Sprint customers who elect to purchase a 4G-capable phone must pay an additional $10/month premium data fee. Whatever the reason for this fee — Sprint claims that it isn’t literally for 4G service, and they charge the fee nationwide whether 4G is available in your area or not — it is hard to justify in the absence of a significant performance improvement. Continue reading
The friendly salesman at the Sprint store told me he also has the EVO Shift 4G. That’s an improvement over the last time I bought a recently launched device, when they had to dig it out of the storeroom in back. Is this really the best device for me? Not sure yet. Continue reading
After monitoring initial reviews for a week and reading nothing too disturbing, this morning I signed up for another two years with Sprint and took home an HTC EVO Shift 4G, a mid-sized Android phone with a side-sliding keyboard. Although it runs the same version of Android as the Droid X, Motorola and HTC customize the interface completely differently. I should know more by the end of the weekend.
Update: Here’s a photo:
Despite the very beautiful screen, and the excellent features of TouchDown for Exchange, Android 2.2 as a whole was somewhat underwhelming. And I still would like to have a physical keyboard. So in the near future I will once again be shopping for a new phone. Until then, I will be restarting my Treo 800w at least once a day, and charging it at least twice a day. Sigh.
I often say, not completely in jest, that if my phone doesn’t chime, I’m not going to be at your meeting. It’s easy for me to become completely immersed in a project and lose track of time, so my phone’s appointment reminders need to be robust. Continue reading
Of course every mail client must retrieve and send email in a timely manner. Productivity is influenced by other factors, such as the speed and convenience of data entry. Continue reading
I spend a lot of time reading emails on my phone. I also move them into folders, reply, and forward all the time. Windows Mobile 6.1 was, naturally, well adapted to working with Microsoft’s Exchange server. One of my check-off requirements was a version of Android that could sync mail, calendar, and contacts in real time. With the release of version 2.2 (Froyo), it appeared that the time had come. Well, not so fast. Continue reading
Windows Mobile crashed hard. The Treo could not get on the Sprint network, it would not open the calendar application, and it could not sync with Windows XP via USB. The ActiveSync app reported the last sync at 1:03am. After pasting important text messages to a Word document and copying that and other files manually to the storage card, I erased the phone and rebuilt it. There still are many things missing, from registry tweaks to Google Maps, but at least email and calendar (and the phone/text part) are still working. Not the happiest way to spend a Saturday.
Last night, the screen on my old Treo started to look small to me. I have spent so much time trying to adjust to the virtual keyboards, the email software, and limited copy-and-paste, that I was ignoring the Droid X’s most compelling feature: its huge screen. But… I didn’t get this phone to watch YouTube videos: it needs to work for work. Continue reading
I use my Treo 800w primarily for email, and Windows Mobile has excellent support for Microsoft’s Exchange Server (as you would expect). Registry edits and a wide variety of freeware allowed me to make it very functional and convenient, meeting my occasional needs for navigation, note-taking, and web searching. But my Treo’s small display, regular crashes, and deteriorating battery life led me to look for a new device. Continue reading
