My favorite niche Andriod apps

Did you take my advice and pick-up a Nexus 4 for yourself, or for someone who might not be a phone geek?  So if you've spent any time with the phone, you're already using the mainstream apps (e.g. the Pandora, Dropbox, Skype, OpenTable, GasBuddy, etc.).  But what about the niche?  The ones that you didn't think to think about?  Well, here are a few of my less mainstream favorites...

• Tape-a-Talk - great little tool for taking voice notes (like for a class, or if you want to record long rambling thoughts for later dictation).  If you even begin to build up a back-log of voice notes, you'll find the paid for version is critical to keeping your thoughts organized.
• Power Note - if you use Diigo for social/cloud/portable bookmarking needs, Power Note comes in quite handy for interacting with your library while mobile.  
• Handy Scanner - Scan things like receipts, and send them to DropBox.  
• AirDriod - Enables you to wirelessly manage your phone from your computer.  If your phone and computer are on the same network (or with the latest release, even if they're not) you can connect via a web browser on your computer to get a desktop-like experience for navigating your phone (copy files, send texts, etc.).  I mostly use it to transfer files when I don't have a USB cable handy. 
• Compound Interest Calculator Basic - because who doesn't like to be able to calculate the opportunity cost of small financial decisions from their phone?
• Wallpaper Changer - such a cool little app for rotating through pictures as wallpaper... here's a link directly to the developer.

Obviously, the you can search your way through the vast Google Play store to find useful things.  But these are some of my favorites.  If you have an amazing niche app to share, or something better than the above let me know about it.

StraightTalk Overview

Imagine that your service provider just offered to cut your annual bill by about $1,000, while still giving you (mostly) unlimited data, and then throwing in unlimited text and talk just for good measure? Too good to be true? Not if you have a Nexus 4 and move from a contract, to pre-paid on Straight Talk.

How do I save $1,000 per year?

For the uninitiated, Straight Talk is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). An MVNO buys capacity on someone else's network (e.g. AT&T, T-Mobile, etc.). They negotiate wholesale rates, and then they chop up that capacity and resell it to consumers. In other word's they're a middle man... they don't own a network, or towers... they don't build infrastructure. They just repackage the capacity, and pass cost savings on to end-users. And yes... believe it or not, it's actually a thing.

And this saves me money?

You've probably seen the ads for pre-paid wireless... be it Straight Talk, or Virgin Mobile, or one of dozens of different MVNOs that offer $45-$50 per month for unlimited everything... that can't possibly be true, right? There's got to be some catch... because who in their right mind would pay double that for their AT&T contract? Well, by the numbers the vast majority do. In fact, despite trailing Verizon by 20 million wireless subscribers in Q1, 2013... AT&T is expected to add another 475,000 new customers this quarter! What's that worth? Well, it's worth more than $38 million per month in new revenue to them! Why? simply because most people won't consider a pre-paid option, like Straight Talk. (And now you also know how Verizon and AT&T can afford to pay such high dividends to their stockholders).

Yes, but is it really unlimited everything?

Good question - and there are some caveat's if you read Straight Talk's terms and conditions. The one that has the potential to impact most folks is the "unlimited" web-browsing... which is in fact, different from unlimited data. "So what's the distinction?" Well, you can check the link for the details but the short of it is that you shouldn't stream video (much), and you should pay attention to your data usage. At the risk of oversimplifying... unlimited web-browsing translates into "don't abuse your data plan"... which if you're looking for a real-world guideline actually means... keep it to 2GB per month, or not much more than 100mb on any given day. So the next question many folks ask, is "Is that alot", or"What's typical?". Most customers on either AT&T or T-Mobile don't reach a 2GB per month. And only 4% of AT&T customers use more than 3GB. The story might be a little dated, so I also conduced an unscientific survey of folks working in a technology company... all had Smart Phones, and all were in the age range of 28- 40 years of age. Guess what they used? The average range was between 700MB - 1.2GB per month.

What does this have to do with an unlocked Android phone (like, say... a Nexus 4)?

