The debate is still on. I read about it on Reuters today morning that the Supreme Court (the earlier senetence gave an impression as if Supreme Court is reading) in the US state of Oregon is continuing the argument that whether the state police must obtain a search warrant in order to examine the data stored on an individual’s smartphone. Similar question has been raised in other states of the US too. Peoples’ opinions, so far, are divided.

How it works in the USA is – if anyone’s home or property needs to be searched, the police must get a search warrant after convincing the judge that there is a reason behind such suspicion or a possibility of law-breaking evidence at the said property, for instance, revolvers, computer files, explosives or even drugs. The police are also free to look through the suspect’s pockets, handbag or wallet if he/she is placed under suspicion or is arrested. The argument now is whether the police’s freedom to search also includes searching the suspect’s smartphone?

Considered relatively as a grey area, smartphones have become an issue when it comes to search. This is because it is not merely about listening to a phone conversation and keeping a tab on it, but also about checking one’s personal information. This personal information on the smartphone could include calendars, contacts, messages and even emails. Should the police be allowed to search all this without having a search warrant specifically for the same? That’s what the debate is about and one is yet to see if any ruling is passed to this effect.

Later this week, the USA will witness the new Motorola Droid X2 hitting its shelves, a follow up to the very popular Motorola Droid X device.

Though the new device looks very similar to its predecessor, the Droid X2 will be featuring a large and 4.3 high-resolution display and is supposed to have an excellent calling quality.

The new device will also have a 1 GHZ dual-core processor making it an ideal choice for multimedia addicts as well as gamers, since its speed will be excellent. The only drawback seemingly is that it is only a 3G capable phone instead of 4G.

Motorola Droid X2 will be the same size as its original, precisely 5 inches long, 2.5 inches wide and 0.39 inches thick. Its weight is around 5.46 ounces with a rubber-base matte covering that boasts of being scratch and fingerprint resistant.

The display is also far better than the original as it features quarter high definition (qHD). This quality provides a 960 x 540 pixels resolution at 16:9 aspect ratio. What users get as a result is a better viewing angle, sharper image and more vibrant colours.

MotoBlur has been greatly improved in Droid X2 handset as compared to Droid X, though it is still not as perfect. This is good news for people who have used Droid X in the past and faced issues.

Another flip side to the new device apart from the missing front-facing camera and poor video quality is that its operating system is Android 2.2, though the company is promising that it will upgrade it to Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) soon.

Gartner’s latest report states that 428 million mobile devices were sold during the first quarter of 2011, which in comparison to the last year’s figures, is up by 19%. Out of 428 million, around 200 million were classified as smartphones and that number represents an increase of 85% year-over-year.

At an incredible 36% market share among the smartphones, Android was the favourite platform while Symbian came in second at 27.4%. Apple was also outdone by Android and Symbian and came in third with 16.8%. It is worth mentioning that RIM stood at 12.9% while Windows Phone 7 stood at 3.6% of the smartphones market.

The smartphone sales figures by the end of this year are expected to reach around 468 million, as predicted by Gartner. The predictions also say that Android most likely will remain at number one with its OS constituting around 38.5% of the total market.

An interesting fact that has come out of this report is that Nokia still holds the number one rank among the phone manufacturers, despite a serious decline in its share. One can say with surety that it is certainly not the handsets letting them down but their OS. It will hence be worth watching what happens when Windows Phone 7 devices start getting rolled out by Nokia sometime next year.

If one remembers how the mobiles phones had been doing in the past, one will surely appreciate the pace at which the smartphone market is moving, especially when the battle between Android-based phones and iPhones is still going strong.

Have you ever wondered what the worth of your smartphone is, if you ever decide to sell it?  The more places you ask, the more varied answers you will receive, and you will still be unsure if that is the best deal.  If you have either upgraded your smartphone already or are thinking of doing so soon ( with the iPhone 5 about to make its way into the markets), it surely will be worthwhile to understand what is to be done with your old cell phone.

The best thing to do, I feel, will be to recycle it online and get cash for it.  This not only is the fastest and simplest way but also gets one the best price in majority of cases.

Finding a good offers online through sellyourmobile.info is very simple.  To give you a brief, sellyourmobile.info is the number one cell phone recycling comparison site in the UK and it compares prices from a large number of reputed UK-based recyclers.  The comparisons shown on the site are the latest and completely unbiased.

