With an Operating System that was more popular than Apple's last time we looked - Google Android phones are big and growing quickly. The software is made by Google but gets embedded in phones from all over the price range. Here are five of the top offerings, all capable of rivalling the iPhone 4.

Skimming down the list, the big-hitting Android phones are largely made by Chinese manufacturers HTC, though we also have a contender apiece from Sony Ericsson and Motorola. Lots of more affordable Android handsets are made by the likes of Samsung
Compared to the iPhone Android weaknesses tend to be the battery life - the high-functioning phones will eat through the energy unless you turn off functions like push notifications.

Arguably the Android app store's easy-going attitude to apps means that there's no quality control and the variety of handsets means that some apps can render weirdly.
The strengths? Well they are usually cheaper, there's greater choice of handsets and contracts and Android apps are on average cheaper than iPhone ones. Oh yes and you're not tied into iTunes and as far as we know, the other phones don't have aerial problems.

That Blackberry-like top-end Nokia you've been waiting for? It's here. And it costs £289. That's £210 cheaper than the iPhone 4 I hear you say, and you're right. Very right.

The C6 is an email focussed phone and sports a full QWERTY keypad on a horizontal slider. Like the successful N97, it's geared to professional types who want a hard-working easy-to-type-on phone. Nokia-heads will appreciate the familiar interface.

It's a 3.2" screen which they claim is highly responsive (though note it's a resistive screen not a capacitive one so you need to properly click it rather than just touch it). Home page widgets provide access to social networking sites and the home page can be customised with wallpapers, webpage shortcuts and screensavers.

A 5 megapixel digital camera with dual LED flash should make for decent pictures and the Ovi music and app stores come preloaded.

Available in black or white.

Full specs here.

The Nokia C6 is available sim-free for £289 from Nokia
Network deals to be announced shortly

See C6 gallery below:

We know that on most phones these days, the handset will flash up the name of the person calling - "Mum", "Tom", "John from the Office", "Guy I met on a train", and on many phones you can set a particular ringtone for a particular person, but one iPhone app company decided to take caller recognition a step further. With app 9999 ringtones you can customise the ring tone to say the caller's name.

As they point out: "Users no longer need to remember which song corresponds to which contact." yeah!

Using Text-to-Speech recognition and a wide range of accents you can speak a message in, something like: "It's Tom, it's Tom, it's Tom it's Tom it's Tom." then ask the app to play it back in one of dozens of speaking voices: including British Man, Woman, Valley Girl, Jersey Girl, Old Man, and then "funny voices" like Devil, Space Alien, Synthesizer and Whisper.

They cheekily promote the fact that the app in uncensored, so you can record anything (providing the voice recognition software recognises it of course).

As a rule of thumb, I counsel against that. It's all very well if "That Bastard" or "Mr Sexytime" only calls you in your bedroom, but if the ringtone goes off anywhere else it spells embarrassment. I'm thinking of professional contexts.

You can also set customised messages on alarms, like "pick up Tanya now". Could be useful.

We were a bit put off by the faff around using your email address, still it pops up correctly in Quick Time after a few seconds.

9999 Ringtones Uncensored PRO is £0.59 on iTunes
There are several free versions with fewer voices available

Confused? Well kind of.

Do you agree that the vast majority of users who have not been troubled by this issue?

Letter from Apple Regarding iPhone 4

Dear iPhone 4 Users,

The iPhone 4 has been the most successful product launch in Apple's history. It has been judged by reviewers around the world to be the best smartphone ever, and users have told us that they love it. So we were surprised when we read reports of reception problems, and we immediately began investigating them. Here is what we have learned.

To start with, gripping almost any mobile phone in certain ways will reduce its reception by 1 or more bars. This is true of iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, as well as many Droid, Nokia and RIM phones. But some users have reported that iPhone 4 can drop 4 or 5 bars when tightly held in a way which covers the black strip in the lower left corner of the metal band. This is a far bigger drop than normal, and as a result some have accused the iPhone 4 of having a faulty antenna design.

