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FreedomPop: 100% Free Mobile Phone Service

Read More Freedompop I was initially happy with the service, but after a few months of usage, I can safely say that Freedompop is one of the worst ISP I've ever dealt with. I think when I downgraded my service . …

FreedomPop advertised: “100% FREE Mobile Phone Service FREE Talk, Text, & Data”.

It is free, but there are many hoops you have to jump through, as well documented by this forum user. The user was referring to their internet modem service, but for the cellular phone service, it’s a little different. Still, just read the fine print.

Here’s how to get your free FreedomPop cell phone on your Unlocked Android or iPhone:

1. Get a Sim Card for a penny at freedompop.com or go to Target and pick up a Sim card for $5. Alternatively, you can pick up a FreedomPop phone, which has all the settings preconfigured and app preinstalled.

2. You must install the FreedomPop messaging application on Android or iOS. There are several different ones, just install the most popular one. If that doesn’t work, you need to uninstall it and install the correct one. You will need the app to make phone calls or use their network, no exceptions.

3. When you insert your Sim Card in your phone, it will popup and walk you through the activation process. Use your existing FreedomPop account to activate the card, or if you can’t get it work, create a new account with a different email. You will need a credit card or PayPal account to activate the service. There is an activation fee. I read it was $29.99, but they only billed me $0.99 (I think the $30 fee is for their phone, not the sim card).

4. Once activated, it will ask you to pick a phone number. Pick a less popular area code and it will give you more phone numbers.

5. If you are on WiFi, all the phone calls are made using their VOIP service… however if you are not on WiFi, you will need to access mobile cellular data to make phone calls. To setup your APN (access point names). APN name should be “ FreedomPop ”, APN Type should be “ fp.com.attz ”. Choose Freedompop APN as the default and now your Mobile internet should work.

They automatically sign you up for their “FreedomPop Premium Service” … which is a reoccurring $7.99 monthly bill. You must cancel this service right away if you don’t want it. I tried to cancel it and I’m not exactly sure it’s cancelled.

For $0.00 you get 200 minutes, 500 text, and 200 mb data… which is pretty good for free! You can pay $12.99 a month to get unlimited talk and text, but if you want data, you’re going to pay as much as $35 for 4gb of data. I suggest you pick the free service or the lowest costing service and just use Skype on WiFi (Skype is $60 a year for unlimited talk).

FreedomPop is hoping you will pay for unlimited talk or pay to get rid of advertisements on your text or the ability to send attachments.

The other good news is that the LTE chip will work on GSM phones. All smart phones produced in the past few years have gone GSM only. There are very few manufacturers still producing the old CDMA phone.

Having gone through the trouble of activating this phone, I am still keeping my other phone service… the reason is that FreedomPop might go away anytime… or they might have unreliable network issues. Who knows. It’s basically my free backup / emergency phone.

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Update (May 2013)

Setlist courtesy of Brian Read More Johnny Marr The first band that I fell for was The Smiths. By the time I discovered Morrissey (on the Johnny Carson show in 1991), The Smiths were long gone. When I said that I fell for the band, I really meant it …

MARR-VELOUS
Yeah, I know, I missed Marr at the Varsity Theater, but I think I got a better deal with a personal one-on-one with the legendary guitarist at Twin Town Guitars. An employee there (Andrew Bell) said that Marr stayed over three hours to sign and personally talk to everyone in line:

"He is that kind of person, and he did stay until everyone in line had a chance to ask questions, greet him and get a personalized autograph. He's a great, generous person. He stayed at Twin Town for over three hours greeting fans."

It did make me think that I went to see Johnny Marr + the Healers at First Avenue on Wednesday, May 7th, 2003. I still have a stolen poster, which lists a couple of key things about that show: (1) it was a 21-and-over gig, (2) $20 at 6pm, (3) DAMF booked and presented the show, (4) Drive 105 was promoting it, and (5) Paloalto was the opener. This was a decade ago, so I actually have a very poor memory of it. I remember I was in front, it wasn't that crowded and I did touch Johnny Marr's arms and guitar.

Special thanks to Brian who provided a photograph of the setlist from that night. Yes, no Smiths songs, which was disappointing, but hey, he threw in a Bob Dylan cover for "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right".

On another note (and I did verify this with Marr when I met him) that Johnny Marr wanted to recruit Ian Brown (Stone Roses) to sing for his pre-Smiths band called Freak Party. Obviously that all changed when The Nosebleeds' Morrissey became singer of Freak Party. This information was from STONE ROSES: WAR AND PEACE book from St Martin's Press. I will have a review of the book up very soon.

