David on 18/11/2009 at 13:56
One really small thing that I like about my iPhone is that it has the ability to distinguish between headphones that have the remote-clicker and ones that don't. It maintains the last-used volume for each, which I find really handy as I plug in a 3.5mm jack to connect it to my car and having it ramp the volume up automatically and not deafen myself when I switch back to the headphones is a great.
As I said, small but <3
thefonz on 22/11/2009 at 18:21
My god, the HTC HD 2 is a sexy beast.
This could answer my questions.
SubJeff on 22/11/2009 at 18:42
I got to play with a HTC Hero the other day. Makes my Blackberry Pearl look like a Nokia from the 90s. Have you had a look fonz?
thefonz on 22/11/2009 at 19:30
I read the somewhat epic GSMArena review earlier today and have watched a multitude of youtube videos on it. Its certainly a very very impressive piece of machinery. While I haven't actually held one in my hand and played with it, I know that as soon as I do; I'm going to have some serious man-love for the HTC HD2.
Then I worked out the following since my mobile phone contract ends in Jan. Its worth pointing out that this is the first time in my entire geek career where I've properly thought about my needs from my gadgets and am making a proper, informed decision on it (ignoring monetary sensibilities for the moment). This, to ensure that such disasters as: buying an xbox 360 in the first week its out, then selling it 3 months later due to lack of interest/use. buying an ipod touch 2 years ago then selling it because...yes, i got my Nokia N95 8GB and that took my music needs in one go.
However now I've had both sets of the spectrum - a device that does everything I want all in one (Nokia N95) and the two separate - I think I'm in a good position to decide now that the Zune HD and HTC HD2 are my two obvious candidates for what to use.
Plan A
Buy a Zune HD for £250 from ebay for all my portable media needs and keep my current Nokia N80 as a phone and move onto a simple £15 a month contract "Simplicity" with 02. This is by far the cheapest option available to me at the moment.
Plan B
Purchase a HTC HD2 unlocked from ebay for £500 and move onto a simple £15 or £20 a month contract from 02 with an "unlimited web data" bolt on.
Plan C
Wait for 02 to release the HTC HD2 on its tariffs (widely predicted currently to start at £40 for 18 months for the cheapest). Assuming this, that works out at a cost of £720 assuming my bill stays at £40. I know mobile phone companies offer lower tariffs/deals where you pay say £100 to the phone and you get a cheaper tariff for a longer time - be it 18 or 24 months. But I think these are a con.
Plan D
Develop and nurture an army of pigeons to transfer my messages to people. Purchase a portable gramophone for my music needs.
To be honest, reading those 4, its obvious that Plan A makes the most sense; since I've come to love my Nokia N80 in the time I've had with it since my N95 failed. Its simple, does what I want, isn't too flashy and above all its reliable and robust.
HOWEVER! Everything about the HTC HD2 screams awesome and i'm sure it would make the ladies love me even more.
Nice time to have this choice though! What do you reckon? :thumb:
st.patrick on 22/11/2009 at 22:51
I have similar feelings about the HD2 since for me it makes up for most of the issues I have with my current Diamond. Yet there are a few things I'd like to know more about before I fork out the money.
- Battery life. The Diamond rarely lasts over one day without having to be recharged completely. And that's without using GPS, WiFi or bt. The HD2 has about 1/3 more battery capacity but also has a bigger screen and a faster cpu, thus the need for more juice.
- Stylus. One of the biggest changes is the capacitive multi-touch display and subsequently no stylus used (it wouldn't work anyway). I know that iPhoniacs would disregard this as an obsolete pos but I've rather grown attached to it (or, better yet, it got attached to me by ingrowing in my fingers). And despite all the TouchFlo mushed on, there's still a layer of WinMo underneath you have to access once in a while and it's definitely finger-unfriendly. Perhaps a magnetic stylus might work but it hasn't been even tested yet.
- Camera. HTC isn't really known for the quality of its inbuilt cameras (I took much better pictures with my 2006 SE K750i in spite of 1 Mpix less of resolution) and from what I've read in the first tests the outside lens cover is prone to scratches.
But who am I kidding. I'm a HTC nerd at heart and just seeing the list of parameters gave me a TECHGAZM so the above worries are going to turn into user's complaints some time soon.
thefonz on 22/11/2009 at 23:08
£500 is verging on serious money though...
I've read the battery is excellent on the hd 2 - but tbh that doesn't bother me. Plus I keep reading that January is going to be an important month for smartphones if Google make some sort of announcement and Ive never played with an Android phone before so it would be wise to check that out.
But yes, the HTC HD2 is a beastly mistress who demands our attention.
SubJeff on 22/11/2009 at 23:10
Quote Posted by thefonz
January is going to be an important month for smartphones if Google make some sort of announcement
wtf is wrong with you?
Fafhrd on 23/11/2009 at 22:31
Google has just been nice enough to port Google Maps Navigation to Android 1.6.
Of course the car dock app still isn't in place for it, so there's still a bit of actually fiddling with it with your hands (like a baby's toy) to get directions to a place, but after that it works the same as on the Droid.
And SubJeff, like, 90% of that article is analyst speculation.
[edit]Looks like Navigation isn't working so hot outside the US[/edit]
