Mobile Fun Blog

Top 10 Accessories for the BlackBerry Storm2

Friday, November 6th, 2009

The BlackBerry Storm was a big hit for BlackBerry last year and they’re hoping to do even better with their latest touch screen handset – the BlackBerry Storm2. Visually it looks very similar to the original Storm but RIM have made a number of changes to it’s design. The charging port has moved, the screen improved and the buttons under the screen have also changed. If you’re upgrading from the original Storm, some of your accessories will still work, but most cases, covers and desktop chargers won’t.

To help you make the right choice in deciding on accessories for your new smart phone, we’ve compiled our list of top 10 accessories for the BlackBerry Storm2.

1. BlackBerry Storm2 Chrome Charging Pod

With this, you have a great way of showing off your new phone at home or in the office while charging the battery. It can be connected to a mains charger, or to your computer using a USB cable and charges the battery using two small charging pads on the back of your phone so there is no need to mess around with cables. Simply sit your Storm2 in the pod to start charging.

BlackBerry Storm2 Chrome Desktop Charging Pod

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Top 5 Cases for the BlackBerry Storm2

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

With so many different mobile phone cases and covers available, people often ask us “Which is the best case for my BlackBerry Storm2” so to help you out, here’s a list of our top 5 cases for the BlackBerry Storm2.

1. Noreve Traditional Case – BlackBerry Storm2

The Noreve Case for the BlackBerry Storm2 is an elegant case that gives Piel Frama and PDair a run for their money. The case is the same shape as the phone and moulds around it beautifully. The whole case is hand crafted from top quality leather and leaves your camera, charging ports and volume keys accessible. The case has a detachable ratchet clip on the back that can be removed easily to leave the back of the case perfectly flat.

Noreve Case For BlackBerry Storm2

2. BlackBerry Storm2 Leather Pocket

The Storm2 Leather Pocket is a stylish case from BlackBerry. It’s made from high quality leather, has a built in proximity sensor and built in protecti0n for the screen of your Storm2. Removing your phone is easy as it has a thumb groove for improved usability.

BlackBerry Storm2 Leather Pocket

3. BlackBerry Storm2 Skins

BlackBerry Skins are an extremely popular way of protecting your BlackBerry Storm2. They are a rubber case that wraps tightly around your phone protecting the back cover and edges against damage. They leave all the audio and charging ports accessible aswell as the side keys. BlackBerry Skins are available in a range of colours.

BlackBerry Storm2 Skins

4. BlackBerry Storm2 Carry Pouch

The BlackBerry Storm Carry Pouch is a padded carrying case that can be firmly fastened to your belt horizontally. It has a magnetic closure to keep your Storm2 in place and stitched in belt loops to keep it securely attached without adding extra bulk.

Carry Pouch for BlackBerry Storm

5. Storm2 Leather Carry Pouch by BlackBerry

This case fully protects your Storm2 and has built in protection for the screen as well as a proximity sensor to put your device to sleep and save power. It has cut outs on the bottom to make it easy to remove your phone and a magnetic catch to keep it closed. On the back of the case is a rotating belt clip that will let you attach it to your belt at an angle to suit you.

Leather Carry Pouch for BlackBerry Storm2

If you’ve not seen the case here that’s right for you, take a look at our full range of BlackBerry Storm2 cases.

A guide to choosing the best Screen Protector

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Screen protectors are fast becoming one of the most popular accessories for mobile phones – mainly because of the number of handsets with large, high quality displays. A screen protector will stop your screen from getting scratched or damaged and will help keep your handset looking like new.

There are a number of different options available to protect your screen, from a simple MFX screen protector, to privacy screen protectors right through to the top quality Martin Fields Screen Protectors. On paper they all seem to do the same job, but there are subtle differences between them so I’ve put this post together to highlight the key differences between them and make choosing the best screen protector for your phone simple and straight forward.

