All Narfed Up photography and words by Bryan Villarin

Cell Phone

LG VX8100 extended battery

In Batteries, Cell Phone on 9 August 2006 with 2 comments

I’ve had my LG VX8100 since October 10th, 2005. Between then and today, my lifetime calls timer is at 111:45:31. My Lifetime KB amount is 63,495 KB.

Today, I decided that I need a new battery. I needed to charge it every night. If I talk for an hour during the course of the day, with sporadic texting, it won’t make it before I get home.

After a lot of reading at HowardForums, and a helpful customer service rep at Verizon Wireless 611, I have an extended battery and a confidence in battery charging habits.

I took a trip to the Verizon Wireless corporate store Pasadena around 11am this morning. I told them about the severe decrease in battery life, and I’ve only had my phone for eight months. They basically agreed that I needed a new battery, but I’d have to buy it. At least they’d prorate it at 25% off. (I’m still not sure what “prorate” means.) I was hoping that they would replace it for free, since some of the people in the forums were stating that they got hooked up.

I also asked tech support in the store about the best battery charging methods. I was told to let it run down before charging, as opposed to charging it every night.

When I got home, I called 611 to find out if the above held true (for charging the battery). Truthfully, the CSR told me the opposite. She has a Samsung SCH-A970 and she charges her phone every night. Her three daughters all have LG VX8100s. They use theirs a lot, and got the extended battery because the standard one died too quickly. In addition, the battery doesn’t get overcharged - she insisted that charging stops once its full. She suggested I do the same.

Since the extended battery was about $8 more, I went back to the Verizon store to exchange for the better one.

Back at the forums, this huge thread on battery conditioning brought about this post referencing Battery University.

“How to prolong lithium-based batteries”

My current thoughts on the extended battery:

It’s not too much thicker. I have high hopes for it since it’s a 1700mAh battery, whereas the standard battery is 1000mAh.

I sent a couple TXT messages while it’s still charging, and it definitely feels more comfortable typing on the keypad. (As comfortable as it can get typing on a small keypad, of course.)

I’m not sure if there’s a more exhaustive review, but forum member “fillthemup” wrote a brief one and included five photos.

Any questions?

Update: After a full charge, 54 minutes of talk time, 2 days, 17 hours standtime, 47 TXT messages, 4 PIX messages, and a handful of songs listened to at full blast, my battery was only at two bars. Nice.

Hack your cell phone to save minutes

In Cell Phone, Lifehack, Money on 7 August 2006 with 5 comments

I went a few minutes over on my cell phone plan this month. Fortunately, my billing cycle starts over tomorrow. I went wrong because I had long conversations with people who I knew didn’t have Verizon Wireless IN calling, and I had access to a landline phone or Skype.

Optional step, but highly recommended

I suggest going through your contacts list and writing “VZW IN” or “Not VZW” in another column. (I have Palm Desktop, so I was adding this manually.) If you have any doubt that a contact might not have Verizon Wireless, I found a gem: the “Are your friends and family IN?” phone number lookup!

I made up the name.

Main step

For the people who you know do not use Verizon Wireless, add a plus (+) after their name. You can use any symbol you want, but on my LG VX8100, the plus sign is on my first page of the symbols list.

That’s it.

When these friends/relatives/coworkers call, and you see a plus after their name, you can selectively call them back right away on a landline/Skype, or answer and make sure the conversation remains short.

I have no idea if there’s a phone lookup service for other cell phone providers to see if they’re on the same network. I’m pretty stoked Verizon Wireless has this.

Can you digg it!?! (No really, I’d love to say I got dugg once!)

Update: Welcome Lifehackers! Thanks for granting my wish and posting this, Adam.

Motorola just a MOTOFONE

In Cell Phone on 1 August 2006 with no comments

At Uncrate, I saw the Motorola MOTOFONE and was instantly drawn to it. Sure, having a bunch of features is nice, but I’d love a phone that simply works. Long battery life, clear and crisp volume, viewing clarity and reliability are all more important to me than music and ringtones.

Paul Stamatiou wrote about how much he wanted one, and I’m doing the same. Motorola? Where are you? I’m right here!

Calling my cell phone

In Cell Phone on 27 July 2006 with no comments

I just got a phone call from a 951 area code at 1:49pm PST, but didn’t answer because I screen calls. If that was you, leave a message with your phone number at the beginning and end of the call. Thanks! (See “How to leave a voicemail message“)

ScanR

In Cell Phone, Photos on 25 October 2005 with no comments

ScanR was mentioned in Scobleizer. I haven’t heard of it before, but it looks way cool. “Scan documents or send faxes, anywhere, anytime, using only your camera phone.” Whoa.

HowardForums

In Cell Phone, Forums on 17 October 2005 with 5 comments

I got a new LG VX8100 cell phone last week. It’s very nice. Anyway, another friend of mine has the same one and was asking me about it. THE place online to get information and help with mobile phones is HowardForums. Go…look around. Great stuff, great people.

Mass SMS friends with ease

In Cell Phone, SMS on 15 October 2005 with no comments

I just mass-contacted over 25 Verizon Wireless friends, plus a handful or so non-VZW friends easily with vtext.com, Teleflip, and Gmail. What for? A party. I need RSVPs from them, and I’m simply getting “yes” or “no” text messages from them. How wicked is that?

BitPim

In Cell Phone, Software on 7 October 2005 with no comments

I was going to use BitPim, but I saw that “a straight USB cable for my LG VX4400 WILL cause errors“. Bah! If anyone else wants to use this program, it’s not too bad to manage some of the data on your phone - if it’s supported.

BitPim is a program that allows you to view and manipulate data on many CDMA phones from LG, Samsung, Sanyo and other manufacturers. This includes the PhoneBook, Calendar, WallPapers, RingTones (functionality varies by phone) and the Filesystem for most Qualcomm CDMA chipset based phones. The matrix of supported phones and features is in the online help.

Unblock number?

In Cell Phone, Tip on 17 June 2005 with 15 comments

(Edit: Too many questions I can’t answer. Stop asking me.) If you have your phone number set to block caller ID all the time (like *67), what’s the code to unblock it on a call-by-call basis? I wanted to ask my friend if they can press that code for me. Thanks.