The iPhone 4 is now available on the 3 network and offers are among the best we’ve seen.

For £45 per month you get 2000 xnet minutes, 1GB of data, 5000 extra minutes to mobiles on the same network and 5000 texts. For most customers this will effectively mean unlimited everything.

The offer is available with the iPhone 4 32GB, there’s £89 to pay upfront for the phone and £45 per month on a 24 month contract.

Highly recommended, but be quick as they have very limited stock.

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The new Nokia C6 is out now on T-Mobile and it comes with up to £240 cash back on an 18 month contract.

With a 4 row QWERTY keyboard and a 3.2 inch, HD touchscreen display the Nokia C6 brings social networking to the palm of your hand. The homescreen can be customised with your favourite applications and can display emails, messages and Facebook updates from your top contacts.

All the email accounts you could ask for are supported such as Yahoo Mail, Hotmail and Gmail. The C6 can store up to 10 different email accounts and let you simply flick between them. Access to the Ovi store gives a huge choice of applications for the handset including Instant messaging clients like Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk and Windows Live Messenger.

The built-in 5 megapixel camera features autofocus and flash and can also record video clips. A secondary video camera is also included for use during video calls. Nokia Ovi maps offers on-foot and driving navigation to help you explore new places. Other features include an expandable memory to 16GB, quad-band for international use and a multimedia player that supports all popular file formats. An FM radio is also included as well as Wi-Fi/WLAN for web browsing.

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The Samsung Galaxy Europa i5500 is an affordable smartphone that allows even those on a budget to experience the intuitive Android 2.1 OS. With 3G HSDPA web browsing you can access your favourite social networks and web pages at broadband like speeds. Wi-Fi, GPRS, EDGE and Bluetooth ensure a comprehensive choice of connection options and with GPS support you can be sure to find your way. The multimedia player offers entertainment on the move and supports all popular video and music file formats.

The built-in camera lets you capture the moment with a choice of either still images or video clips. The bright touchscreen acts as a viewfinder for the camera and browsing the captured images is a joy. The Samsung i5500 offers the appealing and popular Android OS in a budget smartphone that will appeal to all pockets.

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Just 99p with free delivery, offer is subject to buying a £10 top up. Available on a choice of networks; Vodafone, T-Mobile or TalkMobile. Don’t delay as this is likely to sell out very quickly.

The Nokia 1661 is frequently one of our most popular phones. It costs less than £1 (limited stock) and it has some amazing cash back deals on contract too. There are no complicated features, it’s just the thing for people who want to make calls and send a few texts. Even though it’s an entry-level phone it does have a couple of nifty tricks. Such as a speaking alarm clock and a built-in torch. Nothing cutting edge but you will find these to be surprisingly useful features!

The Nokia 1661 has six classic Nokia games pre-loaded, including Snake Xenia, Beach Rally, Bounce and Sudoku. It would be unfair to compare them to the impressive 3D games found on high end phones, but they do have their moments and are just as enjoyable, even on the primitive 1.8 inch screen. There’s also a built-in radio and a basic wired headset is included in the box. What a wonderful little phone it is.

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The Sony Ericsson Zylo is out now on The One Plan from 3. For just £28 per month you get 2000 minutes to any network, virtually unlimited texts and free calls to other phones on the same network. It also comes with 1GB of data per month. Amazing value for money. Other tariffs are available from just £13 per month.

The Sony Ericsson Zylo has social networking at its heart and includes a Walkman player for enhanced audio quality. Facebook and Twitter come pre-loaded to get you to the latest wall updates and tweets quickly and easily. Web browsing with HSPA offers a speedy browsing experience with Google Search to help you find the information you need.

The 3.2 megapixel camera features Photo fix, 2x digital zoom and geo-tagging. You can post your snaps on Picasa and Flickr to share the moment with family and friends. The camera can also capture video clips and the pre-loaded YouTube application allows you to upload your clips or view a huge variety of other videos.

The walkman player features shake control, Clear Stereo and Clear Bass to make the most of your music. Listen to your favourite tracks out loud or enjoy stereo sound on a Bluetooth headset. The internal memory can be expanded up to 16GB so you can carry your music collection with you.

Entertainment options include a FM Radio with RDS, video player and video streaming. All message options are included with SMS, MMS, Email and instant messaging.

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This new Android phone from ZTE is available on The One Plan from 3. For just £28 per month you get 2000 minutes to any network, virtually unlimited texts and free calls to other phones on the same network. It also comes with 1GB of data per month. Other tariffs avaialble from £13 per month.

