The internet answer... part 2!

Don't know if anybody sprung for the new EVO 4G that we had talked about a month ago. *Well I did x 2....one for the wife. *I can say that it is a powerful device as far as cellphones go, *The 1ghz processor is worth it alone. *It is super snappy even over 3G....obviously processor speed is still a limiting factor over 3G. *I did not pay for the hotspot feature although there are ways to get around that and I have seen that it works quite well!!! *The phone in 4G coverage areas is basically at desktop speed. *Anyway, the real issue was whether or not this would replace an expensive aircard....and I would say that the answer to that question is a resounding YES!!! *Not to mention the 8MP camera or it being flash enabled or it shooting video in 720p HD or that it has an HDMI(mini) out so you can watch that HD on an HD viewing device(ie big TV). *Has it had some growing pains....absolutely. *But overall, it is an amazing device....oh and it has a front facing camera that is skype enabled so you can video chat over skype on your phone!!!!!...CRAZY!!!

Once Verizon has the 4G, I will look around at pricing and probably switch to a "fancy" phone thingy basically because I can replace my aircard. Read a great review on this the other day.

And take the negative reviews with a grain of salt. You know how the mainstream media is tilted towards Obama to the point of wanting to puke??? Well the tech media is tilted towards Apple in the same fashion. It is disgusting and there is alot of hating going on out there because the poor little iPhone is feeling the heat. Even the new iPhone4 will still come up short....quite a bit short. Anyway, not hating on the iPhone. It is an excellent device. Glad it is out there because it forces other makers to step up there game and then it forces Apple to do the same.

Did you see that Apple is going to require you to activate the tracking feature so they know where you are always in order to download any aps? Talk about big brother! And it's not even the gummit!

Baker wrote:Anyway, the real issue was whether or not this would replace an expensive aircard....and I would say that the answer to that question is a resounding YES!!!*

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As I stated ealier, I bought my wife an Android EVO for her birthday. We have an iPad (non 3g) that requires you to be in a WiFi area in order to access the internet. With the EVO and its WiFi Hot Spot, you can access the internet anywhere you have a Sprint signal. (ipads, laptops, etc) It works in our car, the boat, anywhere! With an 8 pixel camera, the photos are fantastic and can be e-mailed at the touch of the appropriate button on the screen. This phone solves a multitude of problems of staying in touch for us and I heartily recommend it for the coastal cruising crowd. Though it is 4g enabled, (there are only 27 cities that have 4G at the the present time) it works flawlessly everywhere else. The only problem we have encountered so far is it can do soo many things (ie; nav package, etc.) that it's quite possible that we are only using 10% of it's capability. In my opinion, it's the greatest invention since GPS.

Syndicated radio talk show host, Leo Laport.. the Tech guy, rates it as his favorite "smart phone."

Conclusion: No more air cards, laptops, satelite phones, etc. needed on our boat!


-- Edited by SeaHorse II on Tuesday 22nd of June 2010 11:09:34 AM

-- Edited by SeaHorse II on Tuesday 22nd of June 2010 11:11:07 AM

I feel ya Walt. I am pretty damn giddy about this thing. It is an awesome device.

"It works in our car, the boat, anywhere!"

Come on down , to our place in FLA.

At night we have an unobstructed 20 mile view to the East for 180deg.

Not a single light!

Maybe someday , but since "anywhere" includes NOWHERE ,

it might be a long wait to get even simple cell phone service .

FF wrote:Maybe someday , but since "anywhere" includes NOWHERE ,

it might be a long wait to get even simple cell phone service .

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Sorry to hear that FF. The solitude, however, just might be a hell of a lot more valuable than the cell service.

*

"The solitude, however, just might be a hell of a lot more valuable than the cell service."



Believe it or not , there was phone service before cell phones.

In out no where in FL they still have thin copper wires hooked up to each and (almost) every house.

Of course for internet its either dial up or SAT.

