G4 C
Business
an you have too much of a smartphone? Sprint’s new HTC Evo
4G, its third device to run Goo- gle’s Android operating system, raises that theoretically absurd question. The Evo — debuting June 4 for
$299.99, before a $100 mail-in rebate, for new or renewing sub- scribers — stands apart from oth- er smartphones even when it’s shut off. Its comparatively enor- mous display, 4.3 inches across, makes it a slab of a device, wider than any mobile phone I can re- member using. That sizable screen eases typ- ing on its on-screen keyboard and reading Web pages, although without the trackball or touch- pad control found on most An- droid phones navigating and se- lecting text is more difficult. A thoughtful flip-out stand also lets you rest the phone on its side for tray-table movie viewing. But in return, it looks as if it could double as a carrying case for more compact models, such as Verizon’s HTC Droid Incred-
ROB PEGORARO Fast Forward
The Evo also aims to up the ante with its mobile broadband connection. It’s Sprint’s first phone to support its under-con- struction “4G” service, which the Overland Park, Kan.-based com- pany touts as offering download speeds averaging from 3 billion to 6 billion bits per second (Mbps), compared with 3G downloads that typically go no faster than 1.4 Mbps. Although Sprint has yet to de- clare its 4G network open for business in the Washington area, signals have been available for months — and on Tuesday, the partially Sprint-owned Clear service launched its own 4G Internet access on the same net-
KLMNO ‘4G’ timing not quite right for Sprint’s big-screen Evo
work. Tests with a phone lent by Sprint’s PR department, using Ookla’s free
Speedtest.net appli- cation, did not confirm Sprint’s claims. Even with the phone showing almost a full 4G signal, its download speeds hovered be- tween 2.5 and 3 Mbps — while in 3G mode, they ranged from 1.5 to almost 2 Mbps. Other reviewers have seen similar results. Thing is, the Evo carries a $10
“Premium Data” surcharge, mak- ing its minimum monthly cost not the industry-standard $69.99 but $79.99. Sprint says that extra fee doesn’t just cover 4G service but also reflects the odds of the Evo’s features leading its users to spend more time on- line, then notes that its voice- and-data bundles include unlim- ited text and multimedia mes- saging. But not everybody texts like a teenager and needs such a level of service. The Evo’s 4G connection, which relies on a technology called WiMax, may be most use- ful outside of the phone — the Evo includes a built-in WiFi hot spot mode you can use for an ex- tra $29.99 a month. A Windows 7 laptop reported slightly faster downloads at the
Speedtest.net site, up to 3.6 Mbps. (Android users have long been able to use the PDANet program to borrow their phones’ Internet connections, but the Evo’s hot- spot mode is far simpler to set up.) Using the 4G connection for
Internet access can put a dent in the Evo’s battery life, but for
voice calling it didn’t appear to make a difference: The loaner phone stayed on the line for 6 hours and 10 minutes in 3G mode, 5 hours and 57 minutes with 4G active. After the big screen and the faster access, the Evo’s other ma- jor contribution to smartphone design may seem like a joke: not one but two cameras. (Coming in 2011, phones with three cameras! It’ll be like razor manufacturers competing to see how many blades they can add to their products.) The 8-megapixel camera on the back shot surprisingly good photos outdoors but was predict- ably mediocre when it had to re- sort to its flash indoors. On its front, however, a second, 1.3-me- gapixel camera points toward the user.
But a lack of useful software
leaves it without much of a mis- sion: The best-known videocon- ferencing service, Skype, has somehow elected to ship An- droid software only for Verizon’s phones. Instead, Sprint has tapped a less widely used service, Qik, to ship a version of its video- streaming software for the Evo. Another Evo multimedia fea- ture, a digital HDMI audio-video connection to high-definition televisions, seems even less well thought-out. The Evo’s HDMI connection requires a “Micro- HDMI” cable that is, predictably, not included in the box. Sprint charges a quasi-extortionate $29.99 for it, but hardly any oth- er retailers sell these things —
not Radio Shack, not Best Buy, not even the we-carry-every-ca- ble-ever-made online store
MonoPrice.com. The Evo also arrives at an awk- ward time in the Android soft- ware’s evolution: Although Goo- gle is now introducing a consid- erably updated version, Sprint’s phone ships with the prior ver- sion. Buyers will have to wait for HTC and Sprint to test and ship an Evo-specific update.
In six months or a year, many
of the Evo’s early-adopter ail- ments could easily be addressed by Sprint and other companies. But in six months, the frantic evolution of the Android market could also wind up scrubbing some of the shine off this phone.
robp@washpost.com
Living with technology, or trying to? Read more at voices.
washingtonpost.com/fasterforward.
