As part of the excessive usage on unlimited web for O2 in addition to the text warning you get a letter. The letter was from the Credit and Risk department. I called them up to try and find out some more information and whilst it was a pleasant conversation the information again was conflicting to what I was told the previous week.
On this occasion I was told the make of phone was irrelevant and the fact that I was using my HTC Magic instead of the E75 I got on my new contract. The issue was still the amount of data that I had downloaded. If you can recall it had been 6gb the previous month where there was no issue. This month it was 1gb and this is what had triggered the cease and desist text and letter.
During my conversation I said I liked to manage my bill so I am not over using my allocated allowances. Bearing in mind the Internet is defined as unlimited web with an excessive policy where you cannot tether the phone to a PC, use VOIP or stream video/audio and download via P2P.
Before moving to unlimited web when I got a simplicity SIM I asked about download podcasts and was told it was okay to do this. Again I was encouraged to use the service even though I said I do use it a lot. Then, before I signed up for another 18 month contract to get the E75 I had the same conversation again and the answers were the same.
However, I am now being told that my downloading podcasts to listen at another constitutes streaming but they were not prepared to argue the technical differences between downloading and streaming. As you know streaming is either listening or watching a live broadcast. Whereas what I was doing was no different than downloading a file and using it a later date.
Also in the previous week I was told they had no high usage packages available where unlimited web was the highest they did. However now, they had 3gb for £15 and 10gb for £30.
Whilst I have changed my habits quite easily to reduce the load on their network from my usage by using other mobile broadband packages I have. For example I have just purchased a 3 Mifi with 5gb at £15 of which proves in itself O2 are not competitive.
I am of the opinion O2 need to wake up and realise they are selling smart phones of which can fully function and replace a PC. The Iphone, the Pre and many Nokias can do a lot more than the feature phones they are also selling. The customer care were surprised that I had managed 6gb on a phone without tethering and didn't appreciate what you can actually do on a phone.
Its a real shame as a network they have very good smart phones but neither understand what they are capable of, restrict what one can do with them on their network and then don't appreciate and really understand the technologies available. Since when did download an audio file to listened to a later date constitute streaming?
It makes me wonder if their network can actually cope with the influx of smart phones and as more people demand to be online all of the time.
When I hear podcasts (not streamed) of the USA where the networks either have all you can eat tariffs or you pay for 5gb and you can actually use this for video and audio streaming as long as you don't go over your allowance. I sometimes wonder if we in the UK are actually ahead of the pack or merely following.
For the interim I will abstain and not over use my allocation on the network as I do need access to the Internet. Its not that much of a problem as I used to do this before I moved onto web unlimited. But it really feels like a step back in time.
The day they offer a proper grown up tariff that is an all you can eat is when I will bite their hands off for it. However, as soon as my contract is up I will be shopping around for a sim only deal. I really only need data on my tariff because calls and sms can all be done over data. I also cannot wait for Google Voice to come to the UK.
But until this time comes I will wait to see if anything changes....
Sunday, 4 October 2009
Monday, 21 September 2009
Ten Pence Mix
When I was young I can remember going to the newsagents and asking for a ten pence mix. The shop owner would count out ten sweets (or the equivalent) and I would hand over ten pence and then have a bag full of sweets. Back then you knew what you would you get when you paid the money and would be able to sort out any problems should there be a sweet missing.
Today shouldn't be too dissimilar in that you pay for service and you either get it or you don't. There are always issues with the quality of service thus you have to look at the terms and conditions.
Now take O2 where I have been a customer of theres' for a number of years. I pay so much a month I get 600 minutes and 500 texts. If I use them the usage decreases until it gets to zero then I start paying.
I used to pay for their data bolt on called data max at 3GB a month where I knew I had up to 3GB of data allowance. Through being made redundant and reducing costs I decided to go to O2 simplicity where I was told the web bolt on was "unlimited" but subject to either a fair usage or excessive usage policy. On enquiring with the O2 customer advisor I pressed the person to try and get an actual figure explaining I use my phone for web, email and podcasts where the latter does use a lot of bandwidth. I got told you will be okay sir there is no limit. So I used this tariff for several months downloading between 2 and 4GB per month. I upgraded in May and got an E75 and pressed them again on the limit as I had changed my tariff explaining why and was told again no issue sir. So the latter months I have been using the phone to download and listen to my podcasts. Bearing in mind that I try to download out of hours because there are 10 weekly podcasts that I follow, you can understand I use a lot of bandwidth. I don't use my phone for tethering as I can do everything I need to on my handset.
