Showing posts with label Cellphones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cellphones. Show all posts

Friday, March 2, 2012

Tired of traffic fines for talking on your cell while driving? Time to get yourself a Jabra Freeway Bluetooth in-car speakerphone...

I got to spend some quality time with the great team over at Wintec this week at their Brand Showcase, where I found out about a whack of incredible new gadgets that are now available, and which you can now order right here at Nybbles and Bytes.

Thanks for the invite guys - it was great to meet your team, check out all your current and upcoming products, eat your food and drink your drink :)

There was food...

There was drink...
Rene practicing his selling skills...

Nina & Megan, pleasantly posing... :)


Some of the Powertraveller products on demo.
Some awesome Jabra products.
See review below for more...








Need a tough cover / stand / keyboard for your iPad? Look no further...

The super-cool hamper that I am going to win as a result of this review...  ;)

I wonder if it's powered by a Powermonkey... :)

As you can see, there are some seriously innovative and useful products entering the market - get in touch with us here for any enquiries.

Now onto the review - something that I have been meaning to do forever is to get myself a proper Bluetooth car kit - admittedly I was fined once a while back for chatting on my phone while driving.
In general (and I think you would agree), traffic fines are no fun, it is massively unsafe to talk on cellphones while driving, and I hereby scold my younger self for being such an irresponsible driver!

Thankfully, with age comes wisdom (so they say...), but there are times when some pretty urgent calls come through while I am on the road, and that is where the Jabra Freeway steps in.

Needless to say, I had to get myself one to try out - and here she is:

Unboxing the Jabra Freeway...

Charges via a standard Micro USB port on the side of the unit...

The business end of the Jabra Freeway... :)

The Jabra Freeway is more than just a Bluetooth Speakerphone - sure, it allows you to make and receive hands-free calls with crystal clarity, but it also combines a Bluetooth connection to your handset, with an FM connection to your car audio system.

Now for anybody who has ever had an FM transmitter on their cellphone, you know what this means - you can stream your music from your phone to the car audio system via this super-nifty gadget.
I have to say that I had my doubts when I set it up initially - I was unsure how the combination of Bluetooth and FM would work out in terms of sound quality...

Thankfully though, it's pretty amazing, provided that you select an FM channel which is fairly free of interference - I have found that 88.10 works well for me.

Setting it up out of the box is simple - make sure that Bluetooth is active on your phone, then switch on the Jabra Freeway.
The first time you turn it on, it automatically enters pairing mode, and you are voice guided through the pairing process.
When pairing is complete, you hear the Jabra Freeway say "Connected", and you are now ready to go.

Having used the device for a few days now, it is very practical and easy to use on the go.
I have yet to really try out the voice dialling feature (phone dependent), but when I did pick a random number to dial on my phone, it dialled the correct one straight away.
Charging happens via the supplied cable and car charger, and the device will hold enough charge for 14 hours of talk time and 40 days of standby time.

Some pretty cool innovations have also found their way into the Jabra Freeway:

  • Features a motion sensor which turns the device off when you leave your car, and then back on when you return. When I got into my car this morning I had actually forgotten about the device, until it suddenly spoke to me saying "Connected"!
  • Syncs to your phonebook - this means that you can dial your contacts (phone dependent), as well as answer or ignore calls, all using voice commands;
  • Features 3 speakers which provide crisp stereo and Virtual Surround sound;
  • Connects to 2 Bluetooth devices simultaneously;
  • Announces the name of the incoming caller;
  • Allows A2DP streaming for playback of music, podcasts and directions from GPS applications;
  • Voice guidance talks you through setup and operation.

The long and the short of it, is that the Jabra Freeway gives you the functionality of a traditional Bluetooth car kit, minus the pain of wiring and installation (and the dashboard scratches that come with it!).
Add to that the ability to transmit music from your phone to your car audio, and you have a winner of a product, guaranteed to deliver outstanding performance and keep you safer on the road.

So if you want to get your hands on one of these, get in touch now - it is currently priced at only R 1700, and as always, T's and C's apply as below:

No stock shall be released until paid for in full;
All above pricing is subject to stock availability;
Product specifications may be subject to change without notice;
Please allow 4-6 working days for delivery;
Nybbles and Bytes cc is not a VAT vendor


Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Do you suffer from Nomophobia...?

