New Massachusetts cell phone alert system warns of tornadoes

The National Weather Service used a new tool to warn people before a tornado tore through Moore, Okla., on Monday – an automatic best cell phone deals alert the agency also plans to use to notify Bay State residents about twisters and other dangerous storms.Authorities can use the Wireless Emergency Alert system to send warning messages to mobile phones in a particular geographic area about imminent threats and disasters, Amber Alerts for abducted children and national emergencies announced by the president.

Developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Federal Communications Commission and wireless companies, the system went live nationwide last year, although not all Latest Smartphones or carriers are equipped to receive messages from it.Mobile phone owners in Massachusetts not yet acquainted with the system may have gotten a first peek Monday night, when many phones emitted a jarring tone and flashed a message about an Amber Alert for a brother and sister kidnapped from a Braintree foster home.

Mobile phone owners can opt out of receiving alerts, except for those issued by the president. Users can check with their carriers to see if they receive emergency messages.In New England, the Weather Service plans to use the alert system for tornadoes, hurricanes and severe ice storms, among other potentially major threats, according to Buchanan.ds2wfdD2

Cell phone companies are now selling or looking to sell massive troves of information about their customers including their physical locations, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal released Wednesday.It shouldn't come as a huge surprise that Buy Cell Phones companies are recording and selling your data. Sites like Google and Facebook have been doing that for years, The Wall Street Journal points out. The difference is, you're paying for your cell phone service, and you're not paying to use sites like Facebook and Google, which makes it slightly more socially acceptable for them to do what they will with your data.

There's no hiding from data collection anymore. At this point, you cannot reasonably expect to exist in the modern world and not have your personal data sold to an advertiser. A few brave souls have quit Google due to privacy fears, but quitting Google, social media, and giving up your discount cell phones? That's another story.

Refurbished Cell Phones - Is It Safe to Buy Them?

If you are wondering what refurbished cell phones are, here is an overview. best cell phone deals with minor or major defects are sent back to the manufacturers for repair, these phones are restored to their former glory and return to the market as good as new. The reliability of such a phone depends on the kind of defect it suffered from and the treatment meted out to it. If it was a hardware defect and the faulty hardware was replaced instead of being repaired, then the chances of relapse are slim to none. Also, the odds of total recovery are better if the phone was refurbished by its original manufacturer instead of a local repair shop.

There is always a risk involved in buying a refurbished phone. But not all phones are sent back because of irregular functioning. A lot of phones are returned by customers when they are not comfortable with it or if they find the configuration unsuitable. Such phones are brand new and have no defects whatsoever. Several cell phone providers also allow their customers to return their handsets within a particular time period if they are not satisfied with it. Thus, there are a lot of brand new, untarnished and unharmed models in the refurbished cell phone market. If you can get your hands on such devices, you get a new phone at half the original price. What better deal could you have asked for?

Even if you buy the most high tech phone available, there will be a better model in the Latest Smartphones market within a month or so. Since the grass is always greener on the unattainable side, your desire for the hottest new phone shall always remain insatiable.d1dDfdrd

If you go through Buy Cell Phones faster than women go through new clothes, you need an economical solution for your technologically philandering ways. Refurbished cell phones are almost as good as their brand new counterparts and cost a lot less.

When you purchase a refurbished phone, check the company that is responsible for the refurbishment. Do a little homework and get feedback from previous customers as well. Warranty is of utmost important; most sellers offer a decent return policy and at least a 30-day warranty period with their product. If your seller denies warranty, it's time to move to the next store or website. You must also research the price of the refurbished model you are purchasing. Prices of a particular model can wary depending on its life span and the damage it incurred. So make sure you the best deal in the market.

Most cell phone service providers are in the business of selling refurbished discount cell phones. The advantage of buying a phone from a service provider is that it functions smoothly with the phone network and account. You can purchase refurbished phones online as well, just make sure they provide money back or exchange options. A phone at half price is no good if it doesn't function properly.

Germs lurking on your Latest Smartphones?

