BTR: Broken Tower Report PN 153

About 1 month ago, I noticed my DL speeds severely underperforming at my job. Though troubled by this, I dismissed it as part of "Network Vision" and decided to be patient while they smooth out the kinks.

After a month of garbage data service, and after waiting so long that it actually ended up affecting my productivity at my job, I had enough and called that sonavabitch in.

10-15 phone calls later with the infamous OKCQC (go on, call them at 8669844962), my issue is not resolved. They allegedly sent out technicians to inspect the tower, but the technicians said there is no problem.

This time I have proof.

Exhibit A: Speed tests done around 8 P.M. PST around the problem area

PN 153

PN 153

PN 6

PN 258

 Exhibit B: A Map of the Problem

Exhibit C: Video Tour with 2 Devices, GS3 & Evo Design

 Galaxy S III filming the Evo circling from the Shell Station on the intersection of Queen Anne and Denny and around.

 Evo filming the GS3:

Look NOC. it's not my device. Stop telling me it is. Oh and by the way, at no point did I sign up to be your quality engineer.

Sad Hesse....

EVO Lte finally here. Gameloft games aren't.

In a rather pathetic turn of events, DESPITE the delays in shipping and DESPITE this being a "flagship" device, all Gameloft titles do not work on my EVO Lte. Fantastic job Sprint + HTC. Fantastic.

Surely HTC threw a monkey wrench into the machine when it decided to avoid soft buttons and stick with the hardware keys. Having said that, what a lot of other publishers have been doing to maintain the proper resolution is sticking a dummy menu key in there to get the title to run. See GTA III. Gameloft, in their infinite wisdom, chose to not do this.

Cheers.

Galaxy Tab Gingerbread Performance Boost

I must immediately report that I just got Gingerbread on my Galaxy Tab and got a 200% performance boost. 1500 on Quadrant. Immediately snappier. Wow. Thank you Sprint. Thank you Samsung.

HTC Flyer / EVO View 4G Video Review

Sprint "Repair Team" Redeemed

My wife dropped her EVO Shift the other day. Now an EVO Shift is an HTC. And HTC makes damn good devices with damn good build quality. There's a reason they're always so heavy. They're made like bricks. But a 4 foot drop will shatter any Gorilla Glass. The touch layer was smashed into a finely-meshed webbing, held together only by the screen protector.

I looked online for the part and it was $45. I knew from at&t days that an iPhone screen replacement was at least $150. My stomach sank.

For the hell of it, I took it to Sprint... with NO INSURANCE, NO NOTHING, NO JACK SQUAT..... they said it will only be $35, and a 40 minute wait.

Unbelievable.

Netflix disappears from Market big WTF

Man... what a major clusterfluck. Netflix YANKED support for EVO 4G and a range of other Android devices. What the hell is going on? This is downright pathetic.

They are so busy worrying about preventing copyright infringement meanwhile it was just reported today that they send their passwords unencrypted! 

Must say this is pathetic and embarrassing. And if I didn't like Netflix so much, I would be pretty pissed off.

HTC Evo View 4G Preview

I must confess that this is more of a review of the Flyer that I just went out and purchased.

I had some doubts and reservations knowing that for the $500 Best Buy wanted, I could get an iPad 2 or a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. But I knew that the 7 inch form factor was right for me and that the WiFi Galaxy Tab 7 didn't pull its weight performance wise. So I sprung for one of these.

Build:
I am not a fan of tapered edges and rounded corners. This is one of the reasons I opted for ipad one over two. This is one thing I liked about the original galaxy tab. Here I had to compromise. The rest of the feel is solid, though I miss the softouch that encased similarly sized devices such as the Playbook. Brushed metal is fine but the plastic caps on the top and bottom are not my favorite. Evidently Sprint didn't like them either so they will be Softouch on the Evo View.

Software:
I've always verb skeptical about Sense and Sense overload but I must say I am really impressed with Sense 3.0. It's hyper customizable, intuitive, and just feels right on a 7 inch display. You can now unlock straight into applications, reskin the entire UI, and do other tricks previously only possible with root and alternative launchers. When Honeycomb is finally mature for a 7 inch form factor, it will only make this device better.

Final:
Even though this was a pretty big gamble, and I had my doubts about paying more for less (Acer iconia 10 inch is only $450) I am glad I went with the Flyer. For us Sprint users, I highly recommend picking up the WiFi only one and tethering it as $400 on contract Sprint wants is not worth it. I will emphasize that you will be stuck on a 2 year contract on THE WORST TABLET DATA PLAN in the US. $35 a month is way above competition. Unacceptable.

Continuing Clearwire Improvements

As proof of my claim in a previous post where I touted significant 4g speed improvements, I offer visual confirmation of the stated claim.

On Sprint Premier "Account Specialists"

So I finally qualified my giant family plan for Sprint Premier. Nevermind that I for some reason don't qualify for Gold, like i should, and only pull Silver because evidently I haven't been paying enough for LONG enough. Nevermind that .... What I mind is the asshat "account specialist" that I have been assigned by Sprint to call me and to "find ways to save me money".

