7 Siri Trips to Help Get More Out of Your iPhone

Apple’s voice-activated assistant is now a well-known personality in his/her own right, but unless you’ve taken the time to dig into all the features that Siri offers you might not realize just now capable it is (particularly since the arrival of iOS 7). Here are seven ways to get Siri working harder for you. Siri can not only “turn off Bluetooth” but will also help you find a setting if you don’t know where it’s located. Try asking to “change the font size” or “adjust the screen brightness” or “edit Safari settings,” and Siri will direct you to the right options page, with no need for you to search through screens yourself. Call up the app if you want to reconfigure your iOS gadget but aren’t sure where the option is (or don’t want to go through multiple taps to find it).

Read the full story at Gizmodo.

Viewsonic V350 Dual Sim Smartphone now in stock at Expansys

A few weeks ago Viewsonic announced the dual sim V350 Android phone. It has a very basic spec and it runs Android 2.2, but it can use two sim cards at once. Oh and it’s cheap ( 244.99 inc vat). Below is the spec for the phone.

• Dimensions (mm): 60.9 x114x12.45 mm
• Weight: 125g
• Chipset: Qualcomm MSM 7227 600Mhz
• WAN SIM (GSM/WCDMA Band)
  SIM 1: GSM Quad-band 850/900/1800/1900 UMTS Band 900/2100
  SIM 2: GSM Quad-band 850/900/1800/1900
• RAM: 512MB
• ROM: 512MB
• Operation system: Android 2.2
• Display (resolution): 3.5″ (480 320) TFT, capacitive multi-touch screen
• External storage: Micro SD (up to 32GB supported)
• Camera: Autofocus 5MP (rear)
• Bluetooth: 2.1 + EDR
• WIFI: 802.11 b/g
• 3G speed: HSDPA 7.2 Mbps
• Video: 30fps WVGA encode/decode
• I/O ports: 3.5mm audiojack/micro USB (device)
• GPS: GPS/AGPS
• Sensor: Gravity sensor/E-compass sensor/ambient light sensor/proximity sensor
• Data Sync: Micro USB
• Battery: 1400mAH with hard-packed Li-Polymer, charged via mini-USB
• Multimedia playback:
  PIC: JPEG/GIF/PNG/BMP
  Video: H.263, H.264 AVC, MPEG-4 SP
  Audio: AAC LC/LTP, HE-AACv1 (AAC+), HE-AACv2 (enhanced AAC+), AMR-NB, AMR-WB, MP3, MIDI, Ogg Vorbis, PCM/WAVE
• Documents: EPUB/TXT/HTML/RSS/OFFICE/PDF viewer

So your probably not blown away by the specs that are almost identical to the old HTC Hero. But don’t forget it has two sim slots! This is a feature that only Viewsonic seem to have decided to use. It would be ideal to have your personal sim and your work sim in one phone. Personally I would go round the bend having my personal sim in such an underpowered phone. But hey that’s just my opinion. This may appeal to quite a few people as back in the days of Windows Mobile 6 there were a few dual sim phones that were fairly sought after. I would like to try one of these out to see how it handles phone calls ie work calls and personal calls and also the data element as the second sim slot is gsm only so no high speed data on sim 2. So is this right up your street? Do you just carry around two phones? Would you like to see this feature on more devices? Let us know.

Link to Expansys

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Facebook Messenger for BlackBerry takes on BBM

Dedicated app for BB users

Facebook Messenger has landed on BlackBerry, the social networking site has announced, bringing with it a load of new features into the mix.

“In this version, we’ve included a bunch of new features and performance improvements designed to make your messaging experience even better,” says Facebook on the new app, that joins the Android and iPhone versions that are currently available.

One of those new features is the ability to see who’s online and who’s on mobile, and know when the other person is typing. It’s also easier to send messages to the people you message most.

The new Facebook Messenger for BlackBerry is available in the App World now.

The app is standalone – not just an extension of the current Facebook apps – and ties in with the Message side of your Facebook persona. This means it will bring in all your Facebook conversations no matter where they took place, also offering additional features like one-click access to messages, location mapping, and the ability to message groups and mobile contacts.

