One of the trends that I’ve been following lately is the development of solar power technology for cell phones. I recently wrote an article about this for DialAPhone which reviews all of the different solar cell phone options that I’m aware of. It covers the following ten options:

1. Solar cell phones. These are handsets themselves that are solar-powered.
2. Solar cell phone sleeves. These chargers go around the cell phone.
3. Solar backpacks. These gather energy to power many small devices including cell phones.
4. Solar USB panels. This is one of the newer options out there.
5. Solar clothing. Swimsuits are particularly popular although I don’t know how practical this is.
6. Solar straps. These wrap around your wrist and gather the sun’s energy for your phone.
7. Solar cell phone accessories. Solar-powered phone speakers are an example.
8. Solar panels for buildings. This offers power for phones indoors.
9. Solar cell towers. This is a big-scale project for solar cell phone power.

If this topic interests you then I hope you’ll read the full article that I did on each of these options by followign the DialAPhone link above. If you know of any other solar cell phone options that I’ve missed then please let me know in the comments here!

Tags: cell phones, mobile technology, solar cell phones, solar power, solar power cell phones

I love to write top ten articles. Coming up with creative ideas for top ten articles guides my research and allows me to focus on interesting aspects of an industry. One industry that I particularly love doing top ten posts about is the cell phone industry. (In fact, you can see a list of my top ten articles in the top ten style for this topic right here.)

The most recent article that I did for this industry in that particular style was an article on 10 Great Jobs for Mobile Phone Lovers. This is a terrific example of a top ten article that’s fun to research. Off the top of my head, I was able to think of a few jobs that fit the bill (testing cell phones, designing handsets, etc.). However, I didn’t know of ten jobs so I got to spend some fun time researching the different positions that might come about that would be mostly cell-phone-focused. I learned about some interesting ones (like answering questions as an expert using text messaging – what a cool at-home job!)

I think that this is the best part of being a freelance writer / blogger if you take your research seriously. You get the opportunity to explore many different topics of interest. You get to research them completely and learn new things. It’s the perfect job for someone who really just wants to be a perpetual student!

Tags: cell phone jobs, cell phones, mobile phones, research, writing

I frequently write articles about mobile phones. These articles touch on a number of topics. I do reviews. I write news. I do in-depth feature articles about various issues. And I also do a lot of “top ten” style articles.

If mobile phones interest you and you like “Top Ten” articles then you might be interested in my Top 10 top tens on this topic:

1. 10 Health Problems People Claim are Caused by Cell Phones
2. 10 Companies to Help You Make Mobile Payments
3. 10 Celebrities Who Don’t Bother with Cell Phones
4. 10 Reasons a Person Might not Get a Smartphone
5. 10 Best Applications for Mobile Facebook Users
6. 10 Ridiculous Mobile Phone Apps
7. 10 Signs that It’s Really Time to Ditch your Landline
8. 10 Sites for Free Mobile VoIP
9. 10 Best Movies About Mobile Phones
10. 10 Rude Things People do on their Cell Phones

Cast your vote - Which is your favorite of these articles?

Tags: cell phones, kathryn vercillo, mobile news, mobile phones, top ten

Parents today have to worry about how their teens and tweens are going to be using modern technology. Learning to monitor their kids’ social networking sites and to make sure that they don’t get addicted to computer games is all a part of being a parent in modern society. Mobile phones are another thing that parents have to monitor and worry about.

The most common problems that parents face when it comes to kids and cell phones are:

• The fight over when to get one. A lot of kids start to want their own cell phone when they’re still in elementary school. Parents have to decide when they think it’s best to make this move.
• Excessive use of the cell phone. Parents may be upset by huge cell phone bills caused by kids who go over their minutes. Alternatively, they may just not want their kids on the phone as much as they are.
• Text message threats. Bullying via text message is an increasing problem among teens and tweens. Parents have to worry about their kids bullying others or becoming a victim of this type of bullying.
• Teen sexting. Kids who engage in teen sexting may not only be putting themselves at risk in their relationships but may actually be breaking the law.

What is interesting to note about these common problems is that they aren’t that different from what parents and their kids have been battling over for ages. Parents have to figure out how to set limits, monitor their kids’ behavior towards others and allow their kids to grow into sexual adults. The technology may be different from the past but the battles are the same.

Tags: cell phones, kathryn vercillo, most common cell phone problems for parents, Parenting, Technology, teens and cell phones

I used to be really opposed to stereotyping anything based on gender. However, over the years, I’ve learned that a lot of the stereotypes that we make provide interesting insight into the differences between men and women. I don’t necessarily think that the stereotypes are all true but they offer generalizations that can lead us to draw some conclusions about different things. This is most true about relationships but it’s also true about other things. For example, there are some stereotypes about shopping habits that are based on gender.

One area of this that interests me is the difference in how men and women shop for consumer electronics. The way that they shop for smartphones, for example, is quite different. Surveys indicate that men are more likely to buy these devices than women are. However, women are more likely to take into account all of the different factors that go into the phone in order to make the best selection.

Women are more interested in all of the different features of these phones. They want a phone that has a good camera, a great text message plan and tons of multimedia features. For this reason, they tend to be pickier about smartphones than men are. It takes them longer to make a decision about these phones and it may mean that they get more confused or frustrated when buying one. As a result, more men have smartphones than women at the current time.

