Data Roaming Now On Online Account

Although Sprint has a good network with coverage in almost every major place, roaming is still a reality for traveling Sprint customers. A little known clause in the terms of service limits your data roaming (it also has a 5 GB cap on your regular data usage), but you never knew how much data you have used while roaming.

If you have used data while roaming, like me, you will have noticed that under the data section of your account it now shows your data roaming and how much they are going to charge you for it. I do not know how much you have to get charged for it, but I have only used about 163 kB this month. The site makes sure that you notice the data roaming by having a red exclamation point next to the data section of your account usage, and also puts your roaming usage and additional charges in red. They also have a link where you can "reduce additional charges" by changing your plan.

Update: I just spoke with an online Sprint Rep and he informed me that if you are in the United States you will not get overage charges for using data, even with data roaming. The data roaming section might also apply to using data in other countries, and additional charges would be added to that.

Samsung Restore Eco Phone Now Available

If you didn't like the design of the Samsung Reclaim but still wanted to be eco-conscious, you now have another option in the Samsung Restore. The phone is similar to the Samsung Rant in design, but with more curved edges. It will have the same interface as standard Sprint feature phones with One Click, and has the slide out QWERTY keyboard, a two megapixel camera, and a memory card slot. The phone is available for $49.99 with a new two year contract.

Samsung Seek Touch Screen Messaging Phone

For all of those users out there feeling feature phones, Samsung is now giving you a new one with the Samsung Seek. On the outside of the phone there is a nice large touch screen, slide out QWERTY keyboard, 1.3 megapixel camera, and MicroSD slot. When you look at the software of the phone, however, you will see that the interface is very similar to the Samsung Instinct software. The phone even has the three buttons below the screen that were on the Instinct to go with the large on screen buttons, for better or for worst. One of the best things about the phone is that it is free with a new two year contract, and is available in red, blue, or pink.

White Evo 4G Coming to Best Buy

Looking to get some other colors for your new 4G phone, and think black is too boring? You might just be taking a trip to Best Buy sometime soon, then. Best Buy announced that they are now taking pre orders for white Evo 4G's, and they should be available on July 11 only in Best Buy. This isn't the first time that they have done this for a phone, but it is arguably the most high profile phone that they are carrying an exclusive color for. If you haven't bought a phone from Best Buy before, you will be happy to hear that they have no mail-in rebates and some phones are cheaper than buying direct from the retailers. The phone looks like it should have the regular black front with only the back of the phone being white, unlike the new iPhone 4. (Wireless and Mobile News)

WiMax Might Be Coming Soon to Major Cities

Reports from Evo users last week have been that their phones have been detecting 4G networks that were available in their city, and some people were even able to use the network for a brief period of time.

The reports come from New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and some people are saying that the service is somewhat strong near Coney Island in New York. Although these networks definitely aren't up and running yet, it looks like Sprint/Clearwire 4G might be on it's way to some big cities sooner rather than later. (Engadget)

New Sprint 4G Phone Rumored to Be Out By End of Year

As if the HTC Evo 4G wasn't a mouthful, there will be another Android 4G phone that should hit the market by the end of 2010, the Samsung Galaxy S Pro. Although Samsung has already announced their Samsung Galaxy S, that device was for GSM networks (likely coming to T-Mobile), but now we have our own Samsung goodness.

Early hands on with the unannounced device have determined that there is a "Sprint 4G" logo on the back, meaning that it would with the WiMax network where it comes out. The phone should also be coming out with a VGA front facing camera (for making calls to all those Evo owners), a Samsung 1 GHz processor (somewhat similar to a Snapdragon), a Super AMOLED screen (thing BRIGHT, even in direct sunlight), and a five megapixel camera back facing camera that can record in 720p.

But those are all the normal features, the real draw to the phone is that it should have a slide out QWERTY keyboard! You heard right. So anybody that was holding off on the Evo because it didn't have a real keyboard to type out all those emails (if you couldn't just use the gigantic screen), well this might just be your dream 4G phone.

The phone should come with Android 2.1, which will hopefully change before or soon after with Froyo being released, along with Touch Wiz 3.0 layered on top. It should also come with all the typical Sprint software, like Sprint TV, for those that use the services.

Hopefully this turns out to be one heck of a phone for Sprint 4G, and for Sprint in general, because of its differences and similarities to the Evo. Now if we can just work on that battery life and coverage of our WiMax then we would be all set with our new WiMax phones. (Softpedia)

Cross Platform Smartphone Chat with Cnectd

If you have ever had a Blackberry, you will know that Blackberry Messenger (BBM) is one of the best features of the phone. From being able to talk to people around the world, to groups, and the delivered and read message notifications, the program is really only limited by the fact that you can only use it to and from other Blackberry smartphones. Other programs for instant messaging like AIM are nice, but they are very connected to the device and still don't deliver some of the features of Blackberry Messenger.

Well, now there is a solution for chatting across multiple platforms, Cnectd. The program is available for Symbian (many people overseas), Android, Blackberry, and even iPhone. The program lets you create a username for your account, and you can carry the account over to other smartphone platforms if you get a new device (no more PIN switching for Blackberry users). The program even offers the delivered and read notifications from BBM which are something taken for granted by most BlackBerry users.

Although I didn't get a chance to try out the program with many others users, I installed it on both my Sprint Blackberry and iPod touch, and the program worked great. It delivered the messages fast, using push notifications on the iPod too, and the delivered and read symbols changed fast. You can even send pictures and your current location to other users with the program.

