How to Use a Cellphone Without Any Service

These days, it seems like pretty much everyone you know has got a mobile phone tucked away somewhere on their person. This also means that everyone is paying massive telecom companies a monthly premium for the chance to use it… but what if you could own a phone complete with all the same features, but no activated plan? As long as you’re near a local Wi-Fi connection, iPhones and Androids can perform all the same tricks as they usually do, except at a fraction of the cost of what your monthly bill comes out to.

Here’s our guide on how to own a cellphone, but never pay for service.

WhatsApp

Who needs texting when you’ve got the next best thing just a download away? Thanks to new texting applications like Kik and WhatsApp, the option to forego your monthly phone bill doesn’t seem nearly as daunting or scary as it used to.

Whatsapp first made headlines late last year when it was bought up by Facebook for a staggering $1.2 billion, and those numbers don’t just come from anywhere. The app has experienced overwhelming success in its short time on the market, boasting a staggering 900 million members who flock to the app as fast and functional alternative to paying for the right to talk to their friends every day.

Some of the advantages of WhatsApp over traditional texting include perks like the ability to create group chats that are compatible with all mobile operating systems, whether it’s big time players like Android or iOS, or the smaller, lesser-known alternatives like Nokia’s Symbian. This means that instead of running into nasty blocks of green text clashing against blue in your messaging window, everyone enters the chat room on equal ground, and every picture, emoji, or voice memo will go through unabated thanks to the app’s universal formatting system.

No matter what operating system you’re on though, WhatsApp is a well-rounded, quick, and endlessly rich texting application that any frugal phone owner should have installed as a mainstay for their mobile device.

Whatsapp is available on all major app stores, and you can grab it for iOS or Android by following the links here and here, respectively.

Skype

Of course, this wouldn’t be an article about using your cellphone to circumvent calling plans without mentioning the one service that started it all: Skype.

Once you install Skype on your phone and hook up to the local Wi-Fi connection, you’ll immediately be able to message, call, or video chat with anyone of your choosing. Conversely, anyone who needs to get a hold of you can do the same as long as they have the Skype client installed on their phone or desktop computer.

The main convenience of Skype is not only its ubiquity, but also the fact that it works on pretty much any mobile or stationary device you can think of. Find anyone in your phone’s standard contacts list, and it’s almost assured they’ve got a Skype handle on the side, which makes messaging and talking to them over the Internet a whole lot easier than asking them to install an add-on like Kik or Whatsapp.

Fair warning, anyone who goes this route should know that while calls made within the United States or Canada are free of charge, the cost for international correspondences can vary depending on where the call is sourced from and where it’s going to. In general, you can expect the cost to rise the farther the call has to travel over the wires to get from your phone to whomever it’s intended to reach.

You can download Skype for iOS  free of charge here, and from Google Play here.

iPhone Wi-Fi Calling

Last up, if you happen to own an iPhone and need an interim solution in the wake of a few past-due bills, iOS’ internal Wi-Fi calling feature can come through when your carrier is knocking at the door but the credit card is already maxed. Wi-Fi Calling comes as an automatic inclusion to the iOS ecosystem for anyone running iOS 8.0 or above, however to actually start a Wi-Fi call on your iPhone, you’ll need to enable the option by going into your Settings –> Phone –> Wi-Fi Calling.

From here it’s just a matter of flipping the toggle on, and any calls you make from there on out will automatically be routed to your Wi-Fi network if one is already in range. The calls will all be made from your number, and it’s what people will see on their caller ID the next time you decide to ring them up. None of these calls will be tracked by your provider, and there is no extra charge for international or long distance calls as long as they are initiated via the Wi-Fi calling protocol.

Unfortunately, for the time being the only way that Apple was able to get the carriers to agree to make it a standard feature was for the company to require users to have a plan with one of the major telecoms in their region. These include Bell and Rogers in Canada, T-Mobile and AT&T in the US, and Vodafone in the UK, although the benefit here is that calls will still go through if your service has been deactivated for a period of 30 days or less. This service is great in a pinch when you might be behind on your monthly account statement, but still need a reliable way to get in touch with friends or family members that aren’t tech savvy enough to know what a “Skype” is, or what they’re supposed to do with it.