The ZTE Racer sports the Android 1.6 operating system that opens up a massive range of downloadable applications, many of which are free, to boost the already impressive feature set. Styled on a Palm type design the Racer offers an up to date look that will impress.

The front fascia is dominated by the large 2.8 inch QVGA touch-screen display thus providing plenty of space for operation and content alike. 3G Internet access opens up a world of virtual shops, news and sports sites wherever you are, and finally means the laptop can be left at home or in the office. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi and wireless Bluetooth, crucial for today’s need to connect with each other quickly and safely. The ZTE Racer provides entertainment with a FM radio and offers guided navigation with GPS support.

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We have an exclusive deal for you on the iPhone 4 with nothing to pay upfront. It’s on Orange Solo, costing £47 per month on a 24m contract. It comes with 1200 minutes, 200 texts, 750MB of mobile data and 750MB of Wi-Fi data.

Not familiar with iPhone 4? Want to know what all the fuss is about? The new Retina 3.5 inch display on the iPhone 4 hits you with a clarity of visuals not yet experienced on a smartphone. The individual pixels are so fine the human eye cannot see them and so brings an unparalleled high-definition experience. The 5 megapixel camera takes full advantage of this optical range and offers tap-to-focus, geo-tagging, LED flash/light, iMovie editor and video capture at 720p/30fps.

Multitasking no longer drains the battery and allows the built-in iPod to play music and videos whilst downloading the latest iBook or navigating your journey with the help of A-GPS, maps and a digital compass. The fun side of the iPhone offers 3D motion-sensing game play and the Safari Web browser gives access to more than 200,000 downloadable applications as well as putting the Internet at the touch of your fingers.

In-call features include 2 video cameras that can capture the user as well as their surroundings and dual microphones for a superior quality of sound. Messages are kept in one unified inbox and the menu assists in keeping things organised with applications that can be placed into folders.

The 16GB Apple iPhone 4 has a stylish design with a black stainless steel band and flat glossy surfaces with a fingerprint resistant coating. Truly the must have gadget for 2010, the iPhone 4 is set to make most other smartphones look rather mediocre.

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Sooner or later someone was going to challenge the way tariff pricing has been formulated and revolutionise the industry with a new and simplified pricing method that makes sense. So, it should be no surprise to most that it is the 3 network that has taken the initiative and created The One Plan.

The One Plan offers peace of mind and freedom of use by removing the so-called ‘unlimited packages’ that are capped with a fair usage policy that can often cripple users with large and unexpected bills. Instead, The One Plan brings a huge amount of clearly defined free usage that comprises of 1GB of data, 5000 text messages, 2000 minutes to any network any time and 5000 minutes for calling other mobiles on 3.

If you’re thinking about an iPhone 4 then you’ll be delighted to see a SIM only option with The One Plan at a low price of £25pm on a 12 month contract. Pick up a SIM free iPhone 4 direct from Apple for £499 and it works out cheaper than any of the deals available on Orange, O2 or Vodafone.

If you prefer a new phone on The One Plan then 24 month contracts are available. The cost of line rental depends on which phone you choose, it starts at £28 per month for phones such as the Nokia E63 or the LG Viewty GT. The HTC Desire is available for £35 per month.

The The One Plan has placed 3 at the forefront of the UK networks with probably the most attractive and easy to understand price plan that simply makes sense.

Most popular deals on The One Plan

The Nokia E5 has an utterly superb battery life. With up to 29 days standby and up to 18 hours talk it’s perfect for perfect for anyone who needs an exceptional battery life, such as heavy users or those who travel on a regular basis. One-touch gives access to contacts and social networking sites and with live updates from Facebook posted straight into the contact list keeping up with the latest news and gossip has never been easier.

The latest version of Nokia messaging offers full instant messaging and support for multiple email accounts such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Ovi Mail. For business users Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes Traveller applications are also supported. A-GPS and Ovi Maps with free walk and drive navigation boost the appeal of this 3G handset that additionally connects to the Internet and the Ovi Store in speedy fashion using the HSDPA Web browser.