If you have friends with different devices and want something to chat with (in case they don't have a data plan), or you switch between platforms and devices a lot, Cnectd is a great program for keeping in touch, especially with the robust feature set that hasn't been seen since Blackberry Messenger. (Cnectd)

Foneshow Delivers Podcasts By Phone Call

For all those Sprint customers out there without a data plan, or don't feel like using their precious data for downloading or streaming podcasts, there is a great service called Foneshow. I have been using Foneshow for about two weeks now, and feel that the service is great, especially for customers that don't have smartphones with data plans to get their podcasts.

After signing up for an account on foneshow.com, you can select any shows that they have on the site and subscribe to them. They have a variety of shows from many different sources, and I am currently subscribed to some from Cnet and Engadget. Once you do this, you should get a text message with the latest episode and a phone number that is wants you to call. Here is what one of my text messages from the service looked like:
Buzz Out Loud from CNet: Buzz Out Loud 1254: Google has an honesty prob 29:41 call ---------- to hear this Foneshow!
The number goes where I put the dashes. I just call the number there and it delivers the Foneshow through the phone on a voice call. It is very simple to use and whenever a new episode is released it is usually quick to alert you by text message and let you listen to it through the phone.

Some will be turned off by the fact that it uses your normal minutes on the phone call, which wasn't a big deal for me since I have tons of leftover minutes from Any Mobile Any Time. Just make sure you watch your minutes and how long your podcasts are, and if you are short on minutes you can listen when you get night or weekend minutes. If you are a Sprint/CDMA user (you most likely are if your reading this), you will also not be able to get data on your phone when using the service, unless you are connected to a Wifi (or WiMax) network when on the call.

The service is also very useful by resuming the podcast where you left off if you hang up or it gets dropped, which makes it better than streaming because you don't have to find the place the video was. The feature also has pause, fast forward, start from the beginning, and other functions right from the call.

If you like to listen to your favorite podcasts without having to remember when they come on, Foneshow is a great service that is helpful to keep up on your latest podcasts. It is also nice for users without good data reception at their house or work, without smartphones, or who need to watch their usage of data. Although some people can just get the podcasts right on their phone, I find Foneshow easier to use and it doesn't take up space on your memory card or internal memory. (Foneshow)

HTC Evo Breaks Sales Records

The HTC Evo, Sprint's new superphone, has broken sales records for the carrier. Although false numbers were first reported because of an error in calculations, it has now been determined that the phone has now sold twice the amount during launch days than the Palm Pre, and six times greater than the Samsung Instinct. Because there were so many activations on launch day, Sprint's activation servers crashed and made it a very long process to get the phones activated. Stores eventually resorted to calling into Sprint to activate the phones. Hopefully the activation issues were from subscribers coming from other carriers and needing new accounts, but we will have to see how many new subscribers Sprint gained from the Evo when results from the quarter have been released. (Sprint)(Engadget)

My Experience With PdaNet for Tethering

As most hardcore Sprint subscribers know by now, when you switch to one of the Everything Data plans that includes the unlimited mobile to mobile calling you cannot get the tethering feature for your phone. Now, all that this means is that you can't use Sprint Smartview to tether your smartphone to your computer like a data card. For the past few months I have been trying out an application called PdaNet, which is a lightweight and free to try application for Blackberry's and other smartphones.

There are other applications that you can buy, such as Tether (previously Tetherberry), but those have a thirty day trial and then you have to pay up to fifty dollars for the program on your phone. Before going on a trip, I decided to install PdaNet to see if I could get it to work and how fast it was.

Setup was a breeze, you just had to install the lightweight app on your computer and desktop machine (I have a Windows 7 laptop but there is also a version for Mac), plug in your app, and go to the app and click use USB connection. You will either get a prompt on your computer to connect, or you have to click on the task bar and click connect on the pop up menu. After that, you can start surfing the web! The speed of the connection isn't bad, although I live with good Sprint 3G coverage and it depends on how fast your phone connection is.

After about a month of using the software, I now get a popup every once in a while to purchase the program because my "trial is expiring." You are allowed to just click exit to the make the popup go away. I think that the more data that you use when tethering your phone to the computer the more the popup will come, from what I have noticed.

If you are looking for a tethering application for your smartphone, go ahead and see if PdaNet will work for you. I am writing this article using the program to get online, since the hotel I am at doesn't have very good Wifi. Just make sure to watch your usage, because it can be easy to eat up your 5 GB of data every month tethering your smartphone to your computer. (June Fabrics Technology)

Blackberry Bold 9650 Now Available

Beating Verizon to the punch by almost two weeks now, the new Blackberry Bold 9650 is finally here. In case you haven't been paying attention to the news about the follow up to the Tour, it was delayed since February to upgrade the memory to 512 MB and rebrand it from Tour 2 to Bold. The phone also includes a trackpad in place of the trackball and Wifi. Although there hasn't been any release of the phone on Verizon, it is available from Sprint for $199 after rebates.

HTC Evo Now Released!

One of the most anticipated phones of the year, the HTC Evo is now released. If you haven't heard about it, the Evo is Sprint's superphone running Android 2.1, an eight megapixel main camera, 1.3 megapixel front facing camera, 1 GHz "Snapdragon" processor, and maybe the most important feature of all, it is the first phone to run on Sprint's 4g network. If you didn't get to the store early, or make sure and preorder your phone for the first shipment, you might be waiting a while to pick up your new phone. If you already have one, you are probably enjoying the large screen and speed of the device.

For everyone that has their phone already, feel free to send an email to sprintblog@aol.com and let us know how you like your new 4g phone!