I'm back from my trip, but not back up to blogging strength. That will probably come on Monday night. Sorry. But I need to get down in writing sort of a nasty-gram to both Sprint and Samsung, about my Galaxy S4 4G LTE cell phone.
My trip back to Ohio was primarily to Sunbury, an exurb of Columbus, Ohio. I also made forays into Westerville, and very nearby Columbus, and to my sister's place in rural Delaware County. While some of these places could have been considered "in the boonies" in the early days of mobile phones--maybe even in 2004 when I first got a Sprint phone--they are certainly not now. And yet, with every phone update, and every technological advance, I get horrid service from Sprint out there.
But my experience this time with my new Galaxy S4 was the nadir. At my Mom's house, where I used to lapse to data roaming on say, my Samsung Rant non-smartphone, the S4 gave me a circle with a slash for voice calls, no service whatsoever. I had no 4G--which I don't even get in Las Vegas, so no surprise--and no 3G either. This is right outside Sunbury, a smallish but amply covered by Verizon town. The only way to make or receive a call, or even reliably send a text, was to go outside, and that managed just a microdot of a "bar" for voice calls.
Out at my sister's, an admittedly ruralish area (but very near civilization and still amply covered by Verizon), I had pretty much an identical issue. Onward into Westerville and Columbus, things weren't much better. I could get fairly reliable, but reliably slow 3G service. No 4G. Voice service was passable.
After prior visits to Ohio, I have complained to Sprint about poor service. The only responses I've received have been essentially form letters that didn't address the issue at hand. You'd think that in my one-to-two-times per year visits over almost a decade, there would be some improvement. Particularly since there have been not only technological improvements in that time, but the areas I'm talking about have gotten more populous and less remote. And--surprise, surprise--there is a Sprint store in Sunbury.
Now, onto my Samsung Galaxy S4 problems. 1) The phone gets semi-randomly hot with minor use, but not always. 2) The phone will sometimes register a voicemail, but no missed calls. Or a missed call, but the phone never rang. 3) Most annoyingly, the phone keeps reverting to the default ringer and notification sounds. I've had to reset them at least four times, twice on this visit alone. Turns out, the other phone on our account (that did not go to Ohio on this trip) has the same problem. I'm not happy.
So, after lusting for a new phone for months, (torn between the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4), I've now had it for a month. Am I digging it? Is it just "my phone," rather than "my new phone," now that I'm used to it? Is it a hit or a flop?
Well, so far--mostly--it's a hit. The primary "con" I saw with the Galaxy as opposed to the One before I bought it was the design. The One has a sleek aluminum body, and the S4 has a thin plastic, snap-on back cover. I opted for the S4 anyway, because of its removable battery, and an expandable memory via micro-SD chip. But as it turns out, the design of the S4 didn't bother me. All of my phones have been primarily plastic, and it's never bugged me before. And, I keep it in a soft vinyl protective case anyway, so I rarely see much of the phone's chassis.
The other con was the fact that the One has some amped up front-facing speakers, and the S4 just has a tinny speaker on the back. This is rarely an issue, though I have to say, my protective case can muffle the little speaker when it sits on my desk. The little bump-out on the phone's back doesn't extend past the case, so keep that in mind, or prop your phone on one end to lift it off your desk. Other cons were discovered after purchase. One of them is the actual storage space available for apps. The phone is advertised as 16GB, but half of that is taken by the pre-loaded software. And even though you can pop a 64GB chip in there (maybe even 128?), you can't put apps on the chip (at least not with this version of Android). It's fine for me, since you can put all of your music, pictures and videos on the chip, and I don't have huge apps downloaded.
And there are pros!
Beyond that, I can tell you that the phone gets hot, rather randomly. Not enough to burn you, but enough to be a bit uncomfortable. Most of the time it's fine, and then you'll play a quick Words with Friends game, and wow! Hot! Other times you can mess with it for an hour and it's fine. So, I don't know. Another thing is the built-in pedometer, which only kind of works. I carry my phone at work and on my walks, and errands, and in any given day I might walk seven miles with my phone. And sometimes, it registers that. Other days, I'll go for a four-mile walk, and it registers 1.5 miles. I don't know if I'm walking with more of a stomp some days or what, but there you go. It might be helpful if their app included a GPS tracker that actually clocked miles rather than just steps.
And if it sounds like I'm complaining a lot, I should state that I really do like this phone. The screen is bright, clear and large. In the bright Las Vegas sun, you wouldn't want to watch a movie, but the screen is legible for advancing music tracks or other brief tasks. The sound through headphones is great, and adjustable to your hearing ability (with a one-time setup). Everything about tweaking settings I have found to be more intuitive, and easy. Setting up bluetooth has been a snap on each device I've tried. I've had success with pretty much everything I've tried to do.
My favorite find on the phone is the Google Search Bar, which I know, is not exclusive to the Galaxy S4. I've seen people use Apple's Siri, and I've personally used the Android Siri clone Iris. But I've never seen anything like this. Press the microphone and say just about anything, and up it pops. I haven't had it "mishear" a word yet. I've used voice commands on earlier phones to much more mixed results. I found it to be a seldom-used novelty. On this phone, it's just too cool to forget about. No more picking the app, typing a phrase, poking around. It's just, "show me a picture of Portia de Rossi," and up it pops! It answers direct questions well, like "what is the distance from earth to the moon," but doesn't engage you in conversation like Iris and Siri. I'm cool with that, I have Iris installed if I need to show of parlor tricks. Google Search Bar is much more useful. Needs a cuter name though.
And that's pretty much where we are now. I'll tip you off to something cool I discovered that goes great with smart phones though. We were always having to run through the house to answer our cell phones, and I always thought it was a step back to the days before we could have extensions in every room. I actually said out loud, "Somebody needs to invent a house phone that links up with your cell phone." I thought it would be impractical, because most households have at least two cell phones, plus the house phones. How would that even work?
Panasonic Link2Cell (so cool!)
Then, I remembered having seen phone sets at Sam's Club and Costco. Packages of 3, 4 or 5 identical handsets. So, I looked 'em up. And I'm not sure if all brands of them do this, but the Panasonic Link2Cell series hooks to one of your house phone jacks, and lets you put extensions wherever you want them (just a power cord). It synchs up with up to two cell phones and your land line (if you have one)! I replaced all of our mismatched handsets, set it up in the space of a half hour, and now we can answer any of our phones in any room without the mad phone hunt! The only sacrifices are that your cell phones need to be in range of the base unit (in our 1560 sq. ft. house, they always are), and answering a cell call on an extension takes a couple of extra seconds to connect. Other than that, it's the coolest invention since bluetooth.
