General phone safety/care

ok, i noticed alot of people have been asking questions about dropping their phones, or as to why their battery is crap.

now i know im new, but i have had a few phones in my time, including
nokias, lgs, blackberrys, and samsungs.

so i know my stuff.

1st (battery)
we all have them in our phones, and believe it or not they do need to be charged.
the more stuff you have on it will drag it down, even if your not using it.
also, resist leaving bluetoth and wifi on.
if your phone is searching for a network for ages, turn off the network (communication manager/ mobile network /off\)
turn the screen brightness down to 80-60% it wil look bright after a while.
keep the batter around 50% and no lower than 30% on a regular basis (thanks Branta for added info)
take out the battery eveyso often for a general inspection, if you notice leaking, replace it.
dont turn off your phone, it drains the battery alot to turn you phone on.
instead, put it on silent, or on a BB turn it to "off".
also enter standby mode (hold the /play/pause/mute button on top of blackberry)
it will display it is enterning standby, and it will exit when you hit the /play/pause/mute button again.

2 (internet safety)
now as the blackberry is an internet phone, i thought it appropriate to put this here.

avoid clicking on adds and emails that are to good to be true.
eg YOU COULD WIN A HOUSE!!!
the trick is there, you COULD win a house.
but you wont.
and on emails, avoid emails fully typed in capitols, and never send the 200 thousand dollars o the person supposedly dying of cancer,
1 they arent
2its a scam.
after a disaster (fire, terrorist attack, land slide etc...)
there will be donations everywhere, tv, shops, and emails.
even if it looks legit, dont send money to the emails, even if it isnt a scam, it will probably get lost in the email system.
if you wish to donate online, go to the official website.

on chat apps (facebook, BBM, MSN, AOL etc...)
people can find out where you are just by idle conversation, even if you tell them what school you go to, they can find out your address, phone number, family, and ruin your life.

(this is not made to scare you, but you need to know)

to prevent some of this, dont use your full name, and if you do, hide it so only your friends can see it, on facebook, avoid putting up your address and phone number.

and if someone asks you personal questions on a chat site/app, dont answer, even if they promise you candy and 2 million dollars.

3 ( files on your phone)
to increase performance, backup your phone and format it, this will take out most errors.
but it helps if you take out un-needed junk on your phone, it blockes it up, and its just waisting space.
install the latest OS on your phone, this will most likely sped up your phones performance, and battery life.
APPLICATIONS.
we all like to have a browse on the app store to see whats new right?
well if you dont need it, dont get it, it takes up valusably internat memory, and slows down your phone.
if you use an app for a while, then stop using it, delete it.
THEMES
we all like to customize our phones.
keep themes to a minimum, you dont need more than 5 to 10 themes, its waisting space.
i personally use the default one, but im making edits of it to make it more functional.

4(casing)
if you drop your phone, you can get replacing parts, and you can pull it apaert yourself and fix it, if you are unsure, it is best to take it to your carriers store and see what they can do.
you can get cases to protect you phone if you do drop it.
these come in a variety of styles.
including:
sylicon, plastic, steel, rubber, perspect...

5 (General)
in short, dont have anything unnecisary on your phone, dont leave apps running in the background, and dont leave your phone in a boiling hot place (car, outside..)
if it is outside or in a hot place, and your not using it, turn it off, and leave it somewhere where it will be cooler like shade...
its your fault for having so much crap on it, so clean it,
also, it helps to rename all your files to an appropriate name, so you can search for it, having files named IMG01036749-2747544.png, doesnt help.

in short(er) care for it so you can get the maximum use out of your phone.

again, this is not made for you to think you have screwed your phone, its so you are aware that you CAN but it is preventable if you treat it right.

hope this helps.

-dalethesnail

lol. Good information. Thank you. I think that a lot of people should be aware of some of these things.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Good Points!!
I hate phones with cases, most look ugly~


BTW to adjust brightness what I do is to set the brightness to lowest then pick the brightness you want and your mind is pleased!

Great post.

side note - I find it funny how people think a smartphone is so different from a computer and that logical rules about "safe surfing" and chatting do not apply.

If you connect to the 'net (either from a computer, your handheld, or your pinky finger) COVER YOUR A$$ and protect your information!

Originally Posted by dalethesnail

occasionally let the battery red line, this will reset the meter so it shows the correct battery meter.

This used to be true for the old NiCd and NiMH batteries but full discharge is generally accepted as detrimental to the more recent Lithium technologies. The usual consequence is reduced battery capacity and early replacement.

I have watched the full-charge capacity of Lithium Polymer batteries reduce by about 1-2% simply by taking them to full discharge a few times. The consensus for rechargeable lithium cellls is to keep the charge above about 50% if possible and try to avoid going below about 30% on a regular basis. Simply top it up when a charger is available. This scheme has the added bonus that the phone is rarely in a condition where you find not enough power remaining for a critical call.

ok thanks for that point, ill remove that point

While you are editing, consider the following and maybe spell check :)

Originally Posted by dalethesnail

dont turn off your phone, it drains the battery alot to turn you phone on.

This I can assure you is untrue. I have had five (5) separate BBs and
have turned them all off often and regularly. Not one battery suffered.
Fact is, turning the phone off simply puts it in a low power consumption
state.

install the latest OS on yuor phone, this will most likely sped up your phones performance, and battery life.

I stopped doing upgrades a long time ago and my phones were always as
fast, performed just as well and had the same battery life as when they were
brand new. More often than not this "faster, snappier, battery life" argument is
users seeing what they wish to see.

we all like to have a browse on the app store to see whats new right?
well if you dont need it, dont get it, it takes up valusably internat memory, and slows down your phone.

Again, this I think is wrong. I currently have 50 apps (yes, I need all of them)
installed on my device (same as were on my 8900) and my phone(s) have never slowed down because of it.

You make a good point about OS upgrades. If it ain't broken, don't fix it. If there are real problems (usually early releases of a product) it might help, but upgrading for a minor version change is often pointless and simply adds an avoidable risk of something going wrong.

Originally Posted by amazinglygraceless

While you are editing, consider the following and maybe spell check :)

Again, this I think is wrong. I currently have 50 apps (yes, I need all of them)
installed on my device (same as were on my 8900) and my phone(s) have never slowed down because of it.

im saying apps that are pontless, like wallpaper changers and all that crap

Originally Posted by dalethesnail

im saying apps that are pontless, like wallpaper changers and all that crap

I understood completely what you were saying but the fact remains, useless
or not, the whole "valuable memory" being eaten up is simply not true.

On my current phone I have 50 apps that I must have, I also have 12 that I
am either beta testing or trying out. Out of 256mb of memory I am currently
sitting at a file free number of 122mb. Add to that, of those 50 apps 6 start
when the phone does and are always resident in memory.

When I had 64mb devices I always had 25 apps installed and several in testing
and never saw my file free fall below 24mb.

A better suggestion would have been to explain how to perform basic
housekeeping on the device and stop worrying about the memory level.
More often than not it is meaningless.