EVO 4G launch day antics: Sprint's computers overwhelmed, Radio Shack listing CDMA iPhones?
By Chris Ziegler 
posted June 4th 2010 2:03PM
posted June 4th 2010 2:03PM
- Sprint's activation system is apparently buckling under the pressure, an issue that's giving us nightmarish flashbacks to iPhone launches of days gone by. We've even heard reports of poor shoppers being "turned away" when reps are stymied by the situation. A wildly successful product is both a blessing and curse, is it not?
- One corporate store clerk says Sprint's system is now entirely down, and employees are being forced to write receipts by hand. "We have sold out (and pretty fast at that), but can't do anything at this point, not even a bill pay," he adds.
- We've gotten multiple tips saying that Radio Shack now lists a $400 early termination fee in its contract for the iPhone on Verizon and Sprint. Our guess is that this is just some generic verbiage, not a sign of an impending CDMA launch, but you never know.
- One tipster said his EVO came with a Samsung microSD card, rather than a SanDisk. We don't know what to make of that, as it was far too late for HTC to head off storage bugs at the pass.
[Thanks to everyone who sent these in]
I have my Evo right now but just trying to get it to activate. :(
has anyone had luck with getting the Qik 2 way video chat to work? from what ive looked up there is supposed to be a download in the market but i havent been able to find it. even when you go to Qik site the Evo isnt even listed. has anyone figured this out yet.
AAhhh cant wait for me EVO to come in on Monday!! But if the Iphone becomes true...oo man...decisions!
http://www.seidioonline.com/product-p/bacy35hev4-bk.htm
your thoughts?
@thaboyz http://batteryboss.org/
@Matt da Brat that's pretty interesting. Even if the 3500mAh battery that I want to get for the Evo was 20% off what its rated. It is still a hell of a lot better than 1500mAh.
$400 for early termination...
Heck... make it an even $1000
No..... $10,000... and they can sleep with your daughter.
EVO + 4G = PURE AWESOMENESS
I got my Evo this morning at 10 and went to work directly. I live in the SF Bay Area. There is no 4G yet. At work suddenly I started seeing 4G. it is awesome. I work very close to Google HQ in Mountain View. Does it have to do anything? Either way I am getting 4G at work. WoooooooooooHooooooooooooooooo
why the hell do you need 4g at work where you have wifi huh?
@R2D2 The droid
My Wifes will be here on Monday and I work in Redwood will see how far the 4G goes. I hope it atleast reaches to Palo Alto.
ok, so im an idiot apparently. im in eastern southern california at my parents for a few days and i wanted to feel and use the evo before i bought it. i know lots of people pre-ordered, but i figured that with so many people trying to get this thing there would be plenty of these phones hitting stores. both best buys, a handful of radio shacks and the sprint store were all sold out. the best buy i went to - the guy stared at me and said i cant just come in and buy one. they didnt even have enough to cover their pre-orders. i found a radio shack with no list and will get mine next week. a little ridiculous if you ask me.
@ddddd I switched from the iPhone and the Evo is way better. HTC keyboard is an absolute dream to type on and the screens amazing with Apple like touch accuracy.
this better be a record breaking launch if systems keep crashing like this. When the instinct came no crashes and when the pre launched no crashes so I guess this is a sign...
Picked mine up today, so far a cool device. It's sitting on my desk charging while powered off right now, but once it's done I'll be all over it. Here's my experience.
So I live in Washington, DC. I went to the "main" DC Sprint store in south Dupont today (there are only two corporate stores in DC, this was the larger one). Got there at 12:30 p.m., was told to come back in an hour. Apparently line was much larger earlier in the day. Came back, got everything set up in terms of the account. Picked up a case and screen protectors, because the store was running a promotion for 20% off the purchase of two EVO accessories. At the time, the sales rep had told me a. they only had 48 EVOs left (this was around 2:15 p.m.), and apparently all the Sprint stores in DC-Metro Virginia and Gaithersburg, MD were COMPLETELY sold out of them. He also said they were getting in a large shipment tomorrow. I expect them to be sold out by now (7 p.m.).
So got home around 2:30, and it took a little bit of time before the calling/voice portion of the account went live. I was still having trouble activating the data, though (no internet), so I called Sprint CS and they had me reset the data profile, etc. Actually had to go through the manual-typing-number-code-to-reset step. After that, the internet took off. The advanced CS lady told me they were definitely having issues on the network today, but was happy that my stuff got working.
