It's a great idea to buy a mobile phone for children as they get older and start to go out with their friends. Mobiles mean they can be in with the crowd having a funky mobile with all the latest gadgets on it (camera, mp3 player, games) but also that you can ring them when they're late home and make sure they're on their way. It can also be used to track children as there are several companies offering this service. You can then keep an eye on where your kids are.

A mobile is also useful for when they want to ring you for a lift home. It can be reassuring to know that children can ring you the minute they need help with a mobile phone - but that's only true if they have credit on it. Sometimes the more credit you put on a phone the more they'll spend. This is something to watch with children - keep an eye on how much they spend on their mobile and set limits. Make sure they know what the limits are and it'll be easy to restrict this.

So they can always ring you it's possible to add a reverse number call option to their phone book. Look into these though as they can be quite dear to use.

So what age should you buy a child a mobile phone? I think the older they are the better. Very young children have no need of one - buy them a plastic toy version that beeps if they insist on a phone. Early teens should be the earliest - some parents see the start of secondary school as important for this first phone purchase. Whether you buy one for Christmas or a birthday, it's a good idea to check with the child what phone they might want - if they are going to want to take photos on their phone it's important to make sure they have a camera built in! A phone really can make an excellent Christmas present!

Author Di Drinkwater.

Are you looking to buy a PayG Mobile as a Christmas present? If so we have put together some information, in which we have arranged handsets via price range. Click the relevant link for your budget. PayG £10-£30   PayG £30-£60   PayG £60-£100

Old or unused mobile phones create a significant percentage of the worlds overall, electronic waste, and the scale of the problem is growing year on year. This year, total worldwide mobile phone ownership is set to surpass 3 billion. That is approximately one handset for every two people on the planet, and with growing demand and development, the market shows no sign of reaching saturation point. The latest industry figures show that each mobile purchased is used for a average of just 18 months, which means that in as little as three years time there will be around 6 billion unused mobiles filling draws and cupboards around the world.

If you could lay these handsets out end-to-end they would easily stretch around the world multiple times, yet the majority eventually find their way into rubbish bins or a hole in the ground, with no thought given to recycling. All this adds up to an overwhelming environmental problem and one that mobile manufacturers and retailers need to take more seriously. If the mobile industry does not begin to take official guidelines and environmental concerns, more seriously regulations and policy can only begin to come down on it.

Simply discarding a mobile phone into the bin instead of recycling it generally leads to it reaching a landfill or being incinerated, which releases many toxic substances that are important to the operation and manufacture of the handset.  However, these toxic substances include heavy metals such as nickel, mercury, and Cadmium one of the earth’s most deadly substances and many more! Which just do not degrade. When a handset reaches landfill these substances, can pollute the environment by leaking into water sources and the food chain, all this leads to a huge ongoing health risk alongside other human initiated environmental factors.

Although not a complete solution to the problem, recycling a mobile phone can help to reduce its environmental impact by prolonging its usefulness, as well as put some extra money in your pocket. Many people hoard mobile phones for one reason or another, probably out of some kind of desire to hold on to the handsets value. As I write this, I am going to check to see how much money I can get for a Sony Ericsson K800i, which is in my bedside table. After checking with envirofone I found that I can get £24.20. Envirofone are going to send out a package for me to send it off in, when they receive the handset and check it over a cheque will be sent to me.

Let’s face it it’s not really that morally correct to use making money as your motivation to recycle an old mobile phone, but why keep something that provides you with no tangible benefits. At least selling it can enable you to play your part the recycling process.

Everyone will agree the most annoying aspect of a mobile phone is when the battery dies, especially if the battery dies when you are in the middle of a call or on the way to a meeting.

The obvious solution to this problem is charge your phone before you use it – however just doing this can be a chore, finding the right cable, finding a spare plug and waiting for it to charge.

However the future has arrived, or so the manufactures would love us to believe, Wireless Charging !

You can now charge your phone or gadget wirelessly, gone is the need to find the cable and find a spare plug. You can simply place a special cover on your phone, also adding protection to the phone like any cover would, and then place your phone on a special mat and as if by magic it charges your phone.

Many different gadgets can be charged from one mat meaning no more hassle finding a spare plug or looking for the charger.

Also if your friend or workplace has the same mat you can just put your phone on their pad to get charged. However the obvious draw back is there is quite a few wireless charging mats and adapters on the market and they are not compatible with each other. The future is a wireless charging standard, so all mats charge all receivers.

Imagine how useful it would be to be to walk into Starbucks and put your phone on the side and have it charge whilst you drink your coffee, or the table on the train charges your phone? Hopefully this is not too far away, however I do believe the best is yet to come with wireless charging! Watch this space!

Author: Henry