Making the switch to Android
Took the plunge and bought my first Android phone, the LG Optimus V on Virgin Mobile. The reason I bought it was it had better battery life than the mifi card and hotspot functionality was easy to turn on using a simple app called Quick Settings. Saving $15/month with a phone/hotspot for the ipod was a no-brainer, plus getting a couple extra hours of battery life was a bonus. The mifi card is going on sale on ebay so I can recoup the cost of the phone and it goes with my anti-hoarder policy of selling one gadget for each one that is purchased. This post was going to have a screenshot of the apps, however, I pushed the power and the home key like on the ipod but I think it turned the thing off instead of took the picture. I guess I need to find an app that lets me take screenshots of the phone screen.

Day 1: Apps downloaded

• Advanced Task Killer – Kills apps running in the background to free up memory. This is the first app I downloaded.
• Evernote to draft blog posts, voice notes for ideas while I’m driving, and using it now to write this post.
• Dropbox to sync files across devices including my ipod.
• Track-R to access Pivotal Tracker from an Android phone.
• mAnalytics to access Google Analytics.
• Hootsuite to manage Twitter and Facebook fan pages.
• Google Voice to make and receive calls/texts with the caller ID showing the GV number, it’s more convenient to give out one number and have it ring the various burner phones.
• Feedly to access Google Reader and to share articles to Twitter.
• Kindle to access and read my books.
• Skype for conferencing.
• WordPress to create blog posts.
• Facebook
• Barcode Scanner this was recommended to me, it reads barcodes and QR codes. I’ve yet to try it.
• Gowalla to check-in to Facebook, Foursquare, Tumblr, and of course Gowalla in one shot.
• Shazam to figure out what that song is on the radio, helps build the playlist on what I want to download.
• Kayak to compare prices for travel.
• Meebo for unified instant messaging.
• Amazon app store to get free [paid] apps daily.

After enabling the hotspot functionality, I found I was often going to the ipod’s version of Hootsuite to type out tweets over using the LG Optimus since I’m more comfortable typing on the iphone keyboard than the Swype keyboard. I also like the slimness of the ipod over the Optimus. This concludes day 1 with an Android phone.

For other noobs, here’s a quick primer on Android 101.

@NickHammond – thanks for your list of must-have apps, I started downloading most of them today.
@digiJustin – I agree, Tweetdeck isn’t as useful on the mobile and dumped it.
@htnguyen – thanks for the comic relief with your #sarcasm. I can always count on you and @vcrazy for that. :p

If you have any recommendations for apps, put them in the comments.

I read the 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss when I worked in a “regular job” and thought, I want my own business so I can do whatever I want whenever I want too! Damn, I was in for a surprise, after co-founding a business, work days turned into nights with gym or dinner breaks to punctuate pauses in the day. I didn’t get to do what I wanted whenever because of deadlines.

I would spend all hours on the computer, setting up WordPress, analytics, blogging, working on spreadsheets or reading legal docs. I also checked Facebook, followed people on Twitter, commented on mommy blogs as part of my social media business responsibilities.

In between was constant instant messaging (IM) or texting with friends and colleagues to ask advice, get feedback or catch up. When I had a deadline, I would put myself on a timeout, which means I didn’t allow myself to login to IM or text until after I finished the project. Magically the project would get done in about a third of the time it normally took when I was IMing, texting, or fielding phone calls. Often times, I would switch from email and IM to Skype in quick succession and before I knew it, lunch had past and my to do list was only getting longer.

Time Management Learned from Tim Ferriss:

• Plan and block times for doing important work. I modified this to focus on activities that bring in customers or revenue for the business as the top priorities.
• Do the important strategic stuff before delving into email.
• Delegate or outsource non strategic, time consuming activities, this is different for every business or person.
• When you delegate, give guidelines about what should be escalated to you and then give space for them to execute. No one likes a micro-manager.
• Schedule times to check and respond to email. I know that a lot of people treat email like instant messaging to hold a conversation about a topic. It’s often a time-sink if you respond to email as it’s happening because it’s never ending and sometimes a 5 minute call could resolve the issue with a follow-up email summarizing the actions you agreed upon. When you check email at specified times and you’re the decision maker you can read the entire thread with everyone’s input and give the final decision without being distracted with the real-time play-by-play.
• Schedule times to return phone calls or call people to clarify cryptic email.
• Turn the mobile phone silent without vibration during conference calls to stay focused.
• Schedule a morning during the week to catch up with friends using instant messaging. You have to have fun at work too.

These are some of the lessons I’ve learned around time management, so I would have more free time to enjoy the day and still stay super-productive. What are some of your favorite tips from the 4 Hour Workweek?

Note: the link is an affiliate link for the Kindle book.

Turning iPod to iPhone Apps

This post is long overdue, although, if you googled iPod Touch and MiFi together, you would have come across a LifeHacker article which details how to use this combination as a solution. While having two devices is not ideal, I find it’s much better than when I was using my iphone which had NO SERVICE at home. At best I had intermittent service to send and receive occasional texts but not enough bandwidth to have a conversation without sitting in perfect stillness or contorting my body by a window to get the signal. Ironically, I pulled the SIM card out of my iphone and put it in a Motorola RAZR and the RAZR received phone calls. The calls weren’t perfect on the RAZR yet I had enough of a signal to hear a conversation. On the iphone people would cut in and out that I would miss half the conversation and was completely frustrated between that and the dropped calls.

