On a recent trip to Puerto Vallarta, me and fellow travellers wanted to stay connected without paying huge money for roaming or shoddy hotel wifi. So I looked into getting a Mexican SIM card for my iPhone. Its not quite as easy as prepaid in the US or Europe, but the good news is that if you want to get online while visiting Mexico it is relatively simple and inexpensive.

Actual calling tariffs in Mexico are very confusing. They’re based on regions and, depending on where you call within Mexico, your calls could be very cheap or very expensive (like long distance in Canada). You’re also charged extra if you travel outside of your very small home region. So I decided to skip native calling and texting altogether, and opt for data-only instead. VOIP, email and app based texting.

There are a number of cellphone companies in Mexico. Telcel, Movistar, Isuacell, Nextel among others, but Telcel and Movistar have the most widespread 3G networks that are compatible with iPhones and other unlocked GSM devices. And between those Telcel is said to have to greater coverage at somewhat higher cost.

I was ready to try out either Telcel or Movistar, but it turned out that we drove past a Telcel shop first. It was right on the big highway in Bucerias (Nuevo Vallarta area). There are plenty of these little stores and you shouldn’t have trouble finding one. We went inside and I explained what I wanted to do. There was a language barrier, but in my case a salesperson’s friend was visiting and he spoke perfect English. You might want to write down or save a couple phrases in Google Translate before heading to the shop.

I’ve read online that some have had to go into a big city and have their passport scanned. But in my case they just had me write down the spelling of my name, the hotel I was staying at and we were good to go. Activation was done over the phone.

The SIM card was $149MX (just over $10CAD). There’s plenty of data plans to choose from, but I went with the 1GB/7days for $199MX (about $15CAD). They activated it for me it was working right away. If you need to reload your account to buy more data or check your usage you can do it from the Telcel self-serve website. The site accepts international credit cards.

Coverage was OK. It worked just about everywhere, except inside the lobby of the hotel where there were some dead spots. It was mostly 3G but I saw Edge sometimes too. Speeds aren’t amazing but better than the hotel wifi.

I used the Personal Hotspot feature on my phone, and we had up to 5 devices surfing and emailing harmonioulsy.

So lets devise that plan that nets you visual voicemail that works on any handset, most carriers and doesn’t cost you anything extra. For this to work you’ll need data and push email account on your phone. You’re plan must also support conditional call forwarding. And finally we’ll need an account at freephoneline.ca (where the real magic happens here).

The first thing you should do is setup your account at Free Phone Line. These guys offer a free Canadian phone number, voicemail, long distance and more. Follow the instructions and make sure you choose a local number. Once your account is created and verified, we can start to setup the voicemail. The first thing you might want to do is record your voicemail greeting. Download and open the FPL softphone app on your computer, dial *98 (or click the voicemail button) and follow instructions to record your greeting.

Now you should configure the system to email the voicemails to you. On the FPL website, make sure you’re logged in and click on the Change Details page. Set the “Correspondence Email” to your push email account, and at the bottom of the page set “Enable voicemail to email” to copy or forward. Copy will email your voicemails to you and keep a copy on the FPL server (so you could dial in and check if you wanted) and forward will simply email you the voicemails and then delete them from the FPL system. Click save.

Test what we have so far. Call your FPL number, leave a voicemail and make sure it gets pushed to your phone.

OK, now for the tricky part. Get your mobile and dial these three sequences to connect your phone to the FPL voicemail:

1. Dial *67*[FPL phone number]# and SEND “Call forward if busy”
2. Dial *61*[FPL phone number]# and SEND “Call forward if not answered”
3. Dial *62*[FPL phone number]# and SEND “Call forward if unreachable”

iOS 5 email notification

Now your phone should be setup with the FPL voicemail system. Test the system in three different ways to make sure all missed calls go to your new voicemail. Call your phone and let it ring until it goes to voicemail, call your phone and ignore the call by pressing the end or sleep keys, and call your phone while its completely turned off or in airplane mode.

If all of these tests send you to the right mailbox, and all your VMs are pushed to your phone then you’re all done! Another benefit is that you’ll be able to access your voicemail from any device that has your email account.

