Mobile Phone Blog – Mobile phone reviews and news

When it comes to owning a smart phone, one has to wonder how much functionality is truly needed. After all, with all the hardware and features that can be squeezed into a single handset, there is a limit to how far a device goes from being useful to outright novelty –and tacky. The Nokia X3 Touch and Type is able to keep a convenient distance away from that technological pitfall by sticking to the basics.

Social Networking is Still Key

If there is one thing that really works for the Nokia Touch and Type handset, it is the fact that it combines connectivity with social networking. As much as mobile phones have originally been created for calling and later, for text messaging, it is hard to deny that social networking is the new medium of communication for many people.

First off, the device supports 3G and WiFi –this along brings enough connectivity for users wherever they may be. With the fast and stable connection speeds for both 3G and WiFi networks it is pretty easy to see how this mobile handset will keep users online and up to date.

Of course, the second important factor is the integrated social networking features. The handset brings Facebook, Twitter and instant messaging through Yahoo and Windows Live for users to be able to access instantly from the phone menu.

Better Typing Methods

Typing on the Nokia Touch and Type is a breeze. Initially, one would be a little disoriented at having the 4 column layout as opposed to the usual 4 row set found in regular T9 keypads. But that is not really an issue. Give any user a few moments of using the device and they will be typing out messages pretty fast. Being able to use the resistive touch screen to move around the message also makes editing and scrolling a whole lot faster as well. Of course, Nokia always like to give their customers options, so if you really don’t fancy learning your way around the 4 column keypad, there’s always the Nokia C3 Touch and Type.

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While it would not be wrong to state that Smart phones allow people to get in touch with others in a deeper way despite being separated by both time and distance, the mobile phone technology is also doing some not-so-epic changes in the way people live their lives as well.

In a recent study by Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research, they found out that at least 21% of women would actually go online and check Facebook the moment they get up. This activity precedes everything else from eating, washing the face, brushing one’s teeth or simply even getting up from bed.

Obviously, these women are not dragging themselves up to sit down at a desktop computer nor are they flipping open a netbook –these gals are checking their social networking status through the smart phone. A smart phone makes web access fast, easy and very convenient. While it is true that not everyone makes use of a handset (there are some that would use a tablet or an actual netbook), but for the most part, it is the smart phone’s accessibility that makes it all possible.

Size is just one of the many factors that make a smart phone a truly unique device –and one that is perfect for communication. First off, it is easy to carry around. This allows users to understand and learn how to use a smart phone better than a computer. Second, it is almost always on. Provided that a little energy management is put into use, a fully charged battery can get you through the day.

The most important feature of the smart phone is the fact that the device is convenient to use. No need for chairs, tables, power outlets and for those with 3G, no need for WiFi either. Women use their phones to check Facebook because it is the device that will get them online the fastest.

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If you use a smart phone, chances are you use the device to check the internet often, view your social networking account and sometimes, check the occasional uploaded media. Email is checked regularly, even if not on an everyday basis, but it will still be part of life. This is not the future that Sheryl Sandberg predicts.

To be precise, Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg stated that Email “is probably going away”.

Before we believe such predictions, the important point here is to get to the bottom of the argument. According to the Officer, teens of today are projecting the web usage patterns of tomorrow. That by itself is a pretty logical argument.

Now, Sheryl expands her predictions by stating that teens do not use email daily –that only 11% of teens do so. And with that being said, she predicts that eventually, nobody will use email. Actually, going by her own example, in the future, nobody will use email “daily” –and that is the key point that she missed.

Using email daily meant using the web communication tool for writing to friends and family, this is a function that is slowly being moved to the private messaging functions within Facebook. But at the same time, email is still used for registrations and other similar functions, and in this regard, it will not be phased out.

Take physical billing addresses, while the advent of email phased out mail based correspondences, the mail service still thrives until today and is a vital part of society, though its casual usage has been drastically reduced. Email will also follow the same path.

A basic example of this is by checking one’s own email contacts list, and the friends list one has in Facebook or in other social networking website. Often, especially for many adults, email accounts are tied up to friends, family, co-workers, clients, business contacts and other similar matters. It also hosts registration information for forums, online stores, banks and similar sites –things that people would not want to be tied up to a social network account.

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Mobile phones are important, even children need it these days. Having a handset means that you can contact your child at any time and be sure of how they are doing and where they are. A single text message is discreet and unobtrusive, and children feel at ease answering these digital notes.

Of course, having a mobile phone is much more than that. While it is easy to control what calls a child can make (some phones can be locked and some network operators have special family plans –as well as the ability to cut off call functions once the duration goes past the monthly allowances), there are other phone functions to consider, most importantly, the ability to access the internet.

