We love our mobile phones - but technology changes so quickly. Despite phones generally having a lifespan of a good 7 years many of us get a new handset every couple of years. Why not? The upgrade to the latest and greatest is generally "free" - or at least we don't save anything on our contract by sticking with the old handset.

But... what happens to that old handset? The one that you just had to have only a couple years back? The one with the old-fashioned 2M pixel camera? The one with a huge 512Mbytes of memory?

The Recycling Factory has done some research. Now obviously this research has to be taken with a pinch of salt given they have a vested interest in recycling that old handset of yours! To me though the research does ring true. I should say guilty as charged - I am a "mobile phone squirrel".

Highlights from the survey:

• more than half of us (52%) hoard our unused phones at home in case our current handset is stolen, lost or broken
• 68% of us admit to having more than one mobile phone needlessly collecting dust at home
• 22% of respondents actively recycle their phones
• 21% opting instead to hand down old mobiles to friends and family.
• As many as 4% declare that they actually throw their mobile phones in the bin

With the exception though of the inexcusable 4% that throw their phone in the bin, is this particularly bad? I recently upgraded my phone to a Sony Ericsson W995. I was quite happy with my old K800i of course - but that shiny new phone was irresistible and didn't cost me a penny.

Orange of course wanted to sell me special insurance in case my shiny new gadget was indeed lost, stolen or damaged. I can't remember the cost but it wasn't insignificant. I said no - and I still have my K800i as 'free' insurance.

How about you? Are you a squirrel? In reality of course we're really better described as magpies!

Leave your comments below. How long have you had your handset? What did you do with the old one? And the one before that!

We reviewed 'Blurb' back in November 2008 - a company that lets you create your own high-quality coffee-book style photobooks. A great way to get your best photos out for viewing rather than stuck on your hard disk gathering electronic dust.

To encourage this new idea in personal photo books Blurb last year started the "Photography.Book.Now" competition, open to anyone that has self-published a photo book. While it's very easy to submit your Blurb created book, the competition is not limited to their own publishers - anyone with their own photo book can enter (that's excluding books by professional publishing houses).

Entrants this year will be judged by a panel of editors, gallery curators, publishers, and photographers lead by noted photography book expert Darius Himes who servers as lead judge for the second year.

If you've published your own photobook and think it's worthy of a wider audience then maybe you should think about entering? The talented will will receive $25,000 (US). You have until the 16:00 (British Summer Time) on the 16th July 2009 to submit your self published masterpiece!

Want to know more?

Check out their competition web-site

This month we have a special 'invite a friend' prize-draw in addition to our exciting Christmas Cracker.

You've already discovered how useful our reviews are so why not tell your friends just how good it is?

As a little incentive, for each person that joins as a result of an invitation from you, we'll add an extra entry for you into this prize draw. At the end of the month we'll draw a winner at random who will receive the excellent CRD-51 DAB radio/alarm from Roberts (see our review here).

The more people that join as a result of your invitation the greater the chance you have of winning

If you're logged in then click here to start inviting your friends.

You do of course need to be a member first so you may need to join!

I've just had an interesting call from Thomson telephone directories people. This year our parent company decided not to renew our advertising with Thomson - right now they have enough work and didn't actually have any calls through Thomson as a result of last years advertising.

We've just had a follow-up call to 'remind' us that the 118 118 directory enquires service only lists businesses that are advertised with Thomson!! If we don't renew our advertising to Thomson then our number will be shown in the 118 118 service as 'ex-directory'. To my mind that smacks of strong arm selling tactics.

Although technically there may be lots of phone books, I think the understanding of average Joe Public is that if you have a phone number it will appear in the directory unless you have decided to mark it as ex-directory.

This isn't a huge loss for us, but quite an eye-opener as someone that *might* have need of a directory enquiry service.

Knowing now that 118 118 doesn't offer anywhere like as comprehensive directory as the old BT 192 service is a bit of an eye opener. Why exactly was it that the 192 service was opened up to competition? Apparently not to improve the service to the customers.

I think most peoples assumption is that if they call directory enquiries on any of the available numbers then they will have access to the same underlying telephone list. That isn't so.

It would be interesting to know the percentage of business numbers listed by the various directory enquiries numbers. That would seem to be a good advertising idea for the services that offer close to a 100% listing.

So... if you want to find the number of a business, DON'T bother calling 118 118 - you'll be wasting your time unless they have paid Thomson for the privilege!

We're more used to giving out prizes than actually winning anything ourselves here at GadgetSpeak. With our monthly prize-draw, we're used to making one lucky member happy each month (and sometimes more than one!)

It was a little bit of a surprise then when a sparkling new iPod Touch arrived on the doorstep a couple of days back. My initial assumption was that someone had arranged a review sample - a quick check around the office however showed this not to be the case.

