Moto X on Republic Wireless

This is a really great deal if you don't mind using the Sprint network:
http://republicwireless.com/moto-x

I had a mixed experience with Sprint data coverage, and they still don't have much LTE coverage. But for the price, it seems like a good way to go. If it was on any other network, I'd probably be more interested. But I'm not interested in anything on Spring in the near future. If you live in an area where Sprint has good coverage, then this would actually be a really phenomenal deal!

More confusion

It seems like almost everything related to the T-Mobile prepaid plans is confusing. Even when I went to add the additional $10 to my account, I had to try it twice. On my first attempt I ended up at a place that wouldn't let me add any money. I thought I did the same thing the second time but then it appeared to work. However it didn't update my account balance. After a few minutes I received a confirmation email and text, and today I can see my $10 balance. I've seen other bloggers complain about their site. I use Chrome as my browser, so maybe that's the source of the current problem.
At any rate, I now have a $10 balance available for any calls beyond my 100 minute limit. I still don't know for certain what the rate actually is. Maybe at the end of this 30 day period I will call an old friend and burn up all my minutes and see what T-Mo bills me.
I'm still happy about all the money I'm saving. Despite my ultimate disappointment with Skype, I'm still pleased to have such a cheap phone plan. My only "buyer's remorse" is related to all the money I spent on my Nexus 4. It's a great phone so I don't resent the specific device. I just with I had already owned a GSM phone. Then this deal would be truly phenomenal.

Speak of the devil

Last week I mentioned that I am interested in the Obihai VOIP adapters. Well this week they are having a sale. I'm still holding off until next year, but if you want in, the OBi200 is on sale at Newegg.com for $50 with free shipping. Use promo code EMCXLWV62 at the following link:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833617008

I believe you will need to be signed up for the Newegg.com email marketing in order for the promo code to function.

Skype not so great, after all.

Well it's time for one more change. I'm finding that I still do a lot more textimg than I do talking, and after using Skype for several calls, it's just not as good as I had initially thought it was. It's still a great deal at $3/month, and next time I travel outside the US, I'll probably sign up just in case I want to call home. But for my day to day usage, I plan to follow the advice of another blogger. Sorry I can't remember who it was so I can't give him credit, but he recommended adding an extra $10 to my T-Mobile account. Then T-Mo can charge me a per-minute fee for anything over 100 minutes. I can't find a rate on their site, but he said it was 10 cents/minute, so that should get me another 100 minutes. And if I need more, then I can just add more money as needed. This is still a lot cheaper than what I was paying on Verizon.

So I'll see how this goes and I can always change back pretty easily.

P.S. I'm also considering one of the Obihai devices for my home, but I will wait until I see what Google decides to do with Google Voice in 2014. If it's free again next year, then it would make sense to add more hardware. But I won't know until then.

KitKat

So the new version of Android is going to be called KitKat! Just scrolling through this page will make your sweet tooth start to tingle:
http://www.android.com/kitkat/index.html

On the home page of Android.com, they also state, "Look for specially branded KitKat bars in a store near you that give you a chance to win a Nexus 7 or Google Play credit."

Here's an interesting quote from Googler John Lagerling, via the BBC:
"We realised that very few people actually know the taste of a key lime pie," he explained.
"One of the snacks that we keep in our kitchen for late-night coding are KitKats. And someone said: 'Hey, why don't we call the release KitKat?'
"We didn't even know which company controlled the name, and we thought that [the choice] would be difficult. But then we thought well why not, and we decided to reach out to the Nestle folks."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23926938

Now I think it's quite a shame that so few people have tried Key Lime Pie, because it's delicious! But that being said, it is fun to see Google trying something new with the co-branding of this product, and basically getting some free publicity via KitKat bar packaging.

I'm planning to try eating Paleo for a month, so I don't think I'll be rushing out to buy any KitKat bars today, but maybe in October I'll get on that. In the mean time I do have a jar of honey from my brother's bees, and he thought it looked cool to save some of the comb and seal it in the jar. So I'll have something else to gnaw on for a while.