Saving Companies Thousands. Be One!

Some of our friends at Sales By 5 (Nan, Kya, and Erik) have recently taught me finding what inspires you is the key to success and happiness. Makes a ton of sense, but it feels great to have that inspiration pointed out to you by somebody else. We have an awesome new employee named A’Laura and she reminded me of what our company is all about and what it means to people.

She lives in Seguin, TX (Close to San Antonio) and she purchased her phone from us a little over a year ago. She actually lives on the outskirts of town from what I understand. Either way her dilemma was not knowing what cell phone provider would work at her home. Somebody from the store drove to her house with a T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, and Helio phone to test out the signal. In her case Verizon worked the best.

So long story short, we really did what we could to take care of this person. I do not know if any other retailer would go through even half of the trouble. This is what our company is made of, people that are really willing to do what it takes to take care of our customers.That is also why I am proud to be part of this company. The owner of The Phone Store, Charlie Slaughter, has really spilled the belief of taking care of customers into the small and medium business world. We have displayed this with The Smartphone Challenge which is really a one stop shop for their communication needs, e-mail, voice, text, and data. So if you need help visit one of our retail stores or contact us. We really want to teach our customers how to buy wireless. If you have any additional questions you can e-mail me @ alex@thephonestoreinc.com.

I love my Blackberry and everything I can do on it. I can write and receive all of my e-mails in a very organized way, I can use a great phone, I can play games, and it seems with all the applications out there I can do a countless number of things. There are so many applications out there and one I am sure many business people have been waiting for is a Quickbooks application.

Now, I am not in charge of finances for our company, but I know that Quickbooks is a very important tool to make sure we are keeping track of all of our expenses and profits. Thanks to our good friends over at Blackberry Cool, they have let us know this is available for Blackberry and iPhone users.

So for those of you that manage your company’s expenses or those of you small or medium business owners that do it yourself, download this application now. On top of the hour a day Blackberry helps you save, this should make your life just a little easier. If you do not have a Blackberry TAKE THE CHALLENGE!

I was looking at Pinstack’s RSS feeds on my Viigo and I noticed they had the top 10 mobile sites. I will list them for you as they are listed on their website.

1. www.google.com
2. www.myspace.com
3. www.facebook.com
4. www.wikipedia.org
5. www.yahoo.com
6. www.nytimes.com
7. www.gamejump.com
8. www.youtube.com
9. www.accuweather.com
10. http://myopera.com

So a few of the websites kind of strike me as a given like Google. On countless occasions I have pulled out my phone and “Googled” something to prove I was right, or even to find out a piece of information that I just could not remember. It has settled many bets and I have a feeling it will continue to do that.

There are sites on there like Wikipedia that would help find good information as well (Citation Needed), and things like Accuweather which I never really thought to look at. Youtube, Myspace, and Facebook are all great websites. Myspace and Facebook are really great and some phones even have Mobile App versions of those websites.

So all in all it is a good list to look at, and it is cool to know what other people on the mobile web are looking at. So now I know where to settle my bets, find out the weather, read good news, and play some cool games for free. As always, any questions contact us.

All work and no play makes Alex a dull boy right? Well as many of you all that read this know, I have a Blackberry. I love my Blackberry because it basically brings my work world to me, instead of me having to go to it. Thankfully I am not always too wrapped up in work stuff to enjoy mobile games.

So  thanks to the awesome folks over at Blackberry Cool, I found out that Street Fighter 2 is available for only $9.99. It would be a good game to download and practice with before Street Fighter HD Remix comes out. At times I find myself playing games while I am waiting in the lobby for an appointment. Of course with the extra hour a day Blackberry gives you, you have a little more time for fun.

The other games I have on my phone are Brickbreaker (Which every Blackberry owner has their own experience with), Sudoku, Tetris, and Guitar Hero. You can’t go wrong with any of the games and they are all good ways to spend some of your free time. As processors in phones become better, the gaming options in them become better and there is much more variety. To find out what games are available for your device, I would recommend going to your carrier’s website and checking it out. If you have any other questions contact us, and we will be happy to help.

I am always looking for ways to help increase my productivity, or just generally looking for cool new ways to do things on the computer or my phone. With that said one of my most commonly visited websites is LifeHacker. Most articles related to Lifehacker have to deal with PC shortcuts and cool web applications to make life easier. I read about a very helpful mobile tool that should help many people.

The tool they wrote about was BitPim. BitPim is basically an application that allows you to backup your data on many regular phones. If you have a Blackberry, Treo, or Windows Mobile Device, backing up data usually means connecting to your computer with USB or the device does it by itself wirelessly. With regular phones these tasks are not so simple. Thankfully there are backup tools like “Wireless Backup” that Sprint is offering that helps back up contacts, but what if you need a little more?