Notes

• Some email providers may accidentally mark your voicemails as spam. Test your setup, and if you have trouble receiving your voicemails at your correspondence email try checking the junk folder.
• If you are with Rogers / Fido and have a voicemail package you might have trouble with the conditional call forwarding setup. It may be necessary to disable voicemail or remove your voicemail feature completely.
• Depending your plan minutes may be deducted from your monthly bucket. Also, if you’re roaming you may be charged a roaming minute for each time someone hits your voicemail. I suggest never roaming with your Canadian SIM and buying local SIMs instead.

Header photo by Emrah Ömüriş.

But once and a while I run into strange errors when trying to boot my VM’s. Errors like “VERR_SUPLIB_WORLD_WRITABLE”, which basically mean the file permissions on some component of VirtualBox are too general.

You can fix most of these errors by opening up Disk Utility (Spotlight search or Applications > Utilities). From there select your system hard drive (likely Macintosh HD) and click Repair Disk Permissions. This process may take a few minutes. When its done restart your computer, open up VirtualBox and you should be good to go!

If you still have trouble, open up the Applications folder and find the VirtualBox app. Right click and open the Get Info screen. At the bottom in the permissions section, make sure “Everyone” only has read access.

Header screenshot by Rafa Espada.

What You Need

An unlocked GSM phone. If you’re a Canadian that means any recent unlocked phone from Rogers, Fido, WIND, or Mobilicity. If you are on the new HSPA network, your Telus or Bell phone might also be compatible. For this guide I used an old Rogers Blackberry Bold 9000.

If your phone is not unlocked it can almost certainly be done online for a small fee or at the mall (for a slightly larger fee). Some phones can’t be easily unlocked like the iPhone.

Once You’re in the US

Go to a T-Mobile store and buy a prepaid SIM (~$10). T-Mobile is the 4th largest carrier in the US. Their coverage is plenty good for a short visit like ours and much less expensive than AT&T. The staff are very helpful and they’ll help you with the SIM card if you need, then print out your US phone number.

The SIM is pre-loaded with something like $3 credit, which is good for about 10 minutes of calling ($0.30/min) or a few dozen texts ($0.10 to send and $0.05 to receive). Those rates aren’t unreasonable, but I wanted a little more for my money.

The good news is that T-Mobile also offers an unlimited Daily WebPass (data) for $1.45. Its good for a day and once you have this you check your email, browse the web, and use as much VOIP (Skype, Fring, SIP, Line2) as your heart desires.

Update (Jan 2012): T-Mobile now offers a $2 dollar a day plan that includes unlimited US texts, talk and Edge/2G data.  They also have $3 dollar plan that includes 3G data (if your phone is compatibility with AWS 3G networks, or you’re in an area that T-Mobile has 1900Mhz 3G coverage).

How do I sign up for a Daily WebPass? I was wondering this before I left because T-Mobile nor any other sites seem to have any information. Its actually very easy! In your phone you’ll need to “set the APN” (look up instructions for your model) to epc.tmobile.com with no username or password. On my BlackBerry it was under Advanced Options > TC/IP. Once you do that open up your phone’s web browser (you must use Opera Mini if you have a BlackBerry) and you’ll be greeted with a page that asks you to purchase a WebPass. Just follow the buttons to sign up, the $1.45 will be drawn from your prepaid balance and your data will be activated!

BlackBerry users: Note that you will not have access to BlackBerry branded apps that rely on Blackberry Internet Services (email, BBM, maps, Facebook app etc) [UPDATE: Read next paragraph]. Prepaid BIS is simply not offered in the US by any carrier. You will have to use Opera Mini to browse and a handful of other apps that don’t need BIS. It might be advisable to take along a second phone to use with the prepaid SIM so you can continue to use your BlackBerry services over WiFi. In my case it didn’t matter, because I was using my BlackBerry for Opera Mini and tethering my laptop and iPhone.

Update (Jun 2011): T-Mobile now has prepaid BIS! Its $10 for a month (in addition to a regular data plan, otherwise it only works on Wifi), and enables BlackBerry email, BBM and browsing.

