Krusell has once again come up with it's top 10 phones this month, and the list is as follows-

1. (5) Sony Ericsson C902
2. (-) HTC Diamond
3. (6) Sony Ericsson C702
4. (2) Nokia 3109
5. (3) Nokia E51
6. (7) Nokia N95 8 GB
7. (4) Nokia 6300
8. (8) Sony Ericsson K810i
9. (-) Nokia 6220
10. (1) Apple Iphone
() = Last month’s position.

From eReader- "We are excited to announce that version 1.2 of the eReader Application is now available for iPhone and iPod touch users! The ratings and feedback for version 1.1 was terrific and we've listened to your suggestions for improvements! Here are the new features in version 1.2:

•  Status and navigation bar hiding after 5 seconds to give you
the full screen while reading your eBooks
•  Page number display and page slider bar
•  Introduction of the eBook unlock hint
•  Added Medium-large and Colossal font sizes
•  Uses middle truncation in the Table of Contents
and bookshelf titles
•  Back button for link navigation
•  About eReader screen
•  Several other various improvements and bug fixes."

RIP Text Messaging: 1992-2017 has been posted at Brighthand, and I for one think the premise of the article is not quite right-

Firstly, unlimited text allowances are increasingly becoming part of many mobile phone plans.

They take up almost no bandwidth on the network.

They are embedded into our culture and reach out to 'every' mobile phone user.

Finally, predicting the death of something in 9 years time is hardly a clever thing to do. That argument could be used for almost all technology used today.

"Text messaging is everywhere. Most people under 30 with a phone probably spend more time sending and reading texts than they do talking. The CTIA estimates that over 10 billion SMS (Short Messaging Service) messages were sent last year.

But just because texting is popular now doesn't mean it's going to be around forever.

Have you ever really thought about how very restrictive texting is? You have only 160 characters to work with, or about 25 words. And compared to other types of wireless communication, your wireless carrier really makes you pay through the nose for the privilege of sending those brief thoughts.

This is one of the reasons why increasing numbers of people are moving to mobile email. There's no real limit on how long an email can be, so people actually have space to express themselves. And with the rise in popularity of unlimited wireless plans, people can send virtually unlimited numbers of messages. These unlimited plans include web surfing too, which many people want. So if you're already paying for unlimited data which you can use for Web and email access, paying more for SMS service is pointless..." More at Brighthand.

KeyToss (in beta) is a new mobile portal that should work on almost all smartphones.

Search - Access over fifty different mobile friendly search tools from a single search bar.
Most portals don't give you a choice. With KeyToss, you can search with Google, IMDb, Dictionary.com, Wikipedia, PriceGrabber, UPS Package Tracking, YouTube, Amazon.com, eBay, Flickr, and many more. Select which tools you want in your menu; access the rest using keywords.

And when you search on KeyToss using Google Local, yellowpages.com, or yelp.com, KeyToss automatically customizes the search to your pre-selected location. And you can save as many locations as you'd like. How cool is that? How many sites automatically do that for you?

News - What websites do you visit to get your news and information?
Choose from over 1,100 installed news sources. Select as many as you'd like. Is there a website or blog that you like to read? If it has an RSS or Atom news feed, you can add it yourself. If you're unsure about how news feeds work, feel free to contact us, and we'll add it for you.

Customize how to display your news headlines. Convert the links with your choice of mobile transcoder, such as Google or Skweezer. KeyToss gives you control.

Want to track articles that you've read, or sync with a desktop newsreader? We're working on that.

Weather - Get a 5-day forecast from msn.
Just about anywhere in the world. Wernigerode, Germany.   Port Lincoln, Australia.   Maseru, Lesotho.   Ica, Peru.   Just be sure to enter only the city name (or just the Zip Code for US locations). And soon you'll have a choice of formats and detail.

Mobile Links - Localized links save you time.
When you click on Fandango, MovieTickets.com, radio station locator, and others, you're sent to the new site with your location already submitted. If you change your location on KeyToss, the links automatically change as well.

Soon you'll be able to add any mobile address and rearrange the links in any way that makes sense to you.

Sports Scores - Get the latest scores for your favorite teams, courtesy of ESPN.
We've got the NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA. Want more detail on each game or team? We link directly to the game box scores and team stats at the new espn.com. Awesome site, btw.

Stock Quotes - Get your Yahoo stock quotes here. And quotes for other publicly traded companies too.
Get a quick reminder of what a brilliant investor you are. Some day, you'll be able to enter more detail to track your performance, but for now, you can see the current prices for the stocks in your portfolio (delayed for some markets).

