Digital camera technology has gone a long way since the very first digi-cams have been introduced to the consumer market. These days, it seems all too easy to slap on a camera on almost any handset. The average laptop and netbook comes with a built it webcam, even handheld gaming consoles such as the PSP and the DSi have cameras (in the case of the PSP, it is an external accessory; the DSi has it built in.) Naturally smart phones also have digital camera technology as well.

Nokia is already promising the industry a massive 12 mega pixel camera on the upcoming N8 and N9 smart phones (which use the Symbian^3 and MeeGo operating systems respectively). Sony Ericsson’s Vivaz and the Motorola Milestone XT 720 each bring an 8 mega pixel camera to consumers everywhere.

These days, taking a high resolution image of anything basically means simply pointing a phone at a subject and taking a quick snapshot. But for the more discerning graphic artists, the concern does not stop with the mega pixel count alone, having zoom, autofocus, LED flash and other additional features are also important.

For users who like to upload straight from the phone to a Flickr account or in Facebook, a smart phone with integrated social networking features are recommended, as well as having pre-loaded image editing software (which would really help a lot when it comes to sizing down images to make them viewer friendly as full resolution images shot with an 8 mega pixel camera takes a while to load).

In both cases, it pays to have hot swappable micro SD cards. While 32GB cards will take a while to fill up, they eventually will. And having other media such as music and videos are certain to fill up the cards as well (most phones are also capable of recording video in 720p, 30FPS, which is also pretty space consuming).

Microsoft’s new mobile platform is due to arrive on October and from the looks of it, several handsets will be ready by that time.

It is already known that the LG Panther has been ready for the past few months. A mock version of the device has already been seen as early as March while what seems to be final version of the smart phone has been seen in images in the recent weeks. And the Korean manufacturer is not the only one making a WP7 device. Taiwan based HTC has dropped two names, the Mozart and the Mondrian as WP7 handsets, though no details were given if the two phones were indeed separate or this is simply one device with two nicknames. Sony Ericsson’s name has also been added to the list with the announcement of the SE Jolie.

The new operating system from Microsoft focuses heavily on general users. While the older Windows Mobile operating system is a more business-centric mobile platform, the WP7 leans towards media playback, internet access, social networking, games and general functionality.

Considering the most recent demonstrations of the operating system, WP7 has proven to be a well composed OS, with various functions leading and linking towards each other. Users can jump from the map to the contact list to the calendar if the user has associated linked entries for the various contents.

In the above trail, a map could potentially show the addresses of nearby contacts that when clicked, can bring up the details of the individual. From there, a user can set a schedule to visit, call or simple email the contact and have the task marked on the calendar. All of these processes are done directly, without having to go back to the home screen even once.

Expect to see more updates regarding Windows Phone 7 as October approaches.

Looking back at the industry’s standards, mobile phones have come a long way from the older models that were initially made. Before CDMA and 2G technology was available, most mobile phones were huge, as in carrying a bothersome weight. These mobile phones only allowed two purposes –making and receiving calls (though you can probably knock a person unconscious with it too). Phones these days are smaller and slimmer. You can even hang some phones from a lanyard or just slide one into your shirt’s front pocket.

Even the weight has changed dramatically. From bulky to just around the area of 100-150 grams, the change in weight is an even bigger issue –and these days, having a phone weighing close to 200 grams is already considered heavy.

But industry standards can get confusing, while smart phone manufacturers have been sticking true to the new weight rule, the concept of size is a completely different matter. People want smaller handsets, at the same time, they all want bigger screens. Even scrapping the keyboard and keypad in exchange for a large touch screen was not enough; now, some developers are looking to make phones will really big screens.

Dell recently launch Dell Streak that has a 5 inch touch screen, Sony is rumored to be working on a 5.5 inch touch screen handset as well. At a recent tech conference in Asia, Samsung revealed the Galaxy Tab which is basically a 7 inch tablet which can be used for making phone calls as well.

Breaching the border between a tablet and mobile phone is a tricky thing; after all, the main point of having a mobile handset is portability. Avoiding the need to carry a 7 inch touch screen device is specifically the reason why mobile phones have been invented.

Ah, self-made promotional videos, is there a branch of film that deserves to die a more horrific, painful death? Short answer: no. Short reasoning behind proposed violence: the video below for the Sony Ericsson Jalou.

Look at it… just look. Does the world get any more patronising? Are metaphors ever so brutally disgusting. Is the complete absence of anything, absolutely anything at all redeeming really possible.

There is, in fact, so little subtlety, so little depth to this thing, that there can actually only be one intended outcome, one hoped for response from the viewers of said video. The conversation would have gone something like this, in fact:

Slimy Sony Ericsson Suit: So, what we want, what we need the consumer out-take here to be, is, you know, success, fashion, style, you know, high fashion. We want our demographic to walk away from this thinking, ‘that’s it, I want to be that stylish, that’s how I envisage myself in a perfect world: as a successful model, with successful model friends (although they’re not quite as successful as me), living on a rollercoaster of beaches and bars.’ And we want them to realise that they can have this life, they can tap into is by purchasing the Sony Ericsson Jalou

Director: I like, make pictures. Picture films with the ladies with the nice parts. Pretty ladies with no clothes.

