Being prepared for emergency is no joke

Being prepared for emergency is no joke because today is the day before

By Dr. Kate Scannell  

Contra Costa Times/Oakland Tribune contributing columnistmercurynews.com

Posted 9/29/2012

I have a friend who is always preparing for "the worst." He owns every imaginable kind of insurance policy for himself and his beloved cat. I could live several years off the disaster provisions he has stored in his Chevy's trunk ... or his garden shed ... or his hallway closet ...

September is his favorite month because he gets to celebrate two favored occasions: "National Preparedness Month" and "International Talk Like a Pirate Day." He recently asked me (again) whether I had gotten my act together (finally) and prepared a "landlubber's survival kit for the next merciless squall." Yarrgh.

I acknowledged that his advice was both rational and practical. I'd had personal encounters with floods, fires and earthquakes. I had known patients who suffered through mudslides and pandemics, friends who lived through Katrina. And still, somehow, I remained unprepared for the next Big One.

My friend was partly to blame -- or so I told myself. But his über-preparedness overwhelmed me, and I could not fathom how to duplicate even a fraction of his complex planning. Despairingly, I resigned myself to fate and to the sustenance potential of two calcified energy bars in my car's glove compartment. I also made sure that I possessed all of my friend's contact numbers.

Today, however, I am newly optimistic about disaster-readiness after stumbling across a "National Preparedness Month" community fair on my way to lunch. Display tables neatly contained manageable information and realistic advice that emboldened me to begin my personal planning. I collected a few safety checklists and survival tipsheets, along with an order form for emergency supply kits.

Still, it was a casual conversation about my friend with a young woman named Angela Nak who stood behind the FEMA tables -- and, well, turned the tables for me.

"A lot of people get overwhelmed when they think about disaster preparedness," she knowingly offered. "But I tell them that it doesn't have to be too complicated, and that it doesn't have to be accomplished all at once." An "overwhelmed" person like me could work toward preparedness through gradual but consistent planning over time. And no matter how far one got by the time a disaster struck, still, they were one roll of toilet paper or a bar of soap luckier than the day before.

This down-to-earth advice about conceptualizing preparedness as a stable mind-set throughout the year -- rather than a "things-to-do list" tackled within a day -- helped to shift me into action mode.

Nak subsequently introduced me to her supervisor, Randy Brawley, who is a Preparedness Analyst and Planning Officer with FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management System). He reinforced her message that, "For folks who feel intimidated by the cost and amount of preparations required for a major catastrophe: Start small and keep it simple."

From time to time throughout the year, common household items or "dollar store" purchases -- first aid supplies, a flashlight, personal hygiene items, canned goods -- could be put aside in constructing an emergency supply kit.

Still, Brawley emphasized that "being prepared" entailed more than compiling a "kit." It also meant that people knew how to access critical information during an emergency, and how to follow an actionable plan that upheld personal and public safety. He offered these three additional steps:

1) Be informed -- Stay up to date about emergencies that can happen in your community and learn how to protect, prepare and respond to those emergencies. For example, FEMA Region 9 in Oakland maintains an active discussion board at www.ready.gov/pledge. Once registered, any Bay Area resident may join the forum and stay current on the latest from FEMA.

2) Make a plan -- Talk with the members of your household and establish meeting places, and discuss each member's workplace and school emergency plans. Even people living alone should identify an out-of-area contact who will serve as the reporter for those concerned about them.

3) Be involved -- Participate in preparedness organizations such as the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT.) or a Citizen Corps Council. Residents may locate a nearby program by visiting www.citizencorps.gov

Brawley underscored the sizable benefits that could be generated by taking such simple steps toward preparedness. And, as a practical matter, he encouraged people to focus on accomplishing one of them just to get started. An excellent source for further information could be accessed at: www.ready.gov

Fittingly, FEMA's slogan for this year's preparedness campaign is: "Today is the day before -- Are you ready for tomorrow?" And today (or, maybe, the day before?) I can legitimately answer: Aye, matey -- I am on me way! I am one tube of toothpaste and two cans of tuna closer to my goal.

Kate Scannell is a Bay Area physician and syndicated columnist. She is the author of "Death of the Good Doctor" and "Flood Stage."

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California's community colleges staggering during hard times

California's community colleges staggering during hard times

Demand is up but funding is down for California's community colleges. Many students are shut out of needed classes, making it harder to get their degrees or transfer.

By Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times

Marianet Tirado returned to Los Angeles Trade Tech community college this fall, optimistic that she would get into the classes she needs to transfer to a four-year university.

Of the courses she wanted, only two had space left when she registered in May. She enrolled in those and "crashed" others. In one of those cases, she lucked out when the professor teaching a political science class admitted additional students. But she couldn't get into a biology class because she was too far down on the waiting list.

If the math and English courses she needs aren't offered next spring, she may have to push back her plans to apply to San Francisco State, UCLA or USC.

Her mother is puzzled that Tirado may spend three or four years at what is supposed to be a two-year college.

"Because that's what we think community college is," said Tirado, 24, a journalism major who lives in Watts. "It's hard to explain to my mom that I'm trying to go to school but the courses are not there."

This is the new reality for Tirado and about 2.4 million other students in the nation's largest community college system. The system is the workhorse of California's 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education, which promised affordability, quality and access to all.

In reality, the state's two-year colleges are buckling under the stress of funding cuts, increased demand and a weak record of student success.

The situation can be seen on all 112 campuses — students on long waiting lists, those who take years to graduate or transfer and others so frustrated that they drop out. Most of them enter ill-prepared for college-level work. Eighty-five percent need remedial English, 73% remedial math. Only about a third of remedial students transfer to a four-year school or graduate with a community college associate's degree.

"We're at the breaking point," said Jack Scott, who served as chancellor of the California Community College system for three years until retiring this month.

"It's like a nice-looking car you've been driving for several years: It looks shiny, but the engine is falling apart," said Eloy Ortiz Oakley, president of Long Beach City College. "The wheels fell off the Master Plan 20 or 30 years ago. We're finally feeling the results because we have enormous needs for our educational system to produce qualified workers, and we're playing catch-up now."

The consequences of not meeting those demands are huge: About 80% of firefighters and law enforcement officers and 70% of nurses embarked on their careers in community college. By some estimates, California will need 2.3 million more community college degree and certificate holders by 2025 to meet the demands of employers.

President Obama has described community colleges as a major engine of job growth and set a goal of graduating an additional 5 million students by 2020. But in California, home to a quarter of the nation's community college students, those efforts are hampered by the state's budget crisis.

The colleges also play a vital role in the state's higher education system, preparing students to transfer to University of California and California State University campuses. About half of all Cal State graduates began at community colleges.

California's community colleges started early in the 20th century as offshoots of high schools. Gradually they became separate junior colleges with a state-appointed Board of Governors.

The idea was to offer free classes to high school graduates, people looking for job training and those who just wanted to take a music, art or language class on a neighborhood campus.

Classes were free until 1984. At $46 per unit today, they remain among the least expensive in the nation. About 44% of all current community college students qualify for fee waivers based on income.

The system has experienced explosive growth, peaking at about 2.9 million students in 2008-09, while funding grew to about $5.8 billion last year from $200 million in 1965.

Community colleges have three main sources of revenue: state funds, property taxes and student fees. State aid accounts for 61% of the system's budget.

State funding has not kept pace with enrollment growth. Funding per full-time student has declined from a peak of $6,400 in 2000 to about $5,000 today. Course offerings have been slashed by almost a quarter since 2008, and enrollment has dropped by 485,000 students since then.

The community college system is divided among 72 districts run by locally elected boards of trustees, which control their own budgets and the hiring and firing of staff.

Four affluent districts — Marin, Mira Costa, South Orange County and San Mateo County — collect so much revenue from local property taxes and student fees that they don't qualify for most state aid. Still, with declining property taxes in recent years, they're not immune to cutbacks.

Many other college districts that depend on state aid are in more serious financial trouble. They have been forced to dig deeper into their reserves or borrow money. The 90,000-student City College of San Francisco appears to be in the worst situation and faces potential insolvency.

Campuses are cutting counseling and tutoring and dropping winter and summer sessions, trends that officials say could accelerate if voters reject a November ballot measure that would temporarily raise the state sales tax and the state income tax for high earners.

With a 3.6 GPA out of high school, Eduardo Vargas could have gone to a four-year university but chose East Los Angeles College because it was more affordable. During his first year, he was unable to register for any of the high-demand classes he needed for his business administration major.

