Top 4 Handsets from Mobile World Congress 2010

HTC Desire – ‘In Your Face, Google!’

Google must be livid- barely had the white-hot buzz on their HTC-manufactured Nexus One started to cool, when leaks came through of the HTC Bravo, which looked undeniably similar.

Officially announced at MWC as the HTC Desire, the handset is essentially a Nexus One, but better. Underneath the stunningly vivid AMOLED screen, there’s a superfast Snapdragon processor, the latest version of Android OS, enhanced 3G capabilities and WiFi and a sharp 5MP camera.

The main improvement however, is the sleek optical track pad which, combined with HTC’s super-easy to use Sense UI, makes for one of the most delightful navigations since Blackberry replaced their trackballs.

With the Nexus One only available to order over the internet, the HTC Desire is poised to clean up this year.

Available on preorder from a variety of retailers now, expect to see the HTC Desire arrive in April.

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Form Factor Acrobatics from Motorola’s Backflip

Sporting a unique design, with a track pad nestled on the reverse of the QWERTY keypad, the Motorola Backflip has certainly drawn a lot of curiosity, but going into MWC, we still wondered if it would be any good.

After a hands-on in Barcelona last week we reckon the Backflip is a winner!

First of all, the Backflip’s form is as comfortable as it is quirky. Meanwhile, the QWERTY is of the best we’ve used – with large spaced out keys, perfect for fat fingers like ours.

Sure, it might not tote the latest version of Android (it runs v.1.5) but as Motorola’s third Google-based phone, this is Motorola’s chance to get the formula right.

Gone are the lag-inducing visual fireworks as experience on the Milestone and as a result it feels similar to the original DEXT – with simple widgets sitting atop an uncluttered UI.

The overall result is that Motorola have produced a refreshing handset in an increasingly clone-like market.

Could the Backflip be the phone to bring Motorola back from the brink? Quite possibly.

Available on these shores from April.

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X10 Mini Pro –World’s Smallest Android Makes Us Drool

After hearing bits and bobs about the X10, the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini came as a bit of a surprise to us.

Not only does it hold the prize for smallest Android handset, but we can also confirm that it is – THE BOMB. But a very small bomb… an incendiary device perhaps?

Sony Ericsson offer a highly customisable version of Android, in contrast to Motorola’s stripped down presentation of google’s OS. At it’s centre is a Social-Media Time-Scape which allows you to manage all your communications with contacts from a single place.

Moreover, the X10 Mini offers customisable shortcuts in the four corners of the device’s cute 2.5” QVGA screen, making navigation even more simple and going some way in sidestepping the frustrations of having to operate a tiny handset with multiple button-pushes.

And if you feel you need a QWERTY, then Sony Ericssson have thrown that in with the Mini Pro too.

You won’t have to wait long to get your mits on this little beast either… expect to see Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro and X10 Mini deals on Omio at the beginning of April.

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HTC Smart

Despite more entry-level phones now claiming to grant you access to all your favourite social networks, few of these actually deliver a satisfactory experience. HTC Smart on the other hand, offers the first smartphone experience at a low price, with uncompromised functionality:

The HTC Smart represents the future of entry-level handsets.

Conceived and executed around the concept of HTC’s “people-centricity”, the HTC Smart features the ‘Sense’ UI, which at it’s core features an integrated friend stream that pulls together all your phone conversations, email, SMS and IM’s into one place.

Clean compact design on the outside is then mirrored on the inside with a clean and efficient BREW MP Operating System, courtesy of Qualcomm.

At half the price of other smart phones, the HTC Smart punches way above it’s weight.

HTC are confident that this is the phone that will entice the youth market away from PAYG and into the wider world of social messaging on the move. Having tried this handset out at MWC, we’re inclined to agree.

Expect to see HTC Smart deals available on O2 from April.

Sony Ericsson Satio Review: The Beauty Is In The Detail

We’ve finally put a bow on our Sony Ericsson Satio review (12MP photos to follow!), and we give them top marks for their valiant attempt to marry a high-end camera phone to a full-on multimedia device.

We loved the Satio’s 12 megapixel snapper with xenon flash, and the form factor is pretty appealing, but we feel that time is really taking its toll on the Symbian operating system…regardless of how much propping up Sony Ericsson attempt with snazzy skins and customisation.

