What this means is that you can now run Skype in the background on your iPhone, and receive calls as well as place them.  Before iOS 4, the only way to receive calls would have been to have the Skype application running in the foreground which was not very practical.  Now, just run Skype in the background and people in the States can ring your Argentine cell phone just by placing a local call. And all you need is a cheap 3G connection (Movistar charges $9 pesos for 2GB to use over 2 days).

You’ll still need to pay for a SkypeIn number if you want people on non-Skype phone lines to reach you, but luckily this service is only $18 for three months or $60 for a year. Plus, they have local numbers available in 25 different countries.

In other good news, Skype also dropped plans to charge extra for 3G calling.  Both Wifi and 3G calls are free to Skype numbers, though you’ll need Skype credit to make outbound calls to non-Skype numbers, but that is relatively inexpensive as well.

Now all we need is the jailbreak for iOS 4 on the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, which is supposed to be coming in the next few days! (I installed iOS 4.0 on my iPhone 3G and it slowed to a crawl.  I had to downgrade to 3.1.3 to make my phone usable again, so I’d advise against doing that.)

So, with a jailbroken and unlocked iPhone 3GS, iOS 4.0.1, Movistar 3G service and Skype, I should have a cheap calling solution anywhere in Buenos Aires.

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With today’s announcement, they have reduced the per-minute rate from U$S 0.17 to U$S 0.06 for calls to Argentine cell phones. (They have also reduced the rate for mobile calls to Colombia, Peru, Dominican Republic and Venezuela.)   This now means that calls to Argentine mobile phones from my Vonage line are significantly cheaper than calling with my local Movistar pre-paid cell phone. And yes, that is a bit crazy.

What makes this especially attractive is that you can now call forward your US Vonage number to your Argentine cell phone and receive calls from the States when you are not at home for only $0.06 per minute. This is great for people who conduct business with the States and need to be available when they are out.

Vonage also offers a mobile app for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry that could prove to be the cheapest way to make calls while overseas. For $24.99/month you get unlimited calling plus the new low rates. Skype currently charges $0.021/minute for landlines and $0.204/minute for mobile phones.

Way to go Vonage! It’s always nice to see prices actually decrease every once in awhile.

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This lack of speed has been especially apparent when I am on my Vonage phone. People often complain about the call being choppy and I am often forced to stop all my downloading or even turn off my laptop wireless in order to have a clear call. This never happened in the States.

The real problem is that truly high-speed Internet connections are not as cheaply available in Buenos Aires as they are in the States.  Our current package from Fibertel, provides 3 Mbps download and only 512 Kbps upload speed for about $85 pesos per month. As you go above this 3 Mbps consumer limit, prices rise rapidly.  Want 5 Mbps download and 512 Kbps upload? $300 pesos per month.  10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload? $500 pesos per month.  15 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload? $600 pesos per month.  And that is pretty much the limit to the speed.  By comparison, in the States I have 20 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload for U$S 49.95/month ($196 pesos).

Since my work revolves around being online and having high speed access is critical for a lot of things that I do, I finally had enough and decided to take as many steps as possible to increase my network performance while still keeping my costs low. I started researching anything I could do to squeeze as much performance as possible out of the connections here.  Hopefully these tips will help you as well.

1. Check your Internet speed.

The first thing you should do is check your Internet speed using the tests at SpeedTest.net. To get the most accurate results, choose a server near you and make sure you have closed any programs that may be using the Internet.  While you will never get the actual speeds that you are paying for, your results should be pretty close.  Run the test several times, using different servers to be sure.  If the speeds are not close, call your ISP and ask them about the difference.

2. Change the wireless channel that your router broadcasts on.

By default, most routers broadcast on Channel 6 and since you’re in Buenos Aires, you probably have a lot of neighbors whose routers are on the same channel as yours.  As more routers broadcast on the same channel as yours, your router’s performance greatly decreases.

You can use the WiFi Stumbler web tool to determine what wireless networks are around you and what channels they broadcast on. Then, simply login to your router and change the wireless broadcast to one of the less used channels. (Please note that Channels 1, 6 and 11 are the best options as these channels do not overlap with the others.)  You can find some more detailed instructions on this at How-To Geek.

I changed my router from Channel 6, which had thirteen other routers, to Channel 11, which only had two other routers.  This gave me a slightly better signal and better speeds.

