{balki Blog}
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Over the years, I have tried various international call providers including BigZoo, Reliance, Vonage and SargamDirect.  The prices decreased dramatically (they went from 60 cents/min to India in 1999 to almost 5 cents/min with my latest favorite RebTel) and the call quality improved significantly.  However, each of these providers had their own share of problems (issues like taxes, billing difficulties, company just folding, dialing a gazillion digits, etc).  I finally resigned to using SargamDirect (on the road) and Vonage (at home) not because they are outstanding or cheap but just because I lost the patience to try a new provider every other week.

When my nephew Kiran suggested RebTel, I was very reluctant at first but was instantly intrigued after visiting their web-site.  I think RebTel is a truly innovative product and that it offers quality at a very reasonable price (5.6 cents/min to India).

Here’s some pros and cons:

Pros	Cons
Easy registration (via credit card, PayPal or Ukash)	Currently cannot auto-recharge when using PayPal
Automatic recharge when the balance falls below a certain threshold (I think it is $1.00)
Only 5.6 cents/min for calls to India	It could have been even cheaper
*Auto-generated local number for each of your contacts in a foreign country	Currently limited to 20 contacts
Can register up to 5 phone numbers for the service (to make calls from)	Maybe limiting for a family of 5+ phones
RebTel customers can make free calls between each other	Not the most convenient way to call!
Current promotion gives you 20$ credit for new users.	I only get 5 free minutes for referrals
Very tightly integrated into SMS, email and phone so you don’t need to manage your account exclusively online.	Takes some time and effort to get used to all these features.

If you want to check out the service, let me know and I will send a referral.  Happy calling!

“You can now receive coupons for Hollywood Video on your cell phone now“. If that piece of news does not give an orgasm then there is definitely something wrong with you!

When I received an unsolicited email from Handango a couple weeks ago about CellFire, I was more annoyed than excited. However, I added the link to my TODO list and over that weekend had a few minutes to explore new and noteworthy stuff. I started looking at the CellFire website and I really started digging the idea. Especially after I realized I could get online from my smartphone only using my laptop’s internet connection. I installed the special smart phone version of the software on my Cingular 2125 and have not looked back since.

Here’s a quick screencast on CellFire works:

Money saved per month because of CellFire Hollywood Video coupons: $15.16
The amazed look on the clerk’s face when validating my CellFire coupon: approx. $220.00
The embarrassment in my wife’s tone when she blurted out, “My husband is a freak!”: Priceless

Technorati : CellFire, Coupons on mobile phone, Hollywood Video, smartphone
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When I first bought my smartphone, I signed up for the Unlimited Data plan (20$/month) so I could stay connected all the time. But after a few months I realized that the unlimited data plan was not paying off as I anticipated for a couple reasons:

1. My laptop (with a internet connection) is handy 95% of the time so the internet connection on my smartphone was simply redundant
2. Even for the remaining 5% of the time (e.g. while driving) I never desperately needed to be online to get some urgent info

So, I canceled my data plan a couple months ago and life went on happily until I came across CellFire! (please await more info about the goodness of CellFire in an upcoming blog entry). In essence, I needed internet connection on my cell-phone to be able to leverage cellfire.
I desperately searched all over on google to see if there was a way to cheat and connect to the internet by piggybacking on the host computer’s internet connection. There were several posts that claimed this was possible but somehow the steps they listed did not match what I saw on my smartphone. A couple hours later I figured out how to accomplish the result:

Step 1. On your host computer, make sure your File -> Connection Settings -> This Computer is Connected To: is set as “Internet”

Step 2. Connect your smartphone to the computer via ActiveSync.

Step 3. Follow these steps on your smartphone to use the passthru internet connection!

Technorati : CellFire, internet passthru, smartphone
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SmartphoneNotes : The default one that syncs up with Outlook Notes just does not cut it.
Oxios ToDo List : Lets just say Oxios ToDo list is the native Outlook ToDo list on high-performance steroids. The freeware application “Oxios Tasks Plugin” is just icing on cake.
PhotoContacts : Unfortunately, this is another app that Microsoft should have provided by default but does not. Provides lots of configurable options to show the caller’s picture for incoming calls.
Google Maps Mobile (via Midlet manager) : Enough said!
Google Mobile (Personalized Home) : Optimized for viewing on small screens
WordBook (talking dictionary/thesaurus) : I just love the way I can tease and correct my wife’s pronunciation.
AbstractStart (freeware) : Takes the stress out of navigation by putting the most used programs first on the start menu. Simple concept; right on the money.
PMRecorder (freeware)* : Very handy when you want to record those phone conversations with untrustworthy customer service reps.
Wapedia : Wikipedia on the go!

*Always follow legal advice before recording any conversations.

Technorati : Cingular 2125, smartphone, tools
Del.icio.us : Cingular 2125, smartphone, tools

1. 320×240 QVGA screen: The 2.2 inch TFT active matrix screen is a treat for the eyes and I enjoy every minute I spend watching photos/videos and browsing the Internet on this awesome screen.
2. The 1.3 MP digital camera/video-recorder is not shabby either. Especially because I can immediately e-mail the pictures to friends and family using one of the messaging tools (hotmail, outlook email or any of the other email providers)
3. The flight-mode: Simple yet brilliant idea. I don’t need to shut off the phone completely while flying; I just need to change it to flight-mode so I can continue doing other geeky stuff using the phone.
4. Photo Contacts: Lots of cool features around picture caller Id functionality. (PS: I am still waiting for PocketX to release a version for Cingular’s QVGA screen).
5. Support from 3rd party developers: There are 1000s of 3rd party applications out there already and there is always a possibility of writing my own! In fact I have a wish-list of features which I might someday start working on if nobody else offers them for under 14.95
6. Windows Mobile Media Player 10: The media player on 2125 is no match to iPod/iTunes but it is a pretty convenient replacement when my wife steals the iPod on Fridays. I bought a 1GB miniSD card on buy.com for 20$ and now I can listen to most of my favorite music and podcasts on my phone
7. SmartphoneNotes and Oxios ToDo list: These are 2 of the most versatile replacements for Windows Mobile Notes and TaskList. I keep discovering new features with them every single day
8. T9 Predictive Text Input and Smart contact list: Go to contacts and start tying the first few letter of the contact name and boom I can locate the number with very few key strokes (just 1 key press per letter; I don’t need to press the 7 key four times to get the letter ’s’) . For a more detailed explanation of T9, go here
9. Google Local: Not sure how google managed to pull off this application but they have done a pretty darn fantastic job! I can locate just about any business address on the map quite easily (handy links to the phone number & directions to that location are just icing on the cake)
10. Automatic profile: What a brilliant idea! I stay on automatic mode all the time and let the phone take care of switching between normal and meeting modes based on my calendar. There are several applications that take this concept even further (features like changing to flight mode based on some keywords in the calendar, and changing to silent mode after a certain time every night) but I am still debating if I want to complicate this simple and elegant feature that already works like a charm.

Technorati : Cingular 2125, smartphone
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Technorati : Cingular 2125, smartphone
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Greatly inspired by the mostly lukewarm success of my attempts to keep up with friends and family in the United States, (see my previous article Calling friends and family is fun again!) I ventured on to haunt my numerous international family members and friends. And by the way, when I say “international”, I mean my home-country India and by “numerous family members and friends”, I mean my mom.

Firstly, I needed to find an easy way to dial the numbers (especially with super long international numbers). However, since Cingular’s international rates are a little too steep (click on the image to the left to see calling rates to India), I also had to find a clean way to include Sargam Direct’s (a reliable and cheap calling card provider) toll-free number as part of each international phone number. I call India mostly during the weekend, so wasting air-time on my cell phone was not a big concern.

