Over the last three months myself, my girlfriend, brother and mom have all upgraded our mobile phones, so right there thats four old handsets not in use.

On top of this, we each had a few older ones we were keeping as “spares” which never got used. So, I decided I would see if I could sell them all and get some quick cash back on them.

After trawling a few sites I found that most expouse the highest environmental ethics citing the environmental reasons for recycling your old phones as their primary concern. In reality, both their primary motivation and mine was CASH!

I just wanted to find the best price I could get for my handsets. Unfortunately as I had a few different ones that meant a lot of checking to try and get the best prices for them all. To that end I used this site to sell my mobile, which compared prices on a load of different sites and helped me find the best deal.

As it turned out I sold them all to one company (Mazuma) in the end as I did not want the additional hassle of having to send different phones to different companies, and Mazuma have a good reputation (other companies are critisised for not paying full price on handsets they receive, knocking money off for minor scratches etc).

Another issue that lead me to use just one company was the fact that the older handsets were pretty well worthless, so price discrepancies did not have that much of an impact. To give you some idea of depreciation on these things, our more recent handsets were getting 10 or 15 times the price that the older onces from a couple of years back were.

In future I am resolved to selling my old phones as soon as I get a new one. Whilst its nice to have a spare, I have yet to use one. Furthermore with SIM cards being updated frequently these days, the chances are that the SIM from my current phone will not work in one of these older ones anyway. I guess you could keep one of the older worthless handsets spare with a PAYG sim card for emergencies, but in our case we only need one of those between us, its not like we all lose our phones at the same time!

So, my advice, sell your old phone the day after you get your new one for the best possible price!

OK, this is part 2 of why I love the iPhone. In the first part I talked about the advantages of having a phone that looks good and why you should spend time looking at the apps from the app store. Here are some more reasons why I like the iPhone and – shock horror – one of the downsides too!

One of the major benefits of the iPhone is how simple it makes everything. There’s no need for a complicated manual because everything is right there for you. All you need to do is spend a bit of time getting used to the touch screen and you’re away. The touch screen is also great and even though it isn’t quite the same as using a real keypad when you’re sending texts it’s about as good as it gets (in my opinion) when it comes to touch screens.

Another benefit of the iPhone is the internet capabilities. In the past the internet seemed to be an added extra to the phone whereas with the iPhone it’s seamlessly integrated into everything you do. Whether you want to buy a new song or app, send an email or check on your RSS feed the phone has all the options that you could want.

One downside of the iPhone is that I think that battery life isn’t long enough. I understand that it’s a relatively powerful machine and has to deal with playing games as well as the basics but the battery seems to go down alarmingly quickly if you’re doing anything other than sending emails or writing a text. If the iPhone had a long battery life even when it was doing graphically intensive things then I’d be very happy. As it is, it’s an amazing phone with just a few small things wrong with it.

With phones coming into every aspect of our life I thought it would be interesting to discuss whether we actually need them. I mean, where would we be without phones today? Could we really get buy or is society forever doomed to needing to be in contact at all times? Not that I mind too much – phones are one of my great passions – but it’s still interesting to talk about.

For example, if you didn’t have a phone with you at all times it would be much more difficult to stay in touch with friends and family. You’d have to call from public telephones which is never a very fun experience! This doesn’t just have social implications though – surely being able to contact the police or your family at any time is good for peoples security?

One of the downsides to having a mobile phone in my opinion is that it means you’re never free from people calling you. Yes, you could turn the phone off but in reality it’s easy to forget to do this. What I hate is when people think that just because they ring that they’re entitled to get to speak to you no matter what you’re doing. Have you ever had someone ring your phone repeatedly just to get you to pick up? If you have then you know exactly what I’m talking about!

Overall, I think mobile phones are a good thing to have in our lives. They definitely can cause some hassle but on the whole I think we’d be lost without them. I know I’d find it very difficult to go back to days when I couldn’t access the internet, email or even my friends and family when I’m not at home! Some people are sure to feel differently though so feel free to leave a comment if you want to get involved.

Nearly everyone has heard of the iPhone which is why it’s such a surprise that not many people really understand its positive and negatives. There’s been a lot written about the various different features and how good they are but I thought I’d weight in with some opinions of my own. This article will talk about exactly why I love the iPhone and why I wouldn’t consider getting another phone for the foreseeable future.

If you know me then you know that I never keep a phone for very long! The iPhone is the only model that’s been able to hold my attention past the “honeymoon period”. Is it sad that I talk about phones as if they were my lovers? That’s for you to decide

The first reason that I love the iPhone is because how cool it looks. Some people will tell you that looks aren’t important for a mobile phone and I can see there point but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t an advantage if your phone looks good.

Another reason is because of the app store. I know it has its problems (am I the only one who was happy that they banned all the xrated apps) but overall it’s a great addition to the phone. I’ve got loads of apps and there are so many good ones coming out all the time.

I especially like the game “angry birds”. It’s the kind of game you could spend hours and hours on without really noticing. That said, I did play flick cricket a lot which was another fantastic game.

I could go on and on about this but I think it’s better to split it into two posts – check back soon for the rest of the reasons why I love the iPhone!