LG VX6100 via eBay

Just as a reminder, I’ve been on a quest to live a carrierless life for almost a year now. I’ve tried a bunch of stuff, including a hacked Android G1 running SIPDroid, an iPhone running Skype on wifi, and iPalm, and most recently, a 3rd Gen iPod touch with Skype and Google Voice and an EVDO 3G card. This last combination has worked out so well that I’ve hardly touched my Palm Pre in the past 3 weeks, turning it on just twice, once to check voicemail, and again today to switch the service to the LG phone.

Pick a phone, any phone...

The reason for the switch is that Verizon (and AT&T) require a data plan on all smart phones, in addition to basic voice features. This get expensive. Ah, whatever, just cancel the plan… Oh wait, the early termination fee for the Pre is $310. Three hundred and ten dollars. I knew this going into the contract, but it’s still kinda shocking. Well, what about downgrading? Hmm… I talked to Verizon and they told me I could in fact downgrade my phone and keep my old number, without extending my contract. Awesome.

Long story short, I’m now paying $20/month for 50 minutes of voice a month. No text. No data. And after all, that’s what the iPod data phone is for! (btw I had Verizon block incoming texts as well as web access, just in case Justin Beiber broadcasts my number on twitter and text messages jack up my bill.)

The Dream Team

3rd gen iPod Touch with Skype and GV

Hopefully one of these days Google will support mobile safari calls through their recently launched Google Chat VOIP service. Until then, iPod touch + skype backgrounding + Google Voice SMS + backup flip phone are faring pretty darn well. Hold that thought, I’m getting a call…

The Mobile Freedom Project continues with this latest iteration. After hearing about Skype with multitasking, I purchased an 3rd Generation iPod Touch (the only iPod that currently supports multitasking), and got to work.

ipod 3rd generation and no contract EVDO card from DataJack

I already have Google Voice and a Skype number setup, and I purchased an no-contract EVDO card from DataJack a few months ago, so this round of setup was pretty simple. I setup Google Voice to forward calls to my Skype number. Connected the iPod to the datajack wifi. Call forwarding and multitasking are working fine, ringing the iPod as expected.

Skype ringing on incoming call

The only problem solving I had to do was push notifications for Google Voice SMS. I did a cursory search for an app that does this, but none of them were satisfactory. The solution I came up with was pretty simple. Text messages to Google Voice get forwarded to my email, and I’ve installed the Push for Gmail app to give SMS like alerts for emails.

Battery drain with Skype backgrounding is likely the biggest pitfall, but hopefully future updates will address this.

My next step might be to set up a separate email account for Google Voice only, so that the notifications only pop up for SMS and voicemail, instead of all email.

Please feel free to post comments or questions, or check out the other Mobile Freedom Project posts for background and ideas.

Skype on iPod touch via Palm Pre Plus wifi from Cameron Cundiff on Vimeo.

API for the World is a sensor and web application that turns anything with a power cord into a networked object. At the flip of a switch you can send a message to twitter, facebook, foursquare, or any other service you define. We did this to fill the gap between old technology and the “smart” devices we see today.

Imagine if your grandmother could use her bedside lamp to communicate with loved ones. When she goes to bed, she flip off her bedside lamp and we get a message to twitter, and can be rest-assured that she’s alright.

We’ve included the ability to define new devices, behaviors, and message through an online dashboard. You can also add new servi
ces with which the application can communicate.

The application uses a current sensor (to tell if the device is drawing power) to send a wireless message to the application, which then pushes a message according to the scenario you’ve defined. For you geeks out there, the sensor measure induction and sends a POST request to a Rails app via an XBee module. The web app then uses the Twitter API to post a message.

We can imagine this app going in a bunch of different directions. You could use it to check into Foursquare or update facebook that you had toast for breakfast. In the scenario with grandma’s lamp, perhaps the lamp could order itself lightbulbs according to when the lightbulb is projected to fail.

We’re working on sensor documentation of the project and an instructable, as well as open sourcing the code. Thanks to TechCrunch and the ITP team for an awesome hack day.

The Team:

• Karla Calderon
• Cameron Cundiff
• Michael Zick Doherty
• Chika Iijima
• Rune Madsen
• Sofy Yuditskaya
• Shahar Zaks

From the beginning, I’ve tried to keep the application simple, not just for the end users, but also for administrators. I’ve done this by using third party API’s to offload data storage and administration to those sites. It means that if you or a customer hasn’t already added your business to Yelp or Yahoo! Local, you can add yourself and show up in Bridge into Beacon.

This approach leverages high connectivity and remote resources to ease the burden on administrators, which increases the initial viability of the application. However, it seems antithetical to the idea of resilience and sustainability. I wonder, in using third party APIs to promote resilience, is Bridge into Beacon past the threshold between local production and global services? What are the tradeoffs, and are they worth it? It seems to me these are some of the same issues facing resilient community advocates. Hope some of you will weight in.

With these points in mind, I plan to make the home screen a list and simple map with markers showing all locations, with three filter tabs: Food, Arts, and Shops. Each tab will narrow the map markers and the list to that category. If the user taps a marker or list item, they will see a details page with the location name, subcategory (i.e “cafe” or “gallery”), address and phone number, and directions from their current location in list form. Preview to come.

Acrobits Softphone works on 3G

Exploring a couple of new options for my carrierless life. Datajack + SIPDroid on the G1 is treating me well (minus a nagging echo for the other caller). I have been missing the iPhone some, so went scrounging and found acrobits softphone. I was excited to see that it allows calls over 3G (whereas Skype does not), and the call quality is great with good 3G. The downsides:

• still requires setting up a SIP number
• you have to jailbreak your phone to get the datajack sim card to work
• the app has to stay open to receive calls (jailbreaking may solve this one)

I think it would be a great alternative to iPhone users who don’t mind getting their hands dirty. Certainly beats Skype’s limitations, and doesn’t require an Android phone.

Susan Stava for The New York Times

While there I met with Scott Tillitt of BEAHIVE - a coworking space with a vision to serve the local community – and Dan Weise of Open Space Gallery. Both Scott and Dan are of the “NoBro” (North Brooklyn) contingency, and were sympathetic to my ideas and interests around Hybrid Communities. In short, there is a space in Beacon for a collaboration.

The Beacon Triad (from left to right) - Main Street, Metro North, and Dia

Specifically, I’ve been considering a way to collaborate with the community to make an effort to bring in new visitors to Beacon, especially those already coming to the Dia (most of whom it seems do not make it past the Foundation during their visit). Hopefully, through a joint effort with BEAHIVE and the Beacon Citizen’s Network (a social network of Beacon residents), we can create even stronger community within Beacon through shared interest, while catalyzing the nascent cultural revival that is happening there.

Fallout 3, a favorite video game of mine

My new approach is to take the principals of resilient communities, specifically the self-sustaining qualities, and augment them with the resources that global and national infrastructures offer. I’m calling this approach “Hybrid Communities”. There is a clear analogy here with hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius, which operates on battery power when it can, but fires up the engine when it needs to.

Some communities are leaning towards a hybrid model already, at least in production. In Brooklyn for example, I can get locally grown produce at my local CSA, buy a handmade knitted cap down the street. These are pretty standard features of resilient communities. It gets really interesting when I can build a kitchen lamp with a MakerBot at NYC Resistor, or sell that knitted cap on Etsy (also in Brooklyn). These latter examples facilitate local production by leveraging global goods and services.

What this means for my work is that I will assume existing infrastructure (power, transportation, education, communications) and use use that to leverage the effects of local efforts.

Some parting thoughts:

• Could I sell the kitchen lamp on Etsy?
• Is the term “Agile Communities” a better way to describe what I’m talking about?
• see Wired Magazine’s recent article for more details on desktop manufacturing.