“Smooth sailing” is a term that just cannot be used to refer to the iPhone 4G’s release. First, there was the yellow smudges appearing on the Retina Displays and now, reports say that reception is poor on their out of the box iPhone 4Gs. Well for left-handed users anyway.

The reception problem that has been occurring recently can be attributed to covering the mobile phone’s bottom left corner. Bridging the gap with your finger keeps the iPhone 4G’s antenna from getting the signal properly and thus cuts your conversation short. While this is surprising, it is still good news, mainly because it does not involve anyone sending back their beloved units for a replacement.

Well, at least not yet. Simply move your hand out of the way and Apple’s mobile phone should work fine. Actually, going for a case that prevents your flesh from ever touching that part of the iPhone 4G will help keep the reception clear. Here is the advice:

“This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.”

It may sound weird to you but Apple insists that this is a normal thing for mobile phones and some have it worse than others. This is basically dependent on where the antenna is located on the mobile phone’s chassis. Since the past models of the iPhone had it and the Nexus One has it, then this must be a fact.

But really, what would it have taken to just move the internal parts of the iPhone around to allow for normal phone operations for left-handed users? If Apple is not going to fix this slight miscalculation issue in their production, maybe they should give out some pro bono slip cases to keep the fans happy.

While it originally seemed like that the OS will be filled with so much features and additional content, Microsoft has managed to keep their development cogs turning and churning fast enough to make it to the holiday launch they promised.

At the Mobile World Congress held last February in the beautiful city of Barcelona, Spain; Steve Ballmer took the stage and gave the world its first look at the Windows Phone 7 operating system. Without a doubt, many users of the older Windows Mobile OS were outright impressed with the stylish new user interface, at how smooth all the transitions were and the fact that it made full use of capacitive touch screen controls.

The demonstration ended with a promise that the OS would be delivered to the public by the holidays of this year.

While it seemed that announcing a new almost a full year in advance might have not been a good idea, Microsoft is so far, managing to pull it off. The weeks have been full of new updates, demonstrations, and announcements regarding what will be added and what manufacturers will be making handset for the new OS.

From the basic Zune, Bing and Xbox Live Games features that were shown off at the MWC to the addition of Silverlight, XNA 3D, the new MSN Player and even an upcoming Adobe Flash Player update, there is plenty that this new OS is going to offer t the public. Apple’s iPhone will not only have contend with the open source Android, now it will be matched by another closed system that could potentially be offering even more functionality in the form of the Windows Phone 7 OS.

Business enterprise users have not been forgotten by Microsoft. Despite the general consumer focus of the WP7 OS, they have promised that they will continue the development of the Windows Mobile OS. In fact, they recently launched Windows Embedded Handheld for WinMo.

The HTC Wildfire is finally available from mobile network operator Vodafone UK. According to the most recent announcements, the device is available for free on several contract offers by the network operator.

Our recommended pick would be the 20 Pound monthly tariff for two years which gives the user unlimited text messages, 300 minutes of talk time and about 500 MB of data allowance each month. The offer takes full advantage of the device’s social networking capabilities, which is much recommended for anyone who wants to have the full value of owning this impressive Android handset.

In terms of specs, it is hard not to be impressed with what the HTC Wildfire has to offer. First off, the device comes with a nice big 3.2 inch TFT capacitive touch screen. A typical display for a mid range handset, it handles video playback and web browsing quite easily. The screen will support multi touch gestures, has an accelerometer, a proximity sensor that will automatically shut off the screen when used for a voice call and the HTC Sense user interface. Aside from the touch screen, there is an optical trackpad on the bottom of the device as well as support for movement gestures which will allow users to instantly switch the device to mute or to “dim out” an incoming call.

With the Qualcomm MSM7225 528MHz CPU, apps run fairly fast on this Android OS. Just do not expect to get super smooth performance when running resource intensive games. But for most phone functions, the CPU is able to provide a stable and fast experience.

The Wildfire’s main features focus heavily on social networking. It has several integrated apps that would allow users to easily access accounts on Facebook and Twitter as well as file hosting sites such as Flicker and YouTube for uploading media content to be shared.

There are plenty of new and convenient things that the internet and smart phone technology is bringing to the people. For many small local businesses, nothing can be more influential than having a good location based service (or at least a tie up with Foursquare).

While investing in a major advertising project is too much for your typical corner pub, it still helps to get good internet reviews. And while there are plenty of GPS apps that would help lead new customers to a store, nothing beats getting great recommendations from pub goers themselves.

