Setting a text message signature is a common practice for younger text messagers. If you have received a text message from your son, daughter, niece, nephew or anyone under a certain age, more than likely the text message is appended with a witty phrase or text icon. Setting a text message signature on an EnV2 phone is not difficult to do (yes, you can even do it on an EnV2 using prepaid cell phone service). Here’s how to create a text message signature on an EnV2 prepaid cell phone.

1. Open the EnV2 phone (flip it up) and press “OK” to get to the Media Center (you cannot access the text message signature function unless you use the QWERTY keyboard).
2. Scroll up using the up arrow to get to “Messaging” and press “OK.”
3. Select the “Settings” option by pressing the left most selection button.
4. Scroll to the last option on the “Settings” screen. You can get there quickly by pressing the up arrow key (it will bring you to the last option) and press “OK.”
5. Select the “Custom” option and press “OK.” This will bring you to the screen where you can type in your signature. You can insert a sideways rear end by depressing the less than sign “<” and the number 3 to create “<3” which (means heart/love) or you can type in a favorite phrase or inside joke. If you are lacking imagination and don’t mind using a much overused icon, you can insert the less than unique smiley face by depressing the colon “:” and closing parenthesis “)” or the equal sign”=” and closing parenthesis”)” =). Don’t get too crazy with your signature. Keep in mind that the EnV2 limits your signature to 15 characters.
6. Press “OK” to save your brand new signature.
7. Test out your new signature by sending a text to your BFF (best friend forever).

Warning

Your signature reduces the number of characters in your text. Text messages are limited to 160 characters. Therefore, a signature of 10 characters means your text messages cannot exceed 150 characters.

How many times has your cell phone rung and in your attempt to answer it you disconnected the call? C’mon admit it. You search for the “Send” button in order to answer the phone but because the buttons are so small (or your glasses were dirty), you inadvertently hit the wrong button and the call is gone.

Well, if this has happened to you (even if you don’t want to admit it), there’s a way to program your Verizon prepaid wireless cell phone to enable you press any key to answer the phone. Since this method

Here’s how to configure your Verizon prepaid cell phone to use any key for answering an incoming call.

Turn on your cell phone and access the “Menu” option and scroll over to “Settings & Tools.”

Scroll down to option # 7. “Call Settings”

Go to the first option “Answer Options” and press the “OK” button.

Once you’ve entered the “Answer Options” page, you’ll be faced with three methods to answer your phone:

• Flip Open (or Slide Open depending on your phone’s model) which means you automatically answer the phone once you flip or slide it open,

• Any Key, that means you don’t have to hit the elusive “Send” button to answer the phone, you can hit anything,

• And the third option and final option, “Auto with Hands free,” which comes in handy if you are using a hands free device.

Highlight the selection(s) you want and “Mark” them by pressing the “OK” button. You can select one, two or all three options. Once you have made your selections, select “Done” and that’s it.

Have someone call your cell phone. Prove to them that you have learned how to answer a cell phone without disconnecting the caller. Now that you know how to answer your phone, why not use a special ringtone to help your ring stand out from the crowd.

In an earlier post I got to interview a few ‘professional’ texters. They don’t get paid for texting but they should. Anything you do all day you might as well get paid for it.

Anyway, one of the complaints they had about their LG enV2 was the “OK” button is the first thing to go (pretty hard to send a text without the “OK” button). However, we also discovered that not only the “OK” button has a tendency to kick the bucket, but the front screen on the enV2 shows signs of wear by turning white.

A white screen means that the cell phone user must always open the cell phone to see who sent the latest text (what a drag).

Now that We’ve Identified the Problems with the LG enV2, What Does One Do?

Well, hopefully the problems all occur within the first year of owning the phone while its still under warranty. From the experience of my test group, that’s not a problem. As a matter of fact, it’s almost guaranteed that the problem will occur within the first year of owning the enV2 cell phone.

At first sign of a problem, call your service provider. In this case the service provider was Verizon (yes, it was a pre-paid service). We took the phone to a Verizon service center and they ordered a new one. That was it.

A day or two later a phone was delivered to the home. All we had to do was place the battery from the old phone into the new phone, use the Fed Ex shipping label and box to send the old phone back to Verizon and we were all done (there’s a 30 day window in which to send the old phone back).

One Question Remains

What happens when the warranty runs out? Does that mean its time for an upgrade (actually that was two questions)?

In order to get an honest review on a cell phone you need to talk to folks who really put the phone to the test. Who better than a few pre-teens understand how to maximize the use of a cell phone.

The three young ladies chosen in this interview are cell phone aficionados and have put the
Verizon LG enV2 phone through quite a few hoops. Barely a feature has gone untested. These quick talking, fast texting cell phone experts managed to take a few minutes out of their busy day to answer a few questions:

What features do you like the best about the enV2?

General consensus answer: Texting with the keyboard. I like the keyboard because its’ like a true keyboard. It has the Shift key and everything. The keyboard is just the right size, not too big and not too small. We especially like the camera and video camera. The pictures are very clear with great sound.

Amber: I also like the notebook feature. The other day we were on the school bus and my friend and I were working on a project. Well, we weren’t really working on the project but we were thinking about how to do it. I was able to use the notebook to write down the ideas so we wouldn’t forget them.

Sam: I like the alarm clock feature. I use it when Steph comes over. I usually set it for the time that her mom is supposed to pick her up so that way we’ll be prepared.

Sam: It’s also easy to navigate. You can change the display, themes and other stuff easily. Also, you can change the menu options. You can remove the ones that you don’t use. Like Messages. Why would they put Messages in the menu when Messages shows up as soon as you look at your phone? I don’t get it.

What don’t you like about your enV2?

Amber: It’s missing the loop thing for me to add a handle. You know how other cell phones allow you to add a handle so you can wear it around your wrist, well the enV2 doesn’t have it.

Sam: I also don’t like the front of the enV2 because the menu options are limited. You can only do quick messages, but what I do like about the quick message feature is that you can add new quick messages to the list.

Steph: I don’t like having to lock it. You ALWAYS have to unlock it.

If there were one thing you would change about the enV2 what would it be?

Amber: I would change it so that the OK button works. The OK button on the front of my phone doesn’t work. That’s really bad because you have to use the OK button to lock and unlock the phone. If I don’t lock the phone and put it In my bag or pocket, the numbers get pressed and the phone calls random people. But, now my OK button doesn’t work. The same thing happened to Darlene. Her phone’s OK button doesn’t work and she has the LG Voyager model.

Steph: I would change the ringtones that comes with the phone.

If you had to give a few tips to other kids who just got the enV2 what would you tell them?

Steph: First I would tell them to make sure that if you put your enV2 in your pocket or something, make sure noting is banging into it because it can accidentally call someone if it unlocks it.

Sam: Yeah, that actually happened to me. I had it in my boot (Ugg) and somehow it unlocked and texted two of my friends and called a number that I didn’t recognize.

Sam: Oh, yeah, and I would tell them that you can send and share ringtones, but you cannot send them unless they’re in your ‘sounds’ folder. You can put ring tones into the sound folder by sending the ringtone to yourself in a text message and then save it to both your ringtone and sound folder.

LaForey: Why save them in both?

You save it in your ringtone folder so that you can use the ringtone. Save it in your sounds folder so that you can send it to your friends.

With all of the good points and the problems with the LG enV2, would you recommend it to someone else?

A resounding yes from all three participants.

There you have it, out of the mouths of babes.

NOTE: The LG enV2 phone works with both the prepaid and contract plans.