18
Mar
Sprint-CTIA-HTC-3D110319001733

The rumor mill has been abuzz with gossip about Sprint's CTIA event lately, and if BGR's sources are to be believed, the speculation was spot-on: the conference will indeed be centered around the HTC EVO 3D and EVO View 4G, with a WiMAX version of the Motorola XOOM making an appearance as well.

EVO 3D

First up, we have the EVO 3D - HTC's first foray into three-dimensional territory - which will reportedly feature:

  • A 4.3-inch qHD (960x540) autostereoscopic 3D display
  • 4GB of RAM (I'm thinking this is a typo - even powerhouses like the XOOM and the Atrix only have 1GB of RAM)
  • 1GB of ROM
  • A 1.2GHz Qualcomm 8660 Snapdragon CPU
  • Dual 5MP rear cameras; dedicated camera button included
  • A 1.3MP front-facing camera
  • A 1730mAh battery
  • Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) with HTC's Sense UI
  • Blockbuster on-demand
  • YouTube 3D

EVO View 4G

Just as expected, the EVO View 4G is almost exactly the same tablet as the (admittedly underwhelming) Flyer that HTC demoed at MWC.

17
Mar
152244__hulk5_l

A research firm is claiming that Sprint is not only transitioning to LTE, but that the process is already well under way. Supposedly codenamed by Sprint "Project Leapfrog," Gerson Lehrman Group says they have knowledge of Sprint's switch and that it will apparently take place over the course of the next three years.

"Sprint has initiated project leapfrog with Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, and Samsung to upgrade its network to LTE," cited the report. "This three year project is designed to leave Sprint with a competitive, nationwide LTE network while reducing operating costs."

Rumors have been swirling for some time now of the nation's third-largest carrier dumping Wimax and shifting to LTE.

14
Mar
4G Wireless Speed Tests- Which Is Really the Fastest- - PCWorld

They say "talk is cheap" - and these days it seems like every major US wireless carrier is claiming to have the fastest 4G (of course 4G is a highly debatable marketing term that describes three vastly different networks, but that's fodder for another post altogether). It's relatively easy to tune all of the marketing hype out but, when presented with some solid numbers, it gets easier to pay attention. PC World has tried to give us some raw data to work with in their profiling of the data speeds on the four major providers.

There are, however, a couple of very important things to keep in mind before viewing these results:

  1. PC World measured the best service they could get (whether 3G or 4G) over 260 locations in 13 cities.
06
Mar
4g-speed1
Last Updated: March 30th, 2011

4G is here - and it seems like all four of America's biggest carriers are more than happy to advertise the fact that they've got it. Sprint was first on the scene - offering their WiMax 4G, and T-Mobile shortly thereafter began its upgrade to HSPA+ technology. Verizon was next, providing mobile broadband LTE via USB dongle for laptops, though its much-awaited debut 4G handset, the Thunderbolt, has yet to hit shelves after numerous delays. Finally, lagging behind in truly characteristic fashion, AT&T has begun to roll out its own HSPA+ network, with plans to offer LTE in the second half of the year.

26
Feb
IMG_20110224_202341

Fellow EVO 4G owners, were you envious when Sony Ericsson demoed the Xperia arc's full HDMI capabilities? Fear not - once again, the developer community has come to the rescue!

Android Central Forums user Orrebmas has developed a "limited time" public beta of FullHDMI, an app that lets you output any content on your EVO's display to your HDTV. Yep, that means you can finally get your Angry Birds on in full, 50-inch mode.

IMG_20110224_135457

Unfortunately, there are a few caveats. First, simply installing an APK file isn't enough; to get FullHDMI up and running, you'll also need to flash a custom kernel.

24
Feb
snap20110224_115146
Last Updated: August 1st, 2012

Last night, Cyanogen revealed on Twitter that WiMAX had officially landed in CM7, via the latest nightly. No small feat, given that the team had to write their own code entirely from scratch. And while CM-based builds with WiMAX have been floating around for a few weeks now, this is the first official release - effectively addressing the last major qualm many EVO owners had with CM.

CM7_WiMAX

I have to say, WiMAX in CM7 certainly doesn't fail to impress: I managed to hit 6.5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload. In 3 tests, I averaged 5470 Kbps download and 1041 Kbps upload - handily beating the roughly 4.5-5 Mbps download I hit on stock-based ROMs.

31
Jan
thunderbolt-external-compare1

A couple of leaked Verizon charts popped up on Droid Life this morning, their contents? HTC Thunderbolt propaganda - well, at least in one of them.

thunderbolt-external-compare1

If Verizon's estimated LTE speeds aren't just hot air, then Sprint and T-Mobile (and AT&T) should probably be worried right now. Sprint's smartphone plan price hike probably isn't winning them any points, and T-Mobile's 4G handsets aren't exactly new and exciting (G2, myTouch, or a rehashed Vibrant - take your pick).

I don't know where Verizon gets their network speed estimates for T-Mo and Sprint, but they seem pretty forgiving - given the speed ranges shown.

27
Dec
image

Earlier this year, on June 16th (which also happens to be my birthday), I stepped out of a train in Mountain View and, to my delight, caught my first ever 4G signal in the Bay Area. It seems I was not alone, and soon many of you were reporting seeing a weak signal, which slowly grew stronger and spread across the Bay.

Fast forward 6 months, and the announcement is finally here - Sprint just unleashed the 4G hounds and is officially supporting San Francisco, Palo Alto, San Jose, and Oakland in full capacity. The new WiMax connection has smaller latency and is over 5 times faster than 3G, although the coverage area still lacks quite a bit.

21
Dec
htc-evo-shift-4g-3
Last Updated: January 4th, 2011

Sprint's current WiMax-capable phones are no slouches, but there's no denying the lineup could use a third phone, if only for the sake of keeping things fresh. The HTC EVO Shift 4G could be just what the doctor prescribed - it looks like the love-child of the T-Mobile G2 and the original EVO 4G. In fact, according to PhoneArena's tipster, the G2 and the Shift 4G  share the same processor - an 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7X30 unit - though the latter has inherited the EVO's plastic casing (lame) and HTC Sense UI (also lame). Additionally, the G2's optical trackpad has been moved from under the display to the keyboard.

21
Dec
alt


In a word: yes. Wireless carriers in the US (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc.) have long been deeply opposed to net neutrality over their so-called "mobile broadband" networks, but today they've been given a power they have long desired to see the FCC put into writing.

If you haven't been following the net neutrality saga, you might want to find out what exactly "net neutrality" is, or what it means.

What is "net neutrality"?

It's a loaded term, to be frank. Net neutrality activists will tell you it means the complete freedom of information from corporate interference by requiring that ISPs (Internet service providers) do not give any preferential (or deferential) treatment to any information transmitted over their networks, unless it is clearly illegal or dangerous.

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