Here’s how I activated my SIM/hardware-unlocked Android Dev Phone.

1. I popped the SIM card out of my AT&T Go phone (cost approximately $20 at Target).
2. I made sure that there was some $$ on my Go phone account.*
3. I followed these instructions to activate the phone.

Why did I activate my Android Dev phone with a pay-as-you-go account?

My initial desire was to have a device that I could put apps on and test the apps as a user; however, now that I have the phone unlocked, I am thinking that I will want the phone as my primary phone. We will see; I am so indecisive about this phone. One reason that I can’t decide what to do is that I am on Verizon (CDMA); the G1 runs on 3G on GSM, but not at the same frequency as AT&T 3G network. So, in order to run the G1 on AT&T, I would have to run it on EDGE, which is slower than the 3G. So, I may end up switching to T-Mobile anyways… they have a nice flex plan that doesn’t require a 2yr commitment or your SSN.

*I believe I had $25 on the phone when I activated the phone. After about an hour of web surfing and email checking on the phone, all of my minutes/KBs were used up. :(

I went to New York City for the weekend to attend She’s Geeky, an unconference for women in technology.

Overall, the conference had much less low-level techie stuff than I had expected, but this turned out to be a great boon because I turned my attention toward the bigger picture of technology today.

Here were some of my take-aways:

I can’t help but wonder if screen-scraping and self-tracking are the ultimate answers to “opening up” api’s that don’t open all of the information they collect on a user back to that user.

Ok, ok, we all know that Ada Lovelace was the 1st programmer, but did you know about the six Eniac Programmers and how their story was nearly lost to history had it not been for the work of a female programmer who brought to light their huge contribution to the history of computing?

Personal Branding is less about being your own pimp and more about communicating what you bring to the table.

Also, because of a tip from the conference, I am now the proud owner of an unlocked G1! Thanks for the reference, Debbie!!!