This is my attempt to review the phone after a year (and a bit) of use. It may seem pointless to review a phone that is at least a generation old, but I think what I have to say gives some insight into HTC as a manufacturer, and Android as a whole. These are also the sorts of things that can't be understood from using a phone for a few hours. I'll also cover Sense in part.
I'll start by listing everything that has annoyed or just disappointed me over the last 13 months.
Battery life
One of my major worries with Android as a whole (and by extension, all smartphones and the direction the market is heading): it is just not acceptable for a phone to not last a whole working day on moderate use (which for me is: about 2 hours web browsing and listening to music, a few text messages and emails). There are ways to avoid this happening (and the question should be, if users can do things to improve the battery, why don't they come out of the
factory that way?) but the fact is that a phone that requires the user to tinker extensively to get a day's reasonable use is not well designed. The trade-off is a thinner, lighter phone. Well, it's not worth it. Consumers are being hoodwinked into desiring crazy thin handsets before the technology is really there to support them. Ever-faster specs are the other side of this sorry tale. Phone software shouldn't need dual-core phones running at above 1Ghz, with 1gig of RAM. WP7 and iOS show this.
Build quality: I've had several serious problems caused by the hardware:
The battery cover - everyone knows about this. It is possible to remove it, and reinstall it, but it's difficult - and it just shouldn't be. That's all there is to it.
Volume rocker - the poor arrangement of the battery cover and the volume rocker meant that when I tried to pull off the battery cover, I broke off the top half of volume rocker. Luckily it still holds on and the volume control still works, but again - not good enough. The fact that there are packages of replacement volume rockers complete with the needed tools on Ebay show this is not limited to me and my clumsiness.
USB port - for no obvious reason, and very suddenly, the USB/charger port stopped working properly - no power was going to the phone. The main board and so the whole until had to be replaced. I'd not been rough with the connection. Which lead to...
GPS. One of my biggest disappointments. Although it worked reasonably well to begin with, when my internals were replaced because of the USB port failure, the internals must have been from the batch with the poorly connected GPS module. Everyone knows about this issue by now. I never ever ever get any GPS signal, no matter where I am or what the weather's like. Yes there are solutions, none of which worked for me, and I couldn't bare to be without my handset for another 7-14 days to get it repaired. Very poor.
HTC Sense
I've not found Sense to have any additional functionality that make it worth the resource overhead on top of Android. Really the only useful thing it does is linking contacts between my contacts and Facebook and Twitter (though this brings it's own problems, for instance forcefully importing a friend's outdated phone number from Facebook without giving me the option to choose the stored number instead). I've never been able to use the default Android calendar app because the Sense one replaces it, and I don't like the Sense one at all, it's quite unintuitive.
I find the extra chrome is not especially attractive, and doesn't make efficient use of space. It looks very mid-late 00s. So dumping Sense was one of the first things I did, first in favour of ADW Launcher and lately GO Launcher, for it's superb and beautiful widgets.
HTCSense.com - I've nearly forgotten what it did. Suffice to say, none of the services were useful enough or reliable (they didn't work at all for the first few months) to keep me coming back.
General Android issues
Music playing
There are many brilliant music-playing programs for Android. I've happily paid for two that I love using (PowerAmp and PlayerPro). Sadly, four years in, the experience of getting music onto an Android phone lags behind iPhone fundamentally. Spotify subscribers will call me a dinosaur for caring about this, but for those of us with large mp3 collections that they like to change up on their phones regularly, it's an unhappy experience. Technology
blogs would have you believe the iTunes/iPhone experience can be replicated, but my experience is that this just isn't true.
To give an overview of the problem (for anyone thinking of coming to Android and hoping to use their phone for playing music), here's my experience of using several Windows music management apps, and their limitations as a solution for managing Android devices.
DoubleTwist - marketed as iTunes for Android - laughable, and crushingly disappointing: ignoring slow performance and instability, not finding all files, misreading mp3 tags, all DoubleTwist does is sync a playlist to the phone (over Wi-Fi if you pay the upgrade). If you use iTunes, it will sync any playlist that you create in iTunes - but does anyone want to install iTunes if it's just to transfer music? I hate having it on my system. The main failing is that it has no easy way to select tracks to be transferred - they have to be added to a playlist. Unlike iTunes, you cannot tick or untick songs from the main library. If you want to remove a song from your phone, you have to find and then remove it from the appropriate playlist. Which is far more time consuming. No developers of music management software for Windows seem to understand this. The same problem applies to Winamp, Songbird, MediaMonkey, all of which I've tried and none of which work as well as iTunes does for iPods. All have various bugs or limitations (Winamp won't let you browse the syncing playlist by artist/album, only letting you edit the sync list as a great big long list, does a really poor job of finding artwork and lyrics. But the wifi sync option is very cool, if slightly pointless. Songbird is still unstable after years of development and has enduring problems with recognising tags.)
So far the best option is MediaMonkey, which is fast, stable and has some brilliant additional functions even in it's free version. It does allow you to browse tracks stored on the phone by artist and album which makes it easier to remove tracks, but doesn't give the selecting tracks from the main library option that iTunes has. Also, CD-ripping is only available in the paid version ($40).
Ideally I'd like to see Google develop or encourage the development of an iTunes equivalent media manager for Android phones on Windows that would do the simple job of syncing music easily, effectively, and without bugs! However this would go against their ambitions for getting everyone to to everything (including music) through the cloud, so I don't have much hope.
Another small issue I've got with music on Android is that the system's music management library doesn't recognise the album artist tag on music files. This means that when browsing music in any application by artist, compilations are split out into each artist. This makes for a messy library. I want the option to have all compilations combined under the 'Various Artists' name - simple to implement, but only possible by recognising the album artist tag.
Android Market
A constant source of irritation to me is a couple of bugs in the Market. The first of these is automatically starting updates which stall before downloading starts, requiring you to long-press and cancel, and then manually re-start each of the updates. Tedious. The other major problem is that about 1/3 to 1/2 the time, completed downloads will fail to install, often repeatedly. No idea. It works eventually, so it's not an issue of compatibility. Aggravating.
In progress...
I have had the DHD for a year too and came from a Iphone and I agree with some of your issues.
Battery life: For me at first I was having to charge at sometimes 1 or 2 in the afternoon >< but now I get to midnight often with 50% charge if i have been using lightly, a day with some gaming music and calls its 15% 20% left this is around 11 when i normally goto bed and put it on charge so battery life is ok for me now (I am on stock sense rom 2.3 something, the latest one)
The GPS been flaky really annoys me sometimes taking 3 4 minutes to get one Sat, makes hoping in the car and getting directions something you have to add 5 minutes to your journey for.
Build Quality has been fine for me, but I have not opened really since i put in my SD card and it's been in a clear gel case with protector since day 1 so looks immaculate. I think the GPS issue is a design flaw.
HTC sense is ok, I only use a couple of their widgets but yea it's not really that useful and can be replicated with many things often free from the market.
Android music players: At first coming from Itunes I liked the fact I could add a new song with drag and drop but in retrospect its better to have a database driven system like itunes for organizing music and playlists means you end up with your music nicely organised tagged and searchable.
The market i have had no issues with really (Though IOS apps are overall slicker than Android still, though Android has caught up in a few now)
I think Android looks really promising with ICS and will finally root and put a Rom on once one is hacked on the Desire HD.
Overall the handset has been nice and I like been able have live wallpapers and change themes with things with different launchers, the Iphone got boring from a OS perspective whereas Android you can change everything and seem like you have a new phone.
Now for the gotcha...I solved all my Android & HTC problems by getting a Samsung Omnia 7 16gb WP7 I have had both phones now concurrently for 8 months and the WP7 is my everyday phone since about 3 weeks into buying it, but I have the desire HD with a backup sim in it and carry that too.
It lasted all day from day one on a charge and I found the OS to do everything I needed without any tweaking, that been social networking, syncing with google calendar, making calls, listening to my music and surfing the web on the go. (I am not really a phone gamer, maybe play the odd puzzle game like jems or something.)
It's a bit like the iphone I guess everything just kind of works with no tweaking but it looks different and you can actually make your home screen look really nice and personal with live tiles of your photos news feeds etc. And Zune I love its a really cool looking desktop client, it checkerboards album art when you play music and my phone wirelessly syncs any new music when its on charge over night (though PC has to be on ofc) I would never go back to drag and drop into folders now. WP7 has its quirks and annoyances too but I think it does the things I need better.
I still love Android though and may get the Galaxy Nexus, However will wait and see the reviews, if Android still has jerky lag scrolling and the random stutters on the homescreens and in browser will wait until next gen, hopefully though they have got the accelerated GUI working well enough, and it looks a lot nicer seems much more integrated from the demos I have seen less hodgepodge than it currently is.
It's great to have three different phone OSes to be able to choose from, currently its not looking like one will get a monopoly like MS did with windows so hopefully we can continue to have some choice and variety for years to come which also drives innovation which means better experiences for us the users!
I gave up with it
I eventually gave up with my HD a couple of weeks ago. The phone, as you wrote, has some strengths and some (serious) weaknesses.
The battery is awful. I stated that the first week I got it -- and the deniers said it was fine. It's not. It's crap. And seriously harms the device.
The phone is also heavy. If that sounds dumb, it's not when your hand is tired holding the damn thing for 45 minutes.
And, after a while, the phone lags badly. Only a complete reset fixes this.
The camera is also so-so, and slow as Hell. Video recording is poor and jerky.
Fortunately, there is a cure to all of these problems -- the Samsung Galaxy S2.
bobbyelliott said:
I eventually gave up with my HD a couple of weeks ago. The phone, as you wrote, has some strengths and some (serious) weaknesses.
