Cheap Prepaid Phone Plans From Tracfone

Cheap Cell Phone Service Plans from Tracfone

Most Tracfone users buy the prepaid refill cards from Tracfone to add minute to their phone, which is a great deal, but there is another way to get cheap cell phone service from Tracfone without worrying about when your service will expire.

Cell Phones, Old and New By CannedTuna

Tracfone offers a value plan that gives you a certain number of minutes each month, and 30 service days. Every month your phone is automatically refilled with minutes and service days, and you are billed.

It is very convenient if you wish to avoid the hassle of adding a prepaid phone card, but still want a cheap prepaid service plan. The value plan from Tracfone is one of the cheapest prepaid cell phone plans we have ever found.

Tracfone also offers a special Family Value Plan, which is great if you have several phones in your family. Learn all about the family value plan, including how to set it up, by visiting our post covering it; How to Set Up the Family Value Plan.

But for those with just one Tracfone, keep reading to learn how the value plan can benefit you!

How to Join the Tracfone Value Plan and Whether or Not You Should

The two questions one might ask now are, 'Should I get the Tracfone Value Plan?' and 'How do I set it up?'. We will answer both questions!

Let's start with how to get possibly the cheapest prepaid plan in existence - the Tracfone Value Plan.

How to Join the Tracfone Value Plan!

Step #1 - To join the value plan, simple visit this link to the value plans offered by Tracfone.

Step #2 - If you don't already have an account at the Tracfone website, you will need to make one. Otherwise you can simply sign in, and follow the steps.

Step #3 - You will have the choice of several different plans Tracfone offers. If you are a low cell phone user (you don't use your phone much) then the cheapest option might be best for you, which is 50 minutes every month, plus service for that month, for $10! They also offer plans with 125 minutes and 200 minutes per month.

Remember, if you have a cell phone with double or triple minutes, your minutes from the Value Plan will be doubled or tripled! So with a triple minute phone, the 50 minute cheapest plan will give you 150 minutes per month!

Step #4 - Once you choose the plan that is right for you, continue and checkout. You should receive your minutes within the next few days, and every month, on that day, you will receive your new minutes and service days. You will also automatically be billed for the minutes and service days.

That's it, you are now set up to automatically receive minutes and service days from Tracfone with one of the cheapest prepaid plans around!

A couple of points to add, in order to clear up any questions you might have, are:
- Any minutes you already have on your phone, you still keep. Minutes and service days from the value plan are merely added to your existing amount.
- Minutes from one month roll over to the next! In other words, if you don't use all your minutes, when you get more minutes the next month, they will all be added together.
- Any other questions, ask them in the comments!

Now you might be asking, who should sign up for the Tracfone Value Plan?

The value plan is very convenient, but it is not for everyone. Here are some questions to ask yourself if you are thinking about joining Tracfone's value plan:

Is keeping track of, and adding refill cards a hassle? If your answer is 'Yes', you should consider the Value Plan. It allows you to forget about whether or not you need a new refill card, or if you are almost out of service days because it does it automatically!

Am I fairly consistent in my cell phone usage? If your answer is 'Yes', you should consider the Value Plan. It gives you a consistent number of minutes each month to use. If you tend to use your phone very sporadically, such as a lot one month, but none at all the next, buying prepaid cards might be better, because it allows you to purchase the amount of minutes you think you will need.

Is finding the absolute cheapest prepaid cell phone plan, and using Tracfone Promo Codes important? If you like to get the best value for your money, buying the 1 year/400 minutes card and using a promo code might give you the cheapest deal for a year of service. But the value plan is also a very good deal, and can save you money if you usually buy a 60 or 120 minute card.

The value plan from Tracfone is a great solution to avoiding any hassle from keeping track of service days and buying new prepaid cards.

If you have further questions, you can ask them below. The value plan might not work for everyone, but it is a great deal, and can save you time and money every month.

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Other Articles on this Blog you Might Enjoy:
Learn about the Difference between GSM and CDMA Tracfone Cell Phones, and Which is right for your.

Read our top picks for Best LG Brand Tracfones and also our Best Samsung Brand Tracfones.

We also recently started comparing two phones against each other, read LG 800G vs LG 840G and LG 500G vs LG 530G. Leave a comment with other phones we should compare!

Tracfone Promo Codes for August 2013

The Latest Tracfone Promo Codes for August

Below are the newest codes for Tracfone with all of them valid through the end of August 2013.

You can use these codes when entering a Tracfone refill card on your phone. These codes will give you an extra number of minutes, as a promotional offer from Tracfone.

