Mobile Phone Accessories Review

Nokia Image Viewer SU-2

jim111922 — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 19:52:39 +0000

This is a great product for people who take a lot of photos! The idea is that you take photos then upload then via Bluetooth on to the image viewer before putting them on to a TV or video projector etc… The Bluetooth connection is the brilliant part of this, it means there are no cables and it’s a very neat and tidy device. You use an RCA cord to connect it to a TV or however else you want to output it. It has all the usual presentation settings like buttons to change picture or do it automatically every 4 or 8 seconds. You can also rotate images.

The image viewer is powered either by 4 AAA batteries or a Nokia charger and is compatible with PAL or NTSC; therefore, it can be used all over the world. One of the only downsides is its small memory size. It has a 3MB capacity which is about 65 SMALL pictures. These days with multi mega-pixel cameras photos are much larger so make sure you reduce the sizes before transferring otherwise you will only fit about 10 on it! It is compatible with the Nokia 3650 and 7650 as well as other phones supporting Bluetooth 1.1.

iTech SIM Drive

jim111922 — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:45:16 +0000

This is another great SIM product that has come on the market. Rather than it being a dual SIM reader and enabling 2 SIM cards to work in one phone, this enables you to read the data off your SIM and put it on to your PC. All you do is put your SIM card into it and then insert it into one of your USB ports, then you can download all of your contacts in a matter of seconds. If you need to put a lot of contacts on to your phone then I would recommend using this; you put them on to your computer when you can create, delete or edit entry’s using your computer keyboard rather than the phone one so it is much quicker. You can store up to 1,000 contacts from your SIM on to your PC.

It works very well and is easy to use, the only downside is that is only has a flash memory size of 512KB (as stated above this is still 1,000 contacts but it still could be much bigger). It is the kind of gadget you may only use once or twice but for the $12-$15 price, it is definitely worth it if you have many contacts to add or edit.

Siemens C35 Dual SIM Holder

jim111922 — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 02:06:59 +0000

This is quite a handy little gadget! It enables you to use two SIM cards in your phone at once. This only fits the Siemens C35 but you can get them for most phones now. If you have for example a pay as you go SIM card and a contract SIM card then you can put them both in and simply switch the phone off and back on again and be using a different one. It is very useful rather that continually taking the back off your phone or having to carry two phones around. Another good use is instead of having a personal and a work phone, put both of these in a switch between the two.

It is worth investing in, definitely much cheaper than buying a new phone at around $20 (if not cheaper on places like eBay). It is very simple to use and even the most novice user would be able to work it out. It fits on to the back of your phone instead of the normal cover so that you can’t tell you have done anything from the outside. When dial SIM readers were first brought out a few years ago they had some teething problems which have all been fixed now and they work very well!

Sony Ericsson Snap-On Speakers MPS-75

jim111922 — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:24:32 +0000

When you think of a Sony Ericsson phone, you generally think of the rust colored walkman phone that this accessory looks like it was made for! It fits the entire ‘w-series’, ‘k-series’ as well as a few others and costs around $30-$40, so it is a pretty decent value for money…or is it? Sure, it looks like it would fit in with the color scheme you have on your phone, but that’s about it! The speakers are far too small to make any difference to the sound quality coming out of your phone. There is plenty of treble, but absolutely zero bass. So, you are stuck with the ‘tiny’ noise that you associate with mobile phone speakers.

I expect more from Sony, who tends to pride themselves on their music products. I thought they might come up with something better than this. The only advantage that they really have over the phone speaker is that they are stereo rather than mono. They use all the fancy terms like ‘Neodymium speakers’ etc… But, it doesn’t make them any good! They are powered through the phone and are quick to connect. I wouldn’t recommend buying them; I’d spend a bit more and get some externally powered speakers. But, that’s just me!

