From the World of Mobiles

The iPhone 4S looks just like the iPhone 4 deals. However, its innards are a different story and the device is very different to the previous phone in terms of software and hardware on its insides. The Apple doesn’t resemble the previous device in many ways.

Mark Hirst the director at Best Mobile Contracts has said of the iPhone 4s, ‘Is the iPhone a revolutionary device? No, it is evolutionary, bringing in important upgrades such as dual core processing, a greatly improved graphics chip and Siri, a new voice recognition that learns with you. I look forward to seeing how the iPhone 4S works with iCloud, Apples cloud computing offering as well.’ This positive appraisal of the iPhone 4S’s abilities is well spread throughout the phone industry, though it may take a little time for this belief to filter down considering the shape of the phone hasn’t changed.

He phone however now offers twice as much power as the previous device and also seven times the graphical abilities. It will come in the same sizes; however these aforementioned changes will make a massive difference in the abilities of the device and the software that can be utilised with it.

The new camera is an 8mp one with the ability to shoot 1080p video. This is a huge leap forward for the Apple devices and works extremely well with the excellent retina screen which hasn’t changed but is probably still the best in the market place.

The phone also has the new Siri voice control technology, which obviously brings a new touch free dimension to the phone and leads it to be an excellent device in this area which can now learn the way you pronounce your words to adapt to voice commands. This feature can be used with countless apps on the phone and looks like it may be set to change how we interact with our phones.

The iCloud feature has also been done before but Apple has perfected it in a number of ways and allow for quick sync with all the content you own by allowing you to play music from the cloud by not having to upload music. This is done through the use of the iTunes tags which Apple checks you have and then allows you access to the songs on its drive.
The iPhone 4S has certainly delivered and showcases Apple’s ability to make the best out of current technology.

When one thinks of a Blackberry phone, the first thing that most think of is the QWERTY keyboard. Almost all of the phones made by Research in Motion, the company who manufactures the Blackberry, have QWERTY keypads on them and this is one of their biggest selling points as they are brilliantly made, easier to use and more responsive than virtual keypads.

For this reason, it may seem strange to many that one of Blackberry’s most popular handsets does not have a QWERTY keypad. The Blackberry Pearl was first released in 2006 to little fanfare but over the last 5 years, as it has been upgraded several times to keep up with growing trends in the mobile market, it has gained a strong following and the latest version, the Blackberry Pearl 3G 9105 is an extremely useful handset indeed.

The phone is, compared to most other Blackberrys, very small measuring up at 108 x 50 x 13.3mm, but this is no bad thing. The phone is suitably compact and those of you who like small phones may have been put off Blackberry in the past due to the fact that they can be on the large side may look at the Pearl’s attractive size and shape as an extremely positive aspect of the phone.

This small size does not mean that it is short of features as well however, with plenty on offer in this area. The pearl includes Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, GPS, a 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus and video recording, a  very good media player and an optical trackpad that, although not quite up to the character of the trackball that used to be on Blackberry phones, is effective.

The pearl is not going to be an all singing all dancing phone and does not match the feats of the Torch, Blackberry’s latest high end phone, but for the price it is available for it is a very good handset indeed so it is one that is certainly worth checking out. Head over to phones4u.co.uk today so see all the latest offers on pay as you go and contract phones. Phones4u has been established as the market leader in the UK for over ten years.

Not a fan of Acer’s spate of Windows Mobile smartphone releases during the year? Maybe you’ll find a little more to like in the Acer Liquid A1, the company’s first Android handset.

Refusing to hold back on the hardware for their newest effort, Acer is fitting the Liquid A1 with a pretty spiffy hardware suite. Chief on the specs list is a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU and a 3D-capable chipset, making it the very first Android device to offer that level of computing power.

The phone will feature a capacitive touchscreen with 800 x 480 resolution (no word on size), a 5.0 megapixel camera module, onboard GPS and 3G connectivity. Industry insiders are also buzzing about the capability to integrate with telephone answering services, a must for any small business owner. Acer is also touting improved power management for the phone, claiming longer battery autonomy for heavy users.

It will ship pre-installed with version 1.6 of the Android OS (Donut) and, based on the press release, sounds like it will use a custom UI that revolves around entertainment features and web bookmarks. Other software capabilities include address book integration with Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Picasa and Flickr, as well as an exclusive multimedia application called Spinlets.

No details on pricing or release date have been give for the Acer Liquid A1, which looks a lot more like a modern smartphone, compared to the company’s previous releases under the Tempo line. Rumors are going around, though, that they’re prepping it for a November debut.

The HTC Tattoo represents the budget version of the company’s high-profile Android handsets. Literally bringing the exciting new OS to the masses, it offers plenty of upside over other budget smartphones.

Geared towards the low-end of the market, it’s not unusual to expect shabby performance from the phone. Once you use it, though, any apprehensions should be laid to rest: it’s a powerful smartphone despite the budget price.

Physically, it brings a more conservative aesthetic to the table, a tad removed from the more stylish lines of both the HTC Magic and the HTC Hero. The looks aren’t half-bad, though, and overall build remains sturdy. Despite the positives, HTC naturally had to cut some corners to keep the price down.

In this case, they outfitted the phone with a smaller 2.8-inch resistive touchscreen. While the size is acceptable given the value, the choice of a resistive panel is a bit hard to swallow. The implementation isn’t as good as Samsung’s efforts on their resistive touchscreens, either, so you’ll either have to push hard with your fingers or pull out the stylus to use the Tattoo.

As a phone, it manages above average in-call quality, with natural-sounding and clear voice conversations. Operation relies on a 528MHz Qualcomm MSM 7225 processor, performing fast even with multiple applications running in the background. It houses a slim battery panel with a rated talk time of 6.5 hours, making it handy for up to three days or more of regular use.

The Tattoo comes with all the power of Android, boasting an impressive suite of preinstalled applications (e.g. Google Maps, YouTube and a Twitter app). It comes running HTC’s excellent Sense UI, the same one found on the Hero. Like HTC’s other Android phones, it supports a full range of messaging options, including email, MMS and more. Pretty much every Android capability is available, so you won’t be shortchanged on that end.

A full range of connectivity options are supported, including 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. Web browsing is fast, but the challenges of using a resistive panel makes touch gestures quite difficult. The 3.0 megapixel camera doesn’t include many complementary features and quality is largely average. Multimedia UI is exactly the same as with HTC’s last Android device before it.

Overall, the HTC Tattoo is an excellent entry-level smartphone. Everything about it, in fact, can ably match up to more expensive handsets, save for the occasionally annoying resistive touchscreen. If you can live with that (and, at this price, it’s not a difficult choice), this should prove more enticing than any mid-range smartphone currently around.