File Transfers - A convenient way to install apps or transfer files to your phone.
Just upload any file up to 20MB from your computer. You have a week to retrieve it from your device. KeyToss will automatically remove your file when it expires. But really, it should take a minute or two. You get a whole week. No charge.

Total Control - Add, remove, and rearrange modules. Customize multiple pages.
How many mobile websites allow you to rearrange modules? How many even give you modules in the first place? We do both. And we make it easier than all those websites that don't even have modules.

Easy Navigation - Use your keypad for shortcuts across most pages.
Your phone has a keypad. You can now use it to navigate your new favorite mobile website. Section 2, section 5, next page, next section, top of page. It doesn't get any better than this. If you have a trendy "touch" phone without a keypad or a phone with an awful browser, you're missing out.

NAVTEQ, a leading global provider of digital map data for location-based solutions and vehicle navigation, has reached a two year agreement to provide MEDION with mapping for the entire range of MEDION PNDs. Under this contract, NAVTEQ will supply its map data to power MEDION’s global mapping product platform.

Moving forward, all new MEDION systems will include NAVTEQ's map data content features which provide enhanced visual and audio guidance such as: speed limits, detailed lane guidance and voice activation.  Higher end models will also be equipped with 3D images, elevation data, satellite imagery and driver alerts to warn of hazards ahead such as railway crossings, steep hills, severe bends or narrowing road etc.

In addition, MEDION customers can get information on, and also buy, the latest map and software updates from a new dedicated download portal.   Access will be via MEDION`s GoPal Assistant software tool which is supplied with every PND and easily installed on a PC.  Standard one-off map updates will be available along with a multi-year subscription option.  Initially the service will only cover maps but other content, such as POIs, will also soon be made available.
 
MEDION Vice-Chairman, Christian Eigen commented, "We are delighted to cement our relationship with NAVTEQ.  The quality of the data and  new content developments will enable us to continue bringing high quality devices to the market.” 

"NAVTEQ is clearly pleased to be designated the global map provider for MEDION," said  Serge Bussat, VP and GM for Consumer Applications Group NAVTEQ Europe. “We have collaborated on several different product lines and projects in the past. This agreement allows us to now focus our attention on bringing innovative map content to MEDION.”

Take a look at the Astraware Team Blog and then look at their new advert for new people. Now that is a company that would be FUN to work for!:)

Astraware is growing! With all the crazy new platforms we're supporting, and wanting to create more and more new games, we're making some space in our new office for 3 more developers to join the team!

Think you've got what it takes? Key skills are being very clever, being located in the UK, wanting to take part in creating brilliant games, and being able to give a convincing "Yarrr!".

• You must live within easy commuting distance of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, UK
• You must be hardworking, flexible and reliable
• You must have a positive team attitude and a commitment to quality
• You must have good computer skills
• You absolutely must have a good sense of humour!

Here's a strange question of the day. You are being sent to a desert island for 4 weeks and you can take one smartphone/PDA, one eBook, one music album and one game- what would you take?

I would go for the iPhone (because no voice calls or emails are allowed), The Lovely Bones eBook, Anthem by Leonard Cohen and a decent Chess game.

Well, I bought a 16GB iPhone 3G about two weeks ago, passing on my trusty 2G (8GB) version to my son. Safari and Google maps are two of my most used applications, and, when it came down to it, the lure of 3G speed and GPS were too much for me. More storage was also tempting.

Despite some of the noise and FUD being spread about on the web at the moment, for me, the iPhone 3G has pretty much delivered on all of it's promises.

I live in an area with good 3G coverage, and the speed bump it provides when browsing or downloading emails is more than welcome. At home, the signal strength indicator on my iPhone shows only two bars, yet web pages still load at least twice as quickly as they did over EDGE. And in areas with a stronger signal, they download even quicker. It means there is very little compromise when accessing the web when I'm away from a wifi hotspot, which I really appreciate.

Everything is louder on the new iPhone, from ringtones and alerts, through to earpiece and speakerphone volume. Coupled with the better reception I'm getting, both over 3G and EDGE, it makes for a really great experience when using the phone.

I've also been impressed by how quickly and accurately the GPS acquires my position. I've tested it out at home, in my car, and in the local shopping mall, and in all these situations it has performed admirably. It could never replace the built in sat-nav unit I have in my car, but, for quick reference and searching for local businesses, restaurants, coffee shops etc., it's great.

