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iPhone's - worth it?
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Posted 2 years ago #
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I've got nothing against the iPhone - I think it's a great piece of kit. But I chose the Hero as my preferred upgraded back in August - that too is an excellent piece of kit.
Both (like other smartphones) have their strengths and weaknesses. And whilst, IMO, they can be great for "doing stuff" on the go, they're not yet a realistic substitute for a laptop with a dongle (or whatever). Biggest issues are still bandwidth and speed-typing. Therefore writing emails and other documentation is just a pain.
But outside of that, the iPhone, the Hero, and other such beasts will do the job admirably.
Main reason I chose the Hero is because it multi-tasks and has (when flashed properly) a very good battery life. E.g. I can do a 4hr ride, map the whole route with GPS mapping, and take pics etc on about 25-35% battery. Or I can go for a 2.5hr run, again with GPS mapping, take pics, listen to MP3s, make a couple of calls, check calendars, send/receive emails/texts, check RSS feeds, on the same 25-35% battery.
That said, I'll take a serious look at the iPhone 4G and swap if I feel it's worth it.
FTR, I have a PC and laptop, and travel around on occasion too. The phone is good, but not a substitute.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I've got to put in a word for the HTC HD2, I've had windows Mobile phones for years and years, but this is absolutely amazing!
As with all WM is uses active sync to quickly sync your contacts with outlook. MS Office is included - so theres easy editing of office files word, excel and powerpoint. as is Adobe PDF viewer.
the HTC Sense user interface is brilliant to use - and the 4.3" screen is gorgeous! HTC have done a brilliant job with the sense interface - yes the WinMob OS is in the background, but you bearly see it.
I travel a lot for work, so had been looking at netbooks etc, but then I'm carting around a phone, MP3, and a computer. If I got one, how good would it be for: phoning;
contacts synced with your outlook contacts list - and dead easy to find the contact to call - a 9 grid 'favorites' list or type the persons name or start of number and the phone shows up possible suggestions, voice dialing can be installed as a 3rd party app. Also active sync will allow you to sync between at least 2 computers.
The other thing is, when you plug it in, it will ask you what type of connection you would like - active sync, disk drive (ie it will display the SD card as a removeable disc drive, for faster transfer, or to use the phone as a modem for internet connection sharing. If you dont select an option within a few secs (5-10secs) then it will default to your last selection)
listening to music;
phone comes with a microSD slot, and usually includes a 2Gb card - the phone will read at least the current 32Gb microSD cards, the Music tab organizes music by album, artist, genre, song, playlist etc. turn the phone on it's side and you can flick through the albums and skip to a song via the track listing.
I use windows media to transfer music to the phone, but i believe there are other progs can sync music with the phone.
checking e-mail;
If your work has a Exchange server or similar, then you can put the settings in for push email (as in when emails are received by the server they are 'pushed' to your phone) otherwise you can set up the phone to check the sever in a set period to get your emails (from 1 min intervals to once every day)
browsing t'internet;
the built in Opera Mobile has been designed specifically for HTC, and features multi touch, as well as single touch (double tap the screen to zoom in) Very quick at loading pages, Internet explorer is also included, but is slower and doesnt feature multi touch (tho a double tap on the screen zooms in, which i find easier as that can be done with one hand, rather than needing one hand to hold the phone the other to 'multi touch' to zoom in)
if it is important, then the browswers support Flash and you can load the normal facebook page, rather than needing a seperate Facebook app (tho a seperate FB app is included too if you need it).
Opera will store passwords if you wish to save you logging in.
Oh and another thing, you can link your contacts with your facebook friends - which will put their profile pic as their contact image, a built in twitter app is included too, which can automatically receive the latests tweets.
if your intested in the stock market - theres a tab which will sync with the latest stock market update.
If you click a link for a YouTube vid, then the YT app will open to view the video, otherwise Vimeo and others will load in the browser.
maybe a bit of reading of work reports or taking basic notes.
while the disadvantage over older resistive touch screen of old WinMob phones means you no longer have a stylus to write notes i have been able to use my finger to act as a 'pen' there is a link from the phone screen to a notebook, so you can write notes while on a call, or you can use the Office OneNote app, there is also a voice recorder for dictation. as i said there is MS word, Excel and Powerpoint.
