The 81-day experiment

Simple Things You Can Do To Use Smartphones Safely--see list on Facebook and add to it!

2008-03-07T18:02:59-08:00

I was insipired this week by the "Simple Things You Can Do to Live Green" list that Ellen Leanse showed in the lunch & learn webinar that she presented about Facebook (titled Facebook in Action). The "Simple Things You Can Do to Live Green" included items such as:

And there is more. You can refer to the full list by adding Ellen's "Lists" application to your Facebook applications.

Inspired by Ellen, I added the Lists application, and started a new list: "Simple Things You Can Do to Use Smartphones Safely". After all, I have been quite interested in smartphone safety and put some significant effort in the last couple of years in trying to promote and define how we can use smartphones more safely. So these are some items from the list:

Happy and safe smartphoning!

The Apple iPhone international provisioning plan didn't quite work, but AT&T ended up fixing it

2008-02-24T18:51:38-08:00

If you followed my posts from end of December until early January, you probably know that I spent a significant amount of time talking to AT&T and Apple technical support reps, trying to get informed about how I can be using the Apple iPhone internationally without costing me thousands of dollars in voice and data charges. Well that process of getting informed, in and by itself, was quite a challenge, and finally I believe that I got the right information, and ended up signing up for one of international data provisioning plans which costed $59/month for 50MB of data.

Now that I am back to the U.S. it is time to pay the bill. So here is the result of my effort: I got charged for the international provisioning (the $59/month) and in addition, I got charged about $225 for international voice and data usage. It didn't take too long to get this corrected, and the $225 charges taken out of my bill, but it is ironic, and it is Murphy's law at its best.

So the moral of the story of my research about using the iPhone internationally, which started in early December and ended in late January, is that you really need an international provisioning plan, you need to be careful with the usage knowing that 50MB can go by pretty quickly, and finally you need to be on top of things in terms of checking and making sure you're getting what you thought you would.

For more details about the plans, and my experience with that, check out the following posts:

- Initial exploration of the Apple iPhone and AT&T's international plans

- The Apple iPhone visual voice mail when traveling internationally

- More about the Apple iPhone & AT&T's international calling plans

- How the iPhone was performing in Europe

- My last entry from overseas

The Apple iPhone continued to perform well overseas, but connection speed suffers

2008-01-07T13:30:00-08:00

The Apple iPhone continued to serve my needs well as my trip progressed. I had busy days, or even a period of a few days, where I did not even get to open my laptop, but still felt up-to-date and well connected via e-mail on the iPhone.

However, checking e-mail has been a slow process. It seems that connecting back to the home servers, and roaming through networks, takes its toll. Checking e-mail was more than just a few-seconds exercise. Even though I didn't time it yet, it seems to be more like a 15 to 30 second thing, if not more. Obviously I could have e-mail automatically retrieved every 15 minutes or so, but I am still trying to preserve battery life and kilobyte download.

The Apple iPhone usability really shines. Changing the time zone, so that the calendar, the clock, and the alarm are in synch with the local time is easy to do. Having multiple clocks to see the time in previous and future destinations is also helpful, not to mention monitoring the weather easily in all destinations. Camera and photos are one of the most admired feature especially when it comes to zooming in and out with the fingers, and filpping from one to the next easily and quickly. And of course, music and videos are quite useful during long trips. However, the maps and internet are not as helpful, knowing that the time it would take to load a page is too long--except in instances where a Wi-Fi network is within reach.

It is towards the end of my trip, and the data usage on the Apple iPhone is showing approximately:

Sent: 3 MB

Received: 30 MB

That is still way within the 50MB plan that I ordered! It seems that the trip will come to a conclusion, and there will be unused MB's. Not bad!

The Apple iPhone performing well from Europe

2007-12-14T04:58:49-08:00

So far so good. The Apple iPhone is doing the job during my trip overseas. I already took care of several urgent e-mails using the iPhone. I am able to access my e-mail accounts (POP and IMAP accounts) and with the IMAP account which is retrieving e-mails from an Exchange server, I can see the e-mail folders and even file items within folder.

