So, I Got a New Toy: My New Samsung Galaxy S4

These are the phones I've owned.
Until today.

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.

My (early) grade: A

Nokia Lumia Commercial Mocks iPhone and Android Fans

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.

But good on Nokia for giving it their best shot.

The Next Great Phone: Samsung Galaxy S-IV or HTC One?

My poor, dead, crushed Samsung Epic 4G

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

Technology Woes: One More Smart Phone Bites the Dust (Or, Why Cell Phone Insurance is a Scam!)

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!

Apple's iPhone Victory Over Samsung Might Not Stick?

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. . ." 

Read more at: Gizmodo

Blogger Break, Back on Tuesday Nite

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'll be back tomorrow. At some point. Promise.