Does it bother you if there is a smartphone on the market that is the upgraded version of yours? Do you always want the best on the market or do simple things like not having the latest OS version (Android in particular) annoy you?

David wrote the following on PDA-247 last week- “Picture the scene, our hero, let’s call him Jack, has just had a big argument with his boss on the phone. He’s just threatened to expose him and his mismanaging of the crisis to the president; he ends the call with a stunning ultimatum, snatches the phone away from his ear and, with a crescendo of music in the background, stabs ineffectually at a non responsive touch screen to end the call…….

What he, and all TV goodies, and baddies, need is a dramatic way to end a call. There is something satisfying and final about flicking shut a flip phone that says “I’m done and don’t mess with me”. You just don’t get the same effect with a slide or a touch screen. Let face it flip phones are cool, ever since Captain Kirk first flicked open his communicator and told Scotty to beam him up, that’s all a true geek has wanted their phone to do. If it can get on the Internet, pick up emails and stuff, so much the better, but really, it just needs to flip.

Here’s a 2010 prediction for you, the first company to produce a decent Smartphone in a flip format will have a runaway success on their hands.”

I can see his point with regards to ending calls in a dramatic way, but must admit that I struggle with the concept of a flip smartphone. We live in a world where touch screens are becoming more dominant all of the time and for the rest of us the hardware QWERTY keyboard form does the job. Neither way of working lends itself to the flip phone format. It would have to be very large to include a big screen and any form of data input besides the standard 1-0 key setup, and watching videos, using GPS and playing games would be prohibitive.

David mentioned a swivel style mechanism to allow more flexible usage, but again I believe that this would cause more complexity when it isn’t really needed. It looks to me like we will have to stick with the form factors that are dominant today for a long time to come. I love the idea of something new coming along in hardware smartphone design, but do wonder if we can move much from what we already have. It is a shame if that is the case…

David then came up with the following in response- “Apart from the cool factor, there are several benefits of a flip phone: First, it’s an easy way to answer and end calls without having to stab at a button, then you’ve got the screen protection angle and also you have a much larger device when open to bridge the gap between ear and mouth, giving improved call quality. The only usage model I can see that would give problems is using the device in landscape mode, for things like web browsing, but this is a problem with any qwerty slider or front facing qwerty design and that hasn’t stop manufactures selling tons of them. I only ever use GPS in portrait mode because holding any device in landscape is too uncomfortable and if you’re driving the screen size is not important as you should’t be looking at the screen anyway.

I don’t suppose it will ever happen, you’re right, the world wants big touch slabs, but honestly, there are so many problems with that design it’s a wonder it’s caught on at all. It just shows how gullible we are, Apple shows us something and tells us it’s cool and we flock to buy it.“

Today’s question comes from Arnold who asks What app do you use so much that it kills your battery? On my Palm it was Strange Adventures in Infinite Space. On my iPhone it is Uno (surprisingly enough).

Today’s smartphones are super clever- they can navigate, socially network, manage your life, let you enjoy music and movies and even occasionally be used for speaking to people. These devices do so much and this is often the main reason for people to buy them in the first place, but getting media onto the devices is often a fragmented process which requires far too much time to complete.

As much as I do not like some aspects of iTunes (the backup process for one), it has a killer feature in that it can manage all types of media and directly pass them to the iPhone with little or no hassle. Moving media purchased outside of iTunes is also incredibly easy to manage and this adds even more benefit. With some video conversion tools you are all set to move your entire media library over to iTunes and then consequently to the iPhone itself.

I can think of no other mobile platform that manages to create a seamless experience for managing media between a computer and a smartphone; the BlackBerry and Symbian solutions attempt to bring media and PIM data to the smartphone, but the media sides are not good, and in the case of BlackBerry it is shockingly bad. Android suffers from being designed to do most things over the air and Windows Mobile is another system which has never got things right when it comes to managing media on the phone.

Some say that apps are not important in defining the success of a phone, and in some ways I agree, but making the user experience as painless as possible when adding various file formats to a smartphone is very important in building customer loyalty. It is hard to pinpoint, but when a system works as well as iTunes it almost feels like an extension of the phone itself. My iPhone is nothing without iTunes and for once I can understand the locked down nature that Apple has employed. For all of the money spent developing Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile and the rest no one seems to have caught on to the fact that development is needed outside of the phone itself to create a positive customer experience.

