Disk Inserted

Virgin Mobile’s pre-paid MIFI spotted, purchased, unboxed, and photographed originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hoo boy. This is a tough one, isn’t it? In our years at Engadget, we’ve rarely seen such deafening debate and adulation for a pair of devices. In one corner we have the iPhone 4, coming off a few relatively easy rounds atop the smartphone mind share heap. However, the Droid and its ilk have weakened Apple’s spot, and here comes the HTC EVO 4G in for the kill, sporting a larger screen, 4G data, and all manner of HTC sexy. If the devices themselves weren’t enough, the debate has turned into something larger and metaphorical, with Apple representing tight restrictions and a singular top down vision, while Google’s Android stands for something perhaps a bit more haphazard but democratizing. The gloves come off after the break.

Continue reading iPhone 4 or EVO 4G: which one should you get?

iPhone 4 or EVO 4G: which one should you get? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’d figured that Sprint and partner Clearwire were going to have a devil of a time rolling out WiMAX this year in New York City; urban canyons are always tricky, of course, but their oddball 2500MHz spectrum allocation isn’t the best at penetrating buildings and other structures, either. On that note, we’d been tipped earlier this week that a reader was seeing some weak WiMAX reception for the first time on his EVO 4G near Coney Island (see a shot after the break), and now, we’ve been able to independently confirm it on one of our own units — in saturated Midtown, no less — though we weren’t able to do much with it beyond get a notification that a “4G network is available.” Clearly this isn’t ready for primetime use, but it’s a good sign that these guys have officially started lighting up a few cells here and there. 1080p streaming, anyone?

[Thanks, r0ckstar_23]

Update: We’re getting tipped that folks are seeing some occasional 4G action in LA and San Francisco, so keep a close eye on those EVOs!

Continue reading Sprint’s WiMAX service teases EVO 4G-toting New Yorkers (update: LA and SF, too)

Sprint’s WiMAX service teases EVO 4G-toting New Yorkers (update: LA and SF, too) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC EVO 4G fully rooted, freedom loving people everywhere rejoice originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know the backstory by now: Sprint boasted that the EVO 4G was its fastest selling phone ever a couple of days after hitting the American market, before abruptly correcting itself and admitting that the EVO’s sales were in fact in line with those achieved by the Pre last summer. What you, and we, didn’t know till now, however, is that Sprint’s self-correction was sparked off by an employee with a curious mind and posting privileges over on the xda-developers forum. On June 6, according to MobileCrunch, this unnamed hero of truthiness browsed Sprint’s internal inventory system and nailed down a figure of 65,500 sold units from Sprint’s own stores — a stat far south from what Sprint would announce a day later. That number ultimately found its way onto the message board, and though it obviously shouldn’t be taken as authoritative (or exhaustive), it was enough to get Sprint to hit the auto-correct button and part ways with the activist member of staff. Harsh.

[Thanks, Carol]

Sprint fires employee who leaked weak EVO 4G sales numbers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Moment just got a whole lot less interesting, didn’t it? What you’re looking at is allegedly Samsung’s Galaxy S Pro for Sprint, a potential blockbuster of a phone that’s said to have WiMAX support and a front-facing cam — basically, the QWERTY answer to the EVO 4G (and this one’s presumably got a Super AMOLED display, to boot). It doesn’t look exactly like a standard Galaxy S with a keyboard grafted on, so we’re not sure how confident we are that the “Galaxy S Pro” name is going to stick by the time it hits retail — but you could call it “ball of dung” and we suspect it’d still sell like hotcakes. Stay tuned for more on this one as we get it.

Update: Android Community has more pictures posted now that confirm both the Galaxy S branding and the 4G radio (note the “Sprint 4G” logo on back). Thanks, Linh P.!

Sprint’s 4G-equipped Samsung Galaxy S Pro in the wild? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Uh oh: on top of reports that the EVO 4G suffers screen-detachment issues, we’re also starting to hear that the touchscreen sensor is inconsistent, particularly when the phone isn’t grounded. We’ve seen more than one report and video purporting to show the EVO’s touchscreen failing to smoothly register touches when the phone isn’t being handheld (and thus grounded). We haven’t been able to reproduce the issues ourselves, but trust us when we say we’ve heard from enough unhappy EVO owners to believe that the problem is real. What’s more, there’s also an older video showing the same problem on three different Droid Incredibles, which obviously shares strong family ties to the EVO. We’ve pinged HTC, we’ll let you know what we hear — for now, get your sad faces on and watch the videos after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading HTC EVO 4G and Droid Incredible suffering from unresponsive screen issues

HTC EVO 4G and Droid Incredible suffering from unresponsive screen issues originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The thought of marring the EVO 4G’s glorious 4.3-inch display sends shivers down our spine, but just remember: this is all in the name of science, and it’s for the greater good. An Android Forums member was due to return his defective EVO to Sprint anyhow, so he figured he’d take the opportunity to run the lame duck unit through some torturous scratch tests including keys, a screw, a penny, and — of course — a razor blade. After everything was said and done, the EVO emerged victorious, so you shouldn’t feel too bad about sticking it in your pocket with spare change knocking around (actually, yes, you still should feel bad about that). Then again, the camera lens didn’t do as well, so the lesson is to use common sense and… you know, just handle your multi-hundred-dollar gadgets with care. Follow the break for all the harrowing test footage.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading HTC EVO 4G subjected to harrowing barrage of scratch tests, holds its own

HTC EVO 4G subjected to harrowing barrage of scratch tests, holds its own originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Jun 2010 16:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know the fine print of your EVO 4G contract that gives Sprint the right to limit throughput speeds without notice? Skipped past that part? Well, consider this your unofficial notice. If what we’re reading above is accurate, then Sprint appears ready to introduce data throttling this summer. Where and how are the big questions. The image above received from a tipster appears to have been grabbed from Sprint’s own “The Playbook,” though we have no way of confirming that at this time. It certainly make sense though given T-Mobile USA’s recent move away from overage charges in favor of throttling.

Update: We’re hearing from a couple sources that the shot here from The Playbook is a little out of context, and actually refers to a new feature for businesses looking to restrict disproportionately high usage by employees with company data cards. That sounds a little less painful, does it not? Thanks, everyone!

Sprint to begin throttling data this summer? (update: not exactly) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Jun 2010 14:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reports are flying in from across the internet — and by that we mean the xda-developers and Google Code forums — that the EVO 4G might have something of a framerate issue. It seems that the device is “locked in” at 30 frames per second both in 2D (Canvas) and 3D (openGL) modes, while anecdotally, a phone like the Hero hits 54fps on average and has “smoother scrolling” in the menus. This apparently is visible both with the standard Sense UI installed and with the Froyo preview build, although in the latter case the Nexus One bootup video is 60fps before halving upon reaching the home screen.

So, wherein lies the culprit? For Google’s part, Android framework engineer “Romain Guy” responded to one thread reasserting the platform team’s “target was, is and will be 60fps.” We can’t imagine it’s related to the hardware given the EVO’s impressive specs. Some fingers, ergo, are being pointed towards firmware. This wouldn’t be the first time HTC’s handsets have come under scrutiny for troubling graphical performance — 2008 was not the company’s finest year in that department. Whatever the reason is, we just want a quick resolve — after all, it’s just not fair when our Hero-carrying buddies are scoring better benchmarks.

HTC EVO 4G’s graphics capped at 30FPS? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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