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Reckless Racing 2 with real cars made possible by Sony

For their latest promotional stunt, Sony have teamed up with a maker of full-size remote control cars to recreateReckless Racing 2 in real life. And what better phone to use as a remote control than the Xperia Play ?

One of the game’s levels is recreated on a dirt track, check out the video below.

A popular smartphone racing game has been made life sized, with game controls piloting actual cars on a real dirt track. The makers of Reckless Racing 2 partnered with Dr. James Brighton to remotely control a pair of MG F roadsters, sliding them through the dirt with just a few gestures on a touchscreen.

If you recognize Brighton’s name, it’s because he’s an expert in remotely controlling vehicles. He’s a professor at Cranfield University, but he’s also gained fame for some pretty cool extracurricular car hacks. Back in 2008, he revamped a Hummer H3 so it could be driven by remote control, and in 2010 he helped Mitsubishi realize a marketing campaign for the Outlander Sport that let internet users remotely test drive the new crossover from their computer screens.

This stunt was also part of a marketing campaign to showcase the gaming capabilities of Sony’s Xperia phones. For Reckless Racing 2, Brighton made it so that the cars’ steering, throttles and transmissions could exactly mimic gameplay on an Xperia Play and an Xperia S.

Time trials took place on a dirt track at Bentwaters, a former military base about 80 miles north of London. The setup faithfully replicated one that’s on screen in the game, complete with obstacles andample opportunities for skidding around corners.

For the race that made it to video (seen above), game designer Martin Noriander faced off against writer and gaming expert Hunter Skipworth using only smartphones to control the cars. The transition from touchscreen to track wasn’t entirely flawless: Both drivers had some trouble, sliding around corners and hitting a few obstacles, managing to complete the course in just over a minute each.

Unfortunately, since the supply of decommissioned air bases and working MG Fs is hardly unlimited, the remotely controlled racing was a one-time stunt. You can’t participate unless you rent a track and hack a car yourself.

wired.com
Video: Xperia Studio

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Do You Know Smartphones can last for weeks on one charge?

The days of having a full smartphone battery in the morning and a depleted one in the evening may very well be numbered with a new invention from the Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.

Material scientists at Vanderbilt University have developed a supercapacitor made out of silicon. Previously thought to be kind of a crazy idea, the silicon capacitor can be built into a chip – which means cell phones that work for weeks without needing a charge, or solar cells that produce energy with or without the sun. Pretty sweet deal. Published in Scientific Reports, the first-ever silicon supercap stores energy by gathering ions on the surface of the porous material.

Different from batteries, which work on chemical reactions, the silicon supercaps can be charged in minutes and last way longer. Silicon had been considered unsuitable for supercaps because of the way it reacts with the electrolytes that make the energy-storing ions.“If you ask experts about making a supercapacitor out of silicon, they will tell you it is a crazy idea,” said Assistant Professor Cary Pint, who headed the development team at Vanderbilt. “But we’ve found an easy way to do it.”

Pint’s team coated the silicon in carbon – well, technically a few nanometers of graphene – and it stabilized the surface of the silicon, making it perfect for storing energy.

“All the things that define us in a modern environment require electricity,” said Pint. “The more that we can integrate power storage into existing materials and devices, the more compact and efficient they will become.”

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Best sports and exercise headphones for iPhone and Android

Phones and portable media players are pretty much one and the same nowadays. A phone that can play tunes for hours and sounds crystal clear can only be made better with a solid pair of headphones. Below are some of the best headphones designed for sports and exercise. They are light, comfortable and can get quite a bit of adrenaline out of your tunes.

5. H2O Audio Surge Pro

As the name suggests, H20 Audio is a manufacturer specializing in waterproof headphones. The Surge Pro will not fall out of your ears when they get sweaty and you will never have to worry about water damage again. They sound best when you are fully submerged and it’s a great sensation.

4. Koss KSC75

One of the best budget headphones you can get for exercising is the Koss KSC75. The adjustable bands provide a very comfortable fit around each ear and an amazing sound quality that you will have trouble finding anywhere in the price range.

