The Problem With the Selfie Stick and the iPhone

Since the introductiion of the front facing camera on mobile phones, a new word has been coined in the dictionary, a new past time has been added to social media fans, and a new business opportunity has opened to those with creative minds, the selfie,taking selfies and the selfie stick!

Innovation with the selfie stick has evolved as well, from the simple attach and go to the latest with cabled or wireless  remote controls.  Though these new sticks do not cost that much specially with the wireless remote, do we really need them? Or if you already have the earlier version of the stick, is it worth to upgrade?

I am not a big fan of taking self portraits and I really feel awkward when involved doing it but I admit it is actually a good tool when you are on vacation with family and friends. Most of my friends do it, and all my family enjoy doing it, so yes, we really need to get one to satisfy the selfie trigger happy finger. We do have the very first built, just the stick with no remote at all.

It would be nice to have a remote controlled one, as my wife finds the bad combination of the apple device, which do not have a native self timer with the iPhone5, and the regular selfie wand to be a pain when she takes pictures.  Second party camera applications can settle this discomfort but still the trouble of touching the screen to set it up when the view is perfect is also annoying. The other stick with a built in cable remote do not work with apple though it works with android.

If you have the same problem as my wife then I guess you are contemplating of dipping into your pocket for the wireless remote controlled selfie stick.

But before you splash out some cash,  there is a simple solution to this using an accessory that comes with the iPhone, the earphone.

How it works?

 It can act as a remote to take photos when the camera application is active. It is so easy to use, just plug it in to the earphone jack, start the camera application, position your phone to the selfie stick, then when ready to take a photo, just press either the up or down volume button.

How to set it up?

With the iPhone 5 and later models, you do not need to set up your phone. Plugging the earphone to the 3.5mm jack activates the volume control of the earphone to act as a trigger. I am not sure about the earlier versions, but you can find this out easily. If it can take pictures when you press the volume button of the phone, then the earphone should work! Happy snapping!

4 Common iPhone 5 Headaches

Apple products are known for their reliability. They do not breakdown easily and doesn't give much of a headache. But still, these devices are assembled with human intervention where lapses could happen that can lead to imperfect product. And the iPhone 5 is no exception. Let's see the common problems and simple solutions to these.

1. Home button not working

If you have this kind of problem, call apple straight away. This is a hardware issue that's affecting some iPhone units. The sooner you report this, the quicker the replacement if you are still under warranty.
But if you are no longer under warranty, they might charge you for the service. If you do not want to be charged, there is a built in solution to this. by using  the virtual home button function of the phone.

To do this go to  Settings> General (1),  Accessibility> Assistive Touch (2)> and turn it on(3).   The accessibility button(4) will appear at the screen and when you tap it, the virtual home button(5) will appear.

2. Rattling sound inside

What could be causing the rattling sound from the inside when you shake the iPhone? There's no other suspect but components inside the phone that could loosen up for sometime after everyday use, specially when the phone is subjected to falls and vibrations. And the most common part that causes this is the battery. The iPhone 5's battery is not held by any screw. Unlike the older models, it doesn't have a double sided tape to hold it in place. This makes it easy to be misaligned that causes the rattling noise.

There's no other option but to open the phone and realign the battery. If you have the right equipment, iphone 5's battery is very easy to access, unlike the previous models. And the tools needed are becoming cheaper. But if you are a faint heart, leave it to the experts.

Advert: Buy iPhone opening kit:

3. Battery is hot and drains easily

Over exertion of the battery by ongoing processes or application is causing this. Specially those programs that connect to the internet to work, like emails, social network programs and so on. Remember that high temperature affects battery performance.

Obviously, the problem can be solved by exiting from these applications. Or turn off internet connectivity. Check the setting of your email and calendar. Make them run on manual mode. To do this, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts and Calendars > Fetch New Data and turn Push to Off and select Manually(6).

Another way to solve this is to buy a power sleeve that serves as a case and a backup battery to the unit.

See a similar product below:

4. Wi-Fi connectivity issue

There are instances that it is hard to connect to the home wi-fi. It might takes forever to connect, suffers from low signal, and disconnection. Internet connection can be intermittent and drops frequently. Or the connectivity animation seems to be OK but could not connect to the internet.

Remedy this by going to settings then toggle the airplane mode to off then on(7) again. It should refresh it's connection to the home wi-fi. If it does not, tap your wi-fi access(8), then tap "forget this network"(9) and try to reconnect again. If it reconnects but still could not use the internet, try clearing out your safari browser's cache by going to settings>safari>clear history>clear cookies and data.

iPhone 5 Feature You Wouldn't Like To Try

The  Switch Control

It is a harmless feature of the iPhone5 with the purpose of ease of access but can also drive a regular smart phone user to go nuts! Got it yesterday when I got curious and activated with the intention of trying it. Then my nightmare began.