Bluetrek UFO Bluetooth Headset

jim111922 — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 02:16:18 +0000

The Bluetrek UFO Bluetooth Headset is a mid to upper range Bluetooth headset at around $60-$80, but it is definitely worth it. If you don’t use headsets very often then you should definitely go for a more budget version. However, if you use them all day then this is the ideal headset for you. Bluetrek has concentrated on unbelievable comfort. They give you 2 fittings for different ear sizes and the speaker is flat to your ear when in. In addition, this unique headset weighs only 8 grams so sometimes you will forget it’s actually in your ear! The headset also has a DSP function, which gives excellent sound quality as well as echo cancellation and the reduction of ambient sound in the background.

The downside to this is its talk time. It has a talk time of only 6 hours and a standby time of 8 days (192 hours), which isn’t much compared to the Jabra BT2020 headsets of 360 hours! It all depends on what you will be using the headset for; do you prefer the sophistication and comfort of this headset or do you prefer the simplicity of the BT2020? One thing that the Bluetrek definitely wins on is its styling; it looks great with its chrome buttons and contemporary design. No one can argue with that!

Jabra VT2020 Bluetooth Headset

jim111922 — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:12:23 +0000

I have used Jabra Bluetooth Headsets in the past and they have all been excellent. They are a lesser known brand but really make quality electronics. This is a good value headset that means you drive or walk and talk at the same time, safely! The headset has a talk time of up to 8 hours and a standby time of a massive 360 hours. It is very lightweight and the majority hides behind your ear so people can hardly see it. If you spend a lot of time driving or you’re moving around a lot then it’s definitely worth investing in.

In the past, Bluetooth Headsets have been quite complicated to pair up to your phone and then haven’t had the best quality for conversations. However, both of these things have been fixed on the Jabra BT2020. It has an auto-pairing up feature to enable easy set up as well as Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and eSCO for crystal clear conversations. All in all, this is a great accessory that should definitely be considered when buying a headset. The talk time may not be as long as some of the others but it is a very good value for money headset at only around $25 from a great brand.

SanDisk 4GB Micro SD Memory Card

jim111922 — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 02:04:37 +0000

The SanDisk 4GB Micro SD Memory Card is a great accessory. Why pay so much money for an iPhone when you can turn almost any phone into one using this. It is much cheaper at around $20-$25 and enables you to store well over 1000 songs on your phone. The great thing about Micro SD Memory Cards is that they are very compatible, you can generally use them in phones, camera’s and even in computers that have a memory card reader. This means that you can put whatever media you want from your computer straight on to it and then on to your phone within a matter of minutes. This is the world’s smallest storage device and is a great addition to your phone.

People often go straight for the iPhone if they want a phone that plays music but there are so many other much cheaper options available to them if they look around and this is one instance of it! Sure, it isn’t as ‘cool’ and you won’t be able to show it off like an iPhone, but it enables yours to have the same functionality. Remember, it’s not looks that count; it’s what is on the inside!

Mobilerated.com – Free Downloads for Mobiles

jim111922 — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:59:19 +0000

Yes, we easily could have spent days on Fun For Mobile, and even if we had packed a lunch and camped-out, we still just barely would have covered the tip of the iceberg, because they keep adding new stuff and updating all the time. But we grew curious about what else was out there. Our search took us next to Mobile Rated (www.mobilerated.com), where other explorers promised we would find “a nice collection of free goodies, including Java games, puzzles, trivia, and other apps.” Mobile Rated perfectly complemented Fun For Mobile, because it specializes in games and apps like “FFM” specializes in tones and images.

Mobile Rated especially reassured us all their downloads are perfectly legal. Truth told, we hadn’t even considered that copyright thing, so the reminder and reassurance helped a lot. Mobile Rated made searching easy, letting us survey the most popular games or allowing us to search for the stuff especially matched with our phones’ makes and models.

Sometimes, sites have forums where no one posts or the posts are so techie-nerdie-cryptic you must show your “squint squad” membership card to make sense of them. On Mobile Rated, however, we found lots of posts in each of seven useful categories: free games, free applications, installation over the air, installation via PC, mobile devices, data plans, and suggestions for the site itself. The game reviews were pretty good, but games are so much a matter of personal taste it’s hard to know which recommendations really have any value. We especially appreciated the installation assistance, because it broke down the how-to-fix-its into instructions we actually could understand and follow.

