₦airaland Forum

This is highly welcome. Now we will know which Telecom company is producing which scratch card. But I still don't see it addressing the issues of Telecom operators eating the credits of their subscribers.

Demmy, fortunately most handsets can do this basic function of making and receiving calls. We are now in an era where people want their handsets to serve multiple purposes.

From a techie point of view, an ideal handset should make your life easier. Apart from making and receiving calls, it should support other features that makes life more meaningful to you.

I won't put my money on a phone if it does not support the following features:

Wide Display Screen
This needed for browsing the internet or reading downloaded ezines or ebooks on your cellphone. The wider the better. A 640 x 200 pixels is the best, but a 240 x 320 display screen is ideal.

Java
I wouldn't touch any cellphone that does not support java. I can't even imagine using a phone without java. With java, I can download java applicationj and games from the internet and install them on my phone. Java makes my phone more like a computer.

GPRS
With GPRS, you can browse the internet on your cellphone. The wider your phone's display, the much better you will enjoy the browsing. With GPRS, you always have internet with you whenever there is a coverage.

With a bluetooth enabled phone, you can transfer files between your phones and your PC. Also, you can synchronise your phone's emails and contacts with Microsoft Outlook. Above all, as explained in a previous post, you can browse internet for free on your cellphone using your bluetooth enabled PC as a gateway. Forget about infrared. Infrared is old school.

MP3 Player
Ability to play MP3 music is one of d great features in today's handsets. For all music lovers like myself, MP3 player is a must feature to consider before buying any handset.

Memory Card Slot
If you want to upload lots of music and photos into your phone, download and install several java application, then your phone must have a memory card slot to enable you to upgrade the memory that came with the phone. Phones that supports SD card or MMC are better since these cards are cheaper than the other types.

USB Connection
A USB connection will enable you to quickly connect your phone to your PC and quickly transfer files to your memory card. The files can be either MP3 music, photos, software, etc.

Document Viewer
Most recent smartphones have the capability to view Word, Excel and Powerpoint files. With large or expanded memory, your cellphone can be transformed into powerful handheld computer. That means you can download and read emails that have Word or Excel attachments.

Size / Shape
Now, a highly good and functional cellphone need not be too bulky or look like weird. Otherwise you will not enjoy it, nor be able to carry it around with ease and confidence. The size should be moderate, and the shape should be fine.

[color=Blue]Other Features[/color]
The features mentioned below will make your phone great, but they don't necessarily make a good phone, in my own opinion.

Camera
A camera is a good feature in a phone. It is ideal for taking those occasionally rare picture like running into an old friend or school mate, or just when the groom is about to kiss the bride in a wedding programme, just before your friend cuts his/her birthday cake.

A word about Camera Phones
I notice that most people use the camera on their cellphones only the first few days of purchase; after that they never use it again. So what's the heck in carrying a camera phone?
Except for the new megapixels camera phones, you can't print most of the picture taken with your camera phone. And if you need to print megapixels pictures, why don't you buy a good digital camera? That is much better than a camera phone. And I bet you that you won't go to occasions trying to snap people with your camera phone. That will be very amusing.

FM Stereo
How I wish every cellphone has FM Stereo. I guess not everybody likes FM Stereo. If you have MP3 player on your phone why would you need an FM Stereo? The answer is the two are different in functions and purpose.

MP3 As Ringtones
This is a cool feature for any phone to have. You can use this feature to create unique ringtones for your phones. When your phone rings, people around you will turn their heads and look at you with envy.

[color=Blue]Phones That Support These Features[/color]
The Nokia 6230,6260, 7710, 9500 and the Sony Ercisson S700i, K750i, W800 supports all the above features. Only Nokia 6260 and 7710 have Document Viewer.

The Nokia 9300, 9500 and Sony Ercisson P910i also meet the above criteria except that none have FM Stereo.

The I-Mate( JAM, PDA2, PDA2K) and PalmOne Treo 650 PDAs support all the above features, but none of them have FM Stereo. Also only Treo 650, PDA2K can have MP3s as ringtones.