How do you rate the customer service of your mobile supplier, and which supplier are you using? For various reasons I cannot comment on this one.

Have you moved networks because a phone was only available from that particular supplier? If so, was it worth moving or do you regret doing so now?

There are some mobile games which rival dedicated console titles for their addictiveness, but sadly these are in the minority. Too many mobile offerings still give the user a couple of day’s fun and even then it can be a struggle to immerse yourself in the game properly. Here is a rundown of the most addictive mobile games (in my experience) available, and feel free to chip in with your recommendations-

1/ Angry Birds (iPhone, Symbian)

Angry Birds is immensely popular at the moment and at the time of writing is number one in the App Store. It is already one of the most talked about iPhone games and I can understand why- it is super addictive in a way that few other games can manage. The ‘just one more go’ phenomenon is more than apparent here and I found myself playing for 3 hours straight yesterday until the battery gave out. My son and my wife are the same with their iPod Touches and the only downside is that I completed all of the available levels in 2 days. Need more levels!

Addictive rating: 8

2/ Space Miner: Space Ore Bust (iPhone)

On the subject of games that make you want to play one more time, Space Miner is possibly the best available at this time. Instead of completing levels to move on, you have to mine space ore to get funds to equip your ship to go and mine more ore. In some levels there are tasks to complete such as picking up lost space tourists or beating seriously tough enemies, but the bulk of the game is made up of exploring new territories and putting the final pieces together to complete your quest. It took me a long time to complete it on easy and now I can go back to the next level so there is longevity built in, but hardened gamers will want even more longevity to be satisfied.

Addictive rating: 9

3/ WordPop! (iPhone, Windows Mobile, Palm OS)

No games list of mine would be complete without WordPop! and even though I have played it for a few years now, it is still going strong on my iPhone. It is the first game I install on any new device and probably always will be. With the iPad version in the works, there is even more to look forward to and I expect to be playing it for a few more years yet. The online high scores, best words and comprehensive word list only add to the fun. This is the only game I have played that has never got boring for me and for the life of me I can’t see that it ever will.

Addictive rating: 10

4/ HomeRun (Symbian, iPhone)

Can a simple card game really be addictive? This one can. I was playing it way back as the default game on Psion PDAs and now that it is available on Symbian and iPhone I can play it again. It takes some time to get into, but once you do it is really hard to put down. The premise is simple, but there is some skill involved and to this day I have never mastered it. It has no sound in the iPhone version, but I don’t care. The same goodness from the Psion version is still there today and I am grateful for that. Solitaire is of course addictive, but there is something special about clearing card after card in this game when you hit a good run.

Addictive rating: 8

5/ Flick Cricket (iPhone)

This game shouldn’t really be in the list because it isn’t great for a lot of reasons, so why do I keep coming back for more? I have no idea, but I do keep coming back and 5 minutes of every day are spent trying to get a perfect score. For the first couple of days you will indeed wonder what is so special about the game, but as you learn to master the flicking you will start to enjoy it more and more. Facebook integration is nice as well even though it does little more than add your friends names to the team line ups. The paid for version offers more options and better longevity so go for that one if you can.

Addictive rating: 7

How often do you sneakily play a game, visit a social networking site or do something else that you would not normally be allowed to do at work? Of course I would never do such a thing (cough).

Hi everyone.

As Shaun mentioned earlier, he has kindly allowed me to pen a few ramblings on his site, so I thought a brief introduction was in order.

I can hardly believe it, but I’ve been working in the IT industry for 34 years, from the days when one computer took up an entire room and had less storage than my watch! (Que loads of posts from people remembering the good old days of paper tape and disks the size of washing machines). I’ve gone through just about every PDA/Mobile device in that time, from the original Sharp IQ series through Psions’s, Palm’s, Sinclair Z88’s, all flavors of Windows Mobile right up to the latest Android and Apple offerings. I used to program for a living and even made a small amout of money on mobile devices, anyone remember ReadCIX and ReadCIS for the Psion 3a? Currently I work for myself, mainly from home, supporting local businesses and home users on all aspects of IT. This means I get to see technology working in the real world and how “normal” people react to the things we may take for granted, so have a healthy does of cynicism. Something a few Websites and Podcasts authors could do with. I also write a monthly column in the local free paper covering all things techie and answering questions, which also gives me an idea of the problems people are having.

