Saving Companies Thousands. Be One!

Our phones do so much for us now. Some of us do online banking, read our local newspapers with RSS Feeds, and a million other things. The Apple iPhone(3G) really upped the ante, by giving us a cool all in one device that looked nice and was pretty functional. Don’t get me wrong I love my Blackberry 8830, but the iPhone has really become a very popular multi-faceted device.

So I was reading that cameras will be getting another boost in the near future in cell phones. Of course this is an evolutionary thing and was bound to happen, but with 32GB SD cards becoming available at retail, our phone will soon also be our camera and our multi-media device. It is bound to happen, and when our kids get older and have these all in one devices they will make fun of us for carrying 5 things around.

So we are not where I hope we will be yet, but I can squeeze hours of entertainment out of my Blackberry when I need to. I know people can do the same with iPhones and high end Nokias, Helio Oceans, and so on. If you have an iPhone sync your Itunes and put some music on there, or use the great Roxio media manager for your Blackberry and let it convert your files for you.

So hopefully next year, I will be writing this blog on my phone, uploading high resolution pictures to Myspace, and be able to use a super intuitive interface to control all my media.

.teFor me the Blackberry is about as close to perfect as you can get. I have had other phones, and I am not knocking “dumb” phones because they did serve me well. A Blackberry, in my case the 8830, does most things I want a device to do. It makes my calls, has my e-mails, calendar, music, videos, pictures, web-browsing, and so on.

With all the great things they do and they have there are a few minor issues that have some fairly simple fixes. I had something called Memory Leak that prevented me from receiving new text messages. Something happens where your phones internal memory starts dwindling. The easiest way I have fixed it is deleting some old text messages, make sure I do not have 100 applications running, and take the battery out and put it back in. If you are not a fan of taking your battery out, you can press ALT, THE Right SHIFT Key, and DELETE. I do it twice in a row, so I can be rebooted.

The good folks at Crackberry.com put together a great list on some other common issues and easy fixes. Check it out, if you have any questions or need any other human help, contact us.

I am sure many people that work in any type of environment where there is billing, have people come back to you and say your bill is too high. Many of the times all it requires is an explanation of the charges and that usually fixes some of the issues. In the Wireless industry, at times billing becomes more of an issue, and sometimes it is because of an older billing system, or an error in the system.

That is where we come in. We believe in serving our customers that may not be able to get help anywhere else. We serve regular customers and small/medium businesses. We understand the difficulty a small business owner might have when their bill is too high, he/she wants to get it fixed, although they do not have 6+ hours to dedicate on the phone with customer service. We pride ourselves in being able to not only resolve this issue in many cases, but audit the bill and find a more cost effective solution.

All we ask for in return is that the customer we helped save $100, $500, $24,000 do business with us. We have employees that specifically look at bills and help customers save money by rearranging their plan. So next time your bill is too high, let us know. Let us take a look at it and see what we could do for you!

As some of you may know I live in Victoria Texas. If you have been following the hurricane, we were on its path to be hit hard two days ago. We have a few retail stores in the Rockport and Victoria area. So I gathered some of our important things like money, phones, and computers. I drove them to safe keeping around our corporate location in San Antonio.

So after that the plan was to head to Beaumont, it was out of the way of the projected path at the time and we were going to visit my father in law and try to wait for the storm to pass. Sure enough when we were close to Houston plans changed. My father in law called and said the storm’s path had changed and Beamont was being evacuated.

It was my wife, daughter, and 2 dogs, and we were not too sure what to do next. We did not know where we were, and how to get to our plan B, Dallas. Thankfully Telenav was guiding us to Beaumont and it guided us to the Dallas area. There was no lag, and without it I would have been in a bad situation. There are many applications out there and Telenav is an application that has worked very well for me many many times.

If you do not have the option for Telenav there are many other decent GPS alternatives out there. It worked out so great for me, we didn’t have to go to a store and fight all the people evacuating from Houston for a mao. Telenav got me and my loved ones to a safe place, and I will continue to use it as long as I have a phone.

