halcyoncmdr

The Phoenix area... looks like their dark fiber is going active and new fiber being laid down from there to endpoints... interesting. Sadly nothing in the Tucson area on there though

No comment, but I work in a retail service and repair store, and I have seen just about everything. Use your imagination.

All iDEN subs currently have retail store offers for ~5 different models at $0.99 each. The Admiral is in there, as well as the Galaxy S2. If you can't afford a 99 cent phone with an upgrade, you are sub-prime and probably cost Sprint more than you pay (likely late payments to begin with). An a semi-related note. Starting early next year, Service and Repair stores will stop having anything to do with repairing or replacing iDEN devices either. Your i576 screen is white? Go through Motorola directly or buy a new phone.

Interesting, especially since that looks like an identical battery to the Sprint version. That would mean the Verizon version has separate NFC antenna contact points on the board as well. Why is it that only Apple can tell carriers that the phone they make is the way it comes, no adjustments can be made. I mean the only differences between each "model" of iPhone worldwide is the frequency bands that they support, the hardware is physically the same.

I think they were asking more how it got split up geographically like it did. One would assume if it was as simple as each market getting an individual bid, the region split wouldn't be as even and in the chunks it is. Something along the lines of, whether Sprint split the country up into areas and then ask for bids on each area?

I've had the Chrome delay issue with my Galaxy S 2, Galaxy S 3 and Asus Transformer. At first I didn't think anything of it since I only noticed it on the Transformer (1st Gen). But the fact that the delay is there on my GS3 makes me avoid it.

I see the exact same behavior with Chrome on my home WiFi connection. It's why I don't use it anymore, I find the stock browser to work well enough for the little bit that I do on my phone. That being said I have Chrome, Opera and Dolphin all installed as well. You never know, right? haha

Not sure about Verizon's model, haven't gotten a chance to take one of those apart. The Sprint model however, the NFC antenna is built into the battery itself. There are two contacts to the left of the battery accessible for what I assume is an external battery or charging solution built into a different battery cover. I haven't been able to cleanly follow the copper on the PCB to figure out exactly where it goes on the board yet. My assumption based on those being the only contacts back there is that it would be for a wireless charging solution of some sort though. Keep in mind that NFC is designed to operate at low distance (1-2 inches) and anything that gets in the way will interfere, like the magnetic coils required for a wireless charging solution. Probably the only thing that wouldn't interfere would be some sort of contact-based solution like the old blackberry docks where there is true metal contact for charging.

Most likely placeholder naming that was never changed after the fix was put in place. The engineering screens aren't meant for the average user to access. They often have spelling errors as well from my experience over the years. A good example is all Samsung Android devices for a while had an app called "Let's try, panning!" that controlled the motion functionality, I assume, on the devices.

Yes an SCRTN wipes all programming on the device and initiates a partial network-side update as well to the OMA Device Management system. Likely since you were on the phone with a rep, they fully refreshed the network side stuff before having you enter the code and having the phone re-do it's HFA. I'm still amazed daily how such an easy fix can make such a big difference. I just don't understand how it all gets messed up i nthe first place. A "nuke it from orbit" approach definitely works for HFA though that's for sure.

I don't know for sure... my educated guess would be Selected Content Return To New. It only wipes out 4 programming items from the device memory. Your MDN, MSID, Slot 1 Data Profile, and HFA trigger I believe. My GS3 as evidenced above doesn't prompt for anything so it won't show what it clears ahead of time when asking for confirmation, since it doesn't require any confirmation like it is supposed to. All other information is left intact, so it is non-destructive.

Battery drain on the GS3 Jelly Bean release? Never seen that. And I work in one of the busiest corporate S&R stores in the country. I don't really trust places like XDA and the like on the Internet for fool-proof information. Most of the people in places like that have no idea what they are talking about, but know just enough to get themselves (and many others) into trouble. They hear or read something and take it for gospel. Places like that can be useful for finding a solution for a problem, but they just as easily can become a breeding ground of min- or dis-information. Their users often use mismatched basebands/modems/ROMs and blame the official release for it when it quite easily could be something they did to the phone themselves or some incompatibility between software flashes. This is why carriers do not work on phones with custom software (Sprint will help people with rooted devices running stock software, but any custom ROMS/firmwares/modems/etc. should not be touched in store, if they do help it is because they want to help, they are under no obligation to help you with a phone that you easily could have broken yourself, and thereby cost the company hundreds of dollars). I have had some battery issues on my GS3, but they were all related to Wake-Locks by a a specific app, nothing to do with the phone or base OS itself. In my case, my exchange email got corrupted on the phone and was constantly trying to reconnect to the server every 5 seconds, even after a power cycle. I had to delete my email account and set it up again to fix the issue. I discovered this using BetterBatteryStats to monitor wake locks and battery use while the phone goes to sleep. It just started telling me suddenly when I woke my phone up that it was at 100% awake time while asleep, and with a few taps I knew exactly where the issue was. The built-in Battery Use part of Android confirmed it, albeit with much less info to go on. I'll have to try tomorrow and see if my GS3 running jelly bean rooted works properly in Sensorly.

