Personal Technology Tips in Plain English
Archive for March, 2007
Free Samsung Blackjack i607 + Free Bluetooth Headset
Mar 22nd
With over 250,000 units, the Samsung i607 Blackjack are flying off the shelves right now, and to aid in the velocity, http://www.adviceonwireless.com/ is offering the Cingular / AT&T Wireless Blackjack i607 for Free after instant discount and rebates with an Anycom brand bluetooth headset included Free as well PLUS 2-day FedEx FREE!
This is incredible. And the 
Samsung Blackjack phone now comes with the free extended battery, so there really is no downside to this phone vs. competitors anymore!
A truely capable quad-band GSM phone really trumps the 
Treo that I used to carry. When I first made the switch I hemmed and hawed for awhile, but I’m now officially a convert and really think it’s a great pda/smartphone to have in your pocket.
This Free Fedex + Free Bluetooth Headset + Free Samsung Blackjack i607 offer is a great great value (how can you beat free?) from an authoried Cingular / 
AT&T Wireless dealer. Plus, if you want, you can order over the phone right now:
Order it right now over the phone toll-free: 1-866-444-7434, CALL PROMO CODE: 177833
Just as a reference, Amazon.com
$1 for your $0.02. Make $1 for each website review
Mar 22nd
Who said you can’t make a quick buck on the internet?
epinions.com is trying to drive their user-generated content to keep up with the Web 2.0 craze. I guess they think the fastest way to do that is to hand out cold hard cash. Not a bad idea for you and me! 
Just enter a couple of reviews and make a buck a piece. In fact, you can make $100 just by submitting website reviews.
One way to look at it: Give your $0.02, and make $1.00!
Anothe way to look at it: There is a reward for being nice (or leaving a nice review!)
1) Go to epinions and use the “WRITE A REVIEW” link for any merchant.
2) Your epinions account will be automatically credited the bonus amount and you can cash out afterwards. In general you can make $$ for writing reviews on epinions.com and helping visitors purchase through their site. There are people that just sit in front of the pc all day writing reviews and make money the more visitors read their product or merchant review pages and then go on to make purchases. One strategy is to write reviews of high-traffic merchants and products, but the income is shared amongst the pool of reviewers, so you may get a smaller piece of the pie. In the end, this $10 for 10 promo is a great one since it’s straight-forward and very easy to earn.
1 GB MicroSD Card To Store Video/Audio on the Samsung Blackjack (AT&T Wireless/Cingular)
Mar 22nd
In our last post, we discussed how to convert regular video files to 3GP format so that you are able to watch them on your Samsung Blackjack. But the onboard memory can fill quite quickly with applications, photos, etc. One really big suggestion is to install anything and everything on the microSD Card if possible. When installing new applications, you typically have a choice to install it on the “DEVICE” or “STORAGE CARD”.
If you take this 2nd route of loading data onto you storage card when possible, you probably should invest the couple of bucks needed for a larger micro SD memory card. Already, 1GB MicroSD Cards can be found for only $3 (and that’s with free shipping offers included!)!?!?!? At these prices, there’s NO EXCUSES for not getting one right now, even as a back-up! (The microSD Card is SO SMALL that if it pops out, you’ll never find it on the floor or street…which I learned the hard way, when my 2.5 yr old toddler figured out how to open the slot and pop out the microSD card himself when I wasn’t looking! So much for handing over the Blackjack to watch cartoons unattended…).
What I do is keep one in my blackjack and another in my USB card reader in my desktop computer (almost all micro SD memory cards are sold with a standard SD Adapter — which basically is an shell the side of a standard SD card and fits into any regular SD card device like a card reader). Thus, when I’m ready to go on a trip or a full day in the city for example, I’ll load up the microSD card in my card reader with new audio and video files to take with me, and simply swap them out. And when I’m traveling, I’ll have tons of stuff for all that dead-time when waiting in lines, for the train, plane, taxi, or my next appointment.
Convert & Watch Video On Your Samsung Blackjack (Windows Mobile Phone)
Mar 21st
Although watching streaming video over the cellular network is neat, the major problem is that you need a really good 3G signal to get crisp, non-jerky video. What’s the solution?
