Sprint is now the FIRST carrier to offer full Google Voice integration! No need to pick a new number, just use your Sprint wireless number.  For more information about Google Voice and Sprint, visit http://www.google.com/googlevoice/sprint/

google_voice_info.pdf Download this file

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Sprint today unveiled two new Android smartphones from Motorola that will arrive in 2011. The Motorola XPRT and Titanium smartphones are aimed at enterprise users.

The Motorola XPRT, which features a BlackBerry-like form factor, comes running Android 2.2 (Froyo) and features a 3.1-inch HVGA touchscreen, Push-to-Talk service via Sprint's iDEN network, 5-megapixel camera, 3G hotspot capability, 1 GHz processor, support for Flash and business-grade 256-bit encrypted email. 

The Titanium is the successor to the i1, which was launched last year. The Titanium comes running Android 2.1 (Eclaire) and features a 3.1-inch touchscreen and Nextel Direct Connect. Following the i1's footsteps, the Titanium is certified to military specification 810G for dust, shock, vibration, low pressure, solar radiation, high temperature and low temperature.

The Motorola XPRT will be available June 5 in Sprint Stores and online for $129.99 with a two-year a contract. The company said pricing and availability for the Titanium will be announced at a later date.

via Wireless Week

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Blackberry Style 9670 FREE from Sprint Voted the #1 BlackBerry by about.com, the BlackBerry Style is a unique flip-style BlackBerry featuring a full-QWERTY keyboard and practical design mom will love!  With full calendar, email, web browsing, picture messaging capabilities and more, Mom will be delighted to be able to keep in touch and stay organized. The BlackBerry Style is just as fashionable as its name implies, coming in royal purple and steel gray. Plus, when paired with Sprint's Everything Data 450 plan for just $69.99*, the BlackBerry Style is a great value!   Full Feature List: BlackBerry 6 OS Large external display to view alerts and messages Full QWERTY keyboard 5mp Camera w/flash Enhanced multimedia capabilities WiFi and GPS capable. Sprint Navigation, Sprint TV, and more! Stereo BlueTooth compatible. 8GB Micro SD card included. Visual voicemail. Comes in Steel Gray and Royal Purple

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LG Optimus S is now FREE from Sprint with a new 2-year activation!  The Optimus S features the latest Android innovation and the ability to customize your experience with Sprint ID. Move from item to item and message faster with the 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen and virtual QWERTY. Download games and apps from the Android Market™, or catch the latest shows and videos-on-demand with Sprint TV®. Snap photos and clips with the 3.2MP camera/camcorder and upload to your favorite sites, or check out new music on the MP3 player or Sprint Music Plus. If that's not enough, crank up the Mobile Hotspot feature and support Wi-Fi connections for up to five devices. With striking color choices, impressive functionality and the customization offered by Sprint ID, the Optimus S provides a dynamic experience – all at an incredible price: FREE!

Features include:

· Android 2.2 OS

·  3.2” touch screen display

·  3 MP camera w/flash

· Full Google Integration

· WiFi and GPS capable

· Sprint ID

· Mobile HotSpot capable

· Available in Gray and Purple

This offer won't last long, don't miss out on a FREE Android device!

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Android Task Killers Explained: What They Do and Why You Shouldn’t Use Them

via LifeHacker: http://lifehacker.com/#!5650894/android-task-killers-explained-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them

Android task killers improve your phone's performance while also boosting battery life—or at least that's the much-debated promise. Here's a look at how task killers actually work, when you should (or shouldn't) use them, and what you can do instead.

A task killer is an app from which you can (sometimes automatically) force other apps to quit, the hope being that the fewer apps you have running in the background, the better your Android's performance and battery life will be. Not everyone agrees with this premise, though. The argument about whether task killers are effective rages all over the internet: Android forums are full of threads with constant bickering and conflicting anecdotal experience, making it difficult for most users to make sense of the situation.

Below, I'm going to dig into the truth about Android task killers: that apart from maybe some older phones, Android manages tasks fairly well on its own, and how task killers present quite a few problems. I'll also take a look at the rare occasions when they're useful, and offer some alternatives you should try to improve your phone's performance and battery-life quirks.

Before we dive in, here's a quick overview of how Android handles process management by default.

How Android Manages Processes

In Android, processes and Applications are two different things. An app can stay "running" in the background without any processes eating up your phone's resources. Android keeps the app in its memory so it launches more quickly and returns to its prior state. When your phone runs out of memory, Android will automatically start killing tasks on its own, starting with ones that you haven't used in awhile.

The problem is that Android uses RAM differently than, say, Windows. On Android, having your RAM nearly full is a good thing. It means that when you relaunch an app you've previously opened, the app launches quickly and returns to its previous state. So while Android actually uses RAM efficiently, most users see that their RAM is full and assume that's what's slowing down their phone. In reality, your CPU—which is only used by apps that are actually active—is almost always the bottleneck.