It is common to find reviews by professional critics in local media, but the internet can offer something more –what the local residents say. There are many products, services and features that many locals are able to grasp, understand and talk about more –like how a favorite local snack is served just perfectly, or how the ambiance proves to be great for drinking or catching the latest match on the telly.

And of course, it also helps being able to avoid the criticisms. As much as a professional review could put down a classy restaurant, a local store will have trouble attracting new customers with bad reviews.

Another major factor that is important with locations based services, is that they actually lead people into the store. Any facility of location that is made available on an online directory can be found on search and will be a major recommendation for anyone nearby. While this will not be attracting new customers from across town, at least the folks who just moved in the apartment several blocks down the road might be encouraged to go.

Meanwhile, apps such as Foursquare are providing customers with plenty of virtual rewards and incentives for customers –stores would be wise by adding in some real life incentives as well.

Smart phones are designed to do many things. From expected features such as allowing users to make and receive calls and messages to having memory storage space for contact information and for the inbox of messages. With the arrival of better hardware, mobile phones begun to do more. From being able to connect to email servers to playing media content, the average mobile phone today has plenty of basic capabilities.

The arrival of smart phone technology, and more importantly, the new, complex mobile platforms that have been introduced, the capabilities of the smart phone has exponentially increased in the past few years.

While manufacturers and phone developers have been able to do plenty of things for the technology and the community, there are still plenty of functions that the average smart phone can provide. Thanks to the high power processors, large capacity batteries, massive touch screens and other hardware available, a standard smart phone of today is pretty much a very small, low power computer.

However, making use of this hardware is not something that phone makers can focus on. It is up to independent developers and companies to create specialized software for phones –and that is why we have apps.

But why apps are so famous and widespread is a different matter.

Sure, a mobile phone can do plenty of things, but Google and HTC has better things to do than program a augmented reality golfing guide –and that is where the apps come in for the end users. By allowing developers to create and distribute apps for different smart phones, users are able to access a wide variety of content and install specifically what they need.

From simple RSS readers to fun interactive games to very complex information databases, apps can store and provide a vast variety of data and functions. While there are a wide range of apps available for most platforms, they certainly shouldn’t be ignored when it comes to purchasing a new phone. Whether or not it has that must-have-app may prove the deciding factor between, say, that new Samsung Wave 2, or the Apple iPhone 4.

With the new Gigabyte GSmart S1205 smart phone, being able to have the convenience of two active SIM cards in one device comes at a price: no 3G. This may not be an issue for some business class users, which makes the S1205 a perfect match, but for those who rely on 3G access to conduct their needs –this phone is not for you.

Anyway, if 3G access is not that important and being able to have WiFi is more than enough, this new Gigabyte mobile phone is a good match. The Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional provides users with enough functionality that will let you handle of work related tasks even while on the go.

The device comes with a 3.2 inch TFT resistive touch screen. While it may be a drag having to use stylus, it works great when it comes to handling the various cells in spreadsheets and of course, for navigating the WinMo 6.5 operating system.

The smart pack user interface takes a while to get used to –especially if you are already used to the older WinMo UI. Still, it makes for a good way to access data as it is actually a lot easier to use in the long run –content is more accessible and there are more shortcuts to use. The 3.2 mega pixel camera does a great job at handling quick images; it even has a low resolution video recording capability. Since the device’s internal memory is a little low, users are better off with micro SD cards (the device can support up to 16GB).

With the 1320 mAh capacity Li-Po battery, the GSmart will give users up to 150 hours of standby time on a full charge –it is recommended that users bring the charger when they are going off on long business trips.

The UK is no stranger to policy debates and discussions regarding the need to extend and expand mobile network coverage. Even in the busy streets of London, there are locations where signal is slow, bad or in some cases, completely absent and there is a need to address this concern.

With technology now pushing for the use of 4G/WiMax networks and faster data transfer speeds, there is also a humanitarian and social call for operators to seek and find the places that are not covered by their services. After all, having faster connections is not as important as bringing the connection to everyone.

However, seeking out the places, regions and area that have weak or no mobile coverage is difficult and even if Vodafone places all of its resources to finding these places, they would need plenty of time. In order to make the task easier, Vodafone has sent out a call to all of its users and subscribers to give the network a quick and instant feedback of network signal strength and availability in the various areas of the UK.

In order to participate, Vodafone users simply need to make a quick Tweet about where they are, what connection they are using and how strong the connection is. This will give Vodafone a clearer and more defined idea of which places are not getting good signals (as these locations would not be present in the tweets). For anyone who does not use Twitter, Vodafone will also allow you to post the information directly on their website.

