Five Tips on How to Teach your Kid to Organize His Toys

Kids make a mess. That's a reality all parents must accept. But there is some point in their childhood when you can begin to teach him the importance of cleanliness and organization.

First important tip is to make your kid realize the advantages of cleaning up his playroom. If at first you can't make him cooperate to help you, the next time he looks for his favourite Kidkraft toy, try hiding it for a while in the pile of toys sitting in the middle of his playroom. After some time, help him find it and tell him nicely that finding his favourite toys wouldn't be so hard if he organizes his toys.

Second tip is to show him that organizing his toys is not a chore but a part of the game. Sing songs with him while you put away his toys. Let him enjoy cleaning up by using attractive and brightly colored toy boxes as storage places. Kid furniture makers like Guidecraft offers toy boxes that have a safety hinge catch and cut-outs to prevent finger pinching. The Guidecraft Moon & Stars Toy Bench for example is a colorful toy box with star cut-out designs.

Or you can opt for the Guidecraft Spindle Toy Chest, a colonial styled toy box that can also be used a seating area while providing a wide storage area with removable dividers and casters for easy mobility.

Kidkraft, another leading toy manufacturer, also released toy boxes in the market like the KidKraft Limited Edition Toy Chest which assures you of generous space for organizing toys, games, and books. Like Guidecraft, it also has safety in priority and features a flip-top lid that has a secure safety hinge to prevent kids from having their fingers stuck. It also works as a bench where you or your kid’s playmate can sit.

A good third tip is to be a good example to your kid. You can't expect him to clean up his act when you have a messy room yourself. Remember, your kid looks up to you and you have to set yourself as a role model for him to follow you.

Fourth tip is to reinforce his behaviour through positive feedback and rewards. If you finally see him putting away his toys by himself, don't hold back any praises that you want to give him. Tell him he's such a good boy and mommy and daddy are very proud of him. You can even give him an occasional treat for a job well done. The word occasional should be kept in mind as not to spoil your little kid. Also don't be too critical or hard on him if he does not arrange his toys or his kid furniture in the playroom as you yourself would do it. Always remember that your kid is still a kid. The initiative and effort are good enough.

Fifth tip is to show him that you treat him the way you treat a responsible adult and that is with respect. Responsible attitude emanates from children more easily if they are treated as responsible and mature beings. If you always scold him in front of other people or treat him like a mindless person, it'd be impossible to get any responsible attitude for him or probably any positive attitude for that matter.

Keep in mind that the key in establishing in the right attitude in your kid is to have a healthy relationship with him—one that depicts love, care and respect for each other. Play with him, bond with him and he'll see that cleaning up with you wouldn’t be such a boring chore.

Keeping Your Data Safe - Synchronisation

The Nokia E50 is a business phone and as such it usually carries a lot of private information that should be protected. If the phone gets lost or stolen, we want to be sure that no one can access our private data. It is true that the E50 has excellent security settings. For example, one of its basic features is that it locks itself after certain time. In order to access the phone’s data you have to enter a security code to unlock it.

Keeping the data safe is only one part of the problem. Another part is to have your data available even if your device gets stolen. And this is where synchronisation comes into play.

Synchronisation process allows us to easily restore the lost data onto the new device. Since we are using many different platforms, the compatibility could be an issue. Fortunately, smart folks got together and developed a standard protocol for data synchronisation. It was initially called SyncML (Synchronisation Markup Language) but since 2006 we know it as OMA DS (Open Mobile Alliance Data Synchronisation)

The most of the modern phones, including the E50, can handle the SyncML (or OMA DS) protocol. This allows us to synchronise our devices with a compatible server using the OTA (Over The Air) method. There are several solutions available on the market. In this article we will explore two of them – Mobical and ZYB. Both are free and require minimal setup.

Mobical

Mobical is a service provided by a Swedish company called Tactel. The web interface of Mobical is excellent, probably one of the best on the market. The synchronisation servers are a little bit slow but other than that it is probably the best choice considering the cost, support and performance ratio.

