HTC EVO 4G $99 on Amazon

The HTC EVO 4G, which sells for $199.99 from Sprint, is now available for a bargain $99.99 when purchased through Amazon.com, with a service plan. It is available in both black and white color schemes.

buy here at Amazon

Clearwire 4G Active in Denver?

Now this is a pleasant shock. Clearwire's 4G network seems to up and running in central Denver. There has been no announcement that I am aware of, and, in fact, Clearwire has said it would delay Denver construction, as I recall.  But there it is: I am getting a live 4G signal on my Evo. Marvelous.


Since it is rumored that Sprint and Clearwire are in disagreement about whether Sprint should actually be paying Clearwire for service it is unable to provide, the signal activation implies to me that Clearwire and Sprint have reached agreement, at least in Denver.

Sprint says it has 810,000 customers with 4G handsets in areas that have not yet been lit up with WiMAX 4G, yet Sprint still has to pay for those customers, to the tune of about 4.46 per customer, reports indicate.

The more interesting question is how much of Denver already has radios in place, powered up and ready to go. Clearwire originally had been planning to light up the 4G network by the end of 2010, and then backed off. Apparently there are enough Sprint customers in Denver that the lost revenue is more painful than the cost of operating the retail network.

HTC Evo WiFi Hotspot Function Demo

Android 2.2 for Evo 4G

The version 2.2 update for the Android operating system will start to be pushed out to Sprint Evo devices the week of August 3 or so.

Android 2.2 brings with it a number of new features, including the ability to turn the phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot, improved performance, and new widgets for the home screen.

Android 2.2 comes to Evo 4G next week

HTC: Carry a Spare Battery

Sprint Nextel Chief Executive Officer Dan Hesse has a solution for his carrier’s Evo 4G’s infamous battery drain: Carry a spare, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Before you dismiss the idea, consider that a spare, original manufacture HTC Evo battery runs between $25 and $40 online. Those of you who have purchased spare batteries for other smartphones, that might seem a bit steep, but bigger screens and heavy Web use will drain any battery fairly quickly.

In fairness, users who want longer battery life should buy devices with much-smaller screens, and then not use mobile Web features unnecessarily. Battery advances do not occur at the same rate as changes in processor and memory, so the advent of larger screens and mobile Web usage is simply going to be a bigger issue.

Lots of us use, or have used, devices with much-smaller screens, as well as devices more typically used primarily for voice and texting. Battery life is longer on such devices, period. In phone technology, as with other devices, there are trade offs.

The HTC Evo's battery life is noticeably shorter than many would like. That's the price of the bigger screen, for the most part. Would I be willing to trade down to a smaller screen? No. But I routinely carry two mobiles, one primarily for voice, the HTC for Web apps. So in a sense I alrady carry a spare battery.

Screen Shortage Might Last Until 2012

HTC Evo devices are in very short supply at the moment, as are HTC Incredibles, and most likely, HTC Droid X devices as well, as all seem to use the same screens, and there currently is a shortage of capacity to manufacture the screens, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Analysts say there's a particular dearth of the Samsung Electronics Co. touch screens the HTC phones use. Samsung is building a $2.2 billion factory to make the screens, but it won't start operations before 2012.

It is unclear how the parts shortages might affect mobile providers selling the popular HTC devices, in particular Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile, none of which yet has the right to sell the Apple iPhone.

But to the extent all three carriers experience HTC device shortages, it does not seem clear that the relative positions of the three carriers will change, based specifically on ability to sell HTC devices in this class. For Sprint, though, the advantage it had by launching the first nationwide 4G network is dwindling as Verizon Wireless readies its own launch later in 2010.

iPhone, Evo, Droid Incredible, Nexus One: Which Has Best Total Cost of Ownership

The iPhone makes the most economic sense of leading smartphones if you opt for a minimum voice/data/text plan, says BillShrink.

The catch is, BillShrink’s research has found that that average data usage per person has risen a dramatic 3.5 times over the last 15 months. If higher usage means a user cannot buy the iPhone minimum data plan, then a Nexus One on a T-Mobile USA unlimited plan offers the lower total cost of ownership.

Latest Motorola Droid?

It appears Motorola is getting ready to launch the next version of its "Droid" device, called by some the "X," by others the "Shadow." It reportedly features a metal frame, as the iPhone 4 does. The Droid "Xtreme" supposedly features a 4.3-inch screen, as does the HTC Evo, has "HDMI Out,"  as does the Evo, but will ship with Android 2.1, a new version of Motoblur, and a 750Mhz OMAP processor, unlike the 1-GHz processor the Evo ships with.

You might get an argument about screen size. Some argue the X will have a larger screen than the Evo. It doesn't sound like that will be the case, though (not that a 4.3-inch screen is inadequate by any means). Some think the X will have a larger screen than the Evo, but so far the leaks suggest a same-size screen.