Three months ago I used 3GB, the month after I used 4GB and last month I used 6GB.
I have now been sent a text that I have gone over my data allowance where I need to either cut down or get a bigger Bolt On to keep using the Internet.
Now this is where my issues start, firstly the web unlimited bolt on I have been told today is the largest they have therefore they cannot offer me an alternative.
On asking for the actual max amount I can download I am not being told a figure only that it is unlimited. However, I was then told not to download too much as I will get another text and might have my service restricted. I iterated that this is like driving down a road where there is a speed camera and then you get caught for speeding. However no one can tell me how fast I should be going.
This is an absolute joke and how they can advertise an unlimited tariff even with an excessive or fair usage policy and they cannot tell me what this is, is beyond belief. They are happy to take my money and police what I am doing but give me no clear guidance or indication on what the limit is.
When I used to pay for 60MB per month a few years ago I managed my usage to ensure I did not encure any charges. I would like to do this again but they they cannot help me.
Further as the conversation progressed it turns out because I using an HTC magic this is not an approved O2 phone so for an other reason I have been told to curb my usage. If I had either used the original E75 or had an IPhone then this would not have been an issue as O2 are aware they can potentially use a large amount of data and as such would not have said anything. I explained I like technology and will change my phone several times a year. However on this basis they could not sell me an upgrade as I was not due. I find the latter argument rubbish because @gerrymoth is on O2 and was on their Sim only deal and I know he switches the handsets he is testing and he to got a warning.
Therefore reading between the lines on this are O2 only telling me I can use the handset I have bought on their network, or are they telling me I can only use approved phones.
They could not put me onto an IPhone tariff, they cannot tell me what the cap is or the reporting levels through the month so I can manage my usage, they can only tell me it is unlimited.
Whilst I can make changes to my usage as not to engage the wrath of O2, it is about time there was a shake up in the industry and they gave clear guidelines on what unlimited means rather than advertising complete hogwash.
The gadget show ran a campaign on home broadband that was successful in getting the major ISPs to change their T&Cs and actually come clean on what they mean.
A similar shake down needs to happen in the mobile industry to all of the networks including O2 and be clear on what I am buying or at least offer a true unlimited tariff for more money of which I would glady pay for.
Just like my ten pence bag of sweets I know when the bag is empty I can either buy another bag or wait until next month. Rather than being told halfway through the bag that I am eating too much.
Today shouldn't be too dissimilar in that you pay for service and you either get it or you don't. There are always issues with the quality of service thus you have to look at the terms and conditions.
Now take O2 where I have been a customer of theres' for a number of years. I pay so much a month I get 600 minutes and 500 texts. If I use them the usage decreases until it gets to zero then I start paying.
I used to pay for their data bolt on called data max at 3GB a month where I knew I had up to 3GB of data allowance. Through being made redundant and reducing costs I decided to go to O2 simplicity where I was told the web bolt on was "unlimited" but subject to either a fair usage or excessive usage policy. On enquiring with the O2 customer advisor I pressed the person to try and get an actual figure explaining I use my phone for web, email and podcasts where the latter does use a lot of bandwidth. I got told you will be okay sir there is no limit. So I used this tariff for several months downloading between 2 and 4GB per month. I upgraded in May and got an E75 and pressed them again on the limit as I had changed my tariff explaining why and was told again no issue sir. So the latter months I have been using the phone to download and listen to my podcasts. Bearing in mind that I try to download out of hours because there are 10 weekly podcasts that I follow, you can understand I use a lot of bandwidth. I don't use my phone for tethering as I can do everything I need to on my handset.
Three months ago I used 3GB, the month after I used 4GB and last month I used 6GB.
I have now been sent a text that I have gone over my data allowance where I need to either cut down or get a bigger Bolt On to keep using the Internet.
Now this is where my issues start, firstly the web unlimited bolt on I have been told today is the largest they have therefore they cannot offer me an alternative.
On asking for the actual max amount I can download I am not being told a figure only that it is unlimited. However, I was then told not to download too much as I will get another text and might have my service restricted. I iterated that this is like driving down a road where there is a speed camera and then you get caught for speeding. However no one can tell me how fast I should be going.