For this test, I’ve used the same image displayed on an iPhone with the screen brightness set to maximum I’ve then applied a screen protector to half of the screen and taken a photo. The photos have not been edited in anyway other than cropping and no filters have been applied – what you see below is as close to the real thing as possible. You might notice a few air bubbles in the photos, these will normally disappear after a day or two so don’t pay too much attention to these.  The first image here shows how the picture is displayed on the phone with no screen protector fitted.

Test Image with no Screen Protector

Martin Fields Screen Protector:

Martin Fields Screen Protectors are without doubt the best quality screen protector you can get. They’re crystal clear and will make your phone look like new. They don’t reduce the clarity of your screen and colours look exactly the way they’re supposed to. If your screen protector gets dirty, they can be removed easily from the phone, cleaned and refitted.

Martin Fields are exceptionally clear

MFX Screen Protector:

The MFX screen protectors are available for most phones currently on the market and are quick and easy to fit. As you can see from the image below, there is little to no distortion of the images and colours appear as they should. MFX Screen Protectors will work with both touch screen handsets and standard phones and are precision cut to size. If you’ve got a lot of devices that you want to protect, a 12 in 1 Universal Screen Protector Pack is also available. This includes 12 screen protectors of varying sizes that can be cut to fit devices such as cameras, sat nav units, phones & games consoles.

MFX Screen Protector

MFX Mirrored Screen Protector:

Mirrored Screen protectors have two purposes, first and foremost they protect your screen from getting scratched and secondly they can turn your phone into a mirror. Just like the MFX ones, these are precision cut to the size of your phone and are extremely easy to fit. When your phone is in use and the screen is lit up you can see the phone normally. When it’s not in use the reflective coating on the screen protector turns your screen into a mirror.

Makes the screen of your phone reflective

The only slight downside is that they do alter the colours on your phone’s screen slightly.  You can still see clearly enough for calling, texting and emailing, but they can make looking at photos and videos more difficult and as a result, these type of screen protectors are probably suited to non touchscreen handsets or those of you that use your phone more for texting and calling. They do attract finger prints quite easily too, so a Mobile Phone cleaning cloth is a must have item if you use a mirrored screen protector.

MFX Mirrored Screen Protector

MFX Privacy Screen Protector:

The last ones in the MFX family are the Privacy screen protectors. These are a great way of making sure that no one else is looking at what’s on your phone or reading your emails over your shoulder. They’re quite a bit thicker than a standard screen protector and provide extra protection against knocks and scrapes, but more importantly are made so that you can only see through them from certain angles.

Try to view the phone from the side and you won't see anything

Once fitted to your phone you’ll only be able to see the screen of your phone when you’re looking straight at it. If you try and see the screen from the side you’ll just see a black plastic sheet. Although they have a dark tint to them, you shouldn’t have any problems looking at photos or playing videos on your phone. If you find that it darkens the screen too much, just increase the brightness settings on your phone. The Privacy Screen Protectors are precision cut to size and available for most of the latest handsets, as they’re a bit thicker removing air bubbles.

MFX Privacy Screen Protector

The Privacy Screen protectors will work fine with Resistive touch screen handsets, but aren’t currently available for capacative touch screens such as the iPhone, HTC Hero or LG Arena.

InvisibleShield Screen Protector:

The last of the screen protectors then is the InvisibleSHIELD. Technically, this isn’t a screen protector as InvisibleSHIELDs normally cover your whole phone, not just the screen. They’re also made completely differently to the rest – rather than being a solid plastic sheet that sits on your screen, these are made from a soft flexible plastic film that sticks to your handset using a liquid spray adhesive. You spray the invisibleshield with the liquid and then place it on your phone. It dries in seconds and when you remove it from your phone it leaves no residue behind. Of all of the screen protectors here, these are probably the most secure fit to your phone and there is no chance of you catching a corner and it coming off. The downside though is that they do require a little more time and patience to fit, but the end result is well worth it.

InvisibleSHIELD Screen Protection

On my test, the screen image didn’t come out too great, but I’ve had one on my phone for over 12 months and honestly can say that the screen is clear and images aren’t distorted, although they do tend to attract smudges and require wiping clean now and again.

