Best Cell Phones for 2015

With the market for cell phones growing exponentially every year, it's difficult to pick out a few that stand out as unique. Therefore, I've picked out four from different countries. It seems most of them will be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress, this year scheduled for March 2-5, 2015 in Barcelona, Spain. Here are some of the sharpest phones.

1. Samsung Galaxy S6 - This Korean phone has generated a lot of speculation as to the features, both online and in the stores. Samsung has released a number of other models recently but this one seems to be the flagship version for 2015. There are actually to be two versions - one with a metal case and the other in plastic, super-thin with the usual Samsung wide screen. Perhaps this is the correct image. You can pre-order it online or in the stores for only $800 US!
2. Huawei Ascend8 - The Chinese have created this pretty phone with a 5.5" screen and high resolution panel, 4GB of RAM and 64GB internal storage. The scheduled release in in May and will sell for $800 US.
3. Microsoft Lumia 1030 - This American phone has the same 5.5" screen but with a great high resolution camera and 4 speakers to record and play surround sound.
7. Sony Xperia Z4 - We couldn't finish this review without including the Japanese who use their phones so frequently. Here is what Daniel P. (no last name given) posted in phoneArena.com

"Sony will pull out all stops" and intro a monster with 5.4" QHD panel, to an info one insider sent us that says Sony will keep using 1080p display resolution, but up the chipset to Snapdragon 810. As for the camera, all agree that it will be Sony's newest stacked 21 MP model that allows for real-time HDR stills, and has 192-point AF tech for shooting blur-free fast moving objects.

 

All phones will take top dollar but compared to the price of computers or even laptops or tablets they are still cheaper. For most of the world population their mobile phone is their connection to the internet. It's now several decades since the cell phone was used primarily for calling your friends. It seems from the reviews above that the most popular phones today will have excellent cameras as well as the capacity to take great pictures with increased storage capacity. The other features are yet to be announced. Please return to this column later this year for an update.

What’s so Great About Responsive Websites?

As we head into the changes coming to mobile websites and accessories in 2014, the big buzzwords this year are “responsive websites”. With the number of different sized mobile screens now – everything from flip-top phones to iPads – the need for a website that can adjust in size to all of them is becoming more important. While mobile websites have been around for some years now they were often plugins added to the main website or even separate websites. This created a headache when it came to maintaining data as it meant changing both sites. In addition, these mobile site were not adapting to the various mobile screen sizes.

Enter responsive websites. While adapting these new templates or custom designs means redesigning the entire current website, it should be able to last for years without further renovations to the basic design. Amber Alvi has recently very succinctly  outlined the reasons for switching to a responsive website. Here is part of her article, “Top 5 Reasons to Adopt Responsive Web design in 2014”.

1. Google strongly recommends it as it is easier for the search engines to crawl over one site, not 2 put together. “Responsive websites have one URL and the same HTML. This lets Google easily crawl and index your website content. This reason alone should make you sign up for responsive design now!”

2. There will be less bounce rate. It is estimated that right now 28% of searches are done from mobile devices. When someone goes to a site and can’t see it well (the printing is too small from a regular website), that person is going to go elsewhere and leave your site.

3. One website needs only one SEO campaign, not one for the main site and one for the mobile site. “No need to promote individual websites for your desktop and mobile at the same time. This will definitely give you an edge over your non-responsive competitors.”

4. The responsive design will mean low maintenance and a longer life before another design needs to be adopted.

5. Better ROI (Return on Investment). “To expand your business, it is necessary to reach more people than your rivals. A responsive design will make sure you have a larger audience increasing your chances of conversions.”

To read the original of this article, click here.

So where can one find these responsive websites? Of course contacting an established web designer and viewing the finished websites is one way. For the “do-it-yourselfer”, Google has lots of help offered from responsive website free templates to responsive website tutorials and examples.

I’ve chosen two examples here that are well-known but very different companies. Unfortunately they will not resize on this page, but please try them on your mobiles: http://disney.com  and http://theglobeandmail.com

 It seems that the benefits of using an established template with this new technology makes sense. Perhaps starting with a template that the web designer could supplement is another alternative. This is the wave of the future, not a passing fad, and the sooner your company or group adopts one the better it will be to increase traffic to your website.