How to purchase NetOne, Telecel and Econet Bundles

In case you want to shift from Econet after they did the unthinkable you may want to try other networks!

Well there is Telecel and NetOne to try out and also you can try out other wifi hotspots!

Below we give you the shortcodes to buy social media bundles from the other networks

Econet

To buy social media bundles on this network you dial *143#

Now you will have to choose between Light and Extra

Telecel

To buy social media bundles from Telecel you dial *480# and you follow the options.

Don’t forget to TellSomeone

NetOne

To those who chose to jump ship to NetOne, here is how you buy the bundles! Dial *171# and you start enjoying the service!

Don’t forget to put the world in your pocket

Do not be left complaining that things are not working out at Econet! Try other networks and you may love it!

Caution! Smartphone usage can kill! IPhone explosion claims one!

Chinese news agency reported that a 23-year-old Ma Ailun – a former flight attendant – was electrocuted to death on Thursday, when she answered a call on her iPhone 5, while it was charging.

Well the news was that she got a powerful electric shock whilst charging her phone and answering it at the same time. The unfortunate incident has fueled rumors on the net that this could be a false story or a hoax.

This story comes on the back of another Iphone story that his phone exploded whilst he was sleeping destroying his bed whilst almost killing him.

Now it seems Iphone is gettimng some negative press in China and the world over. There are lots of news of phones exploding, injuring and killing their owners in the process. But this rise in “Iphone” news may be driven by the Chinese government.

The Chinese are not happy that mobile OS are controlled by America and they engaged in a smear campaign that back fired on them when it leaked that they were sponsoring people to denigrate Apple and its I-things.

Well, there may be truth but the fact that China is actively developing its OS in conjuction with Canonical the makers of Ubuntu Touch, may make you take these news with a bucket load of salt.

It appears to me that China wants to create a smooth landing for their OS so by painting the Iphones and everything American in the baddest of lights.

Why, I wonder are these news and happenings being spotted in Asian countries, mainly China. It leaves you with a suspicious feeling.

However, you have to err on the side of caution. Here are some safety features to follow when using or charging your phone

• Avoid sleeping with your phone under the pillow
• Avoid using your phone whilst it is charging, especially when it has a metal casing
• Do not overcharge your phone.
• When your phone heats up whilst using it, try to get it repaired
• Avoid buying Iphone clone phones or fake batteries

Hope yopu remain safe as smartphones have become a new hazard.

How to save battery on your smartphone!

 

Smartphones are really cool gadgets we all know that, but one thing were smartphones seem to be dumb is battery drain. These gadgets are power hungry… They suck juice like it’s the last resource on earth.

Companies are competing on making the thinnest phone and the lightest phone. Well they could add at least an extra 6mm and an extra 80 grams to accommodate more power. I wouldn’t mind an extra 80 grams in exchange for 12 more hours of power.

However for now we have to engage in battery saving techniques.

Now here are some techniques to save your batter.

1.       We know a bright screen is cool and all but it reduces your battery power. Lower your screen brightness to the barest possible brightness and your battery will last a lil bit longer.

In newer versions of Android, it’s easy to increase or decrease brightness. Just pull down the notification bar and slide a cool slider to the right place you want. I find 30% to be good.

2.       When you are not using wifi, switch off the wifi. It sounds dumb but most people usually forget to do it, even me!

3.       In the same vein switch off Bluetooth. Yes, Bluetooth is a resource hog. A battery hog! In these days of piracy I know we don’t buy music, Bluetooth is the tool we all use on a daily basis to “steal music”! Batai Mhunu!

4.       GPS is another culprit. And Google Maps is the main thief here. I don’t know why Google Maps runs in the background despite switching it off. This is one app that needs the AppKiller app from the app store. This app switches off rouge apps totally…. Like the aforementioned Google Maps. GPS sucks battery…switch it off.

5.       Try to use the Edge Network. Go to Settings, and look for it you will find it. It depends on the version of Android you are using. HSPA+ networks or LTE! If it is found in Zimbabwe, sucks battery like no man’s business however they are fast.

6.       Avoid using the camera flash! It’s a power hog. Besides, most of those pictures will get digital dust sitting in your memory card.

7.       If you are travelling, switch off your phone. Travelling makes your phone send a more powerful signal and that takes more power, thereby using more power.