If your message target is a Facebook friend already they will receive the message through the social network, but you can also message non-Facebook friends with notes that will send as texts.

“When you’re on the go, coordinating a bunch of people can be tricky, especially if plans change at the last minute,” said Lucy Zhang, Beluga co-founder and Facebook engineer at the time of the original iPhone launch in August.

“With Messenger, you can quickly start a group conversation and message everyone at once. If you choose to add your location, the people you’re messaging with can easily find each other on the map. You can also attach photos, so everyone else can see and comment on what you’re looking at.”

Siri for iPhone 4: under review at Apple?

A few days ago, some very interesting rumors concerning Siri, Apple’s new voice assistant service for the iPhone 4S surfaced. According to the folks at jailbreaknation.com who claims to have a source close to Apple – the company is said to be testing Siri on devices other than the iPhone 4S, namely the iPhone 4 (and the iPad 2?). Apparently Apple has given its employees access to a special software build that brings Siri to older devices (in case you didn’t already know, at the moment Siri is (officially) only available on the iPhone 4S) and if testing goes well, we should see Siri on non-4S devices in the form of an update in the near future.

If these rumors turn out to be true, it looks like Apple could be blurring the line between the iPhone 4 and the 4S – since Siri is one of its main “upgrades”, with another one being the improved camera. People with an iPhone 4 wouldn’t see the need to upgrade, for Siri functionality, but then again consumers weren’t going to upgrade just for the voice assistant anyway. Would this lead to increased iPhone 4 sales (since it’s more affordable)? What do you think?

Don’t want to shell out the cash for an iPhone 4S? Lease one on O2

If you can lease a vehicle, why not a smartphone? That’s O2 s line of thinking, anyways, as the UK carrier has begun piloting a rental scheme – called O2 Lease – with the iPhone 4S in the driver’s seat. For a 12-month lease period and 55 per month, you’ll be able to rent the 16GB version and get 750 minutes, unlimited messaging, 500MB of data and insurance. Want a 32GB model? That’ll be an extra 10 per month. Since it’s a rental, you’ll be required to give the phone back after your year is up, but at that point you’re free to grab a new device – a great idea for anyone embarrassed to still be holding onto a primitive year-old phone. As O2 puts it: “this is the first tariff model available to all O2 customers that reflects the lifestyle of the smartphone industry.” If the pilot’s successful, the company will consider expanding its selection to more devices; since not everyone wishing to lease a smartphone wants an iPhone, we’d say the more handsets the merrier.

One-Ring Missed Calls from Unknown Numbers May Be Scams

The people who read our site are a pretty savvy lot. You know not to accept checks from distant princes. You can spot a phisher from a mile away. But here’s one that might be new for you: scammers are apparently trying to exploit your “missed call” screen, now. The scam, simplified: They call you, but immediately hang up. You see a missed call. You call back. They charge you for the call, and for each minute they can keep you on the line. According to the BBB, this so-called “One Ring” scam is on the rise. Like many a ruse, this one relies on hitting many, many potential targets at once. The scammer sets up a computer to call thousands of numbers per hour – because for every 99 people who follow their gut and don’t call weird numbers, there’s 1 person who will. Maybe they’re waiting for response on a job interview, and don’t know what number it’ll come from.

Read the full story at TechCrunch.

AT&T Launches Mobile Share Family Value Plans

It seems like everyone is going “un-carrier” these days, slowly branching out from the standard two-year contracts that have dominated the US smartphone industry for the last few years. Today AT&T announced a new “Mobile Share Value Plan” for families and small businesses, which gives both new and existing AT&T customers the opportunity to share unlimited talk and text and a 10GB pool of data starting at $130 a month. AT&T’s pricing table indicates that you’ll be paying $100 for the 10GB of data and $15 for each phone you connect-three lines will run you $145 a month, four will cost $160, and so on up to a total of 10 lines for $250 a month. New-to-AT&T customers who want to take advantage of the new pricing will either need to sign up for AT&T’s Next program, bring their own unlocked devices, or buy phones at the standard unsubsidized price.

Read the full story at Ars Technica.

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