Android and other phone gossip

Inspector Sands · Wed 18 May, 2011 01.05

I agree about the HTC phones, I've not had my Desire for a year yet and already I've lost track of it's successors. I know the Desire Z is the one with the keyboard as that kinda looks like a Z when it opens up (they're much more heavy and bulky too, not keen).

One of the problems is that many of HTCs devices are named differently in the US which makes researching and getting opinions on phones confusing onlline. For example the Desire was essentially the Nexus One in the US and the Desire HD is the HTC Thunderbolt or the HTC Inspire depending on the carrier

Their marketing is pretty good and though, nice simple explanatory adverts that actually sell features of the phone. I agree with Alexia that the iPhone adverts are just awful at the moment. The HTC ones seem to stand out along side them and the more flashy Samsung ones

martindtanderson · Wed 18 May, 2011 02.10

I don't own an Android phone, and neither does anyone in the house, but when in Mobile Phone shops, I do like to try use the display models, and I have yet to find one as responsive with the animations and touchscreen as the iOS and WP7 devices. Android is very geek friendly with lots of options to customise, it is also bad with the various carrier and OEM UI changes and so forth.

As a developer, I do look at iOS developer tools, and Android's, and feel that those developer tools and the development environments are totally outclassed by Windows Phone 7's. Obviously Devs have more open APIs and more Mature ones with iOS and Android, but Mango is coming and that will make WP7 much richer...

anyway that's my two penny's worth!

Pete · Mon 01 Aug, 2011 12.49

So, HTC have finally decided to release Gingerbread for the desire... however what they've actually released has a mammoth disclaimer claiming that, amongst other things, SMS/MMS might not work if you update if.

Have any other desire users attempted an upgrade yet? The idea of speed improvements and removal of useless apps to make the thing fit certainly appeal to me but not at the cost of bricking the phone.

http://developer.htc.com

m-in-m · Mon 01 Aug, 2011 15.16

Pete wrote:So, HTC have finally decided to release Gingerbread for the desire... however what they've actually released has a mammoth disclaimer claiming that, amongst other things, SMS/MMS might not work if you update if.

Have any other desire users attempted an upgrade yet? The idea of speed improvements and removal of useless apps to make the thing fit certainly appeal to me but not at the cost of bricking the phone.

http://developer.htc.com

You are kidding. How can you release firmware that potentially prevents one of the key functions of a phone working?

Pete · Mon 01 Aug, 2011 16.01

Well having taken the plunge it seems to work perfectly, and VERY fast without being bogged down by HTC / Orange bloatware.

I preusme SMS/MMS is more a cover their backs issue in case it breaks the service centre numbers but any half decent sim card should have that data on it.

Having to redownload everything though, chore.

marksi · Mon 01 Aug, 2011 16.15

What is the process for installing the update? Mine still has O2 gunk in it - how do I go about using the clean install from HTC?

marksi · Mon 01 Aug, 2011 16.26

marksi wrote:What is the process for installing the update? Mine still has O2 gunk in it - how do I go about using the clean install from HTC?

EDIT:

Oh, and has it freed up any more space? Bored of clearing caches etc. What are the advantages?

May wait until it's not the developer build...

Pete · Mon 01 Aug, 2011 16.39

marksi wrote:What is the process for installing the update? Mine still has O2 gunk in it - how do I go about using the clean install from HTC?

Just install it, it'll wipe all the O2 junk off. Having reinstalled pretty much all my apps I've now got 60MB free on the internal memory. Removing all the tat Orange put on it like the unremovable demos of games and what not certainly has helped free up some space.

nidave · Thu 04 Aug, 2011 09.20

On a slightly related note I am using the beta of Mango for Windows phone 7.
It is a lot faster on my HTC Mozart (see the connection).

Apps are being updated to take advantage of live tiles and the battery life is a lot better than previously.
the calender is still a steaming pile of poo! (they really need to look at it)
The integration with skydrive and facebook is better, Apparently you can stream music form your skydrive account (not actually done it yet)

I dont know anyone else who has a WP7, but everyone who has seen it and had a proper play seems to like the OS.

Edit: the Voice commands are very good. Voice to text... with my accent - some very funny results.. I may do a damn you autocorrect type blog for it as when it gets it wrong.. it gets it very wrong.

Gavin Scott · Thu 04 Aug, 2011 10.43

I just CBA doing the developer update and installing everything again on my HTC.

Am I right in thinking that a later build will leave apps intact, or will I be doing it whatever happens?

My contract runs out in Feb, which means upgrade from, what, November? I'm thinking iPhone 4. They will be cheap and plentiful at that point, and it makes sense what with having the iPad.

Pete · Thu 04 Aug, 2011 11.19

Gavin Scott wrote:I just CBA doing the developer update and installing everything again on my HTC.

Am I right in thinking that a later build will leave apps intact, or will I be doing it whatever happens?

Given the style of the build I suspect it'll wipe it no matter what. Certainly the way I sped things up was after installing Facebook via the phone I used the website at http://market.android.com to install the other apps quicker than faffing on the phone.

The speed and battery improvement I've seen over the past two days is *very* impressive however.