Smartphones have taken mobile phone technology to the next level. A combination of a personal digital assistant or PDA and mobile phone, these super-smart palm-sized gadgets are packed with useful applications. No longer just a phone, you can share data, photos, files, email, surf the web, update your calendar, listen to music and even shoot and watch movies in HD.

There are quite a few smartphones on the market to choose from but don’t be fazed by all the jargon – it really comes down to what your main usage or requirements are. Operating systems can vary from brand to brand, with Android, Windows, Apple OSX, Symbian, BlackBerry OS and the latest Samsung Bada being the main options.

If you love all the fun apps, check out the phone’s battery life because bright screens, fun games and a multitude of apps can drain the juice of a mobile. Those who like to text and email may well prefer a larger QWERTY keyboard. Some of the latest handsets also offer built-in 3G for faster data sharing and downloads while others include wi-fi for quicker access to the internet. Obviously style, size and brand are also a big part of the decision process and we’ve made it easier with a quick round up of some of the hottest handsets on the market.

For great photos on the go the Nokia X6 is a slimline 3.2-inch touchscreen handset complete with a 5-megapixel autofocus camera and Carl Zeiss lens. The 16GB version has plenty of storage for music and media files, Quick-touch access to friends and family and the option to get extra entertainment from the Nokia Ovi store. Find a Nokia X6 smartphone tariff online today.

The latest Wildfire smartphone from HTC offers a social media centre in your pocket. Thanks to Friend Stream software, you can see all updates, tweets, photos etc in one feed and even sort them by friend. Plus the simple- to-use tap to view panels and next-generation caller ID will even tell you when it’s someone’s birthday. Compare HTC Wildfire tariffs online.

Any multimedia addicts will love the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro. This super-slimline handset has a 16.9-inch widescreen and QWERTY slider keyboard – ideal for emailing. Plus a dedicated one-touch video button provides a fuss-free way to shoot in HD and publish online. Review all the Vivaz Pro features and tariffs.

Powered by Bada, Samsung’s hot new smartphone the Wave incorporates a mega-bright 3.3-inch Super AMOLED screen, fast 1GHz processor and HD video capture. This entertainment-rich mobile delivers responsive gaming action and plenty of social networking add-ons and all in vivid high-resolution colour. Find out more about the Samsung Wave.

The Sony Ericsson Experia X10 is a one-stop shop for all your media and social network updates. This smartphone has an impressive user interface, MP3 player, wi-fi and 3G, all packed in to a sleek glossy handset. Plus there is a 8.1-megapixel camera, which can even recognise some of your friends’ faces – and for those who like all the latest tech but in a smaller handset, check out the Sony Ericsson Experia X10 Mini.

Talking of small smartphones, the HTC Mini HD goes a long way to prove great things can come in small packages. This tiny handset offers many of the features of its bigger brothers, such as real time Twitter updates or shortcut keys for important numbers or applications, as well as HD quality images and 3G. Plus, the HTC Mini even has a 5-megapixel camera all packed in to a tiny case. Find an HTC HD Mini tariff online.

The latest iPhone 4 packs a smartphone punch for any Apple addict. Behind the minimalistic handset you’ll find HD video, 5-megapixel camera with flash, a high-resolution sharp Retina touchscreen and phone apps galore. Use the iPhone as an MP3, games console, editing suit or even for video conferencing. Review all the iPhone 4 features for yourself.

If it’s a mini PC you’re looking for then the latest Nokia N900 might just be the answer. Much more than just a smartphone, this glossy QWERTY slider handset boasts 3G, wi-fi, fast internet browsing and media entertainment thanks to the Maemo 5 operating system. Store all your files and photos on the whopping 32GB of internal memory and even tag and share your photos online with tag cloud. Check out all the Nokia N900 functionality online.

For serious texting and emailing you can’t beat a BlackBerry. The latest BlackBerry Bold 9700 features a sharp high-resolution display, intuitive trackpad navigation for easy scrolling and improved multimedia playback of up to 35 hours. Add to this hi-speed 3G network connectivity and expandable memory for extra storage and you’re good to go. Find a BlackBerry Bold tariff today.

