6 great smartphones that won’t cost you a unitary penny

6 great smartphones that won’t cost you a unitary penny

News Tech Topnews

6 great smartphones that won’t cost you one single penny

Smartphones are here to stay, and it's no real surprise why. They connect us to Facebook, help us find guidelines to the office, take pictures, and may even why don't we connect our laptops to the internet from the side of the road. But they are just so darned expensive... roughly you think.

You don't need to spend $300 or even more just to get a great phone. We've come up with a summary of six great free smartphone options — they don't cost you not your signature (and, needless to say, a fresh contract). These to aren't one-day-only deals, plus they aren't refurbished models that someone's already had their fingerprints around. They are absolutely free, absolutely new phones.

You don't need to know somebody who knows somebody to obtain these to for free, nevertheless, you do have to buy these online. Most carriers have special, online-only pricing. And if you're upgrading a vintage phone, be cautious. Some carriers will ask you for an upgrade fee if you're still under a vintage contract. What fun is a free phone if you have to pay a fee to obtain it?

1 . AT&T: iphone 3gs

iPhone 3GS

Think an Apple iphone costs big money? Wrong — the iphone 3gs could be yours from AT&T, absolutely free. Sure, you don't get all the top features of the brand new $199 iPhone 4S as well as the $99 apple iphone 4, nevertheless, you still obtain the iPhone essentials: access to the app store, wifi, a good 3-megapixel camera that may record video, GPS, and 8GB worth of storage. You can even upgrade the telephone to iOS 5, Apple's latest operating-system.

The iphone 3gs isn't the brand new kid on the Apple block anymore. Nevertheless, you still get a great phone for your money — which, in this case, is zero dollars and zero cents.

2 . AT&T: LG Phoenix

LG Phoenix

At times, it looks like you can find two different kinds of people on the planet: those that love Apple products, and those who revile them. If you're in the latter category, then you're absolutely going to be in the marketplace for an Android-powered smartphone. And while we're not sure why you had need to get an Android phone on the restrictive AT&T network (you may be trapped by your contract, or possibly your dad is president of the company), if you're dead set on it, browse the LG Phoenix.

This smartphone isn't perfect — it does lack the ability to access the high-speed 4G LTE network. Nevertheless, you get plenty of phone otherwise. Its OS is upgradable to Android 2 . 3 (Gingerbread), you obtain access to the ever-growing Android market, the phone's 3. 2-megapixel camera shoots video, it's wifi-capable, and it's bluetooth-ready. You can even increase the option to tether the telephone to your laptop or other devices for anywhere access to the internet. Not bad.

3. Verizon: Droid Pro

Droid Pro

Most keyboards are virtual nowadays, and that's a shame, because there's something very satisfying about having to press real buttons. Verizon's Droid Pro includes a prominent keypad on the front — a throwback to the era of phones when BlackBerry was king.

However the keyboard isn't all you get. Behind it hides a powerful — dated, but powerful — Android device that may be updated to perform the Gingerbread OS. You obtain 3G mobile hotspot support, wifi, 2GB of internal memory plus 2GB of (expandable) preinstalled microSD memory, and all those great games and utilities in the Android Market. You even get a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, which is better hardware than you obtain with most free phones nowadays.

4. Verizon: LG Enlighten

LG Enlighten

So you've sold yourself on the idea of a phone with a physical keyboard. But what if you don't want those bulky keys getting in just how, getting mashed in your purse and taking on valuable phone real estate? Split up the difference with the LG Enlighten, a sexy smartphone with a hidden, slide-out keyboard.

The LG Enlighten offers you most of everything you get with the Droid Pro: a 3G mobile hotspot, spoken turn-by-turn Navigation from Google, and Android Gingerbread OS right from the box. Plus, you obtain a full 3. 2" capacitive touchscreen — one area where bigger most certainly is better.

The primary downside to the phone may be the insufficient internal memory. The Enlighten doesn't offer a large amount of built-in storage (only 150MB), and that may be considered a deal breaker. Nevertheless, you can simply expand the storage with the addition of your own microSD card.

5. Sprint: LG Rumor Touch

LG Rumor Touch

Are you or somebody you love a text-aholic? If so, you're the precise sort of customer LG had in mind when it created the Rumor Touch, a 3" touchscreen smartphone.

