With new phones coming out so often these days, many people are opting to sell their original phone so they can buy the new, greatest and latest phone model that’s out. Who can blame them? Who wouldn’t want the latest model phone with all of the latest cool features the phone offers? However, when new phones come out, they can be quite expensive. Look at the iPhones. Without contracts, these phones can run you over $500 even if you use your Discover Card for 5% off. It would be very costly to having to keep upgrading to the newest model iPhone every year at the high cost of $500. But when you sell your old phones, you can use that money to offset some of the costs for the new phone. You can sell mobile phones at ebay or craigslist, or simply even sell them to one of your friends. Just because you don’t need your old phone anymore doesn’t necessarily mean that other people can’t enjoy them either. I personally have two old phones that are not currently in use. They work completely well and I’ve kept them as a backup to my current iPhone. If I needed money quick, I could receive cash for mobile phone by selling or recycling it at a discounted price to someone who could use a new used phone. Sell cash is a great idea. There are sites that offer this service and they make it very simple to do. No need to wait for a buyer. They will do all of the work for you and send you payment as a buyer is located. Just make sure as you upgrade to a newer and better phone, consider all of best cell phone plans for your new phone, especially for smart phones these days.

Last year, I waited in line for 10 hours. It was brutal, frustrating, and such a waste of time. But when I finally got my iPhone 4 at a little past 1am, I was the happiest guy in the world. I had the latest hottest gadget in the world! But that was over a year ago. There’s a brand new latest hottest gadget in the world and people are again lining up in front of their respective Apple Stores. I refuse to wait 10 hours in line anymore. Although I didn’t qualify for the new version, I pre-ordered one for my wife and is on it’s way to my front door right now. But for those who are standing in line right now, it’s going to be a long day, unless you pay huge sum of money to cut to the front of the line. Meanwhile, I leave you with a few articles around the blogging world.

Beating The Index: Aroway Energy: A Rising Junior Oil Company in Alberta’s Hot Peace River Arch Area

Invest With Passion: Harrisburg And Bankruptcy

20′s Finance: Best Investment Advice: Avoid the Next Fad

Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance: “What Should I Invest In?”

Money Reasons: Reader Thoughts – Response to Sacrifices Made On the Road To Become A Millionaire

My Multiple Incomes: Counting on Investment Income

101 Centavos: Caffe’ Corretto: The Government Hates Guitars

60k Project: You Can Choose To Be Happy

Everything Finance: Prosper Peer to Peer Lending: A Review

Praire Eco Thrifter: Fossil Fuel Alternatives: Biofuel vs. Electric

The Debt Myth: Pay Less, Have More Money

Ultimate Smart Money: Planning For Retirement Outside Your Country

Christian PF: Should Our Giving Be Motivated by Rewards?

I woke up at 3am with my wife on the morning of October 4, 2011 to be one of the firsts to purchase the new Apple iPhone 4s. Unfortunately for us, the website was jammed as usual and they had a notice up saying that the website will be back up shortly. The next morning, we were able to make our purchase and were so relieved to have finally completed the order. Because we had an Apple gift card, we did not need to use the 5% cash back bonus through Discover Card’s shopping portal ShopDiscover.

That’s right, when you use log on to your Discover Card and shop through their online shopping portal ShopDiscover, you can receive 5% cash back bonus on almost all Apple products, including iPhones! This is a change from last year where iPhone was not eligible for the cash back bonus.

Shop the Apple Store for the iPad, iPhone, MacBook Family, iMac, iPod and Apple TV, plus the latest curated accessories for your favorite Apple device. Enjoy free shipping on every order over $50 and earn 5% Cashback Bonus from ShopDiscover when you shop at the Apple Store.