Why Task Killers Are (Usually) Bad News

Apps like Advanced Task Killer, the most popular task killer in the Market, act on the incorrect assumption that freeing up memory on an Android device is a good thing. When launched, it presents you with a list of "running" apps and the option to kill as many as you want. You can also hit the Menu button to access a more detailed "Services" view, that lists exactly which parts of each application are "running", how much memory they take up, and how much free memory is available on your phone. This set-up implies that the goal of killing these apps is to free up memory. Nowhere on the list does it mention the number of CPU cycles each app is consuming, only the memory you'll free by killing it. As we've learned, full memory is not a bad thing—we want to watch out for the CPU, the resource that actually slows down your phone and drains your battery life.

Thus, killing all but the essential apps (or telling Android to kill apps more aggressively with the "autokill" feature) is generally unnecessary. Furthermore, it's actually possible that this will worsen your phone's performance and battery life. Whether you're manually killing apps all the time or telling the task killer to aggressively remove apps from your memory, you're actually using CPU cycles when you otherwise wouldn't—killing apps that aren't doing anything in the first place.  In fact, some of the processes related to those apps will actually start right back up, further draining your CPU. If they don't, killing those processes can cause other sorts of problems—alarms don't go off, you don't receive text messages, or other related apps may force close without warning. All in all, you're usually better off letting your phone work as intended—especially if you're more of a casual user. In these instances, a task killer causes more problems than it solves.

What You Should Do Instead

That said, not all apps are created equal. Many of you have used task killers in the past and actually found that after freeing up memory, your phone works a bit better. It's more likely that this is because you've killed a bad app—one that was poorly coded, and (for example) keeps trying to connect to the internet even when it shouldn't. Any performance increase you experience is more likely because you killed the right app, not because you freed up loads of memory (or, in many cases, it's just placebo). Instead of killing all those apps, find out which ones are actually causing the problems. If you really know what you're doing, you may benefit from using a task killer to stop the one or two inefficient-but-loved apps on your phone.

Note, however, that this is still a contested notion. A lot of developers (including ROM builder extraordinaire, Cyanogen) will not even look at your bug reports if you're using a task killer. In this humble blogger's opinion, your best bet is to stay away from regular task killer usage entirely. If you absolutely have to have that one battery-killing app on your phone, though, kill away—just be aware that when you experience a recurring Android bug later on, the task killer may be at fault. Of course, you can just stop using it to determine whether that is or isn't the case.

With task killers firmly in the better-off-without box, there are still a number of other things you can do to fill the void, improving your performance and battery life:

Watch for Runaway Processes:

 Watchdog  is a slightly different kind of task killer, in the sense that instead of telling you your phone's out of memory and it's time to go on a task killing spree, it alerts you when the occasional app starts eating up CPU for no reason. You can then kill the app with Watchdog and get on with your day (though honestly, at that point, I usually just reboot my phone). If it happens often with the same app, however, you may want to move on to the next step.

Uninstall Bad Apps: Worse than the occasional, one-time runaway app is the poorly coded, always-eating-CPU app. If you find (with Watchdog or through some other method) that a particular app seems to drain CPU and battery life whenever it's running, confirm your suspicions by uninstalling it and seeing what happens. If an app is causing problems on your phone, you're probably better off without it.

Root Your Phone: We advocate rooting Android devices a lot at Lifehacker, but that's because it really is as useful as everyone says it is. You can over- and underclock your phone with SetCPU, install custom ROMs that noticeably improve performance and battery life, and use the ever-useful, crapware-thwarting Autostarts utility to stop apps from starting up on your phone in the first place. Honestly, with one-click rooting apps like previously mentioned Universal Androot available for most phones, rooting only takes a few minutes to do, and you'll be much happier for it.

Update: Many of you also mentioned the root-only app Titanium Backup, which will help you get rid of the pre-installed crapware that comes on most phones, which are one of the worst offenders of phone lag. Thanks to all of you that sent this in!

Seriously, Use the Power Control Widget: This may sound ridiculously obvious, but if you aren't already using some form of the Power Control widget, you should. The things that drain the most battery on any smartphone are Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and your screen. Turn them off when you don't need them and you'll find that you can eke out considerably more battery life.

Charge Your Phone: Even more obvious yet rarely heeded advice: Charge your phone often. This isn't as hard as it sounds for most people. While you're sometimes stuck going out for 14 hours with no place to charge your phone, the majority of us spend our days in our homes, our offices, and other places rife with electrical outlets. Buy a few extra chargers and place them strategically around your home, car, and office. Whenever you're sitting around at home or working away at your desk, you can use that time to dock your phone and give it some extra juice without worrying about battery or performance drains. Before I upgraded to Android 2.2, my battery life was pretty awful, but just having a charger in my car and next to my computer made a huge difference in how often I got the dreaded "low battery" message.

Big thanks to LifeHacker for a great post on why you SHOULDN'T need to use a task-killer.  They've obviously done their research, and these are the results they've found, but if you have some other battery-saving strategies feel free to comment below and share them with the world.