Summary:

If you’re looking purely to protect your screen, then you won’t go wrong with either a Martin Fields Screen Protector or an InvisibleSHIELD. There’s not much between them, although the faster fitting time will probably make the Martin Fields a better option.  Of all of them, I’ve scored the Mirrored one the lowest, but that’s mainly down to how much it changes colours on the screen. In terms of fitting and protection it scores the same as the other MFX Screen Protectors.

My Ratings:

Martin Fields – 10/10
MFX Screen Protector – 9/10
InvisibleShield - 9/10
MFX Privacy – 8/10
MFX Mirrored - 7/10

Plantronics 975 Bluetooth Headset Review

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Plantronics are one of the leading manufacturers of telephone headsets. While their mobile phone range isn’t perhaps as large as rivals such as Jabra, Plantronics tend to focus more on quality over quantity and as a result they tend to pack an impressive number of features into their Bluetooth Headsets.

The last headset released by Plantronics was the Voyager Pro – a heavy duty headset that’s designed to suit the needs of people who use their headset for long periods of time. It is without doubt a great headset – one of the best you can currently get, but for those who want something for more occasional use, or something more discrete, the Plantronics Discovery 975 may suit you better.

Plantronics Discovery 975

The Discovery 975 is a small, lightweight bluetooth headset that looks great and was voted ‘Editors Choice‘ in August by cnet.com so I thought I’d give one a try and see just how good it is.

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How to customise your iPhone with Gelaskin Covers

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

With so many people now having the iPhone they no longer stand out as much as they used to.  To make your iPhone a little bit different, there are a number of iPhone cases and iPhone covers that you can get to brighten the phone up, but if you don’t want the extra bulk that is normally associated with a case?

The answer – GelaSkins.

What are GelaSkins?

GelaSkins are very thin protective covers that are made specifically for your iPhone.  They are made from a strong vinyl that can be removed from your phone without leaving any messy residue behind and are currently for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS.

Gelaskins for iPhone

The artwork for the GelaSkins comes from over 100 artists including contemporary designs by Keith Haring and Nanami Cowdroy as well as some of the more traditional works by Van Gogh and Monet. As well as making your iPhone look good, GelaSkins protect your phone. They cover all of the back of your phone and will stop it from getting scuffed and scratched during everyday use. (more…)

Review: HTC Hero Battery Bank BB G300

Friday, October 30th, 2009

These days smart phones are more power hungry than ever before – but then they do so much more than they used to. It’s not uncommon for handsets such as the HTC Hero to be used now as MP3 players, Sat Nav, Internet & Email devices, Games consoles, video players and more, so it’s no real surprise that most phones now only last around a day before they run out of charge.

The Hero is one of the most popular smart phones currently available from HTC and if you’re using it with the latest software update you should be able to get just over a day’s use out of it before you’ll need to recharge it. For the casual user this isn’t too bad, but if you rely on your phone throughout your working day, you’re going to be running out of power by lunchtime.

Fortunately, the guys at HTC realise this is a problem for most people and have released the HTC Battery Bank BB G300 to help people get more out of their phone.

HTC Battery Bank gives your Hero more power

The Battery Bank is essentially an external battery for your Hero (or any other handset that can be charged using a USB cable). It has a 2680mAh battery, which is roughly twice the capacity of the standard HTC Hero and is capable of charging your handset 3 times before it runs out of power. The Battery Bank is smaller and lighter than the HTC Hero and will fit easily into your pocket or bag, so carrying it around shouldn’t really cause you any issues.

Battery Bank is smaller & lighter than the HTC Hero

Simple to Use

Charging the battery bank is extremely simple. It comes with a Mini USB cable that you can use to charge it from your PC or Laptop, or if you’d prefer you can charge it using your existing HTC charger. To check the remaining power level of the Battery Bank you just need to press a small button on the side of the Battery Bank and a series of LED lights will show you how much power is remaining.