The 5 megapixel camera works well in all lighting conditions, it has fixed focus and an LED flash. Images, music and video files can be stored onto the 256MB internal memory that can be boosted up to 16GB with a microSD card. Keeping up with the latest news, weather, sports and music releases is simple using the stereo FM radio with RDS and listening in private can be achieved by connecting your own favourite headphones to the 3.5mm audio jack. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and quad-band international roaming. The 4 row QWERTY keypad with dedicated nav-key fits nicely into the ergonomic design of the superb Nokia E5.

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Free on Vodafone with 9 months half price line rental via redemption cash back. Great deal on Samsung’s stunning Android phone with its 4 inch Super AMOLED display.

The Samsung Galaxy S has the Android 2.1 operating system and a high performance 1GHz processor to provide a superb user experience via the TouchWiz interface. The 4 inch super AMOLED display and resolution of 800×480 pixels place this smartphone in league of its own.

Web browsing is provided by a 3G HSDPA Internet connection and ensures the experience rivals that of a home computer or laptop. Google Talk, YouTube and a media player are but a few of the features the Galaxy S gives access to and with A-GPS support and Google Maps nothing has been forgotten in this must have package. The 5 megapixel camera utilises image stabilisation and auto-focus to capture high quality pictures and has the flexibility to be used as a HD video recorder.

Connectivity options include Bluetooth and quad-band reception for a better experience when overseas. SMS, MMS, instant messaging and email access ensure you can keep connected by your choice of format wherever you may go. Dimensions of 122×64x10mm make this smartphone pocket friendly and at only 118g it can be carried around almost unnoticed. The Galaxy S comes with 8GB internal memory, which can be upgraded with an additiona 32GB microSD card.

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The Nokia X6 now comes in this special V Festival edition, called the X6V. It includes 25 free music downloads via the Nokia music store, free Bluetooth headphones worth £49.99 and V Festival and Shazam apps pre-installed.

The Nokia X6 has an impressive 3.2 inch touchscreen that covers almost the entire front of the phone. It’s pocket and palm friendly measuring 111 x 51 x 13mm and it’s great for watching movies with the 16:9 aspect ratio screen. With 16GB of internal memory there’s plenty of storage too. The X6 runs on Symbian OS v9.4 and has a 434 MHz processor, which is enough to compete with many other smartphones in its class. The new X Series range from Nokia with replace the XpressMusic range, it will focus on entertainment and social networking.

The X6’s TFT capacitive touchscreen gives a crisp, bright image and comes with scratch resistant glass. There is a built in accelerometer for automatically switching the screen from portrait to landscape, for widescreen images and videos. For texts and emails the X6 also supports handwriting recognition. A 5 megapixel camera is the same unit from the N97, it has Carl Zeiss optics, auto focus, LED flash and geo-tagging to take fantastic images and stamp them with their exact time and location using GPS. The camera also has video recording capabilities and there is the ability to edit images with software provided.

Connectivity-wise, the Nokia X6 has all the usual features you would expect in a smartphone, 3G, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and a microUSB slot to transfer files with or without wires. To ensure you never get lost the X6 has Ovi maps sat nav pre-installed, which is now subscription-free. The X6 combines style and technology to bring a fantastic, feature packed flagship phone to the new X Series range.

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Available now and fantastic value for money, free on a £25 per month contract with up to £300 redemption cash back.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini comes in two forms; standard and Mini. They are two of the smallest Android phones on the market. The Mini Pro measures 90 x 52 x 17mm and features a slide out QWERTY keyboard and a sharp 2.6 inch touchscreen, making it an incredibly easy to use device. There is a customisable homescreen to access your favourite applications with ease and with the Android marketplace you can download applications to suit your needs.

With the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro you will never miss an update with messages, emails, Twitter and Facebook updates accessible at the tap of a finger and stored together with the Timescape application. Although the device is mini in size, the X10 Mini Pro can store all your favourite music and photos with up to 16GB of memory via a microSD card as well as an impressive list of features include a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, GPS navigation, FM radio and Bluetooth.

The Xperia X10 Mini Pro is a fantastic little device if you want a feature rich phone that won’t weigh you down and could be the way forward for powerful Android devices.

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Free on Orange with up to 18 months half price line rental by redemption.

With a stylish design of sweeping curves and a silver diamond shaped navigation key the latest in the Galaxy range, the Samsung Galaxy Apollo I5801, is set to turn heads. A wide range of flexibility is offered by the Android OS v2.1 that allows access to a whole host of downloadable apps to truly personalise the phone. 3G HSDPA Internet access opens up a new world of exciting web sites to visit and the included Google package (Google Search, Gmail, YouTube & Google Talk) offers a familiar browsing experience each step of the way. The 3.2 inch capacitive touchscreen is perfect for enjoying both the web and the Apollo’s feature set, with the option to use the handset in landscape or portrait views.

