Viedo Call Problems Between 3G Networks

* ANSWER FOUND: We found out that for Optus and Vodaphone 3G / N95 users - you need to call the network provider and actually enable video calling. Prior to doing this, video calls simply will not be allowed.

A problem we came across this week at Mobile and Cell Phones is inter network video calling on Australian 3G networks.

Using a new Nokia N95 and an older Nokia 6680 - we attempted to video call from the Hutch 3G network to the Optus 3G network and the video call could not be established.

We then tried to call from the Nokia 6680 back to the Nokia N95 - this time from the Vodafone 3G network to the Hutch 3G and the Optus 3G - all video calls failing.

We found this very interesting and severely limiting for the new highly featured phones and the highly powerful 3G networks. Has anyone else found this problem? Or know of what the reasons are?

NOKIA N95 firmware update download

The team over at Nokia must have been listening to owners of the new Nokia N95 handset. It seems some problems with the maps have been corrected, in the latest firmware released by the giant mobile cell phone co.

Sources suggestNokia took a look at the PalmBlog website and at the list of angry Nokia N95 users and decided they didn't a bad reaction to the N95 handset, so they haved opted to take care of their customers before it got a chance to get out of hand and hit the media. Of course this just an assumption , but it it makes sense.

*Crunch Gear* Owners of the Nokia N95 mobile will soon be treated to the new firmware by the cell phone giant. The new N95 firmware update will include an improved and new version of Nokia Maps as well as the Assisted-GPS feature, this feature uses a data connection to estimate the phone’s actual location and make a GPS location lock-on much quicker. The release date of the new firmware has not yet been confirmed by Nokia.

The N95 firmware upgrade will be carried by us here at mobilecells.blogspot.com - so as soon as its available for download we will provide it -

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Mobile Cell Free Phone Ring Tones Trap!

After market free ring tones for your mobile or cell phone can be extremely costly and hard to get out of.

Many companies are preying on younger mobile and cell phone users, offering deals such as claimed 'free ringtones' 'cheap ringtones' and 'new ring tones'.

Rarely if ever are any of these deals free. They usually require the mobile phone user to enter credit card details or if your on a post pay service, they will try and debit the invoice to the person that owns that mobile phone.

Once you've been trapped by these claimed free ring tone scams, they can be very hard to get out of. You may have to make many phonecalls, sign paperwork and basically jump through hoops to get out of contracts.

These billing cycles start sometimes weekly and continue to recur every single week until you cancel. Some may offer new ring tones every week, but some just give you one maybe 2 ringtones then just start billing weekly! Very scary.

Many parents have had to bail their kids of trouble with mobile and cell phone bills alone, and then things like these custom 'free' ring tones can be the straw that breaks the back!

Whats your horror story with mobile / cell phone bills or free ring tones? (Please comment on the post below)

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Samsung SGH-A701 Review

One of the very first mobile cell handsets to support the all new Telstra - Next-G HSDPA multi network, the Samsung model A701 is very impressive cell phone device. New Highlights of the Samsung A701 are the new 2mp digital camera, block of 24MB internal memory and new microSD card slot support, an extra large 2.3" LCD display, and full Bluetooth support along with A2DP profile support.

This Samsung mobile / cell phone is compatible with the ranged 850MHz HSDPA network, the Samsung A701 also offers great call quality (due to the larger amount of bandwidth available), The Samsung A701 is capable of data speeds up to 1.8Mbps. The Samsung handset is also capable of making and receiving full video calls with dedicated forward-facing built in VGA camera.

That very large 2.3" LCD display has a full 240 x 320 pixel resolution quality, and can also display 262,144 colours. The Samsung clam shell form factor means there's an additional 65k colour display on the front of the handset, at 96 x 96 pixels.

One drawback being of the A701 is the lack of microSD memory card in the original sales package. Many Samsung users will find that 24MB simply just isn't enough, considering the many users downloading music files, videos, and other large files via the HSDPA network.

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Nokia 6680 battery life low

I've found with my 3G Nokia 6680 that the battery life isn't great. The Nokia 6680 uses the Nokia BL-5C battery, but with general use - I really only get 1 day of talk time out of this model.

It seems, while this is an issue with the older Nokia 6680 - the Nokia N95 also suffers the same problem.

When compared with the Nokia 6233 - which has great talk time, these two PDA blend Nokias really struggle.

Has anyone else had the same experience with the Nokia 6680? Feel free to comment on the article. The Nokia 6680 also suffers from a little tad of slowness due to the Symbian OS.

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Custom Ringtones and Phone Covers

Most phones these days, covering most brands - Nokia, LG, Sony, Samsung and others - have plenty of ring tones, covers and stuff allowing complete customization of phones.

