Mobile Phone Tips & Tricks

Use a speaker phone accessory while driving as this allows you to keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road.


Do not permit a battery out of the phone to come in contact with metal objects, such as coins, keys or jewellery.


If by mistake you have done something wrong in the settings and you are not able to switch back to original settings then you can reset the settings by typing *#7780#.


If a program hangs and you can't shut it down, select the application in the application switching window and press 'C' to close it. It's also a faster way to exit programs.


For checking the Call Redirection status Type *#61# and press call.


If your phone doesn't have incoming call barring and outgoing call barring, you can try this. For outgoing call barring dial *33*barcode*# and pres OK. To deactivate it dial #33#barcode*#.


Close unnecessary active applications like IM chat, instead of letting them run in the background.


If you need to block SMS reception (if you are spammed by someone) just press this code: 
*35*xxxx*16# xxxx is your Call Barring code (default is 0000). To remove this barring type: #35*xxxx#.


When the SIM card-pin blocked type **042*pin2 old*newpin2*newpin2*. 


In order to keep oneself away from the hackers ensure that a strong password is created for your mobile PC. Also change your passwords one in a month.

10 things you don't know about NOKIA

1) The ringtone "Nokia tune" is actually based on a 19th century guitar work named "Gran Vals" by Spanish musician Francisco Tárrega. The Nokia Tune was originally named "Grande Valse" on Nokia phones but was changed to "Nokia Tune" around 1998 when it became so well known that people referred to it as the "Nokia Tune."


2) The world's first commercial GSM call was made in 1991 in Helsinki over a Nokia-supplied network, by Prime Minister of Finland Harri Holkeri, using a Nokia phone.


3) Nokia is currently the world's largest digital camera manufacturer, as the sales of its camera-equipped mobile phones have exceeded those of any conventional camera manufacturer.


4) The "Special" tone available to users of Nokia phones when receiving SMS (text messages) is actually Morse code for "SMS". Similarly, the "Ascending" SMS tone is Morse code for "Connecting People," Nokia's slogan. The "Standard" SMS tone is Morse code for "M" (Message).


5) The Nokia corporate font (typeface) is the AgfaMonotype Nokia Sans font, originally designed by Eric Spiekermann. Its mobile phone User's Guides Nokia mostly used the Agfa Rotis Sans font.


6) In Asia, the digit 4 never appears in any Nokia handset model number, because 4 is considered unlucky in many parts of Southeast/East Asia.


7) Nokia was listed as the 20th most admirable company worldwide in Fortune's list of 2006 (1st in network communications, 4th non-US company).


8. Unlike other modern day handsets, Nokia phones do not automatically start the call timer when the call is connected, but start it when the call is initiated. (Except for Series 60 based handsets like the Nokia 6600)


9) Nokia is sometimes called aikon (Nokia backwards) by non-Nokia mobile phone users and by mobile software developers, because "aikon" is used in various SDK software packages, including Nokia's own Symbian S60 SDK.


10) The name of the town of Nokia originated from the river which flowed through the town. The river itself, Nokianvirta, was named after the old Finnish word originally meaning sable, later pine marten. A species of this small, black-furred predatory animal was once found in the region, but it is now extinct.

3 Amazing Themes For Your Rooted Android Device & How To Use Them

3 Amazing Themes For Your Rooted Android Device & How To 

One of the things I like best about Android is how customizable it is. The Market is full of themes you can apply to different launchers, and if your Android device is rooted, you can even apply themes to the system as a whole, changing the appearance of the notification bar, buttons, and more. But it can often be annoying to sift through the myriad themes just to find the few good ones. That’s where this post, andN3xGen Theme Manager, comes in.

N3xGen Theme Manager is a free app that provides an easy, comfortable way to browse and filter lots of themes. Let’s look at how it works, and also at a few of the better free Android themes out there.

The App

The app bills itself as a “theme market’, and accordingly, it’s styled to look very similar to the new Market app. At the main screen, you can see the most recent themes, each with its price clearly marked (so you don’t have to waste time on paid themes if you just want the free ones). Along the bottom is a toolbar that lets you filter the view to see only ADW themes, themes for LauncherPro, Android system themes, and Go! Launcher themes.

System Themes

Let’s focus on the System Themes category, which contains themes for the T-Mobile Theme Chooser. While you won’t find Theme Chooser on the Market, it is a part ofCyanogenMod, a popular alternative ROM supporting many devices. While filtering by system themes, you can swipe left to reveal other useful filters and zoom in on just the themes you want to see:

Above you can see what the screen looks like mid-swipe, when switching between “All Themes” to Categories. You can also filter by developer, and by free or paid themes.

