However, this morning I would like to speak to you about an alternative to the Straight Talk MOTO. You see, I had to have a phone for a friend at the same time I purchased my MOTO. Because of my experiences with Straight Talk, I wanted to have an economical phone that wouldn’t cost me an arm and a leg (remember, it was a gift) that would be versatile and user friendly.

The phone that I decided on was the Motorola MOTO C139. You don’t have to get a long-time contract and the phone itself could not be more economical (I paid $10 for mine from my local Circle K).  Just take a look at some of the features.

One of the best features that I like is being able to lock the keys. Say what, you might ask? I can lock the keypad so that when I drop the phone in my pocket or in my purse, something else won’t accidentally push the keys and dial a phone number to who knows where.

The phone itself is sleek and compact and has lots of features that you would want in a phone, and it only weighs 3 oz.  Enjoy preloaded games and screensavers and download the ringtones you wish to customize.

It was cinch to activate, by the way. While I do like the Straight Talk because it has a camera with it, the MOTO C139 is a handy, dandy phone that makes an excellent gift.

However, some TINY good news – the Ikee virus affects only those phones that have been unlocked – a procedure that allows you to use the phone with any SIM card to share files etc. So if your phone is unlocked, then I wouldn’t really celebrate. Also those phones that haven’t changed the default password of their iPhones from ‘alpine’ are susceptible to the risk.

The symptoms of the Ikee virus include the wallpaper changing to an image of Rick Astley, the popular 80s singer with a message saying ‘Ikee is never going to give you up’ – threatening, but equally humorous, methinks considering the reference to Rick’s song success.

Okay, maybe I’m dramatising this too much but the main point that Ashley Towns was trying to make through this virus, after he revealed himself as the creator of this bug on Twitter with the name Ikeeex, was to get iPhone users to use their phones in a protected manner through secure passwords etc and to encourage them not to ‘jailbreak’ or unlock their phones. Apart from the two symptoms mentioned above, nothing happens to the data stored on the phone itself.

Maybe this is just the starting step and nothing major will happen but I shudder to think the kinds of different worms that can be created now to infect iPhones. Ikee was very basic in the task that it did and it probably won’t make a drastic difference to someone’s phone (apart from a very pleasing picture of Rick Astley) but a Finnish security firm shares my worries too. They think that despite the creator having declared his virus, many other “variants” may come up which may have much more dangerous effects like “password cracking” to those iPhones which have the passwords changed.

At the moment there isn’t much trouble but iPhone users, I’d keep an eye out for suspicious stuff and remember, stay safe!

On the outer shell, Motorola did not have moved forward. Most reviewers are peeved by the sharp edges. Isn’t it a cool thing to have sharp edges when everyone else is going for the rounded design?

The screen fills most of the visible part. In fact, this is the largest touch-screen for a smart phone. The images are crisp. Feel impressed at the fast response. The onscreen keyboard works in both landscape and portrait orientations.

Beneath the display is a slider QWERTY keyboard. The keys are back-lit. So no problem typing in the dark. No one is going to complain the 5 mp camera either. Its photography capabilities would put many digital cameras to shame.

As mentioned earlier, the phone responds fast. It seems Android has taken a huge leap from 1.0 to 2.0. The operation is just as smooth as any other phone. Google™ Maps, Gmail™ and other Google apps are there for obvious reasons. You can access Google search with a single press of a button – a common feature for Android phones. In addition, there is also support for AOL mail, hotmail, IMAP and POP. Add calendar and contacts management tools to the mix. It also supports a mega collection of 10,000+ apps. Android 2.0 does not leave you enough room to moan.

The full functionality of Google Maps and navigation system is yet to be revealed. The layered maps – traffic data, satellite view and Google latitude – must make highway driving a lesser hassle.

Did I miss something? Call Quality! Well. Motorola Droid has crystalline clear voice in Verizon device. No static or noise. Just the sound you want to hear. And, it pairs smoothly with a Bluetooth headset.

