Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter
Have you ever tried to call someone with an important message only to discover that your cellular signal was too weak for the call to go through?
Chances are you have, and you know how frustrating it can be when you can’t place an important call.
The next time that happens, there’s something else you can try that often works even when voice calls won’t go through…
Have you ever wanted to text someone without having to stop using your computer or tablet and pull out your phone?
Well, with a great free app called MightyText, you can.
MightyText lets you send and receive standard SMS text messages right from your PC, Mac or Android tablet using your Android phone’s number. I’ve been trying it for a while now, and it seems to work quite well. [Read more…]
Question from Billie P.: I was included in a group text last night and I spent the next hour and a half listening to my iPhone beep almost constantly as the responses came in.
I wasn’t even interested in the subject they were discussing but the beeps kept coming anyway. It annoyed me so much I ended up turning my phone off.
Is there any way to block everyone’s responses to a group text on an iPhone 6s?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
In 2012 more text messages were sent via free texting apps on smart phones than by traditional SMS Text Messaging services, and the number of free texts vs. paid texts is growing at a fast rate. This is a great thing for consumers, but the cell carriers are taking a major financial hit because of it.
SMS text messages have always been a major source of easy profit for the carrier. They cost virtually nothing to transmit but bring in boatloads of cash.
But the immense popularity of apps such as Heywire, iMessage and WhatsApp have cut those profits by huge margins. And the bleeding is likely to continue and even pick up the pace as more users find out about these apps and begin using them. [Read more…]
Do you use your mobile device primarily for texting? If so, a free app called HeyWire will let you text until the proverbial cows come home for free!
With HeyWire you can purchase a cellular plan that comes with a very low number of included minutes and texts and save a ton of money each month.
HeyWire uses your device’s data connection to send and receive SMS messages. The user interface is very attractive and easy to use (it works pretty much like the one you’re using now) and you can learn to use it in 2 minutes flat!
It doesn’t matter whether you use an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Windows Phone or an Android device, there is a free HeyWire app ready and waiting for you to download, install and begin using it in minutes. You can even use HeyWire to text from your laptop or desktop computer’s web browser! [Read more…]