I Said, OK

UPDATE April 20, 2011: Can’t get the thing to connect and stay connected on a consistent basis. Am going to return it. Everytime I started it up I had to reboot 3 to 4 times before I could get it to work. My WiFi connected to the device but it wasn’t connecting me to the web. It’s a shame. I really wanted to like this device. I’ll have to give the new Novatel MiFi a try next.

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I have the new Samsung 4G LTE SCH-LC11 Mobile Hotspot and I think I’m liking it OK. It’s definitely fast but seems to be a bit inconsistent. I’m not sure if it’s the device or Verizon’s new 4G LTE network in New York City. It’s fast, has reverted to a 3G connection a few times and has mysteriously shut down three times in the last 10 minutes on its own. We’ll see.

My verdict on the original 3G MiFi back in 2009 was summarized in the headline of the post: I love my Verizon MiFi. I did then and still do. It has been an indispensable device for work and play away from the office or my home.

The Novatel version, the original MiFi was on Verizon’s 3G EVDO network. On a good day I was able to get 1+Mbps down and about that up as well. It really varied and I found depending on the city I was in could range from anything 0.4Mbps – 2Mbps (hit that in Boston once). Not bad. The convenience was terrific and the speeds were decent.

A few weeks ago I got a call from Verizon Wireless, on a Saturday no less, saying that I was eligible for an upgrade to a 4G LTE device. Ah…I’ve been waiting for this. The conversation with the rep took longer than it needed to, I felt like saying to her: I know what I want, you don’t have to sell it.

New data plans

The only pause I had was that I was on an unlimited data plan with the 3G MiFi and was now told that they no longer have that option available for LTE devices. Oh how sneaky.

Verizon has rolled out a couple of new plans for their 4G LTE data devices: 5GB/$50/month and 10GB/$80/month. Granted I rarely went over 2GB in bandwidth per month in the time I used the 3G MiFi, it was too slow to do much in the way of data intensive activities, like streaming movies on NetFlix or downloading lots of large movie files. The new Samsung 4G LTE hotspot could be a total different story though.

So, we’ll see how this goes. I opted for the 5GB plan. Cheaper than what I was paying for unlimited ($60/month) and we’ll see if my consumption habits change now that I have faster bandwidth.

Setting up the Samsung 4G LTE mobile hotspot

Looks like Verizon has figured out that it’s different setting up a data device and a phone. I didn’t have any of the trouble I experienced setting up the original MiFi that I did with this device. The documentation was very clear and it was a simple process of dialing the activation number and following the voice prompts. The only thing you’ll need is the phone number associated with your device. Not that intuitive  since you don’t naturally think that a data device has a number associated with it but I supposed that’s how Verizon keeps track of things.

Speed

OK, so this thing is pretty fast. It seems to take a few tries to get it on the LTE network, literally. My first couple of connects didn’t result in anything special. Finally, I was able to get a pretty decent downlink speed at my office in the Meatpacking District in Manhattan. By decent I mean this:

That’s pretty fast.

It gets better. When I tried it at my apartment, I was able to get this:

That’s faster than my cable averages even though RCN claims that I have the 15Mbps package.

Here’s the problem though. The first time I tried it home it connected to the 3G network. It was painfully slow and didn’t really connect. Switched it off and tried it again. Same thing. Finally, after a few goes it connected to the 4G network and it worked!

It seems that it’s still a bit inconsistent. I’m not sure if this is the device or the network. I’ll see how it goes in the days to come as I use it here. I’ll have a chance to test it in a few major cities in the coming weeks as well.

Mysteriously shuts down

The other thing that is happening is that the device keeps switching off! As I’ve been writing this for the last 30 or so minutes, it’s switched off by itself three times. Not sure what’s going on here. I went into the device configuration and have switched the power option to never go to sleep so it shouldn’t be that. My guess is that they’ll issue a firmware upgrade to address this at some point. It looks like there have been a number of reports of this on Verizon’s own review section of the website.

