WiMax San Antonio TX

Thanks to a portable battery used to recharge my EVO on the go,  I can go all day without running out of battery power on my Sprint EVO.   I first learned about this device while reading my favorite EVO website, www.GoodandEVO.net.   

G&E Webmaster Jenn K. Lee did a very complete review of the Splash Intense 54oo mAhr portable battery that has 2 USB ports for charging devices or running them, and a single micro USB port for inbound charging.

The Splash Intense comes with a retractable USB cable and a handful of different tips compatible with various cell phones and media players.  

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We would use stronger language to describe the 4G speed that we’ve been experiencing our our new Sprint EVO Phone, but this is a family rated website, so we’ll mind our language better.

We’ve been putting our EVO to the test and here are a few of our findings.

Battery life test- Yep, it sucks battery power.  We did make it thru the day once.  Got about 9 hours of life between charges, but we weren’t using it very heavily on the Internet.  Today, we unplugged the power at 8:30am, and by 11am, we were down to 67% battery power remaining.  We were surfing the web, doing more email and phone calls than the other day.  We’ll see how long it goes, but fortunately we did buy an extra auto power adapter for in our car, and an extra micro USB cable to keep in the car for charging also.

4G Speed -We sat in the shadow of a known CLEAR Wimax tower site and ran joint speed tests on both the EVO and our laptop.  Our laptop is of course running on the CLEAR 4G network, using their combo 4G+ card (dual 4G / 3G) equivalent of what Sprint offers.     The highest we’ve gotten so far on the EVO was a shade higher than 2mbps download, and 1mbps upload.  The lowest we’ve gotten was 0.5 mbps down and 0.14 up. (further away from tower in weaker signal area)    While our EVO was pulling down that 2+ mbps, our laptop was pulling down more than 10 mbps on the CLEAR network.   

Since both devices are using CLEAR WiMax for the 4G signal, shouldn’t the speed be similar?

We stopped by a local Sprint Store to ask that exact question, and here was their response:

“We’ve been getting multiple reports of the slower speeds with the EVO on 4G, and Sprint is looking into the problem.  Expect an update at some point in the future, but we don’t know how soon that will be fixed or if it will be fixed.”

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You may have read in the news lately, that AT&T is dropping their UNLIMITED DATA plans today, June 7th. Users of their popular iPad and iPhone won’t be able to sign up for any unlimited data plans after today, perhaps it is already too late.

The move away from unlimited wireless data plans, has been viewed as both a blessing and a curse. In some instances, light wireless users could save money, while heavy users can get left holding the bag and paying more than they did before the change.

AT&T’s dropping their $30 per month unlimited wireless data plans also comes as all eyes are on Apple, as they prepare to release the latest version of the Apple iPhone, the iPhone 4G, on the masses today at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).

The new iPhone has been widely rumored to include new video capabilities including a front-facing video camera and mobile video chat, capabilities that will consume massive amounts of wireless data on AT&T’s networks.

The new data plans being offered, are $15/month for 200mb or $25/month for 2gb usage.  Overage fees range from $15/200mb overage on the first plan, to only $10/gb on the second plan.  Duuh?  Why would anybody in their right mind sign up for that first plan if they have a smart phone or the two Apple phones we mentioned above?   The overage fees would bankrupt you quickly.   

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This morning, we were the third customer in line for a new Sprint EVO phone at 6am.  We went to Radio Shack located next to HEB near Bandera Rd and Loop 1604 on the NW side of San Antonio.  We had double checked the day before to confirm their hours, and their inventory availability.    They actually opened the doors 5 minutes early for us.   We were greeted by a half dozen friendly, but anxious, Radio Shack employees and their manager, plus 2 Sprint representatives.   No breakfast tacos or donuts, but they had phones available for sale!

Sprint’s computer network was overloaded fast.  Rudy, the RS employee helping me, had to grab a cordless phone from the back (cause all the corded phones were in use by other RS employees) and hold it between his head and shoulder while he listened to instructions from Sprint customer care, and typed on his computer.  We had to upgrade our existing plan, transfer all the discounts and other features over to the new plan, etc.

When done, Rudy showed me how to install the battery, turned it on, let it synch with the Sprint network and it automatically ran 3 updates.   (Later in the morning, it did another system update also.)   When done, he handed it to me, and pointed me over to Richard, the Sprint Rep who was helping those of us who had never used an Android based phone before.

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If you aren’t one of the smart / lucky persons who preordered your Sprint EVO phone (assuming you are in the market for one), you will be limited to where you can buy one in the morning, and don’t wait until you get off work to try and find one.

Best Buy will not have any “unassigned” phones available, except for those who preordered, and those folks have a scheduled appointment to walk in and pick up their phone over the next three days.  

But select Radio Shack (only certain ones) have some “extra” unassigned Sprint EVO phones available, starting at 6am in the morning.  We just visited our local neighborhood Radio Shack to verify what time they would be open in the morning, and the store manager told me all of her “extra” inventory of Sprint EVO phones (those not preordered) had been transferred to a larger store for sale in the morning.  She was taking orders on a waiting list for phones to be delivered to  her store next Tuesday (June 8th).    We highly suggest you contact your area Radio Shacks to find out which one has extras, then get up before the chickens to go get in line.  We hate standing in lines, but we’ll do it this time, just so we can report to our users.  Might even take our camera with us to get some live photos to share.

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We contacted ZAGG to ask for any special discounts on their products, especially in light of the upcoming release of the Sprint EVO 4G phone. We had already found a 20% discount from another source, Discount Code “ ZAGG20″, but we wanted even more to offer our readers and our customers.

Radio Shack will begin offering ZAGG invisibleSHIELD products when the EVO is released on Friday , but at full retail price, no discount, or possibly even marked up a few bucks.

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