8.       When you switch on an app, say G-Tel sms app and then find out that this is a useless app, press the home screen to close the app and sigh thinking you have closed the app! You are in for a surprise, the app will be running in the background….using your precious battery power. My friend did the very same procedure, upon finding out that the app was still running on his G-Tel 717 Infinity, he was angry he thought G-Tel was cheating with it’s useless G-Tel Sms app, he asked me to delete it. I did, G-Tel next time don’t push your useless apps…PLEASE!!

9.       Well, this may sound strange but hey its true. Do not let your battery reach below 40% full. Lithium Ion batteries do not like that. They want to be charged whilst they still have a charge.

10.   Well, there is this app cold Battery Monitor, I found it useless. Besides it used 2% of battery power whilst running in the background. Well 2% is a lot in this blackout country called Zimbabwe.

11.   Another thing, if you are really desperate to save power, switch off vibrate and reduce the volume of your ring tone, especially if you receive a lot of calls. A vibrating phone uses much power than just a ringing phone.

Whew, that was a long article. You may not implement these things but you may find yourself in a tight spot and you need to save that battery for an important call. You can implement one or two of these methods. Happy battery saving.

Stop blaming Econet or Telecel! Set up your phone not to “eat your money” for Iphone

I wrote an article once about how to set up your phone not to eat airtime. However it looked at Android only and inspired by this question at Techzim Answers, I dedicate this article to you asker!

Well you can’t do much customisation on an IOS powered phone, that is the Iphones, Ipods and Ipads and whatever I-thing you may dream of unless you jailbreak your device.

However, that does not mean that you can’t do anything but your options are limited. Sometimes its the case of us not setting up our phones correctly when we buy them.

I once did that and a whole $5 plus 50Mb in my phone disappeared overnight without doing anything.. The first thought that crosses your mind is “Econet, those greedy muggots have been inspired to steal my money!”

If an app is draining up battery, it sure means it is running in the background and it is highly likely it is using data.

The main culprit of apps using data on Iphones is GPS… Yes that cool location thinging. Most likely when an Iphone “eats or steals” huge chunks of data the culprit is an app that is using GPS…in the background.

On your IPhone:

> Go to settings

> Look for Privacy or Location Services depending on which version of IOS you are using.

Most apps will just have an ON and OFF switch, but some will have a purple solid, purple outline, or gray solid arrow next to them. A purple arrow means the app has used your location recently, a gray arrow indicates the app has used your location in the last 24 hours, and a purple outline arrow indicates the app is using a geofence (meaning that it’s waiting to carry out an event when you’re in a certain location, like when the Reminders app provides a location-based reminder). The purple solid and outline arrows are the ones that cause the most trouble, so if you see them, try quitting those apps to see if your data usage decreases.

Switch off those, unless you really want to use Location Services…and get your money eaten!

Also download Onavo Extend an Iphone free app that compresses data by upto 80%, their website claims. This app operates like Opera Mini, if you have ever used it.

You can also download Onavo Count another free app from the same company that lets you “count” how much data apps are using recklessly on your phone. You can see how much data was used and its easy to tell if Econet or Telecel are the culprits…

Hope you found this article usefull.

KingSoft Office On Adroid

My friend borrowed me his G-Tel 707 android smartphone and as a phone fanatic I tinkered a bit with the apps in his phone.

What caught my eye was the KingSoft Office Suite. Well, I played around with it and I was so impressed.

The OfFice suit has a Word Proccessor, a Presentation and SpreadSheet function only.

What impressed me was that the application was free and not only that, it was fast and minimal. You could do all the things you do on a MicroSost Word but without all those confusing icons that come with word.

The presentation preparationm was snappy and good. Well, honestly I have never used spread sheets and I don’t know how they work but I bet you they are really good.

Doing my little research I found out that you could also use the Office suit on Windows 7 and 8 and it costs you a mere $69.

Well, I have pirated copies of Windows but this application I am buying as it is so good.

It turns your Android phone from a mere whatsapp tool to a full fledged productivity machine that it is meant to be.

Now you can own that coveted Iphone for as low as $100

Iphone yes, those phones that some people die to get is set to launch cheaper plastic cased Iphones. Well Iphones have an aluminium casing and it has been a selling point for Iphone. However with the dropping Iphone share price, and the maturing of the USA smartphone market, Iphone may be eyeing Africa and some third world economies.

