Tag: cell phones

A bad month for electronics

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cell Phone, CR-48, Kindle, NookLeave a comment

This has been a bad month for me with electronics. Just a warning, I’m going to do a lot of complaining here lol.

Batteries: So my life partner mentioned something about his phone and he handed it to me and I was like good lord, why is it so thick? His battery had expanded or puffed up I guess you would say. This is the second time this happened to him too. The first time it was the battery that came with his phone, which he has had for a very long time, so in December of last year we bought him a new battery on Amazon that was 3 times as thick because it gave him, I don’t know what the normal batteries are, 4380mAh? Well, the new battery was 6800mAh, which was why it was so thick. Since it was too thick for the back of his phone to be able to hold, they gave him a new plastic one that holds the battery in place. Well, since he only bought this battery in December, I contacted the seller on Amazon because they offer a 2 year warranty, so they sent him a new battery. He had to wait a week for it, and in the meantime I was going to give him my old CR-48 Chromebook to use, and that battery had also puffed up, so that’s no good. Then the battery on my cell phone started acting up. It wasn’t charging, and when it did, it was very slow, also the speaker was not very loud anymore, so Verizon sent me a new phone.

Bluetooth Earbuds: I bought 2 pairs of JLab Audio Go Air True Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds + Charging Case for us. After only a couple of days, the left earbud stopped working properly. I went through all of the steps to reset it to factory settings and nothing worked. Finally after a frustrating week of being told to reset it to factory, I just sent it back to Amazon and they sent me a new one. Then one thing I noticed is a green light on the charging case on my new one. The other one only had a blue light when it was charging. I even had it plugged into the wall for several hours, which was plenty time for it to charge completely. This new pair doesn’t seem to give me any problems. My life partners left earbud also stopped working, but resetting it to factory worked on his pair, so I think I just got a bad one.

Barnes & Noble Nook: So I’ve had a Nook from Barnes & Noble for more than 10 years. I got their original e-reader with the e-ink screen and that little color screen at the bottom of the device. Then I got a Nook HD+ and now I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab A6 Nook tablet. Yesterday I was talking with an author on Twitter about his books which are about the Grimm stories. In fact, his books are called The Fairy-Tale Detectives The Sisters Grimm Series. So it got me thinking about Grimm’s Fairy Tales, which I own on my Nook. So I went to download it because it was only in the cloud, but it wouldn’t download. It kept telling me that something is wrong and to try again later. I kept trying, and trying, and trying. I did some research and on their website they said you need the most current version of the NOOK App for NOOK Devices, which I did, and the most recent Android version for your tablet, which I did. So I thought my Nook was the problem and I reset it to factory settings since it had been acting up lately and was starting to get slow. But apparently that wasn’t the issue because it’s on the Nook servers end. According to Good E Reader, ” The entire system has crashed and it won’t be fixed for a couple of days.”

It’s been a very frustrating month for me. I hope the electronics world gets their shit together because humanity seems to be helpless now without something that has only been in our existence for a very short amount of time. I need a e-reader so I can adjust the size of the text because I am losing my sight and I need bigger text. The text in regular books is too small for my eyes now.

I have the Amazon Kindle app installed on my Nook tablet, so at least I will be able to read Kindle ebooks until the Nook gives me all of my ebooks back.

Ok. Enough complaining from me today lol.

My New Virgin Mobile Cell Phone

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cell Phone, Gadgets, TechLeave a comment

Well I finally did it, I bought a new Android based cell phone from Virgin Mobile.  Well, I bought it from Amazon, but it is a Virgin Mobile phone.

We were at the mall today and they have a Best Buy mobile store where you can buy cell phones from all the different mobile companies, and they had the Virgin Mobile phones, but they were more than they are at the Virgin Mobile website.

Like take this phone, the HTC One V that I just bought on Amazon for example.  At the Best Buy store they were selling it for $149.99.  It’s on the Virgin Mobile website on sale for $99.99 and I told the clerk that.  He scanned the barcodes and he said nope, it’s $149.99.  I told him to check the Virgin Mobile website and he said it’s $149.99.  I knew it was a bad investment to buy it from there because I could have saved $50 by buying it online.  When we came home I checked and sure enough I was right, it was on sale for $99.99.

Before I made the commitment to buy it, I wanted to check with Amazon first to make sure I could get a better deal and it was on sale for $93.41.  So not only did I save money by buying it at home, but I saved nearly $60.  That’s good because I still have to buy the phone card to activate it which is another $35.