Who couldn't go insane when everything I wanted to do is in cycle sequence, and couldn't jump to the next menu selection without choosing an action from another cycling sub menu's? I could not use the phone normally without tapping the menus blindly and hoping the tap works to get me back or forward to where I want to be.  Entering password is also a pain. Even the four digit passcode could take at least half an hour or more to figure out how to enter it.

The feature is called switch control that helps in navigating the iPhone with multiple switches. Though apple made this feature with good intentions, based on my experience, my opinion is it makes things frustratingly complicated and therefore would not recommend activating it. If you have activated it and had the same nightmare like me and has not able to disable it because of the complexity of inputting keystrokes and navigating through menus, here's what I did to activate it, how I had the nightmare, and how I saved my sanity from it.

Activate it

Curious cats like me can activate it by going to Settings, General, Accessibility, Switch Control. The menus will then be highlighted one after the other. Activating it will need at least two touches, one to select it whilst menus are automatically highlighted and one to activate it from the submenu whilst they are again automatically highlighted one after the other.

The nightmare

From this point I had the chance to choose not to proceed or choose cancel. But curiosity taken over and decided to press the power button. That's the nightmare begun. As I use 4 digit passcode to activate the phone, and accessibility access is on, the phone started to highlight and cycle what's in the screen. It started with the time, date, slide to unlock, the camera, then starts all over again. Hitting the slide to unlock whilst it is being highlighted will bring up a submenu of actions that are highlighted one by one. As I am not still familiar with the actions of the sebmenus, I ended up tapping all of them. But ofcourse the one to tap is the first option called tap. And to get out from the submenu, wait until the phone says get out from the menu and tap the selection whilst nothing is highlighted.

Trials to escape

Frustrated with the taps and hit and misses, my only choice narrowed down to resetting the phone to it's factory setting. But it is not straight forward as find my iPhone needs to be activated before I can erase everything plus the messed up Switch Control setting. Tapping in the my correct 14 digit password combination of numbers, letters and upper cases plus waiting for the cycling menus for the correct highlights, it took me at least an hour or more just to disable it.

I made a back up just in case I would dare to thread this way again and to preserve everything in the phone.

The reset is successful and I need to register the device as a new one otherwise it will pick up the same problematic setting if I will restore it from the recent back up. This means everything is wiped up from the phone's memory and I would not like to do that. And this would allow me to study how to get into the settings and to get to the correct button as quickly as possible.

Getting back to my phone's data and getting rid of the setting

After learning how to get to the setting, I have outlined my tap attack as follows, settings, tap, general, tap, accessibility, tap, then tap any selection then tap scroll, tap scroll down, then tap any of the menu, then tap scroll, tap scroll down until you get to the Switch Control. When you get there, tap Switch Control to turn it of and tap OK when highlighted then tap!

In order to do this, I need to restore the phone from the latest date with all my data and the problematic setting on. Luckily this time after resetting, I ignored setting on a pass code and go directly to settings. As I know where I am going and how many scrolls to do before going to the Switch Control menu, I was there in half the time. The only problem I have encountered here is chasing to tap the right menu as it is too fast and my taps are not always accurate!

Important tips when you want to try it

When you want to try this feature, make sure you turn off screen lock and find my iPhone feature just in case you'll run into the same problem that I had.

6 Reasons Why My iPhone 5 Won't Last A day

Smartphones are getting smarter. This makes us use the phone more, other than for voice calls. It's obvious edge in convenience over other devices makes it a top choice to carry anywhere and anytime. In my case, always. The only thing that stops us from using it is when the battery is drained! But we can stretch the battery life by understanding this practical list.

1. Do not push but fetch messages or better, manually receive it.

The iPhone's message setting is by default set to push. This means when a message is available from the message center, it pushes the message straight  to your phone. This event wakes up the processor on your phone and the message application to receive the message. This event will in turn uses energy from the battery. Depending on how many messages are pushed and how many emails are active, and how many other applications are set to push determines how much battery is used.

To lessen this event, you can set up the phone to fetch the message up to every 45 minutes or so to limit this event. You can choose to individually set applications depending on your need. If you are serious in saving battery, setting everything to manual is best. You can set this by going to settings, Mail Contacts Calendar, Fetch New Data, tap your message centre(2) then choose fetch or manual(3). You can turn everything to manual when you  slide the Push button(1) to the left.