Question
Anyone agree or disagree with me that the above mentioned features are important in a phone? Your views are welcome.

[I]Visit http://diakim2..com for the concluding part of this post.[/I]

The guy is too crude and blunt.
He has no regard for cordiality.

Women have two weapons - cosmetics and tears.

If you write a statement for a policeman on a piece of paper, please for your own good, cross out very well all the remaining unused spaces both in the front and back of the paper, otherwise you will have yourself to blame later.

If the economy of this country is well-managed and our leaders have plans for the youths and unborn generations, then this will check the exodus of Nigerian youths to America or other greener pastures in overseas countries.

For instance, if you give an average youth in Nigeria about N2m to set himself up in business, he will prefer to use the money to process papers to travel to America because he believes that if he put the money to business in Nigeria, the business may collapse and he might end up being in debts at the end. All these is due to the harsh economic realities that we are facing now in this country. So, I wouldn't really blame them for trying to check out.

This is good news.

Yes, we need more universities in Nigeria, especially in Lagos State where we have the largest population in this country. Hope others will receive approval soon.

This is a welcome development. All those VSAT sellers should better start thinking of something else to sell.

Wait till when they tell you that the minimum balance on your credit card should be $2,500.00 You folks are in for a surprise

It is fraudulent the way Starcomms, a fixed wireless telephone operator in Nigeria has been eating it's subscriber's credits. If I load my Starcomms' landline (LSP 3000) with N1000 credit, that gives me 15 days access to make calls, provided I did not exhaust the credits before the end of the 15 days.

What currently happens now is that if I failed to recharge my phone by the 15th day, all remaining credits on the phone will be wiped out by Starcomms the following day. Then, I will be permitted to receive calls for another 15 days, following which my phone will be blocked from making or receiving calls if I didn't recharge my phone for another 15 days.

Now I think this issue of wiping out subscribers credits is fraudulent and totally unacceptable to me. My call credits belong to me since I had already paid for them, it does not belong to Starcomms. I can decide to use up all my credits within the first 15 days or retain some. It is totally unacceptable for Starcomms to force me or any other subscriber to use up call credits within 15 days or any other days.

I've discussed this issues with some friends who also have Starcomms LSP 3000 for home use like myself, they all gave the same complaints. So it is not an issue peculiar to myself alone. A female colleague had even taken her phone to Starcomms' head office and challenged them to the disappearance of her credits, and demanded that her credits should be refunded. But it all ended up being a waste of her time as she was informed that that is how the phone operates.

To me, I think this is a fraudulent way of charging consumers daily Access Fees which Starcomms claimed to have been cancelled with the introduction of the phone. The only thing I can do about this is to take this matter to the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC). If GSM operators are not wiping out credits, why should a fixed wireless operator do so?

This is good.

The more, the merrier, the cheaper.

Demmy,

If you buy an MP3 Player, you will be saddled with carrying the MP3 Player and your handset at the same time.

The best is to do as Seun has suggested. Buy a cellphone that can play MP3. Any of the underlisted will do, and you can upgrade the memory to 1GB:

Nokia 9300, Nokia 9500, Sony Ericsson P910i and Nokia 7710, not necessarily in order of preference. The new Sony Ericsson W800 is a cellphone and a walkman at the same time. You might want to look into that option too.

blackweaver:
I'm going to deviate a little off the subject, I was thinking some time ago that it would be nice if they enabled some sort of intercom communication on phones that support bluetooth I realise that at 10m range it isn't really worth it but if a version that had up to 100m range was developed, you could talk to ur next door neighbour without going to his house and for free; what do u pple think of it?

If you and your next door neighbour paired your bluetooth devices, you can actually communicate as far as both of you are within the bluetooth coverage range, though this is going to be a voiceless communication. This is how you will do it:

If your phone has a text editor or Notes, open it and type a message or anything you desire to send across. Then Select Option, Send Via BT (Bluetooth), Select your neighbour's phone among the list of your Discovered Devices and off you go.

Your neighbour will receive the the Notes as a text message with an attachment. He/She opens the attachment to read the Notes. That's how it works. I have been using it and it comes really handy when I am in a crowded place with a friend.

