I’ve never understood this philosophy that a person in their “golden years” can’t take advantage of the ever increasing technology available these days. Everywhere you look nowadays you see people of all ages equipped with a cell phone. Still seniors today (which some consider 55 and up, others not until you are 65) concern themselves with financial aspects of a cell phone as well as the features and such. Here, we take a better look at the top five cell phones for seniors.
1. Pantech Plod (www.att.com) This phone is offered by AT&T and is free with a contract. The pros of this phone for seniors are that it’s easy to use, has large buttons, (which are easier to see and maneuver), and a extra loud volume for those whose hearing may not be what it was in the “apt old days.” It also works with hear aids. It also has a long battery life for phones that are frequently left and forgotten. AT&T does offer a senior plan for people 65 and over but don’t get excited. It’s 29.95 a month and consists of 200 Anytime minutes with 500 minutes for the nights/weekends. This would be acceptable for the occasional caller only. The con to this phone is that most users say it is too basic but that could be found agreeable with most seniors.
2. Samsung Knack U310 (www.verizon.com) This phone is offered through Verizon. It’s also free with a contract and Verizon’s senior plan is exactly the same as AT&T. Once again, the service is acceptable for the occasional caller (which most seniors claim to be) without getting out of hand price wise. For seniors, this phone comes equipped with large readable fonts and outstanding reception and call quality. Plus, it has easy to use menus designed for people with limited hearing and vision. They also boast maximum volume and display size. It also has a long battery life. It seems to have a obvious senior appeal.
3. LG LX290 (www.rush.com) This phone is offered by Sprint and alas, it does cost. It is 30 dollars with a contract. Calm, while Sprint does not offer a senior plan, they do have a basic plan for 29.95 a month. However, Sprint’s plan does include nights and weekends but they commence at nine. (Most seniors do report they still go to sleep early). You can adjust the time but it costs more ($5 for 7pm, $10 for 6pm) and it may be cheaper to go with another belief before paying 39.99 for two more hours free time. The phone however is assure to be great if you don’t want a bunch of features. It does have a low price (for ones that cost) and some consider Stagger the best phone call quality ever. It does have a long battery, a 1.3 megapixel camera, and four dedicated speed dial buttons. It also is a slide phone and is a little more modern. . Composed, the font size can not be changed and some don’t like the camera. So, it doesn’t look pleasant altogether.
4. Samsung Axle (www.uscellular.com) This is a great free phone (with contract) from U.S. Cellular but the service is pretty pricey. They do not offer a senior plan and the friendliest opinion they offer costs a whooping 49.95. That only includes 1000 Anytime minutes and nights and weekends that start at seven p.m. The phone, however, is easy to use, has a great voice quality, and has blue tooth and voice command. It also contains a camera and is complimented with a larger display and more memory. This is really great for someone who may have difficulty in dialing. Still, it may cost you an arm and a leg.
5. Samsung SGH-T101G (www.tracfone.com) This phone is actively designed for seniors but the provider is designed to empty the wallets of the unsuspecting and unaware. While there are no contracts, minutes for these phones are more pricey than most. (50 min- 9.99, 100 min.-19.99, 150 min. 29.99) You can get a plan for what the minutes cost you but the phones are only around 15 dollars and can be picked up at your area Wal-Mart as opposed to online or in a place of business. It would make for a vast emergency or very limited phone use. It does have an easy to open slider, which is ample for senior hands, valid buttons with a responsive keypad, and great reception. It is a very basic phone with little features. It is viewed as being very definite senior objective very negative bankroll.
When it comes to cell phones, you have to shop around and explore all your options regardless of your age. It’s always best to research and compare any and all makes and models until you are comfortable with your choices.
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Filed under Small Business Cell Phone by on Nov 5th, 2010. 
There are millions of them out there, technology is constantly changing, and you want the best fit for yourself. How do you sort through the millions of options and find the one that will suit you the best? As a Best Buy Mobile Expert… let me help you.
