Cellphone Sidekick

Phone bills today is quite a large deal in our daily life now, so choosing the right mobile phone contract is indeed quite important. If we choose right, we will be able to save some money and to make the most of our phone bills. Today, for those who love to text and have not too much calls, here’s the UK’s cheapest mobile phone contract – Tesco’s £6 a month deal.

At a tiny £6 a month Tesco’s claim to have released the nation’s cheapest phone deal. The Sim-only contract gets you unlimited texts and 100 free minutes a month.

Aimed squarely at cash-strapped tweens, teens and students who don’t use calls very much, this is a pretty good deal. It’s a one month SIM only contract so you can cancel anytime after the first month.

Of course, it’s not going to work with your new iPhone or indeed any other smartphones, because it doesn’t offer any internet access but hey if you like to text, this is great.

It is totally great for you if you love texts, other bottom end contract deals cost £10 minimum. It is really cheap, and sounds like the prefect contract for you. But as it doesn’t work for any smartphone, I guess many of you can’t stand it, so this might be only good for the kids, the elders, or work as a second mobile for you. To get it, you can buy the SIM card on the Tesco Website.

We love smartphones, and I sometimes love simpler low-end phones too. High-end smartphones with great functions are indeed great, but sometimes all I need is some basic functions and a little entertainment, so a low-end phone will just do fine. Now let’s take a look at the Nokia 5250.

With the proliferation of highly advanced smartphones, it’s amazing how Nokia still continues to produce low-end phones yet possessing some nice, advanced features. One of these phones is the Nokia 5250, a touchscreen phone powered by Symbian and is being geared as a music-centric mobile phone.

The Nokia 5250 main feature has got to be its music player which has its own icon on the phone’s homescreen. The music player app supports Nokia’s Ovi Music Store, meaning you can purchase music tracks from the online store and download it directly to the Nokia 5250 phone. While the phone’s built-in memory is only 512MB which could hardly accomodate thousands of music tracks, you have the option to expand it via a microSD memory card up to 16GB. Aside from this, the Nokia 5250 also comes with a built-in FM radio and a complementary copy of Guitar Hero 5 Mobile.

Aside from the music player on the phone’s homescreen, there are also other apps, particularly social networking app such as Facebook, MySpace and others. The phone also lets you access your Ovi Mail, Gmail and Yahoo! Mail. You can also check out your IM accounts. For more apps, you can just check the Ovi Store to get the apps supported by the phone.

And since this is a music phone, it has to have long battery life. Fortunately, the Nokia 5250 can last you up to 24 hours of continous music playback or up to 18 days standby and 7 hours talktime.

Other features of the Nokia 5250 include – Symbian^1 OS, GSM/EDGE Network connectivity, 2.8-inch TFT screen with 16:9 aspect ratio and 640×360 resolution, and a 2 MP camera.

The Nokia 5250 is slated for a 4th Quarter release. It will cost you €115 to score this phone.

Well, how do you like the phone? I really like the polished design, it is quite chic, and the functions are ok to me. It seems a really nice phone to me.

Honestly I’m not a fan of slide phones, so the Alcatel VM202 for Virgin is not really my girl, actually I wouldn’t want to talk about it if it isn’t a pink phone! But it is a pink phone indeed, and thanks to that I take a further look at it, otherwise I would have missed a really nice phone without even knowing it.

A chunky feature phone with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, the VM202 from Alcatel is not exactly going to trouble the iPhone, but it does look like a decent sturdy mid-range handset. Alcatel is a French-Chinese company which aims to produce phones for all over the world, probably a company to watch given their foothold in the world’s fastest-growing consumer market.

On a pay as you go deal exclusively with Virgin (for the first month) this is pretty cheap.

It has internet connectivity with Facebook and Twitter Widgets. The browser is the speedy Opera Mini. The VM202 also has a 4 megapixel camera which shoots video.

One key asset is the large storage space afforded by the handset. Virgin are packing a 8gb micro-Sim card in with the phone.

The VM202 handset will be available from Virgin Media stores and online at www.virginmedia.com for £39.99 including 300 free texts when bought with £10 airtime on pay-as-you-go. And you can check out more details on Virgin’s official site.

The renowned Nokia E-series has made their reputation with the powerfully nicely designed functions and the compact beautiful exterior design. Now the latest device of this E-series — the Nokia launches E5 device has come, especially designed for hardcore email addicts! You’ll love it.

Nokia fans and hardcore emaillers will be interested in the launch of the Nokia E5, the latest device in the E-series range. Described as a sophisticated messaging device – it’s built for email on the go. The QWERTY keyboard makes input easy, it can host multiple email accounts, has a lot of applications for instant messaging. Then there’s the the phone of course and a 5 MP camera.