Mobical is very easy to configure on the E50. To set it up, go to Menu – Connectivity – Sync and create a new profile. All the needed information for setting up a new profile can be found from the Mobical website. With Mobical you can synchronise calendar, phonebook, notes and tasks.

ZYB

ZYB is a synchronisation solution from Denmark. Zyb.com has, over the time, become a networking website offering much more than only mobile phone services. After you register, you can browse other people’s profiles, mark them as your contacts and take use of the social networking features. However, our main focus is on its synchronisation capabilities. Zyb can synchronise contacts, calendar and messages (SMS). Unfortunately there is no support for the notes and tasks synchronisation. One of its biggest advantages is the support for Google Calendar. Considering Google Calendar is one of the most popular online calendar applications, this might be a strong reason to use ZYB for data synchronisation.

Summary

Storing your data on a synchronisation server is an easy way how to have them available any time and anywhere. To sum up what synchronisation services can offer:

• they are platform-independent services; in fact, you don’t even need a computer to have your data secured; just sync them once a week and you’re done.

• they provide you with a web interface very similar to a common desktop organiser; you can add a note, task, appointment or contact, edit them with a QWERTY keyboard and sync them back to your device.

• they act as a second place to store backups; we all know that pc hard disk can fail.

• they make switching and synchronising devices easy; in case your phone dies, just configure the sync profile on the E50, synchronise it, and all your data is there again.

• if you do the synchronisation of your device, you should keep in mind the costs for data transfer; during one of the tests, 180KB of data was transferred doing a full synchronisation of the device (200 appointments, 250 contacts, 30 long notes).

• time zones get messy with some service providers; I’m located in the GMT-3 zone and when I sync using any of the mentioned services, they automatically switch to the GMT zone; therefore, there is a 3 hours delay and all my appointments are 3 hours late (e.g. appointment scheduled for 09:00 is moved to 12:00); since this happened with all of tested services, I understand that it is a carrier.

• if you decide to go with a server synchronisation, keep in mind that your personal information travels over the air; this could possibly be a security and privacy issue but since all the web interfaces are accessed via secure protocol, I don’t see this as a problem.

Other Services

There are other services like O-Sync or GSMSync. I haven’t been able to test them as much I would like to so I didn’t cover them in this article. I’ve been testing Mobical and ZYB for some months now, and I found them to be really good solutions. When I bought my E50 (after my Siemens S65 died on me), I just configured synchronisation settings and synced my device. The E50 makes synchronising very easy.

Most of you know what push mail is

Most of you know what push mail is. Basically it means that emails are pushed to our devices instead of being pulled from the server, hence we don’t need to continually check our inboxes. Until some time ago, the only available solution was BlackBerry service.

RIM (Research In Motion, the company that makes BlackBerry devices) developed a compatible application called BlackBerry Connect to use non-BlackBerry devices with the BlackBerry service. Nevertheless, this application has not been homologated on all carriers, making a lot of S60 devices useless, despite the fact that we can indeed connect to BlackBerry servers. Beside it, sometimes we only want to check our personal emails because not all of us are corporate users and the whole BlackBerry service package is, to say, overkill.

This time, we will review two applications that can be a replacement to BlackBerry devices. I have narrowed the options to only two applications because I have tested them specifically on the E50, checking RAM usage, stability and overall performance. A much extended review can be found at All About Symbian. Since we are referring specifically to the E50, the options have been chosen to what fits best on this device. Other applications have not been chosen due to different reasons (either they consume too much memory, or they don’t fit nicely on the E50)

Just to note, the applications have been tested with a Gmail account, with POP access enabled, and both applications have been tested only with 24×7 push email settings, meaning, they are pushing emails all the time.

System Seven

The first choice that we have is System SEVEN by SEVEN Networks. Not to repeat what has been already said on the quoted article at All About Symbian, the future of this beta program is unknown, and we do not know if the final release will be free or not. The following is an overview of pros and cons:

Pros

• Emails can be truncated at any size. For people living in countries where carriers charge a lot for data transfer, email truncated at 1KB is enough to read sender, subject and first words of the email. The application provides through the menu the option to retrieve the complete email, and separately attachments (if any).

