Where do we go from here? Now that all of the smart phone technologies are growing up, how do we spend our call time, knowing that the old cell technology is passed the dam? What dam you ask? Well, all this technology has been building up, and we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg with the iPhone, Blackberry Bold, Google Nexus One, Motorola Droid, and Palm Pre. The reality is that there are at least 100 android clone phones on their way.
The flood gates are about to open in 2010, lower prices, and 100s of millions of units to be sold. Google Nexus One has only shipped about 100,000 units or less and the competition is about to swarm like upstream swimming salmon coming home to spawn. In a recent article, Bill Ives, a technology wiz and personal tech sector economic analyst, wrote an article titled: “Wireless Smartphone Usage to Surge this Year!” Of course he is right, and all the leading indicators cannot be wrong this time.
He cited several studies including one by Forrester, and made light of the fact that our mobile technology is getting smaller, from lap tops to notebooks to smart phones, smaller we go. If you are considering buying a smart phone this year, you are hardly alone. And with mobile access to the web, TV, email, GPS turn-by-turn mapping, etc., why wouldn’t you partake?
The prices are coming down, and people are moving up from their own cell phone technology to the ever present smart phones of tomorrow. They are doing it today, and they are buying the best calling plans, the best phones, and they want it all, and they definitely want it yesterday.
Nokia seems to be bucking the trend with its newest C-5 model, which resembles an iPhone, at least the screen. And it appears to be an instant hit with cell phone and smart phone consumers. With the C, E, X, N series devices, Nokia is able to deliver the right personal tech at the right price to each and every user, from the low end to the high-end techno geek and early adopter. The C-5 model is not the top of the line phone, although it looks it, and it’s not anywhere near the bottom either. It’s more like middle of the road phone with the right lines and the right look for the right price.
The phone has highspeed packet access for data transfer, which is nice, and it takes very detailed and high-resolution pictures with over a 15 GB hard drive. It is not yet available in the US, but the company is selling them like hot cakes on pre-orders to their dealer networks in Africa, Middle East, Asia and Europe. The phone has the ability to use Google and Microsoft email, and instant messaging services. It is obvious Nokia wants no part of the brand war, only wants to sell a ton of phones. But will they you ask?
Could be, as it sells for about $180 and it is fully integrated for the social networking teen, able to use all the applications on Facebook and Myspace, as well as several other foreign social networking websites. Nokia is delivering what the people want, and Nokia cell phone smart phone technology has found niches to exploit as Apple, Google, and others look for a way to the end-all-be-all to all users. Nokia is doing well in the market place and their profits in 2009-2010 seem to indicate that the consumers are pleased.
We all had to deal with the do not call lists, and the incessant solicitations on our cell phones for things like after-market auto warranty insurance. And when we were over our minutes on our cell phone bills, these charged racked up. Now, there are companies who use off-shore telemarketers to call you and get you to say “Yes” to a few questions, then use those “Yes” answers to charge you for additional services on your cell phone bill.
So, if you have a smart phone or cell phone you may find that many of the calls or “extra charges” are not legitimate. Luckily the FTC or Federal Trade Commission is putting a stop to all that non-sense, as it was a real problem especially on business lines, both location based and cell phones. Looks like the cramming crooks finally got cooked.
Meanwhile, for those who have 1-800 or 1-888 numbers for their small businesses which ring on their cellular phones, you may have noticed being charged for tele-marketer calls, even if you didn’t pick up the line, and you might have as many as 25-30 of these per month. Well, there is a charge for incoming calls on toll-free numbers so, that adds a good $25-30 per month even if you do not connect the call by answering on AT&T cellular calling plans. Other carriers are different, but that is just one more abuse that the FTC and FCC are concerned about, as they look out of us consumers, and small business people.
One company, an Internet Services Company “Inc21″ has been threatened by the FTC, which will file charges against them in a lawsuit if they do not cease and desist in such activity. The FTC alleges they are engaged in malicious “cramming” and the FTC says this “cram” activity is fraudulent and the company engaged in this activity is well aware of the fraud. This company and several other phone bill cramming operators have been asked to stop or confirm their contact information, or they too will be dealt with, which is good news for all of us.
Study your cell phone plan and cell phone bill, and check it twice to make sure you are paying only what you owe. If you find problems consider switching cell phone plans, if the cell phone carrier will not remedy the situation.
