Cell Touch

Prepaid Calling - Much easier than it used to be!

I have recently started calling clients abroad more and more often and have been looking for a few ways to make cheaper calls. Particularly to the US and Europe to no avail. I mean, there are the obvious online options such as Skype and other VoIP providers such as Vonage - but that doesn’t cut it when you’re out and about on the move, visiting local clients and so on. I do however think I have found a solution to mine (and your) problems and they are BananaCall calling cards. I know a lot of my readers are already familiar with calling cards and already enjoy the benefits of low cost international calling, so this is more for those who are not aware of the savings they can enjoy.

The best calling cards out there appear to be BananaCall calling cards, purely because of their extremely low rates and features such as prepaid calling cards and pinless dialing. Their prepaid calling rates are some of the best around. Prepaid calling also eliminates the need of carrying so much change around.

You could of course just use your cellular but who exactly wants to pay $5 a minute to call Europe? I certainly don’t!

When Ringtones Are Too Common

If you check out the internet, you will be able to obtain many ringtones for free. The only bad thing about free ringtones is that you are more likely to bump into someone else with the same ringtone as yours. This might create confusion but there is a way to solve this problem. When you download ringtones from the free sites, make sure you download the weird stuff where there might be a possibility that not many people have the same ringtones, and the ringtones are distinctive. Otherwise, you might want to get some mp3 ringtones for free that are different from anything else you have in your phone.

It might be difficult to get something different and unique on the internet, when everyone else can access the same site and download the same ringtones. Therefore, you might want to create your own ringtones - especially if you are good at audio programmes. All you need is a PC or a laptop with the right software to create your own remixes of the songs you like, or cut a portion of the song to make it distinctive so the next time your phone rings, you know it is yours. This way you can create as many different and unique ringtones you need, and perhaps you can do the same for your friends.

Instant messaging overseas

Cellular phones have created a new way to communicate, regardless of the distances and the country where the receptive cellular phone is. This “new” and buoyant form of communication is text messaging. Through text messages, people can communicate all their thoughts, fears, ideas, feelings and even news as they experience them in the moment they are, wherever they might be physically at that moment.

Indeed it is a wonderful way to communicate and it is simple enough to handle; all you will need to do is to put a “+” (plus) sign before the 10 digits that are required: Area code and phone number. That is all that it takes; however, if for whatever reason you fail or miss to add the “+” the message will not end in the cellular phone that you are sending the message to but rather in the cellular phone of a stranger.

Therefore, it is recommendable that you send first a “test message” to a friend’s cellular phone overseas before sending more personal messages, ask him or her to answer and store the ID number as it shows on your screen, most cellular phones have an option to store as many numbers for a specific contact as you might need.

Eliminating Common Conference Call Mistakes

Conference calling is a very important business tool for any company large and small alike. However, there are common mistakes that people in the conference call world make on a regular basis that can create unnecessary stress for all of the parties involved in the call.

One of the best features of phone conference service is the ability to dial into a call without having to be sitting behind your desk at the office or in a crowded boardroom. The problem that arises, however, is background noise. Background noise can disrupt the entire conference call. Use the Mute button on your phone, especially if you are not the leader of the conference call, when you are not verbally participating in the call.

Some phones include a Hold music feature. This can be disturbing to all participants in the call should you have to put the conference call line on Hold.

Ideally during a conference call, all participants should be using headsets plugged into landlines, however this is somewhat impossible. If you use a cell phone, cordless phone or wireless headset, be sure there is not any disruptive static on your line.

Use a speakerphone only when you have to and never use call waiting during phone conferencing.

Individualizing a cellular phone

Cellular phone users like to be trendy and to have their cellular phones reflecting what they like and who they are far beyond what is available in the market.  One option for those individualism and originality avid users is to change the outside skeleton of their cellular phone and replace it with one of the several mass produced ones; of course, this will provide them with just a specific degree of originality since there are more out there.

Others will tend to favor and take the risk of choosing “cellular painters”, workshops and underground stores that, in essence, strip the cellular phone, repaint the outside skeleton with any choice of spray paint that the customer wants and then refurbish the cellular phone with it’s “new repainted” skeleton.  This might sound great, but it also is risky since spray paint will fade out quickly and the solvents used in this type of paint corrode the plastic outside skeleton of the cellular phone.  The result is a corrupted outside skeleton that might damage the functionality of the cellular phone machinery.