The battery is awful. I stated that the first week I got it -- and the deniers said it was fine. It's not. It's crap. And seriously harms the device.
The phone is also heavy. If that sounds dumb, it's not when your hand is tired holding the damn thing for 45 minutes.
And, after a while, the phone lags badly. Only a complete reset fixes this.
The camera is also so-so, and slow as Hell. Video recording is poor and jerky.
Fortunately, there is a cure to all of these problems -- the Samsung Galaxy S2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bye Bye....
I've had my DHD for about 6 months now coming from a TyTN II on WinMob 6.0 which I still have. This one is miiiiiiiiles ahead. I agree that the major put-off with the DHD is the battery and I don't care how much freaking tweaking one does, it SUX!!!! I don't get a full day of moderate use at all. I am constantly plugging it in to charge. This seems to be a common Android device problem. Battery technology just has not kept up with the rest.
That being said, I am happy with most everything else. I love my music and I use Mortplayer. I love to be able to just plug my phone into my laptop via USB and just copy and delete music at my leisure. This goes for videos, series, movies etc.
I have the best apps I believe for my various needs. I will elaborate on this a little later.
I dumped SENSE!!! I have been using GO Launcher for the last 3 or 4 months. I love it! I also only use Live Wallpaper.
My GPS is great. I have had no issues at all. I get a lock indoors in an average of about 20 seconds flat. I have made no alterations or mods whatsoever. My phone is stock, unrooted etc. Don't fix it if it aint broke!
The apps I mostly use:
OfficeSuite Pro
Sygic Navigation
Perfect Viewer for comics
QuickPic gallery
Total Commander
Moboplayer for movies
Mortplayer for music
GO Keyboard (THE best Android keyboard after having tried seven or eight different ones)
Vlingo
Camera ZoomFX Pro
Photaf
PicSayPro
I hardly play games.
GO Contacts and Dialer
GO SMS Pro
Whatsapp
Black Facebook
Google+
LinkedIn for Android
Agile Locker
Animated Weather Pro
Weather Bug
Sense Analog Clock (The best one imho) Lots of skins available
GMail
Pocket Informant (Calendar)
Lookout Security
Equalizer
Volume Ace
Whiteboard Pro
Lots of dictionaries
Aldiko Book reader (The best for Android imho)
Camcard
Barcode Scanner
Camscan
Barcode Generator
Neocalc
Opera Mobile
...And various other tools and utilities.
well what i say m my sig tells everything about it . its just the worst decision of my life to buy it and even bad thing is that no one want to buy this kind of bulky phone here so i m kind of stuck with this phone still.
when i see ics boot up and running on dhd but not sgs2 well first time this phone give me some happiness .
I must say i haven't had many if any of the above issues, build quality is solid as a rock for me, phone been dropped a few times works perfectly well...
Sim cover did tend to be a pain to get off when i first got the phone, but i learned to pull it off by holding the sides of the cover and just gently pulling down.
The Volume rocker does suck, i don't think there's any debate here. You actually have to physically see the screen in order to know you've changed the volume level because it's not tactile whatsoever.
Battery life isn't as bad as people make out. Especially with custom roms, i can have 3 hours screen time and still last the full day in standby without my battery dying.
Camera performs quite well with the right settings as hamdir has demonstrated in his guide.
Overall i'm pleased with the DHD it's not perfect no, but for a year old smartphone it's got plenty of life left in it.
Ok... let's start with Music. The desire hd audio chip sucks. Period. My HD2 kicks its ass all over the place. Still... what you describe as a DHD problem with music sync etc, is present on most if not all Android devices. We only have mass storage.
Now, i do use MediaMonkey... but not the Free or Paid version. I downloaded the latest Beta4 and it manages my 180gb of mp3/ogg/flac/wav/ape whatevah. It syncs what i want and converts on the fly (why would i use FLAC on a cellphone?)
As for battery, with my DHD it lasts 2 days with very moderate use, but 3G always on, 2 google acounts, facebook, etc etc. Wifi is kept on, and when i arrive home, it connects to my wifi at it's own pleasure.
Battery door: Battery is not mean to be removed/inserted all that much. My DHD lasts months without a restart, so i don't see why you should need to remove that as often.
Volume rocker: Due to the above probably, it's still in it's place.
GPS: On this one i'll have to agree... it sucks. That plastic cover on the back is a issue, so much that a homemade fix is necessary.
As for the necessity of dual cores and so what... There really no NEED. We don't NEED this. We were fine with those dumb phones back in the Nokia Black/Green day.
As we want more, we need more... more processing power.
Now, i've used WP7 and iPhone. Lets not compare. WP7 is limited has hell. What it does, it does well. But it suffers for the same as iPhone. It need Zune to make it worth it. iPhone need iTunes. Who the hell designs a cellphone that requires a computer ?
So... please drop the comparision between WP7/iOS with Android. Yes, what they do, they do better than Android. But they do so little.. so so little..
Wrong thread
Black1982 said:
Bye Bye....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You write in the wrong thread br0. Go and cry on Samsung threads. It's not me it's DHD community which says this. Bye! Bye!
You understand Black1982: I'm with you.
Hello
I too use HTC Desire HD only problem is battery
Nice Thread.....
For me 1st year is just getting over today. This phone is awesome, I came from Symbian UIQ3 (W960i) phone. Actually I blindly chosen this phone due to Android+Dolby+HTC. But now am very happy with this decision. I had battery issues and GPS problems, but thanks to XDA devs all these gone over time. I will keep this phone till it dies.
Samsung Galaxy S2......
....is a very fast piece of plastic!
My brother has one and frankly I wouldn't swop my DHD for it ......EVER!!!!
After the DHD I will get another HTC. I am on my third HTC now.
I have seen Sony-Fricssions, Samdungs, (actually the proper name is SAMpple), and frankly HTC is still tops as far as build quality, etc. goes.
What can I say.....I luv me DHD!!!!
BTW, how on earth do people get 2 days without charging? Maybe flashing roms? but I don't want to do this.
The audio on my DHD is actually quite good. I use Equalizer and Volume Ace with Moboplayer and Mortplayer. I have an in-ear Phillips headset and the sound is maybe not the best but it is certainly good. Bass and loudness & clarity is actually quite good on mine. My family complains that my phone is too loud! hehehehehehe
Why do people keep whingeing about the battery life...its a smartphone...what more do you need to know...I've had a few of them...they are ****e,the galaxy s lasts about an he longer,look at this way,if your on the laptop plug it in...you got a sky hd box..plug it ...any device with a USB stick it in ..if your battery goes down to quick you can tweak it to be fair,in general though it just is accepted...the iPhones are even worse!
Htc sense is quality in my opinion,I've tried roms without and didn't gel,I like the DHd it still isn't old in my eyes
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
Nice review there. Honestly, I agree with the first few points of TS regarding the battery, Sense and GPS.
For the battery, its also the major setback I noticed when I got this phone. It's not crappy, its utter bulldung. But hey, due to the battery prob forces me to snoop around and found my love, ROM flashing! It's a mixed blessing I guess. Without the battery prob, I wouldn't stubble upon the amazing devs at XDA. as for the battery prob, it lasts for me through the day, an hour of music, Bluetooth headphone connected, a little mail, text and 10 minutes call max got me through the whole day.. all that is possible with a little thing called flashing. It does improve battery life. Period.
Sense.. hmm.. no idea, skipped the whole marketing thing.. sense location and what not. What ONLY like about sense is that u call silence a call by flipping it over, or turn into a blowhorn during a conversation with the same method. Lol. But other then that, its not much about to bother look let alone try.
GPS... Hmmm... First few locks are slow.. sure. But hey, nothing like rooting, flashing CWM GPS.zip can't handle..
Finally.. its a beautiful phone.. albeit its weakness in some areas. It's like a classic car, few chinks here and there, but with a little personalized tweaking, it'll be your phone indeed. I cherish it more than any other phones I had cause its me in an aluminum shell... It's a great phone. And I'm a happy owner.
Ps: want a phone that last a week? Get a Nokia 3210. Lol.
sent from Borneo
What with the obsession with itunes, googlemusic works just fine for me, with a couple of hundred random tracks synced via banshee for offline appreciation
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk
What with the obsession with itunes, googlemusic works just fine for me, with a couple of hundred random tracks synced via banshee for offline appreciation
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well... Google Music works fine. I bet it does, i can't have it yet. Not here on my country anyway. But i can have iTunes.
I don't like iTunes. To be honest, iTunes is everything i HATE on a media manager.
But, it has a advantage that GMusic does not. iTunes does not store your entire collection on the cloud. I have 180gb+ of media... this makes Google Music a "no no" for me.
In just about two weeks, it'd be our anniversary
With DHD being my first smartphone, I really didn't have much expectations of it. I just bought it then because the HD7 was still unavailable. Sense rocks. Sure the stock eventually grew very laggy, Messages does not send messages.. But hey, that's what Android Market is for.
Eventually tried rooting and flashing custom ROMs, and hell yeah, I think I may well use it for, if time allows, still another year. In the internal side, I find nothing wrong with it. It's not like it's gonna replace my computer or anything. At this point, I kinda appreciate Sense, especially Sense 3.5, the UI is just perfect, and the Beats Audio works well at default compared to how PowerAMP does. Equalizer app makes it more perfect.
The build quality for me is kinda mixed. We gotta love the metal casing. But the detachable plastic parts, they're questionable. I also bought the phone with the power keys in a deeper position than advertised out of the box, which at the time I was unaware, so it's kinda takes more effort to press it.