3. Update Your Router to DD-WRT or Tomato.

One of the best performance options you can make is to find out of your wireless router supports running an open-source router firmware like DD-WRT or Tomato.  As Lifehacker points out, this “turns your $60 router into a $600 router.”  If your router supports this (check your router here), install it and you’ll have a lot of new options. Luckily, my router supported it.

4. Increase the signal strength of your wireless signal.

Once I upgraded the router to the DD-WRT firmware, I immediately increased the signal strength of my wireless signal.  This increased the range and connectivity of my wireless network. It now hit all areas of my apartment with no problems.

You could also try creating your own WiFi extender with some tinfoil, but that was a bit overkill for my needs.

5. Set up QoS settings on your router.

Another feature of the DD-WRT software is the ability to set up Quality of Service (QoS). This feature allows you to prioritize traffic going through the router, which means that I can set my Vonage service to high priority and my BitTorrent downloads and other traffic to low priority.

To do this, I simply followed the instructions here and set it for my own Vonage router.  Now, my voice calls have priority over other traffic and they are clear without me having to turn off my laptop wireless.

6. Change your DNS server settings to use Google’s DNS rather than the default Internet provider’s settings.

We had previously covered switching to Google DNS as a way of increasing Internet performance, but wanted to point it out again here.  I’ve been using it for months and it has been great.

7. Add a second Internet connection.

While the options above may help improve performance, none of them actually increase the speed of your Internet connection.  Buying a second Internet connection will do that, as well as give you additional reliability.

While looking at the prices of Internet connections, I realized that I can get two 3 Mbps connections, one from Fibertel and one from Arnet, for less than the cost of the 5 Mbps connection alone from either of them. So, when I was in the States, I picked up a Cisco RV042 dual-wan router.  What this router does is allow you to bond two different Internet connections into one, thus sharing the bandwidth and also making sure that you have Internet access even if one of the connections goes down.

I just ordered the second Internet connection this week, so as soon as I have it all up and running, I’ll be sure to update the blog with my results.

Hope this helps and please let me know if you have any other tips to add.

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Today they announced their newest iPhone – the iPhone 4. And it is cool. Super cool. And a whole slew of people now want the latest and greatest iPhone, myself included. The iPhone 3GS, just released last year, seems like an ancient relic.

What makes it so cool? Here’s just a few of the new features:

• now even thinner
• front and back made of glass for improved reception with a stainless steel border that also doubles as the antenna
• 5mp camera with flash
• HD video recording and iMovie for the iPhone
• new iOS 4 includes multitasking, folders and more
• it has a freakin’ gyroscope, which means better augmented reality and games
• the best mobile screen ever seen
• front facing video camera with noise canceling microphone
• FaceTime – iPhone to iPhone video chat
• and more…

Of course, one of the major drawbacks of living in Buenos Aires is being able to acquire new technology. As I’ve mentioned before, prices are about double what they are in the States and things arrive here later too.  The good news from today’s announcement was that Apple will be rolling out the iPhone to other countries faster than ever before. The iPhone 4 will be available on June 24, 2010 in the States but should be in Argentina by September 2010.

I’ll have to suffer through July and August, but I’m definitely not signing up for a mobile contract until September. And yes, I’ll pay the Argentine premium for the iPhone too. It’s worth it.

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I immediately put it to the test on my jail-broken and unlocked iPhone 3G using Movistar’s pre-paid 3G network. Guess what? It works great and the call clarity was perfect.  Now, I’ll be able to make calls to the US while I’m out in Buenos Aires without having to find a WiFi access point first.

Of course, you’ll need to have Skype Credit to make outbound calls to non-Skype numbers, but the costs are pretty low – from $0.021 per minute to $6.99/month for unlimited calling.

The only bad news? Skype over 3G is free until August 2010, but after that date they plan to start charging a “small monthly fee.”  Calls over WiFi will not have this charge, but you lose the flexibility of using it anywhere. Questions about a conspiracy with having to pay AT&T are popping up all over the Internet.

BONUS: As of late April 2010, you can now set your Skype Caller ID to be the same as your Google Voice number. That way people you call will see your Google Voice number rather than a random string of numbers that Skype usually displays.  To set this, login to your Skype account and click on Caller ID.

I’ll be putting together a future post on the complete phone setup that I have in Buenos Aires, which includes a combination of Google Voice, MagicJack, Vonage and Skype. Stay tuned…

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Most of us aren’t familiar with DNS because it’s often handled automatically by our Internet Service Provider (ISP), but it provides an essential function for the web. You could think of it as the switchboard of the Internet, converting easy-to-remember domain names – e.g., www.google.com – into the unique Internet Protocol (IP) numbers – e.g., 74.125.45.100 – that computers use to communicate with one another.