So far, and 24 hour into my trip, the data usage on the Apple iPhone indicates:

Sent: 631 KB

Received: 3.9 MB

That is about 10% of the 50 MB monthly international plan. At this rate, I will probably reach the 50 MB limit in the next week or two, and then any additional data usage will cost 2 cents per kilobyte. So an additional 50 or so MB of data would cost $1000.00

Finally the Apple iPhone and AT&T international calling plans are becoming clear

2007-12-11T07:20:00-08:00

After having talked to more than five different customer reps, and probably spend a couple of hours with them on the phone in the last week or two, I got the Apple iPhone internationl plan setup. Here is the final outcome, at least for now:

1. The ATT World Travel Plan

This costs $5.95/month or so and give you a discounted rate in Europe ($0.99/minutes as opposed to $1.20/minute or so) and also disscount on text and picture messages.

2. The interntaional provisioning plan

I purchased an additional data plan for $59.95/month or so that provides me with 50 MB of data transfer. This will hopefully be enough for checking e-mail and writing a few, when I am on the go in between locations. There is also a 20 MB plan available at $24.95/month, but I thought 20 MB may not be enough for my trip.

3. Visual voice mail got disabled while basic voice mail is still available

It seems that Apple customer service rep was right. The visual voice mail got disabled, while I can still call the basic voice mail service, and check on voice mail messages. In this case, the charge will be a regular per minute charge with no additional data charge (so the 2 cents per kilobytes will no longer apply).

4. E-mail attachments still a danger

It was confirmed that there is no way to disable sending attachments to the Apple iPhone. This means that large attachments can become expensive if you exceed the data volume that is allowed in the international provisioning that you choose. I chose the 50 MB international provisioning plan ($59.95 per month), so if I get attachments that end up exceeding 50 MB in total, the cost for the excess data is 2 cents per kilobyte.

5. Discontinuing the plans upon returning to the U.S.

One thing to remember is that the additional plans I added above, need to be disabled after one returns to the U.S. This is not done automatically. So another call to the AT&T support team will be necessary.

How about monitoring the data usage while overseas

Even though I was told that this cannot be done, I discovered later that the Usage screen in the iPhone settings, does track the data downloaded to the device, and it does offer a reset button which allows you to reset the statistics. I am hoping that resetting this at the beginning of my trip will help me keep an eye on the data usage.

Helpful resources and reminders

The Smartphone Experiment book: The Apple iPhone and 11 other smartphones were reviewed in The Smartphone Experiment book--how to select your smartphone in 5 easy steps. If you are looking for a smartphone, the book offers a comprehensive review of the most popular models as well as the worksheets that can help you assess your needs and make an informed decision.

Please use your smartphone safetly and "don't type and drive". If you have friends and family who are smartphone users, please send them the "don't type and drive" greeting card.

Finally, check out the "don't type and drive" video, and help us spread the word about the "don't type and drive" campaign.

The Apple iPhone visual voice mail, a great feature locally, but how about when you travel internationally!

2007-12-10T07:57:00-08:00

As I continue to get ready for my trip to Europe (and research the details of the Apple iPhone international plans, and how to avoid being surprised with a thousand dollar bill upon return), I am finding out more about the "visual voice mail" capability that the Apple iPhone offers.

According to Apple, we can disable the visual voice mail feature--which seems to be quite costly during an international trip as explained below, but still have the basic voice mail service. However the AT&T customer service rep today mentioned that I would have to completely disable voice mail in order to turn off the visual voice mail feature.

Visual voice mail is a nice feature in the Apple iPhone. It basically displays your voice mail messages as a list, which you can then scroll through and tap on the desired voice mail message to listen to it. When you listen to a message, you see a visual indictor which you can slide forward or backward to quickly jump to a certain point within the voice mail message.

The visual voice mail feature makes voice mail almost like e-mail, which means more easily trackable, and retrievable, instead of having to sequentially listen to all messages to get to the desired message.

