Mobile Phone News: April 2007

How to Choose the Right Cell Phone for Your Blue Tooth Enabled Car

Posted by loudfrogs On 12:11 AM 1 comments

Blue Tooth technology can turn your car into your own personal conference room without needing to take your eyes off the road. But, as with all great technology, you must make sure every piece is compatible. Follow the steps below to choose the right cell phone to use with your Blue Tooth enabled car.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Steps

Step One

Buy a Blue Tooth enabled car or a Blue Tooth car kit. Most car manufacturers, from luxury brands like Mercedes, BMW and Lexus to mid-line brands like Toyota and Chrysler, offer cars with Blue Tooth packages. There’s no point in getting the phone without the car!

Step Two

Ask your car’s manufacturer which phones will work with your Blue Tooth kit. If you had a car kit installed in your car after purchase, consult the car kit’s documentation for a list of compatible phones.

Step Three

Go to Best Buy or another cellular phone carrier Web site, such as Cingular. You can find Blue Tooth compatible cell phones online by selecting “Blue Tooth” as a browsing criterion in the Web site’s cell phone search.

Step Four

Compare each phone’s plan, price and carrier. If a phone is Blue Tooth compatible, it will work in your Blue Tooth enabled car, so all you need to worry about is how much you’d like to spend, how many minutes you need per month and whether you prefer Verizon, Cingular or another network.

Step Five

Purchase your phone online or write down the make and model you like best and go to the store directly to avoid possible shipping costs and delays.

Step Six

Follow your cell phone and car kit’s instructions to set up your Blue Tooth connection. Make sure you test your phone in your car right away to ensure it works to your standards.

When searching for a cell phone online make sure the phone is Blue Tooth compatible. Blue Tooth should be one of the first features listed on the Web page.
Ask your friends which cell phone network they have and whether they like their coverage. Each network works differently in different locations.
Make sure your cell phone’s network works in your area. Most websites will have you type in your zip code to search for networks that work in your area, but you should go to that network’s Web site directly to make sure.
Blue Tooth or not, cell phone conversations can be distracting when driving a car. Avoid using your phone in traffic or poor weather.

How to Choose an Email Client for the Mobile Phone

Posted by loudfrogs On 12:03 AM 0 comments

This How To looks at the salient features and functionalities that you should look for while choosing an email client for your mobile device.

Difficulty: Easy

Things You'll Need

A mobile device
A data plan
Enough storage to install an email client
Accounts with popular web based email providers or any POP3, IMPA4 enabled email provider

Steps

Step One

We live mobile lifestyles. If we are not made already and dont live in a rural farm house, chances are that we will be telecommuting an average 30-45 minutes per day. Our schedules are tight and we are expected to stay connected with colleagues, clients, customers and family.

Email is the most commonly used mode of written communication. We write emails to our colleagues, clients, customers, bosses, juniors, family and friends. We use email to upload pictures to our blogs, update our online calendars, send ourselves reminders and most importantly, calm down an angry client while we find a fix for her problem.

It used to be that being away from the cubicle or home office meant we are out of touch with our email. But that is not the case any more. There are a number of email clients for the mobile device that allow you to send and receive email. Many of the high-end devices are expensive, or carrier driven email clients only cater to corporate requirements. If we can not afford a BlackBerry-esque solution, we need to find a consumer edition which supports most of the common desktop clients like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and POP3 / IMAP4 accounts.

Today we are going to look into what features should we be looking at and what applications are out there in the market. Most of all we would want it to be as free as possible.

Step Two

Research Criteria

When looking for an email client for your mobile device, make sure to look for the following criteria.