Since Panasonic and Samsung don't pay me to review their items, I'm not linking to either of them. But take out your Android or iPhone, press either the Google Search Bar or Siri microphone, and say, "Panasonic Link2Cell," and find out all about them. Thanks for reading, I hope I've been helpful.
The phone on the left is not a Galaxy S4, and no way is it that small, no matter what PC Magazine might imply.
Wow, I didn't know you could do this. Apple and Samsung have been locked in suits and counter suits over alleged patent infringements. From what I've read of the cases, a lot of Apple's claims are fairly broad, to the point of ridiculousness, and yet they initially won a huge settlement. But the cases go on, and now, Apple--already claiming 22 different Samsung models violate their patents--is scrubbing one, and replacing it with a new one. My new Galaxy S4!
Now, I know I'm no patent expert, so I won't sound off too much. But I can tell you that my phone in no way resembles an Apple product. It doesn't function like an Apple product. There isn't a soul who would be confused, or fooled into thinking the S4 was an iPhone. And--unlike the picture used in this and other articles--the phones aren't even remotely the same size. The S4 dwarfs the iPhone in every way except build materials. Yes, both phones have a glass touchscreen, a button and are roughly the same shape. Both have icons you press to get to programs, a logical extension of any computer operating system. But the Android operating system (layered with Samsung's TouchWiz and each individual carrier's add-ons) has evolved in quite a different direction from iOS. They're now very different ecosystems.
The thing that annoyed me about my (admittedly) cursory examination of the cases, is that the claims on patents seemed to focus on what the hardware and software do, rather than how they do it. If I press a button and a program opens, you shouldn't be able to patent that. If you get the program to open via a patented code, and someone steals the code? Fine, you win. But that doesn't seem to be the case here. It seems like Apple wants to lay claim to concepts. Should they really be able to do that? I mean, dozens of manufacturers manufacture similar TVs, microwave ovens, printer all-in-ones, keyboards, lamps, speakers. . . Once a product exists, you don't get the only company allowed to make something like it. Should Apple really be the only company allowed to make a rectangular touch-screen phone, with applications and a camera?
[Excerpt] Apple Targets Samsung Galaxy S 4 in Patent Case
Apple wants to add the Galaxy S 4 to a list of 22 Samsung devices its believes infringes on its patents. Cupertino said it is willing to drop one of those 22 gadgets and swap in Samsung's newest flagship smartphone. . .
A good bit of my weekend has been taken up getting used to my new Samsung Galaxy S4 smart phone (and don't worry, I'll stop talking about it soon). But it got me to thinking--as I loaded it up with my usual ringtones and notification sounds--that it might make a good topic for Blast from the Past. In fact, it might make a good psychological study. New phone, same old tunes and sounds.
Notification: Samantha from Bewitched's nose twitch. This is from the old days of my Windows 95 computer themes. I found that this particular sound effect was one I never got tired of. And those themes were usually tiring. Ironically, it's paired in this clip with easily the most annoying sound on earth: Fran Drescher. And here's the Bewitched theme for the sake of it. I have it saved on my phone too.
Default Ringtone: Theme from Match Game '76. Though I can't claim I got half of the jokes (or even knew that the cast was shitfaced) on this classic, long-running game show (with PM and '74, '75, '76, '77, etc. editions), I loved it as a kid. The theme seemed to know it was cheesy, and that's what I liked about it.
The Other Half's Ringtone: Making Our Dreams Come True by Cyndi Grecco, the theme from Laverne & Shirley. I'd like to say it was because of the song's indefatigable spirit of togetherness and can-do friendship. But it's really because we both loved the show. For a while, I had Georgie Girl by The Seekers, but it seemed like a confusing androgynous tune for my husband, so even though it's a favorite of his, it had to go.
Mom's Ringtone: Is Three Dog Night's Mama Told Me Not to Come a little too on the nose? Well, at least I'm using that instead of the theme from Halloween 2 I once used!
Sister's Ringtone:Enjoy the Silence by Depeche Mode, which was always one of her favorite bands, and Brother's Ringtone:You're Driving Me Crazy by Squirrel Nut Zippers, because, well, sometimes he does. . .
Others on my custom list are my friends Dona and Lester (Puttin' on the Ritz by Taco and Green Onions by Booker T and the MGs, respectively), Jeff and Sandy (Top of the World by The Carpenters), Denny and Kardinal (Sympathy for the Devil by The Rolling Stones and Hit Me with Your Best Shot by Pat Benatar), my boss ladies (You're the First by Barry White and I Love the Nightlife by Alicia Bridges), and my other boss (Popcorn by Hot Butter). But putting all of these clips up would wreck your browser, so here's just a couple of them.
What I've found out over several phones (and others' phones) is that you have to pick songs that you'll hear clearly, you need to edit clips that have the good part of the song right at the beginning, and you need to make sure the sound level isn't too high, or the tinny cell phone speakers will distort. Also, I've found that putting songs onto an Android phone is fairly easy, and doing the same on an iPhone is a multi-step process that taxes your patience. Oh, also that downloading sound software--even from a reputable site like CNet.com is very, very risky. I was up until 3:30 am on Friday night purging the gremlins from my computer.
And with that, we'll end this week's edition, and wish you all happy Monday!
I said I'd update my experience with my brand new Samsung Galaxy S4 phone (on Sprint), as a help to anyone who is trying to decide to buy one. Here are just a few quick notes on my experience so far:
Pros
- Integration with my car stereo (via blue tooth) is much more successful and useful than my old HTC Evo was. Synching was easy, and I figured it out without a manual. Pandora worked like a dream, with full functionality, album art, song description, thumbs up and down, etc. DAR.fm, the radio recording service is a little more glitchy, but them's the breaks.
- A phone call through blue tooth in my car was clearer. I've only tried one, but it was a better experience than my Evo.
- Useability of the actual phone functions are clearer and easier. HTC's phone and contacts programming was just awful, so even though Samsung's TouchWiz is a bit cartoony, it is very functional.
- Still digging the sharpness of the screen. It's gorgeous.