This guy, who speaks with this annoying Persian accent and equally annoying habit of calling me Mister <insert first name> instead of just my first name calls me up and proceeds to very very slowly go over the minutia of my account details. Things I already know.  (with that Persian habit of repeating himself 3 times after each sentence)  I ask him on the difference between Premier Gold and Silver and all he says is that it's basically the same thing without details. (very helpful)

What really pushed me over the edge is when he started asking me if I have kids or have a business line. I said no to both. And now, he decided to show his true nature and proceeded to offer me "as gratitude for my service" a "free" "comparable" Android phone. He tried to convince me that an Optimus S is "comparable" to an EVO Shift while glossing over the fact that it was free if and only if I opened a new line for my business.

Now it took me 4 tries to get him to shut the hell up and to send him packing. It pisses me off that I KNOW that Optimus S is NOT comparable to EVO Shift. I've had one. But the asshat did not bother to realize this. It pisses me off that I went to Sprint.com and saw an offer for a free Optimus S available to anyone. It pisses me off that my "account specialist" is just a clown designed to try to rip me off and sell me crap I don't need.

Thanks Dan. Premier privilege.

Clearwire increasing speeds in Seattle area

No announcement. No big hoopla. No David Blaine. But it seems like Sprint's new, re-negotiated agreement with Clearwire is already paying off to customers.

That, or it's the increased pressure from Verizon from the launch of LTE.

But whichever it may be, I am now happy to report significantly increased Wimax speeds on the Sprint 4G network in Seattle. In fact, they are now comparable to LTE speeds in the same area. In fact I'm now topping at 7500 ~ 8000 Kbps in good weather.

Thanks Clear!

Amazon goes rogue: Sprint screwing with EVO Shift media streaming?

Today I get a strange push message on my EVO Shift: Streaming quality on your HTC EVO Shift may be impacted by a known issue with the Sprint carrier network. To resolve this issue, please contact Sprint at 888-211-4727. Let them know that you are having trouble steaming multimedia on the HTC EVO Shift with software version xxx.xx.xxx.x

At first I am confused. Next I notice the tiny Amazon icon. It's the Amazon appstore pushing this to me!

It appears that Amazon has gone rogue! I can only explain this by the suspicion that Amazon is working to launch Amazon Prime Video on Demand and that Sprint has not been working with them to optimize the performance of their network and their devices! So it appears that out of frustration, Amazon has gone mad and now wants the customers to call and harass Sprint! Issue also appears to involve EVO's.

Getting pretty Epic!!!! (no pun intended)

at&t, not Sprint, is buying T-Mobile

So I guess we were outbid... or something... because last I heard the plan was for SPRINT to buy T-Mobile. Then that rumor died and now the next thing I hear, my NYT app on me iPad flashes me this breaking news. Well, what does this mean really?

1. at&t will now gain another 40 million customer lead on Verizon
2. HSPA may become more real for at&t users rather than just a pipe dream
3. T-Mobile users will actually see LTE in the foreseeable future
4. at&t users will be astonished that it's possible to have even worse network performance on GSM than their own (last week I went into a T-Mobile store near Seattle to play around with their 4G phones and so some speed tests and despite the fact that they all had nearly full bars, I got astonishing 50 kbps speeds! T-Mo 4G is reeeeaaal..... right....

5. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY this now makes Sprint the underdog. The smallest national carrier (save Metro PCS and the like)

6. I think this makes Sprint a possible purchase target for Verizon

125 dollars regained

Once again I am amazed with how great Sprint CS can be. I explained the situation and they credited me my port-in credits.

Not too shabby.

mythical 125 dollar port in credit vaporizes if you procrastinate for 3 days

"Request for service credit must be made at sprint.com/switchtosprint within 72 hours from the port-in activation date or credit will be declined. "


AAAAAAAARGHHGHGHGHGHGH


I've always been a procrastinator... but rarely has it bitten me in the ass for $125.


I ported in my mum's number a few weeks ago (after already knowing about the credit promo) but thought, oh what the hell i have like 60 days to request it right? NO I HAVE 3 DAYS... it turns out.


oh btw thanks for telling me, C.S.

European style RMA

You know how on every carrier in the US, if something goes wrong with your phone within the first year, and it's not your fault, you can use your warranty and just bring it in to a store and they will swap it out with a new one?

Well... in an unprecedented cost-cutting measure, last September, Sprint did away with this measure. Now you are blackmailed into signing up for equipment protection for that to take place. If you don't pay your monthly blackmail fee, you have to pay the nerds in the back $35 to "diagnose" your phone. How did I find this out? Well... I found it out the hard way when the speaker on my EVO crapped out and blew out.