Because I’m not exactly your state-of-the-art computer gamer, I happily downloaded my old favorite Solitaire game. The download was quick, easy, and painless, and I was turning and sorting my little cards in practically no time.

Funformobile.com – Free downloads

jim111922 — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 12:53:13 +0000

Because we kind blew the budget on the phone, we didn’t have a whole lotta cash, credit, or PayPal left-over for “fun” stuff; but the peer pressure is overwhelming. All the cool kids have custom ringtones, wallpaper, videos, games, and apps. We cannot let the mobile-phone bullies make fun of us in the lunch area. So, we went in search of the best sites for free stuff. After all, what can be better than free—especially if it’s free and cool.

Our first destination: Fun for Mobile (www.funformobile.com). What a great site! A mobile-phone apps almost-paradise and everything free for the clicking. We especially liked how the site did most of the search-work for us: enter your phone’s make and model, click on your feature-of-choice, and—poof!—a host of choices. Actually “wide array” probably more accurately and discreetly describes it, because Fun For Mobile offers something for every taste from cute and innocent through rico suave and all the way to full-on raunchy.

Without exaggerating, we confidently can say that we found thousands of ringtones, images, videos, wallpapers, and all the rest.. Because Fun For Mobile served-up such an embarrassment of riches, we let the site do still more of the search-work. For example, we could choose among “popular,” “most popular,” and “Top Ten” ringtones, and we could select today’s greatest hits, the week’s favorites, or the month’s download leaders. How often do we get to decide just how trendy we want to be?

Once we found the stuff we liked best and probably would not gross-out or mothers and English teachers, of course, we went ahead and tested the downloads. They went quickly, easily. Our cool stuff was up and running, ready for use and display just in time for lunch.

Yahtzee – Popular Downloaded Game

jim111922 — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:47:03 +0000

We finally caught-up with the calendar and most of the North American population: We finally wrapped our minds around the fact that our mobile phones really are not so much for making phone calls as for doing all the cool stuff your laptop can do when your laptop is not there. Oh yeah, there’s still plenty of communication goin’ on, but it’s way more sophisticated than actually talking into the mouthpiece and waiting to hear a voice through your ear: it’s all about texting and leaving comments on MySpace and Facebook. We celebrated the ritual debate about “predictive text vs. no predictive text,” discovering that, just like you cannot convert a PC user to a Mac fan, the predictors and anti-predictors can agree to disagree, but they never win converts. We finally get it.

Most of all, we have figured out that our mobile phones exist more for our entertainment than for communication or transmission of vital data. And we grudgingly accept that, until we really and truly can watch episodes of “Gossip Girl” on our phones—you know, like really seeing and hearing them—games come-in as first runner-up. So, we asked ourselves, what are all the cool kids playing? We went to our favorite site, clicked on “favorites,” and—wow!—we discovered Yahtzee at number one!

We know what you’re thinkin, because we thought it, too: Yahtzee, the ol’ granny game we used to play on rainy days when we were so bored we thought we would explode—that Yahtzee?

Yup, that Yahtzee, except that on your mobile phone, somehow, it feels more like playing a slot machine, and you don’t have to wait for your bonehead cousin to figure out whether it’s a straight or one 1. As a matter of fact, that same old Yahtzee has millions, count ‘em millions, of avid fans all around the world. It earned its popularity. Oh, and it also has its high-powered students, too: A guy at Cornell University actually wrote a Ph.D. dissertation about Yahtzee. Can you imagine? The guy is Doctor of Yahtzee. Squint Squaders, rethink your positions, because it requires more thought and strategic calculation than you imagined: exactly how often will you roll a full house in the course of one game? You will roll more than one, you know.

Of course, the free download went lickety-split, and our little fingers were flyin’ in no time. Within the first free minute, we understood why it drove up the charts “with a bullet.” It’s fun. Simple as that. It’s fun.