HEUGEblog

A love/hate relationship sums up my first week experience with the htc EVO 4G on Sprint.

On launch day I was able to pick up an EVO from Sprint in Seattle although activation was painful.  A local employee had to call into the Sprint mother ship to activate the EVO  because the computer system for remote store activations had crashed.  Turning on the EVO, I found the phone a wonder to behold.  It was ridiculously powerful, ridiculously fast, had a beautiful screen, supported 4G WiMax, gave me a hotspot, let me use Android Apps, had two cameras, and yes in some cases with the amount of heat being dissipated I could swear it had a chance to toast bread.

“kicking sand in the iPhone’s face” = LOVE

It’s truly a beast of a phone, but the EVO is a princess who can’t eat enough cake. Gimme more cake! Gimme more power. Plug it in now!!!! *grumble* The speed of the power drain was ridiculous. I plugged it into the micro USB charging cable for a headset, but at 350mA max-current, it wasn’t even recognized as a valid power source. The 1A power adapter worked just fine, but now I wonder whether a standard USB port at 500mA will actually “fully” charge a powered-on phone. I’m thinking it will not. Perhaps my Macbook Air with the 1A USB (needed for the external USB superdrive) might work. *shrug*

“I need to be close to an outlet every 4 hours” = HATE

So I continued to play, to download apps, to let the EVO run wild.

“hey it’s fun to use and there are lots of cool things” = LOVE

The next day the phone was unable to hold itself together and dropped every phone call and started randomly rebooting.  I theorized that some software that I downloaded might have caused this.  For every app, once it’s on there it really has too much of an ability to run anytime.  If this is really based on linux, then we should be able to have granular control of all apps through its “rc.” startup script or through a little utility which does this.  Otherwise network ports should have wrappers which could set group control privileges so that stupid apps don’t access the web and drain my battery and/or break my phone connection if trying to access the network over EVDO.

“I should be able to change the permissions of applications post-installation rather than do a default do-anything-on-install” = HATE

“er, this should really be at minimum a phone” = HATE

A full reset didn’t help with the dropped calls.  For the last decade of using Sprint with the Timeport, the Startac, the RAZR and the KRZR, I had been used to having the most dependable phone on a very dependable network.  I was now on the other side of the coin, and I felt like an iPhone user on AT&T.  I had never apologized so much for dropping calls.  Finally I went in and refreshed everything in the System updates menu including Firmware, Profile, PRL.  Still no good, so I did it again.  Strangely after the second profile update the phone starting working reliably as a phone.  I’m going to keep a close watch over it, but phone calls are still my #1 requirement.  While it’s nice to be able to stream HD YouTube, I care a bit less about the fastest 4G until we’re all on VOIP.  Until then, viva la CDMA.

Update 6/16/2010 – With everything updated, the phone has gone back to being rock-solid as a Sprint CDMA phone.  I’m again happy with the phone functionality (except the bluetooth, but I’ll leave that story for another time)

“hey it’s back to being a phone” = LOVE

So I have already started testing out the photo capabilities of the phone.  Yeah it’s a tiny lens on a smart-phone, so you get what you get.

Samples:

“it’s not a DSLR, but it’s a useful portable camera, and I can share pics near instantly with my friends” = LOVE

So here’s where we get to testing video. This thing will record in a highly-compressed 720p, but there’s pretty much no way to upload video except to YouTube. The Android Facebook application was not supporting video uploads, and the attachment was too large to send via Android mail to Facebook’s upload address, so the only way was to use YouTube. The kicker?!? It wouldn’t upload via 3G!? It demanded that I use a Wi-Fi connection. Yeah, it might take a while, but WiFi isn’t everywhere and neither is 4G.

“yeah, video is the new hotness, and this doesn’t feel up to par yet” = mild HEART PAINS

So if we can’t share videos, how about video calls? Well Fring on Android works perfectly with Skype to do video calls! I’ve only tested it out a few times, and this probably would suck power down way too fast to be useful, but the fact is that there’s enough CPU horsepower and bandwidth to support video conferencing right now over 4G. This is a bit of a face slap to Apple/AT&T whose video chat application should be enabled for 3G rather than just needing to wait for a Wi-Fi connection.