Think about all the gadgets around us that we touch all the time -- best cell phone deals, iPads, Androids, keyboards. But did you ever think about what is on those devices that you can't see?

They're filthy, disgusting and downright nasty looking. But, germs are everywhere, including your cell phone. In fact, some experts, say every square inch of your cell phone has 25,000 germs.Exactly what do you think is lurking on your cell phone?

3 On Your Side wanted to know just how dirty are our Latest Smartphones and other things we touch. So, we partnered up with Stan Kikkert, a germ expert at Mesa Community College. He said, "There are a couple of them that seem to have more counts than others."

Kikkert provided us with swabs and sterile petri dishes. Then we got to work swabbing. First, we started with cell phones. Then, we moved on to an ATM and swabbed the buttons. We also swabbed a picnic table, an elevator button and finally the handle on a trash recycling bin. Then, we took our samples back to Kikkert. Our samples were placed in an incubator for about 48 hours.ds11SW44S

Then, it was time to see what was on the cell phones we swabbed. And what we discovered was surprising. Kikkert observed, “You’re getting a little bit of counts, not tremendous we are getting looks like a little bit of diversity too, some bacteria, mold and a couple of fungi on some of these as well."

Kikkert says the Buy Cell Phones cell phones were not as germy as you might think and says there could be a good reason for that. "Some of them are newer phones and there could be coatings and things on those phones that may be inhibit microbial growth."

That's good news but what about the other things we swabbed?"The ATM has quite a bit of counts on here," said Kikkert.It's probably no surprise we found germs and bacteria on the ATM buttons, but the germiest items included the handle people used to throw away their recyclable items."Looks like a lot of fungi actually in this particular case but there's definitely some bacteria and stuff growing as well," explained Kikkert.As it turned out, the things with the fewest germs was, believe it or not, the elevator button and picnic discount cell phones where bacterial growth was surprisingly low.

Living without a cellphone

Two weeks ago, I tried packing in the dark so I could leave a hotel room in Germany at 4:30 in the morning without waking my son Christopher. I did a really good job with one exception – I left my best cell phone deals.

I figured it out at about 30 minutes later when sent iPad text messages to Christopher back in the hotel and my wife, Mary Lyman, who was back in Alexander City, letting them know that I would be out of touch and asking Christopher to please mail the phone back to me in dfD2FSS Alabama.

For a brief moment, I thought about taking a taxi back to the hotel and racing back in time to make the flight, but I chickened out.So for the better part of two weeks now, I’ve been without a cell phone.

For someone who is dependent on a smartphone, it’s been amazingly easy, even pleasant. I’ve had time to plant my garden, work in the yard, cook more … all without the constant interruption of Latest Smartphones calls, text messages, meeting alarms, What’s App notices (our family’s personal Facebook) and most of all, the ability to constantly check emails.

The problem is that in the newspaper business, lots of people and companies who I don’t know send in press releases, requests, news tips, letters to the editor … as well as the normal business emails and discount offers on Victoria’s Secret miracle push-up bras. So I can’t mark nearly as many senders as “junk” as I could if I was working in another business. I guess I could mark Victoria’s Secret as junk, but I don’t really want to.

So my smartphone stays very busy.After 12 days without a smartphone, I’ve been surprised at what I have missed the most.- Contacts – It’s amazing how many phone numbers I don’t know by heart. It’s easy to borrow somebody’s cell phone, but if you don’t know the cell number of the person you want to call – like your son – there’s no reason to bum a phone.- Weather forecast – I look at this at least once a day, sometimes more- Telephone – One for actually Buy Cell Phones when you’re not sitting beside a landline. - Calculator – I use this all the time.

Digital recorder – I use this all the time, too.- Webster’s Dictionary – It’s easier to use the phone than spell check on a computer.- The ability to Google for reference – I’ve been stymied a number of times when I wanted to learn something and couldn’t.- Alarm clock – I almost missed the BRHS senior class photo at 7:15 Friday morning because the alarm wasn’t around to wake me. Of course, I could have used another alarm clock, but I just don’t think about that anymore.