The idea of individualizing a cellular phone is indeed a good idea and it will also function to protect it, but the owner needs to be extremely careful on how does he or she decide to make this happen, otherwise he or she will only ruin a perfectly good cellular phone and loose any and all data stored in it.

Cellular Adornments

Decorating the cellular phone is something that has been happening almost since cellular phones appear in the global market. A wide variety of adornment and accessories have flooded since then both cellular phone and tidbits stores offering customers decorative cellular bags, cases, stickers, jewelry stickers, and dangling cellular-rings featuring all sort of characters and things.

The price range of these adornments is wide; there are those who are extremely cheap and made of plastic either hand or machine painted, but they do tend to look ugly and unbecoming. As the quality of the materials and the finish rises, also does the price; in addition, jeweled adornments are amongst the most expensive ones and in many cases, there are mass produced, leaving the customer aching for that particular item that will allow him or her –though generally her- to characterize her cellular phone to the extreme without risking function.

Yet one of the main problems with such adornment is the easiness to get loose and lost causing cellular phone owners to loose several hundred dollars each year on lost adornments, even if they choose to use low cost ones. Therefore, it will be always advisable to use low cost adornments on their cellular phones, that way, when they are lost, the cost will still be minimal.

DIY hanging cellular phone adornments

Doing it yourself attitudes has just recently reached the realm of cellular phone adornments. The availability to create and make your own necklaces, earrings and bracelets has also made it possible for cellular phone owners to hand craft their own cellular phone-rings as well as other hanging adornments not only for their cell phones but also for the carrying cases and MP3 or MP4 players.

The possibilities are now endless as each day and each time more cellular owners have come to embrace such possibilities, and realizing that by handcrafting their own adornments they are still one-step closer to making their mobile phones unique.  However, there are pointers that need to be considered when the cellular phone owner is considering creating his or her own and unique cell phone adornments, such as not using pieces that are too heavy or entirely made of metal.

Using heavy pieces such as natural rocks and metal charms will cause that the phone falls more often that it would normally do, since the owner will still handle it as normal without considering that the adornment will cause the phone to unbalance.  On the other hand, using mostly metal to create and craft the adornment will cause a disturbance on the phone receptive capabilities, hissing sounds and breaking signal can be a consequence of this.

The future of cellular phones.

Each time more and more cellular phone users seek to have as many things in them as possible.  Long gone are the days when people wanted a cellular phone just to make a call or two; now, with text messaging, it is almost as if there are no barriers.  Teenagers as well as young adults can text message friends not only in the same city or country, but also in the same continent or even across the globe.

Cellular companies have created “unique” cellular phones, specific brands, and styles of phones that are only able to be used with their company have created a large and prosperous underground market where all cellular phones can be unlocked and the “uniqueness” of the companies can be overridden.

Now, anyone can have a cellular phone that works for any company; but who are the ones that are reaping the benefits of this practice?  It certainly is not the middle or sales person; it is the Asian manufacturers who are reaping bills by the bulk; just by creating and manufacturing cellular phones that have special features and characteristics that most of the brand cellular phones do not have, such as color, mp3 or mp4 capacities and the like.

Thus, in the near future, mobile companies will have to get their own thinking caps and create a way to attract all those customers who own Asian-manufactured phones and who bounce from company to company as they please.  The days of the “unique” cellular phones are numbered.

Dealing with sticky situations on cellular decorative stickers.

Sometimes having the right cell phone hanging adornment is just not enough for cell phone owners who are looking to making their cellular phones have the best possible look.  One of their choices is to use the self-stickers that are available in the open market where they can choose from one of the many designs of well-known characters to a jewelry sticker.  Of course, the gain for all the manufacturers of such stickers is the glue; with prolonged use, the glue will soften and the rhinestone or the sticker itself will slowly start to loosen until it falls off the outside skeleton of the cellular phone.

However, there is still hope.  There are specific glues for sale at the handcraft stores that are soft on Styrofoam plastic; these type of glues are the best option for cellular phone users who are not willing to invest several hundred dollars a month or a year to paste expensive rhinestone stickers on their cellular phones just to loose them with normal use.

The ideal glue has to be one that will dry clear and that is strong enough to hold in place crystal beads and, at the same time, will not corrode Styrofoam plastic.  This glue will be strong enough to hold the stickers and any other stone that the user would like to embellish his or her phone with and still maintain intact the outside skeleton.