Compare Cell Phone Plans

Tip No. 1: TV Shows on mobile phones

Mobile phones that offer video capabilities have been existence for quite some time now. TV Shows on mobile, however, are not that common yet. The best that a mobile phone plan has to offer currently are clips of video from TV shows such as ESPN and the “Daily Show” from Comedy Central. Other mobile phone manufacturers are still in the development stage in providing phones that are designed to view live video feeds from high-speed network providers. In the future, not only will people’s favorite TV shows be shown on mobile but also new shows which will be designed only for the mobile phone.

Tip No. 2: Pre-paid against Post-paid plans.

Pre-paid bonuses? Yes! It is often mistaken that there are no add-ons when it comes to pre-paid mobile phones. Mobile carriers like Liberty Wireless and Tracfone including also some major mobile access providers do offer bonuses for their pre-paid lines. This makes the users very happy and the lawyers grumpy.

A carrier providing pre-paid mobile services includes bonuses to beat the competition offering the same pre-paid services. Most carriers offer the usual call waiting, voice mail, 911 connect, caller ID and long distance nationwide services. As an added extra bonus, more carriers provide unlimited calls and text for a certain period in days, weeks or months. It depends on the type of loading that is chosen.

When comparing mobile phone plans you can visit sites like wirefly.com and compare them. If bonuses or extra perks are not indicated on these sites you can always request it from the carriers.
Read the rest of this entry »

MUNICH, Germany — While sale for mobile handsets continues to grow, the price pressure in this segment will keep the chip sales figures from climbing at the same speed. Only additional features offer a chance for chip vendors to benefit from the market growth, suggests a study from In-Stat.

The study predicts the cellphone chip sales volume for 2007 to exceed $31 billion worldwide. For the year 2012, the market researchers expect an only slightly higher market volume of $32.2 billion. However, they expect significant demand for add-on-functions such as Bluetooth. “The features that appear in cellular handsets are an interesting mix of consumer wants, cellular opportunities and semiconductor manufacturing abilities”, explained In-Stat analyst Allen Nogee.
Read the rest of this entry »

Ask almost anyone, and they’ll tell you that cell phone etiquette — or lack thereof — is a problem. For that matter, telephone etiquette hasn’t been entirely sorted out yet, as encounters with sales clerks and receptionists constantly remind me. It’s just that it’s harder to escape cell phone users. I’m constantly irritated by some of the inane conversations I hear on the bus or train, or just walking down the street, and sometimes astonished at how some people broadcast some pretty personal details because they forget they’re in public.

The only thing that appalls me more than obnoxious cell phone callers are those who think they should determine if a call is a waste of time. “If anything characterizes the 21st century, it’s our inability to restrain ourselves for the benefit of other people,” says James Katz, director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers University. “The cellphone talker thinks his rights go above that of people around him, and the jammer thinks his are the more important rights.” [The emphasis is mine.] That quote is from a New York Times article that ran yesterday on the use of cell phone jammers, which are illegal in the U.S. — but so small it’s near-impossible to enforce the prohibition against them.

Why do I emphasize the jammer, and not the obnoxious talker? Because many people who blab loudly on their cell phones don’t realize they’re doing it. The person using the jammer, on the other hand, makes a conscious decision that the other person’s conversation isn’t important when they press that button. Or they decide the other person isn’t important. Read the article through and you’ll notice an interesting bent to the quotes from people jamming: “She was using the word ‘like’ all the time. She sounded like a Valley Girl.” “Just watching those dumb teens at the mall get their calls dropped is worth it. Can you hear me now? NO! Good.” And perhaps the most telling: “At this point, just knowing I have the power to cut somebody off is satisfaction enough.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Design: Sleek style

The Verizon Chocolate puts a strong emphasis on style and, dare I say, flavor of cell phones. There are many cell phones that are marketed to specific groups, and the only demographic I can picture the Chocolate being marketed to is 1970s detective Shaft, or those that want to be like him. This phone attempts to create a style that can only be described as smooth, and Verizon does so quite well.

Features: Full functionality

The Chocolate features Bluetooth compatibility, which is convenient for many users. In addition, the Chocolate also comes with 64 MB of memory and has a slot for a SD card, which is very beneficial for the phone’s ability to support media. The Chocolate supports mp3 and WMA formats, while allowing you to multitask and play music in the background. In addition to music, this Verizon phone also takes 1 megapixel pictures, allows for streaming video, and can record up to one hour of QCIF resolution video.

Performance: Smoothness overrides standard measurements

The Chocolate is a slide-form phone with a sleek design and smoothly designed color plates to match. Weighing in at 3.24 oz., this definitely is not the smallest or lightest phone on the market, but its compact style will make you forget about 1.72 of those ounces.

Read the rest of this entry »

Design: Shiny, small, and smart

The BlackBerry Pearl 8100 is one of the smallest smartphones in the world, with a thin and sleek design that has a different appearance than other smartphones. This BlackBerry phone has a black and chrome glossy finish, giving it a very polished look.

Just below the 2.25-inch TFT screen is a pearl-like trackball, which is the reason that RIM decided to name this device after a gemstone. Weighing just 3.1 ounces and measuring 4.2” x 2.0” x 0.5”, the Pearl has a “candy bar” shaped design that looks like a cell phone instead of a traditional smartphone. This BlackBerry is a very classy and stylish smartphone.

Features: Great features and several perks

The BlackBerry Pearl 8100 comes with everything you have come to expect from a BlackBerry smartphone, with a few added features as well. The Pearl is the first BlackBerry to offer an integrated 1.3 megapixel digital camera, an audio player, and a video player together.

The Pearl has other great features, such as a web browser, email, instant messaging, and text messaging. It also offers organizer applications, like a calendar, address book (even for your corporate data), and a mapping feature. The MP3 feature could be the most attractive; it allows you to place your music directly on your phone through Bluetooth technology, eliminating the need for other devices.

