Which Data Plan Do I Need?

Smartphones brought with them the idea of wireless data for the masses. Being able to access the internet when not at home was not new when the iPhone came out in 2007- business people had been doing it with their Blackberries for years before then- but since then it is now a given than phones can access the internet anywhere, and increasingly common for laptops to be able to do so as well. With this, people have increasingly been asking "Which data plan do I need?"

Here are the main things to consider when looking at data plans:

1. How much data you need- The first thing to do is consider how much data you need. Will you be streaming Netflix regularly or just checking your email every once in a while? Different uses use different amounts of data. The only way to really know how much data you use is to do it and adjust (you can usually increase your data service later, but not decrease it), but you can find a good file-size estimate here on What Size Flash Drive Should I Get?
2. Coverage in your area- Next, shop around for coverage in your area. Cheap data does you no good if you can't connect when you want! Compare their coverage maps, making sure you're looking at data coverage and not voice coverage. Additionally, most major carriers will have separate maps for the different speeds of data- LTE, 3G, Edge, etc. If you're not familiar with these terms, How Fast is 4G? may help. Use these maps to narrow down to carriers that will give you the most coverage in places you'll be spending most of your time.
3. Price per gig- For this, compare the price per gig for the remaining possible options. Buying "in bulk" will generally get you a better deal per gig, but don't fall into the trap of paying for more data than you'll honestly use. Look at your budget and what you can reasonably afford.
4. Speed of download/upload- At this point you'll have narrowed it down quite a bit and there will likely only be two or three contenders. At this point you may need to do some digging, but look at their data speeds. The higher the number, the better the speed generally speaking, though there are lots of nuances that can affect that. You'll also see two sets of speeds: upload and download. Upload is when you're putting information up into the internet, and download is when you are taking information down into your device.

After all these things have been considered, if two services offer the same price per gig of data, and have roughly the same coverage, go with the cheaper option.

How Do I Keep My Electronic's Battery Healthy?

It happens to phones, laptops, tablets, and everything else that uses rechargeable batteries (which seems to be increasing with every year). At first everything is fine, but slowly... eventually... you notice that the battery just doesn't seem to hold a charge as well as it used to. Maybe you used to only have to plug your phone in once every couple days, but now you have to charge it multiple times a day. Maybe your laptop used to never dip below 60% between uses, but now you get low-battery warnings regularly. Here are some tips for maximizing your electronic's batteries:

1. Check your settings- There are many things you can turn off, minimize that will help save on battery usage. Similar to how a car that's laden with weight uses more gas, a computer with lots of things turned on will use more electricity.
1. Turn off unneeded settings- New devices will often come with certain settings turned on by default to help maximize your user experience, but you may find that they're not needed for what you use the device for. For example, many devices come with bluetooth turned on. Bluetooth is a wireless technology used for connecting to different devices like wireless keyboards, your car, or wireless headphones. (You can read more about bluetooth here: What is Bluetooth?) 

   

   If you see this symbol, it likely means bluetooth is turned on for your device.

2. Dim your screen/keyboard backlighting-  Most electronic screens nowadays have the ability to adjust their brightness levels, and some computers even have light-up keyboards to make it easier to type in dim lighting. While these make it easier to use the device, they can also use a lot of battery power. Set your screen brightness as low as is comfortable for you, and if your device has it (Apple products like iPhones, iPads and Macs have this, for example) turn on auto-brightness so the screen automatically brightens and dims according to the amount of light around.
3. Put your device to sleep/turn off as needed- Not using your device for awhile? You can turn the screen off by either clicking the lock/unlock button (for mobile devices), or you can put your laptop to sleep by simply closing the lid. Depending on how long you'll be away from you computer, you may choose to turn it to screensaver, put it to sleep, hibernate, or turn it all the way off. You can learn more about which option is best for you here at When should I turn off my computer?
2. Don't completely drain it- Completely draining a battery (to the point the device shuts off) is bad for the battery, and while doing it once or twice likely won't have any noticeable effect on it's long-term lifespan, repeatedly doing it will put unnecessary wear on it. Think of it like exercising- you go until you're tired, but not until you pass out from exhaustion.
3. Don't be afraid to use it either though- On the other end of the spectrum, some people get laptops, but then leave them plugged in 99% of the time because they're afraid of using the battery. This can be just as harmful as the battery can "forget" how to hold a charge. Using the exercise analogy again, you don't train for a marathon by sitting around conserving your energy for weeks before.
4. Avoid extreme temperatures- "Don't leave electronics in any conditions you wouldn't leave your child." Both extreme heat (leaving it in the car for hours in the middle of summer) and extreme cold (leaving it in the car overnight during winter) can have detrimental effects on your battery. The optimal operating temperatures for lithium ion batteries- the kind used in most rechargeable electronics- are the same temperatures that you'd feel comfortable in. Because of this, also be mindful about using laptops on beds where blankets and pillows will retain heat and warm up the laptop unnecessarily- use a surface that wicks away heat like a wooden desk or plastic stand. You can read more about other weather dangers here at Hidden Winter Hazards for Your Electronics.