However, to provide the visual voice mail capabilities, the iPhone downloads the voice mail messages as data files, which means a lot of data is being transferred to the device. This is not a problem when you are in the U.S. knowing that the data plan provides unlimited data, but when traveling, the 2 cents per kilobyte can make visual voice mail quite expensive. If my calculations are correct, the number would add up as follows:

1 MB message will cost $20

10 MB worth of messages will end up costing $200

And 50 MG worth of meesages will end up costing $1000

So what is the solution? If the Apple customer service rep is right, then I should be able to disable visual voice mail and keep the basic voice mail service during my trip. If the AT&T customer rep is right, then I would need to completely disable voice mail, and be without voice mail to avoid the extra voice mail charges at the 2 cents per kilobyte.

I am still searching for the answer, and hopefully my next call to the AT&T technical support will lead me to the answer!

Helpful resources and reminders

Please use your smartphone safetly and "don't type and drive". If you have friends and family who are smartphone users, please send them the "don't type and drive" greeting card.

Finally, check out the "don't type and drive" video, and help us spread the word about the "don't type and drive" campaign.

How costly will taking my Apple iPhone to Europe is going to be?

2007-12-05T21:24:32-08:00

After hearing all the horror stories about smartphone users coming back from overseas with their Apple iPhone and being surprised (or shocked) by their iPhone bills (in the hundreds or maybe one thousand plus dollars), I thought I would do my homework and talk to the AT&T customer service, and get the real story.

After about a half-hour call, I did get the story, and not sure yet if it is the complete story, but at least it is a start. Here is what the story looked like, and I hope that this will help make my come back to the U.S. easier with no major surprises. So here are the pieces of information that I gathered:

a) It seem that adding an interntional package is the answer. The international package can range from $29.00 or so for a 20 MB data plan, to $60.00 or so for a 50 MB data plan.

b) The customer service rep recommended turning automatic retrieve of e-mail off, which can be done from the iPhone handset. I am not sure if that will help much, because once I retrieve e-mail manually, it is going to retrieve everything, and download the same amount of data. But maybe the automatic checking of e-mail has some cost associated with it. Still to be determined.

c) In terms of e-mail attachments, it doesn't seem to be possible to turn off the downloading of attachments. This is interesting because it means the 20 MB and 50 MB may be taking up pretty quickly.

d) It seems that voice mail (the more sophisticated "visual" voice mail in the Apple iPhone) could also be very costly overseas. Voice mail messages seem to be downloaded as data, and therefore a long message translates to lots of data (i.e. lots of megabytes). This can eat up the 20 MB or 50 MB very quickly. The suggested solution here was to disable voice mail during my trip. This is not something I can do myself from the iPhone handset. I need to call the AT&T customer service to do that.

e) How about phone usage? The per minute charge in Germany for instance is $1.29, but with the international package, the cost per minute drops to $0.99. Sending text messages and picture messages cost $0.5 and $1.30 respectively. Receiving text messages and picture messages depends on your home plan, and doesn't seem to incur extra charnges.

So what is the conclusion so far?

- Get one of the international packages before you travel
- Tell everyone you know to refrain from sending you big attachments (let us see if I will be able to find a more elegant solution)
- Disable voice mail before you go by calling AT&T and then re-enable it when you get back
- Remember that every minute on the phone while overseas will cost you at leat $1, so be concise, precise, and talk fast.

There will more on the topic as I continue to gather information, and then the final and important report will take place when I get back.

Happy overseas traveling and iPhoning!

Is the iPhone a better iPod?

2007-09-15T19:32:00-07:00

Oh well, when you're in the Gym with your iPod on (a very regular scene these days), it is not likely that you would hear your cell phone when an important call comes in. But with the iPhone, when the call comes in, the music stops and you can hear the phone ring, which gives you the opportunity to take that important call that you have been waiting for, or this unexpected call from the boss who is desperate for your immediate help in a life-or-death situation (or at least a situation that is perceived that way).

But aren't you supposed to be working out and enjoying the moment?

Well it all depends on how you look at it. If you have the luxury of working out and enjoying the moment without the need to stay connected, obviously that would be ideal. But for some, without this ability to stay connected and reachable while working out (or doing whatever else we may want to do), this may mean skipping working out all together (or skipping whatever else we would have chosen to do).

