They can certainly target the younger market in some confidence. The vast percentage of those who embrace new technology tend to come from the younger age range, but there is also a vast market of older users who may have different needs.

They may not be interested that the latest phone can download music, run an app to tell them how to bake a goat’s cheese and lemon terrine or that they can now access the Internet while they are pruning their hedges at the bottom of the garden.

Many of these users, as strange as it may seem to many of the younger folk, would just like a mobile phone that is simple, easy to understand and performs the seemingly forgotten art of actually calling someone to speak to them. Fortunately, this is where a website like www.phones4u.co.uk is so beneficial.

This autumn, many new students will be heading into colleges and universities across the UK. Parents can give them a head start by taking a look at the fantastic ‘student saviour’ deals on offer on the website at present. These are the best mobile phone contract/laptop package deals and the value to be had is truly astonishing.

Take the popular Samsung Tocco Lite, a fantastic little mobile phone using touch screen technology. For just £30 a month with 02, you receive this great little handset on a 24-month contract but for that you get unlimited texts over the two-year period (which will be invaluable when little Jonny forgets the power of speech while at University and decides to communicate only via SMS!), 600 talk time minutes a month (which will no doubt keep him from running up a huge phone bill ordering Chinese takeaway).

A great deal, but it gets even better when you learn that he will also get completely free a fantastic Dell Inspiron 11Z laptop on which to do his vital University work, or more likely, spend the day on YouTube watching videos of skateboarders fall clumsily to the ground.

If you are a techno-lover then you will no doubt want the latest technology and Phones4u once again delivers. They offer the full range of fantastic new smartphone packages, including the superb new Samsung Wave S8500 and the astonishing Samsung Galaxy S.

They also offer a comprehensive range of Blackberry handsets, the stylish new offerings from the likes of HTC, Nokia, LG, Sony Ericsson and of course Apple.

Yes, fans of the iPhone 4 will be understandably feverish with the news that Phones4u have some of the best deals available on this latest Steve Jobs creation.

For instance, the stylish Apple iPhone 4 16GB is available under contract from Vodafone for 24 months. For that you receive 1GB a month mobile Internet browsing and 900 free minutes and 3000 texts messages a month.

All for just £40 a month and a one off initial payment of just £89. Alternatively, if you are going to be using your brand new iPhone 4 online a great deal, you could opt for Orange’s similar deal, which is exactly the same price, £89 initially and £40 a month, with the same number of texts and minutes free each month, but which comes with unlimited browsing and WiFi included!

If you aren’t an Apple fan, then don’t worry. There are still plenty of great contract phones on offer to you, at a vast range of prices and on a suitable tariff to match your budget. Many also come with a fantastic free gift to sweeten the deal further.

This gift is often delivered the same day as your phone, no needlessly sorting vouchers, having to send them off to some obscure address in the remote Orkneys and then waiting three months for delivery with Phones4u! If you order a phone with a free gift then, pending satisfactory credit checks, they should be with you the next day!

For instance, let’s imagine that a customer wants the stylish Blackberry Curve 8520. Once they have logged in, checked the specifications of the phone and read the all-important customer reviews of the phone on the site, they then decide that they want to order the phone.

The choices available to the customer are frankly astonishing. If he wants a cheaper monthly package, he can take the 18-month 02 woo contract, which offers a quality phone free of charge, for just £20 a month. Plus the customer would receive 100 call time minutes and 3000 texts free each month!

However, if the customer wants a little more then they will surely be delighted to find that they receive a lot more for their money! If they opt for the Blackberry Curve 8520 on the Vodafone Blackberry your plan Text £30 contract, for his £30 a month he would get 300 minutes of talk time and 3000 text messages. A great deal, but one made even better when you consider he would get delivered, free of charge usually within 24 hours, a brand new slimline 120GB Playstation 3!

A quick browse of the offers for your choice of phone will highlight the myriad of free gifts, from games consoles, televisions to laptops, cashback and iPods, all of which are offered alongside some of the best deals available anywhere in the UK.

Pay as you go customers are not left behind either. Whether you don’t want to be tied down to a monthly contract and want a stylish, modern feature-laden phone, such as the new Samsung Monte or Sony Ericsson W995, then they are available on fantastic, affordable pay as you go deals.

At the other end of the scale, if you just want an emergency back-up phone to keep in the car, or a phone so simple even your mildly eccentric granny could use it, then you can spend the princely sum of £2.95 to get a rather elegant Nokia 1661 – when you buy £10 airtime with Virgin to credit the account with.

With mobile broadband deals, laptop packages, special offers by the dozen, phone reviews and all the latest mobile technology news, the Phones4u website isn’t just about buying phones, but enhancing your life with them. Best of all, that applies if you are a techno-wizard who wants the most expensive gadget and gizmo money can buy, or whether you are of a more venerable age and want the simplest of phones to contact your family.

