This month there is a fabulous exhibition at the Beverley Art Gallery, great fun for all those who enjoy the wonderful colourful plastic construction bricks!
Brick History is a journey through pivotal moments in world history, modeled in LEGO® bricks by Warren Elsmore and his team of artists.
Forget dry lists of kings or endless battles – this is history brought to life at a relatable, human level, featuring key figures from Mozart to Martin Luther King, scientific discoveries from the Big Bang to DNA, and recent history from mobile phones to the moon landings.
@YellowsBestLtd we would love to hear about your events, projects or challenges. If we can be of any assistance with your services and solutions requirements, let us know !
Congratulations to the England Women’s football team for their fantastic success, winning the UEFA Euro 2025 competition, for the second time!
A thoroughly entertaining event, enjoyed by a growing international audience. The standard of competitive play was high and England needed strong commitment along with some good fortune to carve out their deserved victory.
What it means for old and new mobiles and services
These days most people are used to upgrading their smartphones every couple of years or so to the latest offering. So they shouldn’t have any issues with the switch off of 3G networks, as the newest devices are all likely to support 4G and 5G services. But that isn’t universally the case for old products.
There exists a significant minority of ‘legacy’ users, loyal fans of some outstanding older mobile phones.
Everything from the basic Nokia 1100 with its amazing 400-hour between charges standby time which sold 250 million units to become the world’s biggest selling electronic device. See the handy ‘Brick’ 1100 emulator if you somehow missed it.
Through to advanced and sophisticated gadgets so well built, once considered the finest of their type, that they have continued to find use to this day. Such as:
The Nokia N95 with its 5MP camera, GPS, mapping capabilities and innovative dual-sliding ‘multimedia computer’ form-factor, hailed as one of the best mobile phone devices.
Nokia N95
The Nokia E90 ‘Communicator’ representing the final development of the PDA style full QWERTY keyboard clamshell series of ‘Communicator‘ products which arguably initiated the ‘smartphone’ concept way back in 1996
Nokia 9210, 9500 & E90 ‘Communicators’
The Nokia E71 (along with variants E61, E63, E72 and E5) providing an ultra compact QWERTY keyboard messaging phone aimed at business users and considered one of the finest of Nokia devices
Nokia E71
The Nokia N8 touch screen based smartphone which was considered at the time as the best camera phone, and its successor, the Nokia 808 ‘Pureview’ is still recognised as having the greatest resolution of any cameraphone with its 41MP image sensor.
Nokia N8
The technology revolution
In retrospect, these were the pinnacle of ‘mobile phones’; devices that commenced with basic telephony and had various functions added, including text messaging, contacts, email, clock, calculator, a camera and GPS.
What replaced them were the ‘internet slates’; products whose heritage came from personal computing, and generated an explosion in applications development providing productivity, news, social media and games. This ‘revolution’ has resulted in ‘voice’ being just another ‘app’ provided as part of the data bundle, rather than the central purpose of use. But for some, a ‘mobile phone’ is all they need to carry to keep in contact whilst out and about, preferring to keep ‘computing tasks’ separate and best served on a laptop or desktop computer.
Technology updates , business developments and shifts in consumer preferences couldn’t alone completely ‘kill off’ these iconic products from yesteryear. This is despite the end of production and support of old Nokia phones and subsequent Windows Mobile devices, or indeed anything else to rival today’s iPhone / Android duopoly. Despite Nokia’s overall demise, next generation ‘Nokia’ branded mobile phones are now made and sold by HMD and certain software functionality has lived on, such as ’Nokia maps’ which now exists as ‘HERE WeGo’
HERE WeGo maps & navigation application
The ‘end of the road’ for old hardware
But now finally the end of the road is in sight for the old mobile phone hardware.
The ‘issue’ is the industry and government ‘switch off’ of the old 3G networks, already actioned in the U.K. by EE, Three and Vodafone in 2024 and to be completed by Virgin Media O2 in 2025. This means that mobile phones that don’t support 4G will cease to be able to use data services and functionality. The Mobile U.K. guide confirms this switch off timetable.
Perhaps confusingly, some 2G networks are to operate for awhile longer. Although Virgin Media O2 plans to close their 2G service this year and Three never launched 2G in the first place, EE and Vodafone have no plans yet to close 2G before the agreed deadline of 2033. Though this could change and services may end much earlier.
So this means basic telephony and text messaging should continue for now to be available on legacy hardware. And it’s possible that some networking functionality may be accessed using WiFi, if supported by certain old phone models.
This is the tenth year of YellowsBestLtd supporting Customers with requirements for #Business Development, #Enterprise Support, #Sustainable Solutions, #Technologies and Products.
We would love to hear your experiences regarding legacy and new devices and infrastructure; please get in touch with any enquiries for Consultancy, Spares, Repairs and Support services. We hope to be of assistance!
The summer of sport continues with the fabulous event that is the Olympics, bringing together competitors from nations from all over the world. This time hosted in Paris, showcasing the widest diverse collection of the most popular together with some lesser known sporting activities.
Following our favourites!
We are keeping abreast of the action from France, and have in particular have been impressed with performances by athletes in TeamGB. Here are their medal successes (so far):
Rowing (men’s Coxless Four): Oli Wilkes, David Ambler, Matt Aldridge, Freddie Davidson
Rowing (women’s 8): Annie Campbell-Orde, Holly Dunford, Emily Ford, Lauren Irwin, Heidi Long, Rowan McKellar, Eve Stewart, Hattie Taylor
Sailing (women’s windsurfing): Emma Wilson
Skateboarding (women’s park): Sky Brown
Triathlon (women’s individual): Beth Potter
Triathlon (mixed relay): Alex Yee, Georgia Taylor-Brown, Sam Dickinson, Beth Potter
Weightlifting (women’s +81kg): Emily Campbell
Whatever the sport you’re interested in and whoever you follow, good luck and best wishes for an exciting and interesting competition.
Keeping Customers Operational
@YellowsBestLtd continues with our aim of Keeping Customers Operational by seeking out new products and legacy equipment spares to maintain new and well-established networks. Recent enquiries have been fulfilled supplying refurbished and surplus stocks of equipment cards, as well as built-to-order cables and connectors to suit exact requirements.
We would welcome any enquiries for the supply of similar or alternative parts, or support services to provide hardware repairs. Please get in touch; we look forward to hearing from you!
