How to Make a Red Water Sticker to Turn White Again

So it's not uncommon to get your Android or iPhone wet these days. There are things that you can do when your iPhone gets wet, and I recommend that you get an XO Skin Aqua Dry Bag. Even if you manage to get your Android working again, that sticker in the device, usually behind the battery, is white and turns red when it gets wet. This is often the first thing that people that work at Verizon or any other phone store will look for. Usually water damage isn't covered under warranty and that red sticker can mean the difference between getting a replacement device and having to bite the bullet and buy a new device.

However, there is a way to make that red sticker turn white and buy yourself some time to get to the cellphone store and claim that your phone just quit on you.

1. Locate the sticker. Usually it is behind the door that houses the battery. On an iPhone you might want to get inside the device and get the sticker that's inside it too. 
2. Get a drop of bleach and put the bleach on the sticker. It should start to turn white almost right away. If the device has sat for some time, then it might take a couple of drops of bleach to make the red sticker turn red again.
3. Dab away the bleach and dry off anything that might have dripped around the sticker. 

At this point, you might want to run to Verizon or where-ever and tell them that the phone stopped working. I am going to leave the ethical questions up to you to decide if lying about the condition of your phone's true condition is ethical or not. Also, keep in mind that if you are caught doing this you may have to pay the full cost of the device that you were sent as a replacement. 

Good luck! 

HughesNet Sucks There Are Other Options Out There

After two years of using HughesNet, and an initial honeymoon period where I was pretty happy with the service, I have come to lathe HughesNet and with all every fiber of my being. HughesNet sucks. It just really sucks, and it only seems to be getting worse. You can barely play World of Warcraft, can't play anything on Xbox Live, and quite a few times you can barely get your Gmail to load up. 

I know that there isn't much that's objective here, so I will just go ahead and post one photo.

Top is Verizon LTE tethered from a Galaxy Nexus
Bottom is HughesNet on a typical Sunday night.

The speeds that you are seeing on HughesNet above (bottom photo) are typical when you are in an area where there are quite a few other homes with HughesNet service. It's not unusual for HughesNet to totally oversell your area and when you all try to use the service at the same time, you can't get online at all. 

I know that two years ago I didn't have any options. Verizon only had 1X (2G) service. Then Verizon had 3G, and Verizon 3G is good enough for web surfing, playing World of Warcraft, and online games. 

Verizon LTE is a whole new ballgame. Speeds from 17 MB down and 7 or 8 up are typical. I am far away from the tower, but I have a Wilson Electronics LTE booster that's boosting my LTE and 3G signal enough to make me feel like I am actually using proper broadband.  (I am in the middle of writing up a huge post on Wilson Electronics, they fricken rock.)

Before you sign anything with HughesNet, please check all your options. Check wireless carriers. Do your research on the Internet. Anything is better than HughesNet. 

Yahoo passwords hacked: is your password out there?

If you use Yahoo at all, a billion and one half million and change passwords were hacked and posted in plain text on the internet. Here's a little tool to check to see if you got hacked:

How to Stop Notifications from Annoying Games in Facebook

There's nothing worse than getting opening Facebook and seeing 24 notifications and 22 of them are requests from a stupid game that your friends are playing on Facebook. There's a simple way to turn off notifications from games in Facebook, but Facebook doesn't make it so you can turn off all notifications for games; you have to do them on a game-by-game basis.

So here is the method that you need use:

1. On a computer, click on the notification and hover over the offending notification.
2. An 'X" will appear to the right of the box. 
3. Click the box.
4. A dialog box will pop up asking you if you want to block all requests from that game.
5. An option will pop up asking if you want to report for spam. I always click that but I am sure that clicking that doesn't actually help anything.
6. Do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight. *clap *clap

So that's the gist of it. You have to go through and do this for each game, and there will be a point in the future where Facebook decides to reset all your privacy settings again, and you might have to do this all over again. 

Giving Away an Otterbox!

Hey guys, I am giving away an Otterbox on my other site. It's going to be really easy to enter and there's a way to enter everyday if you have a twitter account. This is perfect time to enter and win an Otterbox! It would be perfect for your new Samsung Galaxy S III phone!

OtterboxOtterBox Defender Series f/Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket - Grey/Black has saved my ass quite a few times, and they are always worth the money that you spend on them upfront. A case isn't something that you want to skimp on. Buy an Otterbox, spend a little extra and keep your device working.

THE CONTEST IS NOW LIVE!
:D:D:D:D
Enter the contest and read my review here!