This is an absolute joke and how they can advertise an unlimited tariff even with an excessive or fair usage policy and they cannot tell me what this is, is beyond belief. They are happy to take my money and police what I am doing but give me no clear guidance or indication on what the limit is.
When I used to pay for 60MB per month a few years ago I managed my usage to ensure I did not encure any charges. I would like to do this again but they they cannot help me.
Further as the conversation progressed it turns out because I using an HTC magic this is not an approved O2 phone so for an other reason I have been told to curb my usage. If I had either used the original E75 or had an IPhone then this would not have been an issue as O2 are aware they can potentially use a large amount of data and as such would not have said anything. I explained I like technology and will change my phone several times a year. However on this basis they could not sell me an upgrade as I was not due. I find the latter argument rubbish because @gerrymoth is on O2 and was on their Sim only deal and I know he switches the handsets he is testing and he to got a warning.
Therefore reading between the lines on this are O2 only telling me I can use the handset I have bought on their network, or are they telling me I can only use approved phones.
They could not put me onto an IPhone tariff, they cannot tell me what the cap is or the reporting levels through the month so I can manage my usage, they can only tell me it is unlimited.
Whilst I can make changes to my usage as not to engage the wrath of O2, it is about time there was a shake up in the industry and they gave clear guidelines on what unlimited means rather than advertising complete hogwash.
The gadget show ran a campaign on home broadband that was successful in getting the major ISPs to change their T&Cs and actually come clean on what they mean.
A similar shake down needs to happen in the mobile industry to all of the networks including O2 and be clear on what I am buying or at least offer a true unlimited tariff for more money of which I would glady pay for.
Just like my ten pence bag of sweets I know when the bag is empty I can either buy another bag or wait until next month. Rather than being told halfway through the bag that I am eating too much.
Friday, 4 September 2009
To Hell and back again
The HTC Magic has been driving me mad today. It has taken me over 5 minutes to write a tweet to the extent I ended up slapping the phone through frustration. Although this calmed my nerves I ended up looking at cooked roms for the phone hoping it would speed it up.
After advise from people on twitter I downloaded a recovery image to put phone into a mode where I could back it up to SD. I also used the Astro file manager to back up my apps as well to SD. Then using Linux (Ubuntu 8.10) I re flashed the phone and went upon my way restoring it.
The Asto File manager was bad in that it would allow me to bulk select all apps for backup, but I had to individually restore the apps back onto the phone. Further even though I had restore the apps individually the market application would not acknowledge this. This means I would not be notified of any application upgrades unless I reinstalled the application via the market place. This, coupled with the phones failure to sync again using road sync prompted me to restore the phone from the backup I had taken. Further the all of my settings had gone so I would need to input logins and passwords again etc....
Before installing the cooked rom, I used an emergency recovery rom which used a mode call fast boot and an application called nandroid to backup the android to SD. I merely reversed this process to restore the phone to its previous state. But again, the applications although restore from SD card would not show up in the market place. Through using an application called App Manager this somehow allowed me to go into the market place, rebuild the database of installed applications so I could complete the online upgrades. I have removed the offending application hoping this will resolve my speed issues.
I am still humming and ahhing about the N900 and wonder should I impulse buy, but in the interim my Magic is what it once was. I will observe the cooked roms and choose another in time what should assist with my speed issues. Lastly, I believe Android 2 will be out soon so multitouch will be available and hopefully speed bug fixes.
The lesson(s) from this tale are, don't use cooked roms unless you know what you are doing and don't run too much on your android unless it dies....
I will root the phone on the original rom that is installed so I can tether and run scheduled reboot applications on the phone. But looking at the windows mobiles, Palm(s), S60 and UIQ phones I have had in addition to Android. All of them are bad when backing up and restoring as they do not restore the phone fully. They always miss something.
I can only recall my old Psion 3 series and 5 series over 10 years ago where you could run a scheduled backup. The battery would die and you would loose you main system disk data. You could then power on the device, run a restore of which would restore the device perfectly.
The question is we now have User Data Protection areas (UDP) on phones, flash memory and external storage, yet none of these devices whilst slightly more sophisticated than the Psions still cannot do a complete restore.
Thank goodness for the cloud as this is where I store my data. But as I have said before, the cloud is a great backup but always ensure you have another parachute (additional backup) incase the first chute fails.....