We have written a few times about the Samsung Instinct (M-800). It has always been a phone we have anticipated and one I was really looking forward to coming out. It won a few best in shows at some tech conventions earlier this year and we had seen some videos on its performance. The question is did it deliver. The short answer is yes.

The Instinct has been out for some time, and being in the retail world I feel like I can assume it has stood the test of time. It has sold to many many people, and there are not any significant, or even small issues I have faced when dealing with this device. As we all know the iPhone is a media darling. The iPhone is cool, don’t get me wrong, but when you compare it to a more competent device it does not stand up.

In my opinion the biggest issues with the iPhone are the battery, “3g” network, and case fractures. The battery being removable is a bummer, but the real dagger in the heart is the battery life when you are in 3g mode or you have Wi-Fi on. The 3g network with ATT is not as large as Sprint or Verizon, and for such a beautiful device you will probably get small fractures in the plastic shell of your iPone soon after you purchase.

So yes, I think the Instinct is the winner. It is a great device, very responsive, and Sprint has this cool website for more comparisons (I like the music in the removable battery video). If you have not seen an Instinct yet check it out, or contact us and we will gladly set you up with one.

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.

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.

Recently some wireless carriers were getting sued for trying to collect a cancellation fee. The suit is good and bad for us as consumers. First of all the obvious bonus is if you cancel there would be no cancellation fee. This is great If you want to jump ship after 8 months you will not be penalized. What kind of drawbacks might this have?

The first one I can think of off the top of my head, is a huge difference in the price of phones. To put it simply the “Free” phone or cheap phone is normally in the $200 range with no contract. It is unbelievable for those of us that have never had to buy a phone at retail cost, but that is actually what phones cost. When we sign contracts Verizon, ATT, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Helio give us the phones at a discounted rate because we will generate enough revenue to warrant that.

Now let me tell you I love my Blackberry 8830 as most of you know and I can’t really imagine functioning well without it. As much as I love my Blackberry and all I do not know if I can warrant paying $500-$600 for it at retail price. Most carriers offer a 30 day satisfaction guarantee which is a fair enough time to tell whether you like the service or not. I am for contracts! With contracts we get discounted phones, cheaper plans, and bonuses for remaining long time and loyal customers.

I have been reading some rumors around the web regarding Sprint and SK Telecom. Now some time back I heard some rumors about SK Telecom trying to buy Sprint, but the latest rumors shows they may take on more of a partnership role. I know with large companies mergers are a little scary sometimes, but I think this would be really beneficial for Sprint customers.

SK Telecom is the largest mobile provider in South Korea. They have some super awesome technology that we do not have here in the states. I have read they have very fast data speeds in South Korea with some of their towers supporting 14.4 Mbps data speeds. If this does not sound great to you, keep in mind Sprint and Verizon are peaking at about 2 Mbps. Sprint and Verizon have a great and reliable data network, but when you multiple that by 7 you start getting into higher speeds than some cable modems.

Keep an eye out for this one. SK Telecom is know for their cool phones and some pretty awesome partnerships with Samsung. This could be a nice breath of fresh air for Sprint, and even help bring some really unique foreign technology to the U.S.

Anybody that knows me knows I love gadgets and media. For this reason Best Buy is one of the places I have a strong gravitational pull towards. That is usually “the spot” for me to get my movies, video games, ipods, and so on. They have a great variety, but today I read about something else they are doing to make me like them less. They are charging customers in their California stores $9.99 to pair a Bluetooth.

I know everybody is not as technologically inclined as an employee that deals with the product, but I do not like people being taken advantage of, and although it seems confusing pairing a Bluetooth headset it is usually a pretty easy process. You normally have to hold a button on the headset down for a few seconds and type a passcode into your phone. They say that $9.99 fee is for convenience, but 60 seconds of work should be a courtesy for your customers! If you have any questions contact us, we will do our best to help you. Not only that, but when you need help from true wireless experts swing by one of our stores, or check out our online store.