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MOBILE EXTRAS
INTRO
Cool cases, blockbuster batteries and
messages from personal computers -- Rick Maybury looks at some more essential
accessories
COPY
WESTAR WONDERBAGS, £10 - £40
In addition to the range of wacky cases we
looked at last month, Westar have introduced an equally diverse range of
cellphone bags. The simplest ones are basically large pouches, with a shoulder
strap, that have room for a phone plus a few other bits and bobs. There’s a
variety of styles and finishes, from clear transparent plastic to fake animal
skins and wonderfully kitsch quilted material, in some quite outrageous
colours.
However, the most interesting ones are in the
Wonderbag range. They’re quite a bit larger, with lots of zippered pockets and
sections. The front opens to reveal a wallet containing a section for credit cards,
address and memo pads, plus a small solar-powered calculator. The phone slots
into a pocket on the back, next to a couple of pen holders. Inside the main
section -- covered by a security flap -- there’s another zip pocket, a key
holder that’s held in place by a press-stud, and a small mirror on the end of a
thin strap, so it can’t be lost. It comes with a detachable shoulder strap,
with brass-plated fixings. A slimmed down version, without the memo pad and
calculator is also available.
Wonderbags come in a simple nylon finish, or
a selection of more exotic materials, including black patent, imitation
crocodile, snakeskin, various unspecified reptiles and real leather. Quality of
manufacture, stitching and finish are
generally good, the aesthetics you’ll have to judge for yourself. They’re just
the job if you’re looking for something to carry your phone safely, plus all
the other odds and ends we seem to accumulate these days.
THE FACTS
Typical Price £10
to £40
Features basic
coloured cases to multi-compartment organisers with memo and address pads,
calculators and mirror
To fit all
phones
Contact Westar
Connections, telephone 0181-903 3903
WHAT CELLPHONE VERDICT 87%
ORA VIBRARING, £60
A clear etiquette is evolving regarding the
use of cellphones. There are times when a ringing cellphone is regarded as a major
social faux-pas, not to mention a downright nuisance, if you’re in the middle
of an important meeting. You can turn the ringer volume down on most phones,
but if it’s so quiet that you can’t hear it, what’s the point.? Silent,
vibrating ringers are the answer, only you know there’s an incoming call, and
you can discretely withdraw to answer the phone, without any embarrassment. A
couple of phones have built-in vibrators, but now for some cellphone users there’s
another option, vibrating batteries, like this one from Ora.
At the moment the Ora Vibraring is only
available for the Nokia 2110 and Orange 5.1 models, others will doubtless
follow. The battery pack in question is a high-capacity design, using nickel
metal hydride cells rated at 1100 mAh. That’s sufficient to keep the phone
running on standby for up to 40 hours, with more than 2 hours talk-time. The
pack is quite bulky though, and the bulge on the back makes it just over twice
as thick as the standard battery, which might make it a tight fit in some
cases.
It has a good strong throb, that can be
clearly felt through a couple of layers of clothing. The capacity checked out
on our test sample and the use of NiMh cells should prevent the build-up of any
memory effects. Given that batteries of similar type and capacity sell for only
£20 or so less, this seems like quite fair value, particularly if you need to
stay in touch, without annoying others.
THE FACTS
Typical Price £60
Features 1100mAh
NiMh cellphone battery with built-in silent-ringer
To fit Nokia
2110I and Orange 5.1
Contact Ora
Electronics, telephone (01296) 415445
WHAT CELLPHONE VERDICT 90%
OPTRONIX UPB 3000 and UPB 5000 BATTERY PACKS,
£47 and £65
If doesn’t matter how many gadgets and
widgets your phone has, if the battery expires halfway through an important
call, it’s no use at all. The standard battery packs supplied with most recent
phones will usually get you through the working day -- at least when they’re
new -- providing you don’t make too many calls. However, that’s simply not good
enough for a lot of heavy users, who depend on their phone being ready for
action all the time. High capacity clip-on battery packs can help in a lot of
cases, but even the largest ones cannot cope with more than an hour or two’s
worth of calls in a day. Of course, you could carry spare packs but that
involves swapping them over, re-entering PIN codes, and possibly missing a call
whist the battery is being changed. The alternative is a separate battery pack,
like this pair from Optronix.