Read our full review to find out if the Satio is more than a piano black finish and a bunch of megapixels…

In related news:

The Sony Ericsson Satio is also getting a brush with culture on the 3rd and 4th of December, with renowned photographer Jillian Edelstein (pictured left) commissioned to create a unique online gallery.

In an attempt to ‘capture the undeniable beauty and individuality of 121 eyes in only 12.1 hours’, Jillian will make the most of the Satio’s stunning 12.1 megapixel camera in an event named ‘Eyes Wide Open’.

61 people will be chosen by Jillian to act as optical muses for the event, due to take place at the Vodafone Store in Westfield Shopping Centre and simultaneously streamed live on www.eyeswideopen.uk.net.

Simply upload your details and a photo of your peepers to the site, and if you are one of the lucky ones then you could be plucked from obscurity to become a part of digital history!

The entry deadline is the 29th of November 2009, so get your pics into the Eyes Wide Open site as soon as possible!

A tale of two LGs: the GD510 ‘Pop’ and GW520 reviewed.

We recently reviewed two LG handsets – the GD510 Pop (currently the world’s smallest touchscreen handset) and the GW520 complete with full QWERTY keypad.

Although both handsets are aimed at the entry level market and can be picked up for less than £100 on Pay As You Go, we arrived at two very different verdicts:

On the one hand the ‘Pop’ charmed us with it’s beautifully compact design, enjoyable interface and range of simple yet playful features, while dealing with the GW520 proved to be a largely loveless affair.

See the full reviews here>>

GD510 ‘Pop’ – Fun, Gorgeous and Green

GW520 – Cheap, but not cheerful

HTC Tattoo Review: Handset Now Available, Design Your Own Custom Covers!

HTC’s price-conscious Tattoo is now available on Vodafone, allowing social networking fans to get into the smart phone game with a stylish handset.

With the Sense user interface offering a fun and intuitive way to surf, text and call, the HTC Tattoo’s 2.8″ touchscreen, 3 megapixel and Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity are plenty to keep users tweeting and superpoking 24 hours a day.

The Tattoo gets its name from the extreme customisation the phone can be subjected to, with the TattooMyHTC.com website selling replaceable covers whilst the artistically gifted can create their own in the Tattoo Studio.

See what we thought of the sleek device in our HTC Tattoo review, then check out our HTC Tattoo deals to see if the cute little handset makes a permanent mark on you!

Altec Lansing inMotion Classic Review: Turn Your iPhone Into An iBoombox

With the hundreds of identical iPod docks on shelves confusing shoppers and angering hi-fi makers in equal measure, it takes a brand like Altec Lansing to introduce a bit of refinement to a cluttered market.

The sleek and stylish inMotion Classic is an all-in-one portable solution for both the iPod and iPhone (thanks to included adaptors), bringing an FM radio, 5 hour rechargeable battery and booming speakers in a compact (328mm x 50mm x 152mm) device.

The cool factor comes in with a robust, multi-purpose handle which acts as a stand when the inMotion is placed on a table, flicking up to become a handle for carrying it down to the local beach party and easily tucked away underneath for transport.

An LCD screen displays the artist, song and battery life, whilst the full-feature remote (which is cleverly hidden in a compartment at the back) lets you DJ from a safe distance.

When plugged into the mains, the inMotion Classic even charges up your iPhone as it plays, whilst the striking design also allows for playback without that buzzing interference which plagues iPod docks.

After a couple of weeks of daily use, we’ve found the handle to be a revelation as the inMotion Classic is picked up and shunted around all corners of the office on a regular basis, whilst having somewhere to stow away the cute and versatile remote means that we haven’t even lost it yet!

The iPhone does not quite dock in the machine securely enough to pick the inMotion up without fear, but the controls on the top of the Classic are large and responsive enough to pause and skip tunes at the slightest touch.

The radio was fine with FM but lacks support for AM, with the old-school antenna making a big improvement to audio quality on the more pirate-y stations in London.

Spotify is spreading like a virus on the iPhones of Team Omio, so streaming songs over wi-fi is the usual way of getting our musical fix.

A strange fault that we found was that the inMotion sometimes didn’t realise that music was playing (as it is through an app as opposed to the iPod functionality) and would go to sleep.

