Keanen's Blog My personal blog.

Review if the Seidio 4000 mAh battery for the EVO 3D

Just as I did for my EVO 4G, I have purchased Seidio's extended battery for the EVO 3D. With multiple push email accounts, phone usage, and applications updating in the background I enjoy having the extra capacity. I do not mind the extra bulk as my phone is a tool and not a fashion item.

This battery easily gets me through the busiest of days and even takes a beating on the airplane when I browse on GoGo WiFi and watch movies.

If you do not like to worry about battery swapping or having enough juice to get you through the day, this is a great purchase.

For those who like the size of the EVO 3D as is, there are other options such as Juice Defender which can double your battery life at the expense of turning off your data when the screen of the phone is off.

Rooted EVO 3D

Thanks to the Unrevoked and AlphaRev teams, I have a rooted EVO 3D! I can now take screenshots, use my phone as a hotspot, backup my data, and use custom ROM's. I used the instructions on XDA. Which were pretty painless. For those that are not very excited about messing with their phone very much there are temporary root solutions out there that will allow for backups, screen captures, and hotspot access. I found it irritating that I needed a computer to execute the root process every time that I wanted to do something requiring root on my 3D.

It's out there and available, give it a shot

EVO 3D review

I picked up my EVO 3D last Friday and have been enjoying my new device. I must say, I was not very excited about the 3D features of the phone but I have been having some fun. We went to the cabin over the weekend and I was using 3D to capture all kinds of fun pictures. Some of the pictures had some great depth to them.

As expected, the phone is faster than the EVO 4G, the screen resolution is a nice improvement and the new Sense 3.0 interface is greatly improved.

I look forward to gaining root access. HTC has said that they will unlock the bootloader on the 3D.

Pros:

• Speed - everything is faster
• New HTC Sense 3.0.
• Screen  resolution – The screen looks crisp.
• 3D is fun! Watching and recording movies in 3D, games, pictures, etc.
• Dedicated camera button - makes taking pictures so much more stable.
• 1GB of memory – I was constantly having to manage my memory on my EVO 4G, I do not have to do this anymore.
• Ability to uninstall Sprint apps - dump the bloatware!
• Weather animations are beautiful.
• The power button is larger.

Cons:

• 3D is great but if you do not have other 3D devices there is not much you can do beyond the EVO 3D.
• Not OMLED – I still have Samsung screen envy.
• Gmail does not yet support .mpo files - When I send 3D pictures to other EVO 3D friends there is no way to download the picture. It can only be "previewed" as a 2D picture. This can be resolved by configuring the HTC mail application for your account but that is not very user friendly.
• The external speaker could be a little better.
• I would prefer the micro USB connection at the bottom of the phone.
• No kickstand (without a case) - I am surprised how many times that I have went for the kickstand and was reminded that I no longer have one.

Notes

• Battery life is still much to be desired for myself as a power user. I look forward to Seidio releasing a 3,000+ mAH battery so that I can get through a day.
• Gaps between the four rows of icons/widgets. With the higher resolution a fifth row can be beneficial. I am using Launcher Pro Plus which allows me to have five rows of icons.
• Exchange support – unlike the previous HTC Sense devices, HTC has come clean about ActiveSync memory encryption for Sense 3.0. I cannot configure my EVO 3D to work with with my Exchange server that has this requirement. From what I understand, this is supported in Honeycomb 3.1 and I assume will work with Ice Cream Sandwich.
• HTC has made the 2D/3D picture taking and sharing pretty effortless. When sending 3D pictures the phone will prompt to convert to 2D or ask to share either 2D or 3D depending on which application the picture is being shared to.

In conclusion, no phone is perfect. The 3D is a nice upgrade from the EVO 4G. I only hope that HTC starts rolling out phones with OMLED AMOLED screens by the time that I am eligible for my next upgrade

Groove IP and Android allows for unlimited calling

A few of us at the office have been wondering about options for using our cell phones for calls without using minutes on our plans for conference calls, etc. When I travel, I do not have a desk phone to use so the minutes add up quickly. For those that do not have a "Fav 5" T-Mobile like feature on their cell phone plan I have found that Groove IP works pretty well. For a one time purchase of $4, calls can be made using a data connection leveraging Google's VOIP capabilities offered in Google Talk/Voice,

The application is pretty simple to setup. It is configured with your Google account credentials and then makes a connection. The application has three options for calling:

1. Intercept outbound calls being made and route them though the Groove IP application.
2. Prompt every time an outbound call is made, "Normal Call" or "Call using Groove IP".
3. Disabled.

Pictured below is the simple dialer that can be used for calls from Groove IP.

My testing of this application started with a 3G connection on my EVO 3D. My test call went downhill quickly and the person on the other end complained that they could not hear me. I hung-up and called back with 4G and had only a little complaint about echoing back to the person on the other end. I was worried about conference calls when I was told this and tested the mute functionality which stopped the echoing.

This solution is not perfect but will allow me to call into long conference calls without needing to worry about my usage. A decent solution as long as you have the bandwidth and hopefully Google's call quality improves over time.

For those with a "Fav 5" or "Calling circle" calling option, if a person adds their Google Voice number to their free calling numbers, Google Voice Callback is a great solution. It allows you to make calls where Google Voice calls you back with your Google Voice number to connect the call.