What Does Airplane Mode Do?

Heard the horror stories of people who go on a vacation or travel for work only to find a massive phone bill waiting for them when they get home? Sometimes the people don't even actually leave the country, but get close enough to a border that their phone connects to a cellphone tower on the other side. This happened recently when I took my family to see Niagara Falls. We were close enough to Canada, and far away enough from any cell towers on the US side that our phones connected to Rogers, a Canadian cell phone provider.

What if you don't want to turn your phone totally off, but want to ensure that you don't use the phone or data services? Maybe you're travelling abroad, going into a hospital, or boarding a plane. Simply go to the settings in your smartphone (airplane mode is for smartphones only), and, usually on the main settings screen, you'll see a little switch for Airplane Mode. Just turn it on and voila! It's like turning the phone part of your smartphone off. For iPhone users, I describe Airplane Mode as turning your iPhone into an iPod Touch.

You'll still be able to connect to wifi, but no calls, texts or voice-mails will be sent to your phone while in this mode. As soon as you turn it off, all the above mentioned things you missed will flood in, so don't worry!

Practical Tip of the Day:
When traveling, be careful which wifi networks you connect to. While most are legitimate, some may be monitored by hackers who can watch what you do and even connect to your computer through their network. If you see multiple possible networks, ask an employee of where you are which network is theirs. It's not uncommon to see fake wifi networks with seemingly proper names.

What is 4G LTE?

It seems that if you want to make sure you get a good cell phone nowadays you need a degree in mobile communication technology! 3G? 4G? LTE? Hot Spot? 16GB? 32GB? Droids? iOS? Anyone else here getting a bit confused and overwhelmed?

It would take far too long and boring an explination to explain all the terms to look at when picking out a cell phone, but since "4G LTE" has been being thrown around without explination a lot lately, I thought it would be nice to humanize it a bit. 4G LTE is a description of how a cell phone accesses the Internet. 4G stands for "fourth generation" and just means that it was developed after the 3G standard.

Each generation of technology (usually) is better than the last, and 4G is no exception. Actual speeds will vary depending on several factors I'll cover in a subsequent post, but it is generally accepted that 4G is faster than 3G. Faster at what? Internet access speeds will affect how quickly you can open up webpages, post photos to the Internet (like Facebook), stream movies from Netflix, and a slew of other things. Think of it as how fast your car can drive; If you have a slow car, it'll take longer to go places and do things.

LTE is just a description of what type of 4G network it is. LTE stands for Long Term Evolution, and if you forget that in two minutes, no one will fault you. There is another type of 4G used in the world called WiMAX, but unless you're planning a trip to South Korea any time soon I wouldn't worry about it, most major countries in the world either have or have plans to roll out LTE networks in the near future.

Practical Tip of the Day:
Some cell phone carriers are starting to offer wireless cards you can plug into your computers. Plug it into the USB port on your computer, and even if you're not connected to the Internet either physically or through a Wifi hotspot, you'll still be able to access the Internet. This is ideal if you travel for a living or go on a lot of vacations!

What Are Text Messages?

Previously, I had mentioned text messages (AKA SMS or texting) in an article about whether or not Facebook was replacing email. I love watching these topics build up on each other like this. One small step at a time, we're learning more about the technology world around us.

Text messages are exactly what their name says they are. They are messages made entirely out of text. They're sent from cell phone to cell phone (with some exceptions I won't go into here), and are usually short- around 200 characters or so.

"Texts" as they're usually called (short for "text messages"), are quickly becoming the most popular form of communication with American youth today. They're short, they're personal, private, and because they're instantly delivered, you don't have to wait for someone to check to see your message.

Text messages are different from email from both a fundamental and functional standpoint. Fundamentally, text messages seperate themselves from email because they are sent and received by cell phone towers, not over the Internet. In this way, texts are more closely related to phone conversations.

Functionally, text messages are short messages. They're usually one line messages like: "I love you, Mom." "Pick up milk on your way home, please." or the more common "c u l8r". What? You don't understand the last one?

Text messages have created their own cryptic psuedo-language that will drive any English teacher insane. The above message actually means "See you later." They make small reference guides to decyphering "text-talk", but I like my method of simply writing in normal English, and if someone replies with something I don't understand I simply reply with "?"

As tempted as I am to give a quick primer on popular acronyms, I'll leave that to the professionals. Click this link if you've found yourself confronted with text or Internet slang you don't understand, but I wouldn't try to memorize any of these. No one's going to be quizzing you. Promise!

Practical Tip of the Day:
Almost every cell phone on the market today is capable of text messaging, but often times it costs to send or even receive text messages. As any of our friends can attest, my husband used to scold people for texting him even though he didn't have a plan. Each time one of our friends forgot and sent him a message, it cost him $.5. Before you start going crazy sending text messages, make sure you and the people you want to text with have plans or you may be looking at additional charges to your monthl cell phone bill.