4 LED lights show charge level

As you’d expect, you connect the Battery Bank in the same way as you would your charger. One end of the USB cable connects to your phone and the other to the Battery Bank and your phone starts charging straight away. If your phone is completely dead you can connect the Battery Bank and after a couple of minutes you’ll be able to use your phone while it charges. To fully charge a Hero from empty will take around two hours – longer if you’re using the phone while it’s charging.

Multiple Device Support

While the Battery Bank is made by HTC, it doesn’t mean that it’s only suitable for use with HTC phones. I’ve successfully used the Battery Bank to charge iPods, Bluetooth Headsets, Car Kits as well as phones by Nokia, Sony Ericsson and BlackBerry.  All you’ll need to charge these devices is a USB cable that supports charging.

HTC Battery Bank can also be used with iPods & MP3 Players

Summary

The Battery Bank is a handy accessory to carry around with you – particularly if you don’t work in an office. If you travel a lot or spend long periods of time away from power points then you could find this to be one of those accessories that you can’t be without.  The Battery Bank does what it sets out to do and it does it well. The fact that you can use it to power other devices too is an added bonus. It does cost more than some of the other emergency chargers on the market, but you get what you pay for. The Battery Bank is fast, powerful and doesn’t run off AA batteries. If you don’t use your phone that much and just want a spare charger for emergencies then this isn’t the charger for you, this is more suited to those who are using their phone heavily and find they can’t make it through a day without running out of juice.

Review: X-mini II vs. X-mini Capsule

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

With more and more mobile phones being used as MP3 players, the need for a way to listen to your music without compromising on audio quality is growing. Most phones have a built in loud speaker which is okay for answering the odd phone call while you’ve got your hands full, but the quality of the audio is never anything special. If you prefer to enjoy your music through a set of headphones, you can take your pick of high quality headphones from companies such as Skullcandy, Shure, Sennheiser & Etymotic – but what if you want to be able to play your music out loud?

Over the last few months we’ve seen an increase in the number of small portable speakers that are designed for use with mobile phones and laptops. Two of the most popular ones are made by X-Mini and they are the X-mini II & the X-minimax Capsule. At first glance they’re both very similar, so I decided to try them out and see just how good they are.

X-mini II

X-mini II Speaker

The X-mini II Speaker is a compact single speaker that’s not much bigger than a golf ball (when closed). It has a short 3.5mm audio cable built into it’s base and includes a longer audio/charging cable that connects to a mini USB port on the side of the speaker. It has an inbuilt battery that can last for up to 11 hours on a single charge.

Controls on the X-mini are minimal – a discrete on/off switch and a small volume dial are located on the base of the speaker.

Connecting it to your phone is just a case of plugging the 3.5mm audio jack into your phone or MP3 player. If your phone doesn’t have a 3.5mm audio socket, you can use an audio adapter to convert your phone’s proprietary connection to a standard 3.5mm jack.

Using the built in cable does restrict where you can put the speaker as it is only 9cm long, so if you want a bit of distance between your phone and the speaker (to reduce the risk of interference) then you’ll need to use the Audio/Charging cable that’s included with the X-mini II.

As the name suggests, the cable performs 2 functions – firstly it charges the speaker using a USB port on a PC or laptop and secondly it acts as a longer audio cable.  You can also use the longer cable to ‘daisy chain’ the speakers so that you can have your music playing from as many speakers as you want – the only downside is of course that you’ll need to buy more speakers.

X-minimax Capsule

X-mini Capsule

The X-minimax Capsule speakers are slightly smaller than the X-mini II and have a magnetic base that allows you to stick them together when they’re not in use. One slight disadvantage you have with these is that there isn’t a built in audio cable so you’ll need to make sure you carry the audio cables around with you or you won’t be able to use them. X-mini do include a storage bag for the capsule that should help you to keep them all together.

Unlike the X-mini II,  there isn’t a volume control on the speakers, just an on/off switch so you’ll need to adjust the volume level on your phone or MP3 player.

Two cables are included with the Capsule – a short 3.5mm to Mini USB cable for when you want to use just one speaker and a longer twin charging/audio cable for when you want to use both speakers.

