So Verizon is planning to get rid of all connections except LTE. Makes sense to do it that way and simplify things. The efficiency should save them a lot of money. So does this mean in the future their customers will only need to pay for a data plan, and then calls just count toward the data total? I'm not optimistic.
It seems like they are trying to accomplish the same thing that I've been doing with VOIP over WiFi. My cheap hack does not really work very well with my current hardware, but with Verizon designing it all, the VoLTE system should work pretty well, and save them a lot of money. So I'm just wondering if that savings will result in a better rate for the consumer. I won't be holding my breath. Just wishful thinking, I suppose.
Here's my source for the VoLTE news:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57591213-94/verizon-says-first-lte-only-phones-to-arrive-in-late-2014/
P.S. Speaking of my current hardware, I'm planning to buy a new tablet soon. Once I have it I will report on how well the various VOIP apps perform on it. I'm hoping they do better than my poor old Droid Bionic. The Bionic's performance has been abysmal, but until I have a faster piece of hardware it's hard to know what is to blame. Even on my home WiFi (DSL) my call quality is inconsistent. This fact leads me to believe that the Bionic is the problem, or at least part of it. I'm also looking to forward to other options coming in the near future.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Monday, June 24, 2013
Patience
It can be hard to wait for things. I keep thinking about buying a Nexus 7, but it's almost July and I hear tell that Google will be releasing the sequel to the N7 in July. I hope that's true. There have been some nice sales on new and refurbished N7 tablets, sometimes as much as $50 off. It's hard to resist but I keep telling myself that the new one will be here soon!
I'm also waiting to see what the Freedom Phone is all about. On June 5th, FreedomPop posted to their blog, "Our game changing service comes with a guaranteed 500MBs of free 4G data, 200 voice minutes and unlimited text messaging, not to mention free unlimited calling between FreedomPop users. It will also, be available on a several popular Android phones." But since then there have not been any more details. They just say it's coming "later this summer." Whatever that means.
My scheme to ditch Verizon works great, as long as you only want to send and receive text messages. And only SMS for that matter, not MMS. If someone sends me a photo it does not even tell anyone that a message was rejected. I'm getting impatient for the Freedom Phone because I don't need a phone, until I need one. Then it's annoying because the VOIP system isn't really working for me.
Of course I could always try using Skype instead.
I'm also waiting to see what the Freedom Phone is all about. On June 5th, FreedomPop posted to their blog, "Our game changing service comes with a guaranteed 500MBs of free 4G data, 200 voice minutes and unlimited text messaging, not to mention free unlimited calling between FreedomPop users. It will also, be available on a several popular Android phones." But since then there have not been any more details. They just say it's coming "later this summer." Whatever that means.
My scheme to ditch Verizon works great, as long as you only want to send and receive text messages. And only SMS for that matter, not MMS. If someone sends me a photo it does not even tell anyone that a message was rejected. I'm getting impatient for the Freedom Phone because I don't need a phone, until I need one. Then it's annoying because the VOIP system isn't really working for me.
Of course I could always try using Skype instead.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Talkatone
I test-drove another app last weekend. It's called Talkatone. The paid version is $20! Fortunately the free version was available so I gave it a whirl. It seemed to have less of a delay than GrooVe IP, but the sound quality was not as good. I guess that's a fair trade-off, however I could not find any setting to tell it to turn on when I boot up my phone. I'm sort of absent-minded, so I don't want to have to remember to open the app after every time I restart my phone. I'm assuming the full version has that feature, but I'm not going to pay to find out.
I definitely have a bias towards GrooVe IP because it's more familiar to me now. I feel like this plan is not really working anyway and I'll probably be returning to a more traditional mobile phone service later in the year. I am waiting to see what new deal is offered with Freedom Pop's Freedom Phone. I'm also thinking I might hold out until Samsung releases a new phone with the Snapdragon 800 processor, because that looks pretty awesome.
