Now here’s an interesting question: can you name the UK City from which more men spend time talking to their mums on their mobile phones than any other? No, not polite genteel Oxford, or indeed London or neighbour Luton.

Actually, it is the big northern cities of Manchester (top spot at number 1), Leeds (2) and Newcastle which take the accolade.

In these tough bastions of maleness, men spend more time talking to their mums than any other place.

Or at least that’s what research from mobile phone website rightmobile.co.uk discovered in a recent look at mobile phone call trends. Indeed, those brave men taking part in the survey were asked to work out how much time they spent on the phone to their mums as a proportion of the total time spent using their mobile phones over one month.

Of course, you might also conclude that they are on the phone to their mums so much so as to avoid seeing them. But let’s not be too churlish.

Manchester is top with am impressive 58%, but Leeds was not far behind with 54% and Newcastle hot on their tails with 52%. The others in the top ten hit parade were Portsmouth (51%), Birmingham (46%), Liverpool (46%), Swindon (42%), Grimsby (41%), Aberdeen (39%) and Bradford (38%).

So, the next question is, which is the City in which men spend the least time talking to their mums? Yes, you’ve guessed it, Glasgow. Now quite why the men folk of Glasgow don’t spend time talking to their mums on the mobile phone is beyond the scope of this article. Perhaps there’s too many distractions and it would not be a wise to ask such a question at throwing out time on a Saturday night.

With Glasgow coming last of all the cities with a mere 4%, joining them in this hall of shame is Luton at 5%, Coventry also at 5%, Oxford a fraction better at 6% and Cardiff a mere 7%. Oh woe is them.

A spokesperson at rightmobile.co.uk pointed out:
“As someone based in the South I was amazed at the results but maybe it could be because us southerners spend more time face to face with our mums than on the phone to them.

“This piece of research has really helped us to identify the types of deals and offers that we should be targeting specific regions with. What has been really interesting is the fact that for many of the guys we spoke to we could see that they spent more time on the phone to their mums than they do to their partners or wife and as for poor old Dads, they hardly seem to get a look in.”

So there we are. For any mums out there, if you want your son to keep in touch, move to Manchester.

Tesco appears to have a hit on its hands with its VX1i Party Phone, mainly because it fits easily into skinny jeans.

Research from the team at Tesco Telecoms found that nearly 70% of people in Britain don’t like to carry a large phone around in their pocket. What’s more, some eight out of ten women don’t like the distraction of a handbag on a night out, so have to find somewhere else to stuff their phones. And depositing a large smartphone into a pocket of some skinny jeans, is not that easy. So, the ultra slim VX1i Party Phone was born and it will fit, says Tesco’s, into the skinniest pair of denims.

And they seem to have got it right. The VX1i Party Phone, which retails at £18.99 is now one of Tesco’s best selling mobile phones and 10,000 left the stores in the run-up to New Year.

The great attraction of course is not only its lightweight credentials, but also the fact that it is a SIM free phone. You buy it, then insert your own SIM card. It will work with most of the SIMs from the main networks, apart from 3, and this is a great attraction for those who like to party unencumbered with the usual personal belongings. They can easily swap their own number into the VX1i and party all night, safe in the knowledge that there are no unsightly bulges, at least that can be blamed on their phones.

A spokesperson for Tesco Telecoms and Tesco Mobile said:
“Our handset was developed as an affordable replacement, temporary phone or alternative to a more expensive phone, but its popularity really has taken us by surprise. The start of a new year is the perfect time to cut costs and we are amazed to see how many shoppers want a plucky little alternative to the smart-phone pack – or they want both!”

Tesco Mobile is a joint venture between Tesco and 02. It sells Tesco Mobile branded services online, through its own stores and via Tesco Direct.

The new HTC Smart is one device that won’t end up with the mobile phone recyclers for some months to come.

Unveiled at the recent Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas, HTC claim that the Smart is a new type of smartphone which is the beginning of a group of straightforward, connected models that will be accessible to people all over the world.

Launched initially in Europe and Asia this Spring, the idea behind the Smart is to produce a device that is a smartphone, but one that is easy-to-use and perhaps more importantly, affordable.

In the words of a HTC Corporation spokesman:
“HTC has always focused on listening to customers and setting the stage for new mobile categories and HTC Smart is the response to customer demand around the world for an easier-to-use, affordable smartphone. Just adding a touch interface doesn’t mean a phone is a smartphone; The integration of HTC Sense brings an unparalleled smartphone experience for people looking to do more on their phone.”

HTC claim that the Smart has a friendly design (not sure how many people design unfriendly phones), which is compact (small), touchy (operated by fingers) and integrates an intuitive user experience that is based on the HTC Sense. In their own words, it stays loyal to the HTC design philosophy that puts people at the centre by focusing on three core areas: Make It Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected.

This basically means that the Smart can be customised and is a great portal to seeing what your friends and colleagues are boasting about on their social networking websites.

