If you think pulling off a criminal caper is as simple as a Hollywood movie, then you may want to think again.  These movies make it seem like criminals are much smarter than they are and can only be caught by the most intelligent investigators.  Real-life criminals are not the same as those we see in the movies.  They are normally ill prepared and have not thought through their act of desperation.  Detectives may not even have to rely on their cunning investigation skills as these criminals sometimes get tripped up and caught due to their own stupidity using their cell phones.  The following are some examples of these intelligent criminals.

1. Do not use a stolen cell phone to take your picture.

This case study definitely displays some great thinking by a smart criminal.  Korey Woodard, a 21 year old still cell phone from a University of Illinois student along with some of his friends.  Without thinking, Woodard snapped a picture of himself with stolen phone for his OK Cupid profile.  After he took the picture, he uploaded the picture from the stolen phone to his computer.  The only thing our smart young thief failed to remember is the fact that the victim had his cell phone set to automatically send any pictures to his Facebook page whenever it is connected to a computer.  Just a few days after his phone was stolen, the picture of Woodard showed up on the university student’s profile page.

2. It may not be a good idea to use text messaging when planning your criminal event.

Consider this scenario.  Two teenagers, Christopher Franko, a 17 year old along with his girlfriend, Dana, who is 16 years old, were arrested on May 7, 2010.  They have been arrested for making plans to go on a shooting spree at their high school.  It was uncovered through their text messaging logs.  One of the messages said, “May we kill as many as possible and teach these bastards a lesson.”  They even tried to purchase a shotgun, but failed to do so because they were both under the age of 18.  The two would be assassins even searched for information about homemade bombs.  This is not the first time Franko has been charged with this crime as he was arrested and found guilty to the same charges in 2007.

3. Try not to use the same prepaid cell phone more than once when planning your terrorist attack.

Some of the most recent terrorist attempts have probably not been the most well thought out.  A prime example of this is the recent attempt of the exploding underwear that occurred on a flight to Detroit.  This would be bomber locally was only able to blow up his own underwear.  The next intelligent “wanna be” terrorist, Faisal Shahzad, who attempted to set off a car bomb in Times Square, had made several stellar mistakes.  First, he was not able to successfully make a car bomb.  Second, the authorities were able to find him because of the prepaid cell phone he had purchased to plan his event.  We fail to realize is instead of using several different prepaid cell phones, he only used one for the entire 12 days of planning his attack.  Anyone that has watched any television knows that you are supposed to only use the prepaid cell phone once.

4. Giving your kidnapping victim your cell phone to play games while in hiding is never a good idea.

Elizabeth Shoaf, age 14, had been kidnapped in September 2006 by Vinson Filvaw.  In his carefully thought out plan, he posed as a police officer in order to abduct her.  He locked her in an underground cellar after walking in circles woods to get her disoriented.  The underground area was near the trailer, which he resided.  She was held against her will for 10 days, and was only a mere mile away from where she lived.  Filvaw raped her repeatedly during the 10 day ordeal, and in order for her to keep busy; he gave her cell phone in order to play games.  The young girl made sure that he was sleeping and immediately began to text, following her mother put some friends as well.  After contacting authorities, who were able to figure out her position based on the cell phone signal, were able to rescue her.  Her abductor, Filvaw left the scene when he found out he was being pursued from his radio, but was later found and arrested.

5. Always check to make sure your cell phone will not fall out before you rob someone.

These would-be criminals decided a late-night mugging was the way to go.  Four young guys, including 22-year-old Derek Kelly, 23 year old Craig Speakman and two other juveniles decided to hang out waiting for the perfect victims.  A young man and his girlfriend were heading home after going to the store when the well-organized robbers held them up at gunpoint.  The two victims were pushed to the ground and the man was hit with the gun until he gave them his billfold and her purse, along with the groceries they just purchased.  The group of thieves would have gotten off scott free, except one of the robbers had dropped their cell phone.  Of course, you never want to lose your cell phone, so they went back to where the crime had occurred.  Perhaps he did not think that the cops would still be there, and the suspects were arrested by the police.

These are just five prime examples of how quick the criminals and terrorists have fallen to their own cell phone use.  Anyone who thinks that they are smarter than this group will want to make sure that you remember the following things before you even attempt venturing into the criminal world.