This isn’t the phone that I wanted, but it was the phone that I could afford to buy and sometimes we have to make sacrifices like this.  The reason I didn’t want this one was because it doesn’t have a front facing camera which means I can never video chat with it, but that’s why I have a webcam on my Netbook and my Desktop computer.  But it would have been nice to have the front facing camera for those times when I don’t have a mirror and I need to check to make sure I don’t have food on my face when I’m eating.  I know, I’m strange, but that does come in handy lol.  I’m sure the front facing camera wouldn’t be great for taking self pictures anyway since it is probably a 1MP camera and the regular camera on it is a 5MP.

Besides the front facing camera issue, I did like this phone in the reviews that I saw.  It doesn’t perform as great as the most expensive phones, but it does perform well, from what I’ve seen.  I will have to find out for myself.

I didn’t opt for the 1-day shipping for $18, instead I got the 2-day shipping for $10 which means I will get it on Monday, December 24th which means I will get it just in time for Christmas lol.  If I had gotten the free 5-day shipping, I’d have to wait until the end of next week.  I guess that would be ok to wait, but I don’t want to wait lol.

So yay, welcome to the year 2012/13 lol.  I have been using an old type of phone for such a long time that I won’t know what to do with myself.  I’ve never had an android phone so I’ve never known the joys of apps like the rest of the world does.

I will be giving my phone away to someone who needs it which means I will be getting a new phone number.  That kinda sucks but I wasn’t married to the one I have now anyway, I still don’t remember what the number is lol.

So until Monday…

Christmas Pictures

On By Michel McDonaldIn Holidays, PicturesLeave a comment

I am very happy today because a few days ago I found out that the person who had taken photos of Christmas lost his fanny pack which had his camera, wallet and 2 cell phones in it but someone else took pictures too.  She took them on a disposable camera so the quality of the photos isn’t as good as a digital camera but who really cares?  I got photos of me with the kids FINALLY!

On the left is baby Noah, in the middle is Andrew and on the right is Jordan then in the back is well, me…

I was really happy with the look on these kids faces when they found their stockings because even though they were empty, they didn’t care because they have a stocking with their names on them to use every year with a cool picture on them.  That was all that mattered to them.

Andrew was the first to find it.  I was watching him and he was ear-to-ear smiles and he was really excited about it.  Then he was yelling for Jordan to come see his and he was really excited too.

That’s what made it all worth it to me.  The months that I spent making them all boiled down to one thing, how the kids liked them.  It was worth all the numbness and pinching in my hands to see the looks on their faces when they saw them.

I hope they enjoy the stockings for many decades.  Except for Noah because his stocking is a baby stocking hehe.  I’m obviously going to have to find another stocking to make for him.

Additional pictures:

Reboost

On By Michel McDonaldIn AdLeave a comment

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Boost Mobile. All opinions are 100% mine.

Communication is the most important thing these days whether it be for work or play. Everyone needs a cell phone for one reason or another. They have to have that constant connection. I remember when cell phones were too expensive for the common folk, you only had one if you were a doctor, lawyer or just plain old rich. Gone are the days that you had to worry about price because now it’s inexpensive for everyone.

Boost Mobile has unlimited monthly plans starting at $50 which include nationwide calling, text, web, multi-media (image, audio and video), email, 411, call waiting/forwarding, voicemail, long distance and a nationwide network. $60 for the Blackberry monthly unlimited plan.

Boost Mobile phones/plans are social in nature since you can tweet and send Facebook updates from your cell phone for one price per month. I see people tweeting from their mobile phones all the time when I’m on TweetDeck and I know it’s because they’re all taking advantage of tweeting on the go. You can tweet and leave a Facebook update where you are along with pictures.

What I like about Boost Mobile is that there are no contracts. You aren’t subject to any fees if you decide to cancel your account unlike other cell phone companies who charge you hundreds to get out early before your year is up.

They have daily plans too so if you know you aren’t going to use your cell phone you can pay as you go. They have Daily Unlimited for $2 or Blackberry Daily Unlimited which is $3. Or you can go Pay as you go which means you pay for every phone call, every text etc. That option is great if you hardly ever use your phone like me.

They have Re-Boost, a great way to pay for your account. You can pay in person, online or by phone with your debit or credit card. Or if you need help paying then someone can put funds into your account on the website with their credit card. I’m sure college students need their parents to help them out with that every so often or maybe every month.

Activation is easy, they have great replenishment options, phone features and extra options. I personally like the Samsung Seek. It has a big screen and you turn it on its side and flip out the keyboard and you can start typing. It’s not as fancy as a Blackberry but it’s cool in my opinion.

