HTC to make ebook device

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Sonist

I believe you are confusing the Touch HD, which has 3.8" screen, and the Touch Pro 2, which has a 3.6" screen.

I do like HTC hardware (I've had two.) And I did consider the Touch HD, and the then upcoming Touch Pro 2.

But I ended up giving up my HTC, for the iPhone 3G S. The HTC sets are nice, and can do so much on paper. Unfortunately, underneath the HTC UI, lives WM.

I find the iPhone so much more more enjoyable and easy to use, it's not even close.

BTW, if you think Apple is overpriced, you should check out the price of the Touch Pro 2.

I've been using WinMo for nearly ten years now, and the only problems I've had that were not self inflicted was the need for a hard reset once or twice a year depending on how many apps I installed and uninstalled.

And I never heard of anyone having to jailbreak an HTC, and I don't think MS, HTC or Sprint ever remotely uninstalled an "unauthorized" app!

The biggest problem I have with Apple is not the price, I'm always willing to pay premium prices for premium products. It's Apples corporate arrogance, beginning with Jobs and filtering down to the rest of the company.

[HansTWN]

Exactly, Apple wants to tell me how to use the device. Because they want to skimp on memory and keep things simple for beginners I can't multi task. Apple treats users like 5 year old kids, they want to force me to only install apps from their store and try to prevent me from changing the interface.

The great user ROMs for WinMo alone are worth it. Eye candy alone does not make a great phone. Apple leave out all the basics like profiles, decent contact management, arranging the sequence of soft keyboards, it is not possible to identify the Iphone as a computer to websites when browsing, no web video, no home screen widgets. Changing SIMs is a real pain. So what is left is a good looking phone with a good music player and a mediocre browser for USD 800.-, factory unlocked.

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

... Eye candy alone does not make a great phone. ....

Eh, to each his own. I've used WM, with countless home-cooked ROMs, for a few years.

Now I use an iPhone, and I use it, because I find much better than WM. You can deride it as eye candy, but to me, it's overall user-experience, and right now, Apple does it better than anyone else.

Sure, there are tradeoffs -- it's kind of like with spouses and best friends. And I wouldn't marry someone really ugly and crude, just because they are a better plumber.

[Laine]

My HTC Touch Po is away being repaired. (The backlight died.)

I am lost. :-( My whole life is in that phone. It's just like having a minicomputer in my pocket. It organises my life and saves a lot of memories.

I had to buy a new card reader so I could copy all my Word files over to my PPC. The phone is easier to use because of the keyboard.

I keep a list of all the ebooks I buy on my phone and mark them when they're read. Necessary as I have nearly 3,000 from Fictionwise alone.

And I have read several novels on my phone. Even with tiny, tiny print the screen is crystal clear. (It just uses up the battery too quickly.)

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Sonist

Eh, to each his own. I've used WM, with countless home-cooked ROMs, for a few years.

Now I use an iPhone, and I use it, because I find much better than WM. You can deride it as eye candy, but to me, it's overall user-experience, and right now, Apple does it better than anyone else.

Sure, there are tradeoffs -- it's kind of like with spouses and best friends. And I wouldn't marry someone really ugly and crude, just because they are a better plumber.

You think differently about an ugly plumber if you lived in a beautiful, but old house! Did you forgot that plumbers make more per hour than brain surgeons these days? And actually by now Mobile Shell 3.0 and Touch-Flo 3D, etc look real good, as do the new Samsung, Toshiba, HTC hardware. That is one of the good things Apple brought us. Better looking big phones.

It all depends on what you want to do with it, of course. Not trying to convince you, that is impossible with iphone fans! For me the terrible multitasking "disability" even with backgrounder already makes the iphone pretty useless. I travel a lot to other countries and to save money on calls I always have an IM program running in the background.

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

... Not trying to convince you, that is impossible with iphone fans! For me the terrible multitasking "disability" even with backgrounder already makes the iphone pretty useless....

If you look at my posts, you'd notice, that I was using an HTC WM phone, until the introduction of the iPhone 3G S....