I’m a big fan of Symbian (quiet at the back!) and have several Nokia’s laying around, but at the moment I’m alternating between a iPhone and a Palm Pre as my main device and just waiting for someone to bring out a Smartphone in a flip format, but more on this in a later post.

Anyway, this was only meant to be a quick hello, I hope to keep you entertaind over the coming months and look forward to lots of discussion in the comments.

How much have you spent on mobile software in the past 6 months and what platform are you using? I am guessing that iPhone users buy the most titles, but that other platform users maybe spend more.

Are you seen by friends and colleagues as a ‘nerd’ when it comes to smartphones, and are you often asked for help by other people? Fair to say I am…

Do you have a lot of data on your smartphone that you rarely use? I must admit to having lots of photos, videos and files that I rarely refer to, but I just like having them with me. Yes, I am a mobile hoarder. Are you?

Smartphone users, and in particular BlackBerry users, are contactable by email, voice, text and instant messaging 24 hours a day if they allow themselves to be. I have been the victim of this recently and finally realised that the more I make myself contactable, the more I am contacted. It is a vicious circle that will grow and grow if you continue to respond to enquiries and one which is hard to stop once it has started.

It hit home to me the other day following a two hour meeting in which mobile use was (surprisingly) expressly forbidden. I came out of the meeting room and was greeting with 7 missed calls, 5 voicemail messages, 15 new emails and 3 BlackBerry PIN messages- AAAARGH!!!

I tend to respond to most enquiries because that often saves them either being escalated or simply resulting in duplicate requests and this seems logical. However, human nature dictates that if you help people they will come back for more help, and if you help them in a positive way they will come back time and time again. Like an ever growing digital snowball you will soon be inundated by enquires and questions and it will never end, unless you end it yourself.

It would be daft to blame the smartphone, but it is a tool which large companies can use to ensure your continued attendance in and out of the office. They know you have a smartphone and some expect it to be turned on all of the time. Without wishing to sound paranoid, it is without doubt a problem that is affecting more and more people and the smartphone is central to that problem. Turning it off is much harder than simply pressing a button.

Which PIM function do you refer to the most in a normal day? Obviously email is top for me, but the calendar and memopad come a close second (and third).

There has been a lot made of the corporate credentials of the iPhone and Android devices recently, but I just don’t get it. There is a reason why RIM dominates the corporate sector and it is not just the email platform it provides.

If I was buying smartphones for my company there is almost no choice outside of BlackBerry, and the reasons are many fold-

Battery life- without doubt the battery performance of BlackBerry devices are way ahead of the iPhone and Windows Mobile devices, but WM still does fairly well within the corporate sector. Symbian devices also have stupendous batteries on board and this has given them some anchorage within the corporate world.

Speed- the inclusion of hardware keyboards is seen by many corporate people as necessary when dealing with large volumes of emails. I’m not starting the whole hardware v software keyboard debate again, but it is a fact that many consider this to be the case (rightly or wrongly).

Contactable- corporations need to communicate with their staff all of the time, if possible, and call quality alongside a good battery help with this. So many smartphones have call quality and power too far down the specification list for them to do well in the business sector.

The fact is that many business people require the ‘phone’ part to be a significant factor in a smartphone yet most smartphones forgo this in favour of big screens and lots of apps. The focus on new features to capture the consumer market often gets in the way of building hardware that does the job for seriously busy people. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, there is a huge flaw in the iPhone and Android model at this time which if addressed could make one of them the biggest smartphone platform of them all.

Here’s an example- RIM sells many more smartphones than Apple and is a competitor that is easily exploitable because the OS looks outdated and is not as flexible as it could be. If Apple released two iPhones this year, one for consumers and one for business, it could clean up. The business centric model would have a much better battery life, a hardware keyboard (not completely necessary, but preferred by many) and a leaning towards better call quality and more business orientated features.

If the above could be achieved I would be a business iPhone user in a snap and so would many others. It would take time for the move from BlackBerry to happen in a big way because it is so entranced at the moment, but this seems to be an obvious target market to me. Have I missed something here or do you feel that the current iPhone is capable of doing well in the corporate sector? If you do, explain to me why not one person I know at work or within the customers I deal with uses an iPhone for business. Strangely, many of them own an iPhone for personal use…