We hear from friends, or just general chat for people looking to upgrade their mobile phones. There are some very good reasons to upgrade but unfortunately the main reason people upgrade and without thinking, because the mobile phone manufacturers in the ad blitzing us daily with new features. I bet he is not exactly a couple of friends who have new cell phones and have no idea how to start using the key features.

Update your mobile phone needs some careful thinking. Many of us in terms of fashion updates to keep pace with modern looks, understandable if you have a cell phone compared to previous years is worth something a little more portable and flexible to use.

Upgrading still costs money, so choose wisely. There are many different upgrade options today such as Camera cell phones, PDA phones, GPS Phones, and now the new line of 3G mobile phones available. Frankly, the best place to choose a mobile phone is the Internet, this decision, and not some sales rep kept twisting his arm in a blinding you with useless information and sales.

You need to know the differences and the different features on mobile phones before just go ahead and upgrade. This is a bit of research you choose exactly meets your needs and budget. Phone’s GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) are widely used in people’s love for climbing or adventure walking in remote regions.

GPS phone also pointed out that the Pacific should you be lost or in need of assistance, long distance drivers and employers also find good use for these phones. Employers can be traced to the residence of the employees or the phones themselves, if lost or stolen.

PDA phones are ideal for those who love the Pocket organizers. These phones are expensive, but the same function as a PC, ideal for office workers and sales reps.

Camera phone with easy to understand, is simply a phone to your photos. There’s even a camera cell phones, but a nut shell this is what they are doing. These phones are classified as more fun, and prove very popular for all ages. If you have an idea of ​​what the different phones that do not and you are in a better position to come up with an upgrade decision.

Flip phones are very popular at the moment, these phones with the pop-up screen available for the camera, PDA and GPS format, but they do not know everyone, I personally do not find them very user friendly, but this is my opinion, I like to just answer the incoming call without messing around with the phone.

The phones in the market today is a very easy, as the high-style years ago, those who still use these type phones today should look at upgrading the technology and come to terms with today.

General advice:

If you experience poor reception on a regular basis you should check your mobile phone carrier first before changing the phone, most of the time to tend to a bad indication of the mobile phone carrier, not the fault of the phone, many people just jump in and buy the phone only that the same problem recurring. In certain areas you may need a small cell phone antenna booster or very little cheaper to get a better reception.

Powering down very quickly:

If it finds that the mobile phone is switched off too fast, the chances are you need a new battery, again many people exchange the whole cell phone instead of just the battery. The concept is that the batteries are almost as expensive as the phone is not true. You can get items at very competitive price, and the third party battery between different service providers.

Power is not:

If you find that you have no power to your cell phone even after charging for hours, this may be one of three things. First, the battery in your cell phone can be completely dead, secondly the recharge supply would have a problem, and finally, everything can be mobile, as it is not the first two you could save yourself money. Maybe all it seems, common sense, but you would be surprised how many well-functioning cell phones thrown out.

Incoming search terms:

• SMALEEST CELL PHONE
• small mobile phone
• smallest flip cell phone
• smallest satellite mobile phone in the world
• stolen pictures from cell phones
• very small mobile phone

When it comes to picking a HDTV antenna it is easy to get lost in all the jargon that is used to sell antennas. This article will pinpoint the important considerations you have to make before you purchase an HDTV antenna.

First up, an antenna will be used to pick up high definition television broadcasts. You will still be able to watch HD discs without an antenna but unless you want to watch HD television you don’t need an antenna.

Another important point is that unless your HDTV is quite new it will not have a built in high definition tuner or receiver. If your television does not have one of these you will not be able to view HDTV broadcasts no matter what type of antenna you are using. A tuner or receiver can be added to your television, and is commonly called a set top box. There are a whole range of these devices available at reasonable prices.

Once you have sorted out a tuner, you need to think about the HDTV antenna locations. There are two types of tv antenna : indoor and outdoor tv antenna.

