My new(ish) phone: Sprint HTC EVO…

Back on June 4th, I took a half day off work to go to Best Buy and get a new cell phone. What I ended up walking away with was far more than a phone. It was a little computer that has nearly constant access to the internet.

I ended up getting the HTC EVO on Sprint. The EVO runs the Android mobile operating system and does some pretty amazing stuff. As such, I wanted to touch on a couple of cool applications that I’ve been using. If you have an Android phone, you should use them too. Just pop over to the Android Market and search for the name.

• Twicca – This is the best Twitter app for Android, in my opinion. It is quick, customizable, and looks fantastic. Also, follow me on Twitter if you don’t already.
• Astro File Browser – I love this for 1) copying and moving files around my phone, mostly music and 2) it has a handy backup feature which will save copies of all your apps. If something happens to your phone, you don’t have to worry about searching the market and reinstalling everything. This app just takes care of it.
• Listen – This is a podcast manager by Google. It is still a little rough around the edges, but I love it thus far. I’ve never listened to podcasts before, but there is just so much interesting stuff out there.

I’ll be back with some more recommendations soon and some more in depth info on the EVO, including some screenshots of some of the great features and apps.

Top Posts for 2009…

By far, the most popular feature on The Digitante was Friday Night Links. It’s probably my favorite post each week as well.

However, I want to give a run-down of the most popular individual posts at The Digitante. Without further ado, let’s get to the list.

1. Note Taking with Facebook – Getting picked up on Lifehacker certainly helped out on this post as it came in at around 600 visitors. It also stirred a bit of controversy as you can see from the comment section of the Lifehacker post. Mostly there were concerns with how Facebook handles privacy, but read on if you want to know how to deal with the privacy issue.
2. Sprint Store vs. Best Buy – When I initially wrote this post, it was a toss up as to who I would buy my next phone from. After continuing to consider the question and having some person experiences with both, I think I’ve landed firmly on the side of Best Buy. Sprint need to pull their head out of the sand and start offering an instant rebate. There is no way they can keep making people wait 8-10 weeks for their $100 check. People are just too price sensitive.
3. Meet The Digitante – Who would have known that everyone would be so interested in who I was and how I got to be where I am. I certainly would not have known it. I am glad I wrote this post because it gave me a chance to figure out who I am. Alright, inspirational speech time is over.
4. Build a Simple PC for $300 – If there was one thing I could do every day for the rest of my life, it would be to order parts and build computers all day long. The fact that I got to share that with everyone was really cool. I am currently designing a PC for a friend that will be used in a recording studio and another that will be used by me as a media center PC. I can’t wait to document that as well.
5. Empty a Water Bottle Quickly – Another hands-on, doing type of post. I am hoping to do some more instructional videos like this. I need to get a better camera for shooting video though.
6. Gifts for Your Techie – This isn’t necessarily one post, but all the gift guides were a hit. I’m hoping to do a little more on gift giving next year and hopefully start a bit earlier (Pre-Thanksgiving) so you have plenty of time to shop.
7. Facebook Privacy – If you use Facebook, this is a must-read post and I would highly recommend you spend 5-10 minutes and check out your privacy settings. I found some very disturbing things, especially regarding the amount of information that could be shared about me by others. I made sure to disable others’ ability to share vulnerable information of mine.
8. Mr. B Picks Up a Pre – This was actually the second in the In Action! series by The Digitante. Mr B was also kind enough to let you all know how The Digitante did. The first was Mr. G’s New TV, so be sure to read that one as well. If you have a tech need fulfilled and you want to be the next installment of In Action!, be sure to contact me and let me know.
9. A Bad Apple Spoils the Bunch – Apple rubbed me the wrong way for the last time. I’ve spent the last 3 months iTunes free and I’m loving it. I wrote about DoubleTwist which recently added the AmazonMP3 store to its interface. I wasn’t totally happy with DoubleTwist though. I’ve got foobar2000 installed currently and I’ve used it a little, but not enough to write about it. Also, Songbird recently added a slew of new features so I need to check that out as well.
10. Upgrade Your Wireless Router – This was a more technical article, but was perhaps the most doable for some setting up their first wireless router. I can’t recommend Tomato and the WRT54GL enough. If you are in the market for a new wireless router, this is the only way to go.