However, this was only an intermittent issue, and the majority of times we found the inMotion Classic would keep playing for hours without incident, equally through a second audio source with the auxiliary output.

Audio quality is nothing less than amazing, and you realise the difference between the iPhone’s own tinny speakers and full bass from a dedicated system.

The compact size, portability and ease of use the Classic brings has left the office Bang & Olufsen languishing in the corner, as the inMotion easily delivers rich, balanced sound around the entire room.

Once again, the premium that Altec Lansing are becoming renowned for is bourne out in the quality of the product.

The retro-futuristic looks, array of features and audio quality set the inMotion Classic ahead of the pack, and will easily become a permanent party fixture when taking music on the move.

The Altec Lansing inMotion Classic will be available from October, at a cost of £129.99 at Amazon.co.uk and the Apple Store.

Motorola DEXT Reviewed, “A Promising Start”

The Motorola DEXT, an Android-packing handset that marks a return for the troubled American manufacturer, has been favourably received in a review on CNET UK.

Flora Graham is positive about the socially geared smartphone in their Motorola DEXT review, marking out the merged contact lists and access to the Android Market as being impressive, as well as a strong feature set with a 5 MP camera, 2GB memory card and 3G connectivity.

The DEXT is far from perfect however, with the slide-out QWERTY keyboard proving cramped, an underwhelming build quality and a design that generally lacks finesse.

All in all the Motorola DEXT seems to be a rare case of substance over style, with widgets that enhance the Android experience and a slick touch screen experience balancing out the icky keyboard and disappointing call functionality.

A rating of 8.0 seems to suggest that the DEXT is a more than capable device for day-to-day use and is a good choice that they would “be happy to be caught typing on”.

Motorola DEXT deals for the Orange-exclusive device are now on the site, with the handset available for free on an 18 month, 600 minutes and 3000 texts deal for £25.

Omio Round Up: Best RSS Readers For The iPhone

There are only so many moron quizzes, air-traffic control games and dubious flashlight apps to try out before it becomes apparent that the iPhone was destined for something more interesting and less banal.

If you want to keep up with the latest news and posts from every blog, magazine and newspaper on the planet, you’ll need an RSS reader. On the desktop, web-apps such as Google Reader, Netvibes and Bloglines lead the way.  But on the iPhone it’s a different story. And so, Omio set out on a quest to find the iPhone’s best RSS app.

It was harder than we expected. Much harder.

What we were looking for:

Easy feed import. We’re heavy users of RSS in the Omio office. My Netvibes page is home to 214 feeds which contain over 4000 articles between them. Any decent RSS app would have to provide a straightforward way of importing all those feeds. It’d also allow me to remove less important feeds, which I don’t want to read on the iPhone.

Article caching. What’s the point of having an on-the-go RSS reader if I can’t read the feeds when making the sweaty daily commute on the London Underground? Plus, it’d be great to have access to the accompanying pictures, not just the text.

Flexible feed organisation. The way that someone chooses to organise their feeds in Netvibes or Google Reader isn’t necessarily the same way they’d organise them on an iPhone. You might want a different folder structure, or even no folder structure at all. The app should allow feeds to be moved between folders, along with the creation and deletion of those folders.

Everyday Use. The app should download and update feeds quickly and be responsive to button presses. It should be easy to navigate between folders, feeds and articles. Articles should be clearly listed, previewed and displayed.

Byline

Phantom Fish – £2.99, download from iTunes App Store.

Byline is currently the most downloaded RSS reader in the App Store. Its popularity is probably attributable to its tight integration with Google Reader. Like most of the apps listed here, it will import feeds from Google Reader in a snap. But unlike the others, it remains totally synchronised with Google Reader as you use it. Items read in Byline appear read in Google Reader. Items starred in Byline appear starred in Google Reader. And so on. If you’re utterly wedded to Google Reader this is going to be manna from heaven. If you’re not, then it’s just plain annoying.

It’s annoying because a consequence of the Google Reader synchronisation is that nothing can be edited, added or removed inside Byline. It’s impossible to add new feeds, move feeds between folders or create new folders. Everything will appear exactly as you’ve configured it in Google Reader.