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Yesterday I posted a blog, and shortly after I found this post on Twitter (via @411ReDirect) and realized that it was a vital sequel.  Not everyone has the expertise or experience needed to make decisions about wireless carriers, phones, plans, and everything that goes along with it.  This is a lovely story about one consumer's experiences that hopefully we can all learn from.

What I Learned from My Cell Phone Saga

By Marlys Harris | Apr 4, 2011 |

As in all marriages, my husband and I do things together. So it came as no surprise that our cell phonebatteries died simultaneously. Busy myself, I assigned him the task of buying new ones. “Get thee to the Verizon Store,” I commanded.

A couple hours later, he returned, not with batteries, but with two new cell phones — and two new two-year contracts. The Verizon clerk had scoffed that our phones were so hopelessly out of date that nobody made batteries for them anymore.

I realized then that I had sent an innocent fish swimming into the jaws of a shark. My husband, who had over the years merely taken possession of my old phone whenever I upgraded, knew nothing of cell phones or contracts. The Verizon clerk had made him feel technologically senile, and so he swallowed the no-batteries story without a quibble.

In fact, his phone was about eight years old and maybe due for an upgrade. But mine, at three years, was a mere toddler and worked just fine. It could make calls, send text, take photos and offered games, sports scores, weather info, movie listings and other on-the-run info.  True, it wasn’t a smartphone. But it wasn’t a dummy either. If it were a high school senior, it probably could have scored in the mid-500s on the S.A.T.s. Worse, the replacement, which cost $30 after a $50 rebate, was horrible. Its buttons were teeny and unsuitable for my fat fingers. And, without going into details, trust me when I tell you that the top row of the keyboard was inaccessible to fingers larger than toothpicks. What happened to my old phone? My husband had tossed it in a bin to be donated to battered women’s shelters.

Well, that was a worthy thing to do so I limited my yelling and castigating to a half hour, instead of the customary week. And I tried to be a good sport. But I couldn’t make the damn thing work. Every time I tried to dial or text, the numbers and letters came out wrong. And the screen was unreadable.  And no batteries? Give me a break. The more I thought about Verizon’s tricky ways, the angrier I grew. This phone was going back!

At our local Verizon store, I learned — after slapping salespeople around a bit (metaphorically speaking, of course) — that the no-batteries story was maybe, they admitted, not entirely true. It was just that Verizon itself didn’t sell batteries. Whether I could still find one for my three-year-old phone, they weren’t sure. Learning that, I plunged into the battered women bin like Greg Louganis. My old phone was right on top, identifiable by its scratches and dents. “Take this back,” I told one of the clerks, handing her the new phone.

Well, not so fast. There was a little problem.

A $35 restocking fee.

Yes, there it was on the sales receipt. Verizon accepts returns (within 14 days) but charges you an outrageous $35 restocking fee. I hadn’t made one call on the new phone, but Verizon didn’t care. Apparently, once my DNA was on it, the company could no longer resell it. Or so they said. I stomped out of the store with both phones and called my husband (which I managed to do on the new phone only after several tries) to yell and castigate some more. “I’m sorry,” he wailed.

My next stop was an outfit called Batteries Unlimited. The clerks there laughed when I told them the no-batteries story. “Of course, there are batteries,” said one guy. “Your phone isn’t even that old.” The one for my cell cost $32, but I could return it no questions asked (and no restocking fee) within a week if, as one clerk put it, “You just want to use it to make trouble with Verizon.”

Twice more I visited the Verizon store, trying to get them to waive the fee. After all, I had been a customer for more than a decade and a steady payer for three lines. I accused Verizon of misleading my spouse with the no-battery story. I suggested that he was ill, weak of brain and easily victimized. I said things like “$35? C’mon!” They told me that once I had touched the phone, they couldn’t reuse it. “C’mon,” I repeated. “If that’s true, where did all the used and refurbished phones come from– storks?” Besides, the trend is going the other way. Both Best Buy and Apple have dropped most of their restocking fees.

In response, the Verizon guys tried to sell me a smartphone. And chump that I am, I considered it — even though I would pay a couple hundred more for the thing, plus an extra $30 a month for data, plus the bleeping restocking charge. Should I really reward Verizon with that much business?

So in bitterness, I ate the restocking fee and kept my old reliable. But here’s what the experience taught me.

1. Don’t send an inexperienced person to buy even the most insignificant cell phone accessory at a carrier’s store.
2. Don’t buy a cell phone for another person, at least not unless you’ve measured his or her fingers. It’s a pretty personal product. That’s what my husband learned.
3. Ignore salespeople when they mock your phone for its age, lack of features or stodgy style. There’s such a thing as appropriate technology. We don’t all need to post every thought on Facebook or download apps that identify animal tracks or tell you when it’s safe to surf off of Melbourne, Australia.
4. Don’t buy anything you’re not sure of or you’ll end up paying the $35 fee, which Verizon (and other cell phone carriers) shouldn’t but do charge you.
5. Don’t believe a word they say. Yes, Virginia, there are batteries.

story via: http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/consumer-reporter/what-i-learned-frommy-cell-phone-saga/1019/#