• Stability. It is indeed very stable. The connection can be paused at any time, and resuming it consumes just a few bytes and is very fast. New emails start to fall in the device inbox just a few seconds later.

• You can set more than one inbox for pushing simultaneously.

Cons

• Consumes more RAM than the other application tested, and for example, you can’t run simultaneously Active Standby, System SEVEN and Nokia Maps.

• Emails can’t be deleted on the device only yet. If you delete an email on the device it will be deleted on your Gmail account too.

Emoze

The second application tested is emoze. This has been selected as Editor’s Choice in the mentioned article on All About Symbian, and not without reasons:

Pros

• Consumes less RAM than any other email pushing application.

• It is fast*, really fast (most of the time, my emails arrive to my device even before the Gmail Notifier on my notebook tells me that a new email has arrived)

• It is very stable

• You can delete emails on your device only, your Gmail account will not be touched.

• With additional software, you can push your desktop email to your device, making possible to push any email that can be retrieved via your email desktop client (though, unfortunately, this additional application works with just a few POP desktop clients, namely Outlook and Lotus Notes).

• Scheduling is much more advanced on emoze, you can set specific days and times in which emoze will active push mail.

• When an HTML formatted email is sent, emoze strips all html tags, leaving a text-only email. This saves a lot of characters, and makes emails easily readable.

Cons

• You can only truncate messages to 5KB (less than 5000 chars) or 8KB (less than 8000 chars).

• Even if it uses much less RAM than any other email pushing application, you still can’t run at the same time Active Standby, emoze and Nokia Maps.

• You can set only one account.

• Startup takes much longer due to database integrity check on both device and server.

Conclusion

Both applications have their pros and cons. For me, one of the biggest advantages of System SEVEN is the possibility to truncate any email at 1KB and retrieve the whole email and/or their respective attachments. However, the fact that any email deleted on my device will be deleted also at my Gmail account is quite a big issue since the main idea of Gmail is not to delete any email anymore.

The only disadvantage of emoze is that emails cannot be truncated to less than 5KB. Considering the fact that we are testing applications to push personal email to our devices, I don’t see the “one inbox only” option as disadvantage (though this can be considered as disadvantage by many of you).

Finally, the unknown future of System SEVEN is a factor to consider before making a final decision. Despite the usual disclosure letter, emoze seems to be on the path of staying as a free service for personal use.

I hope this article has given you a possible approach to receive your personal email on your devices at low cost without the need to be attached to a specific BlackBerry service. I have been testing these applications for the last month, and receiving approximately 15 emails per day and sending 10, I have consumed 12MB of data. Even here in my country, 12MB of data are cheaper than a BlackBerry service.

How To Fix Your Dead Phone

You wanted to update your phone’s firmware but the phone died in the middle of the process. It happens quite often. People either don’t follow the recommendations (i.e. have your battery fully charged) or there really is something wrong with the update itself. The best thing you can do in this situation is to contact the closest Nokia Care point. They should repair it free of charge if your phone is still under guarantee. However this is not always an option. There are not that many Nokia Care points, especially not outside Europe.

Send your phone to iUnlock

I’ve heard good things about the guys from iUnlock. They are located in Boston and for certain fee they will flash your phone with new firmware. Price depends on the model and its condition. If it’s completely dead you’ll have to pay $5 extra. Flashing of Nokia E50 will cost you $35. I think that $35 is the price if you are located within the US.

One of the readers from Germany contacted me a couple of weeks ago to let me know that iUnlock reflashed his phone for a total cost of $46. It might seem expensive but if your phone is completely dead you have only two options – throw it away or have it repaired for $30 – $50.

How does it work

First you have to register on iunlock.com. Log in to your account and find the model you own. Fill the form at the bottom you’ll be taken to the checkout page. After you make the payment you’ll receive an invoice. Send the invoice together with your phone to iUnlock. Your phone should be repaired in a couple of days (for more details check out their FAQ page). It goes without saying that by having your device flashed you lose your guarantee.

Do you have any experience with iUnlock? If so, please share them in the comments.

