How to make a real cell call from home when reception sucks

For some of us, using a cellphone instead of a landline is awesome. No extra bill, just one phone that's always on you, and all that jazz. Then there's me, and maybe a bunch of you. I can't get a damn call to go through on any carrier from my home office. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Alltel...nothing works. Ten steps away from the tiny radius and behold! I can make a call on all of 0-1 bars. Then last week two things happened: T-Mobile sent over the Samsung Galaxy S 4G which supports calls over Wi-Fi, and AT&T offered me a free Microcell for being a customer for over three years.

Both offerings sound like a godsend. A free service and a free box to stream calls through my internet? Sweet! Before you say "why not just use Skype?" know that I can, have, and it's just not convenient. I spend $80/month for my iPhone on the bare minimum plan, and hell, I'd better be able to use those minutes. I can use other VoIP services, but they cost money and don't work with my phone plan. All I need, and all many of us want, is literally one phone: our cellphone. Thus, AT&T's Microcell and T-Mobile's Wi-Fi calling.

AT&T Microcell ($199, free to some customers)

The AT&T Microcell is a small tower that, according to the box, offers 5,000 square feet of coverage using your current internet connection. Like many others, I got a letter in the mail with a thank you card praising my choice in staying with AT&T, and telling me to go collect my prize for sticking with the company. After reading the legal mumbo-jumbo, the deal is surprisingly great for customers: get the Microcell for free and keep it for as long as you want without paying. Once a year is up, it's officially your property. If you switch carriers or don't renew your contract before a year is up, you'll have to return the Microcell or AT&T will  bill you the full price of $199.

So I drove down and talked to the AT&T representative about it. He was surprisingly helpful, set me up within minutes, and showed me what I needed to do once I got home. Following his simple instructions (connect Microcell to internet connection, put serial number in AT&T Microcell website, and wait 30 minutes for it to work), the thing was set in just five minutes. My iPhone 3GS now displays "M-Cell" whenever I'm in range.

I was bluntly told in-store that the 5,000 feet radius is with no interference, which means I'd be lucky to get 500 feet with a few walls. I lost my Microcell's signal about 100 feet away, through several walls and outside the building. Luckily for me, AT&T actually works outside of my home, and the few calls I made where I left my home, switching between the Microcell and a full-blown cell tower, went off without a hitch. No dropped call, no connection problem, just a purely stable phone call.

Calls are clear and even under heavy internet use, I had no problem making or receiving calls with the Microcell. The few limitations aren't a big deal; only 10 people can be registered to use the Microcell at once, meaning you and up to nine friends and family members (so neighbors don't hijack your network); and only five calls can go through the Microcell at once. Besides that, I'm more than satisfied with the Microcell. I set up my friends and family to connect whenever they walk in, and now have a side benefit of keeping people off their phones in my office.

Now I'd never pay $200 for the Microcell (because I'm a cheap bastard), but that doesn't mean you have to just because you aren't as good a customer as I am. Call up or walk into your local AT&T store and tell them you can't make a call from your house, that you're dissatisfied with the service quality, and they'll practically hand over a Microcell. There's no guarantee they will, but if they're giving them out to people who don't ask for it, who's to say they won't give them to people who do?

T-Mobile Wi-Fi Calling (free, uses minutes on your current phone plan)

Someone at T-Mobile a brilliant idea, especially considering how poor their service is nationwide relative to the other tier-1 service providers: use a Wi-Fi connection to make or receive a call instead of your crappy reception at home. In theory, it's ingenious. T-Mobile takes minimum strain using Wi-Fi customers can actually make calls from home. In practice, it doesn't pan out so good.

I have a centralized Wi-Fi router sticking on my wall that reaches every room in the building at full strength. As you can see, it sticks to the wall (with velcro...that's how I roll Lifehacker). The effective radius of Wi-Fi is about 200', and I sit about 20' away. Using the Galaxy S 4G, there was a real hit/miss element to Wi-Fi calling. The Galaxy S drops calls when I walk around. It drops calls when I sit in place. So I kept trying until I realized what was happening: if the phone picks up a strong enough cell tower signal, it will switch over and shut down Wi-Fi to conserve power. This kills any chance of making a stable call because cell reception can vary even if you stand still.

As good as the concept is, you'll need to put aluminum foil around your house to make sure the connection sticks to Wi-Fi instead of finding a cell tower. The function has no settings to change this, so there's nothing to be done at this point.

Stick with a dedicated box

The Microcell, if you have to pay for it, definitely isn't worth $200. But if your choice is an AT&T or T-Mobile handset, neither of which will work wherever you need to make calls most, Ma Bell's Microcell is what will keep your phones on the network. T-Mo's concept is smarter, but probably won't be refined to the point where it actually works for awhile. So stick with a dedicated box. Verizon and Sprint customers, sorry, you're SOL if service sucks. Just be glad your carriers have better coverage.

Sagan's Pale Blue Dot, brilliantly visualized

For Earth Day, there's nothing better than to look at our planet in the eyes of a scientist, as our beloved Carl Sagan once described as a "Pale Blue Dot." Recent Sheridan College of Ontario graduate Adam Winnik, for his final thesis project, animated Sagan's dictation, reinvigorating it for us to remember and enjoy today.

No more Bill & Ted for China, all hope officially lost

At least, that's what the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television in China now claims based on new standards put into effect on March 31st. You know, so that the Chinese people don't get any funny ideas. That's why media involving "fantasy, time-travel, random compilations of mythical stories, bizarre plots, absurd techniques...ambiguous moral lessons, and a lack of positive thinking" are forthwith banned.