If you want all the features of a BlackBerry, but with the touchscreen functionality of some of the other smart phones, you can’t beat the BlackBerry Storm. This neat palm-sized handset includes a SurePress virtual keyboard, 3.3-inch screen, easy switching from web-browsing to the phone features and a long battery life. Throw in a 3.2-megapixel camera and quick-link connectivity and the BlackBerry Storm has it all.

Motorola’s smart new handset called the DEXT includes Motoblur technology – ideal for streaming messages and updates right to your phone via secure synchronisation. This power-packed side slider handset manages to merge ergonomic design with functionality. Enjoy snapping away with the 5-megapixel autofocus camera, picture editing and Geo Tagging or link to the internet via wi-fi and browse the web with a full HTML browser. Compare Motorola DEXT offers online.

Finally, here’s the Desire smartphone from HTC. Heavy on personalisation widgets and HTC applications, this mobile has it all. View your photos, messages and the web on a large 3.7-inch touchscreen in super-quick time thanks to a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Use Friend Stream to follow all your social updates in one place. Promoted as an intuitive mobile, the HTC Desire is one of easiest smartphones to use thanks to its HTC Sense software. Compare HTC Desire tariffs on Ciao.

Bangalore: Nokia’s Ovi Store developers are unhappy with the way its run. Over 42 percent opinioned that the store is “below average” compared to rivals like Apple’s App Store or Google’s Android market and only 21 percent think it a better choice than the rest.

Open-First who did this survey found that the speed of the approval and posting process is considered the primary complaint as 55 percent are dissatisfied with how long it takes to reach the store. While iOS app developers have complained of exceptional delays and app rejections that didn’t have adequate explanation for a fix, delays on Ovi Store are potentially worse. One developer reported that all its apps took “months” to reach the store……..

A problem unique to Nokia was device selection: at least one developer complained that Nokia had too many phone models, making it difficult to effectively target apps. The sheer variety of phones, which run into several current models in a single series alone, sometimes a mixture of touch- and non-touch designs within those series. Both Android and the iPhone have been helped by having a consistent emphasis on touchscreens and requiring certain controls.

Unhappiness with pay is also widespread, as 81 percent of developers aren’t making the expected revenue. About 70 percent of developers feel compelled to write for another platform to support themselves.

The climate for Ovi compounds and partly explains the declining interest in Nokia at the high end, where the much wider selection of apps has led previously loyal customers to consider Apple and Google. Finland’s largest company is hoping for a turnaround with the N8 and Symbian^3 but is also facing risk as it almost starts from scratch with future MeeGo devices.

Country’s gaming industry has entered to a new phase as four young souls Omer Nadeem, Saad Bin Khalid, Zeeshan Nadeem and Umair Bin Khalid hailing from DHA Lahore have come forward with console gaming lounge named Eclectic Vibrations.

Address: 91-T DHA, Lahore (Near DHA Cinema)

“Eclectic vibrations” is a console gaming network. The place offers perfectly playfully ambiance for your favorite consoles with a whole variety of various games under one roof; tremendous, isn’it!

The game lovers will find it pleasantly surprising to note that the first time in gaming history Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo Wii could now be played on LAN and besides it one can also connect to the Internet to play globally through PS3.

It is worthy to mention here that the state of the art facility is fully backed up with Industrial generators and heavy UPS devices so there are no chances of electricity failure.

The gaming experience is duly complemented with impressive interior specially designed to heighten the feel and aura of a virtual world everything is tailor made to add elegance to playing experience. Wifi is also provided to the game lovers to log in to the Internet, along with a refreshment bar!

Sony just announced a “classic white” PS3 Slim (as opposed to the “ceramic white” original) for Japan, model CECH-2500, coming July 29th with 160GB HDD. For 34,980 yen (about $400 translated to US currency) you can now start off with 320GB of storage in your “charcoal black” model. The aforementioned 160GB still retails for 29,980 yen ($342). So, when are we gonna see this elsewhere in the world?

Google is full of useful functions and search tricks that you probably don’t know. I recently spent some time with Google engineers Jake Hubert and Dan Russell, learning ways to get more out of Google search. These are tips you’ll find useful, whether you’re wondering how to convert Centigrade to Fahrenheit before you head for the beaches in the south of France, or need to look at a patent for a technology innovation.