7 tips to extend your battery life

When it comes to batteries it looks like we are at the same point we were 10 years ago. Batteries don’t last longer than a few days. But to be fair to the battery designers we have to admit that nowadays’ smartphones require much more energy than phones 10 years ago. We can’t really compare them but what we can do is use them with more care. Here are a few good tips how to go about it:

1. Turn off your Bluetooth – I find Bluetooth to be the most power hungry application; turn it off when you don’t use it

2. Disable sounds and vibrating alert – you don’t really need keypad tones to be on, do you? What about vibrating? It is surely useful on the meetings or in a cinema but most of time you’ll do just fine without it; I usually set up a vibrating profile to be used in places like cinema or theatre and in all other profiles I have vibrating turned off

3. Brightness – lower the brightness of your screen; not too low, otherwise you’ll destroy your vision

4. Setting the Power saver time-out and the Light time-out to the low values will help too (you’ll find them in the display settings)

5. If you are not using an application switch it off – you’ll get a list of all active applications by long pressing the menu button; this is a general rule that can be applied to any device

6. Games – it’s fun to play games on your way to school but they are power-hungry beasts; I can’t tell you not to play games but think about your battery when you are playing

7. Turn off your phone when you don’t use it – I know that for many of you this is not an option and I’m not sure if turning it off and on is even good for your battery but I heard this tip from so many people that I just had to mention it

My Nokia E50 lasts 3-5 days depending on how often I use it. I have to say that I don’t play games, neither I browse the internet very often. How about you? How long does your battery last and how often do you use your phone? Do you have some additional tips that could extend battery life? Feel free to add them in comments below.

More Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Tips and Tricks

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, the latest touchscreen handset from Nokia, is 'trickier' than I thought. After writing the previous article about tips and tricks that I found while using it, I discovered other amazing features that make the device even more user-friendly than I had previously believed. In the following, I'll be presenting more Nokia 5800 XpressMusic tips and tricks that will help you customize the handset to the max. There's the possibility of customizing the Shortcuts bar on the Home screen, if you choose to use it. The only drawback is that it can only contain 4 application shortcuts.

If you don't have your Shortcuts bar displayed on the screen then go to Main menu/Settings/Personal/Home Screen/Home Screen Menu Theme and select the Shortcuts bar. You can alter the default setting by going to Main menu/Settings/Personal/Home screen/Shortcuts.

Furthermore, for those who are installing and using a large number of third-party applications and don't have enough space on the Shortcuts bar to add their shortcuts for quick access, there's the possibility of rearranging all the icons that can be found in any folder in the Main menu.

By going to Main menu/Applications/Options/Organise and moving various applications using the drag and drop feature, you can change their places among each other.


Another interesting shortcut is the Green key (Accept calls), which can be used to send a message without the need of pressing any other key on the touchscreen. If you need to send the same message to multiple recipients, you just need to click the 'To' word displayed above your message, so you won't need to go into other menus. Also, when you're in any of the phone's menus, pressing the Green key will bring up the dialer. Bear in mind that doing this while the Home screen is displayed will only bring up the Call log. A long press on the same Green button will activate the Voice command function. If you ask the phone 'What time is it?' it will respond by telling you the time.


A long press on the middle button that opens up the Main menu will make the handset display the Task manager, which will show what applications you have opened. Nokia 5800 XpressMusic also features all the quick access commands available on all Nokia handsets with keypads. Just bring up the dialer and try any code that you know it works with other Nokia devices and you'll be surprised to find that it works with 5800 XpressMusic also.


In case I'll find more tips and tricks, there will be a third article that will explain them, but most likely you'll be reading a full review of the device by then.

Note: You can easily follow my daily guides by subscribing to the RSS feed.

Nokia Travel Tips

Nokia Travel Tips
When You’re Out Of The Office
You prepare. You plan. You travel. But when the roving gods of misfortune frown upon you, despite all preventative efforts, you could use some extra help. That’s where your Nokia comes in; it’s the perfect travel companion, helping you stay organized, connected, and on time. Read on for some Nokia tips to help you cope with the pitfalls you may encounter while on the road.

