Google had another Oprah moment this past Thursday at the Google I/O conference, giving all 4,000 plus attendees the Evo 4G, the new HTC Android phone being sold via Sprint. The phone is set to be released to the public on June 4, but attendees have gotten a sneak peak of the impressive device. Of course, many of these lucky recipients have already been quick to start peddling the phone on Craigslist and eBay, for as much as $1200.
On eBay, ‘buy it now’ price points range from $600-$1200, with many at $650-$750 range. Prices are more reasonable on Craigslist’s San Francisco site, with many of the devices being offered at $500-ish (the range is between $450-$750). There were a few offers to purchase an Evo for $250, with one person willing to buy it for $500. → Read More
We knew it was coming, but we didn’t know when until now. Sprint just let us know that the HTC EVO 4G is arriving on June 4th. I gotta have one. Pricing is set at $199.99 with new contract (after you get that $100 rebate, anyway), no doubt significantly more without one. The plan they’re pushing for it will be $69.99 plus $10 for “premium data,” making a total of $80 before taxes — that includes unlimited texts and 450 minutes, plus unlimited mobile-to-mobile. In addition to this, you’ll be able to spend $30 extra (joy!) to use your phone as a mobile hotspot for up to 8 people at a time. Makes your plan pretty expensive, but if you’re already shelling out for a mobile dongle, this might actually be a better deal. When Greg checked it out, he liked it and couldn’t really find anything wrong with it. Check out his initial hands on here. → Read More
There are perfectly good arguments for and against buying a 3G-enabled iPad. Me? I say buy it with 3G, turn it off, and just have it ready to turn on whenever you really need it. But let’s just say, hypothetically, that you don’t want 3G because you’ve heard about this 4G thing. Sprint loves you, my friend, and that is why they have put out this special iPad case just for you. → Read More
Lenovo ThinkPads have offered 3G access for a while now but soon Sprint 3G and 4G WiMAX will be available as well. All buyers will need to do is select the Sprint access during the ordering process and their fancy new notebook will arrive with a Sprint SIM card already installed. It’s then just a matter of firing up the Lenovo Access Connection tool to start the service. Of course Sprint will want a monthly service charge as well, but hopefully you can con your company into picking up the tab under the guise of “mobile productivity”.Middle mangers love that type of talk. → Read More
A couple of years ago, it seems all anyone wanted was access to Qik, the mobile live-stream video service. At the time, Nokia’s N95 was one of the hot devices you needed to run it. Since then, while the service has been growing, it has lost some of its luster — perhaps because it couldn’t run on one of the hottest mobile devices out there, the iPhone, until very recently. But now it may be time for Qik to go back on the offensive.
Today, all anyone seems to be talking about is the new HTC EVO 4G, Sprint’s WiMax phone that runs Android. Not only will Qik work on the device, it will come built-in to each one. → Read More
65,000 tons of mobile phone e-waste are generated every year. The bad news is, only 1% of consumers choose to recycle their headsets when they upgrade. eRecyclingCorps is working with carriers to integrate the recycling process into the POS sale system at the retail store. → Read More
Sometime today, Feburary 26, 2010, Sprint Pre and Pixi owners should get a nice little surprise on their handsets. It seems like Sprint and Palm are ready to deliver the latest webOS update, which should bring the aforementioned updates along with a bunch of other enhancements conveniently listed for your perusal after the jump. → Read More
Early termination fees. No one likes them but they can sometimes be a necessary evil. If you become unhappy with your service provider or you are overwhelmed with lust for a new gadget on a different carrier, you pay the price. Carriers say that these termination fees, or ETFs, allow them to subsidize handsets and recover those costs over the course of a contract. Should a contract be broken, a carrier recovers those subsidies with an ETF.
The FCC recently decided something was amiss with ETFs and probed carriers into explaining the rhyme and reason behind the fees. The carriers have finally spoken, albeit a little unconvincingly. Most of you are already familiar with why ETFs exist, but it is interesting to see the canned and obvious responses from the carriers. → Read More
HTC seemed pretty confident that the HTC Desire and HTC Legend weren’t US-bound when we talked to them at Mobile World Congress. But hey, things change — right? Boy Genius Report has just received word that the two handsets are bound for this side of the ocean, along with details on which carriers might be nabbing them. → Read More
Being eco-friendly should definitely be high on the priorities list for electronics manufacturers and service providers, so I’m pretty happy to see that Sprint is doing its part to make our planet a nicer place for future generations. Just in case you’re the apathetic type when it comes to the three Rs (recycle, reuse, reduce!), Sprint has put some incentives into place for you. → Read More
If you own a HTC Hero or Samsung Moment, don’t get too jealous at DROID and Nexus One owners just yet. Sure, it might take a while, but Sprint is working things out so that its Android handsets receive the latest version of Android, 2.1. → Read More
Over the past few years, Sprint has definitely given itself a facelift and now has excellent pricing plans and some decent handsets. Sadly, things aren’t turning around as quickly as Sprint would like since it has been showing some tremendous losses the past few quarters. The fourth quarter, however, shows that Sprint is slowly but surely easing its way to where it wants to be. → Read More
Yesterday, we noted that $5 million had be raised in donations for Haiti though text messaging in the U.S. alone. Today, that number surpassed $10 million, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced. Perhaps more importantly, some of the big players involved in the donations are making moves to make sure the money gets to Haiti faster.
As some people noted in the comments yesterday, there had been talk of 90 day delays for this money donated via text to be released to the various organizations helping out in Haiti. Since then, a number of the companies have committed to giving the money immediately. Verizon, for example, is giving its share (of the then $9 million), $2.98 million, immediately to the American Red Cross. Sprint, meanwhile, is giving 80% of the $1.2 million it has raised so far immediately. AT&T has apparently raised the most so far with $4.2 million (of the larger $10 million) and is also thinking about ways to get the money to Haiti faster. → Read More
Oh Nextel. The insults continue. First, your service continues to hemorrhage users, and now you get subjected to phones that look like the Motorola Brute. It’s almost enough to make me feel a little sorry for you. → Read More
Short Version: The Sprint Overdrive is a small, compact portable 3G/4G cellular data network to WiFi dongle designed for use by up to five people simultaneously. The best part is the ease of use and the worst part is the dearth of 4G networking outside of a few major cities. → Read More
You knew this was coming. Someone’s driving a car. They’re talking on their cellphone, too. The car crashes. It crashes into another car. The driver of the other car dies. And now the family of the killed driver wants to sue someone. That “someone” just so happens to be the wireless provider and the manufacturer of the phone. → Read More
There’s a bit of a tizzy this week about Sprint allowing police officials to read up to 8 million “pings” on its network in order to track felons. Sprint made it considerably easier for police to do this by adding a special “portal,” probably a phone number-based dump of GPS data for phones over time, to the service they offer upon receiving a court order or a subpoena. I wonder, however, if this 8 million number isn’t far too high to be within the realm of sanity and/or if this number should make us → Read More
Turkey Day is just around the corner, which means that the annual American tradition season of losing one’s mind in exchange for slightly discounted goods will officially begin a week from today. Yes, I speak of the infamous day that is Black Friday. The very same day in which hundreds of thousands of Americans transform into penny-pinching-zombies who will do whatever it takes to score a cheap fix. → Read More
San Francisco, CA