Farriel:

Good to know that you 've already tried it. I can't remember now my N-Gage download speed, as it is already crashed. But you can do this to improve on the download speed:

Set the 'Display Image' of your phone's browser to No or Off
If you also have the option, set the HTML to No or plain text.

This should improve your download speed.

Legry:

You can do this with any SIM card (MTN, Glo, VMobile, MTEL).

If your laptop already has an in-built bluetooth adapter, then better. Just proceed to pair the device with your laptop and follow the steps.

In a previous post I mentioned browsing the internet free on your cellphone via bluetooth, making use of your internet-connected PC as a gateway.

Now when I say browsing the internet free, I mean your mobile operator is not going to charge you for the browsing over bluetooth. Also, even though your mobile operator does not support GPRS, you can still browse the internet over bluetooth.

Conditions:

1. Your phone must support GPRS.
2. Your PC or laptop must be directly connected to the internet or connected to the internet of your workplace
through your office's LAN.
3. Your phone must have a good XHTML/HTML browser (You can download the trial version of Opera at
http://www.opera.com)

GPRS, standing for General Packet Radio Service, is the "new, improved" way of passing data over a mobile phone network, which includes browsing the internet.

The steps to do this are outlined below:

On Your PC

1. Install a bluetooth adapter and all its drivers
2. Pair computer with phone, authorize the connection and remember your computer's name that you use to pair
the phone with. I called my computer FDA and my phone diakim. If you can't pair your computer with the
phone, then this exercise is probably not for you.
3. Install pc suite. This software can be found in the CD that came with your phone, or download one from the
manufacturer's website.

On Your Phone
4. go to settings->connection->access points
5. options->new access point->use default settings

Connection Name: (whatever you like, e.g. diakim-BT)
Data Bearer: GPRS
Access Point Name: your computer's name, the same name that shows up when you pair the bluetooth with the phone, e.g. FDA
User Name: none
Prompt Password: no
Password: none (leave alone)
Authentication: secure
Gateway IP add: 0.0.0.0

6. Now go back and you should see the access point you just set up.
7. Bo back to connection settings->GPRS

GPRS Connection : When needed
8. Access Point: your computer's name,the same name that shows up when you pair the
bluetooth with the phone, e.g. FDA

9. Turn on bluetooth and connect your phone with PC suite
10. If you've done all of these step properly you can now use the internet on your phone via
bluetooth connection.

Limitation:
You can only browse if you are close to your PC, I.e. within the bluetooth signal range, within a range of not more than 50m. So whats the heck? Why not browse comfortably on your PC? Don't ask me, we do certain things just for the kicks. With this, I can browse on my phone while in another part of the building or in the toilet.

Don't Expect your browsing speed to be as fast as that of your PC.

NOTE: I tried this on my Nokia N-Gage and it worked like a charm. It should work on a different phone because the concepts are the same.

[I]I am using UBT-B1 Wireless USB Bluetooth Adapter - 100 Meters, Class 1.[/I]

https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y196/diakim/Bluetooth1.jpg

[I]Originally published on http://diakim2..com[/I]

Mamba, why are you keeping us in suspense? Please tell us about your snakes; we we want to know how you relate with them.

How many universities and other higher institutions of learnings in Nigeria have well-equipped library? Why should we throw away so much money on one library that will not end up benefitting majority of Nigerians?

When you pay your tithes, you are just obeying God.

It is a pity that all some people see is the preacher spending all the money. Now, you just obey God and quit worrying about what happened to the money. That is left between the preacher and God. After all, they have no other source of living. Though we know that some of them have gone into excesses with God's money, this is a matter for God Himself to judge.

(Laughing my head off. Please I am not part of this story. Don't mention my name o).

The Obasanjo's Library is a good idea, but the timing of the launching is bad.

To me, and to some other, OBJ is just using his executive position to gather support for his pet projects. Why can't he wait till when re retired. What's the hurry about?