After advise from people on twitter I downloaded a recovery image to put phone into a mode where I could back it up to SD. I also used the Astro file manager to back up my apps as well to SD. Then using Linux (Ubuntu 8.10) I re flashed the phone and went upon my way restoring it.
The Asto File manager was bad in that it would allow me to bulk select all apps for backup, but I had to individually restore the apps back onto the phone. Further even though I had restore the apps individually the market application would not acknowledge this. This means I would not be notified of any application upgrades unless I reinstalled the application via the market place. This, coupled with the phones failure to sync again using road sync prompted me to restore the phone from the backup I had taken. Further the all of my settings had gone so I would need to input logins and passwords again etc....
Before installing the cooked rom, I used an emergency recovery rom which used a mode call fast boot and an application called nandroid to backup the android to SD. I merely reversed this process to restore the phone to its previous state. But again, the applications although restore from SD card would not show up in the market place. Through using an application called App Manager this somehow allowed me to go into the market place, rebuild the database of installed applications so I could complete the online upgrades. I have removed the offending application hoping this will resolve my speed issues.
I am still humming and ahhing about the N900 and wonder should I impulse buy, but in the interim my Magic is what it once was. I will observe the cooked roms and choose another in time what should assist with my speed issues. Lastly, I believe Android 2 will be out soon so multitouch will be available and hopefully speed bug fixes.
The lesson(s) from this tale are, don't use cooked roms unless you know what you are doing and don't run too much on your android unless it dies....
I will root the phone on the original rom that is installed so I can tether and run scheduled reboot applications on the phone. But looking at the windows mobiles, Palm(s), S60 and UIQ phones I have had in addition to Android. All of them are bad when backing up and restoring as they do not restore the phone fully. They always miss something.
I can only recall my old Psion 3 series and 5 series over 10 years ago where you could run a scheduled backup. The battery would die and you would loose you main system disk data. You could then power on the device, run a restore of which would restore the device perfectly.
The question is we now have User Data Protection areas (UDP) on phones, flash memory and external storage, yet none of these devices whilst slightly more sophisticated than the Psions still cannot do a complete restore.
Thank goodness for the cloud as this is where I store my data. But as I have said before, the cloud is a great backup but always ensure you have another parachute (additional backup) incase the first chute fails.....
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
N900 Do I or don't I?
I have been an N810 user for over a year where I originally made the purchase of the device as I was disappointed using a converged device like the E90 as there were always issues browsing the web. I thought the idea of going back to two devices with a less powered mobile phone and using this to tether with the N810 would be ideal. Although the N810 was a good device, from being used to a converged device for a number of years the idea of carrying two devices again was daunting. Further while the N810 was good for web browsing it was slow. In the end I ended up hacking the N810 to utilise the internal 2gb of SD space to allow me to install more applications but ultimately it has been gathering dust and is either used as an ebook reader for my emagazine or if I want to tinker. The last word 'tinker' is quite important because in reality this is all I can do with the device.
There aren't really any productivity applications out there other than abiword and gnu sheet for business use. The mail client although been upgraded is still crap not being able to really view html pages. The web browser does work but is slow and the replacement fennec browser again is really slow. This coupled with the poor battery life, terrible multimedia support without encoding to a usable video format and poor low volume don't really sing any kind of praises for the device. Yes, I can carry it in my pocket, it does have a keyboard but the design of the keyboard as a slide does not work for me. Further there is a sudden lack of syncing either to exchange or google. For exchange the recommendation is to use OWA but why do I want to log into a web browser to read my email. For Google sync there is a client of which needs installing and again it is somewhat cumbersome. However I had always thought the marrying of the N810 with a phone would be a good idea.
This leads me onto the N900 of which this concept is now a reality. But... The battery is smaller than the N810 where realistically you would only get 4 hours from an N810 on constant use. The screen is resistive where after using the N810 it is usable but capacitive would be great. But again, because the device does need a stylus you cannot exactly have a capacitive screen although someone is working on a stylus that will work with one. 32gb of storage is good, but how much of this like the N810 can we use to install applications? the N810 could have upto 32gb with micro sdhc cards, but the actual storage space with the internal flash ram, the swap file and preloaded OS meant you were still limited. The camera at 5 mpx is great, HSPA built in is great but again and little things like USB charging are welcome.
But wait a sec..... haven't we been here before with the N97 - the flagship device? Now there is the mini N97 again all of the N97 problems pre packaged in a smaller tin.