While many new mobile cell phones allow for MP3 and totally non brand specific ring tones - meaning any PC can give you the songs, and mobile mods you need - there is also dial up services such as 1902 numbers as such which also sell mobile ring tones, backgrounds and mods.

The only draw back for mobile cell phone mods is the risk of warranty being voided on the mobile phones. If you swap the cover on your Nokia, or add a non recommended memory card - you run the risk of losing warranty all together.

Be sure and check with your mobile cell phone manufacturer before adding memory cards. A reader of ours recently bought the Nokia N95 - and wanted to add a 2gig+ memory card. When he rang Nokia they said 'it might work' but is unsupported and they could not endorse the trial. They were helpful, but basically said this does void the warranty. It turns out the 2gig card *did* work - but obviously the original memory card would be swapped back in should any service work be needed on the mobile.


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Nokia 6680 Features

The 3G based handset from Nokia, while older in terms of release model now - has plenty of features and options that still make this unit a good handset.

Video calling, twin cameras (albeit 1.3 megapixels only) - large screen, slide back camera cover and easy circular navigation button - make this cell phone very usable and durable.

While slightly heavy and a little bulky for todays standards, the phone - using the symbian operating system has a tonne of features, such as office applications, diary (with PC / MS Outlook / and contacts sync) and of course the 3G features and personalised web browsing.

The 3G content system is detailed and always updated, this proving very handy for users who want info - but dont want to have to use the web browser to get into detailed browsing.

This phone is locked the 3G network and can only be used on pre and post pay setups with Hutchison networks.

Good deals can be had for the second hand units of these phones, pricing being around the 200 AUD mark.

Samsung Blackjack Info

The Samsung BlackJack (aka i600N series on back) is the first type 3G PDA-phone we've seen from the Samsung house, its a successor to the GSM-only i320N model from early last year.

Samsung Blackjack Design
When compared to PDA-based phones such as the extra-big Dopod 808 Pro, the Samsung BlackJack weighs in lightly at only 105 grams with the battery inc., and only measures a thin 11.8mm. Its got a bright 2.3-inch screen has a VGA resolution (320x240 total pixels) and is a landscape-oriented screen. The Samsung BlackJack doesn't have a touch-sensitive user screen or a stylus; it has a 4-way directional / nav button, softkeys and a thumb wheel to take care of the navigation.

Under the Samsung BlackJack's screen is a full QWERTY keypad with dedicated button for each key, in contrast to some dual-key QWERTY setups we've seen like on the BlackBerry Pearl and Sony Ericsson M600i. The Samsung BlackJack keyboard will be too small for those with big thumbs and we found ourselves occasionally hitting the wrong key by accident cuz there close together

The Samsung BlackJack, as its name suggests, is entirely black coloured, except for the silver nav-key and camera mirror on back. Samsung also has changed the number keys on the BlackJack's keypad with grey buttons rather than black. With special characters sharing the small button space, it's a cluttered-looking but usable keypad.

Samsung Blackjack Features
The Samsung BlackJack runs the smartphone v. of Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0, which enables push to e-mail -- the instant sending of your e-mail to your mobile device -- and synch of Outlook contacts, Outlook calendar and tasks with all things Outlook or even Entourage. You need to have a e-mail account on Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 (with SP2) at your work place or home office to get this setup working.

Unfortunately the Samsung BlackJack doesn't let you edit MS Office docs; but you can view other formats like MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint and Adobe PDF. That's not to say there's a shortfall of apps on the Samsung BlackJack. You'll find Internet Explorer for Internet browsing, an RSS reader for online news feeds, Solitaire the classic game and new Bubble Breaker games and a good range of organisation apps like simple notepad, counter stopwatch, cash convertor, full voice recorder and round the world clock.

Like the recent Palm Treo 750, the Samsung BlackJack does support high-speed downloads up to 1.8Mbps over 3G networkds, subject to network said limitations, but it's not all about business with the Samsung BlackJack. Windows Media Player 10 Mobile is included to provide some nice entertainment during downtime. Other Supported music and video file formats are limited, but still include standard MP3, WMA and WMV. Third-party applications can be installed for other formats.

A basic 1.3-megapixel camera takes stills and up to one hour of sound-enabled motion video at a time. There's a microSD card on the side which supports sized cards up to 512MB; otherwise there's a base of 35MB to 42MB of user accessible internal memory and 128MB of flash ROM.

Samsung Blackjack Performance
As a mobile messaging device -- the screen when you turn the Samsung BlackJack on says "The Utra Messaging" -- the only drawback here is the squashed keypad. We then found we often hit two buttons by accident and couldn't then type as fast as we'd have liked. But, Practice helps here and those with smallish fingers or long fingernails shouldn't have as much of problem.

