anSarakhJackie

I found a Japanese blog that snarkily claims to 'introduce' foreigners to SoftBank behavior. http://www.japanmobiletech.com/2012/10/softbank-introduction-to-those.html Sounds like a rinki-dink operation- over subscribing the spectrum and then excluding 1/4th of your capacity to launch LTE, knowing you're hurting your subs. Same for the tethering/not- for their iphone. Although an unlimited? phone service with a 7 gig cap on LTE tethering with your basic 75$/mo. fee sounds pretty dang good.

ZDnet did a neat summation of pro's and con's to this deal: http://www.zdnet.com/softbank-as-sprints-savior-what-20-1-billion-does-doesnt-do-7000005765/ It sure looks like no speed up before late 2013. So, with LTE in place by end of 2013, this deal seems more to do with whatever comes after- for all the talk of hastening LTE adoption now.

Oooh! How dare they! Quote- ONE TOUCH EVO7: UPGRADE YOUR NEEDS ALCATEL ONE TOUCH announces ONE TOUCH EVO7, the modular tablet which evolves with your needs. ONE TOUCH EVO7 can be used in either WiFi mode or it can be upgraded to 3G capability. Milan, Italy ALCATEL ONE TOUCH presents its first modular tablet. ONE TOUCH EVO7 is a WiFi 7inch tablet that can be upgraded to 3G thanks to a removable 3G module. Discover ONE TOUCH EVO7 and its system of accessories. ONE TOUCH EVO7 is a 7inch WiFi tablet that can be easily upgraded to 3G thanks to a removable 3G module (sold in bundle or in stand alone, according to regional availability). Now you can enhance your tablet and choose your connectivity mode as either 3G or WiFi and you can switch anytime you want, it's that easy. ONE TOUCH EVO7 is characterized by a unique compact design: its silver back cover is bordered with a movable frame. Take it off, install the 3G module and personalize your tablet with a selection of colored frames. The new ALCATEL ONE TOUCH tablet is based on AndroidTM 4.0 ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) and has a complete access to Google PlayTM; this means you can open up to a world of more than 600.000 games and apps, many of which free or freely downloadable: apps, music, games and books instantly available in one touch, whenever you are. Take photos and record videos with ONE TOUCH EVO7 front camera and then store all the pictures and data on the 1GB RAM or Micro SD card (up to 32GB). With ONE TOUCH EVO7 you'll enjoy an easier and smoother navigation, thanks to its 1GHz CPU, and you'll live a more portable multimedia experience. Work or leisure, you can count on your ONE TOUCH EVO7 to get things done on the go. ONE TOUCH EVO7 comes up with a complete system of stylish accessories. Customize your tablet with colorful frames and flip covers, protect and carry around your ONE TOUCH EVO7 thanks to a leather pouch or a hard zip pouch. - seen on Engadget at http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/12/alcatel-one-touch-evo-7-ics-tablet-in-europe/ How dare they use EVO in vain!!! HTC must sue.

According to BGR quoting a Samsung pressor- Sprint release by mid-November: http://www.bgr.com/2012/09/19/galaxy-note-ii-release-date-att-verizon-sprint/ "DALLAS — September 19, 2012 — Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC (Samsung Mobile) – the No.1 mobile phone provider in the United States1 – will launch the Galaxy Note® II in the U.S. with five major carriers by mid-November. Exact pricing and retail availability will be announced by each of the carriers." Just how stupid will I look with 2 cell phones? I don't think I care! Evo & Note for all your needs...

I guess with that behemoth to the north we in San Diego trail again. Altho we seem in good company- both San Francisco and Phoenix are also out in the cold. I've been waiting a what seems like a long time for improvements, as I sit here with 1 bar on my evolte (had no bars fri-sun) at home in the heart of Pt. Loma.

I just checked and the ping was 540ms, but speedtest.net said it could not complete (after repeated tries) the test because of "network issues." I'm in the Pt. Loma area.

So is backhaul the issue when I keep loosing signal on the Old Town to Downtown trolley? The Sprint maps all show what looks like very high density of towers along this route. Or for that matter - my daughter is always listening to songs on youtube - her iphone will sing without trouble all the way from Bonita to downtown and then drop out at least once a trip on the I-8 Old Town to OB freeway. I mostly use my phone in the area south of 52 and west of 805. My call call completion has degraded in last 4 months. I will get text messages sent up to 8 hours previously even though both of us are within 2 miles of each other, usually in Pt. Loma. Very frustrating when it's my son saying he will be late home. OTOH, in the last 2 months I now can reliably watch TED talks from inside my building at work (on approved breaks, of course).

Thanks to Kisakuku, Pyroscott and david279 for helping with my question about evolte otg. I am too timid to root my phone so I upgraded to 64gb and am using the included Dropbox. No lte (obviously) yet in San Diego and 3g drops sometimes even in downtown SD so I can't reliably depend on my phone for my docs. Even so, that 'word flow' in the "read" option on the stock internet browser makes for such a better visual experience. Much than any other pc or tablet I've tried. I'll not use any other phone. Bad eyesight, don'tcha know.

How does Sprint decide in what order to roll out these updates? How long does it take? Looks like the update was first available Wednesday, 29th, 9:28 am ?EST. But I knew nothing about it until I saw the thread here. Obviously hadn't rolled out to my phone by Thursday, 30th, 10:30 pm PST. That's about 40 hours without auto-update. So, what would be the burden to have updates come all at once? Come to think of it, just how many EVO LTE's are active on Sprint?

Pyroscott, I would really prefer not to root my phone if possible- thanks for the 'stickmount' idea. I just checked the playstore & the only 'stickmount' apps only work on Galaxy phones. Kisakuku, I have a microSD-to-female-USB ad apter that I can plug USB drives into. After I started using thumb drives with my tablet I thought to use the same concept with my phone.

OK- tried "ES File Explorer" as suggested by Kisakuku & app only shows /sdcard/ and /sdcard/ext_sd/, not my thumb drive that is attached. What am I doing wrong?

I love my EVO LTE. But there is one thing I can do on my tablet that I can't figure out how to do on my phone. I hope you all can help. I can use outside USB storage that I can't seem to get to work on my EVO. I have a Samsung Tab2 7" with the same ICS operating system as the EVO where I use an included app called "my files" [which I can't find in the google app store], this app shows me "/Root/sdcard" & "/Root/extSdCard" AND when I attach a thumb drive it shows as "/Root/UsbDriveA." Now seeing the external drive & contents I can view/use them. Do you guys know how I can do that on my EVO?