Say NO to the SMS “Tax”

No SMSAs you may already know, the “evil” telecom companies want to squeeze every cent they can out of you by making up fees. SMS or Short Message Service is what is usually described as texting by your carrier. In the last decade before the explosion of smartphone, SMS used to fill a gap where there was little to no connection to the Internet. SMS functioned though SMS centers hence requiring its own infrastructure.

Nowadays, this is completely irrelevant as most smartphones typically use standard mail protocols such as SMTP over TCP/IP. Meaning, if you have a smartphone, it is very likely you are being charged for something that should be covered by your data plan alone. Of course, I am not familiar with pricing from all cell phone companies; however, if you are on a “bundle” plan and texting is part of it, most likely they are just getting a bundle of money from you. Otherwise, if it is clearly spelled out as a separate fee, you might want to consider just not paying for it and using alternatives that require your data plan alone.

There are several apps out there, each one with its limitations, but with more features than SMS.  So far, Kik is my favorite cross platform messaging app as it is free and it is available for iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and WP7. The makers of Kik are currently being sued by RIM, the maker of BlackBerry Messenger Continue reading “Say NO to the SMS “Tax””

Why I got a Blackberry

I recently acquired a Samsung Focus which is another run-of-the-mill phone with a full touch screen front that are supposed to be “innovative”. Who knows if the new iPhone 4S will redefine the type, that’s probably a matter of opinion. Anyway, the point I’m getting to is that I went from a BlackBerry Pearl to a Curve, to a Bold 9700 and finally to a WP7 Phone and somehow I miss my BlackBerry. I miss BBM, the longer battery life, message integration, switching languages on the fly, docks that don’t require pushing or pulling, one-handed operation, the security features as well as a full non-touch QWERTY keyboard. These are very resilient and durable devices. I left my Bold 9700 on top of my car and when I took a curve at 30 mph it went flying into a ditch. It has a couple of punctures and scratches on it but when I put the battery back in everything worked like a charm. I seriously doubt that would be the case with other types of smartphones. I believe in several areas the BB’s still can’t be beaten. If you’re a very social person and do lots of messaging and email. I don’t think the BB can come close to being beaten.

As you may know if you actually used one, Blackberries are way behind in the App department with their “developer unfriendly” OS, which is the root cause for the lack of Apps, Continue reading “Why I got a Blackberry”