Also, how good are they as a gps for biking etc - I noticed that there is now an 'app' for memory map - how well does this work?
dunno about MM but i have got Tom Tom installed which works great, theres also Google maps included as standard (as is a trial verion of CoPilot, another sat nav prog, but i prefer Tom Tom) I've used the phone for Geocaching, and the 'BasicGPS' prog i have used shows the GPS is very accurate, i have had a reading within 0.5yrd of the location of the Geocache!
you can also 'geotag' your photos via the HTC footprints - that is tag your photographs with the co-ordinates of the location you took the picture.
the install of googlemaps now has the use of a compass so is show the direction your heading on the map - the compass is also a seperate accessable app if your orienteering, and can link to googlemaps to give you a bearing to your destination.In the Windows Market Place (think the App Store) there is a GPS tracker app which can store your movements for downloading and logging - so you can see the route you took, and how far you went/have been.
there is also an app included as standard where you take a photo of a business card, and it will automatically convert the card info to your contacts list.
FM radio - plug any headphones with a 3.5mm jack in and you can listen to FM station radios
5M pixcel camera:
and video quality can be seen here:
here (unfortunatly the noise of the deltic did overpower the mic a wee bit... but then they are rather noisy things!)in terms of battery life - i think judging by mates Iphone the battery life is similar, but i have the advantage in that i can swap batteries if i run out and cant get to a plug (there is also a large capacity battery available for HTC which doubles the battery life, and the thickness of the battery, if your a very heavy user) there are also cradles available for the HD2 which can charge the phone, and also a slot behind for a second battery to be fitted and charged at the same time.
Of course Bluetooth can be used to partner a headset, and send files between other bluetooth devices. and also the wifi connectivity - you can also use the phone as a wifi router.
Also, it will display the weather for your current location, which is also linked to your calender - so will display a 5 day forcast in the calender app underneath your appointments, there is also a separate weather tab, which can display the weather in any number of locations you set.
there is a fairly good review of the phone here
I love it, as i said, ive had Win Mob phones for years, but this one has blown me away!
Posted 2 years ago # -
oh and just for reference on battery life, on the standard battery, i had tom tom running for 2hrs while navigating through manchester, started off with 70% battery and was down to 10% when i switched it off when i hit the motorway and knew where i was. that also included making a couple of 5min calls to let the missus know i was going to be late home, while stopped at a supermarket for a loo break - didnt switch the sat nav off during the stops
Posted 2 years ago # -
I got one last week played with other people and was always impressed and thought it might be ok for me. Now I've got one and set it up for my lifestyle it is bloody awesome tool just staggering what you can have it do. I have all my shifts now stored on it with a very easy to use app, I have a 12 lead ECG reference guide on it and many other useful apps. Using it to pick up my emails with imap so it syncs with my computers and surfing with it works very well.
Battery life isn't great but disable wifi and GPS when your not needing it and it lasts a lot longer.
Love it.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Wait a few more months if you can really... New gen ones can't be too far off!
Posted 2 years ago # -
Yes, buy one so long as you can pay the bill.
Posted 2 years ago # -
chewkw - Member
Yes, buy one so long as you can pay the bill.You could apply that to anything tho.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Yes, but it's bloody expensive if you want pay as you go with no silly contract.
p/s: I have seen kids using them ... errmmm ... how ...?
Posted 2 years ago # -
Yes, but it's bloody expensive if you want pay as you go with no silly contract.
Not really. I bought my 3G iphone mint second hand for £180 and spend £20 on a rolling month contract for 600mins 1000 texts and unlimited interweb
Posted 2 years ago # -
I had a go with a colleagues phone yesterday, he did a pretty good job of selling it to me
I only want it as an entertainment thing for quiet moments at work (which there are likely to be with a arrival of trackers on our vans!) don't actually need it as a phone.
With that in mind, PAYG looks very attractive to me, £440 (from Tesco) for the 16GB 3GS with £20 topup and 12 months free internet. Some of the cheaper 18/24 month contracts work out at £700 - £900 including any charge for the phone.
Edit: If you include a second years internet for fair comparison, the PAYG costs £545.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I take it your not planning in making many calls if a £20 top up is going to last you.
Posted 2 years ago #
Topic Closed
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