Before I start this I better make a very big disclaimer, I am by no means suggesting that Apple is condoning, purposefully or willingly the act of money laundering but bugger me if people aren’t buying the iPhone 4 with this in mind!

I have recently been to two Apple stores in the UK for various reasons one of which ill be honest was to buy an iPhone but from what i could see this was occurring in both stores. Strange for someone running a blog for HTC mobile phones maybe but you have to keep up with the competition and the best way was for me to buy an iPhone 4. What amazed me was the number of people in the queue and again i’m making a sweeping statement here that didn’t exactly look like they could afford to buy one iPhone 4 let alone the two that virtually every single person was buying.

After some generic banter between the two of us, him telling me about how wonderful curry was back home and asking me if I had travelled I got down to business. “So what are you looking forward to most on the iPhone?”, he gave a meek reply “oh the apps”, “yeah cool, their are plenty to be had”, I said “yeah it is very cool but I wont be keeping it”. “Oh really?” yeah they will be sold and so his very brief explanation started. Yeah I just buy them for this guy, he gives me £50 for queuing up and the cash I need to buy them he then sells them on! Nothing wrong with that in the eye of the law, a bit of private enterprise!

€500 notes in the UK were once the note of choice for money launderers but you can no longer use these notes at currency counters making it harder for criminals to dispose of dirty money.  Therefore criminals have been left needing new ways to dispose of large amounts of cash. They will already be exchanging as much cash as possible into high denomination notes usually £50 in sterling. But taking a large amount of £50 notes to a UK bank or bureau de change would raise alarm bells. So what can they do? Well how about buying high cost small products which currently have a resale value higher than there recommended retail price on the Grey Market? Yep you guessed it the iPhone 4!  Once in possession of the iPhone they can either send the phone off to a mobile phone recycler and receive about 4/5th of the retail value or sell it on an auction site such as Ebay. Current resales of BNIB iPhone 4’s are going for over £700!

And blow me what did nearly every person in front of me do, buy two iPhone 4′s and pay with £50 notes now that isn’t proof of money laundering, far from it in fact but it does raise the question, are people buying iPhone 4′s to launder money? What do you think?

Flash 10.1 has been out on beta for a while and the initial response is that yep its Flash and it works so stick that in your iPhone! But after a bit more use you also start to notice the disadvantages to flash like the constant popups and expanding ads and these unfortunately for me work quite well on my HTC Desire. For quite a while now there have been less and less reasons to develop separate sites for Mobile browsers v’s standard browsers but when there are elements like flash which by design are often intricate and delicate i really can see the point.

Don’t worry though you can turn Flash in your browser on on demand and this puts pay to the problem of constant pop ups and wanting to throw your phone across the room but to be honest you then loose a bit of the upmanship over the iPhone. Perhaps Mac are right and Flash really is a mess and isnt worth the effort.

Flash 10.1 isnt available for everyone yet only those running the Nexus One and HTC Desire and you have to be running Android 2.2 (droid). Other phones coming soon but there not HTC so i am not that bothered

HTC Glacier

One particularly interesting future product being developed by HTC goes under the Glacier codename. It is likely that this is a play on words, since it will be the fastest smartphone on the market when it arrives. According to reports the HTC Glacier will be the first smartphone to use a dual core processor, with a clock speed of up to 1.5GHz potentially on the cards. This will be paired with a large touchscreen display, perhaps in the region of four inches across the diagonal and with a native resolution of 800×480. It is likely that the Glacier will launch with version 3.0 of the Android operating system onboard, making it a tempting, powerful option.

HTC Paradise and Fiesta

The first two examples of these midrange HTC smartphones turned up on an auction site online despite the fact that they have yet to be announced, let alone released. The Paradise features a full QWERTY keypad while the Fiesta is touchscreen-only and it is alleged that these two prototypes are actually going to be replacements for the HTC Aria, although little has been confirmed since the devices were leaked. They may not pack the high end punch of the Glacier, but they are certainly set to be compelling additions to HTC`s line up if they ever make it to market.

HTC Desire HD and Z

Recent reports suggest that two HTC smartphones previously codenamed the Ace and Vision are going to hit the market as the Desire HD and the Desire Z, piggybacking on the popularity of this Android –based handset as HTC begins a franchise. The Desire HD will offer high definition video recording capabilities and a 4.3 inch touchscreen display. Both handsets will allegedly sport Android 2.2 and the Desire Z will be targeted at the business and messaging market thanks to its full QWERTY keypad.

HTC Sabor

Whilst the HTC Glacier is rumoured to pack a dual core processor, the Sabor will apparently opt for pure clock speed grunt by integrating a 2GHz processor. This will allow it to compete with an upcoming Motorola smartphone that will also boast a 2GHz processor and the Android platform. The Sabor is expected to have the ability to shoot high definition video in full HD 1080p, which will make it an incredibly impressive mobile phone and it will also have a large Super AMOLED display and an integrated kickstand to make reviewing your videos and watching movies comfortable if you have access to any flat surface.

Vodafone Free Sim and Free Credit

For those that are interested and like me have a unlocked phone and want to play around with different networks Vodafone are currently offering Free Sims. The offer allows you too not only get a free sim but £50 worth of free credit when you top up Ten Pounds. Get one now!

Eric Cantona Sky TV Advert

One of my favourite Apps for my HTC Desire is the Sky News App.

I use it pretty much everyday and with the absense of a BBC News App it does a really good job at keeping me up to date with what is going on in the world. You can have different options and keep it on one of your homes screens and the actual news stories also feature video plus there is an option to send them news stories too. A big hint though don’t have the app on your main home screen as it eats data.

The next step though is that i would love to have a Sky Sports App. The new Sky Sports TV Advert featuring Eric Cantona really shows some of the epic sporting moments that have been featured on Sky for which i pay a subscription now only if i could view it on my HTC Desire then i would never miss another Epic Sporting Moment again!

Go to:

Settings –> About –> check software updates and it should come up with a new system update i checked the wifi only download option and it downloaded in about 5 minutes and i have a sloooooow connection. When you click the install it will automatically backup your date if you have this option enabled and then turn off the phone and begin the update proper. Install takes about ten minutes and all went well so far apart from the fact its disabled my security lock so i now need to update this again.

Ill now have a play with the supposed other features like iTunes sync and improved Video recording 720p, improved keyboard and Caller ID and let you know my thoughts.

HTC Desire Deals

HTC Desire Deals

Finally the HTC Desire is coming to O2 well soon, well ok not actually until Mid May. So why so late to the starting gate? Testing supposedly but more likely in my eyes they will have been trying to Palm of there Pre’s to existing and potential customers.

The actual price plans are pretty lame too compared to those available on Vodafone, Three, T-Mobile and Orange.

You can however get the HTC Desire on o2 from a number of third party suppliers below.

HTC Desire Deals

Preorder Google Nexus One Vodafone

Im yet to write a review of the Google Nexus One simply as i havent managed to get my hands on one yet but by all accounts another fantastic HTC manufactured phone is hitting the UK shores.

There are a number of price plans available with the phone starting from free with a 24 month contract but there are also a number of 18 month options. You can Preorder your Google Nexus and check price plans on the Vodafone site.

You could also wait for the Nexus One to be available direct from Google but at a steep $529 you might well be better off looking at the contract options available. Another plus with Vodafone is the inclusive 1GB of data per month with each contract phone.