That sounds like all the good American TV. Ironically Bill & Ted never re-wrote history, but used historical figures to teach classmates about the importance of history. Well played Chinese government.

The dirtiest almost-SFW video you'll watch all day

If NatGeo could put out TV like this, I'd never get off the couch.

iPhone 5 production starting in September?

I jumped on the iPhone bandwagon early. I had the original iPhone, and now have the 3GS. For the past nine months I've wanted an iPhone 4, but have been stuck in my contract and couldn't get a good deal. The iPhone 5 was supposed to put me back in front of the curve.

Or so I thought. Rumors of the iPhone 5 arriving holiday season 2011 to match the Verizon iPhone release may leave current AT&T iPhone owners stuck between service contracts. According to Avian Securities, "conversations with yet another key component supplier indicates that production for iPhone 5 will begin in September." That is to say, it'll likely hit Apple stores in November.

The rumors could be true, and it does make sense. The holiday season is the best time to sell phones. 4G is quickly becoming a requirement for high-end smartphones. The obvious downside is anyone on a two-year contract will get screwed. 3GS owners would have to keep their phones for another 5-6 months and iPhone 4 owners wouldn't be able to get the upgrade unless Apple/AT&T made exceptions like they did with the iPhone 3G.

Or Apple just hates me. There's always that.

[Business Insider]

Amazon offering cheaper, ad-based Wi-Fi Kindle for $114

Everyone just wants a piece of Groupon. That's what Amazon is doing by throwing an even cheaper Kindle - for just $114 - which includes advertised deals like "a $20 Amazon gift card for $10" or "an album from the Amazon MP3 store for $1." Best of all, it does it all through the screen saver, so your reading is never interrupted...but after a long day, you could "open" your book to see a sweet deal. Or possibly a worthless one that is still prettier than the wallpaper sitting on the e-reader's screen.

The Kindle with Benefits will release on May 3rd.

Uneasy about Google Streetview? Soon thermal imaging can catch you in the act

It's one thing to get an odd photo taken by the Google Streetview bus. It's another to have an entire city photographed using thermal imaging. Because, who knows, you could be doing something where body heat is disproportionately below the waste for that time of day, or growing something that just gets really hot. Springfield and Hamilton residents will soon find themselves in this conundrum, but Bostonians can relax for a little while thanks to the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts.

The camera system, deployed by Sagewell, is intended to find hot spots to determine where excess energy is being expended, which in turn could help curb energy usage and save money. The problem is we don't necessarily want all of our homes completely visible, even if it's just a blob of reds and blues. The last thing I need is Predator stalking me during the day to watch me typing away.

[CBS Boston] (image from Time.com)

If AT&T is buying T-Mobile, why are these antagonistic ads still running?

News that AT&T was buying T-Mobile stirred the industry. Verizon would drop to send place, T-Mobile customers (and, well, everyone) could get the short end of the stick, and Verizon could buy Sprint, even if they don't think so just yet. Then why are we still seeing ads like this:



I just saw this ad run on TV. If you're wondering why they're still showing, and why T-Mobile is still competing in full force against their possible buyer, here's the reason: if the deal doesn't pan out, especially for legal concerns, then T-Mo will have to fight for it's life to succeed even harder than it is now. As the smallest of the tier-1 wireless providers, AT&T's buyout makes the no-metal company part of the gold-winning team. So while AT&T might see it as a loss for any customers switching from iPhones to Android devices on the smaller network, T-Mobile has a win-win opportunity, even Deutsche Telekom doesn't make a cool $39 billion.

But really, who switches from an iPhone on AT&T to Android on T-Mobile. Seriously guys, you can do better than that.

Google Labs chatbot makes coworkers believe you actually have friends

Lonely at the office? Need to look like someone will actually talk to you online? Chatbots are so old school, and the good ones moved to the web, so who would even remember. Google's Talk Guru is a Google Labs project that essentially puts an "I'm feeling lucky" search in the form of instant messages, but without the search. It's great for finding information, like a calculator or translation or weather patterns, and it works pretty well. It works across any client that support Google Talk just by inviting guru@googlelabs.com to a conversation. Send it an invite and voila, someone to finally talk to! Never be lonely again.

[Techcrunch via Google Labs Guru]

Analyst predicts 100 million iPhone 5 sales, what a surprise

Analysts and investors just love Apple. Go to any meeting with these number crunchers or golf players and it's "Google this" and "Apple that". The only thing you'll hear more of than that is "but does it work on the iPhone?" So, surprise surprise, one analyst at Asymco has determined that the iPhone 5 will sell about 100 million units in it's lifespan. That's one for every third person in the US, give or take a few hundred thousand.

How analyst Horace Dediu determined this is pretty simple, as seen in the chart above: historical data based on current iPhone model sales per year. According to Dediu, they've basically doubled with each new iteration. Based on this data, he's probably not wrong, considering two interchangeable factors: Verizon picking up the iPhone, and the possible delay of the iPhone 5. If the iPhone 5 is announced at WWDC, as expected, then we'll be seeing long lines at Apple, AT&T and Verizon stores, which in the US alone is over 200 million people. And more people on Verizon will likely switch, because they're waiting for the newer iPhone. If the release is delayed, then we may not have an iPhone 5, but an iPhone 4G, which besides for helping Apple out on the nomenclature of their beloved iOS device, it would sell even more units because both AT&T and Verizon are shelling out the big bucks for 4G.

[Wired via 9to5 Mac via Asymco]