HTC Mobile Phones - EVO Sprint - Overview

HTC Mobile Phones - EVO Sprint - Overview

I should rename my blog The Evo Fan Page, I love this phone. The other day we received two beautiful white Evo 4Gs and the Evo Shift 4G for my daughter, in a word wow! These are the most gorgeous phones I've ever seen, the white backing on the Evo is as elegant as a Ferrari. Ivy opted for the Shift because she loves to have a real keyboard, while not as big as the regular Evo it is still a work of art and lightning fast to boot.

I can't put this phone down, its just a pleasure to use this device. Every app runs like a dream and the live wallpapers look amazing. Finally a device that does hwat you want when you want it done. Press the camera button and it instantly opens and is ready to shoot, there is no hesitation whatsoever no matter what you want to do. This phone browses the internet faster than my home PC, its just amazing folks.

Speaking of the camera it is 8 megapixels and the shift has a 5 megapixel camera, these phones take fantastic photos and have brilliant flashes as well. The Evo has a front facing camera which the Shift does not so now we can use the awesome video chat program Qik for Android. The video quality was nothing short of greatness and even tho the Shift doesn't have a front camera it still can make video calls and just hold it to a mirror and you dont have to turn it around to show yourself lol.

The first place i went after Fedex dropped the phones off was to buy cases at Best Buy. I wasn't impressed with the selection, it would be better to order online but we needed protection for them asap. We did get lucky and I am super pleased with my Otter Box Commuter series case and Ivy loves the white case from Rocketfish for the Shift. I'm a little sad that I can't see my white phone in the black case but I will eventually order a clear case online so I can see the beautiful white back cover with red and chrome accents.

Well thats it for the moment, I have lots more I want to say about my first impressions with my new Evo. I will add to this post later but if you are with Sprint or switching carriers then I higly recommend the HTC Evo 4G or the HTC Evo Shift 4G with physical keyboard.

I also suggest buying phones from Wirefly they have deals for every carrier and their prices and selection of phones can't be beat, not even by buying directly from the carriers themselves. For example had i bought my phones from Sprint they would have cost several hundred dollars with a new 2 year contract but on Wirefly they were all free. We are talking three of the most powerful devices on the market that retail for $599.00 each for free, try getting the inferior iPhone with that kind of deal.

Let me also mention that 4G service is a lifesaver, its like taking your home wi-fi on the road. I can watch a movie streamed from Netflix in my car on the highway in high definition 720p without so much as a stutter. 4G service from Sprint costs an additional 10 dollars and is mandatory with a 4g device. People pay 50 dollars a month for Wimax in their homes from Clearwire and it is slower than Sprint's 4G service. You can use an Evo to connect your home computers to the Internet and do away with your home internet service provider if you really wanted to.

The only reason I believe HTC is letting these phones go for such great deals is the Evo 3D was just released. I would have liked to get the 3D version but for $179.00 I passed, at this stage I think its just a gimmick anyway.

HTC Mobile Phones - EVO Sprint - Overview

HTC Mobile Phones - EVO Sprint - Overview

This post is just a heads up as I can't give a review until I receive these phones on Tuesday. Yep I just ordered an HTC Evo 4G for myself and an Evo Shift 4G for my daughter Ivy.

I would have liked to have gotten the new Evo 3D but at a cost of $179.00 with a 2 year contract as opposed to the regular Evo for free the choice was easy.

Besides the 3D version won't really have any apps to take advantage of 3D so except for taking 3D pictures your not missing out too much. Well that's it for now, I will update this post when the phones come in with an in depth review.

Waiting it out, why you should save your money for now.

Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, Android, iPhone, iPad, iPad2, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, Laptops, Netbooks, Tablets, cell phones, Macs, PCs. If your reading this you have if not one at least two or three of these devices, so why do you need to buy anything else right now? The answer is you don't and in my opinion you should wait although I have three exceptions to this rule.

There are three items I can say you can go for right now, one is if you don't have a tablet and really want one then there is no reason to wait. The iPad is the only tablet worth owning and will be for a very long time, there is no reason to hold out for better since nothing will come close for at least a year or more.

The second item is if you have an upgrade coming for a cellphone and your either with Sprint or you just don't want an iPhone then you should efinitely check out the new lineup from HTC. The new Evo 3D phones are very exciting and HTC makes one of the best products in the world.

The 3rd item is an add on for the Xbox 360 and its called the Kinect, I believe it to be one of the best purchases a gamer can make. There are a slew of new games coming that will utilize its full capabilities and change video gaming at home immensely.

So if you fit one of those three situations you can part with some of your hard earned cash now, if not then save it for next year. 2012 will see a next generation console appear from at least one of the three titans of the home console market. We will see the release of iPad 3, iPhone 5 and finally see Android stable enough to match the specs of some of the better devices using it.

New Story tomorrow

Hello to anyone that has been reading my blog and thank you so much for coming back! I was busy today and am picking up my new motorcycle tonight so I will hopefully be able to post some new stuff late tonight.

Please come back tomorrow and I promise a cool story about something, thank you again and have a wonderful night!