Tethering

The biggest use I got out of the service was tethering my laptop and iPhone to my prepaid US phone. Once you have the WebPass its easy to setup on a Mac. Just enable Bluetooth on your phone and pair with your laptop. Set it up as a modem using the same APN as your phone (epc.tmobile.com with no username or password). I tried generic and Sierra Wireless as the vendors for my BlackBerry and both worked. Select the add Bluetooth DUN to menu bar option. Then you can just open the phone icon at the top of your screen, click “Connect Bluetooth DUN” and your laptop will be connected.

Create a WiFi hospot: If you have multiple devices, or ones that can’t easily bluetooth tether, you might want to create a WiFi hotspot. You can do this by using something like a MiFi device, or a phone that supports a hotspot feature (like Android + Barnacle WiFi tethering). For some useful information see the comment by CB.

For talking and texting I used Toktumi’s excellent Line2 app. I just signed up for a 30-day trial account with a local number in the city I was staying in. It worked very well texts and reasonably well for VOIP over T-Mobile’s EDGE network. Calls and texts came in just like I was using the native app, and for free instead of the ridiculous $1.45+/min or $0.60+/txt that Telus, Rogers and other Canadian carriers charge.

Update (Jan 2012): Other options for making/receiving calls have now opened up. One of the best is Google Voice. It integrates with the Google account you probably already have, and gives you a US number that you can use to receive and make free calls to the US + Canada. An app like Dell Voice (iOS and Android) will give you a free Canadian number that allows calls to and from most Canadian locations using VOIP.

And that’s a wrap. If you have any questions please feel free to ask in the comments. Any money saved from going prepaid in the US is money not encouraging extortionist roaming rates.

So we convert. I’ve found a relatively painless workflow that will allow you to convert your media from just about anything (AVI and MKV included) to Apple friendly formats, and tag it with metadata so you can enjoy film description, movie posters, episode information and more on your Apple TV (just as if you bought it on iTunes).

Conversion

The first, and most time consuming step, is to run all your media through conversion software. I’m using two pieces of software. Video Monkey and Handbrake.

The benefit of Video Monkey is that it has a queue interface, so you can drag a selection of videos into the app, choose your options, hit start and grab a coffee.

Handbrake is a little smarter than Video Monkey and it allows you to preserve 5.1 audio tracks if your vidoes have them. It also has a queue, but its cumbersome and you have to add each file individually.

If you’re using Video Monkey:

1. Drag in your videos
2. Select the Apple TV preset
3. Check “Limit output params to input” (doesn’t work with MKV’s)
4. Default quality is good enough for me, but adjust to your fancy
5. Hit Start (it could take minutes or hours depending on your machine)

If you’re using Handbrake:

1. Use the Source window to choose one file (or drag the file from the Finder into the Source window)
2. Select the Apple TV preset from the presets pain on the right (might have to “Toggle Presets”)
3. Handbrake automatically limits output parameters to input, and this does work with MKV’s
4. Default quality is good enough for me, but adjust to your liking
5. Hit Start (it could take minutes or hours depending on your machine)
6. To add another file to the queue, click Source from the toolbar and repeat the process, clicking “Add to Queue” instead of Start at step 5

I recommend trying it with one file first to make sure quality is what you expected.

My next post covers tagging your converted media so it displays nicely in iTunes/Apple TV.

Fido LCA (roughly the same as Telus)

Recently I was wondering what the borders of my ‘local calling area’ were. The LCA is the set of boundaries, on any provider, in which you can place calls without being charged long-distance. Telus Mobility doesn’t have a public map (or even a list) available of their LCA.

So below I’ve placed a list of townships you can call, while physically in the Greater Vancouver Area, without being charged long distance.

Abbotsford, Aldergrove, Aspen Park, Bowen Island, Cedar, Chemainus, Cloverdale, Coquitlam, Duncan, Fulford hrbr., Gabriola, Ganges, Gibsons, Gulf islands, Haney, Ladner, Ladysmith, Lake Cowichan, Langley, Lantzville, Mission, Nanoose, New Westminster, Newton, Pitt Meadows, Port Coquitlam, Port Mellon, Port Moody, Qualicom Beach, Richmond, Sardis, Sechelt, Steveston, Vancouver, Whalley, White Rock, Whonnock

If you leave the Greater Vancouver Area (but are still in one of the townships above) incoming calls will not be charged extra, but outgoing calls will be charged long-distance. Its complicated, but this is how the carriers have decided to handle long-distance in our country.