Some Awesome Themes

Now that we’ve seen how the app works, let’s look at some of the beautiful themes you can discover with it. Here’s what a single-theme view looks like:

This is for LunarUI Black. Here’s what the theme itself looks like:

I really like the thin fonts, as well as the shape of the sliders. The whole theme feels a bit “angular” and sharp.

Let’s look at another theme:

This one is called Naked Simplicity. Not everything you see above is a part of the theme – it mainly changes the notification bar, which ends up looking something like this:

Finally, let’s look at one of the paid themes, just to see what they’re like. This one’s calledChroma 2.0 and it costs $1.29. There is also Chroma (basic), which is free. The paid version looks like this:

Installing a Theme

Now let’s buy that last theme and look at the installation process. First, tap the Download button:

This will take you to the Market, where you can buy or install the theme just like you would any other app.

Once the theme installs, run Theme Chooser. Again, this application is not available on the Market, but it is available with CyanogenMod and other custom ROMs. Theme Chooser looks like this:

You can swipe left and right to scroll between your existing themes. Once you found the one you wish to use, simply hit Apply. And… that’s it. There is no step 2. The end result looks like this:

I’m not sure yet if Chroma 2.0 is the theme for me (it looked better in the screenshots, to be honest). Do you have a suggestion for a better free Android theme?

Tango – A Budding Skype Alternative For Android, iOS & Windows

The world of Voice over IP is expanding fast, and we’re getting more and more options for calling our friends without paying cellphone providers. The strongest, and most known contender in this area is obviously Skype, and they’ve been rather good at it.

Although Skype offers multiple options like calling regular phones and Skype To Go numbers, the basic thing many people still want to do is simply call from Skype to Skype. And here, Tango offers a pretty good alternative, especially since the latest updates to Skype have not been to everyone’s liking.

Installation and Setup

Tango is a video calling solution for Windows (XP and up), Android (2.1+) and iOS (4.0+), which makes use of your existing contact list already saved on the device. In order to use Tango, both sides need to have it installed, but the installation and registration process is quick and easy, and the results are surprisingly good.

The way Tango uses your existing contact list sure saves time, but it’s sorely lacking a way to manually add contacts. If you don’t have contacts saved on your device, there will be no contacts to display in Tango.

When you first install Tango on any device, you’d need to create an account. This includes your mobile phone number and your email address. By these two parameters, others will be able to find you if they already use Tango.

For some reason, the default Windows interface looks like an phone, but don’t be discouraged by this, it’s easily changeable.

The Windows client offers some configurable settings (there are much less of these in the Android and iOS clients), and among these you’ll find the “Skins” option. Click on it to change the skin from “Phone” to just plain old regular Windows.

And now you can actually start using Tango.

On your mobile device there are no skins, and Tango will load all your contacts automatically when you install it. So all you have left to do is invite friends and make calls.

Making & Receiving Calls

While Tango works well on Windows, it’s rather apparent that it’s actually meant to be used on mobile devices. Even if we ignore the default phone skin, the whole Windows interface still leaves something to be desired. To start, the window is small, and there’s no way to make it full-screen. You can play with the size, but it doesn’t really like to be too big, and will sometimes just change sizes on its own to become smaller again.

Having said that, it definitely works well, and you can easily use the Windows client to make calls, receive calls, turn video on and off and so on.

The video quality is not incredible, but definitely usable, and I managed to get better results than those I sometimes get on Skype. Depending on the device you’re using, you can switch between front and back-facing cameras, switch to horizontal view or turn video off altogether.

On a mobile device, things look a lot better. The Tango app integrates well into the interface, and makes using it almost as easy as regular calling. It automatically uses your phone’s contacts, so without configuring anything, you can see names, pictures, and other information you already have in your address book.

Now all you have to do to start using Tango regularly is have other friends that use it too. Tango is not so popular yet, but you can invite friends to install it so you can use Tango to call them.

Inviting Friends

This is probably the biggest glitch in Tango, although it is probably an intentional one. You can only invite people who already appear in your contact list. This is not a huge problem – your friends should be there anyway, but it’s still a weird limitation to have. Moreover, it becomes a real problem when using devices on which you don’t have an address book.

You can invite friends via e-mail or SMS. To do so, either click/tap the “Invite” tab, choose your invitation method and then choose who you wish to invite. You can invite multiple users at once.

Alternatively, if you’re on a mobile device, you can just browse your contacts and tap the “plus” icon next to a contact. This will let you invite this contact using a text message or via e-mail.

The e-mail/SMS you send as an invitation is not customizable, so you might want to inform your friends that you’ve actually sent this. Otherwise, it might look like just another spam/commercial e-mail.