Like the Enlighten, the LG Rumor Touch includes a slide-out QWERTY keyboard with big enough buttons to type with quick precision. The Rumor Touch even runs its messaging-friendly operating-system. And, needless to say, any phone built around messaging has to have Facebook and Twitter built in. The camera is weak at only 2 megapixels, however the Rumor assumes you will most probably be too busy texting to take any pictures.

Oh, and on top of that? The Rumor Touch also doubles as a phone. Can you believe any such thing?

6. T-Mobile: Nokia Lumia 710

Nokia Lumia 710

If there's one thing that the previously mentioned phones have in common, it's that they are all good, solid 3G phones. But let's be honest — 3G is yesterday's technology. Blazing-fast 4G wireless is where it's at. And T-Mobile's Nokia Lumia 710 offers you access to luscious 4G speed without having to pay a single penny in advance.

The Lumia uses the less popular Windows Phone 7 operating-system, but don't let the numbers fool you. Windows Phone 7 is a solid, seamless OS, especially for novices to the smartphone game.

The phone's hardware is great. You obtain a sharp, 3. 7", 800 x 480 LCD screen, a 5-megapixel camera, a powerful 1 . 4GHz processor, and all that wifi and GPS goodness you'd are expecting. And you also probably tuned all that out because you were too busy thinking about how cool it really is that free phone has 4G. Completely understandable.

Note: Before you order one of these brilliant free phones, be sure to check the pricing and make certain it's free. Carrier pricing can transform with the wind, and for no good reason.

Five of the Worst Celebrity Beauty Blunders of all time

Five of the Worst Celebrity Beauty Blunders of all time

Entertainment News Topnews

christina aguilera

Ever gone all morning with lipstick on your teeth, or attended a wedding with orange, self-tanned palms? Or possibly you've accidentally dyed your hair a shade of garbage, or used Nair where you mustn't have and were left with two giant blisters on the sides of one's upper lip. At one point or another, just about everyone has experienced an uncomfortable beauty blunder. But! We're not alone. Celebrities have problems with exactly the same affliction -- it's that if they create a mistake, it's immortalized on the net forever. After all, the worst consequence we face after a makeup disaster is a morning spent untagging a million Facebook photos.

I understand these stars are most likely mortified by their beauty bloopers, but they make us regular old Josephinas feel better about ourselves because, somewhere along the way, we, too, have been there, done that. So these 5 stars should take delight in the fact that women everywhere tooootally understand how they feel.

Take Christina Aguilera, above. She sang "At Last" at Etta James' funeral back in late January also it may have been the first time in history when individuals were more blown away by her legs than her voice. Streaking down the inside of her stems was some dark orange self-tanner, and boy, was it distracting.


Nicole Kidman

Then there's Nicole Kidman. She apparently experienced a fight with a powder puff before her Nine premiere, and the powder puff won. After all, it will need to have really beaten the crap out of her -- it's in her hair and everything.








Kelly Osborne

And may somebody please fill me in on what's happening with Kelly Osborne's hair? It's not grayish purplish deliberately, is it?

Lindsay Lohan
Naturally, or rather completely unnaturally, Lindsay Lohan takes beauty blunders to another level with this terrible synthetic wig, yellowish foundation, bronze eyeshadow, and a pale, overstuffed lip.







Britney Spears

Here, Britney Spears shows us the dangers of hair extensions. Most of us have tried extensions a few times and know that if they are not correctly maintained or styled, things can get ugly. And bumpy. And oddly spaced. And... just... no .

Eva Longoria's Sexy Revealing Dress

Eva Longoria's Sexy Revealing Dress

Entertainment News Topnews

Eva Longoria's Revealing Dress

Eva Longoria's Sexy Revealing Dress

Eva Longoria stepped out Thursday night rocking a super-sexy dress with a plunging neckline that showed off some serious skin! The night before, she donned a sultry pantsuit and boy, did she look hot. Which look do you like most readily useful? Plus, Tyra Banks graduates from Harvard Business School, and we're sharing our favorite celeb TwitPics of the week. Tell us on Facebook that you like most readily useful -- and why!

Eva Longoria's Photo

Eva Longoria's Sexy Revealing Dress

Eva Longoria's Sexy

Eva Longoria's Boobs

FDA Panel Recommends Approval of Diet Drug Qnexa

FDA Panel Recommends Approval of Diet Drug Qnexa

Health Topnews

FDA Panel Recommends Approval of Diet Drug Qnexa

A U. S. Food and Drug Administration Advisory Committee today recommended approval of the weight reduction drug Qnexa, cure many hope can help millions of Americans who have a problem with obesity.