Google's Nexus 4 is a carrier unlocked GSM phone. You probably already know that. And if you don't, Brian over at Anandtech does a good job of explaining why it's a great phone. Of particular note is the zerogap LCD display. In case you weren't aware, unlike the Galaxy SIII, the Nexus 4 does not have a Super AMOLED display. Since the Nexus 4 is manufactured by the king of LCD production, LG has managed to squeeze every lost drop of LCD goodness out of the aging technology (while yields are still ramping up on the OLED manufacturing). For those unfamiliar with GSM it means that the phone will work darn near anywhere on earth that has a cell phone carrier, and all you need to do is grab a prepaid SIM card on a local carrier's network. Prepaid SIM cards are common just about everywhere in the world, expect for the US (though via MVNO's, they're becoming more common). So in the United States, why does this matter.. For starters, it's now illegal to unlock a locked phone without the carrier's permission. Crazy, right? AT&T and T-Mobile are the two major GSM-based networks in the United States. So, with a Nexus 4 -available at the Google Play store you can buy a $300 phone without a carrier subsidy, a phone nearly identical to the unlocked $750 (retail) LG Optimus G. Why the difference? Long story short... the Nexus 4 doesn't have 4G LTE coverage capability anymore ;)... it's limited to 3G (but can do HSPA+). There are rumors that Google is selling the phone at cost, or perhaps at a loss, but it may just be that the margins are higher on phones than what some folks thought. Whatever the case, it's a great phone for only $100 more than what would be the typical carrier subsidy.

What does YOUR contract cost?

I hate spending money on things that I don't need, especially things with a monthly recurring cost. Going back and looking at my cell phone bill from 2001 (because, yes... I do keep cell phone bills from a decade ago - doesn't everyone?), I was amazed... my bill was about $45 a month through Sprint. Given inflation, it must have gone up... so factoring 3% annual inflation, my bill should on the order of $61 a month. But no, my bill was about $90 per month, and when I add a second line, data, text ... I was paying $167 a month ... so about $2,000 a year for my mobile communication "needs". Now, I don't know where you live, or what you do for a living but $2k a year for a couple of cell phones is kind of a lot, right? 20 years ago the things barley existed, and in the intervening decades I've stacked up monthly-recurring cost upon cost... cable, ISPs, cell phones, text messaging, Netflix, and maybe even a plain-old phone line... when you add it all up, you're looking at the cost of a BMW 3-Series lease ($310 per month) spent solely on communication needs! So could I actually have been consuming a luxury German sports sedan worth of communication needs every month? Probably not. But make no mistake... I was certainly paying for it.

So what's the plan?

As you may have figured out by now, my plan was to buy a pair of Nexus 4 phones, and then port my numbers from AT&T to Straight Talk. My goal was to save on the order of $1,000 per year by doing so. With both of those steps having been completed, and a month or two having passed, I've started to get a sense of what it's like being on a pre-paid plan.

So how does Straight Talk work, and how's the coverage?

Remember how I said Straight Talk is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), that resells the big carrier's infrastructure? Well, that means that the coverage is just about the same on whichever parent network that you use. What I mean by that is this... if you have a Nexus 4 already, then you have an unlocked GSM phone already. And that means you just need to pick-up a Straight Talk SIM card... either an AT&T Compatible SIM Card, or a T-Mobile Compatible SIM card - either will work in your Nexus 4. For me, I know I have good AT&T coverage - because I was an AT&T customer for more than 5 years. When I went over to Straight Talk, I chose an AT&T Compatible Card. In other words, my Straight Talk coverage is the same coverage I'd get on AT&T. So when I'm on the road, I have the same great coverage in most places (and the exact same dead spots as I did before). Oh, and if you've researched this in the past, you might have read that there's no roaming. Which is true, and might be problematic if you were using a CDMA phone on Straight Talk. But you're not... you're using the Nexus 4, and you're using either AT&T or T-Mobile... and in the case of the former, the network is massive. So unless you're out of the country you really don't need to worry about roaming if AT&T has descent coverage where you live and work.

This sounds complicated.

You know what, I thought the exact same thing before I switched. In fact, I started looking into pre-paid options in 2010 before re-upping with AT&T. Do you want to know why I didn't switch to a pre-paid plan then? I thought it was too complicated... and simply not worth my time for what I thought would be a meager savings. It's not that there weren't enough cell phone network options, or that I couldn't afford an unsubsidized new phone. I just thought it wasn't worth the irritation. The reality? I'm saving at least $829 per year on Straight Talk over my prior AT&T plan, and I use my phone more than I used to.