Initial take

So far it’s mixed. But, it’s only been a few hours. That said, here’s what I like:

1. Set up was painless.

2. Speed is promising, in fact, if it stays like this, I love it.

3. Size and form factor are much like the original MiFi. Slightly larger but great.

Questions I’ll be asking in the coming days:

1. Will this auto-shut down ‘feature’ be resolved?! If not, it’ll be a problem and a return.

2. Will the speed hold up?

3. Battery life? Is it useable?

4. It doesn’t use Verizon’s VZ Manager, which I think is interesting. Meaning it can’t be tethered and can only be used via WiFi. Not sure what this means yet and if I’ll miss it.

5. Will the 5GB limit hurt?

Stay tuned.

UPDATE April 18, 2011: The auto-shut down ‘feature’ seems to have subsided. The 4G LTE bandwidth works much better at home than it does at the office where it was pretty bad today. I suppose the network is new and still rolling out, so that can be expected.

1. Gowalla (Gowalla has an Android app now! It’s pretty good but seems to be a few steps behind their iPhone app in features. Scratch that, it’s pretty damn good now.)
2. Amtrak
3. Smugmug
4. Flickr
5. NBC Local
6. Starwood
7. Delicious
8. Zipcar
9. Instapaper
10. Fandango (I’ve heard that this is on the way) UPDATE 1/8: This has been released! I’ve downloaded it & it seems to work well.
11. Stachetasic (if you have to ask, you’ll never understand)

I said Goodbye to my AT&T iPhone the day the Droid was released. It’s not because I don’t like the iPhone or think that the Droid is a better device, it’s simply because AT&T’s service is unacceptably poor and I refuse to be an AT&T customer any longer.

I’ve been toying with sharing my thoughts on the Droid for awhile and have even drafted an extensive post about it, but I realized that there’s been so much written about it already that it likely doesn’t add much to the conversation. Instead, I’m going to share my favorite Android apps–it is after all what makes the device useful.

Quickly though, here’s what I like and don’t like about the Droid:

Like:
1. Verizon’s network works. Works perfectly in NYC (only one dropped call), Boston, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and San Francisco.
2. Fast. Much faster than the iPhone 3G. Network and device are very speedy.
3. Android’s open platform means some very creative apps that tap into the OS’ core functionality in ways that iPhone won’t allow.
4. Lots of control and customizable features.

Don’t like:
1. Camera. It’s way over thought and as such, isn’t very good. Apple realized that people just want to pull out their camera, take a snapshot and be done with it. I don’t need all these crazy features like a proper camera. A multifunction device never works great. Also, the first Droid I got had this green ghost image on all the photos, I returned it the next day.

2. Portrait virtual keyboard is terrible compared to the iPhone. Text correction is not as good as the iPhone either.
3. I now carry my old iPhone as my iPod because I’m quite attached to the iTunes.
4. A bit of the wild west when it comes to the Android Market. A bit unclear as to whether an app has malicious intent because it all seems very uncontrolled. Android/Google should communicate how they control and ensure that consumers are safe.

That said, I like the Droid. Will I stay on it when iPhone moves to Verizon? Not sure.

Android Apps I recommend:

Native Apps: Gmail, Email, Contacts, Maps, Search, Messaging, Alarm, Navigation. All are great and work well. Amazingly well. I would prefer for an integrated Gmail & Exchange Inbox and Calendar (it’s probably possible but not by default) but it’s fine the way it is. Voice search is one of the coolest features out there and the integrated search, maps and navigation can’t be beat.

Twidroid for Twitter. I’ve tried all the major Twitter apps and this is the best so far. It handles your feed nicely and gives you all the options you want (RT, TwitPic, Bit.ly, etc.) in a very intuitive way. Twidroid lets you see Profiles (your own, followers and anyone) easily, which is surprisingly missing in some apps. A very intuitive UI for handling the stream, your DMs and @’s.