The Galaxy Apollo ensures you can stay in touch with friends and family easily with a range of messaging options that includes texts, MMS, email (with document viewer), push email and instant messaging. Meeting up at previously unknown locations is no chore either with Google Maps and A-GPS support.

Other features include a 3.15 megapixel camera with autofocus and video capture. Captured images can be stored onto the internal memory (a microSD card slot is also provided) or shared easily via wireless Bluetooth. The FM radio and MP3/MP4 player offers the user a truly portable entertainment centre for enjoying favourite music and video files. The Samsung Galaxy Apollo I5801 looks set to be as much of a hit as previous models in the Galaxy range.

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iPhone 4 will be available to order in 24 hours, on the 24th of June. Customers will have the option of 16GB/32GB memory options and a traditional glossy black or modern smooth white colour scheme. In addition to this the iPhone 3GS 8GB becomes available with superb pricing entry points and range of tariffs to suit all needs.

T-Mobile and 3 have yet to reveal their pricing and we’ve heard from a reliable source that there could be some cheaper options for business users and self-employed within the next couple of weeks. But for now, let’s take a look at the initial offers from Vodafone and Orange, which will be available to buy online tomorrow, and O2’s deals which will only be available to buy in-store.

iPhone 4 16GB – To buy the handset for just £29 all three networks are offering 1200 minutes for £45pm on a 24-month contract. Here the similarities end though with Vodafone offering 1GB of Internet/Web mail per month, 1GB of Wi-Fi usage with BT Openzone and 5MB of European roaming data usage per day. Orange has offered ‘unlimited’ mobile Internet and Wi-Fi with BT Openzone with a fair usage policy of 750MB per month. Unlimited access to The Cloud and BT Openzone Wi-Fi (fair usage policy in force) is provided by O2 along with 750MB of data usage.

For those wishing to keep the monthly line rental to a minimum, O2 and Vodafone offer £25pm rentals with the iPhone available at £279/£219 respectively and Orange offer a rental at £30pm with a fantastic price of only £169 for the handset. The same data offers apply as above but with O2 lowering their data usage 500MB per month and Vodafone removing their free European roaming data.

iPhone 4 32GB – Things get a little shaken up here so those who desire the high-end memory iPhone 4 can really take advantage of the networks different takes on what the user may want.

Vodafone and Orange tempt those who want a low handset cost with Orange pricing the iPhone at £29 with unlimited minutes, data and Wi-Fi for £75pm whilst Vodafone costs the handset at £59 with 3000 minutes, 1GB of data, 1GB of Wi-Fi and include their 5MB daily European roaming promotion.

Lower monthly line rentals see the handset costs ballooning up to £300+ but O2 provide some nice middle ground. Its £45pm/1200 free minutes and 750MB of data plan have the iPhone priced at £129 with unlimited access to The Cloud and BT Openzone.

iPhone 3GS 8GB – The release of the iPhone 4 opens up an attractive set of offers here for the new 8GB release of the iPhone 3GS. Provided free of charge across all three networks with 600 free minutes at £35pm the iPhone 3GS becomes a tempting, low cost offer. Various amounts of data and Wi-Fi usage are on offer to ensure the best of the iPhones features can be enjoyed without the threat of large bills arriving through the letter box.

A full set of 18 month contracts are also available with Vodafone providing the handsets at the same cost but with an additional £5pm added to the rental. Orange has taken the opposite route with the line rental remaining the same but with a significant increase in the iPhones cost.

We think the networks should be praised for being brave enough to take a range of different approaches to the device and line rental costs as this has ensured that you, the user, can get the very best deal tailored to your own needs.

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Deals for advertising on iPhone and iPod Touch apps represent almost half of forecast US mobile ad spending, Apple says

Apple has taken more than $60m in bookings for its new iAd mobile advertising network – weeks before its scheduled launch on 1 July.

The service – which will offer advertising inside mobile apps, initially on the iPhone and iPod Touch – promises to combine the emotion of TV advertising with the interactivity of internet advertising. Apple says the deals it has already secured represent almost half of the total forecasted mobile ad spend in the US for the second half of 2010.

In the UK, according to a recent report by the Internet Advertising Bureau, mobile advertising spend last year was £37.6m, a 32% year-on-year increase.

