Surfing the Net in a Cheaper Way

July 17, 2011 by Leave a Comment
The Android Emulator home screen.

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The Internet has gone mobile. That means that cost savings is about more than home packages that run your computer, television and land line. Now you’re out on the streets surfing the net. So how do you save money on the go? It’s about the right cell phone and the right plan.

How Well Does Your Cell Phone Keep You Connected?

When you think about the Internet and cell phones, it’s about more than email and a built in browser. Apps are their own window to the electronic world of communication, so you’ll want to find a phone with the right features for your lifestyle. Not only should you test various phone designs and platforms, but you also should compare cell phone plans.

For instance, you may find that you’d like to move to the Android operating system. There are many great phones to chose from that run on Android, but which will offer you the best package?

The Phone Value Equation

The word “value” is often connected to the concept of “cheap.” Get that out of your head. Value means that you are getting what you paid for. What you need may not be the cheapest plan. The trick is to find the right plan for the right price. Actually, phone shopping can be fun. Visit the various store fronts and test out the models. Then hit the Internet for the really good deals.

Just know that advancements in technology will render today’s cool phones a thing of the past. That’s another good reason to make sure you’re not spending too much money for a your cell phone plan.

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Children’s Health and Smartphones

November 4, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Smartphones: Developing Problem or Baby Toy?

Since the iPhone debuted in 2007, smartphones have become a household item. Combining the functionality of a laptop, a PDA, a phone, and a web device into a pocket-sized mobile device was inevitable, if not infinitely handy. But a curious development of the adoption of this technology has some parents raising eyebrows: The use of smartphones by children as young as six months old. The smartphones are bright and colorful, with their LCD screens and buttons, and attractive to children. Where parents used to give their children a rattle or blocks, they are increasingly just handing them their smartphone. Or, they are getting smartphones just for the children. Software developers have taken note of this, and baby applications (baby apps) are a growing market. The baby apps react to the smartphone’s touchscreen technology, and are simple enough to entertain the smallest children.

Expensive Baby Rattlers

The smartphones like the iPhone have motion sensors detect when the phone is shaken or tilted. This is such a simple form of input that baby apps have been written for it. The app turns the smartphone into an electronic rattler that giggles, rattles, or gives off the sounds of jingle bells when the baby shakes the phone. The wild colors that the apps give off when the smartphone is shaken seem to have a hypnotic effect on children, holding the attention of the youngest infants. Parents have been using this as a distraction, but they are starting to worry when they notice the seemingly-addictive nature of their young child’s relationship with the smartphone. But, parents who have their child’s phone on their plan can also put the phone into the baby’s crib, call the phone, and listen to the child on speakerphone, turning the phone into a mobile baby monitor. So, the use of smartphones by infants can have positive benefits as well.

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Wireless Industry Proves Itself Recession Proof

September 18, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Despite what many economists call the worst recession since the Great Depression, the wireless industry continues to grow. One of the key factors for this anomaly of growth is that a large majority of the US population are using mobile devices.

The results of a 2010 survey of wireless carriers shows that there are 285 million Americans that have a mobile contract of some sort. In 2009, the total number of subscribers was 270 million. The number of mobile device connections is equal to three quarters of the number of individuals in the United States. Despite the increase of 15 million, some in the industry are complaining that industry growth has slowed because saturation in the market.  The numbers show that talk time increased by 3.4 percent from the last half of 2009 to the middle of 2008. The survey’s findings also reveal that Americans spend an average of 21 minutes per day talking on a mobile phone. Mobile phones are capable of more than for simple voice communication. Data commonly transmitted by cell phones include ring tones, wallpaper, videos, and games. The growth in the industry, in part, accounts for the proliferation of niche services and marketing promotions such as free ringtones.

Wireless services generated approximately $150 billion in revenue for the 2009 calendar year and those familiar with the industry is forecasting a growth in revenues for 2010. As it turns out, much of the growth is coming not from minutes spent talking on a phone by from wireless data services. These services include the mobile web, text messages and other services that do not involve voice. For the last part of 2009, wireless data and related services generated more than $22 billion in revenue for the mobile industry. The data transferred on the wireless networks includes business applications, web surfing and even free ringtones.

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Growth of the Internet in the Modern Age

September 13, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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At one point in time, the internet was nothing more than a sci-fi vision having no real bearing on anybody’s life – however, in the 1960s, everything changed. The concept that had been thought up was tested by connected multiple computers through telephone lines, and though problematic, it became something which its inventors felt was a feasible and beneficial project for the future. Originally restricted to military and scientific endeavors, the possibilities for the internet became immediately recognized and it opened up to commercial use. Since then, the changes have been rapid.

In the early days of the internet, browsers were limited and buggy, with unfriendly user interfaces. Further, the connections were extremely slow and one of the worst aspects of these connections was that once you’d logged on, your telephone wouldn’t operate so that you’d miss any important call from friends or work. Even the process of connecting wasn’t particularly enjoyable – you had to listen to loud whirring, beeping and buzzing for several seconds each time you wanted to connect.
That has all changed. Modern cable connections gave way to much fast internet connections. No longer would your telephone line be tied up because you were searching for something online, in addition to which, the browsing experience was far improved from the past and the Graphic User Interfaces (GUIs) on the newest computers were actually well-designed as the companies had years of experience, successes and failures to improve on.

Today, the speed of development has been changed. Wireless routers enable people to connect anywhere. Fast internet connection speeds have enabled people to watch movies and live television online in the form of web streams that can by played on media players like vlc media player easily. Cell phone companies offer data plans that allow users to employ their networks to surf the web on the go. And even faster connections, via fiber optics, have been envisioned, tested and put in place for some people. And with the changes in the internet connectivity, we’ve also seen massive improvements in the quality of content as programming web pages has become far easier with newer high level languages. Last but not least, in this day and age, even our computers are significantly faster than they used to be – all of which has resulted in a far better experience than the one enjoyed by the previous users.

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Zen-out and Relax

September 4, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Ever just want to not think? It is actually very healthy. Most people cram as much information in their brains as they can from the time they wake up until they hit the sack at night and then they can’t figure out why they can’t sleep.

It’s called Monkey Chatter. That’s when the brain just will not turn off. Two AM? Still cranking. The fix is to get up and write it all down so the terribly important things won’t disappear on you the next morning when you decide it’s time to refill the brain for another day!

The cell phone helped to alleviate some of that, or so it seems. We don’t have to have twenty-four different phone numbers memorized anymore. However, memorizing numbers is a different part of the brain operation than that which gets full of the worries, like making sure you pay the medical insurance or “Did I put white socks in the blue jeans load?” It’s a mixed bag. The real culprit is still you. We live in an age when production of human activity is outrageously high, to the demise of the overloaded mind. Prozac, anyone?

Zen-out and relax! There is a small way to fix some of this overload: free ringtones. It may not seem like much buy when the phone sounds off and you know immediately who it is because you put “music to the face,” you will find that is one less thing to have to worry about.

What makes it even more helpful is that after awhile, the call from your daughter becomes that much sweeter because the ringtone is one of her favorite songs. You get to live a little piece of her before you even answer the phone. She will appreciate your good mood when she asks for money!

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