We had hardly started our conversation, when Russell gave me his first, and over-arching, tip: If you want to know something about Google search, simply search for it. “Don’t bother to remember a URL. I don’t,” he said…..

Let’s say you want to know something about a patent. Simply type “Google patents” in a search bar, and the first hit you get will take you to Google Patent Search. Google and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office have struck an agreement, and you can now have access to more than 7 million patents, including drawings.

The Internet promises unlimited connectivity, but such connectivity requires that computers and devices find one another through a common address plan. The current plan, in place since the late 1970s, is running out of open addresses, and a new scheme called IPv6 is being put in place to power the Internet’s next stage of growth.

For small businesses that plan ahead, this shift can enhance computing security and application reliability and performance. But waiting until the last minute could leave you scrambling for costly equipment updates, missing an opportunity to turn a necessary change into a business boost…..

Malicious hackers attacked Google’s YouTube on Sunday, exploiting a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability on the ultra-popular video sharing site, hitting primarily sections where users post comments.

“Comments were temporarily hidden by default within an hour [of discovering the problem], and we released a complete fix for the issue in about two hours. We’re continuing to study the vulnerability to help prevent similar issues in the future,” a Google spokesman said via e-mail…..

The attack potentially put at risk YouTube cookies of users who visited a compromised page, but it couldn’t be used to access their Google accounts, the spokesman said. As a precaution, YouTube users should log out of their account and log back in again.

The attackers apparently targeted singer Justin Bieber, incorporating code into YouTube pages devoted to him so that visitors saw tasteless messages pop up about the teen star, and were also redirected to external sites with adult content

An industry source familiar with the situation said that while the attack itself didn’t involve malware infections, such a risk is inherent whenever users visit any Web page, such as the ones attackers redirected users to. It’s not clear if those landing pages contained malware, but most up-to-date anti-virus software is designed to protect against those threats, this person said.

YouTube is by far the most popular video uploading and sharing site. In May, U.S. residents watched 14.6 billion video clips at Google sites, mostly at YouTube. which is about 43 percent of all clips watched online that month, according to comScore.

On a day when the U.S. marks its independence with fireworks shows, social media sites like Twitter and Facebook lit up on Sunday morning with reports from thousands of individuals who noticed the YouTube hack.

A separate stream of postings on social media sites focuses on whether Apple’s iTunes App Store may have been compromised by a rogue developer and whether purchases may have been made without victims’ permission using their credit cards on file.

People posting about the Apple issue are suggesting that App Store customers check for any unusual activity on their accounts.

Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from IDG News Service.

Google has reached an agreement to buy ITA Software, a maker of air travel flight-information software whose customers include major airlines and online travel agencies. Google will pay US$700 million in cash for the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based software vendor, the companies announced on Thursday.

Google plans to use ITA’s software to improve the ways in which people can find flight information online using Google search services, Google said in a statement…..

ITA, founded in 1996, counts among its customers American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Kayak, Orbitz, Southwest Airlines, TripAdvisor, United Airlines, US Airways, Virgin Atlantic Airways and Microsoft’s Bing.

Google said it will “honor all existing agreements” ITA has in place and plans to add new partners.

The companies are holding a press conference this afternoon to discuss the deal

Google’s encrypted search engine, launched in May, has moved to a new Web address that isn’t as convenient as its original one but that gives organizations the option to block the site for their users without locking them out of other Google services.

Originally offered at google.com, the encrypted search engine has been relocated to encrypted.google.com, a move prompted primarily by the requirement of schools and universities to block encrypted search engines for their students.

Educational institutions often ban encrypted search engines because students can use them to bypass the Web content filters of their schools and universities…..

However, blocking google.com also interferes with other encrypted Google products, like the hosted Apps communication and collaboration suite, which many educational institutions offer for their staff and students.

By moving the encrypted Web search engine to its new address, it’s now possible to block access to it without affecting other Google services, Google said on Friday.

“We are continuing to explore longer-term options such that we could return encrypted search to https://www.google.com without introducing issues with school content filters,” wrote Google Enterprise President Dave Girouard in an official blog post.

Google introduced the option to encrypt Web search sessions with SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) technology for people who want to make sure network snoops don’t sniff the data they exchange with Google servers, such as queries entered and results received.