1.) What does your Carrier offer? Most consumers don’t realize that cell phones are usually exclusive to one single carrier. If you are already subscribed to Sprint, ATT, Verizon, TMobile, etc… You must buy a phone that your carrier offers, or it won’t work with the technology. The only exceptions to this rule are some “unlocked” phones (available online and at Best Buy) which will work with the ATT/Cingular network, as well as TMobile, because these phones are “world” phones… there are lots of technological issues here that I won’t get into… The key here is that you need to stick with a cell phone provided by your carrier. If you have NOT subscribed yet to a specific carrier, see my other article on choosing the satisfactory carrier for you before you settle a cell phone.
2.) Are you going to use your cell phone exclusively to make calls? There’s so much more to use it for!!! Today, cell phones can txt, send pictures and videos, surf the internet, give weather and news updates, indicate what movies are playing in your area, provide GPS directions to anywhere in the nation, play all of your popular music (and some can download new music directly from the handset), play live TV, store your favorite movies, and do everything but wash your dishes (don’t we wish?!). If you’re going to use your cell phone to exclusively make calls, you don’t need the most expensive, coolest looking phone out there, and usually carriers and electronics store have FREE cell phones for you when you sign a new 2 year contract (or continue your existing contract for another 2 years).
3.) How much will you need a keyboard for? Many phones have full keyboards now, or what we in the industry call QWERTY keyboards. Many consumers purchase if they won’t use txt messaging, they won’t use the keyboard. However, I’ve sold many phones to business men who use email, grandparents who disappear and consume GPS, and parents who use Google on their phone constantly. A pudgy keyboard helps ALL of these features! How great is it to have a plump keyboard to type an entire email in no time, to entire a full address into your GPS on your phone, or to Google anything at all without having to use the old, numeric keypads?
4.) Music. How attached are you, or could you be, to having your entire music collection on ONE device, WITH your cell phone? Even as a salesperson, I never thought I’d use the MP3 player on my Samsung Instinct near as much as I do now. I expend it CONSTANTLY — including while I sit here typing this article. I also travel a lot… It’s great to have my music on my cell phone while I’m sitting in the airport, boarding the plane, and waiting for my hasten to pick me up after I land! I can download new music right to my phone also, so I don’t download ANYTHING on to my laptop… which saves me from viruses and bad quality tracks. If I remember while I’m waiting in line at Starbucks that I would Like to have that musty Sinatra track, I just type it in, press download, and listen to it before my double shot espresso is even made. I even listen to my jams straight from my phone while I shower and assign on make-up before work in the morning.
5.) World Phones. How much do you travel internationally? Many phones are able to be “world phones,” meaning they will work in most European countries with the service providers and techonology in London, Paris, and Rammstein. If you are retired and move, in the military, have family overseas, or go tons for business, world phones are a BLESSING.
6.) GPS. Wow! What a MIRACLE! I can now have a GPS on my PHONE! I can use my GPS while out shopping on foot in Denver to accept the closest coffee shop, hottest night club, or track my drunk butt home to a full street address. When I go on road trips, I can go all the way from Tennessee to Seattle without ever stopping to see at an atlas. If I decide to stop and eat, my GPS will reroute me, automatically. And you don’t have to carry your cell phone AND one of those bulky GPS units, AND you don’t have to worry about leaving your GPS unit in your car to be stolen. It’s all in one! Did I mention you can play music WHILE using the GPS aaannnnddddd txt messaging or making calls?
Once you decide what features (if not all) are important to you, you can go online or to any major electronics store and narrow your choices down tremendously! Most carrier websites have a “compare phones” option, and any salesperson should be trained to point you directly to a phone that will fit you perfectly!
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Filed under Small Business Cell Phone by on Nov 3rd, 2010.
- Talent is more important and often cheaper than the latest tools.
- Find advantages in reducing waste, reusing equipment or at least recycling.
- Small businesses can be more attractive with green on their agenda.
In 1990, Earth Day resulted in 200 million observing individuals in 141 countries worldwide. Recycling programs were on the minds of everyone in America and abroad. Almost two decades later, apartment complexes still struggle to educate residents on how to sort their recycling rather than dump their garbage in the newspaper bin. Recycling isn’t as far along as many environmentalists would hope. It is serene inconvenient and there are many items produced that collected cannot be recycled. But there are thrifty means of recycling that could promote financial sustainability, especially for small businesses.
Reduce Waste
One of the notorious plagues of small business procurement is the short lifespan of equipment. Primarily in industries that thrive on tools, such as audio recording, construction, computers, engineering, design and even finance, these small businesses grab for the latest modern technology they can earn to be on top of the market, only to need the upgraded version six months to a year later. The extinguish created from quickly-discarded packaging, old CD-ROMS, cheap mice that failed after months of consume or marketing materials sent to registered owners of software to let them know about the next big upgrade are only a small part of the eco-unfriendly trap puny businesses fall into just to keep up with their competitors, and that is just computer software.
While vendor salesmen and online reviews of the new equipment may make upgrading sound ideal, remember that a true commodity in any service industry is the person that can do the job regardless of the tools at hand.
If a housewife can learn the best ingredients and methods to make a cup of coffee that can overshadow the burned, acidic popularity of Starbucks only using a consumer drip brewer, buying thousands of dollars of espresso equipment seems frivolous.
If a street musician can create an album, sell it only online, market himself through social media and word of mouth and make enough at his sold out coffee shop gigs to live, how much longer will crowded stadiums with made-to-toss food wrappers and megawatt power consumption be the ideal setting for a rock show?
Try researching your strategic needs compared to your company’s innate abilities before you resolve you need that original upgrade or fancy toy. Determined, even the most eco-friendly activist gets caught up in the new way to do things. But use the inconvenience of recycling and depreciation to consider holding onto your money, or reinvesting it into the resources that matter more, like your talented humans driving your company’s abilities.
Reuse Your Resources
One of the reasons middle America was strengthened in the 1980s was that middle management surged. By the raze of that decade, companies were looking to save money, so they started consolidating. The divestiture of the Bell Systems monopoly in 1984 has more or less been reversed into an oligopoly through acquisition, now only leaving Verizon, Qwest, AT&T and some local municipality exchanges for domestic land-line telephone service (not including all the new cable phone services and cell phone companies). Acquisitions are most successfully conducted when the two companies share similar functions but complement each other by filling in holes in their abilities. The same can be true for human and equipment resources.
In this economy and looming unemployment rate, anyone who considers consolidating a small business’ human resources could be hung in the streets. Instead of removing small-task workers, consider how they could help other departments not need so much overtime to obtain things done. Or maybe there are tasks that are not getting done that a worker with a light schedule could do. There is no shame in reusing your talent you already have over taking on more workers.
The stout thing about small businesses is that employees can feel more connected to their impact on the business itself. Do some internal marketing on how each employee could help your company sustain its success by chipping in when needed. An accountant who comes in to do filing during a whirlwind client surge means less admin time and no need to hire temps.
Equipment that seems to have no more exhaust could be repurposed instead of being trashed. Old printers and computer equipment could be donated to local community programs, such as Portland’s Free Geek computer recycling and education center; computer equipment and parts are refurbished and then given to needy individuals rather than being melted down into something else. Build some construction equipment and build a historical museum to show your business’ progress over the years. And you may not need a paperweight anymore, but an old printer can prop up books, serve as an inbox for incoming mail, or even be converted into a flower pot.
Find ways to keep that venerable stuff around so it isn’t sitting in a landfill, and you don’t have to buy other stuff that does the same thing anyway.
Sometimes the only thing that gets in the draw of repurposing equipment or employee duties is the work involved in converting such resources into different assets. Who has time to train your salesperson to sort incoming mail or convert your old, hazy monitors into fishbowls? The answer without sugar and spice is that you just make the sacrifice and create your own benefits of the accomplishment of finishing some of these small reuse projects. Make a blog that brags about your latest repurposing effort. Create an office award for the greenest employee. Or even execute a bonus program for employees who deem up a obliging use for the equipment of the month. If it makes sense for your business, make the sacrifice.
At Least Recycle
Being green is the new fashion trend of small business. Often, local markets are overrun with consumers looking to break their ties with the pollution of big business by pledging loyalty to local businesses who prove they can be good to the earth. While in many areas the cost of recycling is not much less than simple garbage pickup, that trend may not last. In the mean time, that little change with no real immediate savings could be a PR goldmine, bringing with it better consumer relationships and new sales opportunities.
Don’t just recycle and leave the “We Recycle” sticker on your door. Try tracking the response from your marketing of your recycling efforts and glimpse if there is a real market value to your newfound greenness. Make a marketing campaign specifically on ways you reduce, reuse or recycle. You could reach some frustrated consumers with money to utilize.