• Offer not valid on gift wrap, gift card, gift certificate, iTunes, Apple One to One Membership, shipping, or Apple in-store tutorial services
• Offer is not valid in combination with any other offers
• Must link to retailer site from the ShopDiscover Web page found at Discovercard.com and use your Discover Card
• Offer is subject to change, including termination, without notice
• Cashback Bonus will only be rewarded to a customer for up to five (5) units per eligible product, except iPhone, in which case reward will only be issued for up to two (2) units within a 30-day period.
• The promotional Cashback Bonus will be applied to your account within 8 weeks
• View complete ShopDiscover terms and disclosure

So, if you’re still in the market for a new iPhone, make sure you take advantage of Discover Card’s Cash Back bonus. Just for information, Apple reported that over 1 million iPhone 4s has been pre-ordered on the first day. Last year, they 600,000 were pre-ordered and sold a total of more than 1.5 million on launch day. So at this rate, they’re on pace to break last year’s record. Are you going to get yours?

AT&T announced that they will provide free 1000 rollover minutes to all of their existing customers, as long as you text them that you want the free minutes. This news comes one day after Verizon started selling iPhones on their network. This may be a marketing ploy for AT&T to keep their customers from switching to Verizon. There is no catch and their reasons are that they just want to thank their customers for their loyalty.

To claim your 1000 free rollover minutes, simply Text “Yes” to 11113020. It may take 4-6 weeks for the free minutes to appear in your account.

Personally, I already have over 4,000 rollover minutes accumulated in my account. I don’t think I’ll ever use it up as I only use about 100 of my 450 anytime minutes every month. But for those who have a family plan with multiple lines, this freebie might become useful.

I think Apple is the big winner in all of this. While AT&T fight over customers, Apple will retain, if not gain additional customers as more iPhones are sold to Verizon customers. Apple stock recently hit its all time high and will probably go even higher. I’m glad I bought into the rumor a few months back. You can still buy Apple stock by signing up for one of the budget online trading platforms.

I also have no plans two change my carrier to Verizon either. Although AT&T could improve their dropped call frequency, I’m OK with the service. What about you? Will you be switching anytime soon?

There was a Bloomberg article that was released yesterday indicating that Apple will launch iPhones under Verizon Wireless in January, 2011. We all anticipated this move, whether it be soon or much later in 2012 when AT&T exclusive agreement runs out. One of the most common complaints iPhone users have now are the dropped calls and weak 3G signals. I am a current iPhone user and even stood in the line for 10 hours to get my iPhone 4 and I get dropped calls at least 1 time every day. Other friends have complained that they started experiencing dropped calls as soon as they switched over to the iPhone. It’s very frustrating. It’s also very frustrating when I have zero signal on my iPhone and my friend has full signal bars on his phone. When I ask him who his carrier is, he says Verizon and then starts laughing at me for having no signal on my phone.

Well, if the Bloomberg article holds true, Verizon users don’t have to wait that much longer to be part of the iPhone bandwagon. I previously wrote about best online brokerage firms and I would recommend signing up for one and suggest in buying Apple stock now in anticipation of the Verizon iPhone launch. When it does come out, will you switch over to the Verizon iPhone? If you’re a current AT&T iPhone user, will you switch to Verizon?

It took me a while, but I finally pre-ordered my iPhone 4. I tried to do it at Apple’s website but nothing was working. Kept on getting error messages. But when I read some forums, people were having some success pre-ordering through Apple Store App on iPhone. So I quickly installed the App for free and went ahead to start the ordering process. The process couldn’t have been easier. I just picked my store location and selected the iphone and that was it!

It now appears that the website is working now as I was just able to get passed the error messages I was getting earlier. So go ahead and reserve yours! Don’t you want yours right away like all the other Apple product fanatics?

A few years ago, I had the privilege of buying Apple stock (AAPL) for a price of about $133 per share. Back then it was a real good time to buy as the price had dropped significantly due to poor iPhone sales. The stock recouped all the losses and climbed as high as $200 per share. I thought it was a brilliant move. However, I failed to capitalize on the profit and the stock began to fall again. I committed the cardinal rule of trading by buying high and selling low. A year later, the financial crisis hit and I ended up selling  at around $85 per share for almost 35% loss.

The only good thing about this is that I had only invested a mere $1600. The bad thing about this is that had I not panicked and sold my shares, I would be at 100% gain today. It so happens that AAPL is at $266 per share today.

