A week with the HTC Hero
Technically, the T-Mobile G2 Touch, but it's an HTC Hero really.
First, I'll tell you where I'm approaching this from. I have been using a Nokia N95 for almost 2 years and I use pretty much all the features on my phone: GPS, web browser, email integration, etc... The N95 does the job very nicely, so much so that when I was due to upgrade last year, I didn't. Yes, it has its problems (I'm not a great fan of Symbian), but it is a very effective package. So, I was interested to see how much better Google's Android system and the new hardware were.
The company I work for has just kitted out its staff with Heros. We use Google Apps to service our email, contacts, calendar requirements and as Android is a Google product, you'd expect these things to work together pretty seamlessly. And yes, they do. Setting up the phone to talk to my Google account was simple and in no time all my contacts, emails, etc. were synchronised.
Whatever tools, gadgets and applications you fancy using were easily downloadable from the Market and after a bit of orientation, it was quite simple to get them linked on the home screen which is fully customisable, much like your computer's desktop.
Everything talks to everything else: application needs Wi-Fi and GPS? No problem: the user is asked for permission at install time and that's it done.
An iPhone-using colleague of mine has pointed out that this sort of thing is, shall we say, non-trivial and has declared his conversion to the HTC/Android cause, I think that says plenty.
So, how's it shaping up? In a nutshell: lovely, just lovely. Perfect? Not quite - I am taking my time getting used to the on-screen keyboard, I'm so used to T9. But I think that's about the only gripe I have so far. Early days, but oh what grand days for a gadget lover.
All I need now is for O2UK to actually stock an Android device (they currently refuse to stock the Nokia N97 and only offer the iPhone as an alternative, which I won't entertain) and I'll be banging on the door of the upgrade office.
First, I'll tell you where I'm approaching this from. I have been using a Nokia N95 for almost 2 years and I use pretty much all the features on my phone: GPS, web browser, email integration, etc... The N95 does the job very nicely, so much so that when I was due to upgrade last year, I didn't. Yes, it has its problems (I'm not a great fan of Symbian), but it is a very effective package. So, I was interested to see how much better Google's Android system and the new hardware were.
The company I work for has just kitted out its staff with Heros. We use Google Apps to service our email, contacts, calendar requirements and as Android is a Google product, you'd expect these things to work together pretty seamlessly. And yes, they do. Setting up the phone to talk to my Google account was simple and in no time all my contacts, emails, etc. were synchronised.
Whatever tools, gadgets and applications you fancy using were easily downloadable from the Market and after a bit of orientation, it was quite simple to get them linked on the home screen which is fully customisable, much like your computer's desktop.
Everything talks to everything else: application needs Wi-Fi and GPS? No problem: the user is asked for permission at install time and that's it done.
An iPhone-using colleague of mine has pointed out that this sort of thing is, shall we say, non-trivial and has declared his conversion to the HTC/Android cause, I think that says plenty.
So, how's it shaping up? In a nutshell: lovely, just lovely. Perfect? Not quite - I am taking my time getting used to the on-screen keyboard, I'm so used to T9. But I think that's about the only gripe I have so far. Early days, but oh what grand days for a gadget lover.
All I need now is for O2UK to actually stock an Android device (they currently refuse to stock the Nokia N97 and only offer the iPhone as an alternative, which I won't entertain) and I'll be banging on the door of the upgrade office.
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