Exciting Updates to Our Service!
January 10, 2013
We are pleased to announce some improvements we have made to Kajeet’s online parent user interface! Here are some FAQ from parents that our service updates can answer:
How many texts did my kid send last month?
When you log into your Activity page,
you will now be able to select your kid’s usage and activity records for your current and previous billing cycles. You can also view activity for a specific time range! This will help you determine which phone features your kid is using (and how frequently they’re using them!). Remember: the average teen texts 3,000 times each month! Please make sure to utilize your Parental Controls (like ContactManager or TimeManager) to keep your kid’s usage under control.
How do I set up time blocks to prevent my kid from using their phone during nighttime?
We’ve made it easier than ever to do this with TimeManager. You can now set up one continuous time block that will last through the night. Simply set up a new time block, then select the PM time you want the restriction to begin and the AM time you want it to end.
What if I don’t want my kid’s Android to send/receive pics?
It’s now possible to do this using FeatureManager. If your kid has an Android phone or tablet, you will now see a Picture Messaging section on this page that allows you to turn sending and receiving pictures on or off.
Kajeet Selected by Education.com for the 2012 Gift Guide!
December 12, 2012
Education.com, an educational and child development website for parents, has selected Kajeet for inclusion in it’s 2012 Gift Guide. Products chosen for the Gift Guide were kid-tested and teacher-approved, selected from among thousands reviewed and deemed the most likely to stand the test of time. Check out their review of Kajeet here: http://www.education.com/gift-guide/item/lg-optimus-android/.
Kajeet Smart Phones Speak Chinese, Too!
December 12, 2012
Check out this special blog post from a Kajeet customer!
As an avid Chinese student surrounded by English speakers, I am constantly searching for ways to practice and improve my Chinese. Unfortunately, most of the Western world is not well designed for Chinese language use. Because Chinese has a writing system that uses one character for every word, instead of letters representing sounds, typing in Chinese can be very inefficient. When my friends and I texted one another in Chinese, we had to write the pinyin (approximate Western transliteration) of our texts. These couldn’t include the tone marks on the words, though incorrect tone marks can change the entire meaning.
When I got the Kajeet Samsung Galaxy SII (my first smartphone!) last week, it didn’t take me long to start looking for better ways to use my phone for Chinese. It also didn’t take long to find, download, and install the Google Pinyin IME app from the Google Play store. Shortly thereafter, most people on my contacts list started receiving excited text messages sent in Chinese characters. (Not all of the receivers actually even spoke Chinese. Hey…I was excited!)
The range of inputs for IME is phenomenal. For starters, I can simply type pinyin and then select the appropriate character. Alternatively, I can use the touch screen to write out the character strokes. Writing Chinese on a touch screen is not only great practice for character-writing, but it is also, objectively speaking, considerably more fun than writing with a pencil and paper.
The last option — and this is most impressive to me — is that I can speak Chinese into my phone and have the words transcribed.
The brilliance of the speech part is that it is context-based, so it does a remarkable job of guessing the correct word, even when there are many Chinese words pronounced the same way. I tested it by speaking random words, (mother, rope, horse, curse — all pronounced “ma,” but with different tones) and it had a lot of trouble figuring out the difference until I used them in a sentence. My guess is that the microphone technology is probably not sophisticated enough to pick up differences is tonal quality, so the app has to make up for it with contextual intelligence.
The Pinyin app works no matter where you want to enter text: it actually installs another keyboard on your phone, and you can switch between input keyboards at any time (The same way you can switch to Swype.).
My overall review: 比切片麵包更好！
（Much better than sliced bread!)
How to get GooglePinyin IME on your phone:
1. Go to the Google Play store. Search and install the app.
2. When you are ready to type, select the text box to open up a regular keyboard.
3. Touch and hold the “Swype” symbol.
4. Touch “select input method.”
5. Select “Chinese Pinyin”
6. Touch the “back” hotkey, and start typing!
–Amelia H., Brooklyn, NY
Thanks for sharing, Amelia! Kajeet customers — do you have a story to share with us, too? Let us know!
Activating or Replacing Your Phone
December 3, 2012
If you made someone’s holiday happy this year with a cell phone from kajeet — or if you received one — the first thing you need to do is to activate it. And this can be done entirely online, whether you purchased a phone from our website or will be bringing your own used, inactive Sprint® device. To help, we’ve provided the answers to some frequently asked questions below:
What is “activation?”
Prior to use, each kajeet account needs to be set up with parent (or guardian) information and assigned a phone number. Once you activate your phone, you will automatically be enrolled in the rate plan you chose when the phone was purchased. If you are bringing your own eligible device (learn more about this program here), you will be prompted to select a rate plan at this time.
The phone I want to activate is for a NEW kajeet user (someone who has not had a kajeet phone before). What do I do?
Activating your kajeet phone is easy! Click here to get started. Be sure to have the phone you are activating with you (whether it was purchased from our website or you are activating a used, inactive Sprint® device), as you will need information found on the handset for the first step.
I’m already a kajeet customer. I want to transfer my current kajeet service to a new/different phone. What do I do?
If you are bringing your own device, please contact our Customer Care team at 1-866-452-5338.
If you purchased a new device from kajeet, just follow these steps to switch your current service to a new/diferent phone (for an existing kajeet user):
1. Log into kajeet here.
2. Go to your Account Summary page. Scroll down the page to access the “Add a Phone” tab, as shown below.
3. Click on the “Add a Phone” tab. You will see an option that reads “Replace a Phone.” Click on the link right underneath (the one we circled below).
