We're not sure whether we're impressed or scared by the Wirefile V-Clinic. It's a mobile 'personal dietician' application that promises personalised diet and fitness services on your phone. Used by personal trainers and dieticians, it's an application that downloads your meal and fitness plan every day, created by whoever you're paying to turn you into a buff adonis / beauty.
You tap in details of your eating and exercise, and they get sent back to your trainer, who can then shout at you if you've been lazy and/or greedy. "If I eat too much pizza over the weekend, I get an SMS or call putting me back on track," says happy user Jenny McKay.
We're sure that's very useful, but we're not sure we like the idea of our phone being a pocket snitch when three Mars Bars accidentally fall into our mouth. However, you are able to text your personal dietician from within the application, if you disagree with their 'motivational' messages. In all seriousness, it's an innovative example of how phones are finding yet more ways to help in our daily routines.
Proof, if you needed it, that the humble mobile phone is becoming a jack-of-all-gadgets. UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom has released its annual Communications Market Report, in which it examines what impact owning a mobile phone has on your use of other gadgets.
Apparently, 55% of mobile users now use an alarm clock less, 51% use a portable radio/tape/disc player less, 38% use a camera less, 34% use an MP3 player less, 22% use radio less, and 15% play fewer console games.
That last stat seems a bit strange, as nobody would suggest mobile games are a substitute for the latest PS3, Wii or Xbox 360 games. However, Ofcom's research found that 51% of mobile gamers play at home, so it could show a trend that people have less time to play on their consoles, but are partially filling that gap with mobile games that don't tie up the TV.
Continue reading "Phones sucking usage time from other gadgets, says Ofcom" »
Today's Financial Times - not a publication given to printing rumours without some justification - has a story on Apple's plans for the iPhone in Europe. It claims Apple has struck three separate deals with operators, meaning that O2 will exclusively have the iPhone here in the UK, while T-Mobile will have it in Germany, and Orange in France.
Besides making us feel a bit sorry for poor old Vodafone, which appears to have been left out of the iPhone party for the time being, the story also has got us excited. Why? Because it claims Apple will announce all these deals next week at the IFA tech industry show in Germany, bringing the actual launch of the iPhone here closer.
But we're steeling our wallets for a shock. The FT also claims that Apple isn't letting its operator partners subsidise the price of the iPhone. As we calculated the other day, this could mean shelling out £399 for an 8GB iPhone.
(via FT.com)
Nokia announced the 6555 phone yesterday, and despite it being a super-stylish 3G clamshell, much of the coverage has focused on... its analogue clock. Yes, there's a proper traditional clock beaming out from the phone's external screen, rather than the digital time display you'd expect.
We think it's part of a wider trend that, if it didn't conjure up horrendous memories of numerous Tory politicians bonking their secretaries, we'd call 'Back To Basics'. In short: phones have got way complex in recent years, and so it's only logical that a design trend has sprung up opting for the more retro approach.
Continue reading "Nokia 6555's analogue clock shows why old-skool design is a hit on mobiles" »
Have you ever experienced the phenomenon known as 'bill shock'? It's what happens when you get your mobile bill at the end of the month, and it's much more than you expected - either because you've overstepped your texting/talking limit, have used too much data, or spent too long calling home from that beach holiday.
Well, spare a thought for a man called Pierre, who took his US iPhone on holiday with him to Europe, and racked up a $4,190.76 bill, mainly for data roaming fees. That's got to be a nasty surprise, although he did manage to talk his operator into retroactively putting him on the 20MB-per-month international data plan, which cut the bill to a more manageable $900.
We wonder what Pierre was thinking when he went online with his iPhone, and why he didn't try to find Wi-Fi hotspots instead.
Continue reading "The $4,190.76 iPhone bill that proves Wi-Fi roaming is the future" »
Despite the operators' tempting contracts with oodles of free minutes and texts, there's still a lot of Brits who prefer the no-strings approach of a pay-as-you-go mobile. And while this can mean you pay through the nose for a top-spec handset (earlier on we explained how Nokia sells its N95 SIM-free for £499), it doesn't have to be an expensive business.
We've rounded up five prepay phones that'll cost you under £70 in the shops, but will still give you a decent performance and more cutting-edge features than you'd think.
1. Nokia 5300 (pictured left). This compact slider handset might not be 3G, but it's been designed to work well as a music phone, with dedicated keys and up to a 2GB memory card to store your tunes. It's well-rounded, with definite appeal to younger users. Read a review
