Smartphones

The new wave of smartphones are upon us! We’ll all be GPS-ing, 3G-ing and touchscreen surfing the web on-the-go soon.

Let’s have a quick look at a few on offer:

T-Mobile G1

Caused a big stir when it was launched last week, it’s the first phone to feature Google’s Android operating system. Android was developed by The Open Handset Alliance - a collaboration of developers creating an open and free mobile platform.

Lot’s of people think the phone is ugly – I think it looks solid and functional. What’s more off-putting for me is the geeky nature surrounding the phone (and promoting it).

http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-phones/whats-hot/

iPhone

We all know what this is all about…What I find sad is the amount of awe and wonder with which people treat the phone. People seem to wrap it up in all sorts of protective cases and then touch it like they’re rubbing a precious stone.

http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/

Samsung Omnia

A direct competitor to the iPhone, the Omnia is an all singing and dancing touch screen phone with a better hardware spec than it’s rival. Runs Windows Mobile 6.1.

http://omnia.samsungmobile.com/

Sony Ericsson Xperia

A rather swish looking touchphone with slideout keyboard (ok, so this phone does make the T-Mobile G1 look like a brick). Features some quirky touch phone features such as the nine panel grid layout.

The website is worth a look if only to hear an odd sounding European woman explain the phone to us (“I just love this giant touchscreen!” and tantalizingly, “I can’t live without my daily dose of celebrity gossip.”).  I’m sold.

http://www.sonyericsson.com/x1/index.aspx?en-gb

Phasing out IE6

Scott Mallinson reports on the phasing out of Internet Explorer 6 by some mainstream web companies but warns that it might exclude users who are yet to update to a modern browser.

Shamefully, I only upgraded my work machine to IE7 a few weeks ago – although to be honest, I’m not a browser geek. I’ve only ever dabbled with Firefox and Safari.