A few ways to save some cash on your wireless service

• Make sure you choose the right amount of minutes. Try to give yourself an honest and accurate estimate of how much calling time you’ll need per month. Remember, you’re accruing minutes any time you place or receive a call. And it’s almost always better to choose a plan with too many minutes, rather than not enough. Wireless providers make a lot of their money charging consumers for exceeding their allotted minutes!

• If you're on the road a lot, there are several plans that offer free roaming and long distance. These national and regional plans may be slightly more expensive but are highly preferable to paying exorbitant per-minute charges.

• Wireless providers like to have you locked in for the long haul. If you’re comfortable with a contract, you may be eligible for a discounted rate or other incentives from your provider.

• Don't pay too much for your long distance calls! You're not stuck with the long distance rates that your wireless provider offers. Check out the rates for regular landline long distance companies (look in GetConnected's Long Distance section), as well as dial-around numbers. These rates will almost always be lower than the astronomical fees charged by wireless providers.

• Do you receive a lot of incoming calls? If so, you may want to look for a provider and plan that give you the first incoming minute for free. You can use the free airtime to handle quick calls or to decide whether to call back later from a landline phone.

• Check your voicemail from a landline--even if voice mail is included in your flat monthly fee, you may be charged to check your messages. So why not check them for free from your home or office?

• Consider the times of the day that you are most likely to use your phone. If you're calling mostly for convenience reasons during non-business hours, look into plans that offer free calls on nights and weekends.

• Thinking of moving out of town? Talk to your provider about switching your service to your new location. They can switch you over fairly easily if they offer service in your new area. If they don't, you may not be required to pay a cancellation fee, so it pays to ask!

• Caller ID and voice mail can be used to screen unwanted or low-priority calls. Caller ID and voicemail are standard with many digital wirelesses and PCS carriers. If they’re not included, it will cost you about $3 per month for each feature. This can save money in the long run, especially if you don’t want to waste minutes taking unimportant calls.

• Text messaging can save airtime as well. The service costs between $2 and $10 per month and works great for brief messages. There are no airtime charges because the text messages are created and sent via the carrier's Web site.

• For those of us with credit issues, prepaid wireless plans offer a viable alternative. These plans usually include inexpensive phones, and more importantly, no credit check. The drawbacks are an inconvenience--in order to use the phone, you must replenish your account when it runs out.

Save Your Smartphones from Spyware and Malware Invasion

Viruses aren’t restricted to your home computers. If you download infected software, you may end up with spyware or malware on your smartphone , the same way you may discover it on your laptop or PC. Viruses have been around long enough to leave many computer users with a bad taste in their memory banks, but you can’t get rid of them if you can’t properly identify them. Not all software that behaves differently than what was expected is malicious–and that’s important to know if you want to change it.

Toolbars
Toolbars are a part of many different software programs, and they’ve become extremely necessary for navigating programs that some companies specialize in offering nothing but toolbars. But because toolbars are popular, they’re also a target for hidden viruses. You may download a toolbar and unknowingly introduce malicious software or spyware into your smartphone as a result. Malicious software could change the way your programs operate, erase data and otherwise damage your smartphone. Spyware is a virus that’s designed to track your movements and record data about you, including information that may include password and banking data.

Toolbars can be a source of hidden viruses, but some toolbar software are perfectly harmless. Zugo LTD guarantees malware- and spyware-free toolbars that contain no malicious software whatsoever. You may safely download Zugo products, which are tested to meet certain quality standards, without fearing for your smartphone or computer.

Downloading Software
It’s easy to download software to your smartphone or computer; all it takes is a few clicks of the mouse button. But software doesn’t always behave as expected, as this is where some users may become confused. Zugo toolbars, once installed, will automatically change your homepage to Bing. Other toolbars and software programs may exhibit similar behavior; it’s not an uncommon practice.
But some users can find this change very jarring, and may assume that their system has been compromised in some way after it occurs. A change of this nature isn’t an automatic red flag, and may not mean that you have been infected with a malicious software program. Users who already have their homepages set to Bing , for instance, may not even notice that a change has taken place. It is important to run regular virus scans to protect your system from harmful software, and download programs only from sites that are virus-free.

If a program or toolbar you’ve installed behaves in a way you don’t like, search for the program on your system to uninstall it. If you can’t find an uninstall file for the program, try going to the web page where you downloaded the software. Often, the page will provide an uninstall link or instructions to help you accomplish the task.