Picture of bike, a Suzuki Boulevard C50

Fathers Day Gadget gift ideas

This post is to help some sons and daughters out there decide what to get their dads for Fathers Day, being a dad and loving cool gadgets maybe I can help.

It doesn't matter how old our dad is, they all love neat new items, my dad is 79 and had I not talked him out of it he would have purchased a net book on QVC 2 weeks ago.

The question usually is not what would your dad really want but what you can afford to get him so lets keep this to under 150 dollars.



The first choice is the iPod Nano, this music player has been around forever and the design has changed over time but it still is king when it comes to mp3 players. Its so small and lightweight that you can clip it on anywhere, its the perfect music device for going to the gym, cycling or for a jog.

Not much else to say, it has the genius feature to create play lists and shake to shuffle songs. If your dad likes to listen to music and exercises in any way then its the perfect gift. If you order it by June 15th on the Apple website they promise delivery by Fathers Day.

$150.00 might be a little much so lets try and find something a bit cheaper, how about the boogie Board from Brookstone's online store? No its not for surfing the waves, its an LCD writing tablet.

Just like the memo boards we use with dry erase markers except you use a stylus on the pressure sensitive LCD screen, whatever you draw on it will stay there until the reset button is pressed to clear it all away. For $39.95 its a great gadget at a great price, but is it something your dad would use.

So we have a kind of expensive gift and a pretty decently priced gift so far, lets find one more choice. All dads were once boys and that means no matter how old we get we love toys, also from Brookstone check out this toy for $59.95.

The uControl Cloud Force RC Helicopter! Years ago buying a remote controlled helicopter would cost a fortune, use gas and be dangerous as hell. These small, safe and sturdy little guys are popping up all over. I've seen this one in action and its definitely a blast to play with and easy to get the hang of. As with the other Brookstone product if you order between June 14th and 16th they will get it to your dad in time.

So those are my three choices to get you started but there a quite are quite a few cool things at the Brookstone site, I recommend taking a look.

Thinking of buying a Tablet? Either my story will change your mind or you might fall in love with the Asus Eee Pad Transformer

Since the iPad came out every company has scrambled to get in on the action using Android's operating system. Two problems for those brave souls that didn't jump on the Apple bandwagon, either you ended up with an inferior product by saving money or you bought a worthy tablet but the Android market just didn't have the apps to support it. On top of that until recently Android tablets didn't have their own dedicated Android OS, instead relying on the same software running the Android smart phones.

Well all that has changed recently with the release of Android 3.0 Honeycomb, created from the ground up to run on Android Tablets exclusively. Since its release app publishers have been busy porting and creating software to run on the new operating system so if you buy one of the newer, better devices you can actually do things on it.

Just a word of advice, if you see a tablet for $199.00 somewhere please don't buy it. They have these horribly made 7 inch screen devices from the off brand likes of Coby and now offer what is probably the cheapest tablet yet, the one hundred dollar tablet from a company named the Maylong M-150. If you buy one of these I can guarantee you are just ending up with a piece of junk that is so underpowered and cheaply made it will have a hard time running any graphics intensive app and won't be able to run anything but the oldest Android operating system.

If you want something that will give you a wonderful entertainment experience and do everything as good or better than the Apples, you have to buy a Tablet that runs Honeycomb. You won't find these for anything less than 300 dollars and the better ones begin at $399.00. I personally have one recommendation at this time if your looking to purchase a Tablet other than Apple's iPad or iPad 2 and that is the Asus Eee Pad Transformer.

The Asus is powered by the new 1 GHz Nvidia dual core Tegra 2 processor, meaning it will run anything you throw at it and Honeycomb without any hiccups. The cheapest model has 16GB of internal memory and costs $398.00 at Walmart. The reason its called the Transformer is you can purchase a dock with built in keyboard for an additional $79.00, basically transforming the tablet into a very powerful netbook.

So for 400 bucks you can buy this great tablet or spend near 500 with the dock and keyboard option or you could choose a different option. I feel the same way about Tablets as I did about netbooks when they came out, why spend money on this when I could get a laptop for the same price?

I'm still trying to figure out why would you spend over 400 dollars for something that is half as powerful as a laptop and can't do half the things it can either. What does a tablet have that a laptop doesn't? A touch screen would be the obvious difference and the size would be next. Then of course the tablets don't run Windows and they are thriving on our want for apps made popular first by Apple and then by Android.

The thing is there isn't anything you can do on any tablet that you can't do on a laptop or the newer more powerful netbooks yet there are tons of things you can do on the latter that the tablets can only dream of. Laptops are just portable versions of our home computers and in many cases we have a better laptop than our home PC. Netbooks are getting more powerful and cheaper and some are nearing their bigger Laptop cousins in terms of speed and storage.

I love playing devils advocate, on the one hand I love tablets. I think they are cool and definitely a great gadget to own, on the other hand I find it hard to justify spending so much money on something when I can get a netbook or laptop that costs the same or less and can do so much more.

So what should you do? If you want a tablet now and your set on Android over Apple then I suggest the Asus Eee Pad Transformer. If you don't have a laptop or netbook then I advise you to at least check them out at your local big name store before laying out your hard earned cash. No matter which choice you make as long as you stay away from the cheap stuff you will surely enjoy whichever one you decide on.

