1. Noreve Traditional Case for HP Voice Messenger

Noreve Cases are relatively new to Mobile Fun, but are proving to be very popular. What I love about them the most is the way that they hold your phone securely in a stitched pocket that can doesn’t interfere with accessing the keypad or or block the edges of the screen. The Noreve case looks excellent, is made from high quality leather and is surprisingly slim once it’s on your phone.

Noreve Leather Case for Voice Messenger

2. Krusell Horizon Hector for Hewlett Packard Voice Messenger

Krusell Leather Cases  use premium materials and are backed with a lifetime warranty. Each case is custom designed for each handset for a tailored fit. It has a contrasting lining and is lightly padded to protect your phone against knocks and bumps. The rear of the case has stitched in belt loops and a Mulitdapt fitting that allows you to use it with a wide range of belt clips and mounts.

Krusell Dynamic Case for the HP Voice Messenger

3. OtterBox Impact for HP Voice Messenger

I’ve seen hundreds of cases in my time and OtterBox cases are some of the most robust one’s I’ve come across. The Impact Series merges durability, impact absorbing features and style in a single, slim-fit Silicone layer. All buttons, ports and functions are accessible right through the case, and the inner corners have been engineered to dissipate impact away from your device. It includes a screen protector to keep your display looking like new. If you work in a rough environment this will be the best purchase you can make for your Voice Messenger.

OtterBox for Voice Messenger

This is just a small selection of our HP Voice Messenger accessories so if you’ve not seen the case that’s right for you here, take a look at our full range of Hewlett Packard Voice Messenger cases.

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You can invest in a mobile phone case to keep it safe but these can add extra bulk to your phone. There is another option –  Skins. These are thin plastic films that stick onto your phone and protect it against minor knocks and scrapes.

The most popular skin is the InvisibleSHIELD by Zagg, these are clear thin films that cover your phone and protect it against damage. As they’re clear, your phone retains it’s original look.

If you fancy something a bit brighter, or want to put your own stamp on your phone then take a look at Gelaskins or ZEOdigi phone skins

Gelaskins for iPhone

Gelaskins were one of the first range of  skins to be launched last year and were featured on their own blog post back in November. Gelaskins are available in a wide range of designs for the iPhone 3G and 3GS.

ZEOdigi phone skins

ZEOdigi Skins are a similar concept – a thin, tough plastic film that covers the back of your phone but they also include a screen protector to keep the front of your phone looking like new.

ZEOdigi skins are available for a number of handsets including the iPhone, HTC HD2, Nexus One, HTC Hero, Sony Ericsson Satio and Nokia N97. For further details head over to the Zeodigi skins page.

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The last few weeks have been very quiet for handset releases, but Mobile World Congress saw a number of key handsets announced. All being well these handsets will start to be released in the next 12 weeks, as they get confirmed and dates become available I’ll update the calendar.

Nokia

Nokia C5

Nokia have gone a little quiet lately. In the coming weeks we’ve only got a couple of handsets due – the C5 and the 7230, but if the rumour mill is anything to go by there are plenty of handsets on the horizon.

View all Nokia release dates

Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson X10

With the Satio now starting to fade into the distance, Sony Ericsson’s focus is now on their X series handsets. We’ve got a range of new touch screen phones making their debut over the next few weeks, the Android powered X10 series and the , the Symbian powered Vivaz.

View all Sony Ericsson Release Dates

Samsung

Samsung Wave

Samsung are raising the bar again with the Samsung Wave – the first handset to feature the new Bada operating system and a super AMOLED screen.

View all Samsung Release Dates.

HTC

HTC Legend

HTC are having a great time at the moment. Having launched a number of fantastic handsets in 2009, they’re set for another great year if their latest handsets are anything to go by. In the coming weeks we’ll see the HTC Desire, HD Mini and the HTC Legend all make an appearance.

View all HTC Release Dates.

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If you want to know how the handsets ranked in February, head over to our Hot Handsets page where we’ve just updated our list of the 10 most popular handsets.

New month - New number 1?

Although February has been another quiet month for new releases, the manufacturers have been battling hard to get the number one spot, so who’s going to come out on top?

To see which are the most popular handsets in the UK right now, or to see if your phone makes our top ten, head over to our Hot Handsets page.

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Hitwise Award

We’ve done it again! The latest Hitwise report is out and we’ve won another award.

Hitwise have just ranked Mobile Fun as the 4th most popular site in the ‘Entertainment – Mobile Phones’ industry for June – December 2009.

