Plusnet Broadband Packages

January 18th, 2010 | Broadband, Mobile Broadband, Wireless Technology

Plusnet Broadband is one of the most used among the many mobile broadband providers in the UK. This is due to the difference in service provided by Plusnet broadband from many other broadband providers. Let us compare the benefits of Plusnet broadband to other broadband providers.

Plusnet Broadband offers speeds that can reach up to 20Mbps while most other providers offer speeds that only reach about 10Mbps. It has no monthly download limit, unlike many other broadband providers. Finally you only have to pay £11.99 a month, whereas with others you would normally pay £15.00, perhaps for a slower connection.

This broadband provider also has 10 years worth of experience in the business, and they also provide a 24/7 customer helpline if you ever run into a problem. Plusnet Broadband also offers two packages, namely the Plusnet Value Package and the Plusnet Premium Package. The main difference between these is the speed offered and the price, however, even if you do decide on the Plusnet Value package you will still be getting more than from most common broadband deals.

Perhaps the best thing that Plusnet Broadband has to offer is the referral programme that they are offering, they basically reduce the cost of your monthly fees for as long as your referred customer stays with them. They remove 25p from your monthly fee if you referred a person who uses Plusnet Value and 50p for Plusnet Premium. There is also no limit to the number of people that you can refer, so if you refer enough and they take out a deal you can get your broadband for very little cost.

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Recycling your old mobile phones

January 17th, 2010 | Mobile Phone Recycling, Mobile Technology

These days we are all more aware of our environment and the impact that our lifestyles have on it. Whether we try and limit the use of our cars or recycle drinks cans, we all know that each person doing something quite small can make a big difference. In the last couple of years a European law has come into force that states that all manufacturers of large electrical goods should provide some means of safe disposal of them once their useful life is over. This is not so with mobile phones.

Mobile phones contain some hazardous chemicals including Arsenic and Cadmium that can be hazardous to human and animal health if they get into our environment. While there may be only trace amounts of these materials in each phone, the sheer volume of discarded mobile phones means that their impact on the environment can be significant.

Mobile service providers often offer their customers upgrades to their handset, but are not held responsible for what happens to the old mobile phone. These unused mobiles are generally kept in drawers and boxes in people homes, neglected and gathering dust. Many of these phones are in good working order and can be reused.

This is where mobile phone recycling firms come in. They offer to pay cash for mobiles and recycle broken ones free of charge. This allows phone users to cash in on the value of their old phone instead of leaving it to gather dust in a drawer whilst also keeping the toxic materials out of landfill sites.

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Nokia E71 – is it just for business users?

January 14th, 2010 | Mobile Phone Reviews, Nokia

Yes, it’s a Nokia, although the QWERTY keypad does make it look similar to a Blackberry. That small visual confusion aside, it’s a superb offering among Nokia mobile phones, and seems to have almost everything.  About all that’s missing is a 3.5mm headphone jack for good private listening.

What’s truly outstanding about this phone is the QWERTY keypad, praised in mobile phone reviews as one of the best on the market. The keys are surprisingly large, meaning that it’s easy, and definitely not tiring, to send lengthy messages – which is the point, of course.

The screen is a very good size, crisp and clear, and the case is very slim, but also metallic and sturdy – this is a phone that can handle a few knocks and keep on working.

There’s plenty under the bonnet, too, since the phone comes with Wi-Fi and HSDPA for fast, smooth browsing, as well as uploads and downloads, while the GPS is also good. Interestingly, and also annoyingly, the phone’s email client supports Microsoft Exchange, yet doesn’t have Exchange folder support, which seems an odd oversight.

Apart from that, the only real negative comes with the E71’s camera. It might be 3.2 megapixels, but it’s far from the best around, with horrible lag that often results in bad pictures.

If you can ignore that, and Exchange folders aren’t important to you – which probably means most people – then the Nokia E71 is a great phone, with one of the very best QWERTY keypads available today – even Blackberry could take a lesson from this.

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Express yourself with the pink LG Cookie

January 12th, 2010 | LG, Mobile Phone Reviews, Touchscreen

Aimed squarely at a specific niche in the market, the LG Cookie Pink is a decidedly affordable touchscreen phone (around £100, or free as a contract mobile phone) designed for the young female market. It looks good, and it does all the basics, but certainly doesn’t offer the real smartphone experience.

