The Evolution of Technology

Posts Tagged ‘Boost’

The Samsung Transform Ultra is the latest Android phone headed to Boost Mobile, and it’s their best one yet. Armed with a 1GHz processor and a 3.5-inch touchscreen, the Transform Ultra falls somewhere between a mid-range and high-end Android handset, giving it an easy leg up on the Galaxy Prevail, Boost’s other Android. It comes in at a decent price, too, $ 229.99, which is slightly more than you’d expect to pay for the same phone on contract. It drops on October 7th, which is soon enough. There is, however, one catch. Starting on that same date, Boost is adding a $ 5 monthly surcharge for Android phones. It makes sense, given how much data they can consume. So that will be $ 55 per month for unlimited talk, text, and data. Not bad, considering it uses Sprint’s nationwide network.

Via Phone Scoop.

This post originated at AndGeeks.com – home to all things Android! Also a great source of info about Android Phones.

Boost Mobile gets new Android, adds monthly surcharge

AndGeeks – Android News and Reviews

Does customer service play into your decision of which phone carrier to choose? That can make an important difference in an otherwise obvious decision. Take for instance, Virgin Mobile. On Friday we discussed Virgin Mobile and the Motorola Triumph as an excellent combination for a prepaid Android user. But if customer service plays a role in your decision, you might think twice, or thrice, about going with Virgin. They ranked quite poorly in the most recent J.D. Power and Associates survey, which measured customer care in the prepaid wireless industry. What’s most surprising is that Boost Mobile won the award by no small measure. That’s not surprising because of Boost itself, but rather because both Boost and Virgin are owned by Sprint.

Boost has made a big name for itself with a $ 50 monthly unlimited plan. That covers talk, text, web, 411, email — everything, for $ 50 per month, with no added fees or taxes. That makes it pretty easy for a smartphone user. Boost runs on two networks, Sprint’s CDMA and Nextel’s iDEN, and has one Android phone on each. The CDMA network is much faster, as it’s your typical 3G network. The iDEN network is a bit slower, but has the push-to-talk feature that made Boost famous in the first place. What’s even better about Boost’s $ 50 plan is that your bill gets reduced by $ 5 per month for every six on-time payments. Keep paying your bill on time, and after 18 months you’ll pay just $ 35 per month for unlimited use of your Android.

When it comes to SD cards, speed matters. If you care to plow through the numbers on SDcard.org, you can see that different cards transfer at different speeds. For Android users, this can be of great importance. If you’re constantly transferring files back and forth between your SD card and your computer, a faster card will help you do it, well, faster. It’s even more important for users, rooted and non-rooted alike, who store apps on their SD cards. A faster SD card will make those apps run smoother. If you are of the rooted class, you can actually boost your SD card’s speed with an app from the Market.

It might seem like snake oil, but the app really does work. What it does, as I learned in the accompanying xda thread, is allow your Android to read further ahead — that is, it can cache more data while the SD card process works. That might sound confusing, but liken it to peeking around the corner. Your SD card speed is linear, but you can use this app so that your device can look ahead and cache data, making the load a big quicker. Again, this is for rooted devices only, as the function requires superuser permissions. You can get SD-Booster for free from the Market.