Some worry about the overall size of the device, but I haven't noticed the Evo is a problem in the pocket. Lots of people seem to be more adept at typing on a smaller screen, but I'm not one of them, so the larger screen helps when doing data entry. Others notice the heft of the device, as is true of the Motorola Droid, or Incredible. I also don't find that to be an issue.

But that's the whole point of having lots of devices with different form factors, isn't it? We all get to pick devices that make different design trade-offs.

Scratch Test for HTC Evo

That's one way to test for scratches. Apparently the HTC Evo resists scratches well, but it is unnerving to watch this.

Sprint’s HTC EVO 4G Sold Even Where There is Only 3G

Sales of Sprint Nextel Corp.’s HTV Evo smartphone did well even in markets that don’t yet have access to the company’s new super-fast 4G wireless network, the company’s CFO told analysts Wednesday. Considering there is a $10 monthly surcharge for the 4G network feature, paid by all HTC Evo users, whether they have access to the network or not, that's something.

Bob Brust, appearing at a New York analyst event, said that first-day sales of the HTC EVO 4G on Friday “did really well across the country, not just in 4G areas” and that the Overland Park-based company was “working hard to remedy” a rash of stores that sold out of the devices.

CFO: Sprint’s HTC EVO 4G smartphone sells well in non-4G markets - Kansas City Business Journal

Sprint Says HTC Evo Set a Sales Record

Whatever else the HTC Evo might mean for Sprint, it seems already to have accomplished one thing: settting a single-day sales record for Sprint Nextel. On June 4, 2010, the Evo became the device that has sold the most units in a single day, ever, at Sprint Nextel.

Sprint says the total number of HTC EVO 4G devices sold on launch day was three times the number of Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre devices sold over their first three days on the market combined.

In many cases it appears the Evo, which works on both the 3G and 4G networks, was being bought by customers who actually cannot use the 4G network yet, as Clearwire, which is building the 4G network, strains to add markets in Boston, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York City, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.

"HTC EVO 4G has more than lived up to our expectations that it would be one of the most anticipated technology products of the year," said Kevin Packingham, Sprint SVP.

Sprint HTC EVO 4G gets its First Patch

Sometimes you only have to wait a few hours or days before a bug gets fixed. So it is with the Sprint HTC Evo, on sale today for the first time. Early beta users had reported a memory card issue that now is fixed.

The patch can be completed over the air, manually if required, by going to the "settings" and "system updates" menus and then following the directions.

Also, by this point all the initial units have been sold. As of 8:30 am Mountain time 90,000 units had been sold, leading one store manager to warn his staff that all units would be sold within an hour.

Activation computers appeared to be under strain as well.

Sprint HTC EVO 4G gets its first OTA update, fixes microSD issues

Sprint HTC Evo: the Video

Ad for the new Sprint HTC Evo, coming June 4.

HTC Evo Has a Bigger Battery: It Has To

Thanks to its 4.3-inch screen and 4G, Sprint's HTC Evo needs a 23 percent larger battery than the iPhone 3GS just to get similar battery life to the iPhone, a new analysis suggests. The battery is also about 15 percent larger than that of a Droid Incredible and seven percent larger than the pack in a Nexus One.

All that likely is true. It's the price of a larger screen.

HTC Evo 4G torn down, compared to iPhone | Electronista

HTC Evo Running Android 2.2

Some people are going to find the HTC Evo's "massive screen" annoying, to the extent that it makes the device bigger (slightly bigger than the comparable Verizon HTC Incredible, but it has some advantages.

The Evo doesn't use the OLED screen found on the Nexus One, but instead uses a TFT display which means the Evo will be easier to use in daylight.

more here

Sprint Will Hit it Out of the Park with Evo

I think Sprint is going to hit it out of the park with the Sprint Evo.

Sprint HTC Evo on June 6?

The latest rumor about availability of the Sprint HTC Evo is "around June 6, 2010." Reportedly the device will reail for about $200 on a two-year contract, and as much as $600 if you want to buy it without a contract.

Some policy advocates think such contracts impair consumer welfare because they make it hard for consumers to switch whenever they feel like it. One simply should note that any consumer can buy a device at full retail price if that is what they prefer.

Most consumers keep demonstrating, though, that they prefer $200 devices and contracts, compared to $600 devices without contracts. If you don't want a contract, don't buy one. Most consumers can figure out that a $200 subsidized phone provides real value.

link

HTC Incredible, HTC Evo Ship Dates Set up Huge Contest

The Verizon Wireless HTC "Incredible," which sold out on its first day, now is being promised for additional sales on May 14, 2010. The delay pushes back by about 10 days the gap between the next round of Incredible sales and the first wave of HTC "Evo" sales, now slated for either June 6 or June 13, 2010.

The difference sets up a sales war between the Incredible and the Evo, both based on the latest HTC hardware and both using Android. The Evo is a dual-mode 4G and 3G device, though. Verizon Wireless has about a month headstart, but both devices are quite comparable in most respects.

Evo has huge potential for Sprint and Verizon Wireless, as they might finally be devices that can appeal to users who might otherwise default to the Apple iPhone.

link