We would like to say thank you to all of our customers for helping us achieve this award.

For more information on Hitwise take a look at our Awards Page.

  

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SanDisk’s latest memory card is available to order now for £99.99, with shipping expected to start on the 20th April.

SanDisk MicroSD Card - 32GB

The 32GB card is a must have accessory for anyone with one of the latest multimedia phones such as the HTC HD 2, BlackBerry Bold 9700, Nokia N97 Mini, Nexus One and Samsung Jet and that likes to have all their music, photo’s and music with them where ever they go.

To give you an idea on just how much this can hold, you can store 4000 songs, 5200 photos and over 30 hours of video, and still have room for all your apps.

SanDisk are promising no compatibility issues. If your phone works with a 16GB micro SDHC card, it’ll work with the 32GB card.

Demand for this is expected to be huge, so place your order now and be one of the first to get them in April.

Visit the SanDisk MicroSD Card – 32GB product pages for more information.

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Over the last few years, the technology in touch screens has changed quite a lot, but as it’s not something that’s talked about you may not know about the differences between them.

Resistive Vs. Capacitive

One of the most important specifications of a touch screen phone is the screen type – Resistive or Capacitive. Until the launch of the iPhone back in 2007, the majority of touch screen phones featured a resistive display that often needed a stylus to navigate the menu system. Since then, more and more phones have been released with capacitive screens that rely on you using your finger to move around the menu system, but what’s the difference?

Some of the latest handsets to feature resistive touch screens

Resistive touchscreens are composed of several layers of plastic, and input is registered when two of these layers make contact with each other when pressed by a finger or stylus, creating an electrical connection. Generally speaking Resistive screens can’t track multiple inputs on a single display and often need a firm press in order for it to register.

Some of the latest handsets to feature resistive touch screens are the LG Pop, Nokia 5800, Sony Ericsson Satio, Nokia N97 Mini and the Samsung Tocco Lite.

Some of the latest handsets to feature capacitive touch screens

Capacitive touchscreens are traditionally a glass panel coated with a transparent conductive material. As the human body conducts electricity, any touch on the surface of the screen triggers the electric field and registers the location of the input. Capacitive touchscreens can more readily accept continuous input across the surface, and also track multiple fingers on a single display (multi touch).

Some of the latest handsets to feature capacitive touch screens are the HTC HD2, LG BL40, Nokia X6, Google Nexus One and the iPhone 3GS.

Resistive screens can be controlled with anything, your finger, a pen – anything that can press down on the screen. Capacitive ones can’t – they won’t work with a standard stylus and you won’t be able to use them if you’re wearing gloves. Capacitive screens only need a gentle touch, where as resistive may need a firm press in order for it to register. Capacitive screens tend to respond faster and are a little more accurate too.

Using a Stylus

Because of how the screens detect being touched, it’s not possible to use a standard stylus with a capacitive touch screen as they don’t conduct electricity. Each type of screen has it’s good and bad points, and if you want to know more about how they perform AllAboutSymbian have put together a great guide that runs through the performance differences between them.

iPhone - Designed for finger control

Personally, I’ve never got on with using a stylus with my phone, but anyone who’s used to using one will no doubt miss it when they make the switch to capacitive – an inevitable change as all manufacturers move to more advanced operating systems that require support for mutlitouch.

As always though, technology moves on and there are now a number of styluses available that will work with capacitive screens.  There are 3 Dagi Capacitive Styluses to choose from as well as a HTC branded one for the HTC HD2. What makes these different to a regular stylus is that instead of having a point to press your screen, they have a flat circular disc at the end that works in a similar way to your finger would.

Capacitive Stylus Range from DAGi

Each stylus does the same thing, they’re just different sizes:

• DAGi Capacitive Stylus – 10cm long and 10mm thick. Feels like a pen in your hand and is better suited to phones with a larger screen.
• DAGi iPhone 3GS Small Capacitive Stylus – 5cm long and 5mm thick. Perfect for keeping in your wallet or purse. Named for the iPhone, but will work with any phone. Best suited to small screen phones.
• DAGi iPhone 3GS Slim Line Capacitive Stylus – 10cm long and 5mm thick. Thinner version of the capacitive stlyus above, works well with all sizes of screen.
• The HTC HD2 Stylus is the same as the DAGi Capacitive Stylus, but has the HTC Logo on it.

If you decide to get a stylus for your capacitive touch screen phone, remember that that phone is designed to be used with your finger, so although the stylus will work, you may not find it as responsive as a traditional stylus is on a resistive touch screen device.

