Tag Archives: phones

How To

Check the minutes in your cellphone plan instantly

T-Mobile minutes usedI’ve been trying out a Firefox extension that displays the minutes used in my mobile phone plan (I’ve got T-Mobile) since yesterday, and I’m really excited about it. Once you install it, you can configure it to query your plan and display the minutes used out of the total monthly minutes, right in the status bar, at the bottom of the browser window.

One note of caution: make sure you configure it to query seldom, not often (every two or three hours is plenty). It’s not polling a feed, it’s actually running a query on your provider’s database — this is because cellphone companies haven’t yet moved to the Web 2.0, so to speak, and aren’t providing feeds for the users. If you configure it to poll every 5 minutes, it’s going to be deemed excessive by them, and they might cut off your access. So be nice and gentle to their databases. 🙂

The same fellow who came up with this extension, Winston Huang, also wrote another extension to allow you to check your Verizon minutes used. There are also two extensions to allow you to check your Cingular minutes used. Here’s the first, and the second.

These extensions are wonderful productivity tools. You have your minutes used right there in front of you, the whole day. You can pretty much eliminate overage charges, and I’m all for that.

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Reviews

Motorola's new, cheap cellphone

Motorola's new MotofoneMotorola’s just come up with a very nice and thin cellphone that’s just that: a cellphone. It’s called the Motofone, and has no other features — no music player, no digital camera, no fancy gadgets, games, etc. It’s just a cellphone, and it looks really cool!

It’s getting billed as the “dumb phone” by folks in the media, but I think it’s a really smart choice on the part of Motorola. I for one have been asking for just such a device for over a year. They’re targeting this phone for developing countries, but I say bring it to the States, too! I’ve been waiting for it for some time, get it over here! And make it even smaller and “dumber” if possible. I’m sick of bulky devices. I just want a phone, credit-card thin if possible. That would make me very happy!

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How To

The mosquito ringtone

A while ago, I wrote about an inventor in the UK, who’d made a machine that emitted a very high-pitched sound and could be used to make loitering teens go away. Apparently only they heard the noise, and older people were unaffected. Well, the teens have now turned this around, and are using the same high-pitched, mosquito sound, as a ringtone for their cellphones. This way, teachers and other authority figures can’t tell when they receive text messages or calls on their mobile phones. 😉

If you’d like to hear it, just play it below. You can even download it if you like.

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Reviews

New Skype for Windows 2.5

Skype has just released version 2.5 for Windows 2000 and XP. This new version includes the following cool features (on top of existing ones):

  • Send SMS messages directly from Skype to contacts’ cellphones.
  • View and call your Outlook contacts directly from Skype. This is really cool!
  • Auto updates: Skype will automatically update itself – no more downloads and installs.
  • Purchase SkypeOut credit directly from Skype – users won’t have to log onto the site and do it there. Nice!
  • Quick and easy overseas calling: pick the country and dial the number.

Those were the advertised features. Here are the unadvertised ones:

  • In their bid to get more profits, I see they’ve made it much easier for people to purchase ringtones right within Skype. Go to Tools > Rington > Get Latest Ringtones.
  • Similarly, they’ve made it easier for people to purchase accessories. Go to Help > Get Headset.
  • They’ve introduced Contact Groups, which allow you to place your contacts in pre-defined or custom groups – this means less clutter on the Contacts List.
  • The changes made to country codes have also spread to the Edit My Profile window, where the country of your phone number for home, office and mobile is now selected by clicking on the little flag next to the number, and choosing your country from the drop-down menu. This is pretty cool after all.

Now for some problems:

  • My existing list of Skype contacts disappeared after the upgrade. Suddenly, I had no contacts! Where did they go? I really don’t feel like entering them in there again. Five minutes later: decided to sign out of Skype and come back in. Bingo! My contacts re-appeared out of thin air… Strange!
  • The “view your Outlook contacts” feature didn’t work as expected. First, it’s not automatic, you have to import contacts. When I tried it, I had to allow Skype access to Outlook through the dialog box that came up during the Import operation. Then, the contacts didn’t display in Skype. I had to select the View > View Outlook Contacts feature in order to view them.

And some things that worked as advertised:

  • Tried the international calling with the keypad. Sure enough, they placed a drop-down menu listing the country codes right there. It’s helpful for those folks who don’t know how to dial international codes. I’m not sure how helpful it is for me, but I guess they’ve made it foolproof.
  • Sent an SMS to a cellphone in Romania, and it worked. Cost near 13 cents for the message, and when I pressed Send, the status changed to Pending, then after 15-20 seconds, changed to a checkmark, indicating it was sent.

And some things that worked but weren’t advertised:

  • My photo always disappeared after I upgraded to a new version of Skype. I’m relieved to see they’ve finally managed to fix that problem. My profile’s photo was still there when I checked my profile.
  • I see the Video feature is still in Beta. I wish they’d take it out of Beta already and make it available on the Mac as well. The video quality is really good when compared to any other messaging app out there (other than iChat).

Overall, this is a solid upgrade. I like this new version. But then I guess I’m biased toward Skype, and I’ll tell you why. The benefits are clear when one uses the application: great audio, great video, reliable connections, and, my biggest pet peeve, NO ADS, thank God!

I abhor the MSN, Yahoo and AOL Messengers for that very reason: I can’t stand their ads. They stick little banner ads everywhere, bombarding me with them. They flash, they pop up, and they’re completely annoying and distracting. I am truly grateful that Skype hasn’t succumbed to that disgusting practice, and I hope they never do!

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Thoughts

It pays to do your homework

Most political protest these days has boiled down to blanket accusations, and what’s more unfortunate is that the people that spout them are fairly clueless about the details.

A couple of weeks ago, I read about protesters who marched up to the AT&T headquarters because it collaborates with the NSA by sharing phone call data. They were disheveled, and they weren’t even on the same page. Some were talking about Net Neutrality, and all had some pretty clueless looks on their faces. I wonder, if someone had asked them of the details of both of these issues, if they could have answered cogently. I doubt it. Now I read about the Marc Jacobs store in San Francisco, which has a big sign in their window which says “Worst President Ever”. If I were to walk in and ask one of their clerks why they think that, I bet they’d be clueless, and they’d point me to the manager, who’d point me to the district office, etc. Or, they’d give me an accusatory look, to blame me for not knowing the answer already. Signs like these only serve to alienate instead of proving a point.

I believe people simply can’t get their point across unless they do their homework about what they stand for, and they’re able to express their opinion clearly and convincingly. I don’t care what your stance is on something as long as you can truly stand for it. If there’s something I don’t like, it’s parrots who spout catchphrases but can’t explain them.

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