Hughes Sat works pretty well, except in daily thunderstorms , but CB are mostly a summer problem, and we are gone all summer.

When folks ask for a cell number ,

my response is Cells are for staff , and I'm not staff.

There is now a Navionics app which provides charplotter accuracy for your cellphone. And with the EVO's 4.3 inch screen, it is damn near a primary display!!!....all for only 10 Euros...bout $12.50 USD!!!!

We looked into the Android Evo and decided against it. The following review excerpt (June, 2010) was one of the reasons we've gone to something else.

by Michael Arrington on TechCrunch--

Well, Im an Android Fanboy, and Im telling you not to buy this device. The battery life is abysmal MobileCrunch calls it a dealbreaker and I agree. Yes you can do a few things to get a little extra time out of it, but this device routinely runs out of power while sitting on standby overnight next to my bed. You arent just charging this once a day. Or twice a day. You need to be thinking about your next power fix just about any time you are using it. I keep chargers at home, in my office, in my car, and an extra one to suck power from my laptop. That keeps it going, but it isnt fun.

And its more than that. The HTC Sense user interface and all the extra HTC and Sprint software on this device just makes it a joke for anyone that wants to fully control and customize their device. You can get rid of or at least turn off much of it, but its a pain to do that. And worse, you cant upgrade the Android OS to new releases until HTC and Sprint are ready to let you do that. See Gizmodo for a full analysis of the problem.

And all this software trying to work together and in layers really does result in lots of bugs particularly with photos. Quite often they fail to save and you have to reboot the device.

If you want an Android phone right now, get a Nexus One. In January I believed it was by far the best phone on the market. The new iPhone 4, though, is clearly superior. Id rather see you buy that device and deal with the Apple dictatorship than get a phone you arent going to be happy with. Or wait a few months for a better Android phone. It wont take long for something even better to come along.

And if you insist on getting an EVO, I highly recommend you pick up a second phone, perhaps a $25 prepaid type device, so that you can actually make phone calls when your EVOs battery dies.

Marin, You seemed to have missed my warning about the mainstream media(post #3). They like Apple like CNN likes Obama. For one, This guy is not an "Android fanboy" because he has no clue what he is talking about. And this is an EXTREMEMLY old review since the Nexus One came out in January.....OF THIS YEAR....and he is talking about the "future". He got his hands on a very rough preproduction version of the EVO....that was not due to be released for at least 6 months if not more.

Anyway, I am not gonna go on and on defending this device on this forum Let's just suffice it to say that my phone does not suffer from any of this guy's complaints. It has been off of the charger for 20 hours and it is sitting at 60% battery after average regular use. Smartphones are very intensive devices. The Android platform provides you with much more flexibilty(read multitasking) than any iSystem. So battery will suffer just like gasoline will suffer to make horsepower in a car. Android phones have more horsepower than an iPhone. It is up to you whether you want to mash on the pedal or not....iPhone doesn't even provide you with that option. It is closed. You get what you get and you better be happy with it. BTW, the Iphone4 is having terrible issues regarding reception if you hold the phone a certain way. What does the god like Mr. Jobs tell you to do...hold the phone differently....brilliant design!!! Another knock on the iPhone is AT&T....horrible network with horrible customer service. The iPhone has strangled the AT&T network...which is why their Facetime app can only be used over Wifi.

Anyway, I don't want to get into a discussion on which is a better phone. The iPhone is a great device if you like your things polished and dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. The intent of this post was to give people a different internet option while cruising. You can have your phone and aircard all in one device. you can be jamming on your laptop while your wife is across the salon enjoying her iPad....Harmony...

Marin, if you really based your choice on this review, I suggest you take another look. The EVO is not perfect. I would give it a 9 out of 10....but my issues are very nitpicky. I have had mine for a month and I am still amazed.

PS...I highly suggest you (re)read Walt's post(post #5) to give you an idea of what the intent of this post was about. *His sentiment is "...the greatest thing since GPS..."....that is pretty high praise.