Will it be an iPhone killer? Not likely. Will it be a great smart phone? Yes, definitely.

Lets start simple, the best car you can get. Well the most expensive at any rate, the Bugatti Type 41 Royale for a mere 15million$ is a nice start.

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You’ll also need a house, how about this one for around 700million$

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Now to stock your house with the worlds best food and drink.

A 2million$ bottle of Cognac

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Some caviar that runs for 800$ and ounce

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And why not top it off with a 1000$ sundae

What good dinner wouldn’t be complete without some elegant music, and what better to play said music than on a 40,000$ iPod.

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Of course if you have an iPod that costs as much as a luxury car you might as well get a 1,000,000$ laptop to hook it up too.

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And say after dinner you want to go out somewhere. Why not take your 49million$ executive jet.

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While you’re waiting to arrive at what ever exotic destination you’re travelling too you could pass the time trying to figure out your 1.5million$ Rubiks cube.

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And when your hard days work is done, why not sail off into the sunset aboard your 1.2billion$ yacht

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While munching on a few 2000$ chocolate bars.

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Verizon offers Droid with a 2 year contract. The discounted price is $199.99 plus $30 per month for mandatory, ‘unlimited’ data plan. The biggest problem is, the ‘unlimited’ data plan caps at 5Gb. My head spins – an unlimited data plan with a cap of 5 Gb. Can’t they just name it a 5 Gb per month plan? Or can’t they offer real unlimited data limits? A subscriber has to agree $230 a month for 24 months.

You can later use a laptop or desktop to access internet through Verizon network. However, for that, you need to buy another ‘unlimited’ data plan at $30 per month, which also comes with a cap of 5 Gb. Someone please tell me what unlimited means.

If you think you can get out of the contract early, you have more news. The ‘early termination fee’ is going to be doubled on November 15. This high termination fee is applicable to high-end phones (Droid).

Sure – the Droid does several things that iPhone can’t, as has the iDon’t campaign told us. The iPhone may not connect to a laptop or computer. However, the unlimited data plan of $30 per month is actually an unlimited plan – an ‘unlimited’ plan that doesn’t have a cap on data transfer. And, the monthly payment is not $199, but only $99 for two years.

Sure, Android is ready to become the default OS for smart phones. However, with such restrictive pricing, Verizon is all set to scare away the price-conscious customers.

Meanwhile, read what Android has done to make Droid popular (before they planned to kill their own baby):

Has Anyone Noticed Anti-iPhone Ads?

Droid Commercials Targeting the iPhone

Image via Wikipedia

This past week I decided that I needed a new prepaid cell phone – you know, one of those refillable phones? After looking at several and being concerned about cost, I chose Straight Talk MOTO. Check out the features of this phone and I’m sure you’ll agree that $79.88 should have been a reasonable price:

Straight Talk Prepaid Motorola Phone Mobile Web Services

• VGA Camera

• Bluetooth wireless technology

• Includes charger and Services Guide

• Model#: NTMTW385CPWP

I received it on Friday, 10/30. I was so excited. The phone looked super. I went online to do the activation because the service guide said you could activate your phone and add or use an existing service card to add the minutes to your phone. Since I had already purchased the $30/mo Service Plan, I thought this was the easiest way to go. For those of you that went to view the service plan, since I did not walk into a Walmart and ordered online, there was no retail cash register receipt.

After filling out all the information online, much to my dismay, I then was told to call to activate. This has been the WORST experience of my life. You call their 877# to get a message similar to I’m sorry, we don’t have any customer reps available. Please try later. So you keep redialing and either get the same message or you will get a message that your waiting time is estimated to be 15 minutes.

Folks — I put my landline on speaker phone for ONE HOUR. Nobody every came to the phone, and I’ve tried all weekend to raise someone!

Not only that, when you try to do it through their automated system, it won’t accept their service pin that is printed on their service card.