I currently have an HTC Magic, a welcome relief to S60 and I have been amazed of how much I am enjoying android. Later in the year the Palm Pre will hit the UK, again another device that I have tried with the SDK emulator and like but let down through lack of software.
So getting back to my question, part of me wants to order the N900 to see if it is what I have been looking for. The idea of a mobile computer with telephony rather than the other way around is for me the correct specification. However, recent Nokia announcements and hype such as the N97, 5800 and S60v5 and through previously owning an N810 are seriously putting me off. Lastly the N900 will cost £499 to order - that's half a grand.... I can go away for this, pay my mortgage and bills for one month or even save it. I was stung last year being eager to get the I8510 another all singing all dancing phone in spec but let down with bad firmware and support from Samsung.
Nokia will no doubt fix any problems the N900 quickly as they appear or at least there is the maemo community to do the work for them. This in itself will help the device become successful.
But overall, I think through writing this piece that I will wait as Q4 has many other things that will be happening. There was once a time I would have pressed Buy Now for example the Nokia 9500, E90, E71 and E63. But now I am more wise and frugal I will take a back seat let the cloud of hype surrounding the launch settle and wait to see what actual users are saying rather than the spin machine.
I may be wrong but ultimately that £500 can stay in the bank earning a little interest then when and if an opportunity of the ultimate device shows itself I can consider a purchase.
There aren't really any productivity applications out there other than abiword and gnu sheet for business use. The mail client although been upgraded is still crap not being able to really view html pages. The web browser does work but is slow and the replacement fennec browser again is really slow. This coupled with the poor battery life, terrible multimedia support without encoding to a usable video format and poor low volume don't really sing any kind of praises for the device. Yes, I can carry it in my pocket, it does have a keyboard but the design of the keyboard as a slide does not work for me. Further there is a sudden lack of syncing either to exchange or google. For exchange the recommendation is to use OWA but why do I want to log into a web browser to read my email. For Google sync there is a client of which needs installing and again it is somewhat cumbersome. However I had always thought the marrying of the N810 with a phone would be a good idea.
This leads me onto the N900 of which this concept is now a reality. But... The battery is smaller than the N810 where realistically you would only get 4 hours from an N810 on constant use. The screen is resistive where after using the N810 it is usable but capacitive would be great. But again, because the device does need a stylus you cannot exactly have a capacitive screen although someone is working on a stylus that will work with one. 32gb of storage is good, but how much of this like the N810 can we use to install applications? the N810 could have upto 32gb with micro sdhc cards, but the actual storage space with the internal flash ram, the swap file and preloaded OS meant you were still limited. The camera at 5 mpx is great, HSPA built in is great but again and little things like USB charging are welcome.
But wait a sec..... haven't we been here before with the N97 - the flagship device? Now there is the mini N97 again all of the N97 problems pre packaged in a smaller tin.
I currently have an HTC Magic, a welcome relief to S60 and I have been amazed of how much I am enjoying android. Later in the year the Palm Pre will hit the UK, again another device that I have tried with the SDK emulator and like but let down through lack of software.
So getting back to my question, part of me wants to order the N900 to see if it is what I have been looking for. The idea of a mobile computer with telephony rather than the other way around is for me the correct specification. However, recent Nokia announcements and hype such as the N97, 5800 and S60v5 and through previously owning an N810 are seriously putting me off. Lastly the N900 will cost £499 to order - that's half a grand.... I can go away for this, pay my mortgage and bills for one month or even save it. I was stung last year being eager to get the I8510 another all singing all dancing phone in spec but let down with bad firmware and support from Samsung.
Nokia will no doubt fix any problems the N900 quickly as they appear or at least there is the maemo community to do the work for them. This in itself will help the device become successful.
But overall, I think through writing this piece that I will wait as Q4 has many other things that will be happening. There was once a time I would have pressed Buy Now for example the Nokia 9500, E90, E71 and E63. But now I am more wise and frugal I will take a back seat let the cloud of hype surrounding the launch settle and wait to see what actual users are saying rather than the spin machine.
I may be wrong but ultimately that £500 can stay in the bank earning a little interest then when and if an opportunity of the ultimate device shows itself I can consider a purchase.