As with the X-mini II, the cable performs 2 functions – firstly it charges the speaker using a USB port on a PC or laptop and secondly it acts as a longer audio cable. The capsule speakers can’t be ‘daisy chained’  in the same way as the X-mini II as they don’t have a 3.5mm line in socket.

Sound Quality

To test the speakers out I connected them to both a laptop and an iPhone. I connected each set of speakers to my laptop using the built in cable and played back a variety of music, from bass heavy dance tunes through to strong vocal numbers as well as a few scenes from movies.

First up was the X-mini 2. When I briefly tried these in the office they sounded a little bit muffled, but with so much background noise it wasn’t a true reflection so instead I tried them out at home. I’ve always thought that the speakers on my laptop weren’t too bad. The audio always seemed clear regardless of whether I was listening to music or watching films, but after using the X-mini II it’s made me realise that the built in speakers on my laptop aren’t really anything special.

X-mini II Box Contents

Sounds from the X-mini II were clear and sharp and the bass was more powerful too. The X-mini II has an extendable ‘vacuum’ that is designed to act like a sub woofer and increase the bass – which it does, but even with it closed, the bass is still good. Vocal tracks were crisp & clear and you could hear every breathe that the singer took. Dance tracks were good, although if you like to feel the room shake from the bass you’ll probably want to opt for something a little more powerful.

X-mini II works well with phones and MP3 Players

For films it’s a definite improvement over the laptops own speakers, I was only using one X-mini II though so didn’t really get to enjoy any stereo effects, but I’m sure that when you ‘daisy chain’ them you’ll get the full effects. Action scenes were good, a fairly decent rumble during on screen explosions and no distortion either.

X-mini II sounded better than built in speakers

I had the volume on my laptop set to maximum and the speaker had no problem in playing back the audio. It didn’t crackle or start to sound tinny like other speakers I’ve tried – even when the volume on the speaker itself was turned to maximum. Although it was on full, I didn’t find it particularly deafening and it only just managed to fill the room with sound so if you’r planning on using these for a house party you’ll probably want to get a second one. If it’s just for casual listening around the house or as alternatives to your built in laptop speakers then you will struggle to find fault with them.

Next up was the X-minimax Capsule – looking at them, they’re like the baby brother of the X-mini 2. Each speaker is smaller, but you do get two of them and this does make a difference. As you get two different cables in with the capsule, you can chose whether to use just one or both of the speakers. I tried using just one speaker – connected to my phone it worked fine, it’s an improvement over the built in loud speaker, but wasn’t quite as good as the X-mini II. Using just one speaker with my laptop felt a little bit under powered and songs weren’t quite as clear as they could be – having said that, the audio was still slightly clearer than using the built in speaker.

X-minimax Capsule Box Contents

Connecting the second speaker made all the difference. The sound felt more solid and powerful. I played the same songs as I did with the mini II and there isn’t a massive difference between the two. Most noticeably though was how they dealt with bass. The X-minimax Capsule isn’t as ‘bassy’ as the mini-II and I felt that they were better suited to music that you listen to rather than feel. Vocal and acoustic tracks were crisp and clear, but the dance tracks felt a bit weak. When it came to watching films they did a great job, although in action scenes the rumble during explosions was less than the X-mini II.

X-mini Capsule charges via USB

There aren’t any volume controls on the X-minimax Capsule, so volume had to be changed on the phone/laptop. I did find though that if you cranked the volume up to maximum, on some tracks there was a small amount of crackling and distortion. If I reduced the volume to around 85-90% on these tracks, the distortion stopped. It felt as though the capsule was louder than the X-mini II, but because some songs distorted slightly, you can’t really ever use it on full volume.

X-mini Capsule provides great stereo sound from your phone

Summary

Both speakers do the job well, but for me the X-mini II stood out as the better option. Even though it’s just one speaker, it felt clearer, louder and had more bass than the X-minimax Capsule. It is a bit bigger and heavier, but it’s worth it. The fact you don’t need to carry around a bag of cables is a bonus too. If you want something louder than your phone’s loud speaker for playing your music on and don’t mind lots of cables, then the Capsule will suit you down to the ground as most phone’s won’t go loud enough to distort your music, but if you want to be able to use it as alternatives to your laptop speakers and for music from your phone/MP3 player, the the X-mini II is a better option.

