My DigitalZone

As I wrote in this post, I signed up for Skype’s monthly subscription service last spring. At first, I was just curious about it and didn’t expect much. Now I can say Skype is really valuable for anyone who often calls internationally.

Skype to Go Number
I found Skype to Go Number especially useful. “Skype to Go Number” comes with monthly subscription. What you get is a local number you can call from your cell phone or any other landlines. The following shows how you can set it up once you signed up for monthly subscription.

• From your computer’s Skype program, choose “Skype” then “Account.”
• Click on “Skype to Go Number.”
• If I remember correctly, then you’ll see a list of available numbers. You pick the area code and the number you want. I picked the number with the same area code as my cell phone’s.
• Then, you need to register/save the phone numbers you want to use to call Skype to Go number. I have 2 phone numbers registered: one is my cell and the other is my office phone.
• If you have international phone numbers you call often, you can register them as speed dial contacts from within the Skype software. (You don’t have to have speed dial contacts but you know it’s not fun to dial 16 numbers every time you want to make a call.)
• With Skype to Go Number and the saved speed dial contacts, the rest is very very easy.

You call your own Skype to Go Number from your registered phone and follow the direction. Basically, it’s pressing 1 for calling one of the speed dial number or 2 for calling any other international number. You don’t need to remember each of the speed dial number, it will be read out to you…. “Press 1 if you want to call Jane….”, etc. This is what I call a no hassle international call. I can use my cell phone or office phone to make a call, not from my home PC where I installed Skype software.

My LG enV3, which I got about 2 months ago, has a problem saving pictures. After I take a picture, I can save it on the phone only for a little while. The picture I saved shows up in “My Pictures” right after I took it. If I check it, say after 5 min., the pic won’t show most of the time, with a red question mark placed over some logo.

So, basically I couldn’t save any pics, or that’s what I thought. I deleted pics I’d taken. Then, I realized that photos show up in My Pictures sometimes…..

Browsing the photos seems to cause some problems also. The phone freezes from time to time when I browse pictures.

I’ve found out that these are common problems with enV3 that Verizon has a fix. So, I need to bring my phone to the Verizon store to get it fixed. (I think they’ll do a firmware upgrade.)

Related Post
LG enV3 Music Syncing Problem

I must admit…. I like electronic gadgets. I usually buy new and hot stuff relatively early, especially when it comes to music- or video-related goods. I am not as crazy as those who spend hours and hours in front of a store to get hold of a new product. But I usually buy a new product before its second generation comes out.

For some reason, Bluetooth headsets did not interest me. Well, that is… until recently. I’ve been doing Christmas shopping and noticed that the prices of Bluetooth headsets have come down a lot. I am feeling tempted. So, I started to do some research.

The two main advantages of Bluetooth headsets are:

1. Wireless — frees up hands
   Obviously, not having to use a hand to hold the phone is very, very convenient, especially while driving. Even when you are doing a grocery shopping and calling home to ask your family members about what they want from the store, your hands are free to push the shopping cart or to examine some products. I can see some benefits in this regard.
2. Affordable
   As I noted above, Bluetooth headsets are affordable now. You can find some cheap one for less than $20.00. However, people I spoke with and a lot of online reviewers said the sound quality for cheap units are not as good. You get what you pay for. One person told me that $50.00 is his threshold. Anything above should be decent, according to an IT person who uses Bluetooth at work.

Well, then the question is:”Do I Need IT?”
Probably not. At my work, I sit in front of a computer almost all day with a headphone on to shut out noises and listen to the music. I don’t move around. I don’t get too many work-related phone calls anyway.

My commute time is very short. It’s only a 10 min. drive one way. I do, however, drive 40 min. one way every week for some extra curricular activity. I use a corded headphone I bought along with my new cell phone, LG enV3, so I have a device that let me do hands-free driving while on the road.

My next question to me has an obvious answer. Do I Want IT? Yes, I do. Very much.

What I’ve decided to do, since I cannot decide to buy it now or not, is to buy one as a Christmas present and see how my recipient likes it or not. In other word, I’ll use her as my guinea pig.

Based on my budget (between $50 to $70) and my research, models I am considering buying are the following.

• Plantronics Discovery 925 Bluetooth Headset
  
  • From CompUSA ($49.99)
  • From TigerDirct ($49.99)
  • From Amazon.com ($49.99)
• Jabra BT 530
  
  • From ComUSA ($54.99)
  • From TigerDirect ($54.99)
  • From Amazon ($37.95)

Have you struggled to sync music between your cell (LG enV3) and your computer? I have. It was frustrating as music sync software (both Windows Media Player and Yahoo Music Engine) didn’t work. But I’ve found a much easier solution.

Use a memory card reader on your laptop — No need for special software
Yes. It’s just that. If you laptop has a memory card reader, use a memory card adapter that comes with the memory card for you phone, and stick the memory card into the card reader. Your laptop should recognize your card just like any other external drive.

Side Notes

• Battery Life When Used as a Music Player
  I was skeptical about the battery life if I use the phone as a music player. I used it for about 6 hours straight last weekend and it still had 2 bars. I need to do more experiment to be sure, but I can tell you it’s been good so far.
• Sound Quality
  The sound quality is quite good. Even though it doesn’t have some advanced features of a mp3 player, such as equalizer, it has high quality stereo sound.

Related Post
LG enV3 Picture Problem

Here’s a quick way of creating and sending your own ringtones to your Verizon cell phone. It’s not that difficult. You need a sound editor program to crop the source mp3 file and to change the format. I used GoldWave, which costs $49.00 for one user; however, you can download and install free software, audacity, from here. If you choose to use audacity, you also need to download and install the mp3 codec, Lame 3.96.1.

Once you picked a song and installed software, do the following.

1. Open the song in the sound editor and trim the song so that the song length is about 20 seconds.
2. Save the file as an mp3, 22050 Hz, 160 kbps, stereo. You can choose a lower kbps and mono but the quality will not be as good. The file size should be somewhere between 250kb to 350kB.
3. Close the file and change the file extension to mid so Verizon protocol will think it’s a file in a midi format. [Note: I am using LG enV3, and it worked without changing the extension.]
4. Log in to your email account. (I used my Yahoo email.)
5. Start a new email and attach the file to the email and send it to yourself.
6. Forward the email to your cell phone. The recipient’s address should be:
   XXXYYYZZZZ@vzwpix.com
   where XXXYYYZZZZ is your cellphone number including the area code. (You may need to have a Verizon pix place for this to work.)

I tried some other ways and software before but I am satisfied with the quality and ease of making/sending my own ringtone this way.

[Note]
If you are not a Verizon user, you can refer to this page for some additional info on other wireless carriers. I’m not sure how up-to-date this page is, though.