Top Reasons Why An Unlocked IPhone Is More Useful Than A Locked One

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Unlocked iPhones are not generally available in the market. The process of unlocking an iPhone usually is self-practiced after the iPhone is purchased from a carrier. Once the phone is purchased, any tech-savvy person can unlock the iPhone with a few simple steps. Why does the majority of the people unlock their phones? This question has a very simple answer to it. Users who are fond of iPhones wish to have full control over their phones. However whether the phone is bought from a carrier or is purchased directly from the manufacturing company, the phone needs to be factory unlocked and carrier unlocked in order to be used to its full extent. 

The Top Five Reasons You Should Use A Headset

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Many of us spend time working in public places, such as a coffee shop, or have to work in a busy and bustling environment, such as a call center. Therefore, you’ll be aware of how important the environment is in terms of acoustics and actually being able to hear what you are doing, whether online or working via the telephone. 

The 5 W's of Tablet Users

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A tablet computer, or a tablet, is a mobile computer, larger than a mobile phone or personal digital assistant, integrated into a flat touch screen and primarily operated by touching the screen rather than using a physical keyboard. It often uses an onscreen virtual keyboard, a passive stylus pen, or a digital pen. The term may also apply to a variety of form factors that differ in position of the screen with respect to a keyboard. The standard form is called slate, which does not have an integrated keyboard but may be connected to one with a wireless link or a USB port. Convertible notebook computers have an integrated keyboard that can be hidden by a swivel joint or slide joint, exposing only the screen for touch operation. Hybrids have a detachable keyboard so that the touch screen can be used as a stand-alone tablet. Booklets include two touch screens, and can be used as a notebook by displaying a virtual keyboard in one of them.

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Does the iPad Replace Your Computer?

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Is the iPad a good fit for college students? Unsurprisingly, Apple says so [http://www.apple.com/students/], but they may be a wee bit biased. Conversely, a lot of parents are dubious about the prospect of buying what is so obviously (to them, at least) an expensive status symbol made mostly for entertainment and other distractions [http://dealnews.com/features/10-Reasons-Not-to-Buy-an-iPad-Instead-of-a-Laptop-for-a-College-Student/475970.html]. 

The iPad on a table in the Apple case (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Somewhere in the middle is the real question, which is 'How much computer do you really need?' Like our brains themselves, we often only use a small percentage of the computing power at our disposal. The irony of desktop PCs especially is that they've always been powerful enough to do all sorts of things that we don't take advantage of. And yet they tend to struggle and over complicate the few specific things that we absolutely need them to do. 

That's one of the biggest strengths of the iPad. Technically, it's underpowered compared to even a modest mainstream desktop; but it shines in exactly the right areas for many people, and for students especially. 

• Mobility (obviously). Desktop PCs take a certain amount of space, packing and unpacking, and setting up and tearing down. It gets old pretty quickly, especially if you're making the trip between home and school more than once or twice a semester. Plus, college life is especially decentralized and mobile by its very nature. Students need something that will travel from dorm room to lecture hall, from student center to labs or field work, to any number of places (coffee shop, yes. Frat party, no). 

On the other hand, you could argue that a decent laptop or netbook is equally suited for these situations, and perhaps a bit more powerful and versatile. Not to mention the screen is probably a little safer (stuff happens, especially at college!). But otherwise, portability is a clear win for the iPad over a 'traditional' desktop.

• Simplicity. A big strength of the iPad is its direct and user-friendly interface. It takes very little time to get perfectly comfortable with the way it works; and Apple is very good at ensuring that anything new works in a similar fashion. All too often with PCs, you tend to get hung up on figuring out how to do the things that you want to do; even the simplest things sometimes have a needlessly frustrating learning curve. This can be a major disruption to your 'flow,' whether you're trying to take notes, do research, compose a paper, produce a project, et cetera.

iPad and a Bluetooth Keyboard (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A lot of this depends on the kind of person you are. If you're even a little geeky by nature, most modern PCs aren't going to throw you too many curve-balls. Although third-party developers still seem to love doing things their own (occasionally counter-intuitive) way, there's a lot more standardization than there used to be.

• Hardware. On a similar note, it's nice to not worry about all the extra stuff that needs to plug in and work together. The iPad does away with separate monitors and keyboards and mice, and it nearly eliminates the complications of internal components; trust me, nothing's worse than a dead video card in the middle of the semester, or even worse, halfway through a term paper.With reasonable care, the iPad is a fairly durable little beast that just works, and always has all of its parts right where you need them. 

The notebook PC exception comes up again: the screen, touch-pad, and keyboard are all part of the whole, and designed to work together. But honestly, I've had enough hardware issues and mysterious breakdowns with laptops to not be too enthusiastic about this argument. The only caveat is with things like USB drives or other removable storage, which can certainly come in handy at times, and the iPad has ZERO support for.