These are just the codes from August, you can view all the recent codes at our main Tracfone Promo Codes page.

Tracfone Promo Codes Valid for August 2013:

Use code 71604 on a 120 minute card to get 30 bonus minutes

Enter code 81146 with a 200 minute card to receive 40 bonus minutes

Code 77076 will give you 50 bonus minutes on a 400 minute card

Use 59912 with a 1 year/400 minute card to get 250 bonus minutes - the best deal!

These are the codes that are guaranteed to work in the month of August 2013. Again visit our Promo Codes page to see all the codes, including some that may offer even more bonus minutes.

Also be sure to check out some of our other recent articles providing more information about Tracfone cell phones:

GSM vs CDMA Cell Phones

Tracfone Best Deals

Best Tracfone Cell Phone

Getting the most out of Photo Stream for your Apple devices

Today's blog will cover the  Photo Stream part of iCloud.  Photo Stream was introduced in October of 2011, along with iCloud, iOS 5 and a new version of iPhoto (for those people running OSX 10.7, at the time).  Photo Stream was not the first photo sharing software to hit the market (There’s Flickr, Shutterfly, SnapFish, Photobucket and Picasa to name a few), but it was Apple first foray into online pictures.  Apple’s take on photo sharing was initially, as you might expect, closed to non-Apple users.  Here’s how it worked.  You’d snap photos with your iOS device running iOS 5, and when you got into a Wi-Fi zone, those pictures would magically go into the cloud and become available on your other iCloud capable devices.  I’ll never forget the first time I tried it.  Same day the iPhone 4S came out (Oct 14, 2011, I think!), I was outside taking pictures of my kids playing football.  Now I had already updated my version of iPhoto for my iMac, and turned iCloud and Photo Stream on, so when I came into the house, and my iPhone attached to our WI-Fi network, the fifty or so pictures I took, started flowing to the Photo Stream.  I came over to my iMac and opened up iPhoto, clicked on the Photo Stream option, and sure enough, the pictures I had just snapped with my brand new iPhone began appearing on my iMac!  I didn’t have to plug my iPhone in, and copy those pictures into my computer, thanks to iCloud and Photo Stream I had a copy of those pictures without having to do anything!  Nice.  I love technology when it works.  So, how does it work?

Let’s start with your device(s).  Photo Stream works with iCloud, so in order to make use of it, your devices need to be iCloud capable.   Your iOS device(s) needs to be running at least iOS 5.1 (if you are not at iOS 6, seriously consider upgrading).  Your Mac needs to be running at least OSX 10.7.5, and you’ll need iPhoto 9.2.2 or Aperture 3.2.3 or later.   Photo Stream does work with PC’s, but I will not be covering that here.    Let’s not forget Apple TV, a wonderful way to share your photos, you’ll need at least the 2^nd generation Apple TV, running software updates 5.0 or later.  

The Photo Stream option on your iOS devices is located in the iCloud Setting.  To start using it, go into Settings, find and tap the iCloud setting, scroll down a bit and you’ll find the Photo Stream option, simply turn it on and start taking pictures with your device!  On your Mac, you’ll open up System Preferences, click the iCloud preference, and similar to your iOS device(s), you’ll turn Photo Stream on.  Now there is one additional step you’ll need to take on your Mac, you’ll go into iPhoto, or Aperture, and within either of those apps, you’ll turn Photo Stream on there as well.  

Now let’s talk about getting pictures in your Photo Stream, how many you can have there, how long they stay there, do pictures count against my iCloud storage etc.  Apple states that you can have up to 1000 pictures in your Photo Stream at any given time.  Apple also says you can have those pictures in your Photo Stream for 30 days.  The pictures in your Photo Stream DO NOT count against your iCloud storage, very important to remember for those who are backing up their devices to iCloud.

Deleting pictures from your Photo Stream on your iOS device is quite simple, and there are two ways to accomplish it.  You can delete a single picture by clicking on the picture, then tapping the garbage can (lower right corner of screen).  Or you can delete multiple pictures.  To do this, you tap the Edit button (top Right), then tap the pictures you wish to delete, then tap the Delete button (bottom right).  On your Mac, deleting a Photo Stream pictures is also very easy.  Either within iPhoto or Aperture, click on the Photo Stream option.  You can delete single pictures, or multiple pictures from Photo Stream, just as you would if you were in an Events/Photos/Faces or Places (iPhoto).  

