Topic: Which Smart Phone?

[QDRPHNC]

I've just seen this which made me giggle. Apologies if it's been posted before.

That video leaves out one important detail - the iPhone is beautiful, and the Evo isn't.

I'm no Mac fanboy (almost the opposite), but really that's at the heart of it. Apple can make a phone that's arguably less capable that the opposition, but as an object it's designed so fucking well that any technical considerations take second place.

I highly recommend the documentary Why Beauty Matters (downloadable from the usual places) for a fuller appreciation of this.

PMed you about the other thing, thank-you.

[mcbpete]

the iPhone is beautiful, and the Evo isn't.

I actually prefer the look and feel of the HTC Desire to the iPhone, the Iphone4 seemed too glassy and angular and the Desire all rounded with that nice rubber/plasic hybrid surrounding the thing.

[thepuffpastryhangman]

Yup, t'Chryslar Building's no bouncy castle.

[Ignatius_S]

That video leaves out one important detail - the iPhone is beautiful, and the Evo isn't...

Personally, probably the biggest detail left out is the Evo's battery life. If you leave it on standby overnight, turning off 4G, GPS and Wi-Fi, the battery would still be drained by a third.

It's a shame, because other than that, it's a lovely phone (although it's been reported that the touch screen has trouble with responsiveness).

http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/05/31/htc-evo-4g-sprint-review/
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/06/03/tips-and-tricks-to-extending-the-htc-evo-4g-and-incredibles-battery-life-and-what-this-says-about-android/

[chocky909]

It's annoying that the Desire and Evo's battery life is so poor because that issue is one of the main reasons I want to get rid of my iPhone 3GS. It sounds like the iPhone4 is a bit of an improvement. I hope the Desire HD[1] has better battery than the Evo otherwise they can forget it. But then the Samsung Galaxy S is just as bad apparantly.

1.	4.3" version of Desire out soon and I have my eye on one

[Ignatius_S]

It's annoying that the Desire and Evo's battery life is so poor because that issue is one of the main reasons I want to get rid of my iPhone 3GS. It sounds like the iPhone4 is a bit of an improvement. I hope the Desire HD[1] has better battery than the Evo otherwise they can forget it. But then the Samsung Galaxy S is just as bad apparantly.

1.	4.3" version of Desire out soon and I have my eye on one

Battery life has always  tended been a problem with smartphones - it's just one of those prices, one has to pay.

However, I'm getting more optimistic about this and this is in largely to do with my experience using the iPhone 4. I went from a 3G to a 4 and I've been pleasantly surprised by how well the battery fares. Since my last full charge, my phone has been on standby for nearly 10.5 hours and had 3 hours of actual use - right now it's on 85% capacity. That said, my use hasn't been that processor intensive today, but when it is (e.g. videoing) I would expect 1 hour of use to deplete 10-12% of the battery charge. From some tests, it's been indicated that the iPhone 4 shows a 40% improvement on the 3GS.

This isn't actually meant to be a crude attempt to get you to stay with the iPhone, but just trying to illustrate that I believe that we're going to see improvements across the board. Also, with most (if not all) Android OS phones, there are easily replaceable batteries - not the most elegant of solutions but it works/helps.

if you haven't had a chance to check it yet, I linked to a battery comparison test on the previous page, which I thought it was quite interesting.

One thing about the Evo, a common complaint was that 4G network usage really depletes the battery quickly.

[HappyTree]

Just got an iPhone 4, my first smart phone and loving it. I don't use social media at all, but having a camera, video camera, book and comic reader, music player and phone all in one device was too much to resist.

I'm just scared shitless of dropping the thing.

Does the iPhone have a little hole for a strap? I had my phone for a day before running out to buy a soft case for it, and a few days later realised its slim profile meant there wasn't a lot to grip onto when calling, so attached a strap. Now whenever I bring the phone out I slip the strap loosely over my wrist and am free to let it slip out of my hand with no fear. I sometimes even drop it deliberately just for the bungee fun.

Get a strap, man. Unless iPhones have no lanyard hole, then you're knackered!

[QDRPHNC]

Does the iPhone have a little hole for a strap?

No, is the short answer to that.

[mook]

has my life really come to this - it's nearly 12 minutes past two on a saturday morning, i'm stone cold fucking sober and full to the brim with insomnia and i've just read a post by a crystal licker about how chuffed he is with his fucking mobile phone case.

