Windows Phone 7

[Jake]

My contract is up. I've left O2 and changed to GiffGaff. Runs on the O2 network but for £10 a month I can buy a "goodybag" which gives me 250 any network minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited data. You can buy the next goodybag before the current one runs out and it will activate as soon as the current one expires.

Me too, free giffgaff to giffgaff calls is a bonus. Not sure whether to go back onto contract or not, to get a new phone though. Quite like the look of the Galaxy Nexus but the size is putting me off a bit.

Quite fancy a play with one of these new Nokia phones too.

[Sput]

Is Android the problem or is it just the lack of memory on the Desire? I don't have a problem with Android, it does everything I think I need it to do, but am getting bored of babysitting the Desire to keep clearing program caches because it keeps running out of room.

Not so much the lack of memory, although market does tend to suddenly try and update everything at the same time, seemingly at random, then fail because it ran out of space, then repeat after a few days at random again.

My main issues with android/HTC Sense (not sure where the boundary lies):
1. The tendency of the keyboard to learn numbers and be really really bad at predicting words
2. The way the browser seems to forget half the sites I visited, and crash at random
3. Why can't I paste things in useful places?
4. Stuff hidden away in menus. So much of it.
5. The market has had a relaunch every time I use it (which is clearly not that often).
6. My phone has slowed down and I have no idea why.

[marksi]

I have updated both my own and the other half's to Gingerbread, as I though mine was also being sluggish. Haven't had any problems though it's a pain to have to rebuild your layouts and redownload everything you want after install. But it does now seem more responsive, and the O2 branding's been removed. Start up and shut down are now very fast (10-15 seconds, compared to a minute or more before).

Might be worth doing in the interim period.

Things you have to remember: Market won't update automatically on this build (HTC say it's not a general release and so Google haven't "officially" said it' ok) but you can update it via HTC sync. Doesn't include Flashlight as standard but you can install it manually (is supplied in the update folder).

Facebook not installed as standard, you can install from the Market. And I found that the official Twitter app was attaching itself to my contacts and Accounts and Sync every time I cleared its cache. So I have dumped it for Seesmic, which it turns out is much better anyway.

[Dr Lobster*]

have any of you gents considered the galaxy s2?

it's reduced the amount of time i spend on my laptop by about 99% - i only use the pc for photo editing and other tasks i couldn't do on a phone.

after you've used the galaxy the screen on the iphone 4 whilst undoubtedly lovely looks a little titchy.

it's also confirmed to be getting android 4 in the new year.

i've had a play windows phone 7, i just can't warm to it.

[Sput]

The S2 is just far too big for me. I do find 3.7" to be the right size (OF SCREEN, Gav), and I've got an iPad for that kind of thing at home.

[Dr Lobster*]

it's no too bad when you get used to it, i guess it depends what you're used to and on the case you get- i came from a blackberry storm with the mandatory leather pocket which is distinctly brick like in comparison.

i don't know what they were thinking with the galaxy note though, that seems just too big.

out of interest, sput, do you find the ipad replacing a lot of random surfing/facebooking you're doing on a pc or laptop? mrs lobster wants an ipad for chrimbo, just wondering if it will get used ?

[Sput]

I spend all day in front of two massive monitors, so its quite nice to have a tablet when I get home. So yes, basically. It's not perfect: if I want to do anything involved (even just on a website) I still find the computer is better, but as a method of keeping on top of everything it's really quite excellent. What's interesting is that I didn't have an instant changeover to it when it arrived, I just found myself picking it up more instead of the laptop.

It's also exquisite as a sort of ultra remote control, since you've got iPlayer and various radio stations, and you can get to all of your media over a network in various ways (not all of which are free). I do a lot of that with it.