republic wireless hybrid calling BETA review

When I saw that you could get a non-contract phone plan with unlimited calling, data and texts for $19/month, it was an easy decision to jump in.  republic wireless can offer this deal because it uses both the cellular network and WiFi, something they call hybrid calling, to route your calls and data.   This is perfect for me because I have poor to no cellular coverage at my home. There is also a pretty big catch in that this is in beta phase and not everything works as advertised.  You are also limited to one phone model that you must purchase from them.  They however, do offer a 30 money back guarantee, which should offset some of my concerns.  If you read on, I’ll share my experiences as a paying beta tester for the service.This is a review of the republic wireless cell phone plan and not a phone device review.  They offer only one device and it’s a Motorola Defy XT, modified to work on their network and with WiFi.  You cannot use this phone on another service, nor can you bring your own phone and modify it for use with republic wireless.

I came across republic about a year ago and put my name into the hat to become a user.  At that time their open spots filled up fast, and I was put on a waiting list.  Because of the demand, they came up with a concept called waves, and I was added to wave E, which came up for purchase in alphabetical order.  So, in late September I got the email and with credit card in hand, I signed up for the beta.  The cost was $249 for the phone, $29 startup fee including the first month service and $3.37 NH phone tax for a total of $281.37.

In two days I received the phone and was excited about activating the service.  Coincidentally, I had a  one week trip scheduled that would take me to Florida from New Hampshire via Amtrak.  This would allow me to check out the service over several states.

To activate, I had to go online and establish an account at their website.  This is where I got to pick my new telephone number and enter other data.  At this point I should have started to worry.  There were no numbers available for New Hampshire.  I picked one in New York, for no other reason than they had them available.  The next step was to take the charged phone and turn it on to begin the activation.

Now, one would think that as the service is billed as WiFi capable, you could activate over the WiFi.  This is not the case.  You must use the cellular network to get the phone started and as republic is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) of Sprint, I needed Sprint coverage in my area.  Well, I don’t have Sprint or any other cellular coverage in my area, so I hopped in the car and drove to a spot 5 miles away that had Sprint service and activated the phone.

After returning home, I enabled the WiFi capability on the phone, which worked flawlessly.  Once you enter a network’s particulars the phone remembers them for future use and automatically logs in.  Now I’m ready to make my first calls over WiFi and there’s a problem.  Apparently, republic made some changes to their back-end in previous months and some users were experiencing no audio from the called or calling party after 20-30 seconds.  This was my case and it seemed to only affect users with certain routers.  After much discussion on the republic community website,  republic acknowledged the problem and after 2 weeks had a fix.  Which brings up an interesting point.  The only way to contact republic is via the website using the forums.  There is no telephone number, email address or human you can verbally contact.  So no WiFi telephone calls for me for 2 weeks on the Defy.

Even though I had no WiFi phone call capability, I could use the device in a Sprint coverage area to make cell calls.  There was no problem except, you are limited to Sprint and roaming coverage in the 1900Mhz spectrum.  Evidently, republic procured a single antenna phone and at least in my area, most of the roaming partners use 800Mhz.  Again, republic acknowledges this issue and has said they will replace the single antenna phones with a dual antenna model before the end of the year.

Even though I couldn’t make calls from my house, I figured I could send text messages.  I was wrong.  Texts are only sent over the cellular network, not WiFi and because I had no cell coverage, the messages were in a sending state until I found cell coverage down the road.

On the positive note, the android apps worked very well both over WiFi and cellular, when I had coverage.  It was now time to see how the service performed while traveling down the East Coast from New Hampshire to Florida on the train.

While waiting for the bus to the train station, I connected to the WiFi in the terminal.  After the screen indicated a connection was established to the network I selected, I was presented with the station’s splash screen.  After accepting the terms, an icon on the phone turned green to indicate I would be calling using WiFi.  The phone will remember all successful connections and will connect automatically the next time they’re in range, but it does not remember the answers to the splash screens.  Those have to be entered each time.  I made some calls and checked my email.  All worked well.   I should point out that a call started on WiFi does NOT transition to the cellular network if you’re out of WiFi range.  It will redial the number you were connected to.  Supposedly, the folks at republic will be working on an automatic transition feature in the future.

My travel down to Orlando on the train was a disappointment as far as the phone was concerned.  The Amtrakconnect WiFi network could not be used with the DEFY and the only place I had cell coverage was near the major cities.  The area between Washington DC and Jacksonville Florida were Sprint free.  My Verizon and T-mobile phones worked well in those areas.