[chocky909]

Your life obviously peaked far too early. My advice for you is to attempt to circumnavigate the globe in a hot air balloon with TC Raymond as your co pilot. Make sure you can broadcast to CaB Radio though. I want to hear the descent into madness. Then we can get Robot DeNiro to mash up the best bits and become a Youtube sensation.

Also, use capital letters at the start of a sentence. We are not Daniel Kitson.

[HappyTree]

If you're going to feign curmudgeonliness effectively you need to get the facts at least half right. It was about a strap. I mentioned my Winnie the Pooh soft case on the previous page. ;-p

Licking crystals can be fun, but I usually kiss mine.

[mook]

Your life obviously peaked far too early. My advice for you is to attempt to circumnavigate the globe in a hot air balloon with TC Raymond as your co pilot. Make sure you can broadcast to CaB Radio though. I want to hear the descent into madness. Then we can get Robot DeNiro to mash up the best bits and become a Youtube sensation.

Also, use capital letters at the start of a sentence. We are not Daniel Kitson.

big letters are vulgar - they've got that look at me aren't i important vibe about them. well they're not. mind, i'm not that keen on lower case ls, bs, ks or fs or any other letter that pokes it head up above the parapet. and you can stick your idea of getting me off the ground in a thing made of wicker, string and linen right where you came from. when i go skyward i demand to be sat near the front and be served lovely calming alcohol by orange skinned women and homosexuals until i stop screaming or pass out.

[chocky909]

You're a Business Class anarchist and a scaredy cat to boot.

[mook]

just because i don't want to float around the world at 5mph for months on end with no toilet accompanied by an aspie with a goodies addiction doesn't make me a scaredy cat.

[chocky909]

It so does though. You know, I used to think you were cool mook. I don't know what to think now. I need to go away and think a while. I think they prefer the term 'Aspo' by the way.

[MALCOLM]

HTC HD3 running Winmo 7, it's got a netbook spec FFS

[Winjer]

I hope it's better than the HD2. I had one on contract and it was very umm, swish but didn't appeal to me. It was a little bit too big to fit in your pocket, Windows Mobile 6 is a disaster of an operating system: if I didn't reset the fucker every twenty four hours some spurious fault would occur.

 Apart from that it had a lovely big screen and good technology but Microsoft gagged it big syle by putting their restrictive OS on there.It worked a little bit better after I wiped it and reflashed the OS with a ROM from forum.xda-developers.com.

Anyway, I sold it on eBay and now have a Nokia N97 mini, which is failrly old tech as it runs on symbian. It's fine as a phone and mp3 player and not too bad as a video player as long as you process the avi files on your main PC first.

Oh, should mention that the reason I went for a N97 is becaus it has a tactile keyboard. Couldn't stand texting on the touchscreen of the HD2. When they bring out a decent sizzed Android phone with a flip out keyboard I'll go for that (I know the X10 mini pro has that, but it's too wee).

[The Boston Crab]

has my life really come to this - it's nearly 12 minutes past two on a saturday morning, i'm stone cold fucking sober and full to the brim with insomnia and i've just read a post by a crystal licker about how chuffed he is with his fucking mobile phone case.

If it helps, I think you're cooler and funnier than ever.

[MALCOLM]

I hope it's better than the HD2. I had one on contract and it was very umm, swish but didn't appeal to me. It was a little bit too big to fit in your pocket, Windows Mobile 6 is a disaster of an operating system: if I didn't reset the fucker every twenty four hours some spurious fault would occur.

 Apart from that it had a lovely big screen and good technology but Microsoft gagged it big syle by putting their restrictive OS on there.It worked a little bit better after I wiped it and reflashed the OS with a ROM from forum.xda-developers.com.

Anyway, I sold it on eBay and now have a Nokia N97 mini, which is failrly old tech as it runs on symbian. It's fine as a phone and mp3 player and not too bad as a video player as long as you process the avi files on your main PC first.

Oh, should mention that the reason I went for a N97 is becaus it has a tactile keyboard. Couldn't stand texting on the touchscreen of the HD2. When they bring out a decent sizzed Android phone with a flip out keyboard I'll go for that (I know the X10 mini pro has that, but it's too wee).

