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You might think that choosing your cellphone is much more important than choosing your cell phone provider, but if you get stuck with the wrong provider, it’s really like being stuck in a bad marriage for 24 long months.

Fortunately, with UnlockBase there is a an easy and painless way to get a quickie divorce from your service provider, because UnlockBase has the largest database of mobile phones and service provider around the globe, and is able to unlock your cellphone within seconds. That’s always good to know, but it doesn’t alter the fact that you should give serious consideration to which cellphone provider before you sign on the dotted line.

But why is this so?

Good coverage

Well first of all, the provider provides the all-important network coverage you will receive throughout the length of your contract, and coverage is not created equal. You can have poor and patchy coverage from one service provider in one particular area, and excellent coverage from another. Before you make up your mind, ask the provider to check your area to see how well they cover your part of the world. Make sure you get the best coverage you can in the areas where you will need it.

The right cellular technology

Another important point to consider is whether you travel frequently. Before you sign up for that shiny new phone with the big megapixels, find out if it offers GSM when traveling abroad. CDMA, while common in the States, is not nearly as prevalent outside of American borders. You don’t want to arrive in a foreign country only to find your phone can’t find a signal and is effectively dead for the whole trip.

Generous data package and 4G network

The data network and data package didn’t use to matter so much when apps and video games weren’t as all powerful as they are today. But in this age of intense online surfing on your smartphone, data packages and the speed at which they are delivered are all important and must be examined carefully. You need a data package generous enough to enable all the things you want to do on a daily basis including use of the internet, sending of e-mails, streaming music and videos, and of course, downloading apps and video games. If you are not able to access free WiFi while you surf you’ll be amazed how fast your phone gobbles up data.

As for the network, the fastest 4G LTE data network has become like a God given right. If you want LTE, which of course you most probably do, get to know where the carrier has the best 4G coverage and how fast it is. And just like with calls, make sure you’ve tried a carrier’s data network before committing.

The right phone for your needs

Service providers tend to push you towards the phone they want you to have, and quite often this is a model which they want to offload before the new version comes in. That means you are stuck with last year’s technology for maybe two whole years. So it really pays to do your homework and read a whole bunch of online reviews about a wide variety of phones before settling on the one that’s best for you. If the service provider doesn’t have the phone model you want, take time to check what they are offering before signing up. Different service providers offer different models and even the same models can be at different monthly rates, so check and double check your phones so that you don’t get swayed or misinformed by the sales talk.

Customer service

If all goes well and you have done your homework properly, you won’t need to be talking or dealing with customer service too often, but if you find you are dealing with them, and you are not satisfied, the chances are it’s because you haven’t ironed out all the important details we have mentioned above. Over 90% of calls or interaction with the customer service departments of network service providers stems from either the phone, the coverage, the data package, or the bills. If you have found out all you need to know before you sign up, you can quite possibly get by with only minimal need for customer service. But like we say, if you find you’re not happy, and you’re stuck with poor service and a lousy package, don’t worry, there’s always UnlockBase!

Did you know that over 50% of cellphone owners – 58% – have been the target of phone scammers in the past year alone? This staggering statistic means that one in two people will receive a scam call, and it’s a 41% rise in the number of such calls since 2013. These figures were released recently by the Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA UK) and usually such trends in the UK reflect a much worse situation in the USA, so it’s safe to say, there are a whole lot of scammers working the phones.

This type of phone scam has become known as ‘vishing’, but what is a vishing phone scam? This kind of call typically involves fraudsters deceiving people into believing they are speaking either to a police officer, bank staff, or a representative of just about any financial or even a government department.

There are apps that can be downloaded to create such spoof calls. Amazingly calls can appear to be coming from a number you know and trust such as your bank, when in fact it’s a criminal call you from hundreds of miles away.

Skilled fraudsters have convinced people they are genuine by appearing to know certain financial and personal information about them, all of the information has been previously hacked form your account details. The fraudster will then proceed to explain that your savings account or current account is at risk from hackers, and that they are urgently recommending you to switch the account to another account number.

This exact trick has robbed several unsuspecting people of tens of thousands of pounds of their savings. Sometimes it is possible to stop some of the funds before they reach the fraudsters account, but if you leave it too late to double check with the bank and the money is transferred, there is nothing your bank can do, and you are liable for the loss. Another variation of a phone scam involves the fraudster persuading people to hand over cash directly to a courier, or to invest in a scheme that is apparently making others a small fortune.

If you are suspicious about a call from your bank, tell the caller you are going to hang up and call back to verify the authenticity of the call. However, even then beware. Scammers actually encourage people to hang up and call their bank to verify the legitimacy of the call. A phone line can stay open for up to two minutes, so the fraudsters remain on the line and play a dialing tone to trick the individual into thinking they’re calling their bank. Banks, police and other official institutions will never ask you to call them back to verify their authenticity.