Now let’s talk about sharing your photos from Photo Stream.  This is a new option that became available in the fall of 2012 with the release of iOS 6.   Shared Photo Streams  can also be created on your Mac, running OSX 10.8.2 or later with Aperture 3.4 or later or iPhoto 9.4 or later (you could and some people do, use both).   Shared Photo Stream(s) rock!  

To turn on Photo Sharing, tap on the Photo Stream option, and make sure the Photo Sharing toggle is set to on.  One great feature of the shared Photo Stream is that is can be shared with non Mac or non iOS devices, thank you Apple!  When you share a Photo Stream, it becomes a private website that you share by providing email addresses to those you wish to share it with.  Here’s how you do it.  On your iOS device, you’ll go into the Photo’s app, and choose Photo Stream, then you choose the pictures you wish to share by clicking the edit button (top right), tapping the photos, then choosing the share option, lower left of your screen.  When you click share, you have six options to share your pictures.  Via Message, another Photo Stream, Facebook, Print, Copy or Save to Camera roll.  We are going to click the Photo Stream option.  Next, click New Photo Stream, type the email addresses (or if you have them in your contacts, simply type the persons name and pick their email address).  Create a name for your Photo Stream, then you can choose whether or not you wish to make this Photo Stream public, or only viewable by those whose email you provided.  If the Photo Stream is NOT created as a public website, those people who were emailed your link, MUST  be using that email address as an Apple ID in order to view the Shared Photo Stream, this is very important.  If you make the Photo Stream public, it can be viewed by anyone, regardless of whether or not their email is an Apple ID or not.   To create a shared Photo Stream in iPhoto, from your library, choose the pictures you wish to share, click the Share option (lower right), choose Photo Stream, enter the names (or email addresses) of those you wish to share the Photo Stream with and the rest as they say, is history!  Those people who you’ve shared your Photo Stream with, who’s email address is an Apple ID, can view the pictures on their iOS device(s), as long as they are running iOS 6 or later, or on their Mac, in iPhoto 9.4 or later, or Aperture, 3.4 or later.  The shared Photo Streams can also be viewed on an Apple TV, running software 5.1 or later.  In case you were wondering, there is a limit to the number of photo’s you can share in a Photo Stream, that number is 1000.  Also, shared Photo Streams never expire, until you delete them…

So, you now know how to share your Photo Streams amongst your friend/family and me should you choose.  Have fun, and until next time, I hope you and your devices are running smoothly!

  

LG 500G Vs LG 530G Tracfone Comparison

Comparison of the LG 500G to the LG 530G - Which is Better?

It is a common question we get, should I buy this phone or that? What does the LG 530G have that the LG 500G does not? Here we will compare two similar phones to help you decide which is better for you.

Both of these phones are sold by Tracfone Wireless, a prepaid cell phone company, and these phones as well as prepaid minutes, can be purchased both online and in many retail stores. This information is provided with the goal of increasing consumer information, and to help with buying decisions.

Now, let's begin by looking at some of the similarities between these phones:

Similarities Between the LG 500G and LG 530G

To be quite honest, these phones are very similar, and that is because the LG 530G is the newer version of the LG 500G. (Sort of like our comparison of the LG 800G vs LG 840G)

Both phones have:

de9w2dsl's LG 500G vs LG 530G Comparison

• Full QWERTY keyboards for fast and easy texting
• Mobile web
• MP3 player and MicroSD slot
• 1.3 MP camera and recorder
• Hands free speaker, voicemail, phone book
• Alarm Clock, Bluetooth and other common cell phone features
• Long battery life
• Durable construction

As one can see, these phones come with very similar features. Both phones function well, and are great for people who like to text often.

On appearances, these phones are similar, although the LG 530G has more modern styling, and is a little wider. It generally feels and looks a little newer.

Time to look at some key differences between these phones:

Differences Between the LG 500G and LG 530G

There are two key differences between these phones that could make one or the other better for you to purchase. 

The first difference is that the LG 500G comes with Double Minutes for Life, and the LG 530G comes with Triple Minutes for Life.

What this means is that with the LG 500G, if you add 60 minutes of airtime, you will get 120. But if you add 60 minutes of airtime to the LG 530G, you will get 180. (and don't forget about using a bonus code for extra minutes). Thus, for people who will use their phone more, the LG 530G is the better deal.

LG 500G

But the second difference is Price.

The LG 500G is typically much cheaper than the LG 530G, sometimes half the cost.

The LG 500G often retails for around $20, and can be found on Amazon for that price, or sometimes cheaper. The LG 530G, on the other hand, retails for $50, unless you can find it on sale, like on Amazon.

So if you are looking for the cheaper option, the LG 500G is less expensive.