Telus, Koodo, Rogers, Fido, Bell, Solo, Virgin and other sub-brands share loosely the same local calling areas across the country. Fido provides the best maps, you can see Fido’s LCA maps on their site.

New wireless carriers like WIND and Mobility generally have province-wide local calling areas, but you have to pay roaming fees when outside of their respective coverage ares. Interestingly, its cheaper to roam with either WIND ($0.25/min) or Mobilicity ($0.20/min) then pay the incumbents long-distance rates (around $0.45/min).

You can avoid just about all long-distance charges by using a combination of nationwide favourite numbers, Skype (on Wifi and 3G) or other VOIP services. Long-distance is a scam.

The next theme to get its 1.6 update is Realize. I’ve gotten more emails and PMs than I can count, and I promise its coming within the next 48 hours. Thanks for waiting everyone! Here are some screenshots, enjoy.

Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

New login box

New search box

Following these instructions and these instructions (more or less) on HowardForums I was able to get custom ringtones on a Telus m540.

My Suggestions

1. Don’t use UniCDMA. Get ahold of the CDMA Workshop software instead.
2. Don’t waste your money on a legit ringtone, download and edit the ones below. (I wasted hours trying to make them from scratch)
3. If you’re having lots of trouble try the sample files I’ve included in this post without any edits first. They should work. Leave me a comment or go post in one of the forum topics on HoFo if you need some help.

Included for you here are a sample 11.txt, 11.dd and 11.gc file (its Speechless by Lady GaGa in case you’re wondering). To make your own ringtone follow all the linked instructions (CDMA Workshop method is best) then edit my .txt and .dd files, replace the .gc with your own .mp3 and upload to the folders described in the HoFo instructions. Best luck.

• A Coast Capital chequing or savings account (its best to use one with no transaction fees like “The Free Chequing, Free Debit and More Account” or “The High‑interest, No‑fee Savings Account“)
• A PayPal account. Its important that your name is entered exactly the same on both your PayPal and Coast Capital accounts.

To link a new bank account you’ll want to start by opening PayPal and logging in there. Under My Account click Profile, then under Financial Information open Bank Accounts, and from this page click “add”. Depending on your situation, there are a number of ways you can get the rest of the info you’ll need.

1) If you have cheques for the account you want to add, then all you have to is follow the instructions on the PayPal site. Copy the information from your cheque using the diagram supplied.

2) If  you only have online banking there’s a little more leg work to do. Start by logging in at Coast Capital, then open the summary for the account you want to link with PayPal (by clicking on its name). On this page you need to copy the account number (the number circled in red). This number is unique to the actual account, is not the same as your membership number, and is usually 12 characters long. Enter this number in the “Account Number” field on PayPal, and re-enter in the confirmation field.

Then you’ll need to find the transit number for your branch (usually the Coast Capital branch where you opened your account). Look for your branch on this page and copy its number into the “Bank Transit Number” field back on PayPal. Enter 809 in the “Institution Number” field.

And submit! That’s all. In a few days you’ll receive two small deposits, and then you can go back to PayPal and confirm your account. You’ll be able to fund purchases from your bank account, as well as withdraw funds from PayPal into your Bank Account.

Coast Capital will not charge you for PayPal transactions if you have a bank account with no transaction fees, although PayPal will ding you $0.50 for transfers less than $150CAD. This is cheaper than using hyperWALLET ($0.85), and its a lot more versatile. Using PayPal is also a great way to accept credit card payments without having setup a merchant account.

1. Click the Account tab on the right.
2. Click Edit Friends (the first link under your name)
3. Type the person’s name under the Facebook logo
4. Click the X to the right of the their name
5. Wonder why they made it so difficult??

At least its less complicated than removing a friend from real life..