Penny Mobiles – Mobile phone news, reviews & information
Penny Mobiles brings you up to date information on mobile phones, including how to get the latest handsets for cheaper. A penny for your thoughts on mobile technology.
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February’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona saw a whole raft of new mobile devices that are soon to hit the marker and many interesting concepts found the light of day at the Congress. One new device, T-Mobile’s new collaborative effort in concert with France’s Sagem and China’s Huawei, is a new Android-powered smartphone at an extremely low price as it will retail on the UK market for a touch under £100 at £99.99 on pay-as-you-go plans. The Mini seems designed, and priced, to immediately take on the HTC Tattoo and on first impressions the Pulse Mini does a pretty decent job with its specifications.
For a start there is a pretty decent 3.2-megapixel integral camera bundled with the device which usefully includes an LED flash, thereby allowing good quality pictures to be snapped even in failing lighting conditions. This is a nice addition – especially given the Mini Pulse’s budget price – as many devices have good cameras but forget to include the flash which severely curtails the usefulness of the camera. The device also comes complete with a 2.8-inch resistive touchscreen and a 3.5 millimetre headphone jack input, a significant upgrade on the Pulse (the Pulse Mini’s predecessor) which only offered a 2.5 millimetre input jack.
It’s always good to see that new devices offer improvements on the old, though the Pulse Mini’s measurements of 106×57x14mm indicate that it is far from being the most elegant or slim device on the market today though an Android-powered phone at under £100 will, in all likelihood, not suffer overmuch as a result of this. The device comes with an internal memory capacity of 300MB as well as a microSD card slot through which, with a memory card, the device’s memory can be ramped up to as much as may be needed.
There is little question, however, that the star feature of the Pulse mini is its Android 2.1 operation system coming, as it does, on such a well-priced device. Unfortunately for the assembled media at the Mobile World Congress the software that had been loaded onto the demonstration device was somewhat unstable and seemed to keep crashing which took some sheen off of the proceedings, however Samsung assured all those attending that the released retail device will come fully equipped with the Android 2.1 operating system that would be stable and work comfortably with all items.
In terms of menu configuration the Mini Pulse’s home screen is somewhat unique, though some may say a bit unusual, as it features 15 panels in a 5×3 grid formation which the user can swipe through by going up, down, left or right in order to make their selection. The device also features a D-pad controller and by pressing the controller’s central button the user can zoom out of the main panel view and view all 15 home screen panels at once so that one can be selected. This is unique as the vast majority of home screens are generally arrange from left to right as demonstrated on many of the major HTC models.
Although the Android operating system looks great on paper as well the truth is that, due to the low-cost of the device, short-cuts have been taken on some of the other specs and this ultimately means that the capability doesn’t play out as well as you might want – especially not in a QVGA resolution screen. Also, the resistive display is disappointing for many users as it is not particularly user-friendly compared to many of the capacitive screens found today. The manufacturer must have realised this, though, as a stylus has been included to afford easy inputting of text
Connectivity wise although it features Bluetooth and Wi-Fi the Mini Pulse has no GPS capabilities, and it seems that this must affect the wider usefulness of the device as the lack of GPS capability will render all location-based applications for the Android system null and void. Still, overall it is a solid phone and one budget spenders looking to get in on the Android phone craze will likely appreciate.
Currently, the largest mobile network operator in the UK is the Vodafone –and judging by the company’s powerful 3G network which has been able to sustain many iPhone users and even attract iPhone users from other networks to switch (namely from O2), they have the established themselves on the forefront of the mobile telecommunications in Europe. While they are large, they do not control the industry. One possible merger has the potential to do so.
A few months back, talks between Orange UK and T-Mobile UK have come to an agreement that the two major network operators would merge. The resulting merger would create a network larger than Vodafone; the largest network in UK and possibly second only to China Mobile in the whole world.
Of course, the creation of such a powerful merger is not always welcomed by the industry. Competitors fearing major losses due to the presence of such a powerful player are obviously against the merger. The Office of Fair Trading has filed for a full investigation of the merger by British authorities.