LG 500G Vs LG 530G - And the Winner is:

LG 530G

The LG 530G wins in our book, because of the more modern design and the Triple Minutes for Life. The phone is sleek, feels solid, and performs well.

However, this was a close comparison, and if money is a big factor, and you don't plan to be constantly calling or texting, the LG 500G might just be your best choice. It is much cheaper, and still has almost all of the same features.

You can read a detailed review of each of the phones to compare them for yourself:

Review of the LG 500G

Review of the LG 530G

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This cell phone comparison is part of a series of comparison TracfoneReview is creating. You can see all the Phone Comparisons and be sure to leave a comment below if you have questions, or want to suggest the next two phones to compare! Also be sure to share this with others who might find it useful.

We've got more than just cell phone comparisons, learn more about the difference between GSM and CDMA cell phones or check out or recent post covering the Best Tracfone Cell Phones.

You might also find our post about the top cell phone deals interesting.

What to do if your iOS device (or even your Mac!) is lost or stolen…:(

We all love our iOS devices, for some of us, they have become a third hand, an extension of us!  We’ve grown accustomed  to having our iPhone in our pocket, or purse or simply in our hand, everywhere we go.  For some of us, it contains not only our contacts and calendar events, but our business notes, banking information, credit card info, Starbucks card, and a slew of other information I can run down before I even mention your pictures!  The point being, these tiny, wonderful little devices also carry around a shocking amount of personal information.

What do you do, if the unthinkable happens.  Your iPhone/iPad gets lost, or even worse stolen!  Hopefully, you’ve been following my blogs, and are backing your devices up regularly with iCloud!  Doing this will at least give you piece of mind that your data is backed up, as well as giving you the ability to either lock down your device (if it’s misplaced), or you can completely wipe the device clean if you know it’s been stolen and it’s not coming back to you…:(

Here’s how you protect yourself.  First, you’ll go to a computer, open a web browser, then navigate to www.icloud.com.

Next, you’ll log in with your iCloud account (usually it’s the AppleID you use for purchases, some of you may have a second AppleID for iCloud). 

Next, you’ll click the Find my Phone icon.  It’s not a well named icon, it should be titled “Find my device”, as it can show the location of all your iCloud connected Apple devices, as long as they are turned on.  

The next screen you come to will be a map that will pinpoint your device(s) if they are on.  If they are not turned on, they can’t be found. 

 In the event that they are off, and you fear your device is stolen, you’ll click the All Device button (top center of your screen), which will show a listing of your devices (both on and off). 

 If the device is off, click the device and you be taken to another screen.  Here you’ll have the option to Play a sound, Lock the device, or Erase the device.  Now for my purposes here, I’m not going to be able to graphically show you how to do this, because if I lock my MacBook Pro, I'm not going to be very happy with myself!  So, I’ll guide you through what to do next.  When you push Lock the Device, you’ll be prompted to add a code so whomever has the device, and tries to turn it on, will be unable.  And if they subsequently try to take the device to an Apple Store, or an Authorized Apple dealer, the minute a person from the store tries to turn it on, they will know the device is not in the hands of the rightful owner.  You’ll also be prompted to add a message and phone number, in the event that your device is lost and a kind soul actually cares enough to return it!  You can also choose the drastic, but content saving (as well as headache saving) method of Erasing the device of ALL content (every last thing!).  Again, if you’ve done your iCloud back-ups, as soon as you replace your device, you restore from your last iCloud back-up, and your headache will be over (though your wallet will be feeling it!).  

Hopefully you’ll never be in a situation that requires the services described in this blog.  But should you loose or have your device stolen, the content of this blog will at least be able to give you piece of mind that your content (which is really the most important thing here) is safe!

Cloud Music Players

Today’s blog takes us to some technology near and dear to my heart, cloud music players!  What is a cloud music player?  And why do I want to play music in the clouds?  How do I use it, why do I need it?  So many questions, good thing I’m writing this blog!  So who are the “players”  in the cloud music scene?  We’ll, they are the usual suspects!  Apple, Amazon and Google!   If you are like me, and have a large music library, the advent of a cloud music player is like a godsend.   Giving you the ability to take your music with you anywhere, and anytime you want it.  

How do the Cloud Music Services work?

First, I will break down what all three services have to offer and how each  work. We’ll start with iTunes Match.  Once you’ve imported your music into iTunes, iTunes Match will scan the music in your library and either upload it to the cloud or find a match for it on its servers. Google Music, requires that you use the Google Music Manager before it gets to work. You'll need to point the app to the location of your music library—whether it's in Windows Media Player, iTunes, or some other location on your hard drive—and the Music Manager will scan those files and look for existing matches in the cloud, or upload them directly if they do not exist.  

