Anyone who reads this blog knows I have a really good relationship with AT&T and when I got alerted to this earlier today decided that even though this isn’t exactly the news I’d typically run I thought, it’s for a good cause.

We are all blessed to have not been mamed or killed in the attack at the finish line of the Boston Marathon last week, we also weren’t envolved in the explosion in Texas. I’m thankful for all of that and if you’d like to help support the injured and help the families of the killed last week in Boston you can donate from your AT&T phone. If you have AT&T you can text BOSTON to 80108 and you will have given $10 to charity to help. I just Googled it and it works for all 4 big carriers though AT&T is the only one that contacted me so they’re the only one I’ll name.

Anyways, if you want to do some good send the text if giving away $10 isn’t going to change your quality of life this month then give a little and be grateful you can and if you have extra time you can visit this site to play games.

By the way GO AMERICA!!!

It would also be a well calculated move against Apple who only has messaging on Apple devices, something I’ve thought they need to work on for a very long time.

My only demand for Google would be that they don’t shut down support because it’s not making them enough money. To many people who don’t have any alternatives would be out of luck. Folks in 3rd world countries on feature phones that support WhatsApp would be left in the dark, sans communication with out it and all the people all over the world who use WhatsApp to stay in communication across borders would be screwed. I know Google only wants to promote Android but I hope the WhatsApp executives would include in the contract that the app must continue indefinitely on all current platforms and not be allowed to be shut down unless Google stops using the newly acquired service.

So good luck Google, keep up the work on your unified communications platform and don’t F this up for the people that need it most.

By the way if you don’t like Google reading your messages then I suggest checking out Viber, it’s what I personally use and endorse.

I wrote about this previously after attending an event discouraging teens from texting while driving.  I know how silly this may sound, we all text and drive but let me put it to you a different way.  A childhood friend of mine said once he wouldn’t drink and drive because he has to much to lose.  All the other reasons aside not to text and drive let alone text and drive, you probably have too much to lose.  Do you have kids, a spouse or anyone that cares about you?  What about the possibility of ruining someone else’s life even if you don’t care about ruining yours.  You have a responsibility, so STOP bloody texting and driving.

On a side note, because I attend so many trade-shows and conferences I get a lot of interesting bags, I’ve been on a mission to give all of them away if I’m never going to use them, so when I got to London and my best friend who I stayed with said he liked my backpack at the time I thought, well, I have a duplicate at home from an AT&T developer conference, I figured what the heck, I’ll give him mine.

So I called my wife and asked if she could fit the STM Impulse into her luggage for me.  When she arrived I pulled it out and wow, is it a beauty, I showed it to my best friend who wanted it instead but I’m not that nice.  The Impulse isn’t strange looking by any means but it’s definitely unique in that it’s lines aren’t totally symmetrical, it’s grey with orange trim instead of flat black like most bags.  It’s really thin, I learned while packing it for my trip home.  In my regular carry on backpack I can fit my small but bulging bag of toiletries and another bag of all my electronics gear, well in the Impulse everything has to be flat and skinny.  I like this, it’s going to keep me from over packing.

As far as size goes, it has a first compartment with a pocket for a laptop up to 15 inches (my 13in MacBook Pro fits wonderfully) as well as a tablet pocket.  My iPad 3 (full size, not the mini) with it’s Zagg BT QWERTY keyboard fit perfectly.  The next pocket had a spot for slightly bigger items plus a pocket for files or paperwork.  Then there was the mandatory compartment for pens, pencils, business cards, a keyring clip (I use to hold a SIM card ejector), plus the pocket was kind of deep so I could fit other things like a travel bottle of Advil, a sleeping mask for the airplane and a few other things.  There are 2 side pockets, that are surprisingly roomy, one is zippered and a final compartment on the bottom typically for laptop chargers and so on, you know, the bulkier items.  I always keep some granola bars or candy bars with me because I get grumpy if I don’t eat so they went in there also.  I almost forgot to mention the backpack has a strap across it so I can slide it over a rolling piece of luggage.  Additionally the back padding is phenomenally comfortable.

I’ve had lots of bags, backpacks and the like over the years, some free, some cheap and some pretty pricey and this is by far the most comfortable.  It also gets lots of comments.  A few of the ladies in my office commented on how much they like it.  One of them even asked where she could get it for her boyfriend.  Come to find out, when I looked, according to the STM website the Impulse doesn’t come out until April.