In the mean time I am still enjoying the cost savings of not having a traditional contract for my mobile phone service.
I definitely have a bias towards GrooVe IP because it's more familiar to me now. I feel like this plan is not really working anyway and I'll probably be returning to a more traditional mobile phone service later in the year. I am waiting to see what new deal is offered with Freedom Pop's Freedom Phone. I'm also thinking I might hold out until Samsung releases a new phone with the Snapdragon 800 processor, because that looks pretty awesome.
In the mean time I am still enjoying the cost savings of not having a traditional contract for my mobile phone service.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
More on GrooVe IP vs "PHONE for Google Voice & GTalk."
Last week I blogged about making calls when my hotspot was only getting a 3G signal. Tonight I was able to test both GrooVe IP and "PHONE for Google Voice and GTalk" on hotspot with 4G as well as my home WiFi, which uses DSL from CenturyLink.
I was on Skype with my friend Javier who lives in San Francisco. He has AT&T service for his iPhone. I first called him using GrooVe IP on my DSL WiFi. The call had a delay slightly longer than Skype, but sound quality was good and we could converse pretty easily. I shut down the app and opened PHONE and had pretty similar results.
Then I switched to using my Overdrive Pro hotspot, which gets a 4G signal here at home, but a fairly week one. The signal strength is only about 10 to 20%. Both apps had a long delay. I could hear Javier clearly, but my voice was very tinny and mechanical to him. Additionally, when using the PHONE app, Javier could hear a delayed echo of his own voice. On GrooVe IP there is an advanced setting for echo cancellation which I have enabled, but PHONE does not have that option. So really the call quality is still pretty even for these two, but because GrooVe IP has the advanced options, it wins this round.
I'm not going to bother testing the PHONE app any more because I feel I have enough proof that GrooVe IP is as good or better than PHONE. I think having the free version of either one would be fairly equal. PHONE incorporates the SMS function of Google Voice as well, so if that matters to you then it should be a consideration. But I don't care about that. Since I already paid money for the full version of GrooVe IP, I'm going to stick with that.
It was nice to finally be able to test it. I've been feeling like a hermit lately because I don't trust my phone for making calls. After proving that my convoluted solution does indeed work, I can start making calls again, at least when I'm home on DSL anyway. In places where I have a stronger 4G connection, I should be able to use the Overdrive Pro for making calls too. But in the meantime it works well for texting and Facebook.
I was on Skype with my friend Javier who lives in San Francisco. He has AT&T service for his iPhone. I first called him using GrooVe IP on my DSL WiFi. The call had a delay slightly longer than Skype, but sound quality was good and we could converse pretty easily. I shut down the app and opened PHONE and had pretty similar results.
Then I switched to using my Overdrive Pro hotspot, which gets a 4G signal here at home, but a fairly week one. The signal strength is only about 10 to 20%. Both apps had a long delay. I could hear Javier clearly, but my voice was very tinny and mechanical to him. Additionally, when using the PHONE app, Javier could hear a delayed echo of his own voice. On GrooVe IP there is an advanced setting for echo cancellation which I have enabled, but PHONE does not have that option. So really the call quality is still pretty even for these two, but because GrooVe IP has the advanced options, it wins this round.
I'm not going to bother testing the PHONE app any more because I feel I have enough proof that GrooVe IP is as good or better than PHONE. I think having the free version of either one would be fairly equal. PHONE incorporates the SMS function of Google Voice as well, so if that matters to you then it should be a consideration. But I don't care about that. Since I already paid money for the full version of GrooVe IP, I'm going to stick with that.
It was nice to finally be able to test it. I've been feeling like a hermit lately because I don't trust my phone for making calls. After proving that my convoluted solution does indeed work, I can start making calls again, at least when I'm home on DSL anyway. In places where I have a stronger 4G connection, I should be able to use the Overdrive Pro for making calls too. But in the meantime it works well for texting and Facebook.