Google Play allows you to keep up to 20,000 songs stored on Google's servers. iTunes Match stores your entire music library in iCloud and matches up to 25,000 tracks (songs purchased from the iTunes do not count toward your 25,000 limit). Amazon's Cloud Player Premium, has two options: the free version which allows up to 250 imported songs, while the subscription version costs $24.99 a year but enables subscribers to upload 250,000 imported tracks.  These limits do not count toward purchases that were made from Amazon MP3 directly.

Once your music is uploaded to Google Music, you can listen to it via a Web browser or on your mobile device—this includes both Android and iOS devices, though on an iPhone or iPad it  is only accessible via an HTML 5-rendered webpage, not as easy as opening an app and running it “native”.  This is where iTunes Match and Amazon Cloud player beat Google Music, and in my opinion iTunes is the winner.   With iTunes Match, your music is accessible through all iOS devices, as well as through iTunes on your Mac. With Amazon Cloud Player, you don’t have a desktop option, but can access your collection on the Web or via an iOS or Android app.

Uploading your music to the cloud...

Each services requires a desktop component to upload the music to the cloud. Google requires you to download the Music Manager application, while iTunes Match works seamlessly with iTunes. Google’s Music Manager can scan various applications for new music, including iTunes and Windows Media Player on the PC. For iTunes Match to upload your library,  your music needs be imported into the iTunes library or purchased from the iTunes Store.  Amazon requires you to download the Amazon Music Importer, which is a browser plug-in for Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. Sorry Google Chrome users, but you  are out of luck here.   according to Amazon, newer versions of Google Chrome do not fully support the latest iteration of Adobe Flash Player. You'll also need Adobe AIR installed to get the Music Importer to work with your browser.  By default, the Amazon Music Importer app uploads the music from your iTunes or Windows Media Player libraries, (there is an option to manually filter through your own folders on your hard). Once you hit go, Amazon will proceed to upload and match any file it can from your library.  The ease of iTunes makes it a winner, again here.  

Uploading your music to all three services is fairly easy.  Knowing what music has been uploaded or matched, not so much!  In iTunes, you click the Song tab and from there you can check the “iCloud status” to determine whether a song has been matched or uploaded. Google Music is a bit trickier to figure out since the music player is mostly Web-based.  Amazon Cloud Player offers a very thorough rundown of why specific files weren't matched or why they weren't uploaded. You can also head to the browser-based library and right-click on specific files to check and see if the "Fix Incorrect Match" option crops up.

Each service also features a limit to how many computers can be linked with an account. Fortunately for multi-device households, iTunes Match allows up to 10 devices to link with the service, while Amazon Cloud Player allows 8. Google Music also allows up to 10 computers to link with the Music Manager, though doing so produced duplicate library entries: Google's service uploaded the same album available on two different computers twice without cross referencing to check and see if it was already available. This is not only a little frustrating for the picky music archivist, but it’s also unfair to have those duplicates count toward the 20,000 song limit. iTunes fared much better with this because of the native “search for duplicates” feature available with iTunes, and it doesn't throw anything up in the cloud it has already matched. Amazon Cloud Player suffered greatly from its aforementioned metadata problem, producing too many duplicates across the board.

Mobile streaming

Google Music streams matched songs at 320kbps, while iTunes streams them in AAC format at 256kbps. Amazon does so at the same bit rate as iTunes, but in MP3 format. If the original file is a higher bit rate in iTunes, iTunes Match will stream at that rate (Amazon does not have a similar offer, however.) For our mobile devices, streaming over Wi-Fi was far more successful than streaming over 3G. On both an Android handset and an iPhone, Google Music, Amazon MP3, and iOS's Music app started up songs instantaneously. 

All three services allow individual songs and albums to be downloaded for offline use—a nice feature for when you’re venturing into an area without service and want to bring along a few choice albums. 

If your computer dies and you need to get your entire music library back on your computer, Google Music makes this a cinch. The Music Manager allows you to download your entire library with one click of a button. The time it takes to do so depends entirely on your Internet connection and how large your library is, but the option is there should you need it. It's also possible to use this after your computer has crashed and burned and the operating system has been re-installed, because everything is linked to your existing Google account. If you wish to download a specific song, it's possible to do so from the Web-based player by right-clicking and selecting Download. Unfortunately, users can only download individual tracks twice in their existence in the cloud, though this does not apply to music that is downloaded via the Music Manager.

iTunes Match does not offer the ability to download an entire library at once, though it does allow you to download tracks and albums individually. As an added bonus, you can replace your low bit rate files with higher bit rate ones from Apple's servers by simply deleting the file from your hard drive and re-downloading the matched file from iTunes. Google does not offer this feature, and users can only download the file at whatever bit rate it had originally been uploaded.