Just around five months ago, the volume rocker somehow broke off and fell somewhere while I was walking home. I usually joke with my friends that DHD comes with a stylus.. a toothpick for pressing the volume lol. The h and t in the htc logo behind the phone got lost as well. I can only see the shining c with holes on the h and t lol.
But, given that the phone fell on the road with a strong impact once, fell in a pail full of water once while having a call, and ran against the rain with it once, and that my phone is still alive, I guess I like it. The mic's busted though.
I think I gotta bring this baby to the hospital, er the service centre one of these days. I still love it today. Custom ROMs rejuvenate it. )
Almost all the issues are caused by the alluminum body. You can't have a handheld radio device with metal casing that doesn't have some plastic parts to embed the antenna. Well, actually you can, but then you'll have to expose the antenna and explain to the users that they are holding the device the "wrong" way. But having the metal body has one great advantage over plastic - with proper care it still looks as good as new. I have mine DHD for little over a year and it's like brand new. And the only protection it has against the elements (including my two kids) is just the stock screen protector. I love that feature so much that it was one of the two things that drove me in the direction of choosing acer a500 for a tablet. And I seriously can't understand all the people complaining about the battery life. Mine lasts two days with normal usage and can easily last a workday with moderate to heavy usage. And if you don't have any access to a power source / usb plug near your workplace, I somehow doubt that your work requirements involve spending 8 hours playing with your phone . And I'm on a rooted stock 2.3.3 ROM with no battery tweaks whatsoever. Actually I pluged my phone yesterday for an hour while having lunch (that could not charge the battery completely) and 30 hours later I'm on 20%. True - I didn't use it that much (maybe 20 minutes talking on the phone) but it's still what should be expected of a smartphone. BTW iPhone4 battery life is worse despite it's tiny screen and limited functionality and I hear 4s is even worse.
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App
daedric said:
Well... Google Music works fine. I bet it does, i can't have it yet. Not here on my country anyway. But i can have iTunes.
I don't like iTunes. To be honest, iTunes is everything i HATE on a media manager.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not available here officially either, but hey us XDA'ers aren't going to let that stop us are we?
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk
snowpatrol1702 said:
Why do people keep whingeing about the battery life...its a smartphone...what more do you need to know...I've had a few of them...they are ****e,the galaxy s lasts about an he longer,look at this way,if your on the laptop plug it in...you got a sky hd box..plug it ...any device with a USB stick it in ..if your battery goes down to quick you can tweak it to be fair,in general though it just is accepted...the iPhones are even worse!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why? Because it's not satisfactory, that's why. Do you not understand the concept of a review?
Why do you even have a mobile phone if you never leave the house/office? If you're happy to stay plugged in all the time, why not just use your laptop for computing etc and a landline for phone calls? You do realise that smartphones are meant to be mobile too, don't you?
tkolev said:
I seriously can't understand all the people complaining about the battery life. Mine lasts two days with normal usage and can easily last a workday with moderate to heavy usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seriously? Seriously, try reading my post again. As I described, I don't get the same performance as you. Clearly lots of other people have the same problem. I don't know why this is, but it doesn't stop it being a fact. What's not to understand? Do you think I'm making up my experience for fun, or something?
ghostofcain said:
What with the obsession with itunes, googlemusic works just fine for me, with a couple of hundred random tracks synced via banshee for offline appreciation
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't realise there was anyway to access Google Music in the UK yet - I'm going to give it a try out of curiosity, but... continuously drain my battery and be dependent on a decent signal? No thanks. I'm really still not convinced cloud storage of music and video is the way forward at present in general. Plus the Google Music app is pretty bare bones and it doesn't seem possible to play music downloaded from Google Music in other music apps.
I'm not obsessed with iTunes, it's just really good for syncing music to portables. My point was that there's no decent equivalent for Android phones.
Related
http://gizmodo.com/5340981/software-update-fixes-the-htc-heros-only-real-problem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYV9NNoI8Hc
Well, this changes things. Right after it came out, Matt called the HTC Hero "tragically flawed." Why? Because the otherwise fantastic Sense UI was slooooow. HTC, presumably run by competent, rational human beings, has fixed this.
From the review in July:
The Hero is flawed, though, in ways that are truly depressing in light of its potential and how much it does get truly right: It's often sluggish, which absolutely destroys the user experience. It's a particularly unfortunate affliction as the iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre emphasize speed, making the Hero feel that much slower.
This was all but a dealbreaker, this frustrating slowness. But! Paul at MoDaCo has a preview of HTC's forthcoming update, which was vaguely announced yesterday, without much mention of what it would actually do. Now we know: It's about speed. And as someone who's been using a Hero for a few weeks now, this video makes by fingers tingle, ever so slightly.
Best of all, this update, due in a few weeks, looks like it could be ready before the Hero even shows up on whatever US carrier it's destined for, by which I mean, Sprint. Now, excuse me while I go remove the asterisk from that "Best Android Phone Ever" title. [MoDaCo via Slashgear]
Can I get a 'Hell yeah!'?
awesome
Can't wait. Loving my hero so far, except for the lagginess.
Rebooting helps but that's just a bit too "windows mobile" for my taste
I come from an iphone and i really like the openness.
I've got an unbranded urban brown so i should be able to get the update when they release it.
One thing i've noticed from the video is that the clock widget thingie is no longer animated but is now just a static picture.
It's very un-HTC like to actually release an update so quickly and to actually *gasp* fix things
But OTOH, they really set out to prove something with this phone, they can't afford to screw the pooch on this one.
HTC guys, we deffinately know you read these boards and all i can say is ... if this proves to be true and you keep releasing updates on a regular schedule ... i think you will win a lot of customers and dominate the android market.
Take Care,
-Kevin
does the new update lets HERO play video files encoded at 3p FPS ??
and what about the keyboard messaging speed?? is it better now??
I have no problems running videos at 3 fps. Keyboard text input does get unbearably sluggish at times though.
ghoonk said:
I have no problems running videos at 3 fps. Keyboard text input does get unbearably sluggish at times though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The keyboard can get very slow in webpages I find.
I hope that this update also fixes the missing text messages issue, lots of angry peeps because I don't reply to them!
ghoonk said:
I have no problems running videos at 3 fps. Keyboard text input does get unbearably sluggish at times though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
actually i meant 30 fps...LOL i made a mistake by typing 3 only...lol 3fps is supported by even the most basic video phone!
thank God...
I really wanted to love the Hero (but the speed problem totally made me reconsider, having had a slow Diamond before) as the UI really is one of the best among the likes of the iPhone, and despite the fact that I am still using WinMo now I must admit that the iPhone UI is just a hell of a lot more out there. The Hero's UI is the first I see on any phone that really does match the iPhone's UI (if not exceed it).
If it actually speeds up so much with the update, it would be absolutely perfect, and I will buy one.
nin2thevoid said:
I really wanted to love the Hero (but the speed problem totally made me reconsider, having had a slow Diamond before) as the UI really is one of the best among the likes of the iPhone, and despite the fact that I am still using WinMo now I must admit that the iPhone UI is just a hell of a lot more out there. The Hero's UI is the first I see on any phone that really does match the iPhone's UI (if not exceed it).
If it actually speeds up so much with the update, it would be absolutely perfect, and I will buy one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. I've just boxed/RMAd my Hero for return. I thoroughly enjoyed the time i spent with it but as it is now, its just not practical for me. Plus i dunno how HTC do their updates and if they truly fix anything useful or just random fixes no one cares about, which is why i wasn't willing to gamble.
If the update does improve things significantly then i'll come back or simply wait for the next iteration but in the meantime i'm returning to my trusty iPhone. Yes its UI is dated, yes it sucks at multitasking, yes the app store policy is draconian, yes battery life sucks. However the little things the iPhone does, it does well and is dependable for me.
I'm looking for a phone to buy in the next 2/3 months and if the hero gets as fast as we can see on the video, my choice is done. Otherwise I'll stick with my old phone waiting for a real Iphone competitor...
Speed the only problem?
I'd say that functional shortcomings are even worse. The speed-issue is mostly a feature of true multitasking. Don't expect good performance from a low-end CPU when it's trying to run all the fancy widget applications simultaneously. Optimisation is always appreciated though.
More important issues IMHO are:
Email not able to display messages with digital signatures. Never mind verification of the signature, but there's no good reason why the unencrypted message body can't be displayed. K9mail from the market handles it, as well as the mail-app in a stock android 1.5 dev.kit.
Email has no option to specify the path for IMAP folders. No folders other than the inbox can be read from servers which require the path to be specified.
The currently used 2.6.27.x kernel has serious issues with wi-fi (performance issues, temporary loss of connection). There are good reasons why the entire wi-fi stack was replaced shortly after (see kernel mailing-list) and we should hopefully soon see Android built with kernel 2.6.30 or later.
LEDs and trackball lights have stopped working on some units. It's been claimed that these problems are software related.
The music-player needs more consistent sorting of songs. Now it sorts songs alphabetically when browsing all tracks from an artist, while the default should be sort by album+disc_number+track_number. Similarly when you browse all albums the ordering of tracks within an album seems random. The natural order here would be by track-number.
Fade out-in between music tracks can be more smooth, as can the fade in/out of alarms and phone-calls.
Peep needs fixing so that it doesn't drain the battery when there's no twitter account configured. I don't know what it does, but it certainly can't be idle when it reduces the standby-time to 6-8 hours. Kill Peep, or give it a valid twitter user-name/password and the problem is gone.
The dialler and phone-book could do with some optimisation. This is the only place I've found where lagging actually causes a problem as it sometimes leads to calls being accidentally initiated.