The UPB 3000 and UBP 5000 are rated at 3Ah
and 5Ah respectively, that’s between 6 and 10 times the capacity of many
standard cellphone packs, giving the equivalent increase in running times. In
most cases that’s enough power to keep the phone running for at least a couple
of days, and probably a lot longer on some models. The battery packs are fitted
inside leather pouches that clip onto the wearer’s belt. They’re not
excessively heavy (500 and 800 grams), though you might need to use extra notch
on your belt, to stop your trousers falling down... The batteries connect to
the phone using a dedicated connecting lead, which is extra, they’re around £11
for most phones. The phone’s own charger can be used to charge the battery in most
cases; some models may require a separate
mains adaptor, they cost a further £14.00.
We’ve been using a couple of samples with a
Motorola 7500 GSM phone. The UPB3000 lasted for a total of 70 hours, with
around two and a half hours worth of calls, the UPB5000 went for over four days,
with over two hours worth of calls. Of course it depends on the pattern of usage,
but they would certainly be capable of keeping most phones running for several
days, which could be important for anyone on a camping holiday, or where they
can’t easily get to a source of power, yet need to stay in contact. Considering
the price of regular standard and high capacity packs, they look like pretty
good value for money.
THE FACTS
Typical Price £47
(UPB 3000), £65 (UPB5000)
Features High
capacity battery packs with belt cases
To fit most
makes and models with optional adaptor (typically £11.00)
Contact Jenoptic/CZ
Scientific, telephone 0181 953 1688
WHAT CELLPHONE VERDICT 90%
VEGA MOBILE MESSENGER, £99
SMS (short message service) is a useful but under-utilised
facility for relaying brief text messages to GSM and Orange digital mobile
phones. Almost all GSM phones can receive SMS data, a few can send it as well.
Messages can be sent to GSM phones via a bureau, though most users elect to create
their messages on a personal computer, and send them to the network’s
message-handling computer using standard PC communications software. The latter
option is cheaper and more direct, but it does involve knowing your way around
a comms package, setting up data transfer protocols, modem speeds, and having
the appropriate telephone number of the network’s message handling centres.
Mobile Messenger from Vega simplifies the whole
process. It’s a new Windows-based application, that will enable anyone with a suitable
PC and modem, to send a text message to a GSM or Orange phone, plus a range of BT
alphanumeric and tone pagers as well. Mobile Messenger can also communicate
with Mercury pagers, but this involves the user paying an additional fee or
£25, to set the system up.
The software is contained on three 3.5-inch
discs and loads into the PC in the usual way from Windows Program Manager. The software
‘engine’, is designed to work optimally on fast PCs, preferably Pentium models.
It will run on older machines but it can be quite slow to load.
After installation the desktop display
appears. The recipient’s mobile number and network have to be entered, then the
message can be composed in a text window; The Cellnet, Orange and Vodaphone networks can handle text
messages up to 160 characters long, and that includes spaces, and the user’s
electronic ‘signature’, that has to be
added to the end of each message.
When the message has been completed simply
click on the ‘send now’ button and Mobile Messenger does the rest. It dials up the
message centre, deals with all the log-on procedures, and transmits the text. A
transmission report then appears, to show whether it has been successfully
sent, or not, as the case may be.
A useful facility called ‘confirm receipt’ allows
the sender to check whether or not the message has actually been received by
the target phone on Cellnet and Vodaphone networks. Mobile Messenger dials up
the network message centre and if all’s well, displays a confirmation message,
with a reference number. (Orange plan to add this facility in the near future).
Messages can be sent singly to individuals,
or to groups, either straight away, or scheduled for transmission at a
pre-defined time and date. The scheduler will re-try a number of times, if the first
attempt is unsuccessful . Details of outgoing messages are stored on a
transmission log, along with the first 26 characters of the text. We tried
Mobile Messenger on Cellnet, Vodaphone and Orange networks, successfully in all
cases.
Mobile Messenger has been very well thought
out. It’s easy to use and has a lot of useful facilities that will appeal in
particular to business and corporate users, though it’s equally applicable to individuals,
and should help a lot more GSM phone owners users make use of this handy but
underrated feature.
It’s worth pointing out that each SMS message
on Cellnet and Vodaphone networks costs the sender 10 pence, in the case of a mobile
to mobile transmission, BT land-line to mobile messages also cost 10 pence,
plus the M-rate charge, which is currently 28 pence a minute. Orange users have
to pay a £2 subscription and £10 connection fee, senders are charged at 5 pence
per message.
THE FACTS
Typical Price £99
Features SMS
messaging software for GSM phone networks
System IBM
PC or compatible, 486 processor or later and MS Windows 3.1 or later, 4MB RAM,
EGA or higher video adaptor, Hayes compatible modem
Contact Vega,
telephone (01706) 44177
WHAT CELLPHONE VERDICT 85%
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Ó R. Maybury 1996 0108
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