Performance: Great talk time with new features

Research In Motion’s quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; EDGE) BlackBerry Pearl users have noticed that sound is more muffled, but improves slightly when turning it to the speakerphone.

The BlackBerry Pearl supports several types of audio files: MP3, AAC, MIDI, and WAV files. Users can create their own playlists, shuffle, and repeat, all from within the folders they made. Display information includes title, artist, and album, along with track information too.

The new trackball is similar to the one on the T-Mobile Sidekick 3; it acts as a select button when pressed down and has four directional scrolling. However, without the normal jog dial on the right side, it will take time for BlackBerry users to adjust to the changes.

The BlackBerry Pearl has been tested and rated for 3.5 hours of talk time and up to 15 days of standby time, with the battery lasting up to 21 hours with music and six hours for video playback.

Read the rest of this entry »

You may already have a “pay as you go” plan on your cell phone. Now get ready to use a pay before you go concept using the same handset. The Royal Bank and Visa Canada are teaming up for a pilot project that will allow mobile phones with specially embedded chips to be used to automatically pay for purchases at a store.

The idea isn’t a new one – it’s been in use for a while overseas. But it’s the first time Canadians will be able to go dialing for dollars without actually needing their wallet. “The consumers don’t have to reach into their pockets and fumble for cash and change,” explains Royal Bank spokesperson Anne Koski. “They can just pull out their mobile phones, which most people carry today anyway. All they need to do then is simply wave the phone at the checkout reader … there is no pin or password.”

And for a change there won’t be something else attached – a service charge. The system will be free to consumers, and it won’t count against your airtime charges. But there are a few catches. In order to prevent fraud or losses from people who lose their phones, the system will only let you charge $25 or less at a time. And in the beginning, it will be restricted to the bank’s credit card customers, with an option to add debit card holders later on.

The experiment will be limited to Ontario and will end next year, after which the Bank will mull over how to launch it commercially.

They’ll be supplying the phones for the test but don’t yet know which ones will be compatible with the system. “I think this is going to take off in Canada,” Koski predicts. “The value proposition that this provides is security and convenience.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Design: Sleek and slim

The Helio Heat puts a large emphasis on being small and compact. Coming in at 3.6″ x 1.8″ x 0.6″, I would not describe the Heat as tiny, but would instead say that this slide-form phone is adequately sized. The design focuses on having all the features that a phone should, but without unnecessary space. The buttons are satisfactory for use, and they do not infringe on other buttons’ territories.

Features: Technologically packed, but without the memory

The idea behind the Heat is to provide an affordable device that has a few “extra” technology features. This Helio phone comes with Bluetooth technology, which is very convenient for most people. The Heat does feature several standard features we expect from modern cell phones, such as streaming video, one megapixel photos, video capture (14 fps), and a music player. However, a large downside to these features is the lack of adequate memory to really take advantage of these features. The Heat only has 136MB of shared memory. The lack of memory space defeats the purpose of having all those great features.

Performance: Moderate longevity

The Helio Heat suffers from a lamentably short battery life, clocking in at only three hours of talk time and eight days of standby time. After the normal wear and tear that most cell batteries take after usage, I imagine the Heat will become less of a wireless phone and more of a house phone. This is especially unfortunate, as Helio is marketing the Heat as the affordable cousin to its other cell phones. Being so affordable, I would imagine reliability would be of greater concern, but it falls short.
Read the rest of this entry »

BASKING RIDGE, N.J.–Intelligent services are on the way for Verizon Communications customers as the company expands its fiber-to-the-home and 3G wireless networks.

Imagine how much easier life could be if your phone company’s network was smart enough to route your messages to the device you’re using right now, freeing you from keeping track of independent and separate e-mail, SMS, and instant messaging accounts.

Or what if you could start playing your favorite game, Bejeweled, on your PC and then continue playing the same game without interruption on your cell phone as you leave the house to commute to work.

For Verizon customers, services such as these may be just around the corner. Last week, Verizon invited several members of the press to its development facility here, where Chief Technology Officer Mark Wegleitner and his team of executives showed off how some of these innovative services might work.

While many of these services are technically possible today, none is offered yet by Verizon. Executives were careful not to make big promises, but the applications and services they’re showcasing are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of new services that are possible using Verizon’s all-fiber network called Fios and the newly expanded 3G wireless network of Verizon Wireless, its joint wireless venture with Vodafone.
Read the rest of this entry »

Many cell phone calls failed to get through, while some land lines were briefly spotty. And in the wake of Tuesday’s quake, many people were left trying to determine how they should communicate when the next one hits.

Cell phone providers acknowledged brief disruptions in service, but say their systems aren’t designed to accommodate the dramatic increases in call volume that occurred in the minutes after Tuesday’s 8:04 p.m. Alum Rock quake.

In a bigger disaster, cell phone companies say, people shouldn’t count on being able to use their cell phones immediately.

Yet regulatory advocates question if enough attention is being paid to whether the companies are putting enough resources into the network capacity needed when a disaster strikes.

For some, the solution was simple: text messaging.

For others, like 33-year-old Yvette Ostil of San Jose, the refrain was the same for what phone companies said was 30 minutes to an hour after the earthquake: “We kept trying to call my family and all the lines were busy.”

The dilemma isn’t a new one. During the Minnesota bridge collapse earlier this year, some people on the scene said they couldn’t get a connection – even though cell phone carriers said they tried to move quickly to meet the increased demand.

But Regina Costa, telecommunications research director for The Utility Reform Network (TURN) in San Francisco, said little regulatory attention has been paid to how the phone companies are handling network capacity.
Read the rest of this entry »