Here is a photo of the Asus in all of its configurations, notice the keyboard even has a touch pad built in. It truly becomes a full fledged netbook when docked, just remember its running Android and not Windows.

Buy what now?

I read constantly on the Internet and my favorite topic is technology. I love to read stories and see pictures of the cool gadgets that are coming soon but waiting is hard and sometimes these mock ups never arrive. Like the auto industry many companies show off products at the big electronics shows only for that futuristic concept to hit the streets as something a little less daring.

This generates lots of hype and that's what Silicon Valley is all about, get the populaces mouths watering and by the time the product hits the street they forget what was promised to begin with. So today I want to talk about a couple of awesome items, gadgets you can run down to Target and purchase right now that won't break the bank.

Released just two months ago in America, the Nintendo 3DS is the latest reiteration of the best selling handheld game system of all time, selling over 4 million units in its first month on the shelves.

The 3DS is not for everyone, although you can browse the Internet it really has only one job and that is playing games. While almost all other gadgets hitting the streets are aimed at filling all of our wants in one package, Nintendo is sticking to a gaming only experience. The selling point however is 3D gaming and without glasses no less.

Owners of Nintendo's previous DS handhelds don't need to spend money to replace their current machines unless they want to experience 3D gaming, I suggest trying the system first at the display kiosks in your local stores. Some people become nauseous looking at 3D images in motion, the 3DS has a slider to lessen the 3D effect or turn it off completely.

It looks like its predecessor the DS lite except for the addition of two rear facing cameras for taking 3D pictures and one front facing camera. There is also a new analog thumb stick and different power button.

Nintendo has announced the 3DS will have Netflix beginning this summer and a deal with AT&T to provide free wifi at over 10,000 locations. The system is surely capable of video chat but as of now there is no word about it from Nintendo, perhaps we will see Skype or something similar in the future.

At $250.00 the Nintendo 3DS is not cheap, rumors are their will be a price drop if sales slow as they have since launch due to the less than impressive amount of games available and functions that won't be active until sometime this summer.

It is an awesome little gadget and provides a true 3D gaming experience, coupled with the ability to stream Netflix and have fun with the 3D cameras as well as future apps that will surely make their way to it. If this all sounds good to you then go for it, if not then save that $250.00 and spend it on something else, maybe the next item I'm going to talk about.



Oh Apple, you guys like Nintendo know how to take something and make it better. I'm not talking about the iPad 2 but the new iPod Touch 4th generation. So whats new? video chat firstly, via Facetime. Yes you can now communicate in real time with an iPod visually and vocally as long as your connected to wifi and your communicating with another iPod, iPhone 4 or iPad 2. You could also opt to use Skype and connect to anyone else using Skype.

If thats not enough to grab your attention they added high def video recording at 720p although the still camera is pretty lame at less than 1 megapixel and no flash. With the available video editing software you can take amazing HD videos and play them back at home or edit on the fly and upload them to YouTube.

As far as processing speed there isn't much difference, they do use a different chip in the new iPod Touch but it runs at the same speed as the 3rd gen but since there was no need for more power as all apps worked smoothly this was obviously not something that needed to be changed.

There are a few other goodies such as a gyroscope for motion gaming and retina display, this is a feature that prevents pixelization which means seamless video in games and movies. The price for all of this Apple goodness? just over $200.00 for the cheapest 8gb model. If all you ever wanted was the previous model to play all those wonderful apps and you don't have a need for the new features then now is the time to grab a used one on eBay or Craigslist.

With all those owners having upgraded over the past few months you can snap one up for $100.00 on eBay or maybe get one for $75.00 like I did locally on Craigslist.

My advice is if you want the ability to video chat either via Facetime with other Apple owners or using Skype or you would love to take HD videos and have a visually more appealing experience on your iPod, then the new iPod Touch is for you. If you don't need or wouldn't use those features and just want the ability to use all of those wonderful apps out there, grab a used iPod Touch and save a hundred bucks for the next cool gadget.

So there you have it, two very cool gadgets. One is made for gaming either in good old 2D or 3D with Netflix, Internet and possibly some as yet to be known surprises. The other can play thousands of games and make use of thousands more apps from Apple as well as take high definition videos and a host of other features. Both are well made and sure to bring enjoyment to almost anyone. Its a tough choice but no matter which way you decide, you win!

Just an afterthought, you could also purchase a used iPhone and use it as an iPod Touch. My sister gave me her old iPhone 3rd Generation because she upgraded to an iPhone 4. I am with Sprint and use an Android but this doesn't mean I can't use it for everything else except phone calls. Simply put the phone in Airplane mode and connect to your wifi and your up and running, you can use any app you want and the phone has a camera whereas anything but the new 4th gen iPod touch does not.

So now I have an Apple to play with and test apps on to review on my blogs, its also always nice to have another gadget to browse the internet with and check emails. I'm looking forward to comparing apps that are available both on Android and Apple. Ok thats it for now I promise, have a wonderful day!