2.Turn off radio buttons whilst not using it.

Most often we leave the wi-fi button on when we go out. We are not bothered to turn it off. When we do this, the wi-fi button continuously searches for an active and visible connection. It does the search until it finds one. This is a real waste of battery specially when you do not have the intention of using the wi-fi or constraint to using it because you do not have the correct credentials.

The same is true with the bluetooth button. iPhone's bluetooth services doesn't have that much of use other than input devices and audio peripherals. If you do not use any of these, thenit is best to permanently turn it off.

Make sure that the GPS button is also turned off. If it is on, the receiving and transmitting of information to pinpoint your location as you move is constantly on.

3. Avoid the heat

Heat reduces significantly the battery's performance. So avoid leaving it inside the car under the sun. Some over all cases make the iPhone warm when charging. When this happens, remove it's case or better, change it.

4. Set apps not to run on data

We commonly exceed mobile data usage without being aware of it. Specially when you are with a limited tariff, and use the internet for videos or music. Other application that are downloaded are by default set to run on data. So just an accidental tap to a VOIP application or you forgot to close it properly will cause the program to connect when you are in data coverage.  To avoid unnecessary data spending, you can choose application not to run on data(4) by tapping the button to the left, or turn off data button whilst you are not using the internet. This will not only save data but battery as well

5. Use Facetime Audio Instead of Video

If you can not avoid to call a contact through face time when you are away from wi-fi coverage, you can save data and battery by switching to FaceTimeAudio mode. To launch it, tap Facetime or Contacts, choose a contact and look for the phone icon(5) in the FaceTime section. Tap it to FaceTime audio call. This is also applicable to other VOIP applications. It is obvious that using just the microphone uses less energy that using both microphone and camera.

6. Turn the Screen Dim

The iPhone uses a back light to illuminate the screen. The higher it's setting, obviously, the higher the illumination and the brighter the image. This also means the more battery is used.  Dimming it to a comfortable level will stretch the battery life. Setting it to automatic is also good, but remember that this uses a sensor to adjust the light automatically in relation to it's surroundings, which uses power as well.

There are many factors to consider why the phone discharges quickly. Knowing how these components consume power will let us anticipate how to lessen it and improve the battery life.

What's New in the iOS 7?

Anytime soon the iOS 7 from apple for it's mobile devices will be rolling by. A good news to apple loyalist who are already bored with it's stagnant interface from the previous designs. What would apple fans expect with the new operating system? Most significant would be within the looks!

The icons

Starting from the icons, the iOS 7 is very different. Though you would not mistake it that it is for apple, the icons became simpler and paler in colour compared to the previous designs.   The original rounded edge is still there but it comes with simpler graphics and more solid colour. Comparing it side by side, the new icons  are  more youthful, vibrant, less cluttered but look more like clip arts.

Interesting new features

Command Centre

The next improvement is the integration of easy to activate device status where in you can easily turn on and off useful functions like wi-fi, bluetooth, airplane mode, mp3 player control, brightness control, flaslight, airplay and other usual functions that are otherwise buried in the old OS. This command centre reminds me of the android's ease of access feature when you swipe your fingers from the top going down. In apple, access command center by swiping it from the bottom to top.

Notification Center

Swiping the screen from top to bottom will activate the notification center, which will let you know the things needed to be done for the day or a glimpse of what is there for tomorrow. And as the name suggests, it is the all in one place for missed calls, new emails, reminders from your calendar, or who of your friends on social media is celebrating his birthday and many more. 

Notification Center lets you know about new mail, missed calls, to-dos that need doing, and more. And a new feature called Today gives you a convenient summary of, well, today. One glance at your iPhone and you’ll know if it’s a certain someone’s birthday, if you’ll need an umbrella, or if traffic will slow down your commute. You’ll even get a heads-up on tomorrow. You can access Notification Center from any screen, including the Lock screen. Just swipe down. And get up to speed.

iTunes Radio

This is a streaming radio service that features many collections of music genre and styles. You can personalise it to feature only the type of music or specific artist you listen to. It learns your music preference from day one to give you the best music selection as you listen more.

AirDrop feature

Here's another way of sharing your phone's content with contacts near you. You can share photos, videos, or contacts in a tap without necessary setting up both devices. AirDrop uses Wi-Fi and bluetooth to transfer and receive data. Data from supported applications can also use Airdrop. An interesting feature of AirDrop is you can share data to multiple recipients at once by selecting them from your contacts or anyone nearby that the device discovers. An improvement from android's NFC/Sbeam touching each other's back to exchange data.

