Mobile Phone Clamp Down - Recycling Becoming Mandatory

Westchester County in New York will soon be one of the first places in the U.S. to require consumers to recycle their old cell phones. The legislation will be backed up by fines of up to $250 for people caught trashing their old phones.
Jurisdictions across the country have been wrestling with the problem of outdated phones ending up in landfills and being burned in incinerators. The phones contain harmful chemicals and heavy metals like arsenic, zinc, copper and lead.
Many areas of the country have voluntary recycling programs. Most put the onus on cell phone retailers to recycle phones when new ones are purchased. But the New York county law is one of the first that makes it mandatory for consumers to recycle their old phones -- and backs it up with fines.
**Similar law in California
California has a similar law which prohibits residents from thowing away cell phones. The same law also bans disposal of common batteries.
Verizon Wireless has been instrumental in providing recycling channels for U.S. cell phone users. Through the program called Verizon Wireless HopeLine the company accepts used cell phones at its retail stores and then refurbishes and resells them.
The proceeds are used to provide cash grants, free air time, and cell phones to non-profit organizations and law enforcement agencies to aid victims of domestic violence.
Verizon is now also accepting spent batteries and rechargeable batteries. The still-functioning rechargeables are recharged and recycled.
Since the Verizon HopeLine program began in 2001 more than 2.5 million phones have been collected - 850,000 in 2005. In Southern California alone more than $ 260,000 in HopeLine grants were awarded to domestic violence agencies. In addition, more than 660 wireless phones with a year's prepaid airtime were donated to domestic violence agencies. They are used to aid survivors.
**China to Produce 340 Million Cell Phones in '06
The world's insatiable appetite for cheap goods is matched by China's impressive industrial machine that just keeps churning out every conceivable kind of product. Cell phones are no exception. The Chinese Ministry of Information Industry estimates that Chinese producers will turn out 340 million cell phones in 2006, including 250 million for export.
The growth was even more impressive in 2005, when China produced 303 million phones, up 30 per cent from the previous year. And the country exported 228 million phones, up a whopping 56 per cent from 2004.
A growing number of these phones were Chinese domestic brands -- 13.21 million phones, up 106.2 percent from the previous year. Almost half of those -- 6.05 million sets -- were Bird mobile phones.
**Cell Phones being used for Porn
It might not be terribly surprising, but Google research suggests cell phones are used to search out porn sites more frequently than PC searches.
Google's Mobile Search is what is used on cell phones to seek out websites and images. Two Google researchers, Maryan Kamvar and Shumeet Baluga analysed a batch of 1 million search queires and found that one in five mobile searches were on adult material.
This is more than twice as frequent than for desktop searches, where Google's figures are only 8.5 percent for adult searches. For PDAs its only 5 percent.
The researchers speculated that mobile phones are seen as more personal and private devices, and do not leave the same telltale surfing trail.
The Googlers speculated that people see their mobile phones as more personal and private, and therefore were more comfortable making adult queries. A cell phone can be a more favorable device than a home or work PC because phones are typically only used by one person.
These numbers do not quite line up with those provided by they ICM Registry -- the ICANN endorsed agency that monitors adult traffic. They say that more than 10% of all online traffic and 25% of all global Internet searching is adult-content oriented. In June 3005, ICM said there were over 100,000 adult webmasters worldwide operating more than one million adult domains.
Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com - By: Rick Hendershot -

Mobile Wallpaper - Totally You

One of the really awesome things about modern cell phones is the capacity they have for being personalized to suit you. With personalized ringtones, with coloured or designed or sparkly or light-up faceplates and holders, with all the great gadgets that make them really yours, cell phones are more than just a communication tool. They're a fashion accessory.

So why not go all the way and personalize your cell phone wallpaper? That's the part of your phone you're going to be looking at the most anyway. You can go classy with scenic wallpaper, or with pictures by French Impressionists. Or you can go total coordination with cell phone wallpaper that matches your faceplate.

Celebrity Mobile Wallpaper for Your Cell Phone

Whether you prefer Christina Aguilera or Aishwarya Rai, you can find your idol in celebrity mobile wallpaper. Why not have cell phone wallpaper that matches your ringtone – if you use Madonna's new song for your ringtone music, download a picture of the star to go with it? Or you might just want some eye-popping eye candy. Whatever you want, you can find it.