Locking the keypad can ensure your Nokia phone has the juice it needs when you are ready to make that important call.

Lock The Keys

When traveling, it’s vital that your phone works when you need it to. To make sure you don’t drain the battery by accidentally starting applications or calling contacts while your Nokia is tucked away in your purse or pocket, enable the keypad lock. To do this, press the left selection key and the blue function key simultaneously. When the keypad lock is on, any button press will display the unlock instructions. You’ll still be able to dial 911, but no other calls or applications will be accessible until you unlock the keypad. To unlock, press the left selection key and the blue function key again.

Outlook On Your Phone

When on the road, email is easily your most important method of communication, and recently Nokia made email on S60 3rd Edition smartphones even better. Late last year, Nokia announced that all S60 3rd Edition devices support Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and the Mail for Exchange mobile email application. If you purchased a Nokia Eseries or Nseries device in the past six months, then Mail for Exchange is already installed on your phone. If not, you can download it by pressing the Menu key, selecting Download, Email, and then Mail for Exchange. The following screen shows Mail for Exchange and a Quick Guide PDF. Select Mail for Exchange, press the Options softkey, and then select Get. You can also download the utility by visiting tinyurl.com/MailForExchange. Select your region and phone, and then click Show. Next, click the download link for the appropriate version and then use PC Suite to install it on your phone.

After installing the program, you’ll have real-time access to your email accounts on the Exchange Server, as well as your calendar, contacts, tasks, and company directory. Mail for Exchange isn’t difficult to enable either, thanks to Autodiscover, which lets you set up the account by entering your email address, password, domain, and username. Especially handy for frequent travelers is the ability to turn on Out Of Office messaging directly from your Nokia. Other handy features include synchronization, flag status for follow-ups, the ability to set email priorities, alerts for meeting request conflicts, a standalone global address list application, and the ability to download and edit attachments.

Locking your phone with a five-digit lock code adds a whole new level of security for your Nokia.

Lock The Phone

For additional security, you can lock your phone using a lock code. Press the Power key, select Lock Phone, and enter the lock code. The default lock code is 12345. To unlock the phone, press the Left selection key, input the lock code, and select OK. To change your lock code, press the Menu key; select Tools, Settings, Security, and Phone And SIM; and then select Lock Code. Next, select Options and Change. Enter the old (or default) lock code, select OK, enter the new lock code, select OK, and then enter the new lock code again to verify the change.

If you enter the code incorrectly three or more times, the phone will enter sleep mode. Turn the phone off and on and then try entering the code again after 15 minutes. If entering the default or manually changed security or lock code doesn’t work, you’ll need to visit an authorized Nokia service center to have the code reset.

by Andrew Leibman

Nokia Codes..

Nokia Codes..

Some Codes here... May work... May not wok..

• *3370# This Nokia code activates Enhanced Full Rate Codec (EFR) - Your Nokia cell phone uses the best sound quality but talk time is reduced my approx. 5%
• #3370# Deactivate Enhanced Full Rate Codec (EFR) .
• *#4720# Activate Half Rate Codec - Your phone uses a lower quality sound but you should gain approx 30% more Talk Time.
• *#4720# With this Nokia code you can deactivate the Half Rate Codec.
• *#0000# Displays your phones software version, 1st Line : Software Version, 2nd Line : Software Release Date, 3rd Line : Compression Type .
• *#9999# Phones software version if *#0000# does not work.
• *#06# For checking the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI Number) .
• #pw+1234567890+1# Provider Lock Status. (use the "*" button to obtain the "p,w" and "+" symbols).
• #pw+1234567890+2# Network Lock Status. (use the "*" button to obtain the "p,w" and "+" symbols) .
• #pw+1234567890+3# Country Lock Status. (use the "*" button to obtain the "p,w" and "+" symbols).
• #pw+1234567890+4# SIM Card Lock Status. (use the "*" button to obtain the "p,w" and "+" symbols) .
• *#147# This lets you know who called you last (Only vodofone).
• *#1471# Last call (Only vodofone) .
• *#21# This phone code allows you to check the number that "All Calls" are diverted to.
• *#2640# Displays phone security code in use .
• *#30# Lets you see the private number.
• *#43# Allows you to check the "Call Waiting" status of your cell phone.
• *#61# Allows you to check the number that "On No Reply" calls are diverted to .
• *#62# Allows you to check the number that "Divert If Unreachable (no service)" calls are diverted to .
• *#67# Allows you to check the number that "On Busy Calls" are diverted to
• *#67705646# Phone code that removes operator logo on 3310 & 3330
• *#73# Reset phone timers and game scores.
• *#746025625# Displays the SIM Clock status, if your phone supports this power saving feature "SIM Clock Stop Allowed", it means you will get the best standby time possible .
• *#7760# Manufactures code.
• *#7780# Restore factory settings.
• *#8110# Software version for the nokia 8110.
• *#92702689# Displays - 1.Serial Number, 2.Date Made, 3.Purchase Date, 4.Date of last repair (0000 for no repairs), 5.Transfer User Data. To exit this mode you need to switch your phone off then on again.
• *#94870345123456789# Deactivate the PWM-Mem.
• **21*number# Turn on "All Calls" diverting to the phone number entered.
• **61*number# Turn on "No Reply" diverting to the phone number entered .
• **67*number# Turn on "On Busy" diverting to the phone number entered .
• 12345 This is the default security code .
• press and hold # Lets you switch between lines.

