Welcome to Dooba Reviews

Who Knew? Discount on your monthly T-mobile bill with AAA!

Author Thomas | 20.02.2010 | Category Freebies

Good news for all you AAA members out there.  You can get a 12-14% discount on your monthly T-mobile bill!  I think the discount has been around for a while, but we just found out about it.  Some people have reported 12% while others 13% or 14%.

We just went down to the T-mobile store yesterday, and I believe our discount will be 14%.  You just need to bring your AAA card.  The store still had to call T-mobile to get the discount applied, but it was well worth it.  You’ll need to agree to an extension, etc., etc., but if you’re planning on sticking with T-mobile, it’s a no brainer.

I was also informed that if you have a smart phone, you can upgrade your phone each year at the discounted price.  This is a great surprise because for regular phone “upgrades” you have to wait two years.

So, two bits of good news to kick off the weekend!

Google Voice App for Android and Blackberry Phones

Author Thomas | 30.07.2009 | Category Software, Web

There’s been a Google Voice app for the Android phone for a while now, but recently, Google released an update that makes it even more useful.

Long press on your Android home screen and select Shortcuts and then select Toggle Google Voice (this is assuming that you have the Google Voice App Installed). You can now Toggle the following options on Google Voice when you press the shortcut:

1. Use Google Voice for all calls
2. Only use Google Voice for international calls
3. Do not use Google Voice for any calls
4. Ask to use Google Voice for each call

The Ask to use Google Voice for each call option brings up a little dialog when placing a call which lets you select to use your Google Voice telephone number or your regular telephone number for the call.  This is helpful if you’re calling mobile-to-mobile with somone on the same carrier allowing you to save on minutes.

This is the droid, the Android, you’re looking for: Android 1.5 Cupcake Released

Author Thomas | 23.05.2009 | Category Software

Does anyone remember a certain android watching a tea kettle steam/boil and commenting to his friend that he’s just myth-busted the idea that if you watch the kettle, it takes longer to whistle? His friend suggested that he turn off his internal clock, and at the whistle, he gave a quizzical look to the kettle.

Any takers? Well if not, search for the episode. Needless to say there have been many humans watching their Android and waiting for the update to 1.5.

Has watching and checking the phone every minute made the the weeks/months go by more slowly. Well, that’s all in the past for some, and soon to be for everyone (until donut comes out).

Android 1.5 aka “Cupcake” is finally out. The roll-out has started, and the T-mobile user forum has the manual link you can use if you choose to manually update your phone (does not require that you root your phone).

I got as far as putting the update.zip on my SD card, and then…I decided I would wait for the Over the Air (OTA) update to be pushed to my phone.  For the following reasons:

1. Visiting the link in Google Chrome provided a hefty security warning dealing with the certificate and URL destination
2. I didn’t want to go until the next update wondering if I just created a security problem on my phone (due to reason #1)
3. In conversation yesterday, referring to credit, I mentioned that things are more expensive to those who can’t wait (I didn’t want that statement to haunt me if I bricked or otherwise compromised the security of my phone just because I couldn’t wait ’til Monday…let’s hope I get it then).
4. Waiting provides an excellent lesson in patience for me.  If you’ve ever read Zen in the Martial Arts (a really good, short book bytheway), you’ll know it’s kind of “kung-fu-ie-and-all” (Kung Fu Panda) to master the anticipation and enjoy fully the excitement, when it is time.

Well, we’ve all felt it’s about time, but a little Zen practice will only help.  So yes, update.zip is sitting on my desktop now, but it is not on my phone, and I will wait for the OTA to upgrade.

For those who have received the update, here’s from the official Android.com page about some of the new features:

Update: 5/29/2009

I received cupcake this morning through the Over The Air (OTA) delivery at 1AM!

The link to the T-mobile Android Forums below provides a great list of the new features in Android 1.5:

http://forums.t-mobile.com/tmbl/board/message?board.id=Android_MR&thread.id=3

New Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs for Android and iPhone

Author Thomas | 07.04.2009 | Category Software

Of course there are applications that you can use on your mobile phone to check your Gmail, but why enter all those settings, when you can point your mobile web browser to gmail.com and get the whole kit-n-kaboodle.

The new version of Gmail for mobile devices is much improved. It works on Android, iPhone, and probably other mobile devices. The difference in this version is that Google Gears is employed to help make checking email much faster and offer the ability to perform tasks even when off line.

The new web app offers quick links at the top for Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and “more.”

Gmail in this new version lets you see conversations more easily and allows for bulk edits. The follow bar is interesting when you open a conversation to read.

Google Docs looks great in the new version. The display icons add a lot to the design.

An improvement that could be made (on Android) is to make the links that you click behave more like buttons rather than hyperlinks that receive the standard link box around them when activated or highlighted.

Below is a demo of the new features.

G1 won’t turn on and LED light won’t show when phone is charging

Author Thomas | 10.02.2009 | Category Electronics

The excitement of having a G1 Android phone from T-mobile came crashing down when I pulled out my phone and saw that it wouldn’t turn on.  I thought that the battery must have run out but it was odd because I thought the battery had plenty of charge left in it.