While there are no incentives or rewards for anyone participating in the program, this is actually something that people should do when they can. The effort spent here is not just going to be beneficial to Vodafone, but for everyone as well as it will help Vodafone UK determine how they will improve and expand their network to provide coverage for more people.

It may be a bit of a surprise for some people, but the Samsung Wave 2 and the Wave 2 Pro smart phones are officially confirmed to be mid to low range handsets. With the original Samsung Wave being a pretty impressive high end smart phone, it was originally thought that the next device in the series would have bigger touch screen display, a faster processor and overall, better features. Instead, the Wave 2 and Wave Pro 2 are more of watered down versions of the original device.

This is easily explained by the fact that Samsung aims to put the Bada OS into the mid range smart phone market as opposed to competing with the big giants of the high end market (which would be the Android, Windows Phone 7 and the Apple iPhone). The original goal from Samsung was that they wanted to bring smart phone technology to everyone.

And by turning the Bada into the best mobile platform for this range of handsets, Samsung has a chance to gain a good hold of the market (they would still have to compete with the Android as the Google OS is being used in low to high end smart phones).

In detail, the S5250 Wave 2 and S5330 Wave 2 smart phones are pretty identical in terms of specs; the only difference is that the Wave 2 Pro has a physical QWERTY keyboard. The devices come with a pretty decent sized screen at 3.2 inches with a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels. With an internal memory of 80MB, users are better off using a 16GB micro SD card for storing data and other content. Of course, the phones will be using the Bada operating system, so expect to get plenty of good app support and a good choice of games for the platform.

Nokia is coming up with new N-series handsets and it will not be using the Maemo/MeeGo operating systems. Surprisingly, Nokia will be using the older Symbian operating system –or rather, not so old, as they will be using the new Symbian^3 operating system (the open source version of the OS).

For anyone who wants a Symbian handset, this device is a great addition. It brings together good multimedia playback, has plenty of internal memory, a great camera for taking images and shooting videos and a decent mobile platform that has support from the Nokia Ovi Store. As expected, this handset comes with AGPS support so expect to receive free Nokia Ovi Maps voice guided satellite navigation services as well.

For a touch screen smart phone, the N8 can be a little bulky. While the hard edged form factor is sure to attract tech fans, the back side of the device suffers from an unsightly lump because of the digital camera (though it looks rather nice in images).

In terms of specs, the device is pretty much well rounded with the exception of the CPU. The device sports a powerful 12 mega pixel snapper, a 3.5 inch OLD touch screen display, the Symbian^3 OS, 16GB of internal memory, support for microSD cards up to 32GB and plenty of media playback capabilities. It is lacking a little in the speed department with the ARM 11 680MHz CPU, so expect a bit of slowdowns when running resource heavy functions.

For its specs, the device is a respectable 12mm thick, though they could have done better by eliminating the excess bulk near the camera. And it is quite light -135 grams for a smart phone with these many features is actually pretty good.

Overall, it is a great phone to look forward to if you want a Symbian handset, but for those looking for a full smart phone experience, better hold out for an Android instead.

These days, getting in touch is simply a matter of sending a quick SMS message on the phone. It is handy, convenient and takes little to no time at all. This technology has allowed plenty of people to keep in touch, to arrange quick gatherings and to even hold instant celebrations. With the rise of 3G and wireless internet, more and more features have been added to mobile phones, people now have access to social networks, microblogging and of course, the rest of the internet.

The question now, is should you give a child a smart phone?

The issue may not seem like a big deal, but with most children already owning Facebook accounts and considering online interaction as more important that actually physical contact, there is the large risk that a child who is ‘unplugged’ would be ostracized and alienated by the very same people at school or the playground.

While parents may prefer to look for handsets with parental lock settings or other nonsensical features, the real concerns is how parents are capable of preparing their children for the burden of responsibility when it comes to the internet.

The answer being with actually knowing for oneself what is considered to be right, wrong, accepted and rejected on the internet. With millions of users online, the web is a very gray moral area, with people supporting various views regarding society, religion, politics and many other issues.

A child need not be knowledgeable in all these fields, but it is up to the parents to instill a strong sense of will, purpose and self-belief in one’s own moral compass for determining what is proper and what is not.

The next issue is teaching a child discipline –which is quite difficult given the impulsive and curious nature of children. The only way to surpass this is when parents show their own patience and perseverance in their goal to teach and guide their children properly.