The name says Phones4u, but really they have phones, gifts, features and advice that is perfect for everybody.

nokia to sue apple

The World’s biggest phone maker, Nokia say that they are suing Apple for infringements of patents on mobile phone technology used to develop the iPhone. Nokia claim that unlike other manufacturers who use Nokia technology through a signed contractual agreement, Apple have never actually signed up.

Nokia say that they have agreements in place with around forty companies allowing them to use Nokia technology, mostly hand set manufacturers, but Apple have not signed an agreement.

According to Nokia the iPhone infringes ten patents including wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption, with breaches dating back to the launch of the iPhone in 2007.

Nokia said:

“The basic principle in the mobile industry is that those companies who contribute in technology development to establish standards create intellectual property, which others then need to compensate for, Apple is also expected to follow this principle.”

Over £36bn has been spent on research and development over the last two years by Nokia, but the recent financial crisis has seen a fall in sales resulting in the company posting their first quarterly loss in ten years.

Critics believe that poor sales are down to people switching from Nokia hand sets to iPhone and Blackberry devices, which may have prompted the alleged law suit.

After having ridiculous problems downloading and installing previous versions of to my iPhone 3G mobile phone, it was with a heaped spoon of trepidation that I reluctantly to download ate latest version of iTunes.  So why download the iTunes update if you have had a history of problems, you may ask.  The answer is my business pays for four iPhones on a 24 month contract.  If there is an updated version to the mobile phone software then I think it’s entirely reasonable to expect to be able to download it.  But downloading software updates from Blackberry and Nokia has never been a problem in the past.

As before, the downloaded started and appeared to be 90% complete before I am greeted by, one has become the most annoying popup window of the most frustrating software I have used in the past 12 years as an I.T. professional.  It reads:

“iTunes has detected an iPhone in recovery mode.  You must restore this iPhone before it can be used with iTunes.”

For those yet to be enticed by the superb iPhone marketing machine, your time will come; and for those already owning an iPhone, I am sure you have encountered this ridiculous problem.

The problem being that if your iPhone fails to download the software update successfully, instead of simply failing to update, your mobile phone becomes locked in a state of uselessness, and the only option is to ‘restore’ your mobile phone to the original factory settings.  Great!  So I lose all my contacts, calendar dates, notes, photos, music, apps and other personal data.  This is very irritating and time-consuming for personal use, but totally unreasonable and useless if, like me, you are running a small business and your mobile phone is the centre of all your business communications.

I have found the best way to tackle this problem, which unfortunately is only a solution to saving your data but can do nothing for the amount of time you will spend installing the latest version of iTunes on each iPhone mobile device.

Firstly, always make sure you save a backup from your iPhone before you consider updating the iTunes software. At this stage, make a list of the Apps on your iPhone as these will not automatically be reloaded.  Then disconnect your iPhone from your computer and download and install the latest version of iTunes on your computer.

Restart your computer before connecting your iPhone again.  This confirms that the latest version of iTunes software has been successfully installed.  Only then should you attempt to update your iPhone.  Once your iPhone updates successfully (and this still may take several hours or more) iTunes will ask if you want to create a new iPhone account or add the latest backup of whatever you have named your iPhone.  Choosing the latest backup will restore your contacts, email account settings and mail, texts and music. For some reason it doesn’t restore any downloaded Apps or a passcode.  These will have to be downloaded and installed manually.

Today I spent over two-and-a-half hours attempting to retrieve my iPhone from cyber limbo, and in the process missed three important business calls and in the process of restoring my data, lost one voicemail and 2 text messages.  And just in case you think this is something to do with me, my computer or a poor internet connect, I have spoken to many iPhone users over the past two months and all of them have experienced the same problem.  Furthermore, I have encountered the iTunes problems on several computers on several good quality home broadband services, none of which have problems with any other software.

So, in conclusion, after three months of using an iPhone I can confidently say it is a good phone and the Apps make it great fun for personal use.  But the iTunes issue means I will be returning to a Blackberry for business use, unless Apple can offer a more reliable solution to the iTunes download problem.

Nokia N97 Mobile Phone

This month, the highly anticipated Nokia N97, Nokia’s flagship mobile computer, will begin selling in June in more than 75 countries. This is Nokia’s direct competitor to the Apple iPhone and Blackberry Storm.

Along with a tilting 3.5″ touch display, QWERTY keyboard and a fully customisable home screen, the Nokia N97 will offer instant access to the full range of Ovi services.

The Nokia N97 is Nokia’s first device to feature a personalisable home screen, which can be customised with a range of widgets to bring real-time information directly to your mobile device in the form of ‘widgets’.

