SaveOnCellPhones.ca

BBC NEWS ARTICLE MAY 29, 2009

This is a great story that I came across on the internet a few weeks ago.  It sounds as though when you go to prison one of the hardest things to detach yourself from is your cell phone.  These prisoners were foiled in their attempt to get cell phones air lifted by remote control helicopter into their prison compound.  Here is the article by Gary Duffy of BBC News in Sao Paulo.

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“Police in Brazil have foiled a plot to smuggle mobile phones into a high-security prison using a remotely-controlled model helicopter.

Four people were arrested and the high-tech toy was recovered after police stopped a car near to the jail.

Mobile phones are widely used by prisoners inside jails in Brazil to continue directing criminal activities.

Earlier this year prison guards in the same state discovered that pigeons were being used to carry mobile phone parts.

It seems the plot to smuggle the mobile phones into the Presidente Venceslau high security jail in Sao Paulo state was only stymied when police stopped a car as part of a routine check.

In the boot of the vehicle they found the one-metre long model helicopter with a basket-like container attached to its base.

Inside were nine mobile phones wrapped in a disposable nappy, while another five phones were also discovered in the vehicle.

Four suspects were arrested, and the youngest, who was aged just 17, is reported to have confessed they had been given $5,000 to buy and prepare the helicopter.

They were apparently to be paid the same amount if they had successfully landed the model inside the prison walls.

Prisoners in Brazilian jails routinely use mobile phones to carry on with criminal activity, and the police say the ones they recovered were probably intended to go to gang leaders inside the jail.

It is not the first time that the authorities have foiled an innovative attempt to smuggle material into a jail in Brazil.

Earlier this year Sao Paulo state prison guards uncovered a plot using pigeons to carry mobile phone parts over the walls of a jail.”

Please click the link below for the story and photos of the helicopter on BBC News:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8067589.stm

Enjoy your freedom and your cell phones!

www.saveoncellphones.ca

Learn How To Text Message from Email

Keeping with the Topic of Text Messages and SMS, here is a cool and quick way to again text message your friends for FREE! In last weeks post I wrote about going to a carrier’s website and sending a text message to one of your friends.  In this article I will explain how you can email your friends a text message directly from your laptop (or Mobile Phone).

Every phone has an email address attached to it that you can send a message to.  Sending a message to the phone’s email address sends an email to the carrier essentially saying, “this is a text message could you convert it from this email format and text it to my friend’s phone?”  This is very similar to sending a text message from the carrier’s website. You input the message and they send it to the subscriber’s phone for you.

So the next question is how do you do it.  Essentially all you need to do is determine you friend’s phone’s email address.  Again, we are going to need to know what carrier they are on and we also need their phone number.  All you have to do is email the message to the corresponding email address.

For example:        7805551234@pcs.rogers.com

Above the email address has the person’s phone number (780)555-1234 at (@) the carrier’s corresponding web address (pcs.rogers.com).  All that you require is to know the carrier end for the email address.  Here are some of the common addresses for the Canadian carriers and some of the US ones.  If you are looking for international carriers do a search on Google for Email to Text and the carrier name and you should be able to find the corresponding address.

CANADIAN CARRIERS:

Telus:
@msg.telus.com

Fido:
@fido.ca

Bell Mobility (Canada):
@txt.bell.ca

Bell Atlantic:
@message.bam.com

Rogers Wireless:
@pcs.rogers.com

US CARRIERS:

Verizon Wireless:
@vtext.com

Cingular Wireless:
@cingularme.com

AT&T PCS:
@mobile.att.net

Sprint PCS:
@messaging.sprintpcs.com

T-Mobile:
@tmomail.net

Cellular One:
@mobile.celloneusa.com

Comcast:
@comcastpcs.textmsg.com

REMEMBER: Text messages are typically only 140-160 characters long.  Keep your message short and simple so you don’t crowd up their cell phone screen with text.

If you are still having trouble figuring out how to Text to Email you can view this video which gives you a great overview of how the process works.  Happy Texting and enjoy saving money.

Cost Saving Text Messaging

More and more of us are text messaging and text messaging plans are getting both bigger and more expensive.  I recently had one client that used 2900 text messages in one month!  That is nearly 100 a day.  Unfortunately for her she was not on the correct text messaging plan and she was paying $0.15 / msg for a lot of those texts.

Here is a quick and easy way to save some money on your text messages.  Each of the carrier’s websites (Rogers, Telus, Bell and others) have websites where you can send text messages to their subscribers for free.  As an example, if I am a Rogers subscriber and I want to send a text message to my friend on Telus instead of texting from my phone I can go to a Telus website from my laptop (or mobile device) to send the message.

This is a quick and easy way to send a free message to your friends and family while avoiding the high costs of text messaging.  I will provide you with the website links for some of the Canadian carriers, but you may also want to look for some of the links for US or International carriers.  Go to your friend’s carrier website and look for “Send SMS” or “Send Text” .  There is typically a link that will allow you to send free text messages.