Okay fine - maybe it's not too complicated, but isn't it only for phone geeks?

No... in fact, it's probably better for you if you're not a phone geek. Why is that? Because many phone geeks spend way too much time on their phones, and as a result they tend to use way too much data. Remember how I talked about the limits up in the above sections? Well, there are penalties for being irresponsible with your data usage, but as I mentioned... the vast majority of folks don't use even 2GB of data per month. If you don't know how much data you're using, and have a Nexus 4... click Settings>Data Usage... and check your data usage and the break-down by application. Go back a few months as well... more than 2GB per month? Probably not. If you're on AT&T or T-Mobile, you can also check the web-site and see what you've been using.

Where are the correct APN settings?

Straight Talk keeps the APN settings here. But here's a quick-reference:

Name: Straight Talk, APN: att.mvno, Proxy: Not Set, Port: 80, Username: Not set, Password: Not set, Server: Not Set, MMSC: http://mmsc.cingular.com, MMS Proxy: 66.209.11.33, MMS port: 80, MCC: 310, MNC: 410, Authentication Type: Not Set, APN Protocol: IPv4, APN roaming protocol: IPv4, Bearer: Unspecified).

What's the verdit?

I'm a couple months into the switch to Straight Talk on my Nexus 4, and am on track to save over $829 this year. It's not painful, and it's not a scam. Knowing the above helps... and knowing even more can help save you time and hassle. If you're still worried about your data usage, coverage, or are just looking for a quick-start read-

Interested in learning more?  Sign-up today to be notified when my Straight Talk mini-guide is released... when you do, and I'll also send a free copy of the finished eBook to the the first 5% that sign-up to be notified.

What's to loose?  Sign-up today. 

(I'll never send spam, and you can unsubscribe at anytime!)

How to save $1,000 a year on your cell phone plan (without really trying)

You already know that you're spending too much money on your cell phone contract.  But knowing that, and fixing that are very different things.  Sure, you've seen commercials for half-rate plans before... and maybe you've even done a bit of research.  But who has the time to become a phone geek?  And here's the bottom line... you're a professional... you need excellent voice coverage, you expect to be able to use a data plan without worrying it, and you still want an awesome phone, right?  Imagine having the exact same quality coverage that you have today, except that now...it's unlimited.  No more counting your minutes, or watching your texts... no more worrying about how many web-sites you've visited.  Imagine no longer being a slave to your contract.  Imagine your phone freeing you... all while having the very best phone available.

That's why I've been writing the "Save $1k today on your cell phone plan" eBook, which will detail exactly how to switch... showing you everything you need to know (and nothing that you don't)... without requiring you to become a phone geek.

Sign-up today to be notified when it's released... when you do, you'll also get a free copy of my Nexus 4 on Pre-Paid Mini Guide (it's the first chapter of the book) right away, plus I'll send a free copy of the finished eBook to the the first 5% that sign-up to be notified.


What's to loose?  Sign-up today. 

(I'll never send spam, and you can unsubscribe at anytime!)

Nexus 4 + Straight Talk: Part 4 - Data Usage

What if you never had to worry about going over your celluar data plan again?  What if you could use your phone for web browsing, email, navigation, and occassional tethering without fear of going over some arbitrary limit?  Does that sound too good to be true?  Could Straight Talk possibly offer all of that and still cost half what you're paying with a major carrier?  Alas, that is just a bit too good to be true... but only a bit.  Here are the highlights - if you want more information, just ask.

There is just a ton of information out there about Straight Talk data usage, the supposed risks of using  Straight Talk, and the rumors of discconects and other frustrations.  Some of it's true, but take it with a grain of salt.  While I only have a couple of data points at this point based on my own usage, I've throughoughly investigated this matter and here's what I've learned...

First of all, Straight Talk's Terms of Service (TOS) basically state that you have unlimited web browsing capabilities.  Not unlimited streaming, or unlimited file transfers... just unlimited web browsing.  How do they tell the difference between web browsing or streaming?  They don't.  And from everything I can tell, the tools that they have to measure this are fairly rudimentary - they can only determine excessive bandwidth allocation consumption, or respond to the underlying carrier flagging network abuse and reporting it to Straight Talk.  Straight Talk's job is to prevent the underlying carrier's network from being effected by the MVNO's users, and Straight Talk's duty is to protect their relationship with that underlying carrier.  