These are just some of the problems I've found. I'm sure people with other priorities and who use the device differently have other issues.
I really would like that person to post a video showing the contacts app THEN we can know if performance issues have been really solved.
Hero lag can't be worse than what the Pre has in just about every program. Looking forward to playing with one in person so I can check it out for myself. Palm has done a terrible job of implementing a good idea.
Aridon said:
Hero lag can't be worse than what the Pre has in just about every program. Looking forward to playing with one in person so I can check it out for myself. Palm has done a terrible job of implementing a good idea.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pre was very zippy/responsive when i played with it
Speaking of terrible jobs of implementing good ideas, how about the fact that despite creating a fancy new UI for Android, including an innovative widget idea, yet again HTC have given us an essentially useless music player. Why on earth didn't HTC learn from the Diamond's problems in order to implement a music player that did not skip during tracks. Unbelievable! I'm so furious about this. And before someone tells me that if I want a music player I should use a seperate player, if the phone cannot perform the most basic function of any music player, which is to play music uninterrupted, it should not be included at all; I am not an HTC tester.
I have a class 6 micro SD card coming soon, if this doesn't help, it's bye bye Hero and hello iphone. It may not multitask and have a bland UI and have a draconian app store (frankly, who cares!?), but what it can do, it does very well indeed.
As for the update, I like many cannot get too excited about this because I am with Orange and their update will no doubt follow in 2015.
What a bum deal.
Yours sincerely,
A fed up HTC customer.
simcarloc said:
Speaking of terrible jobs of implementing good ideas, how about the fact that despite creating a fancy new UI for Android, including an innovative widget idea, yet again HTC have given us an essentially useless music player. Why on earth didn't HTC learn from the Diamond's problems in order to implement a music player that did not skip during tracks. Unbelievable! I'm so furious about this. And before someone tells me that if I want a music player I should use a seperate player, if the phone cannot perform the most basic function of any music player, which is to play music uninterrupted, it should not be included at all; I am not an HTC tester.
I have a class 6 micro SD card coming soon, if this doesn't help, it's bye bye Hero and hello iphone. It may not multitask and have a bland UI and have a draconian app store (frankly, who cares!?), but what it can do, it does very well indeed.
As for the update, I like many cannot get too excited about this because I am with Orange and their update will no doubt follow in 2015.
What a bum deal.
Yours sincerely,
A fed up HTC customer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Hero never skips when playing music not that I do so that often. Its so much better than my Diamond was.
simcarloc said:
As for the update, I like many cannot get too excited about this because I am with Orange and their update will no doubt follow in 2015.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that may not be entirely true.
The Jones - listen more often and you will experience it. Unless of course, it's a problem only affecting certain handsets, in which case there are serious inconsistencies in HTC's manufacturing at work here, I doubt it though.
What audio formats you are using? With mp3 and wma (some are high bitrate) I use both wired and ad2p heastets about 4 hours a day and never experienced stuttering. I have a brown one from mobiles.co.uk with vodafone.
Also, while listening to music usually a few applications such as browser or news readers are being used as well.
Interesting sproxy, mine is also from Mobiles.co.uk on Orange and I get no skipping here either, listened to music loads on the phone over the last couple of days. Mine is also one of the ones with no lag, or screen gap I wonder they had a newer "fixed" batch or something?
I am about to get the Evo 4G. I heard that the battery life of the Evo is bad, but i've seen a few people post tips and tricks on how to get a longer battery life.
Since I found this out, I was wondering if it would be wise to use the phone as an Mp3 player also?
Has anyone used the music player on their phone, with medium usage of talk/text & have it last the entire day?
Please share your thoughts and opinions with me. Thank you.
It will but I found its not da loud as an ipod touch
Waleezy said:
I am about to get the Evo 4G. I heard that the battery life of the Evo is bad, but i've seen a few people post tips and tricks on how to get a longer battery life.
Since I found this out, I was wondering if it would be wise to use the phone as an Mp3 player also?
Has anyone used the music player on their phone, with medium usage of talk/text & have it last the entire day?
Please share your thoughts and opinions with me. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The battery really isn't that bad. If you plan on using it as an MP3 player with some texting, you could turn off all mobile networks except 3G, turn the brightness down, and set it to never roam.
Besides, you can buy two 1500 mAh batteries for the Evo with an additional charger for ten dollars shipped. Can't beat that deal.
Mecha2142 said:
The battery really isn't that bad. If you plan on using it as an MP3 player with some texting, you could turn off all mobile networks except 3G, turn the brightness down, and set it to never roam.
Besides, you can buy two 1500 mAh batteries for the Evo with an additional charger for ten dollars shipped. Can't beat that deal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where do you order that from?
Waleezy said:
I am about to get the Evo 4G. I heard that the battery life of the Evo is bad, but i've seen a few people post tips and tricks on how to get a longer battery life.
Since I found this out, I was wondering if it would be wise to use the phone as an Mp3 player also?
Has anyone used the music player on their phone, with medium usage of talk/text & have it last the entire day?
Please share your thoughts and opinions with me. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has replaced my ipod touch. I can't speak on whether or not it will go to "11" however, I don't have any trouble. I do have awesome headphones though!
drbadass said:
Where do you order that from?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just do a search on ebay for evo battery and you'll see them; 2 standard (after market) batteries with a desktop charger. Seller has hundreds of them.
http://bit.ly/bYuB9m
This is where I purchased it from. I actually ordered two quantities, so I'll be getting four batteries .
Waleezy said:
I am about to get the Evo 4G. I heard that the battery life of the Evo is bad, but i've seen a few people post tips and tricks on how to get a longer battery life.
Since I found this out, I was wondering if it would be wise to use the phone as an Mp3 player also?
Has anyone used the music player on their phone, with medium usage of talk/text & have it last the entire day?
Please share your thoughts and opinions with me. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can honestly say I sold my IPOD when I bought my Nexus One and used that as my preferred music player. I can say the same for my EVO!! I work out for about 1.25hrs everyother day so during my work out it may go down about 15 percentage 20 at the most! Try it! For some odd reason Player music on this things doesn't drain the battery as much as one would think! Good Luck
i can't imagine this replacing an ipod touch. they're just two totally different devices. apple really has its act together when it comes to simplicity and user interfaces for appliance-like applications. i also can't imagine any non-apple device handling my ~60GB music collection in any fluid, timely manner. my hero choked on just a few GB.
it also doesn't gracefully sync with itunes. whether people like it or not, itunes is the industry standard for digital music distribution, and it's nice to be able to seamlessly buy music sometimes.
Slightly off topic, but has anyone looked at there iPod touch and gone, "Wow when did this thing get so small?" As for replacing my iPod Touch with my phone? Not going to happen anytime soon. I use my phone heavily when im out and about and would rather not waste phone battery for playing music. Especially since my headphones are bluetooth. With 'MY' normal use I have to charge my phone nightly, the iPod at least every other day, and the headphones every few days.
__________________
Now playing on iTunes: Del The Funky Homosapien - Press Rewind
Waleezy said:
I am about to get the Evo 4G. I heard that the battery life of the Evo is bad, but i've seen a few people post tips and tricks on how to get a longer battery life.
Since I found this out, I was wondering if it would be wise to use the phone as an Mp3 player also?
Has anyone used the music player on their phone, with medium usage of talk/text & have it last the entire day?
Please share your thoughts and opinions with me. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use it as an player while I mow the lawn on Sundays. Usually takes me about 1.5-2 hours and the battery doesn't go down much. Still lasts me the rest of the day.
I don't know what I've been doing different lately but ever since I flashed Fresh 0.2 and set my preferred network to CDMA and turn ON my wifi when I have that in range (especially if I have low 3g signal)...or sometimes I program my PRL to prefer verizon towers--all of this has resulted in my battery never dipping below 50% by time I leave work. That is with moderate usage which includes 5-20 txts, 5-15 minutes of voice calls, 10-30 min of web surfing on 3g (I am at work after all), full screen brightness. I work a 10 hour day in building that nearly blocks all 3g signals so I get 1-2 bars tops. I have used it to play mp3's for an entire day (with volume low, it's hooked to a stereo), or through headphones on max for a few hours here and there. never went below 50%.
My battery life has actually been fantastic lately. (I also have an Autokiller running...though I doubt that thing actually does anything useful, the jury is still out on that.)
Now, is it a slick an interface as an ipod? No. Itunes can be hacked to work with it, but it just isn't the same. Though, I ****ing hate itunes with a passion. What's wrong with drag-n-drop? I find the sense music player to be acceptable, though a bit lame. There are plenty of other media players in the market though.
The battery life is not even close to that of an ipod, but it will certainly make it through a day, especially if you put it in airplane mode. I've never tried but I bet I'd barely get down to 75% of a full day of mp3 playing with no radios on....maybe more.
Personally I think carrying around a phone like this AND an ipod to be simply ridiculous and mostly redundant. It does not replace all functionality of an ipod without a little effort. Drag-n-drop music instead of syncing is a pain to some, but far easier to me. you'll have to re-encode video to a mpeg4 or h.263 if you want video...and video will likely hurt the battery a bit with that gigantic screen....and the interface is a bit clunkier than an ipod....but, I'd feel like a tool carrying both around with me.
...but I wouldn't have a need for a dedicated media player, your needs may be different.
daneurysm said:
I don't know what I've been doing different lately but ever since I flashed Fresh 0.2 and set my preferred network to CDMA and turn ON my wifi when I have that in range (especially if I have low 3g signal)...or sometimes I program my PRL to prefer verizon towers--all of this has resulted in my battery never dipping below 50% by time I leave work. That is with moderate usage which includes 5-20 txts, 5-15 minutes of voice calls, 10-30 min of web surfing on 3g (I am at work after all), full screen brightness. I work a 10 hour day in building that nearly blocks all 3g signals so I get 1-2 bars tops. I have used it to play mp3's for an entire day (with volume low, it's hooked to a stereo), or through headphones on max for a few hours here and there. never went below 50%.