Well, I’ve now figured out that one way is to load up my Samsung Blackjack (on Cingular / AT&T Wireless) with various video that I’ve downloaded to watch on the go. The question was how do I convert video on the PC to the file format that can be watched on the Blackjack cell phone’s Windows Media Player?
Enter our one of our favorite file converstion websites: Zamzar.com. You’ll see that they’ve added support for .3GP file format conversions.
Just select the file, indicate you want to convert TO .3GP FORMAT, and off you go! All you have to do is move it to your microSD Card and play on demand! Your friends and co-workers will be amazed at your super-cellphone-powers!
How to Set-Up A Conference Call That Works
Mar 18th
The telephone is finally coming of age. While VOIP, satellite phones, etc are all being tauted, the basics of getting together on the phone to COMMUNICATE with each other doesn’t change. Conference calls and teleseminars finally seem to be breaking the barriers and are being used by the masses.
Being accustomed to working virtually in my business, conference calls are definitely a part of the daily grind. Here’s some recommended options to try and integrate into your own daily routine:
UltraConference: on-demand fully automated service available anytime without reservations, enhanced web administration and lots of features. International support of over 30 countries. Flat rate plan if you use conf calls regularly.
FlexTel: Supports over 50 international countries for dial-in. Not the cheapest — 8.9 cents/min USA with toll-free number for inbound calling.
Genesys Telecom: Standard run-of-the-mill service. We used them for awhile without any major complaints.
FreeConfrerence.com: totally free conference calling service. Great for “internal” meetings. Callers are greeted with snippet that reveals “free” service, so it may not be the best to utilize with ”new clients” in terms of image/perception. Regular clients love it because they know I’m saving them money and not trying to bilk them. Max 30 users for free service, 150 for paid 10 cents/min service (with toll free # too). The paid service also allows you to record the calls.
ConferenceCall.com: another PAID service. EXPENSIVE service — they do it all, but why pay more? Haven’t figured it out yet.
LiveOfficeFreeConferencing.com: these guys have a clean interface and allows you to record mp3 audio files of your conference calls at anytime during the conference. If you need a toll-free number, there’s a 8 cents/min plan.
Skype: eBay’s VoIP baby has entered into the one-to-many model with sypke-casting. Decent service to test out. Not as “built-out” as some of these other services that are aimed directly at B2B markets, vs. B2C as Skype originally was set-up.
Most of the services out there are pretty good. Most provide “reservationless” conferences where you don’t have to manually set-up a call like you used to in the “good old days”. You can just hop on to the website, set-up the call, input your participant list (if you want) and they’ll just email the dial-in #, time, and PIN numbers to everyone. Some services will send reminder emails as the date/time approaches.
Another service is your own dedicated conf call “room” so that you can just start a call “on the fly”. Basically you’re assigned a specific conf call dial-in number and a participant pin # that’s all yours to use anytime you want.
One feature that I’m finding increasingly useful and something that can also help monetize client calls (with their permission of course), is to make sure your RECORD the call. Many of the services record in mp3 format on demand and make the recording available over the web in minutes after the call ends. Now you can post it online, email it to those that missed the call, burn CD’s, create a product or giveaway with it, etc. This is a great feature to have available when conducting any type of educational / consulting / problem-solving call (vs. a committee meeting, or other meetings where you just go over facts, updates, etc.).
There are tons of other uses for conference calls — a relatively new use is to pod-cast the audio files if you’re setting up a series or ongoing calls. A great use for support groups, etc.
Next-up: Free webconferencing…I’ve been using a free web-based desk-top sharing/webcast service that I’ll share with you shortly!
How to Shorten Forward-Worthy Links
Mar 18th
How many times have you received an email from a friend with a link that’s “broken” onto 2 or more separate lines and it doesn’t work since the email reader program doesn’t recognize that the entire URL link spans more than 1 line? Thus the “live link” only links the 1st part of the URL text and not the rest — result: a link that is worthless.
Your only alternative to being frustrated is to copy the entire URL and paste it in sections into a new browser address bar. Even then, sometimes, you miss a character or the copy/pasting includes an extra space or character still making the link invalid.
