Keanen's Blog My personal blog.

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.

A review of the Seidio Innocell 3500mAh for the EVO 4G

I decided to order Seidio's 3500 mAh battery a couple of weeks ago because of some traveling that I had coming up. I was tired of swapping the OEM 1500 mAh battery and after-market batteries that were not holding up as well on long days when I did not have a charger around. I had used an inexpensive 3500 mAh battery from eBay for $11 that did not hold up to my expectations. I read reviews that argued whether or not the $11 battery up to par with the Seidio battery that I ordered from Amazon for just over $50.

I can say that the $11 battery does not hold a candle to the Seidio battery. The Seidio battery can take a beating!!

Below are some examples of use...

What I have running all the time:

• Three Gmail and one Exchange account - all push enabled
• Weatherbug Elite updates every 30 minutes
• Facebook updates every four hours
• Google Latitude running
• Google Voice - Push enabled
• Google Talk - Signed in
• PingChat running

Heavy Usage Day:

• Disconnected from the charger at 6AM ET
• Streamed SiriusXM for 90 minutes
• Checking Twitter with Touiteur every 90 minutes or so
• A couple of dozens of SMS sent and received
• Responded to Gmail and Exchange based email throughout the day - received about 100 emails in total and sent 20-25
• Received and responded to a few PingChat messages
• Used 4G for 25 minutes
• Streamed YouTube videos for 10 minutes
• Browsed the web for 30 minutes
• Played cached Slacker content for 30 minutes
• Phone calls totaling 60 minutes

I went to bed at 10:30PM CT which is 16.5 hours with 9% of the battery remaining. The 4G, YouTube, and most of the Internet browsing occurred when my return flight to MSP was delayed. I was floored when I still had power when I went to bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Light Usage Day:

• Disconnected from the charger at 8:30AM CT
• Checked Touiteur every couple of hours
• Sent and received 12 text messages
• Received 20 emails, responded to 5
• 10 minutes of phone calls
• Browsed the Internet for 20 minutes

After 13.5 hours, my battery life at 10PM had 66% remaining!

With my OEM 1500 mAh battery I could make it to about 13 hours on a lighter use day. It is very nice to not be concerned about the battery. This brings me back to my Blackberry Curve days I never had great battery life with my Tour 9630 so this far exceeds the stock battery on that device.

As far as the look of the device with the hump back, I do not really care how my device looks. I wanted/needed a highly functional, reliable smartphone and now I have it!