If you’re not sure what type of screen your phone has, take a look at GSMArena.com. They list the full specifications for every handset on the market and in most cases will tell you what screen type the phone has.

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There are still a number of simpler handsets available, but if you’re still in love with your old, dying Nokia phone and aren’t quite ready to give it up then there is another option – refurbished handsets.

Refurbished Nokia Phones

Refurbished or Grade A mobile phones are handsets that have been returned to an authorised Nokia Service Centre and given a full make over. They’re stripped of their outer casings, fully tested and any faulty parts replaced. They’re then updated to run the latest version of software before being given a brand new housing and battery.

Currently there are 4 different refurbished phones available – each of them a classic that’s easy to use and has great battery life.

Refurbished Nokia 3310

The Nokia 3310 has got to be one of Nokia’s most popular mobile phones and I’m pretty sure that almost everyone will have used one! It has an incredibly easy to use menu system and a clear, well spaced keypad. The Nokia 3310 is all about calls and texts – no internet, no picture messaging, no fancy features and as a result, you’ll get amazing battery talk time and standby times from it. A single charge can give you up to 4.5 hours talk time and ten days stand by

Refurbished Nokia 3310

Refurbished Nokia 3410

The bigger brother to the 3310. Essentially the same phone as the 3310, but weighs 20g less, has a slightly different keypad and a basic internet browser. A bigger memory for names and numbers make it ideal as a replacement phone for work. Battery life is also excellent, with 4 hours talk time and nearly 11days stand by.

Refurbished Nokia 3410

Refurbished Nokia 6310i

There was a time when this was the ultimate business users phone, and to be honest it’s still popular now! The Nokia 6310i is slim, light, easy to use, with a few extra features to the 3310 and 3410 – the main ones being Bluetooth connectivity, a much larger memory for names and numbers, as well as the ability to connect it to your PC or laptop for use as a modem or to sync your contacts.

Refurbished Nokia 6310i

The Nokia 6310i is still the only phone available that will fit the Nokia Car Kit – Cark-91, a fully installed car kit that had a cradle to charge your phone. Battery life on the 6310i is incredible – upto 17 days stand by and 6 hours talktime.

Refurbished Nokia 6230i

The Nokia 6230i was the replacement for the 6310i. It has a colour screen and support for memory cards along with a refreshed menu system and improved support for internet and email. It’s the only refurbished phone available that has a camera and MP3 playback capability. Despite the colour screen and extra features, the 6230i still offers great battery life – 12 days stand by and 5 hours talk time.

Refurbished Nokia 6230i

Refurbished handsets are great as work phones, emergency spares, starter phones or are a perfect way of replacing a broken phone, without having to replace all of your existing accessories too. All refurbished/Grade A phones come with a mains charger, battery, user guide and a 12 month Mobile Fun warranty.

Head over to the Mobile Fun website for more details on our Grade A and Refurbished Phones.

NB: Battery and User Guide may not be original Nokia products. Handset colours may vary.

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Depending on your budget and what you want to achieve in your car, there are a number of options available that will help you to use your phone safely and stay legal. To give you an idea on some of the car kits and accessories that are available for the HTC HD2 here are some of our most popular HD2 Car Kits, HD2 Car Mounts and HD2 Car Chargers.

Car Chargers:

The HTC CC200 car charger for your HD2 is a must have item – especially if you’re using the GPS functionality on your phone. The HD2 Car Charger consists of a tangle proof Micro USB charging cable and a USB Car Charger adapter. This allows you to not only charge your HD2, but by using a different USB cable you can also use it to charge MP3 players, Bluetooth Headsets and portable games consoles.

HTC CC C200 Micro USB Car Charger

If you’ve already got a USB Charging cable for your HD2, you can use that to charge your phone in the car – you’ll just need to get yourself a USB Car Charger adapter.

Car Mounts & Holders:

The safest way to use your HD2 in the car is to have it secured in a car holder. There are loads of different styles to choose from but given the extra size and weight of the HD2, some car mounts and holders won’t be strong enough to support your phone.

For the best possible hold, I’d recommend using a Brodit Active holder/ Brodit Passive holder with your HD2. Active holders have a built in car charger where as Passive holders will just hold your phone. They are sturdy, robust holders that are designed to be screwed into place. Now I’d never dream of drilling holes in my car just to keep my phone safe, and Brodit know that this is something people won’t want to do, so they have developed the Brodit ProClip. ProClips clip on to your dashboard and provide a solid, flat area that you can screw your HD2 Car Holder onto. They can be removed easily without causing any damage to your vehicle.