I plugged in the phone and to my horror found that the LED light wouldn’t turn on.  Sick to my stomach I searched the net and found a few people suggested charging it a bit longer to see if the light comes on, others recommended removing the battery, and some recommended returning the phone.

I tried charging it for a bit, and it didn’t work.  Holding down the power button, and holding the power button plus the camera button didn’t accomplish anything except for letting me know it still didn’t work.

I tried taking out the battery and was really concerned about breaking off the back piece since I really didn’t see how they took off the back at the store to insert the SIM card.

There’s a great little flash demo here:

http://tmobile.modeaondemand.com/htc/g1/

Just click on Guides > Battery Removal to view how to remove the back cover.  Yes, it’s simple, but you want to protect your phone don’t you?

I couldn’t remember if taking off the back voided the warranty, but hey, if you need to get your SIM card out, the back has to come off.  I took the back off and removed the battery, waited a few seconds and then replaced the battery.  Viola! It worked.

Could have been a simple fluke with the phone, a bad application maybe, or perhaps the phone got tossed around a bit (unlikely).

The night previous to this problem with the phone, I installed a number of apps from the marketplace:

• Compass
• Mileage
• OI Notepad
• Package Tracking
• Power Manager
• Stopwatch
• System Monitor
• Video Recorder

I had also received the R33 update to the phone.  A combination?  A single culprit?  My guess is that it might have something to do with the R33 official system update or it could have been one of the apps that digs a little deeper into the phone control such as Power Manager or System Monitor.  If not a software issue, than it’s a battery or battery connection problem.  Either way, I’ll be watching close and will probably uninstall some of the unnecessary apps.

Still love the Android G1, although, I’m going to be even more cautious with it now.

G1 Android phone with T-mobile – Tips and Tricks for Beginners

Author Thomas | 28.01.2009 | Category Electronics

I put off getting a smart phone for as long as I could until the “real” phone came along with features I had been waiting for.  A big fan of Google, I was excited to buy the G1 phone; however, the instructions that came with the phone had only a few steps to getting started, the rest was left to guess work and Internet searches.

Improving Battery Life:

Charging the G1 Battery - There’s lots of talk all over the Internet of how to improve the battery life of the G1 phone with little reference to the source.  I’ll take as an authority, the guy at the T-mobile store who had the phone himself and said that when he started using his phone, he saw the battery life wasn’t good, he then let the battery run down to a couple percent and then charged it back up for 3-4 hours.  He repeated this step for the next few charges and said his batter life was much, much better.  I’ve done that now on my phone and have found the same.
GPS – GPS on the phone will drain the battery quickly, but as you can see, the GPS is only functioning when the GPS icon (looks like a little satellite) is in the top right of the status bar, so don’t be too concerned about that.

Wireless Internet - Most people agree that enabling the wireless uses up the battery more quickly.  I’ve found that the Edge network (your data plan connection through T-mobile) isn’t the fastest thing out there, but it works just fine.  Faster than dial-up.
Set Sync Times for Email -   If you want to save more battery life, don’t have the phone sync every 5 minutes.  You can turn off Auto-sync at Home > MENU > Settings > Data synchronization > Auto-sync. For what it’s worth, I leave mine on auto-sync.  If you use the Email application (for other accounts than your Google Gmail Account for example), you can set the check rate by opening the Email Application (from your application lists) > MENU > Account Settings >Email check frequency. You can set for 5, 10, 15, 30, 60 minutes.
Adjust your screen brightness – From Home, press MENU > Settings > Sound & display > Brightness (you’ll need to scroll down to see it).

Fair Compare – Comparing battery life to your previous phone probably isn’t fair because you were used to your old phone, the features, etc., and it was probably pretty boring, now you have a new phone and want to play with the features all day long, of course the battery is going to run out more quickly.  After you’re done using the phone every second of the day, you’ll see the batter lasts much longer.

Password Protection:

The guy at the T-mobile store had this on his phone, and I thought it was pretty neat.  The password is a Connect-the-Dots type of password to open your phone (great for keeping kids or coworkers from playing with your phone and running the battery down).

From the Home Screen (you get here by pressing the button that has a house on it), press Menu > Settings > Security & location >Screen unlock pattern
Set your pattern here to enable a password.  You can come back and disable/change the password if you want to turn the feature off.

You can still answer incoming calls without having to use the password which is nice.

Activating the G1 Phone:

“Can’t activate/connect” error - If you’re activating your phone for the first time and are enabling the data plan for the first time, the guy at the T-mobile store said it takes about 20 minutes for the data plan (which is needed for the phone to work) to activate.  Mine took about 30 minutes before the phone would let me pass the activation screen with my Google account credentials.

Contacts – Importing and Using Contacts on G1

Auto Sync of Contacts - Contacts from your Google Account will be imported right to your phone’s listing of contacts and will continue to be updated as you sync your phone with your Google account.  This feature is fantastic because you can easily add/delete contacts from Google and have the updates transferred to your phone.  Old phones required that you sync to your computer or Outlook.  What a mess!

