The last one year has witnessed the introduction of many mobile phones with varying designs and capabilities. Many mobile languages and jargons are also being evolved in the industry to describe various Mobile Lifestyles. Some of these terms originated from this site while a lot others are from various other websites. It’s worth taking a look at them before rounding up this year with this post.

Phonecular Nervosa
This is the act of behaving funny, weird or irritating with phones.

Technofreakinism
This is an affliction that is characterised by high obsession with technologies, especially telecommunication.

Textalonica
A peculiar land where the only means of telecommunication is by sending SMS (Short Message Service) to each other. No voice call, no email, no fax, just text messages.

Tom Flasher
Flashing is the act of continually dialing a mobile line and then quickly hanging up before the person you are calling answers the call. The Tom Flasher flashes just for the fun of it, either out of necessity or felicity.

Hi-Tech or Hi-Spend
This is a category of cell phone power users. You see them with sophisticated or very expensive handsets like Communicators, Pocket PCs or PDAs.

Sting-O
These people believe that they can use a phone for 5 or 1o years, and they will do anything to ensure it. After buying their monochrome phone, they still go ahead to put it in a leather pouch.

Telecrastination
The act of always letting the phone ring at least twice before you pick it up, even when you’re only six inches away.

Some selected mobile jargons from www.handango.com/WordOfWeek.jsp?siteId=1 are also listed below:

Ringilepsy
Sudden, recurring, and automatic acts of checking one’s phone whenever a ring is heard, even when you know it’s not your ringtone. (Chris Kingham)

Cellofeign
To pretend to have a cell conversation, when, in fact, there is no one on the other end; the “caller” may only be listening to voicemail or absolutely nothing at all. (Wanda Taliaferro)

Plagiaringism
Act of hearing and then copying someone else’s ringtone. (Gabriel Dayan)

Cellibacy
Act of saving one’s minutes or abstaining from calls to stay within call plan minutes.

Phonnoying
Causing irritation through loud talking on a cell phone in public

Cellf-Centered
Being so caught up in a cellphone conversation that you forget what else you’re doing. (Gary Narberes)

Ringblivious
Using a monotone midi ringtone despite or ingnorant of the abundance of polyphonic ringtones and real tones.

ExtraMobicular Activities
Mobile device uses other than making phone calls and checking e-mail which can include creating your household budget and watching music videos. (Mary Marshall)

Fonopoly
Domination of one brand of cellphone or device within the same room, office,or home. (Saqib Noor)

Mobilexia
Compulsion to send text messages using no fully spelled words. Mostly affects teenagers; totally imcomprehensible to the average adult. Example: 10s ne1? Gr8! cu l8r k? (Paris Jones)

Hypertextion
High blood pressure resulting from an intense, back-and-forth text messaging session. (Gerry Se)

Phonelanderer
People who ask to borrow your cell phone for a quick call but end up using all your minutes.

I wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

This is the concluding part of the review on Sony Ericsson K700i started last week. In case you have not read the first part, click here to read the first part of the review before reading this.

Internet Access
Using Globacom OTA settings, I was able to connect the Sony Ericsson K700i to the Internet without any stress. As soon as I saved the settings to the phone, I press the right side button on the phone, which opens the browser to Globacom’s homepage within seconds. In addition, you can download more themes to your phone by opening the File Manager’s menu, select Themes and click on Sony Ericsson. This will open the browser to Sony Ericsson themes, to which you can select the one to download to your phone.

Browsing on SE K700i

Bluetooth
I was able to pair the Sony Ericsson effortlessly with my Qtek S100, and to my Toshiba laptop using a bluetooth adapter. After installing the software that came with the phone, an icon called My Phones was created on my PC’s desktop, using the bluetooth connection. Opening this browser will enable me to browse the contents of the storage of my Sony Ericsson K700i phone on my PC. With this, I can also transfer files into the appropriate folder from PC to phone or phone to PC. There are seven default folders in all: Pictures, Sounds, Videos, Themes, Games, Applications and Other. It is possible to create your own folder or sub-folder too. The speed of accessing the folders on desktop via bluetooth is a little bit too slow though. I did not try synchronising with Outlook though as I had no need to synchronise the phone with Outlook, All the same, exchanging files between my Qtek S100 Pocket PC and the Sony Ericsson K700i is easy and fast.

Camera & Video
For a VGA camera phone, the quality of picture from the Sony Ericsson K700i is nice. In fact, it is nicer than some 1 Megapixel camera phones that I have tried. Though a VGA camera phone, the phone is able to take an image extended to 1280 x 960 pixels by selecting the option in camera mode. This means the phone can pretend as if it is a 1 Megapixel camera phone. Apart from the standard 640 x 480 VGA size and the Extended image size, you can select a smaller image size of 320 x 240 or 160 x 120 in the camera mode before taking the picture.