I’m so sorry I purchased this phone. For my money, the way to go is to go to your nearest Circle K and pick up their Talk-and-Go Mobile(R) Pay-as-you-go Wireless Phone phone.

I paid $10 for the phone and $25 in talk time prepaid. Their customer service is wonderful.

I’m sorry to say, at this point I believe StraightTalk.com does anything BUT straight talking.

I recently become aware of a situation which quickly snapped me back to the reality of life. I further felt that it was so important of a thought that I needed to address the issue to all of you as well.

According to the information that I had received a young couple were avid football fans and had been attending a local game held at a nearby football stadium. While the couple was busy enjoying the game they were unaware that some thugs were actively breaking into the vehicle.

They thought there would be no problem concerning the safety of their car since it was parked with other fans vehicles adjacent to the football stadium and the location was specifically reserved for the game fans use only. Upon examination it was discovered that the things which were stolen from the couple’s car consisted of their garage door remote control, a small amount of money and their vehicle GPS which they had unfortunately left prominently displayed on their dashboard.

Later when the game was over and the couple arrived at their home they were shocked to discover that their home had been broken into and was totally ransacked. Any valuable items within the house had been removed and were now gone.

It appeared that the thieves had employed the couples stolen GPS to guide them to their home. Once at the house the criminals used the remote control for the garage door to obtain entry into the home. Since the thieves knew for certain that the owners were enjoying the football game at the stadium they could safely estimate what time they would arrive back at their house. This in turn let them know about how much time they had to finish clean out the couples house of all its valuables.

It appeared that the crooks brought a moving truck with them in order to empty the home of all its contents. This is merely something that we all should take heed of if we own a GPS. It would seem to be prudent not to put your home address in your GPS system. instead place a nearby location in its memory such as a gas station or store close to you. You would naturally know where you live but no one else would know in the event that your personal GPS were to be stolen.

The Sprint MiFi Hotspot is actually a repackaging, or rather a rebranding, of the Novatel MiFi 2200 hotspot. The device is capable of allowing up to five WiFi devices to connect to Sprint’s EVDO cellular data network. In addition to an included DHCP server, and integrated GPS, the unit also will allow VPN pass-through.

The Sprint MiFi 2200 Hotspot has a brushed aluminum finish and the dimensions of the compact unit are 3.50″x 2.32″ x 0.35″ and it weighs about 2 oz. On the front of the hotspot is a mini USB connector for charging, and a green status light. The top of the hotspot has an on-off connector. The battery included with the unit is tiny – about the size of a memory card.

Mostly coverage varies with the foot print of the sprint network, but is generally very good. I would recommend that you verify the coverage in your area, if you know that you will use the unit regularly in your home area, as opposed to traveling with the device.

Configuration of the unit is straight forward though the normal web accessible configuration page. The page offers GPS, WAN, Power, TCP/IP, and other standard settings, and was exceeding simple to set up.

Recently I was able to use the unit in a vehicle with some friends and didn’t have any issues with each of us being able to connect to the device. The only thing which I noticed which I would class as somewhat of an issue is that the unit tends to run a little on the hot side. Battery life is ok – but I would recommend running it tethered to a power source when ever possible. It seemed to me that heavy WiFi use tended to drain the battery, say from streaming music, vs just hunt and peck web surfing of static websites.

Overall this is a great concept and I am sure that we will see more devices of this type in the future. There are several good applications of this technology, say for running credit card transactions at a fair, or impromptu web surfing sessions in a park, to the great convenience of having a wifi internet connection on long car trips. This device definitely represents the unwired internet of the future as more and more data devices become wireless. The real innovation that this device offers is the ability to share an EVDO data connection which is a major improvement over past EVDO offerings from the cellular providers.

Electronic Christmas Gifts for The Worry Wart

1. Dissolved Oxygen Meter

   This device allows you to check the quality of the water including the amount of oxygen and adjusts for pressure, temperature and salinity.

