Windows 7

The world of mobile technology today is astounding. If you told somebody 50 years ago about what you could do now on the latest smartphones then you would get a few funny looks to say the least. One of the major downfalls of having all this technology is that the batteries have not really kept up with the pace of development. This leaves some people having to charge their phone two or three times a day, which is a huge hassle. However, reports that have surfaced recently suggest there may be a mobile phone in development at the moment that could have a battery life of fifteen years! Here, we will explore a bit about this rumour and battery life in more detail.

What is the Right Balance?

In the very near future we will see more efficient batteries produced that will last much longer. However, at the moment this problem is a real issue. It was not too long ago that phones like the Nokia 3210 were in existence. While these phones were basic to say the least, the battery lasted an eternity. The latest smartphone deals like the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S2 need charging once a night and that is if you have not been using it rigorously. It seems the needs of many are not being met by the current batteries we have in place.

Is There A Solution Now?

Well, there are several solutions. Firstly, the phone that you have at the moment could probably be optimised slightly better. Disabling features like WI-FI or turning the backlight down on the display are options that can save hours of battery life. Secondly, there are solar and kinetic chargers on the market at the moment, but this really does not solve the problem of short battery life, it just provides an alternative option to make things a bit easier. On the other hand, if low battery life is a real pain to you, and you are fed up with phones offering too much, why not revert back to the old style phones that had more reliable battery packs?

Is There A Phone With A Battery That Can Last 15 Years?

Yes, in the United States a phone has been invented that uses the power of one AA battery. It is said that the Spare One can last for 15 years if it is on standby, and will give 10 hours talk time. That is quite a dramatic drop in performance but considering that you can buy AA batteries at a very low price in many high street stores, this would reduce the likelihood of you ever being caught short again.

When Will We See the Change for Smartphones?

Android has made a very big point of focusing their time and research on feasible battery performance for 2012. These improvements are hoped to be introduced on the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S3, and it has been suggested by the vice president of product innovation at the company that this battery will run all day with moderate to heavy usage, which is all many people are looking for at the moment. Android is perhaos the most resource hogging of all the major smartphone operating systems, but even iOS has shown it is not immune to battery woes with the performance issues of the iPhone 4S. Even though Windows Phone is the least demanding and provides the best battery life, it too is a little too much to run off a single AA battery any time soon.

With this being said, a bigger and better solution looks to be just around the corner, but smartphone battery life is likely to remain less than perfect for some time to come.

A Scottish holidaymaker returned from his travels to find a bill from T-Mobile for £1,200, despite having not made one call from his iPhone while away.

Jeff Craw, 41, managed to run up the huge bill from his iPhone while using his hotel’s wireless internet system to view web pages and watch videos, according to a report in the Daily Record. The Scotsman didn’t realise his iPhone’s data roaming function kicked in once he left an area not covered by a wireless signal, despite regular horror stories in the press about holidaymakers running up eye watering bills while out of the country.

The cost the data he received while away is almost as much as the £1,500 he paid for his winter break to Thailand. Mr Craw said he can’t afford to pay the bill, despite T-Mobile offering a 25% discount as a gesture of goodwill.

Mr Craw’s tale serves as another in a long line of salutary stories which should be getting through to smartphone owners. Those that don’t want to be met by a huge bill after their adventures abroad should turn off their handset’s data roaming function before they leave the UK, whether they’re using an iPhone, BlackBerry, Samsung, or any other type of mobile.

New EU laws to cap the amount networks can charge for data roaming are due to be introduced over the summer months, which should go some way to reducing the number of phone users who are caught out in Europe. These changes would have had no impact on Mr Craw’s sorry situation though, as his bill was run up while outside of the EU. O2 customers benefit from an automatic cap of £40 on data downloaded abroad, a feature campaigners would like see rolled out by other providers.

Although roaming charges are viewed by many as extortionate, phone users receive regular warnings from consumer groups and phone networks themselves that they will be charged for downloading data abroad automatically if they fail to deactivate the data roaming function on their handsets. The method for doing so is usually very simple on most mobiles. Phone owners should check their smartphone’s user guide if they’re unsure how to turn off their data roaming function.

Ignorance is no excuse. While network’s will usually offer a discount when a bill like Mr Craw’s looks like it might be picked up by the press, the amount left to pay will still be substantial if large data roaming fees are built up.

Those who do want to use the internet on their iPhone while abroad should contact their network provider to ask about roaming charges and prepaid travel data allowances. Most UK phone networks offer add-ons that allow their customers a daily data allowance while out of the country. Failure to get on top of your data use when abroad can quickly cost you a small fortune, as Mr Craw and others will testify.

Windows Phone 7 was Microsoft’s answer to the new touchscreen era with many critics of the older Windows Mobile claiming it was not fit for purpose. WP7 was designed from the ground up and truly offers something unique compared to Android and the iPhone. It has a much more social emphasis with excellent entertainment on offer with Zune and Xbox. Although it was first released over a year ago though, it has so far failed to make much of a splash.

That was true and looked likely to remain true until Nokia announced the new Lumia 800. To date only Samsung and HTC have released a small number of Windows Phone 7 devices, but Nokia’s partnership with Microsoft, announced at the start of the year, should bring a great deal more Windows Phones to the market. Nokia is investing a lot of advertising money to push Nokia Lumia contracts and it certainly looks like the most appealing Windows Phone yet.

At first glance the Lumia looks a lot like the MeeGo powered Nokia N9. It has the same brightly coloured design and identical physical proportions. The big thing about the N9 was that it operated on a purely touchscreen basis – with absolutely no buttons on the front. The Lumia does come with buttons though, Windows softkeys placed beneath the display. Because of this the Lumia’s screen is ever so slightly smaller than the N9′s – although this is the only recognizable difference between the two phones from the outside.

Of course, in the software department the two phones are entirely different. Although there was originally a lot of interest in MeeGo it has since been dropped by Nokia – meaning that future support for updates and apps will be limited. On this phone Windows Phone 7 actually looks a whole lot more appealing – and like a much more complete operating system.

Windows Phone 7 is not very customizable, and so there is not much about the Lumia’s interface that is very different to, say, the HTC Titan or Samsung Omnia W. Nokia has endeavored to include some of its more traditional services on its Windows Phones though, including its maps and navigation services. The Lumia comes with Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive and Nokia Music – helping to differentiate the Lumia from other Windows Phones somewhat.

The Lumia 800 comes with the new Mango update for Windows Phone 7, including all the new features for cloud computing and improved social networking integration. One new feature that was added into Mango is the support for front camera video calling – unfortunately this is not a feature that has made its way into the Lumia as it does not have a front facing camera.

On the other hand, it does have an excellent main camera. The 8 megapixel camera comes with Carl Zeiss optics, dual LED flash and 720p video – and is easily as good as the camera on the earlier Nokia N8.

It is make or break time – for Nokia and for Windows Phone 7 – which is evident by the amount of money that Nokia is spending to market the Lumia (more than any previous Nokia phone). The adverts look tantalizing, as does the phone itself – and this could easily become one of the best mobile phone deals of 2011. This could indeed be the start of a great new partnership between Nokia and Microsoft.

On Thusday 20th July, a new market is opened for thousands of people waiting. I was one of these excited people. For many people, companies and business groups, it is a new chance and for many other people, it is a money source. But in both situations, it was an exciting day. Ok, i will say what it is…

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