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Change is never easy, especially if you're a business owner.  You budget, ponder, plan, compare, and discuss for what seems like forever only to determine that you still don't know what you're going to do.  This morning I attempted the simple task of booking a flight.  There were so many options and choices in front of me.  I consulted websites, got quotes, weighed options, checked frequent flyer miles, compared more rates, played around with more options, visited more websites, made a chart, compared more rates again, calculated final costs, and made a decision.  I may be a bit more thorough than most with decisions likes this, but I found this to be, in my mind, what it must be like for people to switch wireless carriers.  Hear me out:

1. Consulting websites:  When any decision is made these days, we google things to get more information.  Not sure what to eat for dinner?  Research recipes for the ingredients you have.  Not sure what fashions are in this year?  Check out a store's website and see what's new.  Not sure which car to buy?  Visit reporting sites to gather information.  We will Google and Google until our hearts are content, just to make sure we know what we're getting ourselves into.  Finding out the intial information about the different wireless carriers is probably the most tedious and time-consuming task, but vital none-the-less.
2. Getting quotes:  we always want the best deal whether it be apples, televisions, or new wireless providers.  We do fake orders on the same websites we used to gather our information just to see what the bottom line is.  We call up connections and see if they can 'work us a deal.'  Contacting the right source for the quote or proposal is the next valuable step in the process of changing carriers, and for many the most important.
3. Weighing options:  like I said, change isn't easy.  Is this a good deal?  Can we find a better deal?  Does this fit within our budget, and if not, what can we/they change?  Is this a good value for what we're receiving?  Sometimes this part requires the 'sleep on it' attitude, and usually takes the longest.
4. Playing around with more options:  maybe you've decided that there are some problems with the intial quote and want a new one. Sometimes you need a second opinion.  Maybe we can cut this here and add that there?  The second go-around comes in here, and usually combines with my favorite step, making a graph. At this point, you should be narrowing down your options to 2-3 and getting close to finalizing.
5. Caculating final costs:  we're in the home stretch here!  You've narrowed it down to 2 choices (hopefully) and are doing the final number crunching.  You know what you want, who can give you the best cost, and are usually weighing what you consider to be the best value here.  You do a few final test runs, attack that calculator one last time, hover your finger over the go button, anxiety at its highest point until you...
6. MAKE A DECISION: hooray, we've made it!  You've chosen your phones, your plans, and your costs (or in my case flight times, where I'm flying out of, and cheapest manipulation) and took the leap of faith.  You made a trusted decision with much thought from both yourself, your advisors/joint decision-makers, and the wireless provider.  You have determined the value, made the choice, and committed to it. 

Every step of the way, there was something driving you to the goal, and other somethings keeping you from getting there.  Making a major decision like changing wireless carriers can be stressful and nerve-wrecking, but sometimes you have to take flight to the better value to be happier in the long run.

Sign up for a FREE telecom expense consultation and evaluation from The Wireless Authority here.

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One of the biggest complaints about the HTC Evo 4G is the battery life.  I was lucky to stumble on this article this morning providing a few tips and suggestions for users on increasing their battery life.  Please note the suggestions for every day users vs. root users!  If you're not rooted, ignore the suggestions for root users:

18 Battery tips and tricks for longer battery life

If you’re new to owning a smartphone the biggest thing you’ll have to get used to is how often you’ll have to charge your phone. Especially if you’re coming from a phone that was, well, just a phone; it’ll be a big change from charging your phone once  every other week to once every other day. So here are some tips that can help you max at your battery life.

If you try and do all of these it may ruin your Android experience because you’ll be constantly finicking with your battery; thats not what this is for. These are ALL the tips/tricks I know. Even I don’t use all of them. Using just a few of these (possibly even one or two) should be enough that you notice an increase in your battery life.

FOR ALL USERS

1. Turn off of your radios when not using them

Radios are what connect your phone to the rest of the world. You have your general mobile connection, wifi, data/internet connection (3G), GPS, and/or 4G. Those are listed in order from least to greatest in battery consumption. If you’re not using the radio turn it off. If you know you won’t be online for a long time, why turn 3G data on? If you’re at home, use wifi instead of 3G. If you’re not using Google Maps why is your GPS on? You’d be amazed at how much battery life you can save just by turning off the radios that you aren’t using. There are plenty of widgets in the market that will allow you to turn off the radios without even going through settings (Sense users have these widgets packaged in).

2. Vibrate uses more battery

Anytime your phone vibrates a lot of battery is used. This include haptic feedback. A lot of keyboards have the option to turn off haptic feedback and I would recommend it. If you’re a heavy texter you’ll notice very quickly how much longer your phone will last. Also, if you’re in a place where you can easily hear your phone why do you need to have vibrate enabled? If you know you’ll be able to hear your phone there’s no reason for it to be buzzing too.