For around $899 USD outright, the Samsung Blackjack has a customised BlackJack^t, BlackJack^ov for Telstra, Optus and Vodafone, respectively. The Vodafone and Optus versions have the dual cameras and support Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), whereas the limited Telstra Next G version has a single camera on the back and no Wi-Fi. and BlackJack

All Samsung Blackjack versions support high-speed downloads up to 1.8Mbps, but this is subject to network availability and of course capability (Optus hasn't rolled out HSDPA 1.8 yet, for instance).

We were sent the basic Wi-Fi-less Samsung BlackJack^t for review so we can't actually vouch for the battery performance over wireless LAN. We then managed three to four days between charges with occasional use of email, SMS, voice calls and all organiser features. Samsung provides an additional long life battery in the Telstra pack and an additional standard battery with the other sales packs. (Battery life though, was pretty good)

As a total mobile device aimed at business users looking for a balance of work and play, the Samsung BlackJack delivers the goods to some extent. Provided you get used to the keypad, it performs well as a phone, PDA and good messaging device with just a handful of little things that deviate from an otherwise solid package.

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Sony Ericsson Z550i

Today we got our hands on the Sony Ericsson z550i flip handset.

We first noticed the sleek and light design of this phone, it fits very snuggly in the hand and the flip mechanism feels strong and durable.

The screen size, while slightly below standard these days still has bright vivid colours and still fits a tonne of info on the screen at one time.

The screen display is uncluttered and I found the menu system to be easily understandable.

Battery life is only average, with a day of many calls certainly pushing the phone to the limit.

The Sony z550 has the carl zeiss 1.3 megapixel camera, which is basic, but does a good enough job.

The z550i also has a mini display screen on the front of the flip, which is bright and while it isn't colour, the basic LCD does the quick job nicely.

Overall I would rate the Sony z550i a 6.8 out of 10 - and the price of this handset is around $145 AUD - so it's certainly great value at that rate and ideal for basic mobile phone GSM usage.

LG u8180 Review

The LG u8180 is an older video calling phone used by several worldwide 3G networks.

Aftermarket ringtones are available with this phone, but buying them can be a little expensive. The quality of video calls is not bad, the phone is lightweight and battery life is fairly decent.

The covers can't be interchanged and the second hand market or aftermarket parts for the LG u8180 isn't huge.

The other minor drawback with this handset, is the antenna is external and the small antenna slightly raises up and can be easily broken or annoying.

This handset is a good basic 3G introductory set and is slowly being phased out. This model handset can be picked up cheaply on ebay and is worth it as a second phone or for younger family members.

LG u8180

O2 Xda II Mini Mobile Phone

O2 Xda II Mini is the no1 best selling mobile cell phone for the month of April, 2007.

See below for a full review of the O2 XDA 2 Mini, it's feature packed and is a tiny cell phone to boot.

O2 XDA 2 Mini - Cell Phone Design This phone IS small. Because You can't call a phone a "Mini" if it aint that small, and indeed at 58 by 108 by 18.1 millimetres, the XDA II Mini is a small smart phone, although of course it's still only moderately sized from the phone side of the equation. In visual terms it's not a great departure from the XDA II itself; you've got a directional button at the bottom of the phone, surrounded by four selection buttons (including the two call buttons), and a 2.8-inch display with a total resolution of 240 by 320 pixels. At around 150 grams, it's much lighter than the XDA II or XDA IIs, but you'd expect that from a smaller smart phone.

O2 XDA 2 Mini Cell Phone Features
The actual software the XDA II Mini runs is Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Pocket PC Phone Edition -- a tounge twister! -- this runs on an Intel PXA 272 processor clocking at 416MHz. With a total of 64MB of Flash ROM and the same quantity of RAM, it's a heavy hitter on the storage side for a phone, but if you're looking for serious PDA usage, you may want to get yourself of the SD/MMC card slot that sits atop the phone.

Running a variant of the Pocket PC OS means it's pre-installed with the most common PDA applications from the Pocket PC side of the fence -- Word, Excel, PowerPoint Viewer and so on -- as well as some custom O2 applications. Like the other XDA units, the Mini sports an integrated digital camera, and in keeping with the best that we're seeing in mobile phone cameras at the time of writing, it's a 1.3 megapixel unit, which should put it just into the acceptable and printable category.

As a phone, the XDA II Mini is tri-band GSM and GPRS capable, and as it's a smart phone with visual keyboard facilities, creating and sending SMS and MMS messages is a snap. It's also Bluetooth capable, although that's not the only way to synchronise it with a suitable PC; a USB cable is also provided.

O2 XDA 2 Mini Cell Phone Performance
The very first thing that gets noticed about the XDA II Mini is certainly a common damn fault with most smart phones lacking an integrated qwerty keyboard; the actual screen does smudge very quickly and very often; I suggest you start carrying a cleaning cloth around everywhere with you if you're someone who is keen to show this o2 xda off to your friends. Apart from that, the display is clear and bright, with the usual adjustments for maximising battery life by dipping screen brightness depending on your situation. As a phone we had few complaints about its performance, aside from one situation where it for some reason it incorrectly grabbed contact details for somebody phoning us -- although to be fair to O2, it does note on the splash screen of our review unit that it's a test unit, so some bugs are probably inevitable.

