As more devices come equipped with GPS and are able to send and receive location information, GREAT services like Vodacom’s The Grid and Foursquare are becoming really popular.  Mashable published a really good visual on the History of Location Technology that I thought I’d share with my readers.  If you would like to see a larger image, simply click on the one below.  Enjoy!

On this site, I’ve looked at the history of mobile phone design, the most expensive phones in the world and today I’d like to show you some totally outrageous phone designs.  These designs range from the arbitrary to the ludicrous but most will make you wonder, “What were they thinking?!” (Or if they were thinking at all.) But as the competition for market share heats up, the designers need to get creative …

The Natural Year Phone by Je-Hyun Kim

All-righty-then… this “green” phone was created to encourage recycling.  The body is made of hay (yea, right, some call it ‘hay’) and it disintegrates within 2 years.  The hideous design makes it look like a cow-pattie and of course, if you can’t get signal, you can always smoke it…..

The Pantech phone is interesting because it looks like a regular phone, right? Well it has one difference. This phone makes “ultrasonic” noises to repel mosquitoes.  Unlike a silent dog whistle, this noise can be heard by humans and tends to get very annoying – so you might end up repelling friends as well as mozzies.

Windows phone – with a difference – by Seunghan Song

This phone gets its name from the fact that it literally looks like a little window, and not due to its operating system.  If you’ve always wanted a transparent phone, then this is the gadget for you.  It’s most popular feature? Giving you a realistic weather forecast…. Including droplets on the screen when it is raining outside.

Another transparent phone is the Radia – a circular phone by Michael Laut.  Going for a completely new look, this design throws the baby out with the bathwater, and delivers a completely useless form factor.

The next two phones get their inspiration from old scrolls.  The first is the Chinese Scroll by Yun Liang.  The buttons are on the outside of the scroll and the display can be rolled out and back in again. I could imagine stringing some chain between two of these and using them as Nunchucks – Ka Pow! Self defense feature!

The second scroll-like phone takes security conscious to a whole new level! The Cryptex Mobile phone is so complex that it takes a person more than four minutes just to dial a phone number!  The phone uses ciphers (mathematical algorithms) as security features and each number has its own unique code. So if you want to dial an 8-digit telephone number, you literally have to type in 8 different codes.  Not the solution you’d choose in case of an emergency.

Do you have games ON YOUR PHONE? The Easy Tiles Phone by Tzu-Fu Wang gives new meaning to “adding games or applications” to your phone.  Each application or game is a tile that you slide in and around your phone.  You can select the components you want and “create” your ideal phone with only the features and applications that you want.  Interesting……

I’ve heard of phones for geeks but this one takes the cake! How about this little scientist’s delight – the molecule phone?

Wearable technology has been a popular topic of conversation.  From paranoia about barcodes tattooed on your forehead, to chips under the skin, to what pouch you can hitch on your belt – there are opinions aplenty!  Here are some rather interesting designs for “wearable” mobile phones.

The bracelet phone by Tao Ma is an interesting design.  Apparently if you have two, you can hook them together to make handcuffs. I think you’d look quite silly plugging your wrist into a wall socket to charge your bracelet, but I’m sure it appeals to some….

The Finger touching idea by Sunman Kwon uses an infrared keypad displayed on your hand to operate the phone which is also secured around your wrist.

The hand phone uses the standard hand signal for phoning (thumb and pinky) to hold the mike and speaker up to your head while you use the phone that is secured around your hand.  I think it is ugly and both of these options don’t offer anything spectacularly more convenient than I’d get by holding my phone in my hand.

The Nokia 888 is a bendable phone that you could wrap around your wrist like a bracelet, around your head like an Alice band or clip onto your clothes.  It works through touch and voice recognition and folds open flat like a ruler.

Talk about a Swiss Army knife phone! When someone said, “Hey why don’t we add a video camera to the phone?” they were taken literally! The Telson TWC is as James Bondy as you can get. The phone is worn as a watch and has a built in camera.