- Text messaging should be used for personal use only, do not use is to plan your criminal event.

- Never take your own picture with stolen cell phone.

- Always make sure your cell phone is properly secured before engaging in criminal activity.

- Never lend your victims your cell phone.

-If you are smart enough to use a prepaid cell phone plan your crime, then be smart enough to switch them often.

These are just some helpful tips in order to make you a much smarter and better criminal, who may be able to evade the police.

Was this intentional or a major screw up on an employees part?  What’s coming June 8, 2010?  Does anyone else think it’s possibly the iPhone 4G that is being launched?

Up until now everything is just speculation, but we have to wonder.  We don’t know of any phone that is expected in June other then the iPhone, let alone a phone that warrants a count down.  Everyone knows the next big lunch that has everyone waiting is the iPhone and with Telus now carrying it this count down makes us think.

I guess we will just have to wait until June 8th to see what is actually coming.

If you have a cell phone you absolutely have to have a phone case, in this case the Moshi iPhone case. This case is actually pretty cool because it is specifically made for the Apple iPhone 3GS. And it is made of a really thin, but very strong and durable silicone material. I liked this because I can still put it in my pocket when it’s not being used, but it doesn’t protrude a ton. Also, since it is silicone, this almost always adds a promise of extra protection! The pros of this phone are that is covers the phone all the way, which is really important if you want to keep your phone safe from getting crushed or scratched.

Also, unlike some of the other full-covers out there, this one makes sure that you can still use all the functionalities that the phone offers such as the power and volume buttons. I have used cases and covers before that were supposedly contoured and designed to allow for the same functions as if you didn’t have the cover on, and it simply did not do what it was supposed to do. So this was a nice change. One of the things I didn’t like about this, and maybe it’s just me, but the top of the latch for the cover wouldn’t close completely.

I tried this every which way and it simply would not close. Maybe this is a user-problem (just me) or maybe it happens with everyone! However, even though this was a problem, and a little one at that the rest of the features made up for it. I especially liked the flip over option which covers my screen completely. This adds an extra layer of protection and allows your phone to work for years to come. No scratches, no smudges, no dents!

Now’s the time to get a Blackberry Pearl 8220 Flip.  PureMobile is offering the Pearl Flip 8220 for only $150 after rebate.  You can check out all the information on our promotions page.

In some potentially interesting news to Facebook’s 400 million users the social media giant announced plans to introduce a new location sharing feature that will allow people to show their current location.  Through Facebook’s news feed users will be able to share their location while also viewing the location of their friends.  Facebook also plans to make this feature available to third parties who wish to enable location features within their own Facebook apps.

While it is not exactly known how this new feature will be brought to mobile devices it is believed that Facebook will utilize the GPS functionality of phones such as Blackberry cell phones, Windows Mobile, Android and iPhone unlocked.  Using a mobile device’s current GPS technology will be an easy way for Facebook to integrate this new product for people to enjoy on their mobile devices.

Facebook has been working on a location based tool for close to a year but decided to wait until the product was completely finished and ready for use before making the announcement.  With the announcement of this new feature Facebook is once again proving it’s willingness to go head to head with global giant Google in the war for small business advertising dollars.  With the ability to sell advertising space based on current GPS location to small businesses Facebook is set to become a leader in the advertising world.  With more than 400 million users there certainly are a lot of eyeballs that advertisers would love to get their products and services in front of.

When looking to buy a new cell phone, you usually ask friends and read online reviews.  But it may be worth considering what the inventor of the modern cell phone, Marty Cooper, uses on a daily basis.  C-SPAN recently interviewed Cooper, and among other topics, he discussed the best cell phones currently on the market, in his humble opinion of course.  He did own an iPhone recently, but gave it to his grandson, purportedly because he’s heard such great things about the Android and wanted to get more experience using it on a daily basis.

