Feb 04

Born Tired to Release Book

By Chris Samaras Cell Phone Reviews, Phones In The News No Comments »

Picture 2Some friends in NYC have a great blog called Born Tired, which consists of nothing but images captured from their new and refurbished cell phones. Most of the members reside in New York, but many of the contributors travel frequently, so photos get posted from around the world. The pictures range from funny and ridiculous to beautiful and artsy, but what makes Born Tired so awesome is that the photos are nothing more than glimpses of everyday life.

The dominant theme of the blog is photos of people sleeping in public/random places (hence the name Born Tired), but a bunch of other themes have developed as the blog gained popularity. A lot of them are kind of inside jokes, but if you frequent the blog, you’ll start to pick up on them.

Born tired has gained so much popularity over the past year that there’s a sandwich named after the blog at Hana Food Corporation in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and the the blog is now actually being made into a book.  The book will be a collection of the most popular photos as well as sections for the most common themes, and it will be published by &Press sometime this year. Born Tired the book is rumored to be approximately 150 pages in length and should retail for $10 – $15. We’ll keep you updated on the release.

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Jan 29

Your Shoes May Soon Be Powering Your Cell Phone

By Chris Samaras Interesting Phone Stuff 1 Comment »

sneakerPrinceton University engineers seem to have developed the technology to harness energy through rubber, which will eventually allow things like your shoes or your pants to charge your new or refurbished cell phones.

A lot of what I read about the technology went over my head, but the gist of it is that ceramic nanoribbons will be inserted into silicone rubber sheets, which will be used to make shoes, clothes, etc., and the ribbons, when bent by actions like walking and breathing, harness energy. Apparently, these ribbons are really efficient and can harness about 80% of mechanical energy and turn it into electrical energy.

Besides the fact that it would be really cool to be able to charge your phone by taking a bike ride, the technology will prove extremely valuable to people with internal instruments like pacemakers. No longer will these people need to undergo surgeries just to have the batteries on their devices changed because the devices will be constantly charged through daily activities.

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Jan 22

Mobile Phones Have Been Saving Lives in Haiti

By Chris Samaras Interesting Phone Stuff, Phones In The News No Comments »

haiti-uscg-rescue1-660x440I’ve been reading several articles over the past few days about how new and refurbished cell phones have been saving lives in the aftermath of the earthquake that hit Haiti last week.

Dan Woolley, an American filmmaker, was trapped for 65 hours in the ruble of the Port-au-Prince hotel with a severe gash in his leg and a head wound. While trapped, Woolley downloaded the American Heart Association and Jive Media’s Pocket First Aid & CPR app, which instructed him to use his shirt to make a tourniquet to stop the bleeding from his leg and to use his sock to stanch the bleeding coming from his head wound. The app also informed him that it would be dangerous to fall asleep if he felt himself going into shock, so he set the alarm on his phone to go off every 20 minutes to keep him awake.

The 4636 shortcode for Haiti relief has been saving lives on a daily basis as well. Anyone in Haiti in need of help can text their needs to 4636 and within ten minutes, action is taken. On Tuesday, a text was received from a school that had collapsed but when a rescue team responded to the message, they were unable to locate the building. A volunteer group in Boston, Ma quickly pinpointed the location of the origin of the text and relayed the information to a local rescue group in Haiti, who was then able to locate the fallen school. The coordinates in the message were accurate to five decimal places.

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Jan 21

Walking and Texting Accidents Are On The Rise

By Chris Samaras Interesting Phone Stuff No Comments »

1765772958-padding-protect-pedestriansThe New York Times recently published an article about how the amount of people injured by walking into something while distracted by their new or refurbished cell phones is on the rise, which was both funny and kind of sad as I’ve definitely run into a few stationary objects mid text.

According to the article, more than 1,000 people visited the emergency room in 2008 because of a walking/running accident that occurred while they were using their cell phone. Apparently that number had doubled from 2007, which was twice the number from 2006.

Jack L. Nasar, a professor of city and regional planning at Ohio State, points out that the actual number of injuries incurred from being distracted by mobile phones is much, much higher, but most of the injuries aren’t serious enough to warrant a visit to the emergency room, so they go unrecorded.

The night after I read this article I visited my favorite restaurant, and the waitress told about how she had just walked into the corner of her coffee table because she was texting her boyfriend. I can’t help but laugh at myself every time I walk into something, but I guess it would be a lot different if it were an oncoming bus that I stepped in front of. Note to self: Look up more often while texting.

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Jan 20

Mini USB Vs Micro USB Tutorial

By Chris Samaras Cell Phone Tutorials No Comments »
Mini USB (left) and Micro USB (right)

Mini USB (left) and Micro USB (right)

One of the most frequent issues that we deal with in the world of refurbished cell phones is confusion about Mini USB chargers verses Micro USB chargers. Most cellular manufacturers are moving towards using a common charging/data port, and Mini USB and Micro USB ports are definitely the two most common choices at this time.

Mini USB

Mini USB

Mini USB – The Mini USB port has been the standard charging/data port for most phones produced over the past five years, especially for Blackberrys, HTC phones, and Motorola phones.

Micro USB

Micro USB

Micro USB – The Micro USB port is newer technology towards which many manufacturers seem to be moving. Micro USB ports can be found on the newest Blackberrys, Motorolas, Nokias, and Samsungs.

Adding to the Micro USB/ Mini USB confusion is HTC. Virtually all HTC phones use a mini-usb charger; however, the chargers that HTC provide are shaped slightly different than a standard mini-usb charger so that you cannot use an HTC charger with a different, say Blackberry, phone. Customers purchasing a replacement charger for an HTC phone should not be alarmed when they receive a Mini USB charger that does not look exactly like their original HTC charger.

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Jan 15

Over $1 Million Raised for Haiti from Text Messages

By Chris Samaras Phones In The News No Comments »

logo_redcross0206The Red Cross’s latest update confirms that over 5 million dollars of relief donations for Haiti have been made, over $1 million coming from peoples new and refurbished cell phones. On Jan. 12th, the worst earthquake in 200 years struck Haiti, which measured a 7.0 in magnitude on the Richter Scale. Red Cross immediately donated $1 million and set up the simplest way to send donations, which is via text message from your phone.

If you would like to donate relief money for Haiti, text “Haiti” to 90999 to send $10 to Red Cross. You can also donate to Haiti through other organizations found here.

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