Cell Phone Tips & Tricks

Cell Phone News

Cell phones used as a microscope  •  Wouldn't ya know, the first iPhone worm is a rickroll. Figures.  • 

There are 3.5 billion cell phones in the world, enough for every other person. Where are they? China, India, and the US in that order. "According to the Harris Interactive study, second to clothing, teens say a cell phone tells the most about a person’s social status or popularity, outranking jewelry, watches and shoes." One thing's for sure: we replace our phones way too often. Once a year is the US average, every 18 months globally. That's 130 million phones weighing 65,000 tons.

We need to educate ourselves about the environmental impact of cell phone disposal. This is a growing problem and we as individual consumers can alter how this is done. You, me, all of us.

Phones get lost and stolen. Start off by protecting yourself before your phone gets stolen. Do it now not after the proverbial horse has been stolen.

Recycle your old cell phone and avoid having it end up as landfill.

Worried about your mobile phone zapping you? Then check your cell phone's radiation levels.

A global network of people using mobile technology for social impact. MobileActive.org connects people, organizations, and resources using mobile technology for social change. They publish a wonderful blog too.

All we do is plug our phones into a charger at night and awake to a phone ready to go. In other parts of the world, there is no electricity. Ironicly cell phones are often the only link the world's poor have to the larger world including texting and internet connectivity. How do they charge their phones? Look at this story about William Kamkwamba.

SlingshotSMS is a light-weight open source SMS gateway that can run on a laptop or a flash drive. It's a minimal SMS server which connects GSM modems to websites and applications via a simple interface. Sounds like something one could use when no other options exist and/or when one needs an ad hoc setup. Requires Python.

The Open Mobile Consortium provides open source mobile solutions for humanitarian relief and global social development. They promote sustainable innovation, advocate increases in efficiency, and aim to maximize the impact of mobile technology for social good.

UWT Mobile is an advanced roaming product that allows international travelers to bypass extremely high roaming fees charged by mobile phone operators. UWT Mobile SIM card comes ready to use with any unlocked GSM phone and with a personal phone number. Powered by United World Telecom

iSmashPhone

iSmashPhone a.) has a great name and b.) is a great site to keep up on cell phone stuff. Both are reasons to visit IMHO.

flipswap

This is a great idea. Many of us have an old phone (or two) sitting in a drawer somewhere. Yeah, it's a great backup if your mobile phone gets wet; just pop the SIM card in your old phone and you're good to go. Flipswap offers an attractive alternative. Trade your old phone for Amazon.com gift certificates. Send in your phone(s) and finally get those things on your Amazon wish list.

How to Become an Eco Bounty Hunter

It seems so easy: recycle your old cell phones. Them sitting in a drawer somewhere is only slightly better than tossing them in the trash.

They're also linked up with the Gizmo5, adding even more to the mix.

MegaPhone: gaming on your cell phone

You like to play games. You like your cell phone. Advertisers want your soul. Get where I'm going? Yep, the signs beckon you to play with your phone. That's MegaPhone's vision.

Spoken Buzz: Free Calls, Click-to-Call for websites, emails, etc.

Spoken Buzz lets you control who calls you, when, and how. Or as they say, "Sell stuff on Craigslist, eBay, classifieds while protecting your phone number." Call them back and they still don't get your real number. Perfect for small businesses, online dating, blogs, or hundreds of other situations.

Trapser: have cell phone, no speeding tickets

With Trapster you'll know where speed traps are and you'll help others avoid them too. Dodging radar meets social networking via mobile phones. The best part is that the more people who use it, the better it gets. Paul Revere meets cell phones.

Vumber: the "spam catcher" for real life

Vumber is a virtual number linked to your home, cell, or work phone. It allows you to "hide" behind a virtual number (vumber, get it?). Sounds like what women having been giving guys they didn't want to hear from for years. You can have more than one and it comes with voice mail.

Ribbit

Use Ribbit to manage your mobile voicemail like email, turn your voicemail into text, and make mobile calls from any browser or web page.

Jott: cell phones replace scraps of paper

Cell phones. How do we get along before them? In support of your continuing efforts to squeeze as much outta your cellie as you can, read these cell phone tips.

Another new cell phone-based service that tries to solve an analog problem with a digital solution, Jott wants to capture thoughts, create to-dos and set reminders with a simple phone call.

ShoZu: make your world mobile

At first glance ShoZu seems to make your phone do everything: upload photos, download feeds, geotag photos and videos, etc., etc. Almost too good to be true. ShoZu lets you interact with Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Friendster, Picassa, Blogger, LiveJournal, and more. They even let you FTP from your phone. When I have some time to kill I'm going to play with ShoZu!