at&t – Andy Sternberg

My Life with the HTC EVO

Andy Sternberg — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 15:43:22 +0000

The HTC EVO 4G is not the best Android mobile phone out there but Sprint is the only carrier that gets reception at my house. Six months ago I began a rather extensive trial of a few different phones and carriers and balked at the EVO after a 30-day trial.

Certainly Verizon would have service in my area, everybody raves about VZW and after all it’s been 5 years since I last did my trials and found that I live in a cell service black hole, in spite of living roughly 3 miles from downtown LA and just over the hill from Dodger Stadium. This was not the case. Verizon service was equally as non-existent for voice calls as was AT&T. The difference being that AT&T offered me a femtocell signal booster (the 3G Microcell) for free whereas Verizon wanted me to pay $250 for their extender. In fact, when I talked to their technical department, I learned that my area is a known trouble zone and that NO TOWER upgrades were scheduled — it would be at least two years before there was any [better] service.

So why didn’t I stick with AT&T? I waited for the release of the Samsung Captivate, the AT&T version of the popular Samsung Galaxy S Android phone, but wasn’t satisfied with it. I am a user and abuser of mobile devices (as far as apps and internet are concerned) and my experience with the Captivate was a bit too laggy and buggy. I felt that perhaps the stock AT&T “bloatware” may have been bogging it down.

But EVO is not the best phone out there? I felt the Motorola Droid X, available on Verizon, edged it out for one reason: the major difference between the two phones is that DroidX boasts a 16GB internal memory while the EVO has a mere 512MB onboard storage. This shouldn’t make a difference to the average user and ostensibly more and more apps will be built to migrate to the external micro SD card (expandable to 32GB). But as a heavy user with 100 or so apps downloaded to my phone, I often get low storage warnings.

Battery life? The EVO will run all day if it’s used gently — primarily for voice or text. But for users like me — and I use it like it’s a second computer — a full charge can be depleted within 4 hours. My workaround was to purchase a backup battery, available for under $10 on Amazon.

I’m happy with the EVO. I’m in love with Android. I highly recommend that you get your hands on a device and check it out — at least for a 30-day risk free trial.

Review: RIM Blackberry Torch 9800

Andy Sternberg — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 23:02:26 +0000

When Research in Motion released its latest and most sophisticated smartphone to date in August it was met with mixed reviews from critics. But over-enthusiasm for the latest product from the world’s dominant smartphone manufacturer is to be expected. A month later when I received a Blackberry Torch (9800) to test as an AT&T brand ambassador, I immediately noticed people staring, knowing exactly what I held in my hand.

Complete strangers were coming up to me at the bookstore and I was getting glared at while filling up the car.

“Is that the Torch? Can I see it?”

“That’s the new Blackberry, isn’t it? Is it awesome?”

I would respond to such unexpected queries a question of my own. “What do you want this Blackberry to do that your current phone can’t?”

As a dedicated Blackberry user for the past few years I was anxious to try out the latest operating system – 6.0 – which is currently available exclusively on the Torch. My reason was similar to the answer I got to the question above: I want to be able to browse the web and access more than just stripped-down-for-mobile versions. Blackberry OS 6 introduces a WebKit browser to a RIM device for the first time. Using open-source languages and technology, WebKit enables faster browser speeds while rendering better displays for mobile. It’s the engine powering Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS browsers.

First thing I did was open the browser to find that some pages that wouldn’t open in my Blackberry Bold (running OS 5.0) would open without a pause on the Torch, thanks to the upgraded browser. I was always impressed with the vivid display on the Bold’s screen and the Torch provides the same 480 x 360 resolution over a larger area. The screen switches quickly between portrait and landscape navigation depending how it’s held.

The slideout keyboard is full QWERTY and should be very familiar to any Bold or Curve user, although it is slightly recessed into the body — it took a little getting used to before I could thumb away emails at full speed. The virtual keyboard, which appears when the keypad is not out was a bit tentative at first, but its response quickened — as did the browser speed, with the recent firmware upgrade pushed over-the-air (6.0.0.695 — check at AT&T or RIM to make sure you have the latest update).

I’ve never been a fan of virtual keyboards but I did find that I had as much success typing (with medium-sized fingers) on the Torch’s on-screen virtual keyboard in its standard or wider (landscape) form as with iPhone or Android keyboards.

Photos taken with the Blackberry Torch 9800.

The browser can be navigated with the trackpad (identical to the trackpad on the newer Curves and Bolds), with the touchscreen, or both. Throw in a 5 megapixel camera with flash and video recording capabilities (see end of post) and it’s the only gadget you need.

What I love most about the Torch is where Blackberry remains best-in-class: email, SMS, Outlook server integration, Blackberry Messenger, and the tactile full-QWERTY keyboard. It’s every bit as much for the Blackberry purist as it is for the consumer who seeks more, and at the same price as a Bold, I’d definitely recommend it.