This brings the question of whether "connectivity" means less freedom (being reachable all the time), or more freedom (because you can do what you want, and still be reachable). This is a discussion I tend to have from time to time with our workshop participiants. Some think that a smartphone might make them too "reachable" and is therefore undesirable for them, while others think that their smartphone is their freedom, and instead of being "chained" to their desk, or constantly rushing to get their laptop connected, they can still handle urgencies, stay up-to-date, and be where they need to be and enjoy the moment.

Apple iPhone Unlocked? 17-year-old George Hotz and the iPhoneSimFree group seem to be doing it!

2007-08-27T08:10:00-07:00

Soon after my friend Elliott and I spent some time going over the iPhone features last week (including demonstrating to Elliott the Web browsing and pinching-in and out to zoom on webpages that are otherwise unreadable), Elliott mentioned that he just heard about a young man who unlocked the Apple iPhone!

Well the next day, Elliott followed up on this newsworthy development, by sending me this article from the New York Times. As you can see 17-year-old George Hotz and the iPhoneSimFree group seem to be have unlocked the Apple iPhone:

With Software and Soldering, a Non-AT&T iPhone

It remains to be seen what the legal consequences are if any, but for now, if you are really interested in a non-AT&T Apple iPhone, and as the above article mentioned, you may be able to get one from George or from the iPhoneSimFree group on e-Bay, but it will cost you $$$.

Case STudy: Cingular 8525--now AT&T 8525

2007-08-26T18:25:00-07:00

In this case study, Sean from Chicago shares his experience with the AT&T 8525 (If you would like to contribute your case study, please e-mail the81dayexperiment@people-onthego.com with Case Study in the subject line). Here is what Sean has to say about the AT&T 8525:

----- Case Study -----

I wanted to let you know I had to get my boss up and running with the 8525 on the ATT network. I have to say that I was really pleased with the phone.

Our company is currently a Verizon customer and we are pretty much standardized on the 6700 with a few 820's (a sweet little flip phone if you don't mind missing a keyboard) and are waiting for the 6700's replacement running Windows Mobile 6)

So I had recently ordered a 8525 and the treo 750 for the company President's ATT phone. He goes international a lot (unlike most of us) and needed a non-cdma phone.

I have to say the 8525 is a big improvement. There's more memory and I just seems a little snappier then the 6700. Slightly newer build of windows mobile 5 and the phone even feels a little better. Huge bonus is the wheel.

(idea stolen from the crack-berry for sure) Missing one button I liked with the 6700 but not really missed.

Phone seems pretty fast on the internet with in a 3g environment.

Loaded our default apps:

Microsoft Voice command. (needed newer version; 1.5 will not work on newer os build) PDAnet (the best way to get your laptop on the net with the phone) TomTom Navigator 6. (tomtom nav 6 is not really compatable with phone however. Also will not be compatible with WM6 either. Nav6 could not communicate with phones tcip stack so traffic updates did not work.

I've read a lot about users complaining there wm phone needs to be soft-reset. I've found the source of this issue is two things. Memory and applications.

All applications are not created equal. Tomtom navigator 6 can cause some WM phones to seem to go crazy for some reason for example.

Other applications seem to make the phone freeze up for periods of time and not seem responsive. Be carefull what 3rd party apps you put on the phone.

You just might need to reset it to clear up the phone. Plus don't just install everything back on a phone all at once. Install apps one at a time.

Patience is required to setup a replacement phone.

Memory, if you use IE a lot and surf graphic pages your phone will get slower. The more apps and memory you absorb with email and web pages will cause the phone to do tricky things. I have 3 IMAP email accounts plus hotmail setup on the phone with attachments stored on the external memory.

If you keep to many days worth of email the headers alone can take up all the memory. So delete your cache and keep as few days of email as you can on the phone.

In closing, the 8525 seems to be a great device with a nice pullout keyboard.

Runs better then all the other WM5 phones I've tried. Have not needed to soft-reset the phone once. Blue-Tooth and the new Microsoft Voice Command works great. (now your outlook appointments are announced in your ear rather then everyone hearing them)

Can't wait to see some WM6 phones like this one hit the streets. (Verizon needs it bad) while ATT not as much with this phone being available. This phone is considerably better then the 8125 that it replaced.

Sean~