Time of the Tech

This Tuesday, October 4, 2011, Apple is going to announce the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 will most likely go on sale within a couple weeks of the announcement. Maybe even within a couple of days! Verizon, Samsung, and/or Google will announce the Nexus Prime the following Tuesday, October 11, 2011. The Nexus Prime is expected to go on sale late October or early November. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Nexus line of phones, think of it as the closest thing we have to a pure "Google Phone". The Nexus Prime would then be the "Google Phone III". * The next thirty days are the most anticipated days in the history of cell phones. If you are thinking of buying a cell phone in the next month, do not! At least not until you see what the iPhone 5 and Nexus Prime are about. Consider yourself fortunate that you are looking for a phone during this time. You have two phones that are finally worthy of each other. If we cannot get Pacquiao vs Mayweather, life ha...

Google Voice had its premier appearance sometime in 2009. Since then the web-based platform for managing various types of communications have skyrocket with millions of subscribers and users and the best part - Google Voice is free . Google Voice is the first of it's kind, introducing one number that can ring all your phones, offering voicemail transcription, calls, free text messaging, cheap international calls, and even the ability to screen and block those unwanted callers among many other features. Here's a quick video overview of Google Voice. In theory making calls on your mobile using a Google Voice number should be free, but it's not.  In actuality you are first calling your Google Voice number (a landline number), and then dialing out from there. So, ultimately, using a Google Voice number to make calls will inevitably eat your regular mobile minutes, but have no fear! Where there's a will, there's a way - to getting free call...

When deciding on a new phone the cost of the monthly plan should be a significant factor. Because there are many permutations of different plans, I'm going to assume some things. The newbie bullets: You want the newest-baddest-smartphone, this leaves us with the big four carriers again (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-mobile).  This also means you'll be getting a 4G phone. This is an individual plan. You can make it on 450 anytime minutes a month. * You'll need at least 1000 texts a month. * You'll need at least 1 GB of data a month. * So with that in mind, here's a list of the plans you'll be getting from each carrier and the associated monthly fee based on today's prices: T-mobile, $80, 1500 anytime minutes, unlimited text, unlimited web. Sprint, $80, 450 anytime minutes, unlimited text, unlimited web. AT&T, $85, 450 anytime minutes, 1000 texts, 2 GB of web. Verizon, $90, 450 anytime minutes, 5000 texts, unlimited web. If you did different permu...

On our guide to buying to a new smartphone, one of the first things we advised to look at was the carrier for that phone and specifically their customer service. I'm sure we all know somebody that hates "x" carrier because they received sub par customer service. But that's not a good way to get statistically valid numbers, the sampling population is just too small. But if there was a study  with around 10,000 people, then we might be getting closer to a good sampling population, which is what we have with JD Power and Associates. The study they performed involving wireless carrier customer care was conducted from January to June 2010. To quote from their press release, "Now in its eighth year, the semiannual study provides a detailed report card on how well wireless carriers service their customers in three contact methods: telephone calls with a customer service representative (CSR) and/or automated response system (ARS); visits to a retail wireless store; a...