On a recent visit to Seoul I dutifully visited one of my favourite geek tourist destinations — the Yongsan Electronics Market. This is Seoul’s “temple” to consumer electronics, with eight floors of counters laden with cameras, PCs, notebooks, TVs, personal navigation devices (PNDs) and mobile phones stretching as far as the eye can see. The [...]

I’m sure the average buyer walking into a phone shop considers a number of factors when deciding which device to buy. They might like the look of it, or its colour. Perhaps they favour one manufacturer over another. Or maybe there’s just an attractive offer with a good price.

But what about the phone’s name? I [...]

I had a humbling experience yesterday. I learned what it means to get old. It was a grim realisation.

I’ve always been interested in devices that allow elderly, infirm or disabled people the opportunity to enjoy all the benefits of mobile technology. In 2006 I bought a phone from Emporia, a little-known family-run Austrian firm, after [...]

It’s interesting to see that while the touch screen interface has become increasingly popular, many mobile phones still offer a separate control pad for manoeuvring the cursor. Usually this control pad is located in the centre of the device just under the phone screen, but the rise of the slide-out qwerty keyboard has meant the [...]

The week before I went to Mobile World Congress, I wrote about five things I’d like to see at the show. Sadly, I came across very little on my wish-list.

The event was as big as ever, even if attendance was down on previous years. So I may have missed an exhibition stand in a far [...]

It’s day three of Mobile World Congress, and I thought I’d highlight a few of the devices on display. If you’re in Barcelona, you might want to go and take a look at them. For everyone else, we’ve produced short video clips of the products.

I’ve seen plenty of interesting phones from the big names, including [...]

Samsung recently announced a range of eco-friendly phones, including models which use up to 50 percent bioplastic for their outer cases. Bioplastics are derived from renewable material like corn oil rather than petroleum. Samsung’s new phones — the F268, bound for China, the W510 for Korea and the E200 Eco for European markets — are [...]

Last weekend I rediscovered Nokia’s Sports Tracker software, which I’d installed on my N95 months ago. Nokia has now launched a Web site to accompany the application. Users can upload their running or walking activities to the site and then view their route on a map. They can also see a range of statistical results, [...]

With CTIA just around the corner, it seems a good opportunity to muse on what we may see at the show. This year, I expect some of the big names to use CTIA as a launch pad to step up their activities in the US.

Nokia needs to show more commitment to the US market at [...]

A number of manufacturers have dabbled with so called “ruggedised” phones over the last few years – most notably Nokia with its 5210, 5140i and 5500.
These phones typically have a rubberised casing and are more suited to being dropped than a standard mobile phone. Often marketed to “active” users (mountain bikers and the like) [...]