Windows Mobile 7 is released next month and is supposed to take MS mobile OS's into the modern age, many reviewers think it surpasses anything currently on the market, some don't.

At the very least it's a million miles from the abomination that was 6/6.5

The HD2 was running 6.5 with a HTC custom front end to make it just about acceptable.

[Subtle Mocking]

The white Desire said to be exclusive to Carphone Warehouse, could beat the white iPhone 4 into stores.

EDIT: Also on the subject today, there's been an OTA update for the Desire. Not much has changed:
1. Android OS update patch
2. Enhanced multi inbox Gmail support and
3. Improved Russia keyboard layout

BUT, I can confirm that since updating my battery life seems to have improved. Hooray!

[VegaLA]

Fuck me, a funeral for iPhone and Blackberry!

http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/10/microsoft-celebrates-windows-phone-7-rtm-with-funeral-parade-for/

[MojoJojo]

HTC HD3 running Winmo 7, it's got a netbook spec FFS

Heh, that probably has a few lines of code I wrote in it. Although I left about 6 months before the chips taped out, and it was only a 1GHz chip last I heard (although we may have just been kept in the dark on that point).
It should also have a new power management architecture, which should hopefully improve the rather shoddy battery life of most HTC phones. Although that might be cancelled out by the increased performance. The bloody thing has about 7 ARM cores in it.

[Subtle Mocking]

HTC Desire HD and Desire Z officially announced today, along with a new HTC Sense. Desire HD has 4.3 inch screen and Desire Z has full QWERTY keyboard. Vodafone have reportedly signed up for the rights to both phones first.

[small_world]

Ok, just received my HTC desire. Nice posty came nice and early.
What should I get for it?
I'm going to get a big ol' memory card. But what else? Do I need a screen cover or a condom like thing?
What else?

[Marvin]

I've got a CaseMate Barely There case and screen protector which is nicely unbulky.

Really am loving using this phone, so much scope to make it how you want it compared to the iPhone.

[jutl]

ignore

[Famous Mortimer]

I just traded my iPhone to a mate at work for a Desire, and am happy with the decision so far. I’ve not done much with it yet (2 hours and counting) but as long as the wireless mouse app thing works I’ll be a happy fella.

I bought a cheap case off the market til I can find a really decent one – I’ll be checking out the one Marvin recommended.

There is obviously so much you can do with it, though – it’s got enough of the stuff I liked from the iPhone and enough good new stuff that I’ll be happy for ages. And, it looks like there’s no Puzzle Quest on this one. As that damn game took over my life for the last month, I’ll be happy.

[Famous Mortimer]

After a week with the Desire, I'm really enjoying having it. Incredibly customizable, all sorts of things going on. I finally bought a cheap 32gig memory card, and can finally load up the phone with the music and videos I want.

Problem is, I've been made lazy by iTunes. There doesn't seem to be an equivalent device for Android phones, apart from possibly proprietary software that comes bundled with other phones. I've had DoubleTwist recommended online so I checked it out, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to get it to put things from my computer onto my phone. It's a drag-and-drop device, so it's not like I'm losing out, but it'd be nice if there was something I could use.

I shall research further, anyway. What good apps have people found for their Android devices so far?

[Ignatius_S]

Amazon is opening its own Android app store.

Detailed comparisons of smartphone displays – upshot is that there are some lovely ones out there and they’re bound to improve.

…I shall research further, anyway. What good apps have people found for their Android devices so far?

Although it was mainly iPhone apps, I seem to remember that http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,24758.120.html]this thread[/url] mentioned some a few Android apps.

Off the top of my head, the following are good ‘uns:

Dropbox
Evernote
Advanced Task Killer
beebPlayer

Shame about doubletwist, but I would investigate further – a few friends loudly sing its praises after I tipped them off to it.

[Famous Mortimer]

There's also an exceedingly complicated way of turning it into a device on iTunes' device list, but I'm not messing to that extent.

I'll keep trying with DoubleTwist, and if I had a PC I could just use HTC Sync, but I'd think there'd be a market for a proper iTunes for Android users - not just something which acts as a filter for iTunes.

Oh, and also, I can't put a folder containing pictures on my memory card for love nor money. It keeps adding them, then as soon as I try and look for them the folder isn't there. Very peculiar.