New safari

The new safari is even more beautiful in iOS 7. Interesting features about this application is it's ability to block ads on a website to show just the real contents. This makes it faster, energy efficient, and data usage friendlier, as the additional data from third party ads are not shown. Tapping on the + sign will show you the opened tabs and line it up like documents in a filing cabinet. You can easily close a tab or open up with a tap.  Swiping the screen to the left will navigate to the previous page and swiping to the right will get you into the next page.  

Availability

The iOS 7 would support apple mobile from the iphone 4, iPhone 4S, and iPhone 5. For the tablets, it would be available to the iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad Retina Display, and  including  the iPad mini. Watch out for the OTA  this autumn.

iPhone 5 Interesting Application

Cycloramic

If you have already the latest iPhone, then I am sure you've been trying it's new functions like the panoramic view. Although this feature has been around and in fact, other mobile manufacturers consider this as already old, this has been a distinct feature of the iPhone5 amongst it's predecessors. But with the refinement of  the camera , the development of the screen, and because apple used it for it's latest phone, this feature of a camera phone has somewhat came back from the dead, and made headlines not only to the users but to the apps developers as well! 

What I am talking about is an application that turns the phone 360 degrees to take panoramic video shots. Cool, first application of it's kind for mobiles. The application can make your iPhone turn once, twice or three times 360 degrees whilst taking hands free video recording. It utilizes the vibrate function of the phone to make it move. So the vibrate mode should be on before you can use the application. If your phone has a funky cover or case, you need to take it off and let the phone stand on a flat, level, solid and smooth surface like a wood, or glass for the phone to spin freely from friction, and as you might not want to get some scratches at the base of your phone whilst taking the shoot. Application of this program maybe limited, but those who wanted to be included in the video shoot instead of being left out whilst taking the shoot can comfortably sit down and relax and let cycloramic do the trick.

Capability of the program is limited to take videos without sounds, and at the moment, does not support panoramic still photos. I am sure the developers are already unto this, and might have these updates in the near future.

The application is available at the apps store and costs 0.64 pence at the time of this post. If you are interested to experience this it, visit the apps page and just type in cycloramic at the search window. 

See cycloramic  video in action below

Watch an amateur video gererated by cycloramic.

iPhone 5 Tips

Internet Browsing

• Private Browsing (#1)

As you use your phone to browse the web, information on the sites you visit, the search query you've typed will be saved on the browsers memory. And if you share your iphone5  with your friends and family, this data will be readily available to those who have an access to your phone.  If you do not want  this from happening, activate the Private Browsing by going to Settings, Safari, Privacy, then turn on the Private Browsing button.

If you do not want websites to store your information whilst visiting their pages, you can opt not to accept cookies. Do this choosing Never at Accept Cookies menu.

• Clear History, Cookies and Data(#2)

If you have used your iPhone5 to browse the internet before setting on the Private Browsing option, you might first need to clear your history, cookies and data. And to see which websites has managed to save some data from your browsing habits, check it from Settings, Safari, Advanced, Website Data. You have an option to delete the site from the list or delete all. 

Which one not to delete? 

This depends on who have the access on the phone. If it's just you alone, then I will leave the data from emails and social networks. I will just erase that from banks or shopping and any site that involves financial transactions. Why? Just in case the phone is lost and somebody manages to get an access.

• Auto Fill(#3);

This function is useful in filling out online forms, especially when you are fond of joining websites that asks you to input the same personal entries. When turned on, the Auto Fill function uses the information stored under your name in Contacts. Or if you are creating a profile for one of your friends, you can automatically fill in his details as long as it is saved in his profile. 

You can Access this by going to Settings, Safari, Auto Fill, My Info then choose the entry where you keep your information.

• Reading List

Action Button

If you come across an article you want to read later, most of the time, you just hit the bookmark button and the web address is saved in the bookmark for later access. The disadvantage of this method is, your bookmark continuously piling up of addresses creating clutter especially when you seldom tidy up your list when you no longer need it or have finished reading what you've wanted to read.

A solution for this is to use the Reading List instead of the Book Mark. You can save a website to read later without adding it to your bookmark by pressing the action button  when you are browsing then press Add to Reading List.To get back to the saved reading list, tap the bookmark icon and the Reading List is at the top. Once you've accessed the saved item, it will be automatically deleted from the list.