- One of my favorite app games, 3D Bowling, offers much more precise control. I was able to pick up spares I never had a chance at before. But it takes a game or three to get your bearings.
- I like the lock screen, the default splash sound and ripple effects are fun.
- I was worried about sound quality, since that was the strongest selling point of the HTC One (a phone I'd also considered). But the S4's sound is a notch up from my Evo or The Other Half's Epic. Not disappointing at all.
- I'm getting used to the size and weight of this phone. Even with the rubber cover that Costco supplied, the phone feels slimmer and lighter than my Evo. It is of course larger in its other dimensions, but I think it manages to come in just under "too big." And it dwarfs my friends' iPhone 4S and 5! Hee-hee!
- There's an intangible glee that I get from simply having a brand new, newly-released major phone. That may sound silly, but I've been behind the curve on these things for so long, and you're basically trapped with your choice for two years. I will read the news of the Galaxy S5 and S6 in the coming years, and who knows, the HTC Two? Three? And you know that iPhone 5S, 6 and 6S will be on the horizon while my 2 years play out. But I can rest easy for at least the remainder of 2013 before feeling phone lust again!
- Everything zips along at a faster clip than my old phone could manage. Internet is actually approaching real computer-level functionality on phones like this, though it isn't a substitute if you have a computer or tablet nearby. That may change, however, when the 4G service finally hits Las Vegas (or your area).
Cons
- The included pedometer is not useful. I took it on my standard 4-mile walk, and it only registered a 1.6 mile walk. Unless there is some sort of calibration. I will check that out.
- Voice activation--a feature that is unnecessary, but cool--isn't reliable. It works when no one is watching, but when I try to demonstrate by saying "Kirk to Enterprise!" it makes me look stupid by not doing anything!
- The "bloatware" on every home screen is kind of over-the-top. It's nice that Samsung includes so much cool stuff, but I doubt I'll use much of it, and it doesn't need to be taking up so much real estate. Sure, you can take it off the screen but if my previous experience holds true, you won't be able to actually delete any of it.
- Touted features like touchless scrolling and the like haven't worked very well for me yet. The "wave your hand to answer" feature does work, but it's a "look how cool I am" feature more than anything else.
- The default clock/weather app is very nice, pretty and informative. But it is opaque and takes up almost half of that big screen, obscuring any wallpaper you might have. So, though you'll want it front-and-center, you're stuck with it unless you find a third-party solution. Also? It insists that I live in "Arden, NV." Before this, I'd never heard of Arden, apparently an unincorporated region of southern Nevada about 8 miles from me. In reality, I live in unincorporated Clark County, in Paradise Township (the same township as the Las Vegas Strip). This could be the fault of the towers around me, I suppose.
- The biggest con is one recently publicized: Samsung's software takes up a huge chunk of the 16GB internal memory. How big of a con that is, I won't know until I get deeper into my contract. Right now, I have lots of room. The phone also has a mini-SD expansion slot, but some smarty-pants at Samsung decided to disable the ability to move apps to your external chip! WHY? That said, the HTC One doesn't even allow an external chip at all, so that choice may limit a person even more.
So, here's the deal. With all of our previous cell phones (dating back to 2004), we've never had a top-of-the-line one. That's not so strange, I don't guess. We got in late, bought our first phones just for emergencies and convenience. And as we progressed every two years, we got better, fancier ones. But never the best, newest ones. This time, we realized that if you're going to be stuck with a phone for two years, you should start out with a great one. It's going to stay "new" much longer this way, and not be so far behind the times as our outgoing Samsung Epic 4G and HTC Evo 4G were.
So, this time I was determined to wait until the time was right. My contract was up in March, and The Other Half's just this last week. I'd been running Google Alerts on the Samsung Galaxy S4 (S4 from here on out) and the HTC One for months, so I knew I had to wait for a few weeks. Through all of this, you just get dribs and drabs about what is coming, when it's coming, and hints about how much it'll cost. But it's all mostly rumor. The cell phone manufacturers and the wireless companies (ours is Sprint) are ridiculously secretive, and cagey, and won't be specific about anything. I'm sure it's a competition/one-upmanship issue, but it is maddening.
From Gingerbread to Jelly Bean (I missed Honey Comb and Ice Cream Sandwich).Next comes Key Lime Pie.
Especially when your old phone is starting to act up. And only one of the two phones you're torn between is released, and you can't compare them. And then when the other one comes out, but in limited amounts, and eventually is in stock, but only for full price. Costco, I had learned through my studies, sells the phones about $50 cheaper, taxes you less, and includes an accessory package. But when I'd called them earlier in the week, they had none, and had six of them coming in on Monday. Next Monday. So, who could believe it that when I called on Friday, the six (not cases, phones) had just come in. I reserved two, one black, one white, and now I have them. I couldn't believe it.
When new-phone lust turns to actual acquisition, you come back down to earth. You have to remember all of the stuff you want to save from your old phone. And what you want to dump. You have to transfer to a new ecosystem, even if you're still in the same brand name. I went from
"Gingerbread" Android to "Jellybean" and from HTC's to Samsung's. And with the new S4, there are so many new features (and three years of progress), that I just have a lot to learn.
This is why I didn't even ponder the iPhone.
I picked the S4 over the HTC One for several reasons. The HTC is gorgeous, no doubt. So, I made a pro/con list in my head: what would I regret about getting one over the other? When it came down to it, all that I'd regret about not having the One is that it was pretty, and that it has dual speakers. If I'd skipped the S4, I'd be giving up the replaceable battery, the expandable memory, a bigger screen, a better camera and a bigger company behind it that will probably roll out updates faster. So, S4 it is, and I finally got them.
So, how is it? It is about time I got to that, isn't it? Well, it's pretty nifty. The big screen is gorgeous, and much, much clearer than I'm used to. The touch screen is responsive (though I haven't quite got the new hover-finger thingy down yet). Though the phone is very large, it isn't unmanageable at all. It'll take you a little while to get used to where to place your hands when typing. I like the improvements since my old 2010 phone in the ease of typing, the auto-fill of words. . .it's a little more correct than it used to be. The speed is very definitely better, and I'm not even getting 4G speeds in Las Vegas (of course we rarely did, even with their old WiMax 4G). Searching for something on the internet is getting comparable to to using a desktop PC, and that's new.
They're ugly, but we need more of 'em.