Mobile phones were once called “bricks” and said to be useful only for “self-defense” well this Nokia gun phone doozie (or should I say Uzi) is in a class (make that caliber) of its own.  I suppose it would need a holster shaped pouch. Don’t press the wrong button when you answer…..

The Glove phone is connected to a Bluetooth headset.  I could imagine it being used by motorcyclists, in extreme weather conditions or by rescue workers.  There is also an emergency button.

Our final phone in the “wearable” class is the Hyundai MP-280.  This phone is not worn as an accessory like the previous phones but its unique claim to fame is that the little butterfly button is used to spray perfume on the owner. Hmmm…. I’d hate to see that liquid damage if it sprung a leak…

Looks delicious!

Ronald McDonald may have inspired these little gadgets.  The hamburger phone (a land line phone) was seen in the movie “Juno” and is probably one of the top selling teenage must-haves in America.

In case you’d like to go for the “whole meal”, why not add a little fries with that?

If you don’t feel like a burger, you can always opt for the sandwich phone.

For those who are a little more health-conscious, why not go for a bright red apple?

Some bad habit designs are those that exploit other vices.  Take for example these two – our final in the weird design post.  While this one is quite cute, the matchbox phone seems very impractical, unlike its partner in crime, the cigarette box phone.

What will they think of next?….

With the exchange rate in South Africa being as it is, we tend to pay quite a lot of money for imported goods.  That is why mobile phones are so expensive in our country.  Today I thought I’d have look at the MOST EXPENSIVE phones sold in the world, convert their cost to Rands and see exactly how much moola we’re talking about… Perhaps that will make us feel better about what we’re forking out on these shiny little gadgets.  Here are the top nine most expensive phones in the world.

Coming in at number 9 is the Nokia 8800 Arte with pink diamonds.. la-dee-da! This little beauty was sold for $134 000 (about R1 072 000).  For a cool million rand, you get a  phone designed by Peter Aloisson, made from solid 18k white gold with more than 680 pink and white diamonds (21.5 carats) and oh yes, a phone with 3.15MP camera, music player, Bluetooth and voice memo. (Peter Aloisson is a luxury accessories producer based in Moscow JSC Ancort – he is responsible for quite a number of phones in this list).

At number 8 is Peter Aloisson’s iPhone Princess Plus, which sold for $176 400 (about R1.4 million).  This phone was called the “Princess Plus” because of the Princess cut diamonds used on 138 of the 318 diamonds.  The other 180 diamonds have a “brilliant” cut. (As if you could really notice a difference without a magnifying glass?) In total this phone has 17.75 carats worth of diamonds which are set in white gold around the lips of the iPhone.

And if you’re a little cost-conscious, you can get the “brilliant cut-only” version of this phone for a mere $66 150 (about R529 000).  (I’ll take two thanks…)

Number 7 is a phone that looks quite tacky if you ask me. Its a Blackberry Curve 8900 wrapped in 18 karat gold with 4 150 teeeeeeny-weeeeeny diamonds.  This phone sold for $200 000 (about R1.6 mil).

Sony Ericsson’s Black Diamond is a surprise entry at number 6.  This phone, unlike its name and other phones in this post, does not have ANY diamonds or other bling accessories.  The reason for this high price tag is due to the technology.  The technology used is polycarbonate OLED, which it has on its entire face area. That’s a new screen technology (designed for flat screen high definition monitors) that offers incredible screen resolution.  It also has a shiny mirror finish and rather peculiar shape. (You have to wonder what it would look like at the end of the day with smudgy fingerprints and foundation smears… not pretty!) This rather futuristic-looking phone would set you back $300 000 (about R2.4 million).

Number 5 is a hideous design that looks like it was definitely not created with usability in mind. The Vertu Signature Cobra cost $310 000 (About R2.4 million) and was designed by the French Boucheron.  It has 2 diamonds, 2 emeralds and 439 rubies.  Only 8 of these phones were made, making it really exclusive!