Here’s something else I’ve learned: when I’ve told folks I don’t have a cell phone, I’ve gotten two very distinct reactions. People my age and older say, “I bet that’s nice.” People in their 20s get a horrified look on their face and say something like, “Oh my God! What are you going to do?”

The answer is easy – I function just like I have for most of my life when there were no discount cell phones. And I keep an eye out for the postwoman’s truck to come down the street at lunchtime.

Did The Theatergoer Who Smashed The Cellphone Go Too Far?

Yesterday's story about an irate theatergoer who smashed an obnoxious audience member's best cell phone deals struck quite a nerve, not just on Gothamist but on websites around the world... wide web. And although most of us declared cell phone tosser Kevin Williamson a hero, others were uncomfortable with glorifying what was, on one level, an act of violence. The Washington Post's Alexandra Petri argued that, "

In that case, maybe Williamson should be also congratulated for not squeezing off a few rounds? Others have suggested that Williamson was right to snatch the cellphone but wrong to destroy it—what he should have done is brought it to the theater's management and let them deal with it. (One of the show's producers worries he could have seriously injured someone, a fair point.) That, we have to agree, is probably the MATURE thing to do. But it wouldn't have made for a very fun blog post.

So what is to be done about this nagging problem? NYC passed a law in 2003 making Latest Smartphones use in theaters illegal, but it's not enforced. Can't theaters just install cell phone jammers like they do in Russia? The FCC says no. But Alyssa Rosenberg at Think Progress has a simple solution: require audience members to check their cell phones upon entering, like the movie theaters sometimes require at advanced screenings for big blockbusters.dsSDfdd3

A man was walking near 10th Avenue South and South King Street around 7:10 p.m. May 13 when two women asked to use his cellphone, and he agreed.But, when the victim tried to get his phone back, one of the women put it in her pocket and handed him a different but similar-looking phone, according to the police report.

When the victim pointed out that wasn't his Buy Cell Phones and he would like his back, please, one of the women reportedly pulled out a knife and told him he better take the impostor phone.The victim was afraid he was going to get stabbed, so he ran to a nearby business and called 911. Officers found the women in a wooded area commonly used by narcotics users, drug dealers and prostitutes. They were booked into King County Jail for investigation of robbery.

According to the report, the man pulled out a large handgun (which may have been a replica of a German Luger) and demanded the victim's discount cell phones, saying, "I'm not messing around."The victim told officers she would have given the man her phone. But, when she pulled it out, he turned it down, possibly because it is quite old and worth little to nothing.

When the other person with the victim pointed out to the man he was being watched by someone from an apartment balcony, he ran off. The same man may be responsible for stealing a cellphone from a University Village store 15 to 20 minutes later.

Cell phone users ‘have no legitimate expectation of privacy’ – judge

A federal judge recently ruled that if someone has their cell phone turned on, their location data does not deserve protection under the Fourth Amendment, meaning law enforcement can track individuals without a search warrant.dsDF34fcd

New York magistrate judge Gary Brown decided in favor of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents who were seeking his approval over a warrant on a doctor who they suspected was being paid for issuing thousands of prescriptions. The warrant would have compelled the physician’s Latest Smartphones company to provide real-time tracking data from his cell.

Brown, certainly to the delight of police, issued a 30-page brief outlining his opinion that, by carrying a cell phone, someone is essentially waiving their Fourth Amendment right to due process.

“Given the ubiquity and celebrity of geolocation technologies, an individual has no legitimate expectation of privacy in the prospective of a cellular telephone where that individual has failed to protect his privacy by taking the simple expedient of powering it off,” Brown wrote.

“As to control by the user, all of the known tracking technologies may be defeated by merely turning off the phone. Indeed – excluding apathy or inattention – the only reason that users leave cell phones turned on is so that the device can be located to receive calls. Conversely, individuals who do not want to be disturbed by unwanted telephone calls at a particular time or place simply turn their Buy Cell Phones off, knowing that they cannot be located.”

