Smart Phone Tips Archives - Page 51 of 65

T-Mobile ‘Simple Choice’ customers can use their phones anywhere in North America for no extra charge.

Posted on July 13, 2015

Beginning July 15, all T-Mobile customers who have a “Simple Choice” plan will be able to use their phones to make voice calls, send and receive texts and use their 4G LTE data anywhere in North America with no roaming charges.

The need to pay expensive roaming charges after crossing the border into Mexico or Canada has always been a major issue for cellular customers who travel between the U.S. and our two neighboring countries. But after the 15th, that issue will no longer exist for “Simple Choice” customers. [Read more…]

Step-by-step instructions for performing a factory reset on dozens of popular smart phones

Posted on July 5, 2015

Today’s smart phones are actually small, but powerful hand-held computers that are subject to all the annoyances and dangers that can afflict their larger cousins like laptops and desktop PCs.

Indeed, phones often become bloated with unnecessary apps and corrupted files. And unfortunately, they can even become infected with malware.

Fantastic apps like Lookout Mobile Security and Clean Master can help keep your phone free of malware, bloatware and other junk, but phones can still occasionally get so messed up and unstable that they become virtually unusable. And in extreme instances, they even lock up completely.

When situations like these arise, the best (and sometimes only) option is to simply do a factory reset on the phone and start over from scratch. But what if you don’t know how to do a factory reset on your particular phone? [Read more…]

Does your smart phone have an unlimited data plan? Better enjoy it while you can!

Posted on June 8, 2015

unlimited-data-plan It’s no secret that the major cell carriers are trying to ween customers off of their “grandfathered” unlimited data plans. I’m sure you have seen the commercials that are designed to entice folks to switch to one of the new “tiered” data plans.

While those new offers have indeed prompted many customers to give up their unlimited plans in order to qualify for the perks mentioned in the commercials, many more have stubbornly decided to stick with their current plans in order to keep taking advantage of their unlimited data allotments.

Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you’re one of the folks who are still using one of those grandfathered plans (like I am), start preparing for the party to end before too long. [Read more…]

How to make completely anonymous phone calls in the age of Big Brother

Posted on May 21, 2015

pre-paid-phone Unless you live one hut down from Gilligan on that infamous remote tropical island, chances are you have heard that Verizon and some other carriers have been handing over the phone records of every one of their customers to the federal government for some time now.

That’s right, your private calls, texts and Internet communications aren’t private, and they haven’t been for a while.

Does this scare you? It should, even if you live life on the straight and narrow. This policy throws the entire concept of probable cause right out the window.

So how can you ensure your privacy when using your cell phone? [Read more…]

Use Google to quickly locate your lost or stolen Android phone

Posted on April 18, 2015

I wrote a post a while back that explains how to use a great service called Where’s My Cell Phone to ring your lost phone so you can track it down by the ringing sound when you don’t have another phone to call it with.

That service works quite well, but for it to be useful you have to know the general location where you lost the phone (i.e. somewhere inside your home or office). It won’t do you much good if your phone was stolen or lost in a distant place and you have no clue where to go to look for it.

Luckily, if you have an Android phone you can now use the Google search box to determine your phone’s location (within a few meters) and then make it ring so you can find its exact location. [Read more…]