What to Do When Your Cell Phone Drops in Water

Today cell phones are a necessity. For one to have his or her life roll along easily they need one, as most of today’s activities need constant communication. Many times when our cell phones fall in water, we do not know what to do and in most cases we panic, as we have a lot of information that we wouldn’t like to lose in them. Below I have some tips of things to do in case your cell phone falls in water.

1. The first thing you must do is to remove your phone from the water. This will help stop water from reaching to places it had not yet reached, thus reducing the damage.

2. As soon as you remove it from the water, switch it off. Water is a good conductor of electricity. That means if the phone is left on, you are most likely to get short circuits in your phone. To avoid this, switch off the phone and remove the battery.

3. Make sure you remove your SIM card and memory card if you have them. For many people a phone is valued much lower than the SIM card and memory card, as that is where all their important information is stored.

4. Try to separate parts of the phone and put them out separately so that they can dry faster. You can shake it to throw out the water or use a cotton cloth to wipe it dry. If you have a hair dryer then you can use it to dry the water in your cell phone. Focus mainly on the battery area and the battery. Make sure that the speed of the dryer is low and keep it at a distance from the cell phone, as you do not want to heat it because this will only cause more damage.

After doing all this and making sure that you have removed all the water that you can, leave the pieces separately for a day, then reassemble them and switch it on. If it does not switch on try connecting it to the charger without the battery. If it goes on you need a new battery, if it does not see a professional phone repairer.

The next time your cell phone slips off from your pocket to the toilet, there should be no reason to panic. Just perform the above steps and your gadget will be just fine. There is though one thing to remember. Damage caused by water needs to be acted on immediately, as the longer it takes the more serious the damage and sometimes it may be irreparable.

IDC Predicts 183 Billion Mobile App Downloads By 2015, Rise Of In-App Purchasing

Source from:http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/idc-predicts-183-billion-mobile-app-downloads-by-2015-rise-of-in-app-purchasing/2011/06/28/AGUZR0oH_story.html
By TechCrunch.com

Research firm IDC forecasts the number of annual mobile app downloads to increase from 10.7 billion in 2010 to nearly 183 billion by 2015, notably more than the 44 billion mobile app downloads by 2016 forecasted by its competitor ABI Research.

IDC says the bigger story behind the numbers is an impending shift away from the current reliance upon mobile app download purchases as the primary focus of app monetization.

Rather, IDC says, developers will focus increasingly on in-app purchasing and advertising to fund business models, a shift that the firm says is most evident in the free app category.

Last January, in its January 20111 Appcelerator/IDC 1Q11 Mobile App Developer Survey Report, IDC posited that developers were increasingly planning to incorporate in-app purchasing, mobile advertising, and mobile commerce in their mobile applications.

IDC says its outlook on the mobile application market is informed by conversations with a “wide variety of players in the mobile app marketplace”, as well as financial and product announcements and its quarterly survey of Appcelerator’s 70,000+ mobile app developer base.

Two months ago, IDC reported that the global mobile phone market had ballooned in the first quarter of this year, growing 19.8 percent year-over-year, mostly due to the meteoric rise of smartphone shipments.

Pda Technology Has A Great Influence On Education And Hospitals

Smart phones or touch phones are terms which are frequently used nowadays. These communication devices integrate the qualities of both PDA Phones and cell phones. PDA phones are becoming more and more popular in the market nowadays. PDAs will be the best piece of hardware for you. The value of the PDA phone is increasing, as it is easy to carry around and it serves as a backup for your computer data. PDAs are equipped with handwriting recognition and voice recognition features. The basic features of the PDA include an appointment calendar, a to-do list, an address book, a memo note and a web browser.

PDA Wireless Phone
Wireless PDAs are designed nowadays so that they can be easily carried anywhere. They are very durable as well as portable. Nowadays PDAs are expensive, but within reason. You can purchase a decent PDAs phone at an affordable rate. A lot of personal as well as professional information can be stored in this handset. They are also programmable. Some of the great benefits that you can get with this type of handset are that a wide range of documents like graphics can be stored; and even transformation of information from one medium to another can be made easier. PDAs are also referred to as handheld computers, palm tops and pocket computers.