* Supports all popular email accounts like Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, POP3 and IMAP4
* Multiple number of accounts on the same phone
* Attachment handling
* Speed and ease of operation
* Push Email or SMS Alert on arrival of email
* News & RSS feeds
* Number of phones supported
* Cost

Step Three

My Research Results

When I looked for an email client based upon above criteria, I found the following solutions:

* Flurry Mail
* Consilient Push (beta)
* Tricast Mail (Standard)

All three of the abovementioned clients offer good service. Sign up and download is relatively easy, although the process can be made easier.
Thus far, Flurry Mail seems to be the best solution because of its extra features like ability to search news and email on the phone, integration with MySpace and importing contacts.
Consilient Push is still in beta phase but its features like customization of email signature and locking down of the client in case of loss or theft make it worthwhile.
Tricast Mail (Standard) is a very good client and by far the fastest solution. One has to signup with alwayssend (a free web based client) in order to download a free moblie client. It allows the user to setup other clients but can only receive email from them. Only Alwayssend emails can be sent from the devices itself.
The user interface is also the best of the lot and allows for rich text email, advanced folder management and context-sensitive, auto hide menu system.
A PRO version of the Tricast Mail is available from their site which adds Push Email, Attachment Viewing, and Email Streaming as features.
Make sure you have a good data plan because recieving and sending attachments do take a lot of data.

How to Bank with a Cell Phone

Posted by loudfrogs On 11:42 PM 0 comments

The electronic wallet is getting closer to reality every day. And with 35 percent of Americans already banking online, banks, led by CitiBank, are in the process of rolling out cellphone-based services that let customers pay bills, check their account balances and transfer funds from their phones.
While some of the banks, such as Wachovia, are partnering with telephone companies like AT&T – and will have their icon prominently displayed on the phone desktop when you buy your phone from them – Citibank decided to do it alone. Their customers can access its service, Citi Mobile, from any carrier on over 100 handsets ranging from the BlackBerry to the RAZR. The only downside to the Citi Mobile service is that users have to download an application, but a few simple steps will get you up and ready in no time.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Steps

Step One

Got to CitiBank’s Web site and sign in to you CitiBank account online. A link is provided in the Resources box. (If you have a CitiBank account and haven’t signed up for online access, do it now.)

Step Two

Once you’re signed in, go to the service center link on the blue navigation bar.

Step Three

Look for the Citi Mobile link on the left side of the page.

Step Four

If you do not see the City Mobile Link it may be because you haven’t set up a telephone access code. If you do see the City Mobile link move along directly to Step 9.

Step Five

To set up the telephone access code click the link that says “Change Your Telephone Access Code.”

Step Six

The next screen will ask you for your ATM PIN number and in the next box under “setup a new telephone access code” you will be asked to choose a 6 character numeric password. Once you have done that, click the “Continue” button and you will be told if the process has been accepted.

Step Seven

Log out of your account.

Step Eight

Log back in and repeat steps 1 to 3 and you should have the Citi Mobile link.

Step Nine

Click on the Citi Mobile link. The page that opens asks you for the name of your carrier, the make of your phone, your phone number and your telephone access code. Enter them, confirm and you’re done.

Step Ten

CitiBank will text you a message to your phone and when you open it you will be able to launch the Citi Mobile application that will enable you to do everything you can do with your account online except make a wire transfer or add a new payee to your bill pay service.

Tips & Warnings

Bank of America, Wells Fargo and other banks are in the process of rolling out cell phone account access cross-country. If you don’t have their service yet, you soon will have.
Citi Mobile protects its customers' security in 3 ways. First, each time customers access their account by phone, they must enter a 6-digit personal identification number (PIN). Second, no personal data, including account numbers, are ever stored on the phone. Finally, all information sent between the phone and the bank has 128-bit encryption.

How to Self Clean Symbian OS Nokia Cell Phone Virus

Posted by loudfrogs On 5:12 AM 0 comments

Symbian OS cell phone has now gaining its popularity over other mobile operating systems (Window Mobile, Palm OS and Linux). However, it is vulnerable to a variety of viruses, such as commwarrior, cabir and etc. When we start sharing files via Bluetooth or installing an application software from any untrusted source, the chances of being infected by viruses are very high.

Nevetheless, it is still possible for the users to do the virus cleaning themselves without the need to send it to authorized service center or repair shop when it gets infected. This would save them some bucks but of course the best way is still having the right antivirus software being installed on your phone in the first place!