Despite the merger already having been scrutinized in Brussels by regulators, the OFT, and Ofcom, the tentative February merger of the two companies has been put into another delay.
Meanwhile the merger also places 3 mobile in a very tight spot. Kevin Russell has stated that since 3 mobile relies on T-Mobile’s network, if the merger does not have provisions for 3, then their company would not be able to properly compete in the telecommunications industry.
Once merger pushes through, it would give T-Mobile and Orange the largest mobile phone spectrum in the region –which is one of the main reasons why the merger is being investigated; the upcoming merger would be able to control the telecommunications industry in the UK.
For more details and information on the merger and its possible ramifications on the telecommunications industry, go straight to the Guardian UK.
T-Mobile has filed a report to the Information Commissioner’s Office that data on thousands of customers has been sold without the company’s knowledge to unknown third parties. The general consensus is that T-Mobile should be held responsible for the safekeeping of their client information (which is part of their responsibility in their contract with their client).
Though technically, this is not a case of the internal system being weak, it is their employees who are the root of this matter. T-Mobile has expressed that it is currently working on finding out the specific individuals responsible for the data theft.
However, investigating this matter could be very difficult as it appears that this is just the surface of a much deeper problem. The selling and purchasing of information is done on so many levels and there is no easy way to filter through all the persons involved. Often, the data is illegally sold, illegally purchased, and then legally sold to other parties. The constant passing of money on different levels (to paraphrase T-Mobile) could also point to the fact that there is already a working system for these transactions.
While it is commonly spoken of, breach of secure data has never reached a scale this large. At first, T-Mobile had not announced that their company was at the crux of the investigation, but as time wore on, they finally announced that it was their company that currently had investigations (this followed the initial statements from O2, Vodafone, Orange, Virgin and 3 that their companies were not part of the investigation.
For now, government investigators are dismayed at the current penalties for guilty parties and are saying that tougher penalties would serve as a greater deterrent for these illegal activities. These opinions, which are also voiced by Justice Minister Michael Wills currently lack the support and backing of the government.
Less than 6 months ago, the T-Mobile G1 was released in the US and, now, we have another Google phone made exclusively for T-Mobile in the form of the T-Mobile myTouch 3G, which is quite similar to the G1 in a number of ways. However, the myTouch is slimmer though people who are more used to using a physical QWERTY keyboard will have to make-do with the virtual keyboard. The Android 1.5 Cupcake is utilized on this phone as well.
The biggest advantage of the T-Mobile myTouch 3G is the fact that it is really slim. The plastic body gives it a very glossy finish, but the material is not as good as other HTC phones. Even the screen of the phone has a more plastic feel to it rather than a better material such as glass. Though the materials used in making the phone aren’t extremely posh, the phone feels solid when held in the hand.
The T-Mobile myTouch 3G makes use of a 3.2 inch capacitive LCD touchscreen which is bright enough to give a fair amount of lighting to a room when it is set at its very brightest. Even the lowest brightness will enable you to use the screen on any angle. The buttons on the front are of a decent size, with the trackball in the middle of these keys. There is a 3.2 megapixel camera, but no flash. The microSD slot is under the battery cover, but not under the battery, meaning that you don’t have to remove the battery to remove the memory card.
As far as the virtual keyboard is concerned, using it in portrait mode is nearly impossible, so using it in landscape mode shouldn’t be much of a problem. Navigating our way through the phone wasn’t difficult, though there is a slight delay when changing orientation of the screen.
In conclusion, this phone has most of the features that you get in the G1, but has a virtual keyboard and a slimmer form factor as well!
T-Mobile myTouch 3G Links:
The Android’s first phone made a welcome entry into the market of cell phones. Now the T-mobile is making a come back with myTouch 3G, which is an improved version of G1. The biggest factor on which the myTouch 3G is banking on its ability to customize on a deep level. The users will have the peculiar ability to personalize their menus, logos, and wallpapers along with a varied range of other things by making use of several themes as well as skins. This marks a break free from the iPhone that unlike myTouch 3G cannot be customized at all as per your preferences.
