Okay, I know what you are thinking – a Sony PSP has just had a head on collision with a Sony Ericsson smart phone with Android – Serious?

Well the best way to start this blog post is really but turning time back to 2008/ 2009 when phones were chunky and really slow. Now around that time Nokia were most definitely one of the market leading manufactures and one mobile which stood out the most from Nokia at that time was the N-Gage.

The N-Gage revolutionised the way which users were to communicated with their mobile phones and the change the principle purpose of using a mobile phone as a phone. Not only did it allow users to buy extra games in the form of an SD card, Nokia were the only real manufacture at the time to provide RealPlayer with all of their mobiles allowing users to play movies on their mobile phones without having to fuss around with formats etc oh and a 3.5″ standard headphone jack. 

Comparing it to newer phones on the market, the only thing it lacked was a market place (obviously there are more areas which the phone needs to be improved but they are quite minor upgrades) but the principles of the phone for the time were pretty amazing.

Now my point in turning the clocks back a little is just to say that manufactures are not uncommon in trying to incorporate a good gaming experience with a typical gaming keyboard and a phone facility – what more could people want to keep themselves amused?

Back to the Sony Ericsson Playstation PSP Phone

Details have been leaked onto the Internet showing images of the new PS Phone which looks exactly like a PSP Go but with the added function of being used as a mobile phone. It’s possible that the PS Phone could run on Android 3.0 aka ‘Gingerbread’, as well as sporting a 1GHz processor, 512MB RAM, 1GB ROM and a screen measuring between 3.7 and 4.1 inches.

On top of that, there’s the mention of a Sony Marketplace where users will be able to buy and download games and possibly apps onto the PS Phone which will more than likely be Sony’s answer to Apple’s App Store for the iPhone. But there’s no mention as to whether you’ll be able to download PSP games to the phone.

No doubt the PS Phone will have a touch screen as with most smartphones these days. Especially if it will be running Android 3.0. It’s highly doubtful that it will be released this year, assuming that it is in fact real, so 2011 is looking to be more likely.

Personally I think Sony Ericsson could have something up their sleeves – all we need to do is look at Windows Mobile 7. Microsoft have developed a platform designed for virtually everything, Gaming, Usability, XBOX Live, Microsoft Office and more. Sony on the other hand have all of their Bravia TV’s, PS3, Blu-Ray players and more – I’m sure Sony Ericsson could think of a few things to get their smart phone to integrate with.

So what do you think of the news? Is the revelation of gaming phones going to be coming back? Users want more and more from their smart phones, is this a step in the right direction for Sony Ericsson? The other thing is, could this be real or could it just be a fake?

The Design

In terms of design, every conventional Windows Phone will have three buttons at the front of the phone situated at the bottom below the screen: this will include a Start, Search and Back button. Having the three buttons allows for user consistency between different smart phones e.g. the Nexus One.

The software

Microsofts introduction of ‘integrated experience hubs’ is one of many features they have incorporated with their new market smashing smart phone. Starting with People – this allows you to sort the people you know from various sources e.g. Outlook, Facebook and more.

The section is split into various panes separating recent contacts from personal information and social networking updates through Twitter, Facebook and other social network sites.

Pictures – this shows galleries and synced items along with a social network pane that allows you to view recent pictures from your friends on Facebook – you can see that Microsoft have gone on the integration synergy with Facebook and Twitter an awful lot with this phone. Pictures allows you to upload and manage Facebook albums directly from your phone – pretty cool huh?

A bit more predicatble more than anything but Yes – Microsoft have called their business tool hub ‘Office’. Once opened from the main screen, users are prompted with an option of creating new pages, view most recent open documents, spreadsheets and more.

Users can find a full list of documents in the middle panel followed by a final panel which manages SharePoint – that’s if you are a SharePoint user.

Games and Music + Video hubs – these Hubs pretty much sell themselves hopefully. Microsoft have incorporated Xbox Live so you can manage trophies, user profiles and friends from your Windows Phone 7. Not only allowing users to manage their Xbox Live account, users can sync their Windows Phone 7 games with Xbox Live.

Music + Video is Zune HD and from reviews the Music + Video hub works pretty damn well.

Summing up Windows Mobile 7

Windows Phone 7 in comparison to its predecessor Windows Phone 6.5, it is a completely different experience from the interface through to the integration with Hubs and Social Networks. I have a feeling we haven’t seen everything from Windows Phone 7 as hopefully a new firmware update in the new year will give the handset that cutting edge it needs to compete against other smart phones enabling – copy and paste.

With HTC, Samsung and LG already pumping phones out with Windows Phone 7, Microsoft will simply start to pick up on the smart phone market and who knows – Microsoft could increase their market size.

-For more information go to the original article source here at Zath

Increasingly complex but mobile devices like the iPad and smartphones are stretching battery life to its limits. Money is being poured into battery research to find ways to make them last longer and charge quicker; short of carrying a generator or making sure you’re near a plug socket every couple of hours what else can be done to make sure you stay juiced on the move?

On some devices the battery isn’t removable so just carrying a spare isn’t an option; it’s not always the best solution anyway as it doesn’t offer any flexibility if you’ve got several power hungry devices. So what else is out there?

A whole new market has sprung up from nowhere to deal with this issue, every few days over the past couple of weeks I’ve seen a new solution to solve my power problems.

One of the most popular solutions available seems to be a small portable lithium battery which you can charge using a USB socket or a normal plug socket. Most come with a few adaptors so you can charge various devices whilst some have only one phone in mind.

Mophie have just released some mobile batteries with a built in iPhone dock connector, some of them even double as a case! The ‘primocube’ by Primo has just been announced and this will charge anything that has a Micro-USB or Mini-USB connection (Android, BlackBerry etc.). JustMobile have a solution which will allow you to charge any phone which can be connected via USB (pretty much every smartphone, GPS or MP3 player).

There are plenty of other mobile batteries out there; personally I plumped for the JustMobile battery which will charge my iPhone 3 times over. When choosing the right battery for you it’s worth taking note of the mAh rating, the higher the better as this means you’ll get more power from your battery.

Free mobile power?

If your life is so hectic that you won’t even have the chance to charge your spare battery you could try a solar powered charger, there are plenty of options out there which will draw power from the sun. They do have the downside of being slow to charge and you need the sun (not always a common sight in the UK!)

There are some other innovative and enviormentally friendly solutions you could try like the ‘HYmini Personal Wind Turbine’, the ‘Wind-up multi charger’ or Nokia’s bicycle dynamo charger!

Whatever solution to your power problems you choose you can be sure your battery will still die on you at the most inconvenient of times!

As you probably know Apple recently released the latest version of their smart phone, the iPhone 3G. Having been one of the people who queued up early in the morning to receive their new shiny toy I have had one for over a month now and thought it was time I shared my experiences.

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