So how does sellyourmobile.info work?  It has a huge database of a number of models and manufacturers and once the comparison is made, the results are displayed in a simple and easy to understand manner. This ensures that you pick out only the information which is required.  And if any additional information is needed, the user can open separate windows for recyclers’ sites and then return to sellyourmobile.info for other transactions.

It indeed is very easy to find out how much your smartphone is worth.

While there is nothing such as a ‘mobile heaven,’ if there were a mobile hell, it would definitely be the trash can. Thus, before you throw that useless mobile phone away, why not head to Sell Your Mobile and find out if you can earn some handy cash in exchange of getting your phone recycled.

Recycling is a Must

You are absolutely at the right place in case you have just been introduced to the concept of recycling of old mobile phones. Although mobile phone recycling may appear a useless procedure at the outset, especially if your handset is old, worn out and not so expensive, with each handset that gets recycled properly, there is a bit of our planet which gets saved for future generations. Simply put, unwanted mobile phones are nothing but e-waste which when get dumped in landfills, do nothing more than adding toxins in the ground. All these toxins eventually find their way into our bodies via plants, water and animals.

Whom to Choose for Recycling Your Old Mobile Phone

If you are in the United Kingdom, you are lucky as there several choices available to recycle old mobile phones. Sell Your Mobile can assist you in sorting out those choices and in selection of the best recycler who will be able to give you the maximum amount for your mobile. From here itself, you can examine many listings before deciding on the right one, or you can even head straight to the recycler who is offering you the best deal. The choice is really yours.

Sell Your Mobile

Sell Your Mobile is Britain’s best mobile phone recycling comparison website. We literally compare thousands of old mobiles daily, in partnership with the most reputed mobile phone recycling websites in the UK. The idea is to help you get the best price for your old mobile phone.

Today, while going through my New Media Age newsfeed, I found this article which talked about a research done by the APA (Association of Public Agencies). The study claims that close to two quarters of the iPad users favour branded applications.

The research discovered that as many as 73% of the surveyed people favoured free branded apps instead of paid unbranded ones. These people also wished for brands to release exclusive and interesting content more often.

The APA’s CEO observed that the survey clearly exhibits where do consumers’ preferences lie and brands can benefit greatly by acting upon this information. However, in my opinion what the survey tells is that everyone loves freebies. But, what do I know?

Further, the survey also revealed that out of the 952 iPad owners, 38% would like to have more lifestyle applications, 27%bgaming applications and 23% would like to have more applications related to brands.

39% of the surveyed people owned a MacBook while 61% owned an iPhone as well – something which makes great sense as both are interactive in nature and work perfectly together as a package.

What really amazes me is our readiness to go to any lengths just because there is free stuff on offer with a brand – something ironic keeping in mind the recent outcry related to personal information of consumers being used for brand advertising on internet. I feel we all have double standards, more so when it is about brands and advertising. But again, what do I know?

As per the statistics, a woman somewhere in the world gives birth to a child every second, every day. Some of them do it in the special care of sterile hospitals having well-trained staff, lots of support and after care. For many other women, giving birth becomes a very dangerous and life threatening exercise. US Secretary of the State, Mrs. Hillary Clinton has launched a new programme to address the latter. The programme undertakes helping pregnant women and babies in the poor countries.

Under this programme known as MAMA (Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action), mobile phones of women are utilized to pass on important health information via voicemail or SMS text to them. The programme is currently running successfully in India, Bangladesh and South Africa. The sponsorship is provided by BabyCenter (an online parenting network), United Nations Foundation, Johnson & Johnson (the popular manufacturer of baby and personal care health products) and US Agency for International Development.

Programmes like MAMA thrill and fascinate me greatly as they highlight the fact that there is much more to mobile phones than their calling feature. In fact, they can literally be life savers for so many people.

As shared by Mrs. Clinton, there’s more to such programmes as their ramifications are far-reaching than they seem. In her opinion, when women become victorious, they not only uplift themselves, but their families and communities as well. Hence, this initiative can act as a multiplier by not only enhancing the lives and health of babies and pregnant women, but also enhancing the lives of their whole communities.

So next time you send that SMS to your friend, stop and contemplate about how an activity as simple as that can have a great impact on the lives of many people.