This is another instance of abuse of office and position. I am sure if OBJ had waited till July 2007, he couldn't have gathered as much support or raised half as much funds as he had done.

I am always very careful when it comes to commenting about Pastor T. B. Joshua. This is because despite all that is being said about him, he might end up being a real man of God. I don't want to fall into the condemination of judging God's own servant. That is God's own perogative, which he will not be pleased to share with anyone.

As Seun has already said, there has been a lot of improvement in him: grammar, dressing, and the church services. Believe me, he has been transformed from being a crude, illiterate preacher to a smooth and effable preacher. Initially, I did not like watching his programmes due to the level of crudeness in preaching and performing miracles. But now, I enjoyed watching him. I was in my Barbber's shop yesterday when his programme was aired at Silverbird TV, and I was impressed. I give kudos to those guys that coached him, either Nigerians or Oyinbos.

Come to think of it, the other pentecostal ministers might not like him as a result of envy. He performs miracles, so also Pastor Chris who others hated, maybe for the same reason. The bible said that the jews delivered Jesus to Pilate because of envy. They envied Jesus because he performed miracles and people followed him, which made the jews to lose their followers. The same thing might be true of Pastor T. B Joshua's case.

For your information, I am not a member of the Synagogue Church of Nations , and I have never attended any of their church services.

I don't think the preacher is compelling you to pay tithes. By preaching it or emphasizing it, he is merely performing his duties. It is left to to the wise or highly discernible to take heed.

You are right that tithes is a majorly in the old testament, but it also exists in parts of the new testament. Jesus needs not stressed too much on tithes not because it is not important, but because other prophets before him like Malachi quoted by the preacher has already done enough justice to the subject.

Both the old and new testaments jointly made the bible what is is. The bible is not complete without either of them. For example, the accounts of the creation of this present world by God can be found in Genesis, in the old testament. Being in the old testament does not invalidate the facts or makes it less important in the bible.

In summary, just as you yourself as said, give whatever you want to give, even more than the tithes as God gives you the grace, and leave the rest. But it is better to follow the Word of God, which is to give a minimum of ten percent of our income to his house so that there will be food for his servants who are doing his work full-time, and for maintenance of His house. And this is not for nothing, God has promised to rebuke the devourer and open the windows of heaven for the sake of the obedient ones.

Yes, Mamba. The Sony Ercisson P910i even though released earlier, and with the absence of EDGE has been a serious competitor to the Nokia 9xxx series.

dominobaby:

Good to know that the review was helpful to a friend of yours.
Hope he enjoys his precious possession. He may have to upgrade the memory to 256MB or 512MB if he wants to make the best use of the MP3 player.

That is called Blue-jacking, Hidden_Hunter.

I use that when I am less busy in the office. I will scan for other Bluetooth enabled phones, and send some messages to them like, "This phone has infected by Virus, Pls contact the nearest IT personnel". I use to have a good laugh at them. Luckily most of them leave their bluetooth connection open, so it has been easy for me to gain access to their phones.

I agree with you @razor.

The House of representatives are not serious. They are just doing this impeachment process out of vendetta against the President for exposing their corruption and inefficiencies. Where have they been all these times?

It cannot succeed. Baba Iyabo knows how to appease or scatter them when he deems fit.

Yes, you have to be close to your PC. Maximum bluetooth range is 100 metres. But with all the walls and partitions in the office, it will be less than 100m.

This is not the first time there will be examination leakage, and this will not be the last time. This is a sad reflection of the corruption that has engulped the larger Nigerian society.

Until when our educational system is overhauled and we concentrate less on certificate or paper qualification, there will always be examination leakages.

What happened to the 6-3-3-4 educational system? Is it being implemented to the letter. By 6-3-3-4 system, by the time a student finished the Junior Secondary School (the first 3), he/she would have learnt a technical skill that can be put to economic use in case the student decided not to continue his/her education. Ditto for the Senior Secondary School (the second 3).

But it is not the case now, every student must get the WAEC certificate in order to have a relevant future. And WAEC is highly inefficient and saddled with over-corrupt officials. The future seems bleek except there is a divine intervention in this country.