He goes on to suggest that because there are smartphone applications available that allow users to locate people in their area with similar interests, cell phone customers should not expect their inherent right to privacy to be observed.

“Given the notoriety surrounding the disclosure of geolocation data to retailers purveying soap powder and blue jeans to mall shoppers, the police searching for David Pogue’s iPhone and, most alarmingly, the creators and users of the Girls Around You app, cell phone users cannot realistically entertain the notion that such information would (or should) be withheld from federal law enforcement agents searching for a fugitive.”

Exactly how common this practice is throughout the law enforcement community is unclear but it has widely been reported that a Michigan police force tried to gain information about every single discount cell phones within the proximity of a labor protest.

Police accused of erasing cell phone footage of fatal beating

Latest Smartphones seem to be causing the police increasing unease.It's quite easy for ordinary people to film officers in the line of duty, and sometimes that duty can seem to be excessively dutiful.This seems to be the view of Maria Melendez, who says she used her phone to film a case of what appeared to be fatal police brutality, only to have it confiscated without a warrant. Worse, reports are now emerging that some of the footage may have been deleted by the police.

As The New York Times reports, Melendez was leaving the Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, Calif., in the early hours of May 8 when she witnessed an altercation.She says she saw six sheriff's deputies hitting a man with a club and kicking him.

She took out her cell phone and told the deputies what she was doing. It's unclear whether she thought this might get them to stop. If that was the case, this doesn't seem to have happened.She says the man screamed and cried for help for a total of eight minutes. He finally fell silent, and the police then allegedly tied him up and dropped him twice on the ground.

It was only then, Melendez said, that they enacted Buy Cell Phones. David Sal Silva, 33, died less than an hour later.Melendez said that she and her daughter's boyfriend both filmed what happened. She also said that police confiscated both their phones without a warrant being served.xcTFR5DS

The sheriff's department disputes this version, insisting that everything was done legally and the phones have been handed to the Bakersfield Police Department. Melendez and her daughter's boyfriend both said that police officers paid them a visit at their homes and demanded the phones.

The sheriff's office wouldn't discuss the seizures with the Times. (I have embedded very grainy surveillance video of the incident, obtained by ABC Channel 23 in Bakersfield.)

There is no legal gray area with respect to filming the police while they are at work in a public place. The Supreme Court seems very clear that this is legal.Sadly, though, a recent -- and less violent -- incident in San Diego showed that police don't always seem to respect a citizen's right to use cell phones to record, for example, arrests.

The police's ability to then seize your discount cell phones still appears to be under legal debate.The allegations made by Melendez are serious. They suggest considerable overreaction by the police.Worse, there are now accusations that some of the cell phone footage has been deleted. A report from the Los Angeles Times says that the FBI has now been called into the investigation.This move was prompted, said Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood, by the fact that one of the two confiscated cell phones seems to have no footage on it at all.

Why Android Is Winning The Tablet Wars

latest android tablet took the lead from Apple AAPL -2.39%‘s iOS tables in Q1 of 2013 (source). This is a huge change from three years ago, when Apple invented the modern tablet.

Global electronic tablet market share by OS and Vendor; data via IDC and Strategy Analytics.

What is happening and where is this going? I see four driving forces:

newest tablets computing is well beyond the control of Apple’s iTunes content delivery system. In the early days of the iPod and the iPhone (ancestors of the iPad), you could hardly use the product without periodic plug-ins to iTunes to get content and configure the device. After that Apple’s App Store held hegemony on the apps that give tablets value.Data via CivicScience.com; See end notes on category definitions.dsdD23DCS

Those days are over. The chart at right shows that the biggest usage mode for tablets is communications: e-mail, web, social media, etc., where Apple has no advantage in content access. Work usage is also important, and the productivity apps for Apple and Android are fairly comparable.

The second biggest use is media and entertainment. Apple had a big advantage at the start here, but the playing field here has been leveled to a large extent. eBooks and music are equally available on Android, a wide selection of video is available from Google GOOG +1.09% Play, Netflix NFLX +1.99%, and Amazon, and there are numerous Android tablet games, although probably fewer options than iOS.

