Showing posts with label Virgin Mobile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Virgin Mobile. Show all posts

Thursday, June 7, 2012

iPhone 4 & 4S coming to Virgin Mobile USA



Hello blogger readers! I hope you all are doing well and enjoying the week. At the beginning of this year I predicted that either Virgin or Boost mobile would acquire an iPhone of some sort. Today Virgin Mobile officially announced the iPhone 4 and 4S are coming to stores near you on there much loved prepaid network with no contracts. The Virgin Mobile iPhone's release date is June 29th so this is coming quickly, for more information on the iPhone you can go to virginmobileusa.com/iphone and put your name and e-mail address in for e-mail updates. 

Engadget released information today also with confirmed prices for this phone, the iPhone 4S 16GB will cost a whopping 649 dollars you can save 100 if you buy the older iPhone 4 8GB. While releasing the information Virgin also announced that it will drop their beyond talk plans 5 dollars for those of you who are willing to add a Credit, Debt or PayPal account to your Virgin Mobile service, I'm assuming this is to make sure your payments will be received monthly. 

This month has been one of the most exciting months for phone releases by Virgin Mobile starting with the new 4G network along with the HTC EVO V4G and now an iPhone on the service; it’s nice to see the company taking a turn in the right direction! For ongoing information on the iPhone and other technology please visit my YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/sassygirl8324. Thanks for taking the time to read this and have a blessed day! 
              
                                                         Peace & Love, 
                                                                  
                                                                    Sassy Tech Girl 
                                                                    Rebecca Marie 

Friday, April 13, 2012

ZTE Warp Review


A happy Friday the 13th to everyone reading this blog, I hope you all are doing well and ready for the weekend.  Earlier this week on my YouTube channel I unboxed my brand new phone the ZTE Warp on the Boost Mobile prepaid network during my unboxing  I promised to give a full review  on my blog and YouTube channel so here it is!

Oh! I almost forgot for those of you wondering, I did have the Motorola Triumph for some time, another great phone offered for Virgin Mobile service, unfortunately my phone died in fact it will not even power on so I knew I had to make a decision on a new phone, It’s been some time since I’ve bought a phone or gotten one for review purposes but that has all changed.  With all the smart phones out on the market it was very hard to decide between them but the ZTE Warp stands out for me because of the 4.30 inch touch screen and the fast processor 1000 MHz.

So a little about this phone the ZTE Warp is an Android device running Android 2.3.5 with a Capacitive, Multi touch screen and a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash with included camcorder option.  For all those tech nerdy people like I the phone is running a system chip of a Snapdragon with a single core processor 1000 MHz as mentioned above. The system memory is a whopping 512 MB internal and supports Micro SD cards.

So with them specs out of the way lets discuss my thoughts , I’ve nearly had this phone a month and there’s both good and bad things lets discuss the good first. The large touch screen stands out greatly  it’s probably one of the biggest advantages this phone has to others  it makes reading emails, playing games on screen keyboard typing and much more easier to do and its very responsive. I also enjoy the face it has the 512 MB of system memory I have 73 applications installed and it has hardly took up any memory this phone could definitely hold hundreds of applications and even with the applications installed games, social networking, live wallpapers there is no sluggish behavior or problems with it slowing the processor down! I would also like to talk about some included hardware added to this phone such as the option to record incoming or outgoing calls.  Many people try to find applications for their phone to make records of calls so they can hear both parties this phone can do it easily with just the touch of a button while in a call simply hitting the menu key and record will start that process! Also added on this phone is the option for speed dial, I’ve missed that greatly being able to hit a 2 or 3 and connect to someone makes it more convent then looking in recent call logs and searching for the number. 