With BitPim it can back up most of your data, help synchronize your calendars, and even help you put ringtones on your phone. As far as I know there are not many other products out there that do this. Make sure you read the article, because there are very detailed instructions of what you need to do. So try it out and see if it works for you. There are some phones that need a special cable and if you need to order one contact us.  Or if you are ready for a Smartphone let us know and we will help you out!

I just read about a really cool and polite new application from Toysoft Inc. It is an application that allows you to Ignore a call and immediately reply with a default text message like ” Can’t talk. In meeting”. I always feel really bad ignoring calls, but at times I have no choice because I am usually on a call or helping a client out. So hitting the Red Phone to ignore usually makes me sad.

Thankfully they created a beta version of this application. Like many other developers out there, they looked for a solution to a problem, and found a great way of addressing the issue. If you are reading the blog on your Blackberry ( 4.2 or higher OS) then you can follow this link http://www.toysoft.ca/beta/NotNow.jad for OTA download. If not just type that address right into your browser’s address bar. Check out Toysoft’s store, they have many really cool applications available for purchase. As always if you have any questions contact us.

As you all know we really like cool phones with our company, and it is hard for anything to compete with Blackberry in our hearts unless it is super awesome. I have always like the HTC Touch phone because of the TouchFlo or MediaFlo interface it has. It has always been a cool phone, and a nice small touch screen phone for business users.

Now there were some problems with the HTC Touch and HTC Mogul when they came out, but some of the carriers like Sprint put out software upgrades to give them faster internet and patch some of the issues. So now that those problems have been resolved, what is the next step. Make a great functioning phone that looks awesome as well.

The Touch Diamond is the non QWERTY sister of the two. It looks to have a really cool interface, a 3.2 Mega-pixel camera, tons of on board storage (4 GB for current versions), and a slew of other features. I would recommend checking this video out to see what I am talking about.

The Touch Pro is the QWERTY sister. It has all similar features, and if the QWERTY is anything like the Mogul’s it will be awesome. I have felt HTC has always been a very innovative company, and we do not get to see many of their really awesome phones here in the U.S. From what I have read they will be making a stronger push this year and next year with their marketing to make it more of a name here. So HTC makes good phones and I think they listen to their customers by making improvements people ask for, as well as giving us awesome features we did not know could exist.

I doubt I will give up my Blackberry, but these two phones coming to Sprint are making me entertain the idea. If you have not become a Blackberry Addict yet TAKE THE CHALLENGE!

For those of you who have been using Windows Live Messenger, there is a new version available for download. I used to have a Windows Mobile device, but I really like Windows Messenger on my Blackberry a little more. Thanks to our good friends over at Pinstack.com they have provided the link to download.

Also, there is a new Operating System available for download for the Blackberry 8130 and 8330. The new OS is available from MTS Mobility on Blackberry.com. If you are not familiar how to load a new operating system check out this Crackberry.com lecture. As always if you have any questions contact us.

What a great weekend for football fans ( Me especially), preseason is starting, my wife bought me the DeMarcus Ware jersey I have been wanting, and super awesome Viigo now provides NFL scores in their application. The only really bad thing is the Dallas Cowboys lost, but its okay its preseason.

Anyways back to Viigo, I have had my first impressions of Project Tango some time back and I love it more now than I did then. Of course the NFL is a big deal for me. Usually when I am at a computer I am working, or at least trying to, so I do not always have a chance to check NFL scores. With Viigo on my Blackberry, I can keep up to date on the scores whenever I am away. Actually, I think it would be easier to check on Viigo then it would going to Yahoo Sports, or NFL.com.

Either way, Viigo is doing most things right. I am super excited that Podcasts will be available at some point in the near future. And with all the other things implemented like weather,tracking packages, and the ginormous amount of feeds you can get on there, Viigo is really turning out to be a killer app for Blackberry and Windows Mobile.

For most of us using our cell phones are as much a part of our everyday lives as brushing our teeth or going to school/work. So many of us need to use the phone whether it be for business or to chat with friends. One of the biggest things many lawmakers are trying to do is, get us to use a handsfree device (Like a Bluetooth) while driving.

I know some people feel like they may be talking to themselves or they may not like the device in their ear. I feel a bluetooth gives you the safety of being able to drive with both hands and not holding a phone, which at times also blocks your field of vision.

For the people that can’t seem to find any comfortable bluetooths to fit on their ear, there is a great company called Blueant which makes an awesome handsfree speakerphone. I do a lot of driving and the Supertooth Light is awesome. The calls are much louder than what they would be with the phone pressed against my ear. Not only that but driving at 70 is usually pretty noisy, and I the people I speak with say I sound great.

So I do support bluetooths. I support them for the convenience. I support them because they allow me and other people the ability to be much safer when we drive. If you do not already have a handsfree device please get one; Also, check with local authorities to make sure you are complying with their local laws. In some states they are the law, and there are cities and counties out there that require them as well.