Adding Pictures – Within you Gmail Account (use your computer and visit https://mail.google.com to get there), you can add pictures to your contact profiles.  Upload them from your computer, or use a link from the web if you use Picasa Web Albums, you can view your albums and add pictures easily.  You can also paste a URL address to a picture on another website.  Click on the Contacts link on the left-hand side of your Gmail account.  You’ll then be at the contacts page where you can add/change contact info.

Importing contacts from your SIM Card – For some reason, I don’t think this happened automatically on my phone.  From the Home Screen, Click on the Contacts Application then Press MENU > Settings > SIM contacts importer to access the import feature.

You’ll probably have some duplicates as I did having some one’s phone number in my SIM card and email in my Google Contacts.  Let you phone sync with Google, and then modify your new contacts as necessary in your Gmail account.  Note, if you didn’t use a Gmail  account prior to getting the Google Phone, the phone has you set one up when activated for the first time.  You can export contacts from Outlook or other mail programs and import them into Gmail quite easily.

Contacts – Sending Text Messages, Editing, etc.

Sending Text Messages – When within your contacts program, press and hold on a contact’s name, you’ll then have the option to:

• View contact
• call Mobile
• Send SMS/MMS
• Add to favorites
• Edit contact
• Delete contact

Press the Back Arrow Button if you don’t want to use those actions at that time.

Sending Text Messages to Multiple People at the Same Time – This one took a little research, but it makes sense now.  Click on the Messaging Application, Press New Message.  In the To field, start typing the name of the first contact, and a list will appear of matching names.  Press the contact you want to include, and start typing the name of the second person you want to add to the text message and so forth.

Android Marketplace – Getting New Applications for Android

Download Free Applications for your Android Phone - Just like the App Store by Apple, you can download free (and at some point paid-for) applications for your G1.  One of the best is called ShopSavvy that helps you compare product prices just by scanning a bar code using the G1’s camera.  It’s a great feature, you’re in the store, you see a product you like, flip it over and scan the UPC bar code, in seconds you can see if the product is cheaper somewhere else nearby (remember the G1 has GPS) or pricing on the Internet such as Amazon.com.

Access the Android Market by accessing your application list and pressing the icon entitled Market.  You can then download and install.  Install apps with a little bit of caution, research them a little bit so you don’t get an application that doesn’t work well or worse, causes problems for you phone.

The guy at the T-mobile store (don’t you love that title?) said that the applications are available for free right now, but sometime (perhaps mid to late 2009) the applications will require a fee just like many of the Apple “App Store” applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The Status Bar – Best Tool Ever

Status Bar Features – Well, maybe not the “best tool ever,” but it does come in handy compared to my old phone.  The bar is located at the very top of the screen.  The status bar will let you know what services are running (GPS, Wifi, Edge, 3G, Bluetooth, etc.) in the right corner.

The left corner (also called the “Window Shade”) shows notifications that the phone has for you.  For example, icons representing new Gmail, Email, Text Messages, voicemail, missed calls, and calendar events will appear.  Simply touch and pull down the status bar to see notifications.  You can dismiss notification, link directly to emails, call people back from missed calls; it’s great.  Slide the notification bar back up from the bottom to get back to the screen you were viewing previously.

Keeping Up-to-Date

You might want to subscribe to the Android Community Feed at http://androidcommunity.com/feed/ to get the latest info on what’s happening and what’s coming up.  Another good resource is the Google Android website at http://www.android.com

Fun Tips and Tricks – Hands On Video Demos of the G1 Android Phone from the Developers

Saving Stuff from the Internet – Save pictures and Mp3’s directly from the web to your android phone.

Using the Map Application to view Traffic Conditions

Using the Window Shade to see New emails, Text messages, calendar events

Customizing the Home Page and Searching for Applications

Keyboard shortcuts on the G1 Android - There are some pretty cool keyboard shortcuts that let you switch between applications on the G1.

Shortcuts you can use when currently viewing one application and you want to switch to another:

Switch to shortcuts (hold down the magnifying glass button (the search button) and then press the letter short cut at the same time:

Search + B = Browser
Search + C = Contacts
Search + E = Email
Search + G = Gmail
Search + I = Instant Message
Search + L = Calendar
Search + M = Maps
Search + P = Player (media player)
Search + S = Test Messaging
Search + Y = YouTube

G1 Accessories to get Started

Screen Protection - I recommend the
Invisibleshield T-mobile G1 screen protector by Invisible Sheild for the Google Screen. I’ve tried other screen protectors, and it works the best. I don’t think the whole phone needs the Invisible Shield on it, just the screen, but that’s a matter of preference.

Also came across this rubber case for under $2. Not bad.

Update 4/4/2009 – I can’t believe I forgot this! The below video got a lot of people excited about the G1 before it launched. I had forgotten about it, and just tested out the Street View on Google Maps. It’s awesome! Now if you’re looking at the location you’re already at, no big deal, but saw you’re going into town and want to know what side of the street something is on or to double check the accuracy of the map/destination location, use Google Street View on you G1.