The reason I reflect back on this is that I’m CONSIDERING buying back in to Apple stock once again. Although the cost per share is sky high, if you look at the financials, the price is considered “cheap” by some analysts. With the P/E (profit to earnings ratio) at only 22, it’s is considerable undervalued at $266. But then again, I hesitate because I don’t want to make the same mistake by buying HIGH and selling LOW again. I wrote an entry previously about investing wisely and I definitely do not want to be a hypocrite by getting into AAPL to hastily. I have to do more due diligence on this stock but it’ll definitely be on my radar for my next stock trading purchase.

The truth is we are currently living in personal hand-held gadgets era. If you own a cell phone, you own a personal hand-held gadget. If you own an ipod, you own a personal hand-held gadget. If you own a Playstation PSP or Nintendo DS, you are an owner of a personal hand-held gadget. If you own a kindle, yes you own a personal hand-held device. The truth of the matter is wherever you go, you will see dozens of people carrying their own personal hand-held device. Sometimes, people even carry their own personal laptops wherever they go. Admittedly, I am a proud owner of iPhone and I carry it around with me everywhere I go. Without it, I feel so lost and confused and empty. If you own an iPhone as well, you probably know what I am talking about. One of the worst thing that could happen to me is running out of battery on my iPhone when there is no charger nearby to be found. I’ve been in countless situations when my phone died and I couldn’t charge it back up. It’s just an awful feeling. It’s those moments when I wondered about the battery inside my phone that allows me to take advantage of its many features.

iPhones, like most of the modern hand-held gadgets are juiced by lithium ion batteries. Because of these batteries, gadgets nowadays last more than a few hours with just a single charge. Nickel Cadmium and Nickel Metal Hydride batteries have come and are now pretty much gone. The properties of lithium ion batteries are just more superior than these other counterparts and thus have dominated the rechargeable battery market. Because the average consumer have gone through so many technological generations of rechargeable batteries, we are often confused about how lithium ion batteries work.

How many times has someone told you to drain your batteries completely before recharging because it’ll last longer? Do batteries really last longer when you drain them completely? Unlike NiCd and NiMH batteries, Li-ion batteries have no memory effect where discharging completely is recommended to prolong its life.

Li-ion batteries last about 2-3 years from their birth independent of use. So make sure that when you buy these batteries from the store, the batteries are brand new and fresh and has not been sitting on the shelf too long. These batteries also can hold their charge much longer than their nickel based counterparts. Li-ion batteries will only lose about 5% of the charge in one month as opposed to 20% from nickel batteries. Moreover, the battery life can be maximized when stored in cool temperatures, such as inside a refrigerator. At higher temperatures, the batteries will tend to degrade at a faster rate.

So, now that you know how lithium ion batteries work, you can take advantage of this knowledge and make maximum use out of your batteries. However, due to the make-up of these batteries, along with every other batteries, practice of proper disposal methods are recommended to protect the environment from hazardous chemicals that may leak from the batteries. Please check with your local recycling center and inquire about their recycling programs for batteries. You may also go to your local stores to drop off you batteries there. These stores include Batteries Plus, Best Buy, Black & Decker, The Home Depot, Radio Shack, Sears, Staples, Target, and Wal-Mart. If none of these retail stores are available to you, you may visit Call2Recycle.org website for more information.

There are many way to have an impact on the environment. We all know that the world is slowly dying, with more and more trash being buried in the landfills and signs of global climate changes becoming more evident. If you’re like me, I’m always searching for way to save energy in an around my home, whether it be using compact fluorescent light bulbs, a programmable thermostat or purchasing Energy Star rated appliances. As long as it can save me energy, I’ll be interested in it. Not only do I save energy and money through these changes, I contribute to help saving the environment. Another way to have a positive impact on your environment is recycling. Although more people are recycling nowadays, people aren’t still fully aware of their local recycling programs.

If you’re an iphone user, there may be yet another solution to help you recycle more and become more energy conscious. Earth911 has released a new iphone app, iRecycle, that allows the user to easily find recycling locations anywhere in the United States. If you don’t know what to do with your old compact fluorescent light bulbs, you can easily find a recycling center closest to you using iRecycle. So when you’re on-the-go and need to find the closest recycling center, iRecycle can come to your rescue. You can access stories and events given on their website through iRecycle as well. It’s free so check it out.

http://earth911.com/iphone/