Mine arrived about 40 minutes ago, a day early.  I’m super excited.  I’ve been a bit jealous of my wife’s K1 model and when the new one was finally made available for ordering I wasted no time in placing my order.  Now, after about 35 minutes of using it (it took a few minutes to get the box open and plug it in) I have to say that I’m pretty happy with the product overall.  It is certainly too early to draw any final conclusions on the device, but so far things are looking pretty good.

The packaging is pretty, not that it matters too much, but they seem to have put in a bit of effort to go above and beyond the basic cardboard box.  The box contents are very simple: the device, a USB charging cable with AC outlet adapter and the getting started guide.  Simple and to the point, with nothing extra or unnecessary.  I like that.

I plugged in and was up and running very shortly thereafter. 

So, how awesome is it?  Honestly just about the same as the K1.  That’s pretty awesome in my book, as I’m a big fan of the K1, but the K2 does not appear to be revolutionary or even all that much different to me in the interface or the functionality.  I know that it isn’t really supposed to be, so I’m not disappointed in it, but for those who are expecting something materially different, this isn’t it.

When the initial specs were announced I suggested that it might actually be too thin.  I still feel that way.  Holding it in my hand it just didn’t feel natural.  It is much, much wider than it is thick and that makes holding it difficult.  Plus, the back is now a brushed metal rather than the rubberized grip material that the K1 was made of.  This allowed it to continuously slide out of my hand while I was trying to hold it and read it.  Once I slipped it into its fancy Kindle cover, conveniently now an additional purchase item rather than included, things got much better.  The cover isn’t particularly thick, but it is enough that when flipped open it provides an appropriately significant bulk to the device.  The inside of the cover is also a feltish material, providing some friction against my hand.  It makes it much more manageable to hold.  

The other dimensions are basically the same as the K1 so that isn’t much of a change.  You can see from the photo that it fits reasonably well in my hand (my hands are not huge by any means – men’s medium or large for gloves) and the balance while holding it seems pretty good.  I think that the “Prev Page” button is just a bit too high to be comfortable to reach with my left thumb while reading one-handed, just like the K1 was, but the K2 is at least closer to reachable.  Still not perfect, but not too bad.

Regarding readability and the newly upgraded display, I am rather impressed.  The images (I’ve mostly been using the NY Times for images thus far in my testing) are sharp and the additional shades of gray do make a significant difference in the overall quality.  From a text perspective I don’t see much of a difference, but the K1 was pretty good so the K2 keeping that high quality is good enough for me.   Page turning is snappy and switching between books is pretty quick.  Definitely no complaints from me on that front.

The USB connector allows for both connectivity to a computer (it installed all on its own on my XP SP3 system and appeared as a removable drive for loading additional content on to the device) and for charging of the unit.  I’m a big fan of USB-based charging for portable electronics so I am pretty happy on this front.  But I am annoyed that, much like the Blackberry Storm, the USB cable is not a standard Mini-B connector but a Micro-B connector.  Why?  Why oh why was there a need to change this standard?  There are millions upon millions of Mini-B cables already out there.  I see the the Micro-B is a bit thinner, but I’m annoyed that I am basically going to have two sets of cables to carry now.

I was able to load a document on to the device using the USB connection quite quickly and that was completely functional.  Ditto for getting books downloaded from the store using the WhisperNet connection from Sprint. 

Some interesting things that seem to be “missing” based on the K1 are a user-replaceable battery and a memory expansion slot.  I have no idea why they would skip out on these two things.  Yes, it has 2GB of on-board memory built in, of which 1.5GB is usable.  And the books are not incredibly huge (The Three Musketeers is ~822KB; today’s NY Times is almost 2MB) so there is capacity for a lot on the device.  But still, leave room for future growth. Ditto on the battery issue.  Why make replacing it a maintenance event rather than a quick swap by the end user?  Did they learn nothing from the annoyance at Apple about the iPhone battery situation??

So, there’s my first 40 minutes worth of experience in a nutshell.  I’ll be on the road non-stop for a week starting on Friday so I’ll have plenty of time to put it through its paces and do a more thorough review.  But at a glance it looks pretty nice, if not revolutionary.

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Amazon has finally announced the much awaited update to their Kindle eReader product.  The new one is thinner, lighter and has improved battery life, download speeds, button layout and an upgrade to a 16-shade display from the current 4 shades.

The price remains the same ($359) and it will continue to operate on Sprint’s data network, so no love for the folks outside the USA.  They expect to start shipping the devices on February 24, and I would expect that there will be reasonably long waitlists, just like when the original version was released.

I’m actually somewhat concerned that it might be too thin to feel natural in your hand while reading.  That’s one thing I really like about the original.  I guess I’ll have to wait a couple weeks to find out.

The file formats supported remain pretty much the same, too, which is not so impressive.  I had hoped that would get a bit better.

They’re going to sell a ton of these, including one to me, but it isn’t clear that they are revolutionary or even really a significant upgrade over the original model.  It will basically be all about the screen.  Hopefully I’ll know more very soon after February 24th.

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Not getting the cell phone reception that you need?  Maybe you should bring your own femtocell repeater on your next trip.  Sprint has been selling them under the Airave brand name since late last year.  Now Verizon Wireless is joining the fray, offering their Verizon Wireless Network Extender for a one-time charge of $250.

You’ll need to hook it up to a broadband connection in your home (or hotel) and the ability to get a GPS fix on the device but once connected the Network Extender will provide both voice and 1xRTT data speeds to mobile devices in the vicinity.  Verizon claims coverage of up to 5000 square feet, which should cover a pretty decent sized house, or most of my apartment building here in NYC. 

