Sony Ericsson has this week announced another new mobile to add to their collection, this time it is the turn of a clamshell phone. Now clamshell or flip phones seem to have become a little bit scarce these days as slide phones have become flavour of the moment.

The Sony Ericsson Z780, is an upgraded version of the recently announced Z770, with one key added bonus. The main selling point of the Z780 is the integrated GPS which will be ideal for those who travel a lot, and you will also have access to the latest version of Google Maps for Mobile. Google Maps for Mobile can show you where the nearest coffee shop is and then tell you how to get there by determining where you are and providing the best directions.

The mobile has a 2 megapixel camera – which to be honest is slightly disappointing given what Sony Ericsson can do. The Z780 also comes with the typical MP3 player and FM radio, with an internal memory of 35MB, which can be expanded by M2 cards, it should do quite well to hold your music, videos and photos.

The Sony Ericsson Z780 is also 3.5G which means you have HSDPA for fast downloads and video calling. There is a web browser, email client and a blogging tool – which should come in useful for people of the social networking generation.

The Sony Ericsson Z780 should be due for release over the next couple of months, so if you are looking for a stylish flip phone that has a fast data connection and GPS installed this could be your next mobile phone.

The Apple iphone combines all the great facilities which can be seen in one phone. It is a phone, music player, camera, internet device, video and got a wide screen ipod. With a slim and sleek look the phone has 11.6mm thickness, 2.4 inches width and 4.5inches tall.

iPode Feature

The wide screen display with 3.5 inches with a touch screen control is one of the feature of the Apple iphone. Can enjoy all your content which includes music, tv shows, movies and audio books. Scroll through songs, artists and play lists with just one touch with your finger. Features

Another feature which makes Apple iphone special is with just a touch with your finger at a name or number in the address book you can make calls. All the contacts from a PC, Mac or internet can be taken and stored in the iphone. Making a favorite list is also possible to the most frequently made calls. Voicemail messaging can be listened like that in e-mail. Now making conference call from iphone is much easier than with a one touch button. Messaging is now more convenient with SMS application incorporating a predictive QWERTY soft keyboard that prevents and correct mistakes.

The battery lasts for 5hours including talk, video and browsing. 16 hours for audio playback is another feature which makes Apple iphone different from other phones. The ambint light sensor automatically adjusts the brightness of the screen accordingly to the current ambient light. This helps to save battery also.

Camera

With a photo management application the apple iphone has a 2-megapixel camera. Users can take photos from PC or Mac and browsing or emailing can be done with a touch of the screen.

Internet and E-mail

Apple iphone has a rich HTML email client and Safari browser. You can search for Google and Yahoo with this a Safari browser. Google maps are also viewable and zoom to view specific points. You can read a web page while downloading your e-mail in the background with Wifi or Edge. Added with all these great features, you will also get a Bluetooth headset and new headphones which has a switch to answer and hang up calls.

Cell phones nowadays can do many things. The only problem is that is can’t do many things well. At least that was case until the iPhone came around. The iPhone is a game changer.Why is the iPhone a game changer?Because the iPhone is the “killer application” that will bring high speed internet access to phones across the United States.Before the only people who were subscribing to the cell phone companies wireless internet access plans where business people who had to work on the go.Now people are getting it, to “Play” on the go.It begs the question, if you can go on the internet with your phone, why make the phone call? Imagine everyone online at all times. That should be Google’s Mobile Business Mantra. “Having an internet device in every hand running Google searches.”Google is entering the mobile market in a big way.They are buying up frequency spectrums and getting the phone companies to change their business model. I think this is good in my opinion because the people that can fight big phone companies, is another big company. In this case the monster search monopoly Google.Google is fighting the “subscription” based business model that the phone companies forces everyone into, for a more favorable “on-demand” business model. You pay what you use and you can use any service anywhere.So they want to make “phone” access… which really is going to be “internet” access into a commodity.Someday people will take for granted having internet connection on them 24/7. Just like how we are use to computers and high-speed internet now.The iPhone is a game changer, we will all soon have mobile web 24/7 on us at all times. This will lead to the internet as a commodity.Imagine being in a traffic jam and being about to chat with the cars around you!

I thoroughly enjoy being a handset reviewer. I’m always one of the few to have the privilege to try out new handsets. And just to say how much I really love being in this role – I only write a review after I feel that I’ve tested the handset enough and have a good assessment of the proos and cons. Every review that I write is not a mere collection of secondary sources. It’s my own assessment after using the test set that I’m given for a few days. But well, what few people know is that I ended up being a handset reviewer (as part of my job scope) by chance because I was really looking at the SaaS trends and the future product roadmap in the mobility and collaboration space.