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Android has been the dominating OS with Samsung Galaxy Range scooping the price. Iphone, in a direct attempt to compete head on with samsung and other Android based huge screened phones, has also released rumours that it will make 5.7 inch phones popularly known as phablets.

So if you are an Iphone fanboi, but could not afford to buy the phones, this might be your chance.

Whatsapp reaches new record, handles 27 Billion messages

Whatsapp, the grand-daddy of all messaging apps has set a new record. Whatsapp now handles more than 27 billion messages in a single day! That means if everyone in this world where to share those messages, we would have each person getting at least four messages a day! We are only 6 billion in this world remember!

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However you may wonder as to what other messaging apps are competing with whatsapp! There is facebook messenger, Line, Kakao Talk, Wechat. Wechat copied whatsapp blatantly. However all these apps seem to be localised in their respective country of origin, maninly Asian countries. Twitter actually handles 10 billion messages outbound and 17 billion messages inbound

Browsers that wil help you save that dollar….

 

Smartphones were made with the internet in mind and a smartphone without an internet connection is like a fish outside water. All those apps that you use access the internet in one way or the other, an internet connection is like oxygen to a smartphone.

Cash Saving? How?

Well the browsers below, preprocess a web page that you request at their servers and they serve you a compressed, smaller file to you. Well, its more like serving you an image of the webpage to you. And since the processing of the page is done at the server computer and not by your phone, these browsers are more faster.

Today we are reviewing phone browsers that you can use on your smartphone, from a Zimbabwean perspective

• Opera Mini

That is no mistake; Opera Mini takes number one spot! I know some of you are starting to say Dolphin. Geez in Zimbabwe we don’t have data plans and we can’t afford to use “full browser capabilities” can we?

Opera Mini takes the top spot because it renders pages nicely and I like its single column view. You can also check how much data you have used or saved.

Currently, the latest version for Android is version 7.5

• UC Browser

If you thought all things Chinese were of cheap quality, then think again. Here is one browser that competes with Opera Mini. In fact this browser compresses data as good as Opera. I also love the Voice search feature, which is lacking in Opera Mini. This browser also has a download manager!

In fact this browser has got some really cooler features than Opera Mini, Like QR Code scanner and download manager!

However, I find this browser to be slower than Opera Mini and the fact that they do the spoofing thing at this day and age is rather counterproductive.  Spoofing is where a browser pretends to be another browser and in this case UC Browser pretends to be Mozilla Firefox.

•  BOLT Browser

This is another browser that you may install on your amartphone, but it disappoints to say the least. However it saves cash.

Binu Review

 

There are thousands of communication apps that are at our disposable these days. Today we are reviewing Binu a sms and now turned social network app.

Some time ago, I lost my phone and I started using my brothers Motorola phone. All I know is it was an old flip phone. Astonishingly it could go on facebook! Or rather it could connect to the internet. Then my girl friend suggested that I install Binu for easier communication. I did, and boy did I love this app. It ran okay on the old phone.  I mean, since my phone was old I knew that I couldn’t expect more speeds from the poor old phone.

I then bought an Android phone and one of the first apps to find its way into my phone was Binu.

To my horror and shock! Dismay and utter dislike, Binu was dead slow. The navigation was horrible to say the least. The app was just not what I expected to be. My reasoning was since the smartphone was way faster than my Motorola, then Binu was going to run like lightning. Too bad, I was disappointed.

However here are the advantages of Binu

• Cheap, as it sends sms messages over the data network
• You can send sms to people without Binu application on their phones
• Other applications within Binu, like the dictionary which I used a lot
• Games and stuff, soccer results e.t.c
• Facebook app within Binu which is a cheaper way of visiting facebook though the experience is not as nice as going via Opera Mini or your phone browser

Disadvantages

• We are talking about Binu for Android, this application is dead slow and very slow
• Not so cute experience, the user interface could do with some nicer icons

Verdict

If you are using an old phone, you may install this but on Android there are some better sms applications than this slow app.

Rhino Shield Shatter proof screen protector

This may come as good news to all smartphone  and tablet owners. A person on kickstart, a crowd funding USA website has started soliciting for funds to make a shatter proof screen protector that is able to resist, cracks and shattering if your device falls down or is smashed

 

The screen protector will also protect your phone from finger print smudges. However, this device is not yet in production so you can hold on tighter to your phones for now. And Zimbabwe being Zimbabwe we may as well see this product in2014 if it suceeds in raising the funds required.