Verizon claims that it uses about 40Kbps of bandwidth per call, which isn’t too bad.  You can even lock it down so only you and your friends can use the device.

AT&T has their own femtocell product in development with an expected release later this year.  Theirs will support 3G data services, though I’d imagine that will put a much bigger hit on the bandwidth requirements.

So if your travels find you on the road in locations where your Verizon Wireless phone isn’t working so well, just bring your own cell tower with you.

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Sprint and Clearwire have finally completed the merger of their wireless metropolitan data services (Sprint’s WiMAX service operating under the Xohm brand name and Clearwire’s pre-WiMax services).  And, as part of the merger, they’ve decided to rebrand the whole thing.  The new product will now be called “Clear” which shouldn’t be too confusing or particularly useful in identifying the product or what it does.

Sprint has been selling the Xohm service in Baltimore since the end of September so this will be interesting to see how the rebranding affects their marketing plans.  It will also be interesting to see if it affects their ability to differentiate between the new service and the legacy pre-WiMax systems.

In the mean time, however, it is good to know the name of what you’re buying should WiMax be in your future.

Also, it looks like the build-out of the network is slowing down a bit.  That’s not a good thing.

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Sorry for the messy post, but I’ve just opened the box of my new Sprint Touch Pro (the CDMA version of the HTC Touch Pro/ATT Fuze), and decided to post a couple of photos of the device next to my old Sprint Mogul.

Initial impressions are that this is the best CDMA Windows Mobile phone to date.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Now that there is finally a phone on the market running Google’s Android OS – the T-Mobile G1 – the question seems to be when other carriers will make a similar move.  And the answer from Sprint is not any time soon.

Apparently the folks over at Sprint have declared the Android OS isn’t “good enough to put the Sprint brand on.”  They might be right.  The OS probably isn’t perfect in its first release.  But for the CEO of the company to come out and state that the OS is simply not ready yet is a pretty aggressive move.

Sprint is planning on supporting the Android OS “at some time in the future” so no need to give up all hope, but I would guess the horizon is pretty far out at this point.

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After months and months of anticipation, Sprint has finally launched their XOHM (WiMax) service.  In downtown Baltimore, MD.  With expectations of 2-4 Mbit service on average and peaks of 10 Mbit the bandwidth is certainly impressive.  The location of the service, however, is not.  Baltimore is a relatively small city (likely why it was chosen) and the downtown area is relatively poor, so I’m not sure that this will actually benefit too many people.  But at least Sprint managed to get one city up and running.

No voice service on the network, yet, and a modem will run you $45 if you’re in the neighborhood.  Oh, and the service will be $10/day, $35/month or $50/month for unlimited data for life.  I don’t understand that last one and how it is different from the $35 plan, but I’m sure it isn’t just that they are charging $15 more for the same thing.

Chicago and Washington, DC appear to be the next cities scheduled for activation, with Dallas, Fort Worth, Boston, Providence and Philadelphia following eventually.

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I’ve never made a secret of it; I’m a big Sprint fan. After some initial skepticism they really impressed me when I signed up last year, and they haven’t let me down yet.

Of course, I’m lucky because I purchased a phone that I understand, but there are too many people out there that don’t have a clue how to use their device.

Last week, I ran into a friend who used the browser on his Blackberry to check his email, and was not aware that the Blackberry was actually built for messaging. I showed him in about 2 minutes how to setup push email on his device, much to his joy. So it is needless to say that this new announcement from Sprint seems to make so much sense:

Sprint closed all of its 1,219 stores on Sunday Aug. 17 to train its employees for the "Ready Now" program. The goal is that customers should leave stores with their phones "completely set up and personalized," said Kim Dixon, Sprint’s senior vice president of stores.

Customers "have got these really great devices … but they just don’t know how to set it all up," Dixon said.

Employees will now set up e-mail access, move over contacts from an old phone, connect Bluetooth headsets and explain other functions.

Customers who don’t have time for the 10-minute to half-hour sessions can make appointments for later visits. These free sessions will be available to existing subscribers as well, even if they aren’t buying a new phone or accessory, Dixon said.

(Via: Google news/AP)

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I’ve been following the Sprint XOHM WiMax service for some time now. If you haven’t been paying attention I’ll give you a quick update; WiMax is a 4G data service that promises speeds several times faster than current 3G data services.

The XOHM rollout will begin in Baltimore, followed by Chicago. Engadget Mobile has the scoop on most of the information about the service, right from the XOHM site.

I can’t wait to get my hands on XOHM, fingers crossed they don’t run into any more delays.

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Sprint lovers rejoice! Even though the beloved Sprint SERO plan has been put to rest, Sprint still have an employee referral offer. Their new plan is one of their “Simply Everything” packages and costs $59.99 per month. The plan starts at $59.99 and comes with 500 minutes as well as unlimited access to all the other Sprint services (including Blackberry Internet Service!).

The one downside to the plan is was that you had to actually know someone who works for Sprint. But that issue has been taken care of, courtesy of their Senior VP of strategy, Russ McGuire. Mr. McGuire posted his own personal details so anyone can now take advantage of this plan. Kudos to him for recognizing this opportunity!

My e-mail address (you’ll need it) is russ.s.mcguire@sprint.com and the 3 digits you’ll need are 383.

The Sprint signup page for the deal itself can be found here.

Source: McGuire’s Law (blog)

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