by Reese Grey

The Federal Communications Commission is considering new legislation that would require wireless companies to send a text message to customers who are on the verge of racking up expensive charges for exceeding the plan’s data or text-messaging limit. The proposal is similar to one enacted by the European Union where customers complained so emphatically about huge data-roaming charges while traveling that their government reacted to their complaints.

Overage charges can add up to huge costs! For now, the easiest way for you to save costs is to change your plan. That is something you can do it without extending or terminating your contract.  Also ask for a usage summary going back 12 months to see if you could get by on a cheaper plan.

If not, consider switching carriers. Check BillShrink.com and Validas.com or wirelessadvisor.com to determine if you could get a better deal from a different carrier. Overall, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile have about 220 plans, so it will be a task to analyze them.

Verizon has a $99 family plan that features unlimited text messaging, AT&T has an $84.99 plan with a limit of 1,500 on text messages and 5 cents a minute after that and T-Mobile has a family plan for $79.99 a month with unlimited text messaging. But beware and check the fee for overages.

Until the FCC rules go into effect, (if they ever will), ask your carrier if you can receive phone or text alerts when account limits are nearing, it is sure worth a try.

Here are a few additional tips that may help you contain or lower your bill:

•    Cancel unwanted services. Scan the bill for charges you can’t identify and ask what they are. Cancel services you don’t want, such as roadside assistance service for $3 or $5.

•    Use a FREE information services rather than the more costly 411 service.    Try 800- 373-3411 (provided by Jingle Networks)  or 800-466-4411(provided by Google) to find the number of a person or business.  Add these numbers in your cell’s phone book so all you have to do is hit Info to further enhance this convenience.

•    Check your voicemail from a landline if you are almost out of minutes.  Most people do not realize they are charged for voice mail calls. To do it, dial your cell number from a landline, hit * or # during your outgoing message, then enter your pass code.

We are a “stay connected” society, spending premium dollars for the luxury of being linked to friends, family and the world, at every minute, but we can use offers and opportunities to lessen the cha-ching on our pocketbooks.

By Marc Herbst, Panhandle House

Compared with taking photos on film or video on tape, digital photography or videography provides more opportunities for editing, storing and sharing your media with friends and family across the globe in an instant. However, taking advantage of these compatibilities typically requires pairing your digital video or still camera with a relatively new home computer and some basic software.

Most digital cameras available today capture photos or video onto a small internal hard drive or on a removable media card.  A modern home computer, whether a Mac or a PC, if properly equipped, will provide all the tools necessary to get the most of this digital media.

The first challenge to overcome involves transferring video and still images from a camera’s internal hard drive or removable media cards onto the computer for editing.  USB (Universal Serial Bus) has become the standard interface for most consumer digital cameras and all modern home computers.  Many PCs also come equipped with a variety of media card readers installed.  Macs typically do not include media card readers, but all-in-one media card readers which connect via the USB port are inexpensive and readily available.  In either case, it is important confirm the compatibility between media card reader and the camera.

The right software can make the transfer process relatively painless and offer a range of editing and sharing options.  Some cameras come with very basic editing software, but it is frequently only Windows compatible.  For Mac users, software that comes preloaded such as iMovie or iPhoto, might be all that is needed.  Those programs are designed to automatically detect a camera connected to the computer’s USB port and help streamline the process of copying the files onto the computer.  They also provide basic video editing capabilities and photo enhancement tools like easy “red eye” reduction.

PC users might want to look to third party software for more powerful editing capabilities.  Adobe’s Premiere Elements and Photoshop Elements are scaled down versions of their professional video and photo editing applications and are surprisingly powerful and easy to use.  Premiere Elements will easily transfer video from hard drive based cameras, removable media cards, DVDs or tape based digital video cameras.  In addition to basic video editing one can incorporate still images, titles, music and narration.  Once a video has been edited, it can be shared by burning it onto a DVD or exporting it to a compressed video file such as an .mp4 to be emailed to friends or uploaded to a social networking site like YouTube or Facebook.

At The Panhandle House, we frequently transfer older home movies, videos or photos shot on 8mm film, VHS or camcorder tapes and 35mm slides, as well as, audio recordings to digital files which the savvy home editor can incorporate into a video using their own editing software.  For those who would prefer to leave the editing to the professionals, we can do that as well.  We create simple videos for families and friends just as frequently as we produce slick corporate promotional materials.

No more panic over lost keys

Remember when we were thrilled that technology had brought us that new little remote device to open our car doors?  One click and the door opened, no key. That was an enormous leap for the auto and technology industries.  Spring forward a couple of decades and now…no remote needed!  You can start, lock and unlock your car just by pushing a button on your iPhone or iTouch.

Technology’s new Viper SmartStart application is introduced by Directed Electronics, already the leader in vehicle security and remote start industry. The application includes a receiver that is installed in the car.  The simple interface gives you control over the features of your installed Viper remote start or security/remote start system:  Lock/arm, Unlock/disarm, Remote car start, Trunk release, and Panic. You can also control multiple vehicles and assign more than one user to control a vehicle.   Anticipation is that this will be great for families and it’s easy with SmartStart.

The Viper SmartStart is the latest example of automotive electronic functions migrating into Apple iPhone and other smartphones. Imagine your keys being locked in the car or losing your keys. Now there is no reason to panic, as long as you have your phone.

Viper SmartStart is available in Denton at Autosound & Security located on I-35 near Loop 288, and at Best Buy on Loop 288.

