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.

Kevin Rose’s blog post about the latest Apple TV rumours had me asking if I’d buy it for $99. I’m sure the iOS platform, apps, sharing, etc., are interesting, but would it really make sense to add that to my home entertainment mix. I guess, for $99 you might as well give it a go just for shits and giggles.

Then I read on NewTeeVee this morning that Apple maybe in talks with the networks to offer show rentals for 99 cents and things started to get a lot more interesting.

I started wondering how much network TV programming I actually watch. I realized a while back that most of the programming I’m drawn to is on cable these days: No Reservations, Mad Men, Bizarre Foods, CNN, Entourage, True Blood, Californication, sports, etc. The only real network programming I watch consistently is probably the Big Bang Theory. So, maybe the occasional Letterman?

Well, let’s look at some simple math (it has to be simple because I was a Liberal Arts major).

My current cable bill from RCN.

Now, what if killed my cable subscription and got Apple TV, kept my Netflix (2 discs at a time, including Blu Ray), broadband and assumed I’d rent 30 shows per month (that’s being very generous because I don’t think I watch that many)?

That’s a saving of about $570 a year (which can go to pay-per-view…just kidding, well, maybe not kidding, nevermind, different post).

The only hesitation to killing cable programming completely might be sports in HD and CNN. I’m sure I could find an online solution pretty soon though.

Of course all of this is moot until Apple makes a move. Oh BTW, did you hear that Apple announced a special event on September 1st?

My transition to the cloud and being completely mobile for work and my digital life took a huge step forward when I signed up for SugarSync a few weeks ago. SugarSync is one of many cloud data storage and sync services that enables you to back up, sync, access and share your data over the internet.

With SugarSync you can upload the files on your computer(s) to their servers and the service keeps those files updated when you make changes locally on the computer you’re using. What this means for me and the majority of its users is that I can access those files from any computer that I own, if I download and install SugarSync’s software, or on any computer via a web browser.

It’s an interim step to being completely in the cloud that is pretty significant. While I still like having the data and content that’s most important to me stored locally or backed up on a external hard drive, I want two things: 1. back up and 2. being able to access the content and data on whatever device I’m on. SugarSync does both really well.

The things that that I like:
1. As advertised, it backs up your data and keeps it updated as you update it. Once you set up the management software that sits on your computer it uploads the files you want uploaded and keeps it sync’d in the background (this is an awesome feature). I’ve had a few hiccups where the applications seems to hang and stop syncing but when I Quit and Restart the application it has fixed itself.

2. The iPhone app is great. You can’t make changes to files that you’ve uploaded but you can view and download the files to send in an email. It’s a bit limiting this way. Interestingly, you can stream music files that you’ve uploaded, meaning you can carry your home PC’s music library with you. But, it seems that you can’t stream copy protected music files.

What’s missing?
I wish I could update files via the iPhone. I assume that would require the iPhone app to be able to access common file types (.doc, .ppt and .xls), and make and save changes. Other than that, I’m pretty happy about it.

I haven’t used all the features yet.  The Magic Folder seems to be very useful–enables you to assign files to the Magic Folder and actively make changes to documents in that Magic Folder on different devices. The changes are sync’d as though you’re using the same computer. That’s pretty cool.

I’m a big fan of cloud services. My question now is, will there be a point in time when I’m using too many  services and need to integrate them, or, will there be a single service that will give me everything I need?

Maybe Google will buy SugarSync and Evernote and I’ll be all set.

Thanks to @zarzecks for the suggestion.