After spending a full week with this phone on the road, and 1 week off, I have some updates to my original notes.
- Battery life. I’ve had laptops that go longer on a charge than this phone does when it’s being used. During MTTS, some days I was lucky if it went 2 hours on a charge, but that was with heavy network and video use. Back at home base, I was able to completely drain the battery in less than 6 without using the camera or 3g.
- Reliability. Another minor issue is that this device decided when it will and won’t work. Sure, will work is 97% of the time, but it’s the other 3% that come up EXACTLY when I need it work.
- Crash prone. I don’t have a gazillion apps running or installed, but this phone sure gets crashy, especially when, wait for it…., it’s making phone calls. Not very cool.
- Battery charging. It would appear that the only way to effectively charge this device is by using the OEM charger. Sure it will charge over USB, but it takes, literally, over night to complete, if you are lucky.
- More about the battery. It would also appear that letting the battery go completely dead isn’t such a great thing for this device. It happened to me last week and I ended up having to do a complete factory restore to make it work again. Again, not cool.
- If I’m not mentioning it here, then it works pretty great, including the camera and the network (except in Denver)
- HTC Auto-correct. A brilliant piece of software engineering, but you really need to mind when it is putting on your screen to avoid too many Drunk Mustards.
I’m still compiling notes for a full review. I also want to get a call into tech support to see if the problems I’m having are particular to the phone or unique to me. I still think it’s an ok device but am starting to think that either I will be needing to switch back to the Blackberry for the battery life/reliability or purchase a charger for every room/car that I will be carrying the phone in as well as putting in the larger 1700mh battery.
Spending a fair amount of time out and about lately. Which is to say that I haven’t been anywhere near my Mac or an Internet connection, short of email/Facebook access from the Blackberry. Boy would it be handy if I had Internet access while out in the field. So I’ve been checking prices and I’m not happy with what I have found.
My local Starbucks use AT&T for wifi internet connectivity. I can buy 2 hour blocks for $4 or sign up for an account, locked into a 1 year contract for $20 per month. I could also add tethering to the Blackberry. For the ability to do this, Verizon will gladly charge me an additional $30 per month, again on a 1 year contract. While I’m not terribly keen on either of these, AT&T is appealing because it’s $10 a month cheaper, but I would be stuck getting access at Starbucks. Verizon is as well because I know the service is good and I would have the flexibility to access anywhere as long as I have a USB cable.
There is a new option that I will be researching this weekend as well. As it turns out, since I am a Verizon FiOS customer, they are offering WiFi connectivity free at select locations. From what I understand, I only need install an app on my computer to use for connecting. I think this would be the way to go, mostly because I’m such a big fan of free.
I am curious as to how you connect when mobile via computer (not iPhone).
I keep getting ideas for a post, but then I decided against them for whatever reason. So you get this today instead.
The Sunday List Post, 2nd Edition
- My new favorite thing is Tweetie for Mac. Supports multiple twitter accounts, is sleek, lightweight and works very well.
- In case you missed it, windthefrog.net is back, pulling duty as a tumblr.
- I’m back on Vimeo. With Facebook support and about the best HD video experience, I had to. Might even go Pro fairly soon too.
- I wasn’t lying. The EeePC is for sale if anyone wants a deal. It’s a great machine, just not great for me. Too bad I realized it a week after I could return it. Contact me for more info.
- I have three WordPress projects on the go right now. 2 are done, 1 is close. Don’t worry, you’ll be seeing them soon enough. One of them is a very nice blog theme that I’m going to make available for download.
- I almost have v2.5 of this sites theme ready to go. So far, it’s coming along nicely and I think you will really like it.
- The Blackberry is finally behaving and I can’t help getting excited about the possibility of an ATP on Verizon in the somewhat-near furture.
- I took the Canon down to the beach last week and got some pretty good footage. Plus I’ll be working on a new project for my Grandfather that is video related this coming week. Should be cool .
That’s it really. At least that’s it for now. Follow along at Twitter or the Tumblr for stuff I’m finding interesting on a daily basis.