SE K700i Camera

You can select Night Mode before taking your picture or you can turn on the back light which works like a flashlight before snapping your picture. from testing, turning on the light produces better picture quality than turning on the night mode. The camera also has Effects option by which you can select Panorama, Black & white, Negative, Sepia or Solarize. Also, you can add a frame to your image before taking. There are wide choices of several beautiful frames to select from ranging from Angel, Baby, Behind Bars, Double Heart, Hiphop, etc. The phone is capable of self-timer in camera mode also. There is a provision to adjust picture quality to Normal or Fine prior to taking the picture.

Images taken with the Sony Ericsson K700i:

Daylight Outdoor

Extended Image (Indoor)

The video quality is surprising clear and decent. Pressing the joystick to the right in camera modes switches the camera to video mode and pressing the joystick back to the left switches back to camera mode. You can select video size to either of 176 x 144 pixels or 128 x 96 pixels. The maximum video length is only limited by the available memory size.

SMS
The Sony Ericsson K700i fully supports T9 text inputs. One good feature of the phone is that when you want to attach Contacts to text messages, the phone automatically displays the last 10 names or numbers that you sent SMS to. This makes it faster for you to pick attach a Contact to your text message. Alternatively, you can lookup your phonebook for Contacts or enter a phone number directly.

The Sony Ericsson K700i gives you the option of six sounds to set for Message alert in the profile settings and no more. You cannot assign MP3 as a message alert.

Battery Life
I was able to use the Sony Ericsson K700i for two days (with less than one hour of listening to FM Radio on each day, taking some couples of pictures and using it as a flashlight for some minutes) without recharging the battery. A heavy use of the FM Stereo for more than two hours, several picture taking, texting, and browsing for about half an hour will force you to recharge the phone at the end of the day.

Pros of the SE K700i
- Small and beautiful design
- Clear, beautiful keypad
- Sharp, animated colourful display
- Large internal memory for picture taking

Cons of the SE K700i
- Absence of memory card slot
- Internal memory too small to play MP3
- Cannot assign names to FM stations
- Absence of Green Call button & Red End-Call button makes calling a little difficult.

Comments
If you need a cell phone that performs more than just Call and Receive function, then the Sony Ericsson K700i more than fits the bill. Also, if you are looking for a phone with a decent VGA camera, go for the Sony Ericsson K700i. If you need a second phone to take the stress off your PDA or smartphone, without losing some sacrificing functionality, then you will not be disappointed with the Sony Ericsson K700i. Because of the small internal memory, and lack of memory card slot, the phone is not suitable for those looking for an MP3 cell phone.

Photo Gallery

Below are more photos (with frames) taken with the Sony Ericsson K700i handset:

About four weeks ago, I finally retired my old and faithful Siemens S55 cell phone, which though still working, has started manifesting aging problems. After many careful considerations and comparisons, I decided to settle for the Sony Ericsson K700i cell phone as better replacement.

I decided to settle for the Sony Ericsson K700i chiefly because I wanted an averagely priced Sony Ericsson phone with FM Stereo feature for my second GSM line. The phone also must support GPRS and bluetooth connectivity. The Sony Ericsson K700i more than meets these needs.

Sony Ericsson K700i

Sony Ericsson K700i Specifications
Weight: 93g
Dimensions (mm): 99 x 46 x 20
Display Type: 65k Colour TFT
Display Size (pixels): 176 x 220
Camera / Video: VGA (640 x 480) + Video
Internal Memory: 41MB
QWERTY Keyboard: No
Card Slot: None
GPRS: Yes
Infrared: Yes
USB: Yes
Bluetooth: Yes
EDGE: No
Wi-Fi: No
Media Player: MP3
FM Stereo: Yes
Java (J2ME): MIDP 2.0
Browser: Wap 2.0
Vibration: Yes
Speakerphone: Full-Duplex
Form Factor: Bar

Front View of SE K700i

Physical Design
The Sony Ericsson K700i is small in size, which makes it light and easy to carry. The design of the phone makes it to be comfortable in the palm of your hand. It has a rectangular surface, a trapezoid or bevelled side, and a rectangular back, which is smaller in surface area than the surface.

Keypad
The keypad is quite simple and attractive. It has a black lettering with a white background; while each button is well protected behind a plastic covering that kind of budge out of the pad. This gives the keypad a beautiful look and makes it quite comfortable to use.