Leave the phone call to your bank for at least 5 to 10 minutes to frustrate the fraudsters, and always be wary of giving out bank details and other sensitive information. Most banks have a password you need to repeat in part prior to proceeding with the call, you might want to test the caller by deliberately mentioning incorrect letters to your password. If they say it’s ok, you know you are dealing with a scammer.

Information is everything to a scammer. Just your name, email address and phone number are enough for fraudsters to find out your home address and then sell your details on to other scammers in places as far away as Romania and Russia.

UnlockBase can stop criminals in their tracks

If you start receiving too many of these calls, and many people complain of being plagued by scam calls on a daily basis, UnlockBase can quickly come to your aid.

UnlockBase is the biggest online remote cellphone unlocking service on the web. If you find your cellphone number has been compromised by fraudsters, don’t put up with it. We can unlock your phone quickly, easily and economically, leaving you free to find another service provider and a brand new number the scammers don’t know about.

Guard your information carefully

Never disclose your new number to anyone you don’t know or trust. Do not broadcast your number on social media or fill in online forms that require a cell phone number unless you are certain you know the number will be handled in complete confidence. Whether you’re looking to invest, or searching for a new bank account, you should always be the first one to make contact. If the caller is trying to hurry you and brow beat you into a decision, be suspicious, say no.

Unfortunately, scammers have been able to steal information from official records and the DVLA, the British driving license authority, so always be on your guard when you receive calls from people you do not know.

Cellular phone tracking is not just a fantasy dreamed up by spy thriller movie directors to make you believe that there is no escape from Big Brother. Big Brother, to a greater or lesser extent, really is tracking you, or at the very least, can do so should they ever feel the need.

The process of determining the position of a cellphone on a map, whether it be stationary or moving can be achieved by either GPS, which most smartphones have automatically included these days, or by checking the triangulation of several radio towers used by the cellphone owner’s network provider. The cell phones GSM is judged by the signal strength of the cell phone to nearby aerials and/or antennas.

How is working Cellphone Triangulation

At UnlockBase we unlock thousands of smart phones around the world every year, in fact more than any other web based remote unlocking service, so we like to keep our customers knowledgeable about the clever technology that comes hidden inside every phone you own.

Sneaky cellphone tracking

Instant messaging apps such as Viber have taken the GPS tracking device a step further by actually providing an accurate location complete with map an address of where your chat buddy is living or working. You may have installed other apps that can enable malicious app writers to intercept or read your emails, your text messages and sensitive information on your phone such as your bank details. If you have clicked OK to a long list of permissions on a newly installed app, delete it!

Cell phone tracking that includes a location gives out the actual coordinates of the cell phone. While the government may or may not be interested in your whereabouts, this feature is more commonly used by your cellphone provider to get an idea of where the cellphone is. Why do they do this? It’s not because they care about your safety or are spying on you. They simply want to know when your cell phone moves into areas where there are extra tariffs applicable. And this usually includes traveling to other countries.

Cell phone tracking that uses GPS is achieved by using a constellation of 27 satellites that orbit our planet. In simple terms, the satellites send out a signal which reveal where they are and when they sent the signal, and the GPS receiver picks up these signals. This information is then used to figure out where the GPS device is in relation to these satellites, and by doing so, accurately works out where it is on the globe. Don’t blame your cellphone for letting people know where you are; the GPS will simply transmit this information to whoever wants to know where the phone is located. And if you think going into the great outdoors will make you harder to follow, think again, GPS tends to work better outdoors.

Scenes showing cellphones being broken in two or thrown into rivers are common place in thriller movies. Ever since Osama Bin Laden and several of his cohorts were traced by their cellphones in the early days of tracking technology, they quickly reverted to a pre-cellular era and delivered all messages by human couriers.

What does your cellphone broadcast about you?

Hopefully you’re not in that situation, but if you were, do you really need to go that far, and what information is your cell phone broadcasting about you?

For example, if you believe your cellphone is being tracked switching to airplane mode won’t help. Every phone has two operating systems, one that connects to cellular networks, and one that interfaces with the customer. Airplane mode would only disable features on the customer facing operating system, such as Android or iOS, but not in the OS used between the phone and the carrier network. A phone can be happily giving out a ‘ping’ and you will never know it.

Your phone doesn’t even need to be sending out GPS coordinates, because any communication at all with a cell tower can expose you. By comparing the signal strength of your cell phone on multiple cell towers, someone looking for you can approximate your location with the triangulation technique, and criminals are still caught by this on a regular basis. Access to this data from your mobile network is, thankfully, out of reach of criminals, but service providers can be compelled to provide this personal data to law-enforcement agencies.