Hmm it seems the Jelly Bean update does not require the MSL to be entered... I was able to do a SCRTN on my S3 without entering it either. That's not how it's supposed to work. *notes this to report to Product Development team tomorrow* Yay Community!

Repeaters are usually only installed in stores that have weak RF signals. For example, my store has a repeater in the back because we are equidistant from 4 different towers and are in a zone where phones hop around all the time. The network 500 feet in any direction is usable and doesn't have this issue. But the particular location of the store, combined with the building's materials means a poor experience in the store compared to the surrounding area, obviously Sprint can't let that happen. That being said, we have a single T1 coming into the store to provide backhaul to this repeater (from what I can tell based on the maze of wires for the server rack), and while that may have worked when most phones were 1xRTT only, it sure doesn't cut it now in the age of EvDO devices.

Samsung has a pretty decent photo editor app in there that ties in with the default Gallery app (on the S3 at least) so you can just choose "edit" from the gallery. It is just listed as "Photo Editor" in the Samsung Apps market. It's not hte most fully-featured app, but it does more than I've ever needed on my phone.

The S2 series is still being released on a number of smaller carriers as new devices. This is just a color refresh, most likely a rebranding of older unsold inventory to generate additional sales. It's what I'd do if I had a ton of unsold new inventory that wasn't going anymore. Discount the price, release a new color and make some profit off of that unused inventory.

A ##72786# should require the MSL to work. It wipes out all network programming on the phone without wiping out any customer information. Essentially it is the first have of a full ##786# (RTN - Return To New) which takes EVERYTHING back to stock. It will then make the phone to re-do the OTA activation that it did originally when it was first turned on (because it isn't activated anymore), updating network profile, PRL, firmware update check, etc. This may help, but it just as easily could be network-related, not your phone.

The vast majority of Sprint/Vendor call centers are US-based. There are some overflow call centers located out of the country for when a stateside call center is down or if they are at capacity. The only chance you would get an overseas call center is if the US ones aren't able to take the call for some reason. Sprint has downsized the call center requirements the last few years dramatically (most of these downsizes have been overseas). This is why Sprint has been focusing on getting more features added into Sprint.com and pushing people to use things like Sprint Zone diagnostics on the phone when having issues. This is also why when you call *2 from your phone, it opens up Sprint Zone (android only) to walk you through basic troubleshooting first before having to talk to any reps. 9/10 of the issues reps deal with can be fixed by the phone itself if you follow the instructions on the screen. I have noticed the porting department seems to be entirely overseas. Howeve,r I also know that Sprint does not handle number porting directly. Telcordia handles all Sprint number portability. Online chat on the other hand... I don't know for sure about this one, but every chat I have ever seen has obviously been with a non-native english speaker.

Well from my experience in the store, we haven't seen any issues with the SPC2. The first SPC we saw all of the time with weird issues. Usually reflashing the software to it fixed the thing (I'm a fan of the nuke it from orbit approach). Granted, the SPC2 hasn't been out very long so we'll have to see in the long run. So far compared to the same amount of time since release, the SPC2 seems to be doing better than the first.

The Phone Connect 2 is a rebranded Huawei LinkBox F253. I can't find a whole lot of real information about it (surprise surprise from a Chinese company, but I digress). Everything I can find does show it is a VoIP solution, which should just get better after NV upgrades are complete and data speeds are back up where they should be.

Well eHRPD doesn't change the backhaul going to each tower, it just changes the route the data takes from the tower back to the Internet. Instead of going through the 3G switch it goes through the 4G core. Speed is so horrible due to it being a mini antenna in the back of a store with who knows how many things hooked up to it sharing the bandwidth.

Just going through my phone here at work and tada... eHRPD live in the middle of Tucson. Posting from mobile site so I'll upload a screen shot later when I can.

The EPRP plans off a roughly 15% discount.

Account maintenance, upgrades, etc should be no issue. Adding new lines can only be done online, not even in a corporate store.

The DC Now app isn't just software. It leverages hardware in the device as well. The Transform Ultra, Optimus Elite, and Kyocera Rise all use the Qualcomm MSM8655 chipset. I don't know for sure, but I would bet that if the chipset does not support something internally then it won't work. I think after the first NDC on Sprint devices, they don't want to push a truly inferior product out by using software only. NDC and SDC still remain the only sub-second PTT solution I have ever used.