I have work e-mail on my phone and iPad mostly as a convenience around the office when away from my desk. If at any point my job requires me to be accessible via e-mail outside core hours, they can pay my bill.

He is correct on point 1, given that he is UK based. In the UK you can get the HTC Desire free on a £30/month tariff. A 16GB 3GS on a £30*/month tariff cost £149 (£249 for a 32GB). Likewise you can also get a BlackBerry Storm2 for free on a £30/month deal. A Nexus one is £59 for £30/month.

He has a point also on the reception abilities, the iPhone definitely suffers in comparison to most non-smartphones in marginal signal areas, not sure how it compares to the various Android phones.

He also has a point on satnav, kind of. Google does give you free satnav, but I'm not at all convinced it would actually be useful to me. I regularly use my sat nav as a kind of backup, I'll deliberately take a route off of where the sat nav suggests, because it looks more interesting. Typically when I'm using it like that, I'll be in a poor data signal area. I really can't see how Google's approach can cope well with that.

But yeah, the rest is a load of rubbish.

The factor that I have seen many people mention is battery drain due to background apps consuming CPU. So a favorite app is some sort of Task Killer.

I decided I wouldn't let reports about battery life deter me as I am chained to a desk mostly and have always bought a few extra cables for local charging.

My big interest in Evo is potential for wi-fi hotspot operation. The ISP for liveaboards? Oh, and it looks cool. And it's not an iPhone. I could write my *own* "I'm Rich!" app.

Interesting that Evo launches in June when the 30-day trial period can be expected to be warm and sunny. We'll see how McCaw's Wi-Max fares when the serious Seattle rains return in winter

Here's how to fix your Evo and Incredible battery consumption: http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/06/03/t...-about-android/

Great article, thanks. Advanced Task Killer sounds like the app. I really don't want widget animation so that's an easy sacrifice. Interesting, though, that I may have to contend with "push" apps from Sprint that I really don't want.

nice -n 19 NASCAR_Sprint_App?

Screw that. If Sprint can't tell me in 30 days how to get NASCAR off my damn phone, they're taking it back.

Oh come on, seriously? He's honestly saying that the only way the phone is usable is to set the screen to 10% brightness and root the phone so you can underclock the CPU? Seriously? That is a load of bull s**t. Actually, due to the extreme nature of their suggestions, I call FUD on that article.

Where to start? Okay, lets start with the writer's claims that the EVO and the Incredible are BOTH horrible battery hogs. I don't know about the EVO, but the Nexus One and the Incredible are essentially the same phone, and I simply DO NOT experience the battery problems claimed in this article. Heck, the EVO is the same phone too, just with a larger screen. That, of course, affects battery life, but the EVO also has a larger battery than the other two phones.

So the reason I have a hard time believing that the Incredible has bad battery life is based on my experience with the N1. As I type this, my phone has been on battery power for 17 hours. In that time it has been on full brightness every time I turn it on. I've sent about 12 emails from it today, talked on the phone for 25 minutes, played games on it for 20 minutes, browsed the web for 15 minutes, used it on WiFi and 3G, and listened to podcasts for around two hours straight. My battery life is at around 66%, and that is perfectly acceptable to me.


All that said, I have to agree with you, Jim. I wasn't aware that Sprint was putting software of their own on the EVO. Apparently carriers don't realize that they have, in the history of the cell phone industry, written the absolute worst garbage that's ever been put on any of their own phones. It's one of the reasons the Backflip sucks. I don't believe that Verizon does this on their Android phones, and I know that T-Mobile doesn't force their own apps on you (I believe my G1 had a T-Mobile app that I couldn't uninstall, but it never ran in the background so I didn't care).

Lastly, I'm more than willing to agree that Sense might be a culprit in any battery problems. Fortunately instructions were just released on putting the standard Android 2.1 on the EVO.

I'm seeing reports of bad battery life pretty much everywhere regarding the Evo. From TechCrunch (way near the bottom of my list of sites I trust), Engadget and other blogs, to real journalists like Andy Ihnatko and Walt Mossberg.


Ok, great, there may be a song and dance I can do with firmware upgrades from random sources to improve things, but at that point the product has already failed me. If I buy an Android phone, I want it to be usable out of the box. Ok, there may be some bugs and quirks, but I'd expect those to be fixed and sent down to me automatically as updates. The second I have to go manually do some process to flash it with an unsupported update is the second it's no longer a phone to me. I like the ability to hack and tinker with my devices from time to time, but such activities should not be required to make the device usable to me.