Cool Cell Phone Concept

On By Michel McDonaldIn TechLeave a comment

I wanted to share this.  I found this on the Dvice.com website from SyFy channel.  Here is the link:

WindowPhone concept points to future of touch cell phones
I think that’s really neat.  It’s a new cell phone concept that is a clear see through phone.  When it’s raining outside you see rain drops on the display.  When it’s snowing your display looks fogged up as if it has frost on it.  When it’s a nice sunny day then you get a clear see through display.  When you want to text you blow on the display then you can write the numbers/letters with your finger and it translates your writing into text to call someone or to type a text message.  Tuvie demonstrates that.

Ok now you might be asking yourself, Mike, how does this power up if you can see through it?  I got your answer.  Nanotechnology.  Here is a flexible transparent battery that charges up in 1 minute.  Yes, I said 1 minute.  Ok you got me Mike, so, what about all the rest of the parts of the phone?  Well, do you see the top of the phone that’s black that you can’t see through?  Perhaps that has the nano processor and all that jazz in there?  Who knows.  Or maybe if they can make a flexible transparent battery then they can make everything else flexible and transparent.

I think the display is LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) or perhaps its color e-ink so it probably doesn’t use any battery power.

Ok so what about a speaker and a mic Mike?  I don’t know lol I didn’t design this.  Perhaps it is bluetooth ready so all you need is the bluetooth or maybe it comes with the bluetooth ear piece.

All I know is that I probably won’t be able to afford one.  I still use the Nokia 3390 from 2002 lol.

ZipIt Wireless

On By Michel McDonaldIn Products I LikeLeave a comment

zipit-wireless

I’m at YouTube watching another installment of Fred the episode where he is swimming lol.  Anyway at the end of the video he is texting on this device called the ZipIt Wireless.  There was a link at the end of the video which goes right to ROFL w/Fred but you can click ZipIt Home and it takes you to the websites homepage (or just click here).

I like this device.  It’s only $50 for the device and of course you have to pay a monthly fee of $9.99 a month or $109.89 for a full year and you get 1 month for free.  Go ahead, get your calculators… I’ll wait.

Ok now that you have verified that you get 1 month free you’ll want to know what it is.  This is a device that you can buy either for yourself or for your kids.  It has unlimited texting and IMing to any cell phone or any device.  Basically you can chat on AOL/AIM, Yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger or cell phones.  There are no other fees.

But it’s not just a messenger, you can view your photos on there and listen to mp3’s that are on a miniSD card which is very nice.  It also streams radio stations too.

Personally, I don’t have enough friends that I chat with online to require needing to carry this with me everywhere I go.  If I had a job that I went to everyday that I couldn’t chat with on my work computer, or if I didn’t work in front of a computer then maybe but I don’t.

I am a huge fan of IMing with friends/family and I think the amount of money the cell phone companies rip you off for is terrible and $10 a month is great for kids because it gets them off the family computer and it helps out with the cell phone bill in this economy.

But this thing has parental controls too so you can feel safe knowing your kids aren’t talking to creeps from Dateline NBC.  You can make it so they can only talk to certain people and you can also set a time limit so you know they aren’t wasting their life IMing everyone around the universe all freakin day and night.  Obviously you don’t want them going to school with it so when they get home you can set it for maybe 2 or 3 hours or so AFTER they do their homework of course lol.  Sorry kids, I know you are calling me names right now.  Stay in school and just say NO to drugs, cigarettes and alcohol!

So, it would be smart to buy one of these if not for your kid then for yourself.  Don’t drive and text PLEASE!

Go Phones

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cell PhoneLeave a comment

I’ve been doing a little research today trying to find a good cell phone plan for the both of us but can’t really find something that has a good price.  I mean, they are all expensive and I can’t justify spending $100 just to be able to call each other for free when he’s at work or when he goes on his breaks.

The only reason we need these cell phones are so when I’m riding my bike or I’m at the store or at the mall then he can call me and I’ll be able to answer the phone.  I think I might have found a solution to the problem.

AT&T has the Go Phone that is a Nokia 2610 for $30 and it’s a prepaid cell phone so you pay $25 for the phone card and they basically charge you $1 for every day that you use your phone plus .10 cents per minute.  So it wouldn’t be very good for using every day if you are strapped for cash.  But it does have free unlimited mobile to mobile calling which is what we are looking for.  Now, I don’t know if that means that we still have to pay $1 per day with the unlimited mobile to mobile, I’m sure it does.  But that’s ok, it’s only $25 a month each phone.

