The branded handset manufactured by LG Electronics on behalf of the fashion company Prada will be in Phones4U shops by today.

It seems that the deal between the mobile phone retailer and LG Electronics is a partial exclusivity deal. That is, Phones4U will have first bite of the Prada 3.0 cherry before any other retailer in Britain. How long this will last isn’t known.

So, if this ticks your box, what can expect from any Phones4U deal?

The handset is available at £31 per month and features a 4.3-inch NOVA display, an 8-megapixel camera, a dual core 1GHz processor and 1GB of RAM. It is powered by Android Gingerbread rather than Ice Cream Sandwich, although no doubt it will be upgradeable.

As the smartphone is a fashion accessory as well as a machine, the back is made from Saffiano leather-style material.

In other news, Hewlett Packard (HP) has apparently reincarnated its mobile phone operating system – WebOS. Rather than using it to create its own products, HP has decided to make the platform open source. The expected date for this is either the third or fourth quarter.

It seems that that this new approach to offering WebOS is the third time in almost as many years. However, HP is confident this time that going open source is the best solution rather than burying it completely.

“HP is bringing the innovation of the webOS platform to the open source community,” said Bill Veghte, executive vice president and chief strategy officer at HP.

It seems the in the mass hysteria over the death of its former leader, the North Korean Government has decided anyone caught using a mobile phone during the 100-day mourning period is declared a war criminal.

The warning was apparently made to try and stop North Korean citizens trying to escape a growing food crisis. Many North Koreans have attempted to cross the border into China, while others have contacted people outside asking for help.

To date around 23,000 people have still managed to get out of the country over the years. So, it is unlikely that the mobile phone ban will deter some determined to escape.

The former leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-il, died unexpectedly on the 17^th December 2011. Since then, the hurried installation of his son Kim Jong-un, together with a mandatory 100 days of official mourning, have taken place.

Anyone wanting to defect from the North Korean dictatorship is more likely to be able to do so via the Chinese border rather than the South Korean border. The latter is very heavily guarded.

Some analysts think that the death of Kim Jong-il may also cause civil unrest in the impoverished nation. The elevation of his son has caused some instability in the country, hence the new dictum over mobile phones, which are seen as too much of a link to the outside world.

Further, if there is discontent then the government fears that anyone using their mobile phone during this sensitive time may exacerbate an already fragile situation.

It has been reported that the network operator O2 has been accused of sharing the mobile phone numbers of individuals whenever the latter visit websites.

This accusation came about after research was carried out by a web systems administrator, Lewis Peckover. He found that anyone using O2 as their network is likely to have the mobile number shared with the websites they visit while using their smartphone. The numbers themselves are sent by the phone to the website via plain text.

In turn the website owner would be able to pick this data up easily and use it for marketing messages.

Interestingly, not all mobile phone users are affected, but the data sharing is only confined to O2. That said, anyone who uses another service that essentially piggybacks over the O2 network has been found to be affected.

Analyst Graham Cluley from the security firm Sophos, who suggested this matter has been known about for two years, said “My guess is that it’s more likely to be a cock-up than malice which caused this data to be leaked – but what’s worse is that the problem is still present almost two years after it was first discovered.”

Whether it is a ‘cock-up’ rather than a malicious attempt by two different parties is not really relevant. Further, if the issue has been around for two years and only discovered now, it will raise questions.

In the light of the recent phone hacking scandal, this couldn’t have come at a worse time for O2, who are now investigating.

The fairly recent release of Apple’s iPhone 4S seems to have given the American giant something of a boost. The company’s market share has now doubled in the US, leaving Google’s Android lagging behind.

In Britain and Australia, Apple’s market share is also growing rapidly.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook said “We made a very bold bet, entering the quarter, as to what the demand would be. And as it turns out, despite it being a very bold bet, we were short of supply throughout the quarter and did end with a significant backlog.”

The findings come from figures released by Apple that appear to show that 37 million units were sold during the last quarter of 2011. The iPhone 4S was also the most popular of the three different smartphone still available for sale – the 3GS, the iPhone 4 and the 4S.