If you’d like a cheaper option, you can buy one of the 26 Python versions of this phone, which do not have rubies and only cost $115 000 (about R920 000).  I think this is just uuuuuuugly!

Our Rusky friend Peter Aloisson WOWS us again at number 4 with  the Diamond Crypto Smartphone.  This phone sells for $1.3 (R10.4 million) and is covered with 50 diamonds and 8 very rare blue diamonds.  The Ancort logo and navigation buttons are made of 18k rose gold.  It has a Windows operating system (poor thing) and all the features you’d expect to find on a smart phone.  The “crypto” part of the name probably comes from the fact that it offers 256-bit cryptography for secure communications. (That’s where your information is jumbled up so no-one can read it).

Our number 3 is the second worst design in our list (in my opinion) and looks more like Cinderella’s lost shoe than a phone.  The GoldVish ‘Le Million’ Piece Unique was listed in the Guinnes World Book of Records as a) the world’s most expensive phone (selling for €1 million at that time) and b) The World’s most exclusive phone - ooooh impressive.  It sells for $1.3 million now (that’s about R10.4 million) and was designed by Emmanuel Gueit.  It was produced by GoldVish Luxury Communications in Geneva.  The phone is made from 18k white gold and has 20 carats of VVS1 diamonds (those are diamonds with teeny, tiny flaws). Advanced in its day, it has bluetooth and 2GB of storage space.

Peter Aloisson strikes again at number 2 with the Kings Button iPhone (as if the iPhone isn’t already pretty enough….).  This 3G iPhone’s sides are decorated with 138 brilliant cut diamonds and get this, the home button is made from a rare 6.6 carat diamond!

Imagine being famous for giving expensive products a luxurious touch? Well Stuart Hughes of Goldstriker International is famous for exactly that, and he comes in at number 1 with the Goldstriker iPhone 3GS Supreme. The phone’s casing is made from 271 grams of solid 22k gold and is decorated with 53 1carat diamonds.  Once again the home button is a rare diamond but, unlike the King’s button, this one is made from a 7.1 carat diamond! (Could it be the queen’s button?). In this case, he doesn’t stop with the phone, he actually goes on with outrageous packaging made from a 7gk granite box lined with nubuck leather.  In total the phone took 10 months to make and it sells for a sweet $3.2 million (about R25.6 million!) Yowser.

Similar to the way that your laptop or PC needs an operating system to run, your mobile phone also needs an operating system (OS).  An operating system is really the link between the hardware and the software that enables the installed programs to run on that computer/mobile phone.  On a laptop or PC, the primary operating systems are Windows (Microsoft), Linux and Apple.  On the mobile phone, there are quite a few more options.  Here is the blonde’s summary of mobile phone operating systems:

Symbian OS. This is one of my favourite operating systems because it is stable and very reliable.  Symbian is extremely popular, boasting 50.3% global market share in Q2 2009.  Developed by the Symbian Foundation and partly owned by Nokia, Symbian is a very dominant player.  Quite a few handset manufacturers have Symbian phones: LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson among others.

RIM (Research In Motion) BlackBerry OS: This operating system is only used on BlackBerry phones and was originally designed for business users.  The great thing about his OS is that it allows for the BlackBerry compression service which enables users to browse the Internet and send/receive email through the BlackBerry service very quickly and on the BlackBerry data plan.  As at Q2 2009, this OS had 20.9% global market share.

Apple iPhone OS.  This is a mobile derivative of the Apple Mac OS X and is the operating system that runs on iPhones and the newly launched iPad.  The great thing about this OS is that Apple made their development information available to third parties so that they could create applications for the iPhone/iPad.  At present the iTunes application store has hundreds of thousands of applications available. By Q2 2009, iPhone OS had 13.7% market share.