Cooperation Goes Green
One last suggestion is to believe a co-op with competitors to benefit improve the market. A great feature of a free market economy is the inherent strength of numbers. More companies showing their support for green initiatives means more options to choose from. This evening of the playing field could mean you use the popularity of greenness to bring the consumers in, and then remove that competitive advantage to focus on the rest of your talents. As well, co-ops can bring savings in the cost of recycling.
Established businesses don’t have to pay to haul off old equipment if the new guy is looking for hand-me-downs. And who knows, they could be a future acquisition or merger who now thinks of you as a friend. Being green can create networking opportunities you don’t usually find.
And find ways to cooperate with your clients and customers as well. How could they reduce, reuse or recycle when dealing with your company? How about incentives for paperless forms and email communication? Could support inquiries be conducted faster and with less electricity by using social media to follow solutions to common problems, such as a Twitter support feed? See if you could add e-signature options to your sales process, such as DocuSign, to speed up revenue generation and reduce your environmental impact from the printing, transporting and storage of a paper contract.
For small business, being green is both an ethical decision and a cost-saving opportunity. You will know what is right for your company, but consider speaking with business consultants who specialize in greening up your business; they may catch opportunities and risks you may not know yourself.
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Filed under Small Business Verizon by on Sep 16th, 2010.
When I recently upgraded my cellular telephone through Verizon Wireless, there were countless options in models of cellular phone from which to choose. After considering various models, I settled upon the Mint Chocolate VX8500G from LG and Verizon Wireless. In this article I will review the pros and cons of the Verizon Mint Chocolate phone and go over some of the features and benefits, as well as drawbacks, that the Mint Chocolate phone has to offer.
Pros
MP3 Player: The LG Mint Chocolate Cellular Telephone from Verizon Wireless has a number of impressive features. Most fundamentally, the Mint Chocolate telephone is both an MP3 player and a cellular telephone in the same unit. To this end the LG Mint Chocolate phone has a Micro SD memory card slot that allows one to transfer music and photographs from one phone to another or from your computer to your telephone. Personally I have archived my entire music collection onto my telephone and now I am able to take my music collection with me wherever I go in just a cramped portable device.
Camera: The LG Mint Chocolate VX8500G also has a built-in camera that supports a resolution of up to 1280 x 960 pixels. While this is not the highest resolution camera available in a cellular telephone, it is a high enough resolution to be able to snap some acceptable-quality photographs very like a flash. I often use the built-in camera in my LG Mint Chocolate Telephone to snap speedily photographs that I can then upload to my personal blog or my business website very easily and quickly.
Attractive Color: Perhaps the most striking feature of the LG Mint Chocolate telephone from Verizon Wireless is its attractive minty green color, which is similar in color to the bright green of the Volkswagen New Beetle. I figured that as long as I was buying a phone I should do it in style and pick a telephone that would stand out in a crowd. I am very pleased with the bright and fun color of the LG Mint Chocolate telephone.
Cons
Lousy Touch Pad: One of the major drawbacks to the LG Mint Chocolate VX8500G telephone is its extremely lousy touch pad. The circular touch pad is convenient as a means of controlling the MP3 player portion of this intention, but the sensitivity on the touch pad is very low quality. The idea unhurried the Mint Chocolate’s touch pad is to emulate or copy the the touch pad on the various models of the Apple iPod. But while the sensitivity on the Mint Chocolate touchpad is adjustable, it is not adjustable enough. The touch pad is either far too sensitive or far too insensitive, which makes the procedure difficult to control.
No Java or Flash Support: While the LG Mint Chocolate from Verizon does have the ability to browse the internet and check email via the telephone, the mobile web browser is extremely limited and lacks Java attend. And with the ever-increasing presence of Java and Flash applications on many websites, the end result is that the Mint Chocolate phone from LG is next-to useless on those major websites that require a Java or Flash fine web browser.
In conclusion, the LG Mint Chocolate VX8500G telephone from Verizon wireless is a balanced blend of functionality and features. There are several advantages to this telephone, including the quality camera and the MP3 player features, but the lack of Java and Flash support for the phone’s web browser severely limits this phone’s usefulness as a gateway to total connectivity.
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Filed under Small Business Verizon by on Sep 7th, 2010.