Have Phone, Will Travel

Last year I took an extended trip to Latin America, a dream I had for a long time. As my husband and I prepared for our adventure, we considered what to do with our cell phone plans. We didn’t want to continue to pay the AT&T bill while we were abroad, so we looked into having our iPhones unlocked by AT&T, which turned out to be incredibly easy. I didn’t want to lose my existing cell phone number entirely so I opted to have the phone number ported to Google Voice, for a one-time fee of $20. With my number in Google Voice, I downloaded the Google Hangouts app, where I could send and receive texts and phone calls from my existing phone number. This works out really well to maintain that phone number without having to have an actual cell phone plan tied to it. Once the phones were unlocked and we began our journey south, we were able to purchase SIM cards in each country we visited. It typically went like this. We entered a country and in the first few days we would ask the locals about which provider had the best cell phone service. In South America, there are two pretty big competitors, Claro and Movistar, but there are others depending on which country you are in. When we decided on a provider, we would inquire where we could buy a SIM card. It was always an adventure trying to determine where to purchase the SIM card. In Nicaragua, we were sent to about 5 different stores before finding the right office. After purchasing the card, typically for around one dollar, we would visit a corner store where they would be able to load our cards with money so we could use the phone. In all of the countries we visited, the cell phone companies offered very cheap promotions when reloading a card. In Colombia, there was a promotion where you could have two chosen numbers and when you called either of these numbers, the first five minutes of the call was free. Making local calls, texting and surfing the web were quite cheap. I usually put a few dollars on my phone at a time and that was enough to get by for a few weeks. Any time I wanted to call the States, I would use the Google Hangouts app. With Google Voice, it is free to make phone calls to the United States and Canada. The process of finding, purchasing, and setting up the cell phones was a little tedious at times, but I happen to enjoy this kind of travel - where I get to interact with locals, force myself to learn the language, and learn about something I typically would not. So for me, the adventure of using an international cell phone was part of the fun. Plus I didn’t have to give up my existing phone number when I left the country. It was a win-win! ~Kate Waldhauser

Insert From URL

We’ve recently been working on a project for a company in Seattle that you'll all be familiar with -- Space Needle. Yes, it's a company, as well as a large pointy building. Space Needle runs the eponymously named structure, as well as the Chihuly Garden of Glass nearby.

Working with the folks at Space Needle, we are developing an iPad FileMaker Go application for their managers to use to document the status of the grounds, staffing, service, etc., so that they can have objective information about their overall quality of service over time.

One of the pieces of data to be gathered is the weather conditions each day. In order to standardize how this data is gathered, we decided to try and obtain it from an internet source. 

A little research at the Programmable Web turned up Weather Underground as a good-looking option. They have an extensive API for obtaining weather data, and one of their weather reporting stations is only a few blocks away from the Space Needle.

Utilizing the Insert From URL script step introduced in FileMaker 12, we created a button that allows the manager to insert the current weather. The data returned from the Weather Underground API is in JSON, which is fairly easily parsed. The API returns a lot of data, from which we parsed out the sky conditions and the high/low temps.

Upon further discussion with our client, it turned out that a button to capture the current weather was not necessarily ideal, since the weather can vary considerably through the day. We looked back at the data available from Weather Underground, and in addition to current conditions, they have an API call for getting weather history, so we may choose now to standardize on capturing the daily weather observation at a consistent time of day, rather than whenever the manager happens to click the weather button.

The Insert From URL script step is a powerful new feature in FileMaker Pro 12.

Google Maps App Release

It seemed like nothing could be more thrilling to iPhone users than the release of Google Maps new app for the iPhone Wednesday night. The app quickly shot to the top of the downloads in the app store. If you have held back from upgrading to iOS 6.0 because of Apple maps, now is the time to upgrade.

Besides having much more accurate directions and maps, some perks of the new app are:

• Voice guided turn by turn navigation - just like Apple maps.
• New Google Maps SDK allows developers to integrate with other apps.
• Google has partnered with Yelp and Zagat so entering a business will now reveal more than just the location.
• Detailed public transportation directions.

One of my personal grievances with Apple maps is that once you have begun the voice guided navigation, there’s no easy way to get a greater overview of the map. It keeps you only in the next hundred feet ahead unless you display the header area with the overview button. With the Google maps app, you can easily pause the directions by tapping inside the map to view any other part of the route. When you are ready to resume, simply hit the resume button.

Lost iPad

About six months ago I misplaced my iPad. Not a terribly unusual event, I have an unfortunate tendency to lose things occasionally (ok, some might say frequently). Usually they turn up again pretty quickly. In this case though I could not find it anywhere. I had just returned from a business trip to Eastern Washington, and I thought I must have left it in a hotel or coffee shop (check out Pioneer Coffee in Cle Elum next time you’re there, great coffee shop). 

So, out comes ‘Find My iPad’ which should magically tell me right where the missing device could be found. I’ve used it many times to locate my iPhone around the house. If you have a Mac laptop or an iOS device, I strongly encourage you to get an iCloud account so you can use this feature when needed.

Unfortunately, my iPad appeared to be offline and couldn’t be found. I called the last hotel I stayed at, but they said they couldn’t find it.

I finally decided to send a remote wipe command to it, hoping to prevent any of my data from being available to anyone that might find the iPad (this can also be done through your iCloud account).

I ended up figuring that some tech savvy person had found it and re-initialized it in the week between when I lost it and when I sent the remote wipe command.

Well, I’m embarrassed (and glad) to say that the iPad turned up this week. I had apparently fallen asleep watching Netflix and the battery drained all the way and the iPad slid behind the bed. This was at our family’s vacation place on Whidbey Island (available as a vacation rental), so I’m not there that often and with the battery dead, Find my iPad couldn’t find it.

So, the lesson here… Don’t wait for your iPad’s battery to run all the way down before you decide to lose it.

--John Newhoff

(oh, and a big thank you to my sister, Mary, who outdid iCloud and actually found my iPad).