Here are some of the links for Canadian Carriers.  Remember, you need to find out from your friend which carrier they are on as it only works if you send it from their carrier’s website.

Telus Mobility: http://www.telusmobility.com/en/BC/send_message/

Bell Mobility: http://www.txt.bell.ca/bell/en/

Rogers Wireless: http://websms.rogers.page.ca/2way/ 

                (Note: Free User Account Required)

Fido Mobile: http://websms.fido.page.ca/2way/?lang=en 

                (Note: Free User Account Required)

Solo Mobile: http://www.txt.mysolo.ca/solo/en/

Koodo Mobile: http://koodomobile.com/en/on/sendamessage.shtml

There are also a number of websites on the internet that offer free text messaging to various carriers around the world.  These can sometimes be hit or miss and you need to be careful about using them as you may get added to a distribution list.  You can search on Google for them but I would recommend that you stick to the carrier ones above.  Use at your own risk, but they do save the hassle of going to the different carriers websites.

Be sure to save this post on your computer so you can quickly access these links and text your friends for free.  You may also want to try this from a web browser on your phone as it may save you some time and money that way as well.  Have fun texting.

Training: Sending a Text Message

After my last post I realized that some of you might not be fully versed in sending a text message.  So I have added this short post to help you with a bit of training on sending a text message.  Instead of reinventing the wheel I am instead going to direct you to some good resources that will help you with creating, editing and sending text messages.  These sites specialize in helping with the “How To” scenarios.

WikiHow is a great website with a lot of tips and tricks on how to do things.  They have a simple article on how to send text messages and how to do a variety of other tasks with your phone.  Here is a direct link to their article on, “How to Send a Text Message.”

http://www.wikihow.com/Send-a-Text-Message

Additionally, some of you may prefer a more visual training and introduction to sending a text message.  The following video gives a good introduction to sending text messages on your phone.  If you are looking for more resources I would recommend that you go to YouTube and search for Sending a Text Message.  You should find some other good tips and video clips through there.  For now, watch this video on Sending Text Messages.

If you have any questions or if I can provide you with any more help related to text messaging please do not hesitate to comment on this posting and I will get back to you.  Happy texting.

www.saveoncellphones.ca

Saving Money on Text Messages by Using Blackberry Messenger

Everyday there are more and more Blackberry users in the Canadian wireless marketplace.  With approximately 50 million Blackberry users worldwide this contributes for a significant number of Blackberries on the market.  If you are a Blackberry user this article is directed specifically at you.  Blackberries are packed with great features, cool apps, fast productivity tools and Outlook syncing email.  However, many Blackberry users are still very unaware of one of the standard device applications called Blackberry Messenger.

Blackberry Messenger (BBM) is very similar to other instant messaging programs like MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ and Skype Chat.  They are simple programs that allow for instant messages to quickly and cost effectively be sent from one user to another or multiple users.  The only difference with BBM is that the instant messaging occurs from your Blackberry (instead of a laptop) and you can only “chat” with other people who have a Blackberry on a data plan.  However, the advantage is that through RIM’s compression software, using BBM costs next to nothing as it uses very little data and you can chat with anyone around the world who has a Blackberry.

So if you have friends with Blackberries in London, New York, and Tokyo just add them to your BBM and you will be able to message them for free and avoid both expensive long distance calls and costly international text messages (usually $0.60/ each).

So how does BBM work exactly? Each Blackberry comes with a unique PIN (Personal Identification Number).  This PIN is used to connect one Blackberry to another and allow them to communicate.  By adding your friends’ or colleagues’ PINs to their contact information you can then add them to your Blackberry Messenger list.  Let me explain how to do this. 

First you will need to figure out your own PIN and then you can use this to determine your contact’s PIN.  There are two options.  From your Blackberry go to OPTIONS (Wrench Icon) and then STATUS.  Under STATUS you will see a line that says PIN.  This is your PIN Number.

Another way to find your PIN is to start a new text message an type “mypin” followed by a space.  This will automatically input your PIN into a text message so you can send it to your contact.  When you have received your contact’s PIN you then need to add it to their profile in your address book.  Find their name, edit their contact information and when you scroll down you will see a place for PIN.  Enter and save the PIN there.

Now, the next step is to locate the BBM application on your Blackberry.  You need to look for the BBM icon which looks like a Chat Bubble with the Blackberry icon in it.  (Examples are located below). Open up Blackberry Messenger, select the MENU button and go to ADD A CONTACT.  Then scroll down to the contact’s name and select them.  A notification is then sent to that person’s Blackberry and once they have accepted the two of you will be able to chat over BBM.

(For more information on how to use BBM visit the RIM website for their PDF user guide, or you can connect to their PDF directly through this link: http://bit.ly/Wbn7G)

As you take some time to use BBM you will see how user friendly the application is.  It is much more advanced than text messaging, less expensive and allows for much higher productivity.  With BBM you can send files, business cards, photos and you can have multiple people conference in on a conversation.  Take some time to try out BBM and I know you will be a huge supporter too.

www.saveoncellphones.ca