Suit: Quite, yes, well, we know your reputation. However for this film the ladies must be clothed. Not that much, mind, but with their, well, you know, parts – as it were – at least mostly – covered.

Director: Okay, yes please. I sign now where? And you tell judge I good man in next week trial?

Etc and so on and so forth. See? Do you see now?

Hopefully that cleared it all up. If you actually want to know anything about the phone (idiot!) then have a little gander at this Sony Ericsson Jalou review. It’s not as bad, to be fair, as the video suggests. But then, unless the phone actually commits hate crimes and massacres after you purchase it, it couldn’t really be quite as bad as the video suggests.

So the summer is coming to an end, yet we seem to be enjoying some rare sunshine here in the UK. To celebrate this rarity we have decided to put together a list of our 8 favourite mobile phones and the best deals that are available with them. We might make this a regular feature, it just depends how useful you guys think it is. So let’s get started.
1. Nokia N97 deals – The hottest Nokia mobile phone out there right now. Yes it has a few problems, but nothing a few firmware updates will sort out. You can get a free ipod shuffle on T-Mobile with 800 minutes and unlimited texts for under £40.00 per month.
2. HTC Hero deals – Android is the way forward and the HTC Hero is the best of the lot. At £15 per month cheaper than the N97 it is worthy of the number 2 spot. You do only get 400 minutes per month though.
3. HTC Touch diamond 2 deals – much improved from the original Diamond, we really like the interface on this phone. £30.00 per month on O2 is the one to beat here, with 400 minutes and 500 texts.
4. Sony W995 deals – The best Sony Ericsson phone available in the market at the moment. You get music, camera and a sleek design all rolled into one. And for a little of £21.00 per month on Orange we think that it is a bargain.
5. Blackberry 8520 deals -No list would be complete without a Blackberry. The new 8520 is a slimmer sleeker version of the older models and we are very impressed with it. There is a deal with Orange offering £170 cashback on a £35.00 per month deal, so now is the time to grab this one whilst its cheap.
6. Nokia 5530 deals – Wow this is a cheap mobile phone. Vodafone are offering this one with 600 minutes and unlimited texts for just £21.00 per month, an absolute bargain.
7. Samsung Jet deals – The new addition to Android community has been well received and if you are looking for an alternative to HTC this one needs to be considered. Grab it O2 for £29.35 per month on O2 or £21.20 on Orange if you don’t mind cashback deals.
8. Nokia N86 deals – Gamers delight in this fabulous handset. Yes there are cheaper Nokia phones out there, but if you like to game then this one is a must. Vodafone are offering it for £31.00 with 600 minutes unlimited texts.
So there you have it our run down of the best mobile phones with the best deals. It is probably worth bearing in mind that these offer change quickly so grab them whilst they are still around.

Sony Ericsson have always annoyed us and pleased us in equal measure. But with the Sony Ericsson Xperia X3, it looks like they’re heading towards pleasing us more than annoying. Which, well, makes us happy.

For so long they’ve created phones that are really great in some or even most areas, but that have been crippled by annoying quirks that we just haven’t been able to forgive them for. A phone of there’s might have a fantastic music player, for example, but then it’d have no 3.5mm jack socket and you’d have to use and/or buy Sony-specific headphones. Or another model might have a superb, high-mega-pixel camera, but then you’d have to buy Sony Ericsson memory cards (at a far higher cost than the industry-standard microSD cards). Not so, in both cases, for the Sony Ericsson xperia X3. Quite why it took them so long to realise that it’s a good idea to allow the use of the kind of technologies the rest of the industry is happy to support is beyond us. Actually, it’s not: is what simply about them being greedy and wanting more profit for themselves, but let’s not hold that against them.

Oh, and did we mentioned that the X3 is a Google Android phone… well, it is. And if you follow this blog regularly you’ll know how happy that makes us. So, all looks good for this little beauty, as is expanded on in this Sony Ericsson Xperia X3 review. The sad thing is it’s not due out for a few months yet, but you can still have a look at these Sony Ericsson Xperia X3 deals in the meantime, or take a sneak peek at what the UI is going to look like.

We are very perceptive, if we do say so ourselves. Which we do. Because we are. And we have perceived something, in the official press release for the Sony Ericsson T715, that might not actually be there. But then again, it might be. And we think it is. Some background: the Sony Ericsson T715 is an entry-level 3G phone. That is, it’s cheap, but it’s got some mod cons. And will, because of these facts, be aimed at places where people don’t have as much money as us lucky folk in the so-called developed world. Sony Ericsson doesn’t quite say that explicitly, but it’s true. And, knowing this, read this:

“Building on our current 3G portfolio, the T715 allows us to bring 3G mobile phones to even more markets giving them high speed internet access wherever they are.”

