Android Thread

[Fishfingers]

Looked around and there didn't seem to be one of these, but I want to talk about it.

I got my HTC Desire a couple of months ago and I'm pretty happy with it. I'm on Orange, paid £150 for the handset (easily covered by the £203 I got by "recycling" my iPhone 3G) and now pay just £20 a month for 100 minutes, unlimited texts and 500MB data.

First need to shout out just how awesome some of the built-in features are in Android 2.1.

Google Maps looks incredible on my Desire - the high resolution screen and fast map rendering make it so much better than the iPhone version. And then of course there's the fact that it has FREE turn-by-turn navigation ("sat nav") based on Google's constantly updated maps.

The Google Mail client works great and I always wondered why there wasn't one for iPhone.

The most impressive thing though is the way the OS handles "Notifications". It is so awesome having a single area where notifications are held, so if a new one comes in it doesn't simply replace the one on screen like iPhone does.

Also, how awesome is it to have a hardware back button? Apple may think that as few buttons as possible is the best way to go, but it is great to have a physical button there that is always in the same place and works across multiple applications. No screen space wasted on a button that just about every application needs.

(Example: I get an email with a link to a page containing a YouTube video. I click the YouTube video and load the video in the YouTube app. Pressing the back button takes me back to the web page, pressing it again takes me back to my email)

My favourite applications are:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Meebo IM
• Shazam
• 1337Pwn.com Xbox Live Friends
• Your Orange
• Digg
• DoubleTwist Player
• Wikidroid
• myPlayer (BBC iPlayer client)

Haven't had much chance to play games on it, but those below are very good:

• Gensoid (Mega Drive Emulator)
• OpenSudoku
• Air Control

What are your favourite applications?

[satriales]

Good thread, I've had an Android phone for several months now but I still haven't used any applications or even set up my email yet. I get unlimited internet for free so there's no excuse really.

[mas22]

My mate's got a Desire and I've been toying around with the phone, and I'm pretty impressed with the Sense/Android OS, plus the handset itself pretty nice looking, matte texture with physical buttons that I dearly miss.
Not enough to sway me away from iPhone though, I decided not to upgrade to iPhone 4, in a few months I'll be buying it unlocked/outright and stick to my simplicity price plan.

[Prototype]

Good thread, I've had an Android phone for several months now but I still haven't used any applications or even set up my email yet. I get unlimited internet for free so there's no excuse really.

[Fishfingers]

Things I dislike about Android:

• No unified interface. Google really needs to get on this and stop phone manufacturers from bothering making a bunch of different looking UIs by making the core one much better.
• Android Market cluttered with shite. By shite I mean soft porn, "themes" and "sounds". None of this belongs in an application store.
• No official media sync for Mac or PC
• Complete lack of a decent media player application for the device itself

[mas22]

It's basically a marketplace of Jailbroken style apps, with some questionable apps released that literally condone content piracy.

[Fishfingers]

It's basically a marketplace of Jailbroken style apps, with some questionable apps released that literally condone content piracy.

There are some very good applications on there from genuine software developers though, as well as big companies.

[Prototype]

I heard typing on the Desire feels like gooseberry fool after using an iphone touch screen? How do you find it, Fish?

[Fishfingers]

I heard typing on the Desire feels like **** after using an iphone touch screen? How do you find it, Fish?

It's different. I'm not sure it's "worse" - I did find it difficult to begin with but I used the built in calibration and it seems to have improved. It's definitely not as accurate as iPhone, but I think a lot of my mistakes come down to me anticipating iPhone button widths and pressing where I think the button is rather than actually looking at the screen and knowing how big they are.

One thing it does have which is completely missing from iPhone is Haptic Feedback. For those that don't know, you can set the phone to give a very weak vibration every time you press a key. Sounds gooseberry fool, but actually it's very good once you try it out.

[Prototype]

I heard typing on the Desire feels like **** after using an iphone touch screen? How do you find it, Fish?

It's different. I'm not sure it's "worse" - I did find it difficult to begin with but I used the built in calibration and it seems to have improved. It's definitely not as accurate as iPhone, but I think a lot of my mistakes come down to me anticipating iPhone button widths and pressing where I think the button is rather than actually looking at the screen and knowing how big they are.

One thing it does have which is completely missing from iPhone is Haptic Feedback. For those that don't know, you can set the phone to give a very weak vibration every time you press a key. Sounds gooseberry fool, but actually it's very good once you try it out.

I think if iPhone had haptic feedback, the battery wouldn't last til lunch.

Anyway, sorry about talking about the iPhone in an HTC thread. The phone looks smart and the Android market seems to be coming along nicely.

[Fishfingers]

I heard typing on the Desire feels like **** after using an iphone touch screen? How do you find it, Fish?

It's different. I'm not sure it's "worse" - I did find it difficult to begin with but I used the built in calibration and it seems to have improved. It's definitely not as accurate as iPhone, but I think a lot of my mistakes come down to me anticipating iPhone button widths and pressing where I think the button is rather than actually looking at the screen and knowing how big they are.