You often see the SIM card being thrown away by operatives in the movies. While this may provide an obstacle to cyber criminals, every phone has a built-in feature set of identifiers that may be detected via tools and devices used by the police and military. The NSA has even installed fake 2G cell towers thereby forcing a phone to 2G which means no encryption so it is easily detected and tracked.

At short range, your phone can also be tracked by Wi-Fi. Every time you turn Wi-Fi on, your phone is sending out a signal that includes your unique MAC address, a fingerprint for digital devices. Stores already employ this technology to track customer movements. It’s not ideal for surveillance, but with armed with your MAC address, surveillance teams don’t need an announcer to tell everyone you have left the building, they will already know.

Cellphone tracking is only going to get smarter, but unfortunately, for most of us, it’s too late to step off the merry go round. Could you go back to a pre-cellular era?

Whether you’re new to the ultra-competitive remote cellphone repair and unlock business or a seasoned pro, there is always a way to do things better and make life a little easier. That’s the idea behind MRC Manager. It’s a software designed specifically for the cellphone repair and unlock business to help business owners gain a competitive advantage by streamlining their operations, managing an unlimited number of technicians, automating invoicing, and tracking and organizing jobs as they come. In short, it’s a complete blueprint for running a cellphone repair and unlock business. All the thinking has been done for you. As you work with the software you will discover efficiencies and time saving procedures you never thought were possible.

Repair Service Center: MRC Manager = Easy scalability

The beauty of MRC Manager is that it’s not just a one size fits all solution to your business. There are different levels suited to each size of enterprise, but each software package, from the entry level MRC Manager – Standard to the top of the line MRC Manager -Ultimate, works in very much the same way, so there is no new learning curve every time you upgrade.

MRC Manager helps with some of the most important reasons you are in business in the first place: to be able to take on more work, and of course, to make more money with ease.

MRC Manager: Easy billing

Receiving jobs and then billing them promptly and efficiently should be the easiest part of your daily work schedule. With MRC Manager, you can achieve this in just 3 simple steps. First, you can easily oversee and manage all repair orders from receiving to processing repairs and then get paid by your customer, second, you can generate professional receipts & invoices your customers will appreciate and understand. And third, when you process a job, the invoice is automatically generated. This puts you in complete financial control of your business from the first day you try the software.

MRC Manager: Easy job tracking

One of the most frustrating aspects of the cellphone unlock business can be customers who constantly call up to check on the progress of their particular phone repair or unlock. MRC Manager takes that hassle off your hands. It enables customers to be able to check their own repair status online by simply inserting their job number.

With the MRC Manager Pro version customers can even ask for pricing on another unit at the same time and can choose to follow or contact you through social media such as Twitter or Facebook where they can make enquiries or brief in new jobs. Not only does this mean you no longer constantly need to handle phone calls, it ensures greater communication with customers and can result in more repeat business.

MRC Manager: Easy inventory keeping

With thousands of spare parts, you need MRC Manager to keep a quick and easy to understand log of what you have in stock, and what you need to restock. A manual stocktake can hours, with MRC Manager it can take just minutes. As you will know, one great way to frustrate customers is to not have popular items in stock when they need them.

MRC Manager: Easy E-Marketing

Of course, like any business, marketing yourself effectively remains a key component of your success. Again, this is where MRC Manager can help you. You can keep customers informed of new stock arrivals, impress them with prompt invoicing and receipts, and beat other rivals to be first with the news of new developments. You can even opt to communicate with customers instantly through SMS rather than risking emails getting lost in the spam filter, but if you or your customer prefer emails, the option is there too.

MRC Manager: Easy affiliation

If you want to make money from MRC Manager, that’s easy too. Just sign up for the free affiliation program and each time someone clicks on our banner on your site, you get paid.

MRC Manager: Easy on you

MRC Manager doesn’t stop working when you close the shop door. It works when you’re at home, at work, asleep, away on business, or even on holiday, and you can monitor all your activities in real time. All this, and it’s not expensive to run. MRC Manager – Standard starts at just $10.00 a month, and there’s a 50% discount on an annual subscription. There’s even 24/7 support via support tickets, email or via TeamViewer. Find out more today with the free trial (no credit card required)!

http://www.mrcmanager.com

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Good question, and right now the answer is quite simply Lycamobile! That’s because they currently have a buy two months get one month FREE offer on a choice of bundles.

Who is Lycamobile?

In case you are new to Lycamobile, founded in 2006, the company rapidly became the pioneers in cheap international phone calls using prepaid pay as you go Sim cards. They claim that a new customer joins them every two seconds.

