Tip

T-Mobile. No Contracts Sound Good, But…

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T-Mobile Logo

[This post was written March 25, 2013; the day before T-Mobile holds its March 26 event.]

T-Mobile Logo

T-Mobile is expected to announce no annual contracts and unlimited services. This sounds great, but here is the other side of the coin: The phones will likely NOT be subsidized.

So you are left to do the math. Does paying $450 or more for the latest phone up front and then saving month-to-month create a savings for you? Or does a subsidized phone and relatively lower monthly rates with a 2-year contract make better sense?

It appears T-Mobile will allow you to make payments on buying your phone, so that might help the initial hit to your wallet. And we have yet to see the monthly rates with unsubsidized phones.

T-Mobile’s strategy is something only a scrappy, third place carrier could implement. And Verizon and AT&T are watching the market closely to how people react. If it’s anything less than torches and pitchforks, they will do the same very soon. Carriers hate subsidizing phones, especially the Samsung Galaxy S and Apple iPhone devices.

It looks like consumers have more choices and more decisions to make.

UPDATE March 27: I did the math. When adding up devices and services similar to what I have and will want, the total is about the same as what I’m paying my current wireless carrier.

Enable Two-Factor Authentication for your Apple ID

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Two Factor Confirmation on iPhone Lockscreen

This is important!

Your Apple ID isn’t just for your Contacts and Calendar in iCloud, it holds your personal and credit card information. It also allows purchasing content from iTunes. If someone with malicious intent gets your password changed, then you could be facing a lot of trouble and inconvenience.

Two-factor authentication offers real protection against this threat. It uses something you know (but that a thief can get) and something you have (most thieves won’t be able to get both). So please consider implementing this for your own Apple ID account.

Rather than create a mediocre guide, I’m linking to perfection. iMore offers a terrific step-by-step guide to implement this solid level of protection. iMore is a great resource for Apple rumors and tutorials.

Visit iMore*

* One important thing missing from the iMore guide is that Apple mandates a waiting period of 3 days to complete the process. This allows time for Apple to send messages to email addresses on your account. This is good just in case it’s not you implementing the Two-Step Verification.

Go Beyond Simple Passcode on iPhone

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Advanced Numeric Passcode

If you wish you were able to have a five-, six-, or 20-digit numeric code to unlock your iPhone, then you’re in luck. With an innovative implementation of the alpha-numeric passcode, you can create a numeric passcode of any length.

Advanced Numeric Passcode

  1. Go to Settings/General/Passcode Lock.
  2. Turn on the Passcode Lock on if it isn’t already.
  3. Tap the toggle for Simple Passcode to Off. If you have an existing code, you will be asked to enter it.
  4. Tap the keyboard key in the lower left corner to toggle to the numeric/special characters keyboard.
  5. Use on the number keys to enter a numeric code, then tap Next.
  6. Re-enter the numeric code again (after you change to the numeric keyboard), then tap Done.

When you wake up your iPhone, your Passcode screen should look something like this.

How To Buy: Gadget Storage Considerations

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Variety of Mobile Devices

When you’re in the market for a new tablet or smartphone, an easily overlooked feature is the device’s storage.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Some entry-level gadgets offer 16 GB storage capacity. There are even a few that offer 8 GB. That used to be plenty of storage for apps, several music playlists, and a few movies.

However, there are new considerations for shoppers. Many models are rolling out with higher resolution displays. This makes the screens look terrific, especially for images and text. And don’t forget the nice camera that takes crisp images and HD video. But be midful that the graphics in the apps along with the pictures and videos you’re taking gobble up a lot of your device’s storage. So it might be worth considering the extra investment in additional storage.

Jumping up from 16 GB to 32 GB might be the difference in constantly deleting apps, rotating playlists, and minimizing the movies on your device. If you like to have your entire music collection in your device, then you’ll probably need to consider a 64 GB model if available.

Smartphone vs. Dedicated Media Player

You might be tempted to get a smartphone with a lot of storage, and that could make sense depending on your needs. But consider getting a dedicated media player for your music and movies.

Here’s why: You will likely upgrade your phone every couple of years or even more frequently. You’re likely to keep the media player longer, so the investment in the storage will benefit you longer than it would with a smartphone.

A Scenario

You might have an iPhone 5 with 16 GB of storage and an iPod touch with 64 GB of storage. This is probably sufficient for daily smartphone use, requiring minimal storage management because your iPod touch has all your music and several full-length movies.

So be sure to carefully consider your storage requirements and make the wisest investment in gadgetry possible.

Create a Strategy for Backing Up Important Files

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Globe Atop Hard Disk Drive

Globe Atop Hard Disk Drive

The vast majority of people overlook a very important part of their digital lives: Ensuring their important files, music, photos, and videos are safe.

To do that, these files must be backed up. That means they must exist in at least two different physical places. One set of files on you computer’s hard drive (for daily access and use), and another set on a different hard drive. This second set can be on another disk in the same computer or on a portable disk drive (portable USB drive or maybe a thumb drive).

The safest approach, though, is to have a set that exists outside of your home. This protects your digital files from catastrophic events like fire or flood.

The idea is a simple enough, but implementing this can be a thorough pain in the neck.

Fortunately, online backup service are better and more affordable than ever. There are many solutions with varying degrees of complexity. Power users may enjoy the level of granularity associated with Amazon S3 (cloud storage infrastructure) and a third-party solution like CloudBerry or Jungle Disk, but normal people don’t want to dedicate that much effort and planning. They just want the data backed up.

Trustworthy and comprehensive online backup solutions are not free, but they’re not out of reach, either. Vendors like Carbonite, Mozy, and Backblaze offer fine solutions for one or more computers with generous or unlimited storage. I useCrashPlan for my remote backup needs. All of these offerings provide a free trial so you can test them and find which works best for you.

The premise is simple. You download and install an application. Configure its settings for things like what files to backup and when to back them up (overnight? whenever there are changes?). Then the application uses your Internet connection to upload your files to the vendor’s servers. This can take many hours or even days, but it happens in the background. You will just need to leave your computer on during that time. Many vendors also offer free mobile apps so you can retrieve your backed up files on the go.

I strongly advise everyone to find some way to back up their important files, especially pictures. Hard drives are replacing our photobooks, and hard drives fail (and can be damaged by fire and water). The cost of this insurance is cheap compared to losing those priceless pictures and videos you have on that fragile hard disk.