Pre or Hero?

T-Bag · October 18, 2009, 01:39:58 PM

It's upgrade time and I'm torn. I very nearly ordered a Palm pre earlier. I like the idea of a slide out qwerty keyboard, but the android on the hero is also nice and has shorter contracts with better deals.

I'm with T-Mobile at the moment, so it would be easier and cheaper (slightly) to go to the hero "G2")

So the big question is palm pre, or HTC Hero? I know the pre only came out on friday so I'm asking on the off chance someone had one on "pre" order (:roflmao:) etc.

I like to text while I walk, and with my current touchscreen phone that can be a problem, though it is fairly old and I believe it's a resistive not capacitive display so if anyone can say if walking and texting is much/slight/not very much/not at all slower than stationary texting that could sway me towards the android offering.

smilodon · October 18, 2009, 01:58:29 PM

I don't think touch screens can match a proper keyboard but I was surprised how good the Hero system was. I came from a Nokia E90 which had a stunning keyboard (best I've ever used) and the combination of predictive spelling and the feature where the phone seems to know if you just missed a key and corrects it means I can type quite fast. I don't really have tp check what the phone is doing I just hit the keys as fast as I can type.

However at the end I often find a few words that it's guessed wrong and has inserted another word in its place. So a quick proof read is needed.

I've never used the Pre so cannot offer a direct comparison.

delanvital · October 18, 2009, 02:51:19 PM

Quote from: smilodon;293070I don't think touch screens can match a proper keyboard but I was surprised how good the Hero system was. I came from a Nokia E90 which had a stunning keyboard (best I've ever used) and the combination of predictive spelling and the feature where the phone seems to know if you just missed a key and corrects it means I can type quite fast. I don't really have tp check what the phone is doing I just hit the keys as fast as I can type.

However at the end I often find a few words that it's guessed wrong and has inserted another word in its place. So a quick proof read is needed.

I've never used the Pre so cannot offer a direct comparison.

It took me a while to "let go" and just type away. The prediction is truly awesome. Except when one's finger's a frozen stiff waiting for trains... which poor Lex was subjected to :roflmao: I am still not sure I can be quite as happy with this keyboard, but sure is getting a lot better.

T-Bag · October 19, 2009, 07:43:35 PM

I caved. I got one. It'll arrive tomorrow. I'll let you know what I think after a bit of a play.

(The hero that is. Nobody recommended the pre)

Gandalf · October 19, 2009, 10:21:25 PM

Quote from: T-Bag;293225I caved. I got one. It'll arrive tomorrow. I'll let you know what I think after a bit of a play.

(The hero that is. Nobody recommended the pre)

best. phone. ever.

Jamoe · October 20, 2009, 12:13:01 PM

Chap at work got a pre, i keep threatening to "skim it" (looks like a good skimming pebble to me)

I'll probably go for the hero in 6 months when the iphone contract is up

smilodon · October 20, 2009, 03:16:24 PM

Make sure you trawl google for 'best android apps', 'top 10 android apps' etc . The phone is great but, just like the iPhone, it's the apps that make it really sing.

Also (assuming you don't already have one) a google account is a real bonus. You don't have to use it for mail (I use my googlemail account for my online purchases, social networking etc) but it's a very slick way to keep contacts, calendar, RSS reader synced up online. You might not get the best from the phone without an account. A bit like trying to use an iPhone without an iTunes account.

T-Bag · October 21, 2009, 11:03:52 PM

Been trawling through all the android apps. There are sooooooo many free ones you'll never be bored. I quite like gmote. It lets you stream music via wi-fi to your phone, but more importantly you can load up files with it on your main computer. So it acts like a remote. Works very well.

Android is a heck of an operating system. I've had a play on an iPhone and thought "It's alright, better than anything I've seen but still want more". I've had a play on this and it's everything I thought was missing from the iPhone a while back.

Just spent a few mins linking my contacts to their facebook profiles so it updates their birthday and profile pic to their contact info. Now the majority of my contacts have decent pictures, something I doubt many people have without this feature.