• Reader's Aid

And whilst reading, you can magnify the text of the article without necessarily pinching it out to zoom the page with your fingers. You can even take off all the distractions like adverts and photos by using the Reader in Safari. It is activated when you tap on the title of an article, the Reader button will be available at the address bar. A tap on the reader will give you the option to increase or decrease the size of the text, by tapping on the relevant icon. The text then will be auto fitted into the screen for easier navigation and reading.

Texting

• Keyboard Shortcut

Predictive text helps texting quick and easy. The only downside to this is, it spells out the whole word in english. You can not use a shortcut of words when the function is on. Another way to compose text quickly is to use keyboard shortcuts. It doesn't matter if you use any language or several languages, or write abbreviations of words. It does understand and spells out words the way you want it, only in a flash and quicker way.

Try the function by going to Settings, General, Keyboard, Shortcuts, Add New Shortcut then enter the Phrase you want to use and the Shortcut for the phrase, one letter for each word and do not leave a space between the letters.

Useful when texting the same phrase or word every time.

• Customized Vibration

Allocating a customized ringtone to a contact lets you know who is calling before you answer the phone. This function has been around for sometime. How do you know who is calling when your phone is on a vibrate mode?

You can now predict who is calling you or sending you a message when your phone is on silent mode by just  observing the vibration it makes. There are several preset vibrations you can choose from to assign to your contacts. You can also make a new customized vibe by going into Settings, Sounds, Ringtone, Vibration, Create New Vibration then tap on the screen to make your own sequences.

To set up the customized vibration to your contacts, go to the name of your contact, tap edit and choose the preset vibe or the one you've made.

Practical Features of IOS 6

IOS 6 is not only available to the new iPhone 5, the latest apple mobile phone released. The older iPhone 4 or 4S can also be upgraded to IOS 6. This newest operating system makes everything faster than the previous one. It also bundled with features that makes even the older devices do more and simplify things by launching a function in fewer taps, thus saving more time.  

Here are some of changes that the IOS 6 I think are useful, specially to the old iPhone models.

Battery Percentage Indicator

The first feature I noticed is the presence of battery percentage indicator at the top of the screen. This feature can be turned on or off by presing to the Home Screen>Settings>General>Usage(then scroll down further)>Battery Usage> then turn on the On button.

You can monitor more accurately the approximate remaining time for your phone before it needs charging. The percentage data can also give you a hint on when to turn off some features of the phone to keep your phone running the ability to receive calls for longer.

Email Attachment Made Easier

Sending email attachment was a nightmare in the previous Mail native application. Copying and pasting one at a time at the files you want to attach was a pain. This time with the new IOS 6 it is easier. 

Whilst at the compose mode at the mail application, lightly tap a part of the typing area and tap the arrow after Select All to get to the attachment menu. From there you can attach photos or videos.

Ease of Button Access

The iPhone's distinct one function button interface makes it simple to use. But sometimes there are times that you wish it has other buttons to get you from a function to another without pressing repeatedly at the same single button. And sometimes that single button becomes stiff and needs a stronger push for it to work. Taking a screen shot requires two hands and a combination of two buttons, which is not really user friendly to do, as one will be holding the phone and pressing the power button and the other pressing the home button to make the combination.

With the Assistive Touch, you can do the task with only one touch. Activate it by going to the Settings>General>Accessibility>Physical & Motor>then turn on Assistive Touch.

This will show a button that can be dragged and positioned anywhere you want in your screen. The button can give you an immediate access to the Home button, favourites, Voice Control, and functions of the device like lock and unlock and rotation of the screen, volume control and mute, screenshot and can check the opened application.

Add Fun Emoticons and Clip Arts on Messaging Applications

Make your messages more interesting by inserting emoticons, symbols, and signs. This is compatible to notes, messages, emails and social network status updates. This is activated by adding other keyboard function on the iPhone.

Go to Settings>General>Keyboard>Keyboards>Add New Keyboard>choose Emoji. On the keyboard, you will notice a new globe icon at thee second left bottom of the screen. Press that and a large collection of signs, symbols, clip arts and emoticons is ready to use in your messages. Impress your friends by adding this in your messages.

Spotlight Search

The spotlight search is beefed up some muscle as it can tell you the folder where a certain item is located. It is useful when you are looking for a  certain application from a folder you can not remember. It also works with any file, music files for example. Very useful when you keep hundred of songs inside your device. This saves you from  opening folders and scrolling through the contents of the folder.

Last Tip

Though it is a bit lengthy to update an apple product,  it is worth the trouble. The last thing you do not want to do is to lose file in the process. It is very important to do a back up before you start updating, as this may wipe out files and can no longer be recovered.