Windows Mobile.  Largely considered a dismal failure, Microsoft’s mobile operating system has not met with the same popularity as their PC operating system.  The software is unreliable, crashes often and is limited to Microsoft programs.  With the launch of other smart phones and open source software, Microsoft’s market share took a serious knock and by Q2 2009 was only at 9%.  Windows Mobile software has been available on certain HTC phones, Samsung Omnia and others.  At the Mobile World Congress in 2010, Microsoft announced their new mobile OS called Windows Mobile 7 Series and a rather aggressive comeback into the mobile market.  It is still highly debatable as to whether Microsoft stands any chance of gaining more market share with this new OS but we’ll just have to wait and see…

Android. This relatively new OS already had a 2.8% market share by Q2 in 2009, but the popularity of the software has seen such tremendous growth that their market share could be significantly higher today.  Android is an open source software platform (open source means that there are no licensing fees – as with a closed source platform like Microsoft, and that the source code for the software is available to other developers to use and improve.) derived from Linux. Google was a key player in advocating the android OS and launched a Google branded phone made by HTC called the Nexus One. This was Google’s first foray into hardware and has been very successful (although nothing comes close to the success enjoyed by iPhone!).  Android operating systems are growing in popularity and you will find phones from HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson. You can see a full list of phones at http://www.androidphones.com

Linux.  This open source platform is very popular on mobile devices in China and Japan.  It is used by quite a few vendors such as Android, LiMo, Maemo, Openmoxo and Qt Extended.

Maemo 5: is an open source Linux based operating system developed by Nokia for smart phones, netbooks and tablet PCs.  At the MWC 2010, however, they announced a joint venture with Intel where the two companies will support a Linux based operating system called MeeGo; which will be a combination of Maemo and Intel’s linux OS Moblin.

Palm webOS and Palm OS/ Garnet OS.  This operating system is not very common in South Africa where Palm devices are rare.  However the Palm handsets have made a big come back in the United States with the launch of the Palm Pre and Pixi – two very popular mobile phones.

This is not a tech blog post but I just couldn’t resist it. 2010 soccer mania has people in such a frenzy in South Africa. Our favourite prankster, Wackhead Simpson had a field day calling Fifa to find out what words he was and was not allowed to use to promote his business.  Their strict regulations are understandable – after all, they charge sponsors millions of Rands to use the words “Soccer World Cup”, etc.

In the news recently was a story about Kulula.com (South Africa’s low cost airline) who had an advertisement that had soccer balls and the Cape Town stadium, etc. in their copy. Yes, they were pushing the limits but it was all done in good taste (in my opinion).  However, FIFA thought otherwise and immediately  threw a huge hissy fit and demanded that Kulula pull their advert. (You can read the whole story here: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20100319042832300C676642)

So in response to this, Kulula launched a new advert and I say – “KUDOS TO YOU!” This is really funny. Enjoy!

(Click on the image to see a larger version).

I’m shaking in my boots as I add these tags #fifa, #soccer, #world cup….. watching out for them FIFA heavies coming to break my knees!

Can you believe how far we’ve come?

Do you remember the days before you had a cell phone?  A friend and I were chatting recently about our first phones and how they were such “bricks” and rather “feature-less” compared to the phones we have today.  We laughed as we remembered those days of stretching your arm out and walking around to find signal so that you could make a call.

I thought this may be a great topic for Cellfhelp, so I did some searching on the internet.  To my absolute joy, I found an EXCELLENT blog post called “The Evolution of Cell Phone Design Between 1983-2009”.

I have replicated most of the information in this post and would like to thank the original author for the effort they went to in their research.  It is really a GREAT article.

Please note that this historical timeline only shows some of the phone models available at the time.  These were chosen due to their groundbreaking technology or design breakthroughs.

1983

Motorola DynaTAC 8000X

The world’s first mobile phone is launched!

Analog Motorola DynaTAC 8000X Advanced Mobile Phone System mobile phone as of 1983.  As you can see, it was not “pocket size”!

1989

Motorola MicroTAC 9800X

The first truly portable phone. Up until its release, most cellular phones were installed as car phones due to the inability to fit them into a jacket pocket.