Lycamobile Sim cards make calling not only cheaper in the UK, but all around the world. The brand’s stated mission is to connect family and friends wherever in the world they may be. They are the world’s largest international mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), providing low-cost, high-quality data and voice services to over 14 million customers across 19 countries.

Lycamobile is now expanding its product offering to include a broad range of financial and travel services, such as Lycamoney and Lycafly, that help people stay in touch across borders.

How to take advantage of the Lycamobile 3 months for the price of 2 deal

Upon arriving in the UK you can pick up a Lycamobile Sim card before you even leave the airport. Just head to WH Smith inside the terminal and ask for a Lycamobile Sim card or you can go online to the Lycamobile site and order a sim card for free.

Remember, you must have an unlocked cellphone!

Before you can take advantage of Lycamobile’s generosity, make sure you have an unlocked cellphone, so that it is free to accept any sim card from any service provider. If you want to break free from your current service provider UnlockBase can unlock your phone in minutes, quickly, easily and cost effectively.

Choose your tariff

When you visit the Lycamobile website you have a choice of 3 tariffs, UK Plan 15, UK Plan 20 or UK Plan 25, each of them offering 3 months for the price of 2, representing a saving of 33%. Note that these offers are for UK calls and SMS only. If you want to make overseas calls you will have to add more credit to your sim card and check the rates that apply to the country you want to call.

UK Plan 20
Pay £24 for 3 months with 1000 minutes per month, unlimited SMS, and 2 GB of data, and unlimited Lycamobile to Lycamobile calls and SMS.

UK Plan 15
Pay £38 for 3 months with 1000 minutes per month, unlimited SMS, and 3GB of data. You also enjoy unlimited calls and SMS Lycamobile to Lycamobile.

UK Plan 25
Pay £60 for 3 months with unlimited calls and unlimited texts to any UK service provider as well as Lycamobile to Lycamobile, and you also get 5GB of data.

Lycamobile Call to order

To buy the tariff of your choice there is a special phone number next to each tariff you can call and then you just follow the instructions on the screen. Lycamobile have championed low cost national and international calling, and if you’re looking for a great deal, right now theirs is the best prepaid sim card deal on offer in the UK.

Buying a used cellphone can be a great idea: you can save money, obtain an already unlocked phone, or buy a brand or a particular model you couldn’t otherwise afford. It sounds ideal, but unfortunately, buying a cellphone that is blacklisted can mean not only is your phone completely useless to you, you could potentially end up with a knock at the door from the police asking some difficult questions.

Think it can’t happen to you? In 2013 over 3.2 million cellphones were stolen in the United States alone, double the amount stolen in the previous year, so this is a fast growing problem. It means millions of cellphones are out there being advertised daily on online auction sites and listing sites around the world that could well be stolen, and you won’t know anything about it until you arm yourself with what to look for and what questions to ask.

Every mobile device in the world, whether it’s a cell phone or a tablet, has a unique serial number known as the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identifier). In a growing number of countries, operators enable consumers to report a mobile phone or device as lost or stolen using the device’s unique identity number, the IMEI.  The operator can block the phone from their mobile network, which is called IMEI blacklisting. Participating operators have an up to date Device Check database which contains the IMEI for devices reported as stolen or lost, as well as the device model and capabilities.

Groupe Speciale Mobile (GSM), established in 1982, defines the GSM standard as the internationally accepted digital cellular telephony standard. Global mobile connections now exceed some 10 billion connections, and as of 2015, exceeds the total population of the globe.

As a means of controlling this vast number of global connections, which is increasingly important in an age of international organized crime and terrorism, blacklisted IMEIs are provided to the GSMA central IMEI Database which allows operators to exchange data and to block devices on multiple networks both nationally and internationally.

Each time you make a call your SIM card immediately identifies you as a subscriber to that particular carrier. If your account is in order, then you can make the call and use the services of your service provider. Before that can happen, however, the network will check your phone’s IMEI, which is a number that is unique to every GSM handset.

Like IMEI, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) devices also use something similar called an Electronic Serial number, or ESN. The IMEI or ESN identifies the phone to your carrier and it checks that the handset is valid to use. If the phone is locked to another carrier or if it’s lost or stolen your service provider can use the IMEI to “blacklist” a device which means you won’t be able to make calls.

So for example, it’s the IMEI, and not your customer profile that lets a large carrier such as AT&T know that you are using an iPhone. Even if you switch to a different type of phone, a BlackBerry or an Android, your service provider will know which phone you are using. Even when you jailbreak a phone, your IMEI will still give your chosen service provider the information they need to know.

