Tag: Mobile Tech

There’s a chance that the Sprint HTC Evo 4G — America’s first 4G phone — will be on sale sooner than most were expecting. AndroidCentral came across several promotional flyers photographed by a forum user from its sister site. The photos allegedly come from Radio Shack (or as its known in some parts of the country, The Shack). A Radio Shack salesman allegedly said that the phone will be available for $200 with a contract and $600 without. The estimated arrival date for the phone is June 6.

I was expecting the Evo 4G to be available towards the end of the summer. A June 6 release date would be much better for Sprint. Verizon’s HTC Incredible has been getting great reviews and Apple is expected to announced its next iPhone later in June. The sooner Sprint launches the phone — which was recently approved by the FCC, btw — the better. Of course the June release would only make sense if Sprint has completed extensive work on upgrading its WiMax 4G network.

If the phone comes out in June, would any of you make the jump to Sprint and the Evo 4G?

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Sprint has announced several prepaid plans for its Virgin Mobile brand. Dubbed “Beyond Talk”, these plans look like a great option for consumers that want the reliability of Sprint’s network, but also want to save money and/or don’t want to commit to a contract. Here are some highlights from the press release:

• The revolutionary $25 plan is the industry’s lowest price point for unlimited messaging, email, data and web with 300 minutes of voice per month, ideal for high-end device users seeking an unbeatable price to enable the text and data services they need.
• The $40 plan includes unlimited messaging, email, data and web with 1,200 minutes of voice per month — the perfect value for those seeking an affordable plan with everything they need.
• The $60 plan includes unlimited messaging, email, data and web with unlimited voice to offer great value for high-end smartphone users expecting an unlimited plan to cost much more.
• For the first time, Virgin Mobile customers can add Blackberry data service to any of these plans for just $10 more, enabling an unprecedented $35 plan consisting of both voice calling and Blackberry data service.

The press release mentions that the Virgin Mobile will offer RIM’s BlackBerry 8530 phone at the end of May. While it’s not the most advanced handset in RIM’s catalog, it’s capable enough. Combined with Beyond Talk’s aggressive pricing, it’s a compelling choice for people looking for a smartphone on the cheap.

Any of you interested in Virgin Mobile’s Beyond Talk plans?

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T-Mobile has officially announced the myTouch Slide 3G phone, which features Google Android 2.1, a 3.4-inch screen, a full QWERTY keyboard, a five-megapixel camera, and a heavily customized version of HTC Sense. On paper, the phone is disappointing and interesting at the same time. Tech nerds will dismiss it for using a relatively slow (600MHz) CPU and low-resolution screen. It’s definitely not a cutting edge product, but it has plenty of features that make it worth a look.

Due out in June, the myTouch Slide is rare in that it uses Android 2.1 and has a physical keyboard. It also has advanced voice command and voice-to-text capabilities thanks to Dragon software. Early reports say that the Dragon implementation beats the pants off of stock Android’s. T-Mobile has worked with HTC to make its version of Android incredibly user friendly. While I expect most of you to be able to find your way around Android comfortably, there are millions of Americans that would struggle with the plain vanilla version.

The last feature is probably the most interesting facet of the myTouch 3G. It looks like T-Mobile will push this phone as Android for everyone.  The software will be idiot proof and the price should be in the mid-range (some people have estimated $129 on contract). It’s not really for tech geeks, but the myTouch 3G should appeal to consumers that want a capable phone that’s easy to use and easy on the wallet.

Any of you interested in this phone?

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In a sign of where mobile broadband is headed, T-Mobile has dropped the 5GB cap for it’s “unlimited” data plans. Consumers that use devices like the T-Mobile webConnect Rocket will no longer have to live in fear of data overage charges, but they will have to live in fear of something else. According to GigaOm:

There’s a catch: go past that limit, and download speeds will slow. T-Mobile tries to play down such a caveat, however, saying: “When used as a mobile broadband solution in conjunction with an existing home broadband service, only a very small number of customers use more than 5GB per month.”

For the consumer market, this isn’t a big deal. For people using T-Mobile mobile broadband for small-office or a home-office settings, it’s kind of crap. Some people would prefer paying overage charges over crippled service. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a nice move on T-Mobile’s part, but it could have been better.

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Nokia has announced its latest flagship phone — the Nokia N8 — and released numerous videos to hype the product. In addition to compatibility with both AT&T’s and T-Mobile’s 3G bands, the N8 has several features that are new to its phones. On the plus side, it has a capacitive touchscreen. Curiously, the battery isn’t user replaceable; while this helps the N8’s anodized aluminum body keep its sleek looks, not being able to replace the battery will surely piss off some users. The big addition is Symbian ^3, which is the first attempt at modernizing the aging Symbian platform. One tidbit that isn’t on the officials specs page is the CPU, which is purported to be an older ARM processor clocked at 680MHz.

International travelers will be interested in the phone’s use of Ovi Maps. Unlike most GPS systems on smartphones, Ovi Maps works — for free — in more than 70 countries and doesn’t require a mobile signal for use, as long as the maps for a specific country have been downloaded to the phone. As someone that travels (and sometimes gets lost), this feature is extremely attractive.

The phone will be out in Q3 2010 for around $500. Here are more specs and a slew of videos. Check ’em out and let me know what you think. Will the N8 help Nokia win back some ground in America? Or will it be like its other recent smartphones — popular everywhere in the world…except America.

• Symbian^3 operating system
• 3.5-inch capacitive OLED touchscreen (640×360)
• 12 megapixel camera (with Carl Zeiss optics and a Xenon flash)
• 802.11 b/g/n
• HDMI output
• 16GB of internal storage
• microSD expansion slot
• HD video recording
• Free Ovi Maps walk and drive navigation

RIM has released a sizzle reel of its upcoming BlackBerry OS 6 using the Black Eyed Peas’ hit song “Boom Boom Pow”. Normally, I’d make fun of any company that uses an annoying song to promote its goods, but I have to support BEP for having one of the most prominent Filipino-Americans in entertainment today (go Apl!!!).

Seriously though, some of the features look interesting and some of them scream, “Johnny Come Lately”. As I mentioned yesterday, BlackBerry OS 6 is due out in Q3 2010. At a glance, it does not look more intuitive, interesting, or functional than Android, iPhone OS, or WebOS. The initial screens and videos of Windows Phone 7 are also more impressive. For the sake of competition, I’m hoping RIM will have more cool and exciting features to show off. If it doesn’t, it will become the North American version of Symbian (at least in the consumer market).