sue webster asked:


My first cell phone made phone calls and stored some phone numbers for me. That was about it. It really didn’t need to do much more than that. Then the day came when my beloved cell phone fell out of my jeans pocket and landed in the bottom of the ocean as I stepped on board a friends boat. Its green glowing screen could be seen sitting on the ocean floor but it was a lot deeper than it looked. My cell phone was stuck under about ten feet of water with no way for me to get at it. What would I do with it anyway? It was gone.
So now I was forced to purchase a new phone. Not having had the smarts to purchase insurance on my phone I found myself in the cell phone store searching for my next phone. To my delight I found out that I was entitled to a pretty good-sized credit because I had my previous phone for so long. Apparently they were trying to get me to upgrade for some time now. I chose my phone and went through the process of purchasing it and getting it set up with my phone number. And by the way, I purchased the insurance this time, you just never know.

When I got home with my sleek black little number I immediately went for the guidebook. What exactly could this phone do? I was amazed to find that not only could I store all my phone numbers in the phone but I could also surf the web. I became instantly addicted to checking out the news on my cell phone’s tiny screen. Anytime I was momentarily bored, out would come the phone and off I would go to CNN.com or any of the other news organizations that traveled with me in my purse.

I gave an individual ringer to every name in my phone book and even used the alarm clock function for those twenty-minute power naps I am so fond of in my car. This cell phone has completely replaced my old phone in so many ways that I never dreamed possible. It actually had color on the screen instead of that funky green color my other phone had.

I have loved this phone for a great number of years now. I tend to hold onto things until I absolutely must replace them, but it is now time for a new cell phone. The one, four and seven buttons on this phone sometimes decide not to work. It’s a bit scratched and scuffed looking so it is well worn and well loved. It is now time for it to retire. Besides my cell phone company is offering me a great rebate on a new one.

As I search online for the replacement phone I am looking for something that will thrill me the same way that this one did all those years ago. It will have to do something pretty astonishing. The phones today have slide out keyboards, can play your mp3’s and will store pictures of your kids, but I am holding out for something pretty big. I am waiting for the cell phone that will cook me breakfast.



Create a video blog

Paul Fitzgerald asked:


Sharesa Price thought it was just another in a series of sinus infections. Her head and eyes hurt, and she was vomiting. But then Price had a seizure, and a brain scan found something far more troubling. “When I got home, the phone was ringing.

It was the doctor’s office, and they told me, `Brace yourself. Honey, you have a brain tumor.’ I was standing by the refrigerator, and I just collapsed, saying, `no, no, no, it can’t be a brain tumor,’” she recalled.

After her diagnosis in 1999 and surgery to remove most of the tumor, Price started looking for answers. She became convinced that exposure to radio-frequency radiation on the job, where she programmed cell phones for new customers, had caused the tumor.

In May, an administrative law judge who handles worker’s compensation claims awarded her $30,000 to pay her medical bills and other expenses. Price may be the first person to convince a judge that her illness was caused by radio-frequency radiation.

The decision is unlikely to have widespread repercussions for the cell phone industry, however, because the settlement was small. Price’s customers at Advanced Communications Systems in northern California were doctors, firefighters, police departments and security departments for casinos, and she loved her work. She used a cell phone several hours each day, and the room in which she worked contained transmitters that emitted radio-frequency radiation, she said. Price said when she filed a workers comp claim, her boss fired her, eliminating her health insurance. Then she lost the case.

The Native American single mother of two daughters was devastated. She turned to Tribal Health, a government health agency for Native Americans, to get anti-seizure medication. “If I hadn’t been Indian, I would have died,” she said. Her former boss, Dave Bohlen, said that he did not fire Price, that she quit based on her doctor’s advice that she not return to work there.

Bohlen said he dropped the insurance because she was no longer an employee. He called her worker’s comp case “frivolous” and said there was no proof her tumor was caused by working in his small shop. “There’s nothing harmful going on here,” he said. After Price recovered from brain surgery, she went to the Internet and found researchers studying the biological effects of radio-frequency radiation, and got to know them. “I would call them up and say, `You are absolutely dead on.