My battery life has actually been fantastic lately. (I also have an Autokiller running...though I doubt that thing actually does anything useful, the jury is still out on that.)
Now, is it a slick an interface as an ipod? No. Itunes can be hacked to work with it, but it just isn't the same. Though, I ****ing hate itunes with a passion. What's wrong with drag-n-drop? I find the sense music player to be acceptable, though a bit lame. There are plenty of other media players in the market though.
The battery life is not even close to that of an ipod, but it will certainly make it through a day, especially if you put it in airplane mode. I've never tried but I bet I'd barely get down to 75% of a full day of mp3 playing with no radios on....maybe more.
Personally I think carrying around a phone like this AND an ipod to be simply ridiculous and mostly redundant. It does not replace all functionality of an ipod without a little effort. Drag-n-drop music instead of syncing is a pain to some, but far easier to me. you'll have to re-encode video to a mpeg4 or h.263 if you want video...and video will likely hurt the battery a bit with that gigantic screen....and the interface is a bit clunkier than an ipod....but, I'd feel like a tool carrying both around with me.
...but I wouldn't have a need for a dedicated media player, your needs may be different.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, thanks for giving me some great detailed feedback on that. And thanks to the rest of the people who responded. I wasn't expecting that much of a response.
But yea I loved my 64GB iPod touch. I sold it to get the new Evo, but then I will sell my Nexus One on ebay. And I was either going to use those funds to re-buy my iPod touch or just buy a 32GB SD card and use the music player on my phone. I'm still on the fence about that.
I love the interface of the iPod Touch, if there is any app out there in the Android Market that can match the iPod Touch's interface, someone please let me know. (I use TuneWiki on my N1, if theres a better one, let me know please). I do like the simplicity of dragging and dropping my mp3s onto the SD card w/o syncing & having it show the artwork. Less hassle than syncing to itunes.
The only thing that I do not like is that the volume on the phone (with headphones plugged in) is not as loud as the iPod Touch's volume. If there were a volume hack, thats would be a DEFINATE PLUS. Also, like I said, I use TuneWiki and there aren't any EQs that I could set it to, maybe there might be a program that is better that allows you to set the EQs to your liking?
Overall, I was concerned with battery life. I hope they make a good extended battery that does not make you purchase a big ass backdoor. I wish there was an SD card bigger than 32GB, but unfortunately there isnt (If there is, point me in that direction). Once I get my phone, I am planning on rooting it and using Bugless Pete's ROM. Hopefully I get some good battery life on it though...
Well, I came from using an LG Lotus as a mp3 player and that had pitiful volume level...this is on par with my samsung moment, which compared to my Lotus is WAY louder. It's loud enough to overload my car stereo, home stereo and work stereo, so I keep it 2/3rd turned down so it doesn't sound like crap.
...it gets far louder in my headphones than I could ever need it, and I've been playing in a punk band for almost 15 years now, my hearing is shot. If it isn't loud enough for you I would recommend some better headphones...or a hearing aid, lol.
and so far as interface is concerned that's up in the air, it's only as good as the app you use and thankfully the android community is growing by the day, so there are tons of media player apps and will likely be tons more, growing in complexity and/or polish with each day.
32gb of music is still a mammoth amount of music, and when 64gb micro-sd cards come out I'm sure we can support it, if not out of the box then a simple update will likely change that.
I'm sure the EQ thing will be addressed shortly...and if batterly life is that much of a concern you can turn the screen brightness all the way down, disable background data and syncing, put it in airplane mode if you have no concern for communcations (this will likely make it last for days, however it's unpractical for most).
Though I think most of the credit for my recent battery life boost goes to the Fresh rom. In the thread I found it in people complained of worse battery life, but I think that might have been the battery memory just leveling out or something like that...I ignored it as the battery life is always less than thrilling, so I just kept it charging when I had time to do so...and now I only charge it right before bed (around midnight) and it goes from when I wake up (4:15am ish) till bedtime again (midnight ish) and has yet to dip into the yellow...regardless of how much I use it with the screen brightness maxed out (though I keep GPS off unless I need, well, GPS...wifi is on if I have availability...or forget to turn it off...hasn't been an issue).
YMMV, as always, but, I'd say you'd probably be pretty happy after adjusting to the "mere" 32gb of storage, different interface and need to buy some decent (or maybe less power hungry) headphones.
Just have a charger wherever you go in case of emergency. Now you've only got one device in your pocket.
daneurysm said:
Well, I came from using an LG Lotus as a mp3 player and that had pitiful volume level...this is on par with my samsung moment, which compared to my Lotus is WAY louder. It's loud enough to overload my car stereo, home stereo and work stereo, so I keep it 2/3rd turned down so it doesn't sound like crap.
...it gets far louder in my headphones than I could ever need it, and I've been playing in a punk band for almost 15 years now, my hearing is shot. If it isn't loud enough for you I would recommend some better headphones...or a hearing aid, lol.
and so far as interface is concerned that's up in the air, it's only as good as the app you use and thankfully the android community is growing by the day, so there are tons of media player apps and will likely be tons more, growing in complexity and/or polish with each day.
32gb of music is still a mammoth amount of music, and when 64gb micro-sd cards come out I'm sure we can support it, if not out of the box then a simple update will likely change that.
I'm sure the EQ thing will be addressed shortly...and if batterly life is that much of a concern you can turn the screen brightness all the way down, disable background data and syncing, put it in airplane mode if you have no concern for communcations (this will likely make it last for days, however it's unpractical for most).
Though I think most of the credit for my recent battery life boost goes to the Fresh rom. In the thread I found it in people complained of worse battery life, but I think that might have been the battery memory just leveling out or something like that...I ignored it as the battery life is always less than thrilling, so I just kept it charging when I had time to do so...and now I only charge it right before bed (around midnight) and it goes from when I wake up (4:15am ish) till bedtime again (midnight ish) and has yet to dip into the yellow...regardless of how much I use it with the screen brightness maxed out (though I keep GPS off unless I need, well, GPS...wifi is on if I have availability...or forget to turn it off...hasn't been an issue).
YMMV, as always, but, I'd say you'd probably be pretty happy after adjusting to the "mere" 32gb of storage, different interface and need to buy some decent (or maybe less power hungry) headphones.
Just have a charger wherever you go in case of emergency. Now you've only got one device in your pocket.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your input.
When I had my 64GB iPod Touch. It was only half way full, like about 31GB, but many of the albums I put on there, I did not like. I just put them on there because I use my iPod in my car alot, so my friends can choose what they would like to listen to, even if I didn't like it. That might change now lol.
I've been searching around and found an app called bTunes. It looks almost exactly like an iPod Touch's interface. I'm quite impressed, but they still need to polish it out a little more to get it to look as good as the Touch.
As far as the volume goes, im a huge music lover. I am a rapper/producer, love listening to my music loud and listening on my N1, the volume is up to par like on the iPod Touch. Like I said, if they release a voume hack for the EVO, I might be sold!
And also, I never had a car charger for my phone, so I guess that would be something that I should look into once I receive my Evo. Thanks again!
I strictly used my ipod to play music so the interface, games and apps were secondary. Carrying both around for me seemed silly but I understand the battery life concerns for others. I work at a desk and power is always near by. Doubletwist is a free app that syncs your itunes with your android. It also converts video to work on your android. It takes some time but it does do the job. My mogul had a special port that was used for headphones and was a pain to use a dongle to connect headphones. I see that they have done away with that and made it alot easier.
You CAN drag and drop your music to the phone. As Itunes will convert your aac music to mp3. Battery life is what it is. Prepare for it or carry two devices. I have a zune 30gb and an ipod touch 8gb. There were some conveniences you won't have like buying things from the Store, ultimately you would still want to sync with your home machine. I only buy when I'm at home though.
I also can't imagine any non-apple device handling my ~60GB music collection in any fluid, timely manner. my hero choked on just a few GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Zune 120GB
Whether people like it or not, itunes is the industry standard for digital music distribution, and it's nice to be able to seamlessly buy music sometimes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Discography torrents :3
this is just a personal experience, opinion, and review of Windows Phone 7 and Samsung Focus based off a few days of heavy use and playing around with the phone. I'm originally coming from an HTC Aria android phone. which some..or most of you may be weary and questioning and doubting microsoft's new and fresh OS.
this'll basically a side by side comparison of both phones and OS's. and hope it helps answers some questions some folks may have before purchasing the phone. and in hopes it will help interest users and give this forum a little growth.
Body and Feel of the Phone
The size was exactly what i was looking for. coming from the HTC Aria..the screen size was a huge bonus for me. it was perfect for viewing and using, but not too big where i felt like my fingers had to stretch. slid in my pocket easily where it's light enough to not weigh down my pants, but just enough to let me know it's there.
minor gripe is the back of the phone..the battery cover. flimsy plastic compared to the Aria's solid rubber like back. it was easier to get off than the Aria's, but the little hooks at top to hold the cover under the body of the phone were just a little small for my comfort. so i'm taking it extremely easy whenever removing and replacing the cover.
the buttons on the sides were pretty solid and flush with the body, but had enough ridge to them so you knew where they were. dedicated camera button, love it, since the Aria and most android phones don't have one. helps with those spontaneous random shots.
the overall thinness and just right curves make this phone pretty damn sexxy.