If you are just cruising around the harbor then chances are you can get by with a mere cell phone, but if you leave sight of the shore, do some sport fishing, or serious cruising – you’ll need a satellite phone system for your vessel. Indeed, this is something you must take seriously, that is if you value your life and you prefer sailing or cruising with a safety net. So, let’s talk about the Marine KVH TracPhone FB150, which runs off the Inmarsat Satellite communication system.
First, let’s start with the realization that this is indeed a class act system, and you don’t have to worry about the challenges that we normally face with dropping calls on our cellular phones running through the 3G networks of Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint. The TracPhone FB150 is a true broadband data service and communication device. The phone system works through Inmarsat’s FleetBroadband Service plan. It is the ideal system for boats and vessels of 40-feet and up. I say that because this system is not free or cheap to purchase and install.
Inmarsat’s newest 1-4 satellite constellation system is state-of-the-art meaning it’s going to be around for the next 10-years or so, unless with get the solar flare from hell. The voice is really crystal clear in all regards. If you can afford it, you should have one. If not, and if you want to save money, the next baset choice would be to rely on your smart cell phone, perhaps, a Blackberry, iPhone, or Google Nexus One running on preferably the new 4G network, or perhaps, the older 3G network.
In that case you can find great cell phone calling plans for your smart phone and data device here online through one of the major carriers such as Alltel, Nextel, Sprint, Verizon, or AT&T
Here in the developed west nearly everyone now has a moble phone. We should all be aware that around half of the worlds population will have never made or received a telephone call.
This highlights how lucky we are to have access to affordable telecommunications and the technological gap that exists between the developed countries and those in the developing world.
But many people think that mobile phones are actually more irritating than they are useful. Have you used a bus or a train lately?
I have to take the train to and from London every day and I find myself forced to listen to mobile conversations that I would far rather not hear. Ever evening on my way home from work on the train from London I have to listen to various people calling home to tell their partners that, surprise, surprise, they are on the train. And every day I have to listen to the same people making the same pointless calls, just because they can. How did they manage before mobile phones?
I’m also forced to listen to the inane conversations of teenagers that make no sense whatsoever. Often, they seem to be discussing their boring, empty lives or scathingly criticizing an alleged friend’s dress sense or discussing boyfriends in unflattering terms. In one conversation that a young lady chose to share with the occupants of a packed commuter train she cheerfully derided a young man’s sexual prowess with grizzly attention to detail. As she proceeded to describe her experience in far too much detail everyone in the compartment was squirming with embarassment.
Forcing other people to listen to one side of your telephone conversation is just one aspect of modern mobile phone use that is incredibly annoying. Another is people who use their mobiles to play their music far too loudly without any thought for others who might not like hip hop music.
We all need to remember how lucky we are to even have mobile phones. They need to be used considerately and ideally they should never be provided to people who use them to loudly describe their sex lives.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> If you have a mobile phone you will definitely want some affordable mobile phone insurance. Similarly, if you have a laptop computer it would be wise to spend a little on some laptop insurance. You can protect all of your valuable gadgets and gizmos including cameras, iPhones and games consoles with some very affordable gadget insurance.
You probably heard many times about Twitter. Everybody speaks about this great social network! But what makes it be so special? Well, you can share your deepest thoughts, interesting links and information online just by using this microblogging service. Twitter users are allowed to have a profile page, an avatar and the freedom to post messages anytime they want to. Everything you write will be visible to your followers, being also searchable on Twitter search.
Twitter can be used to meet people with similar interests and visions. It is also a very effective marketing tool. In addition, this social network helps you to save time and money, being free to use. Instead of sending mobile messages and calling everybody, you can just write some lines on Twitter.
Communication on Twitter is public- anyone can see what you do and the messages you send. However, you can opt for a private profile and share your thoughts only to those who are your friends. It’s very important to build an interactive profile, because this will help you to gain more exposure. You can even customize your twitter background.
What about tweets? How do they work? Well, tweets are the messages posted by you (links, news and any other information). Tweets also appear on the personal page of your followers. The more followers you have, the more you gain.
Every time someone requests to follow you, you’ll receive a notification via email. Twitter users can accept, block or ignore those who want to follow them.
Twitter means more than information. It is a great way to interact with new people and make new friends. Twitter lets you to send direct messages to followers, to share your ideas to everybody or to “retweet” (re-posting of someone else’s tweet).
