Category Archives: Phone

How to turn off your Kids Cell Phone

google, mobile, Phone

Ever asked the question how do I turn off my kid’s cell phone? Well, there is hope as Google has introduced Google Family Link which gives you parents a lot of power in controlling what your kids are doing on their mobile phones. Family link lets you set screen time limits, approve or block apps that can be downloaded from the Google Play store. Or best yet lock and or locate your kids through the device. Nothing better than the ability to exert control over the cell phone usage.

Family link is available starting next week additionally Family link is designed to work with anyone automatic for 13 and below and for those above 13, they have to mutually consent to allow parents monitoring and control of the phone. Teens that think they are slick and decide to opt out after Family Link has been enabled causes the phone to lock for 24 hours.

Parents can use Google Assitant to lock the phone. Have you every yelled you’ve got five minutes to go to bed? Well, Google Assistant will lock the phone five minutes after your initiate the phone lock. Now the kids can be mad at Google as well as you.

Having a third teenager in the home at this time with a cell-phone this added parental control is nice especially when it comes to an unruly kid. I am pretty strict on screen time as it is now and have some basic rules in place on apps and usage. Teenagers will be teenagers though and they will push the boundaries as far as they can like we all did. My dad hung the car keys over my head as an incentive. The modern equivalent is the lock phone command.

Photo by Matheus Ferrero on Unsplash

Bluetooth Versus Wired

Android, Apple, Bluetooth, camera, iPhone, microphone, Phone, smartphone, , ,

Coloud The Snap Active EarbudsFor some months now, persistent rumors have been flying that the next iPhone will do away with the 3.5mm wired headset port. There have been plenty of people arguing both against and for this idea. Some people say that the demise of the wired headset port is inevitable.

As an over-the-road truck driver, I’ve been using Bluetooth devices for years. To be perfectly honest, the majority of Bluetooth headsets suck, regardless of price. They typically suffer from poor audio quality, especially those intended for phone calls.
I have yet to find a Bluetooth microphone that produces anything approaching acceptable quality for anything other than phone calls.

Bluetooth stereo is great for certain uses, such as in the car or for use with certain Bluetooth speakers intended for casual listening.

With this in mind, let’s examine how a smartphone would work without a 3.5mm wired jack for the way people use these devices today.

I see plenty of people using wired headsets, day in and day out. That tells me that, unlike the floppy drive, which was dropped because most software was being shipped on CD-ROM’s, the wired 3.5mm headphone jack is NOT obsolete. The 3.5mm headphone jack is NOT falling into disuse. There are still millions and millions of people using wired headsets with their smartphones on a constant basis. Wired headset use is NOT dropping off.

Modern smartphones are also extremely good high-definition video cameras. While they have built-in microphones, because of the 3.5mm headphone jack it is also possible to plug in a wired microphone. Wired microphones on traditional consumer camcorders have either been absent or an option for costlier prosumer models. Take the 3.5mm wired headphone jack away and the option of plugging in a superior wired microphone goes away with it.

If Apple takes the 3.5mm wired headphone jack away, it doesn’t matter to me, because I don’t have an iPhone and don’t want one. There will be plenty of remaining Android models to choose from that keep their senses.

In fact, there have already been Android smartphones available on the market that leave out the 3.5mm wired headphone jacks. The Chinese company LeEco released three jack-less phones in April of this year. Ever heard of them? Me neither, until I did a search. I don’t get the impression they are burning down the barn with popularity.

I make extensive use of Bluetooth as well as the 3.5mm jack on my phone. I will never buy a phone that doesn’t offer a 3.5mm jack any more than I would buy a phone that doesn’t offer Bluetooth or WiFi.

Power Support Anti-Glare Film Set for iPhone 6 Plus Review

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Overall, I’m pretty happy with my iPhone 6 Plus. But one problem I keep having to deal with is screen glare, especially in sunlight. The problem is compounded by my visual impairment and it makes the phone almost unusable outdoors. After doing some online research, I decided to pick up a Power Support Anti-Glare set at my local Apple Store.

Power Support anti-glare set for iPhone 6 Plus

 

Power Support anti-glare set

The set is pretty straight forward. It comes with a set of instructions along with two adhesive anti-glare films and one adhesive dust remover. For good measure, I removed my iPhone from its protective case (the instructions don’t specifically recommend doing this) and polished the screen using some Juce screen cleaner. Next, I used the included dust removal adhesive strip by applying one half of the strip at a time until the entire front of the phone was covered.

Power Support dust remover

 

Power Support dust remover

Continue reading Power Support Anti-Glare Film Set for iPhone 6 Plus Review →

ClarityLife Redefines the Home Phone for Seniors

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ClarityLife Home PhoneClarity, a division of Plantronics, unveiled ClarityLife at CES. It is an innovative communications platform delivered through Clarity’s Ensemble home phone that allows families to welcome aging parents or grandparents into their online social world. It can provide new insight and support for caregivers.

