Zedge.co.uk

Everyone loves freebies, right? On Zedge.co.uk you can have free wallpapers, ringtones, themes, videos, games and applications… all you pay for is the in internet browsing time on your computer and download time on your mobile.

Refusing to pay for wallpapers, pictures, ringtones and themes for my mobile phone never used to be a problem. That is until Santa brought me a new mobile for Christmas '05. It had rubbish themes and no wallpapers, ...
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If you typed zedge.co.uk (or .net if you want to) you'll see that the design is dark red highlights on a white background with black type. The Zedge site is fairly inoffensive and headache free, but hardly design-ilishous. The left panel has an extensive menu of site areas and the right panel advertising. The central region boasts the current number of registered members (145554 as I type but it increases quickly) and the number who have ... more

Everyone loves freebies, right? On Zedge.co.uk you can have free wallpapers, ringtones, themes, videos, games and applications… all you pay for is the in internet browsing time on your computer and download time on your mobile.

Refusing to pay for wallpapers, pictures, ringtones and themes for my mobile phone never used to be a problem. That is until Santa brought me a new mobile for Christmas '05. It had rubbish themes and no wallpapers, the themes were boring and the less said about the games the better. Is it me or are mobile manufactures in cohorts with these pay-for-wallpaper companies? I guess everyone is out to make money these days.

Fellow reviewer welshgal17, who I affectionately call Welshie, swears by a website called Zedge. Here's my take on it:

What's the site like?

If you typed zedge.co.uk (or .net if you want to) you'll see that the design is dark red highlights on a white background with black type. The Zedge site is fairly inoffensive and headache free, but hardly design-ilishous. The left panel has an extensive menu of site areas and the right panel advertising. The central region boasts the current number of registered members (145554 as I type but it increases quickly) and the number who have registered today (470... it's still early!). Navigation is very easy and once you know what each area does it's a breeze.

What to do?

Firstly you'll need to register. If you browse before registering, you may fall in love with a theme, wallpaper or ringtone only to find that it's not available for your mobile phone make and model. Registering is simple, you are asked to provide a username, a valid email address, your country, mobile operator and phone make/model. The list of makes and models is extensive, my mobile is relatively new on the market and it is already up there. I did a quick check and my older mobiles were all listed too. Your password is sent to your email address and the email was received quickly. After that, all you need to log in is your username and password.

You can log in on the left panel underneath the menu. From here you can access the free stuff. You select your phone type, a category to browse through and also what order to view things in. The latter feature is particularly useful as you can browse from newest first, as a regular visitor to the site this makes things quicker.

If you're really not sure where to start after registering you could look up your mobile make and model in the Phones Database which will tell you some useless information like the weight of your phone and some useful information such as what ringtone types are compatible with your phone. This area can also be used to compare mobiles if you're thinking of purchasing a new one.

Free Please?

Wallpaper categories; humour, sport, abstract, animals and technology to name a few are well stocked. You can also search through them for a specific word; I managed to find some good pictures of Brad Pitt looking particularly handsome. Alternatively you can choose to view all the categories at the same time. As a user friendly feature, the "babes" category does not appear in the browse all list, although there are some less offensive but still revealing images that manage to appear, a warning for the prude amongst us. Themes are divided into the same categories as the wallpapers and again some, well actually quite a few include scantily clad women.

If your mobile can handle 3GP videos there are a growing number of sports, bloopers, motors and animal clips for you to download.

The ringtones section hosts polyphonic, MP3 and WAVE types. Whilst you won't find the latest chart music for free, there are some good ones still to be had.

The free MMS pictures are a bit tacky. If you really wanted to download picture messages like "sexy by nature" or "treat me like the princes I am" or "you're a true friend" this is the place.

My favourite area is the free games section. My most recent download was Sudoko and it's kept me amused for hours. They also have the classics like pong, word-search and a Rubix-like cube plus some newer ones all neatly categorised as puzzle, arcade, action, adventure or sport. Most of the games are Java. Currently there is only one Symbian series 60 game type. Which leads me nicely to…

Downloading?

So you've found a free item you like, what next? You select it, and add it to your account. Next you visit your account area from the main menu. Remove yourself from your computer and take out your mobile. Access the web via your mobile then either use the WAP site address and log in using your details as you would on a computer. Or, alternatively you can use your unique WAP URL that logs you in directly and takes you to the WAP download area. Both of these can be found on your Zedge Account page. Here will be listed themes, wallpapers etc that you have already selected to download. Highlight them individually to download to your mobile. There is no download charge from Zedge but your mobile phone operator will charge you for the WAP time if applicable to your tariff or contract type.

Uploading?

The site allows user uploads. As a result the content of even the free sections rapidly change making the "list by newest first" even more useful than ever. The best feature about z-uploader, Zedge's fandangled area is that you can upload your own personal wallpaper from your computer's hard drive… still free I might add. As an alternative there's also "The Upload Shack" that allows you to store images and retrieve them later for your mobile - handy eh? Well it would have been for my previous mobile phone that had the memory of a goldfish.

Premium Products

These are ringtones and games sent to your mobile via SMS at a cost to you. To do this you firstly click on your chosen download, select your provider and mobile make/model (again!). Then you will see you have choices: You can call them at a rate of £1.50/minute or you can text them and pay £1.50 per message received (apparently you receive 3). The premium products include ringtones and games received by SMS, animate your own images and Name Tones. The Name Tones area is basically a search to see if your name is listed then a ringtone that says "This is a call for….." Hmm not that good, certainly not at a price! The premium products are pricier than other companies, but why pay when there are plenty of free things to choose from.

Other Features

There's extensive affiliate and partner links should you wish to surf. There's also the ever handy tell a friend and forgotten password pages too. The active forum is not something I use often, but should you wish to, there are a number of "Forum Kings" that rule this department. In here you'll see unlocking tips, the latest opinions on new models and general mobile phone chit chat. Photo Blog is not what it sounds like. There's no logic to it but a bunch of random mobile photos that people send in with no explanation. You can vote on them if you like but there's no gain from doing so.

Zedge and EJ Get Along Nicely

Zedge have never sent me any spam emails and because they didn't ask for my mobile phone number, they won't be sending me any junk texts either.

I've downloaded a few things to my mobile phone from Zedge and all have met my expectations. The ringtone sounded exactly like it did online, you can't always be sure of this with pay products. The wallpapers were also pleasing, especially Brad Pitt! As I mentioned previously the Sudoko game is pretty good and finally I have a lively pink theme that's been commented on. All of these were free from Zedge and cost much less to download than paying for them to be sent to me. I'll probably never pay for an item from Zedge as they charge more that other companies but they have to make money some how. Zedge isn't a site that I'd check out daily but from time-to-time when it's time for a change on the mobile phone front it's most definitely worth a look.
 

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