Upon arrival at the resort, I attempted to latch onto the local WiFi net and was advised via the splash screen I would need to pay $9.95 per day.  I opted out and used the 3G cell network until about three days in when I got a text from Sprint saying my phone was re-provisioned.   From that point on I had 1x cell coverage.  After about 24 hours of frustration I gave in and paid the daily fee for WiFi and was running at a better speed.  Interestingly, after being on WiFi for several hours, my cell service jumped back to 3G.

When I returned home I decided to cancel the republic service.  There are too many issues and I’m very concerned that this turns out to be another Peek case, where they have to replace devices and eventually the industry overtakes them and provides a cheaper alternative.  The $19 per month seems attractive until you look at the limitations such as no automatic transition from WiFi to cell; no texts on WiFi; limited roaming and no MMS.  I also wonder why I should pay republic to fix problems.  I’ve participated in several beta tests, and this is the first one where I had to pay the product provider.  If I don’t cancel and the republic service goes belly up, I’d be stuck with a $281 dollar paperweight.

Upon cancelling the service I received an email from republic with another big surprise.   They have additional detailed conditions for return of the phone that were not mentioned on their website.  Besides deducting dollars for missing parts (which is understandable), they now have a service charge of $50 for minor wear and tear and they define minor wear and tear with their decision being final.  Had I known this up front, I would never have entered the beta test to begin with.

My advice is the same as I gave in my Peek9 review.  Wait until there is more stability in the service and check their website and discussion boards to gauge whether they’ll be in business over the long-term.

Product Information

Price:$278 for the phone plus a month of service; then $19 per month for the service
Manufacturer:republic wireless
Requirements:
  • Sprint Coverage
  • WiFi
  • Web access for account maintenance
Pros:
  • No contract
  • Low monthly service fee
  • Unlimited calling, texts and data
Cons:
  • High initial cost
  • In Beta test
  • No texting using WiFi
  • No MMS
  • Single band phone
  • Limited cell coverage

Filed in categories: Android related, Reviews, Wireless

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republic wireless hybrid calling BETA review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 25, 2012 at 11:00 am.

iFixit tears down 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, rates it two grumpy kittens for repairability

iFixit tears down 13inch MacBook Pro, rates it two grumpy kittens for repairability

You know the drill (er, screwdriver): someone releases a shiny new gadget and the internet tears it apart, both figuratively and literally. iFixit did the latter like clockwork, getting its tools on the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. As with its older sibling, the notebook didn't do all that well on the repairability scale, scoring a two out of 10 -- slightly better than its predecessor's lowly one. Why so low? You can blame a glued battery, proprietary screws, soldered RAM and a display assembly that's "almost impossible to take apart." There are, however, plenty of pictures of a tiny kitten, which should help to ease the pain...

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iFixit tears down 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, rates it two grumpy kittens for repairability originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Oct 2012 08:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Br95k8Tn6MU/

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Boston Dynamics' Latest Humanoid Robot Is Better Coordinated Than You

Say hello to Pet-Proto. Manufactured by Boston Dynamics, which makes robot versions of everything from fleas to horses, it's a humanoid robot that can run, jump and climb over objects—probably a damn site better than you're able. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/rr3k36QSobk/boston-dynamics-latest-humanoid-robot-is-better-coordinated-than-you

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Your Eyes Aren't Sharp Enough To Justify This 9.6-Inch 4K Display

Today Ortus Technology, a Japanese manufacturer of industrial flat panel displays, announced a new 9.6-inch TFT boasting a whopping resolution of 3840x2160. For those keeping score, that happens to be the newly appointed 4K UHD standard, and the same as Sony's $25,000 84-inch behemoth. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/lHM9lCgH-Hc/your-eyes-arent-sharp-enough-to-justify-this-96+inch-4k-display

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New Firefox Nightly and Aurora logos unearthed, and how to enable channel switching

Firefox Nightly and Aurora logos
Later today, Firefox will undergo its biggest developmental upheaval ever. Mozilla-central, the source of nightly builds, will be renumbered to version 5 -- and at long last, after years of wallowing around version 1, Mozilla's rendering and layout engine, Gecko, will also have its version number updated to match Firefox.