PDA Technology in Healthcare
Physicians have started using PDA technology to maintain the personal records of their patients. The doctor taps the sync button of the handheld device to download the patient’s personal information from the central database and the information will be downloaded in seconds. The doctor can filter the database to get the information of a specific patient. All admission records of the patients can be loaded into the touch phones or handsets.

PDA Application in the Field of Education
The PDA applications are used to improve teaching and learning environments. It is the best communication device which has the capability of integrating education tools like voting systems, visualizers, white boards, etc. Teachers and students can make use of this device as a portable computer for sending and receiving emails, doing calculations, word processing, e learning, internet browsing, e tutoring, etc. Video recording, sound recording and Wi-Fi are some of the other features available in the handset which helps in recording and sharing lectures, seminars, conferences, e learning material, debates, proceedings of experiments and many more applications.

Long Term Cell Phone Use Disadvantages

A cell phone has become almost everybody's way of life. Almost nobody can avoid the use of cell phones in any part of the world. The technology also seems to grow every day, with new types and brands of cell phones available on the market. This is a clear indication that the cell phone is here to stay. Though it comes with a lot of advantages, it has been noted that long term use of cell phones has some health hazards that come with it. A lot of money has been spent on research about the hazards of mobile phone use and the results are all scary.

The first danger is decreased male fertility. It has been noted that the quality of sperm produced by men who are not exposed to a cell phone, or are exposed for a shorter time, have a better quality compared to those who spend more than 4 hours a day using a cell phone.

There is a high risk of brain cancer. It has also been noted that signals produced from a cell phone can cause brain cancer if exposed for a long time, although there is still a problem in identifying the problem, as brain cancer takes many years to develop.
Another negative health impact is on children. A lot of children are now being exposed to cell phones at an early stage, which is very dangerous. Children are the most affected, because their nervous systems are still developing and, once damaged, the child may have a problem with learning. It is also noted that children are not only exposed to brain cancer, but there are also risks to other organs of their body.

Still with children, a number of behavioral problems have been cited. It is said that over 80% of children who use cell phones, or whose mothers used cell phones when they were pregnant, have behavioral problems.

Governments and organizations are still putting in a lot of money to conduct more research on cell phone use. As you have seen the results are all shocking, so it is only you who can do something about it. If you are a man and have plans of having a family, you may need to keep your cell phone far from your reproductive parts and, if you are pregnant, try avoiding long conversations; while parents can minimize cell phone usage among their children.

With Xbox’s New In-Game Advertising, Engagement Is the Goal

Source from:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/business/media/21xbox.html?scp=8&sq=phone&st=cse

By TANZINA VEGA

Users of Microsofts popular Xbox Kinect gaming console will soon be able to use voice and motion commands to interact with advertisements while they are playing their favorite game or watching a video.

On Tuesday, Microsoft is set to announce a new suite of advertising tools, called NUads, short for natural user-interface ads, that will let users interact with advertising on the console dashboard or embedded in games and other video content. The ads use the same voice and motion control developed for the company’s Kinect game console, which it introduced in time for the 2010 holiday season.

The new ads are intended to help advertisers keep the attention of Xbox users in a way that traditional television advertising does not.

“When you have highly interactive people and a passive medium, they are interacting with their phone or their laptop while watching TV,” said Mark Kroese, the general manager of the advertising business group at Microsoft. The new ads, Mr. Kroese said, “create a natural way for the user to engage with the TV.”

At least one advertising agency seems to agree.

“The new ad units really epitomized the level of engagement that everyone is working towards,” said John M. Lisko, the executive communications director of Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles, part of the Publicis Groupe. Mr. Lisko said the agency had successfully advertised on the Xbox console in the past and was “absolutely considering” the new capabilities. “You can text, you can tweet, you can vote,” he said. “That’s phenomenal.”