One thing it does have which is completely missing from iPhone is Haptic Feedback. For those that don't know, you can set the phone to give a very weak vibration every time you press a key. Sounds gooseberry fool, but actually it's very good once you try it out.

I think if iPhone had haptic feedback, the battery wouldn't last til lunch.

Anyway, sorry about talking about the iPhone in an HTC thread. The phone looks smart and the Android market seems to be coming along nicely.

I think it is a valid comparison and it is one which everyone who buys an Android phone these days will have made. There are definitely things that iPhone does better (mainly the things in my hate post above) but there are also genuine reasons not to buy an iPhone. No calls or data while holding it in left hand? Fail.

[Prototype]

True. I've also watched a few videos about the evo 4g which looks incredible. While off til its out over here though.

[Fishfingers]

I also forgot to mention how awesome it is that I can take the battery out. When it inevitably does become a dud like my iPhone's did I can just buy a new one and pop it in.

That and the whole ability to upgrade its storage is also great.

[Rax]

Things I dislike about Android:

• Complete lack of a decent media player application for the device itself

Doubletwist, its free at the moment but I think theyre planning to charge for it soon, theres an app for the phone and a program for windows, has an iTunes style UI. Its pretty good actually.

Ive got myself an Experia X10 and the only thing I dont like is the battery life, Im used to my Nokia lasting a week between charges.

[Fishfingers]

Things I dislike about Android:

• Complete lack of a decent media player application for the device itself

Doubletwist, its free at the moment but I think theyre planning to charge for it soon, theres an app for the phone and a program for windows, has an iTunes style UI. Its pretty good actually.

Ive got myself an Experia X10 and the only thing I dont like is the battery life, Im used to my Nokia lasting a week between charges.

Yes, I'm using this right now but it really isn't anywhere close to the iPod application on iPhone.

[JiggerJay]

Can't be as bad as the blackberry media player.

I am going to be getting an android phone in a couple of weeks when my contract finishes, I currently have a blackberry 8900 (Poncey business phone!) I was looking at the iphone, but strawberry float it i'll prob get a HTC desire, The only thing I am worries about is the community stagnating and on the app front it all dries up in creativity like the blackberry community pretty much has.

Fishy didn't you use to be a raging apple fanboy? Do you recommend the HTC desire at all?

[Fishfingers]

I am going to be getting an android phone in a couple of weeks when my contract finishes, I currently have a blackberry 8900 (Poncey business phone!) I was looking at the iphone, but **** it i'll prob get a HTC desire, The only thing I am worries about is the community stagnating and on the app front it all dries up in creativity like the blackberry community pretty much has.

Fishy didn't you use to be a raging apple fanboy? Do you recommend the HTC desire at all?

I don't see the "community" around Android becoming weak at all. If anything, it has gone from strength to strength recently with the massive uptake of HTC Desire in the UK. Just today I saw an application come to Android that I thought never would - the F1 Live Timing Application. At £19.99 it's not cheap and they could easily have left it iPhone/iPad only, but it shows that some professional iPhone developers are really willing to port things over to Android.

The only problem I can see here is when new versions of Android OS are released and manufacturers only provide them for their most recent handsets. For those who don't know, when an Android update is released by Google (it's all open source) each handset manufacturer has to then develop it further so that it works on their phones. There haven't been too many so far, but you only have to visit any Android fansite to discover that people are (rightfully) NOT happy when a manufacturer decides their phone isn't going to be getting it.

After buying my Desire I was pleasantly surprised to discover just how responsive the UI was as this was my main concern moving over from iPhone. It's definitely as responsive as iPhone OS and the web browser does a great job as well. I can't think of any functions that iPhone has that my Android phone cannot do, with the exception of syncing with iTunes. If you don't need or want that then I'd say go for a Desire - they're a lot cheaper than iPhone and much easier to find too.

[~Earl Grey~]

It's basically a marketplace of Jailbroken style apps, with some questionable apps released that literally condone content piracy.

There are some very good applications on there from genuine software developers though, as well as big companies.

So it sounds a bit like a PC to the iPhone's Macintosh to me. More crap, but more choice...

[Donk]

It's basically a marketplace of Jailbroken style apps, with some questionable apps released that literally condone content piracy.

There are some very good applications on there from genuine software developers though, as well as big companies.

So it sounds a bit like a PC to the iPhone's Macintosh to me. More functional, and more choice...

Fixed that for you there.

Favourite apps?

Spotify, Replica Island, Air Control, Twidroid are all pretty cool, lot's of other apps I use a fair bit too. Google Sky Map is pure win.

[EnragedYogi]

Anyone else got the HTC Hero? The update to 2.1 is out now, you'll need to have downloaded the pre-update. I'm not sure if it'll work on branded phones. Just installing mine now.

My favourite apps are Layar, Handcent (alternate text messaging app), Sportstap, ToggleSettings and Robodefence (Tower defence game).

Edit: Nice, my Hero's now got 2.1