That said, it’s a very good handset, with an excellent music player that can cope with most file formats, and a three megapixel camera that’s decidedly better than adequate – both important features given the crowd LG is going for with the Cookie Pink.

The touchscreen isn’t the best on the market – at this price you wouldn’t expect it to be – but still perfectly adequate and customisable. However, it does require quite a bit of finger pressure, although there’s a very serviceable onscreen keyboard for texting. A number of mobile phone reviews have criticised the handwriting recognition, however, so users might want to leave that alone, good as it sounds in theory.

Since this isn’t a smartphone, don’t expect the LG Cookie Pink to come with all the features you’d find in a more expensive unit. There’s no GPS, no Wi-Fi, and no 3G. However, the slim, chic styling (the phone weighs in at a mere 89 grams), and obviously the colour, is intended to appeal to young females. There’s excellent battery life and a three inch screen (not the largest on the market, but still very attractive and readable).

Among new mobile phones, the LG Cookie Pink has made a great impact. Just remember, though, that it’s a phone, not a smartphone.

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HTC Hero – Android at its best!

January 11th, 2010 | Google Android, HTC, Mobile Phone Reviews, Touchscreen

Built around Google’s Android operating system, the HTC Hero has been billed as the iPhone killer, but can anything really live up to that hype? HTC has experience in the smartphone field, though, and with the Hero it’s done an excellent job, perhaps because it doesn’t rely solely on Android, but puts another interface on top of it.

Plenty of thought has gone into every aspect of the HTC Hero, including its physical design, which has been widely praised in mobile phone reviews, especially for the 3.5mm jack, which means a user can plug in headphones or ear buds to listen to music the way it should be heard. Unlike many of its competitors it’s set up for social networking, with a built-in Twitter application, and both Gmail and Facebook contacts as part of the address book – a very forward-thinking move for HTC.

All these are very positive things, but the Hero does fall down in several ways. With little memory built in, the user is reliant on microSD cards. That’s not the end of the world, but could have been improved. So, too, could the on screen keyboard, which has the typical sluggishness of Android’s slow processor. At five megapixels, the camera sounds impressive, but several mobile phone reviews commented that it simply wasn’t especially effective.

Those negatives aside, the HTC Hero certainly represents strong competition to the iPhone, even if it’s not likely to topple it from its perch just yet. However, the next generation might just manage that.

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Samsung Tocco Lite Review

January 9th, 2010 | Mobile Phone Reviews, Samsung Mobile Phones, Touchscreen

Samsung mobiles phones have long offered good value at low prices, and with the Samsung Tocco Lite they’ve gone after the young consumer who wants a touchscreen – in fact, it’s a direct competitor of the very popular LG Cookie.

It combines the best of touchscreen and mobile phone technology, offering not only a full QWERTY keyboard on the screen but also a regular phone pad for calling and for those used to regular texting. There’s a 3.2 megapixel camera on board that also handles video, and users can edit photos on the phone itself.

Attention has been paid to what the consumer will want, including a music player with surround sound and an equaliser, FM radio, and memory expandable up to 16GB. There’s Bluetooth, of course, and ready access to social networking sites like YouTube and Facebook, which is pretty much a necessity for the young market. However, it lacks both GPS and Wi-Fi.

Samsung has brought its TouchWiz interface to the handset, and it works as well here as it does elsewhere. Switching between portrait and landscape modes is smooth, and the home screen can be customised readily. The large screen is ideal for web browsing, which is fast, although download speeds do tend to be slower since there’s no 3G, but that’s a reminder that the Tocco Lite is a budget phone, although it all too often doesn’t look or feel it.

Mobile phone reviews have placed the Samsung Tocco Lite ahead of the LG Cookie, simply because of the better user experience. As bargain phones go, it’s a real deal.

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Best Business Broadband Deals

January 6th, 2010 | Broadband, Wireless Technology

Home broadband and business broadband are separated into two groups to make it easier when choosing the kind of solution that is right for you. Most providers offer business broadband as a separate package, because a business account has an entirely different set of priorities and requirements than those designed for home use. But why choose a broadband business account for your company rather than a home account?

All of the big name brands support businesses with their broadband packages, from BT to O2. BT have various broadband deals on offer to suit the needs of different businesses, the smallest of which costs just £12.50 per month. This is known as Business Option 1 and is ideal for the small business. It offers excellent connection speed, at 20Mb and includes a 10Gb per month usage allowance. The built in firewall will help to ensure that your business is protected from potential hackers and viruses, keeping all your files from harm. It even includes 50Mb of web space so that you can host your own website. If ordered online you automatically qualify for a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) line, free of charge.