And back to price. Sprint.com has the Evo page live now, and sure enough, minimum monthly charge for me to use the Evo with tethering would cost me $109.98 before taxes and fees. So yeah, the Evo is definitely dead to me, before I've even seen one. Being that it was on the top of my list for Android phones, that may be it for my consideration for a while. If I'm going to leave AT&T, it's not going to be for Verizon. Sprint at least offers me something above AT&T with possible 4G usage. Verizon would take things away, like using data while on a phone call (and yes, I do make use of that). So the Incredible and other "Droid" phones are out.

The Nexus One doesn't run any HTC software. Who knows what those guys changed in Android that could be affecting battery consumption. While nearly every HTC phone looks identical on the outside, HTC likely also tweaks the hardware-specific portions of the firmware between models. The EVO looks decidedly different than the others, but you can hardly call all the independent evaluations of this model coming to the same or similar conclusions a coincidence.

Anyway, if I was in the US, I'd likely be with ATT, not necessarily because they have the iPhone, but because they're also using the global standard GSM/UTMS. Anything else 3G and earlier is just barbaric. Every carrier in Canada (there are 3 national ones, two sharing new resources) now has GSM/UTMS. I think the US companies had better get on the ball and standardize when they move forward to 4G.

The problem with AT&T is that their service is awful. I never had any real problems with dropped calls, large dead zones, etc., until I got AT&T service. At least I'm not paying for it.

And the fact that the N1 is not controlled by a service provider is one of the reasons I got it. Would you want your computer being controlled and limited by your ISP?

Yeah, all good reasons. Was it just the 4G that put the Evo on the top of your list?

I was originally with T-Mobile and more recently AT&T for precisely this reason, so that my phone would roam properly when I went to Europe.

Of my various European adventures, though, I've found that I don't actually use my phone much because it's so shockingly expensive ($1.29/minute, I believe), versus just using Skype or whatnot. Maybe I could ditch the phone altogether, but certainly I can't discount the need for a phone as an emergency device.

The 4G LTE standard (Wikipedia link) will be supported by both AT&T and Verizon and is clearly intended to be the end-all-be-all of wireless transmission standards. An interesting question is whether they'll be able to make phones that can operate world-wide, given the wide variety of different frequency bands.

Sorry to hear that, Tom, though I think you'd find higher prices on Verizon if they had the EVO. On the other hand, they're the only carrier I know of that has a phone capable of tethering and officially don't charge for that (the Pre+), but the price would probably come out to about the same.

Like Bitt, I bought the Nexus One to have the feeling of being independent from my carrier. T-Mobile has no fingers in my phone, and I love that.

Tom, I think your search for an Android phone does indeed sound like it's over. If using data while you're on a call really is that important to you, then you can only go with a GSM carrier (is it possible to even do this on the EVO? I hadn't heard if their 4G implementation was capable of it). So that leaves AT&T and T-Mobile. AT&T completely f***s up their Android phones, so they're out. Personally, T-Mobile is just fine in my area, and I rarely leave my area, so the quality of the carriers is equal (and T-Mobile has better pricing), but that may not be true for you.

So that's about it. Is T-Mobile good in your area? Do you travel internationally very often (and take your phone with you)?

Yeah, for the most part. Coverage in Austin seems decent from talking to various Clear users here, though signal strength at work is bad due to the window coating and tower distance. The Evo was getting good reviews for the speed and screen quality, but the battery life is also a big factor for me now. If I get a device that does WiFi tethering, I'd probably look to use it frequently instead of using the 3G modem in my iPad. If the Evo can't make it a full day on standby, I imagine even light tethering will just kill it, leaving me without data on the iPad.

As for AT&T service, I've had no issues with them in Austin, so I'm not looking to make a switch just to get usable service. At work, I get 5 bars and good data coverage anywhere in the building (including the elevators), and at home it's 3-4 bars. I'm not certain how T-Mobile service is in this area to compare. Maybe I should go steal, err, borrow Caleb's phone and see what reception is like at home and work.

I love having to call people back because the phone decides to drop the call in the middle of it. We have an antenna in my room (it is right above my boss' desk) and I still have the signal drop for no reason, while others are still at full strength. I got a new phone and the problems aren't as frequent, but they still exist. AT&T service just plain old sucks. At least I'm not paying for it either.