Each time you switch your phone on or attempt to make a call, the network systems check the IMEI number of the handset you are using as soon as you insert a SIM card.

In the USA, the cellphone blacklist is operated by the CTIA, which works with leading cellphone providers including AT&T, Cellcom, Nex-Tech Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile USA, and Verizon Wireless to provide a vast database of blacklisted phones. They are also linked to the GSM IMEI database.

In the UK, when the SIM card is inserted, the IMEI number of your handset is cross referenced with the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR), which is also known as the IMEI database. If the IMEI number of your handset is on the CEIR/IMEI blacklist then the network will either refuse to send a signal to your phone (No signal strength at all or will supply a signal but will not allow any outgoing or incoming calls.

If your IMEI number is on the CEIR your handset is blacklisted and therefore of no use to you or anyone else except for spare parts.

Despite huge efforts by service providers and international cellphone network organizations to clamp down on stolen cellphones, inevitably the system has its shortcomings and criminals can still get around the blacklist database by sending blacklisted handsets overseas, which is why cellphone theft still tops the list of stolen items. It’s a crime worth billions every year to international organized crime syndicates. The so called petty criminal who pickpockets your handset while you gaze into a shop window could be passing the phone on as his part in a global crime syndicate. Also, IMEI’s can in some circumstances be changed or rewritten. Don’t be tempted to try it, it’s against the law and will result in a jail term, but it still goes on.

Another major reason criminals want to get hold of your cellphone is not just to sell it on the international market, it’s the chilling fact that while 77% of users use their cellphones for online banking transactions, less than a quarter of these have any type of security on their phones! Accessing sensitive banking details on an unprotected cellphone is much easier than robbing a bank!

There are also several examples of incomplete data with all of the blacklist databases because the submitting of details is still voluntary. For example, a handset that is barred in the USA could still work in Mexico and vice versa, and a cellphone bought or stolen in the UK can work in a different country. A large number of UK barred handsets find their way to Italy, Spain and France.

There is an important difference between unlocking and unblocking a cell phone. Unlocking a cellphone from a service provider to be able to choose another is perfectly legal, but when a mobile phone is “unblocked” criminals can change the IMEI number and make the cellphone operational again. This practice is illegal and only the manufacturers are allowed to alter it.

Unblocking mobile phones is a criminal offence and carries custodial sentences. It is even an offence to simply offer to unblock or reprogram a phone.

If you are buying a phone online, and amazingly, 74% of consumers do, and you see one you want to buy on an auction site or a listing site, first determine whether the phone in the picture is the exact same phone you are actually being offered. No matter what site you are on you should expect to be able to glean some basic stats about the phone: the color, the correct model number, its storage capacity; all these are vital details in the device description.

The next step is to see if you can contact the seller to ask for the IMEI, if he or she refuses to give you this important piece of information, be wary and walk away. It could mean they have something to hide, and the fact is, there are so many other options you could explore rather than running the risk of a blacklisted phone. For example, Amazon and eBay have a safeguard of profiles and seller reviews that make them more trustworthy than buying from unmonitored websites. Also, Swappa and Glyde, have policies and safeguards in place for buyers. For example, Glyde holds the seller’s payment in escrow until the buyer has checked the device and confirmed that it’s clean and offers a full refund policy if not satisfied.
If you pay for your phone through PayPal or with a credit card you should be able to obtain a refund if the phone proves to be blacklisted.

If you are buying an iDevice, Apple now has a service on iCloud.com called Check Activation Lock Status. This enables you to quickly see if a device was obtained illegally. If you have managed to obtain the IMEI serial number from your seller, you can tell if someone used ‘Find My iPhone’ to switch on Activation Lock.

Activation Lock was introduced in iOS 7. It locks down the device, making it unusable until the correct Apple ID and password have been entered. So if you do purchase a bad Apple so to speak, you won’t be able to use it. You can also check how much warranty is left on the device by checking the serial number too.

Buying a cellphone online is always a case of ‘buyer beware’, which is essential for any major purchase from a complete stranger on the internet.

IMEI stands for International Mobile Station Equipment Identity. It’s the key identifier of each and every cellphone around the world. You can check your phone’s IMEI quickly and easily on a number of free sites:

For Canada you can check here: http://www.protectyourdata.ca

In USA, you can check on the T-Mobile Website as well as Verizon, Ringplus, and Ting.

In Australia you can check for free on Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association Website:
http://www.lost.amta.org.au/IMEI or http://www.amta.org.au/pages/amta/Check.the.Status.of.your.Handset.

