ALKHOBAR, 31 October 2006 — We love our mobiles. Can’t live without them. But for most people, the relationship with their phone is becoming increasingly phobic. The handsets never seem to behave consistently. Programming them is never easy or intuitive and most of us haven’t a clue what most of the buttons on the handset control. If the features of your mobile phone have you spooked, you’re not alone.
A 2005 A.T. Kearney/University of Cambridge study found that available multimedia features in handsets are being drastically under-utilized. For example, only 12 percent of multimedia phone owners actually download or send photos. Mobile phones are becoming more and more complex as usability expands to encompass more areas of life. With a mobile phone, you can talk, text, e-mail, photograph, notify, download and customize — and those are just the basics.
Here are some ideas to help you get more out of your handset.
1. If certain features in the phone such as ringback tones aren’t working properly, check to see if you are near a fax machine or modem. The use of multiple electronics devices in close proximity to each other can cause interference.
2. Taking decent photos with a camera phone can be a challenge. A quality picture is best captured in a well-lit environment, holding the phone very still and taking a picture of a close subject.
3. Text messages can be a pleasure to send with the right phone. If your adult aim and accuracy suffers using child-sized keys, try a phone with predictive text software, which associates entire words with a few simple keystrokes. This feature helps guess words or letters to reduce the labor of typing. The real trick to learning to use predictive text is to NOT look at your phone screen while typing the word — type the entire word then confirm the software chose correctly.
4. Improve your life by adding a little music to your day. The most common ways to download music to your handset include importing audio files from your PC via Bluetooth, infra-red or cable connections or downloading tracks wirelessly from a content provider (usually for a fee). Mobile music is often stored within the memory of the mobile phone, but some newer models offer removable storage with additional memory space.
Next, get out your handset manual and make a point to learn about one of these phone features each day:
• Adjustable Scroll Speed — Enables you to slow or stop the scroll speed of text on the handset’s display screen.
• Customizable Icons — Customizes icons on display screen and keys to indicate functions you will recognize and use most often.
• One-Touch Dialing — Enables you to press one button to dial a telephone number from the pre-programmed phone book.
• Picture “Caller Identification” — Enables you to attach a photo to be displayed with each name programmed into your phone book.
• Text Reminder Functions — Offers alarms and short message reminders you can set for yourself — i.e. “Meeting at school” or “Take medicine.”
• Voice Dialing — Enables you to use your own voice to make outgoing telephone calls.
• Voice Recognition for Menu Selection — Enables you to use your own voice to activate certain menu items.