Apps to Talk & Text on the iTouch
First, I’ve tried several voice over IP (VOIP) apps on the iphone and forwarded my google voice number to the VOIP apps. These apps usually make you select a new phone number without the option to port in an existing number. I use google voice (GV) for the business and forward it to a phone number with a signal or answer calls on the computer. A previous guest post on GenJuice details how to make free voice calls, video chats, and texting.

Here are the apps I’m using to give the iPod Touch cell phone functionality.

Textfree with Voice by Pinger

I was using the beta version when Pinger introduced voice-functionality at TechCrunch Disrupt last year, it crashed a lot and I received the servers were not available dialogs. It has since improved, then added the ability to received free incoming calls, send picture messages from a textfree email address which is [your_username]@textfree.us, and facebook chat from within this app. Sometimes, calls take a bit longer to connect because GV will route the call to all of my available numbers. I haven’t tested how quickly calls come through if you dial the number directly. The caveat with this free app is if you don’t use the app for 30 days, you will lose the number you selected and I still occasionally get the Textfree servers are not available message.

Textfree with Voice

Pros:

• Free incoming calls
• Send picture messages
• Facebook chat within the app
• Notifications popup on the screen when you get incoming texts
• Calls sound pretty good when using home WiFi

• Takes awhile for incoming calls to activate even after you click answer when using the MiFi card to connect to the internet.
• Calls on 3G are still somewhat hollow sounding for the recipient.
• Can’t receive MMS or picture messages to your iTouch unless the sender sends the message to your Textfree email address.

Skype

Skype

I pay $2.99 a month for unlimited outgoing calls to the United States and Canada on Skype. I don’t need to call internationally which is why this plan works for me. I also signed up for the SkypeIn or an online phone number which was about $12 for three months before I learned Textfree had the free incoming calls. Dropping the online phone number since I can receive calls via my computer on Google Talk.

Pros:

• You select the number that will show on the caller ID for your outgoing call. I like this because my GV number is what people see call their mobile or landline either from my iTouch or the desktop version of Skype.
• Video calls on the go when in a good 3G area or ideally on WiFi.

• Voicemail – there is currently voicemail on Skype and I don’t know how to get rid of it. I prefer the GV voicemail since it transcribes my messages.
• Calls when in a non-3G area don’t sound very good.

GV Connect

GV Connect by Andreas Amann

Of the Google Voice apps I’ve tested, I like GV Connect over the app released by Google. In composing a new SMS or text message, you can type in the name of the person you want directly in the TO field, tap out your text, then send. In the Google Voice app, unless you have the number memorized, you have to go to the address book to select the person first, then select text, before you can even tap out your message. It was too many steps, come on Google, really!??

Pros:

• Sending a text uses my address book without having additional steps.
• Select which phones to forward calls and texts to from within the app.
• Select do not disturb directly from the app.
• Regular updates to the app to fix bugs and add features.
• Integrates with Talkatone if using that for VOIP.

Cons:

• Not a VOIP app.

MiFi

MiFi

This app doesn’t add calling or texting capabilities, I had to add it because I use it to check battery life on my MiFi card and to see the signal strength. It supports MiFi from Virgin Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint.

Measures:

• Connectivity bars (0 – 5 bars)
• Battery level (0 – 4 bars)
• Data received and sent (in/out)
• IP address

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Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/leecullivan/2313684754/

You can select a phone number so to send and receive text messages with any mobile phone unlike their competitors which rely on the other person having the same app.

I hate talking on the phone yet, surprisingly have no problems with video conferencing within Skype or Google video chat. Then today, Google announced Gmail users can make phone calls within Gmail. To do this the user needs to install the Google video and voice chat plugin. The geek in me immediately had to test how I can make calls from Gmail to a cell phone or regular landline (home or business phone). I called my business partner Bill on his iPhone and wasn’t happy with the call quality. I was hearing an echo and some of his words were a little clipped. It could be because of AT&T service or he might have been holding is phone incorrectly and affecting signal strength. (Bill I know you never read my blog, so I’m wondering how long it would take for you to realize I said this).


To make a phone call within Gmail, click on “Call phone” from within the chat box, it should be right under your name. If you haven’t installed the Google voice and video chat plugin, it will ask you to “Try it now“. After you’ve installed the plugin, you will be taken to a screen to test the microphone and webcam on your computer.

Once the plugin is installed, clicking on “Call phone” will give you a dialer, where you can type in the name of your contact and if their number is in your phone book, you can click on their number to initiate the call. Otherwise, just dial the number on the keypad with your mouse and it will call their phone. It’s great because I can save mobile minutes and make calls on my computer or even send text messages. They will see a random number generated by Google on their caller ID unless you have a Google Voice number. If you do, the person you dialed will see your Google Voice number on their caller ID. Have you installed the plugin into Gmail, if so, let me know your thoughts in the comments. If you have me on Facebook, give me a call to test it out!

To learn more about how to make phone calls within Gmail:
Watch this animation on how Gmail has evolved.


Here’s a NY Times article on How to Make Phone Calls Within Gmail

UPDATE:
I had to go into my Google Voice Settings and click on the check box to make sure I can get phone calls in Google chat. The call quality for video and voice chat was significantly better for PC to PC calls. I need to call people who have either a landline or mobile phones on different carriers.