Body: 9/10 - (if they make an after-market solid backcover..definite 10)
Windows Phone 7 UI and Software
I was actually surprised how quickly i adapted to windows new UI coming from an android phone. gotta say everything is extremely fluid and gorgeous. watching early previous video demoes before Microsoft officially released it, i did not think it would be that fluid, smooth, and quick.
i definitely like how everything i need to know and see is all in one screen. Android's use of multiple pane screens was..genius at first...but tedious over time and too similar to iphone's UI. with my HTC Aria, i had one pane dedicated to my calendar and events notices, one for basic info..time - date - sms - email - weather, another pane with a group of my most used apps, and another pane to regulate GPS - Bluetooth - Sync - Brightness..via widgets. my thumb did A LOT of swiping. most don't recognize with WP7..its touch and go and rarely any swiping, except within the apps.
adding apps was a breeze and less stressful than with the android phone. with microsoft regulating what's in the app store, i feel a little more comfortable with the security measures. i think Apple did one thing right when they went in that direction. how is giving a list of warnings before installing an app supposed to make you at ease with your phone and what you're putting on it? I of course immediately downloaded Netflix app, which works perfectly! i was able to snag near HD quality on a solid 3G connection. and with the Focus's gorgeous and bright screen..gonna love watching movies on it. App Market took a little getting use to, search button makes it a little easier if you know what you're looking for. and it had it's share of hiccups where it wouldn't load back up if it froze, requiring a reboot. not a huge issue and something microsoft is aware of and working on a fix for. I was just glad i didn't have to sift through thousands of crappy apps or apps that were variations and copies of similar apps (memory matching games...those of you android owners should know so well).
Getting my gmail account setup was easy and basic. i honestly gotta say that Windows Phone 7 email interface is the best i've used so far, coming from iphones and blackberries and android. i just can't explain it. it's just something to experience personally. i never really saw google's need to use push notification with their gmail app. i'm fine with having my mail checked every 30 mins. that was probably one of android's many battery draining issue faults. now getting Xbox live synced up with the phone was a little of a chore, but worth the reward in the end. getting messages from xbox players on my phone is definitely a neat addition. and i'm looking forward to being able to play xbox live games on it.
i have a feeling that Windows Phone 7 will be more fluid and well controlled like iPhone. Android is just too sloppy and fragmented. too many app reviews on the Android Market with folks complaining the app won't work on their phone or having different side effects. if you're gonna have an OS on multiples phones, 99% apps should work with every phone. free open source freedom is nice, but it definitely has it's downside. like the old west...everyone and everything needs a law and order to survive or everything goes to sh_ _. - i'm pretty sure John Wayne or someone said it
and as ATT customers we all know that they like to bloat the phones with their crapware. ESPECIALLY with android. but i found it easy just to uninstall ATT's software on this phone. i kept the U-Verse app just in case. may look into getting that possibly as where i live is just out of their area for U-Verse service on the tvs. Unlike with the HTC Aria i had to root the phone and sit around waiting for talented developers to remove the bloat and make a smooth running ROM, flash it, and hope it worked without bugs. without talented XDA Developers..android would be a mess and hassle for a lot of users.
just give it some time. Microsoft hasn't been in the mobile phone market this long and not learned it's lesson (obviously with windows mobile 6.5)
Software and UI: 8/10 - (it's still in it's infancy)
Sound Quality
sound is unbelievable on this phone. music pours out the phone like a good pair of logitech computer speakers. talking on the phone's mic or on speakerphone was very clear and smooth. unsure of why HTC Aria's volume was so low when making calls. i literally had to enable the hearing aid function on the phone, which boosts the volume level slightly higher. still too low in my opinion.
i don't use and do not care for bluetooth, so i can't give an honest opinion or review on that. but Samsung definitely not slack on the audio quality of the phone.
Sound: 10/10
Screen
screen is what caught my attention in the ATT store while eye browsing the whole scene originally looking for the HTC Inspire 4G. the Samsung Focus's screen just popped out and caught my attention. sitting in between the LQ Quantum and the HTC Surround..it was CLEAR the Samsung Focus's screen was the best of the bunch.
Using it in the sun was no problem with the brightness setting set on Medium. I occasionally switch back to low setting when i'm indoors in my apartment or shopping. everything is clear and crisp and almost pop off the screen. i've played with friends' iphone 4's and honestly don't notice too much of a difference in the quality of the display.
Screen: 10+/10
Camera
camera is EXCELLENT on this phone. pictures are crisp and bright. the LED flash is bright but doesn't last as long as it did with a previous Blackberry Curve phone. i've played around a little with the video recording, which is crisp and clear also. sound recording through it is a little deep...expected though. it's not exactly a high-end camcorder. could do with a review option. pictures are snapped and automatcially back to camera mode without a chance to looking at the picture you just took. which i guess is good for those fast random shots. but it would be nice to have an option. and the reverting back to default options after you exit the camera is a little of a hassle and something Microsoft felt was what users would want. hopefully an update will allow more options. other than that i'm very satisfied with the camera's quality and ease of use.
Camera: 9/10
Battery
battery actually seems to be pretty solid for 1500maH...standard for most smartphones. after a couple of days of heavy use, i'd say it would last a whole day with fair amount use. i'm definitely not charging it as much as i was with the Android phone. android apps you took too much of a risk of it sipping on your battery. it was like trial and error trying to figure out what apps wouldn't drain your battery. time waster. i'd probably get a solid 9-10 hrs of use on my HTC Aria before grabbin the charger. on the first full charge with the Focus and full day use...heavy browsing, emails throughou the day, average amounts of texts from friends, picture taking, recorded a short video, installed and tried out some weather apps...i was able to get a good 12-14 hrs of use. possibly longer as with the battery indicator..it's hard to tell how low you really are. there is no app or option to tell you. and from what i've read online, the programming kit Microsoft allows for the phone doesn't allow for pulling the battery information from the system. not a biggie though.
I can honestly say i'm happy with how long the battery lasted where as with the android phone, my charger was a constantly needed accessory no matter where i go. and the worry if an app would drain my battery while i'm out.
Battery: 9/10
Overall
i have a little less than 30 days to give this a good test run and give it back to ATT if i don't like it. but i'm pretty solidly chosen this is my phone to keep and daily driver. HTC Aria is going up on craigslist within the week.
Don't get me wrong now. i'm not trying to be one sided. the HTC Aria is a GOOD phone if you really want an android phone. for it's size and processor speed, it's a VERY fast and snappy and easy to use phone. but professional and smoothness...android hurts it. and i'm just too amazed how WP7 has just won me over so easily.
quoting one user...
Originally Posted by heymen9x
i think iOS is useful , android is interesting and WP7 is so .........sexyyyyyy
THANK YOU for that review.
I am in exactly the same boat as you having just gone from a HTC Aria to a WP7 Focus. It's taking me a bit to adjust.
I've only had the phone 24 hours and the obvious major difference is the screen size compared to the Aria. It's definitely different having all that extra screen real estate.
I was a major tweaker with Android so am finding it a little strange to not be doing much with the phone at the moment.
I also have 30 days to return the phone but want to give it a good run before making a decision.
Any suggestions for some really good apps / games?
yeah it's nice not having to flash roms, do nandroid backups and restores, and all that mess. and the keyboard alone on the WP7 is 100x better than using it on the Aria.
purchasing apps is also a lot less of a hassle on the WP7 Marketplace, as it's just added automatically onto your cell phone bill, well for AT&T users at least.
personally i have the following apps that i use almost daily...
Netflix - instantly grabbed it on the first search on the Market. movies look great on it and battery life could easily last thru 2 movies. so it makes it great for long road trips
Twitter - just makes it simple to use twitter. and i follow a few WP7 related twitters which helps keep me informed early on updates and news and new apps.
last.fm - i had mp3s at first..a couple hundered, but found myself bored with them after awhile. last.fm is close to pandora as you can get and it saves on using up the memory on your phone. and for us WP7 users, it's completely free. iphone and Android users have to a pay a $3 monthly fee or deal with ads. songs stream in pretty quick on 3g and it plays under the lockscreen.
thumba photo editor - one of the best photo editing apps on the market and only 0.99 cents. it does pretty much everything a PC photo editor does, minus layers and transparency. it helps crop down and resize the pictures you take since it's 5MP by default.
4th & Mayor - is great if you use Foursquare. it's better than Foursquare's official app. it loads quicker and just simpler to use. and from what i've read it has features even the official app doesn't app.
The Weather Channel - just to keep up with the weather.
The Harvest - great game to play if you have an Xbox Live account. it's like Halo RPG and shows off the WP7 gaming power pretty well. steep price ($6.99) but well worth it i've had it for a month and play it every now and than and still haven't completed it with the first unlocked character.
Bubble Birds - just a great time killing free game with great graphics
Quadra - another great free game that uses both your fingers at the same time.
Cool, thanks for the pointers.
I notice from your sig that you've installed the NoDo update. I'm assuming this is the unofficial one?
How easy it and is it worth it or shall I wait for the ATT roll out?
What other hacks / mode have you done / are there?
Been playing with the phone a bit more today, it's growing on me for sure but still unsure. I wish there was a better app drawer than having one big long list.
Yeah, the unofficial update.
Which I would avoid since you're still in your 30 day trial of it, until you're sure you want to keep her =)
It requires turning your Focus into a developer unlocked phone.
Its the only mod you really can do with it, besides sideloading unofficial apps. Which I'm avoiding. I just wanted the nodo update.
And if you haven't read up on it, avoid the cheveonwp7.updater PC application. Google it to read up why. The Hungary VPN hack is the only safe way.