If a rat could talk, this is what it would say. I’m the human rat.’ “Price couldn’t find an attorney to take her case until she contacted Carl Hilliard, a semi-retired lawyer and president of the Wireless Consumers Alliance, a California-based consumer-advocacy group. Hilliard volunteered to represent her pro bono and re-filed her workers comp case.

Hilliard said his group has represented cell phone users in issues involving poor service, billing problems and misrepresentations by cell phone service providers.”We’re the ones who filed a case saying federal law does not pre-empt state law [on consumer issues] and won that case four years ago,” Hilliard said. Hilliard brought in Dr. Nachman Brautbar, an occupational toxicologist and clinical professor of medicine at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, to review Price’s medical records. Brautbar has been an expert witness in a number of high-profile cases, including the chromium poisonings from polluted drinking water portrayed in the movie Erin Brockovich.

Brautbar reviewed Price’s case and wrote a report supporting her claim that the tumor was caused by exposure to radio-frequency radiation.”It’s not a money issue, suing the company, it’s a health and safety issue,” said Price, who speaks to school assemblies and classes about the need to use a headset when talking on a cell phone. “We need to explain to people that just like putting on condoms, you have to take this precautionary measure to make the product be as safe as it can be.”

I have posted this full story because it is a good example of the ignorance of our leaders. What we cannot see, hear, feel or touch is easily dismissed by the population and if it is making the rich, richer even better.



Caffeinated Content - Members-Only Content for WordPress

Arianna asked:


Are people more afraid and purchase more insurance or less? Does it make them delay purchasing insurance? Life and Health insurance specifically. More specifically senior medical supplement policies, advantage plans, life insurance, long term care insurance, and annuities. I’m asking for myself. Is it a good time economically in the U.S. today to sell these products? General or specific information will be helpful. Thank you for your experience and thoughts.

Caffeinated Content - Members-Only Content for WordPress

James Redder asked:


As a cell phone user, you may sometimes feel overwhelmed with all the constant changes that are made to improve cell phones; they now boast an ever increasing range of functions but just where does it end? Strangely, many buyers overlook certain important things before making their purchase; some interesting buying facts are supplied in this article.

Every user will occasionally experience the race against battery life as they try to use up every ounce of power there is before recharging. If you do not want to replace your cell phone battery early then you must not continue leaving the recharge cycle until the last minute.

Whilst there are a number of methods that can help extend the life of your cell phone battery, one really easy way is to lower the brightness of the screen back light. It doesn’t normally have to be at full intensity for you to see what’s on the screen. When the phone is operational, it is constantly searching for a signal which is ok when there is good signal strength but if this is lost, it still tries to find a signal using more power and draining the cell phone battery in the process; the same way that long conversations do. Today’s cell phones have many more functions and if you spend a great deal of time surfing the Internet or listening to music, the battery deplete earlier than it should, possibly just when you need to use to speak to someone.

Don’t forget that nothing is free and although you may have been allowed to download a few new wallpapers and ring tones when you bought your phone, if you do not cancel this, they will continue to send them to you at regular intervals and charge you accordingly. If you purchase one for your child, find out if you can block these features or find out if there’s a way that you as a parent can order features, but your child cannot.

Cell phone plans are generally available where you pay only when it is used or through a contract that supplies a pre-agreed amount of minutes per month. It really does depend on the type of user you are as infrequent users benefit from the ‘pay per use’ plans. The process for each contract will differ greatly but arranging a pay-per use contract for a regular phone user is probably not the best option to have financially speaking. Consider the features you want, as long-term plans often have more features for less money or even as a bonus, at no charge; so ask if all your features, such as caller ID, will work when roaming.

Some plans do not include roaming charges which is something to consider if you travel a great deal as it could dramatically increase the cost. Some companies will replace your phone if it breaks or is lost or stolen so consider the insurance warranty before buying because they are typically carried around everywhere; which means they can easily get broken or damaged and a warranty will give you peace of mind.

You also want to make sure that the parts and accessories are easily obtained from any regular cell phone store, even if you purchase the phone from an Internet based company.