I didn't bring my phone the last time I went to Europe, and it made for a much nicer vacation

If you're just talking about an emergency phone, wouldn't T-Mobile phones still work for calls and EDGE data? I thought it was 3G frequencies that differed from international standards (and AT&T's).

I think the Engadget Mobile review said something like three hours for hotspot sharing, with other light usage. That's less than you'll get on the 3G iPad, but I think it's equivalent to what you get with devices like the MiFi. Besides, how often are you using your iPad, while constantly using data, for three hours in a row, while not being near somewhere you could plug your phone in? I know it's an inconvenience, but how often would you run into it?

The only reason I'm considering eventually getting a tablet of some kind (yes, I was wrong, I want one) is because I can tether it to my phone for no additional cost. That's huge to me, and I really hope that the carriers eventually don't charge for tethering.

(Wow, lots of us posting at the same time, popular thread)

When I went to the empeg meet in 2004 with my T610, I bought a prepaid SIM in London to use. Calls were way cheeper for me that way, as most of my need for a phone was to call other people in Europe. Having my own phone was nice, as I still had my contact list. Now with smartphones, that probably even more important, though AT&T won't unlock the iPhone like they will other phones.

If I were to travel over there again soon, I'd probably go a similar route of picking up a prepaid SIM with data. I'd use Skype for calls back home, and normal voice for calling local places. I'd definitely need the phone for emergencies if I did similar activities like I did in 2004 (riding around on a motorcycle in the Alps).

Random side note, thanks again to everyone who let me stay with them, or showed me the areas where they lived. That trip in 04 is still one of my fondest memories.


I had assumed wrongly it seems. I was under the impression the phone uses 4G only for data and 3G CDMA for voice, and that still seems to be true. But it still doesn't allow both to be used, according to the FAQ on Android Central.

In my day to day usage, not often. At work I could have the phone sit on a charger and provide data. The biggest time I could think of would be when I travel, and I have been in airports a lot more recently with trips back to Colorado. Having recently been able to shed a lot of travel gear, I'd hate to have to go back to being one of those poor huddles souls in the gate area, desperately searching for a spare plug to keep their device charged while using it. My first flight with the iPad was so nice when I didn't have to worry about batteries and was still able to use the device for various streaming while waiting.

The other time will likely be during this summer as Mustang events become more common. Then I suppose I'd have to carry around a charger cable too.

Where is that amazing battery tech we clearly need to just fix this situation? Even Apple's attempts in the area aren't anything new, just highly optimizing existing tech or space.

Yeah, when travelling, I could definitely see an advantage to being free from the socket. That's why I'm thinking of getting one of these. It's nothing new, but I like the form factor.


This really is the next area of innovation that needs to happen. With so many things going mobile, battery technology has never been more important. I know we have it better than ever before, but I still can't help but feel that battery tech has not advanced as quickly as everything else.

The iPad does have stunningly good battery life, but as you said, they have an optimized software/hardware experience, and the battery is pretty large.

I'll give Apple a lot of credit, not only for optimizing their physical batteries, but for pushing on the software side. By banning background applications, they really have done a lot to improve battery life, and it's clear that, umm, "power-aware programming" is going to be a non-trivial effort, going forward, to ensure that phones behave how we want while getting more mileage out of their batteries.

Regardless, I hope we get some radically better battery technology, one of these days, although this will lead to other issues (e.g., the more energy you pack into a battery, the more it starts looking like a bomb).

Ugh, I know we've all debated this to death here before, but I don't see this as a truth. I didn't address this portion of the EVO battery life link earlier, but it's another part that I call BS on.

When I had a G1 I needed a task killer. I agree that the G1's hardware was not capable of multitasking, but it could at least do it. Well, I'm here to tell you that the Nexus One has no problems with background apps. I've ditched my task managing app and now just let the phone do whatever it wants. I haven't noticed performance issues, and I still get the battery power I mentioned earlier in this thread.

*lurker mode off*
Google does sell a model of the N1 that works on AT&T's 3G bands, it's the only decent Android phone for them. All the ones AT&T sells are extremely crippled.

I've got the G1 currently, and I still love it despite being very long in the tooth now. I've got a N1 on the way since T-Mobile is the best provider for me. The rest of the providers gets 0-1 bar where I live, and the wind has to be blowing in the right direction.

Yep, and it does me little good though. If I decide I don't like it, (and Android is going to have to do a lot to win me over compared to my current iPhone), I'm out $45 for restocking, plus shipping, plus whatever other fees. And a hard limit of exactly 14 days to try it out.