Shortly thereafter, Firefox's new channel system will be implemented. Firefox 5a2 will be introduced as the first Aurora build, and we should also see a Firefox 6 Nightly build. While we we're not sure where they came from, one Sören Hentzschel seems to have unearthed the new Nightly and Aurora logos (see above), along with new About Firefox dialogs (after the break).

In other news, if you want to take a sneak peek at the new 'channel changing' technology that will be introduced in upcoming Firefox builds, head to about:config and create a new string called app.update.desiredChannel -- the value doesn't matter. Then open Help > About Firefox and you'll be able to switch channel, but it doesn't do anything just yet (image after the break). Here's hoping that Firefox channel switching is smoother than Chrome.

Continue reading New Firefox Nightly and Aurora logos unearthed, and how to enable channel switching

New Firefox Nightly and Aurora logos unearthed, and how to enable channel switching originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/11/new-firefox-nightly-and-aurora-logos-unearthed-and-how-to-enabl/

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Verizon's HTC DLX may be called Droid DNA, Windows Phone 8 devices get tentative prices

Verizon's HTC DLX may be called Droid DNA, Windows Phone 8 devices get tentative prices

Verizon is one of the more common proponents of silly Android device names, in part through its insistence on that "Droid" prefix for some hardware. When its smartphone badges practically demand a pause for breath, you know there's a problem. Android Central's purported copy of a Minimum Advertised Pricing list could show that there's hope for the carrier yet. The chart shows the HTC DLX (6435LVW) skipping the rumored Droid Incredible X name in favor of Droid DNA -- and that's it. No superlatives, no arbitrary "4G LTE" tags to remind us of the network we already know we're using. The 5-inch phone might have even been a reasonable launch, as the MAP shows a $200 contract price that would potentially take effect just before Thanksgiving.

Want more? Other smartphones are on the supposedly leaked MAP list as well, primarily focusing on Windows Phone 8 gear: the as yet unconfirmed Nokia Lumia 822 shows up with a $100 price and a mid-November release window, while Verizon's take on the Windows Phone 8X is present with a $200 price and similar timing. Those who'd rather go for a Samsung phablet than HTC's aren't left out, either. The Verizon edition of the Galaxy Note II is on the list with a $300 price and availability that starts immediately -- rather convenient, that.

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Verizon's HTC DLX may be called Droid DNA, Windows Phone 8 devices get tentative prices originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 14:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/24/verizon-htc-dlx-may-be-called-droid-dna/

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AUTUM introduces the Catacomb Moleskine cover

Moleskine fans love their notebooks and when you really love something, you want to protect it. A new way to protect your Moleskine notebook is the new Catacomb cover from AUTUM. Made in the USA of American tanned leather, this cover is designed for the Medium sized Moleskine notebooks (8.5 x 5″). The Catacomb has a limited run of 50 Black and 50 Brown. You can find all kinds of covers for Moleskine notebooks, but the Catacomb has an extra feature going for it. It features a retractable leather pen holder that can hold different sized writing instruments. If you like keeping your favorite pen with your favorite journal, the Catacomb is available for $95.

Filed in categories: Cases and Covers, News

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AUTUM introduces the Catacomb Moleskine cover originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 23, 2012 at 8:00 am.

Samsung Galaxy Note II for Verizon hands-on

Samsung Galaxy Note II for Verizon handson

So far we've had the opportunity to review the global edition of the Samsung Galaxy Note II -- as well as get our hands on three of the five variants known to be making their way to the US -- but tonight we got our first official look at Verizon's particular flavor. Not that it's much different than the rest of the crowd: it's loaded with the same specs we've seen on the N7100 model (5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED display at 1,280 x 720, 3,100mAh battery and a quad-core Exynos processor clocked at 1.6GHz), with the exception of Verizon-specific LTE bands, and have the same button layout that we've come to expect. Of course, there's that hideous Verizon logo on the main button, but that's the only visual difference we could spot.

Software-wise, Verizon's version of the Note II contains the built-in apps we've gotten accustomed to with its Android phones: VZ Navigator, My Verizon Mobile, and Mobile Hotspot. The device we picked up was running Jelly Bean, like its counterparts from other carriers. Sadly, no pricing or availability is yet available for the Note II on Verizon, with reps at the Samsung event we're at saying that it's up to Verizon to loose that news.

Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.

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Samsung Galaxy Note II for Verizon hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 19:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/24/samsung-galaxy-note-ii-verizon-hands-on/

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