These widgets include key social networking destinations like Facebook, news services like the Associated Press, Bloomberg and Reuters, as well as shopping and weather information. The Nokia N97 is the first device to ship with the Ovi Store, which offers easy access to applications, games, videos, podcasts, productivity tools, web and location-based services, and much more. Ovi Store includes both paid and free content from a range of global and local content providers and developers, including Paramount Pictures, Facebook and Qik, as well as a selection of Twitter applications.

“The Nokia N97 is an important step towards our vision of delivering a highly personalized Internet experience,” said Jonas Geust, Vice President and head of Nokia Nseries. “Fuelled by a multitude of music, maps, games, media and applications via Ovi, the Nokia N97 transforms the Internet into an experience that’s completely tailored to the tastes and interests of its owner.”

The Nokia N97 is like a computer

Taking your Nokia N97 out of the box is just the beginning. As with any computer, you can constantly improve and refresh the Nokia N97 with new features, functions and fixes so you can do more with this device than any other Nokia mobile phone.

Mobile Entertainment

The Nokia N97 also has direct access to the huge catalogue of music in the Nokia Music Store. With multiple high-speed connectivity options and 32GB of storage (up to 48GB using a microSD card) it is possible to directly download and store tens of thousands of songs on the handset. And you can listen to your favourite music on the Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-905, which Nokia also launched today.

The headset brings crystal clear sound, eliminates background noise, and is the ideal accessory for listening to music and making calls on the Nokia N97, as well as being compatible with a diverse range of other mobile and music devices.

High-quality images and video clips at 30 frames per second (fps) can be captured using the 5 megapixel camera with integrated Carl Zeiss optics. Images can also be geo-tagged to specific locations and shared instantly with friends or uploaded online via Ovi Share, Twitter or Flickr.

Whereas the iPhone appeals more to personla consumers,  I believe the Nokia N97 is going to appeal more to business customers and looks set to be one of this year’s biggest selling mobile phones.

Smartphones are primarily aimed at business users, and the market is packed with great phones which offer a wide variety of functionality, so much so that it can be hard to choose between the phones on offer. Let`s look at some of the top smartphones for business users that are available today.

Blackberry Bold – The Blackberry brand has become synonymous with the business smartphone, and even the new president of the USA has been known to carry one around with him. The Bold is the latest evolution of the 8800 series and aims to bridge the gap between the casual and business smartphone markets. Of course the Bold has a full QWERTY keypad which makes it unrivalled in terms of email functionality, so if you`re out of the office a lot but still want to keep tabs on your inbox then the Bold is ideal. It`s also got HSDPA connectivity for high speed mobile internet and downloads so you won`t have to wait for the latest business news. The Bold also adds GPS navigation, a feature that many business smart phones are now integrating, as well as the latest Bluetooth technology for hands free chatting and conference calling.

HTC Touch Diamond2 – Following on from the success of the original the Diamond2 brings style to the business smart phone market as well as a touchy feely interface. Running Windows Mobile 6.1 means that the Diamond2 is compatible with loads of useful mobile business applications like Excel, Word and Internet Explorer, and it essentially puts a PC in your pocket. Then there`s the large 3.2 inch screen which can recognise handwriting amongst other things, and a decent 5 mega pixel camera. This means that this is a smartphone that will hit the business and media hotspots with great all round functionality.

Nokia N96 – The Nokia N96 is not only a very popular handset, it is also one of the most feature rich smart phones on the market. Firstly it has a market leading 16GB of internal storage space which means it will eat up documents and large folders with ease. Then there`s the 5 mega pixel camera that sits on the back and the smaller one which perches on the front for video calling and MMS messaging. The Nokia N96 also has all of the connectivity options that you would expect from a modern smartphone for business users, including 3G and HSDPA for mobile internet, Wi-Fi connectivity for free web browsing and connecting your phone to the office network, Bluetooth 2.0, and of course GPS so you`ll never loose your way again.

A beta version will be available in May for the BlackBerry Bold™ and BlackBerry Curve™ smartphones, with support for other BlackBerry smartphones to be confirmed.

The lite version of Skype delivers core Skype capabilities to BlackBerry smartphones, including:

• Make Skype-to-Skype calls to other Skype users anywhere in the world
• Send/receive instant messages to/from individuals or groups
• Make Skype calls at low rates to people on landline or mobile phones
• Receive calls to your online number on Skype
• See when your Skype contacts are online/available to chat

BlackBerry users who download Skype can save money on business and personal calls to landlines and mobiles. The application works wherever your mobile phone works, without needing a Wi-Fi connection. It uses local air time and a mobile Internet connection to sign in to Skype, update your contact list and presence and to send/receive calls or messages. As a result, you must have both a calling plan and a data plan to use the lite version of Skype.

