HTC Desire, two months on
Jul. 13th, 2010 07:48 pmI've had the Desire for just on two months now, so it's a reasonable time to reflect on the choice.
I was really happy. And then a software update was silently applied -- or at least I think that's what happened -- and now FriendStream is completely broken and the ActiveSync stuff is behaving weirdly too. Nothing changed on the OMA server, and all the non-Desire clients are working just fine (a colleague with a Desire is having the same problem), so either it's the software from HTC/Google or it's something in the Telstra network.
The browser also started behaving annoyingly, with pinch-zoom broken and replaced by cut-and-paste. Power cycling the phone as per recommendations on random forum threads discussing the FriendStream thing seems to have sorted that, at least.
I am perhaps more productive with FriendStream dead, as the Facebook app uses a font too small for me to read and thus I look at that much less often.
All this aside, and assuming I can get it satisfactorily resolved...
The phone itself remains really good. I am particularly liking Swype. I got into the beta programme when they opened it up, doesn't seem to be available standalone any more.
It's a replacement input method. Presents an on-screen keyboard, which can be used in the usual way, but which has an alternate trick: put your finger on the first letter of the word you want, "swipe" it over the keyboard so you cross each of the letters in the word, and it'll figure out what word you wanted. It does reasonably well and is faster than the usual approach once you're used to it.
My biggest gripe with the phone is the input method stuff. What I want is for applications to remember which input method was last used with that application, but it seems to be a system-wide setting. This is particularly frustrating with the PIN-lock system, because what one really wants is a numeric keypad, not a QWERTY keyboard.
Would I make the same choice of phone today? Probably. The iPhone 4 doesn't seem to have worked out so well, it looks like the Desire will be getting the next stable CyanogenMod release, as well as an official Froyo build, and it's now available on a $59/month contract. I might be tempted by the Samsung Galaxy S if Samsung didn't have such a bad reputation for software updates and it wasn't going to be on a shoddy network, and if I had a lower budget I might hold out for the HTC Wildfire next month. But otherwise, pretty happy with the Android choice
I was really happy. And then a software update was silently applied -- or at least I think that's what happened -- and now FriendStream is completely broken and the ActiveSync stuff is behaving weirdly too. Nothing changed on the OMA server, and all the non-Desire clients are working just fine (a colleague with a Desire is having the same problem), so either it's the software from HTC/Google or it's something in the Telstra network.
The browser also started behaving annoyingly, with pinch-zoom broken and replaced by cut-and-paste. Power cycling the phone as per recommendations on random forum threads discussing the FriendStream thing seems to have sorted that, at least.
I am perhaps more productive with FriendStream dead, as the Facebook app uses a font too small for me to read and thus I look at that much less often.
All this aside, and assuming I can get it satisfactorily resolved...
The phone itself remains really good. I am particularly liking Swype. I got into the beta programme when they opened it up, doesn't seem to be available standalone any more.
It's a replacement input method. Presents an on-screen keyboard, which can be used in the usual way, but which has an alternate trick: put your finger on the first letter of the word you want, "swipe" it over the keyboard so you cross each of the letters in the word, and it'll figure out what word you wanted. It does reasonably well and is faster than the usual approach once you're used to it.
My biggest gripe with the phone is the input method stuff. What I want is for applications to remember which input method was last used with that application, but it seems to be a system-wide setting. This is particularly frustrating with the PIN-lock system, because what one really wants is a numeric keypad, not a QWERTY keyboard.
Would I make the same choice of phone today? Probably. The iPhone 4 doesn't seem to have worked out so well, it looks like the Desire will be getting the next stable CyanogenMod release, as well as an official Froyo build, and it's now available on a $59/month contract. I might be tempted by the Samsung Galaxy S if Samsung didn't have such a bad reputation for software updates and it wasn't going to be on a shoddy network, and if I had a lower budget I might hold out for the HTC Wildfire next month. But otherwise, pretty happy with the Android choice