MINNESNOWTA
The weather here in Minneapolis blows. It is freezing and I think it even snow for a bit on Wednesday. I thought they said it was going to snow today (05/03)! Yes, we're talking May 2013. Will Spring ever arrive? I came out of hibernation earlier last month, but it looks like I might have to stay indoors for a bit longer.

MY NEX CAMERA
I have a new camera. After rave reviews from Engadget (and other places), I have purchased the Sony NEX-3N. This is the perfect camera that I've been looking for: a small/compact camera that can produce DSLR-quality photographs. I did request a few recent shows to do some real-world testing: Twin Forks (previously known as Twin Falls) and Cloud Cult at First Avenue.

The former had terrible low-light (as usual for 7th Street!) I will try and see a show at Triple Rock - certainly the worst when it comes to bad lights.

For the price ($500) the NEX-3N is quite a bargain, considering its more expensive brother (NEX-5N) is double the cost but only offer slightly better options. The only downfall in this nearly perfect camera is its battery life. Shooting a regular show with turning on and off (for a total of on-time of about 15 minutes), will drain the battery to about 80%. Charging also seems to take forever. Otherwise, I am so impressed with the camera that I may invest in and get a 200mm e-mount lens. The kit lens only zooms in about 50mm.

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU
This Saturday is known as Star Wars Day (May the 4th). It's also Free Comic Book Day, which usually falls after or near a release of a comic book movie. This year, it would seem that FCBD is following Iron Man 3, which comes out this Friday (today?).

Although I thought the first Iron Man movie was alright, I wasn't that excited to see the sequel, and probably less than excited to see the upcoming movie. I'll probably pick up the Blu-Ray, but will probably skip the theatrical release.

Anyway, if you live near a comic book store, just show up on Saturday and get free comic books. Lists of free comics is available on www.freecomicbookday.com.

Some comics of interests:

SUPERMAN SPECIAL EDITION

TMNT NEW ANIMATED ADVENTURES

WALKING DEAD SPECIAL

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE HULK AGENTS OF SMASH #1

DC NATION SUPER SAMPLER #1

JUDGE DREDD CLASSICS

VALIANT MASTERS SHOWCASE ED (mostly for Barry Windsor-Smith)

SET PHASERS TO PUNS
Again, I love Star Trek. I own all the DVDs and didn't feel the need to upgrade. That is… until I finally experience the high-definition of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION: THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS in theaters last week. I was so impressed that I picked up Season 3 on Blu-Ray with a $5 extra to grab The Best of Both Worlds on BD at Target.

I have not watched everything, but a couple of notes: (1) Wesley Crusher has pimples, which I've never noticed before, (2) on HD, I also noticed seams in the costumes, (3) Everything looks so much better, especially the rich colors and extraordinary details, and (4) on a few episodes are audio commentaries. Overall, I love it; it's like the series again for the first time.

Random note: I have some duplicate DVDs that I will likely take into Best Buy and convert them for $5 and buy Men in Black III Bluray Steelcase, which is on sale at the moment for $18. With $5 taken off, it'll be $13, which is a "steel".

CROFTING THE PERFECT TOMB RAIDER
I picked up the Target Steelcase version of the new Tomb Raider game. I beat the game last night (with about 75% complete) in about a good 4 hours of playtime. I tried going back to do all the side quests to make it 100%, but quickly got bored of re-playing levels. What does this mean? Well, when you play it, it's like a sequential movie… when you get to the end, there's really no reason to go back and replay it again.

Also, the game seems to be inspired by ABC's "Lost" and that movie "Descent" (especially when Lara Croft rises from a pool of blood).

Anyway, as much as I love playing the game, I am regretting paying $60 to buy it new. It's definitely a rental game. I know there are online components to the game, but I have no desire to explore it… so my time with the game is at an end.

FREEDOMFIZZLE
You know that saying, "you get what you pay for?" It's true.

I was initially happy with the service, but after a few months of usage, I can safely say that Freedompop is one of the worst ISP I've ever dealt with. I think when I downgraded my service to its basic $10 a month, they started consistently disconnecting me from the internet. I have tried moving the modem closer to the windows with no change in service. I'm going to cancel my service this month and only keep its "free" service (for my Skype telephone).

Since the service is so bad, I am currently shopping around for a more reliable internet service (again). I may eventually just give in and call Century Link for its DSL service.

So the short answer is: avoid Freedompop.

vu () ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ podcast.weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Freedompop

This has nothing to do with music or videos, but I thought you guys might be interested in affordable internet for the home.