Author :

Most of the content taken from :

http://www.nokiainfo.net/info/nokia-secrets.php

First Look: Hands-On With BlackBerry Bold

By Danny Dumas

• Categories: Phones, Reviews and First Looks

After months of online speculation, rumor and badly photoshopped innuendo, Research in Motion announced its new BlackBerry Bold today.

RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis stopped by the Wired offices last week and gave us some one-on-one time with an early version of the Bold. It’s, well, kind of awesome. I’m by no means a BlackBerry fanboy, but the Bold has some impressive features.

First off the big news:

• HSDPA: We tried it out in G-Lab HQ and were able to load several graphic-heavy sites quickly with the BlackBerry Bold’s fast 3G data access. A few hiccups occurred when pulling up Wired.com’s front page, but keep in mind this was also a beta unit. Mike assured us they’re still ironing out all the bugs and final units would not have any issues.
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/ compatibility: No n spec, but that’s no biggie. Having nearly unrestricted Wi-Fi access will make this BlackBerry even more useful.
• Half-VGA, 480 x 320 pixel screen: The screen itself is gorgeous, bright and colorful. We watched the seizure-inducing trailer for Speed Racer and it was gorgeous and glitch-free. Too bad we can’t say the same for Speed Racer itself.
• Built-in GPS: Paired with location-based services plus BlackBerry Maps, you’ll also be able to use it while making a phone call. Try that while driving and see if you can avoid crashing your car.

The external speaker is loud, clear and excellent for handsfree use. It’s also passable as an impromptu speaker for playing music or movies. Comparatively, it’s about as powerful as the speakers on an average laptop. Plus there’s now a requisite 3.5mm headset jack so you can plug in standard headphones.

The keys have been reconfigured slightly from previous BlackBerry iterations. Mike pointed out that they now have metal dividers resembling the shape and feel of guitar frets, making touch-typing easier. Interesting, considering most CrackBerry heads I know can already touch-type without a second thought.

The BlackBerry Bold is going to ship preloaded with 1 GB of memory, a 2-MP digicam with a built-in "flash" LED light, and media-management software that can sync with iTunes. For additional storage, you can also plug in a microSD card; the Bold supports cards up to 16GB in capacity. The back panels are removable and will come available in a variety of colors.

While the Bold is not the touchscreen-enabled iPhone killer that has been rumored for the last nine months or so, from what we saw, it’s shaping up to be a solid device with some very cool, forward-thinking features.

The Gadget Lab will get the first working models as soon as they are ready — just before the projected launch date in late June. We’ll have the review up for y’all around then.

(Photos by Jim Merithew / Wired.com)

Hit the jump for more details from the press release.

RIM Introduces the BlackBerry Bold Smartphone

Top of the line BlackBerry smartphone with premium design and unprecedented performance and functionality; targeted at business professionals and power users.