The Torch is also the first Blackberry phone to have an integrated app to manage your online social networks. This gives you the option to have updates from Twitter, Facebook, and instant messenger clients like AIM and Google Chat, interspersed with your other messages, or — as that may be a bit overwhelming — within the Social Feeds app, which can also aggregate RSS feeds and display (or sound off) alerts. Personally, I prefer to manage these apps and services separately and I’ve disabled the Social Feeds feature — opting to take advantage of the Torch’s multitasking capabilities and with 512MB of RAM – double that of my Bold 9700 – it’s been a breeze. A few of the apps that I use on the Bold, such as Viigo, are not yet available for OS 6.0 but that is changing. I just downloaded the OS 6 version of Socialscope and am impressed with how much more can be done with apps customized for 6.0 (most other Blackberrys use OS 5.0).

The Torch is not meant to revolutionize the smartphone as a gadget — there are other smartphones available that shoot video in HD, have larger displays, and can be co-opted as video game controllers. The Torch represents a broad leap in RIM’s Blackberry evolution with the new browser, operating system and form factor and should satisfy consumers that have been waiting for the right time to buy a Blackberry — and die-hard aficionados alike — for months to come.

I shot the videos below with a Blackberry Torch while on location with TOMS Shoes on a trip to Argentina commemorating one million pairs of TOMS Shoes given away. TOMS’ one-for-one movement provides one pair of shoes for a child in need for each pair sold. I was lucky to be invited to document the experience.

RIM’s Blackberry Torch 9800 is available exclusively on AT&T in the U.S..

Crooked Fingers Afternoon Set at Old Style Guitar Shop, LA, 9/7/2010

Andy Sternberg — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:30:44 +0000

What a treat it was to catch Eric Bachmann and Liz Durrett of Crooked Fingers just a half-block from the coffeeshop where I was drinking and WiFi-ing yesterday! I never knew of this shop — which is a tiny walk-in with old wood floors — basically a studio for Reuben Cox, who makes the super-old style guitars by hand. Got some great photos and took a couple videos with the Blackberry Torch (9800). AT&T gave me the latest and greatest Blackberry to mess around with so you’ll see me posting more and more content from and with it. This also resolves my which-Android-phone-should-I-get dilemma for the time being

Reuben Cox, Liz Durrett, Eric Bachmann (photos taken with Canon PowerShot S90)

More video below….

The Sprint HTC Evo 4G: Fun Toy; Great Distraction; Much Too Big

Andy Sternberg — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 09:59:19 +0000

I was thinking about trying the HTC Evo — Sprint’s latest offering which was rumored to rival iPhone. And I’ve never had iPhone nor do I care much for the platform (not to mention the principle of needing to plug something in to iTunes). So I walked into the Sprint store on June 5th and heard about the Sprint Free Guarantee. 30 days. Try it out. You don’t like – you get everything refunded (new Sprint customers only). We’ll see if this is actually the case – I still have about ten days left to play with this toy — and it really is a toy.

I still have two devices (a Blackberry and a Sierra Wireless Laptop Connect 3G USB card) on AT&T that I would add up to about $200 in ETFs so it’s just not practical to switch. Not for the Evo. The Evo is less than perfect.

1) It is too big to function as a phone. I feel like I’m walking around with a mini-iPad and STILL

2) I can’t type as effectively with a virtual keyboard as I can with the Blackberry Bold’s physical QWERTY.

3) The battery life is unconscionable. Completely unacceptable and unheard of. This is simply not a portable device — it must always be plugged in or on its way to being plugged in. A two battery approach MIGHT get you through the entire day with minimal internet and app use. NOTE: The software update pushed out this week has improved battery life quite a bit (relatively speaking). I was lucky to download it OTA before it was halted.

4) 4G. I knew this was somewhat of a gimmick to begin with. Sprint’s data network is shifting over to WiMax — more powerful towers that blanked larger areas with higher data speeds. Sprint purchased the existing towers and networks built by Clearwire and others to get going on this. The 4G system is very limited in LA. I’ve experienced it in and near downtown as well as in parts of West Hollywood. It is nice to get download speeds of 4MB down (and up to 1MB up) from a cellular connection (in reality, this is a wireless connection transmitted to a WiMax receptor in the phone). But truth be told, I regularly get 2-3 Mbps down in the same areas with AT&T 3G (note: not tested with iPhone).

But… ANDROID FTW! I am in love with the Android platform and the variety of applications made available on it — mostly for FREE. Similar to the iPhone platform, it is very easy to download and upgrade (as well as uninstall) third-party applications. This is not the case on Blackberry.