1992

Motorola International 3200

The first digital hand-size mobile telephone.

Nokia 1011

This was the first mass-produced GSM phone. It was produced until 1994.

1993

BellSouth/IBM Simon Personal Communicator

The IBM Simon was the first PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) – Phone combination.  This device could be considered to be one of the first “smart” phones.

1996

Motorola StarTAC

The first clamshell cellular phone. Also one of the first display screens featured on a cell phone.  (It is strange to think that Nokia only released their clam-shaped handsets in recent years, yet Motorola had them since way back then…..)

Nokia 8810

Alternately called the “banana phone”, this phone was popularized in the first Matrix movie.

Nokia 9000 Communicator

The first smartphone series, driven by an Intel 386 CPU.   This was a groundbreaking device because the processing power was more powerful than most entry level computers!  It was also the first device with a full QWERTY keyboard, which made typing so much easier.

1998

Nokia 5110

This cell phone was the most popular consumer model at the time of its release and for some time afterwards.

1999

Nokia 8210

This phone was loved for its customizable design, but people hated the way its screen faded – especially in the sun.

Nokia 7110

The first mobile phone with a WAP browser.  At this time a lot of fuss was made about  WAP (Wireless Application Protocol – mobile web site viewing capabilities) but there were so few mobile sites that within a short time the fuss died down and WAP seemed to disappear until many months later when it came back with a bang!

Nokia 5210

This phone was known for its durability and splash-proof interchangeable casing.  The adverts had so many people thinking they could drop their phones that some did – and broke them!  It also sported the cool ability to be able to change the cover to another colour by buying extras.

Benefon Esc!

This was the first instance of a GPS(Global Positioning System) being integrated into a mobile phone, and was sold mostly in Europe.  Back then, I remember trying to sell this phone to 4X4 enthusiasts and some people said, “Why would you ever need a GPS in a phone?”   Today, almost every smart phone has integrated GPS!

Samsung SPH-M100 Uproar

The Uproar was the first cell phone to have MP3 music capabilities.

Nokia 3210

The internal antenna and predictive T9 text messaging sold approximately 160 million of these phones.

2000

Ericsson R380

The R380 featured a black and white touchscreen, partially covered by a flip.  Once again, this was truly groundbreaking technology and set the stage for a whole new design concept.

Nokia 3310

This popular phone sold 126 million units, and was particularly popular in Europe.  It offered excellent value for money.  As an entry level phone it was affordable, durable and feature rich.

Ericsson R320

One of the first phones with a WAP browser. A version of this phone was released in China that allowed Chinese character SMS.

2001

Nokia 5510

This phone featured a full QWERTY keyboard. It could also store up to 64mb of music.

Nokia 8310

This phone contained premium features not normally found on handsets of the time, such as Infrared, a fully functional calendar and a FM Radio.  It was also very small and extremely popular as a phone for ladies.

Ericsson T39

This tiny handset was the first Bluetooth-capable phone.

Ericsson T66

This diminutive entry from Ericsson was the height of a cigarette.

Ericsson T68

This was the first handset in the world to have a colour screen.  It was a lovely little device with full calendar and joystick toggle for easy navigation.  It also had a desktop with icons.  (I had a white one and loved it!)

Siemens S45

Siemens’s first ever GPRS mobile phone with 360kb of internal memory – high at the time.

2002

Nokia 3510(i)

The first Nokia phone to bring GPRS internet services to the mass market. The 3510i, pictured here, was a more advanced version with a colour screen. It was cheap, simple to use and quite popular.

Nokia 7650

This was the first Nokia set to feature a built-in camera and was featured in the movie Minority Report.

Sony Ericsson P800

This smartphone featured a touchscreen and up to 128mb of memory.  A great smartphone, the P800 also featured handwriting recognition and a virtual keyboard. This phone was used in one of the James Bond movies – as it was truly considered to be the industry leader in a category of its own!  It was my first true smart phone and I was hooked on Sony Ericsson from then on!