It’s powered by the delightfully called Qualcomm Brew Mobile which is apparently a cheap and cheerful, yet powerful operating system which allows the production of affordable smartphones.

A Qualcomm spokesman said:
“HTC Smart breaks new ground in delivering the powerful, in-demand smartphone features that consumers want on a more accessible device for global markets. We are pleased to be supporting HTC as they utilize the capabilities of Qualcomm’s Brew Mobile Platform open operating system to offer high-end capabilities and a compelling mobile user experience at mass-market price points.”

So, pretty HTC Smart then.

The idea of 3D cinema has been around a long time and the occasional movies have been used as oddities to scare the viewing public with larger than life monsters and out-reached hands.

But things have moved on and now 3D televisions have received rave reviews from the latest techno shindig at Las Vegas, CES 2010.

Indeed, Best in Show gong was awarded to the Panasonic VT25 television. Now LG, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba were all showing off 3D TVs, but Panasonic got the accolade, mainly because it not only does the business, but it’s about to ship, meaning it could be in a home near you (if you live in America of course), by the spring. And as such, it will be one of the first 3D, flat-panel HDTV’s available in the US market.

Now, once it reaches across the pond, don’t go expecting Phil’s next fight at the Queen Vic to be in glorious 3D, because as with all such technologies, the device is only part of the story. There isn’t much 3D content around at the moment and as happened with HD television, the availability of 3D programming could be on the low side for a bit.

The other downside of course is that watching 3D television requires you to look like Mr Magoo wearing his best set of lenses. Special glasses have to be worn if you don’t want to be sick watching a fuzzy image and although the Panasonic comes with a complimentary pair, other members of the family will either have to ask for the sick bag, or buy their own.

Now, in case you’re interested, the Panasonic glasses use an active LC shutter system which means that the two lenses darken and lighten very quickly – not discernable with the human eye - whilst the TV picture synchronously displays the corresponding left and right eye specific images. This results in what Panasonic call the Full Monty (or Full HD 3D to be precise). In techno blurb, it’s full-resolution 3D content, which preserves all 1,920 x 1,080 pixels for the left and right eye. Bingo.

Okay clever, but how long before you can view such 3D images on your mobile phone? And how long before those phones end up in the hands of the mobile recycling fraternity? The answer, on both counts, is quite some time.

We live in gadget heaven and the good folks at Google have just added to our dreams with the launch of the Nexus One.

Now, okay, arguments are going to continue forever which is the more stylish and ‘sexy’ phone, the Nexus One, or the iPhone, but for many people out there, it will come down to functionality and ease of use.

And as we said in an earlier blog, it’s unlikely that the Nexus One will beat the iPhone on the catwalk, but what’s at stake here is being the chosen portal of the mobile internet world. Control the gateway and Google will add another notch on the technological bedpost.

It will of course eventually reach the phone recycling fraternity, but not before its been hammered by those geeks in the industry known as the first adopters.

And the Nexus One will no doubt turn a few heads, even though it’s come from the more robotic HTC design stable.

So what are it’s key features? In the Google PR blurb, the first feature they mention is ‘dynamic noise suppression from Audience Inc.’ Not top of my hit list, but there’s no accounting for taste. Perhaps a little more relevant is that it boasts a large 3.7 inch OLED touchscreen display (800 x 480 pixels) which, says the boys and girls, allows deep contrast and brilliant colours. Okay then.

Although most won’t care about the next bit, it is important for those worried that their phone has the legs: the beast running the machine is a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset which apparently is faster than a Olympic sprinter on banned substances. Software is Eclair (thought that was a creamed bun with a bit of chocolate on top) and it runs the Android 2.1 operating system. I tell you what, the best job at HTC and Google must be coming up with the product names.

The software is fun packed, which means that you can have fun with voice-enabled keyboard (those with a lisp might have more fun than the others) and a 3D photo gallery. So, it follows the recent trend of the phone turning into a big toy.

Given that modern-day smartphones are for those looking for something exciting to play with, the next stats might be superfluous, but you can talk for ten hours on one charge, on the 2G model, and for seven hours on the 3G model. Standby time is an impressive 290 hours of the 2G and 250 hours on the 3G. And for those habitual surfers, you have five hours of fun on the 3G.

There’s 512MB of flash and 512MB RAM (remember when that was impressive for a desktop)? A 4GB Micro SD Card boosts the capacity, which can climb to 32GB.

It not only has GPS, but AGPS (short for Assisted Global Positioning System). If that doesn’t light your fire, what about a digital compass, or an accelerometer, or a five mega pixels camera? Autofocus works from 6 cm to infinity (wow, infinity, where’s that then?).

As to it’s vital statistics, its slightly anorexic at 11.5mm depth, 59.8mm wide and 119mm high. With battery, it weighs in at 130 grams.
If you want one in Europe, better ask your friendly Vodafone.

But will it be our weapon of choice for mobile browsing? You certainly wouldn’t bet against it?