Brodit Passive Holder for HTC HD2

If you want something a little less permanent, then the HD2 Car Pack is a suction mount holder that fixes your HD2 to the windscreen. Unlike some suction pads, the Car Pack has a heavy duty rubber pad that stays stuck to your windscreen and won’t fall off when you park in sunlight or have the heater on.

Car Pack For The HTC HD2

You can rotate the holder in 3 different directions to make sure that you have the HD2 positioned exactly as you want it and can switch between using your phone in landscape or portrait in seconds. The HD2 Car Pack also includes a HD2 Car Charger.

If the HD2 Car Pack isn’t stylish enough for you then you should take a look at the HTC HD2 Cu-S400 Car Holder. This is a genuine HTC in-car solution that looks great. It’s got a strong suction base that can be stuck to your windscreen or dashboard and a fully adjustable chrome arm that lets you position of the phone exactly where you need it. It has a charger connection built into the base, so instead of having to plug your HD2 into the car charger each time you get in the car, you can leave the charger connected to the base of the car mount, then every time you dock your HD2 in the cradle, it’ll switch to car mode and start to charge.

HTC HD2 Car Mount - CU S400

Car Kits:

If you really want to get the best from your HD2 and want an in car set up that can be used with your phone for handling calls, listening to music and satellite navigation there are a number of Plug & Play Car Kits and Fully Installed Car Kits available.

Play music from your HD2 through your Car Stereo with the Jabra Cruiser

There are a number of Plug & Play Car Kits that will work with the HD2, and the Jabra Cruiser is one of the best. The Jabra Cruiser is a self install Bluetooth Car Kit that simply clips to the sun visor of your car and pairs to your HTC HD2 using Bluetooth. The Cruiser supports the A2DP profile, which means that you can stream your music to it over Bluetooth and listen to it either using the internal speaker or you can stream the music from the Cruiser to your car stereo speakers using its built in FM Transmitter. If you use a Sat Nav app on your HD2, any voice commands will also be played through your car stereo speakers so you shouldn’t ever miss any directions. The battery life of the Cruiser is upto 14 hours talk time and 250 hours stand by.

Streaming using Bluetooth can be quite a drain on the battery, especially if you are using Sat Nav at the same time so you’ll almost certainly need a car charger and a way of mounting the phone in the car.

Fully Integrated to your Car

If you want a more permanent solution or one where you don’t need to recharge the handsfree unit, then a fully fitted Car Kit will be your best bet.

Parrot MKi9000 for HTC HD2

Of all the car kits available, the best kit you can get for calling, music playback and sat nav is one of the Parrot MKi Car Kits. Parrot only make Bluetooth accessories and because of that they make sure that every phone works brilliantly with their car kits. There are three kits in the MKi range, but the Parrot MKi9000 is your best bet for the HD2, mainly because the 4.3″ screen on the phone means that you don’t need the external screen of the MKi9100 or MKi9200. You can play music from your phone through the MKi9000 either by connecting the 3.5mm headphone jack or you can stream your music to it using Bluetooth. The Mki9000 will synchronise with your phone book, and supports voice dialling. There is also a small remote that you can attach to your dash or steering wheel to control your music (Play/Pause, track skip & volume). When you use Sat Nav on your phone, voice instructions come through your car stereo clearly, and if music is playing at the same time, it briefly mutes out the music so that you don’t miss any directions.

Sat Nav:

The HTC HD2 doesn’t ship with sat nav software installed, so it’s something that you’ll need to buy separately along with a car charger and car mount, but with sat nav applications such as CoPilot Live 8 for the HD2 available for as little as £45 it works out to be a much cheaper option than buying the latest stand alone Sat Nav Unit.

CoPilot Live for the HD2

CoPilot Live 8 is a great alternative to TomTom. The software has been around for years and is the pre-installed mapping application on most T-Mobile and O2 smartphones. Feature wise it does everything that TomTom does, but for a lot less money. It has full UK Postcode search, POI, Lane assist, Text-To-Speech, live traffic and more.  The software can be installed to a memory card or to the internal memory on your phone.

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• How to boost your mobile broadband signal
• How to measure and improve your mobile broadband reception
• Which mobile broadband antenna do you need
• How to fit your mobile broadband antenna
• Mobile broadband antenna range extended
• How to improve signal in the car

The one thing that I’ve not covered yet though is how to find your nearest 3G transmitter so you can work out how to position the High Gain Antenna or Mobile Broadband Panel Antenna correctly.