Friday, June 7, 2013
Another piece of tech - my homemade DVR.
I was recently informed that Windows 8 does not include Windows Media Center. Not that I have plans of purchasing Windows 8 in the near future, but that's still a shame. I run Windows 7 on all of my computers, and nowadays my desktop is really only used as an HTPC. Part of the reason is because I also have a laptop and a smart phone, but the other reason is that it works really well as a DVR. I've used it with two different TV tuners. I first used one that connects via USB, and it was fine. But I wanted something that attached more securely, so I bought a tuner card. It's an Asus card and I only use it for the OTA signal from my old TV antenna upstairs. I had a 1 GB hard drive already, but when I saw a 2 GB drive on sale, I picked that up and then set it as the save location for Windows Media Center.
It was extremely easy to do all of this. I think a person with a laptop could do this using the USB tuber and also an external hard drive. I never had any intention of paying a monthly fee for DVR access. So taking my existing computer and adding the DVR functionality was a no-brainer.
The Asus card included software, and I believe the USB tuner did as well. So in theory you wouldn't need the Windows Media Center software to use a PC as a DVR, but it's so slick and easy that I never even considered using anything else.
It's too bad that Microsoft doesn't offer this as a free add-on for Windows 8. It's yet another reason for me to skip it. Until I get a touch screen monitor, there is no reason for me to use it anyway. And by that time I might be using an OS from Google on my PC instead.
It was extremely easy to do all of this. I think a person with a laptop could do this using the USB tuber and also an external hard drive. I never had any intention of paying a monthly fee for DVR access. So taking my existing computer and adding the DVR functionality was a no-brainer.
The Asus card included software, and I believe the USB tuner did as well. So in theory you wouldn't need the Windows Media Center software to use a PC as a DVR, but it's so slick and easy that I never even considered using anything else.
It's too bad that Microsoft doesn't offer this as a free add-on for Windows 8. It's yet another reason for me to skip it. Until I get a touch screen monitor, there is no reason for me to use it anyway. And by that time I might be using an OS from Google on my PC instead.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
"PHONE for Google Voice & GTalk" for Android by Mo+, another free VOIP app.
On my original post in this series, I added a comment that you could get an app for iOS called "PHONE for Google Voice & GTalk." I turns out this same app is available for Android too. Both are free. A friend told me on Facebook that he download the app for his iPod Touch and it worked great. So I thought it would be worth downloading it to my Droid Bionic too.
First impressions are good. It looks sharp, not a lot of settings to mess with, and it displays network strength during a call.
I dislike the tiny dialpad available during a call. When dialing the number you want, a full size dial pad is displayed. But during a call the dialpad that you can pull up is a miniature one.
Right now my Overdrive Pro is on a good signal, but it's only 3G. I shut down GrooVe IP and made a call with PHONE but the sound was only one way. I could hear the other end, but they could not hear me. Their voice was delayed a lot, about 2 or 3 seconds.
I disconnected the call and exited the app, then opened GrooVe IP again. I made the same phone call, and the lag from the other person was again about 2 or 3 seconds, but my voice went through loud and clear, and it was not delayed at all. So GrooVe IP wins this round. These are definitely not ideal conditions for calling, so I need to try them both when the Overdrive Pro has a good 4G signal, and also on my DSL's WiFi at home.
I'll post my results later, but in the mean time feel free to comment if you have any experience with either of these apps, or the app called Spare Phone, or if you have suggestions for other apps I should try.
First impressions are good. It looks sharp, not a lot of settings to mess with, and it displays network strength during a call.
I dislike the tiny dialpad available during a call. When dialing the number you want, a full size dial pad is displayed. But during a call the dialpad that you can pull up is a miniature one.
Right now my Overdrive Pro is on a good signal, but it's only 3G. I shut down GrooVe IP and made a call with PHONE but the sound was only one way. I could hear the other end, but they could not hear me. Their voice was delayed a lot, about 2 or 3 seconds.
