The common consumer needs to be fully aware of exactly how cell phone companies try to take advantage of them and make a nice profit. The truth is every time you go and get a new phone and are given all of these terrific features on your phone, most of which you will never use, it seems harmless because they are all free, but in reality they are only free for a limited time.

Numerous times a cell phone company will offer one of their premium products for free for a limited amount of time just to try to get you hooked and then make more money off of you. The most honest cell phone companies will be open and honest about the fact that you must cancel this certain service by a specific date so that you don’t get billed, but there are also plenty of others who don’t make it clear and rather force you to read the fine print. The majority of consumers do not read the fine print and then find out that they have been billed a ridiculously high amount for this service unexpectedly, then rush to cancel the service as quickly as possible.

Next time you purchase a cell phone or renew a cell phone plan, be wary when the salesperson starts rattling off all of the free features they will enroll you in since you have paid for the phone and the plan. The services you know you won’t use at all you would be wise to just deny upfront. Services where you believe you may want to try it out for a limited amount of time you need to make sure that you are fully aware of the amount of time this offer lasts. Those decisions that seem so harmless such as allowing them to set you up for numerous free cell phone offers can be extremely expensive in the long run.

Apple stock was trading lower this morning. It started climbing back up when Apple introduced their new iPhone 3G S that is twice as fast as current iPhone.  iPhone 3G S includes the new iPhone OS 3.0, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system with over 100 new features such as Cut, Copy and Paste, MMS, Spotlight Search, landscape keyboard and more. New iPhone will cost $199, it will go on sale on June 19. Current model of iPhone’s price comes down to $99 as of today!

Apple was trading at as low as $139 today and is trading at $143.81. Steve Jobs didn’t appear in Apple developer conference, as many people speculated. Apple is doing great job introducing new products and features. I think their innovations are going to continuously benefit the stock.

Related Link: Jobs & Jobs

The latest cell phone’s from all of the major cell phone carriers have gotten more and more advanced, doing some pretty incredible things. Today’s cell phones are becoming do it all devices. The cell phones are capable of allowing you to surf the Internet, listen to music, take high quality pictures, serve as a GPS, and do endless other application that one would have never guessed would be possible as recently as a few years ago. Are all of these great new cell phone applications really cool? Absolutely, the applications have become more and more impressive by the year. The greater question that every consumer really should ask themselves though is “Do I really need all of these cell phone applications?”

Let’s face it, you are paying a pretty penny for all of those amazing cell phone applications. Saving money on your cell phone bill may be started by reducing the amount of cell phone applications you have access to. Just because your phone is capable of doing it doesn’t necessarily mean you need to pay to have access to it. Consider keeping the most essential applications on your cell phone active, but getting rid of those you don’t really need.

Consider the fact that many of those applications you can pay a higher monthly fee to obtain through your cell phone you may also have access to in other forms. For example, why pay extra for a GPS device in a phone if you already own a Garmin GPS device? Why pay for Internet connectivity on your phone if you don’t really need it and have the Internet both at work and at your home? There are lots of things in life that we would like to have that really aren’t necessary. Cell phones as a whole are great devices that save lives and make communication much easier, but do you really need all the cell phone applications that you are paying for?

I’m always amazed how many people think that the fact they are “only” spending $100 a month for cell phone service is a great deal. I’ll preface my comments by saying that if the cell phone is your home phone and/or you use your cell phone for business and emails quite often, then maybe you need a powerful do everything plan that costs something like that. On the other hand, I believe there are quite a few people who are paying far more for their cell phone service than they really would have to.

Cell phone companies are far from immune to the horrible downturn the economy has taken in the last few months, so there are clearly some special offers out there right now. Several of the major cell phone carriers are trying to offer special introductory rates to keep their subscribers on board in these tough times. Sprint is offering special plans for those who love to send text messages as well as those who typically receive incoming calls rather than calling out to others. T*Mobile is still offering the MyFaves plan that allows you to have unlimited minutes to 5 of your closest friends.

Are you paying for things that you could be getting cheaper? A prime example is text messaging services. Companies like Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, all offer plans that give you a certain amount of text messages for a reasonable amount monthly. The amazing thing to me is that there continue to be so many users who simply pay 20 or 25 cents for every text message sent and received.

I urge consumers to check their credit card bill and see if there is anything you could cut back on. Even if you are only paying $50 a month, if you could get a similar plan for $40 you could save yourself $120 in a year. Every little bit matters in today’s economy!

The most important thing to remember with a wet phone is not to turn it on. Experts recommend taking out the battery and wiping it off, shaking out any excess moisture, unfastening the screws of the phone to open up the device, and then using an electrical-contact cleaning spray or rubbing alcohol to displace the corrosive moisture. Wall Street Journal folks put up a nice video explaining the trick.

Related Link: Wall Street Journal