On to the negative I have experienced some flaws with this phone, but all my years reviewing phones I’ve never got a perfect device keep that in mind, no technology is perfect.  My main gripe for the ZTE Warp is occasionally about twice during the day the phone will reset on its own it doesn’t seem like a full reset because it doesn’t shut off completely and restart in the middle of nowhere the Boost Mobile Logo will appear and it will go to the home screen, I’ve read about others also experiencing this issue of resetting although restarting twice a day isn’t a deal breaker I do hope in the future the ZTE or boost will put out a patch or update to fix whatever causes this problem.  The 5MP camera is another fault picture quality isn’t always great some are grainy and the flash doesn’t work properly in my opinion these are my problems that I’ve experienced and as stated earlier, there definitely not enough for me to take the phone back I only wish ZTE would fix the restarting issue.

I would definitely recommend this phone to a friend or family member its plus’s outweigh its minus, Call quality was great, texting fine and I think Boost Mobile has a great service, I’ve officially been with them now for 2 months and there a lot like Virgin, running on the Sprint network. Below I will leave some photos taken with the 5MP camera I hope this review helped if you’re trying to decide on the Warp for a new phone. Please be sure to check out my YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/sassygirl8324 for a full video review of this device and much more! I want to thank everyone again for reading my blog and for those of you who have subscribed to it that means the world to me!


                                                       Peace & love,
                                                            SassyTechGirl
                                                            Rebecca Marie 



Pictures taken with the ZTE Warp's 5MP camera.





For full ZTE Warp Specs please visit: http://www.phonearena.com/phones/ZTE-Warp_id6508

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

My Triumph and Rooting



Hello fellow blog readers, I hope this blog find’s you all having a wonderful week. It’s been some time since the last blog post I know I’ve been slacking as of late but hopefully I will be able to get on track with some of my thoughts.  If you have any topics for Blog posts or YouTube video’s I would love to hear your suggestions. Feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me at Rebecca.Marie27@gmail.com.
As you may have noticed in one of my previous videos on YouTube, I finally took the plunge in rooting my Motorola Triumph on Virgin Mobile service.  In the video I discuss some of the differences in your phone when running a custom rom instead of a stock rom.  Please keep in mind that I am a new user when it comes to rooting a device.

So for those of us who have no idea what I am talk about Rooting is a process to gain administrative rights to your phone. But a very important thing to know is that if you decide to root your phone it will make your phone warranty invalid so please keep that in mind. Android is an open source operating system but you don’t have full access to everything.  There are many different devices available nowadays that can be modified. The first ever device I hacked was an IPod Touch 2Generation I jailbroke it. Basically Jailbraking is the same term as rooting but Android and IOS are two different platforms so the word is different. There are many reasons why someone would want to root an android device, for me I wanted to root my Motorola Triumph to obtain a faster phone and remove stock applications. Custom Rom’s make rooting a phone much more exciting. Because although your phone may be running an older version of android operating system when you root you have options of Rom’s to pick out so you can get a newer build of android on your phone.  Currently I’m running CyanogenMod7.2.0 TG-Reloaded and I love it.  There are significant speed differences and my phone has way more storage capacity. Currently they are putting together an ice cream sandwich Rom and although it’s only in an alpha build at the moment, it looks simply amazing I tested it out a little and I’m excited to see what’s to come with it.