Amazon Cloud Player only allows you to download up to 500 songs at one time. Each download session will prompt the Amazon MP3 Downloader to launch, which is another desktop application required for use with the service. It will download the song in MP3 format at 256kbps, or its original bit rate if it wasn't matched. Unlike iTunes and Google Music, we would caution against using this particular service to "replace" your old library, if only because of how difficult it is to get all of the music out of the cloud.

Who should you trust with your music?

Thankfully each music service is good, and which service you should go with depends entirely up to you. If you’re committed to the Apple ecosystem and can’t imagine ever leaving another ecosystem, iTunes Match is well worth the annual investment.  iTunes Match is also better at eliminating duplicates than both Google Music and Amazon Cloud Player; it's overall a much cleaner experience. The songs you buy through the iTunes store don't count against your limit. The ability to manage your entire library from a desktop application is more user friendly than controlling it all from the browser.

If your main concern is getting your music in the cloud and keeping it there, Google Music’s solution is free and offers many of the same features as Apple's iTunes. It's also convenient for Android users, as it's one of the Android operating system's featured apps. Google wants you to use it to store music on your device. If you have no plans to pay for a cloud locker service, at least consider downloading the Google Music Manager and getting your songs stored somewhere in the cloud.

Finally, the Amazon Cloud Player: while it's chock full of features that both Google Music and iTunes Match offer, it also has the highest allowance of uploaded music for subscribers. If you own a huge library that spans decades, Amazon's service may be the perfect match for you. The only caveat here is that Amazon Cloud Player is not an all-inclusive locker like Google Music—it doesn't store podcasts, for instance—and its applications aren't as seamlessly integrated as Google's or iTunes. Google's Music Manager stays in the background, while iTunes is a part of the iOS syncing process. Amazon's Cloud Player does not normally come bundled with iOS and Android, so it would require the extra step of downloading the application to play any music.

If you're an Android user, you can either stick with the native Google Music service and enjoy the fact that podcasts and all of your favorite B-sides will make it into the cloud without any annual subscription free, or you can take that extra precaution and keep everything stored up in Amazon's services. iOS users have the best integration here, however: an iTunes Match subscription fee ensures that all that music is stored on Apple's servers, it allows users to swap out lower bit rate files with better ones, and instantly syncs up their music library with all iOS devices and computers connected with a particular iTunes account (AppleID). Unless you're not an iOS user, iTunes Match is simply the way to go.

Thanks for reading...and until next time, best to you and your devices!

iTunes for iOS 7!

I'm loving this move to Blogger!  If you are looking for a great free blog site, this is it!  

Very excited to be bringing you this update on iTunes for iOS 7!  iTunes for the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch as been virtually unchanged since 2007 (2010 for the iPad).  Later this fall well get to see some awesome additions (iTunes Radio), and some great new graphics that will become part of the new iTunes.  Today, I have the pleasure of showing off some screen captures of all this for you!

Hopefully by now, you are well acquainted with iTunes and what a great music library, and music player that it is.  Coming soon, with the addition of iTunes Radio, you’ll have much more freedom to listen to the music you want to, create new stations with just the artists you love, or expand your musical horizons and branch out to exciting new artists that you perhaps are not yet familiar with! 

The screen capture below is what your iTunes radio screen might look like.  You’ll notice along the top there are Featured Stations (Top artists, along with top music types).  Below that you’ll see My Stations.  This is where you create your own iTunes Stations, based solely on the music you love!  

Below is what your iPhone will look like when you tap into one of your stations.  A song will come up.  If you don’t have that song in your library, and you like it, you can click the $1.29 button (not all songs will be 1.29) and then you’ll own the song!  You can also create a New Station from that Artists, or a New Station from that song.  Finally, iTunes lets you tune the station you are on, by just playing Hits from those artists, or mixing it up by sliding to either Variety or Discovery mode.

When you tap on New station, you get a list of music types as you can see above, with no music category left out!  

Here’s a screen capture of iTunes in Lock Mode.

Below is one of my favorite new screens, it’s your album view when you turn your phone horizontal!  You scroll (left to right, or right to left), and get all the albums in your iTunes, then if you tap on an album, you’ll get another great new view.  

