instinct

I think it's about time I write my comparison post. I've had the Pre a while now and I've officially said goodbye to the Instinct. I could call it a bunch of bad names now and not have to worry about it throwing a fit and refusing to work...

Not that it ever needed any encouragement.

The past year of my life has been filled with ups and downs in our relationship. For the first month or two I loved the Instinct. Coming from a flip-phone that had very basic capabilities, I felt empowered with the Instinct. … Read more

Dear Sprint,

While I have been a faithful customer for almost 6 years and have been pretty happy with your services, I am now forced to make a complaint.

You see, I was chosen for this amazing promotion where I received a free Palm Pre in exchange for blogging about it and my experience with the Sprint Now Network, on CNET. I'm very grateful for th 3 months of free service you have provided those of us participating in this test-drive, but here's the deal... … Read more

You can usually rely on Samsung to drop a load of new phones every trade show, and CTIA 2009 is no exception. After announcing several new phones for AT&T and a WiMax-enabled device, Samsung on Tuesday evening unveiled a successor to the Samsung Instinct. The Instinct S30, which comes almost a year to the day after its predecessor, offers minimal feature and design upgrades. Be sure to check out our Samsung Instinct S3 photo gallery.

As you might expect, the Instinct S30 is all about the touch screen. The 3.2-inch display supports 262,000 colors and 432x240-pixel … Read more

I know that it's been a while, but I did promise you last month that I would report back on my experience with the Samsung Instinct's new calendar syncing ability. I apologize for the wait, but the holidays and CES prevented me from getting an activated Instinct handset from Sprint.

Fortunately, the wait proved to be the worst thing about the experience as the new feature worked pretty much as promised. Once a review model arrived, I had to download three software updates, which took about 20 minutes, but they loaded without incident or a missed connection.

After installing the updates and syncing the phone with my CNET OWA (Outlook Web Access) e-mail, a new "work calendar" update button appeared under the calendar menu. Pressing that button synced the Instinct and my Outlook calendar in just a few seconds. The data connection cut out on my first try, but the second attempt brought success. All of my current appointments then appeared under their appropriate day with the correct time, location, and description. To get back to the calendar from the main menu, I could choose either the calendar or e-mail icons.

As Sprint promised, I was able to create a new appointment on the Instinct, which then synced back to my PC automatically. Also, I could get meeting reminders, accept or decline new appointments, and edit or delete current meetings right on the phone. Any edits made on the Instinct synced back to my PC in just a few seconds; the reverse process took a bit longer. Yet, it was a satisfying experience on the whole.

Still, there were a few quirks.… Read more

This show starts out as the Recycle, Reduce, Re-Use Episode. Shortly into the show, we realize how poorly thought out a theme that was. Wow, it's been a long break.

Pee-powered battery (that technically runs on water or juice too) (Thanks Cianna!)

Sega robo-cat will meow, won’t catch mice

Quit smoking or be forced to wear these clothes made from cigarette butts

Breathalyzer key chain lets you see if you’re drunk while on the highway

Recycled condoms used on hair bands??? Snopes confirms this as legit! ACK!

Facebook spoils the free Whopper fun

Microchip Cufflinks… Read more

Though pink phones are so five minutes ago, Samsung and Sprint decided to roll out a pink Instinct this week. Features are no different from the standard version, and the $99 price tag is unchanged as well. And that's all we have to say about that.

When we reviewed Sprint's Samsung Instinct earlier this year, there were several things we liked about the device. Naturally, we had a few complaints as well, not the least of which was the lack of corporate calendar syncing. The Instinct could get some Outlook e-mail, but without calendar syncing it had a limited appeal as a business handset.

Yet, starting Thursday, Instinct owners can get calendar syncing through a software update to the device's Mobile E-mail application. The new feature will be free of charge (provided you have a Sprint "Simply Everything" plan) and will work … Read more

Correction, 2:38 p.m. PST: This story initially gave an incorrect name for the firm that released the report. It is Strategy Analytics.

Samsung Electronics became the top mobile phone provider in the U.S. during the third quarter, unseating longtime rival Motorola, according to a report Friday by Strategy Analytics.

Samsung grabbed 22.4 percent of the market share based on U.S. shipments in the quarter, compared with Motorola, which was slightly more than 1 percentage point away, and LG Electronics which was a close third.

Samsung and LG, which have been rapidly closing the gap on … Read more

Two weeks ago, I asked Samsung Instinct owners to tell me what they thought of their phones. Normally, I don't write blogs asking for comments on individual phones after we've reviewed them, but Sprint's Instinct had me worried. While I liked the handset when I reviewed it, I know that people who use a phone long term can develop varying opinions. After I started to get e-mails from disappointed Instinct users, I began to wonder if I had it wrong. Even now, the average user score on the review almost matches my score of four stars (or 8.0), but perhaps opinions were changing over time.

After a careful review of the responses to my blog, it's clear that the Instinct is a good phone, but it falls short of a being a great phone. Of the 67 verbose and candid comments that passed the "relevancy" test (I had to discount quite a few because they were duplicate posts, comments from non-Instinct owners, flame wars, or just off topic), opinions were just about evenly spread. The largest group (39 percent) wrote that they liked the phone overall, but they didn't shy away from registering quite a few complaints. The next largest group (31 percent) was soundly positive with very few gripes, while 30 percent were strongly negative with very few praises. So even though the majority of users like the Instinct, many of them do so only begrudgingly. On the other hand, the unhappy minority is shouting at the top of their lungs.

Let me state that this wasn't a scientific study by any means. Also, while one reader warned me that there was a "concerted effort" on Sprint forums to bombard my blog with negative comments, the results are interesting nonetheless. For the most part the "likes and "dislikes" were universal. I'll list those below. Also, while I agreed with most of the complaints, and noted them in my review, there were a few gripes that didn't occur to me before. As I said, long-term use gives a fresh perspective. So now, on to the opinions (albeit in a Zagat's Survey format). … Read more