There are also some well-known free Check Services such as: https://swappa.com/esn
(ESN Check FAQ: https://swappa.com/faq/esn)

So it really is very easy to do some basic homework before you allow yourself to become stuck with a blacklisted mobile phone. If in doubt you can also check with the service provider that is hosting the phone or even your own current provider. You can quickly look for free IMEI services in your own country by checking on the internet.

There is also a paid for service called Checkmend but beware, if you use this site and the IMEI is blacklisted, you might just be approached by your local Law Enforcement agency who have direct access to the searches made on the Checkmend website. This could result in an unwanted visit to the police station at an unsociable hour of the day.

What to do once you are certain your phone is not blacklisted

This is the easy bit. If you obtain a clean cellphone but you are not happy with the service provider that is hosting it, or you simply want an unlocked phone, UnlockBase offers the web’s largest database of service providers and cellphone models that can be safely, quickly and economically unlocked via remote unlocking, and it can all be done in a matter of minutes. Also, UnlockBase won’t be beaten on price, so if you find a genuine deal elsewhere that unlocks the same model for less, UnlockBase will match it or beat it for price, and you can’t say fairer than that!

Buying a new cellphone can be a fun and rewarding experience provided you exercise caution and know your facts prior to purchase. Study this article well, ask questions, don’t be fobbed off and walk away if you are in the least bit suspicious. Also, let your friends know about this article by sharing it.

A complete guide to Blacklisted Cell Phones – the eBook

Unlock your Cell Phone today with UnlockBase

Psychologists say it takes as little as seven repetitions of a certain activity such as smoking or imbibing alcohol on a daily basis for it to become habit forming. Now there is a new temptation which has become more potently addictive than even cigarettes or alcohol for people of all walks of life all around the world. Not only that, many of the addicts are children under the age of ten. The new addiction is the constant checking and playing with smartphone devices.

In recent research conducted by the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction, researchers found that 91% of respondents could be classified as overusing, abusing, and overly dedicating themselves to the use of their smartphones.

The first signs to determine smartphone device abuse is whether or not the respondent checks the phone right before they go to bed, if they habitually play video games on their device late into the night, and if the smartphone is the first thing they check in the morning when they open their eyes. It’s the same hard to break habit that many nicotine addicted smokers have. Research has also shown that stimulating the brain late at night when it is preparing for sleep can create restlessness and persistent insomnia.

One only has to walk the streets or wait in a subway of any city in any part of the world to witness the face down, eyes glued to the smartphone problem first hand. People now use their smartphone very much like a drug. They are bored so they play with the phone. They’re tired, so they pick up the phone. They feel anxious they haven’t heard from someone so they absent mindedly check the phone. They’re angry, so they soothe themselves with a video game on the phone.

They want to find something out, so the first resort is the phone. Apps have quickly rushed to bolster this addiction by offering easy to use solutions for every possible human need from where to eat, to fall in love, and to unlock a cellphone. (That at least, is simple, just visit UnlockBase for the web’s largest database of cellphone models and internet providers, for fast, fuss-free cellphone unlocking.)

Back to cellphone addiction, and there is no question that the smartphone has replaced the need for human social interaction in many instances. It’s easy to avoid and deflect uncomfortable social situations by pretending to be consulting your smartphone. It’s also becoming easier and less inhibiting for hundreds of thousands of people around the world to converse not via the spoken word but via Wattsapp or Viber or one of the other many instant free messaging apps that are readily available. As a direct result of the power of these apps, network providers have been forced to offer what was once one of their biggest profit earners, the text message, as a free unlimited option.

The second more serious phase of cellphone addiction is when it starts to impact on day to day life, whether it be in the car, at the office or at home. 98% of respondents to the research conducted by the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction admitted that texting while driving is dangerous, however nearly 75% admit to having done it. It’s a fineable offence in many countries, but every year several horrific accidents are caused by drivers driving and consulting their cell phone, with an inevitable lack of attention to the road.

At the office too much time on your smartphone can mean you miss deadlines or fail to pick up on instructions given to you, while at home, you know the smartphone is ruling your life when you just want to come home, flop in a chair and play a game rather than talk to your partner or your kids.

Are you addicted to your cellphone? Do you have any of these compulsive cellphone habits? The first step to a cure is admitting to them.

1. You take a photo of every meal you eat and post it on Facebook
2. You check the LED light on your mobile for messages dozens of times an hour
3.  You drop the phone on your face because you have dozed off
4.  You choose clothes based on their suitability for carrying your cellphone
5.  Your cellphone holder takes pride of place on your car windscreen

Did you know that the average person checks their phone over 150 times per day, and a smartphone often sits in the pocket of the user for up to 15 and sometimes 18 hours per day? Cell phones emit Electromagnetic Fields/Radiation (EMF/EMR) which are invisible rays being emitted through our ears every time we use the cell phone.