This fall, he enrolled in honors classes — political science and statistics — because fewer students meet the requirements, so they're easier to get into. Even with an added speech class, he doesn't have the required 12 units to be considered full time.

"I look at the time frame it's going to take me to transfer to San Jose State and it's probably two more years," said Vargas, 19, of Monterey Park. "It's not that important anymore if I get a high-paying job. I just want to get my master's and be stable. Society needs an educated workforce, but it's going to have to invest more in education."

A study by the U.S. Census Bureau showed that, over the course of their careers, high school graduates earned an average of $25,900 per year compared with $33,000 for those with a community college degree and $45,400 for those with a bachelor's degree. (The figures are expressed in 1999 dollars.)

College leaders have begun to narrow the mission of two-year schools, focusing more on job training and preparing students to transfer.

To help move students more quickly through the system, the Legislature and Board of Governors recently approved measures that would set systemwide registration priorities, including preventing students from repeating courses to improve their grades and giving first choice to students who bolster their chances for success by participating in orientation and academic assessment programs. For the first time, students would have to maintain satisfactory grades to continue to qualify for fee waivers.

Keith Richardson, a 47-year-old former security guard, is trying to complete a degree in electrical construction and maintenance at L.A. Trade Tech. He hopes to graduate next spring so he can become a union electrician, but he's not sure he can get the classes he needs.

"I've got it all laid out and I just need a big break and the classes — and that's the hard part," Richardson said.

The vocational classes, taken by Richardson and more than 800,000 others statewide, are funded at the same level as other academic courses — even though they can cost twice as much to provide. Scott, the former chancellor, said these costlier classes should be funded at higher levels. Some campuses, he said, have even been reluctant to add technical or vocational classes because of the cost.

Last spring, Santa Monica College proposed a controversial two-tier tuition plan to allow students with means to pay higher fees for sought-after classes. Officials said those students would be able to move through the system more quickly, and the added revenue would help fund additional classes for everyone else. But the college abandoned the idea after Scott warned it could violate state education laws.

Ultimately, community colleges must consider bold steps, such as shifting resources from less populated regions of the state to areas with larger numbers of young people and combining some smaller districts, said Scott Lay, president of the Community College League of California, a nonprofit association of the state's community college districts.

"I think we're finally at the point where the majority of districts … have to realize that the landscape has changed," Lay said.

Tirado, meanwhile, took classes at both Trade Tech and East Los Angeles College last spring to fill out her schedule. This time around, she may need to find a biology class at another community college during the winter session — if she can find a campus still offering winter classes.

"Sometimes it's very discouraging to have to go through all of these obstacles to get an education," Tirado said. "But if we see it that way, we're not going to succeed."

carla.rivera@latimes.com

This is the first in a series of occasional articles about the challenges facing California's community colleges.

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Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times

iPhone 5 orders topped 2M in 24 hours

 iPhone 5 orders topped 2M in 24 hours

The Associated Press

Orders for the new iPhone 5 topped 2 million in 24 hours, more than double the amount of its predecessor over the same period.

Since Apple started taking iPhone 5 orders on its website at 3 a.m. EDT on Friday, buyers who have a two-year service agreement with AT&T, Sprint or Verizon Wireless have been able to order the phone for $199 (16 gigabyte model), $299 (32 GB) or $399 (64 GB model).

Apple said Monday that while most orders will be delivered on Friday, demand for the iPhone 5 exceeds the initial supply. As a result, some of the devices are scheduled for delivery in October.

The Cupertino, Calif. company's stock added 1.2 percent, or $8.50, to close at $699.78 on Monday.

The iPhone 5 represents the first major revision of the iPhone's screen size since the first model was introduced in 2007. The new iPhone has an elongated screen _4 inches (10.16 centimeters) measured diagonally_ that allows room for another row of icons and lets widescreen movies fit better. The calendar will now show five days at a time instead of just three. Previous iPhone models had 3.5-inch (8.89-centimeter) screens. The new phone is also thinner and weighs less than previous models. It can operate on LTE cellular networks and sports a new processor and updated software.

T. Michael Walkley, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity, said he believes the iPhone 5's "differentiated form factor versus the iPhone 4S" and other improvements should drive strong iPhone 5 sales. The record advanced orders on Friday and through the weekend caused Walkley to revise his previous prediction that Apple would sell 6 million of the new iPhones by September 29. He now believes "Apple could ship 9 million to 10 million" in that time, he told investors in a note on Monday.

