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Qi Smartbook U2000 gets WinMo 6.5 upgrade, retains its wide berth originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Apr 2010 10:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Android superfactory HTC’s latest smartphone is a 4G device designed just for Sprint. The phone, called HTV Evo, is a feature-packed gadget that will have the distinction of being the first phone offered for a 4G network in the United States.
The Evo has a 4.3-inch touchscreen (by comparison, the iPhone’s display is 3.5 inches, while the Nexus One and Motorola Droid have 3.7-inch screens), two cameras, GPS navigation, HDMI output and mobile hotspot capability. It will run Google’s Android 2.1 operating system and HTC’s custom user interface called the Sense.
And despite its large touchscreen, the Evo feels comfortable, says Into Mobile, which got some hands-on time with the phone.
Sprint claims its 4G network can offer download speeds up to 10 times faster than current 3G networks, allowing the Evo to be blazing fast when it comes to data access.
Over the last few years, Sprint has been building out its 4G network. The company’s 4G wireless service is available in 27 cities in the United States, though that doesn’t include most major hubs like San Francisco and New York. Sprint has said it will expand its 4G network in a big way this year.
Sprint has also recently launched a 4G wireless product called Overdrive that uses Sprint’s 4G wireless data connection to establish a local Wi-Fi hotspot. The hotspot supports up to five devices at a time.
Sprint and HTC haven’t announced pricing for the Evo, but say the device will launch this summer.
Like the Nexus One, another HTC-designed phone for Google, the Evo will use a 1-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. It will have an 8-megapixel auto-focus camera with HD-capable video camcorder and a forward-facing 1.3-megapixel camera. (See a list of detailed specifications on Sprint’s site.)
Evo’s mobile hotspot functionality will allow up to eight Wi-Fi-enabled devices to share the network. The phone will also support Adobe Flash and will have a “custom” web browser, says Sprint.
UPDATE: See below for more photos of the Evo 4G from the Sprint HTC event, courtesy of Into Mobile.
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Photos: HTC Evo 4G (Will Park/Into Mobile)
Consumers who want to get a new Nexus One or a HTC Hero don’t have to throw away their existing phones. Instead they can trade their current devices for cash at the nearest Sprint store or just have the phone recycled in environmentally friendly way.
Former executives from RadioShack and Sprint have combined to create a new electronic waste recycling company called eRecyclingCorps that will work with wireless service providers to recycle used handsets. The move could help more consumers upgrade their phones in guilt-free way, they say.
“If there’s some value to the phone you can get some dollars that can go towards buying your new phone or accessorizing it,” says David Edmondson, CEO and founder of eRecyclingCorps and former CEO of RadioShack. “If not, we promise it will be disposed off in a way there’s zero electronic waste.”
All 2,500 Sprint stores in the country and the company’s website will be the first to kick this off. Sprint has said it wants to achieve a wireless reuse and recycling rate of 90 percent as compared to device sales by 2017.
The recycling program will cover all cellphones sold in the U.S. since 2005 and customers can trade in phones from any service provider at the Sprint store.
In the U.S., about 130 million phones are retired each year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. About 10 percent of cellphones in the U.S. are currently recycled, and only about 1 percent of the 4 billion wireless subscribers in the world recycle their handsets. With new models launched every month, the growing cellphone market has also resulted in a huge amopunt of electronic waste that is harmful to the environment.
Meanwhile, sensing an opportunity for used gadgets, over the last three years, sites such as Gazelle and TechForward have offered trade-in or recycling programs for devices. On their websites, consumers can enter the make and condition of the gadget and instantly find out if they can get some cash for it.
eRecyclingCorps will be different because it just focuses on cellphones and it will work with wireless carriers to make the process easier for consumers, says Edmondson.
“There is a lack of convenience in the process right now,” he says.”and there’s a lack of scale.”
About 60 percent of cellphones sold today are purchased from stores of wireless carriers. To make the trade-in process more efficient, eRecyclingCorps will offer web-based software for the service providers that will include a pricing engine, inventory control, analytics and device re-distribution.
Once the old phones are gathered, they are divided into three categories, says eRecyclingCorps: Phones that can be re-used right away, phones that can be refurbished, and phones that are beyond their their functional life. The last category is passed on to a recycling firm. The company promises its recycling will be an environmentally friendly process with nothing going into a landfill.
Though Sprint is the first to partner with eRecyclingCorps, Edmondson says his company is trying to work with other carriers such as AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile to make this a part of their stores.
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Photo: (gassy7/Flickr)
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