Nokia 6100

This model sold from 2002-2005. It featured an LCD screen and internet connectivity through GPRS.

Nokia 6310i

The 6310i quickly gained popularity in the corporate world for its simplicity and long battery life.  (In South Africa, Nokia tried numerous times to discontinue this phone but due to popular demand, they kept bringing it back.  Many companies would ONLY use these phones for business and had gone to the added expense of installing car kits for staff and buying accessories.  For this reason and because of the reliability of this phone, they did not want to “upgrade” to any other phone.  Even newer, colour screen phones were no temptation for companies to move.  It took many months before Nokia could pull this phone off the market.  Then for months or even years afterward, this was a hot item on the second hand market.

Sanyo SCP-5300

The first camera phone. Despite the low quality images it produced, it was the first camera phone.

2003

Nokia 1100

This extremely popular design has sold over 200 million since its introduction in 2003. This phone is rumoured to have sold for up to $32,000 in online criminal communities due to its ability to intercept one-time banking passwords.

Nokia N-Gage

Nokia’s answer to the Game Boy advance, this phone/games system had a couple of award winning titles before it succumbed to its clunky interface design.  Yet it was a revolutionary device and competed well with other handheld gaming devices.

PalmOne Treo 600

One of the “it” gadgets from 2003-2004 until BlackBerries overtook them in popularity. Three or four days between charges and a successful merger of phone, PDA, and camera made this the business tool of choice.

Nokia 6600

Considered very advanced at the time of its introduction due to its Symbian OS-based Nokia Series 60 platform. Released in the US market as the Nokia 6620. (The biggest complaint customers had with this phone was that it took so long to boot up – due to the number of applications on the phone.  Others complained that the system would “freeze” and they would have to reboot – but in general it was the beginning of a very successful new operating system for mobile phones.)

BlackBerry Quark 6210

Research In Motion’s first integrated phone/PDA.  The BlackBerry pushed email (where email arrives on your phone automatically) made mobile corporate communications a reality.

BlackBerry 7210

BlackBerry’s first colour screen.

Nokia 7600

One of the first 3G smartphones by Nokia, still one of the lightest and smallest.

2004

Motorola Razor V3

When this was introduced it set the standard for sleek design in the industry.  Mobile phones CAN be beautiful and SEXY!

Sony Ericsson P910

An attractive flip smartphone with full internet connectivity.  A great upgrade from the Sony Ericsson P900 but unfortunately did not maintain Sony Ericsson’s leadership status in the smartphone market.

Nokia 7610

Nokia’s first smartphone with a 1 megapixel camera.

Nokia 3220

The first entry-level Nokia phone that offered full internet access.

Nokia 6630

The first cell phone to allow for global roaming.

Nokia 7280

Listed by Fortune Magazine as one of the best products of 2004. Also referred to as the “lipstick” phone. (In the beginning it was really funny watching customers trying to figure out how to switch it on and make a call! It may be pretty but it is not the most user-friendly phone around!)

2005

Nokia 1110

Released as a low-end GSM phone, and widely used in developing countries.

Nokia 6680

One of the first 3G phones, the Nokia 6680 was considered to be high end at the time of its release.  With the second camera in front, this phone was the start of video calling.

HTC Universal

This was the first 3G Pocket PC phone at HTC and the first to come with Windows Mobile.

Motorola RAZR V3 Magenta

This hot pink phone gave the fashion set something to talk about!  Once again, Motorola came to the fore with awesome design!

2006

HTC TyTN 100

This model was sold as the Orange SPV M3100 in the UK, keeping with HTC’s tradition of private labelling for individual carriers.

Nokia N73

This immensely popular smartphone has sold millions of models worldwide, and is still in wide use as of 2009.

Motorola Q

The supposed “BlackBerry Killer” from Motorola.

BlackBerry Pearl

The first design-conscious entry from RIM (Research in motion – they are BlackBerry), the Pearl is still being offered on the market today.