Maybe an update will allow a folder structure in the app list to shorten it. Not that big of a deal overall
asiancuta said:
Yeah, the unofficial update.
Which I would avoid since you're still in your 30 day trial of it, until you're sure you want to keep her =)
It requires turning your Focus into a developer unlocked phone.
Its the only mod you really can do with it, besides sideloading unofficial apps. Which I'm avoiding. I just wanted the nodo update.
And if you haven't read up on it, avoid the cheveonwp7.updater PC application. Google it to read up why. The Hungary VPN hack is the only safe way.Maybe an update will allow a folder structure in the app list to shorten it. Not that big of a deal overall
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is that to do with the fact MS can see what apps you are loading etc. with the Chevron method?
Haven't seen the Hungary VPN hack - is it listed on xda? I'll go have a look.
I'm pretty sure I'm keeping the Focus - I just put the Aria on eBay and CL. I like the Focus overall, I'm definitely spending less time messing around and tweaking and I'm just using the phone for its features.
Mind you, I still haven't had a really good stretch of time to just sit and play with it as I've been so busy at work. Downloaded a bunch of apps and games to try but just no time to try them yet.
I've decided I will probably just wait for the official AT&T NoDo update as it really should be landing this month anyway.
Actually, I unlocked my Focus using instructions found on this forum. (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=857127). I did not hack registry to change phone from AT&T.
I hooked up to my PC -different one than I used to install "unlock".
Logged on to Zune. My Focus then showed "Update Available". I went on to install the February update. Rebooted. Hooked phone up again to PC. Then showed "Update Available". Downloaded March update.
Everything working fine. No problems.
So, it is possible that you do not need the Hungarian link.
Hello,
Just wanted to post some thoughts. Recently bought the Atrix 4G. Over the past 7 months ive had 7 different phones. Here are my opinions:
1) iPhone 3GS:
Well everyone knows about this phone, so i wont go in much detail.
Pros:
Fast Phone, Everything worked seamlessly, battery was pretty decent, TONS of apps to choose from, iTunes integration (i hate itunes personally).
Cons:
Its apple, no customization w/ out have to jailbreak every update, Everyone and their grandma has the same phone.
2) Nexus one:
One of the most beautiful, well put together phones i have ever used. Really opened my eyes to android. Its a pity it didnt get more advertising.
Pros:
The form of the phone w/ the trackball, build quality for the phone was premium. Pure android. Blazingly fast, newer phones lagged while this phone was hauling. Battery life was decent
Cons:
No multitouch (which you dont really realize how important it is til you dont have it). Screen wasnt as bright or detailed as the newer screens. Parts and accessories were hard to come by locally.
3) iPhone 4g:
I strongly dislike apple, but i had to see what the fuss was about.
Pros:
Very well put together phone, extremely fast, access to large app store, very little lag, battery life was very good. screen was excellent quality, tons of accessories.
Cons:
Its apple, jailbreaking was becoming increasingly difficult because of baseband and OS. Everyone has this phone which makes me dislike it (personal reason but meh, we all like to be different). Everything is based through iTunes which i dislike.
4) Windows 7 Phone (samsung focus)
At first i thought the phone was stupid looking but then i decided to try out the metro UI.
Pros:
Fast phone, the metro UI on the inside of the OS (once you actually get into the apps) was brilliant, ease of use (good for most, bad for me since i like to change everything), BING! ( i really like bing after using the phone, integration was awesome). Zune integration was stellar. I really prefer zune (which i had never used before), to iTunes.
Cons:
There are alot. First, no multitasking or fast app switching. Relaunching an app every time you want to read a text message is annoying. Having a timer countdown and expecting it to go off when finished and it not going off because your screen wasnt currently on the timer app is very frustrating. Microsoft updates.... will happen eventually. The copy and paste update was 2 months late. That was just copy and paste and a few other touches. Lost faith in microsofts abilities in updating the OS. Lack of accessories such as car mounts etc... Battery life was pretty bad.
5) Blackberry Torch 9800
had to try it out on my quest to try every os. I actually came to like this phone
Pros:
BIS security, everything is encrypted. Email was the best i ever had. Had everything pushed to my phone from blackberry servers w/ only a couple mins delay after they arrived in my actual inbox. Form factor was awesome. First physical keyboard and it was really nice. No need to jailbreak/ unlock phone. Everything was open for user changes. TONS of options for everything. Battery was amazing, best ive had. Easily lasted 2 days of heavy usage. Multi tasking and multi touch like a pro.
Cons:
The phone came out in nov 2010. It has a 600 mhz processor. Its just not enough to support many games or intense apps. It saves the battery but in a field of emerging dual-core phones, they have to be more competitive in term of pure power. Screen was dim and resolution sucked. Lock button was designed by a monkey. couldnt put in pocket w/out unlocking the phone. Internet was slow, streaming apps (like pandora) was a joke, always skipping and lagging.
6) Palm Pre 2
Once again, it was next on the list. It would OS of the year on some poll.
Pros:
The OS is excellent on this. I really do like the cards and the gesture support. If there is one thing i could take away from this phone, it would be the OS. Just awesome and intuitive. "jailbreaking" was easy to do, and there is a 3rd party market "preware" that has lots of apps and "patches" that change things for your phone. Screen was nice, physical keyboard was nice (prefer the blackberry one more though). 1 ghz proc was able to launch apps and play 3d games decently. Dungeon hunters and angry birds etc...
Cons:
Battery life!! 1050 mah battery is abysmal. worst of all the phones ive tried. 5-6 hours of medium usage max. If you were playing a game, you better have it plugged in. Even playing solitaire drained the battery. I was able to use up the whole battery in 2 hours of 3d gaming. The form factor of the phone was a little kiddish. Did a little curve to the phone when keyboard came out. Phone is creaky. Started to have an "oreo" effect w/ in 2 weeks of usage. All hinges were loose and wobbled to the side. App market was sparce and there werent many new advances into the market. Screen was small and keyboard was... wierd. hard to describe but i didnt like it. Internet speeds sucks and streaming was not existent. Took 10-15 mins for pandora to launch and start playing. 2 min gap in between songs. if you paused a song it was take about 5 mins to start again if it started again.
7) Motorola Atrix 4G
Decided i needed to get away from kid hardware and back on the edge of tech
Pros:
Dual-core sexiness. psuedo "4g" speeds. Large screen. Nice resolution. Front facing camera. Fingerprint scanner. Build quality is nice. I prefer pure google experience, but i just installed spb shell and i love the interface and i dont have to deal w/ motoblur. This thing is blazing fast w/ no lag. Streaming music and video is easy. Navigation is brilliant. Oh how i missed android navigation. Tons of markets in the app store. Battery life is brilliant for the amount of power this phone is pushing. I easily get through the day of heavy usage. SD slot is a plus.
Cons:
I do get the occasional force close, androids open market is more open to malware. Motoblur = not up to date OS. Wish it was stock android. Finger print scanner is good idea but some times takes longer then just doing to the dots. Market place is kind of a cluster f***. Last thing is i keep pushing the speaker instead of the button on the back of the phone when im in the dark when i try to unlock it. Im afraid im going to break the speaker on accident lol.
All in all, the Atrix 4g is the best phone ive had, and i have had a lot. Hopefully this will help somebody if they decide to read through it all. Feel free to leave comments on your past experiences w/ other phones.
I agree with everything said here, and the lock button was designed by a monkey on the atrix as well.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Man, you are I are on the same boat except, I have never experienced a Palm phone, and I won't ever...
I loved nokia - symbian phones, but the OS is outdated, as well, the technology used to build the phones is from stone age...
Used all different versions of iPhone, iPhones are great and all, but they have same different boring UI. No customization until phone's JBen. Apple wants to monopolize the market with their iOS, great, go ahead and try, i'm not in.
Used HD7 as current WP7 and different bunch of phones with Windows 6.5, they are all okay, WP7 has potential but lack of applications is what keeping me away from trying their phones, also for some reason Windows phone release is really slow compared to Android phones in current market.
Android. Great potential, way better feeling while using the phone than other OS. Honestly, market may not have rich application selection as compared to iOS, but Google's getting there.
One thing I don't like about and I am not pointing at any negative aspect, what I don't understand is why the hell in the world every second software/application developer is running after iOS app development? Don't they see the potential in Android? Don't they see the growth? Just a simple comparison, EA mobile has more than 25 games/apps for iPhone, but only 8 or 9 for Android... And to be honest, I don't like it... I want all of the developers on board come up with an app for android... this is one of the reasons I would still like to have an iPhone on me, just to kill time, there is tons of apps you can just keep playing, reading, doing something with your phone... Again, all of these is my personal opinion... if someone have anything to say about it, well... go right ahead...
But, at the end, I am sticking with my Google Phone... To be precise, Moto Atrix and HTC G2... Lovin'em.
Thanks for share
path too long
I suggest you Long Path Tool will let you easily delete, copy or rename long path files, you can try it for better service.
I just upgraded to the Trophy and switched to WP7. Love it and not looking back. I miss the slightly bigger screen, a few free apps and google maps/directions, but other than that, WP7 is a winner for me.
Now, what should I do with my fascinate? Is it worth keeping as something like an iPod Touch? Or should I sell it off and just buy a dedicated camera plus mp3 player for that purpose? I'm assuming I could get at least $200 for this, which would get me a nice Rockbox player. I would get an iPod touch, but I'm very allergic to iTunes.
I'd like to use the fascinate (or something else) as an MP3 player and exercise tracker for the gym, offline map use with google maps and HTPC remote control. However, I'm worried because the battery life is utter crap. Is it still that way w/ the cellular radio turned off?