Using voice commands, gamers will be able to send messages about an ad to a social networking site like Twitter by saying “Xbox Tweet.” Advertisers who want to send more information about a product or promotion associated with a campaign can prompt Xbox users to say “Xbox More,” which will send users an e-mail with the information they wanted.

For advertising tied to events like television shows, advertisers can prompt a user to say “Xbox Schedule” and the system will send a text message reminder to the user’s mobile phone. Similarly, advertisers can prompt users to say “Xbox Near Me” and a map to the nearest retailer will be sent to their mobile phone. Finally, advertisers can prompt users to vote on a topic by asking the user to wave their hand in front of the console and select their favorite pizza topping, superhero or clothing brand.

The new advertising options will be presented on Tuesday to advertisers at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, an annual conference for advertisers and marketers. Consumers will begin to see the new features in the spring of 2012.

The new ads will be simple for marketers to deploy since they can use the same commercials they would use on television.

“What we’re seeing now is a technology environment where marketers can deliver more sophisticated ads and they don’t have some of the hurdles that in-game marketers and in-game publishers had,” said Paul Verna, a senior analyst at eMarketer. “It’s a level of interactivity that suggests more possibilities than we’ve seen up until now.”

Why you need a smart phone

In this ever developing technology era, there is no question as to why one will need better technology to support one’s life. You may be asking yourself if you really need a smart phone as you have a cell phone, but one thing you need to know is that smartphones combine all the functions of your cell phone and a computer into one pocket sized, easy to use device. If you are someone who needs both the services of a cell phone and a computer, then a smart phone is no doubt the best option for you. Below are some reasons why you need a smart phone.

The communication tools offered: they provide you with the ability to access all the functions of a cell phone like making and receiving calls and texting, but most of all the ability to receive and send emails. Most of the new models on the market now support web based instant messaging.

Internet access: with a smart phone you have the ability to connect to the internet. Actually, this is one of the biggest advantages of a smart phone. If you are the kind who does a lot of work online and are always on the move, then this will favor you, as you will not need to move with your laptop. You are always connected to your online social network like Facebook, Twitter, Tagged and so on.

Office applications: they provide applications like word processing and PDF file readers so you don’t have to worry about going to your PC to read those file downloads. This is essential if your online projects have to do with document downloads and uploads.
Personal organizer: apart from the above benefits, they are also personal digital assistants (PDA Phones) equipped with an address book, voice and video recorder, calculator and other features. With satellite navigation, some offer global positioning system (GPS).

Multimedia features: smart phones offer the capability of playing music, playing videos and taking photos. You can also play video games, so where ever you are - whether in the train or hiking - you can enjoy your games.

Smart phones are known to be expensive, but if you are to do a keen analysis on them, you will find out that they are worthy. To get the most out of them you may need to do research to find out the service provider and find a plan that will suit your style, because you don’t want to pay for services that you will not need.

How to Maintain Your Touch Screen Phone

Touch phones are phones with touch screens which enable you to use the screen to perform the tasks that you would have performed on a keyboard. Touch phones make life much easier, considering their ease of use and the numerous features that they offer. They are very delicate so for one to make them last longer, one will need to take good care of them in terms of maintenance. Since the fingers are always on them, a lot of dirt often accumulates, making the device look horrible, but with the tips below you should be able to maintain your touch phone.

1. The first thing you should do is to make sure that you try as much as possible not to use dirty fingers on your touch screen. Using dirty fingers will easily cause scratches on the screen, so to avoid this try to make sure your fingers are clean when using your gadget.

2. Just like any other electronic device, always detach your touch phone from sockets before cleaning and make sure you switch it off.

3. Then dampen a microfiber cloth if you have one or a cotton cloth with distilled water and use it to wipe your gadget gently. It is okay to use a dry cloth if you are just doing a regular cleaning, but if the dirt has built up, you may need to use a wet cloth. Remember to wipe your touch phone dry.