This is done by right clicking the name of your connected device on the iTunes interface and clicking back up. And I would choose to back my files up both into my computer and up the cloud.

How to Spot a Fake iPhone5

The iphone5 is one of the most anticipated gadget for this year, and as usual, has made a long queue during it's first day out from the shelf. Although the initial price is quite high, gadgeteers are still eager to own it. For a cash strapped fan like me, the remedy to own one with less money is to search online for a reduced priced device.  But is it worth the long hours of searching just to be redirected to ebay and other online bidding and selling sites for a cheaper device?  I do not say that all of the reduced iPhone5 prices on those sites are fakes, but I think everybody needs to be aware  on the things that make it suspicious to be true.

The Source

It is important to know where the device is coming from. If it is from a bidding or buy and sell sites, then be aware that most counterfeits come from the far east. They can name everything as anything, and can make a product looks like the real thing as these are just rendered in pictures and no physical product is tried before the sale. Check the seller's rating and the other items that he sells. You can at least have a clue if he is really selling a genuine apple product by the other items he sell, like using the same photo for another item with another name.

Mismatched Box Colour                                                  
Fake                                           Not Fake

The Price 

Even those products of sellers that are from your local area, if it appears to be so cheap, then caution is what I can advise.Why? It is most probably too good to be true. iPhone 5 is still new and depreciation of the product for a few days could be suspicious. In fact, it takes a while before apple lowers it's prices. Only until a new device is ready for display.

There are official and legitimate suppliers of the iphone 5 around already but because it is still new, it costs a lot even with a line rental. A deal for the 16GB iPhone5 from Carphone Warehouse with unlimited calls, unlimited texts and 1GB of data costs £46 a month, the same iPhone5 at Dialaphone with  100 free minutes talk, unlimited text and 100MB of data costs an effective £35.17 a month. 

The cheapest way to own it is to buy sim free, which you can do it online at apple website, or go directly to apple. Carphone Warehouse also offers sim free for the 64GB model.

The Size, Feel  and Appearance

Just in case you have the chance to hold the device, remember the iPhone 5 is 123.8 mm tall, 58.6mm width, 7.6mm thickness and 112 grams weight. Any discrepancies  makes it fake. You can also check SIRI of Facetime appilcations in action, as they are distinct applications for apple's latest phone models. They will be hard to copy and copies will be so easy to distiguish. 

Take a close look for the icons as well. The seller may tell that it is jail broken and has been customised, but as the device is still new, I doubt anyone has managed to be able to mess up with the display  yet.

Fake                                           Not Fake  

Serial Number and IMEI Test

You can also ask the seller to send you the device's serial  and IMEI number to check it with apple's site for the legitimacy of the device. Even if the device is not yet registered with iTunes, apple will still be able to detect it. Once you have the serial number, go to 

https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do

enter the serial number and check if the device can be identified.

For the IMEI number, you can use any mobile phone buying sites to check that the model and make of the device matches it's  IMEI number 

Go to http://www.mazumamobile.com/

then check it.

My Thoughts

Low price is a real temptation, but we do really need to think twice. Sellers with offers good to be true will exert all efforts to convince us the legitimacy of their product. They know how to exploit our eagerness to have a popular product like the iPhone 5. So before we hand over our money, we need to check. 

It is also good to wait for a little while. Line rentals will ultimately drop after a while, when the hype has cooled down. iPhone 4S has that same price when it is still fresh, but at the moment, it has dropped down to £27.46 effective monthly line rentals, and £449 sim free.

How to avoid unnecessary smart phone mobile charges

It's handy to have a smartphone. You can do almost anything. And there's no need to bring along a load full of gadgets. Just one device will do, the mobile phone. But sometimes there is an unpleasant news that can happen to anyone with a smartphone. And that's the shocking unexpected monthly bill. This happened to a friend's friend I met on a party. And complained about charges that her provider sent her. It was not really clear when she told about her additional charges but I am already suspecting data excess.

I've inspected her phone, an iPhone4S and here are the things I found out that suspected to contribute to the shocking bill.

1. Email was on "push" mode

I did not checked how many email accounts were receiving push notifications, but this is clearly one of the contributors to data wastage. When in the "push" mode, your phone notifies you the moment an email reached your email server, thus your email data allowance starts to tick. I've told her to put it into manual mode bypassing the push and the fetch method (where you can set an interval for email notification) to conserve network data charges.

You can set your email push notification to manual by tapping the home screen, settings, mail contacts calen.., Fetch New Data, and choosing manually.