The plastic back of the phone--the key sticking point for so many people--didn't bother me at all. It's got a nice prismatic design, it feels fine in my hand, and most people put cases on their phones anyway, don't they? That was actually the clincher for me before I bought the phones, I wasn't put off by the design. Aesthetically, the Samsung TouchWiz interface is a little disappointing. It's kind of like Windows XP in its cartoonishness, after the improvements of Windows 7. I think that's just me having gotten used to HTC's Sense interface. It's probably even something you can tweak. And who knows what Android Key Lime Pie (due very soon) will be like.
I haven't had the phone long enough to give a more extensive review, though I may write a follow-up. I need to go through the manual, check out all of the new features. But so far, I'm pleased. The getting is rarely as satisfying as the chase makes it feel, but it's obviously a much better phone than I had, and I doubt that two year's hence I'll feel as far behind as I did this last time. Especially if Sprint finally gets those 4G towers up. But that's a whole other post.
It's hard out there for a Windows phone. How do you make a splash when you're on a platform that is way, way behind iPhone and Android in the mobile phone race? By making a brilliant and funny video that skewers Phandroids and iPhans, that's how! It's true, there is a war brewing between fans of Android and Apple's iOS platforms. It's ultimately pretty silly, no different than the PC vs. Mac wars of recent years. [Story continues below]
The whole thing stems from a perceived snobbishness by Apple product users (ie., "The Cult of Mac), who look down their noses at Microsoft and now Google users. I've experienced it first hand, it really is a "thing." I myself am bi-platform on computers (whee, look at me!), And only picked Android due to the timing of my previous phone's unceremonious drowning in the washing machine. The iPhone 4 wasn't out yet, and I needed a phone right away, so I opted for the Samsung Epic 4G, after toying with a lesser phone. That was replaced by the HTC Evo 4G when the Epic got crushed by a car. Now, the Evo is on its last dying breath, and I'm eagerly awaiting a Samsung Galaxy S4 (the enormous phone in the commercial), though I flirted with getting the HTC One. . .still could change my mind, who knows.
But I never pondered a Windows phone (or BlackBerry, or iPhone) as a replacement. It's not brand loyalty or fandom. I want--finally--a top-of-the-line phone at the very beginning of my 2-year contract. I don't want an immediately obsolete one. I'd have to wait several months for an iPhone, and my old one isn't going to last that long, and by now I'm not sure I'd want to switch anyway.
If there was a phone in one of these, they've obviously been around a while!
Last week, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito lamented that same-sex marriage as a concept is very new and ooga-booga scary because it is a new concept, younger than the internet and cell phones! Well, news flash to Mr. Alito, but the internet was born (with Al Gore's help, natch) in the late 1970s, and the cell phone has just turned forty.
I remember watching Charlie's Angels in 1976, and marveling thatthe Angels had phones in their cars. Of course they looked like the handsets to an old fashioned desk phone, coiled cord and all, and they were rooted to the cars. Kate Jackson may have had the only Ford Pinto with a car phone in it! But by the early eighties you started to see mobile phones pop up here and there, outside of television. My step dad had a "phone in a bag" some time in the late 80s or so. it basically resided in a duffel bag, and the whole works weighed as much as a bowling ball bag.
All of the phones I've owned. So far.
I still never had my own until early 1995. And it was kind of funny, because at the time I was still a skinny little dude, and they gave me an 80s-style Motorola Dyna-Tek brick phone. It was as large as a telephone lineman's handset, and looked ridiculous hanging off of my belt. They were so heavy and clunky, you always wanted to set them down. My boss did--on the hood of his car--and it went flying off on the freeway!
After that job went away, I didn't have a phone again for another seven or eight years. When we finally decided to enter the info age, we opted for early 2000s silver Samsung flip phones. This was 2004, so there really wasn't such a thing as "smart phones." There were PDA phones, like BlackBerry, but that just seemed like overkill. The flip phones had rudimentary cameras, and some limited apps, so it was a nice introduction. We replaced them two years later with (slightly) more advanced black flip phones. The cameras were (slightly) better, and already the design had changed pretty dramatically. But they were still dumb phones.
We dipped our toes into more advanced tech with the Samsung Rant, with a slider keyboard (for much easier texting), but we were already falling way behind the curve. This was 2008, and the iPhone's first models were already out, and its competitors were coming online. So, when our contracts were up, we went for actual smart phones. The first try lasted three weeks: a low-to-medium end Samsung Transform, a decision that turned out to be obviously a mistake. So, we replaced that with the Samsung Epic 4G, which was awesome. For a little while! Though it was a flagship, it was toward the end of its life cycle atthe time, and was quickly surpassed by newer models. My phone got crushed though (oops), and after much back-and-forth, it was ultimately replaced with an HTC Evo 4G, equally old, no keyboard, and seemingly better.
The future! Eenie, meenie, miney, moe!
mid-range Samsung Transform. It was good enough to spark our interest, but slow enough to be
But, ah, it's re-up time again. I'm eligible, and The Other Half will be soon. His phone had to be replaced with a used one, due to a nasty fall on the tile, but with another Epic. And lately, both of our replacement phones have been restarting themselves, and getting twitchy. So, we wait breathlessly (I do, anyway) to get our hands on the Samsung Galaxy S4 or the HTC One, to see which one we like. And all of this is so goofy when you consider how long we went without mobile phones. Funny thing though, those 11 days when my phone was out of commission were torture. And I don't even like to talk on the phone! Such first-world problems, eh?
[Excerpt] Can you hear me now? Cellphone turns 40
Forty years ago, Martin Cooper, a VP at Motorola, made history by
placing the very first cellphone call. Appropriately enough, he called
his rival at AT&T's Bell Labs. . .
I've chronicled my evolution from luddite to flip-phone to dumb phone to smart phone, and now it's time for the next phase: state-of-the-art smart phone. See, last time we upgraded phones (after a little trial and error), we ended up with pretty nice phones, the Samsung Epic 4G. But it was toward the end of its life cycle as a product. Last summer, I accidentally killed mine, and ended up temporarily replacing it with an HTC Evo 4G, which I came to like better, but it's basically the same age, both having been produced in 2010. In that time, the Epic--also known as a Galaxy S phone--has been replaced twice, and a third sequel is set to debut this week. By contrast, the Apple iPhone 3GS is the same age as our phones.