-- Edited by Baker on Monday 12th of July 2010 02:09:39 PM

Baker wrote:

There is now a Navionics app which provides charplotter accuracy for your cellphone. And with the EVO's 4.3 inch screen, it is damn near a primary display!!!....all for only 10 Euros...bout $12.50 USD!!!!

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John, Do you really like a 4 inch screen for a plotter display?

Capn Chuck wrote:

*
Baker wrote:

There is now a Navionics app which provides charplotter accuracy for your cellphone. And with the EVO's 4.3 inch screen, it is damn near a primary display!!!....all for only 10 Euros...bout $12.50 USD!!!!

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John, Do you really like a 4 inch screen for a plotter display?

*

No, *I prefer about a 17 inch display(Furuno has one for about 8 grand retail). *It was just an inference as to the size of the display on this handset. *It is pretty impressive....and to be honest, on my little boat I think my display is only 5 inches(Square vs a narrow aspect ratio on the phone) and I have managed to get along fine with that.

My wife works for a Furuno dealer and her boss is always whispering in my ear and I have had to resist....he is always trying to cut me a deal. *He did sell me on my stereo system and have not regretted that one bit. *But chartplotters...so far, mine has done well for what I use it for. *If I were to spend more on electronics...it would be for an autopilot.

*



-- Edited by Baker on Monday 12th of July 2010 03:10:23 PM

Baker wrote:


Marin, if you really based your choice on this review, I suggest you take another look. The EVO is not perfect. I would give it a 9 out of 10....but my issues are very nitpicky. I have had mine for a month and I am still amazed.

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No, this review was only one of several we read that were not at all enamored of the EVO.* The first*clincher came when my wife went to look at one in person the other week (her flip phone broke its hinge so she had to get something) and the manager of the Verizon store strongly advised against the EVO for most of the same reasons that we've read in the reviews.

The second clincher came when the son of a co-worker who knows more about current technolgy than anyone I know echoed the same opinion.* This is a kid-- well, a just-graduated college senior who just got hired by Google at a salary of $100,000 a year plus a $25,000 signing bonus so I figure he knows more than I do--- who tries out every piece of new technology that hits the stores.* He, too, gave the EVO low marks although he did say that there will probably be much improved versions available soon that would be worth looking at.

Regardless of whether the EVO is good, bad, or indifferent, a four-inch screen is near worthless as a plotter screen in a boat as far as I'm concerned.* Our Furuno has a 7" screen and it would be unacceptable except it is mounted in such a way (retractable overhead mount) that puts it very close to the helmsperson.* So when we look up at it the screen is only about a foot away from our eyes.

I believe that for anything other than a custom installation like ours (thanks to a previous owner, not me) anything smaller than 10" is not worth bothering with.* Perhaps if one cruised only in dead flat water a tiny screen would be okay.* But up here when it's windy, which is most of the time, the short, steep, high waves we get*bounce you around something fierce even in a 28,000 pound boat.* To try to pick detail off a 4" screen under these conditions*is an excercise in futility.*

I know this because we have a large Magellen handheld C-Map GPS plotter that we used to use on the flying bridge of our GB when we ranthe boat*from up there--- we don't anymore--- as well as on our 17' Arima fishing boat.* It has about a 5" vertical screen and in rough water--- in either boat--- it's very difficult to see the details on the screen.


After our last halibut fishing trip we have decided to replace the Magellen with a plotter with an 8" to 10"*screen that we can move back and forth between boats in the event we want it on the GB.


-- Edited by Marin on Monday 12th of July 2010 09:23:59 PM

Marin wrote:

*

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Regardless, a four-inch screen is near worthless as a plotter screen in a boat as far as I'm concerned. *

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Yep...very worthless until it is the only *&^%$#@#$% *plotter on the boat!!!! *I know in your world that would never happen. *In my world, it already has.