Do I feel like I’m stuck on AT&T? Yes and no. I don’t want to blow $500 bucks to switch (and buy the new phone). I’d rather wait for AT&T to get a top notch Android phone (hopefully by the end of the year). The service isn’t THAT bad and truth be told… I make very few calls.

On the other hand, I have already used over 3.2Gb of data on the Evo over the course of this 3 week trial. While it is likely easier and cheaper to use tons of bandwidth on an Android phone than an iPhone, it’s still likely that I’d go over the 2Gb limit that AT&T is apparently enforcing (although I’m not certain if that is just for iPhone owners or for all data plans). I’m going to miss Android but it doesn’t pay for me to switch off of AT&T right now – perhaps I’ll pick up the Samsung “Captivate” Galaxy S when it is released (supposedly in July) – assuming it isn’t too overloaded with AT&T bloatware and allows third-party apps including Swype.

I’ve posted an update to this post, My Life with the HTC EVO.

That said, stay tuned for my review of the many Android apps I’ve tried (ALL FREE!) on the HTC Evo 4G

For a list of the final 101 apps that I ended up keeping on the phone (before wiping and returning it) for a grand total of FREE, see below:

netzoo’s Android apps on AppBrain

[inline][script type=’text/javascript’ language=’javascript’ src=’http://www.appbrain.com/api/api.nocache.js’][/script][/inline]

netzoo’s Apps on the PC36100 (Sprint HTC Evo)

Phone: PC36100
101 total, 101 free (100%), 0 paid (0%), 98MB total size, $0 total price

View this app list on AppBrain

The Sprint Free Guarantee:

We love and believe in our products and services. We’re confident you will too. That’s why, as a new customer — or an existing customer adding a new line of service — we’ll give you 30 days to try us for free.

If for any reason you’re not happy and want to cancel service, just call us to deactivate your service, go to the original place of purchase to return your undamaged phone or mobile broadband card, and we’ll:

Refund monthly charges incurred as part of your service plan*

Refund the activation fee

Refund the purchase price of your device

Waive the Early Termination Fee

Waive the restocking fee

Refund taxes and Sprint surcharges associated with the above charges

*You’ll be responsible for extras like usage not included in your plan, premium content, 3rd-party billing, international charges, and any taxes and Sprint surcharges associated with such extras.

Just one more thing we give you that our competitors don’t. And one more reason why there’s never been a better time to give us a try.

via shop.sprint.com

City Life in a Black Hole (for Wireless Voice services)

Andy Sternberg — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:48:20 +0000

If you follow me on столовеTwitter, you know that I do have opinions. When appropriate I’ll post long-form rants on LAist. My latest is about how pathetic it is that I can’t make a wireless voice call from my house no matter what the carrier is. And it’s been that way since I moved here four years ago!

Oh yeah, the data coverage is fine. I’ve been spoiled by AT&T’s 3g data coverage since 2006 and never turned back. Did it bother me to only have nine keys and #0* on my LG CU500 and a small screen? No. It was 3g. Did I at least use T9 predictive text or would I actually make 10 entries on the keypad just to spell “s-h-i-t?” Hell no, I became the fastest texter in town. Why? Because no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t hear more than scratchy sounds and broken words coming from the other end of the handset. Didn’t matter where or how I stood in the house or on the block. I was in a black hole. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile. You can’t NOT lose. It’s 2010, and I still find myself going to the mall just so I can have a coherent phone conversation with Mom.

Read the full article at LAist.

So very tempted to upgrade to the Blackberry Bold 9700. Like right now

Andy Sternberg — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:07:35 +0000

The upgrades from 9000 aren’t HUGE, however, more memory for apps (and I use quite a few — driving my 9000 over the edge) as well as the big kicker — trackpad replacing the trackball — just may be enough. I’m on my 3rd Bold in a year (2 replacements due to failed trackball). Might have to get on the horn with AT&T Premier business and see what we can do!

Posted via email from Andy Sternberg’s posterous

Ooma Lives and is Featured at Amazon

Andy Sternberg — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 02:34:21 +0000

I was surprised to jump to Amazon.com just now and find the Ooma box as the top featured item. I’ve been using Ooma as my “land” line for about a year-and-a-half as a Beta tester and have been awaiting reports of improved sales of the VOIP boxes since they recently started promoting it for about half of the original $399 sticker price. I found it a bit ironic that it was featured alongside Amazon’s Kindle — which is so overhyped on the site and perpetually claimed to be “out of stock” ala recent Nintendo Wii marketing ploys.

When I first learned of Ooma, the idea of having a box at home through which to make phone calls (for free) and having access to messages online and via e-mail was intriguing. I do not have a personal land line and was tired of paying for Skype. I was using GrandCentral but wanted an alternative since cell reception at my house is so spotty. I was lucky to meet Andrew Frame, founder of Ooma, for a tour of Ooma’s HQ in Palo Alto in the summer of 2007, when I was an intern at the San Jose Mercury News (video below).