This service is usually handled by your Internet provider, but Google’s product aims to replace this with a faster and more secure version.  To start using it, follow the instructions on their web page to change either your router or computer settings.

I’ve been using it for the last day and it seems to be much quicker that either my ISP or OpenDNS was.  This blog post on the TechSutra site also notes that it seems to be much better for users outside of the US.

I’d definitely recommend making the switch to it today.

UPDATE: as further proof that Google is taking over the world, they released their own dictionary today.

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Well, luckily, Google comes to the rescue – if you don’t mind a little Gmail branding that is. As part of a new promotion, Google will send one free holiday card via snail-mail for you. There are six different designs to choose from.

You say, “One card is not enough for all the people I know! AND, I want to personalize my card!”  Well then, check out Hippopost.  They allow you to turn any photo into a postcard and add a customized message to the back. They add a small advertising message and then send the card to any US or Canadian address.  You can do this from your mobile phone, the web or Facebook. (Be careful choosing which drunken one to use and who you send it to.) They have a limit of sending 2 per day, so you’d better get started now.

Ok, now you have no excuse not to send snail-mail cards to everyone you know…get to it!

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Yesterday, Foursquare launched in 50 additional cities, and yes, Buenos Aires was one of them.

What is Foursquare you ask?  Well, in addition to being one of the most hyped new companies of the year, they also are a location based social network that incorporates social elements.  They have a free iPhone and Android app (Blackberry coming) that allows you to “check in” from places that you are at (bars, restaurants, etc).  When you check in, Foursquare will tell your friends where you are and also recommend nearby places.  You can leave tips on the place you’re at and also view tips from your friends.  You also earn points and badges for checking in which can allow you to become the “mayor” of a place and unlock additional freebies. You can read all the details here.

Buenos Aires is still pretty sparsely populated, so download it now and give it a try.  It’s pretty cool.

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TechCrunch reported yesterday that Hulu is now blocking VPN services and anonymous proxies in addition to their other blocks on non-US based IP addresses. If you try to access the service using a VPN like Hotspot Shield, you now get the message:

Based on your IP address, we noticed you are trying to access Hulu through an anonymous proxy tool. Hulu is not currently available outside the U.S. If you’re in the U.S., you’ll need to disable your anonymizer to access videos on Hulu.

If you’e lucky enough to have a private or corporate VPN in the US, that should still work, but this move effectively shuts out most of the major public VPN providers.

In a bit of positive news, the Financial Times reports that Hulu has been signing international deals for content. This could lead to an global roll-out of its services, though there is no estimated time frame for this.  Looks like we’ll go back to using Miro and BitTorrent until someone realizes that content cannot really be controlled anymore.

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This post is not going to go into the intricacies of Twitter – there are tons of pages that already do that – but we’re going to talk about how you can use Twitter to meet people in Buenos Aires, find out news, ask for advice, see trends, help others out, etc.

The first step is to sign up for an account and get familiar with the service.  Twitter has a bit of a learning curve, there’s no doubt about that.  You’ll need to learn the concepts and vocabulary, acceptable behavior, find people to follow, get followers, personalize your page, and grasp other general concepts. You’ll probably wonder what the hell all these people posting less than 140-character updates is all about and why you’d be interested. Stick with it, it’s worth it. There is truly a wealth of information available on the site and it’s growing every day.

Once you’re familiar with using Twitter, the search function is the next place to really explore.  This is one of the powerful areas of the site, and in our example case, we’re going to show how to use it to monitor information about Buenos Aires.

- Go to Twitter Search and in the search box, enter: buenos aires OR buenosaires OR bsas OR #buenosaires
- Hit enter and you’ll get the results for any mention of Buenos Aires or its common abbreviations. You’ll find a wealth of information and people who may interest you. Feel free to reply to them or follow the ones who interest you. Unlike Facebook, following people you don’t know is highly encouraged.
- Now, on the upper right, you’ll see a link which says “Feed for this query.” You can copy that link to Google Reader and have a constantly updated stream of mentions regarding Buenos Aires.

Of course, you can do this for any terms that you are interested in.  This is the real power of Twitter – seeing a stream of information in real-time, unlike Google which must take the time to index web sites.

Give it a try and feel free to leave a comment on this post with your Twitter name.  I’m @davemccomb.  See you there!

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