A last resort in case you drop your Smartphone in water!

The most common way of irreparable harm accidentally dropping the phone in water. Clearly, water and electronics do not mix. And if you can take it for service, chances are having to replace expensive components and anyway, the phone will never be the same.

Is increasingly promoted cheap and affordable solution to bring the phone to life if had suffered from water. The solution involves using absorbent properties of … rice, raw.

Ok, escaped and entered the water, that is. The first thing you should do now is remove the battery and other components that you can remove easily. Then prepare a bowl of rice and soak your there. Are more patient. To ensure that all water is dissipated from components, you should leave it there even 48 hours, a minimum would be one day. Resist the urge to check that the solution “magic” works. Allow rice to do their job.

It may be that the end to find that the smartphone back to life. It is a first step. Now make sure that all components work. Receive and make calls, test the camera and speaker. All works? Congratulations! Be careful next time might not be so lucky.

iPhone5 – launch and features

According to the rumors, iPhone5 is about to be launched, possibly on September 7 after the latest revelations. But why everyone expect the new iPhone?

For a number of new and exciting features that will capture and will be one of the most powerful and popular gadgets on the market. Here’s a brief list of some features of the iPhone5 :

Mozilla is preparing “Junior” for iPhone and iPad

Safari browser developed by Apple will have some competition soon.

Although most would think that it is consecrated Firefox, Mozilla takes us out today contradict the ramp with other plans: “Junior”, a brand new browser optimized for the Apple iPhone and iPad especially.

As the name suggests, we should not expect a complex browser as we used to use on PCs, Mozilla “Junior” is meant to be an application easy to navigate to the Internet: no tabs, no who-knows-what customization facilities.

Moreover, basic elements are missing, even though today no longer focus (eg loading bar), shows how rudimentary is the application stage. Stage to say that there is a big difference to the “Junior” will be released for iPhone and iPad.

How to sort songs on a Samsung Galaxy S2

A while ago Scott showed you all how to add music to a Samsung Galaxy S2 and now I'm going to show you how you can sort your music by Genre, Composer, Folder or even the Year. This does, in theory make it easier for you to make specialised play lists on your computer and transfer them over (which I will explain in a future guide).

As you may expect this guide starts at the "Music" app so make sure to open up the app so you see a screen something like the one on the let handside. When you're here you need to press the phone's "Menu" button which will open up an options menu at the bottom of the screen. From this menu you will

need to select "Settings" which will on up a screen with 4 more options in a list. You will be able to see options for "Equaliser", "Sound effect", "Music menu" and "Visualisation", from here select "Music menu".

The "Music menu" should give you a list of things, such as
"Albums", "Artists" and "Genres" (see the picture on the right of this paragraph for more of the list) each with a tick box. From here you need to select the options you want to be able to use, personally I'd advise "Albums", "Artists" and "Genres" though you may wish to select "Year" if you have a particular year that you love.

When you've selected all the options you'd like to use you need to go back to your music player screen then use your finger to scroll across the options at the top. You need to scroll things like "Artist" across and you'll soon come to the new options that you added from the "Music menu".

One thing to note before you become hugely comfortable about this. If you've not sorted your music properly (like Scott who took these screenshots) you may notice that some of the Genre's, Artists and Albums  (and everything else) can be a bit of a mess to say the least.

The 4 types of phone payments

Right now you may be looking for ways to save money and wonder how to get the best value for your phone. At current in the UK there is 4 types of separate payment system, this guide is going to look at each of the 4 and try and explain their differences.

Pay As You Go (PAYG)
PAYG is a pre-pay system that sees customer buying "credit" that they can spend in a number of ways. A customer pays in advance for their usage and generally they don't get good value however they don't have any commitment and can "top up" when they like.
Top ups can be done online, over the phone, at cash points or in a stores such at the networks own stores or in super markets. The best current deals seem to be with Giffgaff who run on the O2 network and have a pricing structure that genuinely challenges deals put on offer with contracts.

SIM only
A SIM only deal sees the customer paying a contract for only the SIM card and are generally 12 months. The value for inclusive minutes, texts and data is generally good though you don't have a great deal of flexibility and the concept seems to be a middle ground between a rolling 1 month deal and a full fledged full priced contract.
SIM only is paid at the end of the month and billed, allowing you to pay in store, over the phone or by direct debit. Current deals under the SIM only banner include paying 3 £15 a month for 600 minutes, 3000 texts and 1GB of internet.

Samsung Galaxy S2 FAQ's

If you've not seen a guide for your problem on the main blog then this is the place to look for regularly asked questions on the Samsung Galaxy S2, if you've got any more to ask feel free to leave a comment:

Is the phone worth getting?
At the moment it's the best phone on the market (IMO) and until the iPhone 5 it's likely to remain that way. With contracts some can be as tasty as £30 a month (24 month) for 1GB internet, unlimited texts and 500 minutes (with 3 in the UK) it's really a phone worth getting and is more than affordable

How do I make the camera quiet?
You need to upgrade to the latest firmware and then set the phone to silent mode.
NOTE-The current version of the firmware takes away the ability to change text skin

Why is the home button slow?
When you press the home button you may notice a few seconds of lag, this is the phone waiting to see if you are pressing it once (to go home) or twice (to open up Vlingo voice control).

