How to dump your cell phone contract and sell your old phone

Apple’s iPhone goes on sale next Friday (June 29) and as what is clearly the century’s most hyped new high tech gizmo, a lot of people will be drooling over it. But a lot of people won’t be able to use it as it only works with the AT&T wireless network. .. unless… they can get out of their current contract with a competing carrier.

The following are the Websites I showed on my NBC site that will help you get out of your existing contract:
Celltradeusa
CellSwapper

Here’s two sites that will help you sell your old phone:
Cell for Cash
RipMobile

And here’s a site that will you trace or do a directory check on mobile phone numbers:
Trace a Cell Number

Safari for Windows a great prelude to iPhone

My NBC-TV tech segment this week is about the new Safari for Windows Web browser that Apple just released. Besides giving PC Web users a browser faster than anything they’ve yet used, Safari is the operating system many will meet when they get an iPhone at the end of the month.

The Apple iPhone uses Safari to surf the Web. And although Apple users have had it for a couple of years now, it’s just been released for PC users and besides its clean, crisp look and feel, that speed is the big reason many may want to take the free download.

Safari is the fastest Web browser you can get - up to twice as fast as Internet Explorer and other Web browsers. Even if you don’t get the iPhone, Safari means less time loading Web pages and executing programs they access. But if you do get the iPhone, Safari will integrate and synchronize bookmarks perfectly between your PC and your iPhone.

The Apple site has a free download link for PC users that automatically installs Safari in just a couple of minutes. And getting used to Safari couldn’t be easier. The first time you open Safari, it automatically imports all your bookmarks from other browsers.

One caveat: Safari 3 for Windows is beta, or test software. There may be some minor bugs. I didn’t encounter any. In fact, I noticed an immediate Web surfing speed boost on my PCs.

Here’s my NBC vid…

My various videos

I’ve heard from several of you about where the videos I do for the Detroit Free Press can be found. besides covering tech, I’m the Video Columnist, meaning I do columns by video as well as print.

I’ve just returned (I drove some 2,500 miles) from traveling the shorelines of Michigan’s Great Lakes reporting and producing a series of special videos. Naturally, I brought along by bike and some tech gear and it was while working on that Free Press project that I shot some of my bike rides in Michigan’s “up north” country that I’ve posted on some of my other sites like the ClydesdaleFitness bike blog and my YouTube video page.

Anyway, since folks have asked when and where my videos (including tech reports) can be seen, I pass along this URLs: All my Free Press work can be found at www.freepress.com/wendlandvideo

The Great Lakes videos can be found in a special section by CLICKING HERE. In full disclosure, I should say I have an ulterior motive in passing this info along. The more clicks the Free Press site gets on my videos, the more I’ll be able to keep doing them.

Newspapers are going through a major change as they adapt and adopt to an online world. I’ve been lucky to be able to experiment and pioneer the convergence of all these media forms as a full time Video Columnist. Hope you get a chance to check it out.

My new “edge” for training - The Garmin Edge GPS unit

You know I’m a gadget nut. That’s why the Edge 205 appeals to me. It’s a GPS receiver geared towards cyclists from Garmin. It measures speed, distance, time, calories burned and altitude, and records this data for review on your PC (Yes.. it works with macs, too.)

I did my weekly NBC-TV segment on this gizmo.

It interfaces with a terrific site called MotionBased and superimposes the route you just rode on a Map. You can overlay it on satellite images, get it into Google Earth and even click a button to play the route, showing your speed peaks and valleys.

It’s available online from many shops but it varies greatly, from $150-$250. There’s a more expensive Edge 305 model available that does heart beats and cadence for really serious cyclists. Check the auction links below for the best pricing. Just keep hitting refresh and it will bring up other offerings.