Etan Horowitz

User's Guide

Motorola was once king of the cell phone industry. Everywhere you looked people were using those Razr phones made by the Illinois-based company. But these days, you’re more likely to see a Motorola phone in a rerun of 24 than in the hand of someone next to you on a bus.

With the Droid, Verizon, Motorola and Google have a winner that will further solidify Andorid phones as a worthy competitor to the iPhone, something that’s good for everyone.

Etan Horowitz can be reached at ehorowitz@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5447.

In Florida, all of the Verizon Wireless retail stores that are not located inside a mall will open at 7 a.m. Nationwide, some non-mall stores will open at 7 a.m. and some will open at 8 a.m.

To find the nearest Verizon store, enter your zipcode here.

No word yet on how many phones each store will have, but just like the iPhone launch, your best bet is probably heading to a less trafficked Verizon store, such as one in a suburban area.

The Droid is the first phone to feature Android 2.0, the second incarnation of Google's open source Android operating system for cell phones. Besides being more polished than Android 1.0, 2.0 also includes free turn by turn voice guided GPS directions from Google. 

It's the phone that's featured in those "iDon't" ads from Verizon and it's expected to help revive the fortunes of Motorola, a company that once made some of the most popular cell phones such as the Razr.

I've been testing the Droid for a few days, and I love the GPS as well as the large touch-screen and slick user interface. I'll have a full review of the Droid in my column.

The Droid will cost $200 with a new two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate.

Do you to plan to buy a Droid? Post a comment.

There are basically two options for using an iPhone overseas when there's no Wi-Fi available: pay AT&T for an international data plan, or "jailbreak" your iPhone so you can use a SIM card from a local carrier. Apple frowns upon jailbreaking and it requires some work, so I decided to get an international data plan.

Since International data roaming charges can be ridiculously expensive, we knew wouldn't be able to use the phones to constantly to check e-mail, browse the Web and send Twitter updates like we do in the U.S. But that wasn't a big deal because we didn't want to do all that while traveling anyway.

AT&T offers international data plans ranging for $25 for 20 MB to $200 for 200 MB. Since it's hard to know how much data you will use, before I left, I did a trial run of sorts. I reset the data usage meter in my iPhone (found under Settings), and I used my iPhone as usual for a day to figure out how much data I used.

Since my normal routine consists of checking my e-mail frequently, posting updates on Twitter, looking at Web pages and listening to Internet radio, I wouldn't be using nearly as much data in Europe. But knowing how much data I consume on a typical day helped me pick the right package. I can't remember how much data I used during my one day test.

For our 10-day trip, I decided to go with the 20 MB plan for $60. Since my wife has the newer iPhone 3GS, which is faster and includes a compass for improved Google Maps navigation, we decided to add the international data plan to her phone. I brought my iPhone 3G along, but only to use in airplane mode or when there was Wi-Fi available.

Before you leave the U.S.

• You have to call AT&T before you leave the U.S. to add the international plan.

• Lookup the addresses of all your hotels and the sights and restaurants you know you will visit and add them as "Bookmarks" in the Google Maps iPhone application. Having to enter the addresses when you are in Europe will take time and precious data.

• Open up any applications such as TripIt, Dropbox or the New York Times that have an offline mode, and update them so you can access them on the plane and when you don't have a connection. We used Dropbox to store Word documents with our itinerary as well as information on restaurants.  To access files offline in Dropbox, you have to mark them as "Favorites" when you have an Internet connection.
• Download any travel related apps or podcasts that you plan to use.

While you are traveling

Once we landed in Madrid (the first stop on our trip), we reset the data usage tracker on the iPhone 3GS, turned off active notifications and made sure automatic e-mail checking was off as well.

Google Maps

We were very pleased with how well Google Maps worked in Spain and Paris. There was 3G coverage virtually everywhere we went (even in ancient alleys) and it was faster and more reliable than AT&T's 3G coverage in the U.S.

When we wanted to use Google Maps, we switched the iPhone out of Airplane Mode and let it connect to one of the providers AT&T partners with (generally Movistar or Orange in Spain and Orange in France).

Once we loaded up the walking directions and used the built in compass to figure out which direction to go, to conserve our data allotment, we switched the phone back into Airplane Mode. Doing this essentially freezes your location on the maps app, but the detailed maps stay loaded on your phone, so you can see all of the street names, follow the directions and zoom in and out if needed.

