The Dave

Until I get to Buffalo Wild Wings tonight, this OTA update pretty much was the only thing I survived through this day for. I think I need to drown my sorrows in spicy Asian chili sauce now.

I hope this means that soon you can get Framily pricing without having to find 6 other non Sprint customers to join with you.

That's good. I was worried that the MSRP+financing would end up higher than the older subsidy model. Hopefully the larger economy of scale will balance in a way to allow the prices to continue to drop to a more Nexus-like price tag as an average.

Didn't Softbank recently purchase a controlling stake in Brightstar? I wonder if that combined with these new plans will give Sprint the muscle to bring down the cost of phones and tablets.

I haven't gotten a text yet and the Jax market is pretty much near complete besides a few random sites and the typical Ericsson treatment for SMR being the plague.

The problem is that most people either have a contract that they are in the middle of, already have Sprint or don't want to join Sprint because of various reasons (work plan, family with another carrier, past issues etc). The easiest way to build a group is to start with current Sprint customers who can just migrate over without ETFs. Until Sprint starts swallowing ETFs like TMobile is now doing, it is going to be difficult for people to move over to a Framily group.

I've seen the new Framily commercial a lot lately. It is still unfortunate that you can't join existing Sprint customers.

I am really glad that Sprint is once and for all putting the Nextel brand to rest. It ran its course, Sprint moved on and now we can all move on as well.

It would be insane to see those Softbank style commercials here in the States with a Sprint dog named "Sparky". Perhaps he will go into space as well. Sprint could be the first to create a 4G network on the moon.

I don't, I turned off the other two bands just incase there would be an issue once the Spark update rolls out. Oddly, the last few days I have been without eHRPD and my LTE signal holds on like crazy. I've seen as low as -138 dBm quite a few times. I've also had it where it won't switch to 3G for phone calls because I will suddenly have 2 voice mails just pop up randomly.

I think something is being worked on. I haven't seen eHRPD all week, I was on 1x data in an area I used to always be on LTE/4 bars eHRPD and for the first time in an area I always roam on Verizon, I was connected to LTE at a -138 dBm level. Some odd occurrences for sure.

I guess that's why you never see someone from a tower crew who looks Scandinavian.

I love tacos. I am happy, however, to see Samsung and LG taking chances here in the USA. I've seen over the years many cool gadgets come out that are only for sale on Asia because they were so funky and out of the regular mold. I hope the Flex does well and maybe the Galaxy Round will come out.

After the Moment, I was ruined for Samsung. But, if the rumors are even 80% true, the Galaxy S5 may be a beast.

So the question is... Is it bad to turn green and smash things after being exposed to so much radiation? Do you value your hair? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop? So many valuable life questions.

The ironic thing is, Comcast hits AT&T hard in advertising about being better than U Verse and makes AT&T out to be the coming of the antichrist, yet they use AT&T to run fiber for them.

Has anyone ever seen an LTE signal this low before?

I'm thinking of joining Framily, but my only problem is that most of my family lives outside of Sprint coverage and many people I know already have Sprint. I wonder if there will be any provisions later on that would allow current Sprint customers to join a Framily group. That's the thing that is stopping me.

Mine is set to 45%. Anything 50% or higher is eye searing unless in direct sunlight. The LCD on this phone is ridiculously bright.

My mom went from the DROID RAZR to the HTC One. She hates the camera in her One. I've seen the pictures she has taken. They definitely look poor compared the my G2 and my sister's S4. I keep hearing people claim the Ultra pixel is superior, but I have never once seen a picture taken from one that impressed me. Definitely keep that in mind when thinking about the One Max. That being said, not sure about the Note Lite. I would, however, imagine the Galaxy S5 will be around the corner and basically the size of a Note Lite but more powerful and Tri-band. I'd say keep an eye out for that.

Pfft. Only 300 mbps?

I was really intrigued by the Moto X when it first came out until I found out it was band 25 only. Hopefully they will make a follow-up model that will perform like Moto is known for across all three bands.

It has almost completely to do with signal strength and good software coding. If I am in an area with weak signal or 3G only, it drains the battery like a fat girl drains a milkshake. Over the weekend, I am usually home or at a client's house a few miles away. There are two 4G towers just a mile from each location with line of sight, so I keep a strong signal. Weekday afternoons I am at an elementary school made of thick concrete block with a metal roof. My battery gets hammered for the 4 hours I spend there. Also, check the apps that are running in the settings>apps>running menu. You can see the heavy offenders. If I see apps that bleed a lot of resources, I either close or eventually delete them. It seems about 30-40% of my battery is drained from Google location services. I hear that Google Now is really bad on battery life.

Just saying..

The author also used an Ativ S for Sprint while giving Verizon and AT&T the benefit of the much better Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5s. I wouldn't have expected much from an Ativ, either.