Apple, which launched the fourth generation of the iPhone yesterday, has attracted brands including Unilever – which said today that it would be running a campaign for Dove for Men – AT&T, Best Buy, Campbell Soup, Chanel, Citi, Nissan, Walt Disney and Turner Broadcasting.

Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, said: “iAd offers advertisers the emotion of TV with the interactivity of the web, and offers users a new way to explore ads without being hijacked out of their favourite apps. iAds will reach millions of iPhone and iPod Touch users, a highly desirable demographic for advertisers, and provide developers [with] a new way to earn money so they can continue developing free and low-cost applications.”

Apple will sell and serve the ads, and developers will receive 60% of their iAd revenue.

The new mobile advertising platform is designed to allow app developers to create in-app advertising. Currently anyone who clicks on an advert in a downloadable app is bounced out of it and on to the advertiser’s webpage.

As a result, Apple reckons many users are put off clicking on adverts. By contrast, iAd will allow full-screen video and interactive advertising content to be served within an application.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Suddenly two and a bit weeks seems like a lifetime but that’s how long we have to wait for the new iPhone 4, arriving June 24th on Orange and O2. Guaranteed to be one of the hottest smartphones for 2010 the iPhone 4 boasts a 3.5 inch Retina display with a resolution 960×640 pixels, which is four times as many pixels as previous iPhones, over 100,000 pixels per square inch and the highest resolution in any mobile phone. It’s so detailed that the human eye cannot distinguish individual pixels and the fingerprint resistant coating ensures images stay bright and vivid.

The design is as cool as the list of features with flat surfaces and a stainless steel band. The iPhone 4 measure just 9.3mm and will be available in 16GB or 32GB form, with a colour choice of black or white. Video calling is now capable and users can switch between the front facing self-portrait camera and back facing scenic camera during a call. But Apple couldn’t leave the built-in optics there, the 5 megapixel camera promises excellent photographs and comes with LED flash, geo-tagging and touch-to-focus whilst the HD video recorder captures 720p video at 30fps. Budding film enthusiasts can not only create their own movies but also edit them and add transitional effects with the iMovie application.

The iOS4 operating system brings true multitasking to the iPhone without degradation to the battery life. Applications can be moved into separate folders and voice activated commands provide a more fun way to access your latest app download. A unified inbox keeps incoming messages in one place whilst the Safari Web browser lets you go everywhere.

The impressive feature set continues with 3D movement controlled gaming, iBooks and a built-in iPod for playing the latest music and video downloads from iTunes. The good news here is that enjoying these features to the fullest doesn’t cause the battery any problems with its performance boosted by 40% compared to previous models. When time comes to step away from the virtual world provided by the iPhone 4, A-GPS, maps and a digital compass ensure the iPhone is still your best friend.

If you find it hard to decide what phone you should purchase next then you will simply love Apple for creating another masterpiece, the Apple iPhone 4.

Compare iPhone 4 deals (coming soon)

Apple’s ’4G’ device is out this month. Will Steve Jobs also cut the price of the current model and challenge Nokia head-on?

Steve Jobs will appear before the Apple faithful tomorrow to reveal the latest version of the Californian technology group’s mobile phone. Nicknamed the iPhone “4G” – on the basis that the last one was the 3GS, with the “S” standing for speed – it will be the summer’s must-have gadget, hitting the UK this month. But it is also seen as being in the vanguard of an all-out assault on the mobile market.

In the three years since it launched its first handset, Apple has grabbed the headlines and, more importantly, snatched a lucrative share of the more mature mobile phone markets of the US and Europe, where consumers are willing to pay upwards of £30 a month to get an iPhone. Now, speculation is rising that the company is approaching a so-called “iPod moment” in mobiles: the point at which it will decide that it can capture a much larger slice of the market by producing more than one device.

The success of the App Store, which has seen iPhone users download billions of applications, coupled with the pressure to have a wide market to attract advertisers to its embryonic iAd platform, is pushing Apple towards diversifying, just as it did with the iPod six years ago when it introduced the iPod mini. There is also increasing competition from Google’s Android platform. After two and a half years, handset manufacturers are finally producing compelling Android phones – such as the HTC Desire – and more are slated for release this year, including the mass-market HTC Wildfire.

