HTC Evo Shift 4G Now Available

The recently announced HTC Evo Shift 4G for Sprint is now available through Radio Shack and Sprint, both online and in retail stores. The phone costs $149 with a new two-year contract or eligible contract through Sprint. (Sprint)

Sprint Releases Mifi 4G Hotspot

If you are looking for a 3G/4G dual-mode mobile hotspot for Sprint, and the Overdrive wasn't your cup of tea, then prepare for the Mifi version of dual-mode hotspots. The Mifi is very similar to the Overdrive, having external indicators for battery life and signal strength, and a micro USB port for charging the device when the battery runs down. It also features a microSD card slot that can support a card of up to 32 GB, presumably for storage available to anybody connected to the Mifi device. You will have to wait a while to get your hands on the new Mifi, though, which will be available on Feburary 27 for $50 with a two-year contract. (Engadget) (Sprint)

Sprint 4G Launches In Sacramento, California

If you live in the Sacramento area and haven't already figured it out, Sprint 4G launched on November 15th. This makes the 62nd market to have the Wimax technology. So everybody with an Epic, Evo, and Overdrive, turn on 4G and start experiencing the Wimax! (Sprint)

Samsung Galaxy Tab Available for Preorder by Sprint Premier Customers

For the next three days, Sprint will be taking preorders for their version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab. The seven inch tablet is expected to be a major iPad competitor, and has been announced for T-Mobile and Verizon, too. The Galaxy Tab features a seven inch capacitive touchscreen, dual cameras, and Android 2.2. The tablet also has support from Google and features the Android Market and Google apps, something that some other tablets have failed to get. The tablet has already been reviewed by a few sites, such as Engadget, with one of the major complains being that some of the apps don't scale properly for the different screen size of the Galaxy Tab. Pricing is $400 with a new two year contract, and the smallest data plan is $29 a month for 2 GB of data. Oh, and for all you 4G fans out there, this is a 3G only device, so sadly no Wimax.

Sprint 4G Launched In Five New Markets, Including New York City

Sprint has finally launched WiMax in New York City, along with Hartford, New Haven, New Brunswick, Trenton, and Tampa. For everybody out there with 4G devices, this means you can finally get a taste of 4G speeds in all these locations. The addition of these five markets brings the total number of markets with 4G coverage to 61, which is a good number considering that no other wireless carrier has publicly launched a 4G network yet. (Sprint)

Sprint Announces WiMax for New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles

Three of the largest cities in the United States have also been three cities that don't have 4G coverage. Sprint and Clearwire have finally announced the launch dates for these three cities. New York City will have WiMax coverage on November 1, San Francisco will be lit up in late December, and Los Angeles will get WiMax on December 1. The WiMax network will be shared by Sprint, Clearwire, Time Warner, and Comcast. Time Warner and Comcast will use the network for their mobile internet service, rebranded for the respective company. Hopefully, the long wiat for service in these three large and tech-centered cities was to make sure the service thoroughly covered the cities, and to make sure that speeds would be top notch for everybody using a 4G device. If you have 4G in your area, or have spotted 4G coverage in any of these three cities, let us know in the comments how the speeds and coverage are for you.

Orlando Now Covered in WiMax

For all of you Floridians (or vacationers) out there waiting for some more Florida 4G coverage, Sprint and Clear now have Orlando, Florida covered in WiMax. With this announcement, it makes Orlando the third city in Florida to have the service, coming after Jacksonville and Daytona Beach. The Samsung Epic 4G, HTC Evo 4G, and Sierra Overdrive Mobile Hotspot will all work on the new 4G network in Orlando.

Sprint Launched 4G Coverage in Nashville, Tennessee

Sprint is rapidly expanding 4G coverage across the nation, with their latest addition being Nashville, Tennessee to their coverage area. With the launch in Tennessee, Sprint has coverage in 52 markets, covering cities in California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. There is still no coverage for San Francisco or New York City, which are two huge markets for the service, hopefully they will be launched soon and the service will be even better because of the long wait.
-Sprint Blog

Sprint Expands 4G Coverage Once Again

Sprint launched coverage in three more markets for September. Boston, Massachusetts, Daytona Beach, Florida, and Providence, Rhode Island are all cities that are now covered in WiMax. This means you can use your new Samsung Epic to access 4G speeds in even more places around the country. Hopefully Sprint will launch 4G in New York City within a few weeks, otherwise the Verizon Wireless LTE network might beat them to the punch.

Epic 4G Coming August 31 for $249

For everybody waiting for Sprint's next 4G phone, the Epic 4g now has a release date and pricing. The phone will be released on August 31 for $249 with a mail-in rebate and new two year contract. The phone, a part of the Galaxy S series from Samsung, features a slide out QWERTY keyboard, Android 2.1, and a Super AMOLED display. The phone will also pick up your 4g signals whenever you are in a service area. The phone will also let you chat with your EVO owning friends with a front facing VGA camera in addition to the normal 5 megapixel camera. It also has a mobile hotspot function for five devices and a Samsung 1 GHz processor. Sprint says that the phone will get Froyo (Android 2.2) within the coming months. Engadget/

Sprint 4G Coverage Now In Delaware, Florida, and Michigan

For everybody out there waiting to use your Evo on a 4G network, you might just be covered. Sprint has launched WiMax in Wilmington, Delaware, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Jacksonville, Florida on August second. They have also extended their coverage in California to the cities of Modesto and Stockton. Although the new coverage areas are a great addition to the network, Sprint hasn't announced coverage in other major cities around the nation, including San Francisco and New York, although people have reported their 4G devices detecting and connecting to a 4G network in isolated areas of the city. Hopefully we will see coverage in a few more cities by the time the Epic 4G hits the market. (Sprint)