4. If you have dirt in the inside of your touch phone, then you may need to open up the parts that you can, but try not to open the screws especially if you are not a technical person to avoid damage. Blow out the dust.

5. After you have done the cleaning, make sure it dries properly, then put back the parts and switch it on.

Your gadget is now good to use. There are some things that you should never do, like spraying any kind of liquid cleaner solution on your touch phone, as some solutions contain dangerous chemicals that may destroy the protection and sensitivity of the touch screens. On top of that, the liquid may escape and enter the device and as electricity and water are not friends, you may lose your gadget due to a short circuit. With all these tips above I believe you will have no problem maintaining your touch phone and making it last longer.

The Touch Phone: Its Pros and Cons

Touch phones are a mobile device with electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touching the display of the device with a finger or hand. Touch screens or touch phones can also sense other passive objects, such as a stylus. Touch screens are common in devices such as all-in-one computers, tablet computers, and smart phones.

The touch screen of touch phones has two main attributes. First, it enables one to interact directly with what is displayed, rather than indirectly with a pointer controlled by a mouse or touchpad. Secondly, it lets one do so without requiring any intermediate device that would need to be held in the hand. Such displays can be attached to computers, or to networks as terminals. They also play a prominent role in the design of digital appliances such as the personal digital assistant (PDA), satellite navigation devices, mobile phones, and video games.

Having the opportunity to use touch phones these days entitles you to some advantages. Touch phones with big screens are ideal for web, picture and movie browsing. Touch screen gadgets usually have simple user interfaces, which are more intuitive, and touch phones have fewer buttons that might break after a few months/years of operation.

Touch phones nowadays are more likely patronized by consumers. There are also several disadvantages to consider: the screen has to be really big not to miss things when pressing them with your finger big touch screens lead to low battery life, owning a touch phone means screen can’t be read too well in direct sunlight as it applies an additional not 100% transparent. Touch phone devices usually have no additional keys (see the iPhone) and this means when application crashes, without crashing the OS, you can’t get to the main menu as the whole screen becomes unresponsive. They usually have low precision, virtual QWERTY keyboards being one of the most annoying things. Most user interfaces are not optimized for thumb operation, so a stylus in necessary, and this means using two hands. Screens get very dirty and these devices require massive computing power, which leads to slow devices and low battery life.

In spite of all the catch and negative reviews that we have for touch phones, most of us still anticipate that the leading mobile manufacturing companies will still come up with better devices in the near future.

Mobile Stats: BlackBerry PlayBook Outselling Xoom, Windows Phone Still Struggles

Resource from:http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2011/05/19/19readwriteweb-mobile-stats-blackberry-playbook-outselling-30402.html?scp=1&sq=blackberry&st=cse
By Sarah Perez

The analyst firms of Gartner and RBC Capital Markets have provided us with updated insights into how well the various mobile platform players are performing as of late. According to Gartner's recent report on mobile device sales in Q1 2011, smartphone market share is rapidly increasing, up 85% year-over-year to account for 23.6% of all sales this quarter.

Of particular interest to mobile developers are the trends surrounding smartphones. The two major players, iOS and Android, continue to dominate smartphone OS wars, Gartner says. Meanwhile, Windows Phone has seen only "modest sales" so far, although that may change soon thanks to the Nokia partnership.

In a separate report, RBC details how another notable industry player is doing with its latest launch - that being RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook tablet computer. Surprisingly, it appears the PlayBook is outselling Motorola's Honeycomb tablet, the Xoom.

Android, Apple Remain Strong

Gartner says that Samsung, a popular brand for Android-based devices, had its strongest first quarter ever, thanks in part to its Galaxy phones and tablets, but also to its new bada-based device, the Wave 578.

HTC, another maker of Android phones, remained strong, with 9.3 million devices sold this quarter. It also achieved the number seven position in terms of sales to end users.