3. Don’t use task killers

Crazy, right? Especially if you’re on Froyo (Android 2.2) or higher, Android has it’s own task killer that’s actually very good. If programs are using too much memory your Android OS will kill it. A common misconception is that apps run in the background forever; this is not true. If an app is using too much memory (which links to battery life) it’ll be killed by your phone. That’s why if you play a game, check a message, and come back the game is still running. It’s memory usage isn’t that high. However if you put your phone down, walk away for an hour, and the game is still trying to run in the background, there’s a good chance it will be closed before you come back. Separate task managers have to constantly be running in the background which can actually use more battery than it saves. Yes, task managers can use more battery than they save.

4. Do this shenanigans

Originally posted by kthejoker20, this trick came from HTC themselves and can seriously DOUBLE your battery life.

With the phone in the on position.

Fully charge the battery with the phone on… (until the led turns green.)

Once the led turns green, unplug the charger until the led goes off.

After the led goes off, plug the charger back in. When the led turns green , power off the phone.

now…. with the phone fully powered off…

1. Unplug the charger.

2. Wait until led goes off.

3. Plug charger back in until the led turns green. When it turns green, unplug the charger again and go to step 1.

4. repeat steps 1 and 3, 10 times. This may take anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 mins per cycle. Typically only about 1 minute. though.

It takes too much work for me, but I’ve done it once just to test it. It works.

5. Juicedefender

A lovely free app (there’s an extended version called UltimateJuice) that helps your phone save battery. You have to see it to understand it, but anyone who is serious about saving battery needs this app.

6. Don’t use live wallpapers

They look awesome, right? They also use a lot of battery (especially the more complex ones). We’ve all used live wallpapers to show off how cool our phones can be, but for daily use they can KILL your battery.

7. Set your screen timeout to something shorter

Some phones start with their screen timeout at 3 minutes or more. That’s completely unnecessary. While you don’t want it to be instant, you know your preferences. Set it to as low as you see fit. The sooner your screen goes off, the longer your battery life will last.

8. Kill tasks you aren’t using

Not the same as an automated task killer. Find an app in the market that can kill programs MANUALLY. People running AOSP Devices (Android Open Source Project…aka your phone is pure Google and not HTC Sense or some other skin) have the benefit of being able to hold the back button to kill apps.

9. Your camera flash and battery don’t get along

If you like using your camera LED for a flashlight realize that will absolutely MURDER your battery. In all seriousness, your flash uses battery more than any other process on your phone.

10. Low cell signal hurts battery

Your phone is always searching for a stronger signal…This process gets more hectic as the cell signal goes down. So if you’re at one bar your phone’s battery life will drop faster than if you’ve got full coverage. There’s not much you can do here, but if you’re in a place where your phone has little to no signal anyway, you probably won’t be making calls so you might want to just turn on airplane mode or your phone off.

11. Turn off always on mobile data

I know on my Evo the setting is hidden under menu>settings>wireless & networks>mobile networks>disable always on mobile data. What this will do is turn off your internet/data when you’re not using it (specifically after your phone’s been asleep for 5 minutes). It will turn back on shortly if you have a new email or need to sync something.

12. Speaking of syncing…

Check your settings to see what is syncing and when. You probably have things syncing you don’t even use (stocks, news, contacts, etc). You can turn those off and edit the other ones. I don’t need my contacts’ statuses every hour, so my facebook sync is scheduled for once a day rather than the old once an hour. However, I like my weather being up to date so it’s synced every half hour. Find out what you need and how often you want it, and turn the rest off.

13. Don’t use GPS unless you have to

Some apps give you the option to precisely determine your position using GPS, or make a general estimate (usually within 100 meters) based on wifi or 3G data. While this isn’t always the best (like if you’re driving or getting navigated), try to use the 3G connection when it doesn’t really matter. The data radio uses far less battery than GPS.

FOR ROOT USERS

If you’ve rooted your phone you have a few more options. You don’t gain too many more options, but they are even more effective than the ones listed above.

14. Trickle charging kernels

Try and get kernels that use trickle charging. These will really ramp up your battery life.

15. Find out if your phone likes HAVS

Basically, try undervolting kernels and see if your phone likes them. If it does, use them. They change the voltage your phone uses based on your activities and how much battery life you have left.

16. If it doesn’t…

Use the Collin_ph Battery Tweak. That one is specific for the Evo, however there are other builds for other devices. I personally use this and can testify that it works WONDERS.

17. Underclock your phone

Just like SetCPU can overclock your phone, it can underclock it as well. Set it to underclock when the phone is sleeping or even lower the max clocking speed.

18. Try different kernels

Just because he/she said that it works for their phone doesn’t mean it will work for yours. Every phone handles kernels differently. Trying some of them (GIVE THEM A DAY OR TWO TO SET IN) can give you a perfect experience of performance and battery.

Try using these tricks and your battery life will never be better!

article via http://www.talkandroid.com/33477-18-battery-tips-and-tricks-for-longer-battery-life/

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How’s the Evo 4G look close to a year later?

