A blog all about cell phones!

We soon may see rising prices for cell phones, says the Wall Street Journal, since wireless  carriers are working to change the terms of smart phone deals that have benefited phone manufacturers like Apple. The result would be consumers paying more for devices like the iPhone.

From the WSJ piece: “Carriers in the U.S. have been raising monthly rates and charging higher fees when customers upgrade to new phones. In Europe, embattled carriers are taking more aggressive measures: Spain’s two leading wireless companies are refusing to subsidize devices for new customers.”

This could hit consumers especially hard since  most upgrade their devices every two years. It’s plausible some will react by lengthening that period, but others might consider upgrading to a new-to-them device that’s still newer than their current phone. If so, this new development could be a boon to retailers who refurbish and sell used cell phones. Then again, if the American economy continues its slow but steady supposed recovery, maybe folks will pony up more cash for brand new phones. OF course, that would worsen the already substantial problem of cell phones piling up in landfills. Hopefully, people will wise up and realize that lightly used phones can do nearly exactly as much as brand new ones.

We’ve noticed that the people who spent years mocking “gamers” have now succumbed to games’ online cousins: social networking. Even our Aunt Ada, never a fan of anything electronic, can’t wait to get home to check out what’s happening on Facebook, and once she gets the app on her iPhone, watch out! Who knows if she’ll even be able to drive without checking her Wall (ah, the terms that have become part of our dialogue lexicon, from tweet to friending to Wall).

Seems the numbers show there are lots of Aunt Adas burning minutes on their mobile devices these days. Says a piece in Mediapost.com, “Since the dawn of the smartphone, games have dominated consumers’ mobile minutes. In the past year, however, new research shows that social networking has risen to rival gaming on a per-minute basis.”

The proof? Flurry compared the average time smart phone users spent across app categories between the first quarter of 2011 and 2012, and found that gaming dropped by 4% — down to 24 minutes per day — while social networking increased by 60% — up to 24 minutes per day. Peter Farago, the firm’s VP of marketing, told the site, “We take the rise in social networking apps as a signal of maturation for the platform — As game demand may be hitting its saturation point, consumers are also discovering other apps, namely social networking.”

For those of us who peddle phones, this is good news. Because the more popular social networking becomes on smart phones, the more smart phones people will want. And, those of us who happen to sell used cell phones can offer a the Aunt Adas of the world a great deal – a smart phone that’s been lightly used and is Just as adept at calls and apps as a brand new iPhone – at half the price.

We can count on seeing continuing growth based on the current trends. Flurry found huge growth in year-over-year social networking app usage. Time spent increased by 60 percent, and the total time spent on smart phone apps among consumers  went from 68 to 77 minutes, a jump of 13 percent.

Along with happiness research, another growing field seems to be the science of play. According to experts, children – and even adults – often learn more readily when what they’re doing is more like play than work. Enter a new generation of digital gadgets designed to help kids learn as they play. At the recent and aptly-named Sand Box Summit, held at MIT, the conference united educators and technologists aiming to reach youn g folks ranging from toddlerhood to 20s “and equip them with skills for the digital lifestyle of the 21st century.”

The effort included an array of online games and educational content, as well as toys that provide offline activities in tandem with online apps. Now that infants are so close to technology with the advent of ever-present smart phones and tablets, apps and games are becoming second nature to them. And older children are becoming active on social media at earlier ages.

Examples? Calloway Digital Arts now has apps for Apple’s iOS device that feature digital storybooks with games designed for children’s development. The company’sThomas the Tank Engine stories include have puzzles and coloring e-books.

The conference, and the industry at-large, is focused on developing new ways to fuse sophisticated learning such as reading and information processing and art, with digital play. So whether your kids are using smart phones, used cell phones or your iPad, you can make sure to have educational tools on-hand in addition to the usual Angry Birds-type stuff.

When you lose your sole means of communication and connection with your networks, it can throw you for quite a loop. A friend of ours recently left her iPhone4 on a bus in Downtown Denver and realized too late. She didn’t have insurance and didn’t want to shell out $650 for a new iPhone, so in between panic attacks she shopped around for used cell phones (she has Verizon and found she could get a lightly used iPhone4 for $300). While she was shopping, she tracked her lost phone throughout Denver using the Track My Phone app.

“It had quite the journey,” she tells us, “It spent the evening in City Park on Friday night. Saturday it made its way to some swanky apartment complex at Florida and Leadsdale, then to some super sketchy place near Jason and Santa Fe. It spent night before last in Commerce City near the waste water treatment facility.”

Finally, her missing phone appeared in what seemed to be a more approachable or at least accessible place: a single family home. She and an attorney friend jumped in the car and drove toward the neighborhood. On the way, they called the local police and asked for a citizen assist. The cops showed up when they did. The officers approached the door to a modest home, questioned the man who opened it, and soon returned to the car with our friend’s iPhone. The man who had it apparently told the officers he’d paid $50 for the phone. “I knew it was too good to be true,” the cop said the man told him.

As for our friend, she’s glad she doesn’t have to spend $650 on a brand new phone, or even $300 on a lightly used one. “I feel like writing the guy who wrote the app and thanking him,” she says. Seriously. Talk about adding value to the market place.

If you’re on a buget, a new fancy-pants smartphone may not be in the cards for you—or is it?? Here’s three ways to make owning a cell phone more affordable:

1. Start with what you buy. Used cell phones are almost as good as new, and often gently used. You can get last years iPhone 4S (if the iPhone 5 finally releases this year) for a fraction of the price. Just check reputable used cell phone dealers, and remember that certain trade-in chains have HORRIBLE reviews.
2. Only use cell phones when you’re at a wireless hub (at home, work, a coffee shop, book store, etc.). iPhones are already designed to look for the nearest smart phone hub, but it’s a smart way to use Android phones, too! It saves money on that data plan, especially if you’re not on Sprint.
3. Make calls using data. Minutes can be the most expensive part of using cell phones, (so can crazy texting), but it may be cheaper to just use data—and free WiFi—for everything, including calls. (I recommend downloading Google plus and using hangouts to video call your friends!).
4. Secret fourth step: make sure to get CASH for that used cell phone! Even if it’s an older model, it may be worth something, and you’re keeping it out of a landfill!