Waterloo, ON – For customers seeking a smartphone that makes a bold statement, Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today introduced the enviable BlackBerry® Bold™ smartphone. Crafted from premium materials, inside and out, that radiate elegance with a dramatic presence, the BlackBerry Bold is designed to give users unprecedented performance and functionality in an intuitive BlackBerry® smartphone. It is the first BlackBerry smartphone to support HSDPA high-speed cellular networks and comes with integrated GPS and Wi-Fi®, as well as a rich set of multimedia capabilities. From its lustrous black finish, satin plated frame and leather-like backing, to its stunning display, to its newly designed and highly refined full-QWERTY* keyboard, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone is a symbol of accomplishment and aspiration.

SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE
The BlackBerry Bold smartphone’s support for HSDPA and enterprise-grade Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g) are powered by a next-generation 624 MHz mobile processor and 128MB Flash memory that make short work of downloading email attachments, streaming video or rendering web pages. The BlackBerry Bold also comes with 1GB of on-board memory storage and a microSD/SDHC memory card slot**, conveniently accessible from a side door. It comes with the renowned BlackBerry productivity applications, including phone, email, messaging, organizer and browser, and works with thousands of mobile business and lifestyle applications, making it easier than ever to stay connected, productive and entertained. With this new smartphone, users can even talk on the phone while sending and receiving email or accessing the web, and download Word, Excel or PowerPoint files and edit them directly on the handset using the preloaded DataViz® Documents to Go® suite.

STUNNING DISPLAY
The BlackBerry Bold smartphone comes with the most vivid and bold display ever introduced on a BlackBerry smartphone. Its color LCD is fused to the undersurface of the lens, making images leap out with stunning definition and clarity. Pictures are vibrant and razor sharp, while videos play smoothly and web pages, documents, presentations and messages snap with exceptional quality and contrast.

DESKTOP-STYLE WEB PAGES
With its newly enhanced, high performance browser and high-resolution, ultra-bright display, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone gives users an on-the-go web browsing experience with desktop-style depiction. The trackball mimics a mouse, making it easy to navigate sites in "Page View" or "Column View" or to zoom in on specific parts of a web page, while various emulation settings allow users to choose between the full desktop-style HTML content and layout or the mobile version. Attachments can also now be downloaded from within the browser and there is support for watching streaming videos (RTSP – real-time streaming protocol).

RICH MULTIMEDIA
While it is designed to meet the extensive requirements of the business professional during the day, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone also caters to the consumer side of the business person during evenings and weekends. It features a 2 megapixel camera with video recording capability, built-in flash and 5x digital zoom. The enhanced media player can display pictures and slideshows quickly, play movies smoothly in full screen mode, and manage an entire music collection. Audio can be played over the handset’s dual speakers in rich, stereo sound, and when using wired headphones or external speakers, the media player gives the user an equalizer with 11 preset filters – like "Lounge", "Jazz" and "Hip Hop" – that boost or soften audio ranges to create the perfect ambiance.

For managing music and video, the BlackBerry® Desktop Manager software includes Roxio® Media Manager for BlackBerry® as well as Roxio Photosuite® 9 LE, which makes it easy to enhance pictures and create photo albums on the computer. For users that manage their collection with iTunes®, the new BlackBerry® Media Sync® application provides a simple way to sync iTunes digital music collections with the smartphone. Support for high-speed USB allows all files to be transferred to the smartphone as fast as 10 MB/sec.

POWERFUL WI-FI & GPS
For even broader high-speed network coverage, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone supports the 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi standards, ideal for use in enterprise or campus wireless LAN deployments, over Wi-Fi hotspots and on wireless home networks. A new "Push Button Setup" is included, making it faster for users to sign on to protected wireless networks.

Through its integrated GPS, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone can pinpoint its exact location, supporting applications like BlackBerry® Maps and other location-based applications or services. With its improved rendering capabilities, faster download speeds and ability to support simultaneous voice and data, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone even allows users to navigate while on a call.