But rather than unveil a new, cheaper version of the iPhone, Apple is expected to position the iPhone 4G at the top of the smartphone market and reorganise the existing range. The company is likely to halt production of the iPhone 3G – which cannot cope with Apple’s new multi-tasking software – and scrap both existing versions of the iPhone 3GS, which have 16GB and 32GB of memory. It will replace them with a new 8GB version of the 3GS, which is expected to be aimed at the wider market.

The iPhone 4G – according to mobile industry insiders who have seen one and confirmed widespread web leaks – will be available in two versions: 32GB and 64GB. These will put “clear blue water” between it and the mass-market 3GS, as one industry executive puts it. The 4G is slightly smaller and slimmer than the current 3GS. It has an improved 5-megapixel camera with flash and uses micro-sim cards, as seen in the iPad. It also has a glass back, which greatly assists phone reception. In the UK, it is expected to be sold by the same mobile phone networks that have the current iPhone: O2, Orange and Vodafone. It is unclear whether Tesco Mobile will have the 4G when it is launched in the last week of this month.

The parallels between Apple’s current position in the mobile phone market and the place it held in the digital music market when it introduced the iPod mini are revealing. The first iPod appeared in late 2001, but it was not until 2003 that Apple launched the iTunes store. One million tracks were sold in the first five days and 70m in the first year. That showed Apple there was a real mass market for digital music and was a spur for the creation of the first variant of the iPod line, the iPod mini, the following year.

At the time, Apple was lodged firmly in the high end of the market for digital music players. The iPod was the benchmark by which all others were measured and Apple had a share of about 30%. The iPod mini – replaced at the end of 2005 by the Nano – was designed to grab a large part of the next third down. In similar fashion, the iPhone has become the handset by which other mobiles are measured, and in markets including the UK it has made Apple the third-largest mobile phone manufacturer after Nokia and Samsung. It is now a question of how much of the rest of the market – chock full of me-too touchscreen devices from the likes of Nokia, LG and Samsung – Apple wants.

“I would argue that they may already have reached the tipping point,” Ben Wood at CCS Insight – a long-time follower of the mobile market – says. “The iPhone has become a ubiquitous product in the markets where its pricing is acceptable.”

He believes that a real driver behind Apple’s growth will be the iAd platform, which Jobs announced this year alongside the new version of the iPhone software – which is also in the iPad. The new mobile advertising platform is designed to allow iPhone app developers to create in-app advertising. Currently, anyone who clicks on an advert in a downloadable app is bounced out of it and on to the advertiser’s webpage. As a result, many users are put off clicking on adverts. In contrast, iAd will allow full-screen video and interactive advertising content to be served within an application. Crucially, Apple will sell and serve the adverts, and developers will receive 60% of their iAd revenue.

“With iAd, which could be as significant to Apple as the iPod franchise itself, Apple has a tremendous opportunity. It will provide a further chance to lock in their leading position in application development,” Wood says. “If iAd becomes the kind of phenomenon that Apple appears to be able to create, and becomes as big as it could, then potentially Apple could really disrupt the market by subsidising the iPhone from their iAd revenues.”

But whether iAd means that Apple needs to go all the way into the low end of the market is doubtful.

“IPhone users are a segment of the population that has affinity with technology and disposable income, and that is a marketeer’s dream already,” Wood says.

And Carolina Milanesi, research vice-president at rival analysts Gartner, is not convinced that this is the right time for Apple to go mass market, citing price constraints on the iPhone’s most important feature – its large touchscreen.

“On the iPod touch and the iPhone, the screen is very important,” she says. “Music is easier [to do in a mass-market device] because it is just [data] storage, and with the price of storage coming down you can experiment with design. But when you have applications running on the device, how much dumber can your device become before it is useless? And that is where they are going to struggle. What else do you cut?”

Apple could cut its own profits, but it has shown little desire to do that in the past: the switch from the 3G to the 3GS actually reduced the manufacturing cost of the phone, analysts reckon.

“Yes, of course, they can expand their addressable market so much quicker, but do they want that?” says Milanesi. “Just as Jobs says Apple does not want to be the Dell of the PC market, [so] Apple does not want to be the Nokia of the mobile market.” How true that is will be revealed tomorrow.

Focus on Apple’s factory

While Apple fans will drool over the new iPhone this week, tragic events in China have thrown a spotlight on the human cost of the west’s obsession with shiny toys. A spate of suicides at the massive Chinese plant run by Taiwanese contract electronics manufacturer Foxconn has called into question working conditions at one of Apple’s largest suppliers.