The Evo was potentially attractive since I could get it from a local store, try it, and have up to 30 days to return it and get a full, 100% return of my money. And on top of Android, it offered 4G, something I currently don't have and likely won't on AT&T till well into 2012.

I see your problem, and I don't blame you for not wanting to risk having to return the N1. Though I feel just about the same way about the iPhone as you do about Android. It was love at first sight, and I can't even understand how something as locked down as the iPhone got to be that big. Though iPhone OS has dropped down to third place behind Android. Both are being beat by Blackberry though.

I keep a task killer loaded on the phone just in case. I use it occasionally when an app screws up and I need to start it clean.

Other than that, the only use I can see for it is to automatically kill programs that lock the GPS on, and I don't actually do that in reality; I don't trust any of the killers enough not to do it when I'm using the app, which might be in the background at any given time.

For me, the biggest thing that attracted me to the iPhone (the first one) was the browser. Previous smartphones at that point were just glorified PDAs with crappy internet support. PDA wise, I tried to integrate them into my life with a Palm III, Palm V, then an iPaq, and all eventually left my service after a short time. The biggest thing that I liked was that on the Palm V, I had a GPRS modem, giving me a very early taste of internet access on the road.

After owning the first iPhone, it was just natural to keep going with them. A year after launch and apps came in. That made it even more useful outside having a non crappy browser and decent e-mail support. Android is definitely picking up steam*, but all my previous experiences really just haven't given me a good feel for it. I have enough time to glance at the surface and see the rough edges, but not enough time to feel out how the OS would actually work in my life.

Beyond just the iPhone though, I have really come to appreciate Apple's approach to things. This started with my Windows to Mac transition back in 2001. OS X won me over by providing a good solid Unix core along with a good consistent and usable GUI. The hardware also one me over by paying attention to little details other manufacturers continued to ignore.

I could probably go on a while, but I've posted my feelings before in other threads. Ultimately I'm willing to give up a bit of openness to gain polish. Apple is good enough in following standards similar to the open side unlike Microsoft that I don't feel trapped. But now that I have grown used to the very high level of polish in both my hardware and software, I have a hard time looking at desktop Linux, Windows, Android, Dell, or whatever without seeing all the rough pointy bits.

At the same time, I want to be aware of what is out there, just to see if maybe if the little cuts I'll get from the rough edges are worth it for some particular feature or ability. The reason I'm shying away from just buying a Nexus One or some other phone though is due to a parallel experience in my car. I had the nice Apple level of quality with the empeg. It works well, had polish that no other product out there had, and was reliable. I gave up on that and tried the CarPC route for the past few years, and I absolutely hate it. There were some awesome features, but ultimately the lack of polish and refinement, along with stability issues killed it for me. I'm now debating sinking more money into the mess to rip it all out and install the empeg, or buying a new car to get the Ford Sync system.


*though it was only in second place in the US for one quarter as far as sales, the iPhone still has a commanding lead over Android devices both US and world wide market share wise. It will be really interesting to see where Android goes from here, as it is definitely strong enough already to be providing great competition that will ultimately benefit the entire market.

Along with Blackberry, the iPhone is probably the only phone that pretty much everyone around the world knows by name. It has huge numbers in mindshare which quarter after quarter are helping to turn conversions.

Nice work, AT&T.

If you notice, the choice quote comes from Valleywag, one of the turds from the Gawker asshole network. The only thing this story has to do with Apple is that the email addresses belong to iPad owners. This is entirely an ATT issue, despite Gawker's (repeated) libelous attempts to smear Apple (their story is titled "Apple's Worst Security Breach")

Ever since Gawker got in trouble for stealing the iPhone prototype they've had a huge public hate-on for Apple. It's even tipped their usually slanted "stories" further into the toilet.

By virtue of their exclusivity agreement for iPhones and 3G iPads, and with chains only being as strong as their weakest links, AT&T's security breaches are Apple's security breaches.

The breach is not Apple's *fault*, but Apple chose to do business with AT&T, and they must accept part of the reputation damage that comes with an incident like this. A similar dynamic exists with the alliance of BP and TransOcean, who operated the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. I did not find BP's attempts to distance themselves from TransOcean convincing, nor do I find any attempts to distance Apple and AT&T convincing.

In short, he who lies down with dogs will rise with fleas.