Now assuming I keep it and don't sell it there are some other questions. Which ROM would be best for my purposes? Assume all I need to do is underclock and Voodoo. Still Comm ROM?
Also, having trouble finding accessories. Is there a gym-appropriate case that works well for the gym? Something like a silicone bumper with armband, legband or beltclip/holster? Double duty for around the house would help.
Appreciate your opinions.
the Fascinate is a great music player if you install Voodoo Sound.
Id sell it and get an ipod touch
Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk
I'm keeping mine and using it like an iPod when the GS2 comes to VZ. With voodoo sound, the audio output of the Fascinate is incredible to say the least. The GS2 apparently isn't near as good with audio, and I know sound quality is pretty crappy from iPods.
Why use it as an ipod if your windows phone is also a great mp3 player? why carrying two devices when one can do all?
sell it, make some money out of it and take your girlfriend out for dinner Lol
Primary phone + gym = don't wanna go there. I love that WP7 has an FM radio and great music, but I view most things I take to the gym as likely to die/disappear/destruct (for historical reasons). Also using phone as a music player for an hour workout guarantees battery failure at a needed point - been there / done that. I like to keep it separate for many reasons. That said, if I get a good enough case, maybe I'll try it.
Additionally WP7 doesn't scobble or support replaygain. I like both. Crossing my fingers that someday the APIs will allow Foobar2000 (or an equivalent) to run on WP7.
I don't like iTunes. Will never get an iPod touch for that reason. If they cut the cord, fine, but if I have to use iTunes that's a dealbreaker. I evaluate a lot of tech and it pains me whenever I have to check something on an iPad because that means installing iTunes.
Dinner for girlfriend is fine, but I'm single at the moment. I don't take a girl on a date and tell her I sold a phone to buy her a Chalupa
Ok, so apparently I need to Voodoo my phone twice now. All I thought I needed was to get rid of that damned Samsung filesystem. Is there a ROM that has this pre-loaded?
Com rom would be great...i get over a day and a half with split time on 3g and wifi, listening to music with power amp for about 4 hours at work, and texting on and . voodoo sound is in kernels, but both that are included withCom rom have it
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA Premium App
You can use Winamp and various other apps to manage music on iDevices. Personally, my old iPod Touch easily gets 20 hours of continous music playback (that's likely on the conservative side! I frequently forget to pause my ipod at night, so it'll end up playing ~10 hours, and do that several nights in a row without charging!), while my Fascinate would probably get no where near that amount... Music playback seems to use a shockingly large amount of battery for some odd reason. Either should be more than fine for a couple days worth of work outs without charging, though. There's also definitely going to be every accessory under the sun for the iPod, while the Fascinate will have a tiny handful of accessories (most of which will probably be some generic 'universal' one that doesn't fit quite right and is of questionable build quality).
Also, people keep saying how "great" the sound is from the Fascinate... I doubt with headphones you'll be using at the gym that the claimed difference would matter. When using any reasonably priced headphones, you won't be telling the difference! That's also assuming the audio files you have are of high enough quality to tell as well...
If you're sticking with the Fascinate, I'd recommend sticking with whatever ROM you currently are on until CM7 supports all the hardware you want to use. I'm personally waiting for a fully funcional CM7 before upgrading from SC 2.9.2.
Edit: If your phone is running any ComRom/UKB, you already have Voodoo Sound. Voodoo Sound has been supported in Froyo almost since we started using the kernel source for the Mesmerize back on some version of Super Clean.
KitsuneKnight said:
You can use Winamp and various other apps to manage music on iDevices. Personally, my old iPod Touch easily gets 20 hours of continous music playback (that's likely on the conservative side! I frequently forget to pause my ipod at night, so it'll end up playing ~10 hours, and do that several nights in a row without charging!), while my Fascinate would probably get no where near that amount... Music playback seems to use a shockingly large amount of battery for some odd reason. Either should be more than fine for a couple days worth of work outs without charging, though. There's also definitely going to be every accessory under the sun for the iPod, while the Fascinate will have a tiny handful of accessories (most of which will probably be some generic 'universal' one that doesn't fit quite right and is of questionable build quality).
Also, people keep saying how "great" the sound is from the Fascinate... I doubt with headphones you'll be using at the gym that the claimed difference would matter. When using any reasonably priced headphones, you won't be telling the difference! That's also assuming the audio files you have are of high enough quality to tell as well...
If you're sticking with the Fascinate, I'd recommend sticking with whatever ROM you currently are on until CM7 supports all the hardware you want to use. I'm personally waiting for a fully funcional CM7 before upgrading from SC 2.9.2.
Edit: If your phone is running any ComRom/UKB, you already have Voodoo Sound. Voodoo Sound has been supported in Froyo almost since we started using the kernel source for the Mesmerize back on some version of Super Clean.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1. For messing with my iPod Touch files, I use CopyTrans Manager, which is free, it is decent and very reliable.
Heh, without the celluar radios on, android devices have a crazy amount of battery life. Using my hero as an mp3 player it would go 2 days before needing a charge with lite use. No reason the fascinate would be much different especially being used as a mp3 player seeing one of the biggest power draws is the screen it's self. I'd just keep it and continue use, you pretty much have a Galaxy S player.
Depending on how much you use the screen you could probably get around 2-4 days use out of it. Cm7 has a feature where you can hold the volume key up or down to skip a song or play the previous one while the screen is off so theres some potential battery savings there if you make good playlists. If audio quality is important to you, this phone + voodoo sound + a decent pair of headphones will provide a top notch experience.
Sent from my kang banged fascinate, bro.
Just for a better reference point for an older iPod Touch's battery life (the newer ones are better), I last charged mine 3 days ago, and have used it the last two nights for somewhere on the order of 10-12 hours each night, totally somewhere from 20-24 hours... and I currently have more than half my battery left. I'll get at least another 2 nights of similar usage before it gets into the red, so I'd figure somewhere around 40-50 hours of playtime.
are you guys using a dock out something or the internal speaker? I know with my daughters nano (5thgen) a long as its not powering it own speaker it last forever lol but its a lot smaller battery too
Sent from my SCH-I500
devlp1213 said:
are you guys using a dock out something or the internal speaker? I know with my daughters nano (5thgen) a long as its not powering it own speaker it last forever lol but its a lot smaller battery too
Sent from my SCH-I500
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never owned an ipod myself but I would assume most people use them with headphones...
Sent from my kang banged fascinate, bro.
well there are talking about night time use so headphones don't seen logical especially if sleeping... atleast I don't sleep with them anyway haha
Sent from my SCH-I500
If you have one of the custom kernels (PBJ, OTB), just download Voodoo Control (free) from the Market.
Regarding battery life, I went out of the country last year, and had to keep my phone in airplane mode to avoid roaming fees. I basically just used it as an alarm clock (no music, etc). After seven days, I still had about 70% battery left. I really wish I had taken a screen shot so people won't say I'm lying. This was on bloated stock rom, btw.
And I agree with your hate of iTunes. The iPod Touch is an amazing piece of hardware, but being tied to iTunes is also a deal breaker for me. Maybe you could jail break it and not have to rely on iTunes?
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA Premium App
devlp1213 said:
well there are talking about night time use so headphones don't seen logical especially if sleeping... atleast I don't sleep with them anyway haha
Sent from my SCH-I500
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use earbud-style headphones. Those present absolutely no difficulties with sleeping I prefer earbuds since they're far more portable than any other style (just shove them in my pocket and go!).
beenz said:
Regarding battery life, I went out of the country last year, and had to keep my phone in airplane mode to avoid roaming fees. I basically just used it as an alarm clock (no music, etc). After seven days, I still had about 70% battery left. I really wish I had taken a screen shot so people won't say I'm lying. This was on bloated stock rom, btw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not really surprising, the phone should be using virtually zero power in that case. Nothing should be waking it up until the internal timer wakes the kernel, that'll then trigger the alarm, pretty much.
beenz said:
And I agree with your hate of iTunes. The iPod Touch is an amazing piece of hardware, but being tied to iTunes is also a deal breaker for me. Maybe you could jail break it and not have to rely on iTunes?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need to jailbreak it to use something else. I mentioned Winamp earlier in the thread, and someone else mentioned another program. There's quite a few that can be used to sync your music, including multiple programs on Linux/OS X as well. Hating iTunes isn't really a good enough reason
KitsuneKnight said:
You don't need to jailbreak it to use something else. I mentioned Winamp earlier in the thread, and someone else mentioned another program. There's quite a few that can be used to sync your music, including multiple programs on Linux/OS X as well. Hating iTunes isn't really a good enough reason
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I should have said that the requirement to use any program to sync my device is a deal breaker for me. I thought maybe jail breaking would allow a drag and drop (like our phones)
But if it isn't for the OP, I think Media Monkey will also sync an iPod
I personally kinda like iTunes as a music player and the syncing isn't that horrible... but anyway enough about that.
If I was against getting an iPod then I'd keep the Fascinate as an MP3 player. You get to use it not only to play music but you get the added benefit of Google syncing (personally I can't live without calendar, Gmail) and the entire Android Market. Using Voodoo will get you a faster filesystem and awesome sound, and with the appropriate kernel you can configure it for battery life. Without the radio and using wi-fi sparingly you can get some amazing battery life. And don't forget it's got that awesome screen.
If you don't need a camcorder and don't mind limited BT, then CM6 is pretty stable and will be the cleanest and smoothest ROM (MMS is broken too but that won't matter since you don't have service on it). There should be some voodoo kernels for it floating around somewhere in the Development forum.