As an actual PDA, the XDA II Mini cell phone sits well in an overall competitive category, because there's not too much that really catapults it ahead of the competition per se, and the fact that the rocker on the side of the unit doesn't perform scrolling functions -- it's a volume control for the PDA and phone capabilities -- this threw us for a while.

The actual XDA II Mini's built in camera is one of the best implementations of a mobile phone camera i've seen for quite a while; it's then undoubtedly helped by having a rather larger than life or larger than usual LCD for you to frame the shots with, and smartly, there's a major focus on funtime shots -- including a number of silly shot templates to frame with -- rather than serious photography. Predictably, without a flash, you'll end up with a number of rather dingy looking photos at night, but daytime shots perform well.

O2 claims a battery life of around 180 hours standby and 4-5 hours talk time with the XDA II Mini's 1,200 mAh Lithium Ion battery, although in our testing we'd suggest it's capable of less if you're using the PDA functionality much -- we averaged around 2-3 days before needing to recharge the battery with only moderate usage, and predictably much less if the integrated Bluetooth was switched on.

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Motorola Razor Hacks

With mobile phone popularity getting huge around the world, hacks are popping up for many phones as users want to modify their GSM handset and get the most from it.

One of the most popular phones in the past year has been the Motorola V3 Razor.

The Razor is skinny, sleek and looks hot - if you have a Motorola V3 Razor and wish to start hacking the razor or employing some cool V3 hacks then we have a great in depth website link, that gives you heaps of tips tricks and hacks for the Motorola V3 razor. You will only need this one site, and nothing else as the owner has written tonnes about the Motorola V3.

Click the link below:
Motorola V3 Razor Handset Hacks and Info

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Nokia 6288 Slider Review

The Nokia 6288 handset is a stylish slider handset - with 3G functions and a 2mp camera. The well built Nokia handset also has features to boot, calendar, bluetooth, mini SD memory storage and a large colour screen. The only draw back on the Nokia 6288 is it's size and weight. It is slightly heavy to hold and it's large screen takes up a lot of real estate, making this a bulky dimensioned cell phone handset. Other features such as voice recorder and audio player are handy and round out the value for money handset. It's aimed at the mid market, with a touch of youth - the inexpensive handset sits just above the basic entry level range and is good value at approx. $300 AUD brand new. You can use eBay and similar trading sites to pick up a Nokia 6288 handset slightly cheaper, say $200 AUD used. Ensure the IEMI is safe and the phone is not locked to a network such as some are.

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Nokia N95 Handset Cell Phone

The new Nokia N95 handset has hit the world market with a bang. The Finnish experts of Mobile Cell Phones Nokia - have released a masterpiece with the N95.

MobileCellPhones - has their hands on one of these models, recently purchased in Australia for approximately $900 AUD inc Tax.

The Nokia N95 is feature packed, however it's a small handset and very lightweight.

Screen size is large, and the 5.0mp camera is included featuring Carl Zeiss Optics. The only concern is the phone feels very 'breakable' - certainly one single drop or mismanagement would see the lovely Nokia N95 shatter into a million bits.

Support for Wi-fi is available on the Nokia N95 - however we did have trouble reading wireless networks once connected. The N95 found the networks ok but struggled to read them.

Mapping via Satellite and GPS is simply awesome. Picking up the satellites quite quickly and gaining navigation tools is very handy on the run. Bad weather or indoor access can sometimes throw the satellite tracking out- but high speed car movement was OK with us.

MiniSD is included with the Nokia N95 and the Nokia software suite is very well put together. All the usual features are there.

The handset slides both ways, with one direction for Quad band voice calling, and the other slide direction for the media centre. Lovely speakers (stereo) pump the sound out for the N95 and a standard 3.5mm stereo jack is available on top of the N95 for easy access to any third party headphones.

Also via bluetooth Nokia have some lovely wireless headsets for sound and voice - try them!

All in all- we give the Nokia N95 handset a 8.5 out fo 10- we WANT one and don't want to give this test unit or demo unit N95 back to Nokia.

Thanks to Nokia for loaning the N95 to us for trial.

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Cell and Mobile Phone Welcome

This new website will be dedicated to Mobile and Cell Phone handset reviews.

Reviewing handsets such as: The Nokia N95, The Motorola V3 and above Razor and other handsets around the world.

The review of cell phones and handsets will also extend to mobile and cell networks around the world. Providers such as Vodafone, Verizon, Cingular, Telstra, Optus / Singtel and Hutchison.

We look forward to reviews and feedback on mobile phones from all our readers.

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