An indoor HDTV antenna is essentially used for convenience. People that live in apartments or accommodation where there is no private property to install an outdoor type antenna use indoor varieties. An indoor antenna is also easier to install. However the range of an indoor antenna is limited. If you are living in a metropolitan area and are fairly close to a broadcasting tower then it will be suitable otherwise you probably need an amplified or outdoor variety.

An amplified indoor HDTV antenna has an improved gain over the standard type. This simply means that it will have a more concentrated sweet spot where the picture reception is clear but will not have as wide a range of reception. This could mean that for one channel it will be fine but if you change channels you will probably have to fiddle with the antenna to re-establish a good reception.

Thus the best option is an HDTV outdoor antenna.

Outdoor antennas are effectively defined by their size and directivity. Omni-directional antennas will receive signals from all directions. Omni or multi-directional are good in areas close to a broadcasting station however they do not have the range of a directional antenna.

Directional antennas are like amplified antennas in that they have a greater range of reception in a definite direction. If a broadcasting tower is far away or the HD signal is weak then a directional device is best.

Therefore it is important to find out where the broadcasters of HDTV are in relation to you. In the US this can be done by checking out the Consumer Electronics Association antenna guide. This uses a color coded chart to specify the geographical locations ability to receive TV signals. A green color is the best reception and an omni directional antenna will suffice. The weakest signals are coded pink/violet and a directional antenna would be needed. The chart does not cover indoor antennas.

Outdoor antennas are best as they give you more control however they may not always be convenient. Indoor antennas are small and easy to install but the reception may not be good. If you go down the indoor route then consult a cable TV technician/salesperson or find out if people in your apartment block are using indoor antennas successfully.

The Samsung Propel offers a sliding keyboard, camera, and 3G antenna in a compact form factor.

This AT&T-powered phone is web enabled with a full keyboard to make messaging easier, but there are some notable deficiencies in the Propel. The screen has an average resolution, and is small compared to the available space available.

Weighing the pros and the cons of the phone, it’s hard to say that the Propel significantly outshines its competition in the $50 price range in which it resides.

Design and Build
The Propel is more comfortable in your pocket than a deck of cards when the keyboard is hidden. The keyboard slides out easily, though not easy enough to do so accidentally.

Keyboard: The Propel’s keyboard features a dedicated letter per key, with most keys also serving as a function key. There are also shortcut keys for AT&T’s Cellular Video, the camera, and a toggle mode for vibration.

Users probably won’t feel comfortable typing at great lengths on this keyboard, but it is a big improvement over the traditional numeric keypad. The biggest problem with the keyboard is the lack of space between the top of the top row and the bottom of the sliding portion of the phone. A touch more space would make it more comfortable for the user to type using both hands at once.

Display: The display is larger than an average phone, but it could still be a little larger to really stand out. Though its resolution is average, some features look better than others. For example, AT&T’s Cellular Video provides full episodes of your favorite shows (read: Lost) that are actually good enough to watch.

In other applications however, the display isn’t done justice. The web browser launches with three task bars, diminishing usable real estate, and what is displayed isn’t very sharp or impressive. This may be a browser-specific issue though, because camera pictures are surprisingly good-looking on the screen.

Front buttons; In the middle of the Propel is the “feature” button which by default opens the web browser. This will, of course, be a problem for those who elect not to add data to their phone. This button is in the center of a round donut-like directional pad with four sub-buttons at the top, bottom, left, and right. By default, these provide shortcuts to mobile email, instant messaging, “My Stuff,” and the address book.

Design Quirks: Samsung elected to provide coverings for the charging/headphone slot as well as the microSD slot. Though this might make sense for the microSD slot, it is a bit of a pain when trying to charge the phone. The biggest hassle with this phone however, is the proprietary headset it uses.

The phone can play media on microSD cards, but because no headset is provided, you’re forced to either buy a headset, play music through the ample speakerphone, or invest in a stereo Bluetooth set.

Performance
The Samsung Propel offers more functionality than your average phone, but don’t be fooled by its looks — this is no BlackBerry or iPhone.

The Propel does have some nice features, is web capable, and sports a full keyboard and camera. Yet, there are still some features that it lacks or that could be improved to make it a true contender in its price bracket.

My Menu: To add to your productivity, users can customize the last three slots of the “My Menu” that is triggered by the left convenience key on the face of the phone. There is also the ability to customize many of the sub-menus and enable useful features such as number blocking, and T-Coil mode for the hard of hearing.

Quick-switch convenience key: The right convenience keys serves as an application switcher, allowing you to quickly access and manage open windows. This is useful in situations where you might be instant messaging, web browsing, and listening to music all at the same time.

Call Quality: The call quality is slightly tinny, but not enough to distract callers. The people I talked to didn’t report any noticeable difference in call quality between the Propel and other devices. This phone also boasts a speakerphone that is slightly underpowered; in some situations it would be nice to be able to dial up the volume a little.

3G: To most, a 3G antenna means fast Web access, but because the Propel’s web browser experience is generally lackluster, the real purpose of the antenna is to improve coverage range.

As AT&T starts to introduce 3G areas in new-coverage areas, there simply is no EDGE signal in many places. Because of this, having the 3G antenna means that the phone will be able to function in more areas than its EDGE counterparts. Because the Propel isn’t data centric it maintains excellent battery life, weight, and size.

Calling Features: A nice feature of the propel lets you designate people to block via the “Reject List”; it can be a specific number, a person from your contact list, a group of people, unknown numbers, a selection from recent calls or Fixed Dialing Numbers.

FDN is a feature that allows outgoing calls to be limited to a selected set of numbers. Parents may find this feature useful for monitoring whom their kids can call.

Messaging: One of the most attractive features of the Propel is its slide-out QWERTY keyboard, which makes messaging much easier. The Propel features standard SMS and MMS messaging (including the ability to send videos), as well as instant messaging and mobile email.

Natively, the Propel sports AIM, Windows Live, and Yahoo messenger. For mobile email, the phone supports a range of providers both big (Yahoo Mail), and small (Mind Spring, Juno). Conspicuously absent from this lineup however, is mail giant Gmail by Google.

Instant Messaging: The instant messaging features on the Propel are satisfactory enough for most users. The interface is fairly easy to use, and there doesn’t seem to be much delay.

When new users sign on, an indication is given on the main display. Messages from instant messaging clients are not integrated with the rest of your (SMS/MMS) inbox, but there is an indicator on the home screen for when you have a new message. A major con for the AIM client at least, was the inability to view away messages without sending the recipient a message first.

Mobile Email: The Propel’s biggest mobile email flaws are the lack of integrated new-message display, the lack of Gmail support, and the inability to set up other email accounts (for example, school or corporate IMAP accounts). Also lacking in this area is the ability to send attachments in the supported email clients. It would also be nice to be able to call up contact-list entries when selecting email recipients, a feature currently lacking on natively supported accounts.

Though these may seem considerable flaws, because this phone is not billed as an email-centric device, most users will be able to accept the limitations. If you want to casually check your email, this device works well; even if there is no native client for your account, you can still browse to your inbox through the Propel’s web browser.

Email messages sent from native applications are sent quickly and the recipient cannot tell you sent it from your device.

Web Browsing: The browsing experience on the Propel meets expectations….as long as your expectations are low. Though the device boasts impressive features including 3G accessibility, don’t expect any bells and whistles. The browser is pretty limited in terms of the types of pages it can handle; one thing that it does very well is bring the user to the AT&T mobile page. One thing that is difficult is directly browsing to any other page.

In order to browse directly to a page, you have to scroll down the options button menu items, and then go into two sub menus. This is not only annoying, but will leave a sour taste in the mouths of new users who perhaps haven’t used a mobile browser before.

Camera: For an average device, the camera packs a surprising breadth of features. Though it is only 1.3 megapixels, picture quality is decent, and the camera offers a slew of customization settings. These include night shot, a timer, single to multi-shot, light settings, image customizations (black & white, sepia, and negative).

The best camera feature is the panorama setting. In this mode, you select how many shots to shoot horizontally, and starts at the left-most side. After taking a picture, an arrow instructs the user to pan to the right, and the rest of the pictures are automatically taken after the ending spot of the frame is recognized. When finished, the camera constructs a seamless panoramic shot. See my example pictures below.

• Sample Panorama Picture
• Sample Picture

AT&T Music: Every item in the music section of the phone seems to attempt to route you to the pay section of AT&T’s mobile site. Of the 8 sub-items in this section, all except for one are subscription services, and almost all of the apps besides the music player are largely useless.

The eight subsections are: a music player, music store, Music ID (powered by Shazam with a monthly subscription fee), XM Radio, Music Videos, Make UR Tunes, Community, and Music Applications.

The music player and the Music ID app are the only two useful items from this section. The Music ID application will become addictive, and if used judiciously, can recoup its subscription fee in settled bets.

The music player is pretty standard issue, but does have some redeeming features. These include the ability to transfer audio to a stereo Bluetooth receiver, manage playlists, and the ability to hide the player.

Cellular Video: The Propel offers many media applications, including Cellular Video. Loading the service, you can view feeds from CNN, ESPN, ABC, Comedy Central’s the Colbert Report, and other offerings, including HBO Mobile etc. This provides a distraction for a range of audiences, a definite plus when looking for ways to pass the time.

GPS: The Propel is GPS equipped, which is a great feature to have on any phone. To use this functionality, this phone is loaded with AT&T Navigator and another program called “Where.”

AT&T Navigator is a version of TeleNav, which provides spoken and on-screen directions. Using it requires a monthly subscription fee.

This “Where” program is a useful little tool that gives you location-aware searches for all the necessities — like Starbucks, gas, weather, etc.

The screen size and quality of the Propel are such that you will not be replacing your full-time GPS with it, but these features give a good level of functionality to the phone. You can even enter your own searches, (ex. Pizza).

Also featured is the Yellowpages.com application. Again, this has some practical features, but going online and searching is probably a more fruitful use of your time.

Bluetooth: The Bluetooth capabilities on this phone are pretty strong. Of course standard headsets are supported, but so are stereo headsets and speaker systems. Object Exchange is also supported, giving you a third way to off-load media other than transferring via the microSD card or sending MMS messages.

Battery life: For a 3G-enabled phone, the Propel’s battery life is awesome. AT&T required Samsung to include an extra battery in its first generation BlackJack because the battery life was so dismal; such is not the case here. The Propel offered a pleasant reprieve to the battery woes of other devices typically on the Brighthand lineup.

Charging was required infrequently, about once or twice a week with casual use.

Software quirks: The Propel wants to tell you exactly what’s going on via a slew of notification icons on the main display. Many of these will serve little to no purpose for the user and are a waste of space. One such example is the microSD indicator — most people who buy a microSD card will probably keep it in their phones at all time and therefore won’t find any value in the icon.

Another deficiency is the complexity of some of the menus. As mentioned in the browsing section, there are some menus that are difficult to navigate through to access simple functions, as they provide more specific details and settings than most casual users will care for.

Finally, when looking for media under the “My Stuff” area, the user has to separately search for items on device memory as well as those under the memory card. It would be more straightforward if all media items, regardless of origin, were displayed in the same screen.

Conclusion
AT&T’s Samsung Propel offers a balance of useful features and quirks. For users looking to make calls and respond to text messages quickly, this phone is a contender in its price bracket. For those looking to up the ante with higher-quality pictures, or those seeking a more media-centric experience, this device under-performs.

Quickly glancing at AT&T’s wireless online site, there are easily over 40 phones in the same price range as the Propel. Considering the range of selection and features, it is hard to say that the Propel is the right phone for anyone. Users shouldn’t fall into the trap of thinking that all phones are created equal, but should take a moment and consider the unique offerings of each device.

Samsung is a solid name that makes solid devices, but the Propel isn’t right for everyone.

Pros:

• QWERTY keyboard
• 3G coverage
• Novel form factor

Cons:

• So-so camera
• Proprietary headset
• Menus lack some logic in some places.