Apart from the standard buttons, there are two soft buttons on the phone whose functions change according to context. In standby mode, the left soft button is to make calls. Pressing the left soft button brings out a four-tab page displaying the list of all calls made in the first tab page. The remaining tab pages further filtered it into Answered, Dialled or Missed by pressing the joystick to the left or right.

The right soft button in standby mode allows you to turn the phone into silent mode, turn on/off bluetooth or infrared, check phone status or change the shortcut keys assigned to the joystick four directions.

Directly below the left soft key is the key you press to go out of the menu a step at a time. Pressing and holding it the key down will completely take you back to the standby mode.

Directly below the right soft key is the erase or delete key. Press this key to erase a character to the left. Pressing the key in File Manager deletes the current file after confirmation or deletes the current picture in camera mode.

At the centre of these four keys is the joystick that is both excellent and sensitive to use. Pressing down the joystick in standby mode activates the menu. The joystick performs no function in screen saver’s mode. Pressing and holding down the joystick in camera mode will snap the picture. By default, pressing the joystick to the up will open the Media Player while pressing it down will display the Contact list. Pressing the joystick to the left will allow you to start a new text message or picture message while pressing to the right will allow you to create a shortcut to your favourite function.

I am yet to get the hang of the joystick because due to its sensitivity, you can never be sure it will perform the right function when you press it. The green Call button and the red Stop button are clearly absent in the phone. These two functions are being performed by the two soft buttons.

Sony Ericsson K700i keypad

Side Buttons
There is a side button by the top right side of the phone, by the bevelled side. This key is labelled Online. Pressing this key opens the browser and connects you to the Internet.

On left side of the phone, by the same bevelled side, you will find the camera button to the top side. Pressing this button activates the camera. Immediately below the camera button is the dual + and - key which performs many functions. This key increases or decreases the volume in FM Stereo Mode or adjusts the exposure in camera mode.

Display
The Sony Ericsson K700i has a bright and beautiful display. In fact, at 65k, the display is far brighter and sharper than many other 65k phones that I know. The display is far better than my Qtek S100 and my Nokia N-Gage. The display is further complimented by many attractive themes, which can be selected through the File Manager.

SE K700i Display

Themes
The themes bring life to the display of the Sony Ericsson K700i. With the theme, you can set a screen saver and also an animated image as background wallpaper to the phone’s screen. The phone automatically turns off the screen after displaying the animated wallpaper for about 15 seconds and the screen saver for another 10 seconds. A blank screen with digital clock will be displayed next. This is just to save power. Displaying the clock in power save mode is quite handy as all you have to do is cast a glance at the screen of the phone to check the time. However, you can turn off this power save feature through the Settings-Profile-Edit Profile-Light menu.

SE K700i Themes

Menu
The icons in the Sony Ericsson K700i menu are quite sharp, highly graphical and animated. They seem to jump out at you as you scroll up and down, left and right with the joystick. You open a menu item by pressing down the joystick or pressing the left soft key. Once a menu item is opened, the sub-menu items are displayed in a List form.

SE K700i Menu

Making & Receiving Calls
Call quality is quite decent in the Sony Ericsson K700i. The small, ergonomic shape of the phone makes it quite comfortable for making and receiving calls. Pressing the left soft key in standby mode displays a four-tabbed page as earlier mentioned. The first tab lists all the calls made, answered or missed. This means that at the press of a button, you have all the numbers you are most likely to call. To call from your Contact list, just press down the joystick in standby mode (not in screen-saver mode), then scroll down the list of your Contact, select the desired one and press the left soft button.

SE K700i Contacts

Typing the first letter of the Contact’s name will jump to the list of Contacts starting with that character. However, unlike many other phones, you cannot search by more than one character. This is an unfortunate limitation.

When answering calls, I noticed that the phone sometimes make a short, sharp beep follow by a short pause before I can hear the caller. This is a little bit annoying, as I will like to look at the phone’s screen to ascertain whether the call is still on or not. I have a feeling that this happens because I am using MP3 as a ringtones. This does not happen always though. Apart from this, making and receiving calls on the Sony Ericsson K700i is a sheer pleasure as the voice quality is clear enough.

FM Stereo
The FM Stereo quality is decent and loud enough when using the speaker is turned on. You have to plug in the hands free for you to receive the FM signal, as the hands free also serves as the antenna. Selecting Radio from the menu activates the FM Stereo. You can preset a total of 20 FM Stereo stations on the phone. However, you cannot assign names to the stations. FM stations can only be stored by numbers only. You can scan for radio stations or manually set the frequency. You may not get a clear reception for some stations while indoors, though.

