Getting The Most From Your EVO

Sprint TV is one of those “bloatware” apps that drives most people crazy. It does nothing more than take up valuable storage space and slowing the EVO down to a snail’s pace. Not us though. We figure it’s time to stand up for Mr. Sprint and their little apps.

Sprint TV is a very valuable asset to your EVO and there are a few reasons why you should use it regularly. We know that you can go directly to ABC’s website and watch the Flash version of Nightly News and enjoy it on the wonderful browser on the EVO. What you don’t think about is the non-compressed videos will drain your battery faster than the streamlined ‘mobile TV’ versions that Sprint runs through Sprint TV. You also have the added benefit of not using as much data bandwidth, which ultimately keeps costs lower for all users.

Sprint TV also features more programming options that most of the mobile internet sites and has more children’s programming available on demand as well. Your kids can snuggle up in the backseat of the car on the ride home and watch Phineas and Ferb, Hannah Montana or even the Veggie Tales (with a premium subscription) on that gorgeous screen.

The menu system is easy enough to navigate, although, it can be laggy at times. A simple swipe will access the darker “subscribed” channels and the lighter “subscription required” channels.

Once you are in and watching your show, the picture quality is quite good on a decent 3G connection and even better on a solid 4G connection. The rumors of Sprint TV not working on 4G are untrue and are probably due to the lack of a solid 4G connection. Everywhere we’ve tried to use Sprint TV with 4G coverage the performance has been phenomenal.

The picture quality for Sprint TV is dependent on your connection speed. The slower the connection, the choppier and more pixelated the images are. With a poor 3G connection, videos take longer to load and are still watchable, but noticeable pixelation occurs throughout the video. The other annoyance with slower connections is the lack of audio sync between the video and sound tracks.

The biggest issue that we have with Sprint TV is that you are not able to use the service over WiFi indoors. It seems like a stupid move on Sprint’s part, but by only allowing access to the streams from their network, it does keep hackers and pirates out of their TV streams, which again, minimizes network strain and keeps costs lower.

Sprint TV is a free service that is included with your data plan. It also includes free Sprint Radio service, which is a Sprint alternative to Slacker or Pandora – without the extra frills and skipping options. Sprint TV also includes multiple options for subscribing to additional content with channels and packages ranging from $.99 to $19.99 a month. Sprint TV Xtra is the most popular option of their paid add-on packages for $9.99 a month.

Overall, Sprint TV’s free package gives you some great entertainment on the road for nothing. With free access to NCIS, Survivor, ESPN (live), Royal Pains, In Plain Sight, Private Practice, No Ordinary Family and dozens of other full episode broadcasts you can afford to try something new.

Sprint TV is currently on your EVO and a great show is just a few clicks away. Enjoy the freedom of watching something new during your commute on the bus or train.

Tell Us What You’d Like To Know…

With the Evo beginning to fade away, we’d love to know what you want to know to get the most of your device. You can ask us any questions: hardware, apps, features or anything your heart desires.

Simply submit your question in a comment or by contacting us today via email. You ask it, we’ll answer it.

How Quickly The Evo Is Forgotten

Call it brilliance, call it an error, but with the announcement of the HTC Sensation today, the EVO family is all but forgotten in the headlines. Whether you are talking tablets, phones or deals, nothing is being said about the comparison between the soon-to-be Evo 3D and the Sensation.

Both devices will be running the newest dual-core 1.2Ghz processor and Android 2.3 with Sense 3.0. They both have the 4.3” qHD screen for an amazing viewing experience. Of course, from there the devices change slightly in the Sensation having the 8MP camera like the original EVO vs. the dual 5MP “3D” cameras of the Evo 3D. The devices themselves are all but identical from there.

Even with the dominance of the dual-core processors, the EVO still holds it own against these ‘modern’ powerhouse devices. While tests like the quadrant score or other benchmark testing may show the unbelievable numbers advantage of the newer devices, the original still has little lag and is ‘scheduled’ for one last update before it is abandoned to obscurity. The original EVO makes a case for itself as one of the longest lifespan devices.

If/When the EVO gets the Android 2.3/Sense 3.0 update, assuming that it is able to run the 3.0 version of Sense, it will feel like a new phone one more time. If not, most EVO owners will be faced with the fact that their device isn’t the fastest, but still might be the best – since most of the major issues have been worked out for months. The battery will always be a problem, especially with 4G, but it’s a small price to pay for such an amazing device.

All. Together. Now. Ads Coming From Sprint

Since this is all about the EVO, and all things EVO come from Sprint – it only makes sense to cover their new ‘EVO-Hocking’ ad campaign. Now, whether you are toting a new EVO or holding out for the new EVO 3D, it’s pretty simple to see what Sprint is offering and how you can use it.

Sprint’s new message is all about what you can do and what you can share from your device. If you are posting to Facebook, sharing to twitter or even uploading a video to YouTube, the EVO and its Sprint counterparts can do it all.

