Friday, November 23, 2007

Show #57



[Download Show #57 as MP3]

News
 What's smaller than some candy bars, costs more than 100 times as much, and many of our lives depend on it: Our cell phones! We discuss protecting your investment...in data, how to back up, upgrade, and further your cell phone livelyhood
  • So you need to get a cell phone?
    • Choices
      • PhoneScoop.com
      • Regular Phones (non-smartphone)
        • Simple Phone
        • Music Phone
      • Smart Phones
        • Windows Mobile (around 15-20% market share)
        • Palm OS
          • Not really popular any more Palm started putting Windows Mobile on their Treo devices
        • BlackBerry (around 6-10% market share)
        • Symbian OS - as of July 2006 has over 60% of the mobile OS market
          • Largely Nokia
          • Samsung
          • Motorola
          • Sony Ericcson
          • Extremely popular for smartphones outside the US
  • You have a bunch of Data, How do you protect it?
    • Backups, Backups, Backups
        • Also, if you store your contacts and calendar in Outlook, that is one place that data is backed up
      • Regular Phones
        • Software
          • Motorola Phone Tools for Motorola Phones
          • Derek add other software here
  • You have your nifty new device so how do you protect it?
GSM phones. There are two, incompatible cell phone network types in the U.S. First, there’s CDMA. That’s the older type, used by Verizon and Sprint. For Verizon, in particular, it means very good coverage. Unfortunately, these phones don’t work overseas.

Then there’s GSM, used by T-Mobile and AT&T (which gobbled up Cingular). GSM is also the network used by most other countries, so if you have a T-Mobile or AT&T phone, you can make calls when you’re overseas. For an extra fee, of course.

Restarting your 2-year contract. It’s true that most carriers make you start your 2-year commitment over again if you make a substantial change to your plan. There are some kindnesses, however. Cingular, in particular, was fairly forgiving on this point—there were certain changes that didn’t reset the clock. (I don’t know which policy it has now that it’s AT&T.)

Secret “get to the beep” keystrokes. You don’t have to listen to the endless outgoing greeting when you just want to leave someone a voicemail message. You can cut directly to the beep by pressing a certain key:

Verizon: press *

Sprint: press 1

T-Mobile or Cingular/AT&T: press #


Of course, you have to know which carrier the person you’re calling uses, so you know which keystroke to use!

When you record your voicemail greeting, say, “Push star at any time to skip Verizon’s gibberish,” or whatever. That way, your callers hear your voice but not the recorded lady’s, and they don’t have to remember what the keystroke is.

How many minutes you’ve used up. Press these secret keystrokes on your phone:

Verizon/T-Mobile: #646# (that’s MIN, if you think about it)

Cingular/AT&T: *646#

Sprint: #4

Free directory assistance. Call 800-FREE-411. You have to listen to a 20-second ad, but it’s better than paying $2 to your carrier for directory assistance!

Or send a text message to GOOGL (46645) that says “Robert Gonzales 10024” (or whatever person or business you’re looking for). Google will send back the full name, address, and phone number, within just a few seconds.

BONUS TIP:


You can get FREE directory assistance, WITHOUT having to send a text message! Unfortunately, it’s only a Yellow Pages at the moment (business numbers only — not residential).

The hero again is Google. Just call 800-GOOG-411.

Popularity Dialer. You can program http://www.popularitydialer.com to call your cell phone at a specified time, to get you out of a boring meeting or a bad date. It’s free — and it’s awesome!
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