“We suspect an unauthorized transaction on your account. To ensure that your account is not compromised, please click the link below and confirm your identity.”

Have you received email with a similar message? It’s a scam called “phishing” – and it involves Internet fraudsters who send spam or pop-up messages to lure personal information (credit card numbers, bank account information, Social Security number, passwords, or other sensitive information) from unsuspecting victims.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, phishers send an email or pop-up message that claims to be from a business or organization that you may deal with — for example, an Internet service provider (ISP), bank, online payment service, or even a government agency. The message may ask you to “update,” “validate,” or “confirm” your account information. Some phishing emails threaten a dire consequence if you don’t respond. The messages direct you to a website that looks just like a legitimate organization’s site. But it isn’t. It’s a bogus site whose sole purpose is to trick you into divulging your personal information so the operators can steal your identity and run up bills or commit crimes in your name.

Tips to help you avoid getting hooked by a phishing scam:

• If you get an email or pop-up message that asks for personal or financial information, do not reply. And don’t click on the link in the message, either.

• Area codes can mislead. If you need to reach an organization you do business with, call the number on your financial statements or on the back of your credit card, not one provided by an email.

• Use anti-virus and anti-spyware software, as well as a firewall, and update them all regularly.

• Don’t email personal or financial information. Email is not a secure method of transmitting personal information.

• Review credit card and bank account statements as soon as you receive them to check for unauthorized charges.

• Be cautious about opening attachments or downloading files from emails, regardless of who sent them. These files can contain viruses or other software that can weaken your computer’s security.

• If you believe you’ve been scammed, file your complaint at ftc.gov.  You can learn other ways to avoid email scams and deal with deceptive spam at ftc.gov/spam.

Water is the single biggest reason customers return damaged electronic devices. A top insurer which covers cell phones for loss or damage not covered by warranties, says water damage is the major cause of claims, behind mechanical damage and loss.

Many consumers show up at stores demanding replacements for their water-damaged phones, so a most carriers now require manufacturers to place a moisture indicator on the batteries and inside the phones to provide clear evidence of “contact with liquid.” The meters, which are simple white stickers, change color when wet, which invalidates the warranty.

One manufacturer tests their phones for day to day conditions, recognizing that sweaty hands, a day at the beach and sultry conditions may be in the life of the phone.  But if you take a dip and realize your phone dipped with you, that is another story.

Water infiltration can easily become fatal for a phone because water and electricity simply do not mix: Turning on a wet cell phone can zap the circuitry.  Secondary is the issue of eventual corrosion because the finally dried liquid was not clean and causes residue, which can cause failure later in the operation life. It doesn’t help that most phones these days come with holes for headsets, speakers and camera lenses – these are just more places for water to seep in.

Many ingenious customers have found methods to nurse water-saturated phones back to ringier days — a big topic of conversation on web bulletin boards.  “The most important thing to remember with a wet phone is don’t turn it on”, says Aaron Vronko, a service manager at Rapid Repair, Kalamazoo, Mich., which specializes in repairing iPhones and other smart phones.  Furthermore, he recommends taking out the battery and wiping it off, shaking out any excess moisture, unfastening the screws of the phone to open up the device, and then using an electrical-contact cleaning spray or rubbing alcohol to displace the corrosive moisture. “Once you think it’s 100% dry, give it another day”,

Mr. Lazaridis of RIM has a tip for people whose phones fall into less-than-pristine waters: Rinse the device immediately with distilled water, doing so helps wash away chemicals that could alter the electrical charge and cause fatal shorts.   While some of the Common Joe techniques are taunted as just as successful; the oven approach employed by a lady who dropped her phone into the toilet,  she removed the battery, wrapped the device in a dry washcloth and aluminum foil, and baked it in the oven for several hours at a low setting.  She claims it worked great…until she dropped it, still again, in the toilet sometime later.

Others recommend using a hair dryer set on “cool” and still others seal the phone in a jar with uncooked rice in hopes the grains will absorb the moisture before it corrodes circuitry deep inside the phone.

The key to any of these techniques is to dry out the phone as quickly as possible.

by Reese Grey

Memories, sweetened thru the ages just like wine.

If you have a paper film picture of you and your sweetened memories, you have a physical reality. If you have that same picture digitally, you have none, in fact, what you have is millions of little zeros and ones stored on various types of media. That is our electronic reality. But you, you are saying, “I have all my pictures safe and sound on my computer.” Well, if that is where all your precious memories are, they are not so safe and not so sound. Listen up.

Just once will not do in our rapidly changing, quickly damaged, failing and soon to be obsolete world. Your computer’s hard drive is a delicate fast spinning disk and it will eventually break down – your CD’s and DVD’s can become unreadable (and lost). And any of these scenarios will leave you frozen in fear. Even if you have used some form of media storage, you know that the bullet proof method has yet to be discovered. How heart wrenching to find that you backed up all those vacation pics only to have that flash drive fail for you!

Looking at the best option for you and me, it seems best to choose a variety. That appears to be the option for many photographers (and their photos are their lifeline). Many photographers, we found, back up to more than one source – and very often.

• So to keep it safe and sound.
• Choose your methods– have more than one.
• Keep it consistent and organized – put reminder pop ups to do your photo back ups on a consistent basis.
• Backup to all the different sources in one sitting to assure you have the job completed.
• Do not mix. Use the chosen media source(s) for your pictures and nothing else.

It will take you some organization and just a little bit of time but you will be secure and comforted knowing all your memories really are forever.

Memories, memories, sweet memories.