When we got lost, or just needed to reassure ourselves that we were headed in the right direction, we turned Airplane Mode off to connect to a local cell provider and used to locate me feature in Google Maps.  

If you have a Wi-Fi connection, you can also load up some walking directions which you can continue using when you lose that connection. When using my iPhone (which did not have an international data plan), I would often use the free Wi-Fi in the hotel lobby to load up walking directions before heading out.

Use Wi-Fi like a gas station

Regardless of if you pay for an international data plan or not, when you have Wi-Fi access, use it to update stuff on your phone that you can access offline.

When I hit a Wi-Fi hotspot I would usually:

• Download my e-mail
• Update news applications such as the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal. When updating the NYTimes app, make sure you open up every section that you want to read and hit refresh (i.e. "Sports, Most E-mailed, etc).
• Download podcasts directly on my iPhone through the iTunes app
• Download the latest Twitter messages in Tweetie 2

Since we rode the subway a lot in Europe, all of this stuff keep me entertained and informed while going from stop to stop.

If you add an international data plan to your iPhone, you can switch it on for a few minutes to update your apps, which I did in the airport when there wasn't Wi-Fi available.

Beware!

Since your iPhone uses the same cell towers to make calls and perform data intensive functions such as checking e-mail or browsing the Web, it's not possible to set your phone only for data use. This means that even though we didn't plan to make any voice calls, if someone happened to call our phone while it was turned on and connected to a local cell network, we would be charged for the call, even if we didn't pick it up.

I was amazed at this, but nonetheless, it gave me another reason to keep the phone in airplane mode as often as possible to prevent any calls from going through.

The phone did ring once while it was on, and a few voice messages came through. All were automated calls from CVS telling us that a prescription was ready to pick up, and even though we never answered we were charged $3.87 for the calls. You can also pay $6 to reduce the per minute charges for international voice calls.

For more advice on using the iPhone and other gadgets while traveling abroad, read my column from Sunday.

Other resources

• "The true cost of using a smartphone abroad" - New York Times
• "How to take your iPhone overseas" - (Information on jailbreaking) - Wired.com

What tips do you have for using an iPhone abroad? Post a comment.

Here are some tips to make sure that doesn’t happen.

• Check which of your favorite TV series are offered for free on demand by your cable company and watch them on demand instead of recording them. For instance, Bright House Networks offers full episodes of shows from NBC, CBS and other networks for free. Some of the shows are even offered in HD. (Channels 304 and 1305).

• HD shows take up more space in your DVR, so if you are running out of space, don’t record everything in HD. News programs and reality shows don’t look as bad in standard definition as dramas such as FlashForward or Heroes do.

• Offload movies or other programs you want to save from your DVR to recordable media such as a VHS tape, DVD or computer hard drive. You can buy devices that let you transfer programs from your DVR to a hard drive. I use a device called the Neuros OSD to do this.

• When you are running out of space, watch longer shows first because they take up more space.

• Be selective about the shows you record, particularly when it comes to an entire series. If you set your DVR to record all old episodes of House, use the scheduled recordings function to cancel any upcoming recordings of shows you have already seen.

One more thing: You can hook up an external hard drive to your DVR or TiVo to expand its storage capacity. Keep in mind that this will not work on all DVRs and it will not work with all hard drives. And your cable company may not be able to provide support for this. You can find some instructions in this blog post I wrote in 2008.

What tips do you have for preserving space on your DVR? Post a comment.

For those of you who obsesses over every single new gadget announcement, you can probably skip this post. But for everyone else, it should be a good summary of important news big and small that you might have missed.

Windows 7 launch

By far, last week's biggest news was Thursday's launch of Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system. (You can read my review and a related blog post about it).

The Windows 7 launch went smoothly, although Microsoft recently announced it was pulling its sponsorship from a Family Guy special because (surprise!), the company objected to some of the content in the show.

New Apple computers, 'Magic Mouse'

Two days before Windows 7 went on sale, Apple announced it was refreshing its line of computers, including new iMacs, a new entry level MacBook and new Mac Mini.

The announcement that generated the most buzz was the introduction of a new product called the "Magic Mouse," which is a mouse that incorporates some of the gesture controls (swiping, pinching etc), used on the iPhone and MacBook computers.