Now, here’s the perceptive bit: the sentence at first seems to be talking about markets: we, the almighty Sony Ericsson, are bringing the almighty T715 to markets. But but but – then it shifts to talking about ‘them’ and ‘they’ in terms of high speed internet access. And this ‘them’ and ‘they’ is meant to mean the people of these markets, rather than the markets themselves. So not only is this quote ungrammatical, it’s also slightly, well, dismissive of this ‘them’. Right? It all just smacks a little bit too much of Christian missionaries spreading the Word to the dark continent. Anyway. There we have it. A little bit of perception for you. How did you like that?

Want even more perceptivity? Read this Sony Ericsson T715 review. Want even more shiny flashy Believe in Us type nonsense? Then watch the inane marketing video below.

Two phones have gone under our noses recently, both of which raised more than a little wrinkled of, if not quite disgust, then certainly a little annoyance. First up was the Samsung Pixon 12, with it’s from-the-rooftops shouting about its having, well, 12 megapixels onboard. So what! we shouted back, you’re still not a camera, never will be, so there. Then we had the Aino, from Sony Ericsson. Which, while impressive in many respects, was pretty much a daft buy unless you owned a PS3. So, what about the Sony Ericsson Satio? Does it claim to be something it’s not? Nope. Does it pander to a small and smug portion of the population exclusively? Not a bit of it.

So, what does it do, and how does it do them? Well, the short answer is: a lot of things, very well. (Read this Sony Ericsson Satio review for the long answer!). That’s because the Satio is very cleverly being positioned as a phone that excels at ‘visual communication.’ A-ha! you say, I like watching videos on the way to work, therefore this phone is definitely for me. Or, wahoo! you scream, I like surfing the internet and using things like Flash while I’m doing so, this will be exactly what I need.

And that’s where Sony Ericssion have got it so right with the Sony Ericsson Satio. Because, to look at the thing (have a peek at the video below) you’d be very much forgiven for thinking, oh, it looks just like a camera, it must be primarily a cameraphone. And with the pretty damn good camera onboard, it is a fantastic cameraphone. But it is also a fantastic music player, video recorder, email checker, media downloader and… well, it does just about everything it attempts more or less spot on. So we’re all for the Sony Ericsson Satio, and we have a sneaking suspicion you will be too.

• 3G
• WiFi
• 8MP camera
• Very decent battery time

…start as you mean to go on is something our gran always told us, and seeing as how the only way we’ve been able to get our head around the sheer number of things the Sony Ericsson Aino’s promising is to listulate it (that means to make into a list, obviously), we thought we’d do just that. Anyway, the more vital list runs as follows:

• Remote Play – Basically, Remote Play gives you access to all your PS3’s media content on your Aino. Whether at home and linked in to your usual network, or anywhere else in the world where you can get a decent internet connection, you can access all that stored PS3 goodness in an instant
• PlayTVservice – Again, a PS3-owners one. You’ll know that you can watch certain free TV channels on it , but now with the Aino you can watch these channels on the phone itself, just by hooking up via the internet. Impressive
• Media Go – A simple way of controlling (i.e. watching / playing / transferring) all the media files on home computer using the Aino itself as a kind of funky little remote control
• Media Home – a means of Synchronising your PC with your phone to make sure you’ve everything you want with you, wherever you go.

The Sony Ericsson Aino, then is about as media-tastic as it gets. And luckily, as that first list at the top suggests, it ticks all the other boxes you might want ticking too. Keep an eye out, but this should be released sometime in the autumn. In the meantime, check out the teaser of a video below, or just have a look at this Sony Ericsson Aino review.

Sony Ericsson seems to be doing pretty well in the looks department as far as mobile phones are concerned. The announcement of the Sony Ericsson Aino marks yet another handset that is destined to become a firm favourite with Son Ericsson lovers everywhere.
So what is so special about the Sony Ericsson Aino? Well it seems that Sony are keen to create a phone that will work alongside its PS3 console. The Aino does just that, allowing users to control their PS3 remotely using their mobile device. So is this the rumoured PSP phone? Sadly not, although it will allow users to interact with their PS3 when they are not in the room. The only feature that I have found so far is the ability to turn your PS3 on or off, but I am sure that plenty more features will be announced in due course.
But what is you can’t wait for this handset to be released? Then we suggest you try one of the Sony Ericsson W995 deals that are available to consumers right now. Okay it won’t turn your PS3 on or off, but you do get an impressive 8.1 megapixel camera and all those great walkman features that we have come to know and love from Sony Ericsson.
Why not check out some of the latest mobile phone contracts at Moby1 today and see how much of a saving you could make?