It feels like a really sturdy bag and I plan to use it until I have to send it back to STM, that should be a pretty good indicator of my level of enjoyment of this bag.  I like it a lot and would like to check out more STM backpacks because of how high quality this pack feels.  I’m no backpack expert but the bag is nice and I highly recommend checking it out if you’re in the market for a new tech bag.

Voiamo the makers of GlobalGig have a great pricing plan $17/1gb, $25/2gb, $45/5gb and finally $80/10gb.  There are 2 ways to get the wireless hotspot device itself, either buy it outright for $99 (promotional price, it’s usually $119) or get it free if you sign up for an 18 month plan with the monthly rates staying the same with either option.

Now the GlobalGig doesn’t work everywhere but it works in many of the top markets people travel to for business or pleasure, UK, US, Australian, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden and Hong Kong.  I’m told the list is growing regularly so if your destination country isn’t on there check their site regularly.

This isn’t a commercial blog post for them by the way, I really like what they’re doing.  My wife, best friend, his fiancee and myself were all on the GlobalGig uploading pictures, attending to our email and I even downloaded a map app of the London underground.  This thing really kept me connected during my vacation.  I can only imagine if my kids were with us, they’d want to connect our old iPhones and Skype with the grandparents and play their games.  NO WAY I’d let them roam overseas but with the GlobalGig I can just jump to the next higher plan and not worry about a colossal roaming bill when I get home.  It’s all prepaid here so you know what you’re getting yourself into.

The GlobalGig prices prices seem very reasonable and their device was adequate.  It’s not great though.  I couldn’t tell what the battery life was like or even get a rough estimate of how much data I was using.  I’ve spoken to their people and they said they’d take that into consideration for their next device.  All in all, I really liked my experience with the Voiamo GlobalGig and would recommend it to friends/family traveling abroad.

Let me start with my favorite piece of SWAG, in this case it was a TruPhone sim card.  I’ve been a fan of TruPhone since they were a small company on a dairy farm in England somewhere around 2006 or 2007.  They have a few offerings now, the first 2 being a prepaid or postpaid sim card that can work nearly anywhere in the world (at least where I would consider traveling to) and gives you really reduced roaming rates.  They include 1 US, UK or Australian number and you can rent additional numbers from them month to month.  For transparency sake I used their sims during my time in Europe as well as on previous trips.  TruPhone was nice enough to load 100 dollars, pounds or euros, I never really asked on to it and let me have at it.  I was able to stay connected everywhere I went in Barcelona, from the conference itself to the subways, I was always connected.  3G worked perfectly on my iPhone and my Samsung Galaxy S 3, most importantly for me I was able to get my email and run Google Maps.

TruPhone also has another offering that’s getting better and better all the time.  They just updated their mobile app and it’s pretty slick.  I’ve been able to make calls from in for a while but now it shows me how much my call will cost per minute before dialing.  Plus it has a signal strength indicator.

TruPhone as a consumer service is a godsend in terms of controlling your roaming bill when traveling abroad.  As a business service it’s almost a necessity to stay connected and use your normal number versus some random number your company gives you with a dumb phone. I know that when I travel abroad I always rely on my TruPhone sim, I forward my Phone.com work number to my TruPhone number and no one knows I’m not in the office.

I highly recommend TruPhone and if you have any questions about them feel free to ask me.

Oh and just so we’re clear, I’ve gotten lots of free sims from TruPhone over the years, back when they first launched they were giving out free VOIP service as well.  I think I had a cookie when I was in their hospitality suite and for all the knit pickers out there, I got a tour of their office last year. That’s all the transparency I’ve got for you.

I almost forgot, the TruPhone app is available on iOS, Android and I’m happy to point out the new BlackBerry’s.  It should be a given but I’ll also point out TruPhone has all sizes of sim cards.

I am a huge fan of traveling lite. I don’t always travel as meagerly as I probably could, no one really needs 4 phones, even if I am going to be out of the office for almost 2 weeks. So this trip to Europe for Mobile World Congress, some meetings in London and a short vacation is going to be a serious test, I didn’t bring my laptop. I’ll have some work that MUST get done and I’m gong to have to do it on my iPad plus Zagg bluetooth keyboard.

I try to do as much as I can in the cloud these days but using CloudOn like a few friends have suggested is probably out of the question because I may not be as connected as I’m used to. At home I have AT&T 4G on my iPad but I won’t be using it in Europe. So I’ll have to use apps that don’t need connectivity to run but that can sync next time they go online. So I’m going to be doing my word processing in Evernote.

For voice I’ll be using the Phone.com Mobile Office App that will allow me to make and receive voice calls as well as SMS, all using my Samsung Galaxy S 3 Android phone powered by AT&T, big thanks to them.