The newest advertising blitz from Sprint includes something that we consider to be the greatest idea in recent history. They have recruited the help of someone you wouldn’t necessarily think of when marketing data-centric smartphones in a 100 year old named Veatrice. Using your Sprint device, you can wish Veatrice a happy 100th Birthday over and over again – for no extra or hidden charges!

While this is something that may seem stupid, it does a great job of showing what you can do with your EVO. Want to wish Veatrice a happy birthday via text, it’s included. Rather give her a call, her mobile is a free call too – regardless of her network. Have a bit more to say, but don’t have time to call – fire off an email because that’s included too. You could even Facebook her or Tweet her using your unthrottled data plan, because that’s included too.

Overall, $79.99 for the EVO with the premium data plan added on, means you can keep in touch with your loved ones, take care of all your business and even use your device for fun – all without having to worry about any overages or anything else besides your $80 a month bill.

If you haven’t taken advantage of the amazing EVO yet and you want the most powerful device on a spectacular network, check out our online partner site GetSmartphones.info for an amazing price.

How Good Is The Evo For Vacation?

I have to admit that I have a lot of toys. I have the HD camcorder. I have the Sony DSLR with enough lenses to make you do a double-take. I have the portable hard drives, the laptop and the professional level gear that makes people look at me funny at the zoo too. But then I got my EVO, and this is why most of it stays at home now.

The first image you are looking at is an image taken with the EVO of the Pike Place Market in Seattle. The image was shot in color, then edited – on the EVO – in PicSayPro. PicSayPro was the free Amazon App of the Day a few days ago so I thought I’d put this to the test. So, the color image above was taken to black and white and used the Pop Colors effect to make the neon in the sign appear.

This image was taken while on a photo shoot with our professional gear. We met a family at the Snoqualmie Railway Museum and began shooting. After we wrapped up, I took a simple snapshot with my EVO and then started the editing. The antique look of this when it was finished made it look like a beautiful image from the 1800’s, not from a cell phone camera.

Probably the most common question I get is how well does the EVO handle people. Well, with a bit of fun, you can even make your toddler stand out in a field of bright yellow flowers. By once again, using the Pop Colors effect, the entire image is flipped to black and white. Simply tracing over the child in the image, her colors come back to life and she stands out of what was a very busy image.

The last image was taken at the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. This was simply a ground level shot of the daffodils that were in bloom early on. While there wasn’t anything special about it, by dropping the vantage point below the flowers, it makes them the dominant part of the photo. By increasing the saturation, contrast and adding a dark vignette, it took a normal image and made it extraordinary. The contrast and saturation adjustment can be made from your EVO’s main menu in the camera app.

So, while the EVO might not replace a full array of professional gear, you can certainly make do with it in a pinch. Plus, with applications like PicSayPro on board, you can even edit your snapshots into something more fun – and post them right to your Facebook page or photo-sharing account.

Why You Should Install All The Free Apps From The Amazon Appstore

We’ve been stalking the Amazon Appstore since day one with all their wonderful freebie apps coming day after day. While a ‘Free App A Day’ sounds wonderful, eventually, your poor EVO is going to get crushed under the weight of all those apps. Free is still free though, and that is a hard price to beat for programs that usually cost $3 or $5 each.

Still, the EVO only has so much storage space, and the more you use, the more sluggish your phone gets. Fortunately, we found a super secret, well maybe not so secret, but an amazingly cool trick. The first part of this trick is to realize that Amazon “bills” you for your “purchase” of your apps. The free app of the day is no exception to this rule. Once you purchase your free app, you will receive a receipt. This receipt works just like a purchase at the regular Market, where you can easily access your transaction again

What this means to you, the end user, is that you can reinstall any app that you ‘purchase’ from Amazon via the “My Downloads” page at anytime. Yes, that is correct. If you uninstall one of those apps, all you need to do is log back in to the Appstore App and reinstall it – for free.

The Amazon store doesn’t feature the selection that the Android Market does, but with a free installable/uninstallable app coming everyday, this app is a must have for every EVO owner. The best part about the Appstore is that you don’t even have to finish the install on the app for the first time to save the ‘purchase’. If you click on the daily link, you simply complete the purchase and choose to “cancel” instead of installing the app after downloading.

So head on over to the Appstore at Amazon.com and get your free apps for as long as they are offering them, whether you think you need them or not.

Can I Really Get It All For $80 A Month?

When you are using your EVO, the first question that most people ask is, “Is there any way to make this cheaper every month?” Well, in short, the answer is not really. You will see people that purchased the phone at $500 and now just use it on WiFi at home and blah, blah, blah… But in reality, you can’t use your EVO for under $80 a month.

Now, there are some great ideas you can do to make it a bit of a money saver to your home. First off, if you are a light internet user, the Sprint HotSpot app allows you to use your EVO as a wireless router for your home devices. The cost on this is $30 and is great if you are the only user. I don’t recommend this if you are out of a 4G area or if you are a heavy Nexflixer, but for the average “Facebooker/Twitterer” this is a great solution. This can save you as much as $50 a month in home internet fees through companies like Comcast or $15 off the Clear price for the same service.

