Wireless Broadband

After a long debate, I eventually decided that I wanted to try out Verizon's wireless broadband for myself. I had heard reports of great speeds and reports of slow speeds, but never personally heard from someone who used the service. I also knew that Sprint and Cingular offered similar services, but I found it impossible to get any sort of information about their coverage areas. Once I heard about Verizon's 15 day money back guarantee, I knew I had to find out for myself what the service would be worth.

At home I utilize a Qwest DSL connection, wirelessly, quoted as 7.0Mbps, much faster, and cheaper, than any cable service offered in my area. I expected Verizon's wireless service to get maybe a fraction the typical speeds I receive on my DSL connection, but I was still pleasantly surprised. On average, when downloading updates to my Linux computer I average speeds of 120-200Kbps, not bad for service I could use nearly anywhere. It was probable that I could have even faster signal if I lived in a town of more than 22,000 people; my signal probably came from a cell phone tower nearly 10 miles away.

In order to get a better idea of the service quality, I had traveled from point to point in town with my laptop patiently downloading several update files in the passenger seat, to get an estimated range of where I could find the best signal. Surprisingly, the service stayed constantly connected, and I received a pretty consistent connection speed. To further test my luck, I decided I would go out of town, at least a little ways, to see exactly how much signal speed I would get. I went about two miles out of town, about as far as I would ever go, and found the speeds were still excellent. Overall, the signal quality varied as any cell phone would, but I never completely lost signal, and speeds hardly dipped below 50Kbps.

But, as with anything, there were drawbacks. The first was obvious, the price tag. $80 a month might be a bit much if quality service can come straight to your home or office for half price. And if you don't travel much, its hardly worth it. The second drawback was hidden away deep in the fine print; Verizon's "Unlimited" Wireless Broadband service had a limit, and it was only 5GB per month. If you used more than that they could disconnect you without notice (although they say the service isn't supposed to be used for file-sharing, streaming music, etc). The terse language makes me wonder what might happen if I need to download something big and important.

But so far, even though an extra $80 per month can be hard to come up with, (the service costs less if you have Verizon cell phone service), I've decided that the ability to browse the Internet, work on my articles, and do my homework anywhere would be well worth the price tag.

Samsung Mobiles

I'm excited to be writing today about a new gadget that I have recently acquired. Its called the Samsung Gravity. I had been stretching the life of my old Samsung T-619 for several years now, and decided that I needed a new phone. The old one was so used that you could no longer see the numbers on the buttons. I didn't want anything too fancy. I didn't want to have to get some special internet plan. I just wanted a phone that would work for me. One that allow for easy text messaging, and access to T-Zones.

After playing with a few phones. I thought it was useless,. If I was going to get a phone that allowed me to have a full QWERTY keyboard I was going to have to break down and get one of those phones that would force me to get that expensive internet plan as opposed to my cheap little $6 T-Zone plan. That's when I spotted the Gravity. Our eyes locked from across the room, and I was hooked.

The gravity is a candy bar phone at first look. Nothing fancy, no flip screen. But at second glance the Gravity is a slider phone that has a full keyboard for easy web browsing and text messaging. When you enter the menu screen its pretty basic, but contains all of the features that you need. Your phone book, your call log, even text messaging all at the tip of your finger. The best feature in my opinion is the one touch access to email. Right on the phone above the "send" button is a hot key that you can set to log you into your email . I find this quite handy because working freelance, I need to be able to check my email throughout the day even when I am not home.

I have seen some reviews online saying that users are having bad call quality, but I can tell you from my experience that has not happened at all. Of course I do live in a major metropolitan area, so calls rarely drop on any carrier. The great thing about T-mobile is that you do have 10 days to actually check the phone out before deciding if it is the right one for you. This is a way for you to "test drive" your new phone, and if you see that you have any call issues then just take a pass on it.

The last feature of the phone that I want to touch on is the camera. Now I'm not one of those people who are constantly taking pictures on my phone. I have a great digital camera for that. I however gave the camera a try and it works great. It adjusts light so that you don't have any weird dark or light spots. The camera on the phone even has what is called "digital postcards." This is basically a boarder that you can put around any picture and you an send a voice message with the picture. This was so fun, and I would recommend trying this when you get your Gravity. I may have to start taking more pictures with my cell phone.