I’ll probably also try blogging from the WordPress iOS app and report back to you what I find.

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This is a paid post, we’ve got to keep our lights on so put up with it once a year!

All the local outreach that AT&T has done over the last year has really made a difference in the perception AT&T customers have of the company.  I feel like they’re really making an effort to step up their game and this gigantic multi billion dollar investment is a monitary sign they’re standing behind what they’ve been doing.

Good job AT&T and good job to your local PR firm.  They’re some great folks.  Now to put AT&T to the test overseas when I go to Barcelona and London.  I’ll report back on their coverage there.

Here’s the press release they sent out:

AT&T INVESTED MORE THAN $1.9 BILLION IN GREATER L.A. AREA

FROM 2010 THROUGH 2012 TO ENHANCE SPEEDS, RELIABILITY AND PERFORMANCE FOR CUSTOMERS

Expanded 4G LTE Coverage, New Cell Sites and Boosted Capacity Drive Improved Customer Experience

Investment Spurs Improvement: 99 Percent of All Los Angeles-Area Wireless Calls Stayed Connected in the 4^th Quarter of 2012

LOS ANGELES, CA. (FEBRUARY 21, 2013)  — AT&T* invested more than $1.9 billion in its Greater Los Angeles area wireless and wireline networks from 2010 through 2012, with a focus on expanding 4G LTE mobile Internet coverage and enhancing the overall performance of its networks.**

People in Los Angeles increasingly depend on mobile Internet connections for communication, entertainment and productivity at work, at home and everywhere in between. AT&T’s continued investment is designed to deliver the highest levels of service, with network enhancements driving improvements in key areas of the mobile Internet experience: 4G speed, broad coverage and network reliability.

AT&T’s significant investment over the past three years is delivering customers a stronger network performance.  The AT&T network kept 99 percent of all Los Angeles-area wireless calls connected in the fourth quarter of 2012 (October through December).

“I’m proud of the investment AT&T continues to make in California.  As a leader in communications technology we are excited to empower, engage and transform the way Californians interact with each other and world around them,” said Ken McNeely, President – AT&T California.

2012 Network Enhancements Deliver Faster Speeds, Broader Coverage to Customers

AT&T customers are benefitting from nearly 950 wireless network upgrades in six key categories in the Greater Los Angeles area during 2012, including activating new cell sites, adding capacity, upgrading cell sites to provide fast 4G LTE mobile Internet speeds, deploying high-capacity Ethernet connections to cell sites, and adding or upgrading Distributed Antenna Systems, which boost wireless coverage and capacity in buildings and at major venues like convention halls or sports arenas.

AT&T launched 4G LTE in the Greater Los Angeles area in January 2012.  AT&T 4G LTE is the latest generation of wireless network technology and provides faster mobile Internet speeds — improved performance on a variety of mobile smartphones and tablets.

The AT&T 4G LTE network has been nationally recognized for its speed and coverage. AT&T 4G LTE delivered faster average download speeds than any of the competitors in PCWorld’s most recent 13-market speed tests, and telecommunications industry analyst firm Frost and Sullivan awarded AT&T its North American Mobile Network Strategy Award for the second year in a row in 2012.

“Broadband access is a priority everywhere in our nation, no matter the location, because it is such a powerful driver for economic development,” said Gary Toebben, President & CEO of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. “This investment by AT&T to expand its mobile Internet network will help more people and businesses stay connected in today’s fast-moving technological world.”

Planned Investment to Expand Reach of Wireless and Wired Broadband

AT&T recently launched Project Velocity IP (VIP), a three-year investment initiative to expand and enhance its wireless and wireline IP broadband networks. As part of Project VIP, AT&T plans to increase the density of its wireless network by deploying more than 10,000 macro sites, more than 1,000 distributed antenna systems, and more than 40,000 small cells. Through this initiative, we also plan to:

• ·         Expand 4G LTE to cover more than 300 million people by year-end 2014
• ·         Expand the AT&T wired IP network to 57 million customer locations, covering 75 percent of customer locations in its wired service area by year-end 2015
• ·         Expand the AT&T fiber network to reach 1 million additional business locations by year-end 2015

For more information about AT&T’s coverage in Los Angeles or anywhere in the U.S., consumers can visit the AT&T Coverage Viewer. Using the online tool, AT&T customers can measure coverage quality of coverage from a street address, intersection, ZIP code or even a landmark. For updates on the AT&T wireless network, please visit the AT&T network news page.