When I returned to Los Angeles, I signed up as a beta tester and was impressed with the quality, and loved having a phone number that I could remember (909-0090 nearly trumped the AT&T land line number I had when I first moved to LA — 669-9969). I’d recommend it to anyone who uses VOiP and incurs charges above and beyond ooma’s one-time-only charge for their Core system — now $219.90 at Amazon. If it means anything to you, Ooma still has the endorsement of the almighty Michael Arrington as well.

So is Ooma about to take off into the mainstream?
Or is it nearing its last gasp?

http://www.podtech.net/home/3717/inside-oomas-new-phone-service-with-ceo-andrew-frame

U.S. Broadband Speed Still Lagging – SpeedMatters.org

Andy Sternberg — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:08:57 +0000

SpeedMatters.org recently concluded a survey exemplifying the embarrassing brick wall (likely agreed upon by telco and cable monopolists and duopolists) keeping out broadband Internet speeds at low levels relative to the rest of the world. At 2.3Mbps average download speeds, last mile connectivity has only inched up in the past year, according to the report (PDF), and it would be decades before we experienced the speeds and functionality experienced by internet users in Japan, who connect at over 60Mbps.

Evident in the unscientific studies is the sharp increase in business districts in which connectivity is often an expensive T1 connection, as opposed to publicly available high speed broadband (which here in LA, is mainly limited to AT&T and Comcast, although competitors such as Speakeasy are able to offer better service at slightly higher rates). California ranks 25th in SpeedMatters’ survey of median download speeds. how does your state rank?

I’ve documented the U.S.’s position on broadband ubiquity and connectivity many times, as well as it’s position in relation to other OECD countries throughout here and here. I first profiled SpeedMatters.org (a project of the Communications Workers of America union) here and encourage everyone to participate in their call to action:

The test results demonstrate the critical need for the U.S. to adopt a comprehensive national broadband policy. As a first step, the Senate should pass the Broadband Data Improvement Act (S.1492), a crucial piece of legislation that will help our nation determine which parts of the country have high-speed access and which do not. The bill would also provide funding to states to increase broadband deployment and adoption.

Write your Senators and tell them you strongly support this bill:

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/s1492/igukkd5rz75n78t6?

The House of Representatives passed similar legislation last fall. Itâ€s long past time for the Senate to act. The Broadband Data Improvement Act will provide the research and the funding to help make sure every American has affordable, high-speed Internet access. With an already struggling economy, we canâ€t afford to continue falling behind in high speed broadband.

We need your help in the critical effort. Write a note to your Senators now:

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/s1492/igukkd5rz75n78t6?

AT&T 3G Broadband Speed on Steroids in LA

Andy Sternberg — Sat, 03 May 2008 18:54:34 +0000

Currently on the I-5 headed toward San Diego (I’m in the back seat of Mike Prasad’s car) and my USBConnect 881 is cooking up series speed via AT&T’s 3G wi-fi network. No need for Time Warner crap cable service if I had this kind of 3G reception at home. 2.8Mbps download vs. 1Mbps upload. Nice!

AT&T Charges for Mobile Use of Wikipedia?

Andy Sternberg — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 04:44:36 +0000

While browsing ESPN Mobile on my mobile phone, I’ve been hit lately with text ads teasing me to “Get WikiMobile on Your CU500!”

My first instinct was to clickthru. I love Wikipedia and use it all the time. I’ve contributed content. I’ve also donated to the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that keeps the juggernaut wiki afloat. I’m also surprised I’ve never used it on my phone considering how adaptable it is to small text screens, ala Snap Previews WikiShots.

But when I click through, I see “Get Wikimobile, Cool Tool, $2.99 per month.” Now I am aware of a very cool-looking wiki production tool called WikiMobile sold from an EU based site. This is clearly different, as you can see from the teaser-text at right. Of course, the fact that I’m supposed to want to by $3 so I can find out who “Britney’s exes” were is where most 3G mobile-Web-browsing Americans are going to feel insulted. For me, its just depressing to confirm that the open source, mob-managed, infinitely free and user-supported Wikipedia is being exploited by AT&T.

Does AT&T’s WikiMobile have anything to do with Wikimedia other than abusing Wikipedia’s GNU license to republish the content for profit? I can’t find anything anywhere stating that Wikimedia is complicit in this agreement and/or receives a cut of the profits. Assuming that if it smells like bullshit and looks like it, it may as well darn be, I implore Wikimedia to make Wikipedia publicly available as optimized for the mobile Web. Hey Colbert, you got my back?

PostScript: While I do subscribe to AT&T Wireless, I am not a DSL customer and am not subject to those sketchy, infringing terms of service. That said, you’re welcome to terminate my service, T, if’n you really are that stupid.