At the same time, we continue to read articles and receive hundreds of emails from users saying that iPhone 4 reception is better than the iPhone 3GS. They are delighted. This matches our own experience and testing. What can explain all of this?

We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising.

Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don't know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.

To fix this, we are adopting AT&T's recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone's bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.

We will issue a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula. Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

We have gone back to our labs and retested everything, and the results are the same-- the iPhone 4's wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped. For the vast majority of users who have not been troubled by this issue, this software update will only make your bars more accurate. For those who have had concerns, we apologise for any anxiety we may have caused.

As a reminder, if you are not fully satisfied, you can return your undamaged iPhone to any Apple Retail Store or the online Apple Store within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.

We hope you love the iPhone 4 as much as we do.

Thank you for your patience and support.

Apple

Windows Live Messenger has just released an app for instant messenging on iPhone. It's free and it adapts lots of the computer-based features for mobile. As with the chat service, the features are better if you've got hotmail because the email and chat services integrate.

Currently the second most downloaded Free App in the social networking section of the App Store, it's likely to be a big hit seeing as it will let people communicate for free and across platforms.

Previously named MSN messenger, Windows Live Messenger has a huge fan base as it comes with any PC running Windows. Apps channeling it into iPhone have been around for several years, but this is the first official app from Windows.

Features of the app include:
Instant Message with multiple friends, allowing users to view chat history, use emoticons, send a 'nudge' to a friend who isn't responding, and share links and photos via Instant Message

Push notification of new chats, so users can see when they receive a new IM when they're not already interacting with the app

Access to Hotmail account email without leaving the app to read, reply to, and compose emails

Receive email notifications within the application so users know when they have new messages

Windows Live Messenger on iTunes

Well this is a madcap social media scheme. To celebrate the launch of the HTC Wildfire - a phone geared towards social networkers - HTC are trying to recreate Facebook in real life by bringing all of one person's friends together in one place.

They are putting out a request on their Facebook page for people to come up with bright ideas for what they would do if all their Facebook friends were gathered together.

I can only imagine what a logistical nightmare that will be. And it sort of reminds us why the internet was invented - so we didn't have to be all physically in the same place to communicate with each other. Anyway, err, if you're interested, it's on their Facebook page.

They say: "Visitors to the HTC UK Facebook page will be asked the following question: "If you could gather all of your friends on Facebook together in the same place for a day - what would you do?" The most inspiring entry will be chosen by a panel of HTC representatives and the dream will be made a reality!"

We say: "Good luck with that."

HTC facebook

Hot off the back of the Wimbledon Augmented Reality app, Orange have released their Guide to the Glastonbury festival as an Augmented Reality iPhone app.

There will be two versions of the Orange GlastoNav application with the simple one available across many different handsets featuring a map of the festival along with the line-up. The iPhone (3Gs-only) version will have some extra augmented reality features which make the festival guide more visual.

In the Augmented Reality version of GlastoNav, information is layered over the picture shown from your viewfinder, helping users navigate around the 1100 acre site. Festival goers will also be able to see who is playing 'now and next' on each stage. Facilities such as toilets, information points, cash machines and bars will appear as pop-ups on the map with 'distance from' indicators. In addition to these existing locations users will also be able to add their tent location to the map to create a GPS tent locator, ensuring they can always find their tent at the end of the night.

Some people (ADC) are raising concerns about the burden put on the 3G network by a lot of people in a small place streaming AR content and video, so it will interesting to see how the networks cope with this and the IBMSeer Wimbledon app.

GlastoNav the simple version is available to download from today by texting the shortcode GLASTO to 65101. The Augmented Reality iPhone version will be available from the Apple App Store during the week of the festival. Both are free.

Off the back of the new Xperia X8, Sony Ericsson also launched a new phone in their Greenheart range - the Cedar. Promising to merge business functions with a social friendly device, it also claims to be eco friendly: with lower amounts of energy and material used in production and packaging and with an efficient battery cutting down on charge time.