Anyways, after a few minutes of research, I came out with an easy way of calling any international number using a calling card, with only two clicks! The key is to add appropriate number of “p”s after the calling card number (to signify the pauses while the phone waits for the automated instructions to complete) before entering the actual international phone number and/or the secret PIN for the calling card. In Sargam Direct’s case I had to use two “p”s.

PS: This technique will most likely work on many cell phones, not just smartphones. However, the process might be slightly different. For example, on my wife’s Motorola Razr, I had to “insert a pause” instead of adding the letter “p” in between.

Technorati : Calling cards, Cell phone, smartphone
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I have a recurring weekly reminder on my Outlook Tasks to call friends and family (along with their names and phone numbers for convenience). But I also have to admit that I always mark that reminder complete even though I don’t call a single person on that list. I feel like it is too much hassle to open the reminder on my computer, find my phone, and dial the number (or find that contact’s details on the phone). Not anymore!! Not after I started leveraging my new Cingular 2125.

Over the last 2 weeks, I reviewed various Task management software and settled on the 3rd party Oxios ToDo List (because the native Task List that comes with Windows Mobile 5.0 OS sucks big time). Oxios ToDo list does a fantastic job of simulating the Task list on my Outlook, and beyond. One of the best features is the “links view”. In the above case, when the reminder (to call) pops up on my phone, I simply open the reminder and switch to Links View and voila! All the phone numbers and email addresses turn into hyperlinks. I can call any of the numbers (or send an email) by merely selecting that number. How convenient and smart is that?

So, friends and family, if you start getting calls from me more often than usual it does not necessarily mean I am liking you more. It only means that “calling people is super easy and fun again“!!

Technorati : Cingular 2125, smartphone

Yesterday we were on a Delta plane from Jacksonville, FL to Atlanta which was completely full. Maanasa and I did not get our seats together. I was in the middle seat in the center row so I requested my two neighbors if one of them could switch seats with Maanasa who was sitting in the row behind me in the middle seat. But neither of them was willing to give up the comfort of their aisle seat to go sit in a middle seat. I thought it was not a big deal since it was only a 45-minute flight, and I needed some private time anyways. I dozed off before the plane took off and did not wake up until after the flight landed in Atlanta. Apparently many flights were delayed, including our own flight while I was happily sleeping and the flight crew had no updated information on the various connecting flights and the passengers were getting quite anxious to find out their connecting flight status. We also had to take a connecting flight from Atlanta to Portland an hour later, so as the plane slowly taxied to the gate, I wanted to check the status. I pulled out my shiny new Cingular 2125 powered with unlimited MediaNet service, navigated to the five-alive site optimized for viewing on PDAs and smartphones, and keyed in the flight number to find out to my delight, that our flight was still on schedule. Both my neighbors watched me do this, but only one of them dared to be shameless enough to ask me to check her flight status. It so happened that even though her connecting flight was supposed to have left already, it was behind schedule and she still had 20 minutes to make it. So, she quickly gathered her stuff and zoomed out of the plane to try her luck (and check her running speed!). The other guy probably had too much ego to ask me for help, so he called up his wife and asked her to turn on the computer and yelled instructions on his cell phone on how to check the flight status on www.delta.com. I could clearly see him thinking he should have offered Maanasa his seat when I requested. The payback was swift, powerful and painful!

Anyways, I felt it was a nice sweet (geeky) sort of my own brand of revenge.

If I were to turn this incident into a MasterCard commercial, I would end it with the following quote:
A month’s subscription to MediaNet Unlimited: 19.99
The desperate, helpless, contrite look on your enemy’s face: Priceless!

PS: All fun aside, I am not the kind of a person who would take pride in a geeky revenge. I would have gladly offered to look up this guy’s connecting flight status, if I knew for sure he actually needed it.

Technorati : Medianet, cingular, five-alive
Flickr : Medianet, cingular, five-alive