UnlockBase is the largest remote online cellphone site on the web, so because we are unlocking thousands of phones every year, we believe it’s important to educate our customers about using their cellphones safely.

The consequences EMFs are having or are likely to have on our health and wellbeing continue to be debated and argued between doctors and scientists. But with well over 4 billion people now using cellphones around the world and the number increasing everyday, it’s becoming increasingly vital that we understand how this form of radiation works and its potential risks. The majority of research agrees that this form of radiation contributes to human tissues, to varieties of brain cancers such as glioma and meningioma (cancers in the brain) and sleep dysfunction and forgetfulness.

Protecting yourself from these issues should therefore be of primary concern. You can do this in a number of practical and inexpensive ways.

1) Don’t carry your cellphone in your jeans pocket. Think about it, if scientists and doctors believe cellphones are messing with our brain cells, think what a switched on cellphone might be doing close to your genitals. Ideally, carry your cellphone in a bag or an outer garment such as a coat or jacket.

2) Don’t sleep with your cellphone. Many people actually sleep right next to their cellphone, while the vast majority keep the phone within at least 6 feet of themselves at night. If you sleep an average of 6-10 hours a night with your phone within a 6′ radius from your head, then you increase your exposure. Turn off your phone off, or put it on airplane mode. It’s the same for wi-fi routers, keep them out of the bedroom. In fact some sleep experts even recommend removing electronics from the bedroom altogether.

3) Invest in an EMF Proof Headset. This technology is now widely available for less than the cost of a couple of drinks in the bar. One of the market leaders in this EMF Proof head set technology is Blue Tube. Blue Tube technology works just like a stethoscope and allows the user to hear their telephone conversations without the use of wires, which conduct potentially harmful cellphone transmissions directly into the ear. Alternatively, use the speaker function on your phone and keep the phone as far away from yourself as possible.

4) Use an Anti-radiation case for your cellphone. Protect yourself further by slipping your phone into an anti-radiation case when you are carrying the phone. Making and receiving calls while the phone is in the case can reduce EMF radiation to the brain by up to 96%.

5) Turn off your cell phone when not needed. Or at least keep it a few feet away from your body.  Even when not in use, as long as your phone is turned on, it continues to emit EMR as it connects to its base station.

6) Limit cellphone use for children. Yes, this may be one of the most difficult things to do, but EMR radiation has far more impact on children than on adults due to the lack of bone density in a child’s skull. You have no doubt noticed how hot your phone feels after a long call. Imagine how much EMR radiation is being released into a child’s brain if he or she makes long calls.

7) Consider a Quantum Balance Crystal. Quantum Balance Crystals (QBCs) have hundreds of thousands of nano-scale quartz crystals that are invisible to the naked eye embedded in a high-grade natural resin. These pendants help counteract the chaotic electromagnetic spectrum that may be bombarding your body and bring your body back into color and energy balance. The dyes used are plant based and the color energy positively influences the balancing of the body’s energy centers, or chakras.

An unlocked cell phone is a cell phone that can be used with any GSM compatible carrier worldwide, as long as you are in possession of a SIM card provided by a carrier or a SIM service provider.

But right now the chances are, your cell phone is locked to one particular service provider. And when you try to leave that company, you could find that your phone won’t work, especially if you are still working your way through your 24 month contract. That’s because the carrier that you purchased the phone from does not want you to leave them and go somewhere else, possibly with better rates, so the phone is locked. If you travel to another country and try to use a different company’s cell phone service on your old phone, that won’t work either, and you will find once more that it is still locked to your original carrier.

Does it have to be this way? Well it certainly used to be, but now it is actually legal to unlock your cellphone and escape from a contract that is tying you down. While it may be legal, don’t think that the carrier is going to make it easy.

However, depending on what kind of phone you have and what carrier you acquired your cell phone from, you might be able to unlock your phone through a reliable online unlock service such as UnlockBase, which has one of the world’s largest databases of both cellphones and carriers throughout the world. You can enjoy the freedom to use the phone you love with the carrier of your choice or even switch phone numbers and service accounts.

3 ways to get hold of an unlocked cell phone:

1) The first and most obvious method is to buy one, brand new, straight out of the store or off the internet. If you find the price is too steep for the model you want there are stores that specialize in selling refurbished and unlocked pre-owned cellphones, which are significantly cheaper than the brand new models. But if you insist on the latest model, you will have to pay the necessary money upfront.