They say: "Sony Ericsson Cedar is the ideal product for consumers who are looking for the perfect balance between a business and social device. Featuring 3G HSDPA, a 3.5mm jack and a port for easy connection to your laptop - the Sony Ericsson Cedar is an affordable GreenHeart phone which allows consumers to easily connect to their various communities whether it's for work, fun or play.

We say: a decent mid-range phone with a green twist, worth investigating if you're a little short on cash and green gadgets are your thing.

The Walkman-inspired Yendo is the other announcement of today,it's the first full touch Walkman phone and brings all the Walkman features to a nice colourful phone.

Mixing music features including Touch TrackID, MediaGo and PlayNow with social networking features access to Facebook, Twitter, or Orkut and a 2.0megapixel camera to upload photos straight to the web or send to friends.

It uses the four corners-four icons navigation found in other small form factor Sony Ericsson phones, the Xperia X10 mini and the new X8.

More information: Sony Ericsson Blog

Swedo-Japanese phone manufacturers Sony Ericsson announced a trio of new phones today including the X8, an addition to their top Xperia range.

The X10 is still the flagship phone but the X8, out in September, puts the Xperia qualities in a smaller, more affordable handset. Similar to the X10 mini in size it will also pack the latest version of Android 2.1 Eclair (either by shipping with it or getting an upgrade shortly after release).

With a 3" screen and curvy shape, it will come in four colours displayed as pixellated tinge on one end of the phone. The phone has a 3.2mega pixel camera and shoots video.

As for the social networking side - that's all built-in: it comes with a Facebook application and the Sony Ericsson Timescape user interface which pulls in info from different feeds into one live stream.

The price hasn't been officially announced but the SE blog said we're looking at around 200 euros (£166).

See more info here

HTC Hero users will get the newest version of Android - Eclair - at the end of this month.

A statement from HTC explained:

"The upgrade will come in two parts, the first of which will roll out from this week and will be detected when the Hero next automatically checks for software updates. The second part of the update will follow towards the end of the month. As the second part of the upgrade will wipe all data on the handset, Hero users should ensure any important data has been backed up before proceeding with the installation. Due to the size of the update, wherever possible, we would advise using a WiFi connection for this download to avoid additional data charges."

Eclair is Google's Android Operating Systems 2.0/2.1. It was released to developers back iin October 2009, but is just making it onto the popular HTC handset. So what's new in Eclair? A quick run down of the platform's features:

- Revamped User Interface
- Digital zoom
- Live wallpapers
- New browser interface
- Support for more screen sizes and resolutions

Android 2.2 is called Froyo and was released in May 2010, the version still in development is Gingerbread which will probably be released in the autumn.

Have you learned to ignore sirens and block out pneumatic drills, bus conversations and in fact most sounds altogether? You're probably the sort of person who could do with a loud phone. Perhaps with The Loudest Phone in The World. And that, we're told is the PowerTel M6000.

With a volume button that'll take the caller beyond 30dBs, and a ring tone to match the Welsh Male Voice Choir (that's 100dB if you're wondering), hearing a call won't be a problem.

The PowerTel isn't for everyone, but as they point out, ideal for noisy environments like shopping centres or industrial area's, and for those whose hearing isn't what it used to be.

Apparently the vibrate mode is "bone-rattling" too. This phone will not get lost. Unless the battery dies of course.

The other specs are a bit more middle of the road - the M6000 is advertised as having big buttons, a loud hand-free speaker, text messaging, 500-name phone book and Bluetooth.

It's also got a uh "Man Down" fall detector and hidden "SOS" panic button. Well lets just say it's not direct competition for the iPhone.

PowerTel M6000, £119 from silverphone

We glimpsed a prototype of Nokia's N8 today. The flagship smartphone takes over from the n900 as the latest in the N-series range and will hit the UK in September.
We take a look at the hardware in the N8 including the uber specced camera (12 megapixels, a wide-angle Carl Zeiss lens and flash) and just why the colour doesn't scrape off the case when you scratch it.

Other nice features include an HDMI-out port, a front facing camera and two microphones. Are you convinced by the need for the bump on the back?