FIRST CLASS PHONE
The BlackBerry Bold smartphone features a new acoustic design that increases the size of the phone’s audio sweet spot, improving listening quality and clarity. It also comes with numerous premium phone features including Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD), Bluetooth® 2.0, with support for hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits (including car kits that adhere to the Bluetooth Remote SIM Access Profile) and other Bluetooth peripherals. It is a quad-band handset that supports global roaming*** and features dedicated ’send’, ‘end’, and ‘mute’ keys, smart dialing, speed dialing, conference calling and call forwarding. It also features noise cancellation technology that offsets background noise, a powerful speaker phone and support for polyphonic, mp3 and MIDI ring tones.

ROBUST EMAIL & MESSAGING
Like all BlackBerry smartphones, the BlackBerry Bold gives users the industry’s leading mobile messaging solution. It works with BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, which enables advanced security and IT administration within IBM® Lotus® Domino®, Microsoft® Exchange and Novell® GroupWise® environments, as well as BlackBerry® Professional Software for small businesses. It also works with BlackBerry® Internet Service, which gives users access to up to 10 work or personal email accounts (including most popular ISP email accounts), and the BlackBerry® Unite! software for SOHO and home users.

CONVENIENT ACCESSORIES
The BlackBerry Bold smartphone comes with a variety of accessories including a stereo headset, travel charger, carrying case or sleeve and USB cable. The removable / rechargeable 1500 mHh battery provides multi-hour usage with a target GSM talk time of approximately 5 hours and 13 days of standby. Additional accessories for BlackBerry smartphones, including leather holsters and totes, charging pods, premium earphones, the BlackBerry® Remote Stereo Gateway and Bluetooth headsets, are available through retail outlets or online at: www.shopblackberry.com.

AVAILABILITY
The BlackBerry Bold smartphone (model number: 9000) is scheduled be available from wireless carriers around the world beginning this summer.

How to Recycle Old Cell Phones

Most Americans change their cell phone every 2 years or so. So what happens to the old cell phones? They contain a number of hazardous eco unfriendly materials like lead, mercury, cadmium, brominated flame retardants and arsenic. So if they are just dumped in the trash, they could become a major pollutant and add to the world’s already growing problem of e-waste. It is estimated that in America alone more than a hundred million cell phones are discarded and these add almost 60000 tons to the toxic waste across the country. There is however a glimmer of hope in the fact that a new generation of nonprofit organizations called electronic recyclers who see opportunity in this, have come into the picture.

These organizations resell these old cell phones to distributors in developing countries where such cell phones have a ready market. They do this after refurbishing and sell the phones or cannibalize them so that new cell phones can be made from the parts thus obtained. This even includes batteries which are similarly recycled.

The problem of disposal of old cell phones has achieved such great proportions that a number of countries are putting in place laws that will prevent any distributor from selling new phones unless he has such a recycling system in place. It is already illegal to dispose of nickel cadmium batteries as cadmium is considered toxic, but the problem is being eased by manufacturers shifting to the more eco friendly lithium batteries.

There are a lot of small charitable organizations which will also accept your old cell phone so that you are spared the problem of looking for a recycler. Cell phone manufacturers have discovered that they and the service providers can collaborate to implement recycling programs, by giving the customer some benefit when he buys a new model and the distributors take back the old phone. Once this has a legal backing, the recycling of old cell phones will get a boost and reduce the huge problem of e-waste that these old cell phones present at the moment. Surveys have indicated that 90 percent of the people will opt for such recycling if the places where they can drop them off are conveniently located. Fortunately cell phone scrap still has a positive value and this easily takes care of the costs that organizations have to incur in their collection and redistribution or recycling.

The biggest problem in the recycling cell phones business is setting up collection points and arranging to collect and dispose of the cell phones to the recyclers. There are organizations on the web which will advise you on these matters and even suggest likely locations for you. They would even advise you how you could further dispose of these collected old cell phones and send them to a recycler who would refurbish them or cannibalize them. So this could be a new business for you if you are so inclined. And with the tremendous growth that is being witnessed in the communications world, this business is likely to have a very long cycle of success.

Written by Jayant Row in Environment, Gadgets