Cooper also told C-SPAN that he uses a Jitterbug on a daily basis, simply for the purpose of making calls.  For those of you unfamiliar with the Jitterbug, it is actually a mobile network operator founded by Cooper, although he gives all the credit to his wife.  It was launched in 2006 and it is an extremely basic and no frills cell phone that caters to baby boomers and older Americans.  While the company received a number of industry awards during its initial years on the market, including being selected for the New York Times Top 10 Brilliant Ideas of 2006, it has recently come under criticism for its expensive prepaid plans.  The phones themselves are between $100 and $200, and there is also a $35 activation fee, which is rare for prepaid phones.

It was interesting that Cooper did not plug Jitterbug more during his interview, or even admit to the fact that he uses a Droid or iPhone, but after Jitterbug was bought up by Verizon maybe Cooper doesn’t feel the need to relentlessly market his product.  Although you would think the C-SPAN demographic would be perfect for the Jitterbug target?  Either way, if the Droid is good enough for the “Godfather of the Cell Phone” – it’s good enough for me.

Apple was apparently very serious when it filed it’s patent lawsuit against HTC back in 2009. The escalation of this lawsuit has many Android manufacturers scrambling to hire legal teams and change the way they develop their current Android technologies. While Apple remained rather passive when the lawsuit was first announced they have recently become much more aggressive with Apple COO Tim Cook announcing Apple will “use whatever weapons we have at our disposal. We will not stand of having our IP ripped off.”

It was not until the launches of the HTC Droid Eris, the Nexus One and Motorola Droid did Apple become some worried about the ever increasingly popular Android devices. Earlier models did not threaten Apple’s multi touch technology so Apple was not so worried about the Android phones. Now that the newer models have this feature Apple is aggressively going to try and stop all Android companies from infringing on their know-how.

This will be an interesting story to follow as it really sounds like Apple is serious when they say they are going to go after all of the companies that utilize the Android technology. If Apple were to win any impeding legal proceedings they could maintain a huge market share in the ever popular multi touch screen category of mobile devices. Many mobile users have grown to love this new feature of their phones and would not like to see it taken away. Imagine if everyone had to switch from their Android phone over to an iPhone.

One of the results that may come out of this recent announcement is that more companies will focus on developing mobile devices that feature Microsoft’s Windows 7 technology that is poised to be the next big thing in the mobile device world.

In short, the Motorola CLIQ XT is a Motorola CLIQ upgrade without the keyboard. The CLIQ was the first set Motorola phones to use the Google Android operating system. Many of the original features of the CLIQ can still be found on the CLIQ XT. A HVGA touch screen, touchpad, and 5 megapixel camera with and LED flash, as well as a two-way mic to help cancel out outside noise.

The CLIQ XT also utilizes Adobe Flash Lite, making it compatible with the flash content on the majority of websites, a feature that most phones don’t have yet. It also contains ‘MotoBlur’, which is Motorola’s new step to try to sync web posts, contacts and email messages by creating a type of unified mailbox for your different mail and social accounts to go to.

Like most new smart phones, it comes with 3G internet and easy search for pictures, videos and music. The camera is works surprisingly well, delivering fairly good quality photos, the phone also has a cropping and geo tagging tool for them.

The 320×480 touch screen for the phone also comes with zooming/pinching features. It is also able to support Swype technology. Swype enables you to input text by dragging your fingers across the keyboard or touch screen, instead of having to press each individual button. This may take a bit of practice if you’re not used to it, but you’ll be able to type quite fast once you have it mastered.

Like the previous CLIQ, the CLIQ XT has been well designed and is easy to use for chatting, SMS, and checking mail. A more common name for the Motorola CLIQ unlocked XT is Quench, the exact price have not yet been confirmed as the phone is not yet in production, although it is set to launch sometime in March.

For one week, February 17 to 26, PureMobile is offering free ground shipping on all orders.  There is no minimum purchase amount and no coupon code required.  Simply choose $0 shipping during checkout.

Apple finally announced the iPad.  This will be Apple’s attempt into the tablet market.  Since they announced it there has been a lot of praise about it, but there is also one major downside.  There is no flash on the Apple iPad.  This is a problem because it doesn’t allow people to check out flash websites or play flash games.

While Engadget was at the press conference they snapped a picture showing the blue missing plugin icon.

This isn’t a completely unexpected move by Apple considering the iPhone and iPod Touch don’t have flash either, but everyone really wants it.

I guess only time will tell if we will get it, but for now we want to know what our readers think

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