I'm a big fan of the hipstamtic app for the iPhone. It's quickly become a ubiquitous app, all but usurping the standard camera app for most users.

One of the best things about the lomo simulator is the sheer breadth of options in terms of lenses, film and flashes. The amount of combinations available is mind boggling, and clearly I'm not going to go into every one right now -- that'd be silly.

I am however going to present you with my favourite film-lense-flash combinations I've discovered so far after six or so months using the app. Do you know what would be super ace too? If you guys sent in examples of your favourite combinations -- then I'll turn the best ones into a gallery, and for the sake of a competition, I'll crown a winner. You don't win anything mind, other than the satisifcation of knowing you're The Hipstamatic Shiny Shiny Champion 2010 -- you can put that on your CV! Send them to shinylomosnaps@gmail.com!

Nokia's cheap cheerful, social-networking C3 will be available on the Nokia UK online shop sim free for £109 from 18th June 2010.

Built a little like a Blackberry with a QWERTY keyboard, a tracker pad and a widget-filled screen, the C3 is billed as an affordable smartphone aimed a younger audience.

The C3 has one-touch access to Facebook, Twitter and email from the home screen, allowing people to easily view, post, comment and update their status.

A 2mega-pixel camera probably won't take incredible images but it can post directly to the web. It comes in a range of bright colours: hot pink, golden white and slate black.

The Nokia C3 will be available exclusively for one month from Vodafone on 22nd June 2010, with O2, The Carphone Warehouse and Phones4u stocking the phone in August.

Nokia C3, available to preorder for £109 sim-free from the Nokia shop

It's back - but it's slimmer, all touch-screen and will wire up to your TV. The Android Motorola Milestone XT 720 has had a few updates and will coming out in the UK in the next few months.

The camera has been ramped up significantly - it's now 8 megapixels, has an xenon flash and shoots high definition video. To support the video the memory has been specced up too with an 8gb micro-SD card onboard which can be upgraded up to 32GB. Allowing you to store those short films you make.

An HDMI-out port allows you to pump HD content straight from the phone to a TV.

Otherwise it will be shipped with Android 2.1, the latest version. It won't feature the social-networking friendly MotoBlur interface- going for a cleaner simpler UI.

The handset will only be available over the internet on the UK, on Expansys and Play.com, with pre-order beginning on 11 June. There's no word of when it will be out in the States.

According to TechRadar, Motorola are skipping high street stores and going for internet sales because it 'allows it to get to the market faster' as the rapid development of Android devices means it's hard to synchronise with the network's 18-month release cycles.

Hark! I bring you worrying news from the colonies. It would seem AT&T is to ditch unlimited data from its mobile tarriffs.

The much maligned American mobile network is often critised for its abyssmal coverage and poor capacity. Seemingly it makes O2 look like the future, which is certainly saying something.

Under AT&T's new tariff options 200MB of data costs $15 a month (like £11), or you can pay $25 (£18) for 2GB.

If, or more accurately, when, you exceed your 200MB limit you can buy another 200MB for $15. While if you're on the 2GB contract and exceed that, you can buy another 1GB of data for $10.

So, if you use 9GB of data, as I do on a regular basis, you'll be looking down the wrong end of a $85 (£65) bill for data.

While there's no saying this is definitely going to happen in blighty, the mobile companies have been making whiny, braying noises about capacity saturation for a while, and it would fit the current socially regressive trend of "we'll stop people doing it by making it more expensive" a la plane travel, road travel, train travel and alcohol drinking.

A more cogent plan might be to invest in better coverage and higher capacity masts -- call me crazy.

[Via Gizmodo]

Nokia maybe getting hammered in the smartphone stakes at the moment (at least in the UK and US), but they keep delivering the goods on cheapo mobiles. Exhibit A is their new C1 and C2 budget mobiles which both sport some intriguing features.

