THOSE seemingly simple gadgets, mobile phones, have taken over our lives and will outnumber computers in less than three years, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt predicts.

Modern mobiles are feature-heavy, internet-savvy, app-packed and now responsible for almost half of the world’s new internet connections.

But plans are afoot to make mobiles even more central in our lives, with exhibitors at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona showing ways phones will become a one-stop hub for social networking, even more portable, and filled with slicker, easier-to-use menus.

Be warned though, there are tough choices to make to invest in your next phone.

Social simplicity

Fragments of our lives are now strewn across the web. Email, tweets, status updates, photo galleries and more all require regular attention, and often more than we have to give.

Phone makers will offer a solution this year, in social networking apps that deliver your friends’ news straight to your phone. Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, HTC and even Microsoft revealed social phone apps last week.

Samsung’s offering, called Social Hub, will be sewn into its Contacts, Calendar and Messaging menus. Once you sign into a Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Gmail or Yahoo Mail account, Social Hub will add your friends’ details to their contact listings, including a recent photo. Select a contact and it will show their most recent online updates, from status messages to tweets.

The phone’s calendar will show Facebook events and let you send party invitations.

Social Hub will be included in Samsung’s Wave phone due here mid-year and added to other phones later.

HTC announced Friend Feed, delivering Twitter, Facebook and Picasa updates on one screen, eliminating several website visits. It will feature in the company’s two new Google phones, the HTC Legend and the Desire due in Australia in April.

Microsoft’s new Windows Phone Series 7 will also offer social feeds, pushing Facebook and Windows Live updates on to its screens, and Sony Ericsson will add a Timescape app to its phones.

Motorola added the Motoblur social networking app to its new touchscreen Quench phone.

Mini mobiles

Mobile phones have put on weight recently, with some touchscreen models bigger than the average hand. But miniature mobiles are back, revealed by HTC, Sony Ericsson and LG at the show.

Sony Ericsson’s two mini Google phones were perhaps the most extreme versions of tech shrinkage, being smaller than a credit card and weighing less than 100g. The Xperia X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro are full-function phones despite their size, offering Google Android apps, a 5-megapixel camera, navigation and, in the Pro, a slide-out keyboard.

LG’s Mini is the smallest and slimmest 3.2-inch touchscreen phone. At only 1cm thin and 92g, it fits comfortably in a pocket despite its 5-megapixel camera and fast internet connection. HTC also revealed a diminutive version of its largest phone, the HD2.

Software wars

Think choosing an operating system for your computer is difficult? You must do the same for your mobile phone amid fiercer competition.

Google’s Android phone software dominated Mobile World Congress, appearing on future releases from Acer, LG, HTC, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Motorola.

More than 60,000 Google phones are shipping each day.

Mic rosof t fuel led that competition with its launch of Windows Phone Series 7, its new software due to arrive before Christmas this year.

The software offers a strikingly different look for Windows phones, with photo-filled menus, Live Tiles with updated web information, and graphical menus called Hubs.