So that's my experience...now for some hot DoubleTwist action. First smartphone ahoy!
@AmplifiedJ Yeah and sorry for the bad experiences some of you had.....yech
Unfortunatly, I have to say the EVO launch is a dud.
Where's the "smashmyevo.com" video? I mean, your product just HASN'T made it untill some spoiled rich brat buys 2 of them and smashes one for his buddies at the store!.
;/ LOL
I'm writing this reply from my new evo! I switched over from at&t (iPhone 3g) earlier today and I don't have any regrets. Contrary to what many of you may have heard, activation, despite the delay, was a breeze. It's the internet that takes awhile to "setup" (2 hour delay, but well worth it imo). The evo rocks!!!
I just wanted 2B number 200 to comment
Here's a tip: Buy and install Beautiful Widgets from the Android Market with their free live wallpaper and use "beautiful home" instead of the default HTC widget.. Then select geolocation change Paris to your zip and pick "naked background" at the very bottom.. hit apply. You will see the weather moving in real time and the sun rise and set accordingly. It's an awesome experience!
Soo ridiculous. Been waiting on my EVO to be ported from AT&T for 8 hours now...Pretty damn frustrating!
I was assured by people commenting on this phone before launch that it was just hype & not going to cause people to pick one up at launch & be a major seller!?!? What gives?
I hope those that are new to Android & esp. Sprint will soon see the joys of having an awesome phone & good / fast uncapped data & not have spotty / dropped calls!!
To be honest, I'm haven't picked one up & am trying my hardest to show some fiscal restraint even though I know I'd jump on this badboy & spend way too many hours of joy playing with & tweaking the setup!
For those lucky people with one already, enjoy & know at least 1 person is uber jealous I'm not in your EVO 4G shoes...
Just to add my 2 cents:
Had an appointment at the NYC Union Square Best Buy. They were running about 45 mins behind, but were doing the best the could - Sprint servers were melting. They called Sprint at the same time as they entered my info into the computer to see which method would be quickest. Turns out that Sprint answered the phone first (about 15 mins on hold) and they activated over the phone. Took a while, but at least I wasn't on 5th Ave outside in a line for 8 hours...
As far as the phone and SD issues that were reported: mine worked out of the box with zero issues. And FYI for those of you looking to make the leap, I have been disappointed in phones before, so I had my doubts about the Evo as well and was actually a little nervous about it reading all the hate in the last few days. I could write a long run-down of my impressions, but let me sum up: after using the phone for several hours now, all of the haters sound like Charlie Brown's parents to me. I love everything about it, and the battery life is just fine (have owned iPhone's and it is comparable).
@sant1n0
Waaa waa waa, wa waa wa WAaa.
Glad I am off work (Radioshack). Ohh and for the people who couldn't get the EVO today we are NOW taking pre-orders for next friday the 11th, same deal $50 gift card guarantees you a phone with a $20 dollar credit. Cant wait to get my own evo :^)
Got my evo working now. infact I'm posting from my evo.
Love this fone
I'm much more interested in the CDMA iPhone. Although, I'm going to get an at&t iPhone, that's interesting news.
If you don't want to pay the $500 for a handset, you could try to get one from someone who attended the Google I/O conference a couple of weeks ago. In addition to the free Motorola Droid that all attendees this year were sent by Google before the conference, we all got free EVO's on the second day (no, mine is not for sale). I love Google I/O - awesome conference and they really treat their developer community well.
Good luck.
I had to wait 3 hours before my evo would work properly.. the systems were overloaded... which is a blessing in disguise for Sprint!
Don't Believe the Hype: Sprint "4G" Slower Than T-Mobile 3G, Report Finds
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/dont_believe_the_hype_sprint_4g_slower_than_t-mobi.php
costs more.. works worse... great deal
BEST PHONE EVA!!!! *gargle*
My account activation was pretty nightmarish.
I had showed up at my nearby just before 10 am and already there was at least 2 customers ahead of me picking their EVO. Right away I knew Sprint's online site was being hammered. I spent 45 minutes without being able to complete my T-mobile number port and activation.
I had to leave to work and was told i could come back around 1 pm while they tried to activate my account. Came back at said time and it didn't happen. For another hour and 30 minutes my activation was 'stuck' because they couldn't get the number port to transfer and Radio Shack rep didn't have the admin rights to push it forward. They had been on hold with Sprint on phone for several minutes before my account was activated... but wouldn't go into effect for 1 to 24 HOURS. It was like this because of the account issues I had and only finally around 8:30 PM the phone finally kicked in.