Costing a purse-friendly £25, the new C1's headline shout is that its battery will apparently run for a staggering six weeks on a single charge. It also features a dual SIM card feature (great for those who are doing the dirty on their partner travel a lot or have work and personal SIMs. You simply switch between one and the other at a click. There's an FM tuner to keep you entertained, and a flashlight to make sure you're never left in the dark (believe me, as the proud owner of a torch-bearing 'emergency Nokia', I can confirm that this often comes in very handy when you're scrabbling around for your front door keys post night-out).

There are two variations on the C1. The C1-01 will give you just a single SIM slot, but will provide FM radio, camera, up to 32GB storage and web and email support for an reasonable £32. The £29 C1-02, also with single SIM, supports microSD cards and internet access.

But that's not all from Nokia - the C2 takes our dual SIM concept a step further. Instead of switching manually between SIM cards, this phone keeps both on standby - it's great for anyone who wants to share a handset with a family member, or who wants to combine their work and personal phones into one handset. On top of this handy feature, the C2 includes FM radio, web access, camera, microSD support and Bluetooth. And all that for just £37.

They'll be with us in late summer.

The LG Viewty GT405 is an update on the super-successful Viewty camera phone first launched in 2007.

It's going for a good £13 a month on Three, a deal packing unlimited internet.

But even with that price tag can the shiny phone of 2007 cut it in the fierce world of 2010? We take a look

Internet service provider Yahoo is teaming up with mobile-makers Nokia to bring some tightly integrated apps to their users. Maps, email and instant messaging will be some of the services to benefit from the partnership.

Nokia will provide maps and navigation for Yahoo while Yahoo will power the email and instant messaging services on Nokia phones.

All services will be branded to emphasise the connection.

The connected services are expected to start launching in the second half of this year in selected markets, before going global in 2011

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said that Yahoo sees the deal as particularly important for giving Yahoo a foothold in emerging markets where he says they are "seeding the next generation of Yahoo! users". From that point of view, Nokia remains a dominant handset presence.

See more on Nokia's Conversations blog.

The new Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus will be hitting UK stores at the end of May - we had a little look at them yesterday and talked to Paul Ghent the VP of Palm Europe. Till the specs come out officially, here are our first impressions..

So what's new?
Well, it's not exactly a hardware revolution: there have been some updates to the Pre and Pixi - more storage (16gb in the Pre Plus), increased ability to mulitask (you can have more windows or 'cards' open), they've taken the button off the bottom of the screen and tightend the keyboard up.

The conductive case which lets Palm devices charge up on a "touchstone" device now packs with the Pre Plus. Otherwise camera (3mp) and screen resolution are all the same.

Well that's not massive change?
No, but Palm is really famous for its lovely software - the webOS - a smooth smart multitasking operating system. Palm also updates its software regularly: upgrades which all consumers get. Palm aren't suggesting their customers ditch the old phone and buy a new one, but they are just updating and speccing up the current handset for new users.

Well that's nice but how does it measure up to the big boys in the market? iPhone and Android?
The rolling software updates are a good deal for Palm customers. The Palm rep pointed out that now we're increasingly bound into 24 month contracts, so not being able to get a software upgrade on your handset, as is occasionally the case with Android, means you miss out on a lot of functionality. Palm phones sort of grow organically with you.

Talking about adding functionality, have these things got any apps?
Well, nothing compared to the Android or iPhone stores, but.. wait, they're working on getting apps that marry particularly well with the operating system. I've seen a sweet game by EA in co-operation with Palm.. beautifully integrated..

All about the webOS isn't it?
Yes

They've just merged with HP haven't they? What's the goss there?
Well, not surprisingly they weren't spilling any beans on the HP takeover.
The merger was announced a few weeks ago - it will be finalised in July.

But I mean, we're expecting a tablet minimum aren't we? The Pablet? the Palm-Pad? Or perhaps the HP Hurricane running that lovely smooth webOS that everyone was talking about last week?
Ghent said that yes of course the webOS had the capability to run on other platforms. So I think we can take as a yes. And nobody is too keen on that HP Slate we were hearing about it.. still in production, it's apparently pretty slow.

We'll post some full hands-on reviews of the Pre and Pixi later in the week.