Let me know if you had any favorite posts from this year. What do you want to see more of in the next year? Toss it in the comments section!

Some site updates…

I was working tonight, so I did some lighter stuff around The Digitante HQ:

• Added pictures to my post on moving to Gmail.
• Added a picture of myself, The Digitante, to the Meet The Digitante post in the about section.
• Added the terms and conditions for both the Best Buy service plan and the Sprint service plan to my post on Sprint Corporate stores vs. Best Buy.

You might ask what it was I was working on tonight. Well, I was thoroughly cleaning out a PC that was infested with about 500 different types of malware, spyware, and viruses. This computer HAS anti-virus software, and while that is the most important part of the equation, there is a lot of other stuff that can crud up your computer.

We’ll hit on the best spyware and malware in a future post, but in the meantime, if your computer has unexplained slowdowns or annoying pop-ups that don’t seem to go away with an anti-virus scan, feel free to contact The Digitante to talk about solutions to your problems. You can email from the About page or you can click the Google Voice widget on the right.

The New King of Cellphone Plans…

Sprint recently announced their new cellphone plan perk: Any Mobile, Anytime. Essentially it allows Sprint customers to call any cellphone for free.

But I have Verizon/AT&T/T-mobile with free mobile-to-mobile!

Most people I’ve told about this new plan are confused and it takes a moment or two and some additional explanation before it truly sets in. If I have Sprint service, I can make calls anytime, day or night, without using my minutes and I can call any cellphone: my friends who have iPhones on AT&T, Android G1s on T-mobile, and Blackberry Storms on Verizon.

I previously enjoyed free Sprint-to-Sprint calling because my whole family, brother, sister, parents, and wife, were all on Sprint. However, calling my wife’s parents, quite few of my friends, and business associates still used my daytime minutes. Not to mention that 80-90% of my phone calls were made to other cellphones. Any Mobile, Anytime has eliminated the possibility of our family ever having an overage charge for using too many minutes.

This is certainly a boon to those who use their phone for work during the day and make a lot of calls to co-worker’s or client’s cellphones.

What’s the catch?

How did you know there was a catch? Well, you’re right, there is. Any Mobile, Anytime is only available on the Sprint Simply Everything Data plans.

If you have a smartphone such as a BlackBerry, Palm Pre, or HTC Touch, you probably already have this plan and Any Mobile, Anytime will automatically be added at your next billing cycle (or you can call and ask for it sooner).

If you don’t have a smartphone and instead have a flip phone or slider-style phone, you may be less inclined to need the data portion of the Simply Everything Data.

However, if you DO use a lot of minutes and you DO call lots of mobile numbers, this plan might still be a great deal for you with the added bonus that you could check email, weather, and tons of other stuff on your phone on the go.

Details

Individual Simply Everything Data plans including unlimited email, web, messaging, navigation, and Sprint TV:

• 450 minutes: $69.99
• 900 minutes: $89.99
• Unlimited minutes: $99.99

Shared/Family Simply Everything Data plans including unlimited email, web, messaging, navigation, and Sprint TV:

• 1500 minutes: $129.99
• 3000 minutes: $169.99
• Unlimited minutes: $189.99

Note: the unlimited plans are listed for comparison, but technically since you have unlimited minutes, you wouldn’t need Any Mobile, Anytime.

If you are curious if this might be a good deal for you, or you want to know how much you could save per month with a plan like this, The Digitante offers a service that you might find interesting. I will sit down with you and 3-6 months of your phone bill with your current provider. Based on your minute usage and any other specifications (need for internet, messaging, etc), I can figure out how much you could expect to save by moving to a different carrier or changing plans with your current carrier.

To contact The Digitante about any of this, you can head to the About page where you will find my email address or you can simply click the Google Voice widget in the right column, enter your phone number, and be connected to me.