Houston Chronicle tech blogger Dwight Silverman has a good recap of the new Apple products. 

Verizon announces new phone with the Android operating system

Verizon is joining T-Mobile and Sprint in offering phones that feature Google's Android operating system. The first Verizon Android phone is called the "Droid" and it will be available on November 6 for $199.

The Droid features both a Qwerty keyboard and touch-screen. Verizon has begun promoting the Droid through an ad that takes shots at the iPhone's shortcomings.

But despite the ads, Verizon executives have said they'd still like to offer the iPhone.

Netflix Streaming coming to PlayStation 3

Over the past few years, movies by mail company Netflix has been brought its streaming service to computers and a variety of devices including Tivos, Blu-ray players and the Roku box. But because of an exclusive deal, Microsoft's Xbox 360 was the only gaming console that had Netflix streaming. That will change next month as Netflix recently announced that owners of Sony's PlayStation 3 will also be able to stream movies on their gaming console.

Meanwhile, Roku has announced new models of its set top box that streams Netflix movies and other content.

Google and Microsoft to start indexing Twitter 'tweets'

Increasingly, people are relying on messages posted on Twitter when they want to know about something that is happening right now, something known as the "real-time web." Historically, search engines like Google and Microsoft's Bing have not done a good job providing up to the minute information because they heavily rely on Web pages that have gained authority over time.

Last week, both Google and Microsoft announced that they had reached deals with Twitter to include tweets in search results on Google and Bing.

Barnes & Noble unveils e-reader

Dubbed the "nook," the gadget will cost $259 and feature a touch-screen. It will also allow users to lend digital books to their friends, something no other electronic reader offers.

The LA Times has more on the nook.

Which of these announcements are you most excited about? Post a comment.

In that story, I mentioned that later this year, Disney planned to launch a mobile application that will let Verizon Wireless customers see wait times, find out character locations and get restaurant information and directions from point to point in the park.

This morning, Disney released some details about the app and screenshots from it on its official Disney Parks blog.

The app will be called "Mobile Magic" and will offer information to visitors of Walt Disney World and Disneyland in California.

Some details from the blog post:

Attraction wait times on your Verizon Wireless device will be unique. There’s been an investment in the backend infrastructure to support Mobile Magic and offer actual wait times based directly on Disney Parks information.

As for FASTPASS, you’ll be able to check if it’s still available for specific attractions. And if FASTPASS is available, the app will deliver information about the next return time. So, if you can still get a FASTPASS, the application will show, for example: FP: 4:00-5:00 p.m.

Also, mobile maps are GPS-enabled. While wandering the parks, your location will be indicated by a white circle. Then it’s simple to scroll through content and find it on the map via a “getting there” option. The map zooms out and allows you to see your location and exactly where the character greeting or restaurant can be located.

Verizon customers will have to pay for the app, but Disney has not said how much it will cost, or when it will be available. I'm checking with Disney and Verizon for more details and will update this post if I find out more.

Disney says the actual wait times and character location information will only be available while you are standing inside the park. When you are not in the park, you will be able to see more general wait times information on a new mobile Web site Disney says it is launching.

Here are some screenshots:

The timing of this announcement coincides with a major smartphone push by Verizon, which has just announced a new phone called the Droid, which will feature Google's Android operating system. Verizon is clearly trying to steal some of the buzz away from the iPhone, as evidenced by the "iDont" TV commercials for the new phone.

It sounds like Disney has an exclusive deal with Verizon for mobile apps at the moment, but since iPhone apps dominate the market, I wouldn't be surprised if Disney is working on some iPhone apps as well.

We're calling it the Orbbies, which stands for "Orlando's Rockin Blogs." 

Starting today, you'll be able to nominate your own blog in the following categories:

• Foodies
• Humor
• Pop Culture
• Music and Nightlife
• Neighborhood
• News
• Politics
• Sports- Basketball
• Sports- Football
• Sports- Other
• Mommy/Family
• Personal
• Photography
• Art/DIY
• Business and Technology
• Theme Parks/ Tourism
• Out of this world (Unclassified)
• BOB (Best overall Blog)

The nomination period will last until November 2 and voting will run from November 2nd at 10 am through November 20th at 5 pm. We'll have a tweetup to celebrate the winners (don't worry, everyone is invited).

Nominate your blog here: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orbbies

Read the complete rules here

A few more details: