New Android Galaxy Nexus with Monthly 4G Service

The steps I went through to get a new smart phone and 4G plan were ridiculously easy.

Once I realized the Galaxy Nexus and T-Mobile’s Monthly 4G plan were for me, it was only a matter of ordering (online), inserting (SIM card, battery), then activating and configuring (online, via phone). Never: went to a store, waited on hold, talked to a human, paid a fee.

1. Choose Device Google's Galaxy Nexus HSPA+

• $349 for this Unlocked Phone
• Means my choice of service provider!
• Swap SIM card when traveling abroad
• Newest Android with Latest Hardware
• Updates to Jelly Bean (4.1.1) on 1st run
• Macho enough to play games, etc
• Order phone from Google Play Device Store
• Includes hands-free set, battery, charger

2. Choose Service   T-Mobile Pre-Paid Monthly 4G Plans

• Check coverage in your area on T-Mobile Coverage Map
• I chose: $30/Month Pre-Paid Monthly 4G
• Unlimited Web + Text (1st 5 GB/month at 4G Speed)
• 100 Minutes Talk
• No Contract means free to change plans or provider any time
• Order T-Mobile SIM Card Activation Kit
• SIM Card for New Activation: 99¢ at time of writing

3. Wait for Delivery of Phone and SIM Card (possibly the only downside here?)

4. Insert SIM Card

5. Insert Battery

6. Charge it!

7. Sign Up and Activate T-Mobile Service

• Fill out T-Mobile Activation Form:
• Activation Code provided on form
• SIM Card Serial # provided
• Phone IMEI # and Security PIN
• Activate online: T-Mobile Activation Page

Voilà!

• Activation was easy and instantaneous
• First text within seconds on configuring voicemail, etc.
• Ready to roll..

Glitches in the process were minimal:

• T-Mobile Activation Card Step #3 tells you to pick the plan you want, but doesn't show the awesome plan: $30/Month 4G. Fix: This plan is offered online, so follow the online activation instructions which are more up-to-date
• Serial Number on Google Invoice does not match the IMEI number on the box or on the phone. Fix: Confirm the phone IMEI # matches the number on the box, then use IMEI # for activation

The End..
So far I am waaaaaay happy with my phone and service :)  Welcoming questions and your shared experiences..

Is the End Near for AppLaud Cloud?

AppLaud Cloud by MDS was launched October 2011 and will be shutdown August 31, 2012. I interviewed creator Paul Beusterien about its conception and dissolution.

Libby Baldwin: You had already created the MDS AppLaud Eclipse Plugin for PhoneGap on Android (which is NOT going away). It was well-received. Why did you want to do a cloud version? Paul Beusterien: Some of the feedback I got from early AppLaud Eclipse users was that they loved the PhoneGap project creation wizard, but they hated Eclipse. Many of them would use the wizard and then switch to another environment to develop their app. In the meantime, I had been experimenting with two emerging Cloud IDEs. Eclipse Orion and Cloud 9 IDE. I discovered that many of the pieces needed to construct an IDE were available in open source. So, I thought it would be cool to create a Cloud IDE focused on helping web developers create mobile apps. The idea was not just to add "Cloud" to our line of products. Besides getting away from Eclipse, AppLaud Cloud offers a faster dev cycle, management of tools and SDKs for users, "code anywhere" model, great collaboration potential, and wireless install/debug/emulation of mobile apps. In fact, you helped design and develop the companion app, AppLaud App. LB: Yes, I did. So, how did you conceive of and deliver the Cloud version so quickly?

PB: Lots of open source - Node.js, jQuery UI, PhoneGap, Weinre, Ripple, node-openid. The command line Android API made it easy to integrate with Node.js to run on an AWS instance. LB: So now everyone’s wondering.. Why is it going away? PB: It’s been a great run - over 700 registered users! I learned a lot and it was fun. However, I wasn’t happy with any of the business models we considered for making AppLaud Cloud sustainable. As other cloud IDE solutions emerged, I decided to join a startup that’s attacking the cross-platform mobile challenge from another angle. At Apportable, we’re building a cross-platform Objective-C runtime.

LB: Very cool! In your announcement of its shutdown, you make an open offer for anyone to take over AppLaud Cloud. How would that work?

PB: All of the code is available on github. It’s not a turn-key solution though. Many of the components are getting out of date and the build process was never streamlined. But, I’d be happy to help anyone who wants to give it a shot. They can find me on the AppLaud Cloud mailing list (which will be around for a while).

LB: Thanks, Paul, for putting a great tool out there. Best of luck in your new venture!

Links: AppLaud Cloud Technology and Forum, MDS AppLaud Eclipse Plugin, @PaulBeusterien, @LibbyBaldwin

What I Did Over the Summer Past Year and a Half

In late 2010 my partner and I founded Mobile Developer Solutions to create free software tools for web developers who want to write mobile web apps. AppLaud, our Eclipse plugin for Android, bundles PhoneGap technology with an easy-to-use project creation wizard, allowing users create and deploy a complete PhoneGap for Android app with just a few clicks. The AppLaud plugin includes a few goodies like JSLint, jQuery Mobile, a choice of PhoneGap versions and project templates.

While Paul did the heavy lifting: designing and developing AppLaud (in Java), I created the Two-Minute Tutorials (TMT) series (HTML / JavaScript / CSS) to help developers rapidly ramp up their mobile device skills. The TMTs get increasingly advanced, starting with a basic PhoneGap API, then using a jQuery Google Maps Plugin, a PhoneGap Native Plugin: the popular BarcodeScanner, and finally OAuth and the social media plugins: Twitter and Facebook.

The best part: it’s all free under the MIT License! (copy, modify, sell, etc) My work is available in all the usual places:

• Getting started and demo videos on YouTube
• TMTs - written tutorials with source code
• Source code on github
• Free demo apps on Google play

Next blog: Good-bye to AppLaud Cloud version!

Socialize your PhoneGap App with Facebook and Twitter!

With the enormous popularity of Facebook and Twitter, it’s no wonder people want to make mobile web apps that incorporate a social aspect. Whatever awesome things your app surely does, imagine letting users tweet about it with just a few taps, from within your app!

My latest tutorial shows how to add Facebook to your PhoneGap App on Android using the Facebook SDK and PhoneGap Connect Plugin. The Hackbook for Android app is the app contents, so examples of SSO, API calls and the Social Graph are already there. Makes it easy to use and learn.

I've already written a tutorial that shows how to add Twitter to your mobile app using the Child Browser plugin. After the user logs in with their Twitter credentials (from your app) the app can access their account. Let your app users tweet, search, read, or whatever cool way you come up with to socialize your app with Twitter services.

Next blog: More on AppLaud Eclipse Plugin for PhoneGap on Android. Get started writing PhoneGap Apps with just a few clicks.

Back from Sabbatical 

Hey, I'm back from my 2+ years sabbatical from blogging!

So my business partner, former office mate, and husband, Paul, recently joined a very cool company named Apportable. They've published a game on Google Play called Zen Bound 2 by game creators Secret Exit. Zen Bound 2 is "a meditative puzzle game of wrapping rope around wooden sculptures". Sounds great.. right? For whatever reason the game description, together with the accompanying down-tempo music, appealed to me immediately, and I knew I had to get it. 

 

So far, I really like "playing" ZB2. I find it very relaxing, especially when I'm wound up. The 3D graphics combined with touch and orientation (gravity-like) control are visually stunning. The task of winding rope around the objects to paint them may at first sound trite, but the spatial puzzle aspect is slowly roping me in, and I look forward to solving it better each time. A rope-on-wood creaky sound effect adds to the realism.

When the gorgeous, meditative music, by Ghost Monkey, is too downbeat for my current mood, I just select something from my own collection. Yep, you can supply your own tunes during play! Today I dusted off some long-neglected Mazzy Star and Mark Kozelek CDs and ripped 'em.

It works great on my tablet, but not sure I'd recommend it for smaller screens or lesser devices (due to its computational intensity). No, I'm no plugging this game (costs a few bucks), because I honestly don't think this kind of game can be plugged. It just.. is.