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blinky847

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Posts posted by blinky847

    Sprint store in Golf Mill Mall in Niles IL

    in General Topics

    Posted

    Anyone in the northwest part of Chicago been to this Sprint store in Golf Mill Mall? I've heard bad things about affiliates in general, but Sprint Telesales got me an appointment to go to one in order for me to get a SIM card for my Pixel 3 XL.

    Charles at Telesales tried to migrate my Pixel's SIM card to my Pixel 3, but to no avail (duh) - I thought I would go for this since its a bit more convenient than getting one delivered like I had with my Pixel and other BYOD phones in the past.

    TIA

    Yung

     

    Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

    in Markets

    Posted

    My current temp job takes me from Crystal Lake to Naperville to Oak Lawn, even to a few neighborhoods in Chicago (e.g. Bronzeville, Ravenswood), but I never had a problem that severe. Well, maybe when I go to a nearby park called Lake Park in Des Plaines - my Pixel XL may switch from LTE to 3G, and then back. Maybe its "large" body of water degrades the signal?

    I do a fair amount of driving on the expressways and tollways, especially when on a job earlier this year, but had no issues with my Pixel phone - in fact, sometimes it worked better than my work Verizon phone when going back and forth on the southern portion of the I-294 tollway. ?

    Announcing...Honored Premier Sponsor

    in General Topics

    Posted

    While I'll still be around in lurk mode, my job situation will be taking a turn for the worst and finances are about to be extremely limited, so I'm forced to discontinue my monthly contributions. On the converse, I've left a little donation of what I have left so it can still benefit S4GRU.

    When my situation improves, I'll go back to the automatic monthly contributions to take back my spot ;)

    Take care!

    Yung

    aka blinky847

     

    • Like 4

    Official Airave 4 LTE / Casa Pebble / Airave 3 LTE / S1000 Thread

    in General Topics

    Posted

    I essentially gave up on Airave - not reliable at all, at least in my home here in the NW Chicago suburbs. Voice quality is hideous, and the initial connectivity is iffy, and equipment reliability is terrible, my now inactive unit is #3 after about 3+ years.

     

    Its so bad for me (may be better in your area, YMMV), I use my Project Fi phone for calls, force switch to T-Mobile. Its not a perfect solution, but VoLTE is leagues better than Sprint's 1xRTT (or for that matter, T-Mobile's WCDMA)

     

    I might have to reinstate my landline...

    IT'S THE WiMAX COUNTDOWN!!!

    in WiMax

    Posted

    I have a Clear account, of which my Mom uses - got the phone call from her a few hours ago, saying Internet is down as of a few hours before that. At least in the Chicago area (Glenview to be specific), WiMax is down.

    • Like 1

    Karma Go

    in Hotspots/USB Modems

    Posted

    Finally got mine - I really hate FedEx Home delivery especially with Mondays being a day off for them and slow turnaround. Looks like someone stepped on mine, but turned out to be in good condition. I am at least happy it works since I lost my WiMax 'Classic' Karma.

     

    Haven't tested it much except checking if it works indoors in a building built in 1907 and retrofitted to be used for office space - it seems to connect okay and got crappy speeds and reception (expected, it is indoors in a 100+ yo building built with brick and steel). Odd placement of the power button and USB port (which no longer has a cover). One of the Karma videos showcased the LEDs running like KITT's scanner alongside with the Knight Rider theme - yeah, its here to stay.

     

    I think the Karma blog states is that there were issues just before shipping, which required Karma to do some quick testing and ultimately, for now, activate all of the hotspots at the warehouse just before shipping them out. I think the CEO said that it 'saves 30 seconds' or something another, and this 'issue' at some point soon.

     

    Depending if I get up in a few hours to take the train (or not), I'll test it with a few apps (Speedtest, Ingress (app and Intel page), Netflix, and GP Music) and see how it fares. Its probably still capped at 8 Mb/s plus the VPN overhead, it'll be more like 2-4 Mb/s to me, but that's okay.

     

    Seems to be similar in looks to the 'Classic' except maybe 5-10% bigger, and definitely has a bit more weight. Nice touches with the included charging cable (no brick) and felt case.

     

    Seeing how this hotspot has Sprint's LTE and 3G network capability, it already has some promise. Just wondering if it has access to the other LTE bands. What would really be nice if it had CA. But, that's wishful thinking and I'll take what I can get.

     

    If this goes well, I might get a second or third, though this would take away from S4GRU funds :D

    • Like 1

    Google Nexus 6 by Motorola Users Thread

    in Google

    Posted

    Anyone with the order status of "Estimated Delivery Jan 6, 2015" who didn't already receive their Nexus 6 form the Motorola web store, the bad news (not surprising) is that Motorola is again out of inventory. No ETA at this time.