It is a pity that there is no provision to record from the FM Stereo. If you try to record from the Entertainment menu while the Radio is on, it automatically stops the radio. Recording from the FM Stereo would have been a good way to put the 41MB internal memory to use. It is a good thing that the radio can be minimised while listening so that you can use the phone to do some other tasks.

If a call comes in while the radio is on, it automatically stops the radio. After receiving the calls using the hands free, the radio resumes playing.

SE K700i FM Stereo

Music
The Sony Ericsson K700i can play well both MP3 and Midi files. The sound quality is just too nice. It is a pity again that there is memory card slot to expand the internal memory. At 128kps, the best you can do is getting 10 MP3 files into the phone internal memory. This is not suitable at all for any serious playing of MP3 music on the phone.

As a result of the small memory, I do not use the Sony Ericsson K700i to play MP3 music, except Midi. I am currently playing MP3 on my 1GB SD card Qtek S100 Pocket PC as I write this review. For you to enjoy MP3 music on a phone, you need a bigger memory that the one Sony Ericsson K700i is offering. Nevertheless, the Sony Ericsson K700i plays MP3 beautifully. Pressing up the joystick on standby mode displays the list of available media in the phone’s memory.

SE K700i Media Player

MP3 as Ringtones
Another good thing about the Sony Ericsson K700i is that setting MP3 as ringtones is a joyful experience. The playback is quite rich and beautiful that heads will turn to see where the powerful stereo quality sound is coming from. You can also assign MP3 files as ringtones to different Contacts. No matter how big the MP3 file is, the Sony Ericsson K700i immediately plays the ringtones as soon as a call comes in. The best practice however is to use software like MP3 Surgeon 2003 to slice your MP3 files to just the portion of the music you want to hear instead of setting the whole music as a ringtones, otherwise you will quickly fill up your 41MB internal memory space.

Back View of SE K700i

This review will continue in the next post where I will discuss the other features of the Sony Ericsson K700i, which includes the camera functions.

Nokia last week announced the addition of two mobile phones to its array of innovative and edge-cutting mobile devices. The two phones are the Nokia 6233 and the Nokia 6282. Both are 3G phones.

Nokia 6233
The Nokia 6233 is an upgrade to the feature-rich and highly functional Nokia 6230i model. Weighing about 110g, which makes it slightly heavier than the popular Nokia 6230i, the Nokia 6233 packed the following features:

• 3G Support
  
• Digital Music Player plus stereo speakers
  
• FM Stereo/Visual Radio
  
• 320 x 240 pixels QVGA 262k Colour Display
  
• 2 Megapixels Camera
  
• Larger 70MB Internal Memory
  
• Micro SD Card slot supports up to 2GB cards
  
• WCDMA 2100/GSM 900/1800/1900
  

The feature rich Nokia 6233 is built of steel in contrast to its popular predecessor, the Nokia 6230, which has a plastic built.

The Nokia 6233 supports the latest messaging, browsing and video standards. The Nokia 6233 easily synchronises calendars, contacts and to-do lists via SyncML. The bluetooth wireless connectivity supports quick and easy data transfer either to print images via a bluetooth printer or connect to a headset or a car kit.

The Nokia 6233 supports both MP3 and AAC ringtones, and also downloading and uploading of large files, video, games or MP3 files via the 3G services. The FM Stereo/Visual Radio client makes it an all-round entertainment device. The Nokia 6233 is expected to be available for sales from the second quarter of 2006.

The Nokia 6233

Nokia 6282
Nokia also unveiled the industry’s first handset to support the 1900 3G network, the Nokia 6282. Apart from supporting the 3G services, the sleek sliding Nokia 6282 also has the following features:

• 2″ 320 x 240, pixels QVGA Display
  
• 1 Megapixel Camera
  
• Digital Music Player
  
• FM Stereo
  
• Hot Swappable Mini-SD Card support
  
• GSM 850/1900/1800/UMTS 1900MHZ
  

Just like the Nokia 6233, the Nokia 6282 supports Over-The-Air (OTA) synchronisation of calendar, contact and to-do lists via the SyncML client.

The Nokia 6282 also supports through the 3G services, downloading and uploading of large files, videos, games, MP3s and AAC files. The Nokia 6282 also supports the latest messaging, browsing and video standards.

Both the Nokia 6233 and Nokia 6282 QVGA display uses ‘Active Standby Mode’, which allows the idle screen to keep owners informed of calendars and to-do items and to provide quick access to the most, used applications.

The Nokia 6282 is expected to be commercially available in the first quarter of 2006.

The Nokia 6282