KDDI Penck

A fabulous design available only in Japan.

O2 XDA Flame

The XDA Flame is the first dual processor PDA-phone in the 02 line.

LG Chocolate KG800

One of the first well-designed phones made for mass market use.

Samsung i607 BlackJack

Research in Motion sued Samsung over the name of this phone. The lawsuit was settled out of court.

2007

iPhone

The original iPhone was released in June 2007 with an auto-rotate sensor, a multi-touch sensor that allowed multiple inputs while ignoring minor touches, a touch interface that replaced the traditional QWERTY keyboards, and many other features that helped to give Apple an almost instant healthy market share on its release.

As EVERYONE knows, the Apple iPhone was a killer device and it totally changed the mobile industry! From then on other handset manufacturers were all in a hurry to design and deploy an “iPhone killer” – in Cellfhelp’s opinion – no one has even come close and it is over 2 years later!!

LG Prada KE850

Touchscreen phone that took home a Red Dot Design Award for “Best of the Best” in 2007.

LG Voyager

This design was touted as LG’s take on the iPhone.

HTC Touch

HTC’s answer to the iPhone with its own multi-touch interface and a high screen resolution.

Nokia E90 Communicator

This update of the first smartphone launched the fifth generation of the series.

Nokia N95

Nokia’s popular smartphone features a slider to access multimedia buttons and a numeric keypad.

Helio Ocean

Work on this “ultimate messaging and talking machine” began before Helio was a company.

LG Shine

This phone won another Red Dot for LG in 2007. Also released in Gold and Titanium Black.

Motorola RAZR²

This phone features the Opera internet browser and CrystalTalk technology.

Palm Treo 755p

The Treo 755p is a smartphone developed by Palm, Inc. It was released on May 14, 2007 as the first CDMA Treo without an aerial antenna.

LG Viewty

A phone firmly focused on visuals. DivX Certified playback and 5 megapixel digital camera with Schneider Kreuznach optics are just a couple of the features of this simply designed phone.

2008

iPhone 3G

The iPhone 3G was made even more desirable by all the apps that could be purchased for it in the AppStore when it was released in July of 2008.  Cellfhelp rating: UBER hot and sexy!! We love iPhone!

LG Vu

The LG Vu was one in a series of phones that included the LG Prada phone.

T-Mobile G1 Phone

The G1 phone was the first phone to be released with the Android operating system designed by Google. Also known as the HTC Dream. One million devices have sold as of April 2009.

Nokia N96

This GPS-enabled entry in Nokia’s smartphone line features a sleek, compact design.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

This phone was featured in The Dark Knight. (It was originally touted as an “iPhone killer” but just didn’t match up.  It is, however, a really good media device for the more price conscious.  Cellfhelp had a demo device and we were really impressed with the music and video quality – overall a good phone.)

LG Secret

The outside of the LG Secret, a 3G slider phone, is constructed from carbon fiber. Also features the world’s slimmest 5.0 megapixel camera on a smartphone.

Samsung Instinct

The Instinct was introduced as the “iPhone killer” from Samsung at a low price of $129.00. (Cellfhelp has not had the opportunity to test this phone so we cannot comment).

BlackBerry Storm

Designed to be a direct competitor to the iPhone 3G and other 3G smartphones; RIM’s first device to do away with the QWERTY keyboard and incorporate a touchscreen.

BlackBerry Bold

Blackberry’s “middle ground” solution for those who wanted a 3G phone and a QWERTY keyboard.

Samsung Gravity

The Samsung Gravity is their first to feature a slide-out keyboard that has proved popular in other brands.

Motorola Krave

The Krave design features a transparent flip that acts as a secondary touch surface to access additional features.

Samsung Omnia

The Samsung Omnia features a simple touchscreen interface and a speaker on the back.  It also introduced Samsung’s first Windows Mobile phone.

LG Dare

The handwriting recognition and simple touchscreen styling of the Dare is enhanced by the easy-grip back.