Because of random calamities, our two phones are due for a new contract in different months, March and May, with mine ready now. But I can't just get a phone now, unless I want to repeat the cycle of buying an almost instantly obsolete phone, and keeping it for two years. We've decided that the upfront expense of a flashy new phone is worth the price over the span of two years. So, I'm waiting. And I'm very glad I did, though I'm not sure which of the exciting new offerings I'm going to go for.
The gorgeous back of the HTC One, from Engadget
Already announced is the HTC One, a logical replacement for my HTC Evo, which I've already grown accustomed to. There is no doubt that the phone itself is gorgeous (as these things go), made out of a block of aluminum. It's got twin speakers. It has a nice curved back that looks like it would palm well. And to me, it just looks a hell of a lot more interesting than the iPhone's by now blah looks. It has the Android Jellybean interface, and likely will upgrade to Key Lime Pie when that becomes available. And it uses HTC's "Sense" interface along with Android, something I'm also familiar with. But, you can't take the back off, meaning I can't buy extra batteries or change the memory out. As something of a techie, that would be kind of irritating. I'm used to messing with shit!
The alleged new Samsung Galaxy S-IV, from ExtremeTech
The other option is the Samsung Galaxy S-IV (or S4). While this phone is highly anticipated, nothing about it has been 100% confirmed. It's having a big "coming out" party this Thursday, and that's one of the most highly anticipated events in techno-geekdom at the moment. A big bucket of cold water was thrown on the geeks today though, if my internet feelers are reading things correctly. An alleged leak of photos and video of the new phone have cropped up everywhere, and it's. . .underwhelming. It's enormous, unless the Chinese dude's hands are small. It has a rather ugly back cover, and a same ol', same ol' face (though really, that's a fairly blank area anyway). I don't really know what I (and the internet) was expecting, but it wasn't this.
All that said, the unofficial leak could be just that, unofficial. And the fact that Samsung hasn't come out and shut it down could mean either it is the real deal, or that the real thing will so blow the fake out of the water, it's worth staying mum over. Who knows. Well, we all will soon. But as it stands now, I'm leaning heavily toward HTC, having already had the experience of comparing the same generation offerings from both companies. If Samsung's presentation is a wowser though, they could definitely win me over.
Complicating matters is the fact that we have Sprint as a carrier, and because of our plan and a corporate discount, it would be unwise to switch. But Sprint had an anemic 4G LTE network, and there is ridiculously scant news about it implementation. So any new 4G phone is going to be hobbled out of the box, with no indication of when the service will be up and running. And, it isn't clear when either the HTC or the Samsung are going to be released by Sprint! Such first-world problems, I know. It'll all sort out, and we'll be lusting over the next big thing after a few months. And I'm sure the iPhone 5S and 6 will both turn up the lust again.
Find out more about the HTC One at: Engadget Find out (allegedly) more about the Samsung Galaxy S-IV at: ExtremeTech
I've had this blog since mid-2007, at which point I was on my second cell phone, a Samsung flip-phone with very little in the way of extras. Since I've been blogging, I've talked about my new ones, beginning with the Samsung Rant, a pre-smart phone with a slide-out keyboard. With that one, I learned how to text, but was frustrated with its other limited abilities. When it was unceremoniously drowned by The Other Half in the washing machine, I was pushed--finally--to join the smart phone crowd.
This was 2011, and I was holding out to see what the iPhone 5--which turned out to be the iPhone 4S--was going to be like, and if Sprint was going to carry it. But it was in May, and Apple didn't break into the Sprint store until September, so my choice was between Blackberry, Windows Phone and Android. But to make matters worse, we were leaving for vacation the next day, and I had researched nothing. So, I ended up with a Samsung Transform, a low-end 'droid.
In the ensuing three weeks, I struggled with the Transform's limitations, and read up a lot on what else was available, and ultimately paid the restocking fee, and traded up to the Samsung Epic 4G. To this point, I'd had five Samsung phones in a row, two flip phones, and three slide-out QWERTY keyboard phones. Other than the drowned one, I'd never had an issue with any of them throughout their contracts, other than quirks here and there that required reboots. And the persistent spotty Sprint service, particularly in central Ohio. The Other Half had drowned a flip phone once, but like my Rant, it was right about at trade-up time anyway.
My poor, crushed Epic 4G
My good luck with phones-without-insurance lasted from December 2004 to July 2012, when I stupidly left my phone on the hood of my car in the garage, and drove off with it there. Somebody ran over my Epic 4G, 8 months out of re-up time. My solution was to order a used one on eBay, take it to the Sprint Store, and activate it to my phone number. Nice plan, but the phone had been rooted, and would not activate. So, I paid Sprint $35, got my money back from the eBay vendor, and Sprint ordered me another Epic. By this time, I was up to 11 days phoneless by the time the order came in and it would not activate either! My only option was to wait for another one, or accept a substitute: an HTC Evo 4G.
The Evo was a contemporary of my phone, meaning a two-year-old, obsolete model. It was better in some ways, and lesser in some ways from the Epic, mainly in that it didn't have a slide-out keyboard for the first time since my flip-phones. But the upshot was, the screen may not have been as crisp, but it was easier to read outdoors. And, it seemed to be a lot less flaky than my Epic, which was a lemon compared to The Other Half's relatively stable Epic.
I couldn't wait for the iPhone 4S, so I got the Epic 4G. Now, Apple has sued Samsung, partly over this phone.
Six weeks into the ownership of the Evo, I started to notice dust collecting between the layers of the screen. Very annoyed, I tried to tap it out, I tried to blow it out, nothing would budge the dust. And then, unexpectedly, the microphone stopped working, leading to a comedy of errors when my brother was trying to call. Nothing would make the microphone work, though if I shouted at top volume, it would register, barely, sounding like a blown speaker.
Could I have broken it when blowing and tapping it? Not unless it was on the edge of breaking anyway. So, I took it back to Sprint, taking an hour off of work so that this wouldn't push into next week like last time. They took it, charged me $35 more bucks, and. . .couldn't fix it! So, guess what? I have another Evo 4G on its way, and I have to queue up at Sprint again Wednesday night. I am not confident that it will go smoothly, but I have no complaint with the Sprint people other than the tedium while waiting at the store.
But in all my travails in cell phone world, I can give a little advice:
- When buying a phone, don't cheap out. You're going to have it two years, don't start out disappointed. An extra $50 divided over two years is bupkis.
- Even if you like a slide-out keyboard, give an on-screen one a try. You might find you like it, and the phone will be slimmer and--let's face it--less dorky.
