Alternatives to MMS

A few years ago MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) was going to be the thing to really make the most of Camera Phones, the quickest and easiest way of sharing your photos with a friend or a family member. Sadly it seems like the lifespan of the MMS is almost over, the high cost of the service and size limitations have effectively killed it before it became the success it was expected to be. When Camera Phones first hit the market around the turn of the century few expected phones to advance to the point where they became small and powerful mobile computers (as Smart Phones now are), it's been the move to Smart Phones that has effectively killed the MMS.

Rather than writing a long obitury of the MMS I've instead decided to look at some of the most useful alternatives to actually using MMS, something I quickly did in an old article looking at the pros and cons of using e-mail instead of MMS. Whilst it is true that E-mail is still the prefered way for some, such as myself, it's certainly not the only way, in fact their is so many different ways that I'm not even going to be able to cover them all, just the most straight forward ones.

The most widely used "third option" (behind MMS and E-mail) are the new messenger apps, things such as Whatspp? and Ebuddy XMS which allow you to send pictures, messages and other forms of media over the internet for free. This is a service much like sending images over MSN for example. For this you only need to make sure you and your friend are both using the same messenger service and both online at the same time. Whilst some people may like this method (and some genuinely do use it an awful lot of the time) I've not been sold over to it personally due to fact that I've simply found Emailing to be quicker, though this is likely to change over the coming years as these services continue to improve.

Facebook has been an internet super-power for the past few years and now you can use the massive social networking sites to send pictures directly from your phone to someone on your friends list. To do this you need to use the Facebook "Messenger" app and select it as a "Share via" option (with an Android, I'm not exactly sure with other phones) when you've selected a picture, then slect a friend. This is a bit of a middle line between e-mail and the above messaging apps as this can be recieved on a PC or a Phone (or anywhere else where the recipient can access their Facebook).

You could as a fifth option (and by far the least attractive for some pictures) share them publicly via Social Networking sites like Twitter, Picasa or Google+. If the picture is something you do want to share with a wider viewing public this is a much better option than E-mailing it to a number of people. However on the flip, if the picture is something that you would only like one particular person to see you'd be rather silly to use this option.

As said at the start of this post, modern phones do have a host of other options to share pictures, though I'd say these are the main 5 to look at if you wish to share the picture with someone further a field than the Bluetooth range on your handset. Of course if you are close enough to use Bluetooth I'd reccomend using that instead as it's quicker and much easier than using things like Ebuddy XMS or Facebook.

How to do a voice search on the Samsung Galaxy S2

One of the coolest and most space aged things about modern smart phones is their ability to use your voice to search for things on google. To do this you need to load up the search screen (as you can see to the right). To load the search screen you can either hold the menu button (as described here) or press menu and then click on "Search" on the small menu that pops up. In the top right of the search screen you will see a little microphone icon. You need to press this.

After pressing the microphone you will see the screen change and look like the image on the left here with the guide to "Speak now". When you see this screen you are to just say the words of your search very clearly and very slowly so that the phone understands you.

When you stop speaking the phone will attempt to piece together whatever you said to try and form a search query for google. This bit can take a while and is probably the most hit and miss aspect of the phone for now. It can struggle with the recognition of words, especially if you have a strong accent, though when it works it can work like a charm. For this example (as shown below) I used the phrase "Bananas in pajamas" (excuse the Americanism there).




The results came up like they would had I just typed the search into google.

Where this is perhaps most handy is for things we may struggle to spell but can easily say though people who are doing other things with their hands may prefer to speak than to type a search.

Whilst the system isn't perfect, it seems to be a fantastic idea that will slowly but surely become the search method of the future. When the few teething recognition problems get sorted out this will help to revolutionise both the phone and search industry's 2 things where google seem to be a major player.

How to send an MMS (or Picture Messages) from your Samsung Galaxy S2

With the help of the Samsung Galaxy S2's excellent camera we've all managed to take a photograph we want to share with a friend. With the help of our contract we may even have a free MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) allowance and want to use that, though how do we send MMS with the Samsung Galaxy S2? How do we use the phone to send picture messages?

Firstly open up your "messaging" option and then on the icon and then either select a conversation (with the person you want to send the text to) or select the new text option to get a screen that looks a little like the one you can see to the right. The part you need to concentrate on here is the little "paperclip" icon. This is the icon that, for anyone who uses E-mail should look familiar, it is after all the "attach" icon and will allow you to attach things like pictures, sounds or videos.

 After clicking on the attach icon you will open up a long list of possible things you might want to attach (as seen on the left here). If it's a picture you've taken you click on "Pictures", if it's one you are about to take click on "Capture picture" of course if it's not a picture then select one of the other options. When you've selected a picture you will be taken back to the text screen to add some textual content and select a contact.

When you've completed adding what ever text and media you wish to send you merely need to click on send and the contact should get the message inside a few seconds.

Alternatively if you've not got an MMS allowance or so many free picture messages a month you could instead send the image by e-mail via either mobile internet or Wi-Fi if you have the contacts E-mail address. We'll be showing how to do that soon.

Copying your contacts to your SIM card with a Samsung Galaxy S2

If you've got a Samsung Galaxy S2 mobile phone and want to copy your contacts from your phone onto the Sim card you may find yourself getting a little bit lost. Here we are going to guide you threw the process of "exporting your contacts".

To start this press on the "Phone" icon on the bottom of your phone to open up the "Keypad". At the top of the screen you sill see tabs. "Keypad" (the one you've landed on), "Logs" (the history of all your calls and texts), "Contacts" and "Favourites". At this point you need to click on the "Contacts" tab. Here you will find a list of all your contacts, which in some cases can be a huge amount if your contacts have been synced from Facebook. At this point you need to click on the menu button and you will see a menu pop up at the bottom of the screen. The menu will have an option saying "Import/Export contacts" which is the option you need to select.

To put the contacts onto your SIM card you need to select the "Expert to SIM card" option (whilst to get contacts from your SIM card you need to select "Import from SIM card). The next screen you will see if your contact list with tick boxes for you to select a number of contacts to export. When you've selected all your contacts click on "Export" and then "OK" and you're done the contacts will now be on your SIM card.

If the contacts from things like facebook you won't really need to export too many as you will likely be replacing the phone in the future with something else you can sync to your facebook account (or even google accounts) which means the future will see you being able to move numbers with out needing them on your SIM (in fact you can even use various apps for the job now).