A hunt back through my emails found that I'd been entered into a prize-draw for completing a survey about a month ago. Entering competitions isn't something I do often and I'd completely missed this one somehow.

I now have a *very* smug grin on my face - and a shiny new toy that no doubt will see great service helping me review various iPod accessories over the coming months. I will of course post a full review of the iPod Touch itself once I've had a play :-)

Initial impressions are good - and my Sony PSP is looking positively clunky.

There are only a few of days in this months prize draw - so if you've not yet entered then you need to get your skates on! Members - you just have to log in. The rest of you just have to follow the instructions!

It's taken a little time to get this months competition up due to a hectic first week to the month.

First of all a reminder - to enter you have to be a member (free - just complete this form). If you are a member you have to login at least once during the month. Not logged in? Just click here!

I'm sure most of you have noticed all the stories about energy bills on the rise - we certainly have. With both gas and electricity prices on a steep upward trajectory we thought we'd focus this months competition on energy saving ideas.

We have three prizes this month - one for each of three lucky winners.

The first two prizes are OWL electricity monitors. We reviewed one of these here back in October last year (you can read the OWL review here). They give you a very clear display of how much electrical power you're using at any time - instantly. It can be a little scary at first when you turn on the oven!

It very quickly becomes second nature though to check the meter before bed to see what you've left on. In our case it's most usually the kids computer or Play Station. We're trying to train them! Placing the big LCD display panel somewhere visible quickly helps you see when you're using more power than you expect. You can also quickly see the effects of switching off high-power lights or replacing them with low-energy equivalents.

Our third prize is a "Bye-Bye Standby" starter kit. The kit includes three mains adaptors and a remote control. A very simple idea - when you go to bed (or away on holiday) simply press the control on the remote and power is removed from all the devices connected through the controlled sockets. Each socket can be connected to a multi-socket lead and control up to 1KW of devices.

If you're not a member then you can join here - it's free and can be fun :-)

If you are a member make sure you've logged in to be entered!

Brennan have just let us know of an exclusive special offer for GadgetSpeak readers. As you may have noticed we have a Brennan JB7 as our member prize this month - but... if you just can't wait to start organising your CD collection, then Brennan are offering a special £20 discount to GadgetSpeak readers.

The offer applies to all orders over £200. All you have to do is click on this link, make your selection and then enter the code  "gadget08" at the checkout.

The offer is available until the 31st of May.

Please do read the review - and of course if you do buy, then come back and tell us what you think!

For those of you that got the newsletter (if not please do sign up - it's not that bad!) you'll have noticed we have a rather good prize lined up for March. Well March is here - and the prize is : the excellent Humax LGB-19DZT 19" LCD TV. Humax have some great products - we were very impressed a few months ago when we reviewed their hard-disk video recorder, the PVR9200 so we were very happy to take a look at this 19" TV and were pleased with what we found. Do take a look at their web-site if you get a chance.

You can read our review here. As is becoming the custom nowadays with 'switch-over day' already reaching parts of the UK, the Humax includes a built in Digital Freeview tuner.

One lucky member (you are a member - aren't you, it is free) is going to walk away with one of these excellent televisions. It can only be you if you're a member and you log into GadgetSpeak in March. You can join here.

Oh - and if you haven't already please take our short survey!

If you want one NOW then Humax have a great offer, exclusive to GadgetSpeak readers - a third off the prize. Think how good it would be to have one of these in the kitchen or bedroom!

Here's an interesting promotional video we received recently - what to do with a spare fire-hose!

In this case the intrepid fire-crew aim the high pressure hose at an LCD screen and let loose. This tough little beast takes the full impact of the best the hose can deliver unscathed!

Of course - there is a more practical application for these screens than just letting the fire brigade have a little extra practice!

With the smoking ban now firmly in place in the UK very many pubs and other venues are keen to keep hold of their clients - smokers included. One of the most common attractions of course being major sporting events, and with the Olympics once more firmly on the horizon these screens provide an ideal solution : large site LCD screens that are resistant to the best the UK weather can through at them!

Of course, whether there are enough hardened smokers out there that are as weather resistant as these screens is yet to be determined! Great for summer showers though - not sure about an English winter!

They are available in a range of sizes between 26" and 55". If you want to know more then take a look at their web-site : http://www.aquivo.co.uk 

We're off to The Best of Stuff show this weekend where we're promised the chance to play with this long-awaited and much hyped product. Maybe we'll see you there?

With Sony having to delay European shipments until after the 2006  Christmas season coupled with the Nintindo Wii launch on 8th December I imagine Sony will be eager to persuade potential customers to wait, and that the wait will be worth it! Pop along to the show in London and take a look for yourselves, and then come back to GadgetSpeak and tell us what you think!