In voting 20 to 2 for approval, the committee said today that Qnexa's weight reduction benefits for the chronically obese outweighed the risks of birth defects and cardiovascular problems which have been from the drug. An FDA advisory panel recommended against approval this year over concerns concerning the drug's unwanted effects, and the FDA rejected it briefly after that. Vivus, the drug's manufacturer, recently submitted additional research.

The committee today recommended that the manufacturer take an amount of steps to avoid the drug from causing birth defects like cleft palate, including a possible warning label targeted toward women of childbearing years.

The FDA has considered numerous anti-obesity drugs in the past twenty years, but most have didn't meet the agency's standards for safety and effectiveness. But up to now, data on Qnexa suggests that the drug may be the most effective in helping patients shed around 10 percent of their bodyweight. Those changes, along with diet and exercise modifications, could go quite a distance toward alleviating some of the health problems connected with obesity, such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

Critics say the chance of potentially dangerous unwanted effects of Qnexa, such as increased heartrate, heart attacks and arrhythmias, are too great to make the drug available to millions of people, especially because long-term effects of the drug remain largely unknown.

"Public health can't tolerate another diet drug approved which has not been accepted for cardiovascular risk especially in light of the suggested findings of Qnexa, " said Dr . Sidney Wolfe, director of the health research group at Public Citizen, an advocacy group.

Obesity currently plagues one-third of Americans and contains been associated with high blood pressure, diabetes and a selection of other chronic, expensive health problems. Doctors and dietitians routinely recommend changes in diet and exercise because the safest and most effective way to shed pounds. But some acknowledge that these strategies just don't work with a large number of obese patients. Bariatric surgery, though largely successful in producing weight reduction, is not a viable option for many individuals.

Dr . Melina Jampolis, an obesity specialist in San francisco bay area, said the existing options for treating obesity are "frustratingly limited, " and said it might be helpful if patients had additional tools to aid their weight reduction.

"I believe that combination therapy is vital as you'll find so many individual and overlapping mechanisms that make weight reduction difficult, " she said. "So the more of these you could address with medication therapy when necessary, the more effective a regimen will be. "

Kansas Teen Shot Hoops in Meningitis-Induced Coma

Kansas Teen Shot Hoops in Meningitis-Induced Coma

Health News Topnews

Teen basketball star Maggie Meier had perfect free-throw form, even though she was in a coma.

In the fall of her freshman year of senior high school, Meier got meningitis, a bacterial disease that spurred swelling in her brain and sparked terrifying seizures in the healthy student athlete.

"I'll remember it, " said Meier's mom, Margaret, a pediatric intensive care unit nurse. "Her eyes rolled right back, and I knew that which was happening. It had been terrifying. "

That seizure, the initial of 20 that night, marked the beginning of a 100-day hospital stay for then-14-year-old Meier of Overland Park, Kan., most of which she spent in a coma.

"Seeing her each day, not getting much better, it had been horrible, " Margaret said, detailing the tubes that delivered nourishment and life-saving medications to her unresponsive daughter. "But she'd do things that would make us know she was still there. "

Although Meier couldn't talk or walk in her trancelike state, she could still shoot hoops.

"She would wake up for just two to five minutes and shoot the ball, then be completely from it again, " said Margaret, describing an ideal swish of a beach ball through the makeshift net of Meier's sister's arms. "That's whenever we knew we were going to get her right back, and obtain her right back completely. "

Meier's neurologist, Dr . William Graf, said he'd never seen any such thing enjoy it.

"It was just incredible, " said Graf, now a professor of pediatrics and neurology at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. "She couldn't walk or eat, had no basic functions, but still had this perfect shooting motion. It had been engrained. "

The severe swelling in Meier's brain had disrupted the connections between nerve cells, and there was no guarantee those connections would ever be restored.

When Meier's immune system cleared the disease and she finally woke up, she had to relearn everything -- how to walk, talk, read and behave -- from scratch.

"She was very childlike, " said Margaret Meier, describing the tendency of children to "just say whatever they want" without inhibition. "All those social things you learn over a long time, she had to relearn. And she had some aggressive behaviors, especially towards me. "

Over 8 weeks of intensive rehab, and with the unwavering support of her parents and five siblings, Meier slowly returned.

