Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

Ok, maybe it is age related but I'm reasonably technical.   I found the pictograph Welcome to Planet Otterbox quick start guide grossly inadequate.    I would recommend actual photos as opposed to drawings and close ups as to where to push, pull or stick your knife blade to get the darn thing open.    If it offers as much protection as it takes to get the thing on your phone it will be super.    I was able to get it open and as I mentioned, my trusty pocket knife was invaluable getting the darn thing open.   Once it was open it was easy to get my phone into it.    It does seem that it is well constructed but it is very bulky with the belt clip.   It isn't too bad without the belt clip.   I'm not overly fond of belt or   pocket clips.   With all of the publicity of nut jobs grabbing peoples phones, I feel better having it in my jeans pocket.   I have trouble getting it out so a thief would have to a very at...

Cell phones are a wonderful piece of technology and I would hate to do without mine. Calls in the car are a pain though. My wife’s car came with Bluetooth which makes life much less complex. Once the phone was synched it worked like a charm. My car, being pre-Bluetooth, doesn’t have that advantage therefore I want an easy to use Bluetooth speaker phone. Thanks to the Amazon Vine program I now have an easy to use Bluetooth speaker phone. Right out of the box it synched with no problems. The first time pairing was done through voice prompts from the unit itself. The sound is very clear and I’m told I don’t sound like I am in a large can when I speak to people using it. The buttons work well and work when you push them. That seems like it should be a no brainer but my current unit needs much prodding to get it to want to respond to voice commands. I particularly like the car charger as it uses a standard male micro USB connector to a male USB co...

I recently read about Lookout Mobile Security and decided to check it out.    I went to their web site and read all their features.    I then went to Android Market Place and downloaded it. It installed quickly and easily.    I get a truly lousy Verizon signal at my home.   Verizon, please note, it is truly a lousy, lousy, abysmally weak signal.    If my phone didn’t have WiFi I would never download anything.    Setting up the Ap was very easy.    I did a back up and then went to the web site and verified my contacts had been backed up.    If you upgrade to Premium you can back up your pictures and music too.    ($2.99/month) In addition to backup you have antivirus protection.    Another feature available in the free version is the ability to find your phone from your computer.    You need to have your GPS turned on for this feature to work.    Initially it ...

Smart Phone Rationalization Hey is all that money you got for gifts burning a hole in your pocket?  If so for those of you who have difficulty justifying the purchase of a smart phone I have a few suggestions. A GPS with a 4.3” screen is generally at least $100.00 and you usually have to buy updates. Many smart phones have a GPS app built in and you do NOT have to purchase updates. A tiny 8 megapixel digital camera will cost you at least $75.00. Many smart phones have an 8 megapixel camera today. An iPod or other digital music player can cost over $200.00. Most smart phones can download and play your music and allow you to download movies too. You can get an app for reading bar codes on your smart phone and then compare that barcode with online prices and save a bundle on many purchases. You can check the market and the ball game scores where ever you may be. I don’t sell smart phones but they do bring new meaning to want vs. need. Bottom line is if you wa...

So who cares what the newest smart phone may be? The cell phone owners that live in Verizon’s bogus green zone reception areas aren’t going to get any better reception with a smart phone than they do with their dumb phones. I’d love to have a smart phone and would be willing, albeit grudgingly, but willing to pony up the $30 per month data plan if, that’s IF I could get decent cell phone reception where I live. Some how the Verizon solution of installing a cellular repeater for a couple of hundred bucks so I get a signal where I live, seems to run contrary to their advertisements of their great cellular coverage. I’m far to ornery to spend that money on getting cellular service I’m already suppose to have from my carrier So I repeat myself, until Verizon truly has great coverage who cares what new smart phone is being released, sob, regardless of how much I might want one.   There is no  love so sour as the love that is unrequited.  Someday, someday as ...