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)

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)

How T-Mobile Could Save Sprint

It is no doubt that Sprint is trying to make a comeback from their heavy customer losses and customer service issues the company has had in the past. And now that they have become the first U.S. carrier to offer a 4G phone, and the first with a 4G network, it is clear that they are going to try to use WiMax to win back customers and to increase their revenue. But recently, the other carriers, both in the United States and around the globe, have been choosing the competing 4G technology- LTE- over WiMax. What does this mean? Well, if wiMax doesn't have as many subscribers or carriers using it, it means that most phone manufacturers will produce more phones for LTE networks, much like we have already seen with the GSM/CDMA conflict in 3G already. It also means that LTE equipment would be more readily available than WiMax gear, making everything from phones to the tower equipment cheaper than WiMax. So, you ask, what does T-Mobile have to do with this? Well, the company is currently focusing on ramping up it's 3G network before making the jump to 4G, and hasn't selected a technology that they would use for their next network. Their parent company has already picked LTE, but there have been reports lately that T-Mobile is in talks with Sprint/Clear about using their WiMax network for their customers 4G gear. If this is true, and a deal comes around that T-Mobile jumps on the Clear WiMax network (or just plain chooses WiMax over LTE), this could change the game in 4G and for Sprint. Getting another carrier in the United States market to use WiMax would mean more manufacturers would want to make a WiMax phone instead of or in addition to a LTE phone, and mean that another company would be in the mix to help contribute money to network expansion, if they join forces with Sprint and Clear. Many people already consider WiMax to be an outdated technology, or one that will disappear in the next few years, which might be true if T-Mobile decides to go with LTE instead. This could mean that manufacturers wouldn't bother making a WiMax version of phones, or would just make phones for LTE networks. This could lead to many customers migrating away from Sprint and Clear, just to get better and newer phones on other networks. An increase in the pricing of 4G might also become a reality, as Sprint and Clear pay more for their network equipment than LTE carriers, and as customers migrate away to other carriers to get better phones or cheaper prices.

There is nothing decided yet in the 4G wars, and everything is just heating up in the 4G market. Sprint and Clear have established the lead for now, but if other networks can offer 4G with cheaper plans and better devices, then Sprint will be in one big pinch if they don't have a network to back up the pricing and phones.

Sprint Announces First 4G Phone

The rumors have turned out to be true, Sprint has announced their first 4G phone (the first 4G phone in the United States, too) at CTIA just yesterday. Codenamed the Supersonic, the phone is a powerhouse that is running Android 2.1, uses both the 3G and 4G networks of Sprint, has a 1 GHz "Snapdragon" processor, and a huge 4.3" screen. The more advanced features of the phone include the ability to use it as a hotspot for up to eight Wifi devices (much like the Pre and Pixi), HDMI output, an eight megapixel forward facing camera and a 1.3 megapixel camera facing the user of the phone (most likely for video calls). During the presentation at CTIA, multiple Sprint and HTC executives demoed the various features of the device, ranging from streaming HD video from the phone to a TV, using the hotspot feature, playing high definition Youtube videos, and comparing the screen to that of the Droid. If this phone performs even a fraction of what they have been showing at CTIA, it looks like it will be a great competitor to every other smartphone and Android phone currently on the market. One of the major draws of the phone is the speed, not only in the phone itself but of the data. Considering other networks are just going to be getting their 4G going this year, it is a major thing for Sprint to already have a phone supporting the fast service on their network. The Sprint/Clear WiMax network already covers over thirty cities in the United States, with more cities to be getting the service this year. The 4G speeds on the device seem to be as fast as ever, and Sprint has said the battery life will be "comparable". No release date or pricing have been announced for this phone yet, but hopefully we will see this phone sooner rather than later, as it just might be Sprint's phone to get them back in the wireless game. (Sprint)(Engadget)(Sprint)

More Cities Confirmed for Sprint 4G in 2010

Multiple cities are going to be receiving the gift of 4G this year. Here is the list:
-Boston
-Denver
-Kansas City
-New York City
-San Francisco
-Houston
-Minneapolis
-Washington D.C.
With some of these major cities, Sprint should hopefully see a rise in it's 4G customers, especially with the many people that live in San Francisco and New York. (Engadget)

Sprint Most Reliable 3G Network (In a Tie)

PC World has conducted another test of the Big Four national carriers, and Sprint is the most reliable again (in a tie with AT&T that is). They got perfect reliability in three of the cities that PC World tested in, and they only dropped below 80% in a few cities. In addition to being the most reliable in some of the cities, they also have 4G up and running in some of those cities, which is a bonus if you live in a Sprint 4G city. Although they didn't have the highest speeds out of all the carriers, they have improved their reliability from last year (about 90%) four percent (to about 94%). Overall, all the carriers saw improvements in their networks. Sprint increased their speed in some cities, but were starting to drop in speed in a few that they haven't upgraded their 3G network in. AT&T got the best 3G speeds in almost every city that PC World tested, increasing by more than 100% in some cities. But if you are looking for coverage and reliability in your network, look to Sprint, which has already started on their 4G network and have almost twice the 3G footprint of AT&T and more than eight times more than T-Mobile. (PC World)