As with the iPhone the iPad seems to be leading a revolution. All of the major phone and computer manufacturers appear to be interested in bringing out their own tablets with some available now and some announced as "coming soon".

Bridging the gap between a mobile phone and a laptop the tablet would appear to have little appeal to business users, outside of a few niche markets. That might be about to change now as RIM, the company behind BlackBerry, announce their PlayBook will be available in 2011, squarely aimed at business users.

As with BlackBerry mobile phones the new PlayBook will run on its own operating system specifically developed for tablet computing, BlackBerry Tablet OS. This is especially web friendly and supports both Adobe’s newest Flash standard, as well as HTML5. This is in contrast to the iPads lack of Flash support, which is one of its main drawbacks.

Where Apple lead the way by a considerable margin is in the apps department. There are so many already available that it will be near impossible for others to ever catch up. However RIM are making it as easy as possible for developers to create new apps for their new OS and to port across existing apps.

Business focussed apps would be a differential for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, particularly if there are large enough numbers produced.

Whilst only a prototype model has yet been seen by anyone outside of RIM they already have a full spec for the finished product, some of which includes:

• 7 inch 1024 x 600 multi-touch screen
• 1GHz dual-core CPU and 1GB of RAM
• Two cameras (front and back) with HD video and video calling
• Ability to connect to BlackBerry smartphone

Expected release date for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is thought to be Q1 2011 for the US market with the UK getting them in Q2.

A radio report heard this morning detailed how the police force are making use of BlackBerry mobiles to save officers time whilst out and about and enable them to do more "beat" work and less desk-based administration.

The BlackBerry phones can access police databases and also enable officers to fill in paperwork and transmit it back to the station. This is helping them save money and increase police presence on the streets.

This example of taking advantage of the advanced functionality of BlackBerry business mobiles shows that improvements in employee communications can deliver real benefits in terms of time-saving and cost reduction.

Communication improvement is a core feature of a free review from Business Mobile World. As well as looking at reducing your business mobile tariff where possible we also look to the latest handsets and what they can offer your business.

New features, and particularly new apps, are appearing all of the time. Many are aimed at business users and helping employees whilst out and about in the course of their work. BlackBerry apps are particularly focused towards business users as this remains their core user-base.

BlackBerry phones do not have to be expensive either, there are reasonably priced options for small businesses and light users. The BlackBerry Curve 8520 provides most of the features of the more expensive models (particularly the excellent BlackBerry email service) and is available free of charge on most business tariffs.

For a free BlackBerry business mobile quotation get in touch with us via phone or email.

With the ever increasing sales of smartphones, offering all of the gadgets and apps you could ever need, it seems to be forgotten that the main function of a phone is for voice calls. However, has the quality of voice calls increased markedly in the last few years? Not really.

That is all set to change with the introduction of High Definition (HD) voice calls. This will give a measurable improvement in the sound quality of traditional mobile voice calls. They should sound as though you are face-to-face with the other person with a reduction in background noise, hisses and crackles.

Orange are the first network to offer this service via Orange HD Voice. This is available on a limited number of handsets but expect it to be adopted by all phone manufacturers if it delivers better call quality. Other networks will no doubt follow with their own offerings.

The technology, Adaptive Multi Rate Wideband (AMR-WB) has been adopted as an international standard for 3G mobile networks. It is already available in other countries, such as Germany.

It works by compressing the voice signal to maximise the amount of bandwidth on a network. For the network operators no more capacity is needed whilst delivering better quality calls.

Currently it will only work with calls between 3G HD handsets. If calling a landline or non-optimised phone you will not experience the HD call quality.

The first four handsets used by Orange at launch are HD variants of the Nokia 5230, Nokia X6, Nokia E5 and Samsung Omnia Pro. Rumours abound of other HD handsets being in development.

Only 21 days to go until our special September offer ends. This is 6 months free line rental on our mobile broadband product. Take a look at what you get:

• FREE USB modem stick (pictured right - plugs into any USB port - laptop, netbook or desktop)
• Up to 7.2mbps download speed - the UK's fastest mobile broadband network
• 3GB of data each month - enough for nearly all business users (higher limits available if needed)
• 6 months free line rental (rebated in month 7)
• Only £12.77 plus VAT per month

Buy one stick or multiple sticks for all of your team. Offer applies to all orders made and connected during September.

This offer can also be used for personal (non-business) customers. Get in touch with us for further details and to make an application by calling 0115 944 8977.

For more information about mobile broadband visit the 21c mobile broadband page.

The first real tangible benefits of the Orange T-Mobile UK merger will soon be felt by their customers. Starting from October users of either network will be able to utilise the other network signal when their own is struggling. Effectively they will have a sort of UK roaming.

When the service rolls out in October it will not be automatic, as there are handset issues which need to be addressed, however you will be able to opt-in to the service if you use either network.

New handsets issued by the companies will no doubt come pre-configured to switch between networks automatically and over time the whole service will therefore become totally automated.

This could be a huge selling point for the merged companies and it will be interesting to see if O2 and Vodafone consider a similar type of arrangement in the face of such strong competition.

For users of Orange business mobiles this is great news as a better signal in more areas can only be a good thing for businesses with their team spread throughout the UK.

The best selling business mobiles across our range of websites has been compiled for August 2010. As usual a strong showing from Nokia with half of the entries. They also have the best seller for August in the shape of the Nokia 1208.

In second place is another Nokia, the 2700. Both of these Nokia phones are sturdy workhorses for business users, offering talk and text without the frills.

The first SmartPhone in the list is the BlackBerry 8520. This has the excellent BlackBerry email service plus a range of other features and packs them all in at a price which business users like. One of the best value for money phones we offer.

Samsung have two entries in the list with both of their heavy duty phones. The Samsung M110 is at 4 and the B2100 at 6. These rubberised phones are shockproof, splashproof and dustproof, making them ideal for all sort of tradesmen including builders, plumbers etc.

Sandwiched in between them is the Nokia 6303, a regular in our Top 10 list offering excellent services in a neat handset, ideal for your average business users.

At 7 is the iPhone. We have lumped together all of the different variants in compiling our figures. Unfortunately the iPhone handsets are still too expensive for mass usage amongst business mobile users. It is also questionable what extra value they add for the average business user over a standard, and less expensive, SmartPhone.

Two more entries for Nokia at 8 and 10 - the Nokia 2730 and 2323. In between at 9 is the BlackBerry 9700.

You can see a full list of Top 10's for the past 15 months in one page - Top 10 Business Mobiles.