[wodin]

I currently have an HTC Touch, but I'm looking really hard at the new Palm Pre. I used Palms before I switched to WinMo, and I liked the really well though out user interface on Palm, but when I switch to MS I realized how much more powerful (and resource hungry) WinMo was, I became a convert.

From what I see WebOS has address much of Palm's shortcomings, but it doesn't look like there is a decent reader available for it yet. Oh well, maybe I just wait for the HTC Touch Pro 2.

[rling]

Originally Posted by wodin

I just heard that HTC has a new phone that's WinMo 6.1 or 6.5, has a qwerty and 3.8" VGA screen. It's called the Touch Pro 2, and should be available from most cellular providers before the end of the summer.

Both the Touch Diamond 2 and Touch Pro 2 currently run WM6.1, and both have WVGA screen, at resolution of 480x800. My Touch Diamond 2 works perfectly for all my needs, but is a real battery hog - needing a charge every day. An e-reader would need to be different to do the job without killing the battery in a matter of hours.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Sonist

If you look at my posts, you'd notice, that I was using an HTC WM phone, until the introduction of the iPhone 3G S....

I did notice. And I tried to point out that you apparently had no need for those many functions that WM offers and Apple doesn't, so the iphone was suitable for you and you are now an iphone fan. To each his own.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by wodin

I currently have an HTC Touch, but I'm looking really hard at the new Palm Pre. I used Palms before I switched to WinMo, and I liked the really well though out user interface on Palm, but when I switch to MS I realized how much more powerful (and resource hungry) WinMo was, I became a convert.

From what I see WebOS has address much of Palm's shortcomings, but it doesn't look like there is a decent reader available for it yet. Oh well, maybe I just wait for the HTC Touch Pro 2.

I wouldn't wait for the Touch Pro 2. At the end of the year all phones will have the new Nvidia and Snapdragon processors running at 800 and 1000MHZ. That will be a quantum leap in performance (already evidenced by the new Toshiba G01) and battery life. New ones coming out from Acer, Toshiba, HTC, Samsung (they use their own 800MHZ processor), etc. If you have seen the new Toshiba, it blows everything right out of the water.

The Touch Pro 2 is just a minor upgrade, with a much better screen, admittedly. The Palm is nice, but who knows what will happen to the company, few apps, and what can you do in WebOS you can't do in WM?

[wodin]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

The Touch Pro 2 is just a minor upgrade, with a much better screen, admittedly. The Palm is nice, but who knows what will happen to the company, few apps, and what can you do in WebOS you can't do in WM?

Yeah, I've been watching the apps. One thing that is encouraging is the PalmOS emulator, Classic. After I see a few favorable reviews of that I'll feel better about the Pre.

One thing that has me concerned though, is the lack of Outlook sync support. I might be a little old school, but I'm not convinced about the whole concept of cloud computing. There's already way too much data out there on other people's servers for my liking! I'm thinking, pending favorable reviews for Classic and support for Outlook sync, I might be almost ready to drop the hammer. WinMo's power and versatility has so far more than made up for it's quirkiness, but there may be something better on the horizon.

I'm pretty happy with Sprint, they have good service in all the places I need service, unlike both AT&T and Verizon. And T-Mo doesn't even have 3G here so If I can, I'll be sticking with Sprint; and that means a Pre or an TP 2.

Too bad Sprint doesn't have an Android!

[HansTWN]

If you are concerned about your data and don't want people to mine yours then you should avoid Google like the plague!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by wodin

I'm pretty happy with Sprint, they have good service in all the places I need service, unlike both AT&T and Verizon. And T-Mo doesn't even have 3G here so If I can, I'll be sticking with Sprint; and that means a Pre or an TP 2.

Do you never travel outside the USA? GSM phones can be used pretty much anywhere; CDMA (Sprint) is pretty much US-only.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Do you never travel outside the USA? GSM phones can be used pretty much anywhere; CDMA (Sprint) is pretty much US-only.

Yes I know Harry, that's why all our corporate phones are AT&T, and that's how I know that local coverage is somewhat lacking.

If I need to go out of the country, I can check out a corporate phone for the trip. Unless of course I'm on personal holiday. Then I have an AT&T GoPhone I can just buy a sim for.

[wodin]

Yes, and the Pre uses Gmail for it's main address book/calendar!