 However, there are other ways in which the iPad won't fully replace a desktop or notebook PC. Not all students will face each of these issues, but if you're an exception, you'll REALLY wish you had an alternative. 

•  Flash. Despite rumors of its death, Adobe Flash is still very much with us. And Apple still refuses to support it. This wouldn't be a biggie, except that some college courses involve Flash-powered web sites and apps (sometimes just to log in, which is lazy web design but it happens). 


•  Similarly, individual course requirements may utilize a range of formats for both documents and apps. There's no use in complaining that professors have an obligation to make their materials accessible; they'll just point you toward the inconvenient public computers. 


•  If you're studying programming (for its own sake, or for game development or network administration or any of a big handful of other related fields), you're going to need coding and compiling tools that the iPad just can't handle. 


•  Similarly, if you're studying anything like 'serious' design such as CAD or audio/video production, you'll find that the iPad just doesn't have the horsepower, storage, or control that you'll require. 


•  And, of course, you'll almost certainly be doing a lot of typing at college, even if your major is something non-word-heavy, you'll be faced with requirements and electives for the first year or two at least. If you're comfortable with on-screen keyboards, or willing to explore the Bluetooth options, this may not be a big issue. 


•  Along those same lines, writing papers can be difficult enough when you have true windowed multitasking and cursor-precise editing tools (I know some people who can cut and paste quotes and links effortlessly on an iPad, but I'm not one of them) along with the typing issue, this turned out to be a deal-breaker for me personally). 


•  If money's no object for you, then you're an exception to the vast majority of college students that ever lived. For the price of an iPad, you can pick up a more powerful PC or even a decent mainstream notebook. You'll lose some of the benefits mentioned above, but one of the things you should learn at college is that life is often about hard choices and compromise. 

Tyler is a writer for http://www.cabletv.com

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Tips on Making the Longest Life for Your Android Battery

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We love our Androids! Sometimes our Android batteries run out before we want them to, which is a major bummer for all of our smart phone needs. While it is great these Androids constantly connect us to endless resources, a lot of these resources can be battery hogs. This should not keep you from utilizing your resources or switching from an Android, so I have made a guide on how to get the most life out of your Android battery.

Wi-fi

Switching to Wi-fi will make it easy for you to keep your battery filled up. There are lots of hot-spots everywhere, and you can always utilize the Wi-Fi in your home. To do this you need to hit menu, settings, wireless and network then set-up the Wi-fi.

Wi-Fi Alliance logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Switch to 2G or 3G

While quick connections are great they aren’t always necessary. The faster the connection, especially 4G connection, the more battery life is drained away. Slow speed can be annoying, but if you are just emailing it isn’t that big of a deal. Switch to 3g from Menu to settings to wireless and network to mobile networks to Use only 2G/3G.

Turn off Mobile Data

You can turn off all the data connections which can seem a bit extreme for some mobile users. To do this access menu to settings to wireless and network to mobile networks to data enabled. This can extend your battery life for hours.

Turn off Sync

Turning off all mobile data can seem like a handicap for some users, so turning off sync can be a good compromise. You can choose some of your apps to not be sync with the cloud, and this will save you some battery power. You can do this by accessing menu to settings to accounts and sync to background data.

Turn off your GPS

Do you know where you are? Are you looking for somewhere to go? If not, turn your GPS off. GPS is a giant waste of battery, and is constantly steeling your Android’s energy.

Lower your screen’s brightness

If you are indoors, there is no need to have your screen at a high level of brightness. This soaks a lot of energy from you battery. To switch this go to menu to settings to display to brightness, and adjust it to a lower level. You can also consider Automatic Brightness if you want to.

Mateusz is the owner of LookupExpert, a cell phone lookup provider.

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• How to maximize battery life on your Android phone or tablet
• WiFi: Getting the Most Out of Your Smartphone
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Accessories for your iPhone

I remember the day I got my iPhone. People shied away from me as I squealed with utter joy and delight, because I was now one of the elite. They didn’t understand my brilliant decision, their world still restricted by their archaic mobile phones. Not a day goes by that I’m not impressed with this incredible device, and if you’re planning to buy one—trust me, you won’t regret it.

This holiday season is providing us with a slew of accessories, to make iPhone owners even cooler than we already are. Here are some of my favorites.

Armor

The most important thing you can do once you get your hands on that technological investment, is protect it. The Armor metal hybrid case is second to none and available in 5 two-tone colors. You don’t want to scratch, dent or allow dust to affect your new toy. For only $34.90, it includes a crystal screen protector.