- Check your pockets before doing laundry, and never--never--put your phone on your car.
- I'm glad that I've never had phone insurance. It may have saved me a few buck in this case, right now. But if I'd paid $7 per phone per month since December 2004, I'd be up to $1488! Just in insurance fees. My total out-of-pocket cost for all of this so far? $70. Big whoop!
I know that some of the more ardent disciples of the Cult of Mac were doing cartwheels that Apple won a massive victory over Samsung in court, but they may be celebrating prematurely. And hey, honestly, why would anyone get so emotionally invested in a corporation anyway?
iPhone and Epic 4G. Nope, these aren't really the same, sorry.
Then again, I've always been a MacPhobe, AppleAverse, iDon't. Well, until the last few years. I've owned exactly three Apple products: an iPod Nano, a PowerBook G4 and a MacBook Pro, which I still have. But Apple has never fully hooked me. I don't see them as "better," merely as different, and more expensive. For that reason, and also because of circumstance, I ended up with an Epic 4G phone, on the Android platform, by Samsung. I chose the phone on the strength of its beautiful screen, and because it had a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, which I preferred to the on-screen keyboard.
The Epic was not an iPhone. It doesn't look like an iPhone, it doesn't feel like an iPhone. . .nobody thinks their Epic is an iPhone. So, how did Apple just win a lawsuit that claimed patent infringement, based largely on look and feel? One of the key points was about how the icons were square (wow, only Apple ever thought of that), and that they "bounce" when you reach the end of a row of icons. Holy moley, stop the presses! And there was a thing about a glass screen, on a rectangle-shaped phone with rounded corners. Really???
I allege that Apple stole the idea for the iPad from Star Trek.
It stands to reason that if Apple had decided to shitcan the iPhone idea (which allegedly almost happened), that somebody would have come up with a touch-screen phone. It would very likely have been a rectangle with rounded corners and a glass screen. This is not an original idea, it's a distillation of a flat-panel monitor, a typical non-smart phone, an MP3 player, a camera and a touch-screen. It's a combination that would have happened.
Now, if Samsung literally copied the technology required to make the phone, I can see Apple having a point. But if they merely aped the look? Tough toenails. How different are different brands of HDTVs? Car Stereos? Refrigerators? Dishwashers? All-in-one printers? Everybody apes everybody. You don't get to declare that you get the whole marketplace to yourself, and still charge out the ass for it! And anyway, how did only Samsung get on the hook for this? What about HTC, Google, Motorola, Nokia and all the rest? Is everyone supposed to go back to making flip-phones, and give the market to Apple?
[Excerpt] Why the Apple v. Samsung Ruling May Not Hold Up
Late in the process yesterday at the Apple v. Samsung trial, when the parties and the judge were reviewing the jury verdict form, Samsung noticed that there were, indeed, inconsistencies in the jury's verdict form, a possibility Samsung anticipated [PDF]. Here's the jury's Amended Verdict Form [PDF], amended to fix the mistakes. Here's the original [PDF]. Here's the note [PDF] the jury sent to the judge when told to fix the inconsistencies. What are they, they asked? "Please let the jury know," they wrote in the only note ever sent in their deliberations, "of the inconsistencies we are supposed to deliberate on. . ."
Okay, kids, here's the thing. After work today, I had to go to the dentist to have one of my bonded teeth repaired. After that, it was off to the Sprint store to finally get my phone replaced. Except the phone that they got for me (a duplicate Samsung Epic 4G to replace my broken one) had a bum antenna. Having already been without a phone for 11 days, I had to struggle not to throw a fit!
Ultimately, they switched me to an HTC Evo 4G. Remember, these are circa 2010 phones to fill out my contract. So, anyhow, I've spent much of the evening reprogramming and learning the differences between the phones. I've just about got it done, except that my contact list is all goofy. I think I'll save fixing that for the weekend. And I'll have to do that with an on-screen keyboard, rather than the physical QWERTY keyboard I'm used to.
My new toy, at least for the next 7 months.
While doing the telephone stuff, I found that my part-time boss sent me three jobs this evening. My weekend part time job, mind you. Sigh. So, after all of that, I'm just plumb tuckered, y'all.
I'm still phone-less, after my disaster last week. As I said then, my Epic 4G phone--8 months shy of upgrade time--was left on the hood of my car, and shortly thereafter run over after it fell off into the street.
Crunch!
It was a dumb mistake. But I thought I had it handled. Since the same phone new would be $500+ out of pocket, I decided to buy one online. I don't know what made me pick eBay over Amazon, but I did. But I was sure to pick a vendor that had a huge approval rating. Out the door, a used Epic 4G in "excellent" condition, was $99. The phone finally arrived Thursday, a week to the day after "the event." I was so excited. I'm amazed how much I miss having a smart phone, even one that is sort of glitchy like mine was.
I got to the Sprint store just after 4:30 pm, and was waited on almost immediately. Not long into the transaction, however, it was apparent that not all was well. The phone started up fine. The sound and display were fine. Mr. Sprint-man was all furrowed brow, though. He poked and prodded, popped the battery, booted, rebooted, rinse, wash, repeat. . . And then he said, "Excuse me, I'll be right back, I have to go talk to a tech." Crap.
At least at my Sprint store, it wasn't raining!
He then told me that it was going to take a little while, could I come back at 6:30? Sure, why not. I ran some errands, came home, watched a little tv, then went back. I was told to sit down and wait, which I did, for half an hour. I knew that 7:00 pm was closing time, so I wasn't feeling optimistic. I was right. The phone had been "rooted" by the previous owner, and probably not correctly. That person--or possibly the reseller--had tried to cover their tracks by putting everything back as it was. But it didn't take, and it won't take. Period.
My options were a) send the phone back to the vendor, buy another one from them or someone else, and wait another week to get it; or b) pay Sprint $35 plus tax, and they will replace it on Monday. Amazingly, they do that. And I think $35 is worth the hassle. So, I fired off a nastygram to the vendor, and firmly requested a partial refund. Whether or not I reveal their name and further details will depend upon their reaction!
Updates surely to follow. . . Meanwhile--and I can't stress this enough--never set your phone on the exterior of your car. Just don't.
Great. Sprint, my mobile phone provider since 2004 is finally getting the iPhone. Five months after I signed a two-year contract. Five months after my old phone went for a swim in the washing machine right before a trip. Five months before I settled for an Android phone.