When I found out about a very real fear called Nomophobia recently, I had a bit of a giggle as I thought it was all a joke...

After all, surely Nomophobia is a fear of food...? (Nom nom nom... get it? :)

Ah but wait, there is more to it than that - did you know that Nomophobia is actually a fear of being out of mobile contact?
The word is derived from the term "no-mobile-phone phobia", and it was coined by the UK Post Office during a study to look at anxieties suffered by mobile phone users.

Thinking back to my teenage years when cellphones were not really around yet, I have to wonder how the heck we got by back then?
Sure we had landlines and pagers, but once we set foot outside of home or work, then we were out of touch for hours at a time.
Today that is unheard of - we SMS, BBM, Whatsapp, Email and call constantly through the day.
It's a communications overload if ever there was one...!

Speaking from experience here, it is pretty easy to get caught up in it all.
I know that when my phone battery dies, or if I lose signal, it adds quite a bit of stress to my day.
So I guess in that regard, I am a bit of a Nomophobe... :)

Can you afford to be out of touch with the world and without your cellphone?
Are you a Nomophobe?

Oh, and if you are, then why not head over to the Nybbles and Bytes Store and order yourself a Powertraveller powermonkey, so that you never get stuck with a flat cellphone battery again :)

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Cellphone charging stations in shopping malls - a really smart idea!

I was walking thru Eastgate recently and I came across a machine that looks like one of those fortune telling machines that you put your finger on...
Thankfully this was not one of those machines, but rather a small stroke of genius, in the form of a machine that you can charge your cellphone with.

Check it out:

Seriously, how many times have you had to make that one important call, or read that one SMS that you saved so long ago but need to read right now... and your phone dies.
AAAARRRRGHHH!! - this is the best possible way to describe the frustration of such a situation... which is exactly why this is such a clever idea!

I saw 2 of these machines in different locations in the mall (one next to the Cell C shop, and one next to the Birthdays shop) - you pay R5 and you get 15 minutes of charging time.
Worried that the charger may not fit your phone model? 
Fear not - the mighty cellphone charging station has got it covered, with approx. 18 different types of adapter to fit just about any cellphone out there today:


Never again will you have to be stranded without the lifeline that is your cellphone... just make sure you are in a mall somewhere :)
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Monday, July 26, 2010

Cellphones give people a "licence to interrupt"...

Traditionally, when someone is engaged in a (face to face) conversation with someone else, it would be considered rude to even think of butting-in or interrupting that conversation.

In recent times though, every human being who has any kind of ear or mouth, has equipped themselves with a cellphone.


Mobile phone evolution (Japan 1997-2004)Image via Wikipedia
These technological marvels basically allow any other ear / mouth equipped human being, to abruptly barge into your life, without much prior warning or notification.
Sure there is that ringing noise that tells you to drop everything you are currently busy with, but that's about it.


Seriously though, how many times have you found yourself leaping to get to your ringing phone while you were already in another conversation, or busy doing something else...?

Hey I do it, and the problem is that we do it without much consideration of what is actually going on.

Somebody, somewhere else, has just decided that they need you to attend to them, right this second. So forget about that other person you were talking to, or that important job you were just busy working on.
Nope, I need to talk to you right now.

Chances are, once you are finished with the call, you will probably forget what it was that you were doing when the damn thing rang in the first place...!

Voicemail is the obvious workaround, but I find that it can just stress me out to know that there is an urgent message, just waiting to leap out at me from that virtual voice that lives somewhere in cellular cyberspace...

How would you manage this problem, or maybe you simply don't give it that much attention?
The bottom line is that cellphones are supposed to make our lives simpler, easier and safer, but they do so at a price - they can add a heck of a lot of stress in the process.
I can still recall back in the 80's when Telkom landlines were the only form of communication available - that and faxes... :)
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Monday, March 8, 2010

Why do teenagers walk around with their cellphone speakers blaring?

Something I see a lot of nowadays, especially in malls etc., are teenagers who slither around with a cellphone in their hand, blaring out some arb music.
Cellphone speakers are at best, rubbish. You can barely hear what the heck is going on when you play music through them at high volume.

So what's the point?
Does it imply some kind of "street cred" if you can flaunt your cellphone while churning out what sounds a lot like the white noise you get from an untuned TV?

Ever heard of headphones...?


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