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And like I said, I will not argue phones on this website. *I have nothing to prove here. You show me a phone where you can literally "push" a button and then wirelessly tether ANY internet device(8 of them at one time in this case) .....until then....have fun with whatever phone you have.

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And BTW, I am very surprised that the manager of the VERIZON store felt that way!!!!!...I mean, they can't even sell you an EVO!!!! Come on dude.....that is like saying a CHEVROLET salesman "strongly advised" you not to buy FORD!!!! And we are talking PHONES here!!!! Not custom installed chartplotters that cost thousands of dollars.

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Let me put it to you another way. I have a computer in my pocket. I have a wifi hotspot in my pocket. I have a chartplotter in my pocket. I have broadband wireless in my pocket. This thing is so powerful that I am seriously considering cancelling my home internet and cable!!! I really don't need it. The ONLY thing stopping me is my wife likes to go to sleep watching brainless TV that only cable TV can provide....other than that, it would have been gone LONG ago.

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-- Edited by Baker on Monday 12th of July 2010 09:44:56 PM

Leo Laport, The Tech Guy, has a syndicated radio show and is the most "electronically informed" guy that I know of, bar none. He has reviewed (bought) all the leading smart phones and has used and reviewed them. He picks HTC EVO as the best there is!

My wife is finishing up her first month with her EVO and a (non 3G) iPad. We are both blown away with the capability that this phone has. Photos, E-mails, maps, books, aps, GPS routings, WiFi Hot Spot, etc. Even the guys at the Apple store are amazed!

If you don't have one...don't knock it as you can't possibly know what you are talking about.

Baker wrote:


Marin wrote:
Regardless, a four-inch screen is near worthless as a plotter screen in a boat as far as I'm concerned. *

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Yep...very worthless until it is the only motherf*&^%$g plotter on the boat!!!! *I know in "Marin's World" that would never happen. *In my world, it already has.

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Well, if one can have only one plotter on a boat, I'll agree that even a 2" flip phone screen is better than nothing.* But you're correct, in my world there are no "single-plotter" boats, and the plotters that are on board have the biggest, brightest screens I can fit and afford.* And given the dirt-cheap prices of dedicated plotters with decent size screens these days, I don't see any reason to put up with something with a little bitty screen.

Don't know the cost of an EVO contract, but a pretty basic iPhone contract is in the neighborhood of $200 a month last time I was in an AT&T store.* So that's $2400 a year for a phone.* For half that you can get a very nice plotter with a nice big screen that you can actually see details on even when the boat is bouncing around.*

Granted, you can't make phone calls, play games, or look up the menu of a new restaurant on a dedicated plotter.* But speaking strictly for myself, we didn't buy a boat to make phone calls, play Grand Theft Auto,**or see if that new restaurant in town serves a decent duck dinner.* We bought it to--- and I realize this is a radical concept for you*gizmo geeks out there--- actually get away from*phone calls and text messages and all the*digital racket we put up with pretty much all day, every day.* So to us, we could care less if our plotter tethers together 8, 10, or 100 internet devices.* We don't go boating to be tethered to anything but our anchor or a mooring buoy.

Maybe I've just lived long enough to outgrow the "I gotta be connected" obsession and have learned that being connected is generally* more of a pain in the a*s than not.* As I write this I'm sitting here*surrounded by three racked computers, a multi-terrabite server, two phones, two laptops and*eight high-definition video screens.* I am currently (tonight) dealing with customers in Australia, Singapore, Dubai, Beijing, and*southern California, to say nothing of all the people I'm dealing with here in Washington state.* I've just been told I have to produce a video about "A Day in the Life of the Dreamlifter" which are the ballooned-up, unpressurized*747s that we use to carry the 787 (Dreamliner) fuselage sections and wings between Japan, Italy, Wichita,*North Carolina, and the assembly plant in Everett.* So I've got to coordinate everything that goes with that sort of production. Couldn't do it without*good*connectivity.