What makes mobile phones –smart phones in particular a bigger issue than computer is the fact that children do not always have access to the home computer at a very young age, and adding a password is quite easy. Mobile phone access on the other hand gives the child warrant to go online almost anytime, anywhere, and this, if stopped abruptly, could prove to be a difficult decision to bear with.

Teaching children about using web access properly starts with teaching them to have a conviction of their own, and the strength to stand up for their own belief. With their peers most likely on social networks that they too will be joining, it is important that a child understands that the web is not a place that will tell you what is right and wrong, and that it is up to each user to determine what should be done.

Of course, a little guidance along the way help, but over surveillance could lead children to start hiding things. The most important thing to do after teaching a child is to actually trust the child to follow what was taught.

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Smart phones are pushing technology forward, thanks to the fact that handsets, by nature, are devices that people will tend to carry around the most; it also provides the biggest room for feedback, study, analysis and direct user-reactions. Even the manufacturers themselves have one or two smart phones in their pockets all the time.

For the past couple of years, the emergence of better WiFi and 3G network technology has allowed the growth of the internet thanks to continued access from smart phones, and social networking sites such as Facebook and microblogging site Twitter has grown to new heights thanks to instant access from mobile phones.

Now, the smart phone-internet combination is getting another important new addition; GPS. Location based services for smart phones are not new, but in the past few months, they have been growing a lot. Apps such as Foursquare have become major hits as they not only allowed people to connect online, the level of interactivity also begun to involve the places they visited.

Some location based services are even taking the service one step further. While Foursquare and other similar apps offer virtual rewards, Looptstar promises actual, real life rewards to users. Ranging from free downloadable content to store discounts, Looptstar has made plenty of store deals that would make anyone’s daily errands a whole lot more rewarding.

At this point, location based networking is still at its early stages, and not many people are too keen about checking in to have this presence logged. But as the services begins to get more and more ties ups with actual establishments and more people start using it. Peer pressure is actually a lot more powerful than what one might imagine. It will have the same pull as Facebook – people have to join because opting out equates to being left out.

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Until now, many people still believe that a panic button is the perfect device to prevent cyber bullies, stalkers and sexual predators from using the Facebook social networking site. However,  there are also many people on the internet who know too well the various capabilities of software and the fact that a visible panic button is hardly anything scary –making its deterrence value practically zero.

Well, it would fend off some annoyances on the internet, but the real problem is people who are dedicated in their malicious intent. Most often, these individuals are not only capable of manipulating their victims through communication, but they are also well versed in the electronic medium (which is why they hunt for their prey here in the first place).

Simply put, Facebook knows the basic profile of the problem users and they are aware that a panic button will not solve anything. Getting people to be brave about reporting however, is the key strategy that could win the war against pedophiles.

There are now new help centers and guides that users can use to help them out with their grievances. Victims can now find help not only in reporting abusers, but also in being able to deal with the situation. There are detailed and step by step guides for identifying content that is considered unacceptable as well as how to report such things to the moderators.

Of course, this effort needs to be complemented by both parents and law enforcement. Adults have to take charge in educating others about the various dangers of the internet and what they should do if they encounter such people. Facebook can take care of children only so far, the real responsibility still belongs with the family.

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Children need to be prepared about the world that they are going to venture into. And despite many of us having been brought up in a generation where protecting the innocence of children was the perfect excuse to avoid having that oh-so-complicated talk about the birds, bees, responsibility and child-rearing, it is high time for parents all over the world to face the hard facts of modern reality: in this day and age, it is virtually impossible to shelter children from the many realities of the world.

The average age for children to receive their first smart phone or learn to access the internet has been gradually getting younger and younger each year. Unfortunately, the system employed by parents has not adjusted at all. In fact, it has simply become a more complicated game of home-based censorship as it is about proper guidance.

And thus our society finds itself embroiled in disputes as to how much responsibility social networking sites should have when it comes to stopping internet predators and cyber-bullies in their tracks.

To take the events of Google Italy’s recent case, it seems that the general public is happy to place the heads of anyone running an internet service for content that is made by users. While it is unlikely that Facebook would be facing the same verdict, the pressure to implement a panic button for users has been pretty strong in the past few weeks.

In the end, Facebook has decided to meet with many experts and groups regarding measures that can be taken to discourage abusive users from the social networking site. The rest however, still remains as the responsibility for parents. For a social networking site, Facebook has already done more than enough for society; it is time society learns to take care of itself.

Read more about the pressures for the addition of a Panic Button on Facebook at the Telegraph UK.

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