Cellular

I got asked how things were going with Verizon since I switched. It’s been a mixed bag actually.

The cellular service has been stellar. The difference is definitely noticeable, in all the areas that bothered me most with Tmo. It basically boils down to the lower LTE spectrum. Tmo and Verizon are mostly identical for their 5g offerings. However, when you drop down to LTE Tmo goes to shit, especially indoors.

There are dead spots for any carrier, but Verizon has really built out their networks to cover basically everything, at least here in SF.

The customer service is a whole other story though. For whatever reason I had significant technical difficulties getting my Android watch switched over. We spent over two hours at a Verizon store getting it set up. Even worse, because I had a temporary printout extension on my license, they had to officially put the account in the hubby’s name to get us started. It was “supposed” to be an easy switch once the weekday rolled around and I could call in and get it transferred. It could not have been more difficult. It went on for almost a month and I was seriously tempted to go back to Tmo.

I was finally assigned a level 3 tech support person and she was able to get things sorted after about a week. Even she couldn’t originally fix it. It turned out to be related to some internal upgrades that had nothing to do with me but somehow impacted my account. Once I got everything “fixed” it was pretty much smooth sailing. I’m hopeful I never need customer support ever again, because it was a painful experience.

Tmo may not be the best service but their customer support is several degrees of magnitude better than Verizon. And don’t even get me started on the absolute mess that is the Verizon app. Good lawd, what an absolute waste of time.

Everything is fixed and running smoothly now. I had one additional hiccup when I upgraded my Pixel watch. I had to go into a store but he had it sorted in less than 10 minutes.

So there ya go.

2GX

So after 8 fucking days [1]when they promised 2-3. the US Post Office delivered my phone! It’s the LG Optimus with a Tegra dual-core processor rebranded for T-mobile.

I’m liking it so far. Its got a nice big bright screen, hdmi port, 8 megapixel camera, blah blah blah. Its definitely geared for audio/visuals. Bigger speakers, strong graphics support, and not to mention the hdmi. I inherited the Nexus S from Apple guy after he went back to the iphone. I loved the Nexus because its almost pure Android. No tinkering, no blocks, no carrier overlays that often make Android horrible.  Overlays that also make it harder to upgrade to newer versions as they come available. Tmo has been pretty consistent about pumping out phones with pure Android. The Nexus S also had the up and coming NFC chip but it was a battery hog so I left it turned off. I used it only 2 or 3 times.

Anyway, the new phone hums along pretty fast. There aren’t many apps/games written to take advantage of the dual-core yet but multitasking is a dream. Even heavy processor games hum. I’m no big on gaming on my phone but its nice knowing it can handle it. I haven’t had a chance to do much more beyond that yet. Being on Tmo’s new HSPA+ network, the data speeds are a lot better. Tmo might be the underdog of the big 4 but it’s been catching up fast. [2]Sadly, innovation will disappear after it gets fully gobbled up by shitty AT&T The phone is currently running Froyo which isn’t quite the newest version of Android but Tmo is promising an update to Gingerbread soon.

My biggest complaint with the new crop of super smart phones has been battery life. Apple gets props for designing theirs with longer batteries. I loved the Nexus S, but as I mentioned, the battery was awful. It got to where I was afraid to leave the damn house w/o the power cord. Even worse, for some unknown reason it took forever to charge the damn thing. My Nexus One (made by HTC, not Samsung) would charge up in just over hour. Thankfully, LG seems to have borrowed this concept as my new battery charges in about the same time frame. Anyway, I surf, listen to music, check email, text, read news/blog feeds, etc all day long on my phone. I’m a heavy user and I know I can’t expect most phones to go all day w/o needing to be charged. That said, I should be able to go more than a few damn hours. Luckily this one seems to be doing ok and its running on a dual-core chip.

I was tempted to wait for the HTC Sensation coming out soon but that’s 2-3 months away and waiting always seems to be a waste. There’s always a new, bigger, better phone on the horizon. lol Hopefully, this one will last me until I figure out if I’m staying with Tmobile as it gets swallowed by shitty AT&T or jumping ship to Sprint.

References

References
1 when they promised 2-3.
2 Sadly, innovation will disappear after it gets fully gobbled up by shitty AT&T