The next piece of the puzzle is you can use your device as your camera/camcorder pretty well. If you are taking snapshots and home video, the quality is excellent. You can share these over Wi-Fi to the internet or again using your phone connection, you can upload them directly to YouTube, Picasa, Facebook and more.

The barebones package that Sprint offers on the EVO is, unfortunately, $79.99 a month plus taxes. This covers almost everything your EVO can and will do, including unlimited data, both 3G and 4G.

Now, a knock against the EVO is that it is not a worldphone, or a phone that will work overseas. To live life to the fullest, simply get over there, turn off your voice connection and use a VoIP solution like VoIPBuster or Skype while on Wi-Fi. You can use this service to make free calls to many countries and other users.

Many hotels and public venues worldwide offer a free Wi-Fi internet connection and VoIPBuster requires one of the lowest bandwidths of any of the low cost VoIP providers. You can also use services like this at home when you are close to using all of your included land-line minutes.

5 Minute App Review: BackBreaker Football

Armchair quarterbacks unite! Backbreaker Football from Natural Motion puts you in control of a touchdown scoring machine.

Using your device’s accelerometer, you control the speed and direction of your running back as he faces an uphill climb to the endzone against computerized foes. Thrown in a few presses of the spin and juke buttons and you are on your way to MVP status.

As you progress through the game, more opponents are blocking the path to glory, and the path to get there takes some twists and turns as well.

Overall, this game is a must have for sports fans, and a completely entertaining experience on most higher end devices. Take note of the resolution and processor of your device before you order.

Backbreaker Football: 4.5 out of 5  -  $4.99 in the Market and the Amazon Appstore

 

This review originally appeared at http://www.smartphonereport.info/2010/09/24/app-review-backbreaker-football/ on September 24, 2010.

5 Minute App Review: Coin Pirates

Coin Pirates from Nubee games is quite the mix of strategy and carinval like fun. The premise for the game is rather simple – launch your coins down to the ‘playing area’ where the ‘pusher’ shoves them off the end of the ‘deck’ and you collect them.

The overall goal is to complete the map by unlocking treasures and collections. You find the treasures and collection items by dropping your coins into the ‘slot machine’ inserts on the pusher. Once a coin is dropped in to the insert, the reels begin to spin. If you get three matching items on the wheel, the item is dropped on to the deck. If you are lucky enough to push it off the end, before it falls off the side, you get that treasure item added to your collections.

It’s a simple concept game, and overall is a great way to kill that time on that long commute, provided you aren’t driving. It brings all the fun of Vegas slots, the county fair and tosses in a bit of pirate excitement and rolls it all in to one tight little package. This game is a must have, although we look forward to a paid version since we absolutely despise those rolling ads that eat our battery during play, for anyone looking for something besides Angry Birds to entertain themselves. Our only complaint is that it can get old fast, if it doesn’t hook you first…

Coin Pirates: 3.5 our of 5  -  Free (ad supported) in the Android Market or Amazon Appstore

Why Is My Evo Slowing Down?

One of the most common complaints with the Evo is when it begins to slow down and not react when you swipe, poke or prod it. It's frustrating to users on two fronts as you can't get it to do what you want it to, and it doesn't operate correctly if the resources aren't available. So, the big question is, how to fix this problem?
Smartphones used to require a reset every day, or more, to operate well. The Evo is not even close to needing this done so often, although, it doesn't hurt anything to power cycle it daily. The average user should get 72 hours of use without any noticeable lag or slowing of Sense. If you are a heavy app user, your internal memory management software may not release all your programs from the RAM of the device and you will be left with few programs that keep running.

While this isn't a problem for most, rogue apps have been popping up more and more often and controlling them is a great way to keep your Evo healthy. Watch for apps that start up with the device - being careful not to kill necessary system processes like many task managers do.

The best way in our opinion, and we know the round and round argument that has been placed around the task killer debate, is to maintain your apps yourself. Create a short-cut to the "Manage Applications" section on your device by selecting "+" from the Sense bar, then "Shortcut", then "Settings", and finally "Manage Applications". This gives you one touch access to your installed and running apps. Touch the "Running" tab at the top of the screen to see the apps currently using resources. Ignore apps that you use regularly as the second you touch them, they will begin using resources again, but touch each app you don't use and select "Force Close" from the screen that follows. This will free up those resources currently being used by those apps.

The other basic care procedure you should follow to keeping your Evo bright and happy on the inside is a simple power cycle every 3-4 days. Think of your Evo as a baby computer that needs to be reset every once in a while. Another tip to remember is that most apps do not require a restart, but your Evo will always benefit from one. After you've installed a number of new programs, give it a quick reboot just to let everything settle. You never know what is sitting in that active memory.

Finally, the last care and feeding tip for keeping your Evo running smooth is to clear your Twitter/Facebook/Browser cache about once a week. This will keep the storage clear and your required app memory at a minimum. If you have many different programs for keeping pace with your social networking, look at some of the cache clearing apps that are available. We don't use them, but it might do the trick for some of you with issues gettting everything cleared.