SOL Republic Tracks Headphones

The first thing you’ll notice is the headphones that come with the phone are complete crap. Remember, you’re a cool techy now, which means you need cool headphones. SOL Republic Tracks Headphones will be the best headphones you’ll ever buy: comfy, lightweight and virtually indestructible. For only $99, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without their V8 Sound Engine.

Scosche reviveLITE II Docking Travel Charger

If you travel like I do, you need to have a way to charge your phone other than getting out your laptop. This nifty device doesn’t need cords, has a USB port (useful for other devices other than your phone) and includes wall prongs for Australia, Singapore, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, New Zealand, North America, Japan and Continental Europe. It’s about $25.00 and worth every penny.

Breffo Spiderpodium

Need something to prop your iPhone up to watch a movie, take that conference call or to take a perfect picture? Then try using a spider. You heard me right. For under $10 you can attach your iPhone to a myriad of surfaces, even bend it into a tripod for that picture.

Altec Lansing Octiv 650

Need a recharge but feel like blasting out some tunes? Not a problem: this speaker doc lets you plug, play and prance to your own song list, or directly from music sources like Pandora. The $199 speaker comes with extra features, like video output and an alarm clock.

Duracell Instant USB Charger

It's always a great idea to have a power backup and this hot little item proves you’re clever and cool. With up to 3 hours of extra energy, this $20 (on Amazon) instant USB charger gives you peace of mind in an emergency.

Tyler is a writer and marketer for http://www.uscharterservice.com/internet home of Charter Cable and Internet.

The Ten Benefits of Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances (using short wavelength radio transmissions in the ISM band from 2400-2480 MHz) from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks (PANs) with high levels of security. Created by telecoms vendor Ericsson in 1994, it was originally conceived as a wireless alternative to RS-232 data cables. It can connect several devices, overcoming problems of synchronization.

Bluetooth has a lot to offer with an increasingly difficult market place. Bluetooth helps to bring with it the promise of freedom from the cables and simplicity in networking that has yet to be matched by LAN (Local Area Network).

In the key marketplace, of wireless and handheld devices, the closest competitor to Bluetooth is infrared.  Infrared holds many key features, although the line of sight it provides doesn't go through walls or through obstacles like that of the Bluetooth technology.

Image via Wikipedia

Unlike infrared, Bluetooth isn't a line of sight and it provides ranges of up to 100 meters. Bluetooth is also low power and low processing with an overhead protocol.  What this means, is that it's ideal for integration into small battery powered devices.  To put it short, the applications with Bluetooth are virtually endless. 

Below are the ten benefits of using Bluetooth Technology.

1.  Bluetooth is Wireless, as you probably already know; there are many benefits and advantages to using wireless devices.  Along with improving safety as a result of eliminating wires you don't need, wireless also offers you plenty of other advantages.  When traveling with your laptop or other wireless devices, you'll no longer have to worry about bringing connection cables.

Image via Wikipedia

2.  Bluetooth is actually inexpensive the technology of Bluetooth is cheap for companies to implement, which results in lower costs for the company?  These savings are then passed from the company on to you.

3.  Bluetooth is automatic Bluetooth doesn't have you set up a connection or push any buttons.  When two or more devices enter a range of up to 30 feet of each other, they will automatically begin to communicate without you having to do anything. 

Image via Wikipedia

4.  Standardized protocol Bluetooth is standardized wireless, meaning that a high level of compatibility among devices is guaranteed.  Bluetooth will connect devices to each other, even if they aren't the same model.

5.  Low interference Bluetooth devices almost always avoid interference from other wireless devices.  Bluetooth uses a technique known as frequency hopping, and also low power wireless signals.

6.  Low energy consumption As a result of Bluetooth using low power signals, the technology requires very little energy and will use less battery or electrical power as a result. This is an excellent benefit for mobile devices, as Bluetooth won't drain the battery.

7.  Sharing voice and data The standard for Bluetooth will allow compatible devices to share data and voice communications. This is great for mobile phones and headsets, as Bluetooth simplifies driving and talking on your cell phone.

Image via Wikipedia

8.  Instant PAN (Personal Area Network) you can connect up to seven Bluetooth devices to each other within a range of up to 30 feet, forming a piconet or PAN.  For a single room, you can also set up multiple piconets.

9.  Upgradeable is the standard for Bluetooth. There are newer versions of Bluetooth in the works, which offer many new advantages and backward compatible with older versions.

10.  The technology stays Bluetooth technology is a worldwide, universal wireless standard.  With it being as popular as it is, you can count on it being around for years to come.  As more and more devices start to use Bluetooth technology, more manufacturers will be eager to make their products compatible. A chain reaction will occur, making Bluetooth the standard for cutting edge wireless.