Even worse, it’s not possible to just open up a single feed. Instead, the content of each folder is presented as a ‘river of news’. If you just want to check out the latest news from a specific feed then you’re out of luck. It’s difficult to overstate just how infuriating this is. To mitigate this issue, Byline places a button in the top-right corner (which looks confusingly like a refresh button). This reorders the presentation of stories inside the folder by feed. But if the feed you want is at the bottom of the page then too bad: you’ll just have to scroll all the way down to the bottom. It doesn’t even support favicons to speed-up feed identification inside the folder.

It’s not all doom-and-gloom though. Byline competently caches all the articles for offline reading. It’ll also cache the images from starred items. Rather brilliantly (and in contrast to most of the other apps in this review), it resizes images so that they fit on the screen, avoiding the use of horizontal scrolling. It will open links inside the app without having to load Safari, refreshes feeds quickly and is responsive in use.

Ultimately, your opinion of Byline will be determined by your relationship with Google Reader. If you want to replicate the desktop experience as closely as possible on your iPhone then Byline is the app for you. But if you want any flexibility with the organisation and display of your feeds, then you should go elsewhere.

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Feed Import: 5

Very fast, but restricted to Google Reader.

Article caching: 8

A competent implementation. Image caching raises it above the competition.

Flexible feed organisation: 0

No options at all. Everything is managed via Google Reader.

Everyday Use: 4

Feeds refresh quickly. The app remains responsive during refreshes. But… the enforced river-of-news presentation makes it cumbersome to actually use.

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Newsstand

OMZ Software – £2.99, download from iTunes App Store.

Newsstand is a competent RSS reader whose USP is its distinctive landscape viewing mode.

When the screen is rotated, the feeds are presented as a series of magazines on a shelf, which the user can flick through horizontally. It’s a interesting riff on Apple’s coverflow concept, but Newsstand takes it a stage further by presenting the feed contents in landscape split-screen. The left-side contains the index, while the right-side shows the currently selected article.

It’s a unique way of displaying feeds, but it’s more interesting than effective. The problem is that there just isn’t enough space to read the article in the split-screen view. Only a fraction of the article can be displayed. And forget about trying to view pictures in such a small space. It comes across as a gimmick rather than a feature that would stand up to heavy use. Happily, it can be disabled.

Feed import options are excellent, with built-in support from Google Reader, Bloglines and OPML. Keep in mind that if you choose OPML, you’ll need to upload your OPML data to a URL as the iPhone doesn’t support access to local files.

Regarding feed organisation, Newsstand does pretty much everything. It’s easy to create new folders and move feeds between them. Nested folders are supported too. A minor irritation is that moving several feeds from one folder into another is pretty laborious, but this is unlikely to be a common operation.

In everyday use, Newsstand does an admirable job. Navigating between folders, feeds and articles is reasonably fast and straightforward. The presence of favicons makes it easy to identify the desired feed in a long list. Articles can be viewed on their original website without opening Safari.  One annoyance is that images are not resized, which can necessitate lots of horizontal scrolling. It’s surprising that so many apps have failed to implement an auto-resize feature.

Unread or flagged articles can optionally be displayed ‘river of news style’, although this tends to slow down the navigation if there are lots of unread articles.

Additional features include sharing with Twitter and Delicious, and display ‘themes’ which make (optionally) make Newsstand looks like a typewriter. It isn’t clear why someone would want to do this, but the option is there if you want it.

A great inclusion is concurrent feed downloads. This enables Newsstand to refresh up to 3 feeds simultaneously, which will save a lot of time if you’ve got a lot of subscriptions. However, it loses marks for the degree to which it slows down during feed refreshes, especially when it’s in landscape mode. It’s also slow to load: typically taking around 3 seconds to appear – even on the iPhone 3GS.

It also restricts each feed to a maximum of 50 items. This could be a frustrating restriction if you read blogs which publish a lot of articles.

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Feed Import: 8

Fast and more comprehensive than most of its rivals

Article caching: 6

Caches text but not images.

Flexible feed organisation: 8

Lots of options and very straightforward to use.

Everyday use: 7

Pretty competent if you forget about the gimmicky landscape mode. The Twitter sharing option will appeal to Twitter-holics.

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Reader – ATOM/RSS Feed Reader

Enormego – £1.79, download from iTunes App Store.