So after I had rooted my phone I started to experience some very odd behavior, I use a wired headset  with built in mic to make phone calls on my triumph and to my surprise my phone during calls would turn on the stock android music player and cut the call right off.  I spent day’s changing versions of CyanogenMod and even reverting back to stock build. After I got everything back to the stock build my phone begun to do it again. So then I thought there was a problem with my phone. So I called Virgin Mobile and told them the problem unfortunately I was dumb enough also to tell them that the phone had been rooted and they refused to replace it. I have to have a phone that I can connect the wired headset into and use so I was pretty upset as you can imagine.  I spent about a week going over phones and looking for what would be my next android devices. I took a look at the HTC Wildfire S and the Lg Optimus Slider from Virgin I’ve had many questions if I would get either of them devices, I love the look of the HTC Wildfire S especially the white one but I wouldn’t step a foot into a Radio Shack and buy anything! But the problem with the Wildfire S is quiet simple the biggest complaint is there is no storage, which makes zero since to me, why would you make such a nice little phone and not put any storage on it? Of course I’m going to hear things like well you can add a bigger Micro SD Card in it? Although that’s true when you save an application to the micro SD card some of it still stores on a phone. So there’s no chance I will have that phone. As for the optimus slider I’m just not amused with that phone it’s just okay.  So I started considering some other phones from other companies such as the ZTE Warp and the Samsung Transform Ultra on Boost Mobile, Both look like really nice phones so I was ready to make the switch to a different company and a new phone.  Until I took the headset and plugged it into my IPod touch to make a call using talkatone, have you ever used that cool little application? You can make free calls from your Google voice account on your IPhone, IPod and IPod Touch it’s simply amazing. So I bet you can’t guess what happened!? You guessed it! All of the sudden during the call my IPod Music player cuts out the phone call.  After all this hassle of thinking my phones been broken and going through all this hell the issue turns out to be my headset!?  It was insane! I would have never thought for a second that my headphones could mess up to even cause this issue and that my Motorola triumph was just fine.  So a 20 dollar replacement headphones was close to turning out to be a 200 dollar phone replacement... Wew… glad that I figured that one out it sure took a while.

Anyway guy’s that’s what’s been going on with my phone issues. A lot of people have been asking me on twitter because I had been posting messages about the issues.  Luckily I won’t have to get a new phone as of yet because I really do think the Motorola Triumph is the top phone at the moment on the prepaid market. Anyway though guy’s I hope your all having a great Fat Tuesday , Sorry if I rambled a little much but I appreciate you guy’s reading my blog post it means a lot.
                                   
                                                                                                              Peace & Love,
                                                                                                              Sassy Tech Girl
                                                                                                              Rebecca Marie  

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Virgin Mobile Smartphone’s get new Account App/Web page


Happy Thursday blogger readers!! How is everyone this nice afternoon? Today Virgin Mobile finally released an improved account page; Although Virgin Mobile is calling this an application it really located in your main web browser under the Bookmarks tab. This webpage is a huge step up from Virgin Mobile’s early log in page in which made it nearly impossible to check your minutes used and top up cash to your account which was basically logging into Virginmobileusa.com through your cell phone it was quite buggy. So far this new account set up is only available for Smartphone’s such as Blackberry and Android devices. 

After testing this website out with my Lg Optimus V I found it very stable and reliable. With this new application you’re able to add money, check minutes used, check account activity, find a store, and change your plan and much more.  But if you still want that application on your Android device there is one application that allows you to check out your used minutes and payment time search for minutes checker in the Android market, but I am very pleased with this new web page! Great Job virgin. Thanks again everyone for taking the time to read this blog! Enjoy the weekend coming up!
                              
                                                                              Peace & Love, 

                                                                              Sassy Tech Girl 

                                                                              Rebecca Marie 

YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/sassygirl8324

Saturday, April 16, 2011

How to update Virgin Mobile Samsung Intercept to Froyo 2.2


Hello peepz! I hope that everyone is enjoying the weekend. I have posted a video on YouTube of my Virgin Mobile Froyo update to 2.2. My phone is working great with less freezing and issues but I have received a lot of e-mails asking me how I updated my phone without receiving the update below I will tell you exactly how to update it. This is a quick an easy fix for the upgrade but remember if you decided to do this it is at your own risk also please (Note) these steps do not work on rooted or previously rooted phones. 

Download *whatever one works for you, you don’t need both*
Or...


Instructions..
1.       Click the link and save the file (Don’t Unzip) to your SD card’s root directory. (Not in a Folder)
2.       Change the file name to “Update.zip” (If during the installation it Aborts change to “update”
3.       Turn off your phone (Make Sure its fully charged)
4.       Hold down the VOLUME DOWN, SEND & END key all together until the phone boots up to recovery mode screen. (Plug phone in once you’re at the screen. If you leave the charger in before, it will boot normally and not to recovery mode. Also make sure the phone is fully powered off before turning it back on. If the keyboard light turns on when you slide it up, it is not off. ))
5.       Using the touch  pad or volume bottoms, scroll down and select “update.zip”

((This update will take quite a few minutes to complete))

Let it run and it will reboot when it is complete.
If you need help please contact the Virgin Samsung intercept page at

Enjoy Froyo 2.2

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Virgin Mobile Optimus V surpasses Samsung Intercept.