Here are some main features of this incredible new cellphone:

1. Work and personal email accounts from the homescreen
2. Super quick, intuitive set up for email
3.  Free Ovi Maps – a Sat Nav and pedestrian turn by turn navigator with richly informative TimeOut, Expedia, Michelin, Lonely Planet, Qype and Trip Advisor applications for most countries
4.  Business-grade security and device management functions such as remote locking with SMS and device and memory card encryption
5. Great internet access (HSDPA/HSUPA and WLAN)
6. 5 MP camera

The Nokia E5 is now available sim-free in Carbon Black or Chalk White, priced at about £259 each.

Motorola, the renowned cellphone manufacturer yet makes another gorgeous cellphone — the Motorola Droid 2. Although I haven’t really get my hands on this beauty, there’s indeed lots of buzz out there already, enough to drive us to check this new phone out!

Verizon just made the Droid 2 available to the public! It was a much awaited release. Following the successful Motorola Droid phone, finally here comes its successor – the Motorola DROID 2. And Verizon has just made it available for pre-order days ago under its various mobile data packages. But perhaps what makes the Droid 2 a much awaited Android device is the fact that it will be pre-loaded with the Android 2.2 Froyo OS.

Being a much talked about and overhyped smartphone, expect the Motorola DROID 2 to pack-in tons of great features that will surely give its rivals a run for their money. Let’s take a closer look at what the DROID 2 has to offer then.

DROID 2 features a 3.7 touch screen 480×854 WVGA display that supports up to 16M colors and has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It is equipped with a 5MP camera with auto-focus, touch-to-focus, face detection, panoramic modes and other great camera features. This camera also captures DVD-D1 videos and has its own dedicated camera key.

Going further inside the DROID 2, you’d have an Android phone running on T1 OMAP 1GHz processor with its own dedicated GPU, an 8GB internal memory, 8GB pre-installed microSD card, Android 2.2 OS with Motorola Application Platform, aGPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and speakerphone.

The DROID 2 is also loaded with various Verizon-specific features including 3G Mobile Hotspot support for up to 5 devices, Visual Voice Mail, VZ Navigator, Skype Mobile, V Cast Media Manager, VZW backup assistant and of course a plethora of Google apps and third-party Android apps.

The Motorola DROID 2 is available for pre-order now from Verizon Wireless. It will set you back for $199.99 if you opt to get it with Verizon Contract which will run for 2 years.

With such gorgeous hardwares and so many powerful useful functions, the Motorola Droid 2 is a smartphone of the highest quality! So if you’re looking for a nice smartphone now, just check it out, you won’t be disappointed.

Luxurious phones made of gold are now quite not breaking news any more after so many luxury ones we’ve already seen, but the Luxor one is really something gorgeous and breathtaking. Sold for $1 Million, the Luxor Egypt-Inspired Phone is obviously not just astonishingly expensive, it is actually strikingly beautiful, elegant and luxury to every single detail!

High-end devices costing thousands of dollars have been increasingly developed in the last several years. In 2008, Vertu, the largest luxury phone maker, teamed up with French jewelry house Boucheron to create a gold phone, carved from a solid block, priced at $30,000.

Fashion houses such as Christian Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani, Prada, and even Swiss watch maker Tag Heuer, have all released their own phones in an attempt to use their brand to add additional revenue streams.

In June, Gresso introduced a $3,500 version of the iPhone 4.

Luxor Las Vegas said it plans to sell an “Egypt-inspired” phone, made from 18-carat gold with black diamonds, costing $1 million.

The Las Vegas-based hotel and casino said its “Jackpot” phone, designed by luxury phone maker Gresso, is crafted from 6.3 ounces of pure gold, encrusted with 45.5-carats of black diamonds and features a back panel made of 200-year-old African Blackwood. In addition, each key is cut from a single hand-polished sapphire crystal.

Luxor said the Jackpot — and a cheaper version without diamonds, which cost $20,000 — is expected to go on sale in August. Luxury phones are really not for use, they’re just for admiring, even if I can afford (which is clearly a day dream), I just can’t imagine myself talking to my friends via a piece of gold and diamonds!

August is golden season for cellphones, (and for vedio games too), so it’s really no surprise that we finally see AT&T’s Samsung Eternity II and Flight II get a true release date. I love the blue exterior design, so great news!

The incoming Samsung Eternity II and Samsung Flight II wanna-be smartphones for AT&T finally have an official release date, with the Eternity II being released on August 15th. It looks like they’ll both be ready to take on the onslaught of back to school competition that will be starting in a few weeks.