Android itself has come a long way, most recently on tablets. Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” two years ago was weak and buggy, however the current 4.2 “Jelly Bean” release is full-featured and slick. Market research suggests that Android users love their OS just as much as iOS users love theirs (more). Combined with a nice hardward platform like the Nexus7, Android delivers a very competitive Q88 Tablet .

And, Samsung is a force of nature. At CES in 2011 they had a Galaxy product targeting every Apple mobile product from the iTouch to the iPad. They experiment with many size and design variations: they were early with the now-dominant 7 inch tablet and pioneered the surprisingly successful “phablet” concept (~5″ devices that are big phones or small tablets). Consumer research showed that Samsung’s brand did not match Apple’s, and they responded with a brand marketing blitz that makes them the biggest U.S. spender in mobile electronics, including LeBron James in a Superbowl ad. Samsung is now arguably a stronger brand than Android; the two together are formidable.

Apple is holding the price point up and resisted offering a smaller tablet; it needs high prices to satiate Wall Street‘s lust for predictable earnings. Other vendors have democratized the business by with good offers at lower price points. The five most popular tablets on Amazon today (May 14, 2013) are four 7 inch Kindle and Samsung tablets selling for $179 – $229, and an 8.9 inch Kindle selling for $269. Comparably configured, these products are $100-$200 cheaper than Apple’s products. And, there is a third tier of 7 inch Android tablets in the $100-$200 price range that now takes about 30% of the tablet market: the big orange band on the first chart above.

Apple held on to over 70% market share in iPods throughout the life cycle. The iPod is a media consumption device, and the link to the iTunes content access/management platform was unbeatable. It’s clear that tablets will be a different story, more like PCs. They are becoming a diverse market with several strong brands (Samsung, Asus/Google, Amazon/Kindle), a large number of popular-price offerings, and multiple content access platforms.

This is good news for the eco-system. Apple and Google have done a great job of showing the way and creating a rational platform, but the true potential of cheapest tablet computing will emerge only if we let all the flowers bloom.

Report: White-Box Tablet Market Thriving

The cheapest tablet market may be young, but white-box tablets have already grown into a substantial part of the market.

According to a recent report from NPD DisplaySearch, white-box tablets now account for one-third of the global tablet market. The research firm, which forecasts 2013 tablet shipments to increase 67 percent year-over-year to reach 256.5 million units, said custom tablets will maintain that one-third market share level for the next several years.

But there's a catch -- much of that white-box tablet growth is coming from overseas, NPD said.

"The rapid rise and establishment of white-box tablet PCs (tablets made by small local brands, mainly in China) is putting pressure on traditional notebook PCs," said Richard Shim, senior analyst with NPD DisplaySearch, in a press statement. "These low-cost 8 inch tablet are reaching further into emerging regions where notebook PC penetration rates have remained low, resulting in cannibalization by tablet PCs."

[Related: Android Tablets Gain Ground On Apple iPad In 1Q]

While white-box tablet growth has spiked in China and emerging markets in Latin America, it hasn't yet blossomed in North America. Jeff Davis, senior vice president of sales at D&H Distributing, said that while the distributor's tablet sales tripled in its last fiscal year, thanks to strong Android device sales, D&H hasn't seen tablet components for white-box devices take off yet.dfsWF2FR

Android has also become popular in the white-box market. In a recent report on first-quarter tablet shipments, Strategy Analytics reported that Android owned 43.4 percent of the global branded tablet market, second to Apple (NSDQ:AAPL)'s iOS. But when the firm included shipments of un-branded white-box tablets, Android's share jumped to 52 percent while iOS fell to 41 percent.

For some North American system builders, the custom tablet market spells opportunity. In a recent interview with CRN, Steve Dallman, Intel (NSDQ:INTC) channel chief, said he believes custom tablets can grow around vertically oriented tablets and application-specific devices. Dallman also said tablet components are already available to North American system builders and that the options will continue to grow.