2) The second method is certainly always worth a try and should really be your first resort. This method is to try and unlock the cellphone you have been given by your carrier. This is achieved by trusted companies, such as UnlockBase, who use unlock codes which they can send to you online once they know your IMEI number. Just about all phones acquired from carriers in North American and European countries are locked to their service provider by using certain software codes or by being hard coded with specific propriety settings. It’s possible to unlock these codes, but you need to know what you are doing. If you try it by yourself with only a little knowledge, you could find your phone is not only still locked, but you have also managed to lock yourself out, and then the phone is no longer of any use to you whatsoever. Attempting to unlock a cellphone using the wrong code can permanently damage the device.

3) The third method involves a little travel, but can be a rewarding and fascinating experience. In several Far Eastern countries, the exact cellphone model you want is sitting there unlocked in a store, surrounded by several other models of which you have never even heard of. It’s no exaggeration to say that many Asian countries are completely obsessed with mobile phones, and yet not remotely interested in being tied to any particular carrier. The end result is plenty of choices of unlocked phones with some highly competitive prices for the most popular models. This is because bargaining and low pricing are all part of the South Eastern Asian shopping experience. However, one word of caution with this approach; and that is, beware of cheap Chinese imitations of some of the most popular cellphones such as Samsung, Nokia, Microsoft, Sony and especially the Apple iPhone. They may look very similar, but if the price is too low, be suspicious and walk away, these phones do not pass the exacting standards of the original manufacturers.

It really doesn’t matter which brand you are looking for, be it an unlocked Blackberry, LG, HTC, Sony Xperia or iPhone, that works under any carrier. Nowadays it’s easy and economical to find cell phones from any manufacturer to suit your needs without having to commit to a specific service provider.

Jailbreaking the Apple iOS 9 platform is deliberately not easy. In fact it’s the Twin Towers tightrope walk of jailbreaking in that you have to be either very brave or very determined to break it because it apparently runs a security system dubbed ‘rootless’ and it’s designed to seek out malware, therefore most all attempts to jailbreak it get recognized and promptly stopped.

But now a hacking team from China called Pangu have found a way to jailbreak the iOS 9 platform and prior to this platforms iOS 7.1 to 8.1. But it’s their latest coup that has created a storm of controversy amongst the jailbreaking community, not least because there may well be some industry jealousy that they got there first.

The Pangu jailbreak consists of a Windows software package that allows for what is known as an “untethered” jailbreak. This means your device does not need to be plugged into your computer to run. The jailbreak reportedly works on iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices running iOS 9 through 9.0.2.

Pangu claim they can jailbreak phones including the iPhone 4s, 5/5c/5s, 6/6 Plus, and 6s/6s Plus as well as the iPad 2, 3 and 4, iPad Air/Air 2, iPad mini, iPad mini 2/3/4, and the 5th and 6th generations of the iPod touch – a long list of both current and older devices.

Once jailbroken, users can install a framework known as Cydia that enables the user to install unofficial packages that can enable your device to run apps or make changes to the iOS operating system which it would otherwise prevent.

About Pangu

Pangu is a team of dedicated cellphone jailbreakers based in China. Working with sponsorship, their first untethered jailbreak tool was Pangu 7, introduced in June 2014. Some of their success has been achieved by Apple users passing on to the expired enterprise certificates to assist them in developing the software. Pangu 7 and 8 has been downloaded by many millions of users around the world, and they have big expectations for Pangu 9. The software developers are currently releasing the Pangu download for free and even sharing details of the tools they are using. This certainly flies in the face of the Apple philosophy to premium price everything they offer.

Should you risk jailbreaking your phone with Pangu?

Well, industry insiders have been quick to be pretty scathing of Pangu’s achievements, claiming that first of all, the jailbreak will void your End User License agreement so that you will receive no further assistance from Apple when things go wrong.

Furthermore, it is claimed that many of the apps which can be installed once your phone is jailbroken still require several tweaks and elimination of bugs before they are ready. But no doubt some brave souls will want to beta test the new jailbreak that Pangu has created.

Meanwhile Apple have been quick to point out that malware such as Keyraider, which affected some 225,000 phones, was aimed specifically at those that had jailbroken their phones. The Keyraider malware attempts to steal account names, passwords, device IDs and more.

There is also a possibility that your phone could experience what is known as the Boot Loop of Death. This is not a new phenomenon, it frequently happens to Playstations when user try to play pirated video games.

In the case of Apple iPhones, the Boot Loop of Death (BLoD) occurs when the phone repeatedly blue screens far more than the three or four times that is normal while installing the Pangu software.

That said it is fixable by restoring your iOS device and does not in any way damage your iOS device beyond a restore. Also, Pangu team does advise you to back-up your phone prior to install in case of problems, even though they state that their jailbreak software is stable, simple and fast.

Want to give it a go? Here’s the Pangu website.
Or start by taking a look at this tutorial from our friend from TheUnlockr.