Mobile Phones love 'em hate 'em?

Mobile phones have been high on the agenda across most social network sites over the last couple of days due to the release of the new iphone 4.

Photo courtesy of Timothy Valentine

This made me wonder just how far we have come in such a relatively short space of time.

Showing my age I know, but I started on the mobile phone craze in the early 1990's with 'The Brick' known as the Motorola 8900x2 similar to the one pictured below. Mine had a black cover though.

Photo courtesy of Mo_Morgan

It was so big and heavy that you had to hang it from your belt. It was analouge not digital which meant reception was patchy at best and that was in central London. Even so it still was good to be able to use it whilst out and about.

I've had many phones since then some big, some tiny. There has been tablet, flip, and touchscreen phones. Phones such as; the Nokia 7650, the Nokia 6610, the T-Mobile MDA vario a great phone but heavy. Motorola's E398 good for music but not a lot else, the HTC Touch a good all rounder and the HTC Touch Diamond to name but a few, Some are pictured here. Yes, I still have some of them!

It was fortunate that I did keep them as I was able to pass one on to my father who had inadvertently dropped his breaking it. He is now the owner of a HTC touch.

Mobile phones are no longer just used for voice calls, they are mini computers (with the processing power of some of them not so mini). They can be used for voice, text, email, surfing the internet, taking pictures on their cameras, watching and taking Movies to name just some of their features.

Currently I am the proud owner of T-Mobiles G1, Google's Android phone which was their first forage into the phone market. It has all the features listed above plus lots more.

It is still a great phone but maybe it's starting to get a bit old.

So what shall I get next?

Well I think I'm going to stay with an Android phone. Even with all the hype, Apple have not swung me over to the iphone. Android phones are just as good and are getting better everyday and there are numerous ones to choose from. Had the EVO 4G been coming to UK I may have been tempted to get it but as its not maybe HTC's Desire will be the one to get.

Photo courtesy of louisvolant

Watch this space and I will tell you when I change and let you know what phone I decide on.

iPhone Analytics & Location Based Ad Targeting� Prohibited by Apple

App Analytics

It appears that, according to the new developer agreement, iPhone and iPad developers cannot use any 3rd party analytics application to collect any kind of iPhone or iPad usage data. According to the clause,
Device Data may not be provided or disclosed to a third party without Apple�s prior written consent. Accordingly, the use of third party software in Your Application to collect and send Device Data to a third party for processing or analysis is expressly prohibited.
(Source: Apple Changes Rules on iPhone App Analytics)

It is not clear what the �Device Data� actually means. Does it just cover the OS/Browser, screen size etc. or does it cover any data collected by the app?
However, based on an email from an iPhone developer, referenced in a venturebeat.com blog post, it appears that this clause might cover pretty much any data collected via the applications.

> We�ve reviewed your
> application and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone
> application to the App Store. It is not appropriate for applications to
> gather user analytics. Specifically, you may not collect anonymous play
> data from a user�s game. A screenshot of this issue has been attached for
> your reference.
>
> In order for your application to be reconsidered for the App Store, please
> resolve this issue and upload your new binary to iTunes Connect.


Ad Targeting

Part of this clause is also a statement about location-based ad targeting.
�The use of location-based User Data for enabling targeted advertising in an Application is prohibited unless targeted advertising is the purpose of such Application (e.g., a geo-location coupon application).�

Some other great post on this topic are

• An Open Letter to Steve Jobs by Eric Peterson
• Updated: New iPhone Developer Agreement Bans the Use of Third-Party Analytics and Services

Is this a step to control all advertising on iPhone and iPad? Is Apple is about to roll out its own iPhone and iPad analytics solution? Perhaps buy one of the existing vendors?

What are your thoughts?

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"RAREST Mobile Phone on eBay-4GB- RARER Than iPhone! MP3" iPhone clone

Wow...what a title. This is being sold over at ebay. Engadget found this iPhone clone 2 days ago. This dualband phone features a 3.5 inch 320x480 (160ppi) touchscreen, Windows XP OS (professional version) and 4 GB (there is a choice of 8 GB) of internal memory and a 1.3 mega pixel camera. There is also a 2 row number keypad at the bottom along with a row of soft keys. I wonder what the phone looks like in the back.

The Chinese iPhone clone ready and available

This is the closest to the real deal that I have seen. Ripping off the logo (the leaf of the apple switched sides), name, design and graphics...the box is so butt ugly. So much stuff written in big white fonts. The phone features a huge 3.5 inch touchscreen, support for T-flash cards and has 6 speakers (wow!). It is also dual mode supporting CDMA and GSM networks. It comes with a matching pouches complete with the apple logo. It comes with a 2 mega pixel camera which can interpolate to 5 mega pixels. Pics and info from pcpop.com. If this rip-off doesn't interest you perhaps the Windows XP phone will.

PiPhone

Found this over at ubergizmo. It is by a company called Deeda and it really looks like the iPhone...doesn't it? It is a portable media player with PDA functions but has no phone functions. A link was provided to the product page, but it is not working. Maybe Apple has something to do with it?

iPhone for dummies

This is for sale at amazon.com. This is their book description:

What the book covers:
Getting started with your iPhone, setting up iTunes and your iPhone, getting organized with your iPhone, browsing the Internet with your iPhone, sending and receiving E-mail with your iPhone, buying music and videos from the iTunes store, taking great pictures with your iPhone, organizing and managing your photos, syncing up with your desktop, protecting your information, troubleshooting, and more.

Series features:
Information presented in the straightforward but fun language that has defined the Dummies series for fifteen years.

I wonder if anyone will actually buy this book for only 14.95$.

Click for amazon

iPhone pic

This is just a pic that has been circulating the net lately. This cardboard made replica seems quite big or maybe the guy just has small hands.

iPhone from China

This is from some manufacturer in China. I like the fact that it looks quite small and thin. It is also pretty cheap. It cracks me up how they altered the Apple logo. I am sure we will see alot of iPhone copycats in the future.