Frustrating. Very frustrating. This app has the potential for greatness: a well thought out UI; lots of flexibility in organising and viewing feeds and items; and excellent import options. But in practice, it’s slow, crash-prone and things just don’t work as they should. If the author could fix these problems (particularly the speed issues), Reader would immediately become our preferred RSS app. Instead it’ll sit on my iPhone unused and unloved.

The import options are particularly inviting with their support for Netvibes and My Yahoo! in addition to the eponymous Google Reader. In practice though, the Netvibes import crashed every time I tried to use it. Google Reader worked, but took a little longer than the other apps and the app appeared frozen for a while.

Once the feeds are imported, the options for viewing, organising and sorting far outstrip any other app in this review. Even better, the UI is straightforward and intuitive. Feeds can be grouped into folders/categories, or sorted by date and name. It provides a great method for selecting favourite feeds (in addition to favourite items). Images are nicely resized. And there’s even a ‘river-of-news’ view for people who like that kind of thing. In short, it provides pretty much every type of RSS view imaginable. And it does so without making the UI feel cluttered.

There are even a few features we haven’t seen on other apps. Each feed has its own configuration options, which, for example, enables a partial-feed to automatically open items on its full site. Although other apps allow specific items to be opened on the full site, they they don’t allow per-feed configuration so that it happens automatically. Lists of items can be striped to improve readability, and oversized favicons make it easier to spot the desired feed in a long list.

Twitter and Instapaper integration are included too…

But… the app falls apart whenever you try to do, well, pretty much anything. Nearly every button press results in a long wait during which it’s not clear whether the app has crashed or is just ‘thinking’. Sometimes, the app gets frozen on the current screen. Sometimes a lined white screen appears, with no items on it at all.

It feels like the developer has put all his efforts into features, and paid no attention to performance or stability. Towards the end of writing this review, Reader got itself into a state where it would no longer open without crashing.

It’s a shame that Reader doesn’t live up to its potential. Nevertheless, it’s worth keeping an eye on this app. If the performance and stability issues can be resolved in a future release, it will be hands-down the best RSS reader on the iPhone.

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Feed Import: 3

Netvibes import doesn’t work. Google Reader import is slow.

Article caching: 6

Caches text but not images.

Flexible feed organisation: 10

As good as it gets. Every possible way of organising and displaying feeds.

Everyday use: 0

It just doesn’t work.

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Pro RSS

Simon Oualid – £1.19, download from iTunes App Store.

I can probably save you the bother of reading the rest of the review. If you don’t care about full synchronisation with Google Reader, then Pro RSS is the one to buy. It’s fast, it’s stable, there are decent folder options and it caches nicely – even images.

To be sure, it’s not the most exciting app. It doesn’t have the gimmickry of Newsstand, nor the options of Reader, and there’s no integration with Twitter or any social bookmarking services. Sometimes it’s almost too spartan: favicons are a serious omission.

But this can be forgiven for the way it just gets on with things. It starts up quickly. Feed import is the best we’ve seen, with support for Google Reader, Bloglines, Newsgator and OPML. Pro RSS cleverly sidesteps the iPhone’s difficulties with OPML files by providing a local IP address through which the user’s OPML file can be uploaded using a computer. This is a trick which the other RSS readers would do well to replicate.

Pro RSS handily allows up to 5 feeds to be refreshed simultaneously, resulting in a serious time-saving if you’ve got lots of feeds. The app slows down a little though if many feeds are being refreshed in the background.

Folders and feeds can be edited and re-ordered manually, but there are no sorting options. Items are cached by default, and images can be cached too via the ‘Load Image’ button. This is nice to see, and a great improvement over other apps which only allow image caching on a per-item basis (or not at all). Annoyingly though, images are not resized to fit the screen. Even more annoyingly, there is no landscape mode. So if the text is to small or the image won’t fit, you’re left to do a lot of scrolling.

Finally, if you shake the phone, Pro RSS automatically switches to a full-screen view by hiding all the toolbars. A quick shake brings them back again. All-in-all, Pro RSS is a great app and Omio’s recommended RSS reader. There’s a even a free cut-down version available (called Free RSS) if you want to try-before-you-buy.

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Feed Import: 9

Lack of Netvibes import is the only thing which holds Pro RSS back from a perfect 10.

