Ting – The best cell phone service provider

Last year I switched from Sprint to Ting. The switch did not go exactly as I thought it would, but the result was better than I had imagined.

I saved more than half than what I was paying Sprint and got a new phone relatively cheap.

I hit a couple of snags, but considering how much money I saved, it was worth it.

Get Ting!

Why I switched

I was using Sprint’s Everything Data Plan with 450 “Anytime” minutes which was costing me about $80 a month including the additional fees and taxes. A new contract with Sprint for that same plan is now $10 more.

I first learned about Ting through their parent company, Tucows, who made their name as a domain name registrar. My past experience with another of their companies, OpenSRS was good, so knew Ting was going to be good, too. Ting uses Sprint’s network, so I knew my coverage would not change.

As I looked at the plans and used their savings calculator, I found I could save half of what I spending with Sprint, and I was sold.

The only thing keeping me switching right away was my contract with Sprint, which, at the time, would not expire for another couple of months. Plus, I kept reading on their blog about their Bring Your Own Sprint Device, or BYO(S)D, program which was still under development.

Finally the day came when my Sprint contract had expired, and I was also accepted into the beta of the BYO(S)D program. I had an LG Optimus S (LS670) I was planning on using, but I hit a snag. The BYO(S)D program would only work with inactive devices, and mine was still active with Sprint. I did not want to go without a phone for any amount of time and wanted to keep my number, so the BYO(S)D program was out, but I was still determined to move to Ting.

So I looked at Ting’s device offerings. They had a refurbished Samsung Transform Ultra for $79 which was (1) better than my current LG Optimus S, and (2) so inexpensive, the money I would save by switching to Ting would pay for it in a few months.

So I ordered the Samsung phone, and used Ting’s online service to port my number and activated the phone.

For the past three months of billing, I have not been charged more than $35 for each month. I’m happy so far.

Now that I have a new phone, if I wanted, I think could still take part in the BYO(S)D with my old phone since it is now inactive. So I could have a second phone with my plan for only $6/month more, and they would share the minutes, messages and data.

[big_button color=”blue” url=”http://hecktech.net/go/tingswitch” desc=”Click here to get $25 off the purchase of a device”] Get Ting! [/big_button]

Before you take the plunge

Some things to note before you switch:

Google Voice – I use Google Voice for my voicemail. Ting makes this easy to set up since you just need to enter your Google Voice number as the “Forward if busy” and “Forward if unanswered” number. The only problem I have had so far is I have not been able to get texts to forward to Google Voice as I did with Sprint. The benefit here was that the texts would show up in my email if I was somewhere where I did not have service, but still had WIFI. It was also good for keeping an archive of texts. Since moving to Ting, I solved the archive problem by using the “SMS Backup” app.

Samsung Transform Ultra glitch – If I use the stock SMS app, the date/time stamp on incoming messages is an hour ahead. Using the Go SMS Pro app fixed that problem.

SD card not included – An SD card was not included with my refurbished Samsung Transform Ultra and I don’t think the new ones do either, so I highly recommend you buy one separately.

Battery life is not so great on the Samsung Transform Ultra.

Despite the problems with that particular phone, Ting is still great.

Get Ting!

How to fix HP Deskjet D1455 blinking light

I needed to print something, and my printer had been unplugged for a month or two. I plugged it back in, let it do its warm-up stretches, and proceed to print my document.

But nothing happened. The green power LED on the printer just blinked at me.

Go to the TL;DR

I had installed the printer by just plugging it in to my Windows 7 computer without installing any of the HP software. Before, it had printed fine, so I did not see a need. But now I needed to install the software so that it would tell me what was wrong.

I went to hp.com, clicked the “Drivers and Software” link, typed in “Deskjet D1455”, selected “Windows 7 64-bit”, and a list of software came up under “Step 2”. Under “Driver – Product Installation Software”, I clicked the Download button to download the 137.7 MB file. Then I ran the program to install it.

On installation completion, I right-clicked the “Digital Imaging Software” icon in my taskbar, moused-over my printer name, and selected “Display Status”.

The “Solution Center” window came up and said something was wrong with my ink cartridges. But it did not say exactly what.

I knew there was plenty of ink, but I thought I would try to remove both of them and pop them back in again. I closed the lid, but still nothing.

Maybe something is wrong with just one of them and causing the other to glitch? That thought led me to try to open the lid, take out both cartridges, install just one (the color one), and close the lid.

Success! The Solution Center window reported the color cartridge was present and had plenty of ink.

I installed the black cartridge, and again success! It appeared in the window as also having plenty of ink.

With all systems go, I was able to print without a problem.

TL;DR

Symptom: Green light is flashing/blinking on your HP Deskjet D1455 (or Deskjet D1400 family printer)

Solution:

If you have not already, install the driver/monitor software from HP.com
Open the “Display Status/Solution Center” window to monitor the printer’s status.
If it says the ink cartridges have a problem, try removing both cartridges and closing the lid. Wait until the “Solution Center” window says the cartridges are missing.
Open the lid and install just one of the cartridges and close the lid. Watch the “Solution Center” window to see if it worked.
Repeat for the other cartridge.

If this does not work, you may have to replace the cartridges.

The important point here is that sometimes you need the actual software from the printer manufacturer to get the status of your printer, especially if you have an inexpensive model like mine that does not have an LCD screen to tell you what is wrong.

If you find the monitor program is eating too much of your RAM, you can always close the program.

Google Apps ends free sign-ups

Google has ended its free sign-ups for Google Apps today. Before, anyone with a domain name could set up a free Google Apps for their domain name as long as they would have 10 or less users.

If you signed up your organization for a free Google Apps account in the past, it will stay free – unless you decide to upgrade.

501(c)(3) non-profit groups with less than 3000 users can still sign up for Google Apps for free through Google’s site for non-profits.

LG Optimus S – Not connecting to 3G

Connects to wifi just fine, but if I am out of range of wifi or turn wifi off, it does not connect to 3G. “3G” does not even appear in status bar.

Pressed menu button.

Tapped “Settings”

Tapped “Wireless & Network”

Tapped “Mobile Networks”

Unchecked “Data Roaming”, saw 3G reappear. Checked “Data Roaming” and 3G stayed on.

Another way to check your connections is to enter “Settings”, tap “About Phone”, tap “Status”, and scroll to “Mobile network state”. It will say “Connected” or “Not connected.

Embedding a Google Form in Email and Sending As Alias

You know you can email a Google Doc/Drive Form from the Google Form interface by clicking “Send Form”, but if you have an alias set up in your Gmail, you can’t change the “From” address.

A quick workaround is to email the form to yourself, then open the email, click “Forward”, edit the email so it does not look like a forward, and send.

Don’t forget to leave in the “Click here if don’t see the form” link in case their email client does not like forms.

Acer Netbook Battery Fix

I own an Acer Aspire One netbook model AOA101. I have had it a couple of years. I thought the battery was dead or there was some power connection problem because the battery was not charging and the netbook only worked when plugged in.

I was close to buying a new battery when I thought to check the Acer support website. It turns out I just had to update the BIOS. The battery holds a charge again!

I thought I should post the solution here for my own records and in case anyone was having a similar problem.

Next step is conditioning the battery by charging and draining the battery. I found out I was supposed to do that while searching for a solution.