I disconnected the call and exited the app, then opened GrooVe IP again. I made the same phone call, and the lag from the other person was again about 2 or 3 seconds, but my voice went through loud and clear, and it was not delayed at all. So GrooVe IP wins this round. These are definitely not ideal conditions for calling, so I need to try them both when the Overdrive Pro has a good 4G signal, and also on my DSL's WiFi at home.
I'll post my results later, but in the mean time feel free to comment if you have any experience with either of these apps, or the app called Spare Phone, or if you have suggestions for other apps I should try.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
FreedomPop's new mobile service
"FreedomPop's new service will give users a guaranteed 500MB of 4G data for free, unlimited texts, and 200 voice minutes per month. Users registered on the network will also be given free unlimited calls to each other. The service will launch later this summer on several phones running Google's Android operating system." - CNET
I assume they are waiting for the LTE launch to do this, but maybe not. Either way, it sounds like just what I need. Hopefully I can still pay $20/month to get more data. This would theoretically eliminate the need for the apps GrooVe IP and Spare Phone on Android, and "Phone for Google Voice" on iOS. It would be really nice to have a VOIP client from FreedomPop themselves, so I can complain to one place when it doesn't work!
The only negative I see is if you have to buy a special phone for this. And I'm betting that will be the case. I'm planning to buy a tablet this summer and run it off my Overdrive Pro too. But if I could have both devices share the same account, then I'd still be game. Or just use the 500 MB of free data on my phone, and do all my surfing on my tablet using the 2 GB that I purchase.
Very exciting prospect.
Update, here's the link:
http://www.freedompop.com/phone
It appears they are not waiting for LTE after all, because it won't be until later in the year. This says they are launching the "Freedom Phone" this summer. I'm still very interested. I doubt they will let me use both devices on the same account, but I will definitely ask them.
Here is the source of the CNET quote:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57587715-94/freedompop-goes-freebie-with-new-mobile-service/
I assume they are waiting for the LTE launch to do this, but maybe not. Either way, it sounds like just what I need. Hopefully I can still pay $20/month to get more data. This would theoretically eliminate the need for the apps GrooVe IP and Spare Phone on Android, and "Phone for Google Voice" on iOS. It would be really nice to have a VOIP client from FreedomPop themselves, so I can complain to one place when it doesn't work!
The only negative I see is if you have to buy a special phone for this. And I'm betting that will be the case. I'm planning to buy a tablet this summer and run it off my Overdrive Pro too. But if I could have both devices share the same account, then I'd still be game. Or just use the 500 MB of free data on my phone, and do all my surfing on my tablet using the 2 GB that I purchase.
Very exciting prospect.
Update, here's the link:
http://www.freedompop.com/phone
It appears they are not waiting for LTE after all, because it won't be until later in the year. This says they are launching the "Freedom Phone" this summer. I'm still very interested. I doubt they will let me use both devices on the same account, but I will definitely ask them.
Here is the source of the CNET quote:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57587715-94/freedompop-goes-freebie-with-new-mobile-service/
Monday, June 3, 2013
Sunshine
When the Overdrive Pro is on the charger, it can get too hot and then it stops charging. I'm glad it stops because an exploding battery would be very inconvenient. I normally place it up on the dashboard of my car when I'm driving because then it sits on top of a vent, which keeps it cool so it can keep charging. And normally I leave it there when I am home because inside the house I have my home WiFi. Since I have an attached garage it's usually not a problem. But yesterday I went to the car wash and then left my car in the driveway for a few hours so it could dry. The sun was shining on my Overdrive Pro and it got extremely hot. It actually caused it to seize up (become unresponsive). I had to pull the battery and cool everything off for a minute. Once I put it back together it was fine again, but I was really amazed at how hot it had been. Lesson learned. Don't leave a sensitive electronic device in the sun, especially when it's black!
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