Article caching: 9

Caches text and images with aplomb.

Flexible feed organisation: 7

Pretty flexible. Not always as straightforward as it should be, but it does work.

Everyday use: 8

This is Omio’s recommended RSS reader for the iPhone.

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Manifesto

Mayor Justin – £1.19, download from iTunes App Store.

Another simple, stripped-back RSS reader. Manifesto lacks folder support, so if you read a lot of feeds you’ll probably need to look elsewhere. Nevertheless, for the casual user, Manifesto is a good option.

Feed import is restricted to Google Reader, but runs quickly. Favicons show up in the main list of feeds, but the absence of folders makes can make it tedious to reach the feed you want.

Annoyingly, the feed view only contains the titles of each article. Unlike most other apps in this review, there is no preview of a couple of lines of the article.

A persistent bug in Manifesto prevented the ‘cancel’ button from working in any of the pop-up menus. This was obviously very annoying and would put us off from using the app. Hopefully it’ll be fixed in the next release.

Manifesto claims ‘Quick flag’ and ‘Flip web’ as its standout features. In reality, ‘Quick flag’ is just another way of describing ‘starred’ or ‘favourite’ articles. And ‘Flip web’ just allows items to be opened in their original web page without opening the browser. Admittedly, ‘Flip web’ is accompanied by a nice animation, but neither of these features are anything special.

Overall, Manifesto just doesn’t offer enough. It’s all very well trying to produce an app which cuts out the extraneous features and fripperies. But this app takes it one step too far. The absence of folders and article previews means that we can’t wholeheartedly recommend Manifesto.

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Feed Import: 5

Google Reader only.

Article caching: 7

Caches text. Images are cached in flagged articles.

Flexible feed organisation: 3

No folder support. No options to sort feeds.

Everyday use: 4

Missing too many features.

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Web Feeds

Tuomas Artman – £1.79, download from iTunes App Store

This is another simple RSS reader. Feed import is sadly limited to Google Reader but works very fast. In fact, speed is a major plus of this app. It’s super smooth. Even when refreshing multiple feeds, it never seems to slow down. It’s a trick which many of its competitors seem unable to manage.

The look-and-feel of the UI is is very reminiscent of the iPhone’s built-in Mail app. If Apple decided to write their own RSS app, it would probably look very much like this.

The UI is simple, but it’s also restrictive. The lack of folder support make this app unsuitable for people who read a lot of feeds. Favicons help a little, but clearly this app is most suited to light users.

There’s no getting away from the fact that this app is feature-poor. There are no options for sorting or organising feeds and articles. It does include a somewhat odd function which enables the user to collect a bunch of articles and then send them in a single email. This feature seems a little unnecessary, but we haven’t seen it anywhere else.

Web Feeds is just ‘ok’. If you’re looking for a really simple reader, with a very Apple-y design to deal with just a handful of feeds, then this is the app for you. If you’re even slightly more demanding, then look elsewhere.

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Feed Import: 5

Google Reader only.

Article caching: 5

Text only.

Flexible feed organisation: 3

No folder support. No options to sort feeds.

Everyday use: 6

Picks up extra marks for the clean design and speed, but not good enough for heavy users.

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RSS Runner

Francois Goldgewicht – free, download from iTunes App Store.

RSS Runner is the only free app in this review. Unsurprisingly, its functionality is fairly basic, but no more so than some of the commercial offerings we looked at here. It even includes some uncommon (but desirable) features such as sorting feeds by title.

The design of the UI isn’t especially pleasing. There’s an awkward contrast of blue and black buttons. And inexplicably, little clouds are used to illustrate the number of articles inside each feed.

Import of feeds from Google reader is quick. But there’s no support for other sites such as Netvibes.

There’s also no support for folders, so RSS Runner is plainly unsuitable for users who have lots of feeds. And the listing of articles inside the feed is poor, with heavily truncated titles and no preview text. Worse, the app crashed a few times while we were reviewing it.

It’s not a galloping surprise that the developers aren’t charging for RSS Runner: it’s difficult to imagine who would pay for it. If you absolutely won’t hand over any cash for your RSS reader, try Free RSS instead (the cut-down version of Pro RSS)

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Feed Import: 5

Google Reader only.

Article caching: 5

Text only.