Apple, as usual, performed very well, with growth Gartner dubbed as "market-beating" - 16.9 million devices sold worldwide, and more than doubling its sales of iPhones year-over-year. It's still the fourth largest brand in the mobile communications market, the firm says.

Nokia, despite shipping 107.6 million units in Q1, saw its market share decline 5.5% year-over-year, to reach its lowest point yet since 1997. To counter that trend, the handset maker will aggressively lower its average selling price in certain markets to maintain Symbian shipments while waiting for its first Windows Phone devices to arrive, says Garnter.

Microsoft's Windows Phone is in need of Nokia's help, it seems, too, as Gartner reported only "modest sales" for the new OS, to the tune of 1.6 million units in Q1 2011.

PlayBook Outsells Xoom

Elsewhere, RBC Capital Markets' General Manager Mike Abramsky told investors this week that he believes RIM has sold approximately 250,000 PlayBook tablets since its April 19 launch. This, notes mobile blog BGR, means the PlayBook is outselling Motorola's Android-based tablet, the Xoom. It took the Xoom two months to reach 250,000 units, BGR says. In addition, Abramsky thinks RIM could sell 500,000 units during its first quarter of availability alone.

Why You Should Opt for a PDA Phone

PDA in full is Personal Digital Assistant. PDA Phones are day by day becoming more popular due to the numerous functions they offer. PDA phones offer you the features of a cell phone and at the same time those of a computer, all in a small pocket sized device. Due to the technology incorporated in the PDA phones they are quite expensive but, believe me, you will be getting value for your money. Below are some reasons why you should opt for a PDA phone.

If you are the corporate type and always on the move then the PDA phone is just what you need. This is because the PDA gives you the ability to be close to your laptop or office desktop. As they offer the features of a laptop, you have the ability to do all the activities that you would do using your laptop. so you will not need to carry your laptop to every place you go to.

PDA phones also offer you the comfort of staying connected to your online social networks like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and many others, as one can access the internet using them. Again you will not need your laptop every time you want to get yourself online. Though there have been a complaints by people using PDA phones because some websites cannot be displayed properly as it uses the WAP technology to access the internet, most websites are now being built with capability to be converted for the mobile user.

They offer a range of applications like word processing software and a calendar and notepad. In addition to that you can also download and read digital files with applications like PDF document readers.

They also offer the ability to download and install new applications. This is necessary due to the ever changing technology. There are a number of PDA software and accessories that one can find online, like a PDA Bible or Quran, games and many others for downloads.

It can also be your entertainment center, as you can play music and download and play video games on PDA phones. After doing your tasks you will not need to look far for entertainment.

Not only do PDA phones offer the above advantages, but also other facilities like cameras, for both video recording and still photo capturing and voice recording; and they can also act as a MP3 player. It is really handy if you are or want to be an executive.

The Dangers of Driving While Using a Cell Phone

There has been much pressure in recent years for lawmakers to institute a ban on cell phone use while driving. As it turns out, studies show a significant increase in the number of vehicle crashes among drivers who were talking on a cell phone versus drivers who were not using a cell phone. It is easy to see why cell phone use can affect the user’s driving ability. Reaching for the cell phone in your car and dialing the phone number takes the driver’s eyes off the road. (Yes, even if you use speed dial.) It also takes your hands off the wheel. Finally, and most importantly, cell phone use takes your mind off driving.

According to a study conducted by the University of Utah, talking on a cell phone while driving is comparable to driving while legally drunk. Use of a cell phone slowed participant’s reaction times and impaired quick decision-making abilities. Statistics show that drivers are four times more likely to be involved in a crash while talking on a cell phone and six times more likely to crash when texting or dialing a number. In addition, cell phone users are more likely to be involved in crashes that result in injuries. Furthermore, research indicates that using a hands free device does not significantly reduce the danger. Talking on a cell phone or even just listening to someone else impairs driving by causing a distraction that reduces the brain’s resources. As a result, our ability to drive is negatively affected. In a similar study, University of Utah professor David Strayer found that "If you put a 20-year-old driver behind the wheel with a cell phone, their reaction times are the same as a 70-year-old driver who is not using a cell phone." These studies are particularly sobering because the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has estimated that 8 percent of all drivers are talking on the phone at any given time, and this estimate increases every year. This translates into more accidents and more injuries on the road for all of us.