Caffeinated Content

Phyllis Wasserman asked:


Cell phones make our lives easier. But what if yours is lost or stolen? Then it becomes an incredible problem!

Right now the four major carriers of cell phones, Cingular, Sprint Nextel, Verizon and T-Mobile are offering insurance in case you lose your phone. They don’t make it easy to get a replacement. So should you do it?

Insurance

When you buy your next cell phone, the person selling it to you will ask you to buy insurance. If the phone is something top-of-the-line and costing upwards of $200 or you easily lose things, then you should get it. Always treat your cell phone as a valuable.

You can skip the insurance you you feel you will not lose it, or it costs under $200.

When the company replaces a lost or stolen cell phone, they don’t always give you a phone as good as your original one. Also they charge you. The cost can be anywhere from $35 to $110. That is called a deductible.

The premiums charged for cell phone insurance are from $4 to $6 per month.

Most new phones, with a lot of great features, are available for less than the cost of the insurance.

If you lose your cell phone and have coverage, you can file a police report. Whether it is stolen or lost, this is the best thing.

Recently all four of the major carriers started to require this. They will also ask for your original purchase receipt.

When you pay a deductible, it to cover the cost of a new phone. But that does not mean they will send you the same phone you had. It might not even be similar.

They can even send you a used and cleaned up model!

Phones

When and if you lose your cell phone, first stop the service.

If you find it, they will re-instate you and reactivate your phone.

Don’t wait. They can say you are responsible for all charges made after you lost it.

Get a new phone and have it re-activated as soon as possible.

When your phone is on suspension, you will not be charged for calls but the monthly charges, taxes, still accrue. If you have 12 months left on your contract, they can make you pay for all of them.



Create a video blog

Jim Waltrip asked:


l you just have to make on your cell phone while driving your car? Better be sure that your liability insurance and collision coverage are in good shape with your insurer. And, if you’re the parent of a newly driving teenager who is also armed with his or her own cell phone, you need to be especially sure that your car insurance for a young driver is up to date because the chances are very high that you’ll need it for the inevitable fender-bender, which can also mean good-bye to affordable car insurance.

Talking on the cell phone while driving has created a new “unsafe at any speed” situation on the modern highway. A study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, based in Australia, confirms this with their findings that drivers distracted by yapping on their cell phones while driving are four times more likely to become involved in accidents. Not only does cell phone usage cut down on a driver’s ability to hear what’s going on around him (such as sirens, car horns, people, etc.), it also takes a driver’s attention away from the road.

Add to that statistic the findings of another study by the University of North Carolina, the University of Utah, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Rhode Island that show a person’s driving skills while simultaneously talking on a cell phone equate driving while under the influence of alcohol, and you have some pretty significant reasons to be nervous when out on the road. Furthermore, researchers at the University of North Carolina discovered that drivers talking on their cell phones are twice as likely to rear-end the car in front of them as drivers who aren’t using phones. However, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign proved that conversations among occupants in a car produce no similar distraction.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a single solution to the prevalent “driving while on the phone” problem. Studies show that banning hand-held phones and opting for hands-free mobile phone technologies, such as headsets or Bluetooth ear buds, do not necessarily improve driving safety.

The only real solution to this problem would be to simply turn cell phones off while driving so you won’t be tempted to answer that phone call. But, human nature being what it is, this doesn’t seem likely to happen on its own. A survey by Nationwide Mutual Insurance revealed that 73 percent of all drivers talk on their cell phones while driving. As a result, several states, including Virginia, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Utah, as well as the District of Columbia, have passed laws prohibiting the use of cell phones while driving. Similar laws in California and Washington will go into effect in 2008. Several more states have laws that ban or restrict young drivers from using their cell phones while driving, and in some places authorized personnel can even issue citations for a DWT: Driving While Texting.



Website content

lauritaingp asked:


I understand the basics of insurance. That is the transfer of risk. That insurance companies bet on getting more in premiums than they have to pay out in claims. What I’m trying to understand is, how deeply insurance, our ability to purchase it, affects our economy. Please if you could give me some answers regarding this or point me to a site where I can find more information it would be great.

Website content