3. Motorola SF200

The SF200s are super flexible, durable and sweat proof for when you really have to go the extra mile. The cord is rubberized so it won’t tangle the way a lot of other headphones do. The flexibility also provides for a very edgy minimalistic modern look.

2. Bose IE2

The Bose IE2 are light as feathers, very comfortable and have exceptional sound quality with great bass. They also have a unique look that makes them stand out and are so comfortable that it’s very easy to forget you have them on. The unique flexible in-ear grip makes them virtually impossible to shake off even if you tried.

1. JVC HAFX1X Xtreme-Xplosivs

These headphones do nothing but live up to their name, because the bass is simply explosive. Despite looking bulky, these headphones are one of the most comfortable pairs on the market. The bass alone makes these headphones rival even the most expensive earbuds out there. The red cable is very fitting, almost like it’s mocking Dr. Dre’s Beats for being all style over substance, even though style is something the XX still has plenty of. The combination of comfort, intricate look and bass that will never fail to give you a rush of adrenaline at aprice that’s very much a steal make the JVC XX the number one set of earbuds for sports and exercising.

Have fun picking out the best sports and exercise headphones for your iPhone or Android

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How to Lock Down Your Android Tablet or Smartphone for Kids

Google has added more and more parental control-style features to Android over the years. You can give a kid his or her own restricted user account, lock access to a specific app, or restrict what websites kids are allowed to use.

Depending on the version of Android you have and your device manufacturer, you may not have some of these options — or they may look a little different.

Restrict Access to a Single Application

This means you could launch a game and pin it, handing it over and knowing a kid won’t go through your email or look up any inappropriate content. Or, if you want your kids using a specific educational app, you can ensure they’ll stay in that app.If your device has Android 5.0 Lollipop or newer, you can “pin” a specific app to your phone or tablet’s screen. You can then hand your Android tablet or phone to a kid and that kid won’t be able to leave the specific app until you enter a PIN.

To use this feature, you’ll need to open the Settings screen, select Security, and activate “Screen pinning” under “Advanced.” Tell Android to ask for your PIN or unlock pattern before unpinning the app. Next, open the app you can to pin, tap the “Overview” button to show the list of open applications as cards, and swipe up. Tap the pin on the bottom-right corner of an app’s card.

To leave a pinned app, hold the “Overview” button. You’ll be asked for your PIN or pattern if you configured that option.

Set Up a Restricted Profile on a Tab

Android Lollipop offers restricted profiles, a feature that arrived in Android 4.3.  Restricted profiles are only available on tablets — not smartphones. With a restricted profile, you can create a special user account that only has access to specific apps and content you allow.

To create a restricted profile, head to the Settings screen, tap Users, tap Add User, and tap Restricted Profile. You can then lock down the profile and switch between the restricted profile and main user account from the lock screen. (Switching back to the main user account will require your PIN or whatever other unlock method you use.)

Theoretically, restricted profiles allow you to restrict access to specific content in some apps. In practice, app developers have to implement this. You’ll mostly be able to choose which of the apps installed on your device the child’s profile has access to.

Set Up Web Filtering

If you want to do this, you have two options. You could visit Google Play on your Android device and install a parental-control or web-filtering app. Or, if the Android device will just be using your Wi-Fi network to access the web, you could configure parental controls on your router. if your router doesn’t offer such built-in parental control features, you could switch your DNS server to OpenDNS and use its parental controls.Unfortunately, Android’s restricted profile feature doesn’t provide a way to restrict adult content from being accessed through Google Chrome or other web browsers.

We’d encourage you to use OpenDNS and its well-regarded parental controls if possible, as many of the Android web-filtering apps seem to not work too well. They may also require paid subscriptions.

 Play Store Parental Controls

You can also further lock down Google Play to block expensive in-app purchases.The Google Play Store has its own parental control features. To access them, open Google Play on a device, tap the Menu button, tap Settings, and tap Parental Controls. Enter a special parental control PIN here and you can set age restrictions for what types of apps, movies, videos, music, and books a device can download. Anyone using the device won’t be able to download or purchase this type of content without the PIN. However, these restrictions only apply to the Google Play Store — uncensored content is still available through the web browser.