High Gain Antenna for USB Modems

Both the High Gain and the Mobile Broadband Panel antenna need to be pointed towards the network transmitter in order for them to work effectively, but chances are you won’t know where your nearest transmitter is. Fortunately there is a great tool on the Ofcom website. Sitefinder shows you not only where the transmitters are, but also which network they belong to, what frequencies they transmit on and how high they are.

Before we get to using Sitefinder, it’s worth putting your postcode into the coverage checker on your network’s website (see links below to network coverage maps) to make sure that you do actually live in a 3G coverage area before you start. If the coverage map shows that you live on the edge of 3G coverage, both antenna’s should help, although the Mobile Broadband Panel Antenna will be the better option. If your network says that you don’t have coverage, then neither High Gain and the Mobile Broadband Panel antenna will be of any use to you.

Edge of Coverage Vs No Coverage - Click for more information.

Once you’ve established that you’ve got 3G reception, you’ll need to know where it’s coming from, so for this head over to Sitefinder by Ofcom. It works in a similar way to the network coverage checkers, but instead of showing coverage, shows you the locations of nearby transmitters as small blue triangles on the map. To see details of the transmitter, you’ll need to zoom in as close as you can, until the ‘Zoom in’ option changes to ‘View Base Details‘ as shown below. Once it’s changed click on the blue triangle on the map to see details of that transmitter.

Transmitter Locations on Sitefinder

A pop up window will then open to show you the information on that transmitter. The first thing you’ll need to check is that it belongs to your network. If it does then you should check the Type of Transmission – 3G Transmitters will be UMTS where as standard GPRS transmitters will be listed as GSM. If it doesn’t belong to your network or is a GSM one then the transmitter is of no use to you and you’ll need to go back to the map to find the next nearest. To do this you’ll probably have to zoom out again until you see more blue triangles, then zoom in on them.

Transmitter Details

If you’re struggling to work out exactly where the transmitter is, I find it helps to have a satellite view of Google maps open in a different browser window so that you can cross reference the main roads from the Sitefinder map with the Google map and work out where it is.

Once you’ve determined which transmitter is your nearest 3G one you’ll be able to point your High Gain or Mobile Broadband Panel antenna in the right direction. Keep an eye on the transmitter height too, as you might need to angle it up or down if it’s mounted on the roof of a tall building or you live on a hill.

Coverage Maps

To get started you’ll need to visit your network to check the coverage where you are. These links should take you straight to the relevant page on each networks website.

• Vodafone Coverage Map
• Three Coverage Map
• T-Mobile Coverage Map
• Orange Coverage Map
• O2 Coverage Map

FAQ’s

We get a lot of questions about the mobile broadband antennas, most of them asking the same thing, so to try and answer your questions here are some of the most common questions and answers:

Where can I find 3g coverage map?

Use the links above to go to the networks coverage checkers

What signal booster would we need?

There’s no set answer to this, but as a rule of thumb:

• Clip antenna is best suited for mobile users that use their laptops while they’re out and about in areas with generally good coverage
• High Gain antenna is best suited for those who get 2-3 bars of 3G signal and want a stronger, faster connection
• Outdoor Antenna is best suited for those who get 3G signal outside, but not inside or those that live on the edge of an area of coverage

Which connection type do you use for my dongle?

Please see our post titled “Which Antenna Do I Need?” or find your dongle on the Mobile Broadband section of the Mobile Fun website

I thought the antenna would help boost that but when I connect it, if anything, it reduces the signal.

This can happen if you’re using an antenna with a long cable in an area that already has good signal. You lose some signal strength the further the signal has to travel, so by using extension cables with the outdoor and high gain antenna the dongle can lose signal. If this happens either disconnect the antenna as the signal is strong enough for you not to need it, or reduce the length of the cable. You shouldn’t see a drop in signal strength if you’re in a poor signal area

Does the 3G USB Modem Antenna work?

Yes, although the difference it makes to your dongle will vary depending on the dongle you have, the current strain on the network, distance to the transmitter etc. Other customers have told us that the antenna with a physical connection to the dongle seems to give more of an improvement over the universal one, but an improvement is still seen on both. If you are considering taking out a Mobile Broadband agreement, I’d recommend that you opt for a dongle that has an external antenna connection if you are given the choice.

If you’ve got a question that’s not been covered here, please post it in the Mobile Fun Forums.

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