A good morning to all my blogger readers, It’s March 6th so that means were getting closer and closer to Spring and after this long cold Winter here in southern Michigan I can definitely say I’m ready for some warm air and sunshine. I hope this blog post finds everyone in great health and happiness. 


From my YouTube box I've received lots of comments on the Lg Optimus V, Virgin Mobiles newest handset device and the underdog the Samsung Intercept.  A lot of the questions regarding these phones have to do with comparison, we definitely want to buy a phone that fits are needs and that we are happy with, so today I would love to answer some of them questions and tell you what I think. Please keep in mind that these are my idea’s only; you may have a different opinion on the products.

Let’s begun with the Samsung Intercept. Virgin Mobile’s first Android device, When this phone came out I had never even used a Android powered phone and I had no Idea even what to expect from it, In fact I really didn’t care at the time if I got this phone because I didn’t know the potential of the Android Market when I discovered it I found myself super excited, If you’re curious I was running   the Blackberry Curve by Virgin Mobile before getting the Intercept. Any who this phone was a hit right away the applications are a lot of fun and having a full QWERTY keyboard is always great.

When The Optimus V was released by Virgin Mobile USA I didn’t believe that for the 149.99 dollar price tag that this phone could surpass the intercept. Sure it was loaded with Android Froyo 2.2 with live wallpaper but without the keyboard I wasn’t so impressed until I dropped my Intercept into some water and broke it, then I decided to take the plunge and buy the Optimus V. It’s very true that the Lg Optimus V is a faster phone which is quite surprising because it has a smaller processor. After using both devices let me show you what I feel is the good and bad about both phones in my opinion.

Samsung Intercept                                             Lg Optimus V
QWERTY Keyboard                                           Faster More reliable
Physical Keys                                                   Live Wallpapers
Speed Dial                                                        No Freezing Problems
Angry Birds Problems                                        No Speed Dial L
Freezing Issues                                                 More solid professional device
800 MHZ Processor                                           Android 2.2 Froyo
Update to Android froyo soon                              Key’s more responsive
                                                                        Cheaper in price with better OS
                                                                        600 MHz processor
                                                                        Bad Battery Life
After having both of these phones the Lg Optimus V has won me over although I do miss the lacking physical keyboard that the intercept has. The speed of the Lg Optimus V and professional feel works better for me! Would you like to see a comparison of the Lg Optimus V and the Samsung Intercept? Check out my YouTube channel for more information. Again Blogger friend’s it’s been nice thanks again for taking the time to read this and have a wonderful up coming week.
                                                   All the best,
                                                  SassyTechGirl
                                                 Rebecca Marie 

Picture Courtesy of © Virgin Mobile USA

Monday, February 21, 2011

Virgin Mobile Lg Optimus V Review


Hello fellow tech friends. If you follow me on twitter and watch my YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/sassygirl8324 you know that I finally got my hands on the much anticipated Lg Optimus V. I’ve had many questions before the release date on the Optimus, Such as when I would buy this phone and when would there be a review?  I was very happy with my Samsung Intercept from Virgin Mobile I had never had an Android phone when I received the Intercept so I had no clue what I was getting into. But after having the Intercept, I was quite afraid that the Optimus V wouldn’t live up to the standerads after having the Intercept especially when the Intercept had a physical keyboard. Unfortunitly Thursday morning I dropped my Intercept in water and it fried the system board, The Lights come on and the phone will begin to start up but will freeze at the Samsung logo and will not turn on.  This was very upsetting for me because like I said I had gotten the Intercept when it came out and it was the first phone I was really happy with.