BT Business Option 2 goes a step further, by offering unlimited usage and a router is included with the package at no extra cost. This package is designed for the small to medium sized business. The BT option help desk is included for support and troubleshooting.

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Nokia 7610 Supernova Review

January 4th, 2010 | Mobile Phone Reviews, Nokia

As well as trying to be everything to everyone, the newest mobile phones are also fashion accessories these days. The Nokia 7610 Supernova doesn’t try to be a smartphone, but with its interchangeable covers (called Xpress On by Nokia), it makes a bid to be a fashion icon, with more covers available for a price.

In reality, it’s a low-end contract mobile phone that likes to play dress up, and can even be customised further. Users can identify a colour using the built-in camera and have it made into the colour for both wallpaper and navigation keys by the ‘theme colouriser.’

It’s a slider phone that does the basics well, although as the market for this handset is likely to be female and young, one that might well want more than a decent camera, music player and FM radio.

That said, the camera is adequate for quick snaps, although there’s nothing exceptional about the quality, and the inclusion of a microSD slot allows for more memory, which can be useful for storing more music.

For anyone not expecting or demanding too much, but wanting a mobile phone that can be made to look a little different, the Nokia 7610 Supernova certainly fits the bill, although obviously there are limits. It’s most definitely a phone, not designed for much web browsing (there’s no 3G or Wi-Fi, for instance), or extensive picture taking.

However, as a mobile phone, it performs very well indeed; the keypad is good for texting, the slider is smooth, and, typically for Nokia, the menu is simple to navigate.

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Apple iPhone 3GS – still the must have smartphone!

December 31st, 2009 | Mobile Phone Reviews, Touchscreen, iPhone

With the iPhone 3GS, Apple has taken a great leap forward, making it strides ahead of the original iPhone, which used EDGE – 3G is so much faster and smoother for connection that there’s not even a real comparison and, of course, Wi-Fi is still included. It’s the difference between night and day.

But that’s just one of several improvements in the handset. Apple has obviously been listening to gripes by consumers. They’ve added GPS with Google Maps, support for Microsoft Exchange, a 3.5mm headphone jack that’s readily accessible without a converter, improved the quality of phone calls (in case anyone had forgotten, at heart it is a phone), as well as done a small redesign of the case so it feels easier in the hand and also looks a little better. In other words it’s the perfect answer for both business types and regular consumers.

One thing unchanged is the camera, which is still a major failing at just two megapixels – far too low for a phone of this standard (and price). But that’s perhaps a minor quibble, given that Apple has introduced its glorious App Store, giving users the chance to buy and download all manner of applications for the phone, and the list keeps growing every day. However, given everything that this phone can do, better battery life (and access to the battery) would have been good.

Available with either 16GB or 32GB memory, the Apple iPhone 3GS really does stand out as the leader of the smartphone pack. Nothing else even comes close.

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Mobile Broadband Comparisons – Orange

December 28th, 2009 | Broadband, Mobile Broadband, Wireless Technology

There are several companies across the UK that offer mobile broadband services, including mobile phone provider, Orange.

Like many other providers of mobile broadband, Orange also offer contracts that include a free laptop, although as is usually the case, these deals are quite expensive. In the case of Orange, mobile broadband and laptop deals start at £24.47 and include one, three or 5Gb. The contracts can cost up to as much as £39.14 a month.

However, pay monthly dongle plans can cost between £14.68 and £27.40 per month, depending on the allowance. Contracts with Orange can be for one, 12, 18 or 24months.

The one-month deal means that you are not tied down to a contract and allow the user to test the water, so-to-speak, to see if they like what Orange has to offer.

The 12month “Early Bird” contract is ideal for the regular commuter, as it includes free usage during off-peak hours, which Orange has set as being between midnight and 9am.

Orange’s “Standard” contract lasts for 18months and includes a deal that is exclusively targeted at the company’s currently active customers. This deal offers a monthly allowance of 500Mb, for just £4.89 per month.

Users wanting a fast mobile broadband connection can take up Orange’s new “Option 515m” deal. This package includes a dongle for £20 that features an antenna that will “optimise your connection signal.” The dongle also comes with an 8Gb MicroSD card absolutely free, which allows users to store and transfer their data.

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