You can avail T-Mobile myTouch 3G in three evergreen colors such as the black, white and the unique merlot color. Besides, this you will be rendered an alternate to wholly customize your phone the way you desire. The other crucial aspect of T-Mobile is advertising the Sherpa application of myTouch. On this the company worked in partnership with Geodelic. In general Sherpa is known to be an application which claims to discover from the actions of the users. This will offer you with tailor made results for all your requirements depending on the location that is around you. With this peculiar application built in T-Mobile myTouch 3G you will have a great time and a fun-filled experience.
The process of myTouch 3G phone is similar to G1 phone supporting a 528 MHz. the handset possesses a 3.2 inches display that features a resolution of 320×480 pixels resolution. T-Mobile myTouch 3G runs on a HTML web browser offering you a fast connection to stay connected and ability access a broad array of Google applications. All in all T-Mobile myTouch 3G is a great handset.
T-Mobile myTouch 3G Links:
The T-Mobile G1 Touch might, at first glance, just look like yet another bland phone from HTC, but just 5 minutes of usage will convince you that it is much more than that. In fact, it is one of the best phones around.
Starting off with the display of the T-Mobile G1 Touch, it is a tad smaller than that of the iPhone, but it is more crisp and clear than that of the iPhone.
This Google phone will require that you have a Google account before you are able to do anything, including activating the phone for use on the T-Mobile network. Since I wasn’t really on their G-1 plan (which is a 3G and EDGE package which gives me 400 messages free every month), I couldn’t really get the phone activated immediately for this review so I had to get some support from T-Mobile. I didn’t really realize the problem immediately, but only found out about it a couple of days after. Once you have activated the phone, you will be directed to the main screen, which basically has 4 default icons known as Dialer, Contacts, Maps and Browser.
The T-Mobile G1 Touch does disappoint in one sense as the phone is fairly heavy due to the presence of the full – QWERTY keyboard, which can be revealed by sliding it sideways. The colour combination used for the keyboard is quite disappointing because, though the backlight shows up the silver present on the keys, the orange present on the ALT key is barely visible. The problem worsens if you are in a low – light area as you will surely not be able to see the ALT key.
The bundled apps are not so bad. There is an IM, built – in Calendar, web browser, integration with Amazon MP3, mobile YouTube, but the best among them was the Google Maps, which is absolutely amazing.
The T-Mobile G1 Touchwas released by HTC as one of the new touch Smartphone’s in the market. The phone measures 2.2 x 0.7 x 4.6 inches. This makes it one of the more pocket friendly smartphones in spite of its size as the edges of the phone are slightly curved. This allows the phone to be easily slipped into even the smallest bag or pocket. The T-Mobile G1 Touchis powered by the Android operating system which makes it easy for the user to navigate through menus and sub menus. The Google android makes this even easier provides easy access to all the applications on the phone. The 192 MB RAM and 256 MB ROM makes it easy to run many applications at a time. This high memory allows you to run even the most advanced applications easily without too much of a hassle.
The QUALCOMM 528 MHzMSM7201A processor is fast and efficient. The keyboard is easy to use as it lies below the screen. The keys are well separated and are easy to use even if you have large fingers. The T-Mobile G1 Touch has a range of connectivity options including quad band GSM, UMTS, EDGE, HSUPA and HSDPA. The 3.2 inch TFT display can support up to 65000 colors at a 320 x 480 resolution. The battery of the T-Mobile G1 Touchis quite good and lasts for a couple of days with no need to recharge. The media player can play a range of formats such as AAC, MP3, AMR, MIDI and AAC+.
Transferring data to and from the phone is easy via the Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and the USB connector. The memory of the phone can be expanded to store a larger media library using the microSD memory card slot on the side of the phone.
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