With the Album cover on the left, and the songs displayed on the right.  You’ll also notice next to the  songs, a cloud with a down arrow.  Those are songs in iTunes Match that are not on your phone.  I’ve been told, there will be two awesome options from here.  You can either stream the song by tapping on it, or if you tap on the cloud, it will download to your phone.  I’m still waiting to get confirmation on this, but that’s the story going around!  I love the streaming option, something that is a definite plus, and much needed!

My next screen capture is the more tab (bottom right of the screen).    From here, you can choose which tab you’d like to see along your iTunes dock.  The tabs that are grey are already on the dock.  The red tabs can be moved down to the dock if you’d rather have those tabs than the ones iTunes chooses.  So if you’d rather have the Songs tab, simply press and drag it to the dock, and one of the tabs currently there will move off the dock.

I'm impressed with  the new look and feel to iTunes for iOS 7, it’s a much needed update to what had become an old, tired interface.  There’s lots more great stuff to come, I hope you’ve enjoyed this quick look into the new iTunes interface...Until next time!

Best to you and your devices!

LG 840G Vs LG 800G Tracfone Comparison

How Does the LG 840G Compare to the LG 800G?

This is a question that comes up a lot between different Tracfone devices, and today we will be comparing the LG 840G to the LG 800G to see how they are different, what is similar, and which makes better sense to buy.

These are two prepaid phones offered through Tracfone wireless. The phones and prepaid minute cards can be found both online and in many retail stores. This comparison is aimed to provide consumers with information to make a more informed purchase.

So let's get straight to the similarities.

Similarities between the LG 840G and LG 800G:

Click to Expand LG 800G

These phones are actually quite similar in a number of ways, with the LG 840G sort of like a big brother to the LG 800G.

• Both phones are touchscreen devices
• The LG 840G and LG 800G are similar size, with the LG 800G slightly smaller
• Both phones come with Triple Minutes for Life
• Both phones come with all the basic Tracfone cell phone features:
• Mobile web, MP3 Player, Camera
• Phone Book, Alarm clock, Voicemail etc.

For more on each phone's features and specs, read our detailed reviews:
LG 840G Review (opens in new window)
LG 800G Review (opens in new window)

While the two phones are fairly similar in many of the features and specs, there are plenty of differences that seperate these phones, so let's look at them.

Differences between the LG 840G and LG 800G

Click to Expand LG 840G

As mentioned earlier, the LG 800G is like the little brother to the LG 840G. Thus, the LG 840G comes with several great features that the LG 800G just doesn't have.

Features that the LG 840G comes with, but the LG 800G does not:

• 3G - Faster web browsing speeds
• WiFi Connectivity - Connect to and browse the internet for free with the LG 840G
• Includes 2 GB MicroSD card
• Google Maps can be installed on the LG 840G (read How to Install Google Maps)
• The LG 840G comes in white or black

So, one can see just from this list that the LG 840G is an improvement on the LG 800G in the areas of speed, internet access, and memory, but what about price? For many, price is the most important comparison when choosing between two products.

The LG 800G wins in the price comparison over the LG 840G.

The LG 840G has a retail price of $59.99, but can usually be found various places online, like Amazon, for closer to $40. A very good deal.

But the LG 800G, which typically retails for about $49.99, can be found online for much cheaper, (currently $15 on Amazon!). You can even get a reconditioned LG 800G from the Tracfone website for just $5! (But that deal might not last very long)

Thus, if you are on a tight budget, and just want a phone with Triple Minutes for Life, the LG 800G might be the best choice.

Finally, many customers found the touchscreen for the LG 840G to be a significant improvement over the LG 800G's touchscreen which can be somewhat unresponsive, especially compared with modern touchscreen phones.

LG 840G Vs LG 800G - And the Winner Is:

de9w2dsl gives the LG 840G the win in this comparison for three reasons:

White LG 840G

While the LG 800G wins on price, the LG 840G wins in many other categories that outweigh price for most buyers. (if price is very important to you, then it might outweigh the features on the LG 840G)

The WiFi connectivity on the LG 840G allows users to browse the internet for free, a huge bonus and money saving feature, and something the LG 800G just doesn't have.

Lastly, the touchscreen for the LG 840G is a good improvement over the LG 800G, adding the last reason why we would choose the LG 840G.

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We will be doing more of these comparisons, so leave a comment with two phones you would like to see us compare! Also share this with others who might enjoy it.