In spite of conclusive evidence that using a cell phone while driving poses a significant danger, many of us stubbornly continue to use our cell phones anyway. Those drivers who are twenty years old and younger are particularly at risk, in part because of their inexperience. We can all do our part to help make roads safer by curbing cell phone use now, even before stricter laws are enacted.

The Maket Competition of Smart Phones

In the market, there are several phone operating system leaders, Android being the largest because of its market share on many smart phones. A close second is Apple’s iOS, which is used on many iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices as well as the BlackBerry OS for BlackBerry phones. Microsoft recently released a revamped version of Windows Mobile on the market, called Windows Phone series. It is making strides, including a recent multi-year deal with Nokia, the world leading phone manufacturer, so it will probably become a major player in the OS market. The main concern that most people have regarding the OS, or operating system, is its compatibility with mobile applications, as they’re beginning to play a big role in the market for touch phones.

Making the choice between which smartphone to purchase will always involve some kind of touch screen smart phone, because many smart phones today use a touch screen interface. To make the right choice, you will have to be certain the user experience fulfills your desires, such as the touch screen response time, the ease of use and layout of the screen. Today, many applications are taking advantage of the touch screen feature and this is common with the success of the Apple App Store and the Android market; the two largest after-market mobile application stores on the internet.

As a potential smartphone consumer, it’s wise to consider the battery life. A larger screen touch screen phone may allow you to have the room to play around on the screen but you will have to pay for this in terms of battery life. Many touch screen phones don’t have great battery lives, although with many screen technologies being released in the market, such as OMLED and others, it is possible to find touch screen phones that can give an average of 2-3 days of normal use. For a heavy user, that number can fall to as little as 6 hours of use, especially if the touch phone is used for web browsing and is being used as a touch screen as well.

Security Guides for Buying Smartphone Apps

The smartphone devices are products of innovation. The simple call and text mobile phone has been upgraded into a handheld multi-functioning digital gadget. The popularity and customer appreciation of the gadget is widely seen in the product’s demand and quantity of sales during the past years. The advancement of the product also gives way to different applications and programs, as well as to different security threatening activities.

The current market scenario of the gadget includes purchase of the application and programs on the Internet. This is convenient, but the risk to the security and safety of the device is great. There are some proven ways of preventing these damaging instances from occurring. The ways are just simple preventives that can be easily followed and apply.

The first safety guide is to only purchase applications from trusted downloading sites and sellers. In this manner, a customer is securely transacting their money for their application. Reliable and trusted seller sites are searchable online and their proven sales records and reputation is visible in the different forums and social blogging sites.
Popular apps can also reduce the threat of downloading harmful ones. The point is to buy those applications that are widely used by other customers. This way is more reliable, because the fact that such application is popular signifies that the product has been gaining the trust and confidence of customers.

Another unwanted scenario relative to buying apps is that of online theft. Online banking, billing and payment are targets of fraud and deception. It is advisable to transact only on sites that are equipped with online transaction security features, or those sites referred by other trusted institutions, like banks.

Jail breaking comes with great consequences. Although the activity depends on the customer’s decision, the possibility that items will be hacked or damaged is great. The activity is dangerous in nature, but those who do try it will need to be extra cautious.
Applications have their own publishers, so buying on their own website is the best way of obtaining the item. Besides, by obtaining an application in a secure transaction, a customer can select the application of their interest, even if it is not popular.

These preventive ways are helpful to smartphone users and enthusiasts. People may or may not have encountered some of these bad cases, so these means will remain favorable to all customers. The designs and functions of the device provide convenience and fun, so avoiding this risky scenario can help prolong the life of the device and the customer’s usage.