Ok, so what's my limit?

There is no arbitrary limit.  I think that's where a lot of the confusion on data usage stems from... it depends on a number of variables, the majority of which are unknown to you as an end-user at any given point in time.  For example, do you know what bandwidth has been allocated by the carrier to the area that you're currently in?  Can you tell how much is currently being utilized by other users?  Can you determine what impact you might be having on their network?  The reality is you can't make most of these determinations with any degree of accuracy.  But you can influence it by being responsible with your data usage.  This is why there is conflicting information... with some users report being able to get 5GB+ per month and of never being throttled, warned, or disconnected... why other's report warnings starting at 2GB.

So what's my limit?

Again, there's not an arbitrary limit.  But here's the deal... unlimited actually used to mean unlimited... until smartphones went from 5% marketshare, to 70% marketshare and data usage exploded.  This was about the same time AT&T started throttling the top 5% of their users in every market.  Today, the unofficial Straight Talk limit is between 2.0GB and 3.0GB per month (down from 5GB a while back).  OR...when you're affecting the underlying carrier's ability to provide quality service to the rest of their customers, and Straight Talk get's a warning from them.  You can count on the fact that AT&T isn't going to risk loosing more post-paid customers (like me, when I was paying $167 per month) to Straight Talk, and then having the Straight Talk users abuse their network.  

Yeah, great... but what's my limit?

I think I answered that a couple of times, but to be on the safe side... your limit is 2.0GB per month, and dont use more than 100MB per day.  Never watch Netflix, or stream excessive video.  A little Pandora?  Check.  Tethering to your computer so you can VPN into the office and RDP into your workstation for a bit?  Check.  If you use your phone as a tool, and avoid streaming media over your data plan - you should be fine.

What happens if I get warned?

If you hit a limit, they'll throttle you way down.  If you made a big enough impact, the first time you're flagged, Straight Talk will call or text a warning to you.  Heed the warning, because the second time you will be deactivated.  Unlike some of the other MVNOs, Straight Talk always warns you the first time.  After that, you will be deactivated.  

How can I avoid being warned?

Be responsible with your data plan usage.  First set a warning level that's reasonable (e.g. 1.5GB), so that you don't accidently go over.  Beyond that...

• Use WiFi when it's available.  
• Don't stream video... especially don't stream Netflix, or excessive YouTube.
• Don't use your phone in place of your computer... file transfers, downloading content, etc... really belongs either on WiFi, or your laptop. 
• Try not to tether (or if you do, do it responsibly)

How much data are you using?

My last two data points were 1.5GB and 1.9GB.  I haven't been throttled, warned, or deactivated.  Two simple tweaks have also substantially reduced my data usage.

Sign-up to be notified when our Straight Talk Ebook is released!

Nexus 4 + Straight Talk: Part 3 - A month in review

If you've read part 1, and part 2, you already know the potential... start saving $1,000 a year by getting off of a big carrier contract and switching over to a prepaid StraightTalk plan.  So after a couple months, is StraightTalk living up to the hype?  Or have I been cast into scylla or charybdis - marooned on a prepaid plan and having been throttled (or worse) to my doom?  Well, don't let me keep you waiting... hurry-up and read on!

The very first thing I did after initiating service was to enroll in auto-renew.  Auto-enroll is precisely what you'd think it is... it's what makes the pre-paid service seem as though it's a contract... add your credit card information to set it and forget it.  No more worrying that you'll forget to re-up at the end of the month, and no concerns that you'll loose your phone number, etc.  It's worth the 2 minutes it takes in frustration averted.  

My first mistake... 

My StraightTalk "kit" came in a giant envelope... which contained a couple of smaller envelopes, one for each contract I had purchased.  Now, I had purchased a plan called the "AT&T Compatible SIM + Unlimited* Plan", which at $59 came with everything I needed for the first month of service.  Importantly, this first month of service includes a small green card for each plan, and on those cards is a scratch-off code. The activation kit doesn't make this need particularly clear... and I had wrongly assumed that it would all just work, as I activated.  But alas, that was not the case.  So after activating service, and paying (again) for the first month, it became obvious that something had gone wrong.  After all, I was up to a couple hundred dollars in expenses at this point for 2 lines.  So that meant a call to StraightTalk Customer service - which was fortunately quite easy to find (1-877-430-2355), both on the web-site and all over the activation kit.  