As phones become more and more like mini-computers, the types of applications running on the phones become more and more important. More and more people use phone for doing more than just making phone calls and SMS/MMS or emails. I use my phone to tweet, to check out my news feed, to play games and videos, listen to music and do some simple photo editing.

Between Apple and Google. I am placing my bet with Google. While Apple is really good with its devices and has huge success with its Appstore, Apple is still very much in the consumer space. Apple is driving iPhone adoption in the enterprise market by supporting Microsoft Outlook  Exchange push mail and leaving it to the software developers or SaaS providers such as salesforce.com or sugarsync to develop iPhone applications. Its move into push mail for Outlook Exchange has certainly waken RIM up. RIM has just launched its business grade iPhone-equivalent as a retaliatory tactic (see my other post on Blackberry Storm).

Google on the other hand uses a flanking approach. It does not support Microsoft Exchange push email and therefore does not attract much attention from RIM. G1’s target segments are users who really love to have push capabilities for email, calendar and contacts and yet do not want to pay for Apple Mobile-Me or the great fans of Gmail users who desire to have the push capability as well as the small businesses who do not have outlook exchange and are or intend to use web-based emails. In addition, I believe over time Google will replicate its full suite of desktop apps onto its mobility roadmap. All the Google apps are part of a growing suite of services that support search, collaboration and mobility.

While the form factor of the G1 phone is not exactly as sexy as that of an iPhone, the G1 phone and Android software are really designed to support search, collaboration and mobility. To facilitate its mobility roadmap, Google made Android an open platform so that developers can access the core mobile device functionality through standard APIs to develop apps that truly encourage collaboration and mobility. I won’t be surprised if Google starts to make the mobile version of its Google Gadgets available on its Android platform. That means the Google gadgets can be placed easily on my mini-mobile web pages or microblogs.

Where would you place your bet on? Google or Apple?

In late July, Google announced that it will be offering live traffic information to mobile phones in more than thirty U.S. cities. Plans to provide the traffic feature to PCs are still in the works. The Google traffic feature will be released as an update to the free Google Maps for Mobile service, which has been available for 18 months for download on the Google web site. Google would not disclose how many subscribers it has, but it says the number is growing rapidly.
The feature expands Google’s mapping technology into an area where Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo already have a presence, but in different ways. Yahoo and Microsoft offer real-time traffic information on their Web-based mapping services for PCs. Microsoft has chosen to move into the mobile “space” by licensing traffic-monitoring technology for mobile devices to a Kirkland-based startup, InRix Inc. Yahoo currently has no mobile traffic service. MapQuest, an AOL property, offers traffic reports over cell phones for $2.99 per month.
With typical bombast, Microsoft announced that when operable, the InRix mobile service will actually predict upcoming traffic problems – however currently the MSN mobile mapping technology provides no traffic information at all.
In the cities where it works, the Google feature will show traffic conditions on most major highways – indicating green for clear roadways, yellow for medium congestion and red for high congestion or stopped traffic. Google Maps will work on most Java-enabled phones offered by Cingular and Sprint and all color BlackBerry devices. The service does not currently work on phones from other major carriers such as Verizon or T-Mobile USA. Google Maps sends the data – obtained from an undisclosed source – every five minutes.
Although Google’s free service doesn’t identify traffic hazards or accidents, it will let drivers know if there is a clogged road. Google also shows the expected drive time for a route when phone users search for driving directions. It has introduced a feature that lets users save their favorite locations and frequently used driving directions for future use.
The three search engines are not alone, however. In February, Rand McNally Traffic began offering a downloadable mobile application that delivers news of real-time traffic flow, accidents, weather conditions and road closures to 94 cities. Rand McNally Traffic is available on Sprint, Nextel, AT&T Wireless and other services for $3.99 a month.
Media giant Clear Channel Communications’ Total Traffic Network feeds content in 125 markets in the country to 15 services. One of them provides the information to subscribers with Sprint mobile phones for a $9.99 monthly subscription. That service is relatively new. In addition to weather conditions and traffic information, the service also provides data on gas station prices.
Cell phones are rapidly turning into GPS devices, with localized information as an added feature. It remains to be seen how many people will turn to their cell phone screens for traffic news, one eye on the road and another on the phone. In some states and several local jurisdictions, it is already illegal to use a handheld cell phone while driving. Some of these jurisdictions allow hands free use, but that won’t help with a visual feature. It will be interesting to see if this new functionality is limited by governmental concern over safe driving habits.