Janney Capital Markets analyst Bill Choi said Apple's announcement Monday "suggests iPhone 5 is running well ahead of iPhone 4S." In a note to investors, Choi reaffirmed his earlier expectation that Apple will sell 7 million to 10 million iPhone 5s by the end of September.

It won't be easy for Apple to top the breakneck sales pace set by previous iPhones. Apple said last year that it sold over 4 million iPhone 4Ss just three days after its launch on October 14. That launch occurred less than two weeks after the death of Apple's iconic founder Steve Jobs and as the iPhone 4S went on sale, scores of Apple devotees were still mourning him with candlelight vigils and impromptu memorial ceremonies outside of Apple stores across the globe.

The iPhone 5 will be available at Apple's 356 U.S. stores starting Friday. Each customer who makes a purchase at an Apple store will be offered free personal setup service, which will help them customize their device.

The phone will be available in more than 22 countries on Sept. 28.

Aside from Apple stores, the iPhone 5 will be available at Apple's website as well as through AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, some Best Buy, RadioShack, Target and Walmart stores and certain Apple authorized resellers.

Earlier Monday AT&T Inc. said it set a sales record for the iPhone 5, with customers ordering more of them than any previous iPhone model on the first day of orders and over the weekend.

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Community colleges no longer a place to find yourself

Community colleges no longer a place to find yourself

By Tammerlin Drummond, Oakland Tribune Columnist

Ever since 1960, California's community colleges have been required to admit any state resident 18 years or older who has a high school diploma or the equivalent.

It doesn't matter if an applicant has a 1.0 or a 3.0 GPA. There is no requirement that he or she submit SAT scores. No personal essay, letters of recommendation or laundry list of extracurricular activities.

The idea behind California's Master Plan for Higher Education--signed into law by then-Gov. Edmund G. Brown Sr. -- was that a college education should be accessible to everyone.

The good thing was since pretty much anyone could get in, people who were motivated but couldn't afford a four-year school could take courses at community college and later transfer into the CSU or UC systems. Many were the first in their families to be able to pursue a college degree. Immigrants could come to community college to learn English. The schools offered remedial skills to students who had been awarded diplomas from California public high schools without being able to read or write at anything remotely resembling college level. There were vocational courses, certificate and associate degree programs. Then, there was the fun stuff for lifelong learners like painting, language and exercise classes. Seniors often got to go for free.

The bad thing was, anyone could get in.

A few years ago, I taught a beginning news writing class at Laney College in Oakland for two semesters.

Very few of my students showed up regularly or turned in assignments. I couldn't figure out why a number of them had even bothered to enroll. Earlier this year, I signed up for a video production class, also at Laney.

There were half a dozen young men who sat in the back of the room, loudly disrupting the professor's lecture, week in and week out.

Again, I wondered, why are these people here taking up valuable space?

There are students like these who go from class to class with no goal in mind.

Meanwhile, students who are trying to get their act together can't get into the classes they need to graduate or transfer because they're full.

In the 2009-2010 academic year, 133,000 entering students found themselves in that boat.

Community colleges still can't reject applicants. But if a student can't get into any of the classes he needs, it's the same as being turned away.

Over the past four years, state budget cuts have ravaged California's community colleges to the tune of $809 million.

There are 24 percent fewer classes system wide and nearly 500,000 fewer students -- 2.4 million currently.

Meanwhile, demand has never been greater with so many people out of work and seeking retraining.

There has been a push in recent years to hold community colleges accountable for student progress and to weed out individuals who are not seriously pursuing any kind of degree or certificate.

The Board of Governors, which oversees California's community colleges, decided earlier this month to start rationing classroom seats.

Starting in 2014, priority registration will be given to two groups:

1) incoming students who have completed an academic assessment and have an education plan for earning enough credits to transfer to a four-year-college or university, getting a vocational degree or learning English. 2) Returning students with no more than 60 credits.

Veterans, active-duty military personnel and foster youth move to the front of the list, followed by low-income and disabled students.

Lifelong learners move to the bottom of the list.

The mantra now is getting students through the system as quickly as possible.

Gov. Jerry Brown faces a very different set of circumstances than his father.

Senate Bill 1456, which is now on his desk, requires, among other things, that students make academic progress in order to be eligible for a fee waiver and that students to be assessed and develop an education plan.