 

The best Free Android Apps

When it comes to “Apps” we all want the best that we can get for as little as possible. Here we are going to look at some of the best free Apps on the android marketplace. Feee free to download them or recommend more for this short (but growing) list:

Browser:
Skyfire
Opera Mini

Out of the two I personally prefer Opera Mini though both are excellent browsers that allow for multi-tabbed browsing and are extremely swift. Whilst other options such as Boat Browser, Dolphin and Ultra Light are available they aren't on par with the two I've listed above.

Games:
Alchemy
Angry Birds (the lot of them)
Bubble Blast 2
Jewels Deluxe Free&Full
Paradise Island
Pumpkins v Monsters

A guide on getting your Samsung Wave connected to Wifi

If you follow this guide you will have your Samsung Wave online via a Wi-Fi conenction (if you have one available) in absolutley no time at all. We should start at this screen here where you need to click the icon for "Settings". In this case it's in the bottom left hand corner though can be moved around and may not be in the same place by default.

 When you click on Settings you will see this screen open up. This is of course the settings menu which has a has of various sub menus. To connect to Wifi you need to click on "Connectivity" at this point.

How to take a Screenshot on a Samsung Galaxy S2 with ICS

When the SamsungGalaxy S2 first came out it was using the "Gingerbread" version of Android since then however the Galaxy S2 has been updated to "Ice Cream Sandwich" (or ICS). Whilst the update to ICS was a pretty big step forward it also changed a few things about how the phone operated, notably how a user took a screen shot.

 Originally to take a screen shot with the Samsung Galaxy S2
 a user had to press the Home Button and then swiftly press the power button, as described in our original guide.

Now however the user needs to press and hold both the volume down and the power button for around 2 seconds. After doing this the phone screen will "flash" and you will get a message like the one in the screen shot on the right with the phrase "Saving Screenshot..."  This means your screenshot is taken.

A few seconds after the "Saving" message you will see a new message saying "Copied to clipboard" then you are all done and the image is saved. From here you can either "Paste" the image into an e-mail or message (as long as it's still in your clipboard) or go into your gallery and find the "Screenshots" folder, where the screenshots will now be stored in.

Note-This isn't as easy as the old method, so you may find yourself needing practice. The best advice is to hold both buttons until the screen flashes, if the volume shows on the screen however try again

How to take a screenshot on a Samsung Galaxy S3

How to take a screenshot on a Samsung Galaxy S3

Just over a year ago we did a guide looking at how to do screen shots with the Samsung Galaxy S2, now however the Galaxy S2 has been over taken as the Samsung flagship device by the Galaxy S3, the new Samsung super phone. We thought it would make sense to a similar guide to explain how to take screen shots (also known as "screen captures" or "print screens" with a Samsung Galaxy S3.

Firstly you need to go onto a screen that you want to capture. For most this will be
something like their homescreen or a screen that has something interesting on (perhaps high battery use or odd data use), for this example we're using a home screen.

Whilst on the screen you want to capture you need to press and hold the phone's "Home" button on the centre of the phone and the "Lock" (or power) button on the right hand edge of the phone for about 2 seconds. After holding the buttons the screen will flash for an instant and then you will get two messages-
1-On the status bar you will see a message saying "Saving screenshot..."
2-A second or so later a massage on the lower part of the screen will show "Copied to clip board"

After these messages you will be able to find your screenshots saved in the "Gallery" app in a folder called "Screenshots".

Note-For people who used the Samsung Galaxy S2 with Gingerbread, the technique is almost identical. If however you used the Samsung Galaxy S2 with the updated updated Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) the technique is widely different.

Tips and Tricks for symbian mobile or for Smart Phone Symbian Mobile Tricks and Tips

Tip 1:  Do u know how to use the edit button (abc or pencil button)?
Hers how… in the inbox for example; u want to delete multiple sms, simply hold the edit button, scroll down, and then, press c to delete the marked sms. The edit button can also b used to copy and past text in sms, simply hold it and scroll across, choose copy. Pretty good for placing song names in ngages
 Tip 2: ….happens, on a smart phone, its inevitable u do something wrong, and this calls for a format of phone. To format the phone, press *#7370#, then enter the lock code, which is the sec code of the phone. NOTE: battery must b full, else if format is disrupted by low battery, consequences will b disastrous
I heard the code *#7780# works too, pretty much the same I think.
For 6600 users, to format the phone, there’s an alternative way. Press and hold <3>, <*>, and the buttons, then power on phone, keep holding on the 3 buttons, till u come to a format screen. This method ONLY works on 6600, and need not enter the sec code. BUT sec code will be reset to default 12345.

Tip 3: TO NGAGE USERS; did u know u can install .sis files simply using the cable given? Just plug it in, place the .sis file anywhere on e: (the mmc), not in any folders, root of e: disconnect, and then look for it in manager.

Tip 4: Save on battery and system memory being used by regularly checking the task manager which can be accessed by holding down the menu button!!

Tip 4a: Set the screen saver to a short time out period to prolong battery life.

Tip 4b: Avoid restarting the phone, or repeatedly turning it on and off. This helps increase battery life.

Tip 5: Type *#06# to display your IMEI serial number, very valuable for the unlocking your phone to other sim cards
Tip 6: Type *#0000# to view which firmware version you are running
Tip 7: If you would like to avoid being “blue jacked”, keep Bluetooth turned off, or set your phone’s visibility to hidden.
Tip 8: Don’t want to carry a watch and a phone? Set the screen saver to show date and time, then you can ditch the watch.