“more slapping around the iPhone” = LOVE

Now there is one thing that makes me realize that this is darn near the ultimate phone. That thing: The ability to add SWYPE as an input method. SWYPE is the greatest (I’m going to keep Swype in all-caps through this, since it’s ridiculously awesome)… as I was saying SWYPE is truly the greatest thing since sliced bread. SWYPE is the way that input methods for mobile devices should have always been. SWYPE is my best friend for 90% of text, and it’s the only seriously awesome innovation in mobile devices since Graffiti on the Palm Pilot. I would have actually probably bought a Pre if it had supported Graffiti 1 (not 2).

So you don’t know about SWYPE? You’ve got to check out the demos, and then if you have an Android phone, you’ve got to download and install it NOW! Freakin’ NOW! I can almost keep up with typing speeds for “normal” English writing.

Apple?  Hello Apple?  If you’re not already working out a deal to buy SWYPE or to license it… do so.  Same goes for you Microsoft… and Motorola.. and HTC.  SWYPE is fantastic.

“SWYPE” = LOVE

At this point If the phone calls continue to work well without dropping and I figure out a good battery solution, I’ll probably keep the EVO and get more of my family standardized on this platform. If I had a chance for a do-over, I’d probably get an iPad 3G with the unlimited data plan and have kept my original Motorola KRZR phone with the extended battery. In the end the battery life of any device that’s “portable” provides the best measure of its usability. If I fear turning it on because it will run out of juice before I get off the bus/train/car, then I might be inclined to turn it off or turn off the features that I really wanted in the first place and why I bought the device. a 7 Amp Hr Lithium Ion laptop battery might be a bit much, but it’s not far off from what I’m considering.

I have been printing legal contracts for review this week, and I realized that the inkjet might not make it.  A quick internet search for inexpensive monochrome laser printers turned up the Samsung ML-2510, and the follow-up search for prices came up with the conclusion.  The price of the printer (on sale) was lower than the price of replacement toner.

Yes, I know that the new printer comes with “starter” toner with limited use, but a brand new b/w laser printer priced at $59.99 and a replacement toner priced at $89.99 really is quite ridiculous.

The strategy to drive deferred revenue through consumables is one that all printer companies use, but some consumers may believe that when the ink runs out, it might make sense to buy a new printer; other consumers will just get a refurbished toner kit.  All-in, people see the printer manufacturer as the devil for “ripping them off” on toner.  So this is all old news, so why am I talking about it?

Phone pricing:  I was recently the purchaser and then returner of the new Motorola Droid phone serviced through Verizon.  In the end, I really didn’t need it, but looking at pricing for the Droid plans and comparing it with Apple iPhones on AT&T made me think.

With the new Apple 3GS iPhones the retail price with plan has dropped (assume $100) while the price of the AT&T plan increased (assume $30 x 24 months = $936).  I am not sure what percent of that increase is going straight from the consumer with AT&T as a passthrough to Apple, but it’s probably enough to guarantee Apple some fat margins.  All of the consumer awe and love goes to Apple for phones that start at $99, while the high monthly charges and failed data network and taxes to be paid get blamed on AT&T who is responsible for keeping billions of dollars of wireless infrastructure up and running.  Whether AT&T is making a profit on servicing high-data, high-demand customers, I feel that they are improperly(or properly) getting beaten by the ugly stick of missed consumer expectation.

What’s the best option for an original Apple iPhone user who finished their intial contract?  I guess it’s to buy a new printer (a new smartphone or iPhone with 2 year plan) or go for some off-brand toner (jailbreak and go T-Mobile).  In my case, the longer I stay with Sprint PCS, and the more customers they lose, I should keep getting better connections since I’m competing with less phones for the same infrastructure.  This holds until Sprint starts cutting cell base stations, and then it will be a good time to not be under a phone contract.