One thing is for sure. The old days of being able to hang out and find yourself at community college until you figure out what to do next are over.

Posted:   09/17/2012 04:03:05 PM

Tammerlin Drummond is a columnist for the Bay Area News Group. Contact her attdrummond@bayareanewsgroup.com or follow her at Twitter.com/Tammerlin

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How to plug online ID leaks

How to plug online ID leaks

By Claudia Buck,cbuck@sacbee.com

Published: Sunday, Sep. 2, 2012 , Sacramento Bee

When it comes to online identity theft, it's a minefield out there. Every day, some cyber crook is devising new ways to sneak into our online accounts and pilfer money, or just our sanity.

And computer hackers are getting better at it, becoming increasingly sophisticated in their methods and targets.

"In the last five years, the bad guys have gotten as good as or better than the good guys," said Robert Siciliano, security expert with McAfee, the Santa Clara-based online security company.

Since 2005, about 560 million consumer medical, financial and personal records have been breached by hackers who broke into databases of numerous government agencies, hospitals and companies, from General Motors to Twitter. That's according to the San Diego-based Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

No one is entirely safe, say online security experts.

"Based on the massive amount of information that people give away (online) and the staggering number of security breaches that occur each year, it's inevitable you're going to become a victim," said Adam Levin, founder of IdentityTheft911, a security breach consulting firm.

But there are ways to toughen up our defenses against online identity theft. Here's some advice:

Beef up passwords

Too many of us use the same, wimpy passwords, whether it's for banking, shopping or socializing. If just one account gets hacked, they're instantly all vulnerable.

Passwords should never be: a dictionary word, a sequence of numbers/letters (i.e. 45678 or abcdef) or anything that's personal (your kid's name, dog's name, anniversary).

Instead, they should be: at least 8 characters, a mix of upper-/lower-case letters, a combination of letters and symbols (#, &, $, etc.)

Try to make it something you can easily remember. Use the first letter of each word in a favorite phrase or song title, for instance. If you're on a site like Amazon.com, suggests Levin, include the letters AZ.

Too many passwords to remember? Use a password manager, which stores multiple passwords in an "online safe" where you only need one password for access. "They let you randomly generate strong passwords for all your accounts and store them securely," says Joanne McNabb, chief of the state's privacy protection office.

McNabb said there are free versions: KeePass (for Windows, OS X, Linux, Android and iOS), Password Safe (Windows) and Keychain (Mac).

Skip the quizzes

"What dog are you?" "What Michael Jackson dance move are you?" "Could you survive the Hunger Games?"

All those trivia quizzes, polls, surveys and personality tests that populate the online universe may be perfectly benign. Or they could be a cyber crook trying to assemble puzzle pieces of your identity.

"You have to look at the information elicited through those quizzes as components to a nuclear weapon," said IdentityTheft911's Levin. "Many of these personal factoids are harmless on their own but when combined, they create a mosaic of your life" that can be used by hackers.

His advice: Don't indulge.

Answer with caution

When signing up for online accounts, we're often required to answer selected security questions: your first pet, favorite color, mother's maiden name, high school mascot. But if someone wants to break into your online accounts, every answer they need could already be out there via social media.

Instead, use fake answers that you'll remember or repeat the same answer to every question: "Dog," for instance.

Don't click

You get an email from a friend, who wants to share a link to a cute video, political commentary or an intriguing story.

Problem is: It might not really be your friend, but an impostor. Or your friend may unwittingly be sharing an infected link that could worm its way into your computer.

"Don't click links in the body of an email. Ever," said McAfee's Siciliano.

If it's a work colleague who said she's sending a link or if a company you've signed up for is sending a confirmation link, it's probably OK. For everything else, "just hit 'Delete.' "

Social media savvy

There are ways to reduce your risks while still enjoying online socializing, notes McNabb. Among them: never post your email address or your full birth date (especially the year). Lock down your account so it's viewable to "friends only." Don't accept friend requests from people you don't know.

And while Facebook isn't the only social media venue, its 800-plus million users make it a giant target for hackers. Facebook itself has a "Bug Bounty" that pays $500 and up to anyone who pinpoints security holes before they're used by hackers.

Facebook's website has security notes for parents, teens and everyone else on how to report hacked accounts and other online mischief, such as "Please send money" scams.

Those privacy tips are yours to heed.