With how fast Android has been advancing, anti-Android pundits like to point out that your device will be outdated merely a week or two after you buy it. What does that say about your device in 10 months? Does that make it archaic? The HTC Evo 4g was released to the public on June 4th, 2010. This was in the middle of possibly the most heated stage of the “Android vs iPhone” war. The iPhone 4 was just around the corner, Android was starting to really pick up steam, and the Evo 4G was marked with the typical “iPhone killer” (stupid phrase) even with the expected iPhone 4 coming out just later that month. The device received rave reviews, numerous awards (including a rather prestigious award from Popular Mechanics), and few criticisms. It set the standard for devices with large screens and brought about a new wave in how people view smart phones. Suddenly the standard 3.5 inch screen that the iPhone taught the world was the norm wasn’t as appealing. 4+ inch screens became the new black with the Evo leading the way (Yes, Verizon supporters, the Droid X was released in response to the Evo). Of course, all new technology is amazing when it’s initially released. The shelf life and its use months later, however, are what set the device apart from the pack.  I’ve been asked a lot lately whether or not I’m considering selling my Evo for a newer phone (Evo 3D anyone?). Well, let me ’splain it to ya:

Software

The Evo is currently running Android 2.2, or Froyo. The device originally launched with 2.1 with the promise of Froyo coming soon from HTC. The Evo was the first device (excluding the obvious Nexus) to receive the Froyo update, yet the phone still runs beautifully and majestically. Froyo really was quite a step up from Eclair (2.1) and that still shows with the Evo. Combined with it’s 1 GHz processor, Froyo allows the device to load apps and menus almost instantly. How many of you remember the days where hitting “all applications” in your settings meant waiting a good 10 seconds before the list showed up? Probably very few of you. Now you click the same option and your list appears before you instantly. In terms of technology performance, 10 seconds is huge. The Evo still feels plenty fast and can stand toe to toe with even recent phones when it comes to its speed. Pretty nice for an old phone, eh?

Upgrades

Another big problem people have with buying expensive devices is the fear that the company will stop supporting the device. It has to happen eventually (unless your Sony and you can’t let go of your PS2 love child), you just don’t want it to be while you’re still using/depending on the device. When will that time come for the Evo? The bad news: with the release of the Evo 3D, probably sooner than your two year contract expiration date if you bought it recently. The good news: probably not in the immediate future. HTC has the best track record for upgrading their phones (according to a study done in January) and Sprint is behind only Verizon in upgrading times. You have the most reliable phone maker and the second quickest carrier; you’re in good hands. All of this is besides the point for two reasons:

1) [The Average Consumer] : HTC has already announced that the Evo will be getting Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). While most of us were already guessing they would, HTC wasn’t going to let their original flagship phone die off so easily. So to the 95% of you that don’t root your phone, GB and more than lidely Sense 2.0 are just around the corner. HTC has claimed it for Q2 of this year which is in the April-June range.

2) [The Root User]: Do you care that HTC may eventually forget about your phone? Does it matter to you that HTC takes longer than Google to release updates? Probably not. Many of you are already running the newest version of Android through ROMs (such as Cyanogen’s CM7) and could soon be even running Honeycomb. You’re like myself, as long as the developing community doesn’t forget about the Evo I’ve got nothing to worry about (and seeing how popular the Development section is over at XDA, I’m no where near worried).

Hardware

The final nail in the coffin for most electronic devices is hardware. Software can be upgraded but that can only take it so far. That’s not even accounting for software upgrades that requiremore up to date hardware. The Evo’s 4.3 inch multi-touch capacitive screen is still one of the best of its kind. It is still just as smooth and responsive as the day I got it and the capacitive buttons are much the same. It does not feel like a brick and still has a slim profile by modern standards. When someone inevitably comments with “the [insert your favorite phone here] is slimmer by x mm!!!” I won’t even reply. Here’s what I say to you: Do you REALLY notice it while holding it when the difference is almost indistinguishable to the human eye? Probably not.

The 8 megapixel camera is still top of the line. I’ve actually developed a small fondness for photography now that I have a camera with me that doesn’t take pictures that looks like they’ve been assembled by Lego blocks. The Wimax radio also still holds its own. You can make any claim for LTE you want (because honestly, it is that fast), but Wimax isn’t exactly the poor child. For those of us with 4G access you know how fast it is and probably don’t care that you can finish loading your Youtube video while 4 seconds into the video instead of 6; it’s still better than the constant stuttering and stopping or waiting for it load that we’ve been accustomed to on 3G. Sprint might switch to LTE, only they really know. But for the time being, Wimax will more than suffice. And besides, some people claim LTE is a bigger battery eater than Wimax (which I’d be amazed if that’s true).

Last but not least, the “Achilles Heel” for the Evo: The Battery. The only problem people could find with the Evo was that its battery life was often horrendous. How can age affect that? Other than the argument that there are newer, bigger, more efficient batteries out there (which you can buy for the Evo as well, by the way), there’s not much HTC could do about the battery life, right? Wrong. HTC sent out an update that somehow has DRASTICALLY improved the battery life for stock users. It was found that Sense was the biggest killer for the battery (excluding the gorgeous 4.3 inch power sucker you’re accustomed to looking at) and HTC corrected that. Will the Evo ever win best battery out of the box? No. But it no longer has the tag of “worst battery life ever.” In fact, if users are smart, they can adjust the Evo so that it runs for DAYS without needing to be recharged (not you frequent gamer/GPSer). I personally don’t charge my phone but every other day and I’m on it constantly. A little knowledge about your phone can go a long way.