When your phone gets infected by commwarrior virus, you will notice a wording “infected by Commwarrior” near the operator logo area. I saw this once on my previous phone, Nokia 3650, and the phone gone crazy by just shutting down and restart by itself. The worm replicated itself through the phone's Multimedia Messaging System (MMS) and it sends copies of itself to other phone owners listed in the phone user's address book. Do not panic! Follow the steps listed below and your phone will be alright. These steps were taught by my friend who is working in mobile phone clinic. Apparently, he used this technique and resolved most of the mobile phones that were infected by viruses.

First, remove memory card from your mobile. Then, turn on your phone, recycle the power by keying *#7370#. You will be prompted to confirm a security code. The default code is 12345. Be cautious that by entering the code you are actually doing a hard reset on your mobile, which also means it will erase everything including your profile, personal data and put the phone back to factory default setting. Once you do that, your phone will be free of virus. Also be reminded that the memory card may have been infected by virus as well. Do not insert it back to the phone before formatting it using card reader on the PC.

This is my personal experience and it works for most of the Nokia models. However, it is always advisable to have the antivirus software installed on your mobile. The famous one would be Symantec Mobile Security for Symbian OS smartphone which could protect your mobile against any virus threat.

New Trends in Mobile Office Technology

Posted by loudfrogs On 4:33 AM 0 comments

There was time when people use to go to their office in the traditional way, work for 8 hours and return back home to spend time with their family. Time has changed and so does the ways of working. People still go to their offices to manage daily business transactions, but today they manage their business with the help of new technology which is also moving with great speed. One has to agree on the fact that introduction of digital communication medium has made great twist-n-turns in keeping us connected to our counterparts every time.

Digital communication has simplified things to such an extent that we now have a mobile phone such as a sophisticated Blackberry, which helps the user stay connected to his/her emails along with scheduled appointments. Since all the mobile companies offer internet connection through their own mobile network, Mobile phone users can browse through their blackberry handsets to catch up on their emails and web browser to explore through the web pages.

Things are still evolving around the time factor as many companies heads their focus on the term On-Time Delivery, which makes them to push hard to achieve the desired results. Similarly, majority of people would like to run their own business someday and work for themselves rather. This dream is not away from such people as many are currently working for themselves by sitting at home and seeking online jobs which again are driven upon on-time delivery criteria. But as a matter of fact, not may people could sit at home and work in pressure and same atmosphere all the time, they need change and hence, we are having mobile office technology being introduced which has the greatest impact on many than any other trend has ever before.

What do you need to get yourself on the mobile office technology? The term mobile office might sounds strange as people are still impacted by their office-going attitude or culture. But things are getting into places as people have started their own business on move as one would say. A car can keep you on move, a mobile phone can keep you connected and with the introduction of the car desk, you have all your office stationary requirements fulfilled. The car desk gives you a facility to write or take short notes on the writing pad, gets you the bag space to keep your important documents and filers etc. End of the day, you can zip-up the mobile car desk and take it wherever you travel.

Being mobile keeps you on move as always and gives the time to prepare your work irrespective of your location to present in front of the client and get the much anticipated work you are looking for. Not only that using the wireless internet access, you can stay intact with your appointment alerts, email notification etc which just required you to park the car and work as and when required.

Working at that pace was never filled with such a thrill where every day is a new work day with your car desk!

Natalie Aranda is a freelance writer. End of the day, you can zip-up the mobile car desk and take it wherever you travel. Being mobile keeps you on move as always and gives the time to prepare your work irrespective of your location to present in front of the client and get the much anticipated work you are looking for. Working at that pace was never filled with such a thrill where every day is a new work day with your car desk!

Article Source: Web Info at Home - the information you need for your eGrowth

Instructions

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Step Five

Step Six

Overall Tips & Warnings

Instructions

Things You'll Need

Steps

Step One

Step Two

Step Three

Overall Tips & Warnings

Instructions

Steps

Step One

Step Two

Step Three

Step Four

Step Five

Step Six

Step Seven

Step Eight

Step Nine

Step Ten

Tips & Warnings

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