Some reasons for which to use Whatsapp as your default messaging client.

I've been using Whatsapp messaging client on my phone intensively for about half a year now, and I've been really satisfied with it. Or at least, it's been working perfectly for me until now (Galaxy Nexus on Jelly Bean now), even though there are some who report serious issues with it. For those who did not use it until now, the main idea is that it is a lightweight messaging client which works over the internet (WiFi or mobile network).

I really recommend it because it is very popular (so there should be a lot of users to speak to), uses a very small amount of battery, it is very fast, and uses a ridiculously reduced amount of data. I've sent about 3700 messages since I installed Jelly Bean (very recently) and it used only 1.5 MB, which is really negligible, considering that I have a 750MB data plan and I am a lot of time in areas where WiFi is available free of charge.

But here is the most important feature: based on the mobile phone number, it detects whether the contacts from your address book have Whatsapp installed or not, and it will display those who have it. For this purpose, you'll have to give your phone number when you first run the application. And as you had probably figured out already, you are going to be in tho places, with two different accounts, in the case that you have two phones and you want it installed on both of them. For this reason (the necessity of having a mobile phone number), Whatsapp can't run and was not designed to be used on computers. So no, there's no PC/Mac version, and probably, there will never be one.

Whatsapp is available for the following platforms (click the links for download):

• Android (free for the first year);
• iOS ($0.99);
• BlackBerry
• Nokia phones (Nokia Series 40, Symbian and Windows Phone);

Android sales increased by 886% in Q2 2010, overtaking Apple's iOS in the US.

Android sales simply exploded in the Q2 2010 by 886% worldwide (or 851% in the US), Canalys reports. It seems that Android has overtaken iOS in the US, having 34 percent of the market share. Android is followed by RIM, with 32% of market share, and, on the third position, by Apple, with only 21,7% of market share.

However, reporting to the worldwide market share, Nokia is the leader, with about 38% of the market. And this comes mostly because of the second largest smartphone market, China, where Nokia has an astonishing percent of 77%.

You can find more details on SlashGear.

Nokia prototype (possible N9) gets on the internet.

The guys from TechoBuffalo got a Nokia on their hands, which seems to be the predecessor of N8, the N9. What is not clear is why is it (still) running the Symbian OS, because Nokia promised that all their high-end devices which are going to be launched after the N8 will be running the MeeGo OS.

Here are some of its specifications:

• nHD Display (640 x 360 pixels)
• 4" capacitive multi-touch Display
• 8 MPx camera with LED flash
• possible VGA camera with LED flash on front
• HDMI out
• Bluetooth + WiFi

You can find more details and images (+video) on TechnoBuffalo.com.

Nokia announces the N8.

Nokia has announced their new high-end model, the N8. This smartphone puts a great accent on multimedia and social networking. It has pushing capabilities to various services such as Twitter, RenRen and Facebook, and you can even view Web TV directly on the phone (CNN and National Geographic for example). Plus, you'll have free GPS navigation (+maps), forever.

A 12 mega-pixel camera has been implemented, with HD video recording capability. The N8 brings the new Symbian 3 operating system (how about Maemo, Nokia?). What it has inside isn't that impressive as the camera is, and we are talking about a modest 680 MHz ARM 11 processor and 256 MB RAM memory. It has 16 GB internal memory, which can be expanded with another additional 32 GB (microSD). There is a 3,5" capacitive touch screen, with a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels.

The quantity of internal memory is too much, in my opinion. Nokia is far away from being an important "player" in the domain of smartphones. Their previous high-end model (N97) was a disaster, and this happened mainly because of really slack performance especially when more data is present on storage memory. Because the improvements at processor and RAM are not that important, a great pressure is being put on Symbian 3.

In my point of view, this smartphone doesn't bring enough change compared to previous models so it won't reach the success. Moreover, it could be a disaster, like his "smaller brother", the N97. The phone will be available in more colors, at a price of 370 euros without any taxes. Shipping starts from the third quarter of 2010.

More details on official site: http://europe.nokia.com/find-products/devices/nokia-n8.

The battle between Apple and Nokia.

A big event has been announced by Apple some time ago, for the date of 27th January, on San Francisco, where everyone hopes that Apple will announce iSlate or iPhone 4G, or why not, both of them. ( these are the most probable names of expected products, even if they were not confirmed officially yet).

But it seems that Nokia couldn't let this simply happen, and announced, recently (few days ago), an event on London, UK, scheduled for 21 of January, inviting those who Apple already did. In my opinion, Nokia showed just how desperate it's, being afraid of Apple.

But I'm really excited about what will Apple announce there ( I'm a fan of Apple, sorry Nokia). What do you think about what Nokia is doing ? Which event do you think will have the most important effect ?