The Verdict

In case you haven’t been able to draw a conclusion until now, I have no problems with my Evo. In fact, it doesn’t feel a day older than when I first got it. Whenever it starts to get that old, crusty feeling I just flash a new ROM and it feels like I have a new phone. I love that about Android, and I love that about my phone. The Evo is still selling well so I’m not the only one who finds this phone still attractive. So how about it Evo users? How’s your relationship with your device?

article via http://www.talkandroid.com/35119-hows-the-evo-4g-look-close-to-a-year-later/?utm_source=AndroidDigest&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AndroidNewsGoogleAndroidForums+%28Android+News%2C+Rumours%2C+and+Updates%29#

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Do More.   Travel Less. 

Amazing web conferencing and online meeting tools unlike anything else for only $29 a month.

Click here to watch a brief video demonstration!

All you need is a web connection!

Visually communicate with anyone, anywhere.

• Instant face-to-face meetings with colleagues, partners, and customers
• Collaborate remotely with desktop and presentation sharing capabilities.
• Save with integrated voice features, there’s no need to call in.
•  Unlimited meetings with up to 99 participants for one flat fee.
• Enterprise grade and completely secure.

Click here for a completely free trial, no credit card required!

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Fleet Management Made Simple, For About $35 Per Month

It’s time to make managing your fleet easier.

The Wireless Authority can help.

Call 717-635-7300 to have a local representative stop by with more information.

                                                    Member since 2008

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Today I had one of the most fulfilling and amazing experiences since I've started working in telecom.  I was sitting in my cubicle like any other Tuesday when my boss told me to come up front with paper and a pen.  He proceeded to inform me that there was someone here to see me and when I entered our front conference room I was met by a complete stranger.  Who was deaf.  I'll leave her name out, but she was one of the sweetest women I've ever met.  She was having a problem with her BlackBerry and through some written corresponance and lip reading we figured out how to proceed.  

Eventually she informed me of a product that Blackberry offers that I've heard of but never used: i711 relay. She informed me that she used to have it, but when she did her software update it was lost and she desperately needed it.  She said she always worried when driving because "even though I have a phone, I can't hear to call someone and I don't even know if anything I'm saying sounds right since I can't hear.  They can't read my lips through the phone.  What if I was in an accident?"  She then asked me if I could help her install this on her phone.  The steps were quite simple and after the test call went through I could tell that I had given her an invaluable gift: communication.

For future reference there are two different ways to set up i711 for Blackberry:

1. From your Home screen, launch the Internet Browser
2. Type in the following web address: http://www.i711.com/bb
3. Read the information and click “I Agree”
4. The application will download and install automatically

OR

1. From your home screen, launch Appworld
2. Select “Search” and type in “wireless i711”
3. Scroll down and select “wireless i711”
4. Select “Download”

For those of you that have never received a relay call before, it is fairly simple.  The person doing the relay will let you know that you are receiving a relay call and ask you if you've ever used relay before.  They will walk you through how the call will proceed:  when you speak they will type it to the caller to read on the screen, and when they type back the relay will read it aloud to you.

This is such an incredible service for those who are hearing impaired, and I have never been prouder to stand behind the telecommunications field and its constant innovations.  I know that I will never forget the moment and look on her face when she left happy knowing that she not only did I fix her initial issue (something with her email), but also helped her set up a priceless tool.

For more information on i711 services for the BlackBerry as well as other devices, visit their website at: http://www.i711.com/wireless/bbDownload.php or email them directly at textrelaysupport@purple.us

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Cut Your Telecom Expenses, Improve Control, Refocus Headcount

Save up to 40% off your current expenses.  We’ll show you how!

Rely on The Wireless Authority to audit, advise, negotiate, and handle all aspects of your wireless and landline vendors.  Our Telecom Expense Management Solution (TEM) gives you control of your telecom spend, regardless of carrier of service.  We consolidate and manage Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and most landline carriers.  We can even be the single point of contact for your wireless users if you choose, expediting service, equipment, and billing issues.  This frees up your staff to focus on more important business issues and money making activity.

 

Automate your accounting and gain access to departmental reporting and inventory tracking by converting to an electronic format based on YOUR needs.  Increase internal efficiencies from a staff perspective.

 

FACT: Telecommunications expenses represent one of the top 5 overhead costs for companies nationwide.

 

Click here to watch a brief video of our telecom services!

 

 

Benefits of TEM:

The Wireless Authority is a trusted source with over 25+ years of telecom experience.  We have a local, experienced, professional staff that will come to YOUR location.  Business solutions are our expertise: you’re a business customer and deserve to be treated as such!  We allow you to concentrate on your business without you having to become a telecom expert.