Dress Up For the Holidays

What about a picture of Old Saint Nick coming down your chimney with a bag of toys just for you? Or maybe a classic snowscape, or even a snow globe with animated snow drifting down for you. Don't forget the appropriate ring tone – a hearty Ho! Ho! Ho! might be nice, or some classic holiday tunes. Your mobile wallpaper can be more dressed for the holidays than you are. You can get holiday cell phone wallpaper for any holiday you choose: Chinese New Year, Halloween, Passover, Yule – your choice.

Moving Pictures: Animated Mobile Wallpaper

It's not supported by every cell phone yet, but if you don't want a boring static picture on your phone, you can find great animated mobile wallpaper with a variety of subjects online. Think about having flickering flames on your phone just behind your latest romance's name.

Cell Phone Themes

If you're one of those people who like to match all the time, you can find cell phone themes that include mobile wallpaper too. Each theme is specific to your cell phone's brand, so be sure you choose the right one. Cell phone themes are currently available for Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson mobiles.

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com - By: Philip Nicosia

Polyphonic Ring Tones- Old-Fashioned?

In the beginning was the ring (really more of an electronic trill or beep) -- dull, yet serviceable, using only one tone track; and with it came the single-line melody -- not much of a choice.

Then Nokia invented text messaging, and Paanen, a Finnish programmer, realised that you use the same technology to easily transmit songs to mobile phone handsets. This led to the development of Harmonium, the first complex polyphonic sound creator. Instead of being locked into single tones, users suddenly could have rings with harmony and texture.

Still, someone had to programme the sounds; you couldn't just convert your favourite songs into Harmonium polyphonic sounds. Digital content providers picked up Harmonium quickly and used it to create polyphonic ringtones, selling them to both phone users and phone providers. While polyphonic tones were better than monotones, they still sounded more like an old video game than the music they were patterned after.

MP3 Ringtones: The New Wave

Today, ringtone providers are switching to MP3 ringtones with realistic, near-CD-quality sound. Also called master tones or true tones, these are usually bits of a real song, using your favourite music to alert you to a call. Voice ringtones, sound effects, and instrumental or lyrical music are all available as MP3 ringtones today.

MP3 ringtones today account for two thirds of new mobile ringtones. The sound is a snippet of your favourite music with lyrics and the whole band playing -- much nicer than the old-fashioned ring or dull monotone melody. Most mobile phone manufacturers today include this type of ringtone on their newest handsets. Even better, you can program today's phones to play different tones for different reasons.

If you have more than one life, as most people do, you can also have multiple ringtones. The songs you want played when you're out at a pub are probably different from the ones you want sounding at work and with most phones today it's not hard to switch. You can also assign different ringtones to different people; your mother might have a radically different tone from your boyfriend.

Most cell phones come with some ringtones pre-installed, but you can find the ones you really like out on the wireless web. There are several methods for downloading ringtones. You can subscribe to a service that will send them to your phone weekly for a fee. Or you can download new ringtones from your favourite band's website. If you prefer to look at a wider variety of ringtones, you can download them directly to your phone from several sources, using either a scrollable menu or choosing a numerical code linked to the ringtone you want. Not all rings are compatible with all phones, so do try to sample them first.

If your ringtone sounds awful, it may not be the ringtone; it may be the phone. Older phones aren't perfectly compatible with the newer
ringtones, though they'll probably play them. Imagine the difference between stereo systems in the 1950s and today; that's about the difference you're looking at between a three-year-old phone and a brand new one, in terms of sound output. Your mobile phone provider should be able to tell you what your phone can handle.

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com - By: Philip Nicosia

Ring Tone: The Music Mania Goes Straight To Your Phone

The newest trend nowadays in cell phone is having the newest and the coolest ring tone. Ring tone simply is sounds on your cell phone that notifies you of an arriving call or message.

A ring tone is a collection of the best hits that tops the billboards artist. There are also several types of ring tones. Like jazzy spring ring tone, mystery ring tone, four flavor of love ring tone, romantic and classical ring tone, sophisticated ring tone, tropical ring tone, choppy and groovy ring tone and some new wave and alternative rock ring tone. A different trait of cell phone owner has a different choice when it comes to ring tone.