"It wasn't easy, " her mom said, recalling the violent outbursts and the have to install special locks on all the doors. "It was months and months of intense work. "

Five months after she was hospitalized, Meier returned to Blue Valley Northwest Senior high school, where she got one-on-one instruction from the special education teacher in addition to physical and occupational therapy. Her spot on the basketball team bench was lovingly marked with a sign and her teammates wore beads on the shoes with her initials.

"Basketball was hugely essential in her recovery, " said Margaret. "It's been such a major section of her life since third grade, and she always wanted to make contact with it. "

And in her sophomore year, she did, earning an area on the Huskies' junior varsity team. Another season, Meier joined the varsity squad. And on Monday, her high school's Senior Night, the 17-year-old was area of the starting lineup.

"To see where she is now, after what she's been through, " said Margaret, voice shaking, "she's just such a great kid. "

In the fall, Meier will start college at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., where she plans to major in nursing or special education. Her mom can't imagine an improved fit. "She can really relate, " she said.

Whether Meier will play college ball is still up in the air, given her certainly hectic class schedule and busy social life. But her mom is confident she can do any such thing she puts her mind to.

"If she really wants to play ball, we'll be behind her 100 percent, " she said. "We're so pleased with her. "

First set photos from the ‘Star Trek’ sequel

First set photos from the ‘Star Trek’ sequel

Entertainment Topnews

"Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Spock"?

First set photos from the ‘Star Trek’ sequel

The initial photos from the group of the sequel to 2009's "Star Trek" have leaked, and from what we can see it appears like it'll be in the same way action-packed as its predecessor. Also, the shots give us the initial go through the villain from the film currently in production.

The photos show Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana time for the roles of Spock and Uhura, along with new cast member Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays their still-unnamed adversary. The actors were photographed while they rehearsed and shot a fight scene on a large exterior set in front of a green screen (the background will be added in later digitally).

Benedict Cumberbatch is a British actor who broke out playing the lead role in "Sherlock, " the BBC's modern-day Sherlock Holmes series. In 2011, he appeared in two critically acclaimed films: "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" opposite Gary Oldman, and Steven Spielberg's Oscar-nominated "War Horse. " It had originally been announced that Benicio del Toro will be the theif in the new "Star Trek, " but after he dropped from the project Cumberbatch was cast in his place.

Little is well known concerning the character Cumberbatch will play, but we can gather some clues from the photos. He appears to be wearing a black Starfleet shirt like Kirk wore in the first movie before he was made an officer. He's apparently strong enough to tussle with Spock, but his rounded ears would indicate he's not a Vulcan. Also it appears like he made Uhura mad enough to blast him with her phaser (presumably set to stun, not to kill).

Director J. J. Abrams and the cast from the last movie are returning for the next installment, nonetheless it will not beam into theaters until May of 2013.

Thierry Henry is getting a 40-foot aquarium

Thierry Henry is getting a 40-foot aquarium

Sports Topnews

Thierry Henry is getting a 40-foot fish tank

Thierry Henry

Despite living and working an Atlantic Ocean from England's capital, Thierry Henry is likely to demolish his $9. 5M London mansion in order to build... a slightly different mansion. A significant difference is a 40-foot aquarium, which is visible on every floor of the property. The Daily Mail reports:

Stretching 40ft from the bottom of his house to the top, it will require 5, 500 gallons of water to fill, house 300 fish and cost a staggering £250, 000 [$400, 000] to create. His proposals detail the extravagant four-storey aquarium.

Along with the vast cost of construction, the 15ft long by 3ft wide tank will set Henry right back £12, 000 [$19, 000] a year to perform, including weekly inspections at about £50 [$80] one hour. The annual bill for fish food alone would be £2, 500 [$4, 000].

That appears like an awful lot of money for fancy fish. If Henry wanted to see something witlessly float around without achieving any such thing, he should just watch a few of Andrei Arshavin's recent highlights.

Unnecessarily large aquariums are the rage among footballers: David Beckham, Joe Hart and Micah Richards all keep these things, and based on the Daily Mail, Stephen Ireland is planning "a shark tank under his kitchen floor. " Presumably, the program is to install a trap door and invite Steve Staunton over for drinks.