Stormpocalypse sends SMS alerts and Twitter updates with number of reported NYC outages along with estimated time of recovery. It does this through consuming a Con Edison outage feed and uses the Twilio and Twitter APIs to broadcast.

I’ve created a ruby gem for other developers to create their own apps using the Con Ed feeds: https://github.com/ckundo/coned/

Version Control for Cooks’ Recipes

Garden/Small Farming Planting Optimization Tool

an NOAA weather alert app that doesn’t suck

Cognitive slavery (aka crowdslaving) in action.RT @ckundo: Just got a super-palindrome bonus on @foursquare: c-c-c-combo breaker!!!

— John Robb (@johnrobb) November 11, 2011

It’s a strong position that I’m not altogether agreeing with, but it resonated enough to make me think hard about why I use Foursquare. I decided to try to recreate the instant gratification and exhibitionistic thrill of Foursquare, but instead of a generic badge or canned message, I’d make something personal.

These drawing are unique and tangible, and give me a chance to practice my drawing. Here are some recent sketch-ins:

option 1a: Get a parked SIP number (SipSorcery, IPKall) that you can use for Google Voice call forwarding and piggyback on free wifi networks for data (office, library, McDonald’s, etc). Combined with a month-to-month wifi hotspot (DataJack or Virgin Mobile), this is my favorite option.

options 1b: Same as above but use a SIP client like SIPdroid or Softphone instead of Google Voice. This option won’t give you SMS or voicemail transcription.

option 2: You could skip SIP altogether and use Skype with a online number set up. Skype is decent over wifi but atrocious on 3G hotspots. You also can’t get incoming SMS messages. Not my favorite option.

RESOURCES

• IPKall for free parked phone numbers
• SipSorcery or voip.ms for SIP server hosting
• SIP clients: SIPdroid (Android) or Softphone (iOS)
• No contract WiFi hotspot i.e DataJack or Virgin Mobile

The string I encoded (using NXP TagWriter) was simply content://contacts. I haven’t done any digging why this particular format was a problem, but the Kaspersky Lab writes that this is a DoS vulnerability on NFC applications. Google Wallet comes to mind as a potential target for malicious actors, though I’m not sure what good it would do to perform DoS on an NFC transaction besides annoy people.



Not very good at all. Wifi calls are much better (as you might expect):

The conclusion is, don’t rely on Skype over Sprint 3G as a full fledged voice replacement for a carrier. Its great for SMS and email, and these are generally enough to hold me over until I get on wifi, assuming I really need to make a call.

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.