Saturday I was able to pick up the Lg Optimus V from Best Buy Mobile. The first thing I did was bring it home and get an unboxing out to my YouTube followers. The box included the Obvious, Phone, Charger, Data cord, Micro SD Card 2Gigs, SD Adapter and Stereo headset! I was super happy to see that a Micro SD adapter was included because it just makes it a lot simpler for transferring photos and music to my computer from my phone. 

I really liked the cosmetic design of this cell phone it looks professional and I like the feel of the paint it has a soft texture to it. The Silver lining at the top of the phone gives the Optimus V a professional look almost as if it is steel.  On the top of the phone there’s a on off power switch that doubles to shut the screen of like a lock screen or sleep. Also on the top of the phone you will find a headset jack that will support all your standard headphones. On the left side of the Optimus V you will find a Micro SD card slot where you will find the two gigabyte SD card it will be pre loaded. The bottom has a charging port for the standard Lg charger. On the right you will find a volume rocker, dedicated camera key and a voice dialer key. The Lg Optimus is a full touch screen but features four soft keys for Android the menu, home, back and search keys. With the 3.2 inch touch screen I find this phone’s screen larger than the Intercept even though there the same size the Optimus V is wider so it gives the feeling of a larger screen.  I love the feeling of this phone it feels like it has some weight to it and doesn’t at all feel cheap. 

This phone runs Android 2.2 Operating system and you can definitely tell the difference after running the intercepts older Os, Applications run smoothly with no leg or freezing. Occasionally the Intercept would freeze a second and then say it wasn’t responding, I have yet to have an issue of freezing or not responding with the Optimus V. 

A lot of people have asked me about the texting on this phone because of the lack of a physical keyboard. I would promote a physical keyboard over not having one anytime. But I can tell you the touch screen on this phone is super easy to use and I haven’t had any issues writing e-mails or sending text messages.  This phone has Swype texting and although a lot of people have had complaints about this not working, I’ve even seen post that Swype texting is worthless. I have used Swype to write e-mails and I’ve enjoyed it. 90 percent of the time Swype gets the correct word that I am trying to write and I find it a lot of fun to use Swype, This may not be for everyone but you should definitely check it out if you get this phone. The Lg Optimus comes with a lot of pre loaded software that I would call bloatwear such as Twidroyd I found Twidroyd pretty much useless and for some strange reason you’re unable to uninstall the preloaded applications unless you root your phone. The Bloatwear and the fact of not having speed dial on this handset are basically the only complaint about this phone and that is definitely not a reason to not check out this phone especially for a price tag of 149.99 that’s a huge steel when you figure in the fact that the Samsung Intercept was 250 when it was released. 

There are many cool features on the new Lg Optimus such as live wallpapers; even though this could significantly reduce battery life it’s very neat to have with the option to download other live wallpapers from the Android Market.  I also found that Yahoo Messenger has a patch that can be downloaded so that you can make free video calls to anyone on your messenger list and even though the Optimus V doesn’t have a front facing camera it works great and is fun. 

Something that I found very interesting about the Lg Optimus V was this phone was the first I have had from Virgin Mobile that gave me 3G service, I found that great but wondered how come it never worked on any of the other phones, None the less I’m super happy with the faster internet speed. Wi-Fi worked great except I found out it would shut off within 5 minutes of being in sleep but I was able to find a simple fix for that issue by going to settings, Wireless & Networks, Wi-Fi Settings , Menu Key , Advanced, Wi-Fi Sleep Policy and then I put the phone on Never so the Wi-Fi won’t shut off. 

For a phone that I had my doubts about, I’m extremely happy with the Lg Optimus V and I would recommend anyone looking for a new cell phone to buy this phone. Virgin Mobile offers great plans on their phones from 25 to 60 dollars a month unlimited. I’ve been a customer for Virgin Mobile since 2002 and I’m very happy with their service.  Thanks again for reading my blog enjoy the week.

                                                                                 All the best, 

                                                                                           SassyTechGirl
                                                                                           Rebecca Marie

For more information/videos on the Lg Optimus V please visit my YouTube channel at http://www.Youtube.com/sassygirl8324

Picture courtesy of Virgin Mobile USA http://www.virginmobileusa.com/