Accessory Advisor

One way to get more out of your Blackberry battery is to carry it in a holster with proximity sensing technology.  The technology uses a magnet to put the Blackberry phone into sleep mode when it is inserted into the holster.  As a result, battery life is increased substantially when the unit is not in use.

While shields or cases provide good protection for Blackberry phones, they will not provide proximity sensing technology.  Regardless of whether you will be carrying your phone in your pocket, on your belt, or elsewhere, using a holster with proximity sensing is a great way to increase your battery life.

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I was looking for a Blackberry battery and came across a situation that reminded me of something to watch out for primarily when buying batteries online.  I found a site that had the C-S2 OEM battery at a great price.  The battery was 70% off retail and a good 30% cheaper than I could find it anywhere else.  My first thought was this is great.  But, after reading the reviews submitted by past customers, it became apparent these were either counterfeit, refurbished, and/or used batteries being sold as new.  Almost every reviewer noted the poor talk and standby time or the battery going dead after only a few weeks.

While we all want to get more out of our battery, the authentic, new C-S2 provides pretty good talk and standby time and should last through at least 800 charging cycles.  So while it would have been great to get a battery at this kind of discount, the reality is it was not a discount but a rip off.  If your not one to buy an Omega watch on the street for $10 because you know it is fake, be careful of the same thing online with cell phone accessories.

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Samsung has announced a $30 mail in rebate on their award winning WEP500 and WEP410 bluetooth headsets.  The rebate is good on purchases made by May 15th.  Be sure you get an authentic Samsung headset as the rebate will not be honored on counterfeit units.  This $30 rebate cuts the final price on these units by 40 to 50 percent.

The WEP500 is described as-

SAMSUNG’s smallest Bluetooth headset has both powerful features and an innovative design. At a mere 7.7mm thick, the WEP500 Bluetooth headset is one of the smallest Bluetooth headsets available today and hosts the latest Bluetooth technologies including advanced noise reduction technology and revolutionary echo cancellation performance. The WEP500 has talk times of up to 3.5 hrs and standby times of up to 80 hours. Package includes a Travel Charger, Headset Cradle, and User Manual. The SAMSUNG WEP500 is compatible with SAMSUNG and other non-SAMSUNG Bluetooth enabled phones.

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Since bluetooth has become standard on most phones, car kits have dropped in popularity.  It used to be all the OEM’s such as Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung had a full intall car kit with antenna connector for almost every phone they made.  These days, the OEM’s make few if any full intall car kits.  So are car kits a thing of the past.  Yes and no.  There are still car kits available for some phones like Sprint Nextel and some Blackberry phones.  These are made by aftermarket manufacturers but are good quality and work great.  The one aspect of the car kit that is still popular though is the antenna boost the kit would give to the signal strength.  While you may not be able to find a full install car kit for your phone, if you need a boost to your signal, there are plenty of signal amplifier options available.  Some require a connection to the phone, others dont. 

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As phones, mp3 players, gps units, and other electronic devices continue to get more powerful, the need for powering them up will continue to be an issue.  While I try to be good about plugging my cell phone and sandisk mp3 player in when I am at home or at my desk, I find it much more convenient to charge them in the car.  Each of my vehicles has multiple cig adapters so it is easy to keep everything plugged in.  The challenge is finding good quality vehicle chargers that I trust wont fry my device.

Sometimes people seemed shocked that I am leery of ultracheap car chargers.  Why not buy a charger for a buck on ebay or at the dollar store?  Both my phone and MP3 player would cost well over $100 to replace.  I don’t trust either to a car charger that is cheap and not guaranteed.

Guaranteed?

Absolutely.

Any quality company will back up their charger with a guarantee it will not fry the device.  If there charger does, they will replace the device for free.  You might think all companies provide this kind of assurance.  Nope.  Some of the more popular online retailers and at least some offline retailers dont.  As a result, if you fry your device, you either will have to see if the manufacturer will cover it or try to go after the company.  Both will probably end in failure.

Most manufacturers note on the warranty terms that the use of non-OEM items such as chargers may damage the phone and the warranty will not cover this type of damage.  In going after the company you can chargeback the purchase but if it was only a buck, so what.  Trying to get them to pay for the device will generally end in a refusal as they never guaranteed the item in the first place. 

My advice, always check the sellers info to see if they provide a guarantee.  If not, dont buy from them unless you dont care about your phone, mp3 player, or other electronic device. 

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Data kits and cables have been gaining popularity as newer phones have more options such as cameras, compatibility with MP3 ring tones, and hold more data.  The ability to sync contacts, transfer pictures, make or transfer ring tones, and other functions of data kits provides and easy and convenient way to maintain information on your phone.

One consideration in choosing a phone and service provider should be the ability to transfer information between it and a computer if you will be using these functions.  Most service providers like Cingular, and T-Mobile allow you to use all the available features of your phone that the manufacturer built in.  This may include transferring pictures and ring tones to and from the phone.  Syncing contact data, notes, and calendars.  Some service providers like Verizon severely limit data kit features that can be used with their phones.  For instance, they may have disabled the ability to transfer ring tones or pictures.  Even the ability to sync is limited to doing so only with a data cable versus a bluetooth connection.  To transfer images or ring tones to the phone, Verizon’s paid service must be used.  So a Motorola RAZR on the Cingular or T-Mobile network can make full use of all data kit functions while the Verizon version (RAZR V3c) can only sync and transfer pictures from the phone to the computer.  A good resource to find out what limitations Verizon may have put on a phone can be found on CNET.com.

Phones also have a broad range of features available.  The Treo Smartphones such as the Treo 700w and Treo 650 allow the storing and syncing of a tremendous amount of calendar, contact, and reminder information.  The very popular Motorola RAZR on the other hand is somewhat limited in the amount of information that can be stored.

Motorola makes a great data kit for their phones.  The Motorola Phonetools suite provides a great user interface and a lot of options for synching your phone.

Nokia sells the data cables without software but allows the software to be downloaded for free from their website.

LG sells cables and software separately.

A number of “aftermarket” manufacturers also offer data cables and software for multiple phones.  One of these is Susteen.  They offer the Datapilot Data Kits for all brands including Nokia, Motorola, LG, Samsung, Kyocera, and more.  The features of the software depend on what options the phone itself has built in.

Another company, Mobile Action, provides data kits for most brands as well.  They include 1000 ring tones with the software.  Again, the functionality of the data kit is limited to the features of the phone

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