4. You will be asked to select the phone you would like to replace/upgrade (in the event you have multiple phones on your account) and for the ESN or MEID of your phone (be sure to have your new phone handy during this process!).
What if I am moving/porting my existing cell phone number to kajeet?
You will need to contact kajeet Customer Care if you are porting (moving) a number from another cell phone service provider to kajeet. Have a copy of your bill and/or account login information with you when you contact kajeet Customer Care. While we are working to make this process as fast as possible, it can take up to 3-4 days to port a number (we are dependent upon other telecommunications companies, and they are all busy at this time of year).
How can I reach kajeet Customer Care and what are the kajeet holiday Care hours?
Our Customer Care team is available Monday through Friday, from 9:00 am ET to 10:00 pm ET and on Saturday from 9:00 am ET to 6:00 pm ET. Our Care department can be reached at 1-866-452-5338 or at care@kajeet.com. Kajeet Customer Care is closed on Christmas Day to give our hardworking care personnel the day off with their families.
Our Holiday Care Hours are as follows:
- Saturday, December 22: 9:00 am ET to 10:00 pm ET
- Sunday, December 23: 9:00 am ET to 10:00 pm ET
- Monday, December 24: 9:00 am ET to 10:00 pm ET
- Tuesday, December 25: CLOSED
- Wednesday, December 26: 9:00 am ET to 10:00 pm ET
- Thursday, December 27: 9:00 am ET to 10:00 pm ET
- Friday, December 28: 9:00 am ET to 10:00 pm ET
- Saturday, December 29: 9:00 am ET to 6:00 pm ET
Care is already busy and we do expect them to continue to be busy after the holidays. Avoid the wait and activate online!
Happy Holidays!
Sprint is a trademark of Sprint.
Transferring iTunes Music on Your kajeet Android(TM) Smartphone
November 26, 2012
Hello fellow Kajeet users — I have been a Kajeet user for four years now, and just last year I got a new AndroidTM phone from Kajeet. I was ecstatic, and I soon grew to love my new phone with all its apps and internet access. However, as an Apple iTunes user as well, I became disappointed because I thought I would not be able to play my iTunes songs on my Android phone. I thought I needed an iPhone to do that. After a few months without even trying to put iTunes music onto my phone, I decided to try it. When I plugged my AndroidTM phone into my computer, I realized that my phone looked like a USB drive on my computer, which meant that I could copy files from my computer to my phone. I tried copying the songs from iTunes in my iTunes Music folder onto my Kajeet AndroidTM phone, and it worked. It was pretty easy!
To get my music files to my phone, all I had to do was follow these steps:
1. Plug my Kajeet android phone into my computer with the USB connector that you can pull out of the phone charger
2. Once I plugged my phone into my computer, I pressed the button that said “Turn on USB storage”. Then my computer started scanning my phone for viruses and started to download some of my files.
3. I could also see my phone connection in the Finder (since I was using a Mac), where my Android phone was called “NO NAME” like a USB drive. I clicked on “NO NAME” and all of the things I had on my phone came up. There were folders for Apps, Settings, Music, Photos and everything else I had stored on my phone.
4. I clicked on the Music folder to show all the music on my phone, which at that time, was nothing.
5. Next, I opened the iTunes app on my computer and created a playlist in iTunes with all the songs I wanted to copy to my phone
6. Then I copied all the songs from my iTunes playlist by dragging and dropping them into the Music folder on my phone. Alternatively, you can also copy the song files individually from the iTunes Music folder on your computer to the Music folder on your phone.
7. After copying the music files to my phone, I ejected my phone from the computer and I had all the music from my iTunes account available to play on my phone. Awesome!
Now, whenever I want to add more music from iTunes to my AndroidTM phone, I just plug my phone into my computer with the USB cable, open up my Music folder on the phone and drag/copy the new song from iTunes to the Music folder on my phone. This seems to work for all AAC and MP3 format music files in iTunes. There is also an AndroidTM app I have used called AirSync (made by DoubleTwist) that syncs my iTunes music library with my AndroidTM phone. It seems to work pretty well. My other recommendation is to make sure you get enough memory on your phone to hold all your songs and apps.
Now that I have figured out how to put all of my songs from iTunes onto my Kajeet AndroidTM phone, I am even more happy with the service that Kajeet provides.
Matt – an avid Kajeet user – 15 yrs old
Kajeet, the smart phone for kids
Android is a trademark of Google, Inc.
Cyber Monday Savings!
November 26, 2012
Our holiday savings continue this Cyber Monday!
Today is the last day to use promo code THANKS to save 20% on any kids cell phone. We’ve also got some special Cyber Monday-only deals, like the Sanyo Zio for just $99.99 (or less if you use the THANKS offer during checkout!). Check out our entire lineup of cell phones for kids here. And act fast! The THANKS 20% off discount expires tonight, November 26, 2012.
Teachers in Miami-Dade Test Out Cell Phones in the Classroom
November 13, 2012
A recent story in the Miami Herald showcases how teachers in Florida’s Miami-Dade school district are experimenting with a new Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policy.
According to the story, students are allowed to bring cell phones, tablets and laptops to class as a way to support digital learning efforts. The BYOD policy is being used in elementary school classrooms all the way to high school, ensuring younger students also get a chance to try out newer technology. Find out more about why Miami-Dade instituted this new BYOD policy here.
Is your kid allowed to bring his or her device into the classroom? Let us know!
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