2. Facebook push notification is also on

This is worst than email, specially when you have many friends in your network that update their status everytime. You can turn this into manual mode by going to settings, scroll down to facebook, tap push notifications, and turn off all push notifications.

3. She watches videos and browses pictures on social networking sites

It's so tempting to watch videos sent by friends, especially from social networking sites. As you just need to tap the screen. But remember that videos contain a lot of data and depending on your bandwidth, especially when you're on 3G or HSPDA, you may have been viewing the video version on higher resolution. This means more data bite on your allowance. The same with viewing on photos that are on social networks. Your phone needs to download it first before you can see the image and in the process uses your data allowance.

If you can't help watching a clip or looking at pictures, you can turn off 3G and automatically your phone will use EDGE or GPRS connection. This will be automatically detected by the audio and video servers and will realise that you have a lower bandwidth available and stream you a lower quality and smaller data media files, therefore saving you on your data bundle.

Or better, just watch movies when you are within wifi range.

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4. Location services is on

There are native applications and downloadable apps that always tracking the location where your device is. To do this, the apps either use GPS or mobile network to get and send data according to your location. To check which applications are using your location services, tap settings, general, location services. You can tell the application that has requested your location within th last 24 hours by the location icon next to it's name. The native application Maps require constant internet access, this can be downloading data all the time while updating it's location. Applications like the ones to guide you to where you park your car behave this way as well. If you can't help to use it, turn it off when you have marked your location and turn it on when you're going to where you have parked your car specially when you plan to leave your car for sometime.

There are also unnecessary  Data waster ay iPhone4S systems location services like diagnostics and usage. This application send to apple automatically,how and where you use your iphone. Other data wasters are location based i-Ads, Setting Time Zone, and Traffic. To save on data, turn these off.

And remember next time you install an application, take a note at the end of the installation as some apps will ask your permission to enable push notification. You need to choose NO.

The surest way to avoid unnecessary data use is to turn off the cellular data button, if you do not like this idea then the surest way not to spend beyond your data limit is to upgrade your data tariff into unlimited internet!

But if upgrading your tariff is not possible then using wifi is the best option when using skype and other type of voip communication, watching movies and clips, listening to streaming music and any other bandwidth hungry online activities.

Accessorize your iphone 4s

No doubt iPhone variants are popular. Most phone accessories are made and focused to the iPhone users. Perhaps users like me are just familiar with the very obvious accessories there is, which are really necessary like the screen protectors, body cases, earphones and hands free kits. And there are accessories out there that users never noticed they ever existed and do not know what they are for, and if thinking if they'll ever be needing it. Here are some accessories I think can improve your iPhone experience.

1. Iphone power sleeve

This accessory is essentially a battery within a casing that doubles up as an iphone case. There are models of this product that are compatible with the iPhone 3 and 3GS or iPhone 4 and 4S. It is a useful piece of equipment especially when you are going somewhere where power grid is not available or when you do not want to bring cables with you. As it doubles up as a casing, it will also be protecting your phone from scratches and falls. When you can buy a fancy case, why not try this case doubled up as a battery tank? Surely will make you use your iPhone for longer.




2. Iphone bluetooth FM transmitter

Essential for every car owners. I am sure nobody wants to be fined up to £1000 and 3 points mark on his license while driving. But I am also sure the first natural thing for us to do when the phone rings is to pick it up and see who's calling, and eventually answer the other person at the other end. You are lucky when you are not caught first time, but what you've just did is illegal. So be road legal and install a bluetooth receiver with FM transmitter.

The way it works is, you need to pair your phone to the device through bluetooth, and set the device to transmit the received voice data from your phone to your FM radio through a certain frequency you'll select yourself, or just go to the existing lowest FM broadcast of the device at 88.1. Your car's FM radio should be tuned in into the frequency you've chosen to use your phone, for example with this post, at 88.1 FM.



3. Bluetooth receiver

I know this might be not essential because there are beautiful iphone docks available out there. But if you want to use your existing stereo without bluetooth capability to hear from music stored in your iPhone wirelessly, then this is the solution. If you are ok with wired connection, just buy 3.5mm male male connector.



4. Optical zoom lense

The iphone 4S has an 8 megapixel camera that can take clear photos. This is the reason why many users prefer this to take photos in everyday and random happenings rather than the full specs digital camera. The only problem is when the subject you want to focus on is far from you, like you are at the back when watching a play and you can not move forward.  The iphone 4S is equipped with a digital zoom function and it should be no problem. Only that digital zoom is inferior to optical zoom. Digital zoom is just like cropping the photo and the resolution is compromised or affected depending on how far you  "cropped" or how much you zoomed digitally. Optical zoom is a physical lense like that of the interchangeable DSLR's that can give you a crispier and sharper resolution than digital zoom.