Other system builders, however, are leery of competing against the likes of Apple, Samsung and Microsoft in the tablet market space. Marty Lantz, chief technical officer of MapleTronics, a system builder based in Minnetonka, Minn., said he doesn't view the custom discount cell phones space as a desirable market. "We don't want to survive on something that only has 3 or 4 margins points to make," he said. "We're looking at reselling tablets instead."

Along with low margins, pricing pressure could be a factor for system builders as the prices of tablets have fallen as the market has become more crowded. Davis said the smaller Android tablet market in particular has become tight, highlighting HP (NYSE:HPQ)'s new Slate 7, which is currently sold at $169.99, as an example of the trend.

"The pricing is very competitive," Davis said. "We're going to see some very unnatural price points for the 7-inch tablets as we get close to the holidays."

Tablets and Touch Adoption Expected to Drive Mobile PC Shipments Through 2017

The mobile PC market is expected to increase from 367.6 million units shipped in 2012 to 762.7 million globally by 2017, driven by touch-enabled form-factors, according to the NPD DisplaySearch. The majority of this shift will come as cheapest tablet PCs begin to replace notebook PCs this year as the dominant mobile form-factor, and touch becomes a key feature in mobile PC adoption.

“The mobile PC industry is undergoing significant change this year. The rapid rise and establishment of white box tablet PCs (tablets made by small local brands, mainly in China) is putting pressure on traditional notebook PCs. These low-cost tablets are reaching further into emerging regions where notebook PC penetration rates have remained low, resulting in cannibalization by tablet PCs,” said Richard Shim, senior analyst with NPD DisplaySearch.

Tablet PC shipments are forecast to increase 67% year-over-year to 256.5 million in 2013, and reach 579.4 million by 2017. White box tablet PCs accounted for one-third of 8 inch tablet PC shipments in 2012 and will maintain at that level for the next several years.sfdD3Ssjh

Notebook PC shipments are expected to decline 10% over the next four years, from 203.3 million in 2013 to 183.3 million in 2017, but there will be pockets of growth. Shipments of notebooks with touch capabilities are expected to grow 48% year-over-year in 2014.

In the notebook category, touch will be used mainly in ultra-slim PCs, which includes Intel-specified ultrabooks, the MacBook Air, and other slim form factor notebooks. Ultra-slims, which are at the premium end of the notebook market, are forecast to account for two-thirds of touch-enabled notebooks in 2013. By 2017, they will be 80%. Intel’s recent mandate that third-generation ultrabooks (using the company’s next generation Haswell processors) must include touch will also help adoption.

Tablets and notebooks will merge. In the future only very few tablets will not have an official keyboard/cover, and only few notebooks will not have touch screen.Touch screens on traditional notebooks and AIO desktops are a joke, the only reason they are being produced is to satisfy W8...........which no one wants/likes unless used with in discount cell phones form.

LG Working On New Tablet?

Like rival smartphone-maker HTC, it looks like LG may be looking at renewing its 7 inch tablet efforts with a forthcoming tablet that could debut as early as the third quarter of this year. At this point, there’s still not a lot of information known about LG’s tablet effort or which operating system that tablet will run. The company had relied on Google’s Android OS in the past to power its Optimus Pad series slates, but LG could potentially base its new tablet endeavors on new operating systems, such as Windows 8 or Windows RT from Microsoft.

A move into the Windows RT space could potentially make LG a competitor with HTC, the latter of which is rumored to be working on two tablets with Microsoft’s Windows RT OS. Samsung had said in the past that Windows RT was confusing and it would not release a tablet in the U.S. market with Windows RT on board; instead Samsung had chosen Windows 8 and Android for its discount cell phones endeavors.

Another smartphone-maker without a tablet in its portfolio is Nokia, which is also rumored to be working with Microsoft on either a Windows 8 or Windows RT slate.