The Weather Channel. Best weather app out there on Android and iPhone. I love being able to track different cities when I travel and the map feature turns me into my own meteorologist. It’s indispensable in my opinion.

OpenTable. Very straightforward app and a very useful service.

Evernote. Another service that I’ve come to rely on. The app works well. It’s still a beta version and a bit behind the iPhone app but the basics are there. I’m guessing they’ll continue to add to it.

Sugarsync. This is the cloud storage and backup service that I use. It integrates your different devices really nicely. I can access files that I’ve backed up from my laptop on my Droid and vice versa. You can also automatically back up photos and videos from your Droid so that you can view them from your laptop.

FlightStats. This is another invaluable app when I travel. I can create trips and enter all my flights that I want to keep track of. Major efficiency bump.

Newspaper. Wow. An RSS reader that lists all major US, UK and Canadian newspapers. Probably the first app once I’m done with email and Twitter that I go to each day. I use it to check the news of the day starting with the New York Post of course.

Dolphin Browser. I’ve been playing with this for a few weeks because it has multitouch (not available on the native Droid browser). The multitouch works as advertised. Not as smooth as the iPhone multitouch. I use the native Droid browser as my default still.

Meebo IM. Works really well for mobile IM with Yahoo! and AIM.

NYC MTA map. It’s just the NYC subway and bus route but very useful. Combined with the transit layer on Google Maps it’s quite brilliant.

Huffington Post & NPR News. Both work well. NPR has streaming audio which is cool.

Foursquare. Not as intuitive as the Foursquare iPhone app but works fine.

Facebook. Amazed at how fast it is. Can’t see, send or receive messages–I think this is weird.

Battery Time. Shows you how much battery life you have left. The times don’t seem that accurate but it’s useful to see the percentage of charge you have left.

Sports Tap. Shows you scores from major leagues: NBA, MLB, EPL. Great!

FxCamera. Some cool effects. A fun photo app.

Photoshop Mobile. Really useful for cropping images, etc. I haven’t tried the mobile/cloud features yet.

Shazam. Just get it. You won’t regret it. Unless you hate music then stop reading and go away.

A few months ago I upgraded my 2-year-old Verizon Wireless Broadband USB modem to the Verizon MiFi 2200 and I love it! I had read the usual product reviews and watched David Pogue’s video about it and decided to take the leap. My impression having put the MiFi through the paces for a couple of months of travel is that it’s very convenient to have wireless broadband access on multiple devices and Verizon’s network is good. However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing to get it up and running, so take note in the beginning.

What is the MiFi?

If you don’t know, the Verizon MiFi is a wireless modem and WiFi router. In short, you can use it to access the Internet on any WiFi enabled device anywhere that has Verizon Wireless connectivity. The WiFi piece is the kicker for me–you can connect up to five devices to it. No cables needed.

I use my Verizon Wireless Broadband primarily when I travel (for work and play). The convenience is unbeatable and I can avoid having to pay access fees for slow hotel WiFi (kills me to have to pay $12-15/day for 802.11b connectivity!). When I travel I often find myself sitting in hotel lobbies, coffee shops, restaurants, train stations, on the Acela, airport lounges, with a fair amount of downtime and being able to connect to the Internet regardless of where I am has countless benefits. At $60/month, the Verizon Wireless Broadband makes for a decent deal.

Setting Up the MiFi

The initial set up was a bit confusing. A lot of the documentation included in the box were for setting up phones and didn’t apply. The main set up document said to call a toll free number from your new mobile phone. I looked all over the MiFi but couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to do that.

Confusing Documentation

There was another booklet which said that when you plug the MiFi into your computer via the USB cable it would automatically prompt you to download the preloaded VZ Access Manager software (Verizon’s software for connecting to the Internet when the MiFi is attached via USB) from the MiFi. Problem with this was that I already had a version of VZ Access Manager for my old USB modem and I think this resulted in a conflict. The VZ Access Manager I had running on my MacBook recognized that I had a device attached but it was incompatible. Nothing happened.