Customer Service...

So if you've read through the various forums, you probably are under the impression that StraightTalk has terrible customer service.  My experience suggests that that impression is inaccurate.  It might not be AT&T, where I get a US-based agent... but it's not terrible.  Here's why... I contacted customer service because I thought I had been double billed for the first month.  My call was the evening (8:00pm Eastern) and the automated message gave me a wait time of approximately 30 minutes, but offered to hold my spot in the queue and call me back, which I opted for.  About 15 minutes or so later, I received a call from Customer Service.  I explained what had happened (billed twice for the first month), and they... transferred me to someone else, who put me on hold, and then came back after about 15 more minutes.  After working through my explanation for the second time, they were able to determine that I should have received a pair of activation cards, but mentioned that occasionally these are missed in the shipment.  So she gave me a credit for each phone for the next-month, and said I was good to go.  By the time I hung-up, I had spent about 45 minutes, and received text messages noting the credit had been applied on each line.  Which was good.  I later found my activation cards buried at the bottom of the  large envelope.  So it turns out, I didn't need to call customer service, it was my fault that they were missed.  But  my takeaway was that customer service was at least adequate to understand the problem, and was empowered to fix it.  So the lesson for folks - look carefully in that large envelope, and customer service is descent.

Billing...

Almost everyone that I talk to about StraightTalk asks me some variation of... "how much does it really cost per month?".  I guess they ask this because they're so used to contract carriers and hidden fees which drive up the monthly cost.  For those of you with this same concern, you'll be happy to know that the advertised $45 cost was pretty close... the actual total monthly cost was $48.93 (there's also a $2.50 per month promotion right now, when you sign-up for autorenew... just FYI).  The break down is like this...

• $45 for unlimited everything
• $2.93 for taxes
• $0.23 for E911 services
• 0.68 Federal Universal Service cost
• 0.09 regulatory cost recovery
• Total: $48.93

So how does that compare with my expectation?  Well, my goal was to save about $1,000 per year.  The input number I used was $167 per month for my prior contract (when I reconciled the numbers it was slightly higher, but we'll ignore that for simplicity sake), which means I'm on track to save $829 this year after taxes and fees.

Stay tuned, in a posts I'll cover data usage and coverage.

Click here if you'd like to be notified when our Straight Talk Ebook is released!

Network switch for my lab - Netgear GS724T-300

The last hardware upgrade on my vSphere lab was the SSD, but in addition to that I've been in need of a descent switch for a while.  What I wanted, was a Cisco 2960-S.  Not only are they good, but they're also my top-of-rack standard switch in my vSphere deployments.  However, in spite of diligently trolling Ebay looking for a deal, I decided to opt for a Netgear GS724T-300 for the home lab... which is a 24-port gigabit managed switch, supporting 802.1q VLAN tagging, link aggregation, etc.  Most of all, it's affordable at $219.  While not of any consequence in my environment, they're silent, which doesn't hurt.

Part 1: Taking the pain out of server procurement

One day, a few years ago a stack of HP equipment showed up for job we had just won.  Everyone was excited.  "Did you hear?  We just got [insert amazing high-visibility job X for key client Y]".  "That's great Eric... but did you see that stack of HP equipment sitting in receiving... what's that for?", I asked.  "That's for this new job, I ordered it yesterday as soon as we received the PO."  "Uh-huh... and who did the spec?", I asked... knowing the answer.  "Don't worry... you did... I just switched out the chassis, and left most of the other parts the same from our last job the same.  They're all low-utilization servers." (Says the person who has neither heard of esxptop, nor has ever used a performance monitoring solution).  I also replaced a couple of things with stuff I found on newegg, mostly just RAM and hard drives... they're not HP branded, but I think we've really been overpaying some of this stuff."  And so it goes...