My Rating:

X-Mini II Speakers 8/10
X-Minimax Capsule Speakers 7/10

Understanding the iPhone Accessory Error Message

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

Pop-Up Message

With so many accessories available for the iPhone, compatibility issues  will crop up from time to time. We carefully check every iPhone accessory that we sell to make sure that they work with the phone, but an warning message that is sometimes displayed on the handset when some accessories are connected can cause some confusion about whether the accessory will work or not.

If you see the warning message “This accessory is not made to work with iPhone” don’t panic. It doesn’t mean that your accessory won’t work, it just means that you might experience some interference if your phone connects to the internet, a call is made or a text message sent.

The reason that you see this message (normally when you connect to Speakers, Car Kits and other music devices) is that by default, the iPhone will enter ‘Accessory Mode’ when connected by the Dock Connector. This would then lock out all controls on the iPhone as it thinks that commands for music playback will come from the connected accessory.

As not all accessories have music controls, this would cause a problem, so to get round this potential problem accessory manufacturers have the option to tell the iPhone not to enter Accessory Mode but instead display the warning message.

If you see this message when you connect your accessory to your iPhone you will be given the choice to switch to ‘Airplane Mode’. When you see the warning message, you’ve got 3 options:

1. Press ‘YES‘ – This will then put the phone into Airplane Mode. This will temporarily disable telephone and internet capabilities while you’re connected to the accessory. As soon as you disconnect your iPhone from the accessory it will leave Airplane Mode and you’ll be able to make and receive calls again.
2. Press ‘NO‘ – You’ll be able to access all functions on your phone and the accessory will work as it’s supposed to. If your phone rings, the music will fade in/out before & after the call. With some accessories you may experience some interference just before you receive a call or text message.
3. Do Nothing – The warning message will disappear after about 30 seconds and your phone will function as if you’d selected ‘NO’

To try and help you get the best accessories for your iPhone Apple introduced a licensing system that makes it easier to see which accessories will work best with the iPhone. To check if an item is licensed by Apple, just look for the ‘Works with iPhone’ Logo.

Certified by Apple

UK Kindle Accessories Now In Stock!

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

E-Readers have been around for a while in the UK, but they don’t seem to have really taken off. The most popular e-Reader has been the Amazon Kindle, but up until last week it was only available in America. This week Amazon launched an International version of the Kindle for the UK. It’s essentially the same as the Kindle 2, but has a few new features that allow it to work worldwide.

The Kindle started shipping from America last Monday and deliveries began yesterday. If you’ve ordered one and are patiently waiting for it to arrive, now is the perfect time to protect your investment and find the perfect accessories to keep it safe and help make the most of your new Kindle.

Amazon Kindle - now available in the UK

We’ve just launched our range of Kindle accessories and have a selection of Kindle Cases, Kindle Screen Protectors and Kindle Reading Lights available and have more coming over the next few weeks.

To help you get started here’s a few of our favourite Kindle Accessories:

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Clip and Talk Solar Edition Review

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

Solar power has been making an appearance in more and more mobile phone accessories over the last year or so. Initially only available as stand alone Solar Powered Chargers, the technology has now found it’s way into mobile phone cases, Bluetooth Headsets and Bluetooth Car Kits.

Of all of the accessories available, Bluetooth Car Kits are the most logical accessory to make use of solar power – after all, they do spend most of their time either on your dashboard or sun visor.

Until recently there were only a couple of Solar Powered Bluetooth car kits available – the LG HFB-500 and the Drive Solar Pro. The latest car kit to join the range is the Clip & Talk Solar Edition. The Clip and Talk range has always been incredibly popular and offered great value for money, so I thought I’d put the latest addition to the Clip and Talk family to the test to see how it performs. (more…)