsung | Sony Ericsson