Other Parental Control Application

Due to Android’s flexibility, the Google Play Store is full of “parental control” apps that provide some amount of lock-down features. These will allow you to set up a special application launcher that can only launch approved apps for a child, for example. These shouldn’t be quite as necessary if you have access to the “restricted profiles” feature. If you do have access to the built-in Android parental control features above, the main reason to install a separate app is to restrict access to websites.

You could also use the guest account built into Android Lollipop for this, or create a separate user account (on tablets with Android 4.2 or later, or phones with Android 5.0 or later). These accounts can’t be “locked down” with parental controls, but they will ensure your kid is kept out of your main user account so they can’t go through your email or tamper with other sensitive data.

The guest user account is different because it can be wiped in between uses, while mobile will preserve a standard user account or restricted profile’s data and settings.

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How to Send Directions From Your Desktop to Your Phone in Google Maps

How to Send Directions From Your Desktop to Your Phone in Google Maps

This week, Google rolled out a new global feature for its desktop maps app that allows users to automatically send directions or addresses to their phone with the click of a single link. This setting should help to reduce the amount of time you end up scrambling between devices on your way out the door and streamline the process of importing directions without adding any extraneous glut that might slow you down when you’re already late for that dentist’s appointment.

iOS

Send to Phone works for both iOS and Android, although the setup procedure for each OS is slightly different.

To get the feature working on iOS, first you’ll need to make sure your Google Maps app has been updated to the most recent rollout, version 4.7.0. You can get this update by either checking your Update tab in the iOS App Store, or downloading the app as a fresh install. Once the update is installed, open up your maps app.

From here, tap in the top left corner to open up your menu, and look for the Settings option.

Click into Settings, and from here you’ll want to navigate to the Notifications section.

In Notifications, you’ll see a toggle for “Sent from desktop app”. Turn this on, and then go back to your desktop.

Now anytime you search for a new location in Google Maps, you’ll see the option to “Send to device”, highlighted below.

Click this, and you’ll be greeted with a list of options for each device you have registered with the account!

A gray checkmark will confirm that the transmission was successful.

Any locations or directions sent to the phone will appear as a notification in your notification center, and once you select it, you’ll be taken directly to the maps app with the address front and center.

Android

For Android, the process is even easier. All you need to do is go into the Google Play Store, update your Google Maps application, and you’re done! Once Maps is running the most current version, the phone you’ve installed it on will automatically pop up in the Send to Device prompt on the desktop client.

 

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For both operating systems, you need to be sure that you’re registered on the same account for your mobile device as you are on the desktop version of Google Maps. This is how the directions are communicated, and you can only add new devices to the same email as long as they’re registered by the owner themselves.

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How to Reconfigure Your Sleep Cycles Using Your Smartphone or Smartwatch

                   How to Reconfigure Your Sleep Cycles Using Your Smartphone or Smartwatch

Here’s something you probably didn’t know you were doing wrong: getting a good night’s sleep.

According to a poll conducted earlier this year, more than 75 percent of Americans don’t get as much sleep as they should, meaning more of us than ever before are spending our days tired, spaced out, and not nearly as productive as we could be due to lost hours that should have been spent slumbering in the sack.

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Download Mobdro apk To Watch Over 2,000 Dstv Channels On Mobile Phones Free

Its interesting that I bring to you guys one of the best app for watching over 2,000 free DSTV channels at the convenience of your smartphone (Android phone & BB10 device)

Mobdro is an app that super seeds the efficiency of other mobile TV apps like sybla TV, Dish anywhere, Direct TV etc and provides you with a whooping number of DSTV channels. One interesting thing is that you also get to watch most the paid channels for free. Its got you covered on your favorite premier league football matches. No scrambling of any sort just plug and play.

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How to Charge Your Phone or Tablet Faster

Not all charging is equal. If your smartphone (or tablet) is low on battery and you only have a limited amount of time to charge it, here’s how you can get the most juice possible.

These tips should work for practically anything that charges via USB, including cameras, peripherals, and any other device you might have.

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