If you’re reading this for some reason you’ve been checking up on the blog section of trendycellular.com even though I haven’t updated it in months. Thank you for the loyalty. You and only you are probably the only person reading this right now. Even though I haven’t updated the site in some time I’m going to start writing regular blog posts again. Thank you for being loyal and to the others start checking back for regular updates!

It happened to just about anyone who has ever had a Blackberry, the ball stops working. This can be caused by many reasons, but the most common is dirt getting caught in the rollers. Thankfully it’s fairly easy to take the ball out and clean yourself. Here’s a step-by-step video showing how you can clean your Blackberry trackball.

Yup, the title of this post is correct. When you purchase a cell phone you agree to the privacy policy and in the policy there is a line that reads ” manufacturer may collect, store, access, disclose, transmit, process and otherwise use your location data (including real time geographic information) in accordance with manufacturers privacy policy.” Can you believe it? Palm, Apple and other cell phone users should be warned. You’re being tracked and the manufacturer knows everything you’re doing. Hell, Apple even has a way to zap applications off your phone if they want. The response from manufacturers is that they need this information to improve their products. I’m all for user feedback, but taking it for free seems pretty f’ed up to me. What do you think?

source: yahoo

All you hear about on the news these days is how bad sexting is and how it ruins lives. It seems like the national media is out to put an end to sexting. I’ve got news for everyone, sexting has only begun. As smartphones become smarter sexting will become more and more prevalent in society. Cell phone cameras will have better megapixels, more and more phones will be able to record HD video and sending files will be easier and faster than ever. This will inevetibly add to rise in racey photos and videos that are sent from cell phones.

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that with sexting comes great responsibility and risk. If you’re willing to send a picture to anyone (boyfriend, girlfriend, friends, etc) you run the risk of having that picture sent to all to see. The general rule of thumb is this, if you don’t mind sharing your picture with the world then go ahead and sext it up. If you do then know that millions of people could potential see your picture and chances are they will! So my word to everyone is go ahead and keep the sexting alive, I think it may even be healthy. Just be extremely cautious of the risks.

You’ve gotta love this ad by Sprint. Who said that advertising can’t get a little dirty. I like it! As the ad suggests the Palm Pre just ate the iPhone for lunch.

Simple question, what is the best original cell phone ringtone of all time Motorola’s “Hello Moto” or Nokia’s “da da da da da da da da da da da daaaaaa”?

You better be careful who and what you text at 3AM in the morning after having a couple drinks. Chances are your text could end up on textsfromlastnight. Textfromlastnight is a website where people can forward text that they either write or have received. Thankfully the site is anonymous. The text are pretty funny. You can easily spend a half hour reading them all. If you want to have a good laugh on a Monday definitely check out the site.

I was reading an article in Wired Magazine this morning, the January addition to be exact (I know, I’m a little behind), and I ran across an article titled “Hear Better On Your Cell Phone”. The article talked about how to hear better on your cell phone when in a noisy area. The key is to cover the mouthpiece while listening. Your cell phone confuses your brain by funneling both the caller’s voice and the room noise into your ear. By cancelling out the noise coming into the mic all you will hear will be the speaker noise coming into your ear. The ole stick your finger in your other ear won’t do the trick.

Next time you’re in a noisy place give cover the mic and you won’t have to worry about not hearing the person on the other line.

There has been a lot of media coverage lately about people texting and driving. If you thought talking on your phone while driving was bad, texting takes it to an entirely new level. At least when people talk on their phones they are looking at the road. When it comes to texting not only might you have to use two hands, but you definitely have to look down. I’ve included a video from the Dr. Phil show just how dangerous texting and riving can be and how people don’t think there is anything wrong with it.

In my opinion it’s far worse to text while driving then it is to talk while driving. There are a number of services that will convert your voice to text and vice versa. I haven’t tried any of them to know how well they work, but a few of the players are Jott, Nuance, and I’m sure there are a dozen others. This would eliminate the need to look down while texting and surely cause less accidents.

Another idea, my wife came up with, albeit extreme would be for car manufacturers to install a special chip that would render non-bluetooth activities while driving useless. This would mean that you could only use your phone if it was connected to via Bluetooth or placed in park. So what do you guys think? Do you text while driving? Do you think it’s a big deal? Have you ever been in an accident while texting or by someone else who was texting?

If you have been to an airport in the past year or two you’ve undoubtedly passed an AT&T ad. The ads are visually pleasing and each ad is for a specific country. Upon further inspection of the ads you’ll notice that the paintings are actually human hands. The hands are shaped in such a way and painted so they look like an actual painting. It’s truly one of the most clever ads I’ve seen in a long time. The ads are in support of AT&T’s global reach with their GSM phones. Each time I go to the airport I see a new ad and it amazes me how creative they are. I’ve compiled a bunch of the ads below. You can click on the thumbnail to see a larger version of the ads.