Sony Ericsson W760i

Includes the “Sensme” music feature, as well as all of the other features from the Walkman phone brand.

Nokia N79

The Nokia N79 has a Naviwheel, GPS, a 5 megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss Optics Tessar lens and more.

HTC Touch Diamond

This attractive smartphone featured a resistive touch screen.  When you touch it, you can actually feel it move under your fingers!  The only downside to this phone is the shiny black surface which reflects fingerprints really quickly.

LG KC910 Renoir

The LG Renoir has an 8-megapixel camera with xenon flash and Schneider-Kreuznach optics.

Nokia E71

The steel frame of this sleek smartphone from Nokia fits into your palm.

2009

Prada II or LG KF900

The second iteration of the Prada phone designed by LG. The sliding QWERTY keyboard is new, as is its 3G capability.  (Not only a fashion accessory – this phone is a real communicator too!)

LG Arena

The first phone with LG’s 3D S-Class user interface. This UI reorients with the rotation of the phone and allows you to scroll film-reel style through available apps.

BlackBerry Curve 8900

Released in February 2009, the Curve features an improved trackball and a higher resolution screen. Still a 2G.

(Cellfhelp editor is currently using this phone – it is truly incredible! A GREAT device.  The small keyboard does suite a woman more than a man.  For a male user, we would recommend the new Bold.)

LG Versa

Comes with an attachable QWERTY keyboard and a virtual keyboard on the touch screen.

Sidekick LX 2009

This 3G incarnation of the Sidekick includes improved support for social networking applications.

Samsung Magnet

The Samsung Magnet is a cheap alternative for pricier smartphones with much of the same functionality and a cool design.

LG Xenon

Another slide-out QWERTY keyboard and compact design. Comes with AT&T’s Navigator, AT&T’s turn-by-turn GPS service.

HTC Magic

The next HTC entry to sport Google’s Android operating system. No US carriers have yet been confirmed for this model, but T-Mobile has been rumoured to be the carrier of record. Vodafone has exclusive rights to the phone in all markets that they service.

HTC Touch Diamond2

HTC made the LCD display screen as large as they could at 3.2″ for their next incarnation of the Diamond.

Samsung Propel Pro

The sliding QWERTY keyboard and slick design make this an attractive entry by Samsung.

LG Rumor2

Built for e-mail, the Rumor2 supports Lotus Notes where its predecessor didn’t.

Motorola Renew

This eco-friendly phone is the world’s first carbon-neutral cell phone. Made with recycled water bottles, cheap, and an abundance of features for the low price.

In all the reports on mobile usage last year it was clear that facebook is the number ONE mobile site and most popular mobile phone application for fun and social activity on your phone.  Facebook has been very forward thinking in allowing developers to access their service and with Facebook Connect, you can sign into other web sites or services using your facebook details. Thanks to that, the growth of applications has been astronomical!

Most new phones are coming with the facebook application already installed and you will notice that the features you can access are awesome!  Status updates, instant message chats, wall posts and photos are available for most mobile phones.  The “smarter” your phone,  the more facebook services you can access.  If you don’t already facebook for your phone, you can get it here: http://www.facebook.com/mobile/

If you still have an old phone that doesn’t give you a great website service or allow you to download applications, then don’t worry.  Facebook launched “Facebook Zero” this year, which is a text-based version of their site and allows you limited facebook features on any phone.  It gives you the popular functionality of staying in touch with your friends via chat and status updates.  Facebook Zero is being launched through the mobile network operators and is basically the ability for the for them to provide you with a scaled down version of facebook web experience on your phone.

Facebook zero is going to be a very big headache to other instant messaging services such as MXiT, Mobile MSN, Skype and Nimbuzz because the text only version will compete directly with these services; and due to the popularity of the brand, may start to see users moving to facebook instead.

This is still a BRAND new service and is not supported by all the mobile networks yet so – watch this space! (zero.facebook.com)

In the meantime you can visit m.facebook.com on your mobile phone.