However, LG’s ties to Google are still pretty strong, and an Android offering may still be in the cards. LG was rumored to be courting Google to help it in the TV space and the two has enjoyed a successful Nexus 4 launch, a smartphone that’s branded by Google but made by LG and shares a similar chassis and design to the LG Optimus G flagship. As such, a new tablets running Android may help further the relationship between LG and Google.

"We see different kinds of successful experiences on each platform. Great content creators create content natively for that platform," he says, while noting that Zynga wants to take its most popular games across as many platforms as possible, and citing Words With Friends' journey from smartphones to tablets and then Facebook as an example.D1dS343D

Is Zynga thinking tablet-first in 2013, though? Finnish startup Supercell did in 2012, and its Clash of Clans and Hay Day games generated $179m of revenues for the company in the first quarter of 2013 alone. Is that nudging Zynga towards a similar tablet-first strategy, at least for some games?

"There are great games that new android tablet started on Facebook like Zynga Poker, which later extended to mobile phones and to tablets," Boatman says. "And there are games that we are building that are focused on tablets first, and if they're very successful there, we may extend them to Facebook and mobile."

when this GT-I9300 phone isn't actually using the data service

Since AT&T won't unlock your new Galaxy S4 unless you pay full price for it, what should you do? First of all, I don't think it's worth it to buy the Galaxy S4 at full price just so you can use it abroad with a foreign SIM. My advice is before you upgrade to the GT-I9300 , get your old smartphone unlocked. If you are out of contract, which it sounds like you are, and you're a customer in good standing with AT&T, this should not be a problem. I'd use the older, unlocked smartphone while in Spain instead of the new GT-I9300 . This way you can put a Spanish SIM card in your unlocked phone and you'll save yourself some more money. If you still want to buy the Galaxy S4 before you leave, go ahead. You can always put the device on airplane mode and use all the Internet-enabled features and apps when you are in a Wi-Fi hot spot.

Almost three years ago, I bought an iPhone 3GS with a new two-year contract from AT&T. It came with a $30 unlimited data plan. My two-year agreement ended in June of 2012. I bought the new I9300TV in October and kept my old unlimited data plan.sdDS12Dsa

I gave my old iPhone to a family member, and I added her to my plan for an additional $9.99 per month. She just put her old SIM card from her flip phone into my old iPhone. She still only uses her phone for voice calls and text messaging. She does not use any data, unless she is in a Wi-Fi hot spot.

For over a year, AT&T didn't charge me for data on the iPhone 3GS, because that line didn't use data. But then a few months ago AT&T charged an extra $30 on my monthly bill. I contacted customer support, and I told them that the discount cell phones doesn't use data. They refunded my $30.

A month later, the same thing happened again. I contacted customer support, explained the situation, and they refunded me my $30. But this time the representative said that was the last refund for me. And she said that AT&T would start charging me for data every month even though this iPhone 3GS doesn't actually access any data.

My question to you is, why is GT-I9300 able to charge me for this data when this phone isn't actually using the data service? It doesn't seem fair to me.A wireless carrier might argue that it's only fair to ask all smartphone customers to chip in the full price of a data plan since it costs billions of dollars to build these networks. Operators may also argue that it only makes sense to force subscribers to sign up for a data plan if they have a smartphone, because the phone is designed to do much more than make phone calls and send text messages. But the reality is that for frugal consumers, using a hand-me-down device and accessing the Internet only when in a Wi-Fi hot spot is a much more affordable way to use a smartphone.

This approach doesn't offer ubiquitous access, but for some people, it works just fine. It sounds like that's the case for your relative who inherited your I5 MTK6577. If you are interested in a less expensive option and your family member only wants to use data in a Wi-Fi hot spot, you may want to check out some prepaid options that offer this type of service or can at least offer you a less expensive monthly plan.

Republic Wireless may be a service to consider. It has a $19-a-month plan that offers unlimited talk, text, and data. The GT-I9300 company actually uses Wi-Fi networks throughout its coverage area to offer the data service. The only downside for you is that your relative would have to buy a new phone. And right now, the handset choices are very limited.