If your looking for a good low cost phone I would recommend taking a look at the Samsung Gravity. At 49.95 with a new two year contract you cant go wrong. This phone is sure to be a keeper, and will be all the phone that I need or years to come.

Voice Over IP

Voip, Voip, Voip is all that I hear people talk about these days. For a while now I have been ignoring it because I was happy with my Charter services, but over time it seems as if Charter is slowly going hay wire. I'm not sure what is going on with Charter but I got pretty fed up with them about two months ago. And that is when I decided to jump on Lingo Voice Over IP.

I could have gone with the good old Vonage, but I had heard a lot of negatives about Vonage so I decided stay away from Vonage and actually take a chance with a company what was voted number one as the new, up and coming Voice over IP company in IT Week, Lingo.

The main reason why I went with Lingo Voice Over IP was because it offered Voicemail,

three way calling (which Vonage didn't),

simultaneous ring,

Anonymous call rejection

do not disturb

These are features that I didn't find so true with Vonage when I reearched the company and I may be mistaken. I might have over looked these features but at the same time I was more interested in Lingo Voice Over IP so I pretty much ignored what Vonage had to offer anyway.

Funny thing is Lingo Voice Over IP's basic service is $7.95 a month. That's about $15 less than what Vonage charges. I know I sound cheap right about now because $22 a month isn't expensive but during these hard times, it really actually is. All I want to do is keep in contact with my family and friends and be able to call an emergency contact if need be from a house phone. Most of my phone calls are made through my cell phone so It isn't a mandatory need. It's just something that I feel is necessary to have but at the same time it shouldn't cost me an arm and a leg either. This is exactly why I was loving Lingo Voice Over IP.

Lingo Voice Over Ip offers flexibility with great pricing. Now the thing that I really wasn't feeling about Lingo Voice Over IP was that it pretty much acted like a cell phone contract. You have minutes that are given to you for your phone calls. I'm not used to having a certain amount of time designated for my house phone. I found that kind of silly and when I first heard about it, I thought it was silly. So this feature was a bit of a turn off to me.I also wasn't liking their customer service. A Lot of times when I had to call about my bill of a general question, I was appointed to someone who just didn't seem like the knew what they were doing. They gave me the run around most of the time and other times, I knew more they did. To me, the customer service is pointless. Lingo Voice Over Ip would be much better off mailing out a help manual. Plus it would cut the cost of over head.

Another thing I wasn't liking about Lingo Voice Over Ip was that when I first made my order, I was hood winked. I was thinking that my total was going to be the plan i chose plus maybe a shipping fee. Nope, I was thrown three to four more fees. They were small fees but they did add up. The biggest fee was the activation fee for $29.95. Why did I pay? I figured why not it's one time and I didn't plan on changing my phone any time soon.

I've had Lingo Voice Over IP for two months and I must say it's interesting. It's neat company that makes their customers want to stick around. They offer a refer-a-friend program. Where the first friend you refer, you get a $25 credit for each friend your refer. If your refer-a-friend becomes a customer then your phone calls to them are absolutely free. Which in my mind, they should be anyway but who cares what I think.I mean don't get me wrong, I could upgrade my account, pay more and get unlimited talk but I deal with enough of that with my cell phone provider.

So the bottom line with Lingo Voice Over Ip, it's a good go for me. I have no complaints that are big enough for me to not want to stay a customer. There should be a huge attempt in better training when it comes to their customer Service but other than that, Lingo Voice Over IP gets two thumbs up from me.

Mobiles For Money

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The profit of trading a cellular phone phone for money back online are the speed and the unfussiness of conclusion the best terms to be had at that time exclusive of any annoyance Using the association site will permanently be the easiest cream of the crop for any person as the in one piece effective and non- effective cellular phone sell prices are all in one place and there is no need to seek out over the internet for diverse mobiles for money sites, gateway new tabs and questioning if you've found all the companies that you can sell your phone to.

The association site will get the info for you.
Soon a sufficient amount you will have your money back contract in put.