The Californian company has dispatched a team of investigators to discover why 10 people have killed themselves so far this year. Management at the Shenzhen facility, which stretches across three square kilometers and employs more than 250,000 people, are trying to solve the problem by hiring counsellors, playing soothing music on production lines, increasing wages and asking new recruits to sign a ‘”no-suicide” contract. They are also taking more direct action, installing netting around outdoor stairwells of the dormitory buildings, where workers sleep eight to a room.

Speaking last week, Steve Jobs said Apple was “diligent” when it came to understanding the working conditions in the supply chain, auditing its direct suppliers as well as tertiary suppliers.

“We are over there trying to understand what is happening and more importantly trying to understand how we can help because it is a difficult situation,” he told the D8 conference organised by All Things Digital. He said many young workers came from poor rural areas and were away from home for the first time.

“They are probably less prepared to leave home than your typical High School student going to college in this country. I think there are some real issues there,” he said.

But he stressed: “Foxconn is not a sweatshop. They have got restaurants and movie theatres and hospitals and swimming pools. For a factory, it is a pretty nice factory.”

Some of Foxconn’s workers disagree, complaining the monotonous workload causes depression. “I do the same thing every day,” Xiao Qi, a college graduate who works at Foxconn in product development told Bloomberg Businessweek. “I have no future.”

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

A whole new standard has been set with the Dell Streak that is certainly capable of matching the functionality of a laptop, with the added benefit of phone calling, and surpassing the experience given by smartphones with its 5 inch capacitive touch-screen and super slim 10mm design. Four customisable home screens, multi-touch capabilities, a 1Ghz processor and pinch and zoom ensure that all the applications and features run smoothly.

The graphical qualities are amazing with a resolution of 800×480 pixels providing high-definition video playback. Your own videos can be uploaded to YouTube within a few easy clicks and social networking integration makes uploading pictures a breeze. The 5 megapixel camera has the functionality of a dedicated device with auto-focus, dual LED flash, geo-tagging, an editor and face/smile detection. A secondary camera is also provided to allow video calling.

Access to the Internet is granted with a 3G HSDPA connection that rivals the experience obtained via broadband and with portrait or landscape viewing web pages can be enjoyed with ease. The Android OS v1.6 can be upgraded to v2.2. The connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, quad-band roaming and a HDMI port is provided for connecting to a TV. The Dell Streak offers the best of both worlds and with a GPS receiver, digital compass and Google Maps the package is rounded off nicely.

Compare all Dell Streak deals

Free on pay monthly contracts from O2, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro adds a slide out QWERTY keyboard to the stylish. With the addition of a keyboard Sony Ericsson has compromised on its camera with a downgrade from 8 megapixels to 5 megapixels. However, an LED flash, autofocus and geo-tagging still remain and it takes great photos.

What stands out for the Vivaz Pro is the 3.2 inch TFT touchscreen which has a scratch resistant coasting and a 16:9 aspect and 360×640 pixel resolution. The Vivaz Pro supports handwriting recognition and a built in accelerometer.

The Vivaz Pro comes with integrated Facebook, Twitter and YouTube applications and fast internet connection thanks to HSDPA. There is also GPS with G-Maps and WisePilot for turn-by-turn navigation. Other features include an FM radio, a very good media player, up to 16GB memory and 3D gaming.

Compare all Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro deals

The Nokia C5 makes a fantastic buy for anyone into the social networking scene. For ease of access Facebook updates have been integrated into the phonebook providing a quick alternative to going on-line. The free GPS navigator can even share your location with friends and family if desired.

The Nokia C5 will be one of the best mid-range, traditional-style phones on the market with support for email, instant messaging and social networking. The large keys and 2.2 inch display help take the strain out of message creation. Anyone who travels by car or by foot can make use of the GPS feature with Nokia’s Ovi Maps built-in.

The 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash will also capture video footage and the Nokia C5 can also make video calls. Stereo IHF speakers give a relatively rich sound to audio files and the latest news, weather, sports and music releases can be enjoyed using the stereo FM radio. There’s 2GB of memory on board, which can be boosted to 16GB using a microSD if needed.

Connection to the Internet is via 3G or HSDPA, giving complete access to the internet with a fully-featured web browser. Light and compact (89g and 112 x 46 x 12mm) the Nokia C5 also has an amazing battery life, providing up to 28 days of standby and up to 12 hours talk-time.

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