Do your friends a favor when you forward links to them — shorten the URL’s so that they actually get a working link for which you took the time to send them.
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HOW do you shorten URL’s you ask?
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There are a few free and easy services on the web like www.TINYURL.com that basically gives you a URL “nickname” or shortcut. This re-direction then allows you to forward a very short URL to your friends that will not be broken when they go to click on it.
You can enter a long URL like:
http://www.1-866-mags-usa.com/order.cfm?CFID=26219818&CFTOKEN=65385194&sid=2&CX-S-V939&tid=10561
And TinyURL.com gives you:
They now BOTH go to the same place! Now, which one is easier to read, use and forward?
A second option is to create a .htaccess file on your own web server if you own your own and host your own domain/website. Just use any text editor (or save as text file in Word) and literally name the file .htaccess (do not pre-pend the period with any text) and move it to you root directory. Here’s a sample line you can use to auto-redirect someone to another location:
Redirect /yourdomain/root/SHORT-NAME.ext http://www.forward-worthy-website.com/webpage-you-want-to-share/file-name.xyz
Lastly, you can use PHP if you wanted to get fancy:Basically, same thing, but different — just create a text file that’s saved as a .PHP file and FTP it to your server:
< ?php header(“Location: http://www.1-866-mags-usa.com/order.cfm?CFID=26219818&CFTOKEN=65385194&sid=2&CX-S-V939&tid=10561″); ?> and that new file name/location will redirect automatically.
For example, if that file was saved as http://www.essistme.com/forward-this.php, it would automatically forward the visitor to the longer URL in the .php file: http://www.1-866-mags-usa.com/order.cfm?CFID=26219818&CFTOKEN=65385194&sid=2&CX-S-V939&tid=10561
Ah….there IS just one more way, but that wouldn’t really be “on-the-fly” at all: You can buy a new domain name for under $7 these days, and then just permanently have that domain URL forward to the target URL. This would work when you have a specific site (perhaps one of your own) that you tell people about often — it’s even better when you’re verbally telling people a lot about any specific URL.
So any http://www.ANY-CUSTOM-DOMAIN-NAME-YOU-BUY.com forwards to http://www.1-866-mags-usa.com/order.cfm?CFID=26219818&CFTOKEN=65385194&sid=2&CX-S-V939&tid=10561 or any other long URL you have.
Well, hopefully you’ve found at least one quick way to remember how to shorten those pesky URL’s in a way that won’t break!
Easiest Way To Acquire a Toll-Free Number For Business or Home Use
Mar 11th
I think small business owners are finally getting it. Twice this week alone, the issue of getting a toll-free number for a business came up in conversation. Most entrepreneurs don’t know just how easy it is to give their business a professional image and an aire of implied authority just by adding a toll-free number to their business cards, website, or marketing materials.
There are several telephone companies that now offer “stand-alone” toll-fee number accounts. So that you can 1) easily keep the account if/when you move, 2) you can separate the billing to identify this specific line item in your budgeting/expenses, 3) You can manage it easily as a distinct part of your marketing programs.
The big surprise every time? That they are dirt cheap. With a tiny incremental cost to your business you can increase your professional image to your customers, investors, associates, etc. Toll-free numbers cost as little as 2.5 cents/minute anytime now. And usually there’s NO contracts, and minimum usage requirements are as low as $1/month! (I know you can handle that!).
Several toll-free number providers like Kall8 also allow for “Vanity” toll-free numbers so that you can select a number that ‘spells’ something. In addition, they make it so easy to change the “destination telephone number” (the telephone number which “rings” when you call it), that they are marketing them as a “follow-me” number service.
One of the suggestions I make to most of my business associates is to set-up a toll-free number for at least your fax #. The usage is going to be super low (how many faxes do you really receive a month, and how LONG do they take? not long!). Plus using a toll-free number for fax #’s also allows you to utilize the free e-fax services on the web without any worries since you can just change providers on the fly if they start charging you money, change services, etc.
Who you gonna call? Or rather, who’s gonna call you?
I love tech, gadgets and the web. Hope you pick-up a useful tip or two here today that helps you use technology to your advantage! Better yet, why not share your own expertise in a comment on a post today to help the other readers that land here for answers!