5. TV output cable

There is no better way to share the contents of your phone other than to connect it to a bigger screen. Maybe to a bigger computer screen or a 40 inch TV. The later is my preference. There is a connector to do just this and it won't necessarily breaks the bank, like when you choose an apple TV. You can show your latest pictures and can even watch movies you've made or downloaded through this.



As you can see, there are many different ways to enjoy more your devices without spending a lot. Simple solutions that you thought complicated. The most important is, I am confident that any user can do this without any professional help. That's practicality!

Ways To Revive iPhone's Battery

Do you still keep your old iPhone models? Like the 3G and the 3GS? Some of my friends and I still do. And we have a common problem, the battery can no longer hold a charge. The phone can be charged up to 100% but when you start using it the battery drains very quickly. The only sensible solution at this point is to replace it. And it can be done by sending to apple or replacing it yourself. The problem is, it can be expensive and complicated, but can be cheap and easy, as long as you know what to buy! Here's a useful guide, read through and see what's best suited for you.

Replace it yourself with internal battery

This is an option for the brave and with experience. You need to buy the battery which at ebay costs at least £4, plus the opening kit. 

The iPhone's battery is located and kept very securely. It is not straightforward to open the case and change the battery like other mobiles. Opening it up is a problem, if you manage to open it, replacing the battery is an added problem, then putting it back together after replacing it is  another problem! And your warranty becomes void when you open the case yourself.

See guide video on how to open and replace the battery of an iPhone 3G below.

Now you know it is not for the faint heart and needs a bit of an expertise and practicality to do it yourself.

Send it to apple

This is more reliable than doing it yourself. You will not lose your warranty and you can count on the service. The problem here is the costs and the waiting time. Service arranged through apple at the time of this post is £55, plus a shipping cost of £7.44. See link below for more information. While this service is reliable, it may not be sensible because of the cost. Especially when you just want to give away your old device. But if you still want to keep and use it as your main phone then this is the best solution.

http://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=servicefaq&geo=United_Kingdom&product=iphone

Buy external battery case

If you want to revive the power instantly this is the most practical option. Buy a power sleeve, or external battery case for your iPhone. It costs at least £10 from ebay, see related products below, and other sources like at mymemory. You can buy it for £9, delivery included.

The power sleeve is doubled as a case for the iPhone, that's why it is also called a battery case. It is lightweight but a bit bulky. But the bottom line is, it works and it is cheaper and safer than the two other options above.

The unit  is a polymer battery encased in a lightweight material. It has a mini USB port for charging. The battery indicator has 4 lights that lit up during charging to show how much power  the unit been charged and a button to press to know how much power is still left. There's an on and off button as well to turn the sleeve to power up the iphone. The same button doubles up to charge the iphone as well while charging the power sleeve. The unit comes with a mini USB connector but without a power charger. This doesn't matter as you can use the iPhone's original wall charger to plug in the mini USB or any other 5 volts charger that has a mini USB socket.

Front view

Back view while being charged, note the lit up led light indicating the charge

The iPhone within the power sleeve

As simple as it is, it revives iPhone's battery instantly, cheaply and without sweat. 

How to use find my mobile on iPhone or iPad

There's an aplication on iPhone  and iPad that can track the location of your device, just in case it got lost or stolen. This app lets you know where your device is at real time, provide your device is turned on or online. You can also send a message to the device, lock it up, especially when got stolen, or wipe out the contents you have put into your iTunes account access. It is easy and straight forward. Here's how!

1. In your device set up mobile me by going to SETTINGS, MAIL CONTACTS CALENDAR, then ADD ACCOUNT

2. Choose Mobile Me

 3. Set up account using your iTunes account

4. Go to your email for itune's log in and verify your account by clicking the verify button

5. Go back to your iPhone and turn on FIND MY IPHONE

6. In your computer, go to https://me.com and log in to using your iTunes account, the next page will show the devices connected to your account which are "online" at the moment.

7. Click on the device you want to locate, it's location will be shown and you can choose to  send a message or wipe out it's data and lock it in case it is stolen. In this case I've chosen to send a message

8. There will be a confirmation when the message is sent and your device will make a sound for at least 2 minutes while the message is shown on the screen as an urgent message.

Same instructions when you have iPAD assuming you have created your account at me.com

1. FIND, CREATE MESSAGE,

2.MESSAGE SENT