Battery life was certainly a concern before I bought the iPhone 3G. My 2G version had no problem getting through the day with juice to spare, but I knew that 3G would be more power hungry.

Thankfully, like on its predecessor, power management on the iPhone 3G is excellent. I keep wifi and 3G turned on all the time, have my email calendar and contacts set for "push" synchronization, and run several applications which access the web every time they are opened. I surf the web liberally, stream music frequently (from the utterly brilliant Pandora radio), and watch the occasional video on YouTube. Of course, I also do all the other typical PDA stuff like check my calendar, jot down notes and manage my to do list. Yes, I am very aware of the battery draining faster than on my old 2G iPhone, but, with a few small adjustments, I'm confident that I can get through the day without a problem.

Last Sunday I had a pretty typical non-work day, with most of my time spent at home within range of my wifi network; mid-afternoon I turned off wifi, as a test, and used just 3G for my Internet connection. During the day I spent at least two and a half hours listening to streaming music from Pandora radio, did some idle web-surfing, took extensive notes while discussing plans for the new house we are buying, made about 15 minutes of phone calls, and set up several projects in Omnifocus. The iPhone's battery conked out after 7 hours and 15 minutes of actual use, with more than 14 hours on standby. Not bad at all.

Next day, I set up a more severe test, turning off wifi altogether and relying entirely on 3G for all data. I made about one and a half hours of calls, sent several emails, used Safari as and when needed, listened to an audiobook for the best part of an hour, did a couple of quick races in GTS World Racing, completed a few levels of Jirbo Break, and did some basic PDA stuff. This time the iPhone conked out after 5 hours and 40 minutes of use, and almost 11 hours on standby. Again, for a 3G device with such a big, bright screen, I was pretty impressed.

Clearly, if you push the iPhone 3G to it's limits, with lots of calls, graphics-intensive games, video, web-surfing and GPS use, you will certainly need to take steps to manage power consumption over and above those already taken automatically by the built-in power management. In my experience, I've found that turning down screen brightness a notch or two significantly extends battery life without really compromising on the overall user experience. And, if I really want to stretch things out, it's simple to disable 3G until I really need it.

I'm not going to go into all the ins and outs of the iPhone 2.x software which runs on the iPhone 3G because this review is focused on comparisons with the original iPhone which runs the same software. Suffice to say, the addition of the App Store has taken both the usefulness and the fun factor of the iPhone to another level. Despite my best intentions, I've added several productivity apps, even more audio options, and a slew of games to my iPhone. (Boy, that onboard App Store is hard to resist!)

(N.B. I've been running the latest software update, 2.02, on my iPhone 3G since last Monday. I understand that this was supposed to address 3G connectivity issues that some users were experiencing. Well, as I hadn't run into those issues myself, I can't comment on that. The good news is that crashes I was experiencing with some third party applications on my old iPhone seem to have become a thing of the past, both for me and for my son. Finally, 2.02 is a bit more smooth and responsive than 2.0 and 2.01, and is getting closer to the rock solid performance of 1.14. The 2.02 software still isn't as smooth and responsive as 1.14, and I had one complete crash when installing the New York Times application directly on to the iphone. The network appeared to hang and the app never finished installing. This also messed up the settings app, because the NYT installs some options on this page. In the end, I had to do a full restore to get everything up and running smoothly again. Hopefully, this will be given a further tweak in version 2.1 which is due out in September.) Overall, I much prefer the look and feel of the iPhone 3G over it's predecessor. The bevelled edges and slightly curved back make it look and feel smaller in the hand than the original iPhone, even though its dimensions are almost the same. Moreover, the glossy, black plastic back is less slippy than the original's brushed aluminium. On the hardware front, I'm a bit disappointed that Apple didn't upgrade the camera to support zoom and a slightly higher resolution. I've been pretty happy with the snaps taken by the iPhone's camera, even in somewhat subdued light, but zoom of any kind would help a lot.

So, would I go back to my old iPhone 2G if I had the chance? No way. 3G, despite its increased demands on the battery, simply takes the iPhone's always-on connectivity to the next level, liberating it from the shackles of EDGE and setting the Safari browser free to do its thing; fast, accurate GPS adds significantly to the usefulness of the already excellent Google Maps; and reception and volume on the phone are much improved.

The main attraction of the iPhone for me is that in a number of key areas it simply knocks the cover off the ball - it is second to none in terms of media, internet, design, build quality, and overall usability. Add 3G and GPS into that mix, along with gaming, push email, contacts and calendar, and an ever growing catalogue of instantly available third party apps, and you have a device that's even more compelling than the original. TREVOR.

