VoIP Now

Found a Google Play gift card at a brick and mortar WalMart. I got the $10 card, as I needed to buy a $2.99 app. Other card values were available, up to $50.

The app I bought is called Spare Phone. What it does, for my Android HTC One V, is let me make free VoIP calls over wifi. You do need a Google Voice account, so this is good only USA and Canada, I think. I don't live in Canada, so can't be sure if this works there. The app does cost $2.99, hence the need for a payment method.

I have attempted and was able to make a phone call. The call went fine. The sound on my end was good. As far as the other end goes, the receiver didn't say anything bad, neither did he say anything good about sound quality.

From what I have read, free calls are good for all of 2013. This will also work on a Android tablet that has a microphone. Will come in handy as I forget my phone a lot.

Spare Phone

Edit: Canada can't get Google Voice accounts. Google Voice accounts can call in the USA and Canada. Sorry for any confusion. People have made accounts using proxies, but I really don't know for sure.

Greatest Gift of All

Buying apps for your gadgets is a bit tedious. First is finding interesting apps. But the real problem is paying for them. I don't like to link a credit card to anything. Never link a debit card, if something goes wrong, it may be impossible to get your money back.

For the PlayBook's App World, where you buy apps for the PlayBook, I linked my PayPal account. It is not the greatest solution, but it is safer, I think, then linking my credit card.

I like iTunes solution. In a misconception, you don't need a credit card to set up or use an iTunes account. For setup, you need to just skip the input of a credit card number. What I like to use are iTunes gift cards. At times, stores will sell iTunes gift card for 20% off. For $80, you could get a $100 card. But I don't use that much. What I do is turn in my loose change at a CoinStar machine. They have an iTunes option, in which your coins deposited are turned into an iTunes gift card and the fees are paid by iTunes. It's a good deal.

CoinStar also has an option for Amazon, but I hate Amazon. They seem to always required a credit card. They do sell apps for Android, but I think you need a credit card even if you use a gift card.

With Google's Play Store, they now offer you the use of gift card. The only problem, I can't find one. For the past 2 days, I have visited 20 retail outlets and could not find a Play Store gift card. I was not really shopping for them, but I would look at every store l was at.

I like Apple's approach to their app sales a lot. I also like that I can gift an app with them. Of course, the person receiving an app must have an iOS device.

Using the Kingston Wi-Drive to Download

Really started using alot more. Mostly trying to figure out the best way of using it for a trip. I have streamed from the Wi-Drive to the PlayBook. It works fine, the Kingston does get warm. But you can't stream on a plane flight and stated battery life is only 4 hours. Can't say for sure how long battery life is, I have never tested mines. But I figured the best use would be to download the videos (or music) to the PlayBook.

To use the Wi-Dive on the PlayBook, you need to use the browser. Enter http://192.168.200.254/ into the browser, when you are connected to the Wi-Drive. It will stream any file that a PlayBook uses, but you can download that file. Using the PlayBook touch screen, touch and hold the file and up posted a menu and click "save link as". Downloading should begin. And it is pretty fast.

On the HTC One V, you can go to Google Play and download an app from Kingston, Wi-Drive. It will let you download from the app. I downloaded music to the One V. It was very simple.

In both devices , you do need to connect the wifi to the Wi-Drive's signal.

iOS devices also have an app in Apple's App Store. But that app will not download the files, I have read. I think, and I will try later, you could use a download manager to download the files. It would be like using the PlayBook, I would think. Use a browser. There are many download managers in the App Store.

Screen shot of PlayBook connected to Wi-Drive, trying to download a file.

Remote Media Player

A bad name for a good app. "Remote Media Player" is an app in App World, by Jesus Iglesias and xApps.es. It plays audio and video files. It says it can play SRT subtitles. But what I like about this player is that it can remember last point played in a video. So I bought it for $1.99. I think I will be using this as my main video player.

Biggest failing is that you can't control the volume on the touch screen. You do have the option to control the volume using the physical volume control, but I would like to control it using a touch screen.

You can get a free remote for the player. In Google Play, there is PBRemoteDroid for Android devices. In App World, the is "Remote Control for Media Player " for PlayBooks and BB10 devices. I have only my one PlayBook, so I installed the remote and the player to it. It can use the remote to control the player, but I can see only the remote or the player, not both at the same time. But it works, as I can fast forward or reverse in 30 second intervals. XApps.es list an iOS app, but I couldn't find one at this point.

I say it has a bad name because it is confusing. It is a media player that you can get remotes for. I think people will get the remotes and not know what they are for and give them bad reviews. At least the remotes are free.

This is a screen shot from Google Play of the remote