Cell phone users choose ring tones based upon their lifestyle. Some of them choose hip-hop and rap beats, while other people choose reggae. If you are a rock star, you can simply choose among the compilation of rock music ring tones (punk rock, alternative rock, heavy metal, country music and folk rock).

Age can also be another factor in choosing ring tones. The oldies want some classical and sentimental music ring tone while the new generations want some fast and speedy ring tone. Some of them select ring tones depending on their TV or favorite movie themes, so it will remind them about that certain shows.

By this reason, ring tones started to be a worldwide mania. Therefore, because of this ring tones become one of the record breaking in internet. It is now one of the most downloaded software in internet history.

How do you download ring tones from a website into your mobile phone?

What you need to consider is to have a compatible phone. It should have a SMS features and tone software. If the website enables you the ability to download a ring tone using a standard process you can simply click the ring tone. There are ring tones usually displayed in the websites open for definite and appropriate phone sets.

If you had already clicked the ring tone, the cell phone will automatically displays a web alert. You should read the instruction given by the website. As much as possible catch the alert for further advice, afterwards the cell phone will be notified how to download the ring tone easily.

That is through an open browser system. In other words, your cell phone should have an enough memory to accumulate the ring tone. The larger the memory of your cell phones the easier to get the ring tone.

However if your cell phone is not capable of direct downloading, that is from the website directly to your phone.

Usually there are some phones that are not capable of downloading tones directly, what you have to do is save it to your computer then simply attach the USB directly to your phone.

In order to download this ring tone into your phone after saving it to your own computer, save to any file in the hard drive. In order to save the ring tones, right click it and hold on the command while linking on the “save as” instructions afterwards look for an equivalent menu item. In order to have a good and proper location for the ring tone you must save it in a folder of your choice.

Once you are done in saving the ring tone, simply start up the program that came up with your cell phone. Different types of cell phone use a different chord in attaching the files right down to your phones.

You can also refer to the main menu of your phone for further instructions on how to assign the tones directly to your phonebook. For further instructions look for the best websites that gives you the hottest ring tones in the land.

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com - By: Lavinia Snider

Prepaid Wireless Cellular Phone Service Makes Good Cents

In this day and age of instant communications, it seems almost no one goes without a cellular phone. But what about those who can't meet credit requirements, or those who don't want to deal with surprise last- minute fees when the bill hits? Is prepaid wireless cellular phone service a viable option?

You bet!

Keep in mind though, prepaid service comes with its advantages and disadvantages over traditional cell phone service. Both services, however, can and do provide phone users the emergency protection many so desire. They make it easy to call for help when you've had a flat tire on the freeway, to enlist aid in picking up kids when you're running late or simply staying in touch with friends and family while you're away from home. Why go without the ability for instant communication in the time of an emergency if you don't have to?

Here are some of the most common advantages of prepaid cellular phone service:

? No contract means there's no long-term commitment and you're not stuck with a single type of service for a year or more. ? Monthly bills don't flood your mail box. Since you've paid in advance, you just have to worry about the running tally. That's a lot better than a giant bill waiting at the end of the month.

? Helps you stay within budget. If you can only afford $30 a month for phone service, you won't spend more.

? Hidden fees are not present. Paying upfront stops unexpected charges on the back end.

? Credit checks aren't necessary. This enables anyone with the cash to be able to have a phone when it's needed.

? Security deposits aren't required.

? Ease of adding to the plan. Prepaid phones can have their balances added to at any time, giving you as many minutes as you might need.

? Perfect for children who might need a phone for checking in, but those who would spend way too much on an unlimited plan.

Prepaid cellular phone service is a great route to go for many, but there are some disadvantages.

Considering the pros, however, these are pretty miniscule for those who benefit from the freedom prepaid has to offer.

? Per minute charges are generally a bit higher, but for those who want a phone for emergency situations or just occasional conversations, the cost is not a huge issue.

? Most prepaid services won't allow collect or third-party billed calls.

Considering the advantages, it's easy to see why so many are turning to prepaid phone service to handle their cellular needs. These phones are perfect for those who want tight budget controls, have troublesome credit, those who won't use their phones often, for children and even for those who will only use them in an emergency. There's no need to go without with prepaid service available.

There's no reason to go without a cellular phone thanks to the benefits of prepaid cellular service.

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com - By: Ray La Foy