Tim Cook also said that the company underestimated the popularity of the iPhone in China where demand was described as being off the scale.

One last statistic demonstrating the increasing popularity of this handheld device is that more iPhones were sold last year than all the previous four years combined. The iPhone was first released in 2007.

This news enabled Apple bosses to claim the company regained its position as the world’s most valuable company. First quarter profits are apparently £8.4bn, which is double last year’s profit. This boost also forced a jump in the share price by a staggering 6.65%.

It’s been suggested that the Nokia Lumia 900 will be in the shops in the UK by June 2012.

The Lumia 900 is considered the main Windows Phone device from quite a numerous pack. It was launched in the USA by the network operator AT&T earlier this month. However, Carphone Warehouse seemingly created a pre-order page on its website indicating the device will be available by the middle of the year. Since then the mobile phone retailer has removed it, leaving everyone rather perplexed.

What’s so special about the Lumia 900?

It is apparently similar in a number of respects to the Lumia 800, but possesses a 4.3-inch AMOLED display with an 800×480-pixel resolution. The other features though are the same, including a 1.4GHz SnapDragon CPU and an 8-megapixel camera.

The Lumia 900 also possesses 4G LTE connectivity, although this is rather useless at the moment since the UK doesn’t have 4G technology installed yet. That said, at least the handset will be ready when 4G finally does arrive in Britain.

The one thing that can be said, however, is that while no one is entirely sure when the Nokia Lumia 900 will actually land in the UK, it is definitely coming.

In associated news, analysts have expressed surprise at how well Nokia’s Windows Phone handsets have sold. It is thought that the company has shipped out no fewer than 1.3 million units, although Nokia itself has refused to give out any official figures.

The Lumia 800 appears to be very popular, which if true could finally get both Nokia and Microsoft back on track.

LG Electronics has announced that it is launching an improved version of its popular 3D smartphone Optimus 3D.

Called, unsurprisingly, the LG Optimus 3D 2, the new handset is expected, if the reports are true, to be a much slimmer update.

It’s been nearly a year since LG released its first 3D phone to mixed acclaim. It was considered quite a powerful machine at the time, although some analysts were rather scathing. So, whatever improvements the company intend carrying out, they will certainly get the handset noticed. Whether this is good or bad has yet to be tested.

So what are these improvements? Pocket-Lint reports that they include a “1.2GHz TI processor, which sticks to the same supplier as the original Optimus 3D. The screen sits at 4.3 inches, offering a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, but said to offer the Nova technology that the Optimus Black did. This is a super-bright 700nit display, which should help visibility in bright sunlight, as well as giving the 3D a boost.”

One of the major reasons why many analysts criticised the first version of the Optimus 3D was the poor battery life. While the phone itself was considered powerful, losing power so quickly caused concern.

Will LG Electronics have taken these criticisms into account? One would have thought so, but a few commentators don’t hold much hope out that the company will. If so, this is a pity, as 3D technology has become an established feature. Any further battery power problems may affect further development of this technology.

Rumours are circulating that a new device is Sony’s latest smartphone. Eagle-eyed commentators spotted a new handset with the name ST25i Kumquat, but it’s thought likely to be a working name or code name for the new gadget.

It’s also thought likely that if it is a Sony smartphone, it will be officially unveiled at the Mobile World Conference (MWC) next month.

The image of the smartphone was spotted on the internet. As usual, very little information can be gleaned from the photograph, but it has been suggested it looks sufficiently similar to the Sony Xperia range and maybe a replacement for either the Xperia Mini or Xperia Ray.

Some experts also suggest the phone will feature a number of specs including a NovaThor U8500 chipset with a 3.5 inch FWVGA Reality display. The camera appears to be 5 megapixels with 720p video recording, although how this information can be gleaned from an image is rather difficult to confirm.

The operating system is also likely to be Android.