“With Skype on BlackBerry smartphones, we are making Skype available in the briefcases and purses of BlackBerry users around the world,” said Scott Durchslag, COO of Skype. “We have heard loud and clear that our users want Skype on whichever smartphone they choose to use. This fulfills our promise of making Skype available on the major smartphones so consumers and mobile professionals can connect to Skype whenever, wherever and however they choose.”

The lite version of Skype will be available to BlackBerry users worldwide. The ability to make calls will be available in 10 countries: Australia, Brazil (Rio de Janeiro & Sao Paulo), Denmark, Estonia, Finland, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, the United States and the UK. English will be supported first, with additional languages to follow. Those who download the beta version will be able to provide feedback on the application via an online survey.

The Costs for using the lite version of Skype:

You will be charged by your mobile operator for local air time and data usage based on the type of calling service and data plan you have purchased. Since the lite version of Skype uses a mobile data connection to sign in to Skype, update your contact list, update presence and send/receive messages, you will be charged by your mobile operator for data usage. You will not incur charges from Skype when you make Skype-to-Skype calls or send instant messages to friends on Skype; however national calling rates apply from your mobile operator due to the use of local air time. Skype will charge its regular very low Skype rates when you call landlines and mobiles using Skype or when you receive calls on your mobile handset from other Skype users or people calling your personal online number. We highly recommend getting an unlimited data plan for use with the lite version of Skype. The longer you remain signed in, the more Skype contacts you have, or the more you send and receive instant messages, the more data you will use.

About Skype

Founded in 2003, Skype is revolutionizing the way people communicate around the world. Skype has more than 405 million registered users globally who use Skype software to communicate for free through voice and video calls as well as instant messages. Skype generates revenue through its premium offerings, such as calls made to and from landlines and mobiles, voicemail, call forwarding, and SMS.

Skype is used in almost every country on Earth, and people have made more than 100 billion minutes worth of free Skype-to-Skype calls. Conversations over Skype can take place on computers, mobile devices and Skype Certified™ hardware.

Skype certifies and sells hundreds of hardware products from more than 50 partners, and works with hundreds of third-party developers who have created plug-ins to extend Skype’s functionality.

Blackberry Storm 3G Touch Screen Mobile Phone

The Blackberry Storm will be launched in the UK on 11th November

The latest Blackberry mobile phone is about to be launched in the UK.  Latest reports suggest the Blackberry Storm will be available on 11th November.  The newest touch screen 3G mobile phone will be available exclusively from Vodafone.

Reviews have been very favourable and suggest it is the first “serious” competition to the Apple’s iPhone, which was launched in 2007.

The new Blackberry Storm has been given the thumbs up in positive reviews from The Guardian, The Times , Wired and PC Magazine to name a few.

Vodafone Blackberry Storm tariffs may stop it being the #1 mobile to be seen with this Christmas. The Blackberry Storm is FREE with a 24 month, £35 per month contract, which includes 600 minutes of calls and unlimited text messages.

I’m still waiting to get my hands on a Blackberry Storm, but the reviews have certainly whetted my appetite.

Nick Read, the chief executive of Vodafone UK, told The Telegraph:

“Our customers tell us that they want a single phone that can also give them the most secure, reliable email and messaging experience possible combined with all the desirable smartphone features, and they want it at a price that’s affordable” [and] “The BlackBerry Storm delivers all of this and more.”

The Blackberry Storm is the first touch-screen BlackBerry, and as with all previous Blackberry mobile phones it offers a full Qwerty keyboard.

It also has a 3.2 megapixel camera, 3G internet access and satellite navigation.

The mobile phone also has up to 16GB of storage for music or video files.

Since the successful launch of the Apple iPhone, there has been several mobile phone touch screen contenders including the Nokia 5800, Google’s G1 and Samsung’s good looking Tocco.  But none have quite matched the cool ‘must-have’ and exceptional functionality of the iPhone…until now!

BT Broadband Office for small and medium business have special offer for the BlackBerry^® Internet Service for just £25.25 per month.

BT Broadband office are offering the BlackBerry^® Internet Service with a choice of two tariffs – an inclusive minutes package and a pay as you go option.

The BlackBerry^® Internet Service includes:
Unlimited emails
Unlimited Calls to colleagues
Inclusive BlackBerry^® handset
£100 credit on your bill (on all 24 month contracts)

The BlackBerry^® offer comes with a choice of handsets including the BlackBerry^® Pearl 8100 smartphone and the BlackBerry^® Curve 8300 smartphone.

BlackBerry^® Internet Service is the out-of-the-box service the allows you to be up and running in just a few simple steps, regardless of email account type and without IT support. It’s the easiest way for individuals or small businesses to start using BlackBerry^® functionality.

BlackBerry^® push technology lets you receive your email effortlessly because messages are automatically pushed to your device.

This offer ends offer ends on 30^th June 2008.