Looking around at the people I know, I’d have to say that these things seem to be true. Most of the women I know either don’t have a smartphone or they took a really long time to choose one. Most of the men that I know do have a smartphone (and frequently upgrade to new ones) but they don’t actually use tons of the features that the phone offers. Hm, interesting.

Tags: gender, kathryn vercillo, men women, mobile phones, shopping, smartphones

It’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference between cell phones and laptops. Mobile phones that were once getting tinier and tinier have started to get bigger again so that people can use them in place of laptops for a lot of daily functions. At the same time, there are notebook computers that are getting smallers and smaller so that they can be carried everywhere like a phone is. Will the phone and the laptop be one and the same some day?

Cell phones are increasingly capable of doing many of the things that you would do on your laptop. People are even writing entire books on their mobile phones. However, there are some things that limit people from using mobile phones as true computers. One of the major problems is battery power. You can plug a laptop in anywhere and use it. This may not be true of your mobile phone. Plus a laptop battery often lasts longer than a cell phone battery. Scientists and engineers are working hard to create technology that will improve battery life of cell phones. If they are successful in doing this, will laptops become obsolete as they are replaced by mobile phones that can provide all the same functions?

I’m tempted to suggest that laptops will continue to exist but that desktop computers will disappear. I have two laptops and a desktop and I almost never use the desktop. The laptops are just more convenient even when I’m working at home. If I can use my mobile phone as a mobile computer and I can use my laptop like a desktop then what do I need a desktop computer for? Unless, of course, I want a big screen desktop for gaming and watching Internet TV. In that case, maybe I do need a mobile phone, a laptop and a desktop but I no longer need a television!

Tags: cell phone technology, mobile phone batteries, mobile technology, powering cell phones, Wireless

T-mobile is working the green angle with a set of products and services called Mobilize Initiative. This is a way for the company to put all of its green efforts under one umbrella. This might make it easier for mobile customers to go green.

3 of the features of the Mobilize Initiative program so far are:

• Green phones. T-mobile is trying to make its mark with offering eco-friendly handsets. This is probably going to be increasingly popular as time goes on.
• Green perks. There’s a new program called Green Perks which allows T-mobile customers to shop from their phones using coupons for green products.
• Green accounts. You can choose to go green with paperless billing and other eco-friendly features by selecting a green account from the company.

Green is popular right now so this could be something that helps set T-mobile apart from other cell phone carriers. What do you think – would you switch to T-mobile if it meant you were being greener?

Tags: cell phones, green, green coupons, green perks, kathryn vercillo, mobile phones, mobilize initiative, Technology, tmobile

I recently had the opportunity to do an in-depth review of the Samsung s8000 Jet. This is a new mobile phone that received more pre-orders than the iPhone did in its early days. That says something about the kind of attention that it’s getting.

While doing my research for the review, I kept coming across four main reasons that this new phone is so popular:

1. Speed. It’s one of the fastest phones available on the market today.
2. Display. It also has one of the most impressive screen resolutions out of any mobile phone line.
3. Advanced web browsing. The new web browser allows you to easily open multiple web pages and perform other fairly advanced mobile web functions.
4. Cool user interface. The main reason people love this new phone is that it has a user interface with lots of neat features. This includes fun shortcuts, transition effects and a neat “smart unlock” system that lets you program each letter key to simultaneously do its own function whil unlocking the phone.

It seems like a cool new phone. I think it’s worth taking a look at if you’re into smartphones (although it’s technically not a smartphone, I suppose). Also, if you’re interested in new mobile phones, you might want to follow these 20 mobile phone Twitterers.

Tags: cell phones, kathryn vercillo, mobile phones, news, reviews, samsung features, samsung jet, Technology, Wireless

I used to have a love/hate relationship with Twitter. Over time, that has changed. I lean a lot more towards the love side now. I suppose that’s because I’ve learned how to use Twitter in ways that make it fun for me. I meet people and share information there.

I actually do a lot of my research through Twitter, using it as a starting point to find news and articles about the topics that interest me. For example, I stay on top of the latest information and thoughts about mobile phones by following people on Twitter who write about these things.

There are so many people writing about this topic that it would be impossible to follow them all. I’ve found about 20 mobile phone Twitterers that really interest me a lot. These are what I would suggest as a starting place for people interested in researching that topic on Twitter.

Of course, you can make a list like this for any interest that you may have. I also follow people on Twitter who are interested in personal finance, simple living and creativity since those are topics that also interest me a lot. I think it’s worthwhile to take the time to find the people who are networking on these topics and to follow their activities online.

My Twitter account is at http://twitter.com/KathrynVercillo.

Tags: kathryn vercillo, mobile phones, research, Social Networking, twitter, Wireless

I recently did some research into a really interesting topic. The topic was how to become a cell phone tester so that you can try out mobile phones before they get released to the public. I didn’t know much about this before I started doing my research and found it all really fascinating.

What I learned is that there are five ways to become a cell phone tester:

1. Get a job with a mobile phone company and volunteer to do their testing.
2. Look for announcements from cell phone companies on their blogs where they sometimes ask for testers.
3. Look for these jobs on technology job boards where they’re occasionally advertised.
4. Become a mobile phone review writer or blogger. If you work for a good site, you can sometimes get items to test.
5. Network with people in the industry. It’s mostly who you know in this case.

It seems like a fun job or hobby if you can get it doesn’t it?!

Tags: cell phone tester, cell phones, how to test cell phones, hubpages, kathryn vercillo, mobile phones, weird jobs