If you don't have a vendor management office (VMO) doing this kind of stuff for you, then you're like just about every other SI out there.  Maybe your procurement process has grown organically as your company has grown, or maybe Bob in Accounting always does it... or maybe you're fortunate enough to have a Systems Engineer who inherited the responsibilities from someone else, and actually does know what he/she is doing (at least from a technical standpoint)... and that enables the ship of procurement to sail unhindered until something stupid happens, and then everything is a wreak.  So even if you think what you're doing works, you might want to go back and compare your process with mine, and see if there are any gaps.

Over the course of the next few posts, I'm going to talk about my server procurement process.  I suspect that most SIs have to deal with this, so I'm going to go over what I've picked-up in the time since Eric stopped doing procurement.  I can't say that I've covered everything, or that you can beat a VMO at their own game, but I've picked-up a few things that help prevent scenarios like the above from happening, while at the same time enabling you to be more competitive (both in terms of pricing, and in terms of eliminating labor), and ultimately help you find the hidden server margin.  Because, like you... I primarily care delivering the scope, on schedule, under budget at the level of quality that I committed to.  Hardware and software are just necessary to insure we can deliver the scope, so let me help you take the pain out of procurement, by giving you my process.

Finding HP Server Margin

Tired of your HP Server quotes pricing out at nearly 2x your Dell pricing?  If you're new to HP server procurement, or you just hate doing procurement in general and are struggling to figure out how to resell hardware competitively... your first step is figuring out where the hidden margin is.  I know what you're thinking... it would be great if, as a small or mid-sized reseller, you had an HP rep like your Dell rep - who can just figure it all out for you (but would they be looking out for your best interests?).  If you're reading this, you probably don't have such a rep, and you probably already know that it can be challenging to resell HP hardware.  So assuming for a moment that it makes sense for you to resell it, one of the best ways I've found to uncover the margin on HP hardware is this...

Start with a base config that already is known-good.  Meaning, you have the chassis, RAM, drives, the RAID controller, etc... all of the right part numbers.  This might sound obvious, but search on the root part-number to start with...

For example, if you're looking for an HP 146GB 15k part number... say, "652605-B21", search on the root part-number "652605" first, so you get all of the matches (obvious, right?).  Then, if you want to narrow it down to SmartBuys... I've found that searching for the "S21" part is a better tactic than searching for the term "Smartbuy".  For instance, "652605-S21" will find any SmartBuys that may exist.  That way, when you go to place you're order you'll sure you're getting the best price with that distributor.  This is true for TechData, CDW, and the like... but it's not always the case when searching other resellers like say, Amazon.

(Since we're on the topic of HP SAS hard drives, you might want to check out Amazon.com... the affiliate inventory information is obviously not as good as what you'll see on TechData, but they frequently have better drive pricing on drives than you can get with other distributors).

Keri Doors recommendation for USB Serial Adapter

If you're trying to connect from a Windows 7 machine to a door controller via Keri Doors 4.x, and the serial-to-USB converter that you have doesn't seem to be working, try a Tripp-Lite USA-19HS (get the drivers here).  Some other Keri tips, while I'm thinking about it... the default username and password are both Keri  (case-sensitive), so change them.  The location to modify the associated COM port in Keri Doors is under Setup>System>Network Config>Port (COM 1-4).  Then you can click the Controller Status tab>Status ... which will launch the communication tool, and should report back the "Ctlr Type" and show as "online" in green, if everything is working.  .

CRM Reporting Extensions Installation Error - Microsoft.CRM.Setup.SRSdataconnector.restart Services action failed. Cannot start service report server on computer

While installing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Reporting Extensions to the SQL 2008 R2 server in my lab, I kept getting the following error snippet... "Microsoft.CRM.Setup.SRSdataconnector.restart Reporting Services action failed. Cannot start service report server on computer'".  During the installation of CRM reporting extensions, the SQL Server Reporting Services service stops, and on restart fails.  I tried this in service manager manually (start... same error), and even after rebooting the error was present when manually attempting to start the SQL Server Reporting service.  It appears that this occurs because the service manager doesn't wait around long enough for the service to start.  There are some good resources on how to do this already, including Microsoft KB article 2745448 (method 4)... but in short, use regedit and navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control, right-click Control and create a new DWORD named ServicesPipeTimeout, then modify it such that the decimal value is 60000 (1 minute wait).  Then restart the service.