We have plenty of other useful posts here, including What's the Difference between GSM and CDMA and which one is right for you, Top 3 Tracfone Cell phones, and even a list of Triple Minute for Life Tracfones.

Thanks for visiting!

iOS 7 preview: Notification Center

If you are not getting excited about the coming release of iOS 7, you should be, it’s fantastic!  Todays blog will again have a new focus, we’ll go over (in quite a bit of detail) what’s new in the Notification Center for iOS 7.  I will say this much, I have NOT bee a big fan of the Notification Center since it’s arrival with iOS 5.  Yes it is an easy way to see system alerts, and App push alerts in one place, but it’s also quite a drain on your battery, that’s not great to begin with!  That aside,  Notification Center was Apple’s first step toward a better way to handle the alerts we get throughout the day, from the apps that “must” alert us.  With Notification Center for iOS 7, Apple has taken a nice step forward.  Notification Center now provides drop-down access not only to all your alerts, but your most recently missed alerts as well, and it includes an all new contextual Today screen and finally, the ability to access the notification center on the Lock Screen.  Now I don’t know yet if the Notification Center will cause less drain on the battery, but there is always hope!

Here's how Apple  describes the improvements to Notification Center in iOS 7:

“Notification Center lets you know about new mail, missed calls, to-dos that need doing, and more. And a new feature called Today gives you a convenient summary of, well, today. One glance at your iPhone and you’ll know if it’s a certain someone’s birthday, if you’ll need an umbrella, or if traffic will slow down your commute. You’ll even get a heads-up on tomorrow. You can access Notification Center from any screen, including the Lock screen. Just swipe down. And get up to speed.”

Based on what Apple's showed off at the WWDC in June and at Apple.com to date, here's how the new Notification center works:

• Notification Center, like all of iOS 7, is built on a new physics engine so it behaves more like a real-worldobject. It has velocity and collision detection, so if you slam it down, it'll bounce!

• I am a big fan of the new, tabbed interface which lets you choose between Today, All, and Missed.
• The Missed view does only shows you alerts from the last 24 hours.
• The All view, as the name suggest, shows you all of your alerts.

• The All view is similar to the iOS 5 and iOS 6 version of Notification Center, with an app-by-app breakdown of your alerts. The Tap to Tweet (Twitter) and Tap to Post (Facebook) buttons are currently missing, or to have been removed, but  they were not notifications to begin with and existed out-of-context in the Notification Center.

• The Today view shows you the current day and date in large type  along with a written description of the current weather in your location, and a written description of your next appointment. It can also tell you if current traffic conditions will impact your next trip, another feature I’m a big fan of.  Along with that you get a more elaborate, graphical look at Calendar, Reminders, and Stocks, as well as a written description, recapping what's coming up for you tomorrow.
• Notification Center, like it's new companion, Control Center, is finally accessible from the Lock screen. 

Notification Center is largely the same in iOS 7, which is great for people already familiar with how to use it. The ability to pull Notification Center down even while on the Lock screen is not something I’m sure I like, but I will give myself time to adjust to it. The Lock screen already enjoys notification support all its own, but nothing as powerful or persistent as Notification Center.  The doubling up is slightly awkward, more function over form, but it will likely appeal to people who prefer convenience over privacy.

The difference between All alerts and Missed enjoys similar overlap but similar appeal to power users. "Missed" may be misnamed, as based on the demos it looks more like a "Recent" or "Latest" view, but that might be straightened out once the behavior is better understood.

The Today tab, is the biggest change. It strangely is similar to the old Windows mobile Today screen of years and versions passed, but with an Apple focus, and most certainly an iOS 7 look and feel.

The written out weather and next appointment could be interpreted as a step backward when it comes to view-ability, however it  most definitely is a step forwards in terms of information.  iOS 5 and iOS 6 had a graphical weather widget that was easier to get the view at a glance, but didn’t provide much more than “rainy” and “sunny”, not really much help.   My hope is that Apple will find a way to balance both. Re-introduce a graphical element and keep more text.  The same goes with stocks, which used to scroll in one tidy widget, and now sprawls out row after row.

The integration of  traffic information,  is a HUGE plus and hopefully only the first indication that Apple is heading towards an  implementation where they parse location, time, calendar, and every other metric they have at their disposal and present contextually appropriate, predictive alerts in Notification Center.

So there you have it!  The new Notification Center features that will become available to everyone when iOS 7 ships to the general public this fall. 

Do you like what you’ve seen of the newly updated Notification Center so far?  Let me know your thoughts!  

I hope you and your devices have a safe and Happy Holiday, and a wonderful weekend!