What I DON'T want is to have all that connection crap in my face when I'm out on the boat.** All I want in a plotter is to know that I'm going from Point* A to Point*B without hitting anything other than water.* And I don't want to have to strain my eyes and my patience to pick out microscopic details on a tiny screen to make sure that water is all we're going to hit.

But that's just me.

Marin, I was never touting this phone as a substitute for a good plotter. Please read the thread again. Better yet, check out the title. If you want/need internet while cruising coastally on your boat, there is no better option(for now)!!!!! *

Your point of being DISconnected is EXTREMELY valid and noted. Some people have compromises that allow them to be on their boats....and one of those compromises may be connectivity....simple as that.

BTW.....I pay about $140 a month for 2 phones and all of the bells and whistles(insurance too which AT&T does not offer for the iPhone).....no data caps(which every other carrier has). Sprint even charges a "premium data fee" for having the EVO....10 bucks per phone.

129.99 for everything data plan(for 2 phones)
20.00 for premium data fee(10 per phone)
14.00 for insurance(7 per phone)
Minus 25% corporate discount(which I am sure Boeing would qualify for the same) equals 125ish plus taxes and fees which puts me around $140!!!...and that ain't no "basic plan"!!!....that is worry free unlimited everything!!!

I look at my phone stats.....

It has been off the charger now for 28 hours and I am at 30%.
"Up time" is at 295 hours!!!!...IOW I have not turned it off for that long...that number surprised me. Most "computers" need to be rebooted in that amount of time....much less a phone.....stable as can be.





-- Edited by Baker on Tuesday 13th of July 2010 09:54:45 AM

John, Do you really like a 4 inch screen for a plotter display?

Its bigger than my black = white hand held and probably has one of those little buttons that increases size of the display.

IF not reading glasses are only $3.00 .

The real ship 22 inch display is really pretty , but most I have seen in use were chopped into 4 or 6 mini screens , not used at full sized anyway.

John,
I just got the Navionics app for my android incredible. I can't believe you get so much for 12 bucks. Easy to use too.
My Raymarine R80 chart plotter came with a manual that's thicker than my airline issued pilot hand book. Guess which GPS I'll use first.

That incredible is the EVOs sister phone on Verizon. Great phone!!! The next android update should allow you to use your phone as a wifi hotspot(it will be native to the OS...2.2). Verizon is more protective of their products than Sprint. It will interesting to see how the carriers will "protect" their revenue stream from wifi tethering. Right now, Sprint charges 30 bucks a month for that feature on the EVO(mine is rooted so I don't pay). Right now Motorola has a self destruct feature on their new Droid X that bricks the phone if you try to root it. That is their answer. Anyway, long story short, wifi tethering should be available on your Incredible in the very near future whether you have to pay extra or not.

Verizon Droid X will charge $20/month for up to 3 gig wi-fi hotspot use. This is the first smart phone I've been interested. I can get rid of my $60/month aircard.

Keith, you need to consider jumping carriers. Sprint does not have any data caps. YOU...that means you, Keith E. in particular, could easily burn up 3 gigs of data in no time with as much photo uploading as you do....not to mention any of your other internet activity. I think Verizon charges $50 a gig after that....not cheap. Anyway. *The wifi hotspot on my EVO has been flawless...and it absolutely smokes when it is on 4G!

-- Edited by Baker on Sunday 25th of July 2010 09:25:07 PM

RE: The Internet answer... part 2!

Just got this off the net.* Caution it's NPR so it might not be true.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128773367&ft=1&f=1001

JD, it is good that the court saw it this way...IMHO. You buy a piece of hardware and you should be able to use it any way you see fit....simple as that. I think that is where the court is coming from.

I agree.* These companies just want to handcuff everyone.

JD wrote:

I agree.* These companies just want to handcuff everyone.

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Especially Apple!!! *Google has been wide open and that has always been their philosophy. *Google powers the Android phones. *Their is a huge development community dedicated to Android. *They are pushing things out before Google....