Isn’t it time to focus on your business and leave the telecom to the experts?

Give us a call to discuss your FREE 30 day trial

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We support our troops by donating to Cell Phones for Soldiers and are delighted to share this email with you.  Please keep in mind that our office is a donation location for used cell phones.

Follow our progress... Facebook Twitter Cell Phones for Soldiers Announces 2011 Goal Cell Phones for Soldiers recently announced its commitment to provide 750,000 communication tools in 2011 to troops stationed around the world, fulfilling a financial and emotional need of deployed armed forces. To reach this goal, Cell Phones for Soldiers needs your help. The charity is calling on individuals and organizations to sponsor free phone calls home through cash donations and the donation of used cellular phones. Every dollar raised and cellular phone received will provide that precious connection to family for service men and women. Proceeds raised from donations are used to purchase pre-paid international calling cards for troops around the world as well as fund new communication programs for troops in need. The average roaming fees from Afghanistan are $3.99 a minute, making a call home a rarity for many military professionals. Help connect military families, donate today. Help Keep Troops Connected    Three Ways to Support Troops:         1.  Make a Monetary Donation         2.  Donate a Used Cellular Phone         3.  Request a Calling Card for a Service Member ( Click Here) A monetary donation is a lifeline home for troops overseas. For every $5 donated, 2.5 hours of talk time can be provided to troops in need. Click the icon above to print off a prepaid shipping label and donate your gently-used cellular phones today! 243 Winter St | Norwell, MA 02061 US

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Want to know a little more about our telecom expense management services and what we do here at The Wireless Authority?  Watch this short video we made and enjoy!

Xtranormal_Lower_Your_Telecom_Expense_Wireless_Authority_meets_Warren_Buffett.mp4 Watch on Posterous

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 Dual-Touchscreens with Endless Possibilities

 Exclusively from Sprint, Kyocera Echo™ revolutionizes the mobile experience as the first dual-touchscreen smartphone. Kyocera Echo’s patent-pending “pivot hinge” design enables a compact pocket-friendly single-screen position when closed, and exposes two adjacent 3.5- inch high-resolution touchscreens when opened. Kyocera Echo offers customized apps that are optimized for the dual-screen experience, including VueQue™, an app pre-loaded by Kyocera, which lets users watch a video in one display, while browsing, queuing and buffering additional videos in the other. The easy-to-use device offers four modes of interaction:

·       Single-Screen Mode with all the functionality of a single-display touchscreen smartphone

·       Simul-Task™ Mode with two of the phone’s seven core apps running concurrently but independently on the device’s dual displays

·       Optimized Mode with both displays supporting a single, optimized app with complementary functionality and enhanced usability

·       Tablet Mode with one application spread across both screens for a full 4.7-inch viewing area

PRODUCTIVITY

·       Dual 3.5-inch LCD WVGA (800 x 480 pixels) capacitive touchscreens (4.7 inches diagonally and 800 x 960 pixels when opened)

·       Android 2.2 with access to more than 100,000 apps

·       Wi-Fi hotspot capability (supports up to 5 devices)*

·       VueQue™, a pre-loaded app that lets users watch a YouTube™ video in one display, while browsing, queuing and buffering additional YouTube videos on the other

·       Google^TM mobile services including Google Search^TM, Google Maps^TM, Google Talk^TM instant message, Gmail^TM, YouTube^TM, and synchronization with Google Calendar^TM

·       Full HTML Web browser with Google search, optimized for dual-screen experience

·       Sprint Zone™ one-stop wireless account access, phone tips, news and more

·       Access to Telenav GPS Navigator and Sprint TV & Movies^®

·       Corporate (MS Exchange ActiveSync) and personal (POP & IMAP) email access

·       Messaging – personal and business email, Google Talk^TM instant message and text messaging

·       Network – 3G data speeds (EVDO Rev A) – peak download speeds of 3.1 Mbps; peak upload speeds of 1.8 Mbps; average download speeds 600 kbps - 1.4 Mbps

·       Wi-Fi: (802.11 b/g)

ENTERTAINMENT

·       5MP camera with flash, autofocus and 2x digital zoom and 720p HD camcorder

·       High-quality video streaming and downloads at 3G speeds

·       Media player with 3.5mm stereo headset jack

·       Stereo Bluetooth^® 2.1 + EDR

·       Digital compass, accelerometer, proximity sensor, light sensor, GPS

·       Expandable memory: 8GB microSD card included; supports cards up to 32GB

SPECIFICATIONS

·       1GHz Snapdragon processor (QSD 8650 Android)

·       Dimensions: 115.0 x 56.5 x 17.2mm, Weight: 193g (6.8 oz.)

·       Main display: Dual 3.5-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreens (800 x 480 pixels or

800 x 960 pixels when opened)

·       Removable 1370mAh battery; includes spare battery (1370 mAh) with portable charger that can also tether to the phone as an external power supply

·       Memory: 1GB/512MB; 8GB microSD™ included

* Additional fee applies

via www.newsroom.sprint.com

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