Being an excellent marketing channel, Twitter is used by increasingly more companies and organizations and by employees who want to create a personal brand. By taking advantage of this amazing marketing tool, people worldwide promote their services and skills. Many twitter users have their own blogs. They will typically paste a twitter follow me button right into their theme to attract relevant followers who share their interests.
There is a new phone that has come out to challenge the dominance of the IPhone and it is brought to you by Google. Well, they create the software for the phone, but the actual hardware is made by an assortment of different manufacturers. A couple of years ago, it was obvious that the IPhone was gaining a lions share of the smart phone market. It became a two way race between them and Rimm, who makes the ever popular blackberry line of phones. Whoever won this race, would be in control of how online media was consumed on the mobile phone. Google decided that they were not going to sit this one out. So they got together some of their best software engineers and put together a mobile phone operating system that was just as good as their competitors. This OS is known as Android.
Unlike Apple, who decided that they needed to control both the software side of making the phone and the hardware side, Google only deals with the software side. They offered an open sourced operating system named Android and allowed anyone to work on it. Whoever wanted to, could use the system for their own projects. This is why there are so many versions of the phone out in the public. Because each vendor has the opportunity to place the features that they want to support on the phone. Also, there have been several upgrades to the actual operating system itself, since the first genration of Android was released. Some of the upgrades have introduced major feature changes to the phone, while others have only been minor. It is up to each cell phone manufacturer to decide if they are going to upgrade or not. Most of them do, though some are faster than others. This is the one thing that you do not get with the IPhone, choice. There are a lot of choices in the Android world, so you might ask, which phone should you pick?
Even though there is a great deal of selection that you can pick with an Android based phone, they really are not that much different. The biggest difference that you will find is which one is using the latest version of the operating system. If you do not care about that and already like the features on a phone that you see, then you will be alright just picking that phone. If you want the latest features that the operating system provides, then you might want to go with a phone such as the Nexus One, or even the Droid. They have brought a lot of attention to themselves by being cutting edge. One would think that they would like to keep up that perception by having the latest technology. So if you are looking to keep ahead of the curve, then these two phones would be the one that I suggest out of the Android family line. You might also want to pay attention to the service provider of the particular phone that you pick. Make sure that it has good coverage in your area.
So hopefully, we have answered why there are so many Android phones and which one should you pick. If you’re not the type of person who cares about the latest feature, only the ones that make you happy, then you will have a wide assortment of phones to pick from. If you want the latest and greatest, then go with a Nexus One or Droid.
Since it’s now illegal to talk on the phone or text, while driving in all 50 states, what’s a guy going to do if he needs to Tweet about the moron driver in front of him on the highway? (Of course, since I’m old, I think guys that Tweet have more problems than the driver in front of them….)
Well, if you’ve got a 3G Smartphone, you can download an app from Voice on the Go and use it with your bluetooth headset to “Speak Your Email – Listen to email and compose email and SMS by voice, all without typing.” Voice on the Go allows “Hands-free and eyes-free access to your email, SMS, calendar, contacts, Twitter, Facebook and more…from any mobile phone all by Voice.”
Visit Voice on the Go allows you to stay connected, easily, while driving or any other time.
If you would like to get local TV stations on your cell phone or laptop, but can’t, get a Tivit. The Tivit is a small device, about the size of a pack of smokes, that takes the signal from local Television stations and turns them into WiFi signals that can be picked up by your smartphone or laptop.
Seriously folks, there are some really messed up people in this world, and they should be hunted down and whacked. The more I hear about scammers taking people’s hard earned money, especially during hard times, the more I think the Koran is right, and when they’re caught, they should have their hands cut off. (I’m all for the Chinese method of shooting them in the head and billing the families for the bullet, but I’m sure I’d have a hard time getting that law through Congress, considering they’d be passing a law against themselves… (Whoa Nelly…, reign it in before you lose all your readers in one fell swoop!)) LOL
There’s a text messaging scam going on in Ohio right now, that is going after people’s unemployment benefits.
“The fraudulent messages inform recipients that their unemployment benefits have been suspended and to call the provided phone number to reactivate. When recipients call, they are asked for personal information, including debit card numbers and personal identification numbers (PIN). At that point, unemployment benefits deposited on the debit card are accessed and withdrawn by the scam artist.”
Read more about it Here, or, if you have been a victim of this text messaging scam in Ohio, visit this site.