Palm of your hand

Your mobile phone can be a source of cyber intrusions, either by downloading apps infected with viruses or clicking on texts/links that try to con you into disclosing financial or personal information.

At the very least, McNabb says, everyone should use a password on mobile phones.

And don't click on the "Save my Password" feature, says Levin. If your mobile device lands in the wrong hands, that feature could provide instant access to everything stored on your phone.

Check your accounts

Although he freely uses his credit card online, Siciliano says he carefully scrutinizes his monthly credit card statements. "If you're not looking at your statement frequently, the next thing you know you're paying for dinner of a cyber-thief."

Same for your credit reports. Every adult is entitled to a free, annual credit report from each of the three credit reporting bureaus (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax). Check yours to ensure that no fraudulent accounts have been set up in your name.

"Monitor what's going on; either pay for a monitoring service or look (online) at your bank and credit card accounts every day for fraudulent activity," said Levin.

If your financial institutions offers it, sign up for online or text alerts of suspicious account activity.

Get security patches

Update your computer with the most current anti-virus and anti-spyware security.

Most newer PCs will do automatic updates, but if you have an older PC that requires manual updates, it may be time to upgrade. "You should be in at least Windows 7 or the latest version of Mac software. … You shouldn't be driving a Ford Pinto," Siciliano said, noting that older browsers and operating systems are often targets of hacker attacks.

For more security tips:

• "Staying Private in Public," state Office of Privacy Protection,  www.privacy.ca.gov

• "Social Networking Privacy: How to be Safe, Secure and Social,"  www.privacyrights.org

• Facebook's "Family Safety Center,"  Facebook.com/help/safety

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How to manage your bulging email inbox

Tech Savvy: How to manage your bulging email inbox

There are many simple steps you can take to cope with the flood of email that is expected to increasingly pile up in your inbox.

by Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles Times, August 16, 2012

I lost my entire day to email yesterday, and I bet you've had days like that too.

Recent studies found that the average employee spends a third of her workday dealing with email. On average, people receive 110 emails a day and double that in the office. It's a huge time suck, and it's expected to worsen as more people use email to communicate.

But you don't have to succumb to the digital deluge. There are many simple steps you can take to manage the bulging inbox.

The first big step is to fend off superfluous email. For instance, if you don't want to know what your Facebook friend is doing at the moment, change your notification settings by clicking on the arrow at the top of the screen. Click on "account settings" and then "notifications" on the far left of the screen. Click on Facebook and uncheck all the little boxes such as "tags you in a photo."

And if you're tired of newsletters and unsolicited emails from retailers, unsubscribe from them. There is usually an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the emails. Click on it and tell them not to send you any more.

You can also tell your email system to send certain emails directly to the trash bin so you don't have to look at them. In Outlook you can do this by right-clicking on the email, clicking on the junk mail tab and adding the address to "blocked senders list."

What to do with emails you want to keep and read?

Create an email filing system. One way is to create a folder called Old Email and move your entire inbox into it at the end of each day. You can still access the emails in this folder, but they won't distract you each time you open your inbox to see new messages.

Mark Hurst, author of the book "Bit Literacy," suggests you also create a To Do folder and move the emails that require action into it.

"The method is very simple: Separate your to do's from the rest of your emails, so that you can work from a to do list, rather than an inbox," which wasn't designed to manage workflow, he said.

You might also consider subscribing to an email management service such as SaneBox that automatically prioritizes your email. SaneBox costs $5 a month and leaves only the emails it thinks you need to see immediately in your inbox, while gathering the remaining emails in another folder.

The service will send you an email (yes, another email) with a list of the other emails you have received throughout the day.

"The average inbox has only 42% that are important and 58% that are not important," said Dmitri Leonov, a vice president at SaneBox. "Our users move things around a lot, but the split almost always remains the same."

Finally, be smart about the emails you send. Use the phone to conduct business that requires a lot of back-and-forth discussion. Remember, the more emails you send, the more you receive.

deborah.netburn@latimes.com

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11 things to do with your old iPhone

11 things to do with your old iPhone

AP by by BARBARA ORTUTAY, 09/11/2012

NEW YORK -- In case you haven't heard by now, Apple is unveiling its latest iPhone on Wednesday. That leaves the question: What should you do with your old one?