I said to them... WTF dude this is some kind of blackmail? I'm not paying for this garbage, are you familiar with everyone else's policies? To which he said if I don't wanna pay $35, I need to contact HTC directly, you know how they do in Europe... (then the fucker tried to convince me that other carriers work the same way, but that didn't fly too well with me)

Essentially, instead of X amount of money going to pay for in-store swaps (if for nothing else then to match Apple), Dan, the Genius, Hesse decided to employ 3-5 nerdy dorks in the back "to repair and diagnose your phone".

Well Dan, at least you are tackling America's unemployment problems head on!

P.S. I ended up paying big brown $28 to ship this thing to HTC in Texas. They fixed the phone and sent back the original (TIMES ARE TOUGH RIGHT?). And I was without phone for 2 weeks. I guess you got me Sprint. You Win. Joke is on me.

iPad 2 Announced

Let me just say right off the bat. I think I'm pretty certain I'm gonna go and pick up one of these bad boys.

Look yeah I dumped the iPhone... I dumped it because of the UI. I dumped it because I wanted widgets and I wanted to be able to see more information at once, without having to go into each app.  I dumped it for the better notifications and the less obtrusive, more powerful design of the UI.

HOWEVER: While I was itching to pick up an Android tablet (of some sort) I quickly realized that all I would be getting is just a bigger screen version of my phone! There is no new content specifically designed for Galaxy Tab or even Xoom. The only optimized apps are New York Times and Financial Times.

Other than that, it's rough out there.

There is one thing the iPad brings that an Android tablet doesn't. New content.

Until that changes, Honeycomb has no chance.

Sprint's Big Announcement is Kyocera Echo? WTF?

Kyocera Echo? WHAT??

What the hell? David Blaine, wtf.... what does he have to do with the Kyocera? There's no magic there. The thing is a piece of shit. Sprint is once again the laughing stock in the headlines.

Look, after a BLANK CES with no real announcements and nothing to look forward to, while the other 3 announced several Tegra 2 devices, I was REALLY counting on Sprint to come through big with this announcement. Instead they deliver this?

If I was Dan Hesse, I would be fucking embarrassed.

Look it's not that the phone sucks (altho if the Zio is any benchmark, we can expect a non-functional touchscreen and underperforming hardware)....

It's that it is horridly underpowered by a last-gen processor that has trouble driving one WVGA screen on an EVO.

It's that it has a stupid bezel between the screens, and Kyocera couldn't use some kind of special lens glass on the LCDs to eliminate the bezel...

It's that it's nearly 3 years old thick! (18 mm).

It's that it has no 4G (not that Wimax is real anyway, trust me it exists only in myth)

It's that it has no front facing camera.

It's that it's a Kyocera....

Look. This device SHOULD have featured Tegra 2 or at least the new Snapdragon v2 with Adreno 205. It should have had a gig of ram. It should have had lens refraction and no bezel between screens.

Then, then I would not be laughing. What an embarrassing day to be a Sprint customer.

P.S. Why are the buttons on there twice again?

CDMA bars in more places

Just for the record, at&t "more bars in more places" campaign is complete horseshit.

On a GSM carrier, bars don't mean shit. I've had 2-3 bars on at&t or T-Mobile and was unable to make a call.

On a CDMA carrier, often you can have 0 bars and make clear calls and get ~300 kbps data speeds.

The bars are just calculated differently.

So far, I usually have very few bars of Sprint reception here in Seattle... but I can usually make... and HANG ON to calls much, much better than at&t.


Quality of Service: A+

Airaves require GPS... and UPS.

Lesson learned: for clever reasons, Airaves require a GPS signal. Why you ask? Why the fuck would it need GPS? Well... because they don't want you taking your Airave to Botswana and using Sprint. Why? Well... well because they want you to rent a GSM Roaming phone for $45 a week, as well as pay $5 a minute for roaming in Botswana.

WTF right?

Let me just say this: T-Mobile does not use Microcells. T-Mobile uses WIFI UMA (unlicensed mode access something rather) to relay your phones through VOIP while still using your phone number. It's a great thing, and as WIFI chips require less and less power, they are a viable option, sometimes delivering better talk time than on normal cellular networks. While T-Mo UMA should only work in the USA, you can easily rig it to work worldwide.

Not so easy with the Airvana Airave from Sprint. Not only does it require GPS for Big Brother... so they know where you are using it, but it also requires uninterrupted power supply (UPS).

Okay not really, but if your power goes out for a few days, The Airave (for the same reasons mentioned above) "deprovisions" itself and you have to spend 2 hours on the phone with Sprint getting it to work again.

Once you hook up your Airave, pray to god your power does not go out.

Sprint can't handle Cyrillic from at&t

When my friends SMS me Cyrillic characters from at&t, they are not decoded properly and I get gibberish. BTW I gotta give Sprint support credit here because I spoke to a lovely young lady who was kind enough to actually have me send her Cyrillic to her Sprint phone, and she sent it back to me.

Here is what we learned. Sprint to Sprint, Android to Android Cyrillic works fine.

However at&t iPhone Cyrillic to Sprint Android Cyrillic is a no-go.