Well, the joke's on them. After toying with a Samsung Transform, I traded up to the Samsung Epic 4G. And even though that is going to be supplanted by a sequel phone (Epic 4G Touch), I totally dig my phone. I was holding out for the Apple iPhone 5, and was even willing to switch to Verizon or AT&T. But my little accident forced a quick decision. And for once, I'm not sorry. Now, when my contract is up in 2013, and Apple is teasing the iPhone 7, then I may have a new decision to make. For now, I'm loving my 'droid. Still waiting for the Gingerbread upgrade, but I can wait.
[Excerpt]
iPhone 5 Release for Sprint in October
It appears that Sprint, one of the “big four” carriers in the USA to NOT have gotten their hands on any version of the iPhone thus far, will be amongst those lucky 3 (T-Mobile still not included) that are able to sell the next-generation device come October. . .
In this space just two weeks ago, I wrote a story about the tragic drowning death of my old Samsung Rant cell phone. The Other Half was doing laundry, and I had left the two-and-a-half year-old phone in my cargo pants. This in itself was not a tragedy. We'd been holding out for news on the iPhone 5, thinking that when it finally comes out, it will knock the iPhone 4 down to the cheap price. We were looking into switching out of Sprint and onto either Verizon or AT&T. Until laundry day. [Story continues below]
It turns out, that we were leaving for the weekend, the next day. And following that, The Other Half was going to be gone for several days. I knew that I would be without a phone for 5+ days, if I didn't pick a new phone right away. So, we went to the Sprint store, and browsed while we waited. I knew I was going to get a Google Android phone, the closest thing to an iPhone that Sprint carries. But there are quite a few Android phones, by LG, HTC, and Samsung, and in entry-level, mid-range and high-end versions.
I fiddled around with them for a while to get a feel for the differences. The Kyocero Echo with two screens was certainly nifty. But what I wanted to keep from my lowly old Rant phone was the slide-out keyboard. Sure, the on-screen ones are serviceable (and I still haven't learned what "Swype" is, really), but I like the tactile keys. So, it was down to the Samsung Transform ($99) or Samsung Epic 4G ($149). I frankly barely noticed the Popular HTC Evo phones. . .and there's even one with a keyboard. Ultimately, I opted for the cheaper phone. It looked nice, it was a dramatic step up, and the price was fine.
Oh, but then I got it home. At first, I had a blast playing with it. Downloading apps, customizing it. But, wait, why doesn't Angry Birds play on the Transform? I looked it up, and well, it just doesn't. But the new Angry Birds Riodid work, so I was mollified. The game is fun and addictive, but also slow and glitchy. Hey, it's a phone, not a game platform, deal with it, right? But the more I read about the Transform, the more regret I started to feel. It's not that the Transform sucks, it doesn't. As a phone alone, or a texting device, it's terrific.
But I didn't just buy a phone. To use the Android OS, you have to pony up an extra $10 a month. Why do that, if the phone is slow and glitchy? I compared the phone, feature-for-feature with a couple of different ones online. The Transform lines up roughly with the iPhone 3, though I'm betting the iPhone is a little smoother, and better with memory. And I've got to live with this phone for two years. Regret turned to, "aw, hell no." This is my fourth phone, and I just didn't want to have that grudging feeling about mine this time. I decided to trade up before the 30-day period was up.
At the Sprint store, I played around with the phones again. The Epic 4G was there, looking gorgeous. It has a "Super AMOLED" screen, which is meaningless to me, except that it's made of awesome. Very clear, very colorful. . .it's like going from regular to HDTV. The full QWERTY keyboard has features that are both better than, and less than the Transform's. The Transform had a dedicated "@" key, and a dedicated "?" key. Both phones have an accessible ".com" key. Most importantly, the Epic 4G has a row of dedicated number keys. Awesome.
But I didn't jump too quickly. I checked out the HTC Evo 4G, and it looked nice. It even has a slightly larger screen than the Epic. But I really wanted the dedicated keyboard. HTC also makes an Evo Shift 4G with a keyboard, but its smaller, less brilliant screen loses instantly to the Epic. So I got it, even with the $35 restocking fee.
My friend Dona tells a story, about purchasing a refrigerator. She had the option of buying one without an ice maker, or the same model for $100 more with an ice maker. She said, "For $100, I can make ice!" And fifteen years later, she was still making ice! And hating her decision. That's what motivated me to trade up, even with the extra cost. I'm going to have this phone for at least two years. I didn't want to start out those two years being disappointed. In that span of time, there are bound to be better, more whiz-tastic phones. Apple will undoubtedly be out with the iPhone 6 by the time I even start looking again. I might as well start out loving my phone, and not feeling like I made a mistake.
When The Other Half finally trades his Rant in for something new, we'll already have a lot of hands-on experience with both of these Samsung phones. I already have the knowledge that if a phone is $50 more, but wayyy better? Buy it. But when he's ready, and he gets a better phone than the Epic? Well, then I'll be back here whining again!
So, I'm loving my new phone. I spent all weekend with The Other Half and friends up at Mt. Charleston, and since it was the only internet (or media of any kind) accessible, I got to know my Samsung Transform. I got to know its slide-out and its on-screen QWERTY keyboards. I discovered the cute little emoticon button, and the dedicated ".com" button. Pretty nifty. I discovered Angry Birds, and downloaded soundboards for The Simpsons, Pee Wee Herman, Family Guy and. . .farts. I discovered that the battery runs down fairly quickly if going all media-using. I tried my hand at mobile blogging, but with no news source other than the phone, I wasn't very motivated to blog.
Overall, I'm really digging it. I thought that buying something other than an iPhone would feel "less than," like every other phone I've had. But right next to my friend's Apple product, mine measured up pretty well. Plus, I get the keyboard! The Android Marketplace is extremely easy to use, and there are copious apps available. There are things to get used to, like sliding an on-screen button across the screen to answer or hang up the phone. It is a little too easy to accidentally dial somebody if you're editing your contacts, and a little too difficult to hang up in a panic. The connection strength and speed of operation is as vulnerable as any other phone, though I've got to say, the ability to effortlessly join a mobile network really helps with the speed issue. The sound quality is great, though to be honest, talking on the phone has been the thing I've done least so far. And already I've had one dropped call. Oops.
