An Unboxing I NEVER Thought I Would Do
Posted on 13 August 2009, at 5:15 pm, by Dan Cohen
For me, the iPhone was love at first multi-touch. When I bought one exactly two years ago this week, I thought that I would NEVER want to try another device. EVER. Since then I’ve had an iPhone “Classic”, a 3G and now a 3GS. The iPhone 3GS is amazing. It is fast, it has huge storage and… it’s an iPhone!
BUT… Apple’s shenanigans lately got me thinking. I’ve started wondering about the longevity of the platform a bit and, more importantly, as someone who uses a tremendous number of Google products including Gmail and Google Voice, I’ve started wondering if these services will continue to be crippled on the iPhone.
So… I started looking around. The result… except for a few iPhone app reviews I have pending, my iPhone will be in a drawer for the time being. In its place…
My impressions so far? I like it… a lot. I like the remarkable integration of Google’s services and I like how “communication-centric” it is. I’ll be using it for a bit and then be back with more on this amazing device.
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August 13th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Please return your official Apple Fanboy card to any one of the t-shirt wearing representatives at your nearest Apple store.
August 13th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
I am green with envy! I want a Hero so bad! Apps to try: Sherpa, Where, Documents to Go (review pending) and a new one I just came across….Wikitude (a Augmented Reality program that uses the camera!).
August 13th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
I am totally shocked that you are enjoying it so far…and slightly impressed!! Yay for trying something new and giving it a fair chance!
@Larry – LOL
August 14th, 2009 at 3:06 am
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED the Hero when I reviewed it for SlashGear, but I can’t get past the lack of 3G for you. So much of what made the handset – and in fact most smartphones these days – special is the mixture of high-speed connectivity and applications that either churn away in the background doing their thing or whip into life and quickly grab the data they need.
I can’t help but wonder whether you’ll end up a little disappointed with the Hero, simply because EDGE can’t keep up with how you’d like to use it. Fingers-crossed that doesn’t happen.
August 14th, 2009 at 5:57 am
I’m with Chris – lack of 3G is a deal buster for me. When you think about the money that carrier’s extort for their monthly service it doesn’t make sense to put someone online that’s permanently stuck in the slow lane.
I find the MyTouch3G on screen keyboard more cramped, less responsive.
On the plus side — I TOTALLY believe that an Android phone WILL be my primary phone for voice….the integration with Google Voice is great (allows you to automatically route all calls through Google Voice without fumbling to another application).
Running multiple applications in the background is a great concept. Until you actually try it on a phone that you use heavily. Hopefully you won’t see the same thing that I have have on MyTouch3G which is slowdowns mid-day that require reboots to refresh the memory/tasks/etc.
I’m very pleased with the MyTouch 3G and have started to use it as my primary voice phone coupled with Google Voice and T-Mobile MyFaves (which essentially brings unlimited voice calling).
August 14th, 2009 at 7:10 am
Firstly this is not the first time HTC has put a 3.5mm Jack on its phone. The Touch HD has a 3.5mm Jack and so did the old imate JasJar (universal) which was also made by HTC.
Secondly the propriety connector is actually not that stupid if you think about it. I think its stupid to call somthing stupid before thinking why someone would adopt it. It makes more sense to have the headphones connect to already existing mini-usb port rather than having a seperate jack. Saves space on our beautiful minimilistic devices. If you want to use your own earbuds, get an adapter (which are cheap) and leave it connected to the headphones so they are there when you want to use em. Definitely a better solution if you think about it.
You know whats stupid? Those non-standard PROPRIETY data connector on iphones/ipods. HTC uses a standard mini-usb which can be connected with anyone mini usb cable, any headphone can connect to the SAME port via adapter whereas with apply, you are STUCK with the propriety data connector.
Somehow though its okay for Apple to make a propriety data connector but everytime there is a mention of a propriety headphone system people say ’stupid’
REALLY stupid in my opinion!!
August 14th, 2009 at 8:17 am
Interesting note – until I hit the comments I had NO IDEA what you were talking about – the product isn’t mentioned anywhere, and the video is blocked for me at work!
August 14th, 2009 at 9:18 am
Tabi13- thanks for the clarification on the headphone jack- I should have said first time on one of their android devices which I believe is the case and I appreciate your correcting my mistake.
Having an iPod shuffle that requires either their headphones or an adapter if you want to use your own I do appreciate being able to use any headphones with a device without needing any kind of adapter. It might not be an issue for someone who only uses one sets of buds but for those of us who use more than one se. It can be, and in the past was for me, a real issue.
On one level HTC must agree since they are obviously moving to the 3.5mm jack.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:53 am
I think the market in the US seems to be more worried/concerned with 3.5mm Jacks. HTC arent REALY moving towards 3.5mm Jacks because their latest devices namely the Touch Diamond 2 as well as Touch Pro 2 has the propriety connector.
However, AT&T versions of HTC phones (like the Tilt and others) have always come with a mini-usb to 3.5mm adapter (in the US market) in the included accessories which is not the case for European sim-free as well as network badged models. Also, I head that the some version of HTC Touch Pro for the US will be with a 3.5mm jack.
Enough evidence to suggest that US market is more inclined towards 3.5mm vs others AND that HTC have picked up on that?