Personal Technology Tips in Plain English
Archive for April, 2007
How To Change Ringtones on the Samsung Blackjack or any Windows Mobile Device
Apr 30th
I dug this up from a Windows Mobile Reviewer’s Guide today since someone asked me how to change the ring tone for specific people in their addressbook. I’m going to try and record my kids’ voices today saying “THE PHONE! THE PHONE!” (like “da plane! da plane!”) and then assign it to “Mommy’s” cell phone number, so that when my wife calls, their voice clip plays instead of the standard ring. With Windows Mobile 5.0 you can assign individual ring tones to each of your friends, business associates or other contacts. Here’s how…
How To Find Audio Books To Load Onto Your Windows Mobile Cell Phone (like my Samsung Blackjack i607)
Apr 28th
One of the great features of the Samsung Blackjack and many other Windows Moblie smartphones now is the ability to play mp3 files. Most people associate mp3′s with music. But another GREAT source of content for you to play are audio books. There are now tons of titles available and they are a great way to make your downtime productive instantly (like when you’re waiting in line as you always find yourself).
Audible.com is one of the major sources of audiobooks on the web. It’s easy to find many of the best seller books in audio to download. And basically since you can burn the audiobooks to CD in mp3 format, you can just copy the files to your Blackjack. You play them back using Windows Media Player Mobile which is found on the Samsung Blackjack pre-installed.
Another REALLY BIG REASON to use Audible is that it can be integrated with iTunes. Which means getting your audiobooks onto your iPod and PC is a cinch.
Audible.com has a cool option to sign-up for a subscription which gives you discounted credits for new audiobooks every month. And you also get an extra 25% off every other audiobook title in their catalog. A real benefit to the discount subscription is that you get a free audiobook every month that the editors select as well as you get a free audio newspaper subscription to The New York Times or Wall Street Journal delivered daily.
ESSISTME.COM TIP >> I really suggest that you upload the audio files (and any other media files you push to your Samsung Blackjack) onto your removeable microSD memory card vs. the device’s built-in memory. This way, you can easily use the microSD card to put into your USB card reader on your computer to copy files back and forth easily as well as you keep the device’s memory from filling up so fast.
Cheaper Ink for Inkjet Printers
Apr 25th
CartidgeWorld just popped up in my town. The store basically sell re-filled inkjet printer cartridges for less than the same thing from the original manufacturer (OEM). For example, the original HP brand “HP45″ black inkjet ink for my HP OfficeJet G85 costs $32 at Office Depot. But I bought a refilled cartridge for $19 including tax last week. So I saved $13.
If you can wait 2-3 days, you can order them on the internet for less. There are online inkjet ink stores that sell the same ink jet cartridget for $11.95, like InkForCheap.com, one of the sponsors. Others are CarrotInk.com and 123Inkjets.com
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Most of these online stores also carry the OEM versions of the ink at discounted prices too. For example, InkForCheap sells the HP brand black ink above for $27.95.
How To Leave A Voicemail for Multiple People In a Group At Once
Apr 23rd
You just got out of your client meeting and you need to chat about the reactions to your super sales pitch and get moving on the action steps…what do you do? Pick-up the phone and call someone back at the office and then tell them to relay the message to everyone else on the team…because you have to get to the next meeting pronto!
You’re finally out of work and hope that a couple of the guys might want to meet-up for a meal and drinks, but you’re tired and don’t want to call everyone up one at a time…you just wish you could tell everyone to meet-up at the Diner @ 8pm.
Somehow, the conference room you booked is taken and your meeting got bumped to another room in a different wing or different floor, you need a way to tell everyone quickly of the room change so your meeting doesn’t start late and kill the 1st half hour waiting for stragglers to arrive…you’re in the halls and don’t have everyone’s extension or cell #’s. You just want to let everyone know to go to the new meeting room.
You just found out that registration for a class 10 of your friends talked about just opened up today. How do you tell them all to call-in immediately and sign-up for the same class before it’s full?
These are just some scenarios where the ability to leave a mass group voice mail would be awesome. It’s the same message to all the people in your family, friends, team, church group, etc. But looking up everyone’s # and calling each individually to say the same thing is a big waste of your time.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could just leave ONE voicemail and send it to everyone you want? Now you can. Here’s how… Read the rest of this entry »
How to Turn Off Call Waiting on Your Vonage Phone Line
Apr 23rd
Call waiting is one of the basic features that most VoIP phone lines like Vonage include that traditional off-line phone companies charge extra for, like in the case of Verizon. And most people on Earth seem to know how to use it when a 2nd call is coming through — just click the switch hook on the phone handset/cradle or some phones have a “FLASH” button on the keypad. You basically just keep pressing that button to toggle back and forth between the 2 simultaneous calls on the line.
However, most people don’t know how to TURN OFF CALL WAITING completely or at least TEMPORARILY DISABLE CALL WAITING for a given call that you’re about to make. Here’s how… Read the rest of this entry »
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!