     

    I had to chat/call them for more than an hour, only to finally get the gnarly status.

     

    Ugh.

    VoIP Telephone Services

    in General Topics

    Posted

    I currently use Republic Wireless as my VOIP-like services, and use the $10 plan for wifi data, calls, and texts; and when I have no wifi, it goes on the Sprint network for calls and texts - no data, as I'll need to find a hotspot or wifi cafe/etc. RW will fail over to Sprint if your call's QOS is bad via wifi.

     

    I still have my 2013 Moto X, and don't plan on upgrading it for the forseeable future as its still very useful - had success using it in many US states and in London (to call my parents in Chicago, for example).

     

    Caveats: Upfront cost of the phone is a bit steep, and cannot use your Moto RW phone with other networks.

    Google Nexus 5 by LG Users Thread!

    in Google

    Posted

    There are adapters, I have a kit I picked up off amazon for ~6 bucks. Just make sure to NOT leave the adapter in your phone without a Sim in it, or it will ruin the port. They get caught on the prongs and tend to either bend or rip them out when you're trying to remove them.

     

    Make sure you order the micro-SIM card and NOT the nano-SIM card - I ordered the nano-SIM in the hopes to upgrade later, but it did not work; the Ting tech said that nanos are for iPhones (at that time, which was 3 months ago-ish). She (very politely too, over a crying baby) ordered a micro-SIM for me, free of charge...in a few days, I got it, plugged in the micro-SIM in, and it worked.

     

    But the above said adapter does work, e.g. with a nano-SIM T-Mobile card.

    Google Nexus 5 by LG Users Thread!

    in Google

    Posted

    Has anyone gone from GSM to Sprint, or back again? I had to use T-Mobile as a stop gap while my Sprint SIM was being provisioned.

     

    When I activated my N5 to Sprint, the N5 did recognize the SIM as Sprint and was looking for the towers, but could not for at least 10 minutes while I was on a chat with a Sprint tech (web activation failed somehow). I was going to mention this to the tech, but read on...

     

    Other than trying to get close to a window, and restart my Airave, I did check in the Test menu - switched from LTE/GSM auto to LTE/CDMA auto. This worked within 20 seconds, and I was then able to finalize the activation by making that congratulatory toll free call.

     

    Anyone heard of this or done this? Is there a more streamlined way to do this?

     

    I would surmise the opposite would have to be done when going from Sprint to GSM, especially if I was going to Europe.

    Samsung Galaxy Nexus 4.2.1 upgrade

    in Samsung

    Posted

    Really...okay, when my honeymooning days are over for my new GN2, then I'll switch over for a bit (or when a need is there, e.g. vacation or business trip) to the GNex...its updated, its ready, just needs to be back on my account and active.

     

    Did you get it yet?

    Samsung Galaxy Nexus 4.2.1 upgrade

    in Samsung

    Posted

    My decommissioned GNex got updated around 6am CST this morning. Works nice, almost as good as my GNex GSM, its good to have the 4.2.1 features/improvements (Project Butter, slightly improved camera app, slicker notification pull down, etc), though I lose a decent stock clock widget and BW's toggle of Airplane mode.

     

    Can't comment if the battery life is improved since it is decom-ed from the network - only wifi is enabled. If one really needs to know, it was fully charged this morning, and now I see it at 73%, but its been sitting at home, loney and somewhat unused (other than getting my low volume gmail and gv msgs throughout today).

     

    Too bad an update like this can't fix its radio problems. <_<

    Note II Reception / Call Quality Experiences

    in Samsung

    Posted

    Cool on CM - if they can manage to get the camera working for the TouchPad, then I'm sure the voice and BT functions will get ironed out too.

     

    Putting the GN2 in any pants pocket felt odd, so I just carry it or put it in my backpack. My other alternative was to get the GS3, but its been in the industry for a bit shy of a year and the GS4 rumors don't help it too (even the cute Sprint saleswoman mentioned the rumors too, while we were chatting away during my GN2's activation (too bad the activation process took only a few minutes...)).

    Note II Reception / Call Quality Experiences

    in Samsung

    Posted

    Nah, no skinny jeans on this boy, but I've resorted not to put the GN2 in any pocket, despite wearing loose fit jeans, and unlike Kramer's misadventures. Guess its a hangover from my AT&T iPhone years... :rolleyes:

     

    Maybe go back to the phone on a holster? Nah...

     

    Had a pic to embed here, but didn't seem to work, nor do I want S4GRU or myself to be in trouble...needless to say, it was one from Dilbert: http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/1992-12-30/

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