Mobile Wiseguy
Translator
- On a Carnival Cruise for the next week. Thanks Josh Linker your vacation linker. Super bowl on the water
Verizon Wireless Plans and Accessories
Phonescoop news, info and reviews
- Review: Samsung Galaxy Attain 4G for MetroPCS February 4, 2012Samsung brings a mid-range Galaxy-class device to MetroPCS's network in the Attain 4G. This simpler smartphone packs some surprises, along with some disappointments. […]
- Motorola Looking to Win 2.25% of Apple's iPhone Sales February 4, 2012Court documents reveal that Motorola is seeking 2.25% of Apple's iPhone sales in order to license the standards-essential patents that Motorola holds. That percentage amounts to about $15 per iPhone (unsubsidized iPhone 4S 16GB). Motorola and Apple are amidst a patent battle in German courts, and the document came to light as part of this week's pr […]
- AT&T Asks FCC to Place Conditions of Dish's Network Plans February 4, 2012AT&T has requested that the Federal Communications Commission set a number of requirements in place before Dish Network can build out its planned LTE-Advanced 4G network. AT&T wants Dish beholden to similar requirements levied on LightSquared. It would be required to cover 100 million POPs within 33 months and reach 260 million POPs within 69 months. […]
Archive for the ‘Cell Phone tips and Tricks’ Category
Verizon Wireless has phones that are great for visually impaired customers
Verizon Wireless has phones that are great for visually Impaired customers needs. I recently got a call from a friend of a previous client he wanted me to help him find a phone for the visually impaired. I did a little research and realized a few Verizon Wireless phones have the ability to speak all of the functions. The phone has voice readouts and will speak all the digits when dialing the menu functions and the incoming text messages.
I showed the client two phone models when he met me at a Zephyrhills store. One was the Samsung Haven which is a basic phone without a camera or Bluetooth technology and the other was the LG Octane a phone with a QWERTY keyboard for texting. Both phones did what he wanted but he was a big texter so the LG Octane was his choice.
My smartphone also has the ability to speak all the commands but I never tried the texting part of it to see if it would read the incoming text but I am sure if the phone did not have that capability there would be an application for it.
Maintain high performance by rebooting
Turn your Smartphone off once a day and pull the battery out once a week for best performance. If you are like me and use many applications daily you should do the recommended procedure above. This will stop unnecessary applications from running in the background and prolong battery life daily.
Some people like using a task manager application to stop applications from running but these task killer app use more memory and power than they save. Android phones with 2.1 or newer software have a built in task killer and adding a task killer defeats the purpose.
Yesterday I had a client complain his battery died after a few hours. After examining his HTC Incredible 2 I realized he had downloaded a battery saver application and that was the culprit. That app ate up 72% of his battery so we deleted the app and problemsolved was solved.
The older versions of Android operating systems did require a task killer but Android learned from this and corrected the issue with later updates and all new Android phones are already equipped with battery saver and app killer options.
Read this article below from Motorola concerning turning your phone off.
http://www.motorola.com/staticfiles/Support/5697/verizon/rss/tips/en-US/d0e947b.5697.en-US.html
What will texting cost while overseas with at&t wireless phone
I am on the way to Trinidad and just got off the phone with at&t. The customer service representative argued with me about texting outside the country. The at&t representative said that it would cost to send and receive text when outside the country. I told him if you have a text package the incoming messages would come out of your package. He said this is what he does for a living and I should go to att.com to verify what he said.
This is how at&t wireless charges for texting overseas. If you have a text package your incoming text come out of the package. For example if you have unlimited texting you can receive unlimited incoming text while overseas, if you have the $5 200 text package you can get 200 free incoming text while overseas but if you go over your package the the cost is $.50 a text or $1.30 for a picture. Out going messages are always billed, see below for more details.
This was copied directly from att.com website.
Sending Text, Picture, and Video Messages When Outside the U.S.
Text Messages $0.50 per message sent
Picture and Video Messages $1.30 per message sent
Home pay-per-use or package rates apply to all text, picture, or video messages received when roaming internationally. See your Rate Plan Brochure for details.
Data usage pay-per-use rate is $.0195/KB, except in Canada where rate is $.015/KB.
To save on data usage when roaming internationally with your smartphone, iPhone, or laptop see att.com/worldpackages.
My LG Sound Bar
A month ago I went out looking for an inexpensive sound system for the house that would work with our television. I looked at surround sound systems at Best Buy but the prices were $500 to over $1000 and I was not about spend that much money on a system for music.