2.  Air Quality Meters

   A number of devices are available to test the quality of your air including for natural gas and carbon dioxide and radon. Here’s a good site that supplies them.

3. Geiger Counter

   Worried about radiation leaks, here’s one of many places where you can pick up a Geiger counter to test the area for radiation.

4.  EMF Protection and Tester

   This one looks a little too flaky to be real but if it really worried you, this is an answer, other than turning off all your electric gear.

5. Reader

   These electronic readers allow you to carry around useful information and read it. A number of brands are available using Electronic Ink’s technology, read more and find some of the most popular brands:

   • Amazon Kindle
   • Sony Reader
   • iRex iLiad Ebook
   • Don’t forget to load your reader up with some of the most popular content:
   • Bible
   • Medical Dictionary
   • Merriam-Webster Dictionary & Thesaurus

6. GPS

   GPS devices help to let you know where you are and where you are going. Here’s some of the more popular brands:

   Magellan

   The Magellan Roadmate 1700 has a larger screen for navigating in your car.

   Garmin

   Make personal GPS devices, devices for hiking, biking and to plot charts in Marine vehicles amongst other items.

   Nextar

   Laipac

   These make personal tracking devices so that you can find someone who gets lost because of illness or other reasons.

7. Solar Powered USB Charger

   Since many of the devices use USB memory to store data, it would help to have a way to power them in the event the power was out. Get your solar powered USB charger and don’t worry.

   Or make your own solar powered device, read more.

8. Taser

   For personal safety, a taser may be your weapon of choice, just be sure you can charge it if you plan on relying on it during a disaster.

9. Hand-Powered Emergency Radio

   These are electronic, most take batteries or plug in, but you can also crank them up to power them. Here’s two companies that offer them:

   Herrington

   National Geographic

10. Portable Generator

    Here’s a handy guide for selecting a portable generator to use to supply power using alternate fuels in case of disaster.

1. More RAM Is The Key

   Random access memory, or more commonly known as RAM, is one feature that should be important to anyone looking to purchase a new computer. The computer’s ability to process, store and keep up with other programs that might be running on the operating system. If there is a lack of memory not – only will the computer run slow – but it will not keep up with other high-intensity processes.

   Now memory is one of the most forgotten things because many mistakenly believe that their new computer will already have all the memory it needs. Most do not have near the amount of memory that is needed to effectively run all the programs, software and other options of the new systems.

   Look for at least 2 GB and more if the budget allows for it.  

2. Finding Good Deals

   First and foremost prices should be compared on all types of computers. Be sure to compare apples to apples, but shop online and in retail stores. Look for weekly specials or other savings that can help get that same computer for a better price. Also, you can sometimes get great pricing on refurbished models.

   Secondly, some of the top rated computers will drop in price because the newest and best things are already out. Take advantage of some of those specials as well.

   Again make sure that it is a good deal for the price!

3. A Good Warranty

   Most new computers have a warranty included; however they are not all created equally. Some are better than others. So be sure to review them before making the purchase.

   Another great tip when buying a computer is to look into purchasing the extended warranty, it gives a little more coverage for only a few bucks!

   It is well worth the money.

4. Networking and Wireless

   Depending on what the computer will be used for should determine the features. One thing that should be considered is whether the computer has the ability to connect to wireless networks.

   This will be in the form of a wireless card that allows a wireless connection. There are differences in wireless cards, so be sure to compare before purchasing.

   There are so many things to consider when buying a new computer. Along with the comparing of price consider things like size, parts, features and operating systems.

5. Finally, Don’t forget to back up…

   The switch to a new machine is a critical time when a lot of things can go wrong. While you’re in the transition process, take the time to set up a backup schedule in order to protect your data. This will ensure your safety going into the future.

   I reccomend picking an online backup software bundled with an email archive solutions. There are many availible over the internet.