Years ago I used to have my ears syringed because of a family issue concerning excess ear wax- not a nice subject, but don’t stop reading yet. Sitting in front of a PC for long periods of time has caused me to develop the strange habit of scratching my left ear with an old Palm Tungsten stylus. You know the feeling when your ear itches a little inside and you just can’t get to it, or is it just me?

Anyway, despite warnings that you should never put anything in your ears I developed this habit and it came home to roost a couple of days ago. I was writing something for the site and was scratching my ear whilst thinking of the next sentence and was happy enough. I then happened to look at the stylus and realised that the plastic pointer was missing (see picture below)! Twenty minutes of desperate searching later and I imagined the worst- it was stuck somewhere in my ear canal. Panic set in and I imagined it travelling to my brain and killing me in the funniest PDA related death in history. The next day I phoned the Doctor and booked an appointment to have my ears syringed, claiming that they were blocked and that I was having trouble hearing.

The appointment duly arrived and a nurse called me in. Here’s how the conversation went as I remember it-

“OK Mr McGill. Have you have this done before?”

“Yes I have, a few times. Is it the vibrating one that makes me feel sick?”

“Well, it vibrates but not everyone feels sick.”

“OK then.”

“Have you put any solutions in your ears to loosen the wax.”

“Oh yes. I have been putting Oliver Oil in for the past few days.” Crosses fingers at this point.

“Well you really should use a proper solution from a chemist, but I will have a look anyway.”

She then proceeded to check my right ear and advised me that it did need syringing. A good start.

“This won’t take long. Hold this below your ear and we will get started.”

“The vibrating started and my ear immediately felt clearer.” She then moved to my right ear.

“This one looks a lot clearer. It may not need syringing.”

“It does.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Can you try it anyway?”

“It is quite clear and should be fine.” Oh Lord here we go.

“I think there’s something stuck in it...”

“Excuse me.”

“I was scratching it the other night with a stylus from a phone and the end fell off.” Looks down at floor.

“Right. I see. Let me have a proper look.” She has a look, but cannot see anything. “Let’s have a quick go and see what comes up.”

A minute later a small black piece of plastic falls into the tray and I am feeling rather silly.

“There we go. All sorted. Now you do know that you should never put anything in your ear don’t you.”

“Um, yes I know but I was a bit stupid. Sorry.”

“Not to worry. Just be more careful in future and you did the right thing by coming in to see us.”

“Thanks very much...”

Once the sick feeling from the vibration went away I breathed a sigh of relief and decided to share my embarrassment with all of you, just in case one of you is as stupid as me:)

I visited my local Carphone Warehouse store yesterday (I always like to mix with people who know a LOT less about phones than me:)) and decided to take a look at the Samsung i8510.

I asked the man in the store if it was in stock and he advised that they would be receiving them next week. I also asked how much they were SIM free, and after checking his sytem he said... wait for it... £249.95!

Now you must remember that expansys has this phone listed for £569.99 and that it is one of the best specified smartphones on the market today. I then checked the Carphone Warehouse in-store magazine and it too said £249.95 SIM free (see image).

There is nothing illegal in trying to pre-order one for this price and making sure you pay the full amount- you may just end up with the smartphone bargain of the year. If you try it, let us know how you get on.

The Platform Promise: S60 Devices From Samsung is a superb new article over at SymbianOne- "There are literally thousands of native Symbian C++ applications for S60 devices. Devising a practical approach to evaluating the compatibility of native S60 software with these Samsung phones necessitated some careful selection. This resulted in choosing a range of applications and utilities as follows:

The essentials. These are the applications I rely on every day, so their failure on a Samsung S60 device would be a big deal.

Location based. Three of the four Samsung devices come with integrated GPS (the SGH-L870 offers network based location positioning) so this seemed a worthwhile area to test.

VoIP. An area receiving a lot of attention and one that has attracted some criticism regarding Symbian OS and S60 API support.

Developer utilities. The S60 SDKs and Carbide.c++ include a number of utilities for S60 devices to support everything from position simulation to debugging. There is also Python for S60, which is included in theS60 platform's list of runtimes.

The SGH-I8510 was the last phone to become available for this review. When it did I had already completed much of the planned testing only to find that three of the applications I had chosen - Google Maps, Fring and GyPSii - were shipped in firmware on the SGH-I8510..."