ClarityLife is primarily designed for older seniors who are living alone. It is aimed at strengthening both the senior’s physical and social well-being. Through ClarityLife, seniors can receive email, text messages, photos, and videos on Ensemble’s eight-inch tablet display. At the same time, ClarityLife helps keep family members and caregivers in-the-know on the senior’s daily activities through simple check-ins, medication reminders, or appointment reminders.

Seniors can press the “Check-In” button to send an email or text message to designated family members or caregivers and let them know they are up and moving. The caregiver can receive the notifications on their smartphone, tablet, or PC and will automatically receive an alert if the “Check-In” button is not pressed. ClarityLife’s “Call Me” button lets seniors send an email or text message to loved ones asking them to call when they get the chance. This allows seniors to reach out without feeling like they are being intrusive.

Ensemble also amplifies incoming voice so users can easily hear and understand conversation. It features a patented digital sound processing technology that functions like a hearing aid to make soft sounds audible and keep loud sounds in a comfortable range. Ensemble is also equipped with an answering machine and speakerphone. Ensemble with ClarityLife can be purchased for $399.00.

Visit Clarity at Booth # 31117 at CES.

It is Now Legal to Unlock your Cellphone

Law, Phone,

lock with keyPresident Obama signed a bill into law that is going to make a lot of cellphone users very happy. The bill was called the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act. This bill was written in response to a We the People petition that was titled “Make Unlocking Cell Phones Legal”.

How does this affect you? It is now legal for you to unlock your phone so that you can change carriers without having to purchase a new device. It is also now legal for you to sell, or buy, unlocked phones.

There are some things to be aware of, however. The new law doesn’t override terms of service contracts that people have already signed with their carriers. In other words, if your contract said that you can’t unlock your device for two years after you purchased it – you are still going to have to abide by that contract. Details on contracts vary by device and carrier, though, so you might want re-read yours.

This new law does not legalize the unlocking of tablets or other devices – only cellphones. However, wording in the bill does instruct the Library of Congress to consider making exemptions for those devices when it reviews things next year. That brings me to the key thing to know about this new law. It is a temporary solution! The Library of Congress will be reviewing exemptions again in 2015.

Image by Joe Buckingham on Flickr.

Coming Soon – More than 250 New Emoji!

Phone

Smiling Face EmojiThey say that a picture paints a thousand words. Perhaps that is why many people adore Emoji. One cute, cartoon image can say a lot of things! They can also save people a little bit of time. Instead of typing out “I’m happy”, just use an Emoji smiley face. The person who receives your text will know exactly how you feel.

Have you gotten bored with the Emoji that you’ve seen (or sent)? Not to worry! More than 250 new Emoji are coming soon. They were released on June 16, 2014 as part of The Unicode Standard, Version 7.0. Support for the 2014 Emoji Additions may take some time. The support for the new Emoji characters is now reliant on software updates to include fonts that support Unicode 7.0 from Apple, Google and Microsoft. In other words, each company needs to create the actual icons that represent the new Emoji characters.

Some of the new Emoji for 2014 include: Military Metal, Studio Microphone, Joystick, and a “Raised Hand With Fingers Splayed”. I imagine that one will look like Mr. Spock’s hand when he says “Live Long and Prosper”. There’s also a “Reversed Hand with Middle Finger Extended” for those moments when a smiling face Emoji simply will not do!

Messy Apple Divorce

Android, Apple, Phone, Samsung, smartphone, , , , , ,

I have a older friend that just upgraded from an iPhone 5 to a Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

The iPhone 5 was his second iPhone and he liked it well enough until the 7.1 update, which made certain interface elements too small. The incoming call screen contact photos were reduced from being large and easily recognizable to a tiny little hard-to-see thumbnail sized bubble. Also the 7.1 update caused a couple of his fitness apps to no longer function properly — opening one of them would make it necessary to reboot the phone every time it was run.

So, after seeing my Note 3, he decided it was time to move up to a bigger screen and the much better battery life offered by the Note 3.

AT&T ported his phone number over to the new device. All seemed well, until his relatives (a son and a couple of grand kids) that still had iPhones using iMessages could not text his new phone. It seems that there is a well-known problem that happens when a phone number is ported away from an iPhone where iMessages has been used for texting with other iPhones.

Doing a Google search for the problem reveals that there are plenty of people experiencing this problem. If you have an iPhone and used iMessages for texting and port the number to a non-iPhone, regardless of whether it’s another smartphone or even a flip phone, iMessages will capture any text messages sent from any other iPhone where iMessages is still in use.

There are a few work-arounds and perhaps a definitive fix. The other people with iPhones with iMessages enabled can go into their settings and disable iMessages and use regular texting, and their texts to the ported number will go through to the non-Apple phone. Another suggestion is for the user that has ported their number to the non-Apple device log in to their Apple account and remove the old device from their list of Apple devices.

The third way, which may be the definitive solution, is to text “help” to 48369. This generates a reply from Apple, to which you reply “stop.” According to someone who spent time on the phone with Apple support this is supposed to take anywhere from 4 to 12 hours to resolve the issue.

As people move away from iPhones that use iMessages to larger-screened smartphones because of diminished ability to read tiny print, this is likely to become a more widespread issue, which is useful to be aware of even if you are a die-hard iPhone fan and have no intention of switching.