My test sample is too small to know if that dropped call is an indicator of anything yet. But I did have a minor issue with major ramifications. When we dumped The Other Half's phonebook into my new phone (my old phone having drowned in the washing machine), his cell phone number retained its original formatting from three phones ago. It only ever had seven digits, with no area code. So, the first time I texted him, it bounced back with an error saying that it needed a 10-digit number. Okay, no big deal. I just went into the phone book, and added the 702. Voila! Or not. Every text to him--unless I typed all 10 digits each time--bounced back with the same error.
So, I tried editing the entry. I tried deleting and reentering the entry. I tried searching the Googles for a cure. I called Sprint customer service. No dice. It was the same issue, no matter what I tried. Ultimately, I took my new phone, and TOH's old phone to the Sprint store. After waiting for over half an hour, I was finally waited on. The sort of surly attendant (dude, you work in a Sprint store, not a Genius Bar) said I could leave the phone overnight, or he could do a hard restore, which would wipe out everything I've done to the phone, but retain my phone book. Fine with me. I can get the Angry Birds and the fart sounds back! So that's what we did. I made sure the texting worked, and left the store. I've spent most of my time since then editing my phone book (which was loaded with numbers important to TOH but not to me), and restoring some of the settings I liked.
All in all, since the issue has been resolved, I'm still pleased. Assuming there are no other glitches or hurdles to jump, I think it's going to be a decent two years. I'm sure that during that time, Apple will release iPhones 5, 6 and maybe 7. Android will have grown up to "Jujyfruit" or "Key Lime Pie" (all of their release names are desserts), and who knows, Sprint may have been absorbed by another corporate merger. And cell phones themselves may have made another quantum leap that makes this phone look like a klunky antique.
This morning, I got about a quarter mile from home, and realized I had my phone pouch, but not my phone. I thought about turning around to get it, but decided I really didn't need it. So, on to work I went. Shortly after I arrived at my desk, I got a call from The Other Half. Though I'd noticed him loading the washing machine before I left, I did not realize that my Samsung Rant telephone was in the pocket of the pants he was loading in there! D'oh!
To top off the inconvenience of drowning my phone, we're off to Mt. Charleston for the weekend, starting Friday afternoon. It is possible that the phone could be rescued (friends say put it in a baggie of rice), but probably not. Anyway, it's over two years old, and has an insufferable internet connection that is almost useless. We were only holding on to our phones because we were holding out for news of the iPhone 5 on Verizon or AT&T, and we wanted to see that shake out before we signed a two year contract. Our little accident made waiting impossible.
So, we hit the Sprint store, about 15 minutes before they closed. We checked out a phone that Stupid Monkey Planet recently acquired and liked, and it was only $29.95. But my eye wandered to a $99.95 jobbie that had a slide-out keyboard, and a touch screen. I fiddled with the on-screen only one, and found my thumbs messed up a lot. So, I went for the more expensive one. And for now, we only upgraded mine. Since there is a $10 surcharge for the extra super-duper data package (mandatory with the phone), we thought we'd find out how much we like it before we turn over the whole shebang.
So far, I think the phone is pretty nifty. It's iPhone-ish, from what I've seen. There are loads of apps from Android. It easily synchs with my Google ID. It jumped on my home network with no effort. But as a phone? That's the vexing part! I'm still having trouble quickly figuring out how to answer and hang up. I've accidentally called people twice already. But overall, I think I'm really going to dig it. And it will quell my iPhone lust for at least 6-12 months. I figure by the time my two years are up, they'll be on the iPhone 7 anyway. Updates should they become worthy1
OK, I'll admit, while I'm in general pretty smart, I can be a little slow sometimes. I didn't get my first cell phone until around 2004. "Why would I need one?" I thought. But with The Other Half flying about 1/3 of the time, it has proven very handy. I use it much more than I ever thought I would, though I don't much like to talk on the phone. It's great for little things, like finding out if you need to stop at the store, or countless other things you may have forgotten to ask when going out the door.
But you know all that. You've had a phone much longer than me. I'm a little slow. And when it comes to texting, I was even slower. I could not fathom the popularity of texting, a seemingly very backward way to communicate when you're holding a phone in your hand.
Well, I've seen the light there too. Text messages are short and sweet. Perfect for when you don't think the person you want to contact might be able to answer the phone. Great to send just a nugget of information. I've used the texting feature on my new phone more than I've used the actual phone! And I've got to say, a text message can be sweet, even touching, in a way that a voice mail just doesn't capture. And that's coming from black-hearted, slow ol' me.
But I'm glad I got one of the phones with a full keyboard. I may be slow, but even I realize that typing on a keyboard is far superior to using a number pad. Do yourself a favor. If you like to text, or think you might, get a phone with all the keys. I have the Samsung "Rant," and so far it's great. Now, what other things am I missing?
I was a late joiner to the cell phone machine. I'm not a big phone talker, don't understand the texting phenomenon, and am usually near a computer, so I didn't need internet connectivity. But with The Other Half away much of the time due to his job, the practicality became undeniable. So, about four years ago, we took the plunge.
The first phone was nice in its day, but fairly clunky now, with an extendable antennae, and a rudimentary camera. The second phone--now two years old--is basically an updated version of the first, with a slightly better camera and a sleeker appearance. But it is still just basically a utilitarian phone. No more.
This year, we've cast off our Luddite ways entirely, and have entered the digital age for reals. No, it isn't an iPhone, or that swanky new touchpad Blackberry. But it is a quantum leap for us. We got "Rant" phones, by Samsung (the same brand as the previous two). But this one is a wholly different experience. It has a sliding, full-Qwerty keyboard, a mega-pixel camera, video capability, a micro-SD card. . .it's decked out.
So, to take advantage of all of this, we've taken the leap into a full service plan, which is a big bite for someone who initially didn't even want a cell phone. But thanks to The Other Half's company discount, not too hard to swallow. Time will tell if we use the high-tech new features, but I've already pulled up Greenlee Gazetteon the little screen! Maybe I'll give mobile blogging a try.
After prior visits to Ohio, I have complained to Sprint about poor service. The only responses I've received have been essentially form letters that didn't address the issue at hand. You'd think that in my one-to-two-times per year visits over almost a decade, there would be some improvement. Particularly since there have been not only technological improvements in that time, but the areas I'm talking about have gotten more populous and less remote. And--surprise, surprise--there is a Sprint store in Sunbury.