The new phones will join some 244 million iPhones sold since the first one launched in 2007. Some have been lost or stolen. Some of us are still hanging on to our old gadgets in some futile attempt to resist the constant upgrade cycle that technology companies are forcing on us.

But it's fair to say that millions of iPhones are languishing in desk drawers or gathering dust. Here are a few things to do with yours to keep it from meeting that fate once you buy the iPhone 5.

1. Give it to your kids so they stop taking yours

Every parent, aunt and uncle knows that no toy in the history of toys has ever been as appealing to a kid as an iPhone. They are shiny, they have games and grown-ups use them for important things. More importantly, they are either off-limits or doled out in limited quantities as a reward for, say, sitting still for a minute. Load up your old iPhone with games and give it to a deserving child in your life.

2. Or to your mom so she can finally see the light

Alternately, if a Luddite adult has been thinking of taking the plunge into the world of smartphones, your old iPhone may help him or her get over the hump. If you have an iPhone 4 or 4S, you might also find someone who's still hanging on to an earlier model and give them the gift of an upgrade. You may just buy a friend for life (or at least until iPhone 6 comes out).

3. Use it as a teeny-tiny iPad

You'll be able to watch videos, send email and search Wikipedia for random facts to end cocktail-party disagreements with your decommissioned iPhone - as long as you have a Wi-Fi connection. There's even a camera, which means you can avoid being that guy (or gal) at the concert who's turning heads for taking photos with an iPad.

4. Donate to charity

Several charities accept old phones for donation, though it's worth remembering that these groups likely won't physically give your old phones to people in need. Rather, they work with phone recyclers and sell your donated phones to them.

A nonprofit group called Cell Phones for Soldiers will take your "gently used" phone and sell it to recycling company ReCellular. It will then use the proceeds to buy calling cards for soldiers.

The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence works with another recycling group in a similar manner. About 60 percent of the phones it collects are refurbished and resold. The money goes toward supporting the coalition. The remaining 40 percent of the phones are recycled, according to the group's website. It pays for shipping if you are mailing three or more phones.

There are a few more suggestions from New York's Department of Environmental Conservation at: http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/8818.html

5. Alarm Clock

Do you still use that old radio alarm you bought for your college dorm room in the 20th century? Join the 21st century by turning your old iPhone into an alarm clock. Hide it in a different spot in your bed each night for an added challenge.

6. Sell, sell, sell!

Join the eBay hordes and sell your phone for a few hundred bucks if you can. There will likely be a flood of the gadgets soon after people start getting their new phones, so it might make sense to wait a little.

A company called Gazelle, meanwhile, will make an offer for your old phone based on its condition, your phone carrier and other information. A 32 gigabyte iPhone 4S on Verizon Wireless, for example, was recently going for $237 if it's in good condition and $90 if it's broken.

http://glyde.com/  also offers to help you resell your old phone. A recent check showed the above 4S getting roughly $325 to $350 after fees are deducted - provided there is a buyer. A "speed sale" that guarantees to sell it in seven days will get the seller slightly less money.

7. Trade in at GameStop

The video game retailer offers cash or store credit for old iPhones (along with iPods and iPads). The service is only available in stores and not online. A 32 gigabyte iPhone 4S on Verizon will get you up to $335 in store credit or up to $268 in cash.

8. Stream music

Stick that baby in a speaker dock, spring for a Pandora subscription ($36 per year) or Spotify ($10 per month) and bam, you have a stereo.

Or try SoundCloud. Although it's meant to let you create and share music with people, it's also a good place to listen to DJs you like or discover new ones. TuneIn, meanwhile, will let you listen to online radio stations playing music, sports, news or talk shows.

9. Keep as a backup in case you lose your fancy new one.

Nearly one-third of cellphone owners have had their gadgets lost or stolen, according to a recent survey from Pew Internet & Pew Internet & American Life Project.

10. Use as a camera

At its core, a decommissioned iPhone is a hard drive with a camera. Snap photos with it. No Canon needed. You can also use the iPhone to move photos and other files from one computer to another.

11. Recycle with Apple

Apple Inc.'s own recycling program will give you an Apple gift card if it is determined to have a "monetary value." A 32 gigabyte iPhone 4S with some light scratches but in good working condition was recently estimated at $280. That's higher than Gazelle, but you'll have to spend the money at Apple. The company also accepts broken phones for recycling but you won't get any money for them.

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