I'm struggling to fill all 7 screens. I'm sure in time with more use I'll get there. I've yet to put any music on there etc. I'll do that at the weekend when I have a complete nerd out and put windows 7 on my comptuer too. (Too busy for a nerd out mid-week doing a phd in physics :g:) I also need to get it hooked up to the secure wifi network at uni. If anyone has experience with getting android to talk to the eduroam system let me know. The have iPhone and "generic mobile" support but no pre-built setting for the hero, and I can seem to manually do much.

delanvital · October 22, 2009, 10:09:13 AM

I agree with every single thing you say. Welcome to the world of Android

I also use Gmote when the gf and I watch movies.

Carr0t · October 22, 2009, 11:36:01 AM

I have a question about the Hero (as i'm thinking I might get one at some point instead of an iPhone):

What's the mp3 player like? I already have an iPod touch, personal mobile and work provided mobile (which I have to carry for on-call and auto text update of issues, but they get snarky if I use for lots of personal calls) and my main reason for wanting an iPhone is to consolidate my phone and mp3 player into a single device. I actually quite like iTunes as an mp3 player, and find it handy that all my iTunes playlists etc sync across to the Touch, and would do the same with an iPhone. So does the Hero have a reasonable mp3 player with all the expected support for playing playlists, artists, albums, random etc etc? And is there any support for syncing of playlists with iTunes, even if it does require a third party app? Everything I can find online at the mo only talks about syncing with WMP playlists.

T-Bag · October 22, 2009, 06:18:50 PM

Not used it properly, but there's a widget for it you can put anywhere, it has a cover flow like system to browse and a 3.5mm jack for headphones. I'll leave someone who has put music on to talk about search/browse performance, but sound quality on the included songs is fine.

smilodon · October 22, 2009, 06:49:40 PM

I have a load of music on my Hero phone and the player is solid of not overly flashy. It does what it needs to do. Coverflow, shuffle, repeat, playlists etc are all there. It works well with the phone part of the err phone, in that when a call comes in it pauses the track and goes to the call. When the call ends it picks the track up from where you left off. Perfectly decent player. I've read, although I have no opinion myself, that the Hero actually plays music with a better sound quality than an iPhone/iPod. I have an iPod nano and frankly I can't really tell the difference. However the Hero plays tracks far louder than the iPod through my car stereo!

However my playlists are built on the phone. There are quite a few apps that will sync playlists. I 'think' Amarok 1.4 can take iTunes playlists and add them to the Hero, although I've never tried.

Also try http://www.doubletwist.com/dt/Home/Index.dt
http://www.mediamonkey.com/

As to iTunes I think you might have a problem. Unless you upgrade all your tracks to DRM free (if not already done) I believe you won't be able to play them on the Hero. I buy all my music from Amazon which only sells DRM free music downloads.

The Hero doesn't have/need an iTunes variant. You simply plug it into a USB port on your PC and it appears as a new drive. You then just drag and drop whatever you like onto it. For me it's 100% better than having to use iTunes which I hate.

Carr0t · October 23, 2009, 10:57:37 AM

Quote from: smilodon;293624As to iTunes I think you might have a problem. Unless you upgrade all your tracks to DRM free (if not already done) I believe you won't be able to play them on the Hero. I buy all my music from Amazon which only sells DRM free music downloads.

I said I used iTunes as an MP3 player on PC, I didn't say I bought music from the Apple Store :narnar:

Actually, I do (very occasionally), but then rip the DRM out by whatever means necessary and just have normal MP3s. I keep forgetting Amazon now do DRM free stuff, as I barely ever actually get new music. I moslty just burn stuff from friends CDs to MP3 without DRM, or just copy their MP3s if they've already ripped the CD.

Dewey · October 30, 2009, 11:39:26 AM

I'm also looking at phones, all my friends have iPhones which are cool but I've been looking into Hero and it also seems to offer similar and in some cases better solutions (I particularly like how it organises a contacts email, twitter, facebook etc in one place - a bit like a CRM).

However the true kill app for me is Spotify for the iphone - is this available on the Hero? The ability to listen to free music in my car etc is awsome.

Dewey · October 30, 2009, 11:41:22 AM

brilliant!

How do I get the mobile version of Spotify for Android/iPhone?Spotify mobile for Android can be found in the Android Marketplace.
Spotify for iPhone can be found in AppleÃ¢â,¬â,,¢s App Store.
The application itself is free in the App Store and Android Marketplace but you must have a valid premium account to use it.