Boy talk about a let down. I am sure the phone is sweet, what I don’t like is that it is business as usual. At this point you can get the phone for a price similar to the rest of the “Droid” phones as long as you are willing to get it from T-Mobile. Supposedly it will be available from Verizon and others soon. WhooHoo, I thought that Google was going to provide a new method of cellular dispersal. I had hoped they would help to end the vise the providers have put around our heads. If you want an unlocked Nexus it is over $500.00. Maybe that is a reasonable number for some folks but for me and I suspect many others, $500.00 is way too much money to spend on a phone that is only marginally or superficially better than anything else. The exorbitant price and the failure of Google to provide a new improved business model for cell phone distribution is just darn disappointing.

The dreaded dead zone, I live in one. I live in an environmentally sensitive township with a distinct lack of cellular towers and an antagonistic relationship with cellular carries. This means that the phone number on my business card is totally useless unless I go stand in the yard, put one foot on the well cap and the other on a large rock, put one hand in the air and hope that I get my cell call made before my neighbors call the funny farm to haul me away. Note if you are inferring frustration with the situation your inference is dead on. I have blogged on my LG Dare and I love the phone however it has no external antenna port and to add an antenna I have to drill the cover and void the warranty and I can’t bring myself to do that. If you have an antenna port on your phone you might want to look at the Freedom Antenna. It reviews well and is pretty reasonable. I found it at Amazon for $22.49 plus $6.75 shipping. You will need an adapter specific for your phone. Freedom Antenna has ...

You may have seen my semi-rant posts on my Samsung FlipShot. The main reason I got the phone was the camera which turned out to be iffy at best. The killing factor on the phone was it’s refusal to accept incoming calls about 80% of the time. It would send the calls to voice mail before I could get the darn thing open. Made me crazy.(crazier probably) After nearly a year of complaining to Verizon and one replacement of the phone for the same model, Verizon came through and said they would replace the phone for me with a different model. (In fairness to Verizon, their customer support people were always friendly, courteous and very pleasant to deal with under trying circumstances.) My replacement was the LG Dare. It has a better camera and it really does a nice job with the photos. The Touch Screen is terrific. It has tactile feedback which lets you know it really did feel your command. (I go all the way back to the original HP PC touch screens in the mid 80’s which were cool but you nev...

I have a Samsung Flipshot phone and Verizon service. I got the Flipsot for the 3 megapixel camera which although it sounds pretty good, the photos are still pretty lame compared to my digital cam eras. The theory was that I don’t always have my camera with me but I almost always have my phone with me. Anyway, I don’t take many photos with the phone due to the poor quality of photo. You can see the difference in quality from the 5 megapixel digital camera to the 3 megapixel phone. The phone aspect isn’t all that great either but I can’t blame the phone for the poor cellular network. My big frustration is the Verizon service. Apparently I live in a dead zone to Verizon. I get no signal in my home and an occasional signal if I stand outside on one foot with my left hand pointed to the north star. Verizon, of course, tells me there is a really good signal just over the hill north of me and if I was closer to their other tower I would get a good signal. My buddy lives several miles closer...

I just got the Samsung FlipShot aka SCH-U900. If you haven’t noticed by now, I am very family oriented, specifically focused on grandchildren. I frequently lament that I don’t have my camera on me. However, I always have my phone on me. Thusly I wanted a phone with a decent camera. The FlipShot comes close. Samsung claims it is a 3 megapixel camera with flash and zoom. The photos are not what I would consider decent from a digital camera but compared to my last phone/camera, they are much better. The phone has a slot for a micro sd memory card. I popped a 2gb card in there for saving my photos. I have not been able to find a way to default the photos to the memory card. You have to manually move them. I haven’t given up and perhaps in a software upgrade there will be a way to get them to the card without moving them manually. Getting them off of the phone is interesting. If you don’t buy Samsung’s charging/data cable, you can send them to yourself and get them on your pc that way. You ...