I don’t have a regular stereo in my house all or most of the music I listen to comes from my phone (Pandora, Slacker and downloaded music).
The solution I picked was an LG sound bar that comes with a wireless subwoofer and Bluetooth technology. The LG system cost $249.99 and it works with my TV and Sony PlayStation using optical cables and my Motorola Xoom, Motorola Droid X, Motorola Back flip and all my Bluetooth enable devices can play the music through this system.
I don’t have real surround sound but the sound is much better and now I have a wireless stereo using any of my devices.
Casio Commando not as tuff as they claim
The new Android phone by Casio is a military spec smartphone that is shock resistant and water resistant. That is great feature for construction workers and outdoors men but lets get one thing straight the phone is not water proof and the phone is not indestructible the phone is a lot more rugged than all the other Android phones on Verizon Wireless. The picture above is a Commando with a crack screen that was supposedly dropped from a 4 foot high fall.
On the Casio’s website they claim during testing the phone was dropped from 4 feet 26 times during testing. I guess this phone had a unlucky 27th fall.
Verizon Wireless will have better reception on their iPhone
Apple has redesigned the iPhone 4′s antennas for Verizon, perhaps to foil the “death grip” problem that roiled AT&T customers last summer, an expert said today.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9205038/Verizon_iPhone_antenna_redesign_may_thwart_death_grip_says_expert?source=CTWNLE_nlt_mobilew_2011-01-20
Swype text input application
This blog post is being written by using swype. This is my first time using swipe and it gets easier with practice. I didn’t think I would get the hang of it but with a little practice and patience it got easier. I am using swype on my droid x. The droid does have the bigger screen, making swipe easier.
Cool and not that hard for novice texters like me.
how to use your smartphone as a wireless modem
The other day I needed another internet connection for my laptop so I downloaded an application called PDAnet on my laptop. PDAnet allows you to teather your PDA to your computer and use the PDA as a wireless modem. Now I can use my Motorola Backflip as a modem to access the internet on my laptop and desktop.
I have heard about this application before but I never took the time and looked into it. I have a Verizon Wireless data card that I use for my laptop and desktop computers. I have used the Verizon Wireless data card for all my internet needs for a few years now.
My girlfriend is always using my data card on the desktop so I tried out PDAnet and to my surprise it was as easy as 123.
I did a Google search for pdanet and the first website I saw on the search I clicked on it and download the software specific for Vista and Android. The installation process took less than 5 minutes to get it up an running. The internet speed is remarkably fast and it has not given me any issues as of yet, plus because I am using an at&t Android phone I still can talk on the phone while surfing the web from my laptop.
I do have a warning at&t has limits on your data now and you can easily go over using your phone as a modem. I have unlimited data with at&t that I am grandfather in on but I will still have to be cautious because at&t and the other wireless carriers do not want you to do this with your PDA phone without paying for the teathering feature. The teathering feature with most wireless providers range in price from $20 to $30 a month and the usage is limited to 2Gb to 5GB.
The PDAnet application that I downloaded is a great solution for anyone who needs to use a computer on the road. I now have another option to connect my computers to web.
The PDAnet allowed me to surf sites on any computer with my Backflip but it would not let me go to secure sites (https) unless I upgraded the PDAnet for a one time fee of $15.95. I paid the one time fee of $15.95 and now I am able to go to any site without any problems. This fee is transferable if you change Android phones and it can be used on any computer.
PDAnet works with most smartphones and operating systems (Blackberry, Apple OS, Android and Palm).
Dialing numbers with names from a Blackberry device
Dialing a phone number from a Blackberry device is very easy. Some phone numbers have letters in it and the keyboard on a Blackberry makes it difficult to match the number with the letter because of the non traditional dial pad.
The solution is very simple when dialing a phone number like 1800mattress just dial the 1800 normally and when its time to dial the letters hold the alt key down and press the corresponding letters. The Blackberry device will send the correct tones need to call the phone number.
When calling business with a phone number that requires you to spell out the name of the person you are trying to reach do the same, hold down the alt key and spell out the name. The Blackberry will send the correct tones needed to access that name in that business phone’s directory.
Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
could this be the new Blackberry Storm 3
Blackberry Storm 3
A Blackberry representative from Marketstar showed me a site with a preview of the unofficial new Blackberry Storm 3. I was amazed at the new design and features of the new Blackberry Storm 3.
The much rumored specifications of the device which include: 16 GB of internal memory via propriety SSD/Flash hybrid technology, 10 hour+ talk time on 3 G and a whopping 300 ppi screen resolution.
More on the New Blackberry Storm 3
Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.