I bought the cell phone that I have now in 2002 when I first started visiting my aunt in Simi Valley because Darrin would call me and it was irritating her.  So I bought a pre-paid cell phone through T-Mobile and it has served it’s purpose but it’s time to let it go.  The phone got so old that it would just die all of a sudden.  I’d charge the battery fully but the phone would still die.  I ended up buying another one to replace it last year at the swap meet but this one is shutting off while Darrin uses it now too.  It’s the same model so maybe I should have upgraded lol.  So it’s time for new cell phone(s).

The Go Phone just seems like the better plan for us right now.  At least it has a color screen and you can download ringtones that aren’t midi.  I hate those old ringtones lol.

Video Calls

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cell PhoneLeave a comment

I’ve seen in tv shows where people are using an iPhone and they are talking to each other and they can also see each other. Like in Knight Rider for example. I’m curious if that really is possible. Maybe someone call respond to this question.

Since Darrin has a job now we’re both going to get a cell phone plan and new cell phones. He’s been taking our only cell phone to work but it’s a pre-paid cell phone which means for $25 he gets 2 1/2 hours to talk. He’s calling me all the time and he’s calling other places and I just have a bad feeling about it. He’s going to need a cell phone plan with an unlimited calling feature, GPS and internet. I figured that we could both have them so we can call each other for free.

I’m going to need one too because as soon as I get a new bike wheel I’m going to be riding my bike again and when he calls me I’d like to be on video phone chatting so he can see what the bike path looks like. I think that would be cool.

Anyway, please, if someone can respond to let me know which cell phone has that feature. I’d like to get blackberries but iphones will be cool too. I just need to know which phone is best for video calls. Thanks

Cell Phone Popcorn

On By Michel McDonaldIn HumorLeave a comment

I was just sent this video that shows these people with cell phones sitting in a circle on a table with about 5 or 6 pieces of pre-popped popcorn and they each call their perspective cell phones and all of a sudden these pieces of corn just start popping.  Then they show another group doing it then another group doing it all getting the same results, popcorn.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pXg0TifZpQ

However, I went to YouTube so I can get the video so I can embed it in here much easier than just putting in a link and I found this one instead.  It’s from a radio show called “The Regular Guys” on 100.5 FM in Atlanta, Georgia.  They try the same thing but get no results.  I don’t know if it’s because one of the cell phones was vibrating away from the corn or not but the corn did not pop thus debunking this myth.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC4eeB2M7hk

There is a spoof video of these guys trying it with a steak.  Check it out it’s so funny.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=przkFZJSkOc

I went to Snopes.com to get the whole truth about this and it’s false.  The snopes page that I actually went to was about cooking an egg with a cell phone but towards the bottom of the page they showed these videos about popcorn.  They show a CNN news story where they talk to the guy who created these videos for a blue tooth company who basically made this up to sell his product and these stunts are all for a commercial.  Not meant to scare people but meant as a joke and to sell their product.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOZZ6dJiIgo

Update 2011-02-09: Apparently it seems that 2 out of 4 of the videos in this post have become private.  I’m assuming because the people who put the first video up knew that it was fake so they made it private because they were probably getting negative messages.  The last video at the bottom (above this update) is private and I don’t know why.  I do know that this was a hilarious stunt and it should be back up for all to enjoy.

Skype Video Phone

On By Michel McDonaldIn TechLeave a comment

The future is now people!  It finally happened.  A company has come out with a video phone that you can use to make free video phone calls.

Here is a demo.

It looks like you can make Skype to Skype voice calls as well as video calls.  The other person doesn’t have to have this device as long as they have Skype on their computer and a webcam.  And I saw on the demo that you can also make calls to landlines and cell phones.

It either plugs into your DSL/Cable router or you can use it via your WiFi connection at home.  It comes with a battery so maybe you can take it with you when you are on vacation and your hotel has WiFi access.

It does have a hefty price tag on it.  $299.95 but I’m sure in time that price will most likely go down.  It may have a small screen, 800×480 Pixel 7” TFT-LCD, but what are you expecting?  If you are using Skype to make video calls on your computer you will know that it’s 320×240 which is way smaller than this gadget.  And it has headphone jack so you can have a more private conversation.

Just think what you could do with this.  You could connect with friends and family and not just talk to them on the phone but actually see their faces too and if you hate to travel for business it could be used for meetings.

Since it’s a free video call what would be really cool is to call someone on their video phone at Christmas time and just have it running and have the camera looking at the kids who are opening presents.  This way the people who couldn’t come can watch the kids playing.  And whenever someone wants to come say hi to the person on video phone then they can walk over to it.

You can sit it on the dining room table and be eating while the person on the other side is also eating.  This way you will be sharing a meal.  The possibilities are endless.