UPDATE: Normal internet users NEED NOT APPLY. You will go over the 10gb limit. I'm also having billing issues, even after I upgraded to the 10gb, it was still automatically charging me for additional GB after 1GB. I'm working with them to reverse the charges, but I'm definitely NOT HAPPY with this.

It's been three months since I placed an order for the Freedompop Hub Burst, and it finally arrived today.

To catch you up, this is a 4G Cellular/Wireless modem. It has one Ethernet port, which you can plugged this a wireless router and have a number of wifi-enabled devices hooked up to it. Setup was a cinch, I never even bothered to look at the user manual.

The device itself costs $89.99, but you are given 1GB of free data a month - so if you are just using Freedompop to check your emails and Facebook, it's free for you. If you are an average user, you can pay for upgraded services, which I've listed below:

Fastest 8X (8mbps) $18.99 /month
Faster 3X (3mbps) $14.99 /month
Basic (1.5mbps) $9.99 /month

The price includes 10GB of data, if you go over, they will charge you $0.005 per MB (which is about $5 per 1GB). I suppose it can end up being more costly than what I was previously paying for internet (Comcast's internet for $60 a month), but if you aren't doing super heavy downloading or video streaming then I think you will be fine.

I don't know what my usage will be, but I'll track my data usage closely to let you know if 10GB will cut it for me or the average savvy internet user.

As for the speed - it's pretty impressive for wireless (read: not cable or wires into the home). I'm on "Basic" 1.5mbps, and I think the speed works great. Upload speed averages .7mbps, which is not great, but I'm not doing heavy uploads. If I'm streaming YouTube, I don't really mind having to let it buffer for a few seconds. YouTube also know and determine the video quality to playback, so videos do load up okay, although the quality suffers. I will likely upgrade to 3mbps, which I think is a good half-way point. We'll see. I'll update this again when I upgrade my service soon.

FREEDOMPOP: WHAT'S IN THE BOX

The only problem I can see is that people will not want to pay for $89 for the modem. However, just think of it this way: it's a one-time installation fee. For example, I inquired Comcast about internet service in my house - and they wanted to charge me up front $79 for them to install wires in my house. Even as a "loyal" subscriber for many years, there just wasn't a way avoiding paying for an installation at a new home. Plus, Comcast will charge you a rental fee for their cable modem. Since you paid for the Freedompop modem, there's no reoccurring monthly rental charge.

If you're not happy with your internet services right now, especially with steep pricing - I suggest looking into Freedompop as an affordable internet alternative. There's no contract, so you can cancel anytime. If you're not happy, you can even return the modem for a refund.

Anyway, I will update later if I have crappy services or problems.... but so far, so good.

UPDATE

Update #1: The Freedom Hub Burst has its own built-in wireless signal name.

Update #2: For some odd reason, it's not collecting how much data I'm using.

Update #3: Okay, they've got the data-thing all sorted out. In two days, I used over 1.63GB of data. If I represent the 'average' internet user, then I don't really think 10GB of data is enough for people in a one month cycle. If you just normally use the internet, then I think you will end up paying $30 to $40 a month. Obviously, if you want to save money, they you are really discourage from watching any sort of videos or downloading large amount of data.

vu () ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ podcast.weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic ♥ +W♥M

Site Update: January 2013

So, hey again, this is Vu. As I've previously mentioned, I've moved, so with the new move, I'm also limiting my internet usage. I've divorced myself from the "unlimited" and costly Comcast internet (good riddance) in favor of a cheaper/affordable alternative. A lot of my friends and family have suggested I try out Century Link/Qwest. I believe they are DSL, but I haven't looked into it any further because I've decided to test out Freedompop. I've ordered the "Home" modem, which is $89 and will allow me to connect to their service for 10gb a month for $10. If I use only 1gb or less, it's free. I'll monitor my usage, but I can't see myself spending more than $30 a month for internet - previously I was paying Comcast $60… so it's still an improvement, no matter how you look at it.

I'll report back if the service is worth it. I haven't received the modem yet, I think they said it won't ship until February 2013.

Also, Technorati is listing us +129 jump in the music section, so we're now hanging out with MTV Buzz and Brooklyn Vegan.

By the way, I actually wanted to use Le Tigre's "Get Off the Internet", because I can't get on the internet - but since I'm on limited internet, I'll just use a song that's already uploaded of the same name. The instrumental is by Odd Henning Skyllingstad, and he (or she) doesn't really have any information about his/her music or how to contact them. All I know is that they're from Norway.

vu () ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ podcast.weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic ♥ anthonydamatomusic.com