Flexible feed organisation: 3

No folder support. No options to sort feeds.

Everyday use: 1

Poor presentation and too few features. Try something else.

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There’s no doubt that RSS fiends are well catered for in the App Store. There are plenty of feed readers, and it’s clear that the price doesn’t always correlate to the quality of the app.

Here are Omio’s winners:

Best RSS app overall: Pro RSS

Best RSS app for Google Reader fans: Byline

One-to-Watch: Reader – ATOM/RSS Feed Reader

Nokia 6700 Classic Review: Sequel To The Handset That Launched A Thousand Contracts

To say that Nokia are being challenged from pillar to post is a fair one, and with the Korean contingent of Samsung and LG hot on their heels, you might think that the Finnish manufacturer had their backs to the wall at present.

However, as their buoyant (although not as glowing as years past) Q2 profit reports have shown, Nokia know exactly how to make handsets strong enough to do McDonald’s numbers when released to market.

So a sequel to their most successful handset in the last decade was a tough one. The Nokia 6300 Classic was an institution of simplistic design married to features appealing to the average user, a follow up had some big shoes to fill.

According to a Nokia 6700 Classic review from Mobile Choice, they were largely successful.

The sturdy, yet fingerprint friendly chrome finish, the dependable candybar form factor and familiar S40 software are all very much a welcome port for technophobes in a tumultuous touch screen storm.

Underneath that unassuming metal exterior, however, is some very 21st Century tech. The 5 megapixel camera brings the 6700 into competition with pricier handsets, and despite features like 3G and A-GPS being a little more temperamental than slick smart phones, were a welcome additions to a distinctly mid-level device.

Mobile Choice seemed to like the handset, predicting ‘a bright future’ for the device, although suggesting ‘it might not enjoy the same success as its predecessor’, giving it 3 out of 5 stars.

As for Nokia 6700 Classic deals, Omio has a range spanning across pay monthly, prepay and SIM-free.

Available for under £20 on a 24 month pay monthly deal and £229 on prepay, the Nokia 6700 Classic seems set to follow in the successful footsteps of the original multi-million seller.

Life is Good but it’s better when it’s green

The first presentation  at the CES 2009 press day got off to a pretty socially conscious start with innovation experts LG.

As well as being a cutting edge consumer electronics company, noted for their innovation and technology-forward products, the charismatic company Life is Good are going green on us. They projected a big graph onto the wall showing how bad and irresponsible we’ve all been and so by 2020 they aim to reduce their CO2 emissions by 30 Mega Tons.

Company CTO stressed from the start their motivations were driven by consumer insights. One mobile phone is sold every second, in the States and that makes for a lot of old phones just lying about gathering dust. It makes sense that it’s the environment, more than anything else, that’s directing some of the company’s major product choices.

LG’s aims to be socially responsible in all their technology. As well as the usual gadgets and awe-inspiring technology their top selling LCDs and Plasma TVs are designed to have a low carbon rate too.

In 2009 mobile handsets are also having their green factor pumped up. In the words of  LG’s Senior VP for Marketing for North America, Peter Reiner their low impact handsets, or “eco-mobilisation programme”, aims to motivate, educate and activate.

As well as low carbon mobiles, we can expect solar powered chargers to become more mainstream. We’ve got a couple of them on us now, handily dished out by the LG PR department, so if you want to do something nice for environment and charge your phone by the power of the sun, drop us a line.

Even more exciting is the LG Sky Charger. It’s a monster of a phone charger that’s capable of charging 104 mobiles per hour and can produce 1.8KW of power every hour too.

Wind powered charges are also predicted as being big in 2009.  In the past wind chargers have never really progressed beyond the gimmicky, designed by festival sponsors and attached to tents, so it’ll be great to have  mainstream versions we’ll be able to use every day. I guess life is really better when it’s green.

Samsung S8300 Emerge

Samsung’s new touch screen camera phone isn’t out until March next year but we thought it was worthy of a promo before it hit the shops.

Those dedicated Soul fans will love this little baby.

The evolved handset features the same slider but with slimmer dimensions this time. The s8300’s a slinky 12.8 mm thick with a  relatively huge 2.8 inch touch screen.  There’s an 8 mega pixel camera along with auto focus, GPS receiver, HSDPA and DivX video support.