CORRECTIONS
SUNDAY, JUNE 6, 2010
Because of a production error, a screen grab of an error-404 page at Ubuntu Linux’s Web site ran with Rob Pegoraro’s Fast Forward col- umn May 30. The correct screen grab is printed here.
Help File: Whether to be wary of the latest spyware lurking on Macs
Q: I saw there’s some new Mac spyware circulating. What’s the answer to protect your Mac?
The Sprint HTC Evo 4G mobile phone includes a built-in WiFi hotspot mode you can use — for a fee, of course.
ible. A: The spyware in question, a
sneaky application installed in the background by some screensavers and other “free” Mac programs, is not particularly hazardous by Windows standards. That’s mainly because it cannot do anything unless the would-be victim complies with its request to type in an administrator password — something a Mac user with any experience ought to recognize as
sketchy behavior by a Mac program. The usual suggestion in this
situation is “buy an anti-virus program,” but with so few kinds of Mac malware in circulation, that’s a debatable expense. (Note that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard includes basic malware screening, and you can install the free, open-source ClamXav —
clamxav.com — if you’re nervous.) Instead, remember the same
security advice that you should follow on any computer: Be skeptical in your choice of extra programs. Only install new applications that trusted sources
THE COLOR OF MONEY Learn how to manage your student loans by the book color from G1
dent loan debt, you need to be aware of the existence and the amounts of each loan,” writes Gobel, a freelance financial jour- nalist who amassed $63,000 in student loans obtaining her bachelor’s and then two master’s degrees.
More than 1 million people
have at least $40,000 in student loan debt, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, Gobel re- ports. The book starts with a pop quiz that I know many recent graduates would fail: How many different federal student loans
do you have? Do you know the servicers on each loan or the in- terest rates on every single loan, or how many are subsidized or unsubsidized? “Whether you just graduated from college or you’ve been out of school for a decade, it’s not al- ways easy to keep tabs on eight semesters of loans,” Gobel writes.
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She is tender where I might be tough. I think you darn well should know intimately every single loan you’ve taken out long before you take that graduation march, especially when you’re locking yourself into financial bondage for several decades. Maybe if more students kept up with how much debt they were accumulating and the interest due, they would borrow less. But if you don’t know the an- swers to Gobel’s questions, go to the National Student Loan Data
System at
www.nslds.ed.gov. This is the U.S. Department of Education’s central database for student aid. Gobel walks you though the process of finding in- formation about your individual loans. “Brace yourself, because you
are going to see how much inter- est has accrued since the first day you borrowed your first stu- dent loan dollar,” Gobel cautions. Don’t think Gobel’s advice to
create a cheat sheet of your loans is trite. I was working with one student who, after finally orga- nizing her loan data, found a for- gotten loan that was already in default. She had been getting no- tices about the loan but said to me: “I just couldn’t face the debt.” She didn’t open the notic- es.
Forgetting a loan, Gobel writes, is a fairly common prob- lem. People think they are mak-
ing payments on all their loans only to discover a loan was left out. It even happened to the au- thor.
“If payments had been orga- nized, this never would have happened,” she writes. You’ll find what you need in this book from evaluating your debt situation to repayment and consolidation options to paying your student loans off early. While many professors may
discourage students from using CliffsNotes, I assure you this par- ticular guide is a shortcut that will well serve borrowers looking for a concise road map to han- dling their education loans. As with all Color of Money
Book Club selections, I’ll be host- ing a live online chat about the book with the author. This one will be at noon Eastern on June 17 at
washingtonpost.com/ discussions. By the way, I would
be interested in hearing how many of you are handling heavy student loan debt. The online chat is a way for book club members to meet vir- tually and talk, ask questions or just vent. Every month, I ran- domly select readers who will re- ceive a copy of the featured book, donated by the publisher. For a chance to win Gobel’s book, e- mail
colorofmoney@washpost.com with your name and address.
singletarym@washpost.com
Readers can write to Michelle Singletary at The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071.
Comments and questions are welcome, but because of the volume of mail, personal responses are not always possible. Please note that comments or questions may be used in a future column, with the writer’s name, unless a specific request to do otherwise is indicated.
have already recommended. If you’re not sure it’s safe to add one, don’t. Let me put it this way: I’ve heard far too many people say they regret trying the wrong program, but I don’t remember anybody telling me “I wish I could spend more time trying new software — computing’s too boring.”
A spammer is using my e-mail address as the return address for his spam — I know because all of a sudden I’ll get 20 to 30 “undeliverable mail” messages. Should I get a new
address? Anybody can use anybody
else’s e-mail address when sending a message, so there’s not much you can do except wait out the situation. Eventually, we can hope, the spammer will find somebody else to impersonate.
Rob Pegoraro attempts to untangle computing conundrums and errant electronics each week. Send questions to The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071 or
robp@washpost.com. Visit
voices.washingtonpost.com/ fasterforward for his Faster Forward blog.
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