Verizon 4G outage inconvenient for customers and a threat to their reputation

UPDATE: April 28, 2011, 8:22 a.m. EDT - Since Verizon announced over 16 hours ago that they had located the problem, working with engineers to resolve it and would keep us informed on Twitter, they have Tweeted NOTHING.

America's most reliable network? Not anymore. Customer service? Suffering.

If you can't fix it....TELL US WHY?

Even though the affected 4G network only has hundreds of thousands of users, these are the people who jumped on early and trusted your ability to continue providing quality service. These are the people whose mobile business practices are crippled because of this situation.

Talk to us, goddammit!

April 27, 2011, 5:01 p.m. EDT - So, I've had my HTC Thunderbolt 4G phone for one week and for more than a day I've had access at the speed that Fred Flintstone used to have to endure.

Verizon has experienced a 4G nationwide outage, which has also affected their 3G connection for 4G customers. On my blazing fast (?) Thunderbolt I am connected at the pre-3G speed of 1x. Verizon reports that some Thunderbolt owners can still connect on their 3G network, but I haven't heard any reports from customers who say that is the case.

Some Verizon customers have reported that they have no data access at all, or maybe it just seems that way.

I have long been a proponent of Verizon's service (both their network and the efficiency of their support staff). So much so that I've always justified paying more to be on "the most reliable network."

How long will it take before that reputation is severely tarnished. A couple days? A week?

About three hours ago, Verizon Tweeted that they have determined cause of 4G LTE issue and are working with major vendors to restore connections.

If they fix it quick, and it doesn't happen again for a long, long time, they probably won't suffer severe negative consequences. But, as people (read: ME) rely more and more on the computing that can be done from a Smartphone, patience will run thin after a very short time. After all, Verizon is one of the major proponents of me wanting everything FAST!

If you have the Thunderbolt, you may want to try to toggle your phone to 3G only and see if you can connect that way, but it doesn't work for me.

So, at this time the only thing reliable about my new 4G investment is I can still make calls.

And tomorrow, if their system isn't back up and running, I will make one of those calls to Verizon asking what they're going to do for me in return for the inconvenience and mental anguish that their down time has caused me.

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How to improve and save battery life on Verizon's HTC Thunderbolt 4G: turn off 4G

The first thing you'll notice when you first get the HTC Thunderbolt 4G Smartphone from Verizon: your battery life sucks. It's blazing fast, can download apps in a blink of an eye (as long as you're a rather slow blinker), it can connect your laptop (through PDAnet) at lightning fast speeds (probably why they called it the Thunderbolt) and watching videos doesn't require waiting for the buffering. That's the good news.

The bad news: if you tried doing the things I just mentioned just to check them out, you're battery is probably down to 50% (okay, maybe a slight exaggeration, but not much).

Some things you can do to to help increase your battery life:

1) Keep WiFi off. Turn it on when you need it.

2) Go into Accounts & Sync and turn off "Facebook for HTC sense". The phone comes pre-loaded with FriendStream, continually updates your social networking accounts (Facebook, Twitter) and sucks non-stop battery juice. I prefer to have the regular Facebook app and open it when I want to check it.

3) Turn off animations. Go to Settings, Display and select "No window animations are shown." You won't notice the difference. Unless you just have to have an animated effect when you go from one screen to another.

4) And MOST IMPORTANTLY: Turn off 4G.

What??? I just got a 4G phone and I have to turn it off. Yup. Unless you are always near a charger this is a must. Your phone will be in a constant state of searching for a 4G network which will drain your battery as much as when it finds one and uses it.

HTC neglected to make a simple toggle so that the user can easily switch from 4G to 3G, so here's the simplest way to do it:

• Open your Phone screen and key in *#*34636#*#*. You will immediately be taken to a hidden menu called: Testing. Click on the first link called "Phone information," scroll down to the drop down menu which displays: "CDMA + LTE/EvDo auto" and switch that to "CDMA auto (PRL)." And that's it. You are now back to 3G. When you need to switch back to 4G, simply repeat the process and select the 4G option.

I heard that HTC is going to add a toggle in the first update, and there may be some third-party apps out there, but this method is quick and pretty simple.

After shutting off 4G, my battery life improved to the point that I was accustomed to with my 3G Droid.

Here's a brief video showing you how simple it is:


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Pulse News Reader app review - pick your news, sports, entertainment, technology updates

The Pulse News Reader is available on Android, iPhone and iPad platforms and is the best app I've seen to cleanly view updated news and information in any area of interest. The interface is colorful and easy to navigate and because of it's simplicity has made it so I don't generally bother even opening all of the other news apps I have on my Droid (Time, New York Times, USA Today, etc.)

I have a lot more to explore with the Pulse News Reader, because it has a lot of features that I haven't even looked into, but I wanted to share my initial reaction to this great app.

Your news stories appear as a graphical tab, with a brief teaser headline. It's a very nice way to scan through available stories. When you click on a story of interest you are instantly transported to an easy to read text version, or you have the option to go to the original story on the web.

The main screen on the Pulse News Reader displays a bunch of Top Story options in editable categories. Top News, Top Fun Stories, Top Techonology, etc. You can also scroll to the right to access Social Networking stories, Entertainment, Sports, Business and probably other options I haven't even found yet.

You can share your favorite stories on Facebook and it integrates nicely with Google Reader.

If you're looking to save some of your system space by having only one news app, I'm thinkin' this is the one.

Check out my other stuff, if you wanna:

www.ClickOnComedy.com
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www.CellPhoneRealityTV.com
www.InteractiveLunacy.com
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Speedx 3D game app review

I'm not a big gamer, but I must admit that Speedex 3D is pretty cool. The graphics are simple but very effective. The game play is very basic. You navigate through a tunnel by tilting your Droid while trying to avoid obstacles.


This game is either mesmerizing or nauseating depending on your personal preferences and your easy-dizziness factor.

I discovered the game when I opened the Droid Market and it was the first recommended app. I started to read the reviews and had to scroll down many pages before I found a review that wasn't five stars.

I downloaded the game and began to play. Very simple goal: get as far as you can into the tunnel.

When you become proficient at the game, which I am not, I believe there are ways to acquire more energy and weapons, but I don't have a clue. I'll let you know if I ever reach a level of expertise beyond the "Oh my god! Oh my god! Watch out! Watch out! Oh crap!" stage.

All I know is that it's a fun diversion for wasting a little time as I try to beat my own personal high score. (Too embarrassed to tell you what that is.)

Speedex 3 d will take up 4.79 meg on your Droid. Of course, one of the fun things about Smartphones is you can download apps, check them out and just delete them if you don't like them.

I think that even non-gamers will like this one though.

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