The Samsung Eternity II sports a 3.0″ touchscreen that helps take advantage of the fact that it has support for the optional AT&T Mobile TV powered by FLO TV in it for streaming live shows. It’s also got a full HTML web browser with one-finger zoom, a 2.0 megapixel camera, a mobile email, music and video player, and AT&T Social Net for keeping on top of your Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace accounts.

The Samsung Flight II sports a touchscreen as well, but has a slide-out horizontal QWERTY keyboard, along with a 2MP camera, full HTML web browser, mobile email, a music and video player, and enhanced social networking with PicDial, Star Tweets and WHERE. The Flight II is available now exclusively at Radio Shack and the Eternity II now available at AT&T too.

Go and get a dark blue beauty to dive with you for this august!

The iPhone 4 has been out for quite awhile now, if you are one of those who love to use the iPhone just like a small iPad, then here’s a great new for you all: the Vodafone offers iPhone 4 on Pay As You Go!

Vodafone is to offer the iPhone 4 on a Pay As You Go tariff. Also adding in a few extra incentives up until November this year, Pay As You Go iPhone 4 Vodafone customers can enjoy one year’s worth of data which will be capped at 250MB a month in addition to one year’s access to BT Openzone Wi-Fi, set at 1GB a month.

Vodafone have launched the Pay As You Go option as a reaction to customer needs; with many people preferring the flexibility that PAYG systems offer. Mark Bond the Consumer Director of Vodafone has also stated that there will be further options and incentives introduced later this year.

Of course, the main disadvantage of PAYG is the hefty cost of buying the phone which when on contract, is usually offered for free. The 16GB PAYG iPhone 4 through Vodafone will cost you £480, whilst the 32GB version will set you back a whopping £570. If you’re still a lover of the iPhone 3GS, this will cost you £385 on the Vodafone PAYG deal.

Yes, quite pricey, but if you use the iPhone like a smaller iPad, (like browsing the web a lot, or downloading things quite often on the iPhone 4) then you might find the contract thing actually quite reasonable.

SMS is not just a mean of communication today, especially to the youth, it is like almost a lifestyle! As we always love to have fun in life, SMS should be a little more fun too, so here comes the SMS Slingshot, which can send your text messages onto walls. This is totally fun, and quite beautiful too.

I always thought of slingshot as a toy especially created for naughty boys, as we often saw young boys sending stones or balls onto girls or birds. But the SMS Slingshot designed by Berlin based VR/URBAN has totally changed my opinion.

It is a handheld digital slingshot device that can send color splashes and text messages onto public screens. There’s a mobile built in the wooden device to store messages and a laser to blast those contents onto nearby screens via a projector. So just as what you can see from the photos below, the user keys in the messages, shoots the slingshot, and then he/she can find a color splash appear on the screen with the text inside.

So the slingshot is now not just a mean toy for naughty boys, it is a fun toy for all of us! Hopefully you’ll enjoy it!

Get tired of iPhone all the time, don’t want a business phone (like BlackBerry)? Well, you might be looking for a great smartphone with incredible powerful features, and this Acer Stream is probably exactly what you are looking for. It is great for daily use, and totally awesome for movie playback, music playing and other entertainment, and it is now available exclusively from Expansys.

Acer and Expansys has officially announced the availability of the Acer Stream this August 9. A high-end multimedia smartphone, the Acer Stream is a nice mobile device both in and out.

Inside the smartphone are powerful features that optimized the phone for movie playback, music listening and web browsing. Outside is a well design form factor made from highly resistant materials Feature-wise, the Acer Stream is in full steam with advanced features topbilled by a 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED display boasting of 1.67 million bright color. Completing its superb display feature is an incredible contrast of 2000:1 that allows the phone to display clear images even in light condition.

For its connectivity features, the Acer Stream offers fast 3G connectivity at around 7.2mbps download speed. It also features Bluetooth and WiFi.  Specs-wise, the Acer Steam features Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor, 512MB RAM which are both perfect for running Android 2.1 OS. The Acer Steam allows you to record 720 HD videos and have it played back with Dolby Mobile quality sound, powerful bass and crystal clear clarity.

Other features of the Acer Steam include – a 5MP camera, integrated GPS, geotagging, HDMI port, and micro-SD card support. The Steam has three types of predictive keyboards, a smart dialer and redesigned contacts list.

With all those features, the Acer Stream will let you quickly start favorite apps in one touch, easily switch apps with the History panel, customize your phone and enjoy smooth animation and fine graphics.

Beautiful design, powerful feature, if you like it just as I do, the Acer Steam now retails for £399 at Expansys. Go and get your own one!