So yea.. first time with Sprint, pretty bad impression so far. One thing of note though while headed home on train, I kicked on the 4G radio and it discovered a 4G network in NYC.... but then I went out of range :D Anyone in NYC area can confirm 4G is up?
This phone is amazing been playing with it a lot for the past 6 hours and still have 35 percent of my battery left! Goodbye iPhone I don't miss you at all. IPhone 4G better eat your wheaties!!!!
Went to Radio Shack not expecting much but the rep told me they had 4 left and 2 customers purchasing EVOs front of me. I said sign me up. After 2 1/2 hours of dealing with Sprint's "buckled activation system", I have my EVO.
As far as the microSD card goes, I took it out and reinserted it and it works fine.
has anyone's online order been processed yet? i'm not talking about just charged but processed / shipped?
@kof2000
I ordered before 6am PST on the 4th from BB and it shipped around 4pm PST with a Monday Delivery :)
Just picked this up for my wife today. She is a pre user and is already in love with this phone. The capabilities are absolutely amazing. And I also cannot believe at&t's recent actions on the eve of the evo's release. They must be about to lose exclusivity because they are practically pushing people away from them right now and into the arms of their unlimited data competitiors
The phone is only as good as your coverae. I Love the phone...but it might be going back to "The Shack". I bought mine because I was not happy with T-Mobile's 3G data speeds in my area. I had gone to the Sprint store and played with a Hero several weeks back, and it looked like data speeds on 3G were 3 times as fast as I was getting with my Nexus One and T-Mobile.
After a full day long process of waiting for the Shack employees to figure out the process and activate the phone, I get home and the data speeds are even worse then T-Mobile.
@Socalfrank
Might be in your best interest to wait for T-Mobile HSPA+?
this is the best device i have ever had my hands on .
Please remove the stupid sprint and htc logos from the front.
If you don't like sense, you can turn it off.
Got my ego yesterday. loving my phone and all the features I am finding. got mine from radio shack pre ordered. I went @ 6am but there was a line and the said the system was running slow due to the evo's release. made me happy knowing that there was that many people r getting 1. got my phone in about 40 mins got a nice car charger and the customized screen protector put on. the reps were great and pretty knowledgeable. after gettin my phone stopped bye sprint store to grab a bodyglove case loving it by the way. nothing like know your new gadget is protected. lol. now if only I can figure out how to video chat. any suggestion?
Got my phone at 6:10am at a local radio shack (first one in the store). Walked out at 6:30am with the best phone I have ever owned (I had an I-Phone for awhile). Out of the store the phone was setup for power consumption. I turned off the GPS, set the display to auto dim, turned off 4g (I live in Mobile, Al. definitely no 4g here). The 3g data has been as good or better than the AT&T 3g I use in my lenovo S10-3t tablet (I will probably cancel this modem and go with the EVO Hotspot for 29.99 saving me $40 bucks a month). I was waiting for the Iphone HD until I seen that AT&T was changing the data plan. What really sucks is that slowly all American carriers will change to adopt to data plans similar to AT&T's new model. The cell companies have what I would consider a monopoly on mobile data (considering they all limit supposedly UNLIMITED DATA plans to 5Gigs). Oh well JMHO. I am loving the phone, I have had a few Android phones (all with 1.5 or 1.6 OS) and I am impressed with the improvements of the Android system in the 2.1 OS. Well back to enjoying my phone.
@banjeman
Just a heads up. Pdanet allows for usb tethering and its free. I know you have to carry a cable around but worth the 360 a year. P.s.- sent from my evo. This phone rocks. So far 16 hours on first charge, what's all the fuss about.
I picked mine up @ Radio Shack and had an awesome first day with it. Sucks that the shack didn't have much in the way of accessories and I HAD to use the credit that day or lose it. They didn't even have a case for the damn thing.
Funny I've been messing around with my EVO and because I've read so much about Froyo I keep looking for things in my phone and discovering they aren't there, just gotta wait hahaha
That's 5 LOL
The Shack took 40 minutes to activate 2 EVOs. I was the only customer in the store from the moment I arrived at 7am. They honored the $10 off coupon from the survey on the receipt. -sent from Engadged Android app