In similar vein, a new HTC handset has been leaked. This one is the LGX3 – a quad-core device apparently. This particular device is also expected to be officially launched at the MWC in February.

What’s special about this new handset? For starters, it appears to be a very slim phone at just 9mm, but the major feature is the quad-core Tegra-3 chipset. Other features are the usual, such as a 4.7 inch high resolution 1280×720 display, 16GB of storage with a microSD slot, a 1.3 megapixel networking camera and an 8 megapixel rear-facing camera.

In something of a shock move, Research in Motion’s top executives, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, have resigned from the board. The new Chief Executive Officer is Thorsten Heins.

After the announcement, Mike Lazaridis said “There comes a time in the growth of every successful company when the founders recognise the need to pass the baton to new leadership. Jim and I went to the board and told them that we thought that time was now.”

Although at first sight the news is rather shocking, many analysts believe it was probably the right thing to do given RIM’s increasing troubles, although Thorsten Heins called the troubles “growing pains.” Keen on emphasising that RIM is now on its way up, Mr. Heins said “We have learned from those challenges and, I believe, we have and will become a stronger company as a result.”

Although Mr Heins has confidence in RIM, some analysts are not so confident. For example, it was pointed out by one commentator that the BlackBerry Playbook is still not selling, despite spending millions of pounds on advertising.

But what about RIM’s main product – the BlackBerry smartphone? RIM recently abandoned any attempt to produce a wide variety of BlackBerry phones, preferring to concentrate on just one or two.

Will this strategy pays off? It’s too early to say. It probably depends in part on whether the outage problem experienced by BlackBerry users last year will not be repeated. If it does occur again, then RIM is likely to be in serious trouble. In this case, the takeover bids could become a reality

While Windows Phones have not taken off as much as Microsoft hoped, the software giant has nevertheless managed to gain in other ways.

It seems a licensing agreement with ZTE allows Microsoft to get between £15 and £20 for every ZTE handset sold. According to Santiago Sierra, Portfolio Manger for ZTE UK, the cost of licensing the OS from Microsoft explains why Windows Phone 7 handsets would be more expensive from the Chinese manufacturer.

Analysts believe also that if Microsoft has done a deal with ZTE it is highly likely the company has done a similar deal with other Asian manufacturers, such as Samsung. Some have even suggested that a similar deal was probably struck with Nokia when the latter decided to forge a partnership with Microsoft last year. However, neither Nokia nor Microsoft has revealed any of the details about their financial arrangements.

It has to be said though that this sort of ‘windfall deal’ isn’t exclusive to Microsoft. Google’s Android also has a similar deal with a software company called the Redmond Group.

These sorts of deals are probably the reason why many of the handsets manufactured are rather pricey. Whether this is moral is another question but, assuming that consumers are prepared to pay the price for the item, they are unlikely to be bothered at the goings on in the mobile phone world.

On the other hand, it is a demonstration of how a top company such as Microsoft can wangle out as much as they can from other companies they deal with.

Image Courtesy of Apple

The famous upmarket store in West London has announced it has offered Apple one million square feet of retail space.

Although the American company already has stores in a number of London shopping areas, such as Regent Street and Covent Garden, it is believed this new venture is aimed at encouraging people to view Harrods as something more than just a clothes and typical department store albeit a haunt of the mega rich.

This news without a doubt is a coup for the iPhone manufacturer. Not only is the company getting a new foothold with London, it is accessing a completely new market – tourists, the rich and the like.

As Apple isn’t just a manufacturer of smartphones, this could be a very smart move indeed.

As usual, no one from Apple was available to comment about this move. It may just be another of those Apple rumours, but most analysts believe there is something in it.

In associated news, Apple has apparently filed a patent application for a new battery design aimed at fitting in thinner iPhones.

In fact the patent seemingly will enable Apple to completely redesign its device as the battery can be configured in a variety of shapes, such as L shape, triangular, and even semi-circular.

While battery design is not a new idea, many analysts have expressed surprise that this hasn’t been done before for digital devices such as the iPhone.