I had no idea that there were different versions of the management software for different devices, but after awhile I figured there was a problem. So, off I went to hunt down the right software. After I found the right page on the Verizon website (they don’t make it obvious) I uninstalled my previous version of the VZ Access Manager and downloaded and installed the new version.

Attempting to Activate the MiFi

The next step was to activate the MiFi. If it was a phone you’d simply dial the toll free number and follow the instructions. Instead you’re supposed to activate it via the VZ Access Manager with the MiFi connected via USB. I tried this and got a response saying that it was activated but I couldn’t get it to work. After a couple of times I said, “Fuck it,” and called Verizon.

30 minutes on the phone…

And we’re off!!!

Bottomline, the documentation sucks and would be a real problem for anyone who isn’t tech savvy or used to setting up devices. So, pick up the phone and call Verizon right away if it doesn’t work the first time around. It’ll save you a lot of time.

Using the MiFi

Activation and set up aside, using the MiFi is amazingly easy. Walt Mossberg and others have covered this really well. It really is as simple as pressing the button (there’s only one), waiting a few seconds, searching for the network on your computer, entering the code, and…and…that’s it. You’re off and running.

Verizon’s Network Performance

I connected both my MacBook and iPhone to the MiFi and was able to get really decent speeds. By decent I mean up to 1.5 to 1Mbps down pretty consistently (I clocked over 2Mbps while I was in Boston). Verizon’s broadband is much faster than AT&T’s 3G so surfing the web and downloading email on my iPhone was much better via the MiFi was a better way to go.

Web pages loaded up very smoothly and virtually as fast as my RCN cable at home. Email downloaded perfectly fine. In other words, a VERY acceptable performance. Not sure if I’m ready to go with it as a cable replacement yet. Maybe. Verizon’s 5GB/month limit is a bit annoying.

Interestingly, it performed much better than my old USB modem. Since my old USB modem was over 2 years old, I assume there are some inefficiencies to be expected and some problems that must’ve been solved with the MiFi.

The big test for me was traveling along the Northeast corridor via the Acela. I was very pleasantly surprised. Whereas my old USB modem would run into deadzones and come crashing down, this was relatively rare with the MiFi.

I had considered switching to AT&T’s 3G or even Sprint (blech) and read a few interesting comparisons online but alas, I’m glad that I stuck it out with Verizon. I just don’t trust AT&T’s claims that they’re improving the 3G network. I have an iPhone and see NO evidence of improvement. If anything, it’s gotten worse.

The other thing that I enjoy is that because the MiFi has a range of about 30 feet (claimed), I can spare the precious tray table space and just leave the MiFi in my bag. No tangled and cumbersome cables. I did notice that the MiFi can get really hot. To counter this I simply try to keep it in a fairly open place in my bag rather than tucking it into a corner somewhere. If I do this it doesn’t heat up too badly.

Battery Life and Charging

Verizon claims that you can get up to 4 hours on a full charge. That’s about right based on my experience. When the battery dies I simply grab the USB cable and stick it into my MacBook.

I haven’t clocked the charging time but it doesn’t seem unreasonable. I’ve also not used the wall charger much as I usually just plug it into my MacBook.

One thing that I noticed was that when you use the wall charger the LED stays green (notifying the user that a) it’s on or b) a full charge. A bit puzzling because when you plug it into your computer via USB to charge, the LED turns a light green as it charges and glows bright green when it’s fully charged. How then do you know when it’s fully charged if you’re using the wall charger? A minor point but it’s not that helpful for someone with charger OCD.

What I like about the MiFi
1. It looks really cool.
2. Its size. Small.
3. It works as advertised.
4. Multiple device connectivity. Great for business or small group usage.
5. Verizon network.

What could be better
1. Activation process.
2. Quirk with indicator LED when using wall charger.
3. Battery life. Don’t we always want more? 4 hours is decent though.