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Copilot Live on Android
I will be posting an initial impressions blog of my HTC Magic in a few days but this morning I was using the phone for sat nav and it was a major failure. On my normal route to work a road was closed where I was forced to go another way. Because I was not familiar with the area I fired up my Co Pilot Live 8 Sat Nav on the HTC Magic and this is where it began screwing up.
For some reason it insisted it needed setting up again with my local language, choice of voice navigation, imperial or metric measurements then to accept the disclaimer. The last time this happened I managed to select maps of Italy that required a complete reinstall. Considering I was using the sat nav at the weekend why did it do this?
Then the icing on the cake it already had my route in from the weekend (several stops) and insisted on routing me to these destinations. Trying to clear each one out (it has to be done indivdually) resulted in slow menus, bad response and general sluggishness as it was trying to calculate the route at the same time I was trying to clear it.
ALK need to put a cancel route button on the first menu page and get the above issue sorted to ensure the product is a success. Like always, when it works it is great but on this occasion it was a major fail.
The idea of using a combined phone and PND (personal navigation device) is appealing as there is only one piece of equipment. But when there are other factors of the phone such as bad software or rouge processes hogging it this can seriously affect the navigation part. It is at this point why I like stand alone PNDs preferably built into the car as they only do one thing but these do cost a lot.
So for the interim I will have to grin and bear the pain if it screws up again....
For some reason it insisted it needed setting up again with my local language, choice of voice navigation, imperial or metric measurements then to accept the disclaimer. The last time this happened I managed to select maps of Italy that required a complete reinstall. Considering I was using the sat nav at the weekend why did it do this?
Then the icing on the cake it already had my route in from the weekend (several stops) and insisted on routing me to these destinations. Trying to clear each one out (it has to be done indivdually) resulted in slow menus, bad response and general sluggishness as it was trying to calculate the route at the same time I was trying to clear it.
ALK need to put a cancel route button on the first menu page and get the above issue sorted to ensure the product is a success. Like always, when it works it is great but on this occasion it was a major fail.
The idea of using a combined phone and PND (personal navigation device) is appealing as there is only one piece of equipment. But when there are other factors of the phone such as bad software or rouge processes hogging it this can seriously affect the navigation part. It is at this point why I like stand alone PNDs preferably built into the car as they only do one thing but these do cost a lot.
So for the interim I will have to grin and bear the pain if it screws up again....
Sunday, 16 August 2009
A photo from my HTC Magic
The first picture taken on my phone. Can anyone identify the beetle and how to get rid of it?
Friday, 14 August 2009
The android cometh....
I have recently got back from holiday where I used Garmin maps on my E75 to redirect me around the traffic enroute to home. Garmin with google maps and occasional use of Ovi Maps was great on holiday for getting about. A quick lookup on google maps to find places then using the postcode in garmin to get me there by car. Or using the same postcode in Ovi maps for walking navigation. One wonders why we ever need maps. Well, due to the lack of 3g coverage and because I hadn't preloaded the Ovi Maps I still either needed a paper map or the preloaded Garmin maps.
On the journey home it was different because my phone required 5 manual reboots because Garmin kept freezing. I had even removed all of my memory hog applications to give it room to breathe with no luck. It worked fine taking me to my destination using this strategy until we neared the location. A swift stop and reboot fixed this, but why did I need 5 reboots yesterday. For this reason I love dedicated PND (personal navigation devices) They only do one thing of which is navigate and rarely crash. Whereas smartphones of which includes UIQ,S60 and windows mobile all have fits. If someone calls you they frustrate whether to take the call or carry on navigating to the extent they stop doing both. Then they rarely switch back to the navigation application after handling the call.
Finally I decided when I got back that I would look for an alternative device again. Whilst the E75 is a good device recent issues like this, the device slowing down (I only hard reset it 2 weeks ago) and now the slider is wobbling and the chrome surrond broken. I need a break from it so again its a good opportunity to try the competition as it will probably take a few weeks to repair, then its the usual 6 hour reinstall. I had bought 3 plastic surround cases to protect the phone but they all broke so off it will go back to the shop over the next few days.
I had rejected the thought of an android device earlier this year as there is a lack of space available to installed applications. However after listen to a recent podcast it is now possible to installed applications to the sd card if you either root the phone or installed an application to assit with this process.
Looking at the equivalent androids applications that I use on s60 the only missing ones are sms and call filter and an accounts manager like flying money. However I didn't have time to survey the homebrew libraries to see what is available there.
Looking at the phones for a little extra than a G1 I could get a G2 and recently the HTC hero is out. On reading about the hero, HTC have bastardised the Android OS for the better, but it does mean when Googke update Android you will not be able to update it OTA (over the air).
For this reason I decided to go with the G2 ie, Vodafone branded HTC Magic. I have ordered all of the accessories and it should be here over the coming days. There are several applications that I need to buy such as an Exchange sync, Ms office editors and sat nav but hopefully can test these beforehand.
The cupcake Os aka android 1.5 now looks more mature and it is possible to root (jailbreak) the phone. However there may be issues purchasing applications from market. But as usual these are all challenges ahead.
At this time I cannot comment if the device will last me. I had thought the E75 would have done but I have already said I am tiring of this. My 5800 is going on Ebay to part fund this purchase and possibly either the E75 or E90 but alas I do like the last device a lot. Nokia have really missed the boat with s60v5 so I seen no point hanging onto the device. 8 months on it is still slow, severe lack of ram and clunky to use. The G2 may well end up the same as my first iphone of which lasted only 2 months.
Later on in the year the E72 looks promising and the Pre is just around the corner. I have tinkered with the Pre Emulator and am imprest with the UI, how easy it is to set up and the general feel when using WebOS.
However there is a serious lack of applications available of which doesn't seem to be increasing in number. I am beginning to think until either the device reaches the rest of the world or if we wait another year, like android. Only then will we see more applications.
So the andoid finally cometh to me.... But how long will it stay?
On the journey home it was different because my phone required 5 manual reboots because Garmin kept freezing. I had even removed all of my memory hog applications to give it room to breathe with no luck. It worked fine taking me to my destination using this strategy until we neared the location. A swift stop and reboot fixed this, but why did I need 5 reboots yesterday. For this reason I love dedicated PND (personal navigation devices) They only do one thing of which is navigate and rarely crash. Whereas smartphones of which includes UIQ,S60 and windows mobile all have fits. If someone calls you they frustrate whether to take the call or carry on navigating to the extent they stop doing both. Then they rarely switch back to the navigation application after handling the call.
Finally I decided when I got back that I would look for an alternative device again. Whilst the E75 is a good device recent issues like this, the device slowing down (I only hard reset it 2 weeks ago) and now the slider is wobbling and the chrome surrond broken. I need a break from it so again its a good opportunity to try the competition as it will probably take a few weeks to repair, then its the usual 6 hour reinstall. I had bought 3 plastic surround cases to protect the phone but they all broke so off it will go back to the shop over the next few days.
I had rejected the thought of an android device earlier this year as there is a lack of space available to installed applications. However after listen to a recent podcast it is now possible to installed applications to the sd card if you either root the phone or installed an application to assit with this process.
Looking at the equivalent androids applications that I use on s60 the only missing ones are sms and call filter and an accounts manager like flying money. However I didn't have time to survey the homebrew libraries to see what is available there.
Looking at the phones for a little extra than a G1 I could get a G2 and recently the HTC hero is out. On reading about the hero, HTC have bastardised the Android OS for the better, but it does mean when Googke update Android you will not be able to update it OTA (over the air).
For this reason I decided to go with the G2 ie, Vodafone branded HTC Magic. I have ordered all of the accessories and it should be here over the coming days. There are several applications that I need to buy such as an Exchange sync, Ms office editors and sat nav but hopefully can test these beforehand.
The cupcake Os aka android 1.5 now looks more mature and it is possible to root (jailbreak) the phone. However there may be issues purchasing applications from market. But as usual these are all challenges ahead.
At this time I cannot comment if the device will last me. I had thought the E75 would have done but I have already said I am tiring of this. My 5800 is going on Ebay to part fund this purchase and possibly either the E75 or E90 but alas I do like the last device a lot. Nokia have really missed the boat with s60v5 so I seen no point hanging onto the device. 8 months on it is still slow, severe lack of ram and clunky to use. The G2 may well end up the same as my first iphone of which lasted only 2 months.
Later on in the year the E72 looks promising and the Pre is just around the corner. I have tinkered with the Pre Emulator and am imprest with the UI, how easy it is to set up and the general feel when using WebOS.
However there is a serious lack of applications available of which doesn't seem to be increasing in number. I am beginning to think until either the device reaches the rest of the world or if we wait another year, like android. Only then will we see more applications.
So the andoid finally cometh to me.... But how long will it stay?
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