GeekwithEnvy

Cell Phone

How To Skip Activation on The Samsung Galaxy S3 and Samsung Fascinate

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samsungGalaxyS3

Sometimes you find yourself wanting to use a phone for Wi-Fi, gaming only, or maybe you just need to access content on an old phone but you can’t seem to get past the activation screen.

There has to be a way to make an “un-activated” phone more useful. Well, there is, and it only requires a secret key press combination to get you past the activation screen.

Obviously, you will not have the “full” functionality of the phone, but at least you don’t have to use it as a paperweight.

For the Samsung Galaxy S3 press this key combination:

  • Bottom left corner
  • Bottom right corner
  • Bottom left corner
  • Bottom right corner
  • Volume up

* TIP: You should be on the language selection screen when entering the key combination.

For the Samsung Fascinate:

  • Enter the emergency dialer
  • Dial *#83786633
  • Press Send
  • Press Home Key

 

 

How To Put Your iPhone in Field Test Mode

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iphoneFieldServiceSS

Field Test mode can be handy if you’re knowledgeable about cell phone technology but it can also help you get a clearer picture of what your cell phone reception is like in a given area or perhaps you’re just somebody who just likes to tinker with things, either way here’s how it’s done.

If you’re iPhone has a recent version of iOS on it (4.1 and up), which covers most phones, then you should be able to access the Field Test Mode with most carriers.

To Access Field Test Mode:

Dial *3001#12345#* 

This will allow you to look at lot’s of otherwise hidden information about your phone and it’s connection to the network. For the average user, the most notable feature is the ability to look at your overall connection to the network.

The number is in dBm and is much more precise than just looking at a set of bars. As a general guideline anything below -100 is starting to get pretty bad, the lower the number the better and -35 or -40 is about as good as it gets.

 

 

Handheld Gaming and Mobile Quietly Moving In

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Ever since the mid seventies we have had hand held gaming devices that we could bring with us anywhere and as with anything in technology, these little devices have changed a lot over the years.mobile gaming 3d concept - smart phone with gamepad

When I think back to the first handheld gaming experience I had, I remember playing Frogger on a Tiger electronic handheld gaming device. Not too long after, I got ahold of my first Nintendo GameBoy and it was one of my favorite gaming experiences. I am not alone in my love for the original Gameboy line up which included Tetris, Mario and although it was difficult to play, the original Castlevania. I also had the luxury of owning a Sega Game Gear which was somewhat ahead of it’s time.

Today we have handhelds like the Nintendo 3DS and Sony PSVita, which are great ways to game but another strong competitor has started to move in to the handheld gaming territory, the cell phone. The cell phone over the years -as I have mentioned in earlier posts- has previously never been noted for it’s amazing gaming capabilities. Actually, many graphing calculators had better gaming than most of the cell phones on the market. Most early cell phones featured snake or Tetris which we saw again when the next generation of color LCD screen cell phones came out. These newer games usually ran on java and actually started to look a little better but let’s not kid ourselves,they mostly sucked.

Cell phones weren’t even close to being considered any type of competition for devices like the Gameboy, in fact they weren’t even in the same class, there were strictly handhelds and cell phones (mobile gaming). However, the lines have now basically been erased and the term “mobile” gaming encompasses both cell phones and handhelds.

I have to ask though, when did this happen? Well, most of my personal experience comes from using devices like the original iPod and eventually the iPhone. The gaming  experience on the iPod in later versions, (iPod video) was also done quite well and this is when I began to see a future for gaming on these new devices.

Gaming on devices like the iPod and Samsung Galaxy, is extremely popular these days and it looks like these devices have started to take over mobile gaming. Just look at games like Angry Birds, what device would you say is most likely being used to play this game?

How we know things have changed-

When you look at the latest handheld devices like the Sony PS Vita, we see features that were previously only available on devices like the iPhone. 3G, GPS, front and rear facing cameras, and even motion sensors are all now standard components for handhelds. Another point to consider is that I see many more people with their phones in hand on a daily basis than any “gaming only” device and for good reason, we need the cell phone capability, it’s how we survive these days, so it only makes sense that we would prefer to game on them. An added bonus of developers getting their games on a cell phone OS is that you can reach an audience that would otherwise remain unreachable, a large group of people who would never buy a device like a Nintendo Gameboy but would definitely  own a cell phone. It’s all in the numbers and app purchases are huge, the amount of games sold on the App store is impressive and it shows where consumer attention is.

Mobile gaming has never been better than it is today and it’s largely due to the impact of these new cell phone devices. As history shows us, it takes competition to drive forward innovation and creativity. With the addition of all of these new ways to interact with your applications, like motion control and touch,we have seen changes in gaming that we haven’t seen in years and we can now interact with our games in a way we never would have thought  to be possible in a mobile form factor. Again, the mobile gaming space is not any different than any other in that it’s driven by competition and I would argue that without devices like the iPhone, mobile gaming may look quite different today. There has never been a better time to not only create a gaming app but any app, and it’s all thanks to the latest evolution of the mobile gaming space.

 

 

Wi-Fi or Data Plan?

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Just about anywhere you go these days there is a Wi-Fi connection somewhere nearby, and generally it offers great speed and reliability, not to mention most places offer Internet for free. So, why in the world would you need to use your data plan to check your mail or make a quick tweet? I understand that there are many places in which your data plan might be your only option, but unless you need to be constantly checking  your e-mail in the middle of nowhere, it just seems silly. I have many mobile devices that I use day to day and most of them operate full time on a Wi-Fi connection. I can refresh my inbox and download the latest updates for my news apps and just read them on the go. I guess at times you could say it’s a bit like filling up at the gas station and heading out on the road.4G speed tower connection illustration design over white

Let’s face it, data plans today suck. The price hardly justifies the usage and if you’re not on an unlimited plan, using your phones network to access anything could be a stressful task. Data over cellular just is not what it should be, our smart phones have clearly outgrown their networks. To look even deeper into this, think about how this could affect cellular providers.

Why use it at all? Some communities have Wi-Fi everywhere you go. Going into this even further, you realize that some companies  could end up competing with themselves. If only you could break off completely from your data plan in these areas, but wait you can’t. You can’t get that awesome phone with out a data plan and perhaps this is part of the reason why. Remember it’s all about the dollar, broadband prices would skyrocket if there was a universal adaptation to Wi-Fi.

There are many arguments to whether or not Wi-Fi is actually the better option and cellular data has come along way from what it was. Major issues can arise from using Wi-Fi networks especially unsecured networks. How do you know your data is safe? Did the business who is providing  your Wi-Fi connection properly set